Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Finding your Passion Changes Everything

I really enjoyed the lecture of Sir Ken Robinson. He was very funny and interesting at the same time. I feel like he did very well at explaining what he believed and I agree with what he is saying, but I do disagree on one aspect.
I agree that you do have to love what you are doing, but I think you should also be good at it as well. That was the only thing I disagreed with because I do not think just loving what you are doing is good enough. I think the only way some people love what they do is by being good at it as well. Other than that I agree with everything else he talked about in his lecture.I agree that you should have a natural attitude. I think this is a very important aspect at whatever you do in life. I do not think you should have to change your attitude about something you believe in. I also agree with him when he stated that you have to meet your own expectations, not another persons. This is a big problem in today's society because I believe people are trying to reach these expectations that they can not accomplish. Another thing I agree with is that he stated that if you do not know yourself as a person then you will not know what you like to do or what you are good at. A lot of people miss out on their calling because they just will not believe in themselves and they will never find out what they are good at because of this.
He stated three things that you need which are personal fulfillment,help from your community, and the Economy. These things are very vital in order to accomplish things in life. If you do not have these three things then it will be very hard for you to make it in life and be able to do the things you love to do. The last thing that I took from this lecture is that he stated education is about personal growth. I agree with this 100% because I think that school is sometimes the only place children can actually be themselves and have people that care about them.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Reflection of EDM

1. Blogs: I loved doing the blogs each week. I think this is a great way for people to think about things in a different way. I also think it is a great way to see what your other classmate thought about the same topic.
Presentations: I am pretty much used to doing presentations because each semester it never fails that I have to do a presentation for a class I am taking. I think it is a great way to learn about everyone in your class and a great way to connect with people.
Google Docs: This is probably my favorite thing about the entire class. This is a great tool for anyone to use, but it is awesome for students because no matter where you might be you can always pull up your work if you have a computer with Internet. I think this will be a great tool for me when I become a teacher because I will not have to worry about a jump drive to remember to bring with me to school.
Google Spreadsheets: I liked this tool as well. Mainly for the same reasons as Google Docs. This is going to be a great tool for me to use when I have my own class because I will be able to put any information that I may need on my students whether it may be their grades or personal information like their telephone numbers.
Picasa: This was really cool to learn about because I have never used this tool before. I thought all of the many tools you could use on this was just amazing. I will also be able to use this when I have my own classroom for pictures that I might want to use for my lessons.
Podcasts: The podcast assignment was probably my least favorite of them all. I enjoyed doing them and listening to my classmates as well, but I just feel like the information some of the students gave was already known. Other than that I enjoyed doing it.
Twitter: I have really enjoyed using Twitter. At first, I did not like it at all because for some reason I thought it was so confusing. After I researched and found some information from other people using Twitter it became a lot more clear to me. The only down fall to Twitter is the set up. I think it could be a lot more organized, but other than that I really like it.
Other Teachers: The teacher I have contacted has been really helpful to me on many different levels. She has given me so much good advice about being a teacher and she has also given me different ways that she uses technology in her classroom. She has also helped me contact other teachers to help me find out things on Twitter.
iTunes: I definitely plan on using iTunes when I become a teacher. It is a great way to get things like podcasts to share with your students about different topics. I have really enjoyed using this tool.
Who I am as a Professional: I really believe this class has broadened my knowledge on technology to a whole new level. I thought I already knew a lot about technology, but boy was I wrong. I think this class has helped me to become a better Professional and it has taken my technology skills to a whole new level.
Google Earth: I already knew the tools to Google Earth, but it was fun to play around with on the day you discussed it.
ACCESS/ALEX: This is a great tool for soon to be teachers as well as people who are already teachers. You can find things from lesson plans to activities to use in your classroom. This was a great thing for me to learn about and I will be using the site for reference in the future.
Foliotek: I do not understand why teachers haven't came to ask you how to use this tool. When you showed us how to upload our files in class that day from then on I have not had a problem with using Foliotek. People make it harder than it should be. I definitely learned how to use this tool a lot better when you showed us the shortcuts.
2. I think we learned everything that is essential to know about when becoming a teacher. You did a great job at explaining everything we needed to know.
3.No, I enjoyed everything we covered in this class. Some of the things may have been a little boring, but they were very important things that needed to be covered.

Twitter

Twitter was probably the best assignment we had to complete in EDM in my opinion. For one, the people that I began to follow that are in the education/technology field have some really good ideas about things that I would not have found out without being apart of Twitter. Another reason I like Twitter is because of the many people you can become friends with. For example, I am friends with people all across the world like Oprah and our President Barack Obama. Even though these people may not really tweet, I think it is really cool to be able to see what they might think about something. One of the main things that helped me with Twitter is one of the teachers that I contacted on there. She has given me so many good ideas and she also gave me other people to follow to help me out with Twitter. I have also been using help materials to help me with certain things that I might want to do through Twitter.
I use Twitter every single day. I mainly like to get on to see if the other teachers I am following have put anything interesting/important that I think I should know. I also like to get on to see what my other classmates are up to and to see what all they have discovered on Twitter. I tweet everyday with the teacher that I am communicating with for our other assignment. I usually ask her a couple of questions a week and we chat back and forth through out the week.
Honestly, at first, I did not like Twitter at all, but I have to say that I have become to really like it. I thought that it was complicated at first, but after I did some research and got advice from other people who use twitter it was all pretty easy and I like using this tool. I plan on using Twitter from now on and especially when I become a teacher. The main reason is because there are other teachers that are available for me to get information from and the best part is it is FREE. I think all teachers would benefit from using Twitter.
The only negative I have about Twitter is the format. I think it is a little scattered and I think it could be more organized. I think if it were set up like Facebook or Myspace it would be a lot better. Other than that I have grown to really like Twitter.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

EDM Podcasts

To start off, I would like to talk about the podcast that myself, Allie, and Lonnie did on websites high school teachers could use for useful information. I thought we did a great job of finding useful websites for high school teachers. I think each one of us put in a great deal of time for this assignment and I think the information we gave on this podcast was very good and I also believe we were very well prepared in giving the information. One thing that I think we could have improved on with this assignment would be for us to have found a few more websites so that we could have had a few more sites to give out for the listeners.
One of the podcast I listened to was the podcast by Mary Davis, Matt Quimby, and Johnetta Nixon. Their podcast was about websites that are useful for Elementary teachers. They also did a great job at delivering their information about the websites they chose. They had some very useful sites for elementary teachers to use. I know that I will use these sites when I become a teacher. My favorite website was the one with songs that teachers can incorporate into their lessons. I think the one thing they could have done to improve their podcast would be to have at least one or two more websites because I think the more the better.
The next one that I listened to was the one about ACCESS with Megan Morgan, Alicia Baxter and Angel Jackson. The script was a very creative way to give information about their topic on ACCESS. I think that when people listen to their podcast they will be very interested about learning what ACCESS is about and I think that is a great way to relay information on a topic because it is all about your audience. The only thing that I think they could have changed is I think they could have been more relaxed and went with the flow because you could definitely tell they were reading from a sheet of paper.
I also listened to Peyton Ivey, Kendra Hill, Jessica White and Jessica Courville's blog about Facebook. They did good on giving out information about Facebook and all of the different things you can do on Facebook for your classroom. I think labeling the pros and cons was a very good way to do this podcast. I think they could have been a little more elaborate on some of the things they talked about, but all in all it was very good.
Lastly, I listened to Shift Happens by Jessica Prestage, John Dunlop and Christie Love. I loved the way they were so laid back and made the podcast sound like a normal conversation and was not practiced. They gave some really good information about this video and brought up some really interesting points. The one thing I think they could have improved was Jessica and Christie should have talked a little bit more. I feel like John did most of the talking, but other than that it was really good and interesting.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Blogs

When we first started this class and found out we had to have a blog and that we had to post to it every week I was really dreading it. Now that I have done it for a couple of months now it really is not all that bad. Actually, I have found some of the information we have had to research very interesting.
The things that I do like about blogging is that when I do a post I can go and look at other peoples blog our class to see what they wrote and to see what they thought about the particular assignment. I also think it is a good way for us to go out side of the box. If I would not have been assigned to this assignment i most likely would not have done any of the things that we have had to do for our blogs, so I think it is a great way to motivate soon to be teachers to search and write about what they have learned as well as reflect on things that might happen inside of your own classroom. Also, the things we have to research are things dealing with teaching and things that we may have to deal with and I think it is a great way for us to explore and learn about those things.
Some of the things that I do not like about the blogs is that we have to blog every week. I think it would be a much better experience if we only had to blog every other week or something like that. Also, we have many more assignments we have to complete on top of blogging and sometimes I get overwhelmed with the things we have to complete for this class. My best advice to upcoming students who have to take this class would be to do everything ahead of time. Do not wait until the last minute because everything seems to pile up at the end of the semester. I do all of my posts at the beginning of each week because at the end of the week I usually have a lot to do.
All in all I have really enjoyed doing the blogs because it has opened my eyes to a lot of things that I was unaware of before doing these posts. I think blogging would be great to use in my classroom because I think it would be a great way for me to get feedback from my students and to see whether or not they are understanding the things I will be teaching them. I also think it would be a great way for students to communicate with one another. I think if there is anyway possible that I could incorporate blogging into my classroom I will definitely do it.