Will Richardson is a very well educated man that seems to know what's up when it comes to his students. In his post about valuing change, he talked about how he believes that today's schools are not valuing the technology change and accepting the classroom for what it is becoming. He is right on the money here! I mean, seriously, when are schools going to realize that we need to step up to the plate as teachers and accept the direction in which our future in techology is going. Mr. Richardson had a very wise thought process in his post that was easy and exciting to read because I felt as if he definately knew and meant what he said! It was such an excellent thought and post!!
Justin is a high school teacher with little experience around young children. His post inspired me. He explained an incident where he was sitting on his porch and happened to watch a group of children in his neighborhood that developed a pick up game of soccer. They quickly formed two teams without argument and words. He explained how simple children see the world today and how they tend to live in the moment. I agree, it is so neat how younger children don't take life for granted. They live thier life in every moment like it was the best one they've had. If we could all have the mindset of a child, I believe the world might work a little smoother. I am thankful that I was able to reflect on my own life and how I should live each day. Soemtimes we seem to forget what is most important in our lives. So my challenge to each of you is to not take granted of today or any day for that matter!
1. An Open Letter to Educators
This was a post by Morgan Bayda, when reading it I felt relieved that there are others that feel cheated through school like Ido. I always feel as if I am just wasting my time in college. Besides my few education classes EDM 310 is the only class that I have actually learned anything useful for life. Too many schools have lowered their standards of education. Although they say that teaching in a classroom is the only way to learn, I have to disagree. To me, learning is hands-on, not in the books. The faster I read things, the quicker I forget them if they are not applied. Morgan and I had a very similar experience, there is no doubt about that! I feel as if we are just wasting time and money and this has got to change. In Dan Brown's video, he made such a valid point.
2. Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home
This post by Tom Johnson was so awesome! I loved the deep message it brought up, I actually had to think. We shouldn't smother the students' creativity anymore than standardized testing and the school institutions already do. Standardize testing weighs way too much in the school system today. Why cant't the students need . If the students still are applying skills through that then there is no problem with that. We need to definitely let students know how to be creative. "Taking their pencils away" is no solution to this problem. We need to let them "take their pencils home". Children can be so creative if we just allow them to! This was such a great post!
During the month of March we have had to read and comment on two different children's post. The first comment for kids was about Room 17 in Pt England. The students are required to keep their own personal blog in the classroom. They use the blog like a journal and the teacher requires them to write about what they did over the weekend, what they are learning in class, and about other students in the classroom. I thought this was so neat that the students were able to keep a blog like this. And I was impressed that the teacher kept each student's blog on the class website.
The second comment for kids I did was about ways to prevent bullying in and around the school campus. Matthew was a boy in the classroom I was assigned to. His great idea was to install video cameras in the school hallways. He also thought teachers and hall monitors should pay more attention to what was going on and be aware of the surroundings. Another idea the students had was to be aware for each other and report things when they see them. These studetns had excellent ideas on ways to prevent bullying. I enjoyed reading their thoughts!
Mr. McClung gave so much excellent advice in this post of his. I think he made me think about evaluating my own life and the way I look at thing. I loved it when he talked about being flexible. I felt like I could relate so much to it. As a teacher we will probably never have a lesson that turns out the exact way as we had planned. I think teachers should take a lesson in improv so they know how to react in certain situations and go with the flow. I also like how Mr. McClung talked about on technology and how it is our friend not our enemy. So many teachers back away at the word technology! I was extremely skeptical of technology before this class even. This class has helped me realize how technology is really not that scary and if we slowly take the time to understand it, technology could be our best friend! I love learning about technology and everything it has to offer! This post by Mr. McClung was so great. I want to read more post on him for sure! Teachers and Schools could learn so much from his teaching about teaching!
Dr. Miller in this video made me understand how "old school" paper books in the classrooms really are! There is so much that is possible to do online now or at your computer without ever opening a textbook or newspaper. Dr. Miller wrote an article on the one year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting and he didn't have to even touch a book or newspaper for information. All that we could ever need is right in front f us! I believe all teachers need this knowledge. Teachers nowadays are trying to keep up with this ever-changing technology and that's not an easy thing to do. I think it is important for the teachers of today and the future teachers to learn this. I want to be educated on this so that I will be able to teach my classroom this. Int less than 5 years our future could be looking at no more books and all technology!
Teaching this would require someone who is up to date on all of this to come in and maybe teach a workshop or two to a few different schools at a time to just get a general knowledge of the available technology and media out there. Then from there, the workshops could become more specific to subject matter and schools. This could be so effective!
In The Chipper Series and EDM 310 For Dummies, it definitely got my wheels cranking for some ideas that I could use. The videos were great and informative even though they were silly. I think that I would like to keep along the lines of this. As silly as they were, they kept my attention and the messages in each were very clear. I think that is one of the most effective ways of teaching. I am not sure of what the video would be about yet if I were to make one, but the formatting would be along the silly lines for sure.
In the video Learn to Change, Change to Learn, it was sad to see how many people do not even value education and technology. Technology changes everyday even and we shouldn't be so blind in the classrooms. I think the classroom needs to mold with the new advanced technology as it constantly changes. We as future teachers shouldnt be left behind in the classrooms. We need to apply standards if we are to have standardized testing in the classroom like they stated in this video. Students don't need to just memorize facts, they need to know what to do with it, how to apply it! This video was great! And I know I will use the information to help benefit my future classroom!
The Secret Powers of Time by Philip Zambardo was a video that shed light on the situation of how fast our sociey reacts to things. Everything is down by the second and not the minute. I can blame myself for getting angry at my computer for being slow. This video was awesome! That part was one part that particularly jumped out at me because I am guilty of doing that very thing all the time. We should absolutely take technology as far as we possibly can, but I do think that there is a point that it eventually comes to that we need to take a step back and just take a deep breath. I know I will try to!
In the last video, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, shows us how we will do anything if we have an incentive. People will do anything for the right reward. Money is a huge motivator. If we take money out of the equation so that the workers can focus on the work.We are extremely purpose-driven. . Money is the center of most things for most people. This can get dangerous in my opinion. No wonder the economy is so down. We can make the change! We can stop doing a good job for money and we can start doing a good job just because that's the right thing to do! We are so purpose-driven. I think everyone needs to work on this and change!
For my PLN I used Symbaloo. It was way less complicated and some what more efficient one of the two choices. I have only 19 tiles as of now, but it has been fun organizing and sorting through them! I think this is a very useful thing to have! . This seems to help me eliminate the use of tabs! I am glad this was an assignment for us to do. This helps expand learning and networking to a whole new level. I am constantly learning new things about this! I am constantly amazed at the tools such as Symbaloo that are available! To view my PLN you may click on the link below
This was such a great video. Randy Pausch made excellent points. I loved listening to his life dreams, they inspired me. It is so sad that he is dying but he looks at it with such a great outtake on life. If you were to look at him, the last thing you would think is that he has cancer and has a few months to live. This man is such an inspiration. Throughout the video, he made some awesome points and stated some eye-opening quotes. My favorite was when he stated, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." This is true as well in my life. If you always get what you want, you wouldn't necessarily see your achievements as anything more than accomplishments. Another quote I loved was , "If you are being corrected and criticized, it is a good thing. It means you are doing something right." If they aren't correcting you, it means they have given up on you. I never thought of it like this, I know constructive criticism is a great thing, but even harsh criticism can be looked at as a great thing. It just means that your critics still have faith in you and are still holding out on you.
When Dr. Pausch spoke about his childhood dreams and one was to be an Imagineer at Disney World, he spoke on the brick walls that came in front of him. "Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things." One brick wall for him was the rejection letters he got from Disney at first. For most, that would have been the end of trying. Dr. Pausch actually went on to work on the Aladdin Virtual Reality and got an offer to be a real Imagineer at Disney World. He really did accomplish his dream! That was so cool to hear!! Brick walls filter out the ones who don't really want to achieve their childhood dreams. Brick walls are useful tools. Helping with the Aladdin Virtual Reality led him to create a course at Carnegie Mellon called Building Virtual Worlds. 50 students are chosen and every 2 weeks you do a new project. You do a total of 5 projects. This was such a major accomplishment! When it came time for the students to present, they would bring their parents and friends and roommates to watch their presentation. They soon moved to the room he gave his talk in.
Dr. Pausch summarized with a few points. The first one was, we learn from our students. This is a true statement. I have learned this in EDM 310. We have watched countless videos on students actually teaching their teachers things they discover through technology, and this is just one example. The next point he made was to always have fun. Through his life journey, he always had a good time even through the bad times he still looks back and laughs. Even while he is dying, he is still having fun! This is such a mind-blowing thing. He is dying, yet he still manages to live everyday to the fullest. Thirdly, he says to never lose the child-like wonder. He is basically a huge kid and wouldn't change anything. We need to keep that child-like wonder at all costs! It is our sanity for some days. Lastly, he stated to help others. This can mean so much, whether its helping someone at school or work or over in Thailand like he and his wife do. This means so much to so many people. He probably doesn't even know how much he has helped people or how many lives he has touched!
This video opened my eyes. His talk was titled "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." Throughout his talk, he brought up numerous "head fakes". At the end of his lecture, he asked if we discovered the head fake of this talk. The head fake was: It's not about how to achieve your dreams, it's about how you live your life. That is so true! The second was when he said there was a second head fake. The second head fake was: The talk is not for us, it's for his kids. That was huge. I thought the whole lecture was about achieving my childhood dreams and that the talk was for the viewers. It wasn't about that at all and it definitely wasn't a talk meant for me. I still learned so much though. Dr. Pausch said you learn the best through head fakes. This is so true. It was proven as I watched this video. I am so glad I was able to watch this video! Thanks!
