IBook Final Project

My group for EDM310 was the Mobile group and we did our final project through iBook! We gathered all of the information asked of us and all of our work throughout the class and put them in our presentation. I really enjoyed my group for this class and hope you all enjoyed our presentation.

Final Reflection Video Blog Post #15

Book Trailer

C4K April

Stacey

The first student I was assigned to was Stacey from Pt England School in Auckland, New Zealand. Stacey is a 9 year old in the fourth grade and already knows how to do so much on her blog! The blog post of Stacey's that I commented on was about her class field trip. Stacey created a video through Vimeo with videos and pictures of her and her classmates on their trip to the beach. I really enjoyed seeing her classmates having such a good time and love seeing her grow as a student and a blogger. After Stacey saw my comment she replied with such a sweet comment she replied: "thank you for your wonderful message. i hope you have a nice day and i could keep in contact do you like it in Americar? i hope you be a good teacher bye. I like you". I love that blogging can make these students feel special by just getting a simple comment on one of their posts.

PJ

My second C4K was PJ, he is also a student at Pt England school. He is in the 5th grade and he likes to play rugby and swim. The post I commented on of PJ's was a short story he wrote about swimming. It is so fun to read stories that these students write on their blogs! Each student I am assigned to shows their creativeness and intelligence through each and every post. It is fascinating to see how much young children in today's schools know about technology.

Atareita

My third C4K is Atareita, she is also a student at Pt England School. Atareita's favorite subjects are reading and writing and she enjoys playing ripper rugby. The post I commented on Atareita's is a Google Slides Presentation of a Book Cover that she made up and designed. Atareita was very special to me because she has commented such sweet things on some of my own blog posts. After I commented on her post she replied saying: "Thank you sooo much Claire. That is the best comment I've ever got on my entire blog. Maybe one time I might come and visit you at the University in South Alabama." On one of my posts she wrote: "Claire, you are the best person in the whole world. Thank you so much for commenting on my blog post." These are the things that I think I have enjoyed most about this EDM 310 class, knowing that I put a smile on these kids faces just by a simple comment.

Blog Post #12

Project #12 Part B

Blog Post #11

Back to the future- Barrett Baker
In the TedTalk Video Mr. Brian Crosby discussed how he uses technology with his 4th, 5th and 6th grade students. He first mentioned how his students come from families where spanish is predominantly spoken in their homes, therefore, english is their second language. He said that because of the technology used in his class, he had noticed a significant improvement in students learning. His students are provided with individual laptops to use in class, as well as cameras and smartboard are used on a daily bases. The project he discussed was when the students learned about helium and its effects on balloons. The students got to witness a giant helium ballon fly into the sky with a GoPro camera attached to it. The camera gave live footage of the all the layers of the atmosphere the students had been learning about. The students went back into the classroom to share with their blogs what they had witnessed as the balloon sored into the sky while the footage was streaming live. Mrs. Crosby’s favorite tools are skype,wiki webpages, flicker, and web2.0. His students skyped another school in New Zealand to share a hands on science project involving the outcomes of various temperature pressures on a tin can. Mrs. Crosby’s main goal is to promote active learning. He is doing just that!

Mr. Paul Anderson Blended Learning Cycle-Josh Turnipseed
One of the videos we were assigned to watch was Blended Learning Cycle. He talks about he how uses the blended learning cycle which is using online, mobile, and classroom learning. This takes place all in your classroom and allows students to engage, explore, explain, expand and evaluate. Mr. Anderson also uses an oiler's disk and puts it on a mirror where it can spin for a while. He uses that to describe his classroom, because the kids are like the disk. You can leave the room and it keeps continuing to spin and the students keep continuing to teach themselves as they collaborate with each other. He also gives up his acronym for his blended learning cycle called Q.U.I.V.E.R.S. Which stands for Questions, Investigation, Video, Elaboration, Review and Summary quiz. Anderson it all begins with a question, you want your kids to critically think. You want your kids to experiment and collaborate with one another, Mr. Anderson reviews with his students and with their data he can ask them in advance and detail questions making sure the students learned what they needed to know. He will give them a written quiz on it to grade them on their knowledge of the topic.

Mark Church Making Thinking Visible- Josh Turnipseed
In the next video Making Thinking Visible. Mark Church has his students watch a video about early human beginnings and had them get into small groups to discuss the puzzles and had them create a headline to interpret the puzzles. Mr. Church then says he will have the students regroup at the end of the unit to collaborate again on another headline once they finish their project. They will compare their headlines from before and explain how they think differently and what they've learned. I think this is a great way for kids to critically think.

Building Comics- Claire Gill
In this video, Sam Pane a fifth grade teacher in Omaha, Nebraska talks about teaching his class how to be good digital citizens. The term “good digital citizen” simply means knowing how and how not to use the internet appropriately and safely. In Mr. Pane’s class, he has his students separated into four people per table and when he asks them questions he first tells them to talk about it at their table. I think that is a really good idea, and I plan on remembering that tactic when I become a teacher, I think it helps them brainstorm together as a group. I think we can learn a number of things from Mr. Pane, but the most important thing he portrays in this video is to make sure your students know their internet safety rules.

Project Based Learning- Lauren Hidle
In this video, three teachers collaborating together to incorporate project based learning in their classrooms. A history teacher, an English teacher, and an Information Processing teacher has the students use technology as a tool to deliver the content of history and english. They show that PBL allows the students to be more engaged and have a deeper thought process. One teacher says this has the students taking ownership over their own grades and projects. PBL allows the teachers and students to go above and beyond just the circurrlium.

Roosevelt Elementary PBL program-Lauren Hidle
In this video, it was all about project based learning; what that meant for their school and how they applied that into their classrooms. What PBL means for Roosevelt Elementary is in depth learning, integrated thematic instructions, lessons that are based on “real-world” problems, research driven, and presentations. The school uses PBL within group settings or individual. These projects allows children to think for themselves. This will show that students will actually understand the subject at hand. They, also, focus on building the skill of public speaking at a young age. One teacher said, “The students answer to themselves, which is how the real business world is.” I thought that statement was so true, we should help build the skills of students coming together to solve a problem. This video has parents telling their opinions about the new way of learning and all the comments were positives. PBL for the students of Roosevelt Elementary School has increased their desire to learn.

Project Based Learning Plan #3

Project Overview

Project Calendar

Project #12

Blog Post #9

What Can We Learn From Mrs. Cassidy?

First off, Mrs. Cassidy is a futuristic First Grade teacher in Moose Jaw, Canada. In the first video we were assigned to watch, called "First Graders in Mrs. Cassidy's Class", we are introduced to Mrs. Cassidy's class and all the exciting ways that they are using technology in their classroom. I really love that this video is narrated by the student's themselves, because you can really tell how much they enjoy the things they do to learn in their classroom. One student talks about how they use blogging as a form of learning and how her writing skills improve in every post. Other ways that they use technology in their classroom is through Nintendo DS, webpages and Wiki. Mrs. Cassidy's students talk about how they use Wiki to ask any question they want and people from all over the World answer them.

The next three videos we were assigned to watch was a three part interview that Dr. Strange had with Mrs. Cassidy. In Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 1, Dr. Strange and Mrs. Cassidy discuss how she got started with technology in her classroom. Mrs. Cassidy says in the video that she has been doing this for ten years and started blogging five years ago. She also talk about how blogging affects not only the student's but the parents too. Instead of parents having to meet with the child's teacher about their progress they can easily look at their blogs instead. In Part Two of the interview Dr. Strange and Mrs. Cassidy talk about where to start as a new teacher and ways to create new PLN's. The main source of social media that they talk about in this video is Twitter. Mrs. Cassidy says that she really does not use much social media for her personal life, but that it helps her connect with other teachers and their teaching ideas and thoughts. Dr. Strange talks about how Twitter changed his life, played a major role in his PLN's and introduced him to many other great teachers. Mrs. Cassidy also talks about how each person is different and how we should pick certain technologies that suit what we are interested in. In Part Three of the interview with Mrs. Cassidy, Dr. Strange gets students from his class to ask her questions. One of Dr. Strange's students asked how often Mrs. Cassidy had her students blogging. Mrs. Cassidy also talks about how she protects her students from harmful things on the internet and talks about how Facebook is also useful in collaborating with others. As a future teacher, I really enjoyed learning from Mrs. Cassidy and getting new ideas on how I can be a great teacher as well. When I become a teacher I hope that I will have the resources necessary to involve my students in as much technology as Mrs. Cassidy does. I want to use the same enthusiasm that she does about having her students be bloggers. Having my students blogging in my class will benefit them by helping them improve in many ways. Also blogging can help parents keep track of their child's progress, and I think it is a great way to keep them involved too!

Project #9

Lesson Plans Project #14

Project Overview

Project Calendar

Blog Post #8

In our blog post for this week we are supposed to talk about different tools that we can use as teachers of the 21 century. Luckily for future teachers such as myself, we have a tremendous amount of teaching tools to choose from. Just to start, there is Prezi, Teacher Tube, iCurio, Discovery Ed, and Teaching Channel. All of these sites and tools are a network of teachers coming together to share their ideas and learning experiences.

As a secondary education major I feel that it is a little more difficult for me to find tools to help me teach the older students. One of the tools I researched that I found more age appropriate for secondary education was TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. This Website is kind of like a blog but with videos instead of written posts. These videos are very inspiring talks and speeches by some famous and some non famous people. I feel that these videos are great ways to inspire anyone, especially students and teachers. Students in the higher secondary level grades may sometimes feel lost or may not have as much drive or motivation as a younger excited student. This TED site is a good tool for teachers to use when they feel like a student needs a good boost of positive energy. It is also a good site for teachers to learn new things about education and ways to teach in the 21st century.

C4T #2

My assigned teacher for our C4T assignment was Mrs. Vicki Davis. She also refers to herself as the "Cool Cat Teacher". The blog post I commented on of Mrs. Davis's is called "Daily Education and Technology News in Schools". In this post Mrs. Davis talks about different types of tablets, apps and mind mapping tools. She explains a new type of Belkin tablet and how it benefits classrooms and education. She also talks about an app called the Life Noted App that enables students to be able to capture their notes and share them with others. She also shares a link in her blog that has 24 essential mind mapping and brainstorming ideas that can help teachers learn how to teach their students how to brainstorm more effectively. At the end of Mrs. Vicki Davis's blog she shares several other links that are useful to students and teachers. I really enjoyed reading Mrs. Davis's blog post and love seeing teachers like her that are excited to share their wisdom!

Project #13

Ireland Myths and legends Lesson Plan

Ireland Myths and Legend Calendar

Blog Post #7

Throughout life you meet, know or learn about certain people and their stories, and they stick with you forever. Randy Pausch's story is one of those for me that I will always remember. Mr. Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and doctors told him he only had 6 months left to live. After he found this news out he prepared a message that is known as "Randy Pausch's Last Lecture". Randy was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and was also married with three children. In the beginning of his lecture after he tells about his diagnoses he says, "We can not change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand". I loved how he said that with such optimism given the situation he was dealt. Mr. Pausch's speech is divided into three parts: His childhood dreams, enabling the childhood dreams of others, and lessons learned. Throughout each part of his lecture I felt I learned so much from this man and the perspective he puts on life and how we should live it. I am a huge believer in always helping others to be there best and Randy Pausch is such a great role model not only for me but everyone else.

Randy Pausch starts his lecture by telling about his own childhood dreams. He says that when he was a child he wanted to be in zero gravity, to be in the NFL, wanted to have an article in the World Encyclopedia, to meet Captain Kirk and to be a Disney Imagineer. He achieved all of these things except for playing in the NFL, but did play football in high school and says he learned about fundamentals and had great coaches. While talking about playing football and having a head strong coach Pausch said, "When you are screwing up and nobody's telling you, that means they've given up on you". I love that quote for so many reasons, I think it is so important for individuals to always have people guiding them and pushing them to be their best. Also Pausch talked about the importance of how people in the Education field should and should not talk to their students. After telling about a incident he had with a past professor of his Pausch states, "Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things".

The second part of Pausch's lecture he talk about ways to enable the childhood dreams of others and how he help enable the childhood dreams of his students. Mr. Pausch started his enabling by creating a class at his university called Building Virtual Worlds. This class had 50 students who all grouped up and had 5 projects a piece a semester. His student's did such good jobs every project that he did not know what he should say to them and a friend of his told him, "Do not set the bar for student's or the will not keep getting better". This really stuck out to me as a education major because it is very true. If we set standards for our student's they may never reach beyond that to their full potential. Pausch also created the Dream Fufillment Factory at his University that got student's jobs in their field fast. Pausch also states that "It is important to focus on people and learn how to work in groups", which is true not only for student's but for every person in their daily life. The Alice program was also another program Pausch created that teaches millions of kids learn hard things while they are having fun.

In the last part of Pausch's lecture he talks about lessons learned. Pausch talks about the roles of parents, mentors, students, family, and friends. He says to make sure whatever your doing with your life to always have fun and to never lose the child like wonder inside of you. He also talked about how to get other people to help you, by being loyal, earnest, truthful and apologetic. Pausch said that it is important to think of other's before yourself, saying "When you do the right thing good stuff has a way of happening". Being a true believer in karma myself, I totally agree with the way Pausch thinks.

At the end of Pausch's lecture he tells the audience two things they did not realize about his lecture. He says that the lecture was not about how to achieve your goals but how to lead your life and he says that the lecture is for his children and not them. I am so glad that Dr. Strange assigned this video for us to watch, it was such an uplifting and moving experience. I think that the main thing I learned from Pausch's story is to always be grateful for what I have and to life every day to the fullest. I am so glad I watched this lecture and strive to now lead my life how Randy Pausch hopes that other's will from seeing his lecture.

C4K February

The first C4K student I was assigned to was Adam. Adam is a student in Mrs. Toal's class. The post I commented on of Adam's was titled "SHARKIES". In this post Adam talks about sharks and how one million are killed by humans each year. He also tells about how humans use shark fins to make soup, which I found very interesting. In my comment on his post, I told Adam how much I enjoyed reading his blog and how he taught me a lot of new things about sharks!

Alexis is a 5th grade student in Mrs. Caddys class. The blog post of Alexis's that I commented on was a survey called "All About You". In this survey Alexis asks fun questions like what is my idea of a dream house and what animal would I chose to be able to talk. Taking her survey was so much fun and I loved all of her creative questions. In my comment to Alexis I told her how much I really enjoyed taking her survey and that I hoped she kept up the good work!

Zoe is a 4th grade student in Mrs. Bayer's class in Iowa. In the blog post I commented on by Zoe was call "Dog Troubles". In her post she explain how she really wants a dog, but her parent's will not let her have one. She gives a list of the responsibilities of having a dog and a list of things you have to buy when owning a dog. In my comment I told Zoe how I often think about getting a dog myself but know there are lots of responsibilities that come along with it. I loved reading her post and thought it was very cute and good for her age!

"Redneck" is a student in Mrs. Miller's class and his real name is Justin Noble. His blog post was a short story about a boy named Jared that went mud bogging for his birthday with some of his friends. His story is kind of comical and tells about them getting a four wheeler stuck and how they had to get it unstuck before their curfew. I commented on "Redneck's" post and told him about how I also like to ride four wheelers with my friend's and how I enjoyed reading his post!

Blog post #6 Personal Learning Networks

Personal Learning Networks are a way for teachers to keep connected with other teachers and also are tools that can assist you as a teacher. Personal Learning Networks can range from twitter, blogs, and even just google. PLN's can help teachers because it gives them new ideas and thoughts from other teachers. Also PLN's keep teachers connected and learning from each other daily. This tool, PLN, is a good way for teachers to not only help teach their student's, but also to help teach themselves new teaching ideas everyday. As a future teacher, PLN's can help me establish how I would like to teach by gathering new ideas and thoughts from others. Since I am new to the teaching scene I do not have an established PLN. But now that I am taking EDM 310 Dr. Strange has taught me many ways to start. One way I would start establishing my PLN is by reading other teachers blog's and searching for them by using twitter or other searching devices. Now that I have learned about PLN the first additions to my own PLN would be, of course, Dr. Strange. Also I would add Anthony Capps, an excellent teacher and friend of Dr. Strange. Another way I could find teacher's I would like to add to my PLN would be by the C4T list that Dr. Strange gives to our class each week to comment on their blogs. My first teacher, Mr. Tom Schimmer, had an amazing blog and lots of thoughts and ideas about teacher that I would love to collaborate on when I become a teacher.

PLN's can also be other networks besides just other teachers. Twitter, Pintrest, Facebook, Symbaloo, Netvibes, and many others are also examples of PLN's. Symbaloo is a network that gives you a full dashboard showing you all the networks possible for you to use. Netvibes is a tool you can use to start setting up your own personal PLN. This will be a great tool for me to start using as I begin to set up my PLN. I am excited to start my own Personal Learning Network so that I can begin finding ideas from other great inspiring teachers, that way I can aspire to be just as great of a teacher myself.

My passion

My sentence is

Blog Post #5

"Conversations with Anthony Capps"

What I learned:

In the first video "Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grader" we are introduced to Anthony Capps, a former EDM 310 student who is now a 3rd grade teacher in Baldwin County. Dr. Strange asks Anthony questions about Project Based Learning and how he uses this in his classroom. Mr. Capps tells about how he thinks Project Based Learning works efficiently, helping students learn the material they need for their projects along with completing the projects at the same time. Mr. Capps also states that the students are "driven by content", meaning that the projects he creates for his students drive them to have the need to know more on that subject.

In the video "Discovery Education", I learned about a type of learning tool that I had never heard of before. Discovery Education is an online tool for students to help learn about a certain subject or thing on a level the teacher might not know about. This tool has videos from experts on certain subjects that the students may want to know more about. During this video Dr. Strange makes a comment saying pretty much that students learn better by seeing than hearing 50 percent of the time. I agree with this comment a lot, I am one of those students that learns more by seeing than hearing.

Another video I found interesting was "Use Tech-Dont Teach It". In this video Dr. Strange and Mr. Capps discuss the controversy of technology in the classroom and how it should be incorporated into classrooms everyday. Mr. Capps talks about how instead of teaching technology, you should incorporate it into your assignments and have the students using the technology as a way to learn it. When incorporating this kind of technology into your classroom, Mr. Capps says you should do it slow, and adding new technology factors in weekly. I really like the way Anthony Capps talks about the way teachers should use technology in the classroom and agree with his methods.

I learned a lot from Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps video discussions. I loved the way Anthony talks about how he teaches and involves technology into his classroom. I hope that when I become a teacher I am as organized and focused on helping my students to learn through all the different ways that he does. It is so nice seeing teachers today excited and enthused about the things they do and want to do in their classrooms!

Project Presentation #3

Blog Post #4: "What do we need to know about asking questions to be an affective teacher?"

The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom.

In this source of information about asking questions as a teacher, the author talks about why teachers really ask questions and why that process is not always effective. In his writing he says...

"The fallacy with this type of thinking is that the students do not understand that they do not understand, and if they do not know what they do not know, there is no way they can ask a question about it."

Even though this quote is kind of tounge twister, I understand exactly what he is trying to say. When teachers finish a lesson, and then ask "Does everyone understand?", most students are not going to even be able to know if they understand or not. Students categorize themselves when they are a part of a classroom, smart, not smart, doesn't care, ect. And when a teacher asks questions students know when they should or should not answer based on their "role" in the classroom. So when asking questions as a teacher it is important to know each and every student in your classroom's "role" so that you can help them be molded into the real student that they can be.

Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom.

1. Prepare Questions
2. Play With Questions
3. Preserve Good Questions

C4T Summary

C4T #1

For my C4T assignment I was given #TomSchimmer as my teacher. The first blog post that I read of Mr. Schimmer's was titled Accurate Grading with a Standards based Mind Set. In his post Mr. Schimmer describes how grading is and how he thinks it should be. His blog post is a summary of a webinar that he posted right before, that can be seen here. He talks in his summary about the differences in elementary, middle, and high school grading standards. He also talks about what he calls the "Standard-based Mindset". The standard-based mindset represents the "heavy lifting" of the grading conversation. As he says in his post, "Once we shift how we think about grading, the implementation of standard-based grading is easier, since the way we think about grades, how we organize evidence, and what we think is most heavily emphasized is different". Mr. Schimmer thinks that it is more important to grade a student thoughtfully and meaningfully than just giving them a grade solely on test and percentages. He hopes that all teachers will start having a standards-based mindset.

In the comment I posted under Mr. Schimmers post, I completely agreed with what he had to say about grading. Grading should not be based only on tests, quizzes, and written exams. The way a student may or may not learn goes beyond just how they score on a test. I also talked about how I learn as a student and how I, myself am one of those "not so good at tests" students. Even after studying hard, doing all my homework and assignments, ect. I could not always keep up with my peers when it came to high test scores. I hope to see, as well as Mr. Schimmer, teachers in the future that start grading students not only based on scores but by what they learn in other ways as well.

C4T #2

The second post I read of #TomSchimmer was titled "Points over Practice?". In this post Mr. Schimmer talks about the troubles with grading homework. He addresses the questions like should homework be assigned, how much is too much or too little, should it be graded and is it formative. Mr. Schimmer speaks about these topics at conventions and recently spoke at the Pearson's ATI's-20th Annual Summer Conference on the subject. He believes that homework should be for practice and used formatively instead of as a part of report grading.

I love the way Mr. Schimmer thinks about homework and grading, and hope to be a model of the kind of teacher he is someday. In my comment under this post of his, I talked about how I agreed with his thoughts on the subject of grading homework. I also explained my point of view, stating that all students do not learn at the same speed, meaning some students may not make a good grade on homework for material they were taught the same day. I think good ideas on grading homework could be to give bonus points to students that complete their homework or to just give a completion grade for their homework. Even if you use these ideas you should still grade the homework so you can see what each student needs help on. I have enjoyed reading Mr. Schimmer's post's and am excited to read more!

Peer Editing - Blog Post #3

Complements, Corrections, Suggestions!

Peer editing can be a tricky subject, critiquing the way someone does something can end up in many different scenarios which is why you must do it right! In the first video "What is Peer Editing?" it shows good examples of ways you should and should not peer edit. I love the three steps they gave for peer editing, complements, corrections, and suggestions. When you peer edit it is important to not only critique someones work but also to tell them their strengths as well. If you only tell a student their flaws and negatives it can make them get discouraged and lose hope. When making corrections it is also important to keep positive as well, while also letting them know specifically what they need to work on. Just scanning someones paper and pointing out things non-specifically is not always enough! When pointing out mistakes you have to give the student suggestions on how to correct each mistake. Isn't the whole point of peer editing to suggest and show the other person how to fix their mistakes! The last video "Writing Peer Review Top Ten Mistakes" was very cute and showed examples of wrong ways to peer edit. This video showed real life examples with "mean Margaret's" and "picky Paula's, which in the video were example of real life scenarios of how you should not act when peer editing. Overall the main thing to remember when peer editing is to stay positive!

Blog Post 2: Changes in the Classroom

Mr. Dancealot

In this video you can see so many things wrong with the way this teacher is teaching his class. This video represents how some teachers think it is okay to teach now and it also shows how it is very ineffective. The author of the video shows this ineffectiveness by how the students react to the final exam. After a semester of nothing but bad power points and notes they do not even understand, they have no idea how to do the things the teacher acts of them. As a student, I agree with the conclusion of this video. When students are taught only by sitting and listening to lectures they will almost always miss some of what they really need to be learning. Interaction is a very important key factor in learning.

Teaching in the 21st Century

I think the main message of this video is that teaching in the 21st century is changing into an all technology based environment. While watching this video I can not help but find myself feeling sad for future "technology based" students. Even though the times have changed and technology is a must for students, I can see where this might make students become too dependent on it. If a student becomes too dependent on technology it could make them lazy or never worrying if he or she knows something or not because all they have to do is look it up online.

The Networked Student

My reaction to this video is very back and forth. Sometimes I think this plan of students basically teaching themselves is great but also I think it lacks a few important factors. For students at college level and above this idea is very practical, most college students have some sort of job and social life and this program would work well with their schedules. For students at high school level and below though, I have a few concerns. I think this idea has no human social interaction which is vital especially for younger developing students.The only reason I see a need for a teacher is to answer questions and grade their work.

Harness Your Students Digital Smarts

In this video I can really see Vicki Davis's enthusiasm and hope for the digital classroom. My reaction to this video was much different than my reactions to the other videos. While watching this video Vicki made me feel like there still can be communication and interaction between the students and teachers while also being technology based. When it comes to teachers and technology based classrooms it is very important to me that the teachers remember to stay connected to her students individually and not just connected to technology, and I think that is what the challenge for future teachers will be.

Flipping the Classroom

"Flipping" the classroom is new to me, in my elementary through high school years I went to a public school that was very low on funds and technology was very little. I think this is a great approach at teaching, especially for elementary and middle school ages. I feel that this method would help teachers be able to focus more one on one time with each student instead of standing in front of the class explaining so much. I think the only problem with this program would be with high school age students because they would be harder to get to watch the lessons every night.

Blog Post 1

When I first signed up for EDM310 I started asking around to see what I should expect. One of my friends that had already taken and passed the class told me that the class was not too, bad but it would take a lot of extra after class time. She also told me not to procrastinate and always make sure I got everything done by midnight every Sunday.

The only fears I have for this class are that I will procrastinate, because that is a very bad habit of mine that I hope to break with this class.

EDM310 is not like any class I have ever taken in High School or College. I like that EDM is very organized and I know what to expect from the course, unlike most of the classes I have taken in the past.

I think the most difficult thing about EDM310, for me, will be to keep up with all of the assignments and due dates. Keeping up with dates and staying organized seems to be like a key component in passing this class.

I plan to address this issue I have with EDM by staying organized and focused. I plan to use my spare time wisely and keep a planner with all my due dates and important schedules in order. Instead of waiting until the last minute to finish assignments, I plan on always doing my assignments way ahead of time so I will never have to worry about them being late.

The only question I have about EDM310 is, Do we have any tests or are our grades only based on our assignments.

Practice Post

My name is Claire Helen Gill. I have a double name according to my mom and she gets mad when she finds out that I tell people my name is just Claire and not Claire Helen, but in my defense it is a little too long when introducing myself to someone new. I am from Jackson, Alabama, a very small town about an hour and a half north of here. Until August of 2013 I had lived in the same town, in the same house my whole life. These days I do not have many major interests because I seem to always be studying or working, but mostly in my free time I like to spend time with my family and friends.

I started at USA in August of 2013 after finishing two years at Alabama Southern Community College in my hometown. I chose USA because it was closest to home and because they have an excellent education program. I like to stay close to home because my family and friends are very important to me. I have a big crazy family, I have my mom and dad, one sister, and about 30 cousins!

I want to enter the field of education because I have a passion for helping and guiding others in the right path. My major is secondary education, but its also in History. I have always had a huge passion for History and all the things that make this World what it is today.

The things I love to do most are spending time with family and friends, watching movies, and gymnastics. I would like to get better at not being so shy around new people. I know that when I become a teacher that will be a major skill I will need to have mastered, to be able to teach at my best.




I guess that is pretty much all there is to know about me! Lately my life only consists of school and work, but when I accomplish my goal of becoming a teacher everything I had to overcome to get there will be worth it!