Sunday, December 4, 2011

Blog Post # 14

Sounds Familiar

Box of Tricks is the blog of Jose Picardo, it is a great resource for current teachers and aspiring teachers. I really enjoyed looking over Jose's blog and learned a lot of different things. I know I will continue to visit his blog, because I appreciate his organization and ability to share useful advice for educators.

Top ten tips for using technology in the classroom is a video by Jose Picardo that enlightens you to a variety of things to help integrate technology into your classroom. When watching the video I was pleasantly surprised and proud that I was familiar with most of his tips. From podcast to interactive whiteboards I feel like I have learned a lot about each of his tips in EDM310. The only tip that I was least aware of was music, however I think that music is an excellent way to teach. I like Jose's tip and can really see myself using it in the future. I am going to teach at an elementary level and see one day doing something along the lines of writing a song with my class and then using a program like Audacity to record it so the children can play it for themselves and learn from it. While Jose talks about teenagers in the video, I think music can be just as effective with young children. Songs like the "The alphabet song" and "1, 2, 3 count with me" have been around for years and have been very successful. I think that allowing the students to use technology and their imagination is a great way to boost learning. I think things that get the children interacted tends to help them learn, and I believe technology is a great way to build interactions with the children.

treasure box


Jose points out many different things that I know I will soon be using. I will be adding Jose blog to my PLN just in case I forget any of these excellent tips. I think that his tips are something to treasure and store for the future. I know that each of these things are not something that can all be used on a daily basis, but I would like to have a part of technology incorporated daily into my class in one way or another. I love the idea of using each of Jose's tips in my classroom one day. While watching the video I couldn't help but to think of different ways to use each of the tips in my classroom and how to connect each of the tips to a child's level. After the video it dawned on me that it was a lot like Dr. Strange, he gives us all of these different resources to interact with and through each of them we learn. Overall I think that Jose gives a lot of good tips to help many different teachers at all different levels. I think this video is a great resource for the people who have not had the opportunity to take a course like EDM310.

Final Report on PLN

My PLN

My PLN has had a few more tiles added to it recently. I have been shopping for a car over the last month and added a few tiles to help me with that. I love my PLN and even though I don't use it strictly for school, it contains a lot of useful sites for my day to day life. I am getting married in a few months so my PLN also contains things to help me with the wedding. I continue to add tiles and love to watch my PLN grow.
My PLN
Here are some of my tiles:
1. Pinterst
2. Living Social
3. Bookit
4. The University of South Alabama
5. Edmunds
6. Kelly Blue Book
7. Wells Fargo
8. WebMD
9. EDM310 Class Blog
10. Facebook

Just to name a few!

C4K November Comments

kidsrunning



C4K

My first comment for kids was on a class blog called "Enjoy the Exquisite Education of the Excellent 4E! The class posted about a game called "The Invisible Maze". The post included the rules for the game and also a video of the class playing the game. I commented and said the following,
"Hi Class, my name is Katelyn and I am a student at The University of South Alabama. I am taking a class called EDM310. The invisible maze looks like a lot of fun. Activities like this can be fun, but can also teach you important things about working as a group. Keep up the good work!"

My second comment for kids was on the class blog of a little girl named Francis from Pt. England School. She wrote about Ice Cream Comets and how to make them. I commented and and said the following,
"Hey Francis!
I am a college student at the University of South Alabama. Great post about ice cream comets, I would love to try one someday! Sometimes the foods that get our hands sticky are the tastiest, wouldn't you agree?
Keep up the good work!
Sincerely,
Katelyn"

My third comment was on Mrs. Yollis' Class Blog. The post I commented on was about Mrs. Yollis' Skyping with a class in the state of Georgia. I commented and said the following,
"Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
I enjoyed you posting about all the things you learned about the state of Georgia. I think that it is always neat to connect with other people, even when they are miles away from you. I am a student at the University of South Alabama and am taking a class called EDM 310. I live in lower Alabama which is often referred to as "LA", but not to be confused with the LA from your home state:) Georgia is a very special place to me for several different reasons. Georgia is important to me because my older sister lives there, it is also important to me because it is where my fiance proposed to me. My fiance, Michael popped the big question center court at an Atlanta Hawks game last year! Atlanta is one of my favorite places to visit, there are so many things to do and I have such fond memories of it! Keep up the great work Mrs. Yollis' class!
Sincerely,
Katelyn"

Project #16

C4T Post #4

Thanks Ed
teacherpointing


My C4T was on the blog called WhatEdSaid. My first comment for teacher was on a post called "Observe Perpetually". Ed talked about how he has walked by a sign all year that read "Observe Perpetually" but he had never noticed it. He encourage everyone to take time to pay attention and also asked things that other people had missed that was right in front of them. I commented and said the following,
"Dear Ed,
I enjoyed this simple but challenging post. I am a very busy student and employ, but this has inspired me to look further into things. Life can seem like it is going to fast sometimes it is important to pay attention to the things in front of us, because if we miss them they are gone!
Thanks for the post, I look forward to reading more,
Katelyn"

My second comment was on a post called " Where Do Great Ideas Come From". The post was about all the different places on the internet that you can use as resources along with yourself and classmates to create great ideas. The post including a short video listing the resources. I commented and said the following,
"Hi, My name is Katelyn Callahan and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I am taking a course called EDM310, we use a lot of the same sources to get ideas for our class. I never thought that these things could be used in such a way, but have taught me so many things!
Thanks for the video!
Katelyn"