Blog Post #6

I have learned that being a teacher is very difficult. While teaching you have to make sure that you have hooks and projects that keep your kids interested. When you become a Teacher it is more than just a 7:30am to 3pm job. It is very possible to end up working sixteen hour days, even when that means you are not on the clock. There are many ways to keep that from happening. I learned of a really good search engine for your students, which is iCurio. I believe that if students use this, it would stop them from using different search engines that actually bring up inappropriate things they should not see. I also learned that using DiscoveryEd is really good to use, since most students learn now days by listening and watching. I always liked visuals growing up in school and still do today. Teaching is a very rewarding field to be in. Teachers should learn to be flexible and good with change for their schedules. Students always like when they get to use technology for different things during their classes. I do not think students should get to use it everyday though, it should be for learning and as a privilege. I learned that us future teachers should not stress when things are not perfect. Perfection is never going to happen. When planning out the next school year lessons, we should think in this order: State regulations to go over, year plans, month plans, week plans, and then do the daily lesson plans. When you want to see where your students are after you finish for the day quiz them and see if they took in most of what you said, and where you need to start off the next day.

Project #3

Blog Post 5

PLN's what are they? How can they help me as a Teacher?


Before reading about the personal learning network, I had never heard of them. I believe that these will help me be able to put all my websites together, which I can make that my homepage. I think who ever invented this had an awesome idea. I am actually disappointed I did not know about this until I read about it and watched videos of people explaining their use of one. On my personal learning network I can put any social media networks, search engines, and even use it for storing information I have found that I need to go back and look at.

I have decided that I am going to use Symbaloo for mine. I think that it would be a good fit for me, and I can set it as my homepage for my internet. I am all about learning new things that will be very helpful, to make things easier and quicker for you to find things. I believe doing this I will not be looking everywhere for my websites that I normally use for things.

My Sentence Videos

My Sentence



My Passion

8 Search Engines

1. Wolfram
I saw where you can generate any math problems, which is good if you are a teacher or a student. This one even lets you search to compare and contrast things. I saw where I clicked random, and it compared home health in the US vs. Uk. I think it is awesome that just in a couple clicks I can find out things like that. 2.Dog Pile
This website is really good to use when you need to find any pictures or videos. I could see my self using this website a lot with all the pictures I post on my blog posts.

3.ERIC
This website is used to find any collection of articles and online materials that are provided for you. This website is very easy to navigate, and I know if I need to find a certain article it would be a good place to look for it.

4.iSeek
I like how this website is targeted for students, teachers, caregivers and administrators. That means that basically anything I need as an educator I can search here on this website for it. Things that are targeted to my major pull me to want to use them more than any of the other search engines.
5.Socialmention
This is where you can find out anything that is trending through the web. I saw news articles, and I also saw things that had been posted on different forms of social media.
6.Topsy
This is a social media site. This helps you find anything on Twitter or any other social media source that you may need to find people or things that have been posted. I think this website would help me find people that I have the same interest with. When people post something on twitter it is mainly about what they like or about their jobs. It may be that I find someone who can help with what I may be trying to teach to my class one day.
7.Boardreader
This search engine has it all. On this one I can search for Movies, News, Press Release, Articles, Projects, and Topics. I feel like this one is the one that has a more broad range of things you can search. This would probably be one of the ones I would use the most.
8.ixquick
This is the worlds most private search engine. On this website you can find picture sources and places to watch videos. I think that if you do not want everyone to know what websites you have been going to, then it would be an awesome website engine to use for anything.

Blog Post #4 What questions do we ask? How do we ask?

How can you provide meaningful feedback to your peers?

Writing Peer Reviews Top !0 Mistakes
This video is very entertaining with the children and their nicknames. It is the nicknames of the children that help us understand that a peer review can be done in so many different ways. In this video it always went back to something that was positive, that is why I think when you have a negative comment about someones work, you should always make a way to bring it to be a positive. When you are giving a peer or classmate feedback on their work, you should always think how would I want them to correct my mistakes. By watching this video it has opened my mind and shown me ways to be able to cut out a lot of my mistakes that I have made that way they will not happen in the future.


Peer Editing with Perfection Tutorial
As I watched this tutorial, it taught me that you need to correct your peers so that it does not happen again, and to help them understand why it is wrong. It showed me that you need to be more tactful when giving a review, because you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. When you are giving the review you do not want to sound like too picky, and that you point out everything of their work. This will help me as a teacher in my future classroom, so I will understand when and how to correct my students. It will be my responsibility to make sure my students understand to peer edit their work and maybe catch their mistakes before their work is turned in for grades. I believe no matter who paper you are editing you should always start with the positive things, and then also make the negative a good thing. For Example: a student may be doing really good with detail on a test, but has the wrong date. You could say, "Bo you did really good describing everything that lead to the event and why it happened, but next time make sure you have correct date because dates are a big thing in History".

What will teaching be like in the 21st Century?

•Mr. Dancealot -
The central idea I feel like is that Mr. Dancealot does not actually teach his students since he was teaching a dance class, they should have been interacting the whole time. I feel like they should be in a ballroom the entire time learning, instead of reading out powerpoint slides. Also, it did not help students when he did the steps behind the big desk because they could not see him doing them. He never allowed them to practice to demonstrate the steps. I do not agree with him at all. I believe that all students should be interactive with their classes and not be falling asleep. If they could actually practice they would probably actually do better on their final.


•The Role of a teacher
It is Roberts that believes teaching in the 21st Century is strictly based on the technologies we have available to us. He also thinks the students to make sure they use their references, and I believe the teachers should help them by showing them how to use the different technologies. They should make sure their students understand, and can use them very easily. I do use google a lot, but there is other things I do not understand. I believe that being a future educator, it should be our job to make sure our students understand everything new we teach them. I believe in this because not all of the answers can be found on the internet.


•The Networked Student
While watching this video I realize that Wendy's proposition is the most effective way for networking by students. It is mostly about how you connect with others. People sometimes do not realize how easy it is to connect with people. It can just be the ones around you or many miles away. She uses many sources as bookmarks for later use including iTunes and Delicious. It is with these tools you see who exactly is getting effective by using these sources. I believe networking is one things that help students be more engaged in class and actually wanting to learn more. I agree with Mrs. Drexler, when you build connections it helps you with more sources that you probably did not know about. Also, when you have networking even with a few friends or a whole class you may have some similar ideas, but of course you are going to have more different opinions on a lot of things.


•Harness your students
Mrs. Davis thinks that she should teach and learn, but also her students should teach each other. She is no longer using pen and paper in her classroom. She believes that technology actually does better for all learners. I agree with her pen and paper gets old quick and it is not for everyone. Also, I believe technology helps you not to depend on notes, but to expand you to the whole internet with many options and ways to learn. I agree with her a hundred percent.


•Who is ahead in the learning race?
I feel like the Elementary students are ahead in all areas of using technologies. It is hard to use for college students because we did not all grow up using a macbook. I have one now, and it took a while to get use to it. I believe that the earlier you start using different programs it clicks better, and it becomes very natural to you.

Flipping the Classroom
• Yes, flipping is new to me. I feel like it is an awesome thing that would be very useful to any teachers. It also will be very helpful for students. Teachers will not have to waste time with the new subject matter besides answering questions that the students may have thought about over night. I believe the students will have longer to think abut the subject matter and come up with better questions to ask to understand. I would love to be able to do this as a teacher.


•Bringing the locker room into the classroom
I believe after reading this, it helped me understand you do not have to be the perfect teacher, you just have to be the best teacher for your students. It is with me wanting to also coach two very different sports, I understand you have to be willing to coach to these athletes ay the level they can understand. I will probably have a rough first year when i am in the real world teaching, but it will be the best experience to learn from.

What about EDM 310?

After being gone for a year and changing my major, I have heard good luck with taking this class and that it will be very time consuming. I was very nervous first going to this class, but knowing two people in here makes it easier. We will be learning this together and can explain to each other, and make sure we are not lost. Being in class for only two days, has made me realize that this is not your normal college or high school class. The Problem of not knowing how to exactly how to do our homework, but having to figure it out on our own. I have never been in a class that I was expected to do something that I had not practiced. I believe to learn everything there is to know about this class, we would probably have to meet more than just twice a week. While in high school and some college classes I have always practiced before performing on a test or paper. I believe that I will just have to make sure I set aside a lot of time for this class. I also need to go to the lab to et help if I have any questions or get stumped. This class I know will help me out in the long run as an Educator. I do not think I have any other questions as of right now, but I will ask later if I end up having any.

Who am I? Why do I want to be an Educator? What does an Educator have to do in his or her practice? What are my Passions?

I am Carissa Watford, and I am from the small little town of Slocomb, Alabama. Most people either do not know where that is or they say oh the Tomato Capital, because Tomatoes are what we are known for. I attended Slocomb High School and graduated in May of 2011.My Hobbies include spending time with friends and family, competing in pageants, being a sister of Alpha Omicron Pi, supporting the Arthritis Research and Juvenile Arthritis, and volunteer with the Woodlands Scholarship Program, which is a scholarship Pageant in Alabama and in other states as well. I was a cheerleader and soccer player while in high school.My Family is a big part of my life. Being so close to them really tore me apart my Freshman year of college, because my parents moved to San Antonio, Texas which is now my second home. I was here at South Alabama attending school for two years, before returning home to help care for my grandfather who had alzheimer's disease. It was then when I realized how much family meant to me.

I chose the University of South Alabama for school after coming for a visit with my cousin who had accepted a scholarship to South Alabama. It was then that I knew where I would spend the next 4 years of my live to earn a degree, at the time which I thought would be nursing degree. I have sinse changed my major to Secondary Education in Social Science.I switched to Education because I thought it was the best fit for me. I would always tell my mom, I think I really need to be a teacher they just really do not make that much. I learned quickly it is not all about the money, it is about do you love your job and what you do for the rest of your life. I will always love teaching History to kids, because I think that history is a looked over subject sometimes. I believe that you should actually teach kids everything they need to know like my teachers in college did. It is that when we learn we do not need to let them just copy notes off the smart board, but yet learn as we go. I believe that yes dates are important, but not so important to keep up with every one of them for everything. I believe that you should cover everything and try not to step on anyones toes while doing so. It is my passion to make a difference in a child's life, because you may be there only person that pushes them to succeed in life. School could be the only place they feel loved meaning they do the best they can while there, and want to push harder because of who cares for them. I feel like you should push everyone to make sure they reach their goals they have set.

Outline:
•Hometown
•School
•Family
•Hobbies

•Why I Chose Education
•College
•How things should be taught
•Why I feel that teachers should care for their students more