Blog Post# 9

What I've Learned This Year Volume 4 by Mr. Joe McClung.

In this reflective post of Mr. McClung ‘s fourth year of teaching he tells his audience that he is going to write about two themes that are “You Gotta Dance With Who You Brought to the Dance” and “Challenge Yourself”. In his section, “You Gotta Dance With Who You Brought to the Dance, he states that this year he has struggled a lot with trying to define himself as a teacher. He has allowed himself to become concerned with how his peers see him as an educator. He tends to let this affect his mood throughout most of the year; however, I think this is a bad mistake to make because not only is he in a bad mood it also will affect his ability to teach his students in the classroom. I believe that personal problems can stress teachers out and lead them to act differently towards students in certain situations. Also, Mr. McClung states that he has came to an conclusion that he cannot change himself as a teacher based on the opinion of his peers and he believes that he needs to stick to his rule that has got him his title as a teacher. He informs us that the rule is making sure his kids are having fun. I agree with his rule, because I believe if the kids are learning and having fun at the same time that they will be anxiously looking forward for the next day of class. Mr. Clung states that by worrying about his perception of how adults see him has got him nowhere in life; therefore, he stresses that taking care of his students and enjoying class has been wonderful. From this section, I have learned to never evaluate myself as a teacher based on the perception of adults; however, teachers should evaluate themselves on the grades and accomplishments of their students.

In “Challenge Yourself”, Mr. McClung states that it is his third year of teaching the same subject, which is Social Studies and Arkansas History at the same school. He informs his readers that over the past years he has also taught other courses but Social Studies and Arkansas History were the backbone of what he taught. He realizes that his ways of teaching are becoming to be a routine and that he is starting to lack in creativity. After realizing his problem, Mr. McClung is surprised when he gets an opportunity to teach pre-AP Civics and American Government at a different grade level. Mr. McClung is aware that it will require hard work and dedication to learn the material and develop lesson plans for the classes but he thinks it is well worth the change. He states that this year he has learned a valuable lesson in what can be the outcome of not changing your lesson plans. I believe that kids will become bored of the information if we use the same lesson plans annually because technology is advancing and better ways of teaching are changing constantly. From personal experience, when I was in grade school it seemed as if we did the same thing in every class just with different subjects, which led to me daydreaming into space because I was dying of being boredom. From this second part, I have learned that teachers also need to be creative and change up their lesson plans so that students can continue to enjoy lessons.
What I've Learned This Year (2010-11) by Mr. Joe McClung.

In this reflective post it is Mr. McClung’s third year teaching and his second year being at the same school. Mr. McClung was now more than a teacher; however, it is his first experience as a head coach, coaching cross-country, and being a computer applications teacher. In the first section titled “ Know Who Your Boss Is”, he informs his readers that our decision making process should always be student centered and not centered on pleasing other adults. I agreed with this statement because teachers are human beings just like everyone else and they can have personal situations that could easily alter their performance in the classroom. The kids are the reason we get up everyday to go to work; therefore, I think we should have our attention on our students 110 percent. The next section was “Don’t Expect Others to be as You Are”, where he is stating to his readers that there are always going to be people that are against new ideas and don’t give them a chance to work. Then, he states that you have to embody the aspects of teaching that you enjoy and not allow others to influence or steer you away from that. I think what he is saying is that teachers need to stick to their way of teaching no matter what other people thinks about it. In the “Don’t Be Afraid to be an Outsider” section, McClung demonstrates to his readers how he was not afraid to be an outsider at school because his focus is on his students more than someone that seeks approval from other teachers in the building. He gives the reader examples of how he is an outsider, he says that he plays his music too loud, he eats lunch with his students, and he enjoys interacting with his students through blogging and social media.

In the “Don’t Touch The Keyboard” section, Mr. McClung enlightened me with some advice that was passed to him from one of his co-workers at school about how she was formally an airline tech support trainer. While she was working there she told McClung that the main points the company instilled in their employees was to never touch the keyboard when training an employee. This was some very useful advice to me because I feel that the only way our students are going to learn a task is if they have to practice. The main point of this section is to inform teachers to not always take over and do the work for the students; however, we should make the students think critically to figure out the task in order for them to fully accomplish the skills of the tasks.

In the last section “Don’t Get Comfortable”, he stresses that the biggest fear of any teacher is becoming comfortable. He informs the reader that he is going into his fourth year as being a teacher and that he is realizing that his work is becoming a routine. I think this is true because everyone has something that they are really good at which usually leads them to not look into trying to improve. He shares ways with us that stopped him from feeling like his career as being a teacher was beginning to be a routine by joining committees that he would have never volunteered for and going to professional development sessions. This section he is informing us that teaching shouldn’t be done in traditional ways and that teachers should be advocates for the changes that we need in schools.

Project# 10 Personal Learning Network Progress Report

I created a Symbaloo for my personal learning network. This is a very necessary tool to use because it can organize every website that you use by allowing you to place them into categories. Symbaloo makes searching for information on the web an ease by its ability to lay out all of the websites that you choose making it easier to access them. I have created a tile for all the websites that are associated with my classes at the University of South Alabama. This tool has made my college experience better at the moment and I have shared this tool with numerous of people that were not aware of what this tool is capable of doing.

Project# 12

Blog Post#8

This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2.

This was a video with two parts by Richard Miller an English teacher at Rutgers University. In these videos he stresses how multimedia is taking over writing and that it will soon be used as much as word processing applications. In the first part, Miller states that he believes we are living in the moment of the greatest change of human communication in human history. I think he is correct with that statement because the biggest form of communication in the past used to consist of newspapers; however, now people look out to many other sources like sources from the Internet and videos. Teaching also is being changed, he informed viewers about iTunes U that is a website where you can search numerous academic lectures. In modern time, people would rather search for information using the Internet rather than going to the library. This occurs because sometimes the library may be out of the source that you need; however, the Internet has infinite information available that can be used by anyone at anytime. The Internet can get you the information within a click of the mouse and now you don’t have to leave your home to access information. The use of multimedia can contain text, audio, and video. I think this is a great teaching tool because as teachers we can now present the information more organized to our students and make them more interactive through digital material. I think multimedia basically makes information easier to understand through charts, videos, and maps. I believe that I’m ready to write with the media because throughout my school life I have been taught many new ways to perform writing and it seems like every semester our teachers have been forcing us to become updated with these changes. I think that students will enjoy multimedia because it will make learning more interesting and interactive; therefore, I don’t think there will be a problem with students being able to accomplish this way of learning.
Blog Post#12.

This was an excellent post by Carly Pugh. Throughout the post, Carly creates a playlist of YouTube clips and uses them in her blog post. The reason of creating a playlist is that it allows teachers to demonstrate their way of teaching through videos. Videos usually have visuals that help getting the points across. If Carly did not present videos in her post, her ideas would not have probably have been explained to get her points across. Dr. Miller described how multimedia was taking over writing and how it will eventually be used more than word processing applications. Carly’s blog post is a perfect example of what Dr. Miller was stating.
The Chipper Series.
This was a video created by EDM310 students at the University of South Alabama. In the video The Chipper Series, a student named Chipper is a student in EDM310 that thinks that she shouldn’t have a deadline to complete her work and that she should be taught instead of having to learn things on her own. Therefore, she ends up dropping out of school, which leads to numerous other problems. Finally, Chipper decides that going back to solve is what she really wants to do and is looking to get on the correct path to achieve success.
EDM310 for Dummies.

In the video EDM310 for Dummies, two students are stressing over the work in EDM310; however, they resolve their problems by using EDM310 for Dummies. EDM310 for Dummies has information on how to use the applications used in the course, how to add movies to blogger, and other helpful tools to get you through this class. I think I would like to create a video that teaches students how important time management is throughout your college career. Most new college students that I speak to all tell me that they do not have enough time to finish all of their work. Throughout my video, I could give them guidelines or planners that can assist in students using their time valuable.
Learn to Change, Change to Learn.

This was a great video that gave information about how we need to change our school system in order to better the learning of our students. The most shocking fact in this video was when it was stated that according to the U.S Commerce that education was ranked lowest in IT intensiveness and that it was even lower than coal mining. I agree that kids learn through social networking; however, these networks are banned from schools. I think that social networks would make learning more interesting and more organized for the student. Social networks also spark up a quality discussion because students can learn from another students point of view which I think can be better for some students to understand the information better because it is in students terminology. Also, I agree that students learn other places than just at schools. There are many places that students can find learning easier or more fun; for example, online sources, videos, lectures from other teachers, and exhibits. I agree that in modern time, employers are not looking for individuals with bright answers; however, they are looking for people that know how to comprehend the context, working in teams, multidisplinary, and validating information. Overall, this was a very amazing video on how education is changing with technology.

C4T#2 Summary

The first comment that I left for John T. Spencer was on his video, Technology Will Not Fix Education. This was a magnificent short video that gave examples of technology that most people think can fix education. In the video, John T. Spencer gives useful tools dealing with why technology cannot fix education; however, I thought that these tools were helpful but I also believe that it comes down to the way the teacher interacts with the students in the classroom. The student’s work ethic and parenting is also important in most students becoming more successful than others. The second comment that I left was on his post Should Schools Be More Boring. In this post John T. Spencer informs the reader that when he is faced with boredom that his creativity is at its best. This post left me thinking that Mr. Spencer and I have this one thing in common and that some of our students that are suffering in school could also be more creative by being in a boring place as well.

Podcast Project #8

Blog Post #7

The Networked Student

This video created by Wendy Drexler was quite interesting. The video was about a twenty first century student that involved the changes in the way of learning through students building their own learning network. I believe that by students having to accomplish that task put too much stress on the student and can be overwhelming due to the amount of time it would take up. Blogging was another topic pointed out in this video. I think that blogging is a great way to start a good discussion and that it can lead to students writing better, learning effectively, and increase creativity. The most important aspect of blogging to me is that students can comment on each others work that will further the knowledge of both of the students. However, not only students’ help out with the learning of others, also experts, can comment on a student’s blog. I think this is very crucial because having an expert other than the instructor informing students can help support the teacher. This video stated that the twenty first century student would be learning through audio recordings from professors of Universities. I do not think that younger students will be able to comprehend the way that some college professor’s teach. I was shocked to hear that the twentieth century student will never hear lectures from their own teachers. I believe that this will be awful for the students because lectures usually point out the main topics that need to be learned. Overall, I believe that these ways of learning will help students’ differentiate between good and fake information. I think these ways of learning for the twentieth century student will help students in the future.
A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

A seventh grade student and Wendy Drexler created this video. This was a very organized tour of the seventh graders personal learning environment; however, the student made me aware of an application called Symbaloo. Symbaloo is an application that I think that every college student should use it because it organizes everything that the student needs to use on to one page. The student’s page had everything from her music to applications that she uses to help her complete her work. I agree with this technology, because it can assist students with taking notes, make them more responsible, and gives them the ability to learn through interactive activities. I could recognize that the student is enjoying the way that she is learning through her tone throughout the video. The students PLE resembled my PLN because the student visits her class blog daily to see if anything is due or if something has been altered. Also, the student is using some of the same applications that we use in EDM310; for example, You Tube, Blogger, and Delicious. The student’s PLE and my PLN both resemble hard work and dedication through the work presented on our interactive applications.

C4K Summary for September

The first student’s blog that I viewed was a fifth grader named Piku. I really enjoyed his blog post especially when Piku described his trip to London; however, I felt a little jealous because I would love to visit London. London is a place with great historical sites that I have always wanted to see. Piku went to the London Eye and Buckingham Palace. The second student’s blog post that I viewed was named Henry. I think Henry is a very intelligent student, he wrote a story that shocked me because it was so well organized. Also, his story was so well written that I could visualize the scenes in my head through his use of great details throughout the writing. Both of these students are working hard and I can sense that they are shooting to be the best.

Project# 9 Civil War Timeline

Blog Post# 6

Randy Pausch Last Lecture
This was an excellent inspirational and funny speech given by Randy Pausch. In this video Randy Pausch, which is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University teaching virtual technology, gives a speech on his childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons that he has learned throughout his life. At the beginning of the speech, Randy talks about how he is suffering from cancer and how he is not going to let it interfere with him living the rest of life happy. He tells us that he is not worried about the disease and describes that he is in perfect shape by doing push ups. Throughout the video, he gives examples of situations that he has had to deal with and how he thinks should be the way to approach them.
The first part of his speech, he stresses that if you are screwing up and no one is bothering to tell you that you are really in bad shape. This was a great statement; I believe that all students need to know when they are constantly making the same mistakes repeatedly to an extent. I agree that by an instructor not handing them over the solution that the student is forced to think critical and take responsibility in figuring out the problem themselves. He stated that experience is what you get when you did not get what you wanted. This statement is one that I think should be in every classroom because it gives students the idea that just because they failed once does not mean they have to accept failure. With that statement, students will learn that the only way to make them better at anything is to experience mistakes and learn from them. Randy Pausch demonstrates in this video how most of learning is obtained indirectly; however, I think learning indirectly is the best way to get students to learn difficult or boring material because they usually are not aware that they are learning the material.
The second part of his speech was about how to enable your childhood dreams. Randy Pausch stated that as a teacher you should always tell your students that they are doing good but that you know they can do better. He says that it increases the level of work ethic and that you will see that your students are constantly getting better. This is a really good statement because if we strive to always raise that level, I believe that our students will be in a routine to always learn more each day. I learned that project based assignments are helpful because you are working with peers that can give you feedback and gets students to be more inflected. However, students will be learning and having fun at the same time which Randy Paush points out is the best way to teach children.
The last part of this great motivational speech was about the lessons that Randy Pausch has learned throughout his life. He states that the role of parents, mentors, friends, and colleagues can assist you with information and that you should always listen to what they have to tell you. The roles of parents, I think plays the biggest part in the success of children in class because parents that are concerned about their child’s school work will try their best to help them in any way possible, give them guidance, and make them aware of what is expected. Randy Pausch talks about how brick walls let us show our dedication. I agree with this statement because from personal experience sometimes it takes a longer time to get something done correctly which will lead to you working harder on the task. Overall, this video taught me numerous things to better my life and my teaching career. Thank you Randy Pausch!

Project #5 - My Sentence Video