Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Tom Johnson Special Assignment

Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home

Wow. I started laughing at the beginning when I caught on to the metaphor, slightly because it's funny and slightly because it's really obvious. For reasons unknown I didn't even read this part (yes, honesty is the best policy), and that's dissapointing, because I missed out. However, reading this post I find it hard to believe that students missed the metaphor about pencils being computers instead. It's... blatant. It's satire, literature's punch line. It speaks of parents making a big deal that their children are coming home with 'pencils' (a direct corolation with parents' reactions to their child using the internet), and it also speaks of how people fear that students will use 'pencils' as only a form of entertainment (again, computers are applicable here).

Some of the metaphors that come to mind that I've encountered recently was this past Sunday, Easter Sunday to be in fact, after my family and I witnessed my cousin getting injured by a wooden board, which had unfortunately came loose after holding up a swing in which he was sitting. After a bit of blood (don't worry; head injuries bleed a lot regardless) and a trip to the hospital, my cousin was fine with simply a few stitches and a headache, for which he was administered pain relievers. Now, the metaphor in this was the following day when my mother said "he's fine; his head's just killing him." The metaphor is the phrase 'killing him.' The very next day, in fact, he went on to play a game of baseball. Had his head been literally 'killing him,' he definitely wouldn't be playing baseball the following day.

We as educators, in order to help students learn metaphors, need to instruct them to not take things too seriously. Dr. Strange pointed this out, how he thinks some students may have missed the metaphor because they were being too serious, which I see often in our world. There's a lot of defiance I believe that goes along with this. Some people just think that, if someone means to say soomething, why not just say it? The answer, I believe, is because metaphors are meant to challenge us. They challenge us to read between the lines and not just take things for face-value. It calls for a better understanding and appreciation of things.


C4T #4

A Virtual Professor

In this blog post, Mr. Bill Genereux expressed his concern about learning being entirely technological, without physical bodies congregating together to learn. He asked the following question: “Could you be enticed to work remotely while sacrificing physicality of the workplace?” to which I answered "no" in my response, the reason being because of the visible passion that can be put into a work of study and the 'spark' one can see when another has generated an idea, which simply can't be duplicated with computers, in my oppinion anyway.

My KYHOI

Mr. Genereux's post, "My KYHOI," or "Knock Your Head Off Idea," was about his fascination for "Mediated Literacies in Education," or put simply, the ways in which technology is being used for the good of writing for education. In my comment I wrote about how I, as an aspiring writer but with no professional work completed, one of the ways in which I can "put my work out there" is technological devices such as blogging and twitter. Having followers or subscribers or whatever they may be as fans could aid my work in gaining any popularity, and maybe... a work could be published thanks to technology.


Sunday, April 24, 2011

C4K #9 and 10

C4K #9 Mrs. Yollis' Class

For this assignment, after navigating Mrs. Yollis' blog, I was thoroughly convinced that Mrs. Yollis, along with her students, had mastered the recently established art of blogging, and for many more reasons than one. Firsthand I witnessed all of their wonderful tutorials, including but definitely not limited to instructions on how to write a proper comment, and also on how to compliment people with uplifting comments on their post. In my comment for Mrs. Yollis' class blog I wrote of how I enjoyed tremendously the aspect of family blogging, and explained in my post how, with my big family of 8, the idea of blogging together would be ideal for keeping in touch during our busy schedules and lives.

C4K #10 Jaden's Awesome Blog

Jaden's blog post was an entry from her Blog Mascot, Mr. California, who is a chipmunk. I was informed by "Mr. CA" that his hobbies were playing sports like hockey and tennis, as well as drawing, reading and blogging. A picture of Mr. CA was below the post; he was holding a little basketball, another sport which he is fond of.
I commented on how the idea for a Blog Mascot is ingenuitive. I had been out for a jog and ran into a stray dog who was very friendly, and had I a Blog Mascot option, I would choose him! I also thanked Jaden, her other classmates and Mrs. Yollis for their thoughtful comments they left the EDM310 students.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Blog Post #13

ALEX, an acronym for Alabama Learning Exchange, is a relatively new project, which is essentially an index for different learning resources. It is a very inteactive website, with links to a vast variety of learning tools. For example, the Home Page has 8 different boxes, each labeled things like "Courses of Study," "Lesson Plans," etc. These links take you to many resources, for example "Courses of Study" takes you to a page with a dozen boxes labeled everything from "Mathematics" to "Arts Education," and each box takes you to that particular subject, with forms of study for that particular subject available to Kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. ALEX is an excellent tool for those teachers who are looking for a variety of ideas that they can incorporate into the classroom, and the Website is still expanding.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Progress Report on Final Project

Yes! At first the idea of completely inventing my own project without 'directions' from Dr. Strange seemed so daunting... And yet, Project #14 (Teach Someone Something) went surprisingly well; I thoroughly enjoyed doing what I wanted to do, rather than what someone else instructs me to do. While this kind of project can end poorly -because of poor planning on the individual's part-, it can also be tremendously good work, because there are no tethers or limitations on what you can do.

I know I don't have much so far... but I want to create a project in which I can involve technology into my future classroom setting. I am an english major, and because this project is collaborative I'd like to find any other english majors in EDM310 who are willing to work with me. I think some kind of video, Smartboard Presentation or something similar would be excellent, particularly one in which I and my fellow classmates incorporate a sort of 'mock lesson' for a group of 'students', so as to better prepare ourselves for our future teaching careers. Any english majors who read this, please think about collaborating with me! I think it would be great.

More to come later,
Matthew

Monday, April 11, 2011

Blog Post #12

Assignment:

Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8&feature=related 4:09

In this video the students say "teach me to think." In a post, explain how you would respond to this plea as a teacher. Why do you think there are statistics such as "76% of my teachers have never used Wikis, blogs or podcasts" and "At least once a week 14% of my teachers let me create something new with technology"?

Response:

According to this video as well as others we have watched in EDM310, students, at a very young age, are getting acclimated to the increasing advance in technology, while seemingly teachers, who should be adept enough with technological media to be ahead of the students so as to direct them accordingly, are actually behind! Stories are heard often about how children are baffling their own parents in their technological literacy -which under certain circumstances is acceptable. But for teachers to be less adept than their students... Has someone decided to take drastic action with this? One can hope. What I can do as a teacher is take advantage of the skills that classes like EDM310 have taught me thus far and take matters into my own hands to further enhance those skills, and also to realize that technology is forever changing, so I must never stop learning, and change with it.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Mr. McClung Special Assignment

1. I've learned, through Mr. McClung's class blog, is that he is very organized and, if I may be so bold, he seems like a perfectionist, which is both a positive characteristic and something I admire. In addition to simply uploading posts from his students, he incorporates other links into his blog, like "Google Translate," which is very unique and helpful, he has a "song of the week" which makes his blog more personable, a facebook "like" button directly on the blog so you don't have to find it via facebook searches, as well as many other things.

2. As an educator, I say that Mr. McClung is very adept with teaching, providing, through careful analysis of his blog posts, hands-on experiences for his students. He strikes me as a generous teacher as well, particularly when I saw his T-shirt order form for a fundraiser. He seems like an educator who does not hesitate to include students' oppinions into his line of work.

3. Mr. McClung's rules, in association with his students, instill within anyone who reads them the ideas of connectivity, respect and compassion. He advocates a fun, uplifting and high-spirited school environment, a requirement which many teachers fail to regard in high esteem. They become so concerned with the coursework that they forget it can be enjoyable, which also puts stress on the students and takes the joy out of learning for them as well.

4. I actually laughed when I read the first thing under "everyone needs," and not because it's a silly idea -on the contrary, it's a necessity. The reason I find humor in this is that for years on end my mother stressed the importance of having a planner, and told me for years to use it! She couldn't be more right. Planners keep you organized and de-stressed so that you don't have to keep everything inside of your head. It maintains a sense of direction and organization.

5. In Dr. Strange's class, just as in Mr. McClung's class, he advocates the importance of GETTING THINGS IN ON TIME. Mr. McClung's penalty on late work is that for every day it is late it loses a letter grade. While some students may complain, one must think about the following questions: In the work force, will your manager or boss cut you some slack if you are late with work? NO! Termination of your job may follow. Late work is as good as no work, and Mr. McClung's as well as Dr. Strange's penalties for late-work are more than reasonable.

6. Through the use of his class blog, Mr. McClung wishes to help parents and other figures keep an eye on their students' progress, which, when condsidering adults' busy schedules, is really the best way to do this. I will be teaching secondary education so perhaps I will use this technique when teaching middle-school, but if I am to be teaching high-school students, I'll probably use this less; students at this age need to learn how to be accountable for their own work as they approach their college years.

7. The two links I focused on were Biology Corner and Gmail. Gmail is useful for the students in Mr. McClung's class because it is a direct link to see who may be posting comments on their blogs. And Biology Corner I found interesting because I have always been fascinated with biology. I went directly to the link about diessecting a fetal pig because, firstly, I've neverv dissected anything, and secondly, I find anatomy to be equally as fascinating as biology.

8. Under Internet Safety, Mr. McClung posts some rules and guidelines that really do make since, which I should take into affect. I've had a bad habit of posting my last name here and there on comments for other people's blog posts. Now, granted they are all blog posts assigned to us to read by Dr. Strange and it's all for academic purposes only, but even still, it is necessary to take precautions. Better safe than sorry.

9. For my C4K portion of this assignment, upon clicking one of the categories it was filed under, called "Ark History," I found a post entitled "Leadership," which included text and a video encompassing students speaking about the qualities a good leader should have, such as honesty, trust, intelligence, confidence and respect.

10. Something that Mr. McClung should incorporate into his blog that I would also like to do in blogger is yo add more background to his blog. It may seem silly, but just seeing the plain white in the back doesn't evoke excitement, much like the plain blackness of my own blog. Notwithstanding, it may be a bad idea anyway because the flashiness of it all may take away from the overall point of the blog itself, and that is education.

11. The way in which I think Mr. McClung made his blog useful to parents, teachers, administrators, students like myself and others is firtshand how students progress can be monitored. This single thing is for the benefit of all those aforementioned, for it gives parents the oppurtunity to view thier child's progress, teachers and administrators the oppurtunity to incorporate a style of teaching into their curriculum that they haven't encountered or utilized yet, and students like myself, training to become a teacher, to keep an eye out for useful teaching methods that we one day may utilize when in front of a classroom full of students.

12. The difference between Mr. McClung's 8th grade class and other 8th grade classes I have been monitoring is that Mr. McClung's class seems to be ahead of the game, and I don't say that to undermine other students, but to encourage them, as well as the teachers who teach these other students, to monitor Mr. McClung and the performance of his class and see how they are using technology to the best of their abilities in order to expand their already bright education.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Blog Post #11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class and
http://edm310.blogspot.com/2010/03/ms-kathy-cassidy-skype-conversation.html




Ms. Cassidy is doing in her classroom what a lot of teachers probably wish they were doing. I would have never thought that children so young could be getting such a hands-on experience with technology! And all of it seems to be in a safe, appropriate setting in which parents wouldn't have to raise concerns about things like 'cyber bullies.' It all seems monitored, with the students only able to pull up those things are their class blog which will help further their education. I would love to see this in a classroom, especially because it was only until just recently that I became more accustomed with the world of technology (thanks to EDM310), and these kids are doing it so young!