C4T #3

My third  C4T is  Diane Dahl. She is an elementary teacher who lives in Texas. She likes to incorporate technology and using brain-based teaching strategies.

#1: Using Data to Drive Meaningful, Targeted, Brain-Based Math Instruction

Her first post was about using the multifaceted approach. This approach makes teachers get to know the students better, reflect on previous content, teaching new content, student performance, and students know the right language. Diane says students need to know the language of math. Since she is teaching second grade her students need to know what certain words mean such as value, portion, and fractional model. Students have a daily math problem in the morning. These problems  come from data used in homework and from quizzes. Diane also likes to use student names, other teacher names, and school staff in problems to help the students become more engaged.  

Comment:
     I really enjoyed your ideas on the multifaceted approach. I like that you include students names, their friends names, and staff names in problems. I think students would become more engaged that way. I also like how you define language to the students. It's very important for them to know what the words mean. If they don't they wont understand the question. Last, keeping a list on the questions that the students missed the most is a great idea. That means they don't quite understand the material and review is necessary. Great post!


#2 :Tips for Productive Math Groups

 Diane's second post was the effective way to get students to work in groups. She talks about students working together in groups with different personalities such as those kids who may not want to work with other kids or kids that are criers. Diane also talks about how to determine accountability. She asked her students to write their own responses in their journal so she would knew if they all participated in the activity. Also, she makes her own QR codes ( the bar code found on many  things that you can scan from your phone to get more information about). With the QR codes she has a problem with the QR code on the paper and students can scan the code to get the correct answer to the problem.

Comment:
  I really enjoyed this post. Even though I am not studying elementary education I really found this post to helpful for my subject (Social Studies). I plan to have my students working in groups often and I always wondered how I can make sure all of the students are actually participating. I think your ideas on participation and accountability is great.  I also, like your idea on using QR codes. I did not know it was possible to use those. Very interesting!

Blog Post #10

What can we learn about teaching and learning from Randy Pausch?


I really enjoyed watching Randy Pausch Last Lecture. He was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Randy was diagnosed with ten tumors in his liver and was told that he had 3 to 6 months to live. Even with this news he still enjoyed life and continued to fight. His lecture was about achieving your dreams but in reality he wanted to tell people how to lead your life the right way, and that karma will take care of its self. He begins with his childhood dreams and how he has gotten to achieve most of them. He's had some down falls but he never gave up.

Some things that I learned from Randy was criticism is a good thing. When someone gives you criticism that means that person cares and wants you to do better. Also, he states that you can learn from your students. I think this is so true, when becoming a teacher you continue to learn throughout your career. Pausch goes on to say you cant make it in life alone you will always need someone to help you. In life you need to tell the truth and apologize for your mistakes, it will get you much further,

I think the most important point of his lecture is to never give up! Pausch has had some disappointing moments in his life and he realized its okay and its apart of life. He quotes, " brick walls are there for a reason they show how bad you want something." When you hit a brick wall in life, pick your self up and keep trying. His last lecture was truly amazing and taught me some valuable things not only in my career but in my life!

Project #14

For this project, my 6th grade Social Studies class will decide which 20th Century invention was the most important. Driving question: How did these inventions change the world? And are they still used today?  Students will have to relate how important these inventions were at the time. There will be two students in a group and they will need a visual aid and this project will not last longer than 3 weeks. Students will be able to chose their invention from this website. Students will be able to do more research on their invention through icurio and Discovery Education. After researching they must do their visual part in class where poster boards, markers, and any other materials will be provided. The last week is when they will do their presentation. Last, these projects will be graded through a rubric. All of this information and more can be found on my classroom website.  

Blog Post #9

By: Dominique Jones and Jennifer Hamrick

Video #1:

What we can learn from Brian Crosby in, Back to the Future, is how Mr. Crosby didn’t let statistics  or labels on his students hold him back from teaching them.  His 4th grade class started the year with most of them not knowing what city they lived in nor their phone number.  Mr. Crosby developed a project titled High Hopes and was about active learning and empowering his students to be learners. This project turned into more than just a science project.  The lesson taught the students how to communicate with others, how to write a story, science and to articulate orally.  It also helped the student teach themselves and problem solve on their own.  In one instance, Mr. Crosby had asked the students to write down what their high hopes were for the future to be sent up in their project.  One student thought outside of the box and asked if they could include other students “high hopes”. The students that they had been communicating with from around the world.  By thinking outside of the box, the students’ world was opened up to current events around the world.  Mr. Crosby also had an opportunity to help a student with leukemia.  Celeste was a student enrolled in his class but couldn’t attend class because of her fight against leukemia.  Mr. Crosby used technology and webcams and helped Celeste be a part of his class on a regular basis.  Mr. Crosby hasn’t let statistics, labels, or standardized tests dictate how his classroom will run and we think that by thinking outside of the box and letting students be a part of their learning is the biggest lesson we could learn from this video.

Video #2:

The Power of the Question

In the second video we learned about the Blended Learning Cycle. It is about taking compelling parts of online, mobile and classroom learning and blending them together with the 5 E’s of the learning cycle - engage, explore, explain, expand and evaluate. Paul thinks this is very useful in teaching Science.

This is how  the Blended Learning Cycle works:

1.Question - come up with a hook - You need a good question that will get their attention.

2.Investigation- How does this work?

3.Video- He puts his podcasts on videos and the students can look at it in their free time.

4.Elaboration- Use diagrams.

5.Review -Asks students about the material.

If the students do not understand the material they can not go on to the summary quiz. The summary quiz test the students on the material and if they do not know it they have to go back. After the summary quiz is when the students take a test.

The Blended Learning Cycle really engages students and stops burp-back education.

Video:3

In video 3, Mark Church asks his students to come up with a headline about early human beginnings. The students watched a video that pertained to this the day before. The kids are divided in groups and have to come up with a headline on how challenging it is to find early remains and what they know about early human remains . It gets students to think and how their opinions have changed since watching the video. By putting the kids in a group, they get to discuss and share ideas to come up with a better understanding.  Each group has something different.

Blog Post #8

21st Century Learning and Communicating Tools

   By: Dominique Jones

The website I chose is a gaming website and an app that you can download on any Apple product for students in grade levels K-5. This website was designed to focus on the student, parent, and teacher. You can chose which grade level. Next you pick a category which includes letters, numbers, holidays, more (shapes, art, social studies). One game that kindergartners can play is “Letter Bingo.” There is a bingo board set up and it pronounces the letter and you chose which letter is correct. The point of the game is to get 3 squares in a row and it is graded after you get bingo. Another game that I liked was “Typing Race Keyboard Practice” for grades 2-5. This game is to help children practice using the keyboard. There is a race car and there are letters, numbers, or punctuation marks ahead. Every level you pass the cars goes a little faster so you’ll have to type your words faster. The point of this game is for the student to not let the car run out of gas. I would make the children use this website during free time in the class maybe once or twice a week.  I think this is a great website because students are getting familiar with using technology and their learning at the same time. I chose this tool because it is easy   to use and fun. Students can access this website from  their home with the help of their parents.

By: Jennifer Hamrick

When I began my search for some 21st century learning and communicating tools, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for and had to spend a lot of time weeding through various web pages to determine if the content was good enough to be brought into a classroom.  One site that I found was Spelling City.  I personally could have spent days playing on this website just to discover all the options.  The main thing that I liked best about this website is that it is set up to provide help for all elementary grade levels.  At first, I didn’t like that I couldn’t select a specific grade level to help break down the options but then realized that by keeping the options open, advanced children could try harder games and challenge themselves.  On this site, there is a game titled HangMouse.  It is very similar to the game Hangman.  The student can select from a list of 14 different word lists ranging from color words to math words.  The color words list is great for lower grades.  A specific number of dashes will appear on the screen with the alphabet underneath them.  The student then picks a letter, the mouse walks over to the cheese that the cat is guarding and if the letter is in the word, the mouse gets a bite of cheese and the letter appears in the spot that it would in the word.  If the letter is noy in the word, the mouse doesn’t get a bite of cheese.  This game is great for lower grades because it helps with letter recognition and identifying color words.  Students also have to use problem solving.  If five dashes appear on the screen, then they use deductive reasoning and realize that the word red or pink won’t work but, green or white might work and they can select an “e” and see where it appears on the screen.  If an “e” doesn’t appear, then maybe the word is black or brown.  For a higher grade level game, I came across Speedy Speller.  Again the students had 14 word lists to choose from and I selected science words.  The goal of this game is to listen to the word being said and then type it correctly.  The game is looking for the person who can spell 10 words the fastest.  After the computer says the word, it also uses the word in a sentence while the child types the word.  For this particular word list, words that needed to be spelled correctly were terrarium and ecosystem which makes this game more for the higher grades.  While searching around, I noticed something that looked similar to a notebook and asked you to type words in the spaces to make a word list.  I put in some 1st grade spelling words and then had the option to take a spelling test.  The computer recognized the words I had used to make the list and then read them to me like I was taking a test.  The word is read to you and followed with a sentence so you know how the word is being used.  You have the option to rehear the word or the sentence.  When done, you select check me and find out how you did.  If you miss a word, you can select a button that says, “teach me” and the computer will phonetically help by sounding out the word, respelling it and using it in a sentence.  This is something you can use for all grade levels since you get to make the list yourself.

Another website that I found was emodo.  While researching Edmodo, the best comparison I could come up with is it is similar to Sakai.  It is a safe social-learning site for students and provides an easy way for teachers, students and parents to communicate.  Teacher can place assignments into a calendar for students to know what is due and when.  Students can submit journal entries through assignments right to the teacher.  Teachers can prepare their own quizzes and polls to assess the student’s knowledge.  A poll can even be made before a unit begins to see what the students think it is actually going to be about.  Parents are able to set up accounts also so that they can communicate with the teacher and monitor their child’s grades and upcoming assignments.  Parents can select text notifications and be alerted via their cell phones of special dates or changes to their students account.  While this might currently be a little too in depth or advanced for lower level elementary kids, what essentially hooked me to this site was the Teacher Network/Communities.  I signed up for a free account and when I logged in, I was taken to a page very similar to the News Feed page on Facebook.  The difference is that it’s a page full of teachers either asking for assistance or offering up information they have found.  One teacher left a message about how her students were studying the Civil War and having a hard time remembering the dates and keeping things straight.  She thought a timeline would really help them out and did anybody have any suggestions where she could find a great site to help with this.  Instantly from around the world, teachers started offering up sights and how they used them.  This is a website that I will be adding to my PLN even if I only use it for the Community Page and never in my classroom.

C4T

       Michael Gorman was my teacher for this month. He has partners with various educational, government, and business organizations and foundations. He has won awards for District Teacher of the Year, Indiana STEM Educator of the Year, and many more. He supports 21st century educational learning and technology. He has done over hundred of workshops around the country.

Post #1


 In his first post, he talks about PBL and STEM. These two programs are very similar. He states that PBL is when students learn by inquiring using technology, math, science, and other resources. STEM stands for Science Technology Engineering, and Mathematics. He uses an example of STEM by citing a website that is has a national competition called Future City. These groups of students use math and science skills to design a city by using the Sims video game. Math and engineering skills are used in this project. He goes on to say, "it is clear that PBL is natural, essential, and practical connection."



Response:
  Hi Michael. My name is Dominique Jones. I am a student at the University of South Alabama EDM310. I really enjoyed your post. One of our assignments recently was to post a presentation about PBL. We have not discussed STEM yet, but it seems interesting and I would like to look more into it. I also like the idea about students being able to build their own cities. They will be engaged and learning at the same time. Here is my blog if you would like to check it out!

Post  #2
Micheal's second blog post. He talks about how teacher using online discussions. He gives 10 ideas on how to implement discussions boards into the classroom. In his ideas he explains  creating a rubric, the proper grammar students should use online, and incorporating media into the discussion, and many more suggestions.

Response:
 Hi Michael. I am taking a blended course this semester at the University of South Alabama. This is my first time that I have had to write discussions online. Even though I am not a teacher yet, I think this post is good for students also. No one has ever explained to me some of the things you have stated in your post. Such as posting videos or pictures into my discussion or the proper way to critique my classmates. Very helpful post. Thank you

Project #9

Project #13

Project Based Learning Plans

by: Jennifer Hamrick and Dominique Jones

In this lesson plan, 4th graders will prepare a presentation on a famous Alabamian. Students will begin by researching their choice of Alabamian through icurio or Discovery Education. Once research is completed students will prepare an outline using an online outline tool. Students will then write a rough draft that their peers will review. Once corrections are made, a final draft will be prepared for review by their teacher. Lastly, the students will stand before their class and present their research paper. Through a rubric, the student's peers will critique them on their writing and performance during their presentation. For full details, a calendar and core standards covered, please visit our classroom website