Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed this class. I took this same class at Faulkner State Community College, which did not transfer to South.... imagine that haha, but this class was one hundred times better than the one I took at Faulkner. I love that this class is not "burp-back" education. In the class at Faulkner all we did was follow a guided book that told us how to make spreadsheets and useless material like that. This class has been very fun and very educational. I love the podcast and learning about Audactiy. Audacity is a really cool application, I never knew something like it existed. I also liked the idea of blogging, I think it could be a reat educational tool in every school. Overall, the class is great.

Two podcast

"Can wikipedia be useful to students and educators?"
I really like Wikipedia, I think there are tons of useful information on it. It is really easy to use. The only thing about Wikipedia is you should check your resources of the material you find. Anybody can go on Wikipedia and enter information, it does not mean it is true information. I really like the podcast idea. I think podcast gives students another way of learning instead of reading and writing all the time, or taking notes. I think these podcasts are very useful.

"Using Facebook as an educational tool."
Facebook has a few ways of being useful for education. One thing Facebook has is notecards. I think digital notecards are very neat and can really be useful to students. If a student misses a class they can get on Facebook and see what they missed. It allows you to connect to almost anyone you want, even people from other countries. As I said before, I really enjoy these podcasts and think they can be very useful.

txting away ur education

I agree with the article to a certain extent. I do think cellphones and other technology can be very distracting. I sometimes can be talking to a friend and he will get a text, pull his phone out, reply to the text and will have heard nothing I just told him. I think texting is distracting and it has become WAY too popular. I work at the cellphone company T-Mobile, so I have seen some of the cellphone bills of teenagers who use too many text in one month. You would not believe some of the bills. As far as texting making kids shy away from thinking, or look for quick answers, I do not believe that. Texting is distracting and students can not possible listen to the teacher and text at the same time, but I do not see texting changing the way people think.

I am an optimist

I really enjoyed this blog. This guy is a great teacher and I would loved to have been in his class. If i was a parent at this school I would make sure my child was in his class. I try me hardest to stay positive all the time. This summer I am taking three classes and working all the time. It is so easy for me to get "down in the dumps", and sometimes I do, but I always try to be positive. I heard a great speaker one time at a convention in Mobile who said "What you focus on expands." For example, if you really want a certain kind of car, you start seeing that car everywhere you go. It is not because everyone just started buying the car you wanted all of a sudden, it just catches your eye more often because you are focusing on it. If you focus on all the negatives in your life, just like the car the negatives will catch your eye more and your life will always be negative.

Three Blogs about teaching

I really liked all three of the blogs. I thought the "brave" blog had some great ideas that I have never really thought about before. It showed that teachers really do want to change the ways schools are but do not have the power. I think the "10 reason why i love teaching" blog shows that teachers really do enjoy their jobs. Some people thinks teachers just enjoy having summers off or the good benefits of being a teacher but the blog showed why teacher love what they do. The "ways my school is unique was a pretty cool blog, it showed differents way some schools can let students be involved and let students have fun. Some school switch things up every once in a while to keep the students from getting bored and disliking school. If I was brave I would make Physical Education a real class. Students would come in the first day and do a variety of physical fitness test, body fat tests, and body measurements and weight. Students would have a goal of how many inches, pounds or body fat they want to lose by the end of the year. They would have a set diet to follow. At the end of the year the final exam would be how close they got to their goals. I would love teaching because I know i would have an impact on children's lives. I would make my school unique by letting my class callaborate with other school oversees. We talked about this in class a little a couple of weeks ago and I thought that was an awesome idea. I never got the chance to do anything like that when I was in school. Actually, when we had foreign exchange students come to our school no body knew how to act towards them. They were usually the outcast of the school and usually went back to their countries with a wrong impression of America.

From the 3rs to the 6cs

I absolutely agree with Dr. Strange. I think is is thinking way outside the box. I love the idea of collaborating with other schools or possibly other countries. I think creativity is really becoming extinct. Teacher sometimes scold students for not having the right answer instead of asking how the got that answer. Creativity is key in opening and expanding students minds. Information really is almost everywhere now.This is a great blog and I agree with it.

No "Burp Back" Education

I completely agree with Dr. Strange. I believe teaching is about opening and expanding children minds. Teaching is suppose to teach kids to think outside the box and broaden there horizons. Some teachers teach only materials that will be covered on a test and either the students remembers the material long enough or not. It is not about how smart the child is, it is how long they can remember the material. As soon as the test is over most of the kids just forget what they "learned" and move on to the next set of chapters for the next test.

International class blogs

Mr. Mihnea's class in Bangkok uses blogs to do a variety of things. They use blogs to send happy birthday messages and post pictures from school activities such as field trips. They have links to other countries class blogs. The have upcoming events such as plays and other activities. They even have homework tips posted on the blogs.

click here for link



Mr. Lanshed's class in Australia also uses blogs for class. On their blog they have a calender of events to keep everyone posted of upcoming events. He post the homework assisgnments online for the students. He also post links to other school around the world. They have a few funny posting to keep students entertained. He also post other interesting links.

click here for link

US teachers and schools using blogs

Mrs. Sanborn, a teacher in Ohama, Nebraska uses blogs for her classes. She teaches fifth grade at Willowdale Elementary School. She uses her blogs to keep parents up-to-date on everyday activities as well as giving students homework to do. She assigns a diferent student each day to do a post about the days events. The students breaks down the entire schedule of events for that day and writes a blog about it.

click here for link




Keystone Elementary School in Knox, Pennsylvania also uses blogs for its school. They use blogs to keep parents updated on school activities. They post extra links to interesting education websites and post pictures of fun events or contest. They make awards for contest well know through picture and certificates online. They also post weather updates and other need to know information.

click here for link

A link to Gdrive article

click here to go to a gdrive article

Google plans to make PCs history?

The new google Gdrive sounds like a great new invention. I am a little skeptical about it, as a lot of people will also. It will for sure have its positives and negatives. I like the idea of not using so much space on your computer and not sending so many emails and all that but I do not like the idea of all my information being on the interenet. There are people that know how to hack into anything. I also do not like the fact you possibly could lose all of your information if something was to go wrong, but then again that could happen with your computer or a flash drive. I think it will be a big hit but I do not think it will be a PC killer.

Is google changing the way we think?

The article is all about the new technology of the new century. It describes how easy it is to use search engines to find information extremely fast. It also talks about how easy it is to keep up with peoples views and opinions. I think I would have to agrees that new technology and search engine websites like google do are changing the way we think. In the past people use to have to go to many places to find the information that we can now find very fast. I think our brains are changing the way we think because if we know we need to do research we do not have to go anywhere except home to a computer.

ACCESS

ACCESS means Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators and Students Statewide. ACCESS provides students with opportunities to take advanced or electives that are not offered at their school. It is a technology based programs where students will interact with the teacher through their own laptop provided by ACCESS. Students will watch the teacher on a huge screen and participate through their computer.

ACCESS provides all the materials needed and trains the facilitators on how to use the program. They will have a support team and contact number for any questions or concerns. ACCESS also pays the facilitator without the school having to pay them.

ALEX

ALEX is the Alabama Learning Exchange. It is a website where teachers, parents and children can go to get extra resources for learning. It allows teacher to post lesson plans online for other teachers to use or print lesson plans other teachers use themselves. ALEX outlines objective that should be covered in every grade in each class. ALEX has everything imaginable to do with learning, students could even take courses online that are not offered at their school.

ALEX has extra website links on its website for other resources it does not offer. It has a place online for teachers to store lesson plans and organize material. It also has teacher based training to make sure teachers can further their education as well. As a teacher I would find this website very useful and user friendly. I would absolutely use this website as an extra tool to keep me organized and up-to-date.

Welcome

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