Project #16

             

                 Our final project as a group with my Athens team was to make an iBook of all the wonderful projects, blog posts, pictures, and videos that we individually and collaboratively produced! It was quite an experience to me, since I've never heard of an iBook before. The iBook beautifully presented all of our learning experiences in a fun way! Our theme for our iBook was "Once Upon A Time In EDM310" in a cute Disney format. Our presentation was great too. I think everyone who watched our iBook loved it, as I and my other team members did as well.

Blog #15

Here is my final reflection video for EDM310! In a way, I'm sort of sad that this class is ending for me, but I am so fortunate and glad that I got so experience so many new things in this class. I plan to take all that I've learned from this class and apply it in every aspect of my life, and not just in my future classrooms. Fare thee well EDM310!

C4T #4 April Summary

          In this month of April, my C4T #4 was Mr. John Bernie, a middle school principal from Michigan! This is my last C4T of the year, and I want to say that the C4T experience has been very insightful to me. I appreciated every C4T assignment that we were assigned this year in EDM310.

               For my first C4T post this month, I got to comment on John Bernia's blog post! In his post, he talked about how the weather over there in Michigan where he works set back the school schedule, since they had to miss over three days of school. He talks about how frustrating it is when your schedule is set back, but when it happens, we shouldn't rush. Rushing creates sloppy work, and he does not agree with it. He said instead of rushing around getting our schedules and work back in order, we should take a step back and "be quick, but don't hurry".
                                                       
              My reply to him was as follows: "Hello Mr. Bernia! I am Kaitlyn Wyman, from the University of South Alabama. I loved your post about being quick about getting back on schedule after being out of school for a while, rather than being sloppy. There's a huge difference between being quick about things and not hurrying. You, as well as I, want the students to be completely up to date on their lessons, and not letting our disorganization due to being sloppy affect them. Thanks for sharing!"  





                  For my second C4T post, I got to comment on John Bernia's blog post. In his post, he talked about the importance of making your priorities in your job not just a priority, but a lifestyle decision that should reflect your personal values and principles. For example, as a principal, he shouldn't just walk around expecting to pop into a classroom at a set schedule. Here should make the experience fun and something that should reflect the way he is as a person and principal. I loved how he was so passionate about what he was talking about and explaining.
                                        
           My comment to Mr. Bernia was: "Hello Mr. Bernia! I am Kaitlyn Wyman of Mobile, Alabama, and I am in a class called EDM310 that allows me to evaluate other teachers' and administrators' blogs from around the world. This week I picked you to be my principal that I look at and comment on! I just want to point out first that I enjoyed reading your blog, and that you are completely right about everything you mentioned! Your set values that you have completely rules over your decisions you make in school, and in other aspects of life as well. Also making certain priorities the most important thing you do requires acting and presenting the part. Thank you so much for sharing!"

C4K April Summary

In this lovely month of April, I was given two children to evaluate and comment on! This is my last C4K for the year, and I really enjoyed getting to visit children's blogs from around the world.

              For my C4K #9, my child who I got to comment on was Sohel of the Pt England School in New Zealand! In his blog post, he inserted a Google Slide show about New Zealand's native tree called the Kowhai. He provided a picture description of the tree, it's binomial nomenclature, and the places where the tree grows in New Zealand. Sohel is a very intelligent kid who was very optimistic about sharing information about the tree on the Google Slides. I think it is highly impressive that children that age are using Google devices and blog posts to present their projects.


              My comment to Sohel was: "Hello Sohel, my name is Kaitlyn Wyman and I live in Mobile, Alabama! I am a student of EDM310, which is a class that allows me to comment on and read blogs from kids all around the world, like you! I also do so many other interesting things. I wanted to point out how much I really liked your blog post about the Kowhai tree from New Zealand using Google Slides. It will give people who do not know much about the tree some very useful information. Thank you for sharing!"




             For my C4K #10, my child that I got to visit was named Nahea, also from the Pt England School in New Zealand. Click here to view her blog. This week, Nahea had to make a Vimeo about healthy foods and how it is good for your body. She explained that healthy foods make you big and tall in the long run, which made me smile. Then, she created a picture from her iPad of her holding a bunch of healthy foods, most likely to enhance her blog on healthy foods.

             My comment to little Nahea was: "Hello Nahea, my name is Kaitlyn Wyman and I am in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I was completely blown away that you used a video from Vimeo to explain what healthy foods are and how it affects your body in a positive way! I also enjoyed your picture that you created from your computer. I look forward to seeing some more things that you have created Nahea! Keep up the great work."


       

Blog #14

Thank goodness.....

We have a break from writing up a blog this week! On our break from blogs, though, we must focus on getting our Project #16 done, and other things we absolutely have to do. Project #16 is a whole lot of work, but will be beautiful and so worth it. So thank goodness for Dr. Strange letting us have some elbow room needed for our project. In closing, I guess you can say this is my blog about not having a blog! Go figure ladies and gentleman. Happy Project #16 and getting ready for finals! Here are some quotes to help get you through the thicket of things.

Blog #13

This week, Dr. Strange suggested that we post a blog about what we think should have been assigned to us in the beginning. In this ever wandering mind of mine, I could think of so many things I could blog about, from fun art projects, to the various ways we as teachers could serve as leaders, to exciting field trips I could take my kids on! Being an elementary education major though, there is one assignment that stands out in my mind that I think should have brought up to us long ago.

 

Here is the assignment:

 

 

                       Explain and/or list some ways that you could create a positive environment in your future classroom, using examples and depictions of things you might use to make the children better understand. Site any videos, pictures, or websites you used so that whoever reads your blog post can research on their own at their own pace.

 

Here is my reply:

 

 

                       Every day as millions of children go to school, their parents and caretakers hope these young people will be treated with care, values, respected, inspired, and educated, something that every school should maintain. Students in turn hope that they are treated well so that they can get through school knowing they are valued and respected. Unfortunately for some students in the world, going to school and dodging bullies and other negative situations is a difficult obstacle that seems nearly impossible to overcome. Oftentimes, sadly, teachers are so focused on making sure that their students work diligently and pass achievement tests that they can become blind to what the kids might actually need, emotionally and socially. So here are some ways to ensure a positive learning and social environment for our precious children in our future classrooms.

 

Making Learning Relevant:  

Students tend to be more engaged in what they are learning about and retain the knowledge better when they understand and see that the material being learned at hand is going to benefit them positively in the real world. Teachers can pay attention to what the kids' talents are, how they learn, and what their interests are so that they can adjust their teaching methods and strategies. By giving the students a say-so in how the material should be taught can increase the students' sense of ownership in their educational journey.

 

Create a Classroom Code of Conduct:

In order for a classroom to run smoothly, a set of ground rules on how to act and what is acceptable and unacceptable should be addressed. I could do this by asking the class one by one how they liked to be treated. This discussion can elicit lists of behaviors that are respectful, kind, and fair. That way, teacher and students can conclude that treating others how they liked to be treated is the best code of conduct there is, and they can agree that the behaviors are appropriate for their classroom.

 

Teach Positive Actions:

We as teachers need to address positive behaviors in a completely thorough, consistent manner. We cannot just assume that kids know them. From the Postive Action Curriculum, here are some concepts taught:

-The importance of doing positive actions to feel good about yourself.

-Positive actions for a healthy body (nutrition, exercise, and sleep)

-Positive actions for the intellect (thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving skills)

-Positive actions for self-management (managing time, energy, emotions, and other personal resources)

-Positive actions for getting along with others (treating others fairly, kindly, and respectfully)

-Positive actions for being honest with yourself and others (taking responsibility, admitting mistakes, and not blaming others)

-Positive actions for improving yourself continually (setting and achieving goals)

 

 



Blog #12

Assistive Technology

I am so glad that we get to write about different assistive technologies that we can use in our classrooms. Assistive technology is characterized as technology that can help kids with learning disabilities leverage their strengths and work around or compensate different learning problems. In my future classroom, I wish to appeal to every learning strength and weakness there exists, and knowing that there are various and incredible things that can help kids get around those difficulties is astounding and reassuring to me! In my days in school, there were a number of great computer programs, devices, and even apps on a smartphone or tablet that I noticed that help people with special needs get the full educational experience they most greatly deserve.

In my 7th grade class when I was in middle school, there was a boy named Dylan who could not communicate verbally because the part of his brain that was supposed to allow him to speak was paralyzed, as well as the rest of his lower body. However, Dylan could definitely understand what you were saying when you spoke to him and knew the exact words to say, but could not express them. So he used a program called Abilipad, which allowed him to type whatever he wanted to say and it would speak the words for him! It was a huge peace of mind for our teacher who was very worried that he wouldn't understand or keep up with the lessons she taught. Dylan turned out to be an extremely intelligent young man. If it weren't for the Abilipad, our teacher would have never known if he was grasping the material or not, and Dylan would never be able to express in words what his opinions were or if he even got the material at hand.

Another program that is of my reach as a teacher is the app called iMouf. It's an app for the iPhone or iPad. It is a new, refreshing, and dynamic way of learning sounds of everyday language to children.  It brings funny moments and sometimes even complete joy and happiness to the kids while teaching the different characteristics sounds make. iMouf is a practical and creative app designed for parents, teachers, and professionals. It’s a fun way to teach children while learning the basic fundamentals of sounds and the way they should be pronounced.

One more thing that I think would be very helpful is the idea of a Talking Calculator! It can help with children who have ADD or ADHD to focus on what they are doing so the don't get off track. It will keep the child interested and make them want to learn and focus for that time being. It may even improve their focusing abilities in the long run as well! It can also be great for kids with speaking disabilities so that they can learn how to say certain numbers and how to explain specific math facts. It will be especially be important for blind people, so they can hear what they are typing and calculating.


Technology has really come a long way from just being something that was recreational or other things. If anything it has become a great equalizer for children and grownups with special needs that might prevent them from participating in class and other important assignments. Now, kids with the inability to speak can communicate with spoken language. Children with hearing problems can now generalize what sounds mean and what they sound like. The list literally goes on and on, and I am so proud that technology has stepped up to the plate to provide these wonderful programs to these wonderful children with lots of potential.

Project #12 Part B

Our Smart Board lesson plan for the Athens group consisted of teaching about King Henry the Eighth and his six wives, as well as the Reformation and how that came about, from AP European History. I hope you all enjoy our video!

 

Here is our Power Point presentation used for the video.

 

Project #10

This week we did a project on the importance of PBL and technology in the classroom. We interviewed a few teachers and got answers!

Blog #11

C4T #3 March Summary

In this month of March, I got to comment on and evaluate Mr. Doug Peterson!

 

 

 

 

              Mr. Peterson's first post that I read was about his first ever tweet on Twitter. It was "Riding the storm out", and he explained that it was probably one of the infamous storms that happens all the time in Essex County. He then provided a tool that enables you to type in your Twitter username and see what your first tweet was, which was really cool to me.

 

               My reply to him was as follows: "Hi Mr. Peterson, my name is Kaitlyn Wyman and I am in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I came across your blog and yours are probably the most interesting that I've experienced, but to cut to the chase, I love your post about your first tweet ever. I need to try it out to see what my first tweet was. Thanks for sharing!





           Mr. Peterson's second post I read was about the 2048 game. Since Mr. Peterson is math savvy, he explained that the 2048 game is a game to try to get the answer 2048 in many different mathematical ways.

           My reply to him was as follows: "Hi Mr. Doug! I really liked your post, but it raised a bunch of eyebrows when I tried to explain it to my friends! Of course, we aren’t very math or even logic savvy, but we will eventually get it! Thanks for sharing!"

C4K March Summary

In this month of March, I was fortunate to comment on three blogs of three amazing kids!

                My C4K #6 was a little girl named Nahea from New Zealand! In her blog, she made a video of herself explaining the cool things you can do with an iPad to learn. She created a colorful picture with the iPad, and she seemed very enthused to talk about it on her blog.

                My reply to her was: "Hello Nahea, I am Kaitlyn Wyman and I am from the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama! I happened to come across your video and picture and I must say that you are a very creative little girl! Using an iPad to create pictures is extremely high-tech and I am glad that you know how to use it at your young age! Keep up the good work!"



                My C4K #7 was a girl named Josephine, also from New Zealand, and in her blog, she talked about how a cyclone touched down in Auckland, New Zealand, and explained its dangerous effects. She then went on to say what things cyclones and other storms can do to a neighborhood, like cause power outages, land slides, and broken buildings. She even provided preparation plans in the wake of a cyclone, and it was extremely informative.

         
                My reply to her was: "Hello Josephine! My name is Kaitlyn Wyman, and I attend the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I am in a class called EDM 310 that enables me to create my own blogs, learn how to use the latest technology that can be used in classrooms, and of course, check out other kids' blogs from all around the world. It's very exciting for me. I was assigned you as my student to comment on, and I must say that you have very great writing skills! The way that you described cyclones and their damaging effects drew me in as a reader. I also liked how you used examples on how to prepare for a cyclone and how to stay safe. Keep up the good work, and thank you for sharing!"





               My C4K #8 was Taniela. She is also from New Zealand. In her blog post, she made a Google Slides Show of how to do multiplication with larger numbers. She took me through a step-by-step process that showed me how to properly multiply when it comes to large numbers. I was very impressed that she knew to use Google Slides for her presentation.

              My reply to her was: "Hi Taniela, my name is Kaitlyn Wyman and I am from Mobile, Alabama, and I am a college student at the University of South Alabama. I came across your Google Slide Show and I absolutely loved how you incorporated multiplication into the slide show. It was easy to understand, and I loved how you knew to use it. Great work!"

Project #12 Part A

In this video, my group members and I demonstrate how to use a SMARTBoard! Enjoy!

          

Blog #10

What can we learn from Sir Ken Robinson?

  Sir Ken Robinson, an English author, speaker, and advisor on education, was spot-on in his YouTube video entitled Bring On The Learning Revolution. I have never listened to such a subtle man with so much passion on what he had to say to the public. It was almost like he was talking to me on a one-on-one basis.

                               

                 

                    In this eye-opening video, Sir Ken Robinson explains how we as people should do something career-wise in our lives that we thoroughly enjoy, not something that society or even our teachers expect or want us to do. We should not let our natural talents go to waste by any means. We essentially don't need to go to school to find out what we will be there, but rather use school to enhance our talents to do what we want to do in our lives. He gives an important example of a child who was in school, and all of his teachers asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up. His answer, to no one's surprise at the time, was to be a firefighter. Well of course, everyone at the time wanted to be that, so none of his teachers took him seriously. One teacher, though, told him that he will never make anything of himself if he goes down that path of being a firefighter. But the teacher's comment did not inhibit him from reaching his dreams. He applied to be a firefighter years later, and was accepted. A couple of months later, he saved that teacher's life and his wife's life in a car accident! It just goes to show that when you dream of something, do not let anyone get in your way because later down the line you can prove that person wrong and possibly open their eyes too.

 

                 Another important point that Sir Robinson mentioned was that the world was always changing, especially education, and that we should not rise TO the occasion, but rather rise WITH the occasion. Instead of being apprehensive about changing matters, we should as educators learn as much as we can about the new thing and go along with it for the sake of our future classroom! By going backwards in the education system, we are not accomplishing anything for our students. It all goes back to students fulfilling their dreams in life. If we do not rise with the occasion (or in other words, technology), we are limiting our students in their abilities as people in the real world. The greatest gift we could give our students is a new medium of learning and understanding.

 

 

 

 

                



Blog #9

This week, I watched a video called Little Kids...Big Potential, and it was made by a first grade teacher named Mrs. Kathy Cassidy. The video gives you a rundown of all different types of exciting technological mediums that her students use to learn! It is quite fantastic when you see the children get ahead in this world full of new things. The kids in the video use blogs, wikis, Skype, and other marvelous to learn about specific topics in their lessons for that week.

Dr. Strange had a three part Skype interview with her about four months ago to see how she goes about using technology in her classroom. Click the links to see Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Her answers to his questions were astounding to me! She talked about how we as future teachers should not by any circumstances think for one second that we do not have to be technologically literate to teach a modern day class. Instead, we need to learn as much as we can before teaching in a classroom because the world is changing everyday and we need to change with it, whether we like it or not. Besides, the experience we get from learning something new will encourage our future students to do the same! The joy that children get when they come to school and they don't need to "power down" is a huge plus when it comes to getting them to focus. Technology is their world, and something that is familiar to them, so not going with the flow of the changing world will be not beneficial to yourself and your students.

I also liked how she talked about the blogs that the children do. If I were to pick a learning technique that Ms. Cassidy uses in her classroom, I would choose to encourage blogging. The children's reactions to the blogging is something I thought I'd never see from children. They absolutely love when they look at their view count to see how many people have already seen their blogs. It also helps them to write more effectively and creatively. That would benefit the kids in so many ways. They will be more eager to write, do their assignments, read, and learn more about technology and be more enthusiastic about it! Now, I understand that there will most likely be kids in my class who do not like to write or take time out to work on their blogs. The ways I'd address that is I'd show them what they'd be contributing to the world, and show them the view counts and comments that others have left. That should make them more eager to write and post their blogs.

Ms. Kathy Cassidy gave us some very insightful information on how to deal with the changing world and how to teach your students to adapt as well. Who knows, maybe our students will be the ones teaching US.

Project #14

Click to view my project website! Flags Around The World Project

 

 



 The project that I have created for my future third grade class will be based off of a lesson about different countries and their cultures, as well as diversity, in social studies. The students will learn about many different countries and their flags, and I will assigned them a country, in which they will conduct research on what the different symbols, colors, and designs of their flag means. At the end, they will present it to the class, and I will have them make their own flags that represent them and who they are as a person, in which I will hang on a wall in my classroom! The name of the project will be called "Flags Around The World". It will be a fun, hands-on learning technique that will let their creative juices flow as well as help them gain understanding about different cultures, their values, and social standings. 

                              

Project #9

Our Video Book Commentary about "Teaching Digital Natives" by Mark Prensky

           

Blog #8

21st Century Learning and Communicating Tools

                 I know for a fact that EDM310 has opened my eyes to so many things that I never thought existed. Being a new individual to this new major, I thought teaching would be so bland, with not many resources available. Well, I was extremely wrong! After doing some research on different technological things I can do in my classroom to engage the students, I found a few things that I would absolutely love to use.

                The first site that I found was Voki, a fun little site where kids can create and personalize an Avatar, a cartoon image used for posting for themselves! I plan to have a class blog for my future third graders, and letting the children create Avatars for their profile picture would be fun, interactive, and lets them be creative. Sometimes, parents don't like the fact that teachers have pictures of their kids on them, and Avatars will help alleviate that anxiety and benefit the kids and parents in the long run.

               Another site that I found is called Animoto, a fun site that lets kids create stunning and beautiful slideshows of anything that they are learning at the time. Students can add music, photos, and just about anything to personalize their presentations! I am all about letting my future kids express their inner selves and allowing their creative juices to flow, and this amazing site lets them do just that and accomplishes so much more! I already have so many ideas in my head that involves using Animoto, like letting the students create their own story, designing a movie trailer of their favorite book, a video analysis of a chapter in a book we are reading, be it science, social studies, or english, and even make a show for show-and-tell! Animoto encourages the kids to go above and beyond just regular school work

           Next, I found PearlTrees. This was the most unique site that I've ever come across. Basically, it allows me as a teacher, and my students as well, to create a list of URLs to collect from sites that we may be interested in or that may be relevant to a lesson we are learning. After we find those URLs, we organize and share them on our individual profiles so that the whole class has the opportunity to see what others have found. For instance, if I were to implement a science project, I will tell the students to look up and research their topic and post their URLs of the sites to PearlTrees. That way, if any student is interested in what the other is doing their project on, they can see what they looked up and maybe find a new interest!

           After PearlTrees, I found Certificate Street. Now, this is a perfect site to use when you notice outstanding conduct or great citizenship in kids. It is a site where you can create your own certificate for them to print out and give to them. It will motivate the students to continue to do good in their studies and behavioral conduct. I would like to create certificates for highest projects grades and such so that it will keep the kids on their toes and encourage them to do the best in everything they do.

        Last but definitely not least, I found Study Shack. This is probably the most valuable thing that I will use in my future classroom. It is a site that provides online flashcards for just about any subject. You just type into the search engine what you want to study and Study Shack will pull the appropriate flashcards up for you. In my days in school, flashcards helped me a great deal, and I believe that my students will definitely benefit them in their studies. Using repetition like that helps them memorize the material that they are learning more easily, and it is probably the most effective way to study. So Study Stack will run rampant in my classroom!

            I'm so glad that I took the time to research these very fun, interactive sites! My students will definitely love them, and hopefully I can make a difference in their school career with them.

                

C4T #2 February Summary

In this wonderful month of February, I was given two teachers to evaluate!

 

 

 

              The first comment post was to a lovely lady named Mary Worrell, and she currently lives in The Netherlands! What she posted about was multigenre projects. She doesn't really go into depth about what multigenre projects are, but she explained that she implements them into her classes and they enjoy it. I have had experience with a multigenre project before, and it is basically a project based on research, experience, and imagination. It makes its own point by using different mediums.
              My comment to Mary was: "Hello Mrs. Mary! I am Kaitlyn Wyman, and I go to the University of South Alabama, studying, of course, to be a teacher. In my days in high school, I remember having to complete a multigenre project, and I absolutely enjoyed it! Maybe in my future classrooms, I can implement the same project! Thanks for sharing!"

         
                        Then, for my second post, I chose to comment on Mrs. Deb Frazier's blog. She is a first grade teacher from Ohio, and she wrote a post about her seventeen year old daughter, who is at the stage where she gets easily embarrassed and doesn't want to be around her parents as much. One night, however, she bends down to give her a high goodnight, and her daughter says "I love you mommy. I know I don't always act like it and sometimes you wonder, but I do, I love you and I appreciate all you do for me." It touched her heart so much, and well, it touched mine too. So I commented that I know how she feels because I have a little brother who acts like he's too cool to love on his sister, but deep down he really loves and appreciates me and he shows it every once in a while. Every time he shows it, it makes my heart excited!

Project #13

                    For our lesson plan for 9th grade World History students, we wanted to introduce the students to the wonders of Renaissance art and art history! This will help them to identify main differences between modern art and other eras to Renaissance art, and hopefully help them gain an appreciation for the art themselves. Students will first be divided into at least five groups of four and will be assigned to a Renaissance artist, in which they will make and present a Power Point presentation and explain the artist's life and accomplishment.
                  In the second part of the project, they will start the "Michaelangelo Project". This is a fun activity to do at the end that will simulate what Michelangelo did when he painted the Sistine Chapel. The students will tape paper under their desks, lay on mats, and recreate one of his famous works of art in the Sistine Chapel. Since this is not an art class, and it serves as the fun aspect of the project, the students won't be graded on their art skills, but rather on their participation and effort.  


Here is our Google Site: The Renaissance Art Project

C4K February Summary

In this wonderful month of February, I was given four wonderful kids to evaluate.

 



 

             My C4K post #1 was to a girl named Jenna M. from Nebraska. That week, the Winter Olympics were going on, so she wrote a dissertation about Gracie Gold, an ice skater for the United States. She wrote in her blog where she is from, how old she is, when she was born, and other fun facts about her, like the fact she started skating when she was two years old and that she has a fraternal twin named Carly. She also gave some information about the Olympics themselves, like where it was taking place and the extreme ticket prices!

            My comment to her was this: "Hello Jenna! My name is Kaitlyn Wyman, and I'm from Mobile, Alabama, and I am studying to become a teacher. I came across your blog, and I can just tell you are excited about the Winter Olympics! The tickets are very expensive. You are right about that! Thank goodness for televisions so we could simply watch it from home! I liked that you gave some interesting information about Gracie Gold. She is an excellent example of a hard-working, high achieving, and successful woman. The most astonishing thing, I felt, is that she is only eighteen years old! I can see how that can be an inspiration to girls of all ages. Thank you for sharing some fantastic facts about the Winter Olympics and one of its biggest stars!"

 

       

         My C4K post #2 was to a young girl named Brooklynn from Canada! In her blog, she told the story of Hana, an ordinary girl from the Holocaust whose suitcase was found after the Nazi takeover and preserved in a museum. Then, a woman who worked in the museum where it was held, Fujiko Ishioka, took it upon herself to try to find family members of Hana so that she could return the suitcase to them. She eventually found Hana's brother George, and she sent a letter to him asking if she could meet with him. That's where her blog post ended. I didn't know whether Ishioka ever got in touch with George! 

         So my comment to little Brooklynn was: "Hello Brooklynn! I am Kaitlyn, and I'm from Mobile, Alabama! I love learning about the Holocaust. Your blog post really interested me. I think it was quite unique that the museum in Tokyo, Japan had the suitcases of one of the victims of the Holocaust, Hana Brady. Indeed, she was no ordinary girl, because Fujiko Ishioka, a worker at the Holocaust museum, searched high and low for her to get the suitcase back to her personally. I wonder, though, if she ever got around to talking to her brother, George Brady. I know she sent a letter, but did he ever reply back to her? Either way, your post was very interesting! Thank you for sharing."

 

       

 

       My C4K post #3 was to Jenna M. of Nebraska again! It was great revisiting her blog. She wrote about birthstones and which one she has! She then asked which birthstone I had and what month I was born in. She also explained that they made tellegamis, but I sincerely wished that she explained how to make them. So in my comment, I told her that my birthstone was Opal just like hers, since we were both born in October, and that I told her that I would love to know how to make tellegamis one day!

 

      

 

          Last but not least, my C4K post #4 was to a girl named Kristen. In her post, she wrote about how she was reading the Hunger Games and that her class was assigned to determine the theme of the book. She made a PowerPoint of her research and posted it to her blog. I was very impressed with her. She pointed out that the theme of the Hunger Games was how a tragedy can turn into a success in a book.

        My comment to Kristen was: "Hi Kristen! My name is Kaitlyn Wyman, and I am a student at the University of South Alabama! I am studying to become a teacher, and my professor assigned you to be my school student that I comment on each week. I would first like to say that I liked your book report on a PowerPoint! I love the Hunger Games too, and I loved how the tragedy of Katniss volunteering as tribute to save her sister turned out to be a complete success! Keep up the good work!"

 

 

Blog #7

What Can We Learn About Teaching And Learning From Randy Pausch?

 

 

 

         This week, we had the privilege to watch a fantastic video about achieving our childhood dreams, with speaker Randy Pausch. Randy was a former computer science and virtual reality professor from Carnegie Mellon University battling pancreatic cancer. In knowing that it was a terminal illness, and time was of the essence, he delivered a highly inspirational lecture entitled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". I would first like to point out how incredible it felt to watch him speak! This man was basically on his last leg in life, but he kept such a positive outlook and was so optimistic about everything life had to throw at him! I envy him to no end, because I know if I was faced with a tough roadblock in life, I wouldn't know how to handle it. This was the absolute most redeeming video I've ever had to watch. It taught me so much about life, and I am so glad that Dr. Strange had us watch it. I've included a link to the video so anybody can take time out and watch it. It is worth every minute. The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

 

         In the video, Randy went on to talk about his adventures in life, and how sometimes he ran into "brick walls" that inhibited him from pursuing his dreams easily. He explained that those brick walls were there for a reason, and when we are faced with them, we have to make a choice, but to more so look deep within ourselves. His simple remedy for that was to keep in mind that if you genuinely wanted something in life that bad, then you would break all barriers (including the brick wall) to get to that dream in some way. If you did not make the effort to break the wall, then it is simple, you did not want that dream bad enough. From experience, I know exactly what he means. I have been faced with big, fat, brick walls, especially in college. But being persistent and slow to irritate, I have accomplished so much, academically and personally. He reiterates that if anything, those brick walls should further motivate us to chase our dreams, and that it should motivate just about anybody to make that brick wall tumble by just working hard for what's on the other side. If we can teach our future classroom the importance of persistence like Randy points out, we can be sure that our kids will carry that philosophy with them for the rest of their lives.

 

         Randy then went on to explain the importance of "head fake". Yes, I know, it sounds like a ruse teachers use to trick kids into learning something, but it is the total opposite. For a good example of head fake, think about football. When you register your children (or future children) into a football team, the football coaches teach them to throw, pass, tackle, and the list goes on. Most of the time, the kids get good at it when they play and end up enjoying it. But, what the kids are not particularly aware of is that they are also learning the value of teamwork, sportsmanship, responsibility, perseverance, etc. I would love to use EDM310 as another perfect example of head fake. Sure, we have all these projects to do, and some of us may be a little apprehensive to do some of the work, but when we take the time to look back at what we've really learned, we can become satisfied. We've learned to make and edit videos, write blogs, work with groups, and some life lessons too like time management, flexibility, and other useful things needed to be a teacher. The same goes for classrooms of all kinds. As long as we can take Randy Pausch's head fake theory with us to our future classrooms, children get out of the class a great deal of general knowledge as well as life's lessons that will stay with them the rest of their lives!. That's what a head fake is, learning more than you originally bargained for, but it is worth it in the end.

 The most important thing that Pausch talks about in his lecture is the idea of not learning by the books alone, but by learning through one's own efforts. In other words, doing more hands-on learning and finding things out on your own. It can be fun and rewarding, and he explained that learning through fun mediums can help you learn the absolute toughest subject if you play your cards right. He taught in that way to his virtual reality class that he designed himself, and the results were astounding. He showed the audience a clip of a girl from his class using the virtual reality headset and creating a "world" for the little creatures, and he told us that the kids did that on their own and was excited to show other people. He also explained that it is imperative to ask questions or get with people who are just as lost as you are in a subject and try to work together to figure it out. Being alone while trying your hardest to understand something is not where anybody should have to be. EDM310 definitely teaches us that, and so far I've gotten more out of this class than every single class that I've taken in college, because it is so hand-on and allows us to figure things out on our own. I hope to somehow implement this technique in my classroom so that it will show kids that they are smarter and more motivated than they think they are, and will challenge them to be more productive human beings.

 

       All-in-all, Randy Pausch gave us some incredible tips about learning and teaching, and it really opened my eyes to new methods. How can I say no to someone so wise as an actual professor himself. He didn't get where he was in life by pure luck, he got their using this own theories and a little bit of hard work. Students and educators alike should take his advice and run with it, and run far in life.

 

          



Blog #6

Personal Learning Networks!                     

   

                     This week, we had the opportunity to learn about PLNs, which are Personal Learning Networks. These are characterized by a set of people or tools that I can call upon for help and assistance when it comes to teaching a tricky lesson to my future students. They are cost-effective means for educators, like me one day, to grow in their professional lives. This means a FREE professional development available 24/7 from anywhere! Without PLNs, we would most likely have a little trouble teaching an intricate lesson or trying to explain to a student what is what.

                                                  
                         From what I've heard and what I've researched myself, there are numerous mediums we can use as teachers to gather a list of people and/or experts to help us in our future careers. One extremely useful network is Twitter, believe it or not! Yes, Twitter allows you to connect with other educators, teachers, scientists, etc., and have conversations with them in real time. On top of that, Twitter provides links you can click to go to different conversations and read them, or even engage in the conversation with them. It's and easy to use, and it is so far the most information savvy site. Facebook is also a helpful tool to build your PLN. You can add other teachers as your friend on Facebook and observe what they post on their pages to gain knowledge about what you want to teach.

                                              
                         Another great site to use to build your PLN is Pinterest! Pinterest is a visual discovery tool people of all ages can use to collect ideas for their different teaching methods, project ideas, and other practical ways to keep kids interested, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic about what they are learning. Pinterest provides many sites to click on from professionals themselves, who post their ideas from other professionals and so on and so forth! It's like an endless cycle of experts right at your fingertips! I personally love this site with all my heart because you can SEE what you are interested in and everyone on that site is friendly. Plus, it's is a very creative site and I am all about creativity in my future classrooms.

                         As for my future list of teachers and experts to contact, it all depends on who I meet in the future! I can attend workshops, conventions, parties, and even attend different schools to build my PLN. It all revolves around who you know, and how they can help you in your level of expertise.

Project #8: Book Trailer

Martha Walks The Dog

Project #7: My Sentence Videos

My Sentence Is....







My Passion Is.....

Blog #5

                             This week, we were shown a few videos in which Dr. Strange interviewed a third grade teacher and former student, Anthony Capps about project-based learning. I was quite impressed on how highly he spoke of project-based learning. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing, and he seemed to enjoy it as well!

                               The first point that Anthony talked about was that having students do projects that revolved around the current subject materials they were learning about made them more excited and motivated to do the work. He recalled an example of a project he had the children do a few months earlier. He had them write a letter to the congressman of Baldwin County about different issues, like what he is doing right, and what he might be doing wrong. They sent them off, and within a couple of days, they received a reply, and just the fact of the letters having the state seal stamped on them, indicating that it is from the official office of Joe Bonner, made the children so eager and excited to do another project like that one. Also, instead of solely counting on the students to complete little worksheets here and there, he at least includes some type of collaborative session in which the children work together and do more hands-on things to make the lesson stick in their minds. Not only is it exciting and motivating for the kids, but it also makes the kids excited about learning in general, and makes them realize that there is more than one way to learn about something! It encourages them to use their own brains to figure things out, rather than relying on someone else all the time.

                                    
                                 Anthony then went on to talk about the programs that he and the students use to look things up when implementing their projects. They are called iCurio and Discovery Ed. iCurio is a search engine that has been programmed to filter out any inappropriate material, and only show material that is consistent to what they are looking up. For example, if a student types in the word United States Presidents, the search engine with only pull up links to safe, good websites, rather than sketchy, inappropriate websites that has questionable material. It helps to marrow their searches and provides a safe environment to do so. Also, if the student wants to look up a highly specific topic, like frogs who are poisonous, who live in South America, and who are the color orange, iCurio will also do that for the student. It encourages students to think outside of the box when it comes to project topics and such. Discovery Ed does almost the exact same thing that iCurio does, except it also shows appropriate pictures, videos, and other engaging, interesting things that kid would enjoy learning about. In some sense, it brings experts into play when the teacher is not an expert in some things! That, in my opinion, is revolutionary.

                                                          

Project #3 Presentation

Blog #4

What questions do we ask? How do we ask them?

 

 

 

 

               I am going to be one-hundred percent honest. I, Kaitlyn Wyman, am so ready to be a teacher to little children. I can't wait to see that glimmer of natural curiosity in their eyes. I long to feel the pang of wanting to know everything from every child, and to know that I am the one that will be able to provide their little hearts with anything they want and need to know. In vice versa, I can't wait to learn from the kids themselves! In order for me to do that as a good teacher though, not only do the kids need to ask questions, but I must ask them questions too, to make sure they understand, and to also engage them in what they're learning. I can just hear it now, "But Kaitlyn, you're the teacher! You shouldn't be asking the questions, you should be the one answering them!". While at least half of that is true, questioning the children on what they have learned or even might have not learned is the most effective teaching method in my opinion. There are many helpful techniques to follow when asking questions in the classroom.

 

                        In order to understand the way questions work in the classroom, we should first take into account the children's mindset, because it is a fact that there are at least three kinds of students in a classroom: Smart and outgoing kids, shy and introverted kids, and kids who simply do not care at all. For example, after I teach my lesson about the life cycle of a butterfly to my classroom, I will ask the class as a whole what the first life cycle of a butterfly is. The highly outgoing and naturally smart kids will be the ones raising their hands so high that it seems that they're entire arm might just pop off. The shy ones will be the ones who most likely know the answers, but hide behind the ones who want to answer the question. The problem with these type of children is that as a teacher, when you see them not raising their hands, you don't know for a fact that they actually understand or not! Last but not least, the kids who don't care are extremely hard to pick out. They are the most misunderstood kids, I feel, of the class. In their minds, they don't want to raise their hands to answer because they simply don't care, but we as teachers don't really know that do we? We can misconstrue them as shy kids who might know the answer, rather than kinds who genuinely do not want to answer. It is a tremendously dangerous situation because, well, we could quite easily assume that after the question has been answered by an outgoing and smart student, the entire class listened and comprehended it simultaneously. That is completely wrong.

          While it is good for students to answer questions in a classroom, we must analyze how we are asking them and the effect it has on the classroom as a whole. Are we asking open or close ended questions? Are we asking the entire classroom, or one particular person? Is the entire classroom engaged, or not? When these intrapersonal questions are raised after a lesson, we as teachers should address them, and hopefully improve our ways of asking them. I feel like one of the most effective ways to engage the entire class is to ask individual kids at random. It gives every student the opportunity to think about the question so if they are called, they can give an educated answer or even guess. It prevents shy and uncaring kids from hiding behind the outgoing kids, and even brings them out of their shell to an extent! It also promotes thinking on their own without relying on someone else to do it for them. I was a shy girl myself, and one of my teachers used that technique and it really works.
         Another way to ask effective questions is to refrain from asking close ended questions. Those are the questions where the only answer is a "yes" or a "no", or other fifty-fifty questions. Not only does it limit the student from actually comprehending what he/she just answered, but there could be a situation where the student guessed the answer without really knowing and got full credit! That is not real learning to me. Instead of asking the generic close ended question, ask something to the effect of "Do you agree with the speaker's opinions? Answer yes, or no. Then, explain.". Have the student explain why he/she feels that way. It opens the door to free thinking, forming an opinion, and taking a stance in different situations. It goes a long way in school, and in life!
         Positive reinforcement also goes a long way! Letting a child know that you are happy that they answered a question correctly, or even just attempted a question builds them up to want to answer more questions and participate in class. You can give them full attention, and praise them for their answer, or you can give them candy, let them pick something from a treasure box full of little trinkets, or even let them do something special that they've wanted to do! You can only imagine what one little piece of candy or small trinket can do!

 



         All in all, we as teachers can learn so much more by asking questions to our students! It's a win/win situation when we know how to ask questions the right way! It helps us as educators, as well as helps our students tremendously. I will carry those principles with me through the rest of my teaching days!



Blog #3

How Can I Provide Meaningful Feedback to My Peers?

 

                                          

                  This week (or rather, this particularly snowy week), we were stuck inside doing homework and other things to keep us busy! Our assignment was to watch a couple of videos about peer editing and how to effectively do it! The first couple of videos just kind of gave us some instructions on how to peer edit. My favorite one to watch though was the video featuring some cute little fifth graders called "Writing Peer Review Top Ten Mistakes"! It provided a great example about what NOT to do when doing your peer editing for others, plus it was so funny!
                  To sum up the first two videos, they gave us specific ways on how to peer edit. What I got out of both videos is I felt like the most important way to effectively peer edit is to always give compliments when you're giving your suggestions and corrections. You don't want to completely drag the person down when they have a truckload of mistakes, do you? I'm sure that wouldn't feel good to you when you're handing your work to someone else, but you also want to leave no stone unturned when you edit their papers... You want to at least tell them what they did right and let them know the effort is acceptable before bogging them down with the corrections they must make to make the paper sound good. That way they will have confidence and they will actually want to improve their writing skills!
               As mentioned before, I absolutely loved the last video. It was kind of a follow up video to the first and second to let us know what not to do when editing, as opposed to what you must do when editing. The adorable students reenacted possible scenarios of students not doing the right thing when peer editing. You just NEVER put people down about their work! And never be pushy, passive, overcritical, and mean! It all goes back to confidence levels... You want to buildup your partner, not push them down! Peer edit effectively and, well, nicely!