Last C4K Summary

For my last C4K I commented on Christopher and Tabatha's blog's. Christopher was older than most of the kids I comment for and his post was about Napoleon. I told him that I've always been interested in Napoleon, and that I thought his post was very well written.

Tabatha's post was a reflection on a book she had read. The book was about a girl who was starting high school. I told her I think all girls are a little afraid of starting their ninth grade year, and also that her post made me want to find this book and read it.

Last C4T Summary Post

For my last C4T I commented on Ms. Cassidy's blog. Ms. Cassidy's main objective seemed to be PBL (Project Based Learning). She wanted to incorporate projects into all areas of learning. In the first post I commented on she seemed to have trouble deciding how she would use PBL with social studies. She managed by letting only some students play with the class Nintendo DS while others had to sit and watch. There are only a couple of the Nintendo's so before other kids got too upset over not playing she took the games back and had the class sit down. She got them to brainstorm on what would be fair for all the students. They made up rules and came to a fair conclusion together. This was the project having them work together. I thought this was a very thoughtful way to incorporate social studies into PBL.
The second post I commented on was also about PBL. She called it "Construction Day." Ms. Cassidy had the students find random things in the classroom and create something with them. Their imaginations were the limit. This was my favorite project she did because you could see into each kid's imagination.

Blog Post #13

My TEDx Talk-Learning is Messy

This video by Brian Crosby was too cool. Mr. Crosby just showed what he does with his fourth grade students. They do many fun an insightful projects, and the hot air balloon in the video was by far the coolest. The camera they put on the balloon made it so much better. In the beginning of the video Mr. Crosby shows that most of the students in his class didn't know what state they lived in, what country, their address or phone number. Mr. Crosby used blogs and Skype and other things during this project that enabled the kids to learn so much more about the world they live in than they ever would have known. My personal favorite part of the video was where Mr. Crosby showed how he Skype's with a student who has leukemia, and he involves her in what the class is doing while they do it. She has to do her work the same as the other students even though she can't be there. That's amazing for her and for her classmates. I would recommend this video to any aspiring teacher.

A Vision of Students Today

This is a video about the average college student in today's society. We go to class and sit through lectures that most of us pay no attention to. We spend more time on our computers on social networks than we do actually learning in the classroom. I know I'm one of those students who have asked the question; what's the point? What's the point in sitting through this class and paying for it if it will not help me with my future or help me now?
I think the point to the video is, through technology students can engage and learn so much more than they can sitting and listening to a teacher lecture. We are always on the internet anyway; why not incorporate that into our learning. Considering how much free information there is on the internet for us it seems crazy not to take advantage of that. Basically education is behind our society. In order for us to keep up with our surroundings education needs to keep up as well.

Progress Report Final Project

Me and My group have chosen to do a skit about making it through EDM310 for future students. After all we have done in this class we thought this would be the best fit for us. All we have left to do is film and post it, which we plan to do this week.

Blog Post #12

1. If you are planning on going into Language Arts and Reading look over these classroom strategies, they may be an excellent source for you.
2. Tell me what you thought after reading over the strategies. Do you think they could be helpful? Would you use this in your classroom?
3. Also look around this site. There may be other techniques you find helpful.

After reading over these I think they would be helpful for reading. They break down print awareness, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing to where you would know what strategy to use in each area. I think something a lot of teachers struggle with is figuring out how to make sure kids are getting the information they need. These classroom strategies give a little insight into things that have worked for other teachers.

C4K Month of October

I posted on six different blogs for the month of October. The first one I posted was for Nikkity from Mr. Wirth's class. Her post was all about fall weather and what she loved about fall. I told her I also loved fall, and how cool was it that the leaves change colors? My next post was to an extremely busy 10th grader on wordpress.com. He was commenting on the election and all of his AP classes he takes. He really sounded more like her was in college rather than the 10th grade. I told him he inspired me to try harder for sure. He mentioned that the campaign ads were a waste of good money and I agreed with him there.

I also commented on Taylor's blog. Her post was an apology letter from Goldilocks to the three bears, which I thought was nice. I told her that we should all write apology letters from time to time. It was a neat way for kids to learn that apologizing is a good thing when you know you are wrong. Then, I commented on Hudson's post which was just a picture of an animal and he asked if we knew what it was. He said it wasn't a cheetah even though that is what it looked like. So I asked him was it maybe a jaguar.

The next post was about teachers being too focused on kids getting passing grades and high test scores. I agreed with that point, and I also mentioned how easy it was when I was in grade school to simply get information from other students without having to learn it yourself. My last comment was to Colton. Colton's post was about a book and why he liked the book. He said the book was about a person who has to find a way to survive, and how the person had to fight off a bear at one point. I told him his post made me want to go buy that book and read it.

C4T #3 Summary

For C4T #3 I commented on Julie Vincentsen's blog which is called One Principal's Musings. The first post I commented on was about ways to help struggling readers have a better learning experience with reading. I took interest in this considering I'm majoring in Secondary Language Arts. Audiobooks were suggested for struggling readers. I agreed with this method, and I will definitely keep this in mind for the future. Ms. Vincentsen also gave many options for websites to visit for audiobooks. I just told her how much I love reading and I believe kids are missing out if they are having trouble, and I thanked her for the list and her ideas.

The second post I commented on was about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and there was also a video included with the post. I read the post and watched the video. The post was basically celebrating his life and achievements, and also the achievements we have made as a country. The video was very inspiring to watch and I quite enjoyed the post altogether. In my comment I told her so and also thanked her for reminding us of how inspiring of a person Dr. King was. When you see people like that I think it inspires you to try harder every day.