Blog #10

What can we learn from Mrs. Cassidy?

Mrs. Cassidy is a first grade teach at a school in Moose Jaw, SK, Canada. She has embraced the 21st century by completely immersing her classroom in the use of technology. In her video, Little Kids...Big Potential, she gives an idea of the different things her students do through the year. Through the narration of her own students, it is evident that Mrs. Cassidy has created students who enjoy learning what they learn.

In this video, we see students creating videos that teach the viewer how to do different things (say letters, count, etc.). The use of video recording for instructional purposes is a great way to not only help students enjoy class, but also remember their material better. This is definitely a method I want to adopt and adapt into my future classroom.

In her first interview video with Dr. Strange, Cassidy 13 Part 1, Mrs. Cassidy talks about how the computers the kids use at school are special computers that don't allow any downloads of any unauthorized programs. She says she also teaches her students what's appropriate to click on and what's not. I feel like these are two very simple approaches to monitoring students using technology. Many parents are concerned with viewing controls on school computers, making them very apprehensive about allowing their students to use computers at school. However, if measures are taken like those in Mrs. Cassidy's class, then parents won't have to worry about what their students see on the computers at school.

Mrs. cassidy also talks about how she has immense support from those higher up than her. She said that she "pushes the envelope" all the time, and her technology coordinator in her district and the administrators at her school are always willing to help her out because he's seen the potential she has with her students. This is the kind of teacher ever education major should strive to be. She uses her skills with technology to create a class that is admired not only by fellow educators, but also by those above her. It is through this respect that she said she was able to acquire more funding for her classroom.

Her use of blogging is very pleasing to the parents of her students because they can see their children's progress throughout the year. This is just one reason why I think blogging is one of the greatest ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. It is definitely something I will be incorporating into my future classroom!

In her second interview video, Cassidy 13 Part 2, she talks about how to start using technology in your classroom. She says the best way to do that is to start with something that you are comfortable with. That way you are able to start students off with something you know you can easily explain.

Even though Mrs. Cassidy does not use social media (Facebook,Twitter, etc.) a lot in her free time, she does say that she thinks it is a great tool for teachers to use in the classroom. I also believe this to be true, but I'm not sure it would be useful for younger students. I am wanting to teach high school, and almost every high school student has a Twitter or Facebook. If these were used in a classroom, teachers could create a class group on Facebook or create a class hashtag on Twitter so students would have a central location they could go to to get assignments, help each other with work, or talk to the teacher about the lessons. As for teachers, social media is a GREAT way to build our PLN's.

In her third and final interview, Cassidy 13 Part 3, she talks about she is flexible with her blogging in class depending on the class size and the speed at which they are progressing in class. I think this awareness is a very good quality to have because it gives the classroom a little more laid back feel while still having structure.

Mrs. Cassidy also talks about how blogs aren't really a problem as far as cheating. Instead, she says they are good for collaborative sharing among teachers. She said some of the stuff she does in her class is piggy-backing off of another teachers work. She says that teachers are beginning to lean more towards this "collaborative sharing", and I couldn't agree more!

Mrs. Cassidy's approach to technology is wonderful! Starting students off at a young age using technology is definitely preparing them for the future ahead of them. I want to adopt this in my future class. I predict that with high school students, the use of technology in the classroom will be less restrictive than what Mrs. Cassidy's class is. I would also predict that students would exceed my expectations all the time because of how easily the younger generations can learn technology. I look forward to seeing how my future class excels with technology!

Project #12 Part A

For project 12, we had to go over some basics on how to use a SMART board. Please excuse my stuttering and pausing. I'm just a little camera shy! Hope you enjoy!

Blog Post #9

What Can Teachers and Students Teach Us About Project Based Learning?

This question has almost innumerable answers. So many teachers and students have been/are in a class where project-based learning was the primary/only form of learning. PBL has had so many successes that it's very hard for today's teachers to ignore it. It is a way of making the classroom more fun and educational. Many people are unsure just how to incorporate this form of learning into their classrooms. In this post, I will discuss some sources that helped me understand this. The first is an article titled Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning. This article discusses ways to effectively incorporate project-based learning into your classroom. A few of the biggest points include providing a driving question, allowing the student to have a say in the project, and providing feedback and revision.

The video Project-Based Learning for Teachers is a neatly created way of further explaining why project-based learning is so important and useful. One of the main points the video points out is that project-based learning teaches students the four C's: collaboration skills, communication skills, critical thinkning skills, and career and life skills. These skills are vital for students to understand and use because they are skills they will need beyond school.

PBL: What motivates students today is an adorable, funny, and eye opening video featuring several students talking about what motivates them in school. First they talk about what motivates them in general, and then they were prompted to talk about how their teachers motivates them. They talked about things all the way from clip charts to food reinforcement. This type of motivation is key when using project-based learning in the classroom.

Ten Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration In Project Based Learning is a very resourceful website that list 10 websites that would be very handy in a classroom using project-based learning. My favorite website this blog mentions is Lino. The blog explains this website best:

"Imagine an electronic classroom display board. One that could leave the classroom and be visible on any computer screen anywhere. Now, dream about the ability to create it in minutes using multi-color post it notes, pictures, drawings, web links, and even videos. Better yet… kids can contribute by being given a URL… no login needed! Best of all it is fast, easy to use, and dependable."

This is definitely a website I will use in my future classroom.

In the video, Students solve old problem with new ketchup cap, shows us to very creative high school seniors who created a new cap to install in ketchup bottles to avoid the watery substance that often comes out. This genius creation was done at their school, which would not have been possible if the teacher had not provided the kind of environment to do so. This is exactly what the outcome of project-based learning should look like.

Project #14

This is my individual Project-Based Lesson Plan. I created a project where students will get in groups, and create a "mock-umentary" that will document the lives of modern day Romeo and Juliet. This is designed to help students explore their creative abilities as well as gain a better understanding of the literature.

Project Planner
Project Checklist
Project Calendar
Group Individuals Rubrics

Project #9

Here is my group's book conversation video.

Project #13

My group, Group Kennedy, came up with a project-based lesson plan that incorporates Shakespeare and technology.

Here are the links for our PBL:
Project Checklist
Project Overview
Project Calendar
Group Rubric
Individual Rubric

Blog #8

What can we learn about teaching and learning from Randy Pausch?

First off, the video that I have acquired my answer from is one of the most inspiring videos I have ever watched. Please watch it here.

Randy Pausch was a man who lived a life that consisted of almost all of his childhood dreams lived out in some way (even if it was a roundabout way). His lecture, "Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", taught me so many things on what it means to be an efficient learner and an inspiring teacher. To really show what exactly I got out of his lecture, let me explain four of my favorite quotes from Randy.

1. "When you're screwing up and no one is saying anything to you anymore, that's when they've given up."

This quote specifically hit me hard. I feel like I have been a victim of this many times in my schooling career. I have never been a great student as far as grades go thanks to mild test anxiety. I feel like teachers gave up on me after a while because even though I made a visible effort in class, I could never perform adequately on tests. I don't want to be that teacher. I want to be a teacher who sees students struggle, and do my very best to find a way to help students overcome that struggle.

2. "Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things."

Randy said many things about brick walls, but I found that this particular quote held the most truth (I may even have to put this on the wall in my future classroom). If we want something bad enough, we should stop at nothing to get to it. I feel like it is a teacher's obligation to instill this mindset into their students. How are we to create a productive generation if we don't teach them the benefits of not giving up?

3. "There's a good way and bad way of saying I don't know."

Randy gave many examples of this happening in his lifetime. He talked about how he had this idea that he wanted to go through at the school he was working at. At first, he asked his supervisor if he thought it was a good idea. His supervisor said, without a second thought, that he did not like the idea and that Randy needed to find an alternative. Randy then decided to go to the Dean for a second opinion, and the dean told him that he didn't have enough information to give an answer, but he wanted to find out more. They both said the same thing, but the way the dean said it was more encouraging and uplifting. It is important that all students are treated this way, because if they see that their teachers can't even support their ideas (no matter how crazy), what makes them think that anyone else will outside of school?

4. "You don't know where the bar would be, and you're doing them a disservice by putting it anywhere."

Randy taught a Virtual Reality class at Carnegie. On his first assignment he ever assigned in that class, the students returned with products beyond his imagination. He had no idea what he was to do next because he felt like the students had already gone above and beyond. He consulted with his mentor, and his mentor told him the words above. These words should be lived out by all teachers. Teachers should never think their students have hit their limits, because with the proper poking and prodding, we would be surprised at what exactly students can achieve.

Randy said many more inspiring words that I feel like I could talk for days about. Overall, Randy taught me that, to be an efficient learner, I need to think outside of the box and not be afraid to get out of my comfort zone every once in a while. He also taught me that, to be an inspiring teacher, I need to encourage and push students to do things they never thought they could possibly do.

C4Ta post #2

Dorothy, a teacher in New Zealand, posted a blog about a foundation known as Spark. This foundation provides different forms of technology to students in underprivilaged countrues to allow them equal opportunity to gain a good education. a quote from the video in her blog said that Spark is, "...putting technology in the hands of the students today to prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow." As I said in my comment to Dorothy's blog, it melts my heart tonsee underprivilaged students being molded into people who will be able to provide for themselves when they are older. I definitely want to learn more about Spark and see if there is anyway I can help with the cause. Dorothy's post can be found here.

On her second blog I read, Longevity of The Essay, Dorothy talks about a man, Professor Welby Ing, who talks about how the old-fashioned essay is losing it's power and importance. You can find his video here. Dorothy talks about how there are so many technological resources out there that signifacantly helps the essay wrting proccess, but many universities are having problems getting on board with the use of such resources. In my comment, I agreed that universites are struggling, but that they will eventually catch on.

C4Tp Post #2

In Silvia Tolisano's blog, And You Thought it Could Not Be Done: Blogging in Math, we learned that blogging can indeed be done in any classroom… including math! Ms. Tolisano talked about a teacher who had done just this to help her students become more engaged and interested in the class material. She said the teacher used the technique of blogging for students to present their work rather than just write about it. Students were also able to communicate with each other and share helpful information with each other outside of school. Students created presentations and reviewed each others presentations. The facts that students actually have to write out what they're doing helps them become more interactive with each other and verbalize their material more. This helps give them a better understanding of the material they are working on.

In my comment back to Ms. Tolisano, I told her that I was in awe that a math teacher was able to incorporate blogging into their classroom. The fact that a math teacher was able to do this motivates me more to incorporate blogging into my future classroom.

In another blog of hers, Blogging as a Curation Platform, she talked about the different sources available to help people curate their articles and other sources that provide information (twitter, RSS, etc.). She then focused her blog on curation through blogging. She said the thing that makes blogging different from other curation tools is that blogging allows you more freedom on acquiring, organizing, and storing information. She then presented a list of her workflow when blogging. My comment on this blog was about how I really appreciated this list because she helped me realize that I am on my way to becoming an effective curator with my blog. With a bit of improvement, I will have a blog as organized as hers!

Blog Post 7

The 21st century has created classrooms that have began to embrace the benefits that come from incorporating technology. One major thing we have learned in this class is that you can incorporate technology into any classroom. There are unlimited amounts of technological resources available for teachers to incorporate into their classrooms. We have been introduced to quite a bit of these, but there are more that can be used.

One resource I have already found very useful is Pinterest. Although this website seems more focused towards women, I have found that it can be useful for anyone, especially teahcers! I have a guy friend

who goes to Auburn University in Montgomery and is studying to become a high school history teacher. He took an education class similar to this one, and his teacher required every one of her students to sign up for a Pinterest account and be active on it through the semester (I would highly suggest future EDM310 classes be required to do the same thing). Of course, he was very reluctant to sign up for the website at first, but he grew to really appreciate it. He informed me just the other day that he loves the website because he has been able to find many different things to incorporate into his future classroom. I have also found many different crafts and activities I plan on incorporating into my future English class on this website. Pinterest is a must have resource if you plan on becoming a teacher of any kind.

Another website that I have recently found is Schoology. This website proveds teachers with the ultimate multitasking source. You can practically have a fully functioning class within the digital walls of this classroom. The best description of this website can be found in this video:


WebQuests are also very good ways to integrate technology into my classroom, especially as an English class! WebQuests are where teachers give students a topic to research and then complete an activity based off of that reasearch. This would be a great tool in my future English classroom because I can assign students a topic related to what we are reading in class, and then have them write about what they found. That's just one example out of many on how I can use WebQuests in my future classroom.

Project #8- Book Trailer

My book trailer on "The Principal from the Black Lagoon" by Mike Thaler.

Project #7

My Sentence




My Passion



***Hand written signs generously made by Sarah Allen

C4Ta #1 Blog

William Chamberlain is a 6th grade teacher at an elementary school in Noel, Missouri, and an adjunct professor at Crowder College. He has done many presentations on technology use in the classroom. His blog, Why do I have to learn history?, he struggles with a question one of his student's had asked him: Why do I have to learn history? He said he did some research on his own to see if anyone had given a good, substantial answer to this question but he wound up empty handed. Mr. Chamberlain says he always loved history because of all of the different connections each separate event make, but he still could not come up with a solid answer on why we have to learn it.

In my response to him, I told him how I have always asked the same question. I used to think that history

didn't apply to my everyday life and that we should just focus on the "here and now". However, over time I have been told two statements that I believe really justified the student's question to Mr. Chamberlain:
1. Without history, there would be no present or future.
2. We need to learn from our past to make a better tomorrow.
I explained to Mr. Chamberlain that I felt both of these statements helped me answer the same question that he received from his student.

The second blog of Mr. Chamberlain's that I read, TigerCorp Part 2: It's Lending Time!, was about how he and a few of his students loaned some money to a few lendees. He did this through service-based learning. He had one representative from each of his classes sit down and decide on three of the lendees they had chosen. They chose three and each of the loans made helped three different people on three different continents with things they were not able to financially handle on their own. Mr. Chamberlain said, "The choices the students made not only reflect our cultural diversity but also our local agricultural culture here in Noel."

In my comment back to Mr. Chamberlain, I applauded him for creating such a unique lesson for his students. I also told him his post introduced me to the concept of service-based leaning and had intrigued me enough to do some research on it and possibly incorporate it into my future classroom.

Blog Post 6

Anthony Capps is a 3rd grade teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary in Baldwin County. He really bases his classes on project-based learning. In Dr. Strange's video interview with him, Project Based Learning Part 1, Mr. Capps says that one of the things he says he really focuses on is making sure this method teaches the kids what they need to know based on the state and federal standards he has to follow. With the new Common Core Standards being so limited on the amount of creativity a teacher can create in the classroom, I can see how this can be a challenge. He also said in this interview that the most crucial aspect in project-based learning is allowing the students to revise and reflect on their work. He called this a democracy.

In his second interview with Dr. Strange, Project Based Learning Part 2, Mr. Capps says, "Never limit your students by giving them exactly what you want them to do. Create an opportunity for them to go beyond what you want them to do, and they will." Since I became a secondary education major, I have somewhat made this my personal motto. I believe that students should not be limited on what they can do. Otherwise, they will not be able to fully learn what they need to learn. Mr. Capps goes on to say that another important aspect of project-based learning is student choice because it gives them ownership and appreciation of the project.

Mr. Capps also speaks of iCurio in another interview he does with Dr. Strange, iCurio: Conversations with Anthony. He says that iCurio is type of search engine a that allows students to safely pull many different educational content (videos, articles, images, etc.)that they are interested in. He says it also stores the students content that they find valuable.

In the video, Conversations with Anthony: Discovery Education, Mr. Capps talks about the website Discovery Education. He uses the phrase, "A picture's worth a thousand words, so a video must be worth a million words." He says Discovery Education helps fullfill this phrase. The phrase means that if you give a student an article on something, it's always beneficial to couple it with a visual aid (video, image, etc.) to help the student understand the material better. Discovery Education helps fullfill that phrase by giving both articles AND visual aides.

In The Anthony - Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1, two of my favorite tips Mr. Capps gives is that:

1. To be an effective teacher, we need to be willing to learn how to learn how to be a teacher OUTSIDE of the classroom. He says one great way to do this is through reading books that can help you gain new knowledge in this aspect.
2. To start with an end goal and aim for that when teaching. If you don't get that goal, be flexible and learn what you did wrong and right so you know how to change your methods to aim to reach that goal again.

I find these two tips to be very helpful to me personlly because I know they will help me become the best teacher I can be.

In Use Tech: Don't Teach It, Mr. Capps talks about how he teaches technology by introducing and requiring students to use one different type of technology at a time. He says we need to use technology to get students excited about what they're doing. He uses a term "scaffolding" that means that he teaches and uses more complicated pieces of technology everytime he introduces a new form of technology.

In his final interview video, Additional Thoughts About Lessons, Mr. Capps makes the statement that lessons are four layers thick. The first layer is that you have to make sure your lesson plan helps you cover ALL the required materials in that year. The second layer is that you have created each unit to be meaningful and helps show that everything within that unit is connected in some way. The third layer is that you devise your week to where you get what you need done every week. The fourth and final layer is making sure your daily lessons are delivered to the students in a way that gets them hooked each day.

Overall, I find Anthony Capps to be an incredibly insightful teacher who I know can teach me a lot about how to be an effective teacher through project based learning.

Project #3- Presentation

Blog #5

Before this class, I had never heard the term "PLN" or "Personal Learning Networks". After going through the sources Dr. Strange provided us to learn more about them, I have decided that I need to start now on establishing my own network of PLN's. Let me explain what PLN's are. I think the best definition of PLN that I found is the one Dr. Strange gave us. It says, "Your PLN is the set of people and tools that you can call upon for help, consultation, collaboration, or other assistance."

PLN's can be extremely helpful for teachers because it provides multiple sources for teachers to continue to be lifelong learners. PLN's are formed through several ways. One way is by following other educators who speak of the same stuff you are interested in. Another way is by following blogs and/or articles that have the same material you are interested in. Another way that I find most important is by creating some place to store all of the sources you use for your PLN. In Vicki Davis' blog Personal Learning Networks Are Virtual Lockers for Schoolkids, she tells about how one of her students uses iGoogle to store all of the blog posts and articles she subscribes to. It updates her every time something new is posted. This would definitely be a very helpful PLN for teachers.

To create my own PLN, I need to start by figuring out what I am interested in knowing more about and create a list of questions that I could use to find people who ask and talk about the same questions. Once I find people or resources that does this very thing, I should follow them in anyway I can so I can keep up with what they are doing and saying. My first addition to my PLN would definitely be Dr. Strange. I also believe I would like to add Ms. Vicki Davis because she has very intriguing teaching methods when it comes to the use of technology in the classroom.

Project #15

Using Google to search for different search engines (I felt like I was betraying Google), I found a list of what had to be over 1,000 different search engines broken down into different categories based on what they were used for.You can find this website here. Here are the eight search engines I chose.

1. IceRocket= This website is used for searching for different types of blogs. When I went to the homepage, there was a section labeled "Top Searches". One of the suggestions it listed was "Apple". I typed that in and got over 2 million blogs in return. I then decided to type in something more general: cats. This returned zero results. This shocked me considering that cats are very popular are the internet these days. This led me to the conclusion that this website would be good for finding good source articles, but would not be good for finding articles on silly things such as cats.

2. Craig's List= Craig's List is a popular website that everyone knows can either be filled with either shady or helpful ads. Some use this website to find different things for sale in their area (almost like a giant garage sale). However, the most useful part of Craig's List (to me, anyways) is the job search function. Although I still suggest you research the different jobs offered, I believe that Craig's List provides many different job opportunities

3. MapQuest= Yet another popular search engine, MapQuest is used to find direction to and from almost anywhere in the world. I have always found that MapQuest is one of the more reliable direction search engines around.

4. Dogpile= Dogpile is defined as a meta-search engine. This means that it pulls it's results from several other different search engines. I never knew this kind of thing existed until I found this website. Once again, I typed in "cats" and got a bunch of results. My favorite part about the results page is the navigation bar on the left hand side of the page. It gives you options to narrow down you search to help you find what you're looking for easier.

5. Blinkx= Blinkx is a multi-media search engine. It's comparable to Youtube, but it pulls results from multiple different multi-media websites. I typed in "how to use an apostrophe" and it returned a good amount of videos for me to watch. There were also other videos mixed in that had nothing to do with my search, but I still think this website would be very resourceful for teachers.

6. eHow= eHow is an extremely helpful search engine. You type in a question asking how to do something and the website gives you thousands of articles and videos with step by step instructions on how to do what you asked. This could be handy for almost any day-to-day activities in the classroom.

7. Topix= Topix is a news search engine that helps you find different news stories from around the world. The website has different topics separated into categories for easy navigation. This would be a very handy website to have in a history or current events class.

8. Wolfram Alpha= Wolfram Alpha is a search engine that computes different mathematical equations. I have never heard of this website until now, but I really wish I would have known about it when I was still taking math classes. This website would be INCREDIBLY helpful in a math classroom.

Blog Post 4

"What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?" Dr. Strange asked us to write a blog answering this very question. When I initially read this, I stopped and thought about what kind of answer I would give to this question without looking at the sources he provided to help us answer the question. I decided that teachers need to know when a question is a valid question or one that is asked just to waste time. They also need to know how to teach students to properly ask questions in class.

After reading The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom, I realized that this question wasn't just pertaining to the student. It was also focusing on the teacher. This blog, written by Ben Johnson, points out a really great fact that teachers ask the question "Does everyone understand?" every day know good and well that there are some students who don't really understand. Johnson says, "The fallacy with this thinking is that sometimes the students do not understand that they do not understand, and if they do not know what they do not know, there is no way that they can ask a question about it." This could not be more true. I feel like he is speaking exactly about me when he says this. In high school (and sometimes in college), I often never realized when I didn't understand something until I got the grade back on the test (this happened more often in math class). He says the best way to get feedback from the class is to ask more specific questions to evaluate the classes understanding of the material. When the teacher asks the question, he/she should pause for at least 3 seconds before calling on a specific student to answer. This way every student has time to think about an answer. I definitely will be using this technique in my future classroom.

In the articles, Asking Questions to Improve Learning and Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom, I discovered just what kind of questions need to be asked and how they need to be asked. It was suggested that teachers ask a mix of closed ended, open ended (both better described in Asking better questions in the classroom Pt. 1), and managerial questions to really cover all lost ground with students. My favorite part of "Asking Questions to Improve Learning", however, is where it suggests how teachers effectively respond to answers. The one I know I will have to work on the most is to not interrupt students' answers. That is one of my terrible habits, but I plan on working on that starting now.

So, after reading the articles and watching the videos, I feel like my answer to the question stated earlier has changed. I now feel like teachers need to know how to ask questions and what kind of questions need to be asked.

C4Tp #1 Blog

Silvia Tolisano is a teacher at Graded American School of Sao Paulo in Brazil. In her blog, Back to The Future Project: Life Cycle Snapshots in Target Language, she talks about how she used Facebook to help her students practice their target language. She had them choose a character and make fake Facebook accounts for each point of their lives (birth, school, adulthood, etc.). Ms. Tolisano included her guidelines for the project to help readers better understand specifically what she was asking of her students. She then added some screenshots of example pages some of her students created.

In my comment to Ms. Tolisano's blog post, I told her how creative it was for her to use Facebook as a tool to help her students understand a specific language better. I also told her how I believe all teachers should use technology in this fashion since it is such a prominent part of today's society.

On the second post I commented on of Ms. Tolisano, I was enlightened on how blogging should be used in the classroom. She said instead of using it as a project, teachers should use it more as part of their pedagogy. She gave a definition of "pedagogy" that said, "The strategies, techniques, and approaches that teachers can use to facilitate learning." She broke down what it looked like when blogging is used as a pedagogical tool. My comment back to her said that I really enjoyed her post and that it helped me further solidify my decision of using blogging in the classroom.

Blog Post #3

With my concentration being in English, I have taken my fair share of English classes. Especially considering I will be a Senior in the Fall. With that being said, I would have to say I have done more peer reviewing/editing than the average college student. However, after watching Peer Editing and Writing Peer Review (Peer Critique) TOP 10 Mistakes, and reading Peer Edit with Perfection Tutorial I can honestly say there were some areas of my peer editing style that needed a little fixing up.

One of the biggest things I realized I need to work on is giving positive feedback. I never have given a negative response in any of my peer editings, but I also barely ever give positive responses like those discussed in the video, "Peer Editing". The adorable video about the top 10 mistakes made when peer critiquing also helped me see different sides of peer editing that can go wrong if not done properly. After watching the videos and going through the slideshow, I definitely will be changing some of my peer critiquing habits as soon as I can!