Comments for Kids Week 12

I posted a comment on Angellina's video. She did a mihi, a greeting, in Maori which is the native language that is dying off. Check out her video.

Survey: Are you phisically Active

I took a survey of 23 students in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama asking people if they are physically active. Fourteen considered themself physically active and nine did not. Six worked out by walking,four weightlifting, and the rest were walking. Eighteen students said they spend three or more hours a day in front of a computer or television, probably do to EDM. I consider myself a very active person and I wanted to see how active others were. I found that most are not as active as me, but some of them are. I would like to encourage you to just take an hour a day doing something physically active. You body will appreciate it.

Time Toast Timeline

This is a time line of my life. Here are some key dates things occured in my life, such as school, places visited, ect. Some may find my life boring others may find it interesting.

Week 10 Morgan Bayada

I agree with Morgan Bayada and Dan Brown's video to a certain extent. I am right there with them when they talk about sitting in a room just listening to a lecture to just memorize facts. I think that is a waste of time because if I ever needed this information I could just find it online, but there are some classes I must say that are not like this. For example a math class. I can not learn how do do something without someone showing me how to do it. In a class that requires an application it requires thinking not memorization. For the classes that have nothing to do with my major I just study to get by because I really do not care about the theme of some poem or something like that. I do think that we learn from other students more than we do a professor because we each have a question and can find the answer together. We learn more from finding it ourselves than someone telling us in a lecture. A PLN is a great way to learn as a student and as a teacher because a teacher may have a solution to a problem and can share it to other teachers who may be going through that same problem.

Comments for Kids Week 9

I commented on a video in Ben Wildeboer's science classroom. It was on some alkali metals. The students did a great job uding props and descibing the metal

Week 9 ALEX

ALEX

ALEX stands for Alabama Learning Exchange. This is basically a resource an teacher can use. There are eight different categories on the home page such as course of study, lesson plan, podcast, and so on. I personally enjoyed looking at the lesson plan section. I think this could be very useful for teachers, especially new teachers. I found this website very user friendly and very helpful.

Access

Access distance leaning will provide equal access to high quality instruction, deliver quality learning opportunities, and greater equity for all Alabama public high school students through 21st century technology. This seems like it is more for the upper level honors students from what I can see. I am a little confused about this website and is it really useful.

Comments for Teachers: Paula White

Week 7: Sparks of Learning

Paula White makes a comment that "we as teachers often sit down, roll over, and play dead when we should be questioning, expressing our opinions, trying new ways in our classrooms and sharing with our peers. WE are the experts in our jobs and we should be educating parents, students and our administrators NOT to expect the same thing we have always seen or done in schools." This is so true with todays teachers. I see teachers expecting different results without changing the approach. Change is resting on the teacher's shoulders.

Paula also makes a comment that teachers are not to be dictators. No one wants to follow much less listen to a dictator. Teachers need to be encouragers and to develop relationships with students. One of the main reasons I am going into education is to be a role model to the male students, especially those who come from a single mothered home. There are so many young men that I think if they just had a good father figure then they would turn out to become beneficial to society rather than a burden.

Week 8: Being Connected in Jammies

In this blog post Paula White said she just stayed at home all weekend and was like a hermit. She did not leave the house. Even though she stayed inside, she had a productive weekend. She skyped, worked on some blogs and school assignments, and talked to her students using wiki. She worked with other teachers in planning events and creating things.

I do not think I could spend a weekend like this. Even though it was productive, she was inside all day. I am the kind of person who likes to be outside. That is one thing I do not like about all this technology. People get so caught up they can't stop and enjoy some fresh air.

Week 9: Learning, Mistakes, and Being Smart

In this poast Paula White tells about what Carol Tomlinson said at a conference. She quotes several phrases from Carol Tomlinson. I personally like the one "Teachers often teach as though all students are the same. Like bowling we roll the ball down the middle and hope we hit the students" There are several other quotes on her blog Paula White

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Wow! This man has a great outlook on his life. He seems to have a good attitude about the circumstance he is in. He talks about achieving your childhood dreams. He tell us what his dreams were and how he accomplished them.

In his lecture Achieving Childhood Dreams he talks about his childhood goals. The first of his goals was to be an astronaut and he shares that he was able to go to this zero gravity place at NASA. His second childhood dream was to play pro football, and he talks about the lessons he learned from football. He also wanted to be an imagineer and then he began talking about what he had done in the virtual world.

I personally liked the quote about brick walls. He said they are not for keeping people out but to show people how badly they want things. He also said that any thing is impossible. This is so true. If you are determined to do something and put your mind to it, then you will most likely accomplish that task.

I think the Alice way to teach computer programing was an excellent idea. He basically "head faked them by allowing them to make their own game and while doing that they learned computer programing. I think as teachers we need to use these "head fakes" in the classroom. We need to make learning fun. I think the more fun or enjoyable we make learning the more the students will want to learn.

Comments For Kids Week 8

Lakisha wrote a poem about called Rainy Days. She did a great job.
Rainy Days