My PLN- Final Report

Of all the things I have done in this class, this is the one thing that I think will be most helpful to me in the future. Of course, it has been great learning about technology, and reading through my classmates' blogs, but this is something that I will take along with me once I become a teacher,

In my opinion, a PLN can never be complete, there are always more contacts, websites, and helpful people that you will want to add to your PLN. This is something that I think will be continuously expanding.

To start off with, in my PLN I put the basic websites I have used while taking EDM 310. For instance, I have the EDM homepage, a few of my classmates blogs (the ones I think may continue to work on their blog after class is over), my blog,  the alumni blog and blogspot.com. I also have my gmail account, for fast access.

My PLN has links to youtube, twitter,  and facebook (which are things that I do log onto and look through on a normal basis.

On my twitter account. I am following a lot of people that have educational blogs, like Dorothy Burt and Wesley Fryer. Both of these websites I have linked on my PLN.

Those are only 2 of the many websites I have found extremely interesting and helpful.

Not only do I have the social networks, I have linked ebooks,com and amazon.com. After doing my podcast on Ebooks, I have taken extra time to explore the topic and it is something I may consider once I become a teacher.

On top of all of these websites, I have linked the ALEX and ACCESS websites. Since these are also topics talked about in class, I think they they will be very helpful to me in my future career.

Like I said earlier, this is something that has just begun for me. I know that as time goes on, I will continue to ass helpful links and websites to my eductional symbaloo webmix. My PLN will continue to grow, and I will be a continual learner as I get older.

Educational Webmix on Symbaloo

Comments for Teachers- Teacher 4

Learning is Life blog

For my fourth C4T, I was assigned to the blog of Russ Goerend. His blog was titled 'Learning is Life'.

For the first comment, I read his blog post on authors purpose. Russ was explaining ways that he was trying to teach his sixth grade student's to understand about authors purpose. This, in a short explanation, is telling whether the author was trying to persuade, describe, explain, or inform with their writing.

He broke his activities down into a day to day basis, and explained what he went over each day to give his studnets a deeper understanding of authors purpose.

To me, as a future teacher, I found this very helpful. Other teachers may have a problem with this same thing for their students, and having a post like this that breaks it down and explains it so easy could really come in handy for other teachers if they are having to go into more detail with their students like he did.

The second post I commented on was about CAFE and using the Evernote on the Ipad as an alternative. This is something I have never heard of, but as a future teacher I found it very interesting. I am, like Russ, not very paper organized and after looking through all of the information about the Evernote on the Ipad, it seems like a more efficient way to keep up with your students information. It seems easy to access (as long as you do not have problems) and you do not have to tote around a huge, heavy three ring binder.

It is definitely something I will look into.

Comments for Kids 8-11

The blog I was supposed to comment on for my C4K 8 would not pull up, so I commented on a blog by a girl named Kath that was listed under my assigned student for my 9th C4K. On her blog, she was posting about a choir trip they had taken with their school. Kath said that they performed in front of crowds larger than 100 people. I know that I would have been very nervous if I was in that position. After hearing about their choir trip it seemed like they had a great time.

I found my 9th C4K the most interesting. It was a person named Jesse's blog, and they made a post on a book they had created. It was an online book, and you could actually flip the pages and everything from the computer. Jesse's book was on a cookie monster that stole cookies and hid them from everyone. In the end, cookie monster's brother stole all of cookie monster's cookies and they were forced to share them. It was very well written, it had great illustrations, and it had a good moral behind it.

This is something that I would love to do with my kids once I begin teaching. Its a great way to let them show their creativity, and it also gives them a chance to use the computer and new forms of technology.

On my 10th C4K, I read a blog post by a girl named Shelby from Mrs. Heubner's class. Her post was on a recent Skype session that was done with a Catholic school in Pennsylvania. It seemed like she found it very interesting that she was able to Sykpe with someone that was so far away. I think that Skype can be a very effective teaching tool for students, especially if you are skyping with people that was help educate you.

Shelby was lucky enough to Skype with a school that was a lot different from hers. They had uniforms, they went to school for different times, and they also learned to sing all of the states in alphabetical order. 

For my C4K 11, I read a poem called Cherries Red by a boy named Frank. Even though his poem was sort of dark and gloomy, It was very well written. According to him, the poem was about a man that committed suicide after thinking of all the people he had killed in his life. Yes, I thought this was a sort of a strange blog post at first, but it was actually very interesting.

Blog Assignment 14

Instead of doing a normal blog post this week, we had to read a post off a girl named Yasmine's blog. The post I was assigned to read was a wordle on the book Perfect Image.  Although I have never read the book, by looking at her wordle I can get a sense of what the book is about. To me, this is a great way to use a wordle, especially for children who want to get a sense of a book before they read it.

I also went through her blog and took a look at some of her other posts. I found some of them really interesting. I read a poem that she did on the winter holidays and it was very good. You would have never guessed it came from a 6th grader. I think she is a very talented writer.

After reading her poem, I also decided to read a blog post on her top 5 desserts. Of course this caught my eye becuase I am a dessert girl as well. I was not surprised to find brownies and cheesecake on her list. These are my two favorite things!

I think its wonderful that children like Yasmine are getting the chance to express themselves on their blog. They get to write about all types of things they like and feel, and to me this is very important.

Final Project 16

Additional Assignment 5

Adventures in pencil integration

Yes, I am one of the many that got completely turned around while reading the first post on "pencils." No I did not necessarily believe he was talking about pencils, but I did come out very confused. So here goes shot number 2.

Just teach them how to solve for X

This post was very thought provoking and interesting. I do believe I understand it more than I did the one about pencils. I agree with this. It takes more than just simple memorization to understand things. Using metaphors, he is allowing his students to completely understand something instead of just using it and not knowing what it really means.

Sketchy Portraits: 8th Grade Identity and Pencils

It is absolutely amazing how he can use metaphors to describe everything. A pencil is a computer, a pencil is a child. It is wonderful to read things like this; things I never thought would come together to make sense. But it does. Children are like pencils, black and white, sketchy, temporary. Especially student's at that age where they are still trying to figure themselves. Of course this can be frustrating to us, but it is something that must be understood and worked with.

He Just Likes the Class for the Pencils

This post was my favorite. No, the boy does not like the class just because of the "pencils" or the "technolgy" or the "fun stuff". It goes a lot deeper than that. I also agree that you must keep a close connection with your students. You have to have trust, respect and understanding. If you can listen to your students, you have a much better chance of getting through to them.

The Medium Shapes the Learning

To me, this post is completely relevant to our EDM 310 class. In teaching, even if you have the tools, you MUST know how they work. In order to get the full effect, you need to be aware of the best way to go about using your tools. With technology expanding and becoming more popular, you can not just have computer in the classroom and say "here ya go students." I believe this will get us no where, not if we have a certain objective we need to get across. If you have a new method of technology, you need to know HOW to use it to accomplish what you need to accomplish.

Blog Assignment 13

ALEX (Alabama Learning Exchange)
http://alex.state.al.us/index.php



ALEX was created to share educational tools and materials with teachers in Alabama. It is just a single website but it has a library of lesson plans for all subjects and grade levels, which can be posted and reviewed, and also shared between teachers. In a way, it is giving teachers a break from having to create lesson plans EVERY day. And don’t worry, the lesson plans are made to fit the Alabama Course of Study, although they can be changed to fit other states’ curriculum as well.

On the ALEX website, there is also a whole section with nothing but podcasts. This section is called the “Podcast Treasury”, and it is just a collection of podcasts that teachers created or were interested in. You can scroll through all of the new content, or you can search bases on the subject that you are interested in, like history for example.

Also on the ALEX website, there is a place where you can go to see nothing but good educational links. There are not only links for teachers and administrators; there are links for students as well. This website is pretty much all of your Google searches wrapped up in one, whether you’re looking for educational websites, good lesson plans for your class, or for podcasts that could be helpful to you as a teacher.


Access (Alabama connecting classrooms, educators, and students statewide)
http://accessdl.state.al.us/

ACCESS is a program that is designed to improve student learning through educational opportunities. ACCESS was created in 2004, and it laid out a whole list of goals and objectives that they were trying to meet even in the first year.

After reading through the ACCESS website, there were a lot of things that I found interesting. The whole point of the program is to come together to better students in Alabama. They are doing this by providing AP courses in schools for people who are interested, and they are also offering duel credit courses for college credits. I think that this is a great idea. I know that in high school, I was able to take classes for college credits and it really helped me out.

Not only are they offering more Advanced classes, they are offering more courses in general.

One thing I really found helpful is the fact that they are providing teachers with more advanced methods of technology to use in their classroom. This is something I am sure many teachers are happy about. All that means is more media tools to use to educate your students.

It seems like ACCESS is and will remain to be a good program. Although I do not know everything about it, this is something I will continue to look into.