Special Assignment

Rock Your Socks Off
I, like several other classmates missed the metaphor in the blog post Don't Let Them Take The Pencil's Home. The blog post is about the students taking home the pencils and it effecting their test scores. It is a argument between the author and a narrow minded coworker. The blog post is obviously a metaphor about technology in education today. For this special assignment Dr. Strange wanted us to focus on metaphors and to pay attention to them in our everyday lives. I did exactly what he asked and got the perfect response. I was on vacation this past week with my family, including my sweet nephews, a 7 year old and a 3 year old. Me, my sister and dad overheard a conversation between the two while playing and it went as follows. Brye: (7yrs) "Asher this is going to rock your socks off!!!" Asher:(3yrs) " But I not wearing socks....." Brye: (laughing) "Asher it's a METAPHOR. I'm not really going to take your socks off" Asher: "Well mines going to be soooo bigger, Im going to rock your socks off, take them outside and throw them in the tree!!!". I loved it, two sweet little boys understood what a metaphor was, which made their Aunt Kate feel a little ridiculous for missing the metaphor in the blog post. I think that it is something I will defiantly expose my students to no matter how young they are. My little nephew is a great example that young children can understand metaphors. So exactly what is a metaphor? here are a few:
"Time is Money"
"It's Raining Cats and Dogs"
"He Kicked the Bucket"
"I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse!"
"His Money Went down the Drown"
"I'm Dead Tired"
"She is The Apple of His Eye"

Blog #13 Option 2

Out With The Old, In With The New

The article My Teacher Is an App is about online public schools, which includes students that take online classes ranging from one class to their entire course load online. Online schooling is launching nationwide and accounts for 250,000 students from grades K5-12. The article goes on to talk about the negative and positive results of online schooling. Standardize test scores were poorly represented of some of the online schooling, while others excelled. One thing mentioned in the article is that the students that stayed enrolled for longer than a year saw an increase in their test scores. The article also covers how it effects budgets and also teachers. It covers the unions opinion on it, which isn't a very fond one. The overall content of the article is how much online schooling can vary, from school to school and also from student to student.

My thoughts on online schooling is very positive. I think that options always produce better end products. The article talks about how it is an option for parents who want to provide their kids with their idea of a safe surrounding. It also talks about students and parents that use online schooling as a last resort. I think just like in traditional school settings that test scores, learning styles and opinions are all going to vary in online schooling. My sister chooses to homeschool her children, while she only has one school age child she uses the computer for a lot of his curriculum. My nephew test far beyond his grade level. He read at a 1st grade level and did simple math at age 4. While my nephew is very advanced in his education, he is a very hyper little boy. I believe that online schooling is the perfect option for him because he is able to do school work and play at certain amounts that helps him focus on school when he needs to. Even though I am in school to become a teacher, I in no way feel threatened by online schooling. I actually would love for this to be an option for my children one day!

Project #15

Project 16 Progress Report

I am really excited about the process me and my teammates, Jessica and Brittany have made on Project 16. We met this pass week for about 3 hours and made a lot of progress. We recorded a lot of the film we needed for what we are planning and wrote the things we needed for it. All that is left now is editing and finishing touches.:)

C4K Assignment part 1

Mrs. Yollis' Class
I watched Mrs. Yollis' class blog video on commenting. I felt a little intimidated before exploring her class blog because of all that I have heard. After watching the video I feel a little more confident that as long as I am careful of what I post and proofread it I should be fine. I learned several things from the blog about her and the students in her class. Mrs. has her masters and also loves to travel, something else that I observed from her class blog is that she likes to use videos one the post and also uses Skype to let her students communicate with other students around the world. Mrs. Yollis' blog has around 22,000 more visits than EDM310 class blog, and her visitors look like that are very wide spread. I am excited to visit Mrs. Yollis' class again and comment on one of the post!

Skype Interview

My Skype interview with my sister Gaylen, you can watch it here Here

Blog Post # 12

Teach Me Something

For this assignment I wanted to do something different than our average assignment that we do on a weekly bases. I was thinking it would be neat to find some kind of poll that we could give to a student in our family or a friend's child who is 5k-12 and see what the results might be. In my search for a technology literacy test I came across a website called Science Kids, it is a website with games, activities, lesson plans and much more. One thing that caught my attention is the quizzes. I saw the technology quiz and knew actually what I wanted to do as my assignment.

I would present the following: Go to the technology quiz take the quiz yourself and post your results, and talk about the things you knew on the quiz and also the things that caught you by surprise. The answers are the bottom of the page (so no peeking) once you complete it check your answers. There are 20 questions so they are worth 5 points each. Once you have completed the quiz explore the website and blog about how you can use this website in the future as a educator.


My Stab At The Assignment:

I made an 80% on the quiz on technology, some of the questions obviously took me by surprise but the question that took me by surprise the most was which car company that humanoid robot ASIMO? I was very confident about the questions to do with Apple products, because I love my Apple products!
The website looks like it is a really neat website for all ages and is appropriate for students and helpful for parents and teachers. It has lesson plans for science but more importantly on technology including things like website making and movie making. The website also has videos for technology and also a section on fun facts about technology. I think that this website is a really useful resource for teaching technology to students.

Blog Post #11

Mrs. Cassidy's Class

Mrs. Cassidy is a first grade teacher who teaches in Canada. Technology is a big part of Mrs. Cassidy's classroom. Little Kids, Big Potential is a video that explores all the different ways she incorporates technology into her classroom. Mrs. Cassidy uses blogs, videos and many other things to stay ahead with her class. I admire Mrs. Cassidy for the time that she puts into staying up to date with technology. In Mrs. Cassidy's Skype interview with Dr. Strange , she talks about how she spends most of her evenings on the computer, but with the snow in Canada I'm sure I'd spend a lot of time cozy on the couch with my laptop too:) The neatest thing about Mrs. Cassidy class is how blogging allows her students to interact with other students and even family members all around the world. I think that children are extrinsic, and by blogging they receive a lot of outside praise. I would like to incorporate blogging into my classroom one day. I would like to use blogging because it is something students, parents, grandparents and myself can access from any computer. I like that the students are able to share their work with others. I like that in the interview Mrs. Cassidy talks about how you have to continue learning as a teacher, and she goes on to talk about using and doing what fits what you are teaching. Mrs. Cassidy encourages me to one day be a teacher that incorporates different things into my classroom. I took many helpful things from her interview with Dr. Strange. I will also teach ways to protect the children and their names. Teaching Technology is a huge responsibility in for many different reasons. It is important to teach technology because it is the future and will ensure success in students and make them diverse in their ways of learning. I also think that another important thing when teaching technology is safety, it is important to ensure students are protected from things on the internet and also from unsafe individuals on the internet. I hope to one day be a very strong teacher and learn successful ways like Mrs. Cassidy to teach technology.

C4K October Post

C4K

My first post was on Wyatt's blog. Wyatt wrote about 4 ways to relieve homework stress. I commented and said that I was in college and that his advice would be helpful to me. I also told him that I liked to study in quiet places like the library. I finished the comment with keep up the good work.

My second post was on a Katlyn's blog. Katlyn wrote about different ways to make homemade ice cream. I commented and told her that my family had always used an ice cream machine, but that I wanted to try and make it in a bag like she suggested. I also told Katlyn to keep up the good work!

Both of these blogs can be found at Mrs Gregory 6th Grade Class Blog

My third post was on Amelie's blog. Amelie wrote about the Coops Shot Tower in Melbourne. I commented and told Amelie that I was a Student at the University of South Alabama. I told her that her post was very informative and well written. I told her I had never been to Melbourne, but according to her post it sounded really neat and like there were a lot of fun things to do.

You can Find Amelie's Blog Spot here.

My fourth post was on a video by Rosie and DJ that they posted to their blog. The video post was about different places at their school. I commented and told Rosie and DJ that I had also done many video assignments like this for my class. I told them that they did an awesome job. I asked if they planned on making more videos like this? and then I finished by saying keep up the good work!