Blog Post #5

The iSchool Initiative and ZeitgeistYoung Mind's Entry

Travis Allen came up with the iSchool Initiative idea when he was 17 and he made the idea a reality when he was 18. The iSchool Initiative is a revolutionary program that is trying to switch schools from textbooks and paper to iPod and iPad technology. There are so many ways that you can use the iPod touch in your classroom. Using iPod technology will also save classrooms and students money. Allen said that it would cost around $600 for a student to get all of the materials that they need for school, but with iSchool it would only cost $150 a student. The iPod can hold textbooks, notes, calculators, and several apps for History, Math, Science, and English. Students can send and receive emails and keep up with due dates through the iPod.
Many schools are already giving their students and staff Mac computers and iPad's to work with in there classrooms. This idea of moving our schools to a more modern way of learning is growing fast. Travis's program has definitely made an impact on education. He has opened many eyes to using the technology that most of us already have, to improve the quality of learning in schools. Students love using technology at home, so why not bring it into the schools!

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir - 'Lux Aurumque'

This is an amazing video of a virtual choir. Each of the choir members are on their own computers in their separate places. They are singing together on what looks like Skype. The conductor is in a separate video also. The sound of the song was so beautiful. It truly sounded as if they were all together in a room instead of on web cameras. It's pretty neat that they were able to put this together.

Teaching In The 21st Century
Basically, this video brings up that students can get whatever information they want without the help of a teacher. The internet has so much information on it and teachers are no longer the main source of education. As teachers, we need to be a "filter". We need to teach our students how to use the internet effectively and efficiently. We need to give them questions that they can answer using whatever resources they feel like. Since the internet is so large, teachers can help to focus their students on things that they really need to see instead of just letting them wander aimlessly around the web. This will change traditional teaching completely. It's expensive to keep books up to date with the changing times. The internet changes without much cost. I'm very excited about moving teachers towards the internet!

Dr. Lodge McCammon's FIZZ - Flipping the Classroom
Flipping the Classroom - 4th Grade STEM
The flipped classroom is a modern idea in education. Instead of the students coming to class and listening to the teacher lecture, the students watch the lecture at home the night before. This way the class time is spent doing activities and asking questions. The students will have more time for one-on-one help in class. I really think this is a neat idea. The only problem that I see happening is the student not watching the lecture before class. The teacher will have to spend time catching up the students who weren't responsible. If the teacher is excited enough about this flip, then the students will be excited. Hopefully this will encourage the students who don't want to work.

Project #6 - My Sentence Video

Blog Post #4

Langwitches - Podcasting with 1st Grade
Silvia Tolisano and her 1st grade class made a podcast about a book called Vacation under the Volcano. They treated it like an interview with the two main characters of the book, Jack and Annie. The boys played Jack and the girls played Annie. All of the kids rotated turns talking in the podcast. During class, she would bring kids to the back of the room or in the hallway to record. As a class, the students put together a script and read from it. Although, after the kids heard that their voices didn't sound natural, they agreed not to read off of the script anymore. All of the kids were really excited about  recording and hearing their voices, including the shyer students. The skills that were being taught were: Listening, Speaking, Presenting, Comprehension, Storytelling, Performance, Voice acting, Oral fluency, Media, and Technology.
The student's did an amazing job on this podcast. You could tell by listening to it, that they were really trying to sound professional and that they were having a good time. Using a podcast in a classroom can bring out the best in students. They don't really feel like it's work when it's fun. Also, they were able to share their accomplishment with the world! People from all over have listened to and commented on their podcast. This is a very valuable tool to use in the classroom. As a PE teacher, I'm still not 100% sure why I would need to use one, but I'm glad that I'm learning about them just in case. 

Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting
In this post, Ms. Tolisano's 2nd grade students were learning how to speak Hebrew fluently by using Garageband, Smartboards and podcast. The students were working on putting together the story of Purim. Each student would record a sentence from the script. Once all of the sentences were recorded, they downloaded them into Garageband. From there, the computer was hooked up to the Smartboard so that the students could use their hands to move the sentences into the correct place. At the end, the students had a complete story that they had put together themselves. 
This is a great tool for ELL's because the student's can actually see and hear the words that they are trying to learn. It's also a great tool for student's that are learning a foreign language. Being able to hear how a word is use and what it sounds like, can greatly help student's who are struggling with language. 

Judy Scharf Podcast Collection
Ms. Scharf has created a post that explains everything that you need to know about podcast. She gives step by step instructions for teachers who want to start podcasting with their students. There is a list of tips to think about before starting, such as, learning as much as you can about the software that you are going to use before the students start the project. She has also included an agenda that teachers should follow in order to have a successful podcast. Other resources include: podcast topics, research suggestions, instructions for using Podbean and iTunes, a grading sheet and rubric, and several example podcast.
This is a very good resource for teachers who want to podcast with their class. The instructions are clear and concise. It's practically idiot proof. I appreciate that she took the time to make this post for struggling teachers.

C4T #1

Science Teaching for the Future
Sunday, September 11, 2011 - The Nuts and Bolts of Flipping

Amanda Ooten has been teaching at the high school level for three years. Her recent project has been to "flip" her classroom. Flipping a classroom basically means flipping what happens in the classroom with what happens at home. Instead of listening to a lecture in class, the student watches the lecture online at home and at their own pace. The class time is spent doing activities and solving problems together. In my first comment, I told her how much I love the idea of this program. I acknowledged my concern with the responsibility of the students. I hope to hear back from her.
Sunday, October 23, 2011 - My Flipped Classroom, Part 2
Amanda has recently blogged about the progress of her flip and about what has and hasn't worked. Unfortunately, she has reported that flipping a classroom 100% takes more time that she planned. So far, she is flipping her classroom slowly and wants to have it at least 50% flip by next year. The reason it takes so long is because there is a level of responsibility expected of the students regarding them actually watching the lectures before class and reading their assigned chapters. She reports spending most of the class time catching up students who didn't do their homework. There are always going to be bugs in new programs, but they can be worked out with patience.

Project #5 Google Presentation

Blog Post #3

Tutorial Peer Editing and What is Peer Editing?

Peer editing is an important tool that all students should learn how to use effectively. Not only can students use these skills to help their fellow classmates, but they can also use them to critique their own work.
There are three steps to use while peer editing: Compliments, Suggestions, and Corrections. It is a good idea to start all of your peer editing with a compliment. Compliments are a great confidence booster and they create a bond between the two peers. Next, give the peer specific suggestions that may improve the quality of their work. Remember to stay positive! Nobody likes a Mean Margaret (Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes ). Corrections come next. When giving corrections look for spelling and grammar mistakes, missing punctuation, and sentence clarity.Remind the peers that it important to proof read before posting.
I really enjoyed watching these videos. Especially, the Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes video. Those kids were hilarious! "You spelled dinosaur so wrong, you shouldn't even try!" I'm definitely sharing this with my friends!

Technology in Special Education
Technology today has greatly effected the lives of special needs students. Without it, these students struggle with reading, writing, and communication. This video shows special students using iPod's and laptops to complete their schoolwork with ease. Chris, a student in the video, struggled with communication. As the teacher asked him questions, he was able to answer with his laptop. He used a special mouse that scrolled through the letters. He would click on the letters that he wanted to use to make a sentence. Another student used his iPod while reading books. They iPod had an audio version of the book he was reading. Struggling readers in all classrooms could benefit from this application.
As a future PE teacher, I'm not exactly sure how I could use this technology in my class. If special needs students are placed in my class that have communication problems, perhaps they could use their computer to express how they are feeling before and after exercises. Also, to communicate with the other students.

How the iPad Works with Academics for Autism
This was such a touching video! Braden is such a bright little boy. The iPad is a wonderful tool for him to learn at his own pace. He was able to practice writing and it looked like he was getting pretty good at it!
It was pretty difficult to find an app that I could use in a PE class. I settled on the Visible Body 3D Human app. I'll be able to use it to show my students which muscle group we're working on and how it works.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
Vicki Davis creates an atmosphere in her classroom in which all students can learn. All students are different and all students learn differently. Many students struggle when given limited material such as pen and paper.  She creates projects for her students that show the strengths of each student, while teaching them to use new software. Just like in EDM310, these students learn how to learn on their own and how to blog effectively. They create virtual lives, blogs, and several other projects in the technological world. A global collaboration that Davis and her students are credited with is DigiTeen which is an online forum that students and teachers can communicate with other classes all over the world. I like the fact that her students are expected to figure out how to complete the task without her giving them step-by-step instruction. It forces the students to use their brains and to truly learn it rather than just memorizing the steps in the task.