Sunday, September 28, 2014

C4K summary

My first c4k I left was for a child from Africa that was responding to a story he read about a baby elephant that was living with his family when they were forced to move somewhere new and it was a very frightening experience for the baby elephant. Torien (unsure of child's correct spelling) responded to this by putting himself in the position of the baby elephant and saying that he would be very scared if he had to change homes or schools all of the sudden. I commented on his post and said that it could possibly be very scary but that change could also be a good thing and make us better people or bring us joy that we would expect. His article was very enjoyable to read.

My other c4k was for a little boy named Francis from England that wrote about a new sport he found out about called Kabbadi. It is an aggressive sport that is similar to capture the flag or Rugby. It has been around for over 4000 years and it originated in India. I commented on his post saying how impressed I was with the research he did to write his article. He did a very good job explaining the sport to someone who new nothing about it. I was very intrigued by his blog post. It was quite interesting.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Blog Post 5

Part #1
The progress of my PLN was the hardest or most difficult part for me. It was basically searching for people that I felt would best benefit me and my PLN. Learning new tools and websites was also more confusing at times and harder to get used to. Once I was more familiar with the sites and I could better navigate myself through them, that made the TOOLS part a little easier. As far as obtaining my list of people. That was a little more in the blue for me, primarily because I wanted to be choosy with the people I picked and also because I wanted to make sure that I would be getting the best resources and answers from these people. My favorite PLN is Twitter. Twitter is full of a variety of information from people that are often experts in their field. I use Twitter for work, school, and personal reasons to better help me understand any given subject at hand. This was the most difficult part for me, just building my PLN by learning new tools and finding appropriate people.
Part#2
For the final summary of my PLN, I chose Symbaloo over Netvibes because I feel that it was easier to use and it had a more attractive layout that caught my eye. I liked the overall entire site better than Netvibes. My PLN is still making progress but I do feel like I have learned a lot more information about PLN's and the importance of having one, not only as a student but also when I am teaching. Using a PLN has opened my eyes to the endless amounts of advice, recommendations, and helpful tools that I am able to have access to at any time. I think this is a great idea and I will definitely be using mine very often now and I plan to expand and grow in my PLN. I will also recommend this idea to all of my peers that have yet to learn of this amazing opportunity. I really enjoyed creating mine once getting the hang of it!

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Blog Post 4

What we as future educators need to know about asking questions in order to be better teachers is more simple than we may realize. In order to know what kinds of questions to ask and how to ask them , we have to take ourselves out of the equation and only focus on the children. We have to put ourselves in the minds of the children we are teaching and at any given age, process the information into the words in which a child would ask a simple question. We have to look at the subject each time as if it is the first time we have ever laid eyes on it. As future educators we must begin practicing this technique early on and never lose it. Even throughout the expansion of our career as educators we will learn and grow to find more effective ways to teach by asking questions. Continuously growing as teachers is just as important to our education program. We can grow as teachers a lot by just listening to the children we teach and feeding off of that to improve our own notes and skills. One of the most significant reasons for questioning students is for the process that takes place after the question is asked. If educators ask the right questions, then the answer itself is not the most important part but the process in which the answer is found. Whether it be through the students thinking process, use of technology, or interacting in groups and discovering information together, it takes a process of learning, growing, and becoming self-sufficient that makes questioning a great teaching skill. It is most important for a student to become an independent thinker and find their own process of discovering information. By asking questions it allows the students mind to wonder into depths that possibly go further than the question itself and explore multitudes of options. This allows for opportunities for the pupil to realize they have the availability to become an independent thinker and rely on their own thoughts and actions as a student. This is the seed that beings the plant of furthering their personal growth in education and knowledge.
According to Ben Johnson's "The Right Way to Ask Questions in The Classroom," there are many different scenarios to consider when examining a teachers intent behind their questioning technique. The intention could be to check for understanding or it could be with the hopes of something further taking place in the students mind. It could be to teach them something more, whether it be about the topic at hand or about themselves. He goes on to explain that classroom observations is a very important part of learning the question process as an educator. The approach is both simple and effective if done the correct way. In order to be an effective teacher we must put a lot of thought and effort into this process.
In an "Essortment" article I recently found called "Teaching with Questions:Socratic Method," it states that in order to be an effective teacher you are required to ask open ended question. It goes on to state that as an educator you should be using questions as a learning tool rather than just an opportunity to clarify understanding.

Project #15 Search Engines

1) WolframAlpha- http://www.wolframalpha.com/
The Search engine WolframAlpha seems to be more useful for topics involving math or other computable operations you are seeking to find. I typed in a few different equations and it showed me a step by step process of how to get final result instead of just giving the answer with no explanation.
2)Yahoo!- https://www.yahoo.com/
Yahoo in my opinion is one of the worst search engines. I never have any luck with searching for answers to my questions on yahoo. It always seems to pop up answers for information irrelevant and off topic for that of which I am searching. I simply type something in the search bar and it brings up related topics or recent news about the subject instead of definitions or directions, etc.
3)bing- http://www.bing.com/
Bing is a very useful search engine for many different resources. I use Bing more for directions or recommendations of places. Bing is not as helpful for subject dealing with school, but more for everyday matter, and wallpapers of course.
4)MSN- http://www.msn.com/
I really like MSN for finding definitions, synonyms, antonyms, things of that matter. It is usually always accurate for searching anything to do with grammatical questions, good definitions, and I even use it for directions sometimes because it provides a map from the place I am leaving to where I am going.
5)Ask Jeeves- http://www.ask.com/?l=dir&qsrc=999&o=2746&q=ask+for+jeeves&askid=59472f8e-8cf1-4dc2-8d5f-be01174782a8-0-us_mse&kwid=ask%20jeeves&cid=2055273481
Ask Jeeves is not a search engine I normally use. When I went to this site to me it appears a little less sophisticated than the other search engines I use on a daily basis. The site is not as "dressed up" and doesn't contain a lot f initial information. Other than that it seemed like a useful search engine for almost anything. It gave a lot of related searches on the side which can be helpful.
6)AOL- http://www.aol.com/
AOL is another site I don't use that often. When I visited this site however, it was very eye-catching, and had many interesting topics scrolling through that caught my attention. I think this site would be useful for someone who is just wanting to check on different news around the world; to use it as a newspaper so to speak.
7)Earth Link-http://www.earthlink.net/
Earth Link would be more useful to someone searching for business solution products or equipment. Earth Link is a good search engine when dealing with references on things related to business.
8)Lycos- http://www.lycos.com/
Lycos is a good search engine for many different resources. It has a very attractive and sophisticated site and also has some great images along side of the search you are doing.

C4T Summary

I commented on Ms.Davison's post about teaching and interacting with her kindergarteners with today's technology in the classroom. They were working with twitter and she was teaching them how to "tweet." I left her a comment stating how interesting this was to me and how impressed I was at how quickly the students caught on with it. I told her that I could definitely tell how much of a passion she had with this and how inspiring that was to me. Ms. Davison's post was very interesting to me.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Blog Post 3

In the video, "What is Peer Editing?" I liked that they stressed being positive as an important factor. I think a peer is more susceptible to listening and taking advice if the advice is not harsh, but more positively critical. If someone's comments come off as rude or condescending they will be more defensive an less approachable. By this happening, they will not learn from their mistakes but rather live on making the same mistakes because they felt the person's advice was not sincere or significant to them. I also liked how the video started with a fresh description of peer editing, from the exact definition to specifics on how to peer edit properly, The video was very clear and very appropriate for what peer editing is.
I leaned in the humorous video ways not to act with my peers during an editing session,as acted out by small children! It was comical, but at the same time very true. People can take some things you say the wrong way or you may get offended if someone calls out an error that you often have difficulty with. I think the main goal of peer editing is to help one another improve in our academics, so we should always keep in mind that the other person is there to help us. If you feel unsure or strongly indifferent about some corrections made by your peer, you can always research it or consult with your instructor. The whole purpose is to provide a learning experience, ad improve your work that much more.