Blog Post #5

The iSchool Initiative

The CEO and founder of the iSchool Initiative Travis Allen has discovered the solution to the budget cuts to the  educational systems found around United States.  With this iSchool Initiative he plans to open the eyes of school boards around the United States and the world to allow the digital age to envelop the mobile classroom.  As a high school senior, Travis Allen and his team that he's built since then, are spanning the country and collecting as many schools as possible to join the collaborative in this battle against budget cuts, for the ecosystem, and the emergence from the stone age.  

To put a figure on his budget cuts he says that things like paper, pencils, and other objects that you find around schools that are easily removable cost approximately 600 dollars per student.  While his initiative that promotes the use of an Apple Itouch, through it's multiple applications, would cost roughly 150 dollars per student.  For a  school with roughly 2000 children that is a very large chunk of change.  This would enable the school to hire more faculty per student and place the money in the advancement of school functions and facilities.  The International exposure that the iSchool Initiative has accrued should do much for this mobile classroom campaign, but  rebuilding the educational system cannot be done alone. So, go to ischoolinitiative.org to learn how you can embrace and spread news of the digital classroom!  Death to pencil and paper!



Virtual Choir

Logistics.  I can imagine the hardships a team must have gone through to assemble these artists, but synchronization and every other tiny detail could have thrown the entire performance into a tailspin.  I hope that the collaboration progresses into other realms of cognitive activities. A large amount of skepticism and doubt flooded my mind, but I discovered it really happened!  The use of the internet this way is exactly how Tim-Berners Lee envisioned, I am sure.  A collection of global connection at the click of the mouse!

Teaching in the 21st Century

As a student I was always told exactly how to research topics, engage in those topics, and then regurgitate the material I learned back to the teacher through 8'x11" pieces of thinly sliced tree trunks.  For decades this was the norm and is still taking place in classes today (even classes in which I am currently enrolled), even when we have this vast expansion of digital media.  Roberts puts a vivid picture in your mind that the classroom is changing; gearing towards an age where teachers may not be needed.  He goes on to give advice for the teacher to adapt and overcome this obstacle, but he still scares the crap out of me.  There is no stopping this digital train and it is headed for a collision with my classroom and if I do not get a ticket and hop on board. 

There are actually 20 of these robots teaching in Seoul.

Why I WILL use a Flipped Classroom

My first C4T assignment was coincidentally a teacher who,  facilitated towards athletics, was using a flipped classroom.  So, I had a glimpse of what the material was going to look at in Katie Gimbar's video Why I Flipped My Classroom.  To be honest I had left a comment on my C4T's blog disagreeing with this tactic, but honestly, what the heck do I know?  Watching the videos on the procedures for what exactly flipping your classroom means is actually a great way to get your point across.  I will definitely be using (if applicable) a flipped classroom as my teaching model simply because of the time I can mentally engage a student/students.  Spending 90% of my time ineffectively preaching to my class cannot be the greatest road to educating.  Allowing the student to learn at their own pace, allowing me to spend time with the "middle section" of class, and allowing effective remediation through technology are all reasons alone that flipping your classroom is a must. 

My Sentence Video

Project # 5 Presentation

Blog Post #4

Around the World in a Podcast

Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting

The first podcast I read was the Langwitches World Language Podcast. The instructor was a former world language teacher who had become a K-6 teacher and specifically teaching reading at this point.  What was really interesting about it what she integrated different programs like GarageBand to construct a lesson which in turn, was created by the students themselves.  She uses the podcast editing and recording, which I believe great tool, especially for language learners to play with the mechanics.  The students also use a Smartboard themselves which allow them to use physical motions to place the recordings and pause, start, and listen.  I would use the tools exactly the same way.  Allowing the children to analyze what they spoken and allowing them to add it as well.


Flat Stanley Podcast

This blog post is from a teacher in Istanbul who decides to follow in the footsteps of another first grade class and create their own Flat Stanley Project.  The last project being so successful, they decide to step it up a notch and become a "worldwide" success.  Each child has their own segment in the recording and they were also able to use a Smartboard for editing their pieces.  Homework was given, in conjunction with their parents, to choose a location, the type of transportation used, what did they do at that location, and how did they get back home.  The teacher allowed to use their senses and sound effects as a better way to portray the mood of the story. It seemed by all of the pictures and the voices of the children in the podcast that they were all excited to get to be a part of this.  I hope that I can find something in the classroom maybe this add podcast to type to encourage excitement in reading and writing each day in class.  In our podcast I hope to use the creativity that the children had by tying in the senses and sounds to the piece we have designed.

Click this video for a break from reading, plus I just wanted to say hey! Also, thanks to our lab assistants for showing me how to place videos into my blog.



Podcasting with First Grade

The realization that everyone has an audience when your posting on the web is exactly what I hope that I can remember as a teacher, and the vast amount of Influence technology has on children.  In the podcast with the first grade students the discussed a Magic Treehouse Book. Each class meeting they would read one chapter at a time and discuss that same chapter.  The teacher would allow each boy or girl to read a script from the actual text and then allow the students to edit that script using garage band or another form of software.  The result was one continuous podcast of the children as they put the story together through their own interpretation of the text.  The function of each child was key, and I hope that through the podcast our group will be assembling, that each member will have their key roles as well.

Comment for Teacher #1

Comment for Teacher 1.1

In the first post I read of Coach John Hahnstadt’s “A Flipped Classroom” he basically summarizes the tactics and usages of the term.  The concept is about implementing technology into the classroom, but mainly directed towards athletic instruction.  He uses apps, video editing software, or other computer based devices to create a virtual learning experience that a teacher doesn’t even need to be present for.  It is supposed to free up time that teachers spend audibly delivering the information so that they can spend more time in a one-on-one setting. 

My comments towards the post were of basic agreement with the overall purpose and scheme, but did not agree with the methods.  I didn’t understand why a teacher is moving towards an instruction method of virtually enhanced media basis instead of verbally and physically engaging in the learning process of a child.  At the end, I stated that I like the idea bout would never use it in a classroom setting.  Also, for some reason the post wasn't accepted.

Comment for Teacher 1.2

In Coach Hahnstadt's most recent post he introduces to use a new app he has been utilizing from home since he has been at home with his wife who just recently had a child. The application he uses is CoachNote, which is an application specifically made for professional coaches that utilize technology. The coach also shared with us one of the videos he sent to his staff so that they could instruct class without him physically being there. It gave the staff a way to learn what Coach Hahnstadt wanted them, but also gave the staff an instructional tool for teaching the children. All of this was done from the comfort(if you call no sleep and a newborn comfortable) of his own home, and he completed his instructional video in about 10 minutes.  Commenting on this post was simple. I had remembered last season while coaching a soccer team that I had been drawing on the dirt or on an invisible playing field with my finger. I realized how horrible of a description I was giving the team, and that if I could have utilized this application then we would have won many more games!

Blog Post #3

Peering the Work of Editors

That student did such a fantastic job of laying out some basic guidelines to follow for completing a peer review.First, compliment the writer on what he/she has done well during their work.  Second, make suggestions regarding specific parts of the assigned project.  Then lastly, correct the errors you can see, but allowing the writer to do the correcting.

The ability to positively review the work of individuals is probably an invaluable asset to have since we have all chosen to become educators.  We are very lucky to have access to reviews and instructional videos at our fingertips (with access to internet).  Although peers are not always people that are your age, in What is Peer Editing? the speaker made it clear that keeping a positive attitude when review the peers work is very important.   Addressing each age group differently is a good way to show students that peer reviewing can be a key tool for success for both yourself and your fellow classmates.

Technology in Special Education
Technology is evolving faster than our classrooms can keep up with, but Lace Cook and other educators are closing the gap by using newer technology in their classrooms to enable special needs students to succeed at a greater pace than ever before. In her very inspirational video Technology in Special Education Mrs. Cook displays how she has adapted certain parts of technology to fit individual student's needs. For both Kris and Sharae, Mrs. Cook has taught these students to use a computer to complete their assignments.

Using these "valuable skills to serve the community", as Mrs. Cook graciously worded it, is within their grasps. Teaching the students whether they have special needs or not to utilize programs and applications such as ZoomText for Eric and other students to see and type more efficiently can allow them to succeed. Watching this video was very uplifting and it makes me feel like I waste every second of my time on things that are not important. It stanks.


How the Ipad Works with Academics for Autism

The possibilities are almost endless with a device like this and utilizing it in a classroom setting. I chose the First Words Feeling Application which allows a student to use cognitive skills like vocabulary and spelling words and able to relate them to 38 different emotions. Also, giving the teacher to adjust the level at which the students are proceeding through the application is a major advantage as well. This would be extremely useful with special needs students as it was visible in the video with Braden because what the children would believe was just a regular game would actually be a tool we could be using to advance there motor, speech, and cognitive skills.

Harnessing Our Student's Digital Smarts

In a small, rural town in Georgia a global classroom has made it's emark on the world. Mrs. Vicki Davis is teaching (and learning) along her students in several global collaboratives through online classrooms. Learning to terraform, control avatars, engage in digital citizenship, and map multimedia software Mrs. Davis' class has become a virtual landscape of learning. She focuses on allowing the students to teach themselves, as well as her, the processes and information required to complete the tasks by going online and "finding" the solution.

She uses her blog @coolcatteacher , Flat Classroom Project , DigiTeen wiki, and many other types of technology to access the world for her students. This opens up these rural minded children to view the rest of the world and learn aspects of the digital age that they may have never known throughout their entire lives. I hope that the tools necessary to engage a task like this are available to me when a career in teaching is underway!

Project #2 Wordle