Thursday, April 14, 2011

Final Summary of PLN




In using Symbaloo, I have found many ways to navigate the internet and my favorite sites with ease. No longer do I have to open up google search to find what im looking for, only sometimes when some one like a friend introduces me to a new site do I open google to check it out. Even then symbaloo has a record of this and will track if I visit that site multiple times they will prompt me to add that site into my collection. I feel that in using Symbaloo my internet experiences have become more personalized. Before using this program, I would get on the internet and find that I lost track of where I was planning on going because there is entirely too much on the internet making it hard in some cases to find just what you are looking for. Symbaloo does not get mixed in with spam sites suggesting you unappropriated sites either. It is just enough organization to keep me happy without over consuming me. I suggest symbaloo to people who have not heard of it and they too are skeptical at first, but once they organize just 3 or 4 things the instincts take over. This is a great program and I am happily introduced and involved with it!

Metaphors Blog Post 14



1. Why did you miss the metaphor in Tom Johnson's post, or, if you "hit the nail on the head", why do you think you understood the metaphor and why do you think that others in the class missed the metaphor?
-I feel I missed this metaphor usage because I was dwelling on being a perfectionist! I will say though that I went back into the article and plugged in the word computer for pencil and I found that the article was much easier to grasp the underlying meaning.
2. What metaphors have you encountered since I asked you to create a log of them? A common few I usually use are “ Its raining cats and dogs, for a job well done I cheer myself by using, ace in the hole-when playing with my nephew, who is 3 he has no sense of patience so I joke with him by saying he has ants in his pants, when talking about myself not being patient in terms of waiting for something in the mail, ill say “the delivery is as slow as molasses, my mother will ask me how school is going all too often and I will say usually “ I have too many irons in the fire for my own good. So obviously metaphors are a huge part of my common language and I actually use these subconsciously.
3. What other things can we do as educators to help our students to understand and to use metaphors?
I remember as a child when my teachers or parents would use metaphors it was fun! They can be comical or exciting to the common language which can be boring at times. To help students understand these it can only occur with the use of them and practice relating to their actual meaning. I feel in giving the students both sides they can better grasp the absolute meaning and avoid being confused on actuality.
4. Why do we use metaphors?
- I feel metaphors are used to help emphasize meaning and they sound good to the ear. The use of metaphors can better complex our language. Metaphors are used frequently in literature especially for little children, similar to the use of Homophones. I think these are great characteristics of our language, for metaphors are present in the bible and have been a part of our communication for quite some time now.

Progress Report Final Project!




For this project, I have joined up with Kim Holland. She is very creative and we have been working on school projects together for a little over two years now. For this project we really wanted it to be something that could include almost everything Dr. Strange has taught us this semester--so this brought us to the idea what better than a Glogger. Now Kim, is a very avid Mardi gras fan and so she suggested we do a glogger on the History of Mardi Gras in Mobile. I was absolutely tickled! In doing this project we have visited the archives of south to find ancient pictures of when Mardi Gras was at its beginning peak, with some connection with Kim's family we have gotten access to many cool things that make up Mardi Gras as we all know it today! Secondly, Kim and I went and produced a video clip from the Mobile Carnival Museum, which is the Mardi Gras museum downtown mobile, we really got into this video learning a lot and had so much fun doing it! The Glogger has been giving a little bit of trouble through our editing process, for we had most of it finished then lost it all--seems to be typical of any new technology, but no sadness here we are back up and running waiting on the finished product! In addition to the things listed above Kim called me a couple of days ago and suggested we get our faithful lab technicians Anthony and Stephen to Podcast a section on the historical figures of our presentation! This should be a great project when all said and done! It has been wonderful and we have sure learned a lot!! Hope you enjoy the finished product!!

Movie Trailer Dr. Seuss "oh the places you"ll go!"

Monday, April 11, 2011

C4T #4

In viewing David Wees's blog post which was titled Open Educational Resources, he talks of how teachers are not here for the pay but are here to make a difference. He feels that in order to make the best of a difference within the teachers universe we must share our gained knowledge and success in the classroom. He also talks of how he is a big fan of use of technology in the classroom. Teachers must be attractive to their students in terms of the students learning otherwise the students can bore too easily and your success is then gapped with under achievement by the students who need more of a relevant challenge. Here in this specific post, he talks of why our shared thoughts are so important. They are open for others to use and teachers alone do not have time to be stingy with their ideas or positive instruction strategies, for the more that is shared the more knowledge we teachers gain. In sharing our knowledge teachers are better prepared for their students and can have many ideas that will work with student achievements. David has a great idea that sharing our knowledge through technology is becoming the most efficient way to share ideas. No time do teachers have to publish books, with the best ideas of teaching these ideas need to spread so that more teachers can reach a point of success in their classrooms as well. This will ensure that our students are getting the most up to date instruction in a form that is relevant to their likes. I very much enjoyed reading this post and I look forward to checking back to see what other great ideas he has established on his blog!


Blog View #2
For the second view of David Wees blog, I decided to take a look around what his blog was all about. I read his information section to begin with learning, he David is a very interesting man. He is a traveler and has been all over from New York, London, Thailand, and Canada which is where he resides currently. He is a married man with a small song and has worked with technology a lot in his career and schooling. He would work nights being the sole proprietor programing web designs just to make ends meet, his life seemed hectic and full of new responsibility. This led him to decide to plan roots in Canada where he now has landed the job as the technology assistant for teachers in the school, he seems to enjoy his job having a lighter work load. This inspired his blog to be a living portfolio of his work, and he is recently working on publishing a book, and writes articles for three different publishers. David Wees is a very busy man, but has a great way express his living passion for technology. I feel he has been a great reference for me to study and learn his point of view, which is one that can be respected. I have enjoyed learning about David Wees.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Special Assignment McClungs Blog in Depth Review

1. Mr McClung uses his blog to incorporate who he is to his students and also is encouraging his students to use the internet and blog site for success in the class. Joe is an example of what good teachers do that is not required of them, he has a grasp on good teaching which in turn is causing his students to be motivated and successful.
2. As an Educator, McClung is full of bright new ideas and avid about continuing his education. He brings life into his teaching practices and involves himself with his students outside of school by coaching track, which in itself is a big job.
3. Mr. McClungs classroom rules are unique to him and this is the first time I have seen such simplicity in a rule for a classroom set. He wants his students to be active members of the class and by this he requires hand gestures and positive attitudes, which is a wonderful approach to setting your students up for a high school environment which will call for group discussion and not just getting the right multiple choice answer for the test. He has a goal in mind with his teaching and that is to bring his students as far as he can with their knowledge and getting them into their instruction. He is a great teacher and I would call him a warm demander which is a characteristic each of us strive to reach.
4. A day planner, being one of the most important tools to stay on top of task. I would say at the age group he is teaching, informing the students of just how important it is to keep track of homework, and upcoming events etc. This is a good practice for time management.
5. Putting an emphasis on late work, shows the student that the time frame for turning in work is something that must be focused on and taken seriously. This is a good practice to start the students on for when the students enter high school their work load will increase triple from what they are used to, so McClung just wants his students to be readily prepared.
6. He states that he hopes his blog will encourage use of technology and that he loves using technology for many of his hobbies and even has a blip for a music page. Incorporating classroom task on the blog requires that his students at least view this once a week, and by playing around they most likely will find things to entertain themselves outside of what is required by schooling thus familiarizing the students with internet safety.
7. I was looking through the links and I found toondoo.com and I cliked on it for it sounded interesting. Once I got to the page, I saw you can draw out story tales or activities or anything incorporating cartoons and I thought “ My wouldn’t this be so useful for working with children” so I book marked it and have been playing with it learning how to navigate the site. The other neat link I found was Hunkins Experiments which is also cartoon incorporated. On this site you have a list of experiments you can choose from covering a variety of topics. Once again I thought this would be a useful tool for doing activities of instruction in the classroom that I just wanted to jazz up a bit and this site could be plugged in to my smart board and the class could interact in groups on this site as well. I feel these two sites showed up on McClungs blog links, for he was possibly using material from these sites or using the sites themselves in his own class . These sites must have given him positive results for he felt the need to share them with his blog readers.
8. I looked and looked for the internet safety but I could not come across it. I feel that he would have included very specific directions for student use of internet for these children need to understand that the internet can cause a lot of trouble for young viewers if not approached in the correct manner.
9. I viewed the Lesson learned 9:23 and I found that the students were guided by Mr. McClung not only in the classroom but if they were on the track team as well. As reading this post I also learned that his track team was very successful and has a lot of good athletes. He apparently finds joy in teaching so much that he spread his wings to more areas of child guidance by being a coach, and I once being a student who had coaches for teachers everyone loves them and they provide so much to the classroom and students.
10. I like the fact that McClungs Blog has a counter, and multiple pages. I feel that with playing with my blogger more and watching tutorials I too can have a busy blog! I love that he has so much ability with his blog and all the applications. It makes for a good place to visit, for his blog will not be your only stop!
11. His blog allows anyone to view it feel like they know him personally. He opens the viewers eyes to things that are occurring in the classroom, and around the world. He shares his findings of neat sites and useful ways of communicating information over the internet. He should be in the running for best blog!
12. His students seem to enjoy the blog and he includes things going on in the classroom onto his blog, the students major projects are published to the blog for others to see and provide comments on. I have seen similar blogs to this but none have been this elaborative or tweaked, McClung is on his blog constantly feeding with this update a new item of display and the list goes on. His blog is the most involved I have studied and I feel that everyone gets a benefit from viewing his blog.