Blog Post 5 Part 2

My personal learning network created with Symbaloo

Blog Post 16 Final Reflection

 

C4T Summary 3

The 2014 New School Year In this post we learn how Mrs. Morris uses technology to stay connected while not teaching.

My Comment:

Hello Mrs. Morris I loved your post! I find it very interesting that even when we are not teaching technology has supplied us with a way to still be involved in educations. Technology has helped me throughout my college career with being involved. I am in a EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama where I have been able to connect with students all over the world just through blogging. I really enjoyed your resources you shared with us on how to get blogging started in our classrooms. This recourse really helps us soon to be first year educators. Again, thank you for sharing. Please feel free to check out my blog with the University of South Alabama EDM310 class at http://thomleymercediedm310.blogspot.com/

Blogging and the Literacy Curriculum   In this post we learn how Mrs. Morris was able to include blogging into her literacy program

My Comment:
Hello Mrs. Morris I loved your post. I am a student in the University of South Alabama EDM310, a technology focused class. We are asked to blog every week along with comment on other blogs throughout the educational network. I found that this posted related to our class directly. I have learned how important it is to keep technology in our classrooms and found it very relatable when you posted that it is not enough anymore just to teach students how to read and write. I agree with that statement completely. Today we need to teach our students about technology as we can assume that technology will continue to grow and it will be a necessity for our students to be knowledgeable on the topic. Thank you for sharing your ideas. Please feel free to check out my blog at http://thomleymercediedm310.blogspot.com/ 

Looking Back, Looking Forward  Mrs. Morris tells us about her next step in life and in the classroom. How she decided to cut back on the busy work and up the technology.

My Comment: Good evening Mrs. Morris I am a student with EDM 310. Congratulations on your newest family member. I too agree that worksheets are only busy work. Technology is a great way to keep your students busy and involved. I also feel that its a great way to get them ready for the real world. Technology is everywhere and our students will need to be ready. Feel free to check out my blog with the University of South Alabama EDM 310 class. http://thomleymercediedm310.blogspot.com/

C4K Summary for April

 Wonder Post:  Marissa has written a short description on a book she is reading with her class.

My Comment:This is a really great post Marissa. I like that you are interested in the literature. I also like the quote you have chosen. Keep up the good work and always remember to take your own advice. Feel free to check out my blog with the South Alabama EDM 310 Class. http://thomleymercediedm310.blogspot.com/

My Bucket List Ailsson explains to us some of the life goals she has set for herself. 

 

My Comment.: I see that you want to be famous one day, that is a very big goal for yourself. I think being famous would be really cool. I love that you have goals set for the future. I too have a list of life goals for myself. I have a rule that once I check one thing off I add two more. That way I am constantly striving to reach new goals, you should try this too. Feel free to check out my blog at the University of South Alabama EDM31o class at http://thomleymer

 

Me Bucket List Raelyne explains to us some of the life goals she has set for herself.

 

My Comment: Great post Raelyne. I love that you have goals set for the future. I too have a list of life goals for myself. I have a rule that once I check one thing off I add two more. That way I am constantly striving to reach new goals, you should try this too. Feel free to check out my blog at the University of South Alabama EDM31o class at http://thomleymercediedm310.blogspot.com/

Final Project

Final Project 

Blog Post 13

What did I leave out?

I recently decided that I will be applying grad school in the Fall of 2018. I hope to attend  South Alabama's graduate program for Art Education. With this new interest I was curious to know how could we use technology in the field of art such as Visual Art, Theater, Dance and Music. With this I started my research and came up with 4 different ways to use technology in the field of art.

Technology and Art

Katherine Svoboda explains to us how she uses technology in  her art class with her older students. Katherine states that technology and at go hand and hand. Mrs. Katherine uses a website called artsonia for her students to showcase their work. Artsonia is names the worlds largest children's museum. It allows students around the nation to sale and view works of art by students. 

Claymation is also a great way to incorporate technology in the art classroom. Claymation is when students design a short movies with pictures of clay figures. I would also suggest that students publish their work on YouTube as we have done this semester in EDM 310. 

Theater
 Theater and technology are also very easy to relate. Many students love to publish their work and will work harder if they know they have an audience. In foundations to Reading we learned that Readers Theater is a great way for students to understand the text. I feel like this would be a great opportunity to let technology take it to the next level. Possibly have students record a short video of them involved in readers theater to publish on their blog. This also lets students view and listen to their readings skills directly.

Dance

Dance can be included in every subject. Any chance students get to release some built up energy is great.  I found an amazing source for teachers to learn about including dance in the classroom. Teaching Channel

Music and Technology 

Mrs Kelly Riley demonstrates to us the many ways she uses technology in her music classroom through her blog. She supplies many demonstrates lesson plans on technology games for students.

with music she also has online music

C4T 2 post Summary

Comments for Teachers Two Post Summary

For the month of April I have been commenting on Mrs. Morris Blog. 

The 2014 New School Year In this post we learn how Mrs. Morris uses technology to stay connected while not teaching.

My Comment:

Hello Mrs. Morris I loved your post! I find it very interesting that even when we are not teaching technology has supplied us with a way to still be involved in educations. Technology has helped me throughout my college career with being involved. I am in a EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama where I have been able to connect with students all over the world just through blogging. I really enjoyed your resources you shared with us on how to get blogging started in our classrooms. This recourse really helps us soon to be first year educators. Again, thank you for sharing. Please feel free to check out my blog with the University of South Alabama EDM310 class at http://thomleymercediedm310.blogspot.com/

Blogging and the Literacy Curriculum   In this post we learn how Mrs. Morris was able to include blogging into her literacy program

My Comment:
Hello Mrs. Morris I loved your post. I am a student in the University of South Alabama EDM310, a technology focused class. We are asked to blog every week along with comment on other blogs throughout the educational network. I found that this posted related to our class directly. I have learned how important it is to keep technology in our classrooms and found it very relatable when you posted that it is not enough anymore just to teach students how to read and write. I agree with that statement completely. Today we need to teach our students about technology as we can assume that technology will continue to grow and it will be a necessity for our students to be knowledgeable on the topic. Thank you for sharing your ideas. Please feel free to check out my blog at http://thomleymercediedm310.blogspot.com/

Blog Post 12

What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?

 This was a collaberative group project

Sarah Sanders

Patrica Tremblay

Mercedi Thomley

As a group we sat down and discussed the topic of resources for teachers with students with hearing and visual impairment. We decided to create a PLN (Personal Learning Network) supplying resources for those teachers.  We used Symbaloo to organize and make our resources easily accessible. We did research as a group as well as on our own to create our PLN. We each contributed a number of resources. 

Some of the resources I contributed.

Audio Games   

12 Ingenious Gadgets 12 amazing Gadgets for the blind that can be used in and outside the classroom

Teaching visually impaired A website that supplies teachers with resources with technology for the visually impaired

 Light Aide   An informative video on the amazing Light Aide used in many classrooms for students with disabilities
School of Thought  CNN article by Charlotte Walker on technology that can involve the hearing impaired. 

Assistive Technology for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing  A Text resource supplying endless ways to use technology for the hearing impaired.

 

Late Comments for Kids March Summary

Bucket List by Nadia: in this post Nadia list her life goals for the next 5 years, 10 years  and overall goals.

My Comment:

This is a great list Nadia. I too have a life goal list myself. I have had my list for a very long time now and I am always adding to it. I believe that as we get older things change some goals we meet some goals we change our minds about. I have made a deal with myself that once I scratch one thing off the list I add two more. That ways I am always growing and always setting new goals to reach. Please feel free to check out my blog at the University of South Alabama EDM310 class. http://thomleymercediedm310.blogspot.com/

Kindness by Madame: In this post Madame shares to use one of the most important thing she values. kindness.

My Comment:

Great post. I love that you are sharing this advise with us. One small act can go along way. Please feel free to check out my blog at the University of South Alabama EDM310 class http://thomleymercediedm310.blogspot.com/

Why are some people left handed?  by Ira: We find out his assupmtion on why he thinks people are left handed.

My Comment:
Ira this was a very nice assumption. It is true the left side of the brain controls the right side and the right side of the brain controls the left. It can be kind of confusing. Many people think that they are only one sided. Meaning that they are only crafty (right side,artsy) or only books smart (left side, logical). That on the other hand is not true. We all use our brains both sides. My name is Mercedi please feel free to check out my blog at the University of South Alabama EDM310 class 

Advice to Future Sophomores by Rashad: In this post Rashad shares advice to future Sophomores and techniques he uses this previous year.

 

My Comments: Great work Rashad. I enjoyed the advice you shared with us, I also liked your cause and affect attitude as well. I believe that we all need to acknowledged the consequences of our actions. Great work and remember to follow your own advice.  

Blog Post 11

What can we learn about teaching & learning from these teachers?

In the Back to the Future video we learn how Brain Crosby encourages his fourth graders. Brain explain to us that he is teaching in a poverty area where is students seem uninterested as well as unaware of their surroundings. He uses technology to get the students involved. He speaks to us on how he uses class blogging, wiki, and fliker in his classroom. He also go into great detail about a science project his students worked on, involving technology as well as the community.

Mr. Crosby also shares to us how he was able to overcome other challenges. A young student enter is class suffering from cancer. The school informs him that she will be unable to attend class so it wouldn't be much of a bother. Mr. Crosby refuses to use that as an excuse and uses video chat to include the student in school almost every day. I thought this was an amazing act of kindness as well as being resourceful. As I have mentioned early I believe that being resourceful is the key to teaching. Teachers must be willing to take on any and all challenges.

In another video with Paul Anderson we learn about his teaching techniques. QIVERS.

Q-Question, Anderson started his school year off with a hook. I saw this to be a great tool to grab student attention right off the back. 

I- Investigate, Anderson lets his students explore. Letting them use technology to do research and create new questions

V-Video, Mr. Anderson uses video chat (prerecorded) to communicate with his students most of the time to allow him to move freely in the classroom.  

E-Elaboration, He then uses this time for student to gather and organize their information 

R-Review, he then reviews with each of his students on the information they have covered.

S-Summary Quiz, Once he feels the students are ready he gives them a short informal quiz on the new material. 

I saw Mr. Anderson technical to be a great strategy.  He allows his students to do most of the research while guiding them along the way.

Making Thinking Visible Ron Richart looks at thinking differently. He was always faced with the question how do we make our students think. He allows his students to work in small groups to answer question and will later ask them the same question to see if they still have the same view on that topic. 

Super Digital Citizen Sam Pane a 5th grade teacher walks us through his lesson on keeping the internet safe. He discusses the topic with his students having them brain storm on ideas. He later ask them to create a cyber super hero to place in their own comic strip which was used as a language art lesson. I really enjoyed how Mr. Pane guided his class discusses as well as the way he ended the project. He had the students walk around the classroom as an art gallery sharing the things they liked that their fellow students created.

Project Based Learning  is a video shared to us by Dean Shareski on how to include more subject in one project. She explains that while doing this it will cause our students to have a deeper understanding of the information being covered. 

Roosevelt Elementary PBL Project In this video I learned that PBL projects teach basic skills for students as well as the core materiel. Teachers are faced with the challenge of teaching students basic skills like right from wrong or public speaking and technology skills. With project based learning teachers are able to include all of these things and so much more.

Blog Post 10

Interview with Kathy Cassidy 

In the introduction video to Mrs. Cassidy's classroom we learn from her students how they incorporate technology in their learning. The students use blogging, wikis, and learning games throughout the semester. The students ask experts(or people with person experience) to answer their questions.

In the first interview session with Mrs. Cassidy she explain to us how and why she uses technology in the classroom. Mrs. Cassidy explains that in her classroom she likes to use blogging as a reading and writing tool. Many students will be asked to write a sentence on what they have read and share it to their blog. I noticed that when you put students in front of an audience they will put their best foot forward, giving their hardest work. I believe this is a great way to keep the school work meaningful. As we remember reading many short stories in grade school we probably do not remember any of the actual text. While these students are blogging about their reading they will be force to pay attention to the text and hopefully later retain more information on it. Mrs. Cassidy also share that she does most of the class blogging while in centers. She shares to us the first time she received 5 computers in her classroom she used this as a center. I thought this was a very resourceful task and as we know all educators must be resourceful.

Mrs. Cassidy also discusses technology literacy. She explained it best as keeping up with the times. She shared with us that times are changing which means our students our changing. Being able to make a power point and type would be able to cut it 5 years ago but would not today. Teachers must be able to keep their students engaged and with technology today possibilities are endless.

In the second interview session Mrs. Cassidy shares to us where to start. Many educators today want to include technology or at least get started with it in their world of education but have no idea where to start. Mrs. Cassidy suggest to start with the thing you are interested in, such as videos one could create a YouTube account.  I believe this advices transfer directly to our students. Find out what your students are interested in and go from there.

In the third interview session students sit down and ask Mrs. Cassidy questions they had about technology in the classroom. The question that stood out to me the most was "could blogging be a source of cheating" Mrs. Cassidy answered this question with a no and turned it back on the professors. She said we go all over gathering information from others, learning and brainstorming, how we are asked to present the information is the real task. Professors should ask their students to create causing them to make it their own and present the information they have gathered.

Blog Post #9

Project Based Learning

I believe the most important part of project based learning is meaning. The project should having meaning to your students, your audience, and your school curriculum. In Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning we learn the steps to create and affective PBL.

1. Introduction- The introduction to your projected should be presented in a creative way, to grab the students attention.
2. Driving Question- This step should capture the heart of the project. What will your students learn from this project?
3. Student Voice- "The Key" Gives the project more meaning to your students. Let them create and explore. 
4. Build 21st Century Skills- Project should involve technology.
5. Build New Questions- Along the way students should begin to answer questions and create new ones from that. Always challenging themselves. 
6. Feed Back- Feed back throughout the project is crucial. This will help motivate your students.
7. Show work- Have and audience for your students. This will make the project more meaningful to them and make others more aware. 

In the video Project Based Learning for teachers we learn as educators how important it is to include PBL in your classroom. PBL's requires students interacting, it is a great way to get everyone in the classroom involved. It also gives students a chance to explore, create, and share their work with others. PBL's should always having meaning not only to the students but to the curriculum and the community. 

What Motivates our Students?

This was a very informative video from the students perspective. Why do students want to learn? I noticed most of the answers revolved around the fucture. We are all getting an education with the fucture in mind but as any college student know it is very hard to keep the bigger picture in mind all the time. If we are unmotived when this close to finishing it must be even harder for our younger students to see so far ahead. This video gave helpful hints on how to keep our classrooms motivated.
1.) ClassCash. I remember being very young and saving up my stickers in the second grade so I could get something good out of the treasure chest that week. Kids love toys and we should reward them for good behavior but while also teaching a life lesson, saving and responsibility.
2.) Outdoors. We all love the outdoors and although I believe outdoors should be included in our school routine everyday, it could also be a reward. Students shared with us in the video that their teachers would let them go outside in the garden to explore as a reward.
3.) Food- Although I do not like the idea of sweet treats as a reward it can be very affective. I know every time I do well on a project or test I make sure to treat myself out. I like the idea of the teacher buying that students snack that day or an extra snack instead of bringing outside food into the classroom.

Two Students Solve the Case...
I found this video to be very motivating. Two high school students share their new idea of how to fix ketchup tops. I have never thought to sit down and think about a project like this. From the way the video explained it the students were able to chose the problem of their choice and work with it all year. The two boys work very hard on creating a new top for ketchup. It was amazing to see technology working so well in the classroom.

PLB- High School Math
In this video we learn about PBL's from the teachers perspective. A high school decides to sit down and recreate their entire curriculum around Project Based Learning. Math and Literature were the two hardest subject to recreate. We learn at the end of the video that the students actually become the teachers they are asked to create games around math problems to share with the classroom. I found this very interesting once teachers feel they are at a stop we ask our students and they take over with creativity.

Project #13

Project Based Learning Lesson Plan 

Project Calendar 

Project Plan  

Project Rubric 

Project Checklist  

Slide Show  

Project #9

Blog Post 8

The Last Lecture 

In the lecture Randy Pausch explains to us a very important role in education. Putting others forward Randy explains that reaching our goals in life is very important but helping others is what life is really about. 

• Feed Back
• Show Gratitude
• Work hard/ Don't complain 
• Be good/ be Valuable 
• People will show you their good side if we give them time 

In education I believe teachers know their main goal, which is our students but sometimes other things can cause us to lose sight of that goal. If we follow this list I believe we will reach our personal goals as well as helping our students reach theirs.