Blog Assignment #7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture was inspirational! It was a "head fake" lecture to show us how to live our lives and to teach his children an important lesson. It made me think about all the dreams I have accomplished, every dream I have bailed on, and every dream I've let others convince me not to follow.
There are a few key points he made that stood out the most to me:
* Brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something;
* Learn/teach the fundamentals, the fancy stuff will follow; and
* Find the best in everybody, no matter how long it takes.

These are the best key points directly involved with teaching. Math is a subject full of obstacles, such as hard concepts, difficult problems, and confusing formulas. Math is also a subject that revolves around fundamentals. You cannot learn Calculus without knowing Algebra. It is impossible! Even further, you cannot learn Algebra with out knowing basic addition, subtraction,multiplication, division, and the number line. These points do not just apply to math, it applies to everyday life. I am going to teach these values in math and connect them to their life. One of most important points is to find the best in everybody. I want to teach high school students. High school students usually do not care if you give up on them and decide they are the "worst student ever". The student will tend to fill your idea of them. Why act good if they think your bad anyways? I will do my best to find the best in all my students.
Although not mentioned in the previous list, the most important point Dr. Pausch makes in his lecture, that definitely pertains to teaching, was to never set a bar. If you set a bar, your students will reach the bar, but not pass it. They see it as good enough. If you teach your students to be just "good enough", then you are not preparing them to be successful and ambitious. If you are not preparing your students to be successful and ambitious, what is your job as a teacher?
Towards the end of Dr. Pausch lecture, he advises us on how we can achieve our dreams and help enable others to achieve theirs. Although the first two points, "never lose your child-like wonder" and "help others" , were somewhat obvious, the last few points were not. These are:
* Tell the truth;
* Be earnest;
* Apologize when you mess up;
* Focus on others;
* Be good at something;
* Show gratitude;
* Do not complain, just work harder;
* Be self reflextive; and
* Use a feed-back loop.
I can use these to become a better teacher and produce better students. Students need to trust and respect a teacher and teacher needs to trust and respect a student. Many of today's students do not respect teachers. I am going to be honest with my students, focus on them, show gratitude for the things they do, apologize for lost test and wrong accusations, and be self-reflective to fix my mistakes. In return, I believe my students will learn to respect me and to "mirror" my behavior. Instead of complaining about my students behaviors, test scores, attitudes, and lack of ambition, I am going to work hard to correct these issues and never stop. Not only can I use these points, my students can use them. I will teach them to be self-reflective, to be honest, to not complain but to work harder, and to be earnest.
Everything Dr. Pausch mentioned in his video gives me inspiration to stop giving up and bailing on my dreams. I want my students to follow theirs. I must lead by example!

PLN Progress Report #1

My PLN
My PLN is growing slowly; however, it has been quite useful. I decided to use Simbaloo as the base for organizing blogs I like, such as Math-n-Spire and Better Explained. I have created many tiles linked to websites about teaching tools/strategies I love, such as Flipping the Classroom and FluidMath.
I am currently following 14 teachers, education bloggers, and/or past edm310 students on twitter. I believe these contacts are a huge part of my PLN and I will definitely keep following more people who inspire me or have great ideas. Besides twitter, youtube is a huge part of my PLN! I enjoy looking up videos, tutorials, and teaching strategies that seem successful. Blogger and my new addiction, Pinterest, are also a huge addition to my PLN. I am currently working on learning and using my Delicious account to increase my PLN.

The website where I found this picture is a great website for anyone who wants to know of more sites and software to increase their PLN! I am definitely going to use some of his suggestions!

C4K Summary for February

IbMcClean02
For my first C4K, my assigned student was a student of Mr. Cometti, an edm310 graduate. The student had a really interesting post on WWI and what it would be like if the war had never happened. “What if WWI would not have been started? What if Austria-Hungary had not declared war on Serbia? How would the world be today?” They stated how 37 million lives would not have been lost and women would have possibly not entered the work force as soon. He broke down the casualties of Russia and United States and mentioned how cities also had to be rebuilt due to the war. I enjoyed reading their post because I have never thought about what it would be like if WWI had never occurred! I responded to his blog post by expressing my admiration for their response to the question. They chose both an obvious change, “37million people would have lived longer lives”, and a thought out change, “many women might not have gotten jobs”.

Sophia
For my next C4K student, I was assigned to Sophia in Mr. Sapia’s class. Her blog is terrific and expresses her enthusiastic and positive personality. The particular post I commented on was, “Homework Rules! Or does it?” She posted, “Yes, I LOVE homework. I love it because if I’m having a bad day, homework can help me take my mind of things, and sometimes homework can be fun! I like school, so reveiws to do at home is a wonderful thing, too!” She has a very mature outlook on homework. She described her homework as a review, not time consuming, and sometimes fun. Homework is easy to her because it reviews what she did in class and makes it easier for her to remember. She enjoys the amount of homework her teacher assigns and believed it is a good amount. She then compares her 20 minute max. homework to her mom’s 3 hour homework when she was her age. Her mom did not have the same homework opportunities as she does. She enjoys having Mr. Sapia as her teacher. I commented on how she was very enthusiastic throughout her blog and this particular post. I told her how I did not like homework at her age but I agree with her today. I wish I had the same enthusiasm and outlook on homework she did when I was in fourth grade. I ended my comment advising her to keep her enthusiastic attitude because it will take her far!

Wiremu
Then I was assigned to Wiremu’s blog, a Year 6 student at PT England School in Auckland. His post, The Bush Walk, was about his class’s bushwalk to Omaru Creek. He discussed his dislike of the area of the creek they went to because it smelled terrible and how the teacher seemed to not notice their need for water. After he finally got water and felt more energized, he was very excited to head back to school and hoped he would not have to go back to the creek that smelled like “a dead rat and duck poo”. I enjoyed reading his post and commented on how schools can be so different and similar. I also commented on how their school included outdoor activities in their learning curriculum. I thought this was a great idea and asked if their school has other outdoor activities during the year.

Billy
For my last February C4K, my assigned student was Billy from Baldwin County High School in Mrs. Miller’s 10th grade class. His post was about the puritans and why they came over to America. This post is derived from the class assignment to read “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. He informed his readers that the English Protestant Church formed after the reform of the Roman Catholic Church. Those who wanted to continue to purify their lives grouped together and came to America. There were different “degrees” of puritan’s purity. Average Puritans in the New England Colonies lived longer than people in England. Billy stated, “It is often said that New England invented grandparents, for it was here that people in great numbers first grew old enough to see their children bear children.” I commented on how surprised I was. I did not know there was such a difference in life expectancy and had no idea the New England Colonies were the first to really see grandparents come into the picture. I believed his post was great and informative. I ended by saying, “keep up the good work”.

Project #8 Team Terrific's Podcast

Blog Assignment #6

The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler
The video, The Networked Student, asked a very important question: "Why does the networked student even need a teacher?" The networked student needs guidance to use technology to his/her advantage. They need to learn how to be respectful and polite when asking for advice from professionals. They need to be shown how to make learning a scavenger hunt, how to use the internet effectively, and they need to be shown what sites are trustable and safe. Who taught the networked student to be a networked student? The teacher.
I enjoy the different approach on learning; however, this style of learning seems too extreme for a high school classroom. This is more of a college student approach. I like the idea of using Simbaloo as a site for the students to collect websites that are relevant and helpful to their topics in school. Each student could make their own Simbaloo page and be required to find a helpful and reliable source online for each topic covered in class. The topic would be expanded on in class and the students would be required to tell what they learned through blog post on the class blog. I will require each student to follow a math blog relevant to the subject matter, be it Algebra, Geography, or Pre-Calculus. My students can use their blog to post their thoughts on the subject matter and learn from others who comment on their thoughts. I believe a student is a networked student is they know how to use technology to their advantage.
Overall, the “networked student” idea is the extreme of what I have learned from this class. I understand, as teachers, our role is to teach our students the curriculum provided while incorporating technology and to teach our students how to use software, websites, and more to their educational advantage. They need leadership to learn how to use what is available and around them effectively.
A 7th Grader’s Personal Learning Environment
This 7th grader’s PLE makes my PLN look weak and possibly useless. However, I have not been working effectively on my PLN as much as I should. This video gave me great ideas on what to use in my future classroom. As previously stated, I would like my students to use Simbaloo. Math is a subject that can be taught via technology but it is very difficult to make it a paperless/pencil-less subject. I think making students create their own PLE will help them figure out how they learn best. I will help them in all of their classes and they will most likely use it outside of school and in college.

Project #10

FluidMath- My Use of Technology
I will mostly likely be teaching Algebra, Algebra II, Geometry, or Pre-calculus to 9-12 graders. To help me with teaching math to these students I will use the software FluidMath.
FluidMath is a software used on Tablet PC or Interactive Whiteboards. It animates, graphs, creates, and solves math problems. Teachers or students can write the problem by hand on the board. The software graphs equations and animates them by allowing teachers or students to change bits and pieces of the equation and show how each section of the equation can affect the graph’s appearance. This is mainly an assisting software for teachers and a source of exploration for students. It allows students to understand difficult concepts through graphs, animating the problems, and more; therefore, allowing the abstractness of the concept appear more “concrete”.
I plan on using the “Flip the Classroom” idea. I believe it will help me target all of students’ needs. I plan on using FluidMath to help with some of my students’ questions during class and to add more substance to my online podcast lessons. I will definitely use the animated graphs to explain Conic Sections! I still have problems understanding how each part of the equation for a parabola, ellipse, and hyperbola affects the shape, length, direction of the graph. The animation, which allows the student or teacher to change each part of the equation independently, shows how the shape changes. This is a lot easier than graphing each change to see how it affects the graph.
In an example in the youtube video linked to this post, the “narrator” draws two cars and a line with a distance written under it. The equation to determine which car will reach the end first is next to each car. The software animates the race and shows who wins based on the equation of car. It brings to life word problems. Word problems are difficult for many, many students. I think this software will help my students tremendously. By using this software, I expect my students will find many math concepts less abstract and difficult. This software will make math more interesting for my students.
FluidMath makes SMARTboards and other interactive whiteboards more useful in math classes. It recognizes handwritten math. It can be used on many platforms such as:
• Tablet PC
• SmartBoard
• Promethean Board
• Mimio
• Interactive Projectors
• eInstruction Mobi
• eInstruction Touchboard
• Hitachi StarBoard
• Polyvision
• PC with a keyboard
The main reason I chose this use of technology is for clarifying abstract concepts in math. This tends to be the problem with students in math. If I can make math more “concrete”, I can help my students learn to enjoy (or at the very least, tolerate) math. I want to teach my students to think more critically. This is not a “spoon-feeding” software. It helps students wrap their head around concepts; therefore, they can successfully apply the concept to current and future problems.
The following link is to the FluidMath youtube video and information page. The second link is the site where I found this great software and other suggestions!
http://www.fluiditysoftware.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27&catid=6&Itemid=3
http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/tmwt

Post Assignment #5

If I Built A School
Mrs. Krissy Venosdale is an inspiring educator and an innovation “activist”. She loves bringing out creativity and innovation in her students. Her, “If I Built A School Post”, she describes her dream school as having a “HUGE sign on the door that said “Welcome: Now Entering an Innovation Zone.” and “It would be neon, because innovation should be noticed.” She proceeded to describe it as a comfy, colorful, full of creativity, and the library would have a huge fake tree with a treehouse in it. The cafeteria would be like a colorful, comfy coffee house and the art room would be “like a studio”. There would be no grade levels. Children would advance to different rooms not based on age but based on “readiness and ability”. Professionals would talk to the kids about their careers over lunch instead of in speeches. She would have a colorful school bus available for field trips to science labs, universities, community projects, career exploration etc. Children would be taught to learn what they were passionate about and could sign up to host a session about their passion. State test would be cancelled. “We’d learn to read for the joy of reading, do math because problem solving is important, and learn because we love it.” Mrs. Venosdale has a wonderful dream. I really hope some of it will come true.
If I had the chance to build my own school, I would go all out. My school would look like a normal brick school; however, it would be covered in murals. To the right of the school, there is a large pond surrounded by gazebos that are large enough to hold a classroom of students each. To the left of the school, there is a huge colorful playground with plenty of swings and picnic tables. It has hallways of color and murals done by the students. The doors are decorated differently each week by the students. Each room is not a classroom of all subjects, but only one subject.
Each classroom has art supplies in it, SMARTboards, and a class blog. Every student is assigned a personal computer, an iPad, and a beanbag. Students can show their mastery of each subject through any medium possible. They can make a drawing, a podcast, a blog post, and more. It is up to the student on how they wish to learn and show mastery. There is a teacher for every 6 students in the school. The rules of the school is based on the honor-system and respect for yourself and others. The curriculum will not be based on what is “required” to be “learned”. Students will advance based on mastery of a subject. If a student masters a section of a particular subject, they will advance to the next section and so on. This is individual of each subject. If they do not master a particular section of a subject, they will not advance in that subject but can still advance in others. Graduating is based on mastery of all subjects.
The cafeteria is carpeted with green AstroTurf. It is filled with potted trees and plants, fake bugs and animals, and a “sunny day in the meadow” panorama on the walls. Tranquil nature sounds will play and picnic blankets will be provided in a ratio of 4 people per blanket. The students can choose to eat in the cafeteria or outside at the picnic tables. Lunch and recess is an hour long each and everyone goes at once, not based on “grade” or age.
During lunch or recess, a child can choose to go to “career lab”. Career lab is a room that focuses on a different career every week. In the lab, a child can talk to a professional and can do some of the things they would do if they were a scientist, astronomer, musician, artist, teacher, etc. A child can also go to a music or art room and participate in a “workshop” based on the lesson of the week, such as guitar, drawing animals, piano, singing and more.
The library has books of all genres, including audio books. It has three sofas, 20 beanbags, very fluffy carpet, and a pretend castle. Parents can come in during lunch, recess, or after school and can read books with their child. The auditorium holds plays created by the drama classes every two weeks. The entire community is invited to watch the plays. It is also the resource room for parents who want to learn new technology like iPads and computer software.
My school allows flexibility, freedom, and creativity for the students.

Eric Whitacre Virtual Choir and NPR Interview
Eric Whitacre is a dedicated, creative man. He saw an opportunity and created a masterpiece! This virtual choir was astounding! I cannot believe he was able to combine so many different videos in such harmony. He expressed his mastery in the vocals for choir. He brought people from around the world together as one. The Virtual Choir is truly magnificent!

Teaching in the 21st Century
Kevin Roberts believes teaching in the 21st century means teaching students how to use the resources they have to be engaged in learning. No one is teaching students how to use the web, know what is creditable or not, know what is considered plagiarism, and more. No one is teaching students how to use the technology they use more often than pen, pencil, paper, or books, in a professional manner. Our future as an educator will be focused on technology. We can prepare our students for their careers and life better by teaching them to use technology than by teaching them strictly by a book and pencil. I believe he makes a great point when he focuses on how students aren't truly being taught what they need in today’s society. It was almost shocking and a cold slap of reality.

Flipping the Classroom
After watching videos on Flipping the Classroom by Katie Gimbar, Dr. Lodge, and Ms. Munafo, I cannot fathom why this is not more common today than it is. It is a terrific approach to teaching. Flipping the classroom is the solution for the lack of time available to give our students the help or challenge they need to succeed. Katie Gimbar is also a math teacher, which is what my plan is to be. I feel that if she found it to be effective than I can also apply it to my future classroom. I plan on trying this the first year I begin teaching. It will allow me to be able to reach all students- bored or confused or in the middle. Math is a difficult subject for many students and this will help me give the students a chance to learn and hopefully enjoy the applications of math. I hope “Flipping the Classroom” will become more common in the upcoming years.

Project #6- My Sentence Movie

Project #5 Presentation

C4T #1 Summary

Venspired
On Jan. 24. 2013, Mrs. Krissy Venosdale posted about passion. She states, “Schools became about numbers. About reports. About data. Points. Grades. Percents. Levels. More data. Stuff. Is a percentage of “facts they know” going to matter in 30 years? Or is that passionate teacher they had who inspired their love of science going to make the difference? ….It’s what counts today and tomorrow and well into our future.” Passion is truly what matters. Have we lost passion in schools?
As a response, I commented about my passionate high school teacher, Mrs. Boswell. She was so passionate, it drove some students crazy! I have heard many times, “How can someone be that passionate about English?!” However, she is the most memorable teacher at the school. She has taught over 33 years and loves every minute of it. Because of Mrs. Boswell and my current Calculus teacher, I want to become a high school math teacher. I don’t want to be a teacher who just teaches how to take a math test. I want to bring passion back into the classroom. I want my students to come out of a class wanting to ask why, wanting to find all possible options. There is a huge difference between learning for a test and learning because you want to.
Mrs. Venosdale is an inspiring blogger, so I ended my comment by asking, “Is there any advice you could give me about bring passion back into the classroom? How have you incorporated it into your classroom?” I have not received a response; however, she seems like a very busy teacher!
On Feb. 7, 2012, Mrs. Krissy posted, “It Might Be Today”—a post on how no matter how bogged down and overworked you feel, as soon as your students walk in that morning, all of that “floats away”. Her students inspire and move her. Each day just might be the day a student will always remember. “One day may just be the best day of teaching you ever have. It might be today. Enjoy it.” I commented on how her posts were always inspiring and designed as “food for thought”. This post really made me realize what teaching was all about. It is a never ending challenge with the best reward of all- the “ah-ha!” moment when a student understands something. I know this feeling because I work with a class of 2nd graders. It is an amazing feeling when you see their faces light up. I know that no matter how bumpy my life gets or how busy and bogged down it will be, my students’ smiles and excitement will make every day worth it.
Since I am going to be a secondary math teacher, it will be a huge challenge to get my students to enjoy and get excited from learning math. By high school, many students have deemed math as hard, boring, or totally pointless. I want them to show them how it is useful and how it is really “cool” when you apply laws to a problem and suddenly you figure out the answer! I want my students to feel successful. I think, if I add technology into my future classroom, more students would become interested or at least give it a second thought. So I asked, “Do you have any suggestions or ideas on how I could combine math and class blogs?” I really hope she can respond to this one!

Blog Assignment #4

Podcast

After reading/listening to “A Worldwide Audience for Six Year Olds?”, “Flat Stanley Podcast”, “Dinosaurs after Dark podcast”, and more, I realized Ms. Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano was not only teaching her students how to use technology, but teaching them how to find information on their own, to be enthusiastic about learning, to be creative, to be innovative, and to use technology to explore the world. My favorite was the “Flat Stanley” podcast. I was amazed at how well these young children were doing! It expressed the student’s enthusiasm and showed how students had to brainstorm their own ideas and research interesting places on their own (with the help of parents). The podcast gave the students the ability to mix creativity and learning! It made me think back to Sir Ken Robinson’s video, “The Importance of Creativity”. Instead of teaching creativity out of the children, Ms. Tolisano is using the children’s creativity to increase their education.
Joe Dale’s “Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom” proved how podcast are almost necessary in the classrooms of today. Podcast are great to keep absent students caught up and are a great tool to keep students interested! Podcast are a wonderful hands-on activity, students of all ages can use to learn about different subjects and to connect with the world. Students can use podcast as an opportunity to reach other students in the world and possible earn feedback from different perspectives. I personally would have never thought of podcast as the solution to helping students who are sick and/or absent for a long while.
After reading/listening to Ms. Tolisano blog posts and Joe Dale’s podcast, I began to brainstorm about ways to include podcast into my future classroom .However, there was one problem; I had no idea how to do a podcast or where to even begin. Thankfully, Judy Scharf Podcast Collection answered most of my questions. The collection gave me ideas of how to teach my students to podcast and where I could learn how to create a podcast! The tip, “Invite the principal, department chairperson, or some other person to come in and see the presentations. Students will be very proud of their work”, in the Tips to Succeed section was my favorite. It will give students more of a reason to want to learn and produce a podcast of their own! I will definitely use this idea. Mrs. Scharf also include exemplary podcasts and a grading rubric. As a future teacher, this will be a great site for me to build off of.

Special Blog Post #1

WolframAlpha
After searching “Compare Populations of India, China and the United States” on WolframAlpha, I discovered the United States has a population of 309 million people, a population density of 87.3 people per square mile, and a population growth of 0.969% per year. India has a population of 1.21 billion people, a population density of 1,059 people per square mile, and a population growth of 1.44% per year. China has a population of 1.35 billion people, a population density of 376 people per square mile, and a population growth of 0.63% per year. Due to the large differences in population sizes, any facts comparing the United States to China or India can be taken wrong. It would be better if the “Did you know?” video used percentages and not “head-counts”. I proceeded to search, “Compare education in the United States, India, and China”. I discovered there are 24.39 million primary school students, 24.19 million secondary school students, and 3.553 million K-12 teachers in the United States. There are 143.3 million primary students, 107.7 million secondary students, and 5.974 million K-12 teachers in India. There are 101 million primary students, 29.3 million secondary students, and 12.41 million K-12 teachers in China. There is a student-teacher ratio of 13.59 primary students per teacher and 13.76 secondary students per teacher in the United States; a student-teacher ratio of 40.2 primary students per teacher and 25.33 secondary students per teacher in India; and a student-teacher ratio of 16.84 primary students per teacher and 15.46 secondary students per teacher in China.
In my second search, “Compare annual births in the United States, China, and India”, I learned there are 4.29 million births in the United States per year. There are 25.6 million births in India every year. There are 17.8 million births in China per year. WolframAlpha is a great search engine for common comparisons. WolframAlpha is useful to me because I can use it to make comparisons so my students will fully understand the topic. Stating the population of the United States to a classroom of students will not have the same effect as stating the population, while comparing it to the population of other countries. It will give my students perspective. Not only can you make comparisons, you can search simple questions or complex questions on a single topic or about a single place. WolframAlpha does not give straightforward answers such as yes or no, and a closed-ended answer. This search site gives multiple ends to the answer. When I searched “Compare education in the United States, India, and China”, it did not give me just statistics and facts; it allowed me to click on any section had had further questions on (such as- “vocational secondary education”) and extended a search into that particular section.
This will be great for my students who want to learn more about a certain topic. If they have any questions and I do not know the answer, this is the site we would visit directly after I said, “I don’t know, let’s find out.” This site gives them the opportunity to learn outside the classroom and gives them the ability to answer the own questions- to become self-learners.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count

Gary Hayes Media Count shows the number of people buying a phone, watching youtube, liking and commenting on facebook, buying an iPad, uploading on Instagram, searching on Pinterest, using Skype, how much money is lost from piracy, and more every single second. This site allows you to virtually see how many people actually do certain things in a year, month, week, day, and at present time.
I knew people used the internet. I knew people played online games, bought things online, and used social sites; however, I would have never guessed how many people were doing all that each and every second of the day! This site makes me think twice about what I do and post online. There is no telling how many people would read or see what you put online in a single minute. The Media Count proves how much technology is being used every single day. As a future teacher, my career will be ever changing due to the rapid increase of technology. There are going to be moments when I feel like my classroom is being technologically savvy and in the next moment, it will be out-of-date. I believe toddlers are introduced to iPhones, TV, and computers before paper, pencils, and books. Some children can operate a computer and iPhone better than many adults can. This suggests we need to change our teaching styles. We need to teach via technology to produce successful adults. My job as a teacher will be not only to teach, but to constantly learn about new technology and update my curriculum around the new technology and advances. I must show my students how to adapt to change and how to apply what they have.