Blog post #2

The central message that the author in the videoMr. Dancealot is trying to convey is that not all college classes can be taught sitting in a lecture hall having the students take notes with no interaction with each other or the teacher.  In this video, the author shows us this by using an example of a dance class.  In order to understand how to dance you must practice dancing. However, in the video, the teacher has the students sitting in a lecture hall the entire semester taking notes on how to do different dances and when the students try to practice the dance the teacher gets upset and tells them to sit down. Once the final comes around they are required to dance the different dances they have “learned”. The students are confused and upset because they had never practiced the dances before that time. I agree that a teacher standing in front of a group of students lecturing is not as effective as the students getting to be interactive.  Most students zone out during a lecture and they do not take notes or pay attention. Therefore, they do not learn anything, they simply wait until the last minute to cram as much information as they can into their head the night before the test and then as soon as the test is over they empty all the information out and never think about it again.  I think in order for students to actually learn and want to learn we need to have more interactive classes.  

            After watching the video Teaching in the 21st century by Kevin Roberts, I have realized how much different it will be teaching in the 21^st century than when I was in grade school.  Roberts talks about how teachers now are not the primary resource for information or knowledge, but are simply filters.   There are so many ways for students to get information but it is our jobs as teachers to teach them the best way to find information and to make sure that the information they do find is credible and reliable. It is our job as teachers to teach students the proper way to use technology and resources available to them. I agree with Roberts when he talks about how teachers need to engage students in the learning process with hands on projects instead of just entertaining students.

                        

 The video clip The Network Student, by Wendy Drexler, show us the benefits of students taking online classes. Also, we see the importance of a teacher in online classes. There is so much information on the Internet and it is hard to know where to begin. Once you find a good place to start it is still hard to figure out from the information what is true and what is false. Having someone there to teach you where to start and how to know what is good and bad is important. Also, to know that there is someone always willing to help you when you get stuck or do not understand something is comforting to know. The role of a teacher is to give the students the confidence and resources in order for them to be able to learn.  In my own experience with online classes, it helped having someone available to help me when I needed some guidance.  

            In the video Harness your students' digital smarts  the thesis is that when students only have pen and paper they are limited on what they can learn. I agree with this because living in a world that is so focused on technology there is so much we can learn.  Students learn in all different kinds of ways and at all different speeds. When we use just pen and paper, this is limiting either the students that work faster than others or the students that work slower than others.  But, when we use technology, everyone can work at their own speed and it allows students to be more engaged in their education. Also, thanks to the Internet we can be sitting in a classroom in a small town in America and be interacting with people all around the world. This gives students who might not ever leave America to have the chance to experience another country in just a small way. Instead of just talking about different cultures in a textbook, we can now interact with students from those different cultures. Technology has given us endless possibilities of ways to teach children.

            The answer to the question, “Who’s ahead in the learning race”, in the video by Dr. Strange is children are ahead. Children are ahead of the college students because they are doing things with laptops and technology that most college students do not know how to do themselves. I agree that we need to be teaching the younger generation how to use technology and we need to incorporate it into the classroom. However, I do not think expecting adults to learn at the rate that children are learning to use technology is reasonable.  You learn new things quicker when you are a child than when you are an adult.  It is like the saying, “it is hard to teach an old dog a new trick”.  I am not saying that adults do not need to learn how to use technology because they do; all I am saying is that I do not think it is fair to compare how quickly a child learns something to how fast an adult learns something. Growing up in a world where technology is everywhere gives the children an advantage, in my opinion, verses adults who have to learn at an older age.  

           

             The video Who's ahead in the learning race showed me a new teaching approach where students watch a video of their teacher teaching them the night before coming to class. To be honest I am not sure how I feel about this new teaching method. When I was a child, by the time school was out I was ready to go home and relax and not have to worry about school.  I would not have wanted to go to school all day and then have to come home and watch a video and learn a new lesson. However, from a teacher’s perspective I think it could be a great way to have more time in the class for teachers to re-teach the parts that the children did not understand.  On the other hand, having a mom that works in a Title 1 school I cannot help but think about the students that do not have the computers at home to do the work and the students that do not have the parental support. A kindergartner whose parents are not interested in their education is not going to sit down at home by their self to watch a video.  I think flipping the classroom could be a great teaching method if you had the right type of class in order for it to run smoothly.  

           

            After reading Brining the locker room into the class roomI find this teaching method to be very interesting.  Growing up I never wanted to make a mistake so I would always ask the teacher what the right answer was and I would write down exactly what they said and then go home and memorize that for the test. However, I began to realize that I was not leaning anything and I do not want to be a teacher that just feeds my students the information.  With the method, “coaching in the classroom”, this eliminates teachers from just teaching the information. Instead, it gets the children engaged in what you are teaching them and allows them to think on their own to find the right answer. The students must do the work; the teacher simply guides them. Yes, I would definitely use this method in my classroom.

Blog Post #1

I have heard good and bad things about EDM310. One person in particular told me “EDM310 will take up all your free time and you will hate it at the beginning but by the end of the semester you will actually have some fun.” Others, however, have told me that I will hate it and that it will be one of the worse classes I have to take. I choose to believe that even though right now I may be worried about the class, that by the end of the class I will have learned a lot that I can take with me into my future classroom and that I will have actually had some fun in the class. Before going into the class I was scared because I did not know what to expect. My main fear of this class is the unknown. I am not good with change and not knowing what to expect. This class is not like any other class I have taken and that alone scares me. Also, I have a fear with the grammar aspect. I know that might sound silly, but growing up I always struggled with grammar and spelling.  However, I always proofread my stuff and I always get someone else to as well, so I do not think it will be an issue, but it is still a fear of mine.

EDM310 is going to be a lot different than most of the classes I have taken so far in my college education. The main reason being that it is project based learning. As described in the EDM310 fall 2014 syllabus we will be required to do 16 projects and blog posts instead of tests and quizzes.I have had one other course that required us to do projects and that was Math for Elementary Teachers. However, unlike that class, this class will not be, as Dr. Strange says “a burp back class”, meaning that we will have to do the learning on our own with some help from him and the lab assistants when needed. Another way EDM310 is different than most classes I have taken is that most teachers, even in college, tend to treat us like we are still 5 years old. For example, they remind us when things are due, and if we forget to turn something in on time we can turn it in late for a few points off. In EDM310 we are to keep up when things are due and turn them in on time.  The most important and most exciting thing to me that makes this class so different is that we are using and learning different types of technology. I absolutely LOVE technology and learning new things I can do with it. No matter how well you know technology there is always something new you can learn about it. In this class we will be learning new ways to use technology and different ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. I know EDM310 is going to be a lot different than most classes I have taken in my college career but I am excited to get to learn in a new and different way!  

Practice Blog Post.

Outline
A. My name is Marie Howard and I grew up all around the world.
B. My interest include going to church,working with kids and hanging out with friends and family.
C. I am attending USA because my dad and my brother both attended at this school and I fell in love with the campus.
D. I have two older brothers, a sister in-law, a niece and nephew.
E. I want to be a teacher because I once had a teacher that inspired and encouraged me in ways no one else has done before, and I want to do the same for other children.
F. Being a teacher in the 21st century, you need to be able to incorporate technology and web based projects as well as teaching children the importance of being able to think on their own without technology.
G. I go on mission trips to Honduras and I absolutely love it there.

My name is Marie Howard and I was born in North Carolina, but shortly after I was born my family moved to Maryland. My family and I lived in Maryland until I was 3 years old. We then moved to Japan and lived there for another three years before retuning to Maryland. After living in Maryland for a total of about 8 years, we moved to Enterprise Alabama to be closer to family and we have been living in Enterprise ever since. I absolutely love children with all my heart and spend much of my time trying to be a positive influence in their lives. For example, I spend my summers going to different children's camps serving as a lifeguard or a counselor. I also help out at my church nursery and have taught various children's classes through my church. In addition, I go to Honduras on mission trips and work in a children's home filled with children that have come from bad backgrounds. My family is basically made up of "computer geeks". We love technology and computers. Growing up we were always talking about the new technology coming out and we were always working and playing around computers. My father works for IBM and he would bring home old computers for me and my brothers to try to get them working again. I decided to attend USA because my father graduated from here with a communications degree, and my brother just graduated last May with an IT networking degree from USA. When we came to help move my brother into his apartment in Mobile, I fell in love with the campus and knew this is where I wanted to attend my last two years of college. I have two brothers, the oldest is 26 and is the IT tech for the Enterprise Schools System. He is married and has two kids. My other brother is older than me as well and is 22. He just graduated with an IT networking and digital forensic degree and is currently looking for a job. My mother is the technology coordinator for an elementary school where I am from. My father works for IBM and travels around the country and world working with computers. I want to be a teacher because growing up I struggled a lot in school and I had a teacher who inspired and encourage me in a way that no one else had before. I want to be able to encourage and inspire students just as she did for me. I also would like to teach in schools in Honduras one day and make an impact in children's lives over there. Being a teacher in the 21st century means that you must be able to incorporate technology such as laptops, iPad/tablets and smart boards into your everyday life. However, you can not forget to teach students the importance of knowing how to do things on their own. Technology adds some good benefits to teaching and can help make what you are teaching more fun. However, the students need to learn to be able to do the basics on their own and not rely on technology for everything. Teachers today need to find a good balance of using technology and social media in their classroom as well as still having the children do thing the "old fashion" way. The most important or interesting thing about me is that I have a love for the country of Honduras. I have lived in another country and I have visited many other countries throughout my life, but nothing compares to being in Honduras. I have gone on two mission trips there and both times I have left more of my heart there. If you ever ask me about my trips to Honduras I can talk about them for hours. I sponsor a little boy from the shelter that I work with there. His name is Victor and he is six years old and from the first time I met him I fell in love with him. Below is a picture of us together on my second trip to Honduras.

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