Project #8 - You Are Special

Post #6 Conversations with Anthony Capps

I enjoyed listening to the conversations between Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange in these videos. It is interesting to hear from a teacher who is successfully implementing Project Based Learning (PBL) in his classroom. One of the best things I learned from listening to Anthony was in the video Project Based Learning Part 2, when he said, "With PBL...never limit your students by giving them exactly what you want them to do. Create an opportunity for them to go beyond what you want them to do, and they will." This quote stuck out to me because so often teachers get hung up on children doing each project exactly a certain way. They have a set of criteria that they must follow to a tee or else they risk a failing grade. This gets children focused on spitting out manufactured information and projects. Instead, we should encourage children to think creatively about the information they want to present, and how to present it. Yes, they need guidelines, but specific regulations are not necessary.

I was also interested in Anthony's discussion of iCurio and Discovery Ed. I had never heard of either of these resources before, but I am now intrigued and motivated to learn more. I particularly liked that iCurio has a read-aloud feature. This way, even if I end up teaching in a lower elementary classroom (one in which the students are not yet proficient readers), I can take advantage of this resource.

The last three videos (The Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1, Don't Teach Tech - Use it, and Additional Thoughts About Lessons) all made me sit down and think about my personal philosophies of teaching. What do I want to achieve as an educator? How will I achieve it? I hope to be as hands-on and interactive as Anthony. I'm now seeing the amount of work that is involved outside of the classroom in order to be an effective teacher. I'm going to take Anthony's advice and "Let [my] work become a fun experience for [me]." I truly believe that where teachers love teaching (and learning!), students love learning.

C4K Summary for September

For my first C4K, I  read the blog of eleven-year old Wakatere Cecil. He attends Pt England School in Aukland, New Zealand. His most recent post is a video that he made with his friends to the song "Heal the World." He gives a brief description of what the song means to him and then we see him and his friends portraying that meaning through the video. He writes that the biggest challenge of creating this video was managing his time. I commented that I enjoyed watching the video and hearing what that song meant to him. I also noted that he and his friends seemed to have a lot of fun creating the video.

My second C4K was on the blog of Mustafa, a fifth grade student in Ontario, Canada. For this assignment, his class was writing about what makes a great mathematician. He writes that a great mathematician asks himself (or herself) questions about the problems they are working on. Some of his questions included, "Why did I choose the strategy I used?" and "How could I solve the problem differently?" For my comment, I commended him for his great math questions, and I offered another one: "How do I know that my answer is correct?"

My final C4K was on the blog of a fifth grade student in Connecticut. Her name is Rachel. This was a blog post that I enjoyed reading because it felt genuine. It didn't seem like a school assignment. Rachel wrote about her love for swimming. She likes to swim in her pool, and it sounds like she is a good swimmer. She can swim the length of her pool underwater without coming up for air. In my comment, I told Rachel that it gets very hot in Alabama during the summer, so I also enjoy swimming. I even mentioned how close we live to the beach. I think she would love the ocean. She ends her blog posts with "Stay Calm and Smile On," so I felt it was appropriate to end my comment with "Keep smiling!"

My Sentence Videos

My Sentence Is...




My Passion Is...

Project # 3 Presentation

C4T #1 - Dan Meyer

The first teacher's blog I was assigned to follow was that of Mr. Dan Meyer. He was a high school math teacher who now spends his time advocating for better math instruction. He is currently studying math education at Stanford University. The two blog posts that I first read were very insightful and challenged how educators view math instruction.

His first post Answer Getting and Resource Finding, elaborated on some of his most recent tweets comparing math students to math teachers.

Math students : Answer-getting :: Math teachers :: Resource-finding

Math students : "What's the formula for ____?" :: Math teachers : "Who's got a good lesson for ____?"

Math students : Understanding math :: Math teachers : Understanding what makes a lesson good

This is a scary comparison. Are teachers becoming like the students they complain about? Some students just want you to give them the answer or give them a shortcut to finding the answer. They just want you to tell them the formula, so they can memorize it for the test. In this way, they are not truly understanding the math they are being taught. Rather than thinking about what makes a lesson good and then expanding on that to create a meaningful lesson, are teachers just asking for shortcuts, like the students who just want to be handed information? This sparked an interesting discussion in the comments section. My contribution included what I think makes a good lesson good. I believe that a good lesson plan engages students and results in a greater understanding of the content on their behalf. How do you gauge understanding? That goes back to asking good questions -- even good test questions. I also elaborated on a good math teacher that I had in high school. This was the first class in which I felt that I had completed the "math puzzle." In this class, we were given formulas, shown why they are true, and then given problems in which we had to figure out which formula (or combination of several) was needed. I learned by doing. I put the puzzle together all on my own. And I still feel a sense of accomplishment from that class. 

Mr. Meyer's next post was a summary of a fun activity that he did with students in a summer workshop. In The Money Animal Marketplace, students were challenged to create a business model in groups. Each group was selling a different animal-shaped bar of soap with varying amounts of money hidden inside. Each group could choose their own animal, distribution of cash, and price. They then created a poster to market their product and placed it at the front of the classroom. Next, each student was able to review the posters and purchase three bars of soap (three different or three of the same, but not their own). They were only given a few minutes to decide. Then the results were graphed and discussed in class. Groups found their company's profits, they factored losses, and more. Mr. Meyer writes that in this lesson he is in essence extending a question. He flips it around and has the students create their own questions. I loved the creativity of this activity. It seems like the students really enjoyed creating their business models and they used trial and error to find the most profit, so they were learning by actually using the tools given by the teacher. 

Post #5 PLNs - What Are They?

A personal learning network (PLN) is a group of people or tools that you can use for help, inspiration and collaboration. PLNs are not only for teachers. Students can use a PLN to work on a research project or organize ongoing assignments.Teachers can find interesting ideas, new ways to teach, creative class projects, or even something as simple as an idea for classroom organization. One of the best ways to find people who are interested in the same ideas is Twitter. I have already created a twitter account for this class, and I am searching for other educators who are excited about math and reading. These are two passions of mine. In a previous class, I was instructed to create a Pinterest page. This is a tool used to gather ideas more than people. However, as an aspiring elementary teacher, I will use this tool to find creative games, lesson plans, classroom decor, and more. I can also follow people who post this information if I choose. Finally, my first C4T assignment was Dan Meyer, a math teacher with great insight and ideas for teaching mathematics concepts successfully. I have continued to follow his blog and draw from his experiences.

Another piece to my PLN is personal contacts. My mother was a kindergarten teacher and my sister is a high school math teacher. Through them, I have made other teacher contacts locally. All of these teachers are people that I see fairly regularly or that I can call to discuss ideas. One contact in particular is the kindergarten teacher at my elementary school. We talk at least weekly to compare the things my son is learning in his school with what she is teaching and to discuss different methods and how they work. Together, we have learned different ways to communicate with parents and different activities used to enforce a concept. We have also discussed scheduling problems that she had in her class at the beginning of the year and worked together to think of a solution that is currently working out really well!

I am currently compiling my PLN on a website called Symbaloo. Here, I can create tiles linking me to all of my PLN sources. So far, I have one for twitter, one for pinterest, one for Mr. Meyer's blog. I also have tiles designated for all of the important documents that I use for EDM 310. It's still a work in progress, but I am very excited about the idea of having all of my information in one place.

Search Engines

WolframAlpha.com

WolframAlpha is a great search engine. I wish I knew about it when I was in high school! You can search any school subject or topic and see illustrations, definitions, and related topics. For example, I searched "long division." I saw five different examples of long division problems worked out for me, a brief definition, and links to related terms such as "dividend" or "divisor." It's not only for math though. I also searched WWII. My results included, countries involved (with links), people involved (with links), a simple timeline, and a brief summary of the events of this war. I would recommend this search engine as a starting point for students' research, but it is probably not enough to stand alone as your only source.

education.iseek.com

This search engine is targeted towards students, teachers, administrators, and caregivers. You can choose to search either over education or the web. I chose education. I did another square root search. I am much more pleased with my results on this search engine. There is a column to the left that breaks down the findings into sub-groups, one of them being "Students will understand." I love that. You can also narrow your search by subject, source, resource type, grade level, subject, even standards by state. This is a search engine that I will definitely use again.

kayak.com

Kayak.com allows you to "compare hundreds of travel sites at once." It allows you to search hotels, flights, rental cars, and combination packages in one convenient place. You simply enter your starting location, ending location, and travel dates. You can then browse among your options to find the cheapest rate or best value.

Care.com

Care.com is a search engine that helps you to find affordable babysitters in your area. This is especially useful for families who are new to a city or region, and have not made many contacts yet. Parents and babysitters each create a profile or resume stating thier needs and what they have to offer respectively. Parents can include the rate they are willing to pay and babysitters can include the rate they are willing to work for.

AngiesList.com

This is a website dedicated to helping you find affordable, reliable services locally. These services range from plumbers to babysitters and the ratings are done by actual customers, so you know you can trust them. The only drawback is that it is not free. There is a $4 monthly fee or $10 yearly fee for the basic package. I just don't know how often a person is in need of a repairman. It seems like getting recommendations from friends or coworkers would be just as easy and a lot more free.

Craigslist.com

Craigslist is a very popular search engine. I know I use it all the time. It is essentially one big, local yard sale. Anyone is able to post items they are wishing to sell from old toys to cars. Even rental homes and apartments can post on this site. I have used it when looking for a house to rent, looking for a car to buy, and even looking for a used washing machine to get me by. I would definitely recommend it, but exercise caution.

Ask.com

This is a general internet search engine much like Google. It does differ from Google in one way though. It does not only search what you type word for word. For example, I searched "How many days until Christmas?" My top results were for a Christmas countdown clock. In a way, ask.com can think for itself. It still gave me useful information even though I couldn't think of the exact thing to search for. This can be both a positive and a negative attribute. Sometimes, I want to search for something specifically, word for word.

Refseek.com

Refseek is unique in that it allows you to narrow your search. My search was narrowed via the directory to Health and Medical. Then I was able to search Type 2 Diabetes with no problem. My results came from medical journals and reputable websites such as the Center for Disease Control and the American Cancer Society. This search engine would be very useful for students needing valid research.

Post #4 What Questions Do We Ask? How Do We Ask?

In my opinion, a mark of a good teacher is that he or she engages students in the lesson. One of the most common ways to involve your students is to ask questions throughout the day. It is also one of the easiest, and sometimes laziest, ways. However, a carefully crafted question can get the whole class thinking and possibly even discussing different answers or solutions.

Maryellen Weimer suggests three ways to ask better questions in the classroom.  She proposes that teachers prepare questions ahead of time. If you think of what you want to ask, you can also prepare for possible answers that you may receive and how you would respond to them. Her second suggestion is to leave the question hanging for a while. Don't immediately respond positively just because one student figured it out. Let the rest of the class consider their answers for a while. This is a great way to engage the entire class and maybe even have them work together to figure out the answer. Finally, Dr. Weimer would like teachers to save the good questions and use them again in later classes. Using the student's responses to improve this question for the next class is also recommended.

Ben Johnson gives some more tips for asking questions in the classroom. I thoroughly enjoyed his point of view and sense of humor regarding this subject. The most important thing to remember when asking questions of a classroom is to be specific! Don't ask questions like, "Does everyone understand?" Think about what your goal is for each question that you ask. Mr. Johnson suggests that teachers ask the specific question that they have formulated before class, wait a few seconds to let everyone think about their answers, and then randomly choose a student to give his or her answer. This method engages the entire class. Everyone should be thinking of their answer just in case they are called upon.

Mr. Johnson's was my favorite article on the subject of asking questions. It was an easy read and also very informative. It was the one that got me thinking about how I would like to ask questions in my future classroom the most. My goal is to be the type of teacher that gets her students thinking for themselves, not just memorizing information. Crafting my questions appropriately is a great stepping stone towards that goal.

Post #3 How Can You Provide Meaningful Feedback to Your Peers?

Learning how to review the work of your peers in a genuine and respectful way is important no matter what profession you choose. It is refreshing to see Mr. Tim Bedley teaching this skill to his upper elementary students. I believe that as education students, we especially need to learn this skill seeing as we will be reviewing the work of our students on a fairly regular basis in the future. It is a good idea to get some practice now. From the video Peer Editing and the slideshow Tutorial Peer Editing, we learn that peer editing is comprised of three steps: compliments, suggestions, and corrections. All three steps are important for an effective peer review. Without the compliments, you may come off as a highly critical "Picky Patty", and without suggestions or corrections, what's the point? We must remember to maintain a positive attitude throughout all three steps so as not to offend.

I especially enjoyed the video Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes, not only because it was humorous, but also because it gave tips for the peer who is being reviewed. This video helped me to put into perspective that when I ask for someone to proofread my work and give advice, guess what? They might actually have some suggestions and corrections! It doesn't mean that I'm not a good writer or that I don't understand punctuation rules. It just means that I'm human. Sometimes I miss a comma here and there, sometimes I misspell a word, and sometimes my sentences aren't clear to the reader. Peer reviews are a valuable asset, but they are only effective if we all view them as a team effort to put forth the best work possible.

Peer reviews don't have to end like this! :)