Tuesday, December 2, 2008

My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete

It has been great getting to know everyone. I have enjoyed this semester and hope that all of you have a wonderful holiday season. Be safe!

What I learned in EDM 310!

Wow! Where do I begin? I learned so much in this class. I knew nothing about blogs and now I feel comfortable with using them. I created a gmail and igoogle account which I use now as my primary e-mail address. It's free! Spreadsheets were a little tricky, but that too I now am comfortable using. I enjoyed the podcasts we did. I wish the elementary schools around this area could afford to have podcasting equiptment for the schools. Overall I am leaving this class with more FREE resources to help me in the classroom. I love my blog with gadgets and hope that one day My professional will help me win over in an interview for a teaching job. Who knows? The only thing I wish I could have maybe leanred is how to do an electronic grade book set up. I'm sure I could always use spreadsheets to figure it out though. Other than that I feel more technolgy prepared for the future road of teaching.

Monday, November 24, 2008

A Classmates Blog

My experiences with blogging has been incredible. Before this class I never have had a blog or really know what it was. Now I believe I have been quite a little computer geek. I can express my thoughts and ideas on different topics and go back and remember things that I had forgot we had done. Blogs could defiantly be used in the classroom.

I choose to read Ashley Denson's blog. I still can not figure out how to get the music on my blog page, but I would love to know how to! Ashley put a picture on almost every blog post she did. It is obvious that she, unlike many people, put time and effort into her assignments. I enjoyed reading all of her posts

There are many positive things that come out of using blogging in the classroom. First you can keep up with others ideas and thoughts electronically. Also you can put all your projects to be graded on one page to view.

While I love blogging and plan to try to use it in my future classroom I could see from a parents perspective in that the internet is not a safe place. I can view lots of blogs of adults that may not be acceptable for elemetary students to view. This negative view of blogging could be elimated with blogging certain sites, but there will always be new blogs made each day. It is hard to weed out the bad from the good.

Overall I enjoyed blogging and hope that I too can someday use blogs in my classroom. There are so many great things about blogs and I am happy that I am leaving this class more familiar with how to use them!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Duke University - Center for Documentary Studies

South Africa is not always thought of as the honeymoon getaway. It is commonly known to many as the country in turmoil. One of the largest issues in their country is HIV and AIDS. More and more grandparents become the sole providers of the house hold due to their children dying from AIDS. Due to the illness and the affect on the country, it is everyday leaving children and young adults more susceptible to violence then ordinary people of that age.

Luckily the are some programs to help the youth in South Africa. It is known their as role playing. It lets people know that they are not alone. It is just like a skit, except you have the support of other students. I think these are some great programs they have.

This film was showcased by Duke University, but was created by the students in South Africa. The South Africa students wanted to express that they are the future and that is something that can not be changed. No matter what they go through in life they WILL be the next generation. This video can be found on itunes university under Duke's center for documentation studies.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Podcasts From Our Class

So I just got done listening to a few podcasts from our class. I listened mine as well as three others. There were so many great things about the podcasts, but there is defiantly room for improvement.

My podcast which I did with Tina Dillen was about how the internet is used in our education classes here at south. While we really had a conversation throughout the podcast I felt I talked rather fast. Of course I was a little nervous! Given the opportunity to do it again I do not feel like I should have prepared any more then we did.

I also listening to the podcast called blogs and blogging. Silas Smith, Andrea Williams, and Lashonda Pruitt discussed blogs and blogging and how they can be used in teaching. Their podcast was one of the funniest to me just because Silas made fun of Mississippi schools and he is from there! There conversation was great, but I felt all the people did not each have the equal amount of input into the conversation.

As for the others that I read, I feel as though some of the groups rehearsed what they were going to say before so they did not seem to be having a real conversation. Everyone talks in different ways, but in a lot of the podcasts people did not put in emotion nor enthusiaism into their conversations.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Mathematics with Technology

Using technology can make math more student centered, Judy Chandler, math teacher, and technology integration specialist thinks that technology is essential for teaching mathematics. The National Council for teaching math, states that technology is essential for teaching math, and have included it as ONE of the SIX principles for teaching math.

Judy Chandler also talks about how teachers should see technology as a tool instead of an add on and then technology would become affective. She is afraid this is one the factors pushing teachers away from technology use in math. Students already know how to use technology better than a lot of adults. By using technology we are giving them tools to see examples visually! This is a great thing.

Her next podcast is on thinking mathematically. In most classrooms math is taught by repetition. When thinking mathematically we get students students into the lesson and do not just have them memorize. For example when teaching math, have students volunteer to teach problems on the board. Don't force them, but allow peer help when a student finishes and his/her work is checked to make sure he/she is doing it right. They learn not only subject matter but how to think mathematically.

One way I can do this is by asking questions to guide and to encourage learning in my own classroom. Don't see the glass half empty, instead see it half full!

Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy BOO!

This is a man woman and baby dressed as a lady bug.Happy Halloween! This is my daughter Caroline in her lady bug costume!

The Stanford College

Studies have shown that growing brains are smarter than fixed brains. The very impressive Dr. Carol Dweck administered a study in which two sets of students were given a "study work shop." One of the sets were taught that their mind was like a muscle and would get stronger if they used it. The other was never taught this.

Over all, the group that was taught the brain growth approach actually did better at the end of the year then the group that was not taught this. Without the teachers knowing who they could actually pick out the students who they thought were the ones taught their brain was a muscle. There obviously was a difference.

There is the active classroom and the passive classroom. I hope I can become an active classroom teacher and teach my students that if you study and try your best and "use your brain a growing muscle" you will see improvement. I will not just assign reading or busy work. I will make sure the students are involved in the lessons!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Electronic Contact Assignment

So i spent a few weeks trying to get a teacher to e-mail me back. My last resource was teacher lingo website. One that I site I posted who I was and why I was trying to contact someone. (Edm 310) Within a few days, I had a teacher contact me from Africa. Her name was Miss. Hayes and she taught grade two.
In her school she said that the just replaced all their blackboards white "white boards" similar to that called a smart board. She said so far she had only used the board twice, but her students in her class loved the board. It's very similar to a computer generated board.

Unfortunately she does not have a class blog web page, but she does have a blog of her own teaching. This can be viewed at Miss. Hayes site. Miss Hapes said, "All I can remember when I was in Primary school (1991 - 1997) was playing educational games. We never learned how to use a computer, whereas nowadays, children are learning basic end user skills right from Gr 1. Our Gr 7's are, at the moment, learning how to use Excel formulas which is excellent as I only learned that at my first year varsity."

It's amazing how much technology is not only changing people in the United States, but across the world! Where would everyone be without technology?

Monday, October 20, 2008

What I choose to listen to!

The videos I found were by a series called teachers' Domain. I actually watched quite a few videos. All of them were science related. These podcasts like many others will be great for future reference when teaching.

One of the video podcast was about the moon. It described that is stayed in place because of a gravitational pull. This video podcast would be great for a grade level such as second and up when your class is learning about the solar system. Of course you would need to add to it since it was not extremely long or detailed.

After watching these videos I felt like I was caught up with information that I had put in the back part of my brain. This podcast and many others will all serve as a great resource to me later. I could even hook the computer up to the tv in the classroom and watch my own class engage in this great use of technology!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Edutopia

The Edible School Yard

The Edible School Yard is a classroom that is outside which takes the shape of a garden. They are middle school students who follow their instructor. They can do it all! They plant,grow, harvest, and cook.

The thought behind this is that students can learn by experiencing. This is very true. When they get together in their garden they bring subject matter from almost all their other classes and make it have meaning. They learn skills that at one time were taught in the home such as cooking, team work, communicating, how to build a community and to rely on on another. Not saying that they are not still taught in some homes.

I actually enjoyed this clip. In this day in age the classroom is all about standardized test. I will try to incorporate a garden in my own classroom, but unfortunately it will be at most pots with plants in them or a class activity that they have to take home.

A Night in the Global Village

This program helps people to understand those who are less fortunate. In the group there is a pregnant woman, a two year old, and elder, and a person without a hand. The groups go to different third world country's and are not given everything they need for their overnight adventure. It really is a wake up call.

The middle school students really proved themselves. It was amazing to watch them ration like real adults. I believe there are always going to be you maturing middle school students, but this bunch was far from that!

I loved this activity, but I do not think I will be able to do these same activities. These seem very time consuming and I will be working with elementary students, not middle school. I will recommend A Night in the Global Village to others who seem to think they live a hard life when they really don't!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

ACCESS Project

Baker High School in Mobile, Alabama currently has the access program up and running and has found it to be of great use in the lab. Mrs. Falgout is the cisco teacher and also helps with the access program. She believes that the Access program is incredible and should be used in all high schools. Students do not not have to take an access course to be able to graduate, it is up to the students to decide. The access class are considered as advanced classes.

The Access program offers a big incentive to teachers that play an active part in this program. This incentive would be increased pay. Who would want to say no to this? Teachers using Access are not only helping with a whole different curriculum, but they are helping in the students for future college preparation.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Picasa2

This is a jelly fish.


When we learned about Picasa2 I changed this picture and thought it was neat. I recommend everyone take advantage of the free Picasa.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Podcasting

After listening to educational podcasts at KidCast, EdTechtalk, MacBreak Weekly, and SmartBoard Lessons Podcast I realized that podcasts should be relaxed, yet the speakers need to be confident of the knowledge of the material they are talking about. The podcasts should not be rehearsed so that there conversation does not lack enthusiasm.

Listening to these podcasts it reminded me of listening to the radio. The speakers really seemed to have a knowledge of the material they covered. When we do our podcasts next week everyone needs to remember to just be involved in the conversation and make sure they get their input added in!

These podcasts will serve a a great example of how they should be used in the classroom. It prepares me better for next week when I do my own. I am now reminded to speak loud and clearly.

E-mail and blogs are a great asset in the classroom, but podcasts are on a whole different level. As a future teacher I realize that I can record my future lessons and upload them as podcasts as a reference to the students who need additional help as well as the parents to let them know exactly what material we are covering. These lessons could also be used as additional references to other teachers! Podcasting is the future education in my opinion.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Randy Pausch


After Watching Randy Pausch's last lecture titled "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" I am now confident I learned a lot. In the beginning of the lecture he tells you that he has brain cancer and is terminally ill. After watching this I remember thinking how it reminded me of my grandfather who died five years ago from cancer. I also felt like any body can accomplish anything as long as they put their mind to it!

Randy Pausch had some excellent ideas. He tells you to never give up. His theory is that brick walls are supposed to pop up when you least expect them. You just have to keep on going with your everyday life. NEVER give up! I believe this is one of the best things you could do. I completely agree.

Pausch tells you that it is very important to achieve your own goals and never stop trying! I feel as those is great in every aspect. If you take the easy way and just try to get through life then what will you have to show for it? I know I rush through my school work, but I guarantee that when I spend a lot of time on a project and I am proud of then I feel a sense of gratitude to myself. In life you just have to sit back and enjoy the ride not just do enough to get by!

Randy Pausch has taught some of the present day geniuses. Through his classes and lectures he makes you believe the you can and should always work to your potential. I feel so moved by watching this movie. I believe Randy Pausch's ideas should be shared with more then just our class!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Ipods For Instruction

I viewed quite a few websites that explain how helpful technology can truly be. Ipods, commonly known to be in the hands of people enjoying music now has seemed to help in other ways. Ipods can be used to help review classes and teacher discussions after the particular lecture.

On Duke's Ipod Site it describes how Duke University is giving their freshman class ipods to help them in school. One Spanish teacher is putting her lessons on the ipods so they can review them again if they feel they need to. Also they are having a native speaker read the four novellas that the students to read during the semester that way the students will be able to hear the correct pronunciation and accent in the text. I think this is a big foot forward on Dukes part and I hope this begins to happen in all universities.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

My Presentation

Dr. Alice Christie

I chose Alice Christie's web page about designing web pages as the one I will write about. Alice Christie's Website is a wonderful resource of how to create and edit your very own web page. As a teacher I want to incorporate blogs as well as web pages for our class. This site serves great assistance in this adventure!

This site helps instruct people to resize and upload images as well as making copyrights. It also shows well made web pages and what not to do when your making a web page. This site has a lot to offer and I would definitely not only use it, but also recommend it!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Untrusted Wikipedia

Wikipedia, commonly used a source on a paper, is not as reliable as one may believe. On the site anyone can go in and change or alter all the information typed in as a definition. It is very hard to know exactly where the information is coming from directly and whether or not is in fact truthful!

Once invented, it allowed the public to be able to check whose been deleting or altering information. Even though Wikipedia may seem to be very resourceful and politicians use it to advertise, it is not and should never be trusted. Wikipedia is known to many as, "a free encyclopedia," but with that you take the risk of not getting 100% accuracy. Although Virgil has allowed we the public and the government to obtain records of those changing information, we all know that the source is not reliable. I don't understand why people are getting upset with this site not serving as a resource when they know the information can be changed!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Sweet Caroline (My daughter)

Click to play Sweet Caroline
Create your own scrapbook - Powered by Smilebox
Make a Smilebox scrapbook

November 2007 Blog Post

For the post for the day I choose the month of November as the blog to read. The link is Why wireless. The blog post is titled Why Wireless? In this post the teacher talks about their experience in writing a letter encouraging parents and staff to agree with the fact the school should have wireless internet. She knows people think this is just another thing to keep students side tracked in school, but really it serves an the most excellent resource.

I believe they are extremely right in the fact that technology is going to become more advance and students should be taught how to use and take advantage of what is has to offer. In the article it states that adults will never be eighteen again, but eighteen years olds will be adults and if tachnology is only to get more high tech than they need to stay on track. I could not agree more with this! This is a wonderful blog entry and I will recommend it to those people who can not seem to agree how valuable wireless interntet in schools would be!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Technology Is Our Future

Technology is needed in everyday life. On the website Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher? it shows how valuable technology really is. It has always seemed that some people could go through their everyday life and never use technology, but the truth is sooner or later everyone will need to know how to use it!

Since I am elementary education major I know instilling early on with children the basic uses of technology will help them in our ever changing society. You may not use computers in every lesson, but it is important to help children understand how they work and the wonderful resources they have to offer.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Correcting Links That Do Not Work

The four most important reasons that links do not work are:
1. The link is not correctly spelled.
2. Nothing is placed between the two parts of an a tag.
3. You forgot to include http:// in the address. It must be included.
4. Sometimes Google doesn't like a / after the address. Try removing it.

Monday, September 8, 2008

International blogs

This is a woman holding a glass of wine.
This is a class wearing blue shirts and shorts.
/
This blog is about Kiwi students living out their Year 6 (Grade 5) school year in Tauranga, New Zealand. This class uses their blog to keep the class up to date. It is very interesting to see different ways in which students and teachers can use technology every day. Here is a picture of their friends from their class. They have students who they communicate with through blogging. The website link is http://e3eclat.blogspot.com

Another page is
(6 & 7 year olds) from Room 9 at Nelson Central School in New Zealand. There are 23 of them in their class and their teacher is Rachel Boyd. There class used the blogging obviously in fall of 2007. Their teacher put up videos made by the students to share with everyone. By doing this blog assignment I have seen great ways to use blogging in the classroom. Here is the link to the second site. http://room9nelsoncentral.blogspot.com/ The picture of the woman above is the teacher in charge of this classroom blog. (Top picture)

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Blogs In Elementary

This is a picture of a class in the hallway.
This is picture of students in their classroom.

I found a wonderful example of an elementary blog at here. The bottom picture is of their class. This page is a elementary class blog from Chicago. This is there home site where all the students and faculty's links are. The students had different topics to discuss each day and posted to their blogs regularly! I love blogs used in the elementary level because it keeps students indulged in technology!
Also the top picture is of students at Noel Elementary. Their website is great! Their class is fifth grade level and they use blogging in their classroom. It is amazing how many ways technology can be used in the classroom! They have numerous pictures of award winners in the class and also videos of hands on activities. This teacher has done amazing things with blogs!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Technology Video

The video on The Fisch Bowl shows how much technology has grown in the past few years! It is amazing to see how many college majors are around now that were not around years ago.

The movie really gets you wondering about how much the world is going to change due to technology. In the video it states that you never know what the future will hold which is extremely true! After watching this video I have a new look on technology and the advantages of it.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

ACCESS

The Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators, and Students Statewide (ACCESS) program has now been added to all Mobile County Public School System high schools. This program uses technology to provide access to advanced diplomas and additional courses that are not yet offered in schools.
This program is being federally funded.

The usefulness of this program is unbelievable. It offers teachers technology tools that can be used in class daily. I believe the ACCESS programs are incredible and will serve as a great resource to teachers and students!!

Monday, August 25, 2008

ALEX

The Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX) is a valuable website in which teachers, students, and administrators can review and post school related material. The website allows teacher to share lesson plans and other creative ideas. The ALEX website helps students find resources if they need more help in various subjects.
I believe the internet or just technology in general is the key to learning! ALEX provides valuable information on professional development. I highly recommend visiting the ALEX website and reviewing the wonderful things it has to offer.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Adding A Picture

This is a duck.
This is a picture.

Who I am.

This is a six week old baby girl.
I want to introduce myself. My name is Sara Elizabeth Large and I am a junior here at south. My major is elementary education and I would love to teach second grade. I love to play soccer and disc golf! I have one daughter. Her name is Caroline Elisabeth. She was born July 11, 2008! Between her and her father I have everything I could have ever dreamed of!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Hello everyone!

Welcome to all! Thanks for stopping by at my page :0)