C4K Blog Comments for Feburary

C4K Assignment #1

Mr. Cometti's class from Fairhope wrote a small summary about what they learned from his WW1 slide show presentation. My student, McClean02, did great at understanding the overall pros and cons of the war. He/she knew all the stats: how many people were killed, the cities destroyed, family devastation, ext. I made sure to tell him/her what a great job he/she was doing and to keep up the great work. The summary contained many errors, of course, but overall it wasn't a terrible read. I made sure to inform him/her not to forget their commas!
 

C4K #2
Ms.Sapia's class or "Superstars" were assigned to write what seemed like a paragraph about the way they felt about homework. My student, Seth, explained his hate and love for homework. He said he likes homework when he's bored; however, when something happens and he can't get his homework done he feels bad. His father was put in the hospital and it caused him to miss out on completing his daily homework. Seth, on the other hand, is happy about his teacher's homework load. He says compared to some of the other classes or grades his teacher doesn't give out too much.
I supported Seth by telling him what a great job he was doing. I also told him not to feel so bad, because everyone hates homework. He had a problem with run-on sentences, though. I explained to him if he threw out a few of his extra words like 'because' he would be able to fix that problem.

C4K#3

My assignment this week was to look into Ms. King's 6th grade class Rm 17 at Pt England School. Hiwarau, the student I was assigned, summarized a story about 2 tribes fighting over a cherry seed. He did a great job with complete sentences, which I made sure to tell him, and a great job on his painting. If you click the link, you can see it for yourself. Honestly, it made me giggle (lol). His vocabulary was great to see since we have been reading younger grades so far. His summarization was pretty complete and he seemed to be doing well. I made sure to give him advice about starting his sentences with the word and but other than that he was great!

C4K #4

My assignment this week was Ms. Martin's 10th grade class at Baldwin County High. My student, Nicholas, and another student collarborated a video. This video was basically an interview in which they both asked each other simple questions like "how old are you", "where do you see yourself in the future", "how long have you lived in Baldwin County". They were both 16, which made this assignment a lot easier because I didn't have to correct him on much. He seemed a little awkward on camera, like most people, so I made sure to inform him to get used to it. Being on camera and creating videos are part of the future. I made sure to inform him that if he planned on being in college that he might as well get used to the camera. Technology is taking over and this is how most people will communicate in the future.

C4T Blog Post #1

Primary Preoccupation 

Kathy Cassidy's "The Use and Abuse of Technology in the Classroom" discusses the does and don'ts of teaching while using technology with children. Most classrooms these days have Ipads and computers to help children learn with exercises on the Internet. She is very passionate about using technology to help the children actually learn and have fun doing it. She says that some teachers use technology as a crutch, having children play games on the Internet just to keep them busy. In her post, she explains some techniques in using technology in positive, educational ways.

When leaving a comment, I explained my passion for her thoughts. I agree with her a hundred percent. I also thanked Kathy for the advice and for the future lesson plan. 

C4T #2

Mike Prater's Grow Through Learning is an intriguing read. He understands that children need some kind of healthy reinforcement for their work; however, a piece of candy won't lead to long term changes. He states 3 different methods in reinforcement that may change this: Show genuine care for your students, demonstrate a constant excitement about personal learning, and finally introduce appropriate challenges. His views on showing genuine care for your students is self explanatory, show your students you care about them.  Express love and interest in their lives and their learning. In his demonstrate a constant excitement about personal learning topic, Mike explains that we as teachers must be excited about learning to be able to get our little learners excited. I looked around the web for different activities we as teachers can do within the classroom to get our students involved and I'd recommend everyone take a look at Kristina' Robertson's '5 Things'. She has a few good ideas.

Introducing appropriate challenges is the only way a student is going to learn. Challenging a student is the best way for progress. Mike states that in order for a student to succeed they must be challenged. Instead of giving your student too much to do, or frustrating them with knowledge they may not be ready for, Mike says  it's smart to let a student choose which activity they want to do. I think Mike has some great points, which I proceeded to tell him in my follow up comment. I will, no doubt, be taking his words of wisdom with me to my future classroom.

Blog Post #4

Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting

The children were adorable! From reading this blog, I learned about working together, perfecting speech, and gaining better comprehension skills. Astoundingly, adding emotions to words actually makes learning easier. The ending in Hebrew through me off a little bit but I could really tell the kids were excited and it was obvious that they had worked very hard and practiced! The podcast was great!

Langwitches-Flat Stanley Podcast

Flat Stanley's are a great way for kids to learn. It's awesome they got to be so creative and use flat versions of themselves to learn about all the different places in the world. Their stories were great, too, and they showed they were having a great time with it. Podcasts are a great and fun way for children to learn, I hope teachers continue to use these techniques because the kids really seem to enjoy it.

"The Benefits of Podcasting in a Classroom" By:Joe Dale

Watching this video really opened my eyes, I didn't realize how many classrooms are already using things like podcasting. It was great to see the children working on their own to create podcasts. Getting the teachers involved in developing podcasts and uploading them can be great for any student that falls behind or misses class. I know that I'll be using these techniques in my future classroom. It's a great idea!

Special Blog Post #1

Compare Populations of India, China and the United States. What do you find? 
The United States is third in population while India is second and China is third. China has 1.34 billion residents while India has 1.19 and the U.S 311.1 million.
I then searched What is the estimated growth of population in the U.S where I found that in 2008 there was an estimated .969% growth. I also found that in the last few years the U.S population growth has rapidly declined. My second search was How smart are Chinese compared to Americans? This may be a silly question but I was just curious to know what would pop up. I found that China has 233.3 students while America only has 67.62, thats more than triple the amount of students in comparison. In 1999, the public education spending of China was an estimated 1.907% while America had a 5.404% in spending. This means America is putting more money into education that China, even though China has more than triple the population. Why is this you may ask? We must take into account that China is a much different culture. America has the "No Child Left Behind Act" while China has no such thing.

WolframAlpha

This search engine quite frankly surprised me. All the interesting information available on such an easy search engine. They even send you interesting side questions, opening your mind to different questions. I'm interested to play with different questions to see what I can find. In the future, I will use it in my classrooms with my students. 
Technology, I'm assuming, will surround us in the years to come. It's important for our rising learners to learn how to use different search engines. If used the right way, more information can be found and imbedded in their brains. Even the smallest facts are good to know. The more you know about your surroundings and your world, the better off you'll be.

"The Count"

I probably stared at "The Count" for an hour, amazed at the pace things are going. I may be a slow, take it easy kind of person but it's amazing the way technology is taking over. The internet has been around only a bit over 10 years and it already cosumes most businesses, people, ext. Technology can be both good and bad; we need it, yet we don't need it. I believe most people these days forget the world is in front of them, outside their window, instead of inside a screen or computer. However, we can use technology to help guide us through our day-to-day tasks, make errands easier and faster, anything really. Technology can even open our minds to places and things we had no idea existed. 

I hope our future brings good, positive uses out of the rising technology that surrounds us. Technology should be used for learning, helping, communicating, and other great things. Lately, our health issues have worried me. Technology, I know, is one reason for that. I know; however, people around the world are realizing the use of technology is to be used for knowledge and easy access, not an excuse for laziness.