My first C4T for this month was to Mr. Bernia. He is a Principal at Oakview Middle School. Both posts I read from Mr. Bernia were very impressive. The first post I read was 1 thing we can do. Mr. Bernia discusses what else he can do beyond building relationships with staff, students, and parents. He spoke about the term innovation and the different meanings of it in his post. Mr. Bernia says that innovating should be looking at data, finding the gaps, and finding ways to fix and address them. He says that, “Strong relationships build the trust that serves as the “shell” for real conversations about meaningful data to occur, which will show the gaps for teachers to address with their innovations.” He says that as teachers, we should we doing this. He also posed a question in the end of his blog saying, “Do we collect high quality data, analyze it, and then innovate because of it?”
I commented back by introducing my self and I tried to answer his question with what I thought. I think that teachers do innovate because of the data analyzed. Teachers gather data from co-teachers, administrative staff, and their peers who have experience worth sharing. By sharing our experiences we are able to tweak them, make our ideas better, and address them in a better way.
The 2nd post I read from Mr. Bernia titled 15 days, was impressive and encouraging. He wrote a formal letter to all of his staff to set a positive tone for the last 15 days of school before their long break. He talks about their last 15 days being a marathon not a sprint and that the staff should still be pushing their students especially now since many students will want to slack off. He encourages the staff to push their students, care for them, and appreciate them.
I thought Mr. Bernia’s letter to his staff was great! I told him how I related to the letter since I was a college student and these last few weeks of school are draining and we just want to brush off these final exams to get them over with and be on break. I told him how I wished more professors would encourage us to still do our best before the semester is over rather than having to listen to them complain about how ready they are to be on break too. I thought his letter was a great reminder to his staff as to why they are in that profession and why every day at school counts.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Progress report Final Project #16
I am going to be working with Jessica Sanders and Bethany Fillingim on the final project #16. We have only met a couple of times but we have been discussing and brainstorming numerous ideas such as using the smartboard and integrating two subjects. As of now, we have not quite discovered which two, but plan to do so this week in the lab. We will be meeting hopefully 2-3 times a week to put together our final project.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
C4K #11 Part 1
Ms. Yollis’ Classroom Blog is very organized and detailed! At the very top of the blog there are links to help guide you around it. They have a blog archive with links to each month. Each month has links under them to click on and see what the class was doing for that month. The main body of the blog lists information by earliest date. The first post talks about how the class raised money for UNICEF. Their goal was $25 but they raised over $200. Each post has multiple pictures for viewing. If you click on the pictures, you will be taken to a new page to view and skim through all of the pictures for that particular blog post.
A big event going on for Ms. Yollis’ class is Family Blogging for the month of November! Parents like the idea because they feel connected to what’s going on in their child’s classroom. Some parents even posted comments to their kids pretending to be their family pet. So cute! All of the kids and Ms. Yollis have been participating a great deal in posting comments back to family members responses.
The class has been able to talk with students around the United States. The class talked with another class in Georgia. The two classes Skyped and the class from Georgia asked them questions about their state. They also did a share and compare session. All the students in Mrs. Yolli’s class had tons of responses from the Skype call. Each student had learned something new. Mrs. Yollis and her class got a chance to go to Hawaii again! They Skyped wit hrs. Conley's class from the fiftieth state, Hawaii! The students dressed in Hawaiian attire for the call. Each class shared facts about California and Hawaii.
On the right side of the blog are tons of links to look and click on for more information. Some of the links give information such as:
Ms. Yollis’ class blog has over 214,000 total visitors.
They have over 72,000 visitors on the cluster map.
Over 52,000 were from the U.S. and they had the least amount of visitors from Singapore and Malaysia.
They won 1st runner up for best class blog for the 2009 and 2010 EDUBLOG Awards. They won the lifetime achievement award for the 2010 EDU blog Awards. They also have a joke for the day widget!
The class also posted a video saying happy birthday to blogging buddy from Australia!
Ms. Yollis’ class blog is amazing! I think more classrooms should have a class blog. I think parents would jump on the idea much faster if they could see the success in Ms.Yollis’s blog and the advantages of having one. I can’t wait to create my own class blog. Thanks so much Ms. Yollis!!
A big event going on for Ms. Yollis’ class is Family Blogging for the month of November! Parents like the idea because they feel connected to what’s going on in their child’s classroom. Some parents even posted comments to their kids pretending to be their family pet. So cute! All of the kids and Ms. Yollis have been participating a great deal in posting comments back to family members responses.
The class has been able to talk with students around the United States. The class talked with another class in Georgia. The two classes Skyped and the class from Georgia asked them questions about their state. They also did a share and compare session. All the students in Mrs. Yolli’s class had tons of responses from the Skype call. Each student had learned something new. Mrs. Yollis and her class got a chance to go to Hawaii again! They Skyped wit hrs. Conley's class from the fiftieth state, Hawaii! The students dressed in Hawaiian attire for the call. Each class shared facts about California and Hawaii.
On the right side of the blog are tons of links to look and click on for more information. Some of the links give information such as:
Ms. Yollis’ class blog has over 214,000 total visitors.
They have over 72,000 visitors on the cluster map.
Over 52,000 were from the U.S. and they had the least amount of visitors from Singapore and Malaysia.
They won 1st runner up for best class blog for the 2009 and 2010 EDUBLOG Awards. They won the lifetime achievement award for the 2010 EDU blog Awards. They also have a joke for the day widget!
The class also posted a video saying happy birthday to blogging buddy from Australia!
Ms. Yollis’ class blog is amazing! I think more classrooms should have a class blog. I think parents would jump on the idea much faster if they could see the success in Ms.Yollis’s blog and the advantages of having one. I can’t wait to create my own class blog. Thanks so much Ms. Yollis!!
Blog Post #12
Blog Post #12
1. Watch this video: Technology and the Terrified Teachers. Your will obviously notice how much technology has changed from decades ago till now in the video. In two to three paragraphs I want you to discuss the reasons some teachers are afraid of using technology. In this video, what benefits do you see from having technology in the classrooms? I also want you to talk about ways you will start incorporating technology in your own classroom. What are some effective ways to start? What tools will you use to help guide you into teaching more consistently with technology? Follow the requirements in Writing A Quality Blog Post.
2. Send Dr. Strange a Tweet suggesting that he watch this YouTube video. Mark it #edm310 so I will see your Tweet.
1. Watch this video: Technology and the Terrified Teachers. Your will obviously notice how much technology has changed from decades ago till now in the video. In two to three paragraphs I want you to discuss the reasons some teachers are afraid of using technology. In this video, what benefits do you see from having technology in the classrooms? I also want you to talk about ways you will start incorporating technology in your own classroom. What are some effective ways to start? What tools will you use to help guide you into teaching more consistently with technology? Follow the requirements in Writing A Quality Blog Post.
2. Send Dr. Strange a Tweet suggesting that he watch this YouTube video. Mark it #edm310 so I will see your Tweet.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Blog post #11
First off, I thought the youtube video Little Kids...Big Potential was amazing! I’ve never seen so many kids that enjoy technology as much as this classroom did!
I enjoyed watching the Skype interview very much. One of the responses from Mrs. Cassidy that stood out the most was about protecting the students’ identity. I think it’s very smart to only use last names on the blogs and to not post pictures of specific kids to the blog as well. I know that would have been a major concern for me when I have my own classroom but I think that approach to safe blogging would be very much liked and appreciated by most, if not all parents. I think blogging will be a major part of learning in my classroom. Mrs. Cassidy said that blogging is a major advantage because the kids have an audience all around the world. I love that they have a cluster map for the kids to see where people are from that comment on their blog. That is a great tool! I think that many parents would like the use of blogs for their kids learning so that they can keep up with what is going on in the classroom more.
I liked Mrs. Cassidy’s response in how to start using technology. She said to start with what you are most interested in. I think that is very true, but I think I would start using technology in my classroom based off of what my students have a lot of interest in as well. I know many students absolutely love Facebook. For middle and high-school I think the idea of having a separate Facebook account for school is awesome! I think that will make students interact and be more excited about school if Facebook or any other PLN is a part of their learning style.
I enjoyed watching the interview very much and I truly learned a lot from listening to Mrs. Cassidy's view on technology in the classroom!
I enjoyed watching the Skype interview very much. One of the responses from Mrs. Cassidy that stood out the most was about protecting the students’ identity. I think it’s very smart to only use last names on the blogs and to not post pictures of specific kids to the blog as well. I know that would have been a major concern for me when I have my own classroom but I think that approach to safe blogging would be very much liked and appreciated by most, if not all parents. I think blogging will be a major part of learning in my classroom. Mrs. Cassidy said that blogging is a major advantage because the kids have an audience all around the world. I love that they have a cluster map for the kids to see where people are from that comment on their blog. That is a great tool! I think that many parents would like the use of blogs for their kids learning so that they can keep up with what is going on in the classroom more.
I liked Mrs. Cassidy’s response in how to start using technology. She said to start with what you are most interested in. I think that is very true, but I think I would start using technology in my classroom based off of what my students have a lot of interest in as well. I know many students absolutely love Facebook. For middle and high-school I think the idea of having a separate Facebook account for school is awesome! I think that will make students interact and be more excited about school if Facebook or any other PLN is a part of their learning style.
I enjoyed watching the interview very much and I truly learned a lot from listening to Mrs. Cassidy's view on technology in the classroom!
C4K October Summaries
C4K
My first C4K for this month was to Sienna. We were able to look at the kids avatar characters and we told them an interesting fact about the U.S. I told Sienna that the U.S. eats 90 acres of pizza a day.
My next C4K post was to Hunter. He wrote a post about lightening bugs. He explained in his post why lightening bugs light up. He told us that lightening bugs light up because they are in search of a mate. His post was very informative and I thought he did a great job.
My second C4K for this week was to Landon. Landon wrote an informative and somewhat gross post about earwax. He talked about the many things that earwax helps with in our body. I had no idea that earwax helped protect our skin from bacteria, fungi, and insects! Landon did a great job as well.
My third C4K for this month was to Mr. C’s class. I got to watch a video and see some artwork done by the students. I commented on the video by saying that everyone did a great job. I told them how important it is to express their creativity! There were definitely some aspiring artists in Mr. C’s class.
My last C4K was to Lorenzo. Lorenzo did an Australian animation using Hyperstudio. His video was about facts of Australia and had kangaroos and birds moving. I told him I had never tried Hyperstudio before and it seemed like a pretty cool video tool! Lorenzo did a great job and told some very interesting facts about Australia!
My first C4K for this month was to Sienna. We were able to look at the kids avatar characters and we told them an interesting fact about the U.S. I told Sienna that the U.S. eats 90 acres of pizza a day.
My next C4K post was to Hunter. He wrote a post about lightening bugs. He explained in his post why lightening bugs light up. He told us that lightening bugs light up because they are in search of a mate. His post was very informative and I thought he did a great job.
My second C4K for this week was to Landon. Landon wrote an informative and somewhat gross post about earwax. He talked about the many things that earwax helps with in our body. I had no idea that earwax helped protect our skin from bacteria, fungi, and insects! Landon did a great job as well.
My third C4K for this month was to Mr. C’s class. I got to watch a video and see some artwork done by the students. I commented on the video by saying that everyone did a great job. I told them how important it is to express their creativity! There were definitely some aspiring artists in Mr. C’s class.
My last C4K was to Lorenzo. Lorenzo did an Australian animation using Hyperstudio. His video was about facts of Australia and had kangaroos and birds moving. I told him I had never tried Hyperstudio before and it seemed like a pretty cool video tool! Lorenzo did a great job and told some very interesting facts about Australia!
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