Friday, April 24, 2015
Monday, April 20, 2015
Blog Post #5 Final Post
My Personal Learning Network (PLN) has changed quite a bit since I first blogged about it. I am currently following the same people on Twitter, but with a few new additions. Twitter, in my opinion, has the easiest access when it comes to finding people that share the same interests as I do. The hashtags help me out a tremendous amount, and allow me to find what I am looking for. I followed everyone that Dr. Strange told us to follow on Twitter, and these people post some really amazing things. Also, from doing our Commments4Teachers (C4T) assignments, I have found a teacher's blog that I really enjoy reading. Her name is Jenny Luca and her blog Lucacept-intercepting the Web is extremely informative and interesting! Feel free to check out her blog at anytime, and I promise you that you will NOT regret it! Overall, my PLN has not grown at a rapid pace, but it has grown to the point where I might would be lost if I had to start all over again!
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Blog Post #13
Blog Post #13- Technological Tools
Research to find three technological tools that you believe will help students stay engaged with learning in the classroom. These must be tools that you have not heard of or used before. Give a summary of what each of these tools consist of. How do you believe these tools will help students stay engaged?
Answer the question in a post that adheres to the standards found in the ACCRS and in Writing a Quality Blog Post.
WebQuest is
a website that is great for teachers who use project-based learning in their
classrooms. Teachers can create a task for their students to perform called a
WebQuest. A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all
of the information that learners work with comes from the web. The WebQuest
tasks are designed to engage students while also preparing them for the
assignments they will have to complete as adult. Students will also learn how
to analyze rather than summarize.
A WebQuest
must have the following attributes:
- is
wrapped around a doable and interesting task that is ideally a scaled down
version of things that adults do as citizens or workers.
- requires
higher level thinking, not simply summarizing. This includes synthesis,
analysis, problem-solving, creativity and judgment.
- makes
good use of the web. A WebQuest that isn't based on real resources from
the web is probably just a traditional lesson in disguise. (Of course,
books and other media can be used within a WebQuest, but if the web isn't
at the heart of the lesson, it's not a WebQuest.)
- isn't
a research report or a step-by-step science or math procedure. Having
learners simply distilling web sites and making a presentation about them
isn't enough.
- isn't
just a series of web-based experiences. Having learners go look at this
page, then go play this game, then go here and turn your name into
hieroglyphs doesn't require higher level thinking skills and so, by
definition, isn't a WebQuest.
Edmodo is an extremely wonderful tools for teachers to use. Edmodo is an application that anyone can download on to their smartphone, and since technology is in some many people’s lives, Edmodo becomes an easy-access tool as well. Teachers can create an account on Edmodo and create a class section. Edmodo gives the teacher an access code to give to the students. The students can join the class section by creating their own account and entering in the code that was provided for them. Once everyone’s accounts are set up and everyone has joined the class section, Edmodo becomes a group chat tool. Teachers can send out mass text messaged to all of the students in each section to remind them about homework or any assignments that are coming up that will be due. This tool is great for high school and college students, because the older your students are, the busier they are in life. I know that I forget many things throughout my day so of course many other students have this same problem. This is why teachers should use Edmodo so that students will not forget assignments and always have the opportunity to learn and grow.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Comments4Kids Summary for Month of April
JT M
On JT M's Blog, the topic that was wrote about was football. Football is JT's favorite sport due to the fact that football is made for all shapes and sizes. JT said that football is not like a sport such as basketball that requires tall people; football is great for anyone, and that is why it is the sport of choice. I really enjoyed how JT explained why football is his favorite sport instead of just simply stating that it is his favorite. JT seems to be all about equality whether he realizes it or not; it is deep down inside of him, and it will be wonderful whenever that side of him starts showing more. JT will be a great leader for his football team some day!Javon
Javon, from Madame Thomas's class blog, wrote about something kind that someone has done for him. Javon said that once someone gave him euros when he did not have any, and he thought that was really nice of them. I asked Javon to explain why they had given him euros. Was he trying to purchase something? I explained that I am from the United States, so I do not know how euros work. I am sure that once Javon tells more of the story then it will be very interesting!
Brody
The student's blog I had to comment on this week was Brody. This is his blog: Brody's Blog. Brody's topic for his blog post was to talk about interesting facts about New Zealand. Brody is from New Zealand and he goes to a farming school. I am not sure if it is called a farming school because the students are taught how to farm or not, but I made sure to ask Brody about that. Brody gave facts about populations of different places within New Zealand and talked about the mountains as well. It was really interesting to know that in New Zealand there were many different cultures such as Chinese and Indian. I am sure it is extremely different in New Zealand than it is here in America, and reading Brody's blog post really inspired me to do some more research on New Zealand!
Friday, April 10, 2015
Comments4Teachers Summary
Cathy Jo Nelson
Utilizing Instructions to Enrich Learning
In Cathy's blog post, she talks about "entry events". These entry events will engage students in their learning, and it will also get their minds thinking about a topic that is related to the lesson of the day. Cathy explains that whatever tools you use in your classroom, whether it be videos, IPads, or a discussion, make sure you plan ahead for it. Also, Cathy believes that rubrics are important to use and you can use them for anything! I thought it was really neat how her blog post correlated with everything that we are learning in EDM310! Cathy made some really good points in her post about being prepared for each class and utilizing many different tools.
Jenny Luca
Lucacept-intercepting the Web
Jenny Luca posts videos occasionally that she thinks would be a great discussion starter at the beginning of class. This time she chose the Dove Choose Beautiful video. Jenny Luca says, "Which door would you walk through?" And Jenny also says, "What door would I walk through? Beautiful. Damn right." Jenny's response was quite funny to me, but it showed me that she knows she is beautiful just like all women should. I believe that Jenny Luca's discussion starter videos are great for getting the class engaged and ready to learn! I always enjoy looking through Jenny's blog!
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Blog Post #12
The video Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Students really shed light on how much extra time is needed with special needs children. As a group we never experienced having classes with vision or hearing impaired students and never fully understood the extreme importance of one on one time with each student, but after watching this video we are more educated. These videos and articles informed us about new technologies that are available for vision and hearing impaired students and how teachers can use them in their classrooms. Here is what we learned.
Hearing
Remote microphone hearing assistance technology (HAT) delivers the speech signal from the microphone to other audio devices so students can have easier access to what the teacher is saying. HAT devices can bring the speech and sound signals from the microphone to your child in a number of ways:
- Directly to your child’s hearing aid, cochlear implant or other hearing device via a hearing loop;
- Directly to your child’s hearing aid, cochlear implant or other hearing device via a wireless receiver that your child wears;
- To a strategically positioned loudspeaker that benefits your child and others in the room;
- To a single, personal loudspeaker close to your child.
This technology does not only help the hearing impaired, but also others students that may have a hard time hearing from the back of the classroom.
Vision
In the video, IPad Usage for the Blind
Here are the features Wesley uses:
- Voice controlled
- Uses gestures to navigate through all the features of the IPad
- Swipes finger across screen to determine what app to choose and then double taps to select the app
- Swipes three fingers across IPad to flip pages
- IPad reads the books to you and it is the only ereader that does voice control for books
Coming from Ipad owners, we did not know that these features were accessible for the vision impaired, but we believe that IPads are a wonderful tool for teaching through technology.
Reading braille is linear and this tool allows the vision impaired to vertically compute math problems, because number placement is necessary for students to be able to understand more complex math problems. With this technology, the vision impaired students are able to drag their fingers across the board and read the math problem just as any other student would be able to. It would also help non-impaired students be able to clearly visualize math problems.
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