Lesson Plan #1

Lesson Plan #1: Endangered Species

EDM310 Lesson Plan 1

Blog Post #6

PLN, I have come, to find out, is such an essential tool for teachers! PLN stands for personal learning networks. Students have their own personal learning networks through friends and peers.  When students have questions about school work, projects, homework, study problems, tests, etc, they can call, text, tweet, or Facebook to get in touch with their classmates to be able to accomplish their goal. Teachers, most likely, may not have those connections like students do.  PLN enables teachers to connect and establish relationships with other teachers, administrators, professionals, and experts. For a new college student at the University of South Alabama, I do not know a lot of other students, and I have found that Facebook and Twitter are the best forms of PLN for me.

Another form of PLN, for tools, is through an internet website called Symbaloo. I have found this website very helpful! If you set Symbaloo as your homepage, like I did, you can access all of your favorite websites as soon as you pull up your browser. Symbaloo allows you to add titles, which are websites, such as G Mail, Pinterst, Ebay, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, and so much more! There is even a Google tool bar in the middle of the page where you can search Google as if you were on the regular Google homepage.

My goal for starting my personal PLN is to start right away! I first need to do my research on other biology classes that have blogs and practice problem-based learning because those are some of the qualities that will be involved in my own classroom.

Project #8

Blog Post #5

What do you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capp?

 This weeks assignment was to watch personal interviews with Mr. Strange, my EDM310 professor, and Anthony Capps, a former student of EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I became very intrigued after the first video of the interviews. Mr. Capps gives specific and detailed examples of how he applies certain topics into his classroom. He gave real-life examples on how to incorporate many different tools into his classroom which sparked my interest for my future students in my future classroom. Some of the different tools he spoke about were problem-based learning, iCurio, Discovery Ed, and general technology on how to use it in the classroom. 

He described problem-based learning close to my point of view on how I foresee it being used. He stated that when people think of problem-based learning, what comes to mind is doing a project at the end of a lesson or lecture to make sure the students understand and to achieve something. What it is shifting to is using problem-based learning as a learning tool to help the students learn AS THEIR LESSON. When teachers are given the content from the state, teachers have to create a problem-based learning atmosphere and lesson for the students to learn that content. Mr. Capps described it as in order for the students to finish the project, they must know the content. The key to achieving this goal is for the teachers to create a project that is interesting, fun, and knowledgeable, to engage the students for them to finish their work and learn!

Two other tools I learned about from listening to Mr. Capps interview is that of iCurio and Discovery Ed. iCurio is a way for students to safely search filtered websites for educational purposes. Students are allowed access to clean and appropriate text, audio, media, and images. The asset that caught my attention was that iCurio has a storage capacity, for students and teachers, so that they may save information and be able to come right back to it. Mr. Capps explained how Discovery Ed was very useful and beneficial for him because the website is supported through experts and information through text, video, images, etc. Teachers use it very frequently to bring text to life so that their lessons become more interesting and students engage more.

Technology is such a beneficial tool that helps people in their daily lives. Our world is now revolved around technology. Technology is at school, work, the gas station, grocery store, the bank, driving down the road, etc. So how do we as teachers incorporate the correct use of technology? In this video called Don't Teach Tech-Use It! Mr. Capps explains very effectively how to do so. We as teachers have to introduce technology smartly. When creating assignments, incorporate technology to DISCOVER instead of giving a list of directions that has to be done. Allow room for discovery and the students will pick up rather quickly!

This video, Strange Tips for New Teachers, was my favorite. It was quick and to the point explaining what a teachers job and life consist of. Here are some of the tips that was provided that I was drawn too: 1) be interested in learning yourself; we are to model students behavior, 2) even though teaching is hard work, it is very rewarding, therefore make it fun, 3) do not be committed to "this is what we will do today and that is how it is going to be" because plans may change and teachers have to be open for revising, and 4) create lessons that students will be able to share with friends, peers, or at home (they will be more apt to work harder). My goal for when I become an educator is to create a healthy dose of collaboration, purpose, competition, and pride in my classroom just like Mr. Capps does. I learned a huge amount of great information from the interviews and I am very thankful I was given the opportunity to access that beneficial information.

C4K Summary for Month of February

This past week I was to read elementary age students blogs and comment on them. I read Sharkies by Adam. Adam skyped with a woman named Sharky Gillian. He was introduced to MANY new species and interesting facts about sharks. One interesting fact that he was seemed very interested in was that one reason sharks are killed is because of the use of their fins. People cook and like to eat fin soup. An interesting fact that he actually taught me was statistical. One hundred million sharks are killed yearly by humans; while five humans are killed yearly by sharks. I fell in love with his interest and care for the sharks. I am a Biology/Secondary Education major so we definitely share a lot in common! I hope he reads and takes my suggestion of watching the Discovery Channel during Shark Week because I know he will enjoy it just as much as I do!

This week I was to read Kyla's blog and post a comment on her page. Her page is very new; created on the 5th of February this year. She has posted a survey asking simple questions for her to get to know who is reading her page. I love the idea of that because she getting to know her followers on a more personal level. She asked questions such as: what is your favorite color?, which is your favorite animal?, etc. I think she is heading in a good direction with her blog and I am excited to see where she leads it! 

My Sentence Video

My Sentence and My Passion Is..

Blog Post #4

"What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?"

What questions do we ask? How do we ask? What style of questions should we ask? If you, as a teacher, can answer these questions and carryout correctly formatted questions in your classroom, you will be a very successful problem-based teacher! The reason teachers use questioning strategies in the classroom is to improve learning by guiding the students to think and create their own personal ideas about topics.

When asking questions in the classroom, as a teacher, I will be modeling and exampling for students for how they should study and create their own ideas. Here is a few simple steps to follow when forming questions for your classroom: 1) plan questions ahead of time (not only the question but also when you will ask the question, along with follow up responses and questions), 2) make sure the questions that you ask are leading towards the courses goals, 3) stay away from leading questions (because it suggest the answer within the question) but include open-ended and closed questions, 4) when asking a "yes or no" question, have a follow up question for additional information so that the students can support their reasoning, 5) be direct and clear, 6) try to avoid asking more than question at a time.

As teachers respond to the answer a student has given, to the student, it is very nerve-racking because they do not want to give an incorrect answer and "look" dumb to their peers. As a teacher, I want to be encouraging but I also want to let the student know what is incorrect within the response. Here are some simple steps for how teachers should respond to students answers: 1) after asking a question, wait 3-5 seconds to allow students time to think and formulate their response, 2) if no one answers re-word the question, if that does not work, call on a student to answer to grab their attention, 3) avoid interrupting a students response, 4) show interest in all of students responses even if they are wrong, 5) when responding back to answers give the students more info so that they can continue thinking about the topic, 6) if a students response is incorrect, make acknowledgment of where it was incorrect and ask more questions leading them to brainstorm and come up with a correct or more correct response.

After taking a few educational courses at Cumberland University last semester, I already know a little about questioning strategies and how they can be applied. After reading The Right Way to Ask Questions, I was introduced to a new perspective about questioning strategies. The main reasoning that I found this useful and that it jumped off the page to me was having to ask specific questions. It seems simple and easy but when I read further along I become more interested in their point of view. They stated that asking, "do you all understand?" is not a sufficient of enough question because the students may not know that they do not know. The reason this attracted my interest as much as it did is because I  was one of those students. I did not know that I did not know and I am paying for it in college by having to work extra hard in my studies. If I would have been brought up in today's educational society with more questioning strategies and problem-based learning, I think I would have it a little more easier today. 

Project #4 Summary of C4T

For this project assignment, I was to read and comment on a teachers blog that was assigned to me named Dylan Blain. I become very lucky to be assigned this physical education teacher, not because of the subject, but because of the blog posts he had made. Without being assigned this teacher and being able to read his post, I would have probably never come across such beneficial websites! The two websites that I become exposed to and did research on was  Edmodo (I strongly suggest watching the demo that is on this site to see what all they have to offer) and Sports Plan.

For the first post I read, he talked about the new update to Sports Plan. I found this incredibly interesting because of all the benefits for coaches, players, and even physical education teachers just like Mr. Blain. He described examples of what Sports Plan has to offer on iPad and Mac such as creating drills, create drill sketches, different session plans for a variety of sports, and has a vast selection of animated drills to browse within its library for every sport. He stated that he highly recommends this tool for coaches but also gives some warning precautions with it as well. The warning precautions were that of internet access must be available to use website and having to purchase some things inside website for availability of using product. Being a future high school biology teacher, my goal is to work my way up to becoming a head volleyball coach one day. Even though I will not be using this website to benefit my classes (obviously) but I will keep it in mind when I reach my goal of being involved on a volleyball team staff.

For the second post I read, Mr. Blain talked about Work Flow, Edmodo, and Google Drive. What I understood of this blog post \when he talked about Work Flow was that he, as a teacher, could get on this app and create assignments, upload pictures, etc, but it is what he did with the Work Flow app that interested me. He uses two apps that he can upload his work onto to be able to share it with a variety of individuals, such as, Edmodo and Google Drive. Google drive is something I am already familiar with but am still learning the ropes on. This is the first year I have been exposed to Google Drive, which is very odd considering how beneficial it is. Edmodo is the website that caught my attention very quickly. I did some research and found that Edmodo is a website that I will introduce to my class the very first year I teach. It has the the look and feel of a social media site while actually being a useful tool for in and out of the classroom. Mr. Blain states at the end of his post, "Either way, both tools allow the mobile nature of the iPad to be used to its full potential for teachers and students..". I strongly agree with his last comment and am very fortunate to have been assigned his blog page!

Project #3