Project #12 Part A

This presentation was done to show the different tools that are required in a Tier 2 school. The following skills are demonstrated: 

    -Turn on a SMARTboard
    -Calibrate the SMARTboard
    -Work with text
    -Work with objects
    -Use object animation to hide and reveal feedback
    -Use the Infinite Cloner and work with digital ink
    -Save items added in ink layer to a separate file
    -Use multimedia objects

Project #14

This lesson plan is designed for a second grade classroom. It teaches the six questions who, what, when, where, why, and how. 

Blog Assignment #10

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

In the video, Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture, there was so much to learn from the way he lived and the way he taught. When I opened the link to watch the video, my first thought was "I seriously have to sit here for an hour and watch this video". My mind was quickly changed. You would have never expected Randy to have ten tumors with the way he presented himself and with his lifestyle. Just by the introduction of Randy, I knew I would remain interested, which I did.  A big thing that stood out to me was the fact that he started his lecture with the slide stating he wasn't talking about cancer, his wife and kids, and religion/spirituality. He didn't want that to be the reason he was talking. He had much more planned to discuss. 


The thing I learned the most from Randy was that he loved what he did. He would never be as influential if he didn't live his life fun and trying to entertain, and as we later heard "edutained". I loved that he went into detail about his childhood dreams. NFL, zero gravity, winning stuffed animals, Disney Imagineer, and Captain Kirk were all things that could've been achieved but some were difficult to achieve. First thing I learned was that you have to take steps, risks, and challenges in order to achieve. Brick walls will be there at every step in our lives; however they aren't there to keep us out. They are there to see how badly we wanted in. They are there to allow us to prove to people that we will do whatever it takes to get into the wall. Nothing is going to be handed to you. 

So often we think of our childhood dreams and we see them as just that: dreams. Randy made sure he made his dreams into his life. Even if he couldn't have the dreams that he made, he compromised such as Captain Kirk. He made his dreams work. The second thing I learned is to never allow myself to tear someone's dreams down. As an educator, I want students to see their dreams and work toward them until they have reached the stars. Learning is more that books and tests. Learning is about living. I can give a book to a student all day everyday but students won't reach for the stars that way. I have to tell my students they can do better even if I feel they did an excellent job. Like Randy's advisor Andy said, I would be doing the students a disservice if I told them they did it right the first time. 

Listening to Randy was a wonderful hour of my week spent. I learned ways to teach, but more importantly, I learned to live a brighter life. 

Blog Assignment #9

What can we learn about teaching and learning from these teachers?
by Haley Smith, Hilary Thames, and Brantley Spillman

As future educators, we are continuously learning new methods and techniques that can improve our classrooms.  The following video summaries introduce three important features of an effective classroom: technology learning tools, application based teaching, and project based learning. Each of these new approaches attempts to provide opportunities that will equalize the learning experience for all types of children and their various circumstances. Specifically, all children should have the capability and opportunity to use, understand and excel in all areas of education by using these learning strategies.

“Back to the Future” by Brian Crosby

In the first video, Brian Crosby explains a project that he constructed using technology in his fourth grade class.  This video taught us that learning is more than reading from a textbook, reviewing notes, and assessing students. The steps that Mr. Crosby used were not reading a book, although it did involve reading. His students read the book, did small experiments, posted videos to a blog, learned the history of 'ballooning', made a Wiki page, uploaded pictures to Flickr, wrote “High Hopes,” turned them into trading cards, asked others to send “High Hopes”, brought in visitors, released the balloon into space, tracked it, and then shared the experiments with classes around the world through Skype. This project was all about active learning by using technology. He used several 21st century tools, such as Skype, blogs, Wikipedia, Flickr, etc.  The best part about these tools is that they were all free.

The final thing that we learned through this video is that learning includes everyone, no matter the circumstances. For example, Celeste was a little girl that had leukemia. She wasn't allowed to come to school very often, due to her condition. However, Mr. Crosby made it possible for her to be a part of the classroom via her computer. It was in this way that she was given the opportunity to learn with students regardless of her circumstances.

Mr. Crosby indicated that learning does not have to be boring.  He suggested that teaching with technology brought a sense of eagerness to his students. We hope, by embracing and implementing this kind of student eagerness into our own styles of teaching, we can also maintain student interest during the discussion of a learning topic. As educators, if we are unwilling to embrace such learning tools, then we are not only hurting ourselves but our students as well.

“Blended Learning Cycle” by Paul Anderson

The "Blended Learning Cycle" uses the acronym QUIVERS. Everything begins with Questions. If you have a question that grabs a student's attention, then they will learn more because they want to know more. Next, the I stands for Investigation. In this step, students are told to experiment using labs set up in the classroom. The next step is Video. A student views a video to further explain the concept. Elaboration involves a lot of reading in order to understand the concept clearer. Finally, Review is the part where the teacher gets really involved with the students. The teacher will go over the concept one-on-one with the student so that the educator knows how much the student finally understands.

Mr. Anderson steps away from technology as the focus of this teaching strategy and relies on the application of material.  His approach is a hands-on "student as a scholar" strategy that forces the student to think outside the box. He stresses the need for his students to not just memorize facts but also try to investigate and apply them.  Specifically, we learned that we should begin with a good question.  Following the question, we should begin to explore, explain and expand on the learning topic.  During this process, students have the opportunity to reflect and edit other student’s work. Further indicating understanding of the topic. We believe that if we take Mr. Anderson’s approach combined with Mr. Crosby’s use of technology, then our kids should have opportunities that students, in the past, have missed.

“Making Thinking Visible” by Mark Church

Mr. Church emphasized the importance of project-based learning.  He explains that working together in teams can provide students with skills that are useful in real world settings. Additionally, by having certain topics discussed in groups, students are more engaged and more willing to dig deeper into a subject matter. This video was about making students think. For example, one girl asked, “How can we summarize everything we have been talking about into one phrase?” This headline project allowed students to think bigger. It is easy to summarize a lesson in one paragraph, but it becomes more difficult when a student must only use one sentence? The student must truly understand the information in order to narrow the

summary in one phrase. Everyone has a different way of interpreting things. Thus, by allowing students to work in collaborative groups, everyone's opinions can come together to form a bigger product.  Using Mr. Church’s strategy with Mr. Anderson and Mr. Crosby’s could allow for the ideal learning environment that will level the field for all types of students to learn and use new educational topics.

In summary, by combining all three teachers approaches: technology learning tools, application based teaching, and project based learning; we will create a successful and modern classroom.  Technology will not let us fail.  If used appropriately, technology will help us teach and learn together with our students. Furthermore, educators must initiate application- and project-based learning along with technology for the most effective learning environment.

  

Blog Assignment #8

21st Century Learning and Communicating Tools

My Teaching Tool by Haley Smith

For my tool, I chose www.scholastic.com. Growing up, I remember reading Scholastic books and engaging with the characters such as Clifford the Big Red Dog and the Magic School Bus. Every year, I always went to my school’s book fair put on by Scholastic. Today, as a future educator, I had NO idea that Scholastic would provide the tools that it does. From lesson plans to classroom management ideas to student activities, Scholastic offers an unlimited amount of resources that can be used to further learning in the classroom.

Resources and Tools

On the front page of this link, Scholastic offers daily starters, the freebie corner, and printouts that can be used inside the classroom. Daily starters are anything from fun facts to teachable moments and small lessons in math and language. In addition, you can look up information by

Common Core Standards. There is even a link that takes you directly to the Alabama Department of Education website where you can see the Core Standards. Scholastic is a partner with Common Core and they want to provide instructional materials and programs for you, the teacher, to use. Scholastic also provides teachers with lesson plans separated by holidays, months, and subjects. The amount of lesson plans that Scholastic offers is extraordinary and can be incorporated in the classroom in various ways. The best part of this website is that the lesson plans are free!  There is also a tab that is titled "Everything You Need". In this section of scholastic.com, there is anything you could need by theme such as bullying, elections, and holidays. It has teaching ideas for the month and there is also a search bar that you can use to look for something specific that you need.  

Some tools that are available through scholastic.com are the graphic organizer, the flash card maker, the spelling wizard, and the class set-up tool.  

Follow the links to explore other tools Scholastic offers for yourself!  

Graphic Organizer

Flash Card Maker

Spelling Wizard

Class Set-Up Tool

Strategies & Ideas

Another tab that you can find on Scholastic’s website is one where you can find different strategies and ideas. One resource found in this section that I find very helpful is Teacher to Teacher Blogs. In this section, you can find teaching tips, classroom management tips, lesson plans, and great things that are happening in the classroom. It gives you a list of teachers all over America giving their resources and tips for a better classroom. While exploring Scholastic’s Common Core section, I found links that explain what Common Core is and how to understand. This gives links to Skill Assessment, Math Material, English Material, and the Content Library. I really like the section called the New Teacher Support as well. This link offers tips for how to start your classroom, ways to deal with parents, how to teach lessons, and resources that helps new teachers get in the swing of school.

Student Activities

Inside Scholastic there are a lot of resources for teachers, parents, and students. The student resources vary from computer lab activities, SmartBoard activities, and “StudyJams!”. These are all resources that are extremely helpful and will allow students to grasp the concepts needed.

Here are the links to the student activities!

Interactive Whiteboard Activities

StudyJams!

Computer Lab Favorites

Family Playground (Ages 3-7)

Kid Stacks (Ages 8-12)

The final resources I am going to discuss are the Book Fair and the tab for Books and Authors. With the Book Fair resource, you can find book fairs near you, see what books are being featured, and you could sign your students up for contests such as Kids Are Authors.

I would use these tools in my classroom as often as I could. This would allow students to stay learning with technology as well as work collaboratively. This takes learning home, and it allows parents to join in on the fun of learning!

My Teaching Tool by Brantley Spillman

While researching technology-based tools for the elementary classroom, I was able to find a lot of new information.  The sky is the limit when dealing with technology and its potential for the modern day classroom. Constantly, new tools and programs being invented and implemented into our schools. These tools/programs are allowing educators easier application of the hands-on approach. The tools that were notable to me were Pixie, Frames5, Share4, Wixie, Image Blender, and PollEverywhere.

However, the program I will discuss in this post is Epals. Epals seems to be easy to integrate into the classroom.  They have several options that are specific to grades K-12.  One example is the “Global Community” that allows students and educators to collaborate with different cultures and communities (over 200 countries).  Additionally, this technology offers a safe way for students to communicate worldwide. Both educators and students now have the opportunity to search and learn from many different styles/cultures of education.

Another example of options that Epals offers to an educator and their students is “CRICKET.” CRICKET includes several different magazines and reading materials for a variety of ages.  “The mission of CRICKET is to inspire children to a lifelong love of reading and learning (Epals:CRICKET). In addition to magazines, CRICKET offers several learning products such as books, crafts, toys, and gifts. First and foremost, these products should bring a sense of fun to the learning process.

In2Books e-Mentoring Service is a more specific program Epals has to offer.  This service is grade-specific.  The In2Books tool is for students in grades 3 through 5.  It provides a student with a pre-approved adult pen pal to discuss certain reading topics they both have read. “The program provides standards-based professional development and professional learning communities and is facilitated by three resource-filled websites - one for students, another for pen pals, and a third for teachers” (Epals:In2Books). Historically, pen pals have been very useful in a classroom. (How to Set Up a Pen Pal!) Pen pal relationships offer several important inter-disciplinary benefits for your students: good practice at writing in the proper format, increasing your student’s awareness of other interpretations of the reading material, increasing chances that your student will continue to be a writer, increasing your student’s ability to communicate clearly in written form.

The notable aspect of Epals is that it is building on traditional learning tools; reading, writing, and pen pals.  However, making it more successful by using new technological methods such as video chats and email we are modernizing the classroom.

My Teaching Tool by Hilary Thames

In my sixth grade classroom, I plan to use technology in numerous ways, but the number one thing I want my kids to be engaged in weekly is keypals. Through these keypals, my kids will be involved in learning communities. Each students will be paired with another student from a classroom in another city or, possibly, even another country. My students will be in contact with the paired student through email. When working on projects, they will be using collaborative writing tools such as google docs. Once a month, as a whole, we will have contact with the class via webcam and have an activity planned for this allotted day for the students to engage with each other.  This will allow the students to see their partner and their partner’s culture with their own eyes.

In order to find a whole classroom available for keypals, I would use The Teacher's Corner. Through teacher’s corner, I would be in contact with the teacher about various things such as setting up the keypals, activities that will be used throughout the year, and potenital problems that may evolve over that period of time.

I hope, through this experience, my students will gain a working knowledge of teamwork. They will have to learn how to depend on others as they will not be able to take full control over their projects. This quality will not only help them in the keypals activity, but it will also help them when they are in the workplace. My students, through the use of keypals, will also be introduced to different cultures and to students with different backgrounds.

Another way I plan to engage my student in technology is by the use of ThingLink. There are many great tools that ThingLink offers; such as new ways to create an interactive report. By

creating this interactive report, students will be able to learn more because it is a fun alternative to traditional and boring reports. Through the use of ThingLink, my students will create a report of themselves on their own culture that they can share with the students they have been paired with via keypals. When their paired student has shared the report on their culture, we will have a class discussion about what was shared.

My thinking may seem outside of the box, but one thing I believe would be great for involving technology into the classroom is the introduction of digital desks. Instead of the old, boring wooden desks, we would have desks that allow each student access to the internet. The top of the desk could be compared to an iPad. It would be a touch screen and even have a connection to the SmartBoard that is in the front of the classroom. My students' books would be accessed through these desks. No more excuses like, “I left my book at home last night”! Of course, the students wouldn’t be able to take these desks home, so there would have to be a textbook available for homework activities and studying (maybe an iPad).  The students would even be able to take tests on these digital desks and submit them wirelessly! WE ARE GOING GREEN LIKE EDM 310!  Alright, so maybe there is a reason I want to be a teacher instead of an inventor, but you can never dream too big, right?!?

C4T #2

My second C4T came from Dean Shareski's blog "Ideas and Thoughts". Shareski specializes in the use of technology in the classroom. Starting in 2012, Shareski began working for Discovery Education as the Community Manager of Canada Discovery Ed Network (DEN). He was given the ISTE Award for Outstanding Leadership in Technology and Education. He believes that school and learning must be different and that great minds and ideas exist locally and through personal, virtual connections. 

Post #1: Why Teachers aren't Making "The Shifts"

In this post, Shareski explains why teachers aren't changing to more technological based curriculum. A point that he made was that teachers have to rethink everything in their classrooms because teachers aren't fully trained to help all students. There are so many needs in students that a classroom in college or a conference doesn't cover them all. Teachers aren't making the shifts for more reasons than just time. Teachers are being told they are doing fine and when they hear that, they don't think they need to keep working past what they have to. The teachers have staff that work on doing the research in their classes. This causes teachers to become lazy. Something that some people don't realize is that making these changes to technology takes time and a lot of it. Teachers expect to go to a conference or workshop, take a college course, or look at blogs and expect them to go in and understand fully what they need to change. 

Comment #1: 

Hello, My name is Haley Smith, and I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. It is really hard for me to connect to these changes because I am still learning to be an educator. I am a junior at USA and I have been enjoying taking classes toward my certification. One thing you mentioned was that teachers "take a class and have a professor that introduces them to a new approach to learning. This is the boat that I am in. Dr. Strange is the instructor and he is currently teaching us different ways to use technology in the schools. I hope one day I can make the shift as a teacher. Thanks for your post!

Post #2: Stop Me If You Have Heard This Before

The second post I read from Dean Shareski was about originality. Someone somewhere has probably said the same thing or thought the same thing or shared the same thing and the thought "Why should I?" comes to mind. He shared that there is a high chance that you will not come up with your own unique idea, insight, or resource. Sometimes seeking to be original isn't what we need. Shareski quoted the question "So the question is, why take pictures of places that you visit that probably aren’t going to be as good as the photos that others have already taken that are already available for you to use in your own albums, slide shows, whatever? I mean, unless you want to organize the wife and kids in front of the spot just to prove you’ve been there, what’s the point?" The point he makes is that although you can find the same pictures of landmarks but the ones you find on the Internet is that you don't take those. Those images don't have the memories, stories, insights, and ideas that you have with the picture. Your pictures have a personal context and perspective that you can't find online. For example, you can Google "Cinderella's castle in Disney World". Lots of images will appear but those don't capture the excitement of your child that sees it for the first time or the man that asks his girl to be his wife. Those come from your personal images and your personal memories. The pictures may get boring to look at but the individual response and thoughts changes the entire perspective. Originality is overrated but your thinking isn't. 

Comment #2:

Hello, my name is Haley Smith, and I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. I really enjoyed reading this post and I often find myself thinking this too. In April of 2013, I went to Disney World and someone asked me "What are you going to do with a picture of the castle? You can Google that." It wasn't the fact that I never had access one. It was the fact that I was there and I was making memories there. Originality is something that is leaving the classroom. That is one reason I don't like worksheets. With worksheets, students don't have the freedom to be themselves and make their work what they want it to be.

Project #9

Podcast
by Haley Smith, Brantley Spillman, and Hilary Thames

Based on the book, Teaching Digital Natives by Mark Prensky, we have discussed the questions "How can we connect technology to the curriculum?" and "What can we do to teach for the future?" Our answer in the podcast below comes from different resources such as iCurio.com, discoveryeducation.com, and Jen Deyenberg's blog trailsoptional.com.

Hope you enjoy!

Project #2

My Personal Learning Network: 

To begin my personal learning network, I chose Symbaloo. Symbaloo is a website that provides students and educators access to many different collaborators and tools that help further learning. In Symbaloo, I have tools such as Twitter and Facebook to make the access to people easier. I have tools such as major newspapers like The New York Times to keep up with current events. I also added the EDM310 blog and my group member's blog in order to have an easy access point to go to these websites. 

I never realized how many different tools I used through the Internet until I signed up for this class. Tools I use daily such as Twitter or Pinterest can be excellent resources to use inside the classroom. Blogging is another thing that I never would have done before EDM310, and now that I have done this and maintained a blog, it will certainly be a part of my classroom. There are so many ways that websites can be used, and I can't wait to discover more! 

Project #13

This lesson plan was done collaboratively by H. Smith, H. Thames, and B. Spillman. 

Here is a link to the Presentation on Google! 

C4K Summary for September

By reading the different aged students from around the world during the month of September, it really opened me to the idea of using blog posts in my classroom one day. I can only imagine the excitement that students get, especially the younger students, when a college student comments on their blog. This is also a wonderful way to post all of the work a student does and to incorporate technology in the classroom.

C4K #1 – This I Believe: Southern Life

For my first C4K assignment, I was assigned a tenth grade student named snowflake. This student discussed why they believed that Southern life is such a wonderful thing. This student went into detail of all of his or her favorite things about living in the South such as country music, riding horses, and even our wardrobe. I thought snowflake did an excellent job discussing why she felt the way she did. She even told a story explaining the importance of horse riding safety. Snowflake’s post was intriguing and really interesting to read. There really is no such thing as being too Southern just as snowflake quoted Lewis Grizzard.

C4K Comment #1 –

Hi! My name is Haley Smith, and I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I was born and raised in the South, and I have to say that you are right. The South is where the tea is sweet and our accents are sweeter. I like your tips on riding a horse. Luckily, I have never fallen off of a horse, and I hope that day never comes. There are many precautions that you must make for your safety most importantly and also the safety of your animal. My favorite things about being a Southerner are sweet tea, Alabama football, cool fall weather, sandy beaches, and Southern hospitality. I couldn’t imagine ever leaving the South. Great work. I loved your thoughts.

C4K #2 – New York

For my second C4K post, I was assigned a student that didn’t have any posts published. I chose another student from the same class named Candy. In her blog post, she described the trip that she was currently on while she posted the blog. I really thought it was cool that she took time from her trip to tell her followers and classmates of the trip she was having. In her post, she tells her audience of the toy store that she went to, Fao Schwarz. It was a good read for her audience.

C4K Comment #2 –

Hello Candy, 
My name is Haley Smith, and I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I loved reading your post! I have never been to New York personally, but I hope that one day I get to go. It was so much fun reading about your adventure to New York and to Fao Schwarz Toy Store! It is cool that you are still blogging even though you aren’t home! Keep up the excellent work!

C4K #3 – Rainbow Warrior Attack

My final C4K post for the month of September was on Sesalina @ PT England School in New Zealand. Her post showed a lot of knowledge on the Rainbow Warrior Attack in 1985. She explained in her post how the attack was done, what happened as a result of it, and what it meant for the nations involved. The attack took place when two French spies suited up as divers and attached two bombs to the bottom of the ship. Later, this bombing resulted in Fernando Pereira’s death and the arrests of the two French spies. These spies were later awarded for bombing the Rainbow Warrior after they returned from the island they were imprisoned at. The French government later paid New Zealand $13 million. The nuclear weapon affected everyone that was near the bombing due to radiation, death, cancer, poisoning, health problems, and birth death. Sesalina believes that we should get rid of all nuclear warfare so there will be no more injuries or death. She wants a nuclear free zone.  

C4K Comment #3 –

Hey Sesalina!

My name is Haley Smith, and I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I was assigned your blog this week. By reading your post on the Rainbow Warrior Attack, I can tell you know a lot about the attack including what happened to the people that bombed the ship! I hope you keep up the good work! :)

Blog Assignment #7

What can we learn from these conversations? by H. Smith, B. Spillman, and H. Thames

All four conversations we observed this week revolved around the structure of “Project Based Learning” (PBL) techniques and how both iCurio and DiscoveryEd can be used as resources to execute “project based learning” strategies. Throughout EDM 310, we have been learning how these strategies can motivate a student to learn while familiarizing ourselves with the tools available to create this strategy in the classroom. Specifically, we have both created and used several online forums that could be employed for “Project Based Learning.” Honestly, the mentality of “students as scholars” is relatively new to us, and we are realizing the potential of these techniques with each additional conversation this course offers.

Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher

Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher
by H. Smith, B. Spillman, and H. Thames

In the two videos, “Project Based Learning” is discussed and how it is constantly evolving. Multiple questions that we had about PBL were answered: How to approach PBL, what you need to prepare for it, what details it involves, and what teachers get as a result are all things that are mentioned.  Additionally, it involves lots of planning in order to be implemented properly. PBL strategy has provided a sense of ownership to the student that has been nonexistent in the past. Ownership of the learning process has been found to provide increased retention and understanding of the material. Most people think that PBL is when a project is completed at the end of a lesson rather than using it as a teaching tool by which students learn.  All projects are not going to be easy to organize and complete.  Specifically, projects must entail an audience, engage all students’ interest, and, importantly, these projects must coincide with Alabama State Standards.  Creating a project that meets all of these standards will be a difficult task for any educator. A good example of meeting these requirements would be Mr.

Capps’ project presented in this discussion. His project entailed his students writing Joe Bonner about women in combat. This particular project embraced learning topics such as reading, social studies, and writing.  Furthermore, the kids had the opportunity to revise all the letters to select which letters represented the class and should be delivered to their congressman. It is outstanding to see third graders learning the concept of peer review editing at this stage of development.  In Project Based Learning, the most crucial element is the when the students have the chance to revise their classmates’ work. As indicated in the video, Mr. Capps’ PBL strategy has incorporated complete democracy in the classroom.  Specifically, students own their work and make final decisions on quality of assignments. The whole point of PBL is for the students to have a better understanding and when they are bored with an activity, or their mind is elsewhere, this is not being achieved. We learned that if the teacher is willing to put in the time and effort to make PBL all that it can be, the outcome will be all that is expected, and your students will greatly benefit from it.  You can’t limit your students because you will always get more than you expect. By giving specific criteria, students will not have the opportunity to go beyond what is required. We must remember that we are still learners.

iCurio

DiscoveryEd
by H. Smith, B. Spillman, and H. Thames

While watching the videos on iCurio and DiscoveryEd, we are realizing where today’s classroom is going.  Unfortunately, we are also appreciating that many third graders using PBL resources are ahead of us in their abilities to search and learn new materials.  As future

educators, we are excited to know that our students will be further challenged and expected to embrace this new style of education.  Having tools such as iCurio and Discovery Ed available in the classroom gives every student the opportunity to experience research at his or her own pace and topic of interest.  Additionally, iCurio gives our future generation of students the ability to safely search the internet for any particular topic without the fear of stumbling onto non-educational websites.  Before EDM 310, we were unaware of the options iCurio provides. Specifically, iCurio allows students to create their own organizational folder for their retrieved research.  It is a remarkable idea that third grades can learn to virtually organize their research and assignments.  Organization has always been difficult to teach students and teachers alike. When given the proper tools to organize, we can aide in the teaching and execution of organizational skills. iCurio also allows student to search historical figures. A student can search “Scientists in Thailand” and a whole list will be provided to students. This

also ties into the safe search engines. In the classroom, teachers should use iCurio for any online search engine. In addition, “Discovery Ed, like iCurio, virtually brings experts into the classroom.”  In order for these resources to be most effective in the future classroom, the tools and resources technology offers must be embraced and used by our future professionals as well.

Don’t Teach Tech – Use It by H. Smith

While watching this video, I thought about what I was learning throughout this discussion. I had my notepad open writing things down that really stuck out to me, and those things make a world of difference in a classroom.Today, technology is a wonderful tool. Children are learning how to use technology earlier and earlier and sometimes, students know more about it than the teacher. One point that Anthony made is that the teacher doesn’t have to spend a lot of time worrying about the students catching on to using computers. If you give the students a computer and a task or project, they may be able to figure it out. This goes back to the video by Sugata

Mitra. He never taught the children how to use that computer. He simply made it available to the students who then taught themselves and were later teaching others. However, this video’s discussion maintains that it is imperative a teacher does not become intimidated when a student can maneuver the computer more aptly than the teacher. Be excited for these students that they want to learn and teach it to others because sometimes, a student can relate to another student better.  In addition, it is important to execute the computer work prior to presenting it to your students. By doing the computer work first, you will be able to answer the questions that your students might present.  Later, students will develop problem solving skills generated by the process of working towards the goal of understanding the information.

It is very important that you don’t expect perfection from your students. Teachers have a lot of practice on computers in college courses, the work field, and even social media at home that puts teachers ahead of students. When students have questions, let them ask. Questions are always more important than the answer because questions give something to work towards. If you work hard at teaching while loving the process yourself, then you will be an excellent teacher. Students are always going to teach us, as educators, something new.  We, as teachers, must be open to the experience. Teaching is and always will be a tremendously rewarding occupation.

Anthony and Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1 by B. Spillman

I believe you guys nailed it with your tips for being a successful teacher.  First, all future educators should be willing to have a fun experience in order to be successful in the classroom. A teacher’s excitement is infectious to the student. We all know being a teacher can be very trying at times. However, if you can find a way to keep the process exciting and enjoyable, then the chances of your students enjoying and learning are much greater.  Secondly, as Dr. Strange stated, we must be open-minded and interested in learning ourselves.  If you, as an educator,

are unwilling to learn and find answers, you may have chosen the wrong career.  Thirdly, having the ability as an educator to have EVERY student engaged is necessary.  It seems like an overwhelming task, but I believe it is possible and should be a priority in your educational methods.  Finally, a reflection on any teaching strategy/project you have implemented is essential.  Without reflection, there is no way of knowing what worked and what did not work.  In order to continue making progress in our teaching strategies, we must look back on what we did in order to improve in the future.

Additional Thought About Lessons by H. Thames

Anthony did an awesome job explaining lessons with the four components! After watching this video, I feel much more informed when it comes to them. As he explained, each lesson plan has four components: yearly, unit, weekly and daily. Each component is just as important as the next one. The first component Anthony talked about is yearly. Yearly lesson plans are the lessons you plan to cover throughout the year and should cover all of the core standards. The next component is lesson plans for each unit. Each unit is usually a few weeks long and covers sections of information. For example, a math unit on fractions would cover: what is a fraction, reducing fractions, adding fractions, subtracting fractions and multiplying fractions. These plans

must be meaningful and they are made up of weekly and daily plans. Weekly plans are the lesson that will be taught each week. The final component of lesson plans is daily plans. These plans are what you want your students to accomplish each day. There are standards and goals that should be met each week and as teachers we must make sure we are meeting these.