C4K April

I looked at Toma's Blog and she and her classmates are learning about coordinates on a grid. She created her own coordinates challenge and posted it to her blog. I commented how I was impressed with her abiblty to create a coordinate challenge.

I read and commented on Ajani's Blog where she posted about her opinion on using chrome book.She said that she enjoyed learning about chrome book and she felt that she has become more experienced and quicker about using it. I mentioned that I also just started using Google chrome and have loved it!

Blog Post #13

Watch the TedTalk video and explain what can we learn from Angela Lee Puckworth's and her goal in motivating students.



Angela Lee Puckworth resigned from a very solid job in management consulting to be a 7th grade math teacher in a New York City Public school. She started noticing that the scores on test she would grade didn't resemble her students IQ scores. Her "smart" students weren't doing well. She felt that the material could easily be learned by practicing more and more problems and eventually the information would stick. After years of teaching 7th grade math she went on to graduate school for psychology. It was then that she realized that it wasn't IQ score's or standardized test scores that predict the success rates of individuals. It all boils down to grit. Mrs. Puckworth went on to explain her meaning of grit. Grit is having passion and perseverance for long term goals. She did a research study for predicting successors or failures of military cadets, spelling bee participants and rookie teachers in inner-city schools. The people in the study proved that those with stamina turn out to be successful in the end. Those who were "grittier" worked hard to make a goal a reality. She stated that the idea of "growth mindset" is a way to show students the development of the brain and its rate of change. If students see that their brains are developing then they won't feel that they are stuck in a failure because in the back of their minds they know they will learn from the mistakes and failures because it is a apart of growing up. Showing them the development of their brains will push students for motivation and drive to do what they think is best and hopefully will encourage them to strive to be successful, enabling their inner grit.

Blog Post #12

C4T#4

I read Kathleen Morris's Blog, she is a teacher at Primary Tech. She has filled her blog with tips and tricks for all types of teachers. Wither they be new to the education world or experienced veterans. She mentioned how she once feared that when she started having children and went on maternity leave she would get out of the "education loop." She said that with blogging networks and tools online it has helped her tremendously throughout maturity leave with her new baby! That was comforting to hear!< br />

I read Mrs. Morris's post about how it is crucial to keep the blogging as a focus point in the classroom. When she was a teacher in her classroom, she made sure to have at least 10 to 20 minutes of whole class blogging in order to keep her students on a daily routine of blogging. She also made a point to say that she makes sure the question the students topics they are journaling about are relevant to their daily lives and the about the events happening in the real world.

Project #12 B

Our group had so much fun! We took a video of us pretending to be a "mock-class". We were acting as if I was the teacher and my classmates acting as if they were real students in my class participating in our Smartboard lesson on counting money with coins.

Blog #11

Back to the future- Barrett Baker .
     In the TedTalk Video Mr. Brian Crosby discussed how he uses technology with his 4th, 5th and 6th grade students. He first mentioned how his students come from families where spanish is predominantly spoken in their homes, therefore, english is their second language. He said that because of the technology used in his class, he had noticed a significant improvement in students learning. His students are provided with individual laptops to use in class, as well as cameras and smartboard are used on a daily bases. The project he discussed was when the students learned about helium and its effects on balloons. The students got to witness a giant helium ballon fly into the sky with a GoPro camera attached to it. The camera gave live footage of the all the layers of the atmosphere the students had been learning about. The students went back into the classroom to share with their blogs what they had witnessed as the balloon sored into the sky while the footage was streaming live. Mrs. Crosby’s favorite tools are skype,wiki webpages, flicker, and web2.0. His students skyped another school in New Zealand to share a hands on science project involving the outcomes of various temperature pressures on a tin can. Mrs. Crosby’s main goal is to promote active learning. He is doing just that!

Mr. Paul Anderson Blended Learning Cycle-Josh Turnipseed
     One of the videos we were assigned to watch was Blended Learning Cycle. He talks about he how uses the blended learning cycle which is using online, mobile, and classroom learning. This takes place all in your classroom and allows students to engage, explore, explain, expand and evaluate. Mr. Anderson also uses an oiler's disk and puts it on a mirror where it can spin for a while. He uses that to describe his classroom, because the kids are like the disk. You can leave the room and it keeps continuing to spin and the students keep continuing to teach themselves as they collaborate with each other. He also gives up his acronym for his blended learning cycle called Q.U.I.V.E.R.S. Which stands for Questions, Investigation, Video, Elaboration, Review and Summary quiz. Anderson it all begins with a question, you want your kids to critically think. You want your kids to experiment and collaborate with one another, Mr. Anderson reviews with his students and with their data he can ask them in advance and detail questions making sure the students learned what they needed to know. He will give them a written quiz on it to grade them on their knowledge of the topic.

Mark Church Making Thinking Visible- Josh Turnipseed
     In the next video Making Thinking Visible. Mark Church has his students watch a video about early human beginnings and had them get into small groups to discuss the puzzles and had them create a headline to interpret the puzzles. Mr. Church then says he will have the students regroup at the end of the unit to collaborate again on another headline once they finish their project. They will compare their headlines from before and explain how they think differently and what they've learned. I think this is a great way for kids to critically think.


Building Comics- Claire Gill
     In this video, Sam Pane a fifth grade teacher in Omaha, Nebraska talks about teaching his class how to be good digital citizens. The term “good digital citizen” simply means knowing how and how not to use the internet appropriately and safely. In Mr. Pane’s class, he has his students separated into four people per table and when he asks them questions he first tells them to talk about it at their table. I think that is a really good idea, and I plan on remembering that tactic when I become a teacher, I think it helps them brainstorm together as a group. I think we can learn a number of things from Mr. Pane, but the most important thing he portrays in this video is to make sure your students know their internet safety rules.

Project Based Learning- Lauren Hidle
     In this video, three teachers collaborating together to incorporate project based learning in their classrooms. A history teacher, an English teacher, and an Information Processing teacher has the students use technology as a tool to deliver the content of history and english. They show that PBL allows the students to be more engaged and have a deeper thought process. One teacher says this has the students taking ownership over their own grades and projects. PBL allows the teachers and students to go above and beyond just the circurrlium.

Roosevelt Elementary PBL program-Lauren Hidle
     In this video, it was all about project based learning; what that meant for their school and how they applied that into their classrooms. What PBL means for Roosevelt Elementary is in depth learning, integrated thematic instructions, lessons that are based on “real-world” problems, research driven, and presentations. The school uses PBL within group settings or individual. These projects allows children to think for themselves. This will show that students will actually understand the subject at hand. They, also, focus on building the skill of public speaking at a young age. One teacher said, “The students answer to themselves, which is how the real business world is.” I thought that statement was so true, we should help build the skills of students coming together to solve a problem. This video has parents telling their opinions about the new way of learning and all the comments were positives. PBL for the students of Roosevelt Elementary School has increased their desire to learn.

C4K March

I commented on Faauiga's Ambury Farm Post, she was a Year 2 student from the Pt. England school when she made this post a few years ago. She drew a picture of her with a chicken from the farm. In a video she discussed how she would get the eggs that the chickens laid. I commented how I have many friends and neighbors with chickens and how they love to go out each morning to see how many eggs the chickens laid.

I had to pleasure of reading Phaezon's Blog he talked about his lessons in swimming adventures. He gets to go to the swimming pool for a class and the class is divided up into groups. He mentioned that he wants to improve on his rocket arms and his swim instructor will help him on that. I mentioned in my comment that I was on a swim team growing up and that freestyle is my favorite stroke to swim.

Nakita's blog was so fun to read! She has adorable illustrations all over her blog that added some unique traits to her page. She posted about an event that happens in her town called "Polyfest." From what I gathered, it is variations of community groups that come together on stage and perform a skit or dance that represents their culture. Her mom and aunt teach/coach her group that she is in. I commented that it would be fun to both be the audience and to be involved on stage.

Project #10

I interviewed the teacher I have been observing.
Mrs. Turner at Tanner Williams Elementary!

C4T #3

I read What Changes! by Denise Krebs. She moved from the corn fields of midwest USA to the Bahrain, a small island nation in the Middle East. Talk about a change! She teaches two kindergarden classes there and has 50 students. Mrs. Krebs explained the differences in teaching methods she has had to adapt to. She now uses sitting and behavior charts. I commented how she is an inspiration to teachers out there that want to teach all over the world, like myself. I think being an educator outside of the world you are accused to is exciting and eye-opening. Talk about a learning experience. It is a great example of how teachers aren't just teachers, they are learners also.

I was assigned to read and comment on Mrs. Krebs's blog again. This time she answered a few interview questions written to her by some of her blogging friends. She mentioned how life is different in Bahrain. So much so, that the days of the weekend are different. Friday and Saturday are considered the weekend in Bahrain! She answered the question "why do you blog" and she simply stated because she was a writer! She felt that it is another outlet in which she can write what she would in a journal but this time she can share it with the world. Blogging has allowed her to connect to other educators and it has built up her PLN I'm sure.