PLN Project 10: Final Report

I don't think it is possible to make a "Final" report on a PLN, because it is always evolving. However since we are assigned to do so I will let you know were it stands at the moment.

To start the most important thing I have learned to use this semester would have to be Symbaloo. At the beginning of the semester we were encouraged to use either Symbaloo, Netvibes, or iGoogle in order to help us get started. I chose Symbaloo because it is easier to setup and less confusing. I have tiles that are links to all the major sites that I use on a daily basis. For mine and Kayla Nelson's Final Project we created a start of page for EDM310 with all the links we think are helpful. Follow this Link to add it to your Symbaloo page.

I have also become very fond of Twitter over the semester. At the start I was really skeptical of how this would help me at all, but as time has gone by I have realized differently. I have found tons of useful links by following hashtags such as #sschat, #historyteacher, and #edchat. The point at which I realized the power of Twitter had to be when I was looking for someone to interview for my Skype Project. I sent out an open invitation and added the hashtags mentioned above and within 15minutes was able to connect with a Mr. Pitner, a teacher in San Luis, Arizona.

Another thing that I have come to rely on everyday is Google Reader. It took me a little while to figure out how to use it, but now it is part of my daily routine to look at it and get my news. I have been able to keep up to date on everything from the daily sports news to keep track of every time there is a post added to the EDM310 Class Blog by subscribing to the blog feeds. I was able to find an app for my phone that allows me to check them where ever I am, which has made it easier to collect the happenings of the day.

As I stated in the opening of this post my PLN will continue to grow. With the tools I have learned from this class I will be able to learn something new everyday which has always been my lifetime goal.

C4T#4 Summary Post

In this C4T assignment I was assigned to comment on the blog, Primary Preoccupation, by Mrs. Cassidy. Mrs. Cassidy is a first grade teacher in Moose Jaw, SK, Canada.

The first post I commented on was Making Video Without a Face. In this post Mrs. Cassidy explains an assignment she had her students do in which they were to tell a story by making a video, but in order to protect their image she did not allow their faces to be in the video. I, as well as some of the other students in EDM310 that commented on this post, stated that we thought this was a great way to get the students focused on the assignment as opposed to the camera. I imagine that if the students were looking at the camera they would be more nervous and have trouble conveying the story the way they planned in because they would have a little stage fright. I know that I personally don't like to be on camera because of stage fright. She asked at the end of her post if we had any ideas for this project, and I suggested making cartoons. When I was a child I loved to draw and would have enjoyed telling a story with my own art. Mrs. Cassidy commented that she thought that was a great idea, but that none of her students had expressed any interest in trying it. Hopefully in the future one of them would like to try it. I would like to see what they come up with.

The second post I commented on was On Being Learners and Being Teachers. In this post Mrs. Cassidy explains of how her students Skyped with teachers in Colorado and taught them how to use Skype. Mrs. Cassidy commented on how her students reversed there usual role to become the teachers. She was blown away by the answers she received to the question, "Why we use Skype?" Her students came up with four answers on their own:
1)Because we learn.
2)Because we get to meet new people.
3)Because we help other people to learn.
4)Because we don’t have to go to their town to talk to people.
How awesome is it that first graders were able to come up with these answers without provocation? I thought that this would be a great assignment for high school level students. When I get in the classroom I may have my students Skype with an elementary class and teach them a lesson about history.

In closing I cannot express how much I have learned from the teachers that I have been assigned to comment on this semester. Thank you Dr. Strange for coming up with these assignments. I know that what I have experienced through this assignment will help me in the future.

Final Project: Symbaloo

At the beginning of the semester, I wasn't sure what all to add to my symbaloo in order to help me in EDM310. Kayla Nelson and I created a Symbaloo webmix that serves as a starting point for future students of EDM310. This webmix features every possible link and tool that a student will need to use or could use to enhance their experience in EDM310.




Step 1: Go to symabloo
Step 2: Create a user name and a password
Step 3: Select Start your webmix
Step 4: Next, click Add a Webmix at the top right
Step 5: Search EDM310 (the description will say "this webmix will help get you started on symbaloo")
Final Step: click add this page!!!!!!!

To View Our Webmix: EDM310

Special Metaphor Assignment (Blog Assignment 14)

I am one of the six students that got the metaphor in Mr. Spencer's post Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home. To those who missed it please don't take this as an insult, but I thought it was obvious. I guess the reason I understood the metaphor was because I felt that there was no way Dr. Strange would have us read a post that didn't involve technology in the classroom. The context of our class is not about the terrible use of testing in todays schools, it is about the use of technology to make learning better for our future students. Yes, we focus a good bit on how to change this paradigm, but whether we like it or not at the moment all we can do is voice our opinion on how we need to change this broken system. To me a very sarcastic individual I was impressed by the off handed way Mr. Spencer uses his blog to voice his opinion.

To the question of what metaphors I have encountered since this assignment, I could not possibly write them all down because of the frequency with which I use them myself. Like I have said I am a very sarcastic individual, and most of my jokes come form metaphors. I have recently started to understand that this is one of the reasons some of my coworkers find me to be mean. I don't often try to hurt peoples feelings, but sometimes they don't get my metaphors so think that I am trying to be mean. I have lately been trying to cut back on some of the instances in which I use them in general conversation in order to not hurt peoples feelings.

One of the reasons I love history so much is because with the knowledge that can be gained from history we can understand what is meant by certain metaphors. I can think of many times when I laugh at something said in a movie or television show that I laugh at but no one else seems to think is funny because of referrals to certain historical events and individuals. I want to make my students be able to understand those jokes. Sometimes a movie that I find as hilarious most of my friends and family don't like because they don't get the jokes.

I also found this blog post, Metaphors For History, that may help some of my fellow Social Studies majors use metaphors in the classroom.

We use metaphors to explain certain situations or people easier. For example, if we say that the internet is a river of knowledge, we automatically know that the internet is not an actual river, but we understand that it is a constantly flowing source of knowledge. Using metaphors shortens that explanation for us. I hope that we all use this assignment to discover the vast expanse of language open to us with the use of metaphors.

Blog Assignment 13

Alabama Learning Exchange, or ALEX, is a place for teachers to find lesson plans, links, and podcasts to help with planning in their classroom. For example while exploring the site I found a lesson plan in which students used a class wiki to make a class presidential election. The students created websites for their parties and candidates and eventually elected a president. Their are also podcasts for various subject areas. I personally explored the social studies podcasts and found podcasts for many Alabama history topics and historical figures. There are also links to professional development opportunities.

Since my wife is a teacher I asked her about how her school uses ALEX. Her school uses ALEX as a credit recovery system. Students who fail a subject participate in a distance learning program in order to relearn subject matter that they were before unable to master. She personally uses ALEX to find methods that already work and are fashioned towards the Alabama course of study.

As a teacher I would definitely use ALEX in order to help me with my lesson plans. I would also be interested in sharing my own lessons that are successful so other teachers can come up with ideas for their classroom. I feel it is important for teachers to share ideas outside of the school you work in. The more minds that come together, the more great ideas can be come up with.

ACCESS is a site dedicated to distance learning for Alabama Students. There are AP exam reviews for teachers to use to help students prepare for the tests. Students also have access to these learning materials in order for them to prepare outside of the classroom. There are also AHSGE remediation materials for students who have had trouble passing the exam. There are also lists of available online courses for students to take in remediation and in the AP level.

Progress Report on Final Project

I know this is not what anyone wants to hear, but I have been so busy with my other classes lately that I haven't had a chance to get started on the Final Project. I will have more time to work on it next week.

Project 15: Book Trailer: The Story About Ping

Blog Assignment 12

There is a lot of knowledge to be gained from Twitter, but how can we find people to follow other than those provided by Dr. Strange? A good start is to search hashtags relevant to your field. For example you can try #edchat, #historyteacher, #sschat, etc. Search for a few hashtags that are relevant to your future teaching field and 1)find a link and write a short summary of it and 2) find out what you can about the teacher that posted the link and post it to your blog.



I found this tweet several weeks ago while looking at #sschat. The link is to the History.com Topics page. As a future history teacher this site interested me. I explored the site a little and found an interactive map of Europe that has presentations and videos of several different events during WWII. This will be a great tool to help keep my students interested during class while teaching pretty much anything.

The teacher that posted this link in Kris Larson and can be found on Twitter @LarsonKr. She is an AP Government teacher at Central High School in St. Joseph, MO. Central High School also has a Twitter page that can be followed @CHS_Indians.


I also found this video about the basics of Twitter on Teacher tube.

Project 14: Teach Someone Something

I thought I would show people how to make a link button on their blog. I hope this helps.

Special Assignment: Mr. McClung's World

Mr. McClung's World is the perfect example of how I would like to construct my future class blog.

In the Mr. McClung tab of the blog Mr. McClung mentions that he is a lover of music and if you look at the left hand side of the blog you will find a song of the week. I am not much of a music lover, but I would probably put the score of my favorite sports teams games as well as the scores for the teams from the school I teach at.

I would say that Mr. McClung is a very dedicated teacher. It takes time to create a blog with as much information as this one. Mr. McClung is the kind of teacher I would like to be. He seems to really take an interest in what he is doing and in the life of his students.

The first thing that struck me in Mr. McClung's Class Rules is "Stay Positive." I am a glass half full(metaphor) kind of guy, and this is what I want all of my students to do. I was also impressed by the gestures and responses he requires of his students. It must be a fun class. I feel that it is paramount to learning to keep the students entertained. This is an innovative way to keep the kids awake and I am really interested in trying some of these methods in the future.

The first thing under the heading of "Everyone Needs", in the Syllabus tab, is a daily planner. This is important for the students to have. This will help them keep tabs on what they have to get done and when they need to have it done by. Mr. McClung outlines his penalties for late work under this same heading. This is closeto the penalties we have for our work in EDM310, except we will probably be worse off if we are late with our work.

Under Welcome Mr. McClung outlines what he is doing with his class blog. I hope to do much the same thing with my classes in the future. I will probably post links to current events and other "cool" stuff that may interest the students.

The first link I checked out under Useful Links, was to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. I was interested in looking at this site because I am a history buff. I found links to articles about the Third Riech and Concentration Camps among several others. I have already bookmarked them on delicious.

I also looked at the link World War II Propaganda. Again this interests me because I love history. It is a shoot off form the US Holocaust Memorial Museum website. It show some of the propaganda that the Nazi's employed during WWII.

These sites would be useful in a history class to give students a starting place for research papers. I am sure these are on the list of useful links so Mr. McClung's students can easily find information that will make their assignments easier.

In the post Internet Safety Mr. McClung sets out some guidelines for his students to follow to help keep them safe from online predators. I am not able to think of anything that I would add. I really like the idea of giving the students a generic email address to give when one is required.

In our C4K assignment last week I was assigned a video from the talent show. I took a look at some of the other videos on the blog and found some really good videos of kids describing certain events that they had been learning in class. I really like this use of technology. The students can use videos made by their peers to continue learning necessary information.

The chat button on the right hand side of the blog is neat. I think it would be nice to be able to chat with people who are looking at my blog while I am on the computer.

Mr. McClung's blog would be useful to parents in that it will allow them to keep tabs on when their kids have assignments due. I know for a fact my mom would have loved to have this tool in order to make sure I did all my homework on time. Administrators could use this blog to show off the learning that their students are accomplishing. I am sure Mr. McClung's principal is very happy to show off this site, or if he hasn't he should it is amazing.

This blog differs from the others I have looked at in that is so in depth. It seems that nothing happens in class that is not on this blog. I don't see where Mr. McClung gets the time, but I am glad he does. I am sure his students appreciate his hard work.

C4K Summary 7,8,9, and 10

In C4K #7 I was assigned to comment on a video from the post Talent Show. I was assigned to comment on the video "T-Man Showing Off His Piano Skills." I was quite impressed by the young mans talent because there isn't a musical bone in my body. I also watched each of the videos under that post and each one of the participants did a great job.

In C4K #8 I was assigned to the post Tribute to Jules Verne in which a student had written a descriptive paragraph about the ocean. I advise anyone who reads this post to take a minute to click the link and read what they wrote. It really is impressive. Also, after commenting on this post the teacher of the Wildcat Writers e-mailed me to tell me thank you and ask how we found her class blog.

In C4K #9 we were all assigned to explore Ms. Yollis' Class Blog. Ms. Yollis' blog has quite a lot of stuff going on with it. She has videos on how to comment and how to take good digital photos. There is also a page in which she shows her students how to write html code. Personally the page on how to write html has been very useful to me in EDM310. On the write hand side of her blog there is a flag counter that keeps track of all of the different places that people visit from. She also has a page devoted to the time zones for all of the different regular visitors to their blog. In order to keep parents involved with her class Ms. Yollis has a Family Blogging month. In this month the family of her students are encouraged to comment on their children's blog. I think this is a great idea. Not only will the students have the thrill of seeing their parents and family members comments, but they are also helping teach their family how to blog.

In C4K #10 I was assigned to comment on the blog Miriam's Magical Moments. I commented on the post Kayaking to Captain Cook Monument. Miriam made me want to go on a vacation to Hawaii after reading her post. I also gave her a link to a site with information about Dolphins since it seemed she was interested in them after her trip to Hawaii. I didn't leave a link to my blog on the comment, but she was still able to find it and comment on my book trailer. I plan to comment back on her blog as soon as I finish with this post.

Blog Assignment 11

The video by first graders in Mrs. Cassidy's class, Little Kids... Big Potential, is a joy to see. The children in her class really seem to enjoy what they are doing. I feel that Mrs. Cassidy is probably going to be a teacher that these kids will remember as their favorite for years to come. I am interested in using blogs in much the same way these children use theirs. I want to have my students post their papers on their blogs as opposed to hand it in to me so that their friends and families can see what they have accomplished. I also like how the children described the class wiki. With the links Mrs. Casssidy put on the wiki the children were able to find the learning games without having to use a search engine. In my opinion this method makes the use of technology in the class safe. The kids also discussed how they should only be nice in their comments to their fellow students. I do think this would be tough to overcome in a high school classroom. The only possible solution to keep comments positive will be for me to make sure that I have to approve all comments before they show up on the blog.

Mrs. Cassidy's skype interview with Dr. Strange was also very informative. This is the second time this semester I have realized how important it is for us to comment on kids blogs in our C4K assignments. She described how happy the kids get when people just view what they have posted. When we comment on the students blogs all over the world it makes them feel famous. I wish when I was in school people would have done this for my work. I am sure it makes the children want to write. I was also happy to hear about how her PLN helps her. In the short time I have used twitter I have been thoroughly surprised about how much I have learned from it. I suggest to anyone reading this post to find a hash tag to follow (ie. #sschat, #edchat, #historyteacher, etc.) that pertains to your future subject. I have found many great links to sites and lesson plans that I can use when I finally get into a classroom.

C4T#3 Summary Post

I was assigned to comment on the blog of Greta Sandler, About A Teacher. You can follow her on Twitter @gret.

The first post I commented on was, Blended Instruction With Blogs and Wikis for Young Learners. This post gave a link to a recording of a presentation she and Shelly Terrell. They talked of how they use blogs and wikis in their classroom. The presentation takes about an hour and a half to listen to, but there is a lot of great information. I commented on how they keep parents involved in the class through these avenues. I feel that with blogs and wikis we will be able to show off the good work that our students accomplish. Don't y'all remember how great it felt when your parents put your good grades on the refrigerator for everyone that came over to see? Imagine that being available for everyone to see and anyone in the world can comment on your accomplishments. They both said that their students absolutely love it when someone from another area of the world says something about their work. This makes me really excited about what we do for our C4K assignments, and even more determined to use blogs and wikis in my future classroom.

The second post I commented on was, rscon11 Creating Safe Learning Environments. This post direct you to another of Greta's recorded presentations. She talks of how to create a safe learning environment for her class. The point that interested me the most was her talk of making the classroom "our" class as opposed to "the" class. I am a very I am a very competitive person which is why I play sports, but I don’t think the classroom is a great place for competition. When students help each other like they’re a team the kids that understand the material can help the others that don’t quite get it just yet by telling them what helps them understand it. Sometime we as teachers may not be able to get our point across to every student, but another student may be able to get it across to them.

I really suggest you subscribe to her rss feed. You will not be disappointed.

Blog Assignment 10

In Morgan Bayda's post, An Open Letter to Educators, she directs you to the video above by Dan Brown. Dan is a recent college student who dropped out because he was frustrated with the college education he was receiving. He was upset that he had to sit in a classroom and listen to a professor spit out information that he would later have to memorize and regurgitate for a test. He felt, that with information now being "free" and "liberated" on the internet, these types of classes hindered his learning as opposed to increasing it as college is supposed to.

Personally I feel for this young man. I have dropped out of school twice for much the same reason. In the past I often felt that classrooms and professors had nothing to offer me, because they were giving me information that I either already knew or could find without spending so much on a college education. However, I realized quickly that all the knowledge in the world can't help you get a job when most employers that could benefit from that knowledge will not hire someone that does not have a degree. Hence why I am now back in school.

I value being introduced to this avenue of thought immensely though. As a future teacher I will strive to make my students aware of the value of being able to find information as opposed to just memorize facts for a test just to forget them at the end of the semester, or worse, immediately after the test. In this new technological age we are afforded an opportunity that no other generation before us has been able to benefit. We are able to find anything and everything we could want to know a the touch of a button. We as teachers are responsible for keeping kids interested, and with technology we can help them learn more than just the information they need for our class we can also help the find answers to every other question they have for the rest of their lives.




In Mr. Spencer's post, Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home, he tells a story about a teacher who lets his children take home their pencils. The teacher is confronted by a colleague who is worried that if the children take home the pencils they will just play with them instead of use them for what they are supposed to. The post is honestly funny and I think everyone should read it.

I like how Mr. Spencer uses this blog. I may be stating the obvious, but he is using pencils in place of computers. With this post he attempts to answer the question of whether or not teachers should give students homework assignments that use their "pencils." The teacher says he teaches the parents basic uses for the "pencil" so they can be help for their children with their assignments. I love how this post uses sarcasm to prove a point that, yeah kids may use the "pencils" for games, but they may be learning while playing those games. If we give our students assignments that make using "pencils" fun, and their parents are there to help them they will be able to learn more.