Final Reflection Blog Post

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Final Project

Comment for Teacher 4 Summary

     The first blog  post of Jason T. Bedell's that I commented on was on a fantastic tool called google calendar. Like me he had an obnoxiously enormous and amazing desk calendar. He then discovered that he should share his calendar with the world so SHAZAM! he made a google calendar. Google calendar is a fantastic tool that lets you either share your events with the world, keep them to yourself, or embed in a website. 
     The second post that I commented on was Jason T. Bedell's post on digital storytelling. Which I found awesome because using skills I learned in EDM 310 I actually did a digital story telling project for my World Literature class earlier this week. His introductory paragraph said...

"Teaching is an art that includes storytelling at its core. Stories are an essential part of our nature as humans. Stories are how we pass on our history, our culture, and our heritage. The brain does not remember isolated facts, but makes connections with other ideas, often in the context of stories."

     To me that sounded absolutely beautiful. Teaching as an art. An ART he says! No one ever thinks of it that way but he is right. Everyone tries to formulate education with methods and plans and workshops and "this is what you do if..." but art can't be planned so stringently as that. It is free flowing and creative and sometimes you just have to fly by the seat of your pants. Yes art does have outlines of sorts so some planning is involved but flexibility is the key.
     Digital storytelling is an excellent way for students to get their creative juices going we just need to make sure as educators we aren't invading their creative projests.

Comments for Kids Summary

Comment number eight was a video of the kid's problem solving chant.
"Identify the problem so you all understand,
Then you listen to each other, coz you've got to make a plan,
Then you do, you do it, you do it, do it, do it,
Then you check"

My comments said that I hope my students have the same enthusiasm and that the chant is a great device to aid in learning.

Comment number nine was on a blog post of a student named Bryant. He posted a blog about a article that I had actually read before. the article was about a four year old getting sued because she ran into an 87 year old woman who broke her hip and died four months later. He said that the child should not be held responsible because accidents happen. I agreed completely with him. Accidents happen all the time especially to the elderly  and the woman died four months later, not even in the same week as the incident. 


Comment number ten was a student named Jim's Kerpoof assignment and he chose to do a mnemonic device to help them remember the order of the planets.  It was actually a pretty cool looking creative project for him and also introduced me to a new tool.

Comment eleven was a girl named Delia's story prompt about a "High Sky Ride". I couldn't find out what kind of ride she was talking about. Perhaps a roller coaster of some kind ? I was impressed by her use of sensory devices in a child so young.

Final Report on PLN

My personal learning network is organized on Symbaloo so all of my bookmarks are easily accessible.It contains classroom tool sites such as Classroom 2.0 and Things for Teachers, and Smart Tech which are social networking type sites that contain help for those who want to use technology in the classroom as well as lesson plans for all subjects and grade levels. Youtube, which is a site where instructional videos can be found as well as my projects. The EDM 310 site contains all of the instructions for assignments and gives me ideas as to what my projects should look like. Google, Google, Docs, and Google Calendar are all great tools to search for information as well as keep yourself organized. Lord knows I would be incredibly lost without my EDM 310 checklist. Turn it in and Jstor are incredibly helpful to me as an English major. Jstor contains book and article sources for absolutely anything and everything you could possibly ever need.  Turnitin is where I can have everything I write, as well as assignments my future students write, and have it checked for originality which is another word for plagiarism. I have really enjoyed my PLN and it will continue to grow as I do.



http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/personallearningnetwo

Additional Assignment 5

     John Spencer is a lingual genius. Truly a man after my own heart. Metaphors are an absolutely essential part of the English language and by no means are they as complicated as people make them out to be. Metaphors engage your brain and make you think as opposed to just " saying what you think. Pencils are a fantastic thing both metaphorically and literally. They represent the temporary yet permanent state of life. Everyone needs flexibility in their lives. People who don't understand technology and the learning children experience using those tools think anything involving computer devices are all fun and games. Which is defiantly not the case. Behavior problems can be controlled by a no nonsense but not "mean" atmosphere. But as educators we all need to remember that whatever tools we introduce can change the atmosphere of the class.

Blog 13

      The Alabama Learning Exchange, or ALEX, it provides links for courses of study information, Alabama contact information for different subjects, lesson plans, training information, podcasts, and an area to contact colleagues. 

     Everything is organized by grade and subject matter so anything you can possibly be looking for is easily accessible. For example when you choose "Courses of Study" on the home page you are directed to a page with every course listed. I chose Language arts, because that is my major, and that took me to a page where I chose a grade level. I chose 12th grade, because that is my dream level, and it brought up a chart with all of the 12th grade language arts learning objectives and a link to all of the lesson plans.

     I think as an educator this will be a fantastic tool. Especially links to lesson plans of other educators. i know even as a "professional" I will need help.   This site is the closest thing to an EDM 310 help line that we will get. I am really excited about all the tools that we are learning exist out in the world. Its like an assurance that even after we graduate and begin our careers that there is always something to be learning and people to teach you.