Project #8 Book Trailer

Blog Post 6

What do you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?

After watching all of the conversations between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, I learned a lot about preparing to be a teacher that I had no idea about before. Project Based Learning is not something you can learn over night. It is a process you gain knowledge about throughout your entire teaching career. I learned how important it is to make sure your students are 100% engaged in what you are trying to teach them. When coming up with a project for your students you always need to factor in a few things, and always remember that it may not come out in the end how you have planned it. Make sure that important content is needed to be able to participate in the project. By doing so, it helps the students learn the key things they need to learn and have fun during the process. I have always thought that if you make a project seem like it is their idea, they will have more fun doing it and will retain the information longer. Create projects that will make your students go beyond what you are expecting from them. Make sure you get feedback from your students so you will stay up to date about what young people are into and incorporate some of those things into the projects you create. Let the students critique each other so they will all feel invested in each others' work, as well as sharing ideas to better their projects. Another thing I learned about is using art as a reward in a project. For example, if your students are doing a book report, have them paint a picture of their favorite scene only after they have written something about it and why it is their favorite. This gets them motivated to do their work because they have something exciting to look forward to. I learned a lot from watching these videos. It will not only help me as a student but will help me later in my career.

Discovery Education and Icurio are two websites that were brought to my attention after watching these videos. Icurio is a search engine that allows students to safely search the web for educational content. Meaning it is a safe reliable source that responsible people have filtered through to make it student friendly. The storage part of the site is a great tool to use to get young students used to virtual organization. It also plays a part in saving work quickly just in case of the need to vacate the classroom quickly. It has some really neat features to check out as well, like audio readings of everything you look up. That is very helpful for kids with disabilities. Discovery ed is a great tool for bringing text to life. Mr. Capps said in one of the videos that "If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth a million." I really like that statement because it is very true. Children, and some adults as well, retain information better with visual stimulation rather than just plain text. Discovery Education also helps bring experts into the classrooms through educational videos that students can watch while they're learning about a certain topic. I learned a lot of useful information that I really enjoyed by watching Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps' conversations. The things that I learned and will continue to learn are very important to me as a student and will stay with me for several years to come.

C4K Summary for September

C4K#1

I was assigned to leave a comment for Isaaka from Mrs. Lagitupu's class for my 1st C4K. Isaaka wrote about his part in a movie for an upcoming Film Festival. Him and his friends are going to dress up like Biggie Smalls and 2-Pac and they're going to perform a song too. He said they had to act angry, like they were famous. Here is the comment I left for Isaaka: Hi Isaaka! My name is Felicia Grantham. I live in The United States of America, in Mobile, Alabama. I am a junior in college. I absolutely loved reading your post about your part as Biggie Smalls. I was born in 1988, so I was around when he was very popular in the 1990s, 2-Pac as well. Good luck to you and your friends. I hope you all have a very fun time doing that activity. Keep up the good work! You're more than welcome to visit my blog. granthamfeliciaedm310.blogspot.com

C4K#2

I was assigned to leave a comment for Dominique from Madame Thomas' class for my 2nd C4K. Dominique had a very interesting and creative post. It was like a creative poem that made you have to think to be able to understand what was going on. I read the entire blog because that one post caught my attention. It is really hard to summarize, so see for yourself. Dominique's Blog Here is the comment I left for Dominique: Hey Dominique! I am Felicia, I live in Mobile, Alabama and I attend the University of South Alabama. I love the creativity of your blog post, and that is such a cool name for your pet anaconda. Suda-mista-poppernickle The 28th, (aka Jonathan) the anaconda that don’t!

C4K#3

I was assigned to leave a comment for Parker H. from Ms. Freitag's class for my 3rd C4K.Parker wrote about why he thinks school should start at a later time. He says that his school lets in at 8:10am, and he thinks it should let in at 9:10am so they can all have an extra hour of sleep. He also argues how sleep is very important to kids and teens. At the end, he adds that sometimes they have assignments that might take them until midnight to get done, therefore they don't get enough sleep. So if school let in an hour later they could sleep another hour and not be too tired to go to school. So cute and some very good points made!Here is the comment I left for Parker:Hey Parker! My name is Felicia. I live in Mobile, Alabama and I am a college student at the University of South Alabama. I totally agree with you about wanting school to start later in the day. When I was younger, I had the same wish and the same arguments about needing that extra hour of sleep. I’ll give you something to look forward to and tell you that whenever you go to college you can choose what time of the day you schedule your classes. I have one that starts at 2pm! Study hard and one day you will have your wish about school starting a little later. I really enjoyed your post, Parker! Keep up the good work.

Project #7 Part A

This is my sentence.

This is my passion.

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Post 5

I am learning a lot about what a PLN or Personal Learning Network is. My instructor, Dr. Strange said "Your personal learning network is the set of people and tools that you can call upon for help, consultation, collaboration or other assistance."

My personal learning network is just beginning. There are so many different ways to grow your PLN. Some of the most popular ways to do so is through Facebook, Twitter, Youtube videos, and blogs. I have always used Facebook and Youtube, but it was always for my own entertainment. I never thought that I had so much information about learning and teaching right at my finger tips. Using Twitter and creating my blog was new to me, and I was very uneasy about both. Now I know that all of these sights are a very good tool to have to create a good PLN. I can see myself using these tools in the future to better my education about teaching and collaborating with others. Having a PLN helps you reach out to other people for help and ideas on different things you are trying to accomplish. One day, as a teacher, you might want project ideas for science and you want to try something fun, new and interesting for the students. By looking on blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter and Youtube channels you can get ideas from different teachers around the world that are doing similar projects and collaborate with them during the process.

I am excited to experience new things about teaching and even more excited about growing my own PLN. Here are two website suggestions that are best for keeping track of your PLN.

Symbaloo

Netvibes

C4T #1 Comment Summary Post

C4T#1 Comment#1

I was assigned Ms. Edna Sackson's Blog, What Ed Said for my C4T#1

The first post I read was titled 10 Alternatives To Goal Setting This post was about how we should ask our students different questions about what they want and need to learn, other than just asking them to write down their goals. I learned that we should ask questions that will promote valuable reflection such as: How do you learn best? What are you fascinated by? What do you wish you could change? Here is the comment I left... Ms. Sackson, I really enjoyed reading your post. I am a junior at The University of South Alabama studying Elementary Education. This post has made me think a lot about my approach to teaching my future students. I am enthusiastically learning about new ways to teach, and I loved your suggestive questions to ask the students instead of having them write down specific goals. As a future educator, I hope to one day have the creativity and know-how to make my students better learners, and prepare them for this diverse world.

C4T#1 Comment#2

The second post I read was titled 10 Ways To Make Meetings (and Lessons) Meaningful This post was about how we need to always make sure we plan out our lessons and make sure they always have meaningful and valuable information that will make the children's mind expand and grow. Here is the comment I left... Hello Ms. Sackson, Thanks for another helpful blog post. I am starting to see the importance of having a great lesson plan and being ready for when learning takes us in a new direction. All of the questions that were asked are things that I need to know more about and I will more than likely be reading the book you mentioned. It’s great that teaching is leaning more towards problem solving and thinking about a situation, other than having a huge work load to deal with. It definitely was not like that when I was a child in school.