Comment 4 kids (Assignment # 3)

I recently visited Mrs. Goerend's class blog and wrote a comment on Callie's post. She wrote about going to the chemistry lab at her school and doing experiments. She said that the students were asked to get a sheet of paper and poke a hole into it. Then you would have a sharpie marker of any color and color around the hole. Next she said each group got to pick different colors. Her group picked red, blue, and black. She said she really liked the black marker the best. Jackie, Brett, and Caleb were in her group. After you color around the holes then you would role up another (smaller) piece of paper and stick it through the hole. Then, once you put the rolled-up paper in the water,which should be in a glass beaker, it might take a while but the marker should spread around your hole paper. It sounded like they had a lot of fun. After the whole class had done their papers they got to keep them and hold them up for everyone to see all the different colors that were made.

Comments 4 Kids (Assignment #2)

kiana is that stuff u digg...

This week I visited Kiana's blog. I left her a comment on her blog about where she got her native American name. She said she got her name when she was just one year old. She says it means sneaky Lil' girl. She likes the rapper Lil Wayne and she loves to listen to music. I told her that I listen to music all the time and that's what gets me through long boring days. I thought we had things in common because we both enjoy music and I like the Lil Wayne like her. She says she is very creative and very funny. I think she would be a really fun girl to meet. She seemed smart and very easy going. I told her to keep up the good work and stay creative.

ACCESS

Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide or ACCESS is a program that lets students take web classes. This program was designed in November of 2004. It allows students to take advance placement classes or AP. The goal for the ACCESS website was: to create equity through additional educational offerings for all Alabama public high school students. Access reaches the needs of all high school students. This program provides students with courses and teachers through the use of technology.

A plan was developed and presented to Bob Riley in September of 2006. Access had twelve objectives to focus on. Access' support centers consisted of Madison City Schools, University of Alabama, and Troy University. The mission of the distance education program in Alabama is to provide an infrastructure that delivers equitable, quality learning opportunities for all citizens.

ALEX

I just recently visited the Alex website for my EDM 310 class. I have heard a little about this website but really didn't know much about it. Only from what people have said. After visiting this website I found this could be a very helpful resource for future teaching. It would be great for students, teachers, and parents to use. It mentioned that the Alex website is still a work in progress but it still has a lot already to offer. There are tons of lesson plans for different grade levels and different links to use for students and teachers. I also found many podcast to watch for different subjects you teach.

Alex has a Thinkfinity training that can teach, teachers, students, and parents how to use the website. Therefore, your not blind sited when you go to the site. I found that very helpful. I think more programs should have this training on their sites. I also liked the personal workspace where you can save all of your ideas and lesson plans so you want loose them. I think I will benefit from this website when I become a teacher.

Comments 4 Kids (Assignment #1)

As a class assignment for my EDM310 class, I visited Mr.Goerend's class blog, read five of his student's blogs, and commented on each of the five students. I read Maddie, Matt, David, Grace, and Noah's blogs. They were some really interesting blogs.

Maddie's blog was titled, " The Big Game." She described all of her senses that she used at the football game she went to. It felt as if I was at the game because she did such a good job on her description of the game. The game she talked about was between the Cyclones and the Hawkeyes. She made sure at the end of her blog to say that the Cyclones won.

Matt's blog was Laugh Like a Witch Day. I thought this holiday was good because in a couple of days it will be Halloween. He said on this day everyone will laugh in a high pitch sound and they will do it all day long. I don't like the idea very much because high pitch isn't a good noise to hear all day but he did a good job of using his imagination on this blog.

David came up with the holiday called International football day. This holiday is celebrated on September 27Th and on this day all you do is play football. On this day school is out and everyone all around the world will play football. I thought this was a good day to have because I love some football.

Grace did her blog on her first plane ride. She wrote about her first plane ride to California. She wrote about how she was a little scared of riding in the plane but she was excited about going to see her brother who was in the marines. She mentioned her ears popping and she felt sick to her stomach. But in the end she really enjoyed it. She said it took a really long time to get to their destination but she couldn't wait to ride in a plane again. I told her that I have never rode on a plane either. I told her I am scared and do think I will ever ride on one.

The last blog I commented on was Noah's blog. His blog was called Eating like a Sumo Wrestler. On this day everyone could eat as much as they wanted. They could also eat whatever they wanted. I told him I would love this day because I love food and I love to eat.

I loved doing this assignment and commenting on all of these children's blogs. Their blogs were so interesting and they each came up with good stories. They have just great imagination. Good Job Students!!!

Dear Kaia

After watching and listening to my assigned readings and videos, I was so amazed. I can not believe a three year old knows how to use a blog. I am twenty-two years old and just recently in my EDM 310 class, found out what a blog was or even how to use a blog. I had heard people talking about blogging but I had no idea what they were talking about. I was so shocked that Kaia has her own blog. Technology is going to be the only way of communicating and teaching eventually, I think. If a three year old is already learning how to use technology then yes this is the way we will be teaching when we become teachers. I like how Kaia's dad is encouraging her to use the computer and use the different ways to interact with others. I believe learning how to use technology is a must in today's society. So why not start young.

I love all of Kaia's pictures. It is so amazing how good she is with taking pictures. I like how her dad video tapes her telling what each picture means. I like the quote her dad says about even if something is ugly, it can look beautiful if you look at it a different way. Her dad seems so great. It is so important to have parents in a child's life like hers.

I also looked at a blog titled Singing Hearts. This blog used twitter. It let Kaia and and eight grade class communicate about a book her father was reading: The Last Child in the Woods. Kaia wanted to discover the outside world. So her and her father go out in the desert where they live and take tons of pictures and then he records her telling what each picture meant to her. He then put it on a blog post for everyone to see.

I just found these blogs so inspiring. I really loved this little girl and I don't even know her personally. But she is so amazing and I love how she is using technology and doesn't even know she is doing something so good. This is great.

Personal Learning Network

As a class assignment in my EDM 310 class, we were asked to create a PLN. PLN stands for Personal Learning Network. A PLN is a group of people that you will contact, via the Internet, and then share information about different topics. You can create a free PLN yourself at Free Technology for Teachers. My topic I chose to ask was about technology in the classroom. I contacted five different people and asked each of them about how or what they thought about technology in the classroom.

The first person I contacted was Mrs. Cheyette, she is a kindergarten teacher at Westlawn Elementary. I asked her if technology was very useful for using in the kindergarten classroom. She suggested if I was wanting to be an kindergarten teacher then I should start teaching my students in this grade before they progress into higher grades and not know how to use the Internet. She said technology is very important and it is going to be very helpful for students, as young as kindergarten to start learning how to use computers. She says she has a lesson on the computer every week. She first shows them how to use the mouse and keyboard and then later on in the year she takes a trip to the computer lab and let them show her what they have learned.

The second person I contacted was Mrs. Munn, she is a fill-in teacher. She is retired now, but she was a teacher at Wilmer Elementary for many years. She taught many grade levels, but taught second grade for the longest period of time. I asked her about using technology in the classroom and she responded by emphasizing on blogging. She said use to she didn't see much use in technology because she was use to just writing on the chalkboard but her last view years of teaching she really encouraged the students to blog. She said she would put topics on her blog then the students would have to comment once a week on the different topics. Then other students were encouraged to comment on each others comments. I really found this a helpful tool for when I start teaching.

The third person I contacted was Shannon Whitwall, she is a sixth grade, science teacher in Birmingham. I asked her what she thought about technology. She thought technology was a must in our society today. She loves using different types of technology in her classroom because it gets the children moving around and encourages them to learn. She says she uses the smart board a lot and has the students do different presentations and assignments using it. They love to come up and answer questions when she puts multiple choice questions for test and etc. on the smart board.

The fourth person I researched was Kelly Hines. I looked at her ideas and different thoughts about PLN on Keeping Kids First. I loved when Kelly stated, that she found other educators who thrived on conversations about learning, teaching, technology and leadership in education under her topic PLN's Redifined. I found this so true because there are so many educators out there that need help and different ideas of how to teach and they just don't know about a PLN. I can honestly say I had no idea what a PLN was until I took this class EDM 310. I was really impressed on Kelly Hines ideas about using PLN in the classroom.

The fifth person I researched was Joe McClung. He really likes blogging. He gives a lot of different links on his blog to help future teachers and to also help individuals who are already teaching. He believes that everyone should work together to help students succeed. You can do just that by having a blog and giving and receiving different ways to teach different subjects.

I found a lot of useful and helpful ideas about technology by speaking with each of these individuals. I really thank them for taking the time and letting me have such useful information. Now I really can't wait to use technology in my classroom.