Blog Assignment #3

What is Peer Editing?
Peer editing is defined in the movie, “What is Peer Editing?” and in the slideshow Peer Edit with Perfection Tutorial, as working with someone in your own age group to help improve, revise, and edit his or her writing. There are three main components to peer editing:
1. Compliments,
2. Suggestions, and
3. Corrections.
The key to compliments is to remain positive. The best way to begin peer editing is to start with a compliment. Then you move on to suggestions. Give suggestions on how to fix a mistake or another possible word they could use to improve their word choice. The key to suggestions is to not be overly pushy! The final part of peer editing is making corrections. As an editor, you should look for spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, run-on sentences, and so on. Do not be picky when it comes to corrections about what is “wrong” with the paper. Most importantly, be nice!
As the peer being edited, you should try not being defensive. Do not take everything the editor corrects to heart. Look at corrections as, “I need to improve in this area (i.e. spelling, grammar)”. The most important responsibility of the peer being edited is to be attentive!
Peer editors can be an important part of teaching. Peers, in the same age group, understand and explain concepts and problems differently than a teacher can.

Peer editing my Classmate’s blog
My assigned classmate’s blog was very well written. She used great word choice, had little to no spelling and grammar errors, and she was clear in explain her views. She used great comparisons and had plenty of personal experience to include in the blog’s topic. The only issue I came across was not an “error” issue. For that reason, I included a suggestion on how to enhance her sentence’s power and clarity in the comment I left on her blog. I felt it was not necessary to email her because it was a small issue. I believe if other bloggers read the comment, they will think about their own sentences.

Assistive Technologies

The Mountbatten braille writer can allow student/teacher interaction. It can print braille and reads aloud each letter being printed. It can save files, transfer files to a computer, and can receive files from a computer. This device allows deaf students to receive feedback from their teacher and lets them interact with the classroom. I would use this device in my classroom to help teach a visually impaired student and to give them the opportunity to interact with the class and complete assignments. I would use it to help me understand my student(s).

In “Teaching Math to the Blind”, Professor Karshmer raises the issue in teaching blind people math. “The trouble with braille is it is linear in nature. It does not show the two-dimensionality of the simplest math problems.” He faced this issue head on and devised a device, a touch pad with braille blocks, to bring in the 2-D nature of math. This allows visually impaired people to learn math and give them access into STEM-based careers.

The videos, “iPad usage for the blind” and “Teaching Mom What Her Deaf/Blind Child Is Learning On the iPad”, show how iPads can be used by the visually impaired to read, type, watch videos, access internet, etc. I personally believe the specific hand/finger placements and touches would be difficult to learn at first. I honestly would have had a harder time than the mother did when she was learning how her child used the iPad. However, iPad has opened windows for blind students, children, and adults. It is light-weight and travels. Apple found a way to include every member of society. Technology is constantly updating, changing, and improving. There is no point for technology to improve or change, if it is not improving and changing to increase access and knowledge of everyone. It must give an opportunity.
As a math teacher, blind students will face a severe challenge in my classroom. Braille’s linear nature will prevent my students from learning basic math problems and prevent them from full appreciating math. To solve this challenge, I would invest in Professor Karchmer’s touch pad with braille blocks.
“There’s an App for that.” This phrase is used commonly as a jest towards the huge quantity of Apps available. However, this is great for teachers! Finding apps to help with math would help my exceptional students. iPads give blind students access to these Apps and can help me teach them concepts of math. The assistive technology we have available gives every one of our students the ability to be a successful, educated member of society. It allows everyone to follow their dreams.

Harnessing your digital smarts
After watching the video "Harness your Student's Digital Smarts", I was astonished at how these students were using technology as their learning window. Students taught each other. They were taught to be self-thinkers and to interact internationally to learn! Mrs. Vicki Davis uses digital media to help teach the concept my edm 310 classes is trying to explain- how to learn on your own. She also did not let living in a rural area hinder her or her students. Mrs. Davis’s teaching values and lessons are remarkable. I had no idea there were classrooms and teachers who taught through primarily online sites, portals, wikis, and blogs. My edm 310 class is the first class I have used the internet as my primary learning tool. It makes me wonder how much further we can take our students! I can’t imagine what it would be like if every classroom in the United States was educated via the internet and were taught to be self-thinkers. I just know we would be far more advanced than we are now if we did. This video has inspired me to look into possibly taking more classes focused on technology and how to use it.

Project #2- Wordle

Blog Assignment #2

Did You Know?
In the video, Did You Know? 3.0 - A John Strange 2012 Version, we are given an array of interesting facts, which show our technology is changing constantly and show the United States is a relatively small part of the world. As the video progresses, each fact stems more and more from the bottom line- our society, our children, and our future are becoming increasingly reliant and almost synonymous with technology. Key facts from the video, which suggest how important technology is becoming, are:
•Three years ago, 93% of all 8-18 year olds in the United States had computers in their home;
•Three years ago, 85% of high school (15-18yrs) students had cellphones and today 58% of students (13-17yrs) have smartphones; and
•The top jobs ten years from now do not exist yet and we’ll use technology that does not exist yet.
At the end of the video, we are given two questions. What is your role in preparing your students for jobs in 2022? What is your role in preparing your students to use technologies that do not yet exist?
Including updated technology in the classroom and in the curriculum is a key component to answering both of these questions. However, each generation is going to face different technology. If I use blogs, twitter, facebook, pininterest, SMARTboards, email, et cetera in my classroom to connect with students and use it to their educational advantage, how am I teaching them to use technology that probably won’t exist ten years from now? I feel this video and our EDM 310 class is pushing too much towards including updated technology without facing the issue of how to teach our students to adapt to the constant growth and expansion of technologies and to the decay of other technologies. My role in preparing my students for their future jobs and future technology is to teach them to adapt and be open-minded about change. I want to teach them to use the changes to their advantage.
To be closed-minded and set in your ways, can be a hazard to a person’s career and success. I am set in my ways. I prefer a radio over an iPod. I can honestly say I have listened to my SONY Walkman more in my life than an iPod. I am 19 and just bought an iPhone this past October 2012. I prefer chalkboards and a textbook over online classes. I refuse to update my Internet Explorer 8 to Internet Explorer 9 because I cannot stand change. I prefer what I am use to. I have really missed out on important opportunities. I do not want my students to miss out on opportunities in their life from being close-minded. At the rate technology is becoming more important, being open-minded about technology and creative in how to apply it to your life is required to be successful. My job as a future teacher will be to lead my students toward a successful life.

Mr. Winkle Wakes
Mr. Winkle Wakes is a video created by Matthew Needleman. The point of the video is to show how out-of-tune schools are with the rest of the world. Mr. Winkle presents this point by waking up after a hundred years and feeling overwhelmed by the advances in technology in offices and the hospitals and feels at home in a classroom. To an extent, this is an over exaggerated video. Schools require students to use basic Microsoft Word, use online sources for research papers, use PowerPoint presentation, and so on. However, I believe schools are not advancing as they should. As the world changes, you must change with it. Animals in nature, who do not adapt to the changes in their environment, become extinct. Schools will become less and less effective, to the point of becoming unnecessary, in educating our youth if they continue to fail to adapt at a quicker pace.
The future of today’s education system is not a terrible one. I believe we have enough revolutionary educators influencing future teachers, principals, and parents to make our education system completely change within the next ten-fifteen years. Our schools of today will no longer exist ten to fifteen years from now. There will be better and more advanced schools in their place.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
In his seminar, “The Importance of Creativity”, Sir Ken Robinson discusses how today’s education system crushes children’s creativity. Our schools criticize those who want to explore the arts. Our parents and teachers tell children who want to become artist, dancers, or musicians they will never get a job. Our education system puts math, language arts, sciences, and other main subjects above the arts. This is because our system was created for the industrial times.
Our school’s education system is outdated and hindering our youth from being successful, creative, critical thinking individuals. We are preventing them from reach their individual, full potential because their success does not comply with the “cookie-cutter”-like system. If I do not help my future students reach their full potential, I will fail as an educator. I may be a future math teacher, but this does not mean I cannot instill certain values into my students. I can find ways to show them how dedication to whatever they love, be it music, dance, art, can lead them to success.
Sir Ken Robinson also discusses how children are not afraid to be wrong; however, by adulthood they gain this fear. I am afraid of being wrong. I don’t answer questions out loud in class. I second guess everything I do. I am hindering myself. We teach children to not make mistakes by criticizing them and punishing them when they do. We don’t teach them to learn from their mistakes. The person, who makes the most mistakes in their life, can also be the most successful if they know how to learn from their mistakes.

Pinterest
Pinterest would be a great tool for group work in my classroom! It gives students and teachers the ability to find something that interest them and expand on it, while being able to keep it all organized. I will implement ideas from piterest into my lesson plans, group assignments, and lectures. If a certain way to explain a problem doesn’t make sense to one student, they have the opportunity to find other ways to have it explained. Students can complete assignments on pinterest such as pining current events to a specific board. I think pinterest will give students an opportunity to show what they learn other than writing a paper or presenting a topic and gives them opportunities to use pinterest to their advantage outside of the classroom.

Blog Assignment #1

About Me
My name is Jessica Strickland but I go by Kameron. I am a sophomore this year. I was born in Selma, AL and lived there until my family moved to Robertsdale, AL in 2004. I have a twin sister, who also attends South, and a 16 year old brother. My mom is a dental hygienist and my dad and step-dad are self-employed in different trades. My mom has always pushed going to college on us. She stressed a college degree’s importance for today’s success and in her eyes, it wasn’t just any college degree; it was a Doctorate. Outside of class, I was in many community service clubs in high school, such as Interact, Omega Tau, and National Honor Society (which required many service hours per semester). Throughout high school, I knew I was going to college and I knew everything I didn’t want to do as a career; however, that was all I knew. After high school, I decided to go to South for three reasons:
1. it was close to home but far enough away to have a sense of independency,
2. it had a wide range of fields to study, and
3. it didn’t ask for an arm and a leg to attend.
Now that I am in college, I am the secretary of our campus’s Circle K club (Circle Kiwanis International). We are a community service-based club. Helping the community has been a major interest of mine for a while now. I like to feel like I am making a difference somehow in someone’s life.

After testing out business and several other courses, I was still at loss on what I wanted to do until August 2012. I was given the opportunity to work as a STAY student (Students Teaching America’s Youth) through the University’s work-study program. I was assigned to a 2nd grade classroom at John Will Elementary School. There is never a boring day and I love helping the students. After a month, I knew education was for me, just not elementary education. I am now a Secondary Education major and hoping to teach Math. I love that education makes a difference in our society and there really will never be a boring day.

My Future Classroom
A lot of my past teachers would give examples and work problems out but would not explain why or the concept behind a problem or they would explain the concept without working out the problem. I also had an influential teacher who would color code certain sections of a math problem on her SmartBoard and explain each section of it with the matching color. I am going to be an energetic, high school math teacher. My dream is to teach Algebra to sophomores and juniors in Florida. My goal will be to help students understand how math applies to life and then to help my students understand math and it’s tricky language. I am going to use as many real-life examples as possible in our day-to-day lessons. I am going to explain concepts to my students and work out a problem to incorporate each concept.

The best way to learn math is to practice, practice, practice. My students will learn math through homework, lessons, and group work. Homework is a dreaded word for students ages 5-80+. A lot of math problems that don’t challenge the student not always the answer for homework to be efficient. I am going to give effective, challenging, yet do-able problems, problems that cover important concepts. I am going to have a weekly reward system for students who do their homework. The reward might be bonus points on the next test, a healthy snack, etc. This will give them more incentive to do the homework, because receiving a good grade is not always the best incentive. After a lesson, my students will have groups to get in and discuss the day’s lesson. Peers can sometimes help other students understand a concept or a problem just by explaining it a different way than I was able to. I am also going to offer after-school tutoring a couple of times a week during the week before each test. This will give students who don’t like to speak up during class an opportunity to have their questions answered.

I remember falling asleep multiple times in class in high school. I am going to make math engaging for students through tools, outside of the textbook, such as SMARTboards, group in-class assignments, and have a bowl with each student’s name in it and draw from it frequently to choose who answer what question. This will force class involvement. I am also going to color code each section of a problem I work out on the SMARTboard. This will help lessen confusion. Students will feel less tempted to fall asleep in my class. I am also going to incorporate technology, such as online sites like Moodle to enhance my lectures and help students.

My classroom will have several relevant posters on the walls and a bulletin board with student’s math projects on it. It will be decorated for each holiday. My classroom will have a window in it and the blinds will always be open as long as there aren’t any big distractions outside. I want to make my classroom feel warm and a comfortable learning environment for my students.

Randy Pausch
The part that stood out to me the most was, “failing to plan, is planning to fail”. I have terrible time management. I don’t plan my day or my to do list. I need to start planning because it’s okay to change your plan once you have one. This is going to be a required skill to be a successful, effective teacher.

Time Management- Penn State
"My work always takes longer than I expect it to." I started reading the webpage and this statement was almost screaming me! Everything I set out to do always, always, always takes longer than I think it will. I never have enough time. Monitoring my time by specifically listing what I have to do and how long it will take me to do it and finding/ fixing the time wasters in my day will help me fix this problem. A planner will also be useful for me to schedule out my days and remember important dates such as exams. Improving my time management skills will help me become the successful teacher I want to be.

Test Number One

This is test number one.