Project #16 Group Las Vegas ibook

This is group Las Vegas!
Our group members are Nancee Dehoff, Kelsey Bramlett, Angela Garrone and Kevin Reese. For our ibook theme we chose roller coasters because they represent the many ups, downs, twist and turns  throughout our EDM310 experience. In our ibook we have put together a collection of our favorite blog posts, "Our Sentence" videos, "Our Passion" videos, quick thoughts on various subjects that involve self-reflection, use of technology in schools, tech literacy and use of technology in the classroom. All of these along with a few of our projects that we created throughout the semester are included in our ibook. We hope that all who see our ibook will enjoy their visit through the pages of our time in EDM310!

C4T #4 Post #1 and #2

Post #1

The 2014 New School Year

For this month's post, my teacher is Kathleen Morris and her blog is called Primary Tech.  Mrs. Morris's latest post was dated January 25, 2014 and was written when she was out on maternity leave. Although she has been out on leave, she shares that she has been able to stay in touch by reading blogs, using twitter and other online sources. Kathleen has been teaching for ten years up to this point and has some useful information on her blog such as "starting a class blog in five steps, 10 tips on how to introduce blogging into your classroom and wondering how to involve parents? Check out A Guide to Involving Parents in Your Class Blog. This post includes the permission notes and guides I have sent home to parents". 
I commented to Kathleen that her blog post was short but full of useful information for current teachers and for future educators as well. I will definitely be adding Kathleen blog to my list of favorites as well as add her to my list of PLNs! If you would like to take a look at Kathleen Morris's blog then click here. 

Post #2

For this post, 

Blogging and the Literacy Curriculum

Kathleen Morris address blogging in the classroom and how it relates to literacy in the 21st century. Mrs. Morris writes about how she began using blogs in her classroom six years ago. When she began, she tried to squeeze it into small blocks of time in between other subjects, however, she soon realized that this was not the best way to "unleash the full benefits of blogging." Mrs. Morris has since learned that blogging can be so much more when used in the proper way and given the proper time that it deserves. She has since developed her students' blog into a tool used for literacy. She states that, "To realise the many educational benefits of blogging and ensure your program has an extended life-span, blogging needs to be prioritised and planned for. It should to be integrated into the curriculum; busy classrooms rarely have time for 'add ons'."  She also now spends between 10 to 20 minutes of her reading block on blogging. "Blogging is an authentic way to teach both traditional reading, writing, speaking and listening, as well as multi-modal 21st century skills", she writes and she has proven her belief in this by making blogging a priority in her own classroom. 

I commented that I loved how she integrated her class blog with her reading block and that I think it is great way to teach a 21st century tool in a way that is interesting and relevant to her students!

C4K #3

Post #1

Meet Quziyah! She is a year 8 student at Pt England school in NZ. For Quziyah's post, she did a bibliography about Rosa Parks. Quziyah was thorough with her post and even included a cute music video about the life of Rosa Parks for us to watch.
I commented that I really liked her post and that it is sad to think that people disrespected each other just because of the color or their skin and that civil rights has come a long way since those days. Below, I have included the link to the video that is on Quziyah's blog post for you to watch as well!
Check out video here!

Post #2

#Maihsh Tamaki College Crowns up 
From Elizabeth

For this week, I commented on Elizabeth's blog. Elizabeth is a student at Pt England School in Auckland, N.Z. In her post, Elizabeth writes that Tamaki College won! Elizabeth is obviously a huge Tamaki College fan and so is her family. From what I can tell from the post and a little bit on twitter and google, it looks like Tamaki College won some kind of radio contest. 
I commented that I could tell by reading her post that she was a very big Tamaki College fan and for that reason I am glad that they won! 

Post #3

Meet Anna! Anna is a year 4 student at Pt England School in Auckland, N.Z. and her teacher's name is Miss. Nalder. Anna blog was entitled "Marvelous Math" which was a  series of math problems that she work out on her blog. When scrolling down her blog, I could see that she worked a lot of her school work on her blog. I really liked that her school work is accessible online for her family to be able to view anytime. This is another way for parents or caregivers to stay connected with what their students are doing at school.

I commented to Anna that I liked the idea of her doing some of her work online and that I would like to have my future students do that some day. Anna also had a guide posted to her blog that served as a reminder of what private information was versus personal information, complete with examples of each. I really like the idea of having a guide like that posted and accessible to the student every time they log online. I posted a picture below for you to view as well.

Blog Post 13 "What Did I Leave Out"

Elementary Education

Describe a challenge you might encounter in regard to PBL and, or using technology in the classroom and how you would address this challenge.

Throughout this semester in EDM310, our focus has been on using technology in the classroom and on PBL. I have been convinced more and more throughout this process that PBL is a very effective way to learn, and teaching children how to use technology properly in their pursuit of knowledge and information is not only the wave of the future, but is in large part, what is taking place in our world today. However, although the goal is to actually see more technology being used in productive ways in the classroom, the educational system is still in the developing stage in a lot of systems. Lack of funds means lack of technological tools. So, the question for us as future teachers is how do we help guide our classroom in PBL while at times not having sufficient tools for this style of teaching? The question is not really whether there will be challenges concerning having proper tools, but what will our challenges be? No matter the question, we need to be prepared as educators to be able to be flexible and creative in order to meet those challenges and move forward in spite of them.
Maybe there are not enough working computers in the classroom for small groups to each have one for their projects. Is there a computer lab available and can the class schedule be worked out to be able to utilize it to the extent needed for the projects? These are variables and unknowns that will have to be addressed at different levels and times throughout each of our teaching careers. So how do we address this kind of challenge? Always be well prepared and have a backup plan, be flexible and remember that these are all learning situations. Take away something useful in each of these situations and use the experience to build on and make us better. It is important not to allow these challenges to keep us from going forward but to allow every experience, both good and bad, to make us better!

Blog Post #12

What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher? Select a few and 

discuss how they may be useful to you.

To answer this question, I decided to write about some of the assistive technologies that we use in our local schools. The first of these technologies that I would like to address is called Redcat. 

Redcat is an audio system that enables a child that is hearing impaired to be able to hear the teacher clearly no matter where they are located in the classroom. Redcat is a "all in one" completely contained system that is easily relocated to different classrooms depending on where the need for it is. How it works is, the teacher wears a device around her, (or his) neck and that device serves like a microphone that in turn projects the teacher's voice through speakers located throughout the classroom. This keeps the teacher from having the yell and the student from having to strain to hear what is being said.

MAGic® Screen Magnification Software with Speech is the brand name of a software program that is currently being used at our schools. Like the name says, this is a screen magnification software for the visually impaired. This software loads on any typical computer and allows the visually impaired student to adjust the strength of magnification to the level they need it to be in order to read what is being displayed on the computer's screen. In addition to this, another option that is available on this software is one that will also read the text that is on the computer screen audibly  if the student so chooses. These are all features that would be useful in the classroom to help aid a child that is visually impaired be able to participate in the same learning activities as the rest of the class.

A third and final device that I will cover is called the SARA CE - Scanning and Reading Appliance. This is a device that a visually impaired student uses to magnify worksheets in the classroom, onto their computer monitor. Once the student gets the worksheet from the teacher, they can just lay the paper on the reading appliance and it magnifies and projects the worksheet onto the computer monitor for the student to be able to read. This device is also able to scan and read the text in sixteen different languages. 

These are all devices that are available to teachers to help aid in the classroom and are currently being used in our classrooms here in my hometown. With devices like these, a student who would normally be unable to function in a traditional classroom, is now able to participate in the same type of learning environment as their peers. These type of assistive technologies work like a key to unlock the doors that would otherwise shut out children with visual or hearing impairments.

Project#12 B Group Las Vegas

C4T #3 post 1 and 2

Post #1

Steven Anderson is the name of my teacher for this weeks C4T. Mr. Anderson is the Director of Instructions Technology for the Winston/Salem Forsyth schools in Winston Salem NC. For this blog post, Mr. Anderson wrote about a recent conference that he attended in Los Angeles. For this conference, Mr Anderson talks about the method of delivery for the different sessions that he attended. He says that some of the sessions that they offered were still in lecture format while others were done in groups with hands-on activities. He goes on to make the comparison of these style of sessions with how some teach in the classroom by saying, "It’s no wonder we need a major redesign in the way we do school. Many educators are still comfortable with the idea they would rather be talked at than talked with. If they like the lecture style, surely kids do too." This is the same discussion that we have been having in our Edm310 class all semester. Making things more hands-on and interactive for the students. I commented that I agreed with his assessment about getting more interactive with the way we teach and that this was our goal as future educators, to change the way things are done by getting away from the lecture format and moving toward project based learning. Mr. Anderson seems very interesting and eager to use an effective teaching style even if it means doing things differently....sounds a little like our Edm310 instructor.

Post #2

The title of this weeks blog post from Steven Anderson is, "Things That Have Me Thinking". For this post, Steven list three different things that have him thinking and he goes on to explain what he thinks about each of them. The first thing that has him thinking is a book named "It's Complicated" by Danah Boyd. For this book, Boyd does some investigative research into teens social world online and to see "what really matters to them when it comes to living in this digital world" (Anderson). Anderson highly recommends this book to anyone who works with either teens or preteens. Next, Anderson addresses a conference called Edcamp USDOE which is an "independently organized day of professional development for teachers" (Anderson). Having been both a participant and a organizer of this event, Anderson really believes in what they are doing at Edcamp USDOE. At an upcoming Edcamp event, organizers will bring together teachers and policy makers to have "conversations about the direction we are going as a nation around education".

Finally, Anderson talks about "blogging as publishing". Anyone has the opportunity to publish their own personal "stories and ideas to the masses with a click of a publish button on our blogs." He states that "the power is not in the hands of the publishing house anymore", but is now in any persons hands that blogs.
I commented that I enjoyed reading his blog and that I particularly like reading about the book, "It's Complicated" by Boyd. I stated that in EDM310 we are learning about some of the tools that Boyd studies and our purpose is to use many of these tools in the classroom as learning tools, so being able to understand what really matters to our students in the digital world would help make our teaching and guidance using these tools very useful.

Blog Post #11 Las Vegas Collaborative Blog Post

Project #10 Interview Movie with Mrs. Carden