Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Blogfolio


Creativity and Innovation
            Effective teachers will demonstrate and bring into play the National Technology Standards for Students (NETS•S) as they engage themselves, students, colleagues, and communities in learning experiences that will improve their level of comprehension pertaining to the use of technology. Teachers should consider developing authentic learning experiences and assessments for their students. Whether educational programs are developed for the students to maximize their learning or simply to practice, they should be tailored in such a way that each student’s individual interests, curiosities, and creativity are present and they are able to engage in monitoring their own progress, setting their own goals, and ultimately becoming independent learners. For example, students may participate in creating an introduction video to monitor their own development over time. We created introduction videos in my class using a video camera, in which we delivered a 30 second autobiography to the class. The videos could also be used to tape students reading progress or for them to practice delivering speeches with.

Communication and Collaboration
            Secondly, in view of the fact that technology is advancing continuously each day, teachers, students, administrators, and communities all find themselves further developing and improving their technological understanding and communication methods as well. Educators must maintain a current understanding of technological advancements, so that they may be able to inform others of innovations and participate in communicating with peers, parents, and students alike. For example, I enjoyed creating a Voki in class that represented my creativity, personality, and level of skill with a technologically designed product. I enjoyed both developing the unique avatar and telling my loved ones and friend about it. It is most important that educators are able to comprehend, identify with, and assist one another in this endless learning. This tool could be used to make presentations by a student or a teacher. Teachers must be capable of using these and various other types of technologies to discover their students’ intellectual capacity and scaffold their students’ future learning.

Research and Information Fluency
             It is obvious that teachers have to create informative experiences for their students that will enhance their creativity, learning, and originality. This allows students to choose to research something that they find to be relevant or interesting and allows the teachers to assess their students in the most effective manner. Educators should create a need for students to explore real-world issues and document their thinking using computers. Recently, in my class we generated concept maps that discussed topics in science. Concept maps can be used in all subjects though. In English, students can use concept maps to identify elements of a particular story. They can then create a digital presentation explaining their reasoning for choosing a particular story. Students may create concept maps using pictures, Venn diagrams, word sorts, concept maps, and various computer programs that will increase their artistic thinking. 

 Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
            Instructors ought to exhibit knowledge and attain skills of a pioneering professional in this ever evolving digital society. For instance, teachers should communicate with students, peers, parents, and the community using digital resources such as a blog or classroom webpage. We each created our own “teacher webpage” in my class and it was a great way to practice developing an interactive resume so to speak. I wasn’t able to just go wild in being creative. There were guidelines and this wasn’t just for me, it was for the students and the teachers to use so there was an element of crtical thinking and decision making taking place on my part. Teachers may also choose to correspond with others using email, video chat, or instant messaging to correspond. Most significantly, teachers should demonstrate the use of digital resources that will enhance research and learning in the classroom. My teacher did an excellent job of getting my to discover how to develop my own webpage, which is a challenge that I would have otherwise faced alone. 

Digital Citizenship
            Finally, when requiring students to engage in using digital tools, teachers should inform students how to create their own movies that are clean-cut and innovative. I greatly enjoyed making a video in my class. I most appreciated that the professor did not require us to present any topic in particular, but instead, gave us the ability to choose for ourselves what story we wanted to tell. But students must understand the rules of copyrighting material and documenting sources when putting videos together in order to maintain digital citizenship. In order to persist in learning the laws that are continually changing in reference to digital goods, the teachers themselves must engage in attending workshops, educational training, and global learning communities so that they can grow professionally and lead others to do the same. Instructors must constantly evaluate their abilities and improve them as necessary in order to be in alliance with the National Technology Standards for Students (NETS•S).

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

John Hunter's World Peace Game


          If you were to listen to the response of fourth and fifth graders that have played the John Hunter's World Peace game, you’d be surprised to realize that John Hunter’s program is far more than just fun and games. It is an excellent tool that encourages elementary students to think of ways to resolve crisis, such as natural disasters, across the world in a peaceful manner. The game persuades students to use higher order thinking skills and develop ways that victims may be assisted following catastrophes.

          Playing the game allows students to practice collaborating with peers and solving predicaments of course, but the most important quality that students get the chance to encompass is compassion. They are exposed to the realities outside of the classroom that they will be facing in the future someday. Students are being taught in elementary school to see such situations from a kindhearted and inventive perspective. Hopefully, when future leaders are facing opposition in the world, they will use these ingrained abilities to quickly problem solve in a compassionate matter.

Digital Citizenship


            Digital Citizenship refers to a maintaining suitable and conscientious behavior when using technology. In observance of the “nine elements”, which seem very similar to the “ten commandments” or the constitution, citizens agree to follow the nine elements’ regulations that include in detail the rights of users, acceptable conduct, legal and illegal behaviors, and precautionary advise.  Users are taught what etiquette is appropriate online and told that they each have a right to participate in electronic society.
            The behaviors that are discussed seemed all to familiar to those that are already taught to students each day. We already prepare lessons that teach students to control their behavior, not talk to strangers, not give out their personal information, not to bully others, and much more. It is only logical that the same rules be applied to students, whether they are on the internet or functioning in society. Teachers can use the nine elements to develop lesson plans that will teach their students the importance of digital citizenship.

Flipped Classrooms


            Flipped classrooms encourage students to use educational technology in their classes and to engage in activities that reinforce what the students are learning through their lectures. The learning environment is better enhanced because teachers are able to deliver lectures to the students outside of the classroom using online videos, podcasts, etc. In 2010 over 30 percent of internet users reported having viewed an online educational video. 

            The numbers are not surprising considering the effects that advances in technology have made in our everyday lives, which have led to changes such as: “flipping” classrooms. Some may question the ability for every student to have internet access at home, but fortunately it only requires students to take 5-7 minutes out of their day to watch the videos or access the classroom webpage at school. I am happy to see that so many schools are beginning to embrace technology and use it as the powerful tool that it really can be.

Develop websites for the university

Auburn Montgomery University. Trace Alexander. 1-334-244-3000.

Jacksonville University. Christy Sarra. 1-904-256-7000 ext. 7033.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Philanthropy

While our culture today openly admits that technology and gaming are beneficial to the classrooms and are an excellent teaching tool, it seems that those same people will give an eye roll at the thought of majoring in such a field in college. We know that in order to advance in the future one must study works from the past, which has led to Universities even offering "video-game-studies programs". Video games are only 30 years old and still not considered to some to be an art form worth preserving and archiving, which couldn't be further from the truth. This was proven by the successful open-house recently held that allowed modern day gaming students to take a trip back in time and play old school games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., etc. They said they there were problems however, but the issues involved the kids playing too long and not taking turns. This is all the more proof that these games should most certainly be maintained somewhere, if nothing else so that we can someday show the next generation just how far we have come in regards to the gaming industry.

Helpful Classroom Websites

Boom writer: "engage students like never before" Teachers create a "story start" and students complete the story with their own twist, endings, etc. The students then submit their work and the teacher either approves or ask them to complete revisions. Once the story is finished, the students submit the story to the rating stage. Students are able to then access each others anonymous work and rate the stories. After voting, winners are announced and stories are then built upon to ultimately create books that can be read online or even purchased in soft cover form. This will encourage star students to perfect their writing, while engaging struggling students in writing creatively and independently. The site is free and available for all ages.

Classtell is a website designed especially for individual classes to create their own space. When accessing the site, students can check their homework or foresee future assignments. Students can even subscribe to the site, so that each time you make a post, they are notified via email. There is a blog, discussion form, calendar, place to upload documents, etc. If desired the teacher may even require a password to access the site so that people uninvited cannot see what is posted. This site is designed to make it especially easy for teachers to create a page for their individual class. The service is free with up to 1 GB of  space.

Boy Culture

Boys' culture isn't working in schools today. We have this stereotype of what we believe genders should be and are most interested in. The 100 girls statistics compare the number of girls with learning disabilities, emotional disturbances, and behavioral problems to that of boys. The number of boys with each of these issues was consistently and significantly higher than the number of girls with the same problems. Why are boys facing these issues in staggering number compared to girls? First off, teachers seem to have a "zero tolerance" policy that doesn't allow boys to express themselves in ways that most interest them. Teachers seem to believe that boys interest in blowing things up, rough housing, and guns deems them to be inappropriate and in dire need of psychological help. Secondly, there aren't any men teaching elementary school children. Boys do not see men in their classrooms and ultimately conclude that it must not be a place for boys. Lastly, we have a compression of curriculum that requires students to learn in Kindergarten what they used to learn in second grade. The pressure that is placed on teachers doesn't allow active students to express themselves....at all. So what can we as future teachers to help this crisis? We need to throw ourselves into boys culture! First, we can design better games that will rival those that boys are interested in. We need to change our zero tolerance policy and allow boys to be boys in order for them to not lose interest in classwork. Gaming shouldn't be looked down on by educators, but embraced and used as a tool instead. As educators, we should do everything in our power to reengage boys in school, and to do so, we MUST embrace boy culture...and not ignore, deny, or belittle it for one more second.

Movie Maker

When I read the directions for our Movie Maker project and discovered that we were supposed to tell a story, I decided to share a little bit about my short lived career as a pet groomer. While the process isn't rocket science, it is an art form that requires an essential order of things. Secondly, I'm sure that most girls in my class have a dog and half of them probably have their dog groomed, so here is a sneak peek of what your pampered pooch will endure at each visit to the doggy groomer. Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Webpage

https://sites.google.com/site/msrushings1stgradeclass/home

Cyberbullying

In today's society it is far to easy for people to cowardly sit behind a computer screen and "diss" other people online. Being able to bully someone without consequence has become easier than setting up the account in order to do so. While there is so much emphasis placed on blocking children from online social networking sites, there is little attention paid to teaching them how to use such sites appropriately. While cyber bullying, children may not understand how negatively their comments may be effecting others. They should be shown stories of tragedies that have taken place simply because of this new way of bullying. Without being held accountable or shown why cyber bullying is such a terrible thing to do, children will unfortunately continue to bully and be bullied online.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Voki

Weather Concept Map




Weather
I. Temperature
•You can tell the temperature by counting the clicks a cricket makes in 15 seconds and adding 37!
A. Celsius
B. Fahrenheit
II. Clouds
A. Cumulus
Clouds that appear to be convective to one another when they are formed in the sky. These clouds appear circular and are one of the 2 main types of clouds. Cumulus are puffy mid-level white clouds made of water and ice, usually associated with fair weather.
B. Stratus
Clouds that appear to be layered when they are formed in the sky. This is one of the 2 main types of clouds. These consist of water droplets and cover most of the sky with an even, gray color similar to a fog, which can signal light rain.
III. Wind
A. Heats up the earths surface
Sun heats up the air, which produces wind that heats mostly the air closest to the earth's surface.
B. Makes Electricity
1. Wind Turbine
Best way to produce energy using the wind. It is made of propellers and attached to a tall tower. Just one can create enough energy for a single house. They are good because they are pollution free but some people find their loud noise unappealing.
2. Wind Pumps
A windmill that pumps water into various sources. It can be used to create clean water for drinking or to irrigate farm land. 
IV. Air
A. Stratosphere
15 km 50 km above the earth. This is where jet planes fly and there is no way to breathe here. That is why jets are sealed closed and filled with air so that passengers can breathe.
B.  Troposphere
The lower layer of the atmosphere and is 15 km high. This is where the clouds are formed and it is very difficult to breathe here because the air is so thin. Example- the top of Mount Everest.
V. Rain
A. Fun Facts
There is so much water in the air that if it all fell as rain at the same time, it could fill enough buckets to reach from the earth to the sun 57 million times!

•One inch of rain over one square mile equals to 17.4 million gallons of water.

The weight of one inch of water over one square mile equals over 145 million pounds.



B. How Forms
Water droplets form from warm air. As the warm air rises in the sky it cools. Water vapor (invisible water in the air) always exists in our air. Warm air holds quite a bit of water. When enough of these droplets collect together, we see them as clouds. If the clouds are big enough and have enough water droplets, the droplets bang together and form even bigger drops. When the drops get heavy, they fall because of gravity, and you see and feel rain. Since its often hot and humid in the summertime, it rains more then.

‘Safe’ Social Networking for K-12 Schools


Let’s face it, unless your too young to have a Facebook account, you probably do are will have one someday. Since social networks are growing so rapidly, students will most likely be involved in communicating using the internet at some point in their lives. Because of this there most certainly is a need to educate them on how to use such sights appropriately, instead of just hiding it from them. The idea that students can use social networking to experience learning in a new way is absolutely wonderful. Aren’t teachers supposed to differentiate their instruction? 

Obviously, teachers should continuously monitor students’ behavior online and thankfully most of the new and coming programs do that for them automatically. The internet should be and apparent choice for teaching lessons and targeting students that may feel more comfortable “talking” on a social networking site.  It is a great tool for students in middle schools grades especially, because they can be asked to post discussions on such sites as homework if there is not enough time to do so in class. When getting practically any institution there is going to be some form of “blackboard” or other site that students will be required to master, so why not let them begin to practice these skills at an earlier age.