I started this course with nothing but fear in mind-I was terrified of what I thought was to come. I had heard horror stories! People who failed multiple times, people who changed their major because of EDM 310, and even people who dropped out of college because they couldn't get their degree without passing this class. Fourteen weeks ago, I was completely overwhelmed with the assignments before me. Now I've learned so much in what feels like such a short amount of time. I know more about the department I'm going into and I'm even more sure of my decision to be a teacher. I enjoyed EDM 310 and I'm pretty proud of that fact. Good luck to all future students and I hope we all learned very valuable lessons for our lives AND our careers. Catherine, out.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Blog Post 15-Final Reflection
I started this course with nothing but fear in mind-I was terrified of what I thought was to come. I had heard horror stories! People who failed multiple times, people who changed their major because of EDM 310, and even people who dropped out of college because they couldn't get their degree without passing this class. Fourteen weeks ago, I was completely overwhelmed with the assignments before me. Now I've learned so much in what feels like such a short amount of time. I know more about the department I'm going into and I'm even more sure of my decision to be a teacher. I enjoyed EDM 310 and I'm pretty proud of that fact. Good luck to all future students and I hope we all learned very valuable lessons for our lives AND our careers. Catherine, out.
Project 16-Final Prezi
For our final presentation, my group (No Name) chose to create a Dr. Seuss themed Prezi. Earlier this semester we created a series of lesson plans based on several Dr. Seuss books, so we thought, why not continue with this adorable theme? Dr. Seuss books were the foundation of my childhood, so I was all for this idea! We named it 'Oh the Places You Will Go...in EDM 310' and we are pretty proud of the way it turned out. Some areas of this project were done collectively, but for the most part, we did the work independently because it includes our own videos, blog entries and photo galleries. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with my group this semester! I hope you enjoy our presentation!
Dr. Seuss Prezi
Dr. Seuss Prezi
Sunday, April 27, 2014
C4K April
I'm not sure if this was on purpose or if it was just a strange coincidence, but all three of my C4K children for April were from New Zealand and I thought that was really cool. The first was Takai, a child in grade 5 who wrote a blog entry about how he and his family spent Christmas. He had tons of pictures and even a drawing he did of his day at the beach! It was really adorable, here was my response: Hey Takai! My name is Catherine Stalvey and I am in college in the United States. One of my classes has asked that I read over your blog. I must say, I'm pretty impressed! You are a very good writer and you explain things very well. I can't believe you went to the beach on Christmas! Wasn't it cold? I live in the south, so I know what hot weather is like, but even we can't go to the beach on Christmas. I love that your family prays together, so does mine. I believe that is very important. I hope you are enjoying school this year! Good luck!
The second child I had this month was Aaron, a little boy in grade 4 who had just gone to his school's Fiafia day. This was really interesting to me, because a little girl I was assigned last month, Grace, wrote about her Fiafia day as well. His blog was also really well written, he set it up like a poem and his grammar as fabulous for a student his age. Here is my response to Aaron: Hey Aaron, my name is Catherine and I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama in the US. I really enjoyed reading your blog about your experience with Fiafia! I read another student's blog a few weeks ago, and she talked all about how much she loved Fiafia, too. Her name was Grace and she was in the Nieuan group, I wonder if you have ever seen her. I told Grace that we have a similar day called International Day, where several people bring things from different countries and everyone gets to experience a wide variety of cultures. I understand how nervous you got when you had to perform your song, I get nervous in front of big groups, too. The Jump Jam sounds like a lot of fun though! I actually just went to a concert last week and one of the bands that played had an "energy" portion of their show, too. They told everyone to put their arm around their neighbor and start jumping-it was a lot of fun! I hope you enjoy the rest of your school year and all of the Fiafia's you go to in the future!
My final C4K student for this month (and this semester, tear) was Efa-Lata, a little girl in Mrs. She's grade 2 classroom. She wrote about the day her family went to Mission Bay, a local beach, and had a picnic and went swimming. She, too, had a drawing of her adventures from that day and there were even a few actual photos of her and her family. Here is my response: Hey Efa-Lata! My name is Catherine and I go to school in the United States. I am studying to be a teacher so I am really enjoying reading your class's blog! Your weekend at Mission Bay sounds like a lot of fun! I love picnics and swimming. I go out on my boat a lot and I go out on my family's sailboat sometimes, too. I hope you enjoyed your weekend of fun! You seem like a sweet little girl and you are SO beautiful. Keep learning! I am already following your teacher on Twitter, so tell her to tweet me if she would like to after she reads this. Have a great summer!
I have so enjoyed getting a look into the minds of all the little ones I have read about this semester. It's really a totally different perspective when you talk to children vs. when you read what they have written. When they are allowed to write whatever they want, it seems like they open up a lot more and you get a little insight into their ever-changing minds. It really was an honor to read through so many blog entries by all these sweet kids and I can't wait to use a class blog in MY classroom one day! I even found this cute little cartoon about kids blogging-Why Should Schools Blog?", you should definitely take a look.
The second child I had this month was Aaron, a little boy in grade 4 who had just gone to his school's Fiafia day. This was really interesting to me, because a little girl I was assigned last month, Grace, wrote about her Fiafia day as well. His blog was also really well written, he set it up like a poem and his grammar as fabulous for a student his age. Here is my response to Aaron: Hey Aaron, my name is Catherine and I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama in the US. I really enjoyed reading your blog about your experience with Fiafia! I read another student's blog a few weeks ago, and she talked all about how much she loved Fiafia, too. Her name was Grace and she was in the Nieuan group, I wonder if you have ever seen her. I told Grace that we have a similar day called International Day, where several people bring things from different countries and everyone gets to experience a wide variety of cultures. I understand how nervous you got when you had to perform your song, I get nervous in front of big groups, too. The Jump Jam sounds like a lot of fun though! I actually just went to a concert last week and one of the bands that played had an "energy" portion of their show, too. They told everyone to put their arm around their neighbor and start jumping-it was a lot of fun! I hope you enjoy the rest of your school year and all of the Fiafia's you go to in the future!
My final C4K student for this month (and this semester, tear) was Efa-Lata, a little girl in Mrs. She's grade 2 classroom. She wrote about the day her family went to Mission Bay, a local beach, and had a picnic and went swimming. She, too, had a drawing of her adventures from that day and there were even a few actual photos of her and her family. Here is my response: Hey Efa-Lata! My name is Catherine and I go to school in the United States. I am studying to be a teacher so I am really enjoying reading your class's blog! Your weekend at Mission Bay sounds like a lot of fun! I love picnics and swimming. I go out on my boat a lot and I go out on my family's sailboat sometimes, too. I hope you enjoyed your weekend of fun! You seem like a sweet little girl and you are SO beautiful. Keep learning! I am already following your teacher on Twitter, so tell her to tweet me if she would like to after she reads this. Have a great summer!
I have so enjoyed getting a look into the minds of all the little ones I have read about this semester. It's really a totally different perspective when you talk to children vs. when you read what they have written. When they are allowed to write whatever they want, it seems like they open up a lot more and you get a little insight into their ever-changing minds. It really was an honor to read through so many blog entries by all these sweet kids and I can't wait to use a class blog in MY classroom one day! I even found this cute little cartoon about kids blogging-Why Should Schools Blog?", you should definitely take a look.
Summary of Jerrid W. Kruse - C4T #4
My final C4T teacher was probably my favorite out of the teachers I was assigned this semester. Jerrid W. Kruse is a man of wit and extremely dry sarcastic remarks...but boy does he make some amazing points through his blog. In the first entry I read by him, Engaged or Entertained?, he discusses the basics of his viewpoints on technology in the classroom. Here is my response to him: I, too, believe that technology can be both a good and a bad thing in the classroom. Too much of anything is never a good idea, no need for overkill. I’m in a course this semester where I am learning all about technology in the classroom, not by memorizing anything, but by just doing it. When I started the course, I hated the idea of having most forms of technology in my classroom, for fear of them taking over my own ability to teach my students (also, I’m a big proponent of enhancing creativity and social interaction). However, as the semester has progressed, I have come to love the use of a SMARTboard and several iPads or tablets in the classroom. A SMARTboard is so efficient and can allow your students to see all the things on the internet at the same time as you, when you pull them up. The use of a tablet is a great idea because the students can learn on their own time! There is no leaving students behind by breezing through material, or slowing down to avoid leaving someone behind. Everyone works independently…until you utilize Project Based Learning and require your students to work together toward a common goal. PBL is the best way to use technology, in my opinion, because the options are endless! You can do so much as a group if you are using the internet or any other technological resource. I really like your blog entries-they’re quirky and fun and really enjoyable to read.
The second blog entry I read by Mr. Kruse, Teaching Responsibility was the post that really hit home for me. I am a combination of an over-organize list-maker and a professional procrastinator. His post covered setting deadlines for students and his curiosity about whether or not his students were really learning anything by not having set deadlines. Here is my second response: I heart due dates. I'm a list maker and if I add something to my list that is due soon, I am way more likely to do it right then than to wait until right before it's due at the end of a semester. I think due dates throughout the year are a good way to keep track of whether or not your students are actually learning-almost like an educational checkpoint. I think they can do nothing but enhance the learning environment. No one can avoid deadlines forever.
Like I said, Jerrid Kruse really was my favorite teacher to read posts by because I could relate a lot to his humor and quirky, snide comments. I read over several of his other entries and I really liked his perspective on teaching and remembering that, as teachers, we set the tone for not only the classroom, but potentially the education of our students for the rest of their lives. His posts were incredible!
The second blog entry I read by Mr. Kruse, Teaching Responsibility was the post that really hit home for me. I am a combination of an over-organize list-maker and a professional procrastinator. His post covered setting deadlines for students and his curiosity about whether or not his students were really learning anything by not having set deadlines. Here is my second response: I heart due dates. I'm a list maker and if I add something to my list that is due soon, I am way more likely to do it right then than to wait until right before it's due at the end of a semester. I think due dates throughout the year are a good way to keep track of whether or not your students are actually learning-almost like an educational checkpoint. I think they can do nothing but enhance the learning environment. No one can avoid deadlines forever.
Like I said, Jerrid Kruse really was my favorite teacher to read posts by because I could relate a lot to his humor and quirky, snide comments. I read over several of his other entries and I really liked his perspective on teaching and remembering that, as teachers, we set the tone for not only the classroom, but potentially the education of our students for the rest of their lives. His posts were incredible!
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Blog Post 13 - What was left out?
This week my blog is entirely devoted to a subject that is important to me that was left out of my list of assignments for this semester. When I read this assignment, I figured it would be easy to find something I was passionate enough about to create an assignment around, but it is surprisingly challenging to do so. I am an elementary education major, so I have decided to address an issue that seems to have several parents and teachers in a fuss. Here goes...
How young is too young for technological exposure?
Check out this video with Dr. Kristy Goodwin: How Young is Too Young for Technology?
Read what Robin Raskin had to say: Raising Digital Kids-$69 LeapFrog Toy Takes on the $500 iPad
What does ABC News think? Generation iPad:Could Device Hurt Toddler's Development?
Watch Bridger, a 2-year old with an iPad: Baby Works iPad Perfectly!
Check out George Couros' blog entry: The Principal of Change
Watch these kids: Young Kids and "Old" Technology: A Parent's Retrospective
After reading these blogs and watching these videos, discuss your opinion on the matter. Tell me the pros of giving your child an iPad, iPhone, etc. and the cons of having a technological pacifier, as it has been called. Talk about this matter from a teaching perspective first, but also tell me how you would feel about this as a parent. Would you worry about their social development? Do they need to always have something to keep them calm? Perhaps the technology is not the real problem, and maybe it is just the parenting. Maybe some children have parents who allow them to play games on their iPhones, but whom also have interactive time as a family...but there could also be parents who strictly give their children an iPad or game to keep them quiet. Tell me your stand.
My Response:
I believe children are the product of their environment. For some families, the parents work so much that they are hardly able to spend time with their children, and as a result, they buy them iPads to serve as a source of, both entertainment and, apology for the lack of their presence in the home. We can't always blame the parents because sometimes life does get so busy that it is hard to juggle everything, but we can blame the parents for not making the appropriate amount of time in their busy lives to hang out with their kids. Some children suffer serious emotional heartache and are unable to develop socially because they have so little interaction with human beings; our parents are the first friends we make as children and they are ultimately responsible for the people we turn into. What is "young" though? Two years old? Four? In my own experience, my niece and nephew have fabulous parents! They spend time with them every day, they take them to the park on weekends, and they have family time with my parents, my fiance' and I on a weekly basis. They are incredible parents. Interestingly enough, my niece, Ella-7, and my nephew, Lincoln-4, are more tech savvy than any of us are. They have beat my high score on Temple Run. Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja more times than I would like to admit, but they are well adapted to being social at any time of the day. They don't need an iPad or an iPhone to keep them entertained, in fact, the only time they get them is if we are in a nice restaurant and the food is taking a long time and they are just bored. Even that is rare, though. They allow specific times for them to use their iPhones because they don't want them to become a pacifier or a necessity, and I completely agree with their philosophy.
Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important. -Bill Gates
However, as a future educator, I love technology for small children...in the classroom...in moderation. I believe there is a time and a place for the use of any device that could draw their attention away from things around them. In my experience in a first grade classroom this semester, the classroom seems to run much more smoothly when all the students are able to work on something different at all times-someone is typing their spelling words on the SMARTboard, someone is writing sentences with thought provokers on an overhead projector, someone is taking AR tests on the computer, someone is learning sight words on an iPad. The kids in that classroom seemed to really love technology, but they loved their friends and teacher even more. I think the amount of technology you allow in your classroom has to be correlated with your teaching style. Are you a fun, upbeat teacher? Use any and all technological tools you can get your hands on. Are you more laid back and want the kids to work quietly? Try not to have too much technology in your classroom because it could become a source of less social interaction amongst the students. The students can only be expected to work with what you give them, and I don't mean the technology.
In response to the video by Dr. Kristy Goodwin, How Young is Too Young for Technology?, I agree with her belief of what developing brains need-1. serve and return interactions, the children need their parents to work with them and teach them appropriate behavior and social interaction. 2. physical movement, children need to be active to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to keep their energy at an easily maintained level. 3. language rich interactions, how else with they learn to speak correctly? I thought it was really interesting that she said children are unable to learn from media until around 2 years of age, television that is; interactive media is a totally different story. They may learn some things form their iPad or your iPhone, but they ultimately learn everything from YOU. The video about Bridger and his iPad, Baby Works iPad Perfectly!, was a perfect example of a healthy way for a child to use an iPad. The parents had taught Bridger, a 2-year old, how to draw, read, and learn words on his iPad, instead of just showing him where all the games were. While I realize he probably know where all of them are and probably plays them, too, it was really impressive to me that they chose to film him doing all of the educational things his iPad had to offer instead.
What Robin Raskin had to say in her blog entry, Raising Digital Kids-$69 LeapFrog Toy Takes on the $500 iPad, really spoke volumes to me. What is the difference between an iPad and LeapFrog? Not many parents are willing to go out and drop $500 dollars on an iPad for their 4-year old, especially because it "might make them less socially developed", but yet they are willing to spend a significantly less $69 dollars on the exact same thing? Strange. LeapFrog may be producing games and apps that are more educational and kid-friendly, you will still get the same anti-social product if you allow your child to use this device too often. Parents need to be more interactive with their children if they want positive results in the development of their children, not just kid-friendly toys. The video of the children learning about "old" technology cracked me up-Young Kids and "Old" Technology: A Parent's Retrospective. We should really teach our children about new and old technology more often. How else will they appreciate what they have now? They need to know where everything started before they learn about where everything is now. What ever happened to the Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, floppy disks and rolls of film? Why did they go out of style? And dial-up internet? That's one thing I'm glad to see gone! My middle school days were full of that awful sound of the internet starting up...and no, I do not miss it.
I feel like the last two things I was asked to review, Generation iPad:Could Device Hurt Toddler's Development? and The Principal of Change could be more related to teaching than to parenting. In the ABC News video, the anchor discussed the story of a family of 3 little girls who were completely consumed with their iPads. They challenged the family to remove them from the home for a month and see what the girls would do with their free time, and it had surprising results. Instead of moping about their iPads, they actually seemed to not be bothered by the lack of their presence-they found time to play together and the oldest daughter even took up sewing! Once the iPads were returned, the parents set strict limits on the amount of daily use they could have because they saw how much the results altered the interaction between their girls. The girls managed to calm themselves down in stressful situations instead of being calmed by an iPad or iPhone and that was the most positive thing in the parents' eyes. In teaching, if I were to just hand a student an iPad to keep them quiet if they were disrupting the class, what would that teach them? "If I act bad in my class, my teacher will let me play games to make me stop, so I'll just act up more."? Possibly. Maybe one day technology should be removed form the classroom for a quarter, just to see how children of this generation would react. George Couros read my mind in his blog entry! He brought up the fact that technology is NOT supposed to just teach children how to create things on a computer, but to teach them how to work together and how to learn things independently. Project Based Learning could be the best thing to ever happen to the education/technology world because it forces students to work in pairs or groups but it allows them to do so in a productive, less frustrating way. All in all, the education department has made some phenomenal changes in improving technology in the classroom, but maybe a step back would be a good learning experience for both teachers and students.
Check out this video with Dr. Kristy Goodwin: How Young is Too Young for Technology?
Read what Robin Raskin had to say: Raising Digital Kids-$69 LeapFrog Toy Takes on the $500 iPad
What does ABC News think? Generation iPad:Could Device Hurt Toddler's Development?
Watch Bridger, a 2-year old with an iPad: Baby Works iPad Perfectly!
Check out George Couros' blog entry: The Principal of Change
Watch these kids: Young Kids and "Old" Technology: A Parent's Retrospective
After reading these blogs and watching these videos, discuss your opinion on the matter. Tell me the pros of giving your child an iPad, iPhone, etc. and the cons of having a technological pacifier, as it has been called. Talk about this matter from a teaching perspective first, but also tell me how you would feel about this as a parent. Would you worry about their social development? Do they need to always have something to keep them calm? Perhaps the technology is not the real problem, and maybe it is just the parenting. Maybe some children have parents who allow them to play games on their iPhones, but whom also have interactive time as a family...but there could also be parents who strictly give their children an iPad or game to keep them quiet. Tell me your stand.
I believe children are the product of their environment. For some families, the parents work so much that they are hardly able to spend time with their children, and as a result, they buy them iPads to serve as a source of, both entertainment and, apology for the lack of their presence in the home. We can't always blame the parents because sometimes life does get so busy that it is hard to juggle everything, but we can blame the parents for not making the appropriate amount of time in their busy lives to hang out with their kids. Some children suffer serious emotional heartache and are unable to develop socially because they have so little interaction with human beings; our parents are the first friends we make as children and they are ultimately responsible for the people we turn into. What is "young" though? Two years old? Four? In my own experience, my niece and nephew have fabulous parents! They spend time with them every day, they take them to the park on weekends, and they have family time with my parents, my fiance' and I on a weekly basis. They are incredible parents. Interestingly enough, my niece, Ella-7, and my nephew, Lincoln-4, are more tech savvy than any of us are. They have beat my high score on Temple Run. Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja more times than I would like to admit, but they are well adapted to being social at any time of the day. They don't need an iPad or an iPhone to keep them entertained, in fact, the only time they get them is if we are in a nice restaurant and the food is taking a long time and they are just bored. Even that is rare, though. They allow specific times for them to use their iPhones because they don't want them to become a pacifier or a necessity, and I completely agree with their philosophy.
However, as a future educator, I love technology for small children...in the classroom...in moderation. I believe there is a time and a place for the use of any device that could draw their attention away from things around them. In my experience in a first grade classroom this semester, the classroom seems to run much more smoothly when all the students are able to work on something different at all times-someone is typing their spelling words on the SMARTboard, someone is writing sentences with thought provokers on an overhead projector, someone is taking AR tests on the computer, someone is learning sight words on an iPad. The kids in that classroom seemed to really love technology, but they loved their friends and teacher even more. I think the amount of technology you allow in your classroom has to be correlated with your teaching style. Are you a fun, upbeat teacher? Use any and all technological tools you can get your hands on. Are you more laid back and want the kids to work quietly? Try not to have too much technology in your classroom because it could become a source of less social interaction amongst the students. The students can only be expected to work with what you give them, and I don't mean the technology.
In response to the video by Dr. Kristy Goodwin, How Young is Too Young for Technology?, I agree with her belief of what developing brains need-1. serve and return interactions, the children need their parents to work with them and teach them appropriate behavior and social interaction. 2. physical movement, children need to be active to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to keep their energy at an easily maintained level. 3. language rich interactions, how else with they learn to speak correctly? I thought it was really interesting that she said children are unable to learn from media until around 2 years of age, television that is; interactive media is a totally different story. They may learn some things form their iPad or your iPhone, but they ultimately learn everything from YOU. The video about Bridger and his iPad, Baby Works iPad Perfectly!, was a perfect example of a healthy way for a child to use an iPad. The parents had taught Bridger, a 2-year old, how to draw, read, and learn words on his iPad, instead of just showing him where all the games were. While I realize he probably know where all of them are and probably plays them, too, it was really impressive to me that they chose to film him doing all of the educational things his iPad had to offer instead.
What Robin Raskin had to say in her blog entry, Raising Digital Kids-$69 LeapFrog Toy Takes on the $500 iPad, really spoke volumes to me. What is the difference between an iPad and LeapFrog? Not many parents are willing to go out and drop $500 dollars on an iPad for their 4-year old, especially because it "might make them less socially developed", but yet they are willing to spend a significantly less $69 dollars on the exact same thing? Strange. LeapFrog may be producing games and apps that are more educational and kid-friendly, you will still get the same anti-social product if you allow your child to use this device too often. Parents need to be more interactive with their children if they want positive results in the development of their children, not just kid-friendly toys. The video of the children learning about "old" technology cracked me up-Young Kids and "Old" Technology: A Parent's Retrospective. We should really teach our children about new and old technology more often. How else will they appreciate what they have now? They need to know where everything started before they learn about where everything is now. What ever happened to the Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, floppy disks and rolls of film? Why did they go out of style? And dial-up internet? That's one thing I'm glad to see gone! My middle school days were full of that awful sound of the internet starting up...and no, I do not miss it.
I feel like the last two things I was asked to review, Generation iPad:Could Device Hurt Toddler's Development? and The Principal of Change could be more related to teaching than to parenting. In the ABC News video, the anchor discussed the story of a family of 3 little girls who were completely consumed with their iPads. They challenged the family to remove them from the home for a month and see what the girls would do with their free time, and it had surprising results. Instead of moping about their iPads, they actually seemed to not be bothered by the lack of their presence-they found time to play together and the oldest daughter even took up sewing! Once the iPads were returned, the parents set strict limits on the amount of daily use they could have because they saw how much the results altered the interaction between their girls. The girls managed to calm themselves down in stressful situations instead of being calmed by an iPad or iPhone and that was the most positive thing in the parents' eyes. In teaching, if I were to just hand a student an iPad to keep them quiet if they were disrupting the class, what would that teach them? "If I act bad in my class, my teacher will let me play games to make me stop, so I'll just act up more."? Possibly. Maybe one day technology should be removed form the classroom for a quarter, just to see how children of this generation would react. George Couros read my mind in his blog entry! He brought up the fact that technology is NOT supposed to just teach children how to create things on a computer, but to teach them how to work together and how to learn things independently. Project Based Learning could be the best thing to ever happen to the education/technology world because it forces students to work in pairs or groups but it allows them to do so in a productive, less frustrating way. All in all, the education department has made some phenomenal changes in improving technology in the classroom, but maybe a step back would be a good learning experience for both teachers and students.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Blog Post 12 - Assistive Technology
When it comes to learning, every child (or person, in general) learns differently. Some people are auditory learners, some people are kinesthetic learners, but then there are those special people with learning disabilities who often struggle with learning from everyday devices. For a student who has no problem learning, using a SMARTboard may not be an issue, but what if another student is blind? Another student may have no difficulty using their iPad to play a game with their sight words, but what if a student is deaf? There are specific tools that have been designed to help these special little guys out. I know there are usually classrooms set aside for special needs children, but even in a setting where every student is on a relatively equal playing field, everyone may still have a different need than the person next to them.
First up is the Abilipad, a tool used to help students with their text input. For a student who is blind, it could be really helpful to have an assistive tool like this that would allow them to use speech-to-text to type what they wanted to type. Some schools may not be fortunate enough to acquire several types of assistive tools, but this one is pretty readily available, especially since the price tag maxes out at $50.00. This could also be really helpful for someone who has suffered from a speech impairment, like a mild speech impediment, because sometimes their speech is not clear anough for our devices to understand. How could speech-to-text help a child who has a speech impediment? Well, this tool also has a top of the line word predictor that assists in translation. I came into contact with a student this semester during some of my field service whom this tool would have been perfect for! He had a very mild issue with his speech, but when he would speak to me, I could barely understand some of his words because his problem was only with a select few sounds. He wasn't considered a special education student because he didn't have any type of learning disability, but I believe this tool would have been helpful for him in the classroom because his teacher required a lot of speech-to-text activities on their classroom iPad.
Next up is Draft:Builder-a program that helps students prepare, organize and strategize a plan for writing assignments. This form of assistive technology would be exceptionally helpful for students who may have ADD, ADHD, or dyslexia because it is a way to help ease their mind by giving them suggestions to help them write efficiently. This semester I have also encountered a student who experiences trouble with his ability to read and organize his thoughts well enough to write properly, because he suffers from ADD. I believe Draft:Builder would have been very helpful to this child, how do I know this? I tutored this child in reading and I saw his struggles firsthand. It is always unfortunate when you meet children whom you know have disabilities, but learning disabilities are an entirely different world. You don't always see those problems coming and when you realize that they exist, it is absolutely heartbreaking until there is a solution. I believe it is important to remind these children that they are just like everyone else, they just need a little help discovering how they learn best; I want to include every child, no matter what their abilities or disabilities are, in the activities in my classroom. My heart is for helping children with mild-moderate learning disabilities in a "normal" classroom setting and I hope to be able to use tools like Draft:Builder to do so.
The final assistive technology resource I wanted to bring to light is PageFlip. This tool is exactly what it sounds like-a page flipper. Now, when I first saw this with the example of "setting it up in the kitchen", I immediately realized how ridiculous that sounds, and how often we take things for granted in America. There are starving children in Africa, so we buy page flippers for our cookbooks...crazy. Anyways, PageFlip is actually NOT intended to be an unnecessary first world resource, it is intended to help people with physical impairments who are unable to turn the pages in a book themselves. I watch a lot of Grey's Anatomy and when I found out about PageFlip, all I wanted to do was dive into my favorite television series and give this to all of the people who suffered brain damage that altered their physical abilities or the family who smashed into the ambulance with a premature baby in it and had serious physical damage. I think this is probably my favorite tool that I discovered because it is the most useful and thoughtful creation because it is designed to help people with serious injuries. I really enjoyed looking for assistive technologoies more than I thought I would because it reminded me how important it really is to keep the disabled students in mind when preparing lesson plans for my classroom.
Next up is Draft:Builder-a program that helps students prepare, organize and strategize a plan for writing assignments. This form of assistive technology would be exceptionally helpful for students who may have ADD, ADHD, or dyslexia because it is a way to help ease their mind by giving them suggestions to help them write efficiently. This semester I have also encountered a student who experiences trouble with his ability to read and organize his thoughts well enough to write properly, because he suffers from ADD. I believe Draft:Builder would have been very helpful to this child, how do I know this? I tutored this child in reading and I saw his struggles firsthand. It is always unfortunate when you meet children whom you know have disabilities, but learning disabilities are an entirely different world. You don't always see those problems coming and when you realize that they exist, it is absolutely heartbreaking until there is a solution. I believe it is important to remind these children that they are just like everyone else, they just need a little help discovering how they learn best; I want to include every child, no matter what their abilities or disabilities are, in the activities in my classroom. My heart is for helping children with mild-moderate learning disabilities in a "normal" classroom setting and I hope to be able to use tools like Draft:Builder to do so.
The final assistive technology resource I wanted to bring to light is PageFlip. This tool is exactly what it sounds like-a page flipper. Now, when I first saw this with the example of "setting it up in the kitchen", I immediately realized how ridiculous that sounds, and how often we take things for granted in America. There are starving children in Africa, so we buy page flippers for our cookbooks...crazy. Anyways, PageFlip is actually NOT intended to be an unnecessary first world resource, it is intended to help people with physical impairments who are unable to turn the pages in a book themselves. I watch a lot of Grey's Anatomy and when I found out about PageFlip, all I wanted to do was dive into my favorite television series and give this to all of the people who suffered brain damage that altered their physical abilities or the family who smashed into the ambulance with a premature baby in it and had serious physical damage. I think this is probably my favorite tool that I discovered because it is the most useful and thoughtful creation because it is designed to help people with serious injuries. I really enjoyed looking for assistive technologoies more than I thought I would because it reminded me how important it really is to keep the disabled students in mind when preparing lesson plans for my classroom.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Project 12B - SMARTboard Lesson Plan
For this project, my group used a lesson plan we created a few weeks ago that was all about Dr. Seuss and how we would incorporate the books into our classroom to meet different standards. We used a tic-tac-toe game from one of the links Dr. Strange allowed us to utilize, called SMART Exchange. Our lesson plan meets several of the Math Standards, found here. We used Geometry and adding to teach our students via the SMARTboard, and we thoroughly enjoyed creating this lesson plan. I apologize for the lack of clarity displayed in the video-we had some trouble getting our camera to not have a glare on the SMARTboard. After some editing, it is much clearer than what we started with, but what you cannot see, we make up for verbally. Enjoy!
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Project 10 - Interview with Mrs. Lindsey
The teacher I chose to interview for my project was Mrs. JulieAnna Lindsey, a 7th grade English and Language Arts teacher at Grand Bay Middle School. The educator I chose as my inspriation for this interview was Marc Prensky because I watched several of his videos when he was my C4T a few months ago. In his video What is the role of the teacher in today's world?, he discusses the importance of incorporating creative projects into the classroom and how to enhance the creative ability of our students. I loved this video when I watched it the first time and I still do! In the beginning of the semester, I did some observation hours for another course with Mrs. Lindsey and I immediately knew I loved her teaching style. She is a great blend of fun, when it's appropriate, but serious when it comes to learning. I have known Mrs. Lindsey for a number of years through church and family friends, but she is also doing all of the decor for my upcoming wedding! This teacher holds a special place in my heart and I was so honored to interview her. I wish there hadn't been a time restraint on this project because I ended up with about ten minutes of footage, but I had to cut some questions out because of time. Also, I was NOT texting or anything during this interview-I had all the questions pulled up on my phone to serve as a reminder while I was talking.
C4K March
My C4K for this month were both students from other countries, which I thought was really cool. The first was Hine, a year 5 student from Mrs. She's class in New Zealand. In the entry I responded to, she had just had a class picnic and posted a video slideshow of pictures from the day. "Hello Hine! I am Catherine Stalvey, and EDM 310 student in the United States. Your picnic looked like a blast! I remember having picnics when I was younger, and I remember having a fall festival every year at my school that was a lot like your picnic. I saw in your video that some students were hula hooping-that was my favorite thing to do when I was in second grade...even though I wasn't all that great at it. I hope you are having a great year at school and that you are learning a lot! I will definitely be keeping up with your posts from here on out. New Zealand must be an amazing place to live! I have a friend moving there soon and I am very jealous of her. Have you ever visited the States? It's pretty nice over here, too. Have a great day!"
Next was Grace, a 7th grader, who posted about her experience with what seemed like our version of an International Festival. She said they called it Fia fia, and that all the students were divided into groups, where they learned a dance or some kind of presentation that they would show to their classmates. She was so excited because she was in a group with one of her friends. "Hi Grace! My name is Catherine and I am a student at a university in the United States. I have never heard of Fia fia before, but it sounds really interesting and fun! When I was younger, we used to have a day that we called "International Day" where we did the same thing-brought different foods, candy, treats. International Day was more like stuff from different countries, but it was the same idea. It sounds like you really enjoyed being in the Niuean group, and I bet you were crazy excited when you found out your friend was in it with you! I hope you enjoy all the days you have left in school this year! Good luck!"
Both of my students from the month of March struck me as energetic, fun-loving kids (seriously though, what kid isn't both of those qualities) who truly enjoyed posting things on their blogs. They seemed like they really took the time to decide what they were going to say before they just started typing, and I thought that was really admirable coming from such young students.
Next was Grace, a 7th grader, who posted about her experience with what seemed like our version of an International Festival. She said they called it Fia fia, and that all the students were divided into groups, where they learned a dance or some kind of presentation that they would show to their classmates. She was so excited because she was in a group with one of her friends. "Hi Grace! My name is Catherine and I am a student at a university in the United States. I have never heard of Fia fia before, but it sounds really interesting and fun! When I was younger, we used to have a day that we called "International Day" where we did the same thing-brought different foods, candy, treats. International Day was more like stuff from different countries, but it was the same idea. It sounds like you really enjoyed being in the Niuean group, and I bet you were crazy excited when you found out your friend was in it with you! I hope you enjoy all the days you have left in school this year! Good luck!"
Both of my students from the month of March struck me as energetic, fun-loving kids (seriously though, what kid isn't both of those qualities) who truly enjoyed posting things on their blogs. They seemed like they really took the time to decide what they were going to say before they just started typing, and I thought that was really admirable coming from such young students.
Summary of Edna Sackson - C4T #3
In this entry, Edna talked about how creativity in the classroom is getting lost. She said that teachers are losing their ability to teach new material any other way than the norm, but it isn't as effective as it could be. My comment to her: "Amazing blog post! My name is Catherine Stalvey and I am an EDM 310 student at the University of South Alabama in Dr. Strange's class. I believe creativity is the most important tool out there! I was always taught to think in different ways and to find an unusual perspective on different circumstances throughout my life. Your post hit the nail on the head! I love the analogy about ways to eat Oreos-haven't we all been there? Whether you're four years of age, or 44 years of age, you never tire of finding new ways to eat those life-changing cookies. Your writing is so easy to read and so relatable, and I honestly enjoyed reading through about 5 of your other entries. You have a gift! Keep it up!"
This blog entry was about an inservice Edna attended recently where the lecturers were referring to technology too broadly for her liking. She said that it appeared as though her mentors, in a sense, were people who were terrified of change, people who didn't like what they though technology was because they didn't understand it, people who were too stubborn about the changing education system. Here is my response: "I love love love this post! This is Catherine again, from the University of South Alabama. You really have a knack for blogging, and your thoughts hit the nail on the head every time. It’s so true that so many educators are terrified of technology, but as you stated, it’s almost never because of what the internet is capable of, or any logical reason at all, it is because they have no idea what they’re doing. It’s sad, really. So many people are missing the opportunity to have SMARTboards in their classroom or tablets for their students to help them learn at their own pace…all because of a stubborn refusal to learn something new. Your sassy ending was the perfect touch! ‘If you don’t understand something…don’t teach it to pre-service teachers. Otherwise they’ll blog about you.’ Amazing, simply amazing!"
Blog Post 11 - Teaching & Learning
As future educators, it is important for us to keep up with the ever-changing methods of teaching and for us to never stop finding new ways to teach material. Whether it means assigning "odd" projects or even collaborating with other teachers, like some of the teachers in this week's videos did, we should never give up on trying new things. In every day life, it is easy to become jaded and feel like there is no reason to do something any differently than you have done it for the past five years of your life...until you have to. Will our students really keep learning if we never evolve with the new curriculum?
In my interview movie for this week, the teacher I spoke with-JulieAnna Lindsey-talked about how she is having to adjust her teaching because her school is incorporating more of the Common Core Standards. She has been a teacher for five years, but she said she feels like a first year teacher this year because she's going through a testing phase with her students and having to figure out what works all over again. Does this mean the ACCRS is helping or hurting teachers in our school systems? For Mrs. Lindsey, this new phase of learning while she teaches is a nice way to mix up the monotony of teaching middle school. Maybe the board that made the decision to change the standards this year should take into consideration that not every teacher can adjust as quickly as she did...or maybe this will make struggling teachers rethink their teaching methods that may have gotten stale. Perhaps it's a great thing!
I really enjoyed watching these videos because it opened up my eyes to an entirely new world of teaching styles. For instance, the teachers in Canada who combined their English and History classes because they felt their students could learn better this way completely blew my mind. Why hasn't everyone done this?! These kids were learning so much more because time was no longer an issue and they were able to have quality work because they had multiple teachers with them at all times. There is nothing that excites me more than thinking about my future as an educator and I know I will always try to stay creative with my teaching and always keep my students on their toes. Below is my group's slideshow presentation of what we learned from the blog assignment this week. Enjoy!
In my interview movie for this week, the teacher I spoke with-JulieAnna Lindsey-talked about how she is having to adjust her teaching because her school is incorporating more of the Common Core Standards. She has been a teacher for five years, but she said she feels like a first year teacher this year because she's going through a testing phase with her students and having to figure out what works all over again. Does this mean the ACCRS is helping or hurting teachers in our school systems? For Mrs. Lindsey, this new phase of learning while she teaches is a nice way to mix up the monotony of teaching middle school. Maybe the board that made the decision to change the standards this year should take into consideration that not every teacher can adjust as quickly as she did...or maybe this will make struggling teachers rethink their teaching methods that may have gotten stale. Perhaps it's a great thing!
I really enjoyed watching these videos because it opened up my eyes to an entirely new world of teaching styles. For instance, the teachers in Canada who combined their English and History classes because they felt their students could learn better this way completely blew my mind. Why hasn't everyone done this?! These kids were learning so much more because time was no longer an issue and they were able to have quality work because they had multiple teachers with them at all times. There is nothing that excites me more than thinking about my future as an educator and I know I will always try to stay creative with my teaching and always keep my students on their toes. Below is my group's slideshow presentation of what we learned from the blog assignment this week. Enjoy!
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