my EDM 310 bog is now compleate

I enjoyed hanging out with everyone! This was my best class this semester!
Thanks for all the laughs!
Alison

things we covered in class

I learned really quite a lot in this class. I am most appreciative of the tools we covered in google. I will use those for my class when I teach.
I didn't like doing the spread sheets but I really needed to learn how to do them. It was really hard and the Math or really the formulas always trip me up so bad.
The presentations we did the first weeks was good on getting to know everyone and we all got used to each other.
The podcast were really intresting. We should have been a little more rehearsed but it turned out overall they were a learning expierience.
This class as a teacher gave me more info on how to do more things with the internet and what the internet can offer.

EDM 310 Bloggers

well I read through my friend Jennifer's blogs. She always done these blogs so much more eloquently than mine. See she also writes for the school newspaper too so "she got skillz". She gave great detail, where I'd just say what i was thinking and let it be. She is truely very good at writing and expressing herself through her writings. All of the blogs that she posted had well written information. She was thorough in her writing. I really liked the one she did on Mr. Randy Pausch, took great time in discussing a good man. Also a quote that I had completely missed the first time i listened to the same thing by Carl Fisch, but she had written how much she enjoyed it and once she brought it back up it stuck, it was a good point. Follow the link above and check out Sept 10 2008's blog to see that quote!
Blogging turned out to be a good experience in this class. I had done some blogging on myspace page. It wasn't regular and it wasn't on one particular subject or another. It was more an expression on feeling really. I liked having a topic to write on, but keeping this thing maintained at times was sometime a task I barely had time to do. I did learn from it though. I had never dealt with alt tags and modified html, but now I wouldn't say I'm a pro but I think i have the hang of it now.
Blogging is helpful and with the right links it keeps people informed on things going on
inside a classroom or other organization.

ACCESS lab

I went to visit Baker's Access lab in early November. The school is very nice and the lab actually had students in it when i went by. I spoke with Ms. Sharon Staley, who is the AP Curriculum Advisor at Baker.She is pictured above with me. I should have made an appointment to stop by because she was due for bus duty soon. But from our short visit, the lab seemed to busy with students and she said how this has opened doors for students who might not have had access to a class before and now has the opportunity to do so.

our class podcast

I thought it was a good experience for everyone. I found that they were not really professional nor were they researched as well as they should have probably been but it was all a test run and boy we learned from it. I know when we did ours I had a problem wanting to giggle.....it just was just really awkward.
I think that some of the other groups did do a great job and some of the groups were not prepared at all. Some of the information that groups did give was good and very informative while others lacked material.
Maybe more practice for them next time would have made them run more smoothly. Have a test day and let the groups practice around the microphone, because like i said before i found it very awkward. Overall I did enjoy the experience of doing that because i hate to stand in front of a class to give a speech, but behind the mike wasn't so bad.

Contact with a Teacher outside my state

I was able to contact my Advisor from a school i attended when i lived in Naperville IL. The school was Kennedy Junior High School. She was able to help me and tell me about the technology they are using in the school now. I was most fascinated by the ID cards that the students are issued. They can load their lunch money to it and parents are able to check and see what the students are buying for lunch. The school also uses many other forms of Technology in the classrooms. They use Blackboard for homework that can be electronically submitted through the Internet. They have Smartboard systems that allow the teachers to hook up their computers to it and what ever the teacher is looking at it is then projected on the screen for the students. They have a few computer labs that are set up for class group projects. Each teacher has a laptop to record the grades and plan presentations. This year their laptops are in process of being replaced with Lifebooks that are written on with the stylist pens. They also use a system called iparent, this allows the parents, teachers and students to be updated on grades continuously. They have a phone system that is hooked up so that if the advisor receives a message on her answering machine at work her computer will play it to her at home. Their website is set up very well and very informative!
Overall I think they have a wide variety of Technology available to them in the school. Some for the students to better their education and some for the teachers to better their communications. It is well balanced.
I would like to thank Mrs. Linda Cusack for all the information and taking the time to answer all my questions. I still miss all of you!!!

Judy Chandler Math with Technology

I listened to the podast today by Judy Chandler on Math and Technolgy.
Judy says that Math teacher's students now enter the classroom with so much technology around them. We should be able to incorporate that technology into the mathematics in the classroom. She says that students often just memorize the problems to get by or they fall behind because we just go over the lessons in the book and move on and some fall behind. She says teachers need to ask questions to engage student and give student tools to use their learning. They need to be able to reinforce what they learn with technology. Students do better when they can explore, model, reflect, connect ideas, play what if, and apply what they learn. Challenge the students to think harder. Questions make the mind have to think harder.

Mrs. Chandler does a great job with giving some ideas for teachers to engage students. As a future teacher I need to remember to ask more questions and make the students think for themselves. They are more likely to remember the answer to the question if they have to come up with the answer themselves. Teachers need to use Technology to engage and reinforce what the students are learning.

Carol Dweck and Fixed vs Growth Mindsets

Is intelligence something we can develop? Or is it something we are born with? Well that is growth verses the fixed! A study was set up and they taught the kids in two different ways. They showed the kids in these workshops that babies have learn things and that they make new connections. They taught them to admit mistakes and over come them. That is how we grow, we grow from these mistakes that we make in life. Carol did a great study betweeen these two groups and teachers of these students could distinguish which children had been to the growth mindset workshops and which students had been to the fixed midset workshops.
It comes down to how we teach our children. There are no limits on learning! We stop were we want to stop. Encouraging children to do more and learn more really does work. If they believe in themselves and those around them then it is not so hard to believe that the child really can do better!

video podcast

itunesU: Teachers Domain : WBGH: Grades 6-8: solar eclipses and total solar eclipse animation videos.

I just finished watching the solar eclipse videos on ituneU. As a future teacher these videos are great for showing in class. The eclipse videos explain that because our moon is 400x smaller than the sun and that the moon is 400x farther from the sun it cast a shadow on the earth when the moon lines up between the sun and the Earth perfectly. The shadow that it cast only falls on a particular area and it only happens for a short period of time.

These videos are particully helpfull for a teacher to be able to visually explain what a solar eclipse is and for the student to understand how they work. The ones that i viewed were on a 6-8th grade level so that students at that age would easily be able to understand what was being shown to them

This video cast is an great tool to be able to use in the class room and explore things without having to check out a video and get the TV system rolled into the class room. Now you can pull it up on the internet or itunesU and let the class view it!

learning something new

today I watched the movie in itunesU entitled A night in the Global village. I watched as these young teens went out on this large farm that used to teach the kids about what other countries are like and how language barriers can be such a problem. The biggest thing though is that in our society today we do have to struggle as much for the things that we need. It shows these kids that not everyone is as privileged as we are. Nothing compares to actually experiencing what 3rd world countries are like, but if you can not experience it then this place is close to it. The heifer farms also raises cattle to send to foreign countries. Cattle and other animals are staples of like to those people.

I also watched The Edible Schoolyard. This was amazing. The art of gardening is being lost now that supermarkets provide so much that people don't have time to farm and grow. they grow their gardens and then they take these foods and they make things in the kitchen with them. They have to actually plant and build it themselves. These were middle schoolers who were doing this and they were so proud of what they had accomplished at the end of the semester. What these kids were learning was what families used to teach generation after generation to their children but now our society is slowing leaving that behind.

As a teacher i would love for students to be this hands on. To see what is like and experience the need for adequate shelter. The idea of not knowing if food will be readily available tomorrow. To put themselves in someone elses shoes. Growing and harvesting and working for you need.
these podcast are an excellent source for teachers to pull up in the classroom and show kids. They can learn from watching but experiencing hands on would change the way they think about how that salad got on the table for supper.

visited a few podcast

first i listened to Smart Board Lessons Podcast #146 on itunes. I found that they told how to use different ideas in the classroom. The talked about making word clouds in the classrooms. These word clouds use one word and you make that word bigger and emphasize it. students learn how the work off of that word. They tackle a problem on each podcast and address how to help the kids.
next i listened to KidCast, their podcast it was #56 about questions make the world go round was about making some podcast based on some observation done in a study.They asked many questions to Dan (podcast leader) and was answering so that they could set up their own podcast and how to develop a podcast. EdTechtalk is another podcast that i browsed by, This was Teachers Teaching Teachers #123.This site has more than one person talking and they are teachers who are helping other teachers with in classroom ideas. Each teacher has groups in their rooms and they are pod casting on how to do things in their classroom. The photography teacher is on there talking about how her students use their photos in class and the ceramics teacher tells how she uses blogs in her classroom . They also set up some web pages together to be used in the classrooms.
I'm learning so far that podcast are more like a radio show. These people are just having a one way conversation to get out some piece of information. Or if there are two or more people they just converse about a piece of information and they try to share their knowledge with others. So next week when I try to pod cast lets hope it turns out half as good as some of these.

Randy Pausch some lessons learned

Where are the words to express how this man is still changing others lives? I sat here quite grateful to have learned something from him. His choose to discuss some of his childhood dreams in that presentation and I sat in thought after hearing that, maybe when we come up with our childhood dreams it is then that we truly know what it is we want. When then world is simple and there is no one to say "you can't do that". Randy Pausch took his dreams and made them come true and inspired others to do the same.
His techniques in teaching, made teaching fun. He taught a virtual reality course that taught students from departments all across the academia spreadsheet. It allowed the 50 students to work in small groups creating worlds. He taught them to work in these groups with a dependency on each other that made them bond. He used no books in his classes. These courses were strictly taught with a series of projects. He said he was never a fan of academia himself he liked fun. He made learning fun. It was so much fun that the classes were showing these virtual reality words in an open classroom and people were lining up to get in to see them.
He didn't say life was easy, he talk about the brick walls that you will face in life. Those walls are put there to keep the people who don't want it bad enough out. If you want it bad enough you will figure out how to get around or over those walls.
He emasized fun, learning is fun. Life should be fun other wise what is the point? He believed in karma and doing good and in his way of inspiring others to do good. When a person is that positive about life even though the future is grim it really makes me sit down and say what do I have that is so big compared to that to gripe about. I am truly blessed. He has taught so many students through these courses over the years and i can imagine each one has carried on is some way touched by the time he put in with them. I was touched to have just listened to it.

to Last Lecture

itunes U

itunes university with the top ones that were downloaded.

i visited some sites that discussed the itunes university. A group of universities are putting up discussions in Philosophy and notes for professors Literature classes. There are different Universities that use the site for different reasons. One even uses it for all thier lectures. Now if you miss a class, your not begging someone else for notes that they might not have taken well. Its easily available on itunes U. It is a wonderul idea to use the itunes and students can download the notes or other information to thier ipod and listen to it!
All the new ways of getting information out these days is growing by the day.

my presentation

my presentaion

ipods in schools

read this about schools that are using ipods !

Ipods are a wonderful tool to store all sorts of info. Some universities like Duke are using them for things like simple orientation information and even loading in the fight song for students. They used to even give the Ipod away to the students but even though now they are not giving away the ipod anymore, students are required for some classes to have an Ipod.
Some schools are using them to breech language barriers. They load the Ipod with english lessons for students to be able to learn english in schools. They are being used to download all sorts of information to help students learn quicker in a world that technology is becomeing a way of life.

Dr. Christie

Dr. Alice Christie has a wondefull site that is helping educators everywhere. She has many workshops that she does to help educators with a wide variety of issues. I explored her site and my favorite part was her photography part. Her pictures are beautiful.I love how she took one picture and then applied many different attributes to it. She fully explores photography.There is helpful information on buying a camera, and using it at it'd best potential. She really has expanded on the idea of helping educators everywhere through workshops and through the internet.
As an educator this information is wonderful. Many teachers like at my son's school are using all digital camera's in which they are posting the kids pictures on the websites and they are putting them in the weekly newsletter. I plan to do a lot of the same when I begin to teach, minus the newsletter. But maybe for each class I teach using the pictures to put up a bulletin board with their weekly updates on it.

wikipedia reliable? who says?

Since as long as i can remember starting a paper or any other article i had to write, i was always told to never use Wikipedia. The information there is easily changed and therefore it can be unreliable. This site can not be considered accurate if any "average Joe" can come in access a subject then add what they believe is an accurate description/definition to the page.
The only time i use Wikipedia is to sometimes look up something for my own purposes. It sometimes gives a better description of a what I am looking for at the time. It is in general terms.
The program that was built by Virgil Griffith is a wonderful idea though.His program traces the IP address of those people who change the content on Wikipedia. Until it is perfected and able to be constantly used then Wikipedia still can't be consider a true source. People who have big companies are able to go into wikipedia right now and take out certain areas about thier product they might not want the general public to know, but hopefully in the future Mr. Griffith's idea will really be able to help and make Wikipedia a more reliable source.

180 days of instruction

here is the link to familiarize yourself with what I'm commenting on:Fischbowl
The point is brought up of 180 days of instruction in the school and is there really 180 days of instruction or not. Then there in a power point showing the deductions of days from instructional days for things like, exams, regular testing, state testing, pep rally, snow days, average sick days, movie reward day etc. So that you are left with something closer to 120 days of so called instructional days for teaching.
My opinion is that we need those days of pep rallys , reward movie days,exams, and etc. If 60 more days were added to make up for all these lack of days then, first, you loose two months of summer. Second, how many days of those 60 days would then be lost? People get sick so there goes some of those 60 days and its summer so people will take a vacation. Now are we going to add days to make up for those days in order to reach 180 days of instruction in the school? Third, When is enough, enough? Kids in the first grade come home with homework that takes 30 min. to 1 hour each night. Why? Most of this should be covered in class. I thought that was the point of school. A first grader, a child, spends more time doing instruction and school work with just barely enough time to complete home chores and spend time with family, and then squeeze in a few min. of bike riding. (not all children are raised spending the afternoon on video games!) And now please explain to me why we need to add more school time in when our kids now barely have time to be a kid!

The Fisch has a point

Is it okay? After reading this I totally agree with him. Educators should be held accountable for the learning of new technology. How can we expect to teach students what is the most accurate and new technology out there if we don't learn it ourselves. I subbed at a school recently and they are required to make a weekly newsletter for their class and send home and the teacher was having a hard time figuring out how to insert pictures of the class. "My assistant usually does this" is what she told me. I ended up helping her get the picture resized and placed properly. While i was doing this I had pondered why it was that a highly certified teacher did not know the basics of creating a newsletter.
Teachers must know how to work in new technologies in order to keep up. Children have such a curiosity to learn and if we do not teach them what they need to know to thrive in this ever changing world then we have done our society no good whatsoever!

blogs around the world

I ended up in Auckland, New Zealand! Room 12 uses their blogs to post homework and other assingments. They also have pictures and productions that the children have done in class and they are posted too. You can leave comments for the kids. Really I don't see anything here that is different from a blog in an American school. It is a well done site it's just that if I have to look at an International site, i guess i thought it would be differnt from an American site.
Go to Mellons



This is a school out of China. Montford school uses it's blog a lot. It is set up really organized and they have video liks as well as pictures to show! I really liked how even the Alumni came back and left some post.
Go see Montford

schools using blogs

Schools are using blogs to stay in touch!
Heres the first school. A.V. Hedden Elementary.
The home of the HAWKS! This link is to Mr. Wolfe's fourth Grade class in Edgewood Washingon. He uses the blogs to stay on contact with his students and parents. They have introduced them selves on there for the new year. I looked at some of the pictures from the students last year and the activities they compleated and it looks like they really enjoy themselves.

Mr. Miller's english class at Branford High also uses a blog. One can use the site to find information, homework and assignments for the class. It keeps all involved connected to each other. He has opened specific topics for the class to blog about on the site. This gives them and out of class way to have a discussion about a particular topic.

In the Fischbowl

This site has a wonderful video that deals with an issue I myself have wondered about before. How far education has come and how far it is going! When my parents dealt with my brother and I doing homework in middle school they'd say "This is much more difficult than when we were in school. They sure require so much more from these kids." Now I have my own children and my oldest is in first grade. I received last week a "Guide to Mathematics and a Guide to Reading and English" I have scanned through the Math one and it unbelievable the Math concepts that first graders have to learn. But that is what is required to stay caught up with the rest of the world.
The presentation on Fischbowl just shows how fast the world is adbancing and what are you doing to stay caught up with it. The technology is advancing so fast is unbelievable. Its really amazing for me because I was a kid when computers were introduced into classrooms and the when the internet was introduced. My kids will grow up with amazing technology and the school will be able to educate in ways they never dreamed of!

to visit fischbowl

ACCESS

ACCESS, which stands for Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide, is a website devoted to giving a chance to Alabama High School students to take Advanced courses or duel enrollment through a virtual classroom. This site offers courses from Social Studies, English, Sciences, Mathematics and even electives.
This site is giving students a chance to go farther faster! ACCESS is a program that ensures students have the chance to work on their education and receive credits for it. ACCESS is also giving students an opportunity to take advantage of classes that might not be taught in their school. Some schools might not be able to find and hire a highly qualified teacher at that time and through ACCESS students are able to take those classes and accomplish their goals.
It is really and amazing site that is keeping the Alabama schools on track with the best technology.

To visit this site
http://accessdl.state.al.us/

ALEX

Wow! What a jammed packed site. I was amazed at this site and how endless the resources where. Teachers, students and parents can easily access this site and take advantage of everything being on one site. Theres access for every subject.Teachers can view and make lesson plans. The distance learning even amazes me. Students who can't be in classrooms can learn through the internet. The internet and sites like ALEX are making education so much for available for students.Using ALEX is really so simple too, everything is well formatted.

When I begin teaching it will be an invaluable resource to my classroom. Teachers and students will stay connected and be able to use one site for the same web connections. Its really great to see a site so well put together for helping teachers and students in and out of the classroom.

to visit this site
ALEX

This is me

Hi to all,
My name is Alison Hawes. I'm 25 years old. I married my high school sweetheart,Chris, and we have two children, Gavin (6) and Grant(3).I started out as an Elementary Ed and Major and later decided, to swap to Sec. Ed. History Major. I 'm about 1 1/2 - 2 years from being done. I came to South this year after finishing my associates degree at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
When I'm not in school i enjoy spending time with my boys. I like to substitute teach at our local school when I get the time to do that. I love to cook and am pretty darn good at it. We all love to fish and vacation, we just like to be outside. We have lots of pets around our home, including a Quaker parrot who talks our ears off. I like going out with girls from time to time to catch up on all the latest news (a.k.a gossip). When its all said and done at the end of the day I love to sit down and do nothing. Just to relish the moment that i'm sitting here right now and i'm doing nothing!

test blog

now to add a picture