My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete

Good luck to everyone and your future career as a teacher. It was nice to meet you all and have a great winter break!

Last Blog Post

I learned many things from taking this class. One of them was how to access, I have never used this application before and I find it useful for the future. Another thing I learned in class was how to use publisher, when I become a teacher and have my own classroom I know having this knowledge will help in making things for my room such as, classroom rules and procedures, upcoming events, and also a classroom calender. I also learned a lot about how much technology has changed and how other people use certain technology, I learned this by researching for the different blog post that were due each week.

Week 12

On the apple website they describe iTunes University as a program that gives students twenty four hour access to educational content from top colleges, universities, and educationally focused education across the country, but is only accessible for students who have a Mac or PC. Students can sync their iPod or iPhone so they can update their iPod anytime and anywhere. iTunes University also has where teachers can open all or some of their content to students, parents, and alumni. Teachers can do more than uploading just worksheets, teachers can make videos and add audio to make the subject more interesting than just an average worksheet.
I think this would be a great thing to do as a teacher. This would be a good thing for a teacher to do if a student where to be absent one day the teacher could post the days work and what they learned that day in school. The only problem I see with this is what if students do not have an iPod or iPhone nor a Mac? It seems as though some students could be left out of the technology because their family could not afford the piece of technology. When I searched further for who uses iTunes University, popular schools such as Berkley, Philadelphia University, and Sanford all use this for their students to further their learning.

Week 11

I never thought that an iPod was used for more reasons than downloading your favorite songs and watching your favorite movies. It has also become a popular device for ways to make working out go by faster, that is what I use my iPod for. But unbeknownst to me it is used in classrooms.
I found an article where teachers in Zambia are using iPods to enhance training in studies like mathmatics, science, and english. EDC distributed twelve iPods to teachers who teach sixth grade. They show videos and explain in detail concepts in the three subjects. The teachers either have a solar powered generator or a foot powered genrator. When the school year ends in November they will evaluate the effectiveness of the iPod by measuring teacher performance. If the experiment worked out well the staff plans to distribute the idea to more schools across the country.
In my opinion I think it would be better used for adults in continuing education. It seems to me that college students would take advantage of the iPod and not use the device the way it is suppose to. Concerning the experiment in Zambia I think it was a great idea and I hope every teacher benfited from the project, after all an iPod is nothing but a hand held laptop.

Week 10

Dr Chrisite's site is a great one to remember once you have your own classroom. When I entered the website it talks a little bit about her being an educator for forty years, and how she wants other educators to incorporate more technology in the classroom, which I thought to myself was very strange coming from a teacher of forty years and not learning to teach with things such as computers; most older teachers do not like to change their methods, but this educator does. When I started looking around I saw her photograpy link. Since most technology may be a little complicated to teach to a seven year old in elementary school I thought it would be fun to let them take pictures and share them with their classmates. Since nature is a great thing to photograph I think letting students photograph what they want in nature will help a teacher understand what a student loves about nature. Her website includes pictures she has taken. It would also be fun for the students to take their own pictures and then enhance it digitially or make a color picture black and white. Photography is a great way children can remember things as well for when it comes to test time.

Week 9

The articles written about Wikipedia are astonishing. It seems as though the internet is becoming less and less trustworthy. Even though the articles said that most of the people can be tracked down by seeing what computer it came from, it is still sad that companies never want the public to know the truth. I do not think this website should ever be trusted again, why trust something when it is apparently so easy to hack into and change? It seems as though people do not care about other people anymore, will the truth ever be told in todays society? I think the website should now be known to schools and students that this is an unreliable resource.

Week 8

When looking for a blog to write about from the Fischbowl, I found this one from the best of 2007, "Is it English as a Second Language World?" I found this article interesting because I always knew that English was a taking a back seat to Spanish, but I never considered any other languages. In this article it says that 50 years ago English was the number one spoken language, except for Mandarin. In just a short amont of time, less than a lifetime, things have changed immensly. Today there are more Spanish and Hindu speakers than English combined! They are now predicting English to fall into fifth place for first languages by the middle of this century, behind Arabic. What would happen if English became an obsolete language? It is not something that could happen anytime soon, but it seems the way things are going it may lead to that one day.
Reading this article made me wonder how teaching English is schools may one day change. Slang is something that it seems to me is changing the language more and more everyday. How do we teach our kids to communicate with the rest of the world? Things are ever changing and how we speak and teach English may change one day as well. He also talks about in his blog native English speakers to non-native English speakers. He says in the article, “the majority of encounters in English today take place between non-native speakers”, and he follows with saying, “relief at the absence of native speakers is common.” Why is that that non native speakers do not like dealing with native English speakers? He also says in the article how he wonders if native speakers will have to soon conform to non native speakers. It is a really good question to ask oneself, it makes me also wonder what is our language going to be like in another 50 years.

Week 7

I think it is very important for teachers to understand technology and computers. The way our society is running today it seems as though a good computer comes out today and a much better computer comes out the next day! Our technology is growing by leaps and bounds and to not understand what we have to offer today means tomorrow that person is going to be behind even more. Students are now being born into a world full of technology a teacher must understand what it is about. While reading the passage I saw this sentence that really brings this idea home, "if a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write."
When I first graduated high school and deciding on a college to go to my grandparents told me that I would not have to go to college that I would make a great living on a high school diploma. Even though I knew this statement was not true, I came to realize how different times were when they were growing up. In my grandparents time school was not a major requirement only knowing how to read and write was good enough to get you a good job. In my parents time it was good enough to get through high school and maybe even a technical school. In todays time you must get through high school as well as college to even be considered for a job. My point to all this is times have changed, more ideas are being brought to the table and more ways of getting the job done. Students must know computers and the only way they can learn is through teachers.
Technology is taking over and people have to keep up if they want to stay with the work force and society. So my point to this whole blog is that teachers must understand technology, not just those fresh out of college, we need our older and more experienced teachers to stay in the game. The world is not changing and getting better, we need our teachers to do the same.

Week 6

Blogging is not only used in the United States classrooms, it is used all over the world. When searching for international schools that use blogging to help in their education, I found this blog from a school in New Zealand. In this blog, two students read a book from a famous author in New Zealand named, Lynley Dodd. In the blog the teacher first starts out by telling who the students are and an overview of the book. Then the students make a podcast telling people what the book is about from their perspective. It is really interesting and they have different blogs for different books by the same author.

Another website I found was a blog written by a teacher from Scotland. He talks about a school in Nepal and how it has grown from 13 students to 137 students. The school is now having to turn kids away because of lack of materials and resources. I hope kids can one day realize how lucky they are to be living in a place where all kids can go to school and not be turned away for the simple reason that the school system can not afford them. Education is something I think is taken for granted by a lot of students which is something I hope can change. This is a picture of some of the students that go to the school and they are lining up for assembly.

Week 5

When looking for different schools in Alabama and how they using blogging in the classroom, I found a teacher from the Hoover school district getting his kids involved in blogging. The class is photography and they each set up there own blog page and they post there pictures they took and talk about where they took it, and if they like the picture or not. It also looks like they are connected to other classrooms in different states.

This picture was actually taken by the teacher, it is called crybaby bridge. I really liked this sight because the pictures are so pretty to see from all the different students. The website is http://www.sphsdigital2.blogspot.com/ go see the website to look at the different pictures, they are really pretty!

The next website I found is where teachers update parents on what has been going on in the classroom. Such as what they have been learning, the different activities they have been doing, and also assignments. The students also have a blog page. It is used apparently for the whole school and all teachers can post their assignments on there. This would be a great website for students if they have maybe missed school it is a way for them to catch up at home and be prepared for the next day. The website link is, http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=102331&new_display_count=10 .

Week 4

This video really amazed me the facts in this video are unreal, I never knew technology was growing by such leaps and bounds! Being a citizen in the United States I always thought we were the best country in the world, I guess that is what i get for listening to politicians. In the video it said every seconds thirty-four babies are born, five in India, four in China, and one in the US! No wonder we have so many immigrants coming into the states, there country is overflowing! There were so many interesting facts but one that I really thought was interesting is that Great Britain in the 1900's was the richest in the world, largest military, center of the world business and finance, strongest education system, currency was the worlds standard of value, and they had the highest standard of living. It makes me wonder what they are now?

I always knew that some countries were somewhat more intelligent that the US but I did not realize how many more college graduates there were in China compared to us, the US has 1.3 million graduates, and China has 3.3 million, is that because they have so many more people? I knew at one time that the China had a policy where you could only have one offspring per family, since they have so many more people maybe that is why there is so many more graduates. Another shocking fact that I saw was China will be fluent in English is 10 years, does this mean Chinese will be a thing of the past?

Since I recently turned 21 I thought this was interesting, we have watched twenty thousand hours of t.v. (I agree with this), ten thousand hours of video games, I do not agree with this because I do not play video games nor was I allowed to play them as a child growing up so I know this does not apply to me, ten thousand hours on the phone, I agree, and the last fact was two hundred fifty thousand emails or texts have been sent and received. It amazes me that four year olds are now computer savoy! When I was four I do not remember seeing computers that much, much less playing on them. Since I love text messaging I thought it was interesting to know that the first text was sent and received in December of 1992. It so neat to me to know how different people use the Internet to their advantage, one in eight couples that were married in 2005 met online! I believe this because it seems like there are new dating sites popping up everyday.Another fact I found interesting is that there are five times more words now than when Shakespeare was alive.

I love to know interesting facts about times today compared to maybe fifty years ago. Even though sometimes people do not like change sometimes it is for the better. Even though I think video games are ridiculous, they are a thing of the future. I still believe having technology is a good and bad thing.

ACCESS

ACCESS stands for Alabama Connecting Classrooms Educators and Students Statewide. This website was organized by Governor Bob Riley and State Superintendent of Education, Dr. Joseph B. Morton, the purpose is to innovate ways to bring other learning options such as Internet, into the classroom of high school students in Alabama. The plan will provide teaching and classwork through the Internet, with of course approved Internet sites, with the most recent interactive modes. This is also a good tool to have for a high school teacher because if there is something you want your kids to learn but are not certified in you can go on this website and have what is called an E-teacher instruct your class, the teacher is filmed from what the website called a delivery school site. This is also a positive if you are wanting to teach something and no one in the state is certified or properly educated in that field. ACCESS lists these objectives for the website: provide access to advanced diploma courses, provide access to additional course offerings, provide access to advanced placement or dual enrollment courses, access to remediation and supplemental resources, leverage existing resources and distance learning offerings. provide teachers with additional multimedia and technology tools to enhance instruction. By the summer of 2007 ACCESS wants to be connected to all high schools in Alabama.
Since I am studying to be an Elementary teacher this website would not be helpful to me. But, if I were going to be in secondary education I would definitely want to know more about this site and how I can use it for the best interest to the students. This is a great program because it does not limit a child to certain classes just because of where they go to school. With this program it can help all Alabama students and give everyone equal opportunity's to be in classes that are not offered at his or her school.

ALEX

When first trying to describe what ALEX is to a person, one must understand what the acronym means, Alabama Learning Exchange. Now knowing this, it is easy to draw context clues as to have a somewhat understanding of what it is, apparently it has something to do with teachers and exchanging something. Given that this is true, this website is so much more than just that. ALEX is an online program where teachers, students and parents can have a knowledge of what should be taught in the classroom. In the state of Alabama there are standards which must be met in every grade and every subject. For example if you are in the fourth grade and studying language arts there are thirty-five standards that must be met, and this website breaks each standard down and gives an overview of what that standard is about and what should be met. Then the website takes it a step further, not only does it tell you the standard for the subject and grade, it then gives you lesson plans that a teacher can use in his or her own classroom. These lesson plans are also provided by the National Board of Certified Teachers, so you know that not just some everyday person can post a lesson plan without knowing what they are doing. This website in my opinion would be a life savor for a first year teacher on his or her own.
I have a class called Classroom Management and so this is not the first time i have heard about this website. As a matter of fact I used it today when in class I had an assignment to make up a lesson plan and when I made up the lesson plan I then had to find the standard on this website that it met. When I first learned about it I was very excited because I always wondered when I started teaching on my own how in the world was I going to be able to make up six or so lessons plans everyday? It was actually very overwhelming when I would actually sit down and seriously think about it, then I soon realized there are of course some sort of standards to met and how was I supposed to know I was meeting these standards? This is one of the best things I think I have learned so far in working towards my degree for Elementary Education. When I found out that certified teachers posted these lesson plans and different ideas of teaching things it is really exciting because you know someone is not posting bogus things on this website and it has been done before and it was apparently successful for this teacher. In my opinion this is going to be very handy for a new teacher and her very first year on his or her own! I know I will use often as a tool for guidance.

About Me

I am a 21 year old student at South Alabama, majoring in elementary education. I started my college career at Faulkner State Community College on a academic scholarship. After Faulkner I decided to attend South Alabama, I moved to Mobile and lived there for a year, since my family and friends live in Gulf Shores I decided to move back to Gulf Shores. I now commute 2 days a week to Mobile and one day a week to Fairhope.
One of my interests is traveling. I just recently got back from a cruise out of New Orleans that went to Cozumel and the Yucatan Progresso in Mexico, while there i went snorkeling and sight seeing. Besides Mexico, I have been to Europe and traveled there with my family for a couple of weeks. I love going out of the country to see other cultures and how people live other than in the United States. I also travel different places in the winter to go snowboarding.
Some of my other hobbies include going to the beach, going out in a boat, trying to play tennis, snowboarding, hanging out with my friends and boyfriend, whom i have been with for over a year. I also love to workout and run, even though i am not the best and the fastest i still enjoy it as a stress reliever, i have ran in a few different runs including the Azalea Trail Run, which i plan to do again next year.
I enjoy spending time with my family, and i love to watch t.v. for some reason i am obsessed with the food network and even though i watch it i never seem to make anything i ever see on t.v., all though i do enjoy cooking and baking. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, besides Thanksgiving, I love putting up a Christmas tree and everything that goes with the holiday.