Comments 4 Kids- Mr. Graves' Class

As usual, I enjoyed doing the comments for kids. My student wrote an outstanding blog. I was really impressed and pleased to comment on it. I just encourage them to keep up the good work. CLICK HERE FOR MY KID'S BLOG!

What I've Learned This Year by Mr. McClung

What I've Learned This Year post by Mr. McClung was an excellent post for our class to read. It had a lot of things in it that most first year teachers will have to learn while teaching. He gave us students that have not started teaching a heads up about what we need to learn before we start teaching. In order to be an effective teacher you have to learn how to understand your class, be flexible, communicate, be reasonable, use technology, listen to my students and never stop learning. Doing all these things will help me become a better teacher and help your students achieve their dream. Mr. McClung just gave us some things to think about before we start teaching so we don't go into the classroom blinded.

Wikepedia

I love Wikepedia! It is a great source for quick and condensed information about any and every subject or person that you can think of. Wikipedia can be a trusted site for some information but not all. When doing simple book reports or biographies Wikipedia can be very useful. I would not trust Wikipedia for very important projects though. Everyday people add, edit, and delete information on Wikipedia all the time. If I was using Wikipedia for a big project I would make sure I had other trusted sources backing it up. If I was assigning my students a project and they decided to use Wikipedia I would make sure to tell those students who are going to use Wikipedia to make sure they have another source. I would also inform them about plagiarism and checking the credility of your sources.

Randy Paush Last Lecture

He began by talking about his illness and that it was going to be his last lecture.\He showed us and told us about the tumors in his liver. He didn't want to focus on his illness though and he didn't want anybody to fell sorry for him.He showed us that he was not about to dwell in the situation but make the best of it. He then went to tell the audience the things he would not be talking about and the things he would be talking about.He had a great sense of humor throughout the video.

He talked about his childhood dreams next. He talked about brick walls and brick walls make us prove how bad we want something. We all have brick walls or obstacles that may seem like they prevent us from achieving our dreams. The brick walls are not there to keep us out but to make us show how bad we want something. He then went on to talk fundamentals and hard work and how important they are.

Next he talked about enabling the childhood dreams of others. He went on the CMU and created a course where you made your own virtual reality world. His mentor gave him some great advice when he thought his students had did really well, and that was to tell them they did good but he know they can do better. He said he would be doing the students a disservice if he was to set the bar. We should always challenge ourselves to do better. We are our own number one motivator for success.

This lecture was very motivating and inspiring. I love how he maintained a positive attitude in spite of what some would see as a very sad situation. He really encouraged me to push through everything that could come to destroy me.

Did You Know 4.0

I really found this video to be informative. It was also scary at the same time. Technology has really taken over the world I see. I was unaware that 93 percent of adults had cell phones. That is astounding to me! When I think about it though, every adult that I know does have one. I really shouldn't be surprised at that number then. We as a country use the computer for everything! We use it to get information, news, shopping, dating, and socializing; just to name a few. Newspapers are really about to become obsolete in the near future. Websites are now giving us the news and at a much faster rate than ever before. This is also cheaper than buying a newspaper everyday! A negative aspect to this is that it will put millions of people out a job. Technology is great, but the future of it does worry me a little.

Karl Fisch

Wow! This was the first statement I made after reading Karl Fisch's "Is It Ok To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher". This was a great article that really caught my attention. There was sort of a frustrated or angry theme that I felt from him while reading his post, but it works for him. It makes his argument even more stronger and powerful. There is no excuse in this day and age to be technologically illiterate. Times are changing and technology will continue to grow and become more and more common. We should never feel satisfied with our current level of knowledge. Nobody knows it all! Technology is definitely something that one completely grasps a hold of because it is constantly changing and expanding. There is one statement he made that I may not necessarily agree with when he stated "school inspectors who are technologically illiterate should be encouraged to find alternative employment." I believe there is more that goes into that profession than just technology but I could be wrong. Overall, I loved the article and would recommend it.

Kelly Hines

I loved Kelly Hines' post "It's Not About Technology". I think every teacher, especially those under the age of 35, needs to read this post. I singled out that age group, because I think that group is where the most techno-enthusiast teachers are found. I agree with basically everything Mrs. Hines stated. She made a comment, "When we put innovative tools in the hands of innovative teachers, amazing things can happen. If you put these tools in the hands of teachers who are not willing to innovate, money has been wasted. " That quote was amazing to me. So many teachers of my generation feel that being techno-savvy is a compensation for not being a good teacher. This is not true. Technology cannot take the place of a good teacher and technology should never be used as a means to hide a lack of experience or ability. I also liked when Mrs. Hines talked about how learning is an everyday goal for both the student and teacher. She stated that learning may differ from student to student, but the concept in general must always be the goal. I thought that was phenomenal. All kids view things and concepts differently. The fact that they learned is the most important thing of all. As teachers, we must also be learners. We must, most importantly, be willing to learn our students and how we will be able to help them learn. This is a continual process.

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

I was in awe of this video the entire time! (which is rare for me) It was very thought-provoking, interesting, and captivating. I liked how creative the set-up was with the students holding up facts with either their notebooks, laptops, and scantrons; rather than just saying them. It really shedded some light on how lazy and computer-oriented our youth are today. We spend entirely too much time on facebook, myspace, and twitter and not enough time studying our class materials. I thought it was funny how they mentioned how some students are on facebook and myspace right during class. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen this happen right in front of me! This also makes me look at this epidemic from an educator's perspective. What can I do to make learning more interesting? How can I inspire my students to actually want to study? This was a great video!

Podcasts in the Classroom

Podcasts in the classroom is an excellent idea for several reasons. Its very helpful for students to be able to interact with students from around the world and learn from them. It's also great for students who may get ill and need to keep up with classwork from home. It provides a way for the teachers, students and parents to exchange information at anytime. Learning should be fun sometimes and I believe this is a great way to make learning fun for our youth.

Comments For Kids

I thoroughly enjoyed doing the comments for kids. I think its a great way for us to be exposed to the different ways kids learn and teachers teach all over the world. Its helpful to us also to show us how to better incorporate technology into our classrooms. It was also a wonderful thing to be able to encourage and inspire these teachers and youth to keep up their good work. Everyone needs encouragement!

Podcasts

The First Podcast I listened to was SMARTBoard lessons episode 150. It was professional but yet relaxed. It is done by two other teachers. It gave you different websites that you could use as a teacher. Obviously they did their research before they started the podcast. It sounded like they were well aware of there subject matter. They also read some of the e-mails that they had received from their listeners. Next, I listenend to Kidcast 58 "The Medium Is NOT The Message", by Dan Schmit. He was saying that he was on the Internet listing to podcast and he noticed that a lot of the podcast done by students were done just because they were in a computer class. He says the podcast were done just to show how podcast were done not because the student wanted to do it. He was saying that the teacher should allow the students to do podcast on a subject they wanted to and maybe start doing one every week or every two months or whenever. This podcast was very interesting to me. His podcast sounded very professional also it didn't sound like it was read off of paper. Third I listened to EdTech Talk number 94 it was done by Arvind Gover, Alex Ragone, and Vinnie Vrotny. It sounded like a sports radio conversation. They had a special guest on this episode named Carol Broos. Lastly I listened toMacBreak Weekly episode 128. It is done by four different men this episode was called "I Cannot Confirm Nor Deny". This podcast also sounded like a sports radio station. One of the men off of this podcast also does the This Week in Photography. This podcast wasn't as informative as the others. It seemed like they were rambling because they spent like this first ten minutes of the show talking about everything except what the podcast was about.