Monday, March 25, 2013

Blog Post 10

cartoon

I believe that this cartoon is explaining that although something looks nice and is cheap, like the papermate, it may not always be affordable. The ticonderoga has more of a cheaper look because he has a t-shirt and jeans but is also the most expensive thing. I think the underlying message is don't judge a book by it's cover.

John Spencer
Spencer explains in his post "Why Are Your Kids Playing Games" that he is teaching his kids various scenarios and solutions in a factory setting. This approach is more hands-on. The principal on the other hand, sees this as a game. No matter what is being taught, he strictly does not permit games. At the end of this post, the principal tells the Spencer what should be taught instead of his silly games. Spencer takes this as his way of changing the game. I see Spencer has a rebellious side, honestly. Most teachers would have just agreed with the principal and went on lecturing students. Spencer took this as another challenge.
The post that I chose to read was "The Con Academy"
The Con Academy


Scott McLeod
Scott McLeod travels to different schools. He likes to visit schools that "live on the cutting edge of deeper learning." I think that McLeod makes a strong point in this blog post by stating all the wrong things that are out there for students. He goes to the extremes by saying kids should be locked away from all sorts of technologies. Normally, I would disagree with technologies taking the place of teachers in the long run. But in this case, I don't think kids should be shut away from how to read hyperlinks, or RSS or how to maneuver around the web. I believe it is important for kids to be exposed to everything out there, the good and the bad.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Blog Post 9

Mr. McClung

Mr. McClung's blog post on what he has learned volume 4, talked about how he wanted to write something that he hasn't said in the previous blog posts. But he realized that he hasn't learned as much as he did his other years of teaching. One of the things he learned this year was remember what you came here to do and who to please. He said he spent most of his year trying to get his peers to like him. He had already tried to please his superiors and students but he really wanted to worry about what his peers thought about him. By trying to please his peers, he ended up changing who he was as a teacher. He realized that nothing positive ever came out of adult's opinion of him. All that matter to him was the students that he had. The second thing that he learned this year is that it is really easy to have a routine once you start teaching for a while. But whenever you get a routine, you as a teach become lazy and the classwork becomes boring for the students. Therefore, the students are uninterested. McClung was offered a higher level grade to teach for next year and he decided to take it so he can always challenge himself and not have his lesson plans become routine and boring. In Mr. McClung's first post about how his year went, he first talked about how when being a teacher, it is not all about you. It is about the student. The students comprehension is the biggest thing to worry about. Next he talked about being flexible when making lesson plans. He said he would get mad, when plans didn't go his way. But what he learned the most was to cope with the situation and make the best of it. Another thing that he has learned is communication is best for any situation, talk it out if you have a problem with someone. In addition to that, don't scold children when they don't meet your expectation. Pick them up after they fail and encourage them to do better. All of Mr. McClung's posts where very informative. He said things that oncoming teachers don't really think about. By reading his blog posts, it made me realize that I might do something that he talked about not doing.

teacher

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Blog Post 8

Richard Miller
Miller was talking about how writing can be in more of a creative way. There will be new ways of telling stories and getting information out. He believes it is fundamentally different. This kind of technology doesn't bother me when I think about applying it to elementary students. It's a way to get their creativity out. I wouldn't solely rely on this for my students for them to develop writing skills but I would definitely use it as a project.

Carly Pugh
Carly was talking about how she was being lazy and that was unusual for her. But they she decided to do her blog post. She quickly got excited because she realized she could right about anything she wanted to. She was talking about her approaches when she becomes a teacher. I think Carly did come really close to Dr. Miller's thoughts on multimedia technology.

Chipper Series and EDM for Dummies
In the Chipper Series it was about a girl who was in Dr. Strange's class and she didn't like his teaching ways. So she drops out of school and starts her own school, it was a fail. She gets a job as a teacher but ends up getting fired because she didn't show up for work. Then she became a server Waitress and that didn't work out. Her next jobs were being a nanny and a garbage collector. All in all, she goes back to school to get her masters degree. EDM for Dummies is like a commercial that has students that are going crazy before they had got EDM310 for Dummies, the book. After they got the book, their life was so much better.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
I don't believe that they were "attacking" the way that we know of schooling today. I think they were gently telling us that the work is changing and new technologies are forming out there. They were saying that we, as educators, need to be aware of what is going on and be able to apply that to the classroom. What also was said is that school is one form of learning but so are our communities, libraries, and internet. I like that this was said but it's not forgetting that teachers need to teach. Nowadays, teachers don't even teach and I think they are losing their credibility this way.

Scavenger Hunt
Emdodo could help me connect to parents and also other teachers and allow them to talk to me whenever. It's like facebook but more with more class.
The link for my poll is http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/6sWwUvIRLDxvQ43
The link for my comic is http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=8770580C938026

Monday, March 4, 2013

C4T 2

Michael Vaughn
Mr. Vaughn was discussing the new free apps available on an iPad for students. The new app is called inClass. InClass allows students to organize and keep track of the notes they take in class. It also has built in calendars and schedules for reminders. Michael prefers to use Evernote because it allows you to integrate with different networks.

Larry Ferlazzo
Mr. Ferlazzo had a guest post this week by John Thompson. In this guest post he was talking about how people are worrying about scores and bad teachers that just teach the test. Colleges are now not taking standardized tests as seriously in Texas because teachers are only teaching the test. So school systems are weening out the bad teachers and poor working students. But John with a bunch of colleagues started fighting back because as school systems are worried about getting the bad teachers out, they have ignored the good teachers and students. They are fighting for those teachers.