Dear Kaia

What an inspiring story. All three of these sites are very inspirational. Kaia will really enjoy looking back at all of her accomplishments. Kaia’s blog showed all of the pictures she took while outside her home with her father. I think it’s great that her father did this for her. Now others are able to actually comment back to Kaia personally. Mr. Chamberlain’s blog showed us how him and his students were able to communicate to Kaia rather than just writing comments. This way, Kaia was able to hear the comments and better understand that other people are watching her and reading about her. The older that Kaia gets, the more she will understand. I think creating a VoiceThread was a great idea for Kaia. Her father was also able to show her and explain to her about other people looking at her blog and pictures.

Kaia’s father’s post was also inspiring. Kaia’s father had some rally good points. I do not have children yet, but I can see how it may be hard for parents to put all of their trust in teachers when it comes to the web. I know Kaia’s father originally started this site to share photos with family. Then it became a way to document her life and now he is sharing Kaia’s story with people all over the world. Kaia’s father mentioned how he is almost scared at this, but he thought about it as a teacher. He thought that if he needs to be able to share these ideas and technologies with students then he should be able to for his own child. Sharing your child with the world is a scary thing. Even though there will be many lessons learned, is it ok? Is there more harm than good? Kaia’s father comes up with a very good set of questions. “What is the value in this experience? Is the risk of exposing ourselves and our children online worth the connections that will be made and the lessons that will be learned?”

Wordle

My Wordle Picture!

Comments4Kids Week 12

"This is me on our zoo trip. I saw the giraffe and she was a beautiful elegant walker." ~~Angelo from Room 2

This description was under Angelo's picture he drew. I wrote Angelo and told him what a great description he had about his picture and that I really enjoyed the colors in his picture. Seeing pictures and writings of these young students really do inspire me. I enjoy Comments4Kids each week.

Morgan Bayda

What an intriguing teacher. I have really enjoyed reading about Morgan Bayda’s thoughts and ideas. Ms. Bayda grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan. I read about how much she enjoys extracurricular activities. Ms. Bayda enjoys basketball (which my husband loves), piano, and outdoor activities. I also like to do extracurricular activities. I like to run, dance, and do anything outside really. Ms. Bayda, in general, loves kids. She stated, “There is almost nothing more beautiful than a child who has just made a brand new discovery about their world!” I love this comment. I truly love to teach. I am anxious and willing to learn new things. I think that all teachers should be open to new ideas and new technologies that may be open to them. Classrooms are still the same, teachers are still the same, but life in general is changing. These kids are growing up in such a different and new world. It’s exciting, but we as future educators need to be excited as well.

Ms. Bayda explains that she has a respect for students. It is always nice to hear a teacher say such positive things. Some teachers that I talk to each day at work are negative about their job and their students. Now there will be days that are rough and the students may be challenging, but teachers still need to stay positive. Ms. Bayda states that she is taking or has taken an Ed computer class. With this class she has learned all about PLN’s, Twitter, Wiki's, and other useful resources. Since I am also taking a class that is very similar, I can compare my experiences. Before I took this class, I didn’t even know about some of the helpful sites and technologies that I know about now. I know that with EDM310, I will be able to use these resources in my future classrooms. It makes me excited to think about the future and to learn more and more each day.

Timetoast Timeline

I did my timeline on the History of Cell Phones. I googled the history of cell phones and gathered information on when phones were first introduced. I found this site to be very interesting and a great tool to use. I can use this tool in the classroom for projects and such. On my particular timeline I just gathered information and compiled it together. I attached pictures I found from Google Images and quoted where I got the information.

Here is my Timeline.

Comments4teachers Alan Stange

My first comment March 24, 2010:

Hello Mr. Stange. My name is Tiffany Lindell Karamovic. I am taking a college class entitled EDM310 for Dr. Strange at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. One of my assignments was to visit your blog. I will be following your blog and keeping up with your ideas. I am glad he assigned me to your blog. I read your post and was very interested. The class that I am taking is actually about technology in education. I am a sixth grade teacher her in Mobile. Technology is our future. Teachers direct class and students use pencil and paper to regurgitate what they have learned. I can see how students in this time and age would get bored with that, day in and day out. I really enjoyed watching this clip. It opens many different thoughts and ideas about technology in education. If teachers were told to use cellphones to teach at my school, they would probably laugh at the idea. I know that sounds rough, but it's the truth. We need to reach our students and like you said, challenge them to think and learn in unfamiliar ways. I wanted to share with you our class blog. Also, here is my blog.

Formative Assessment on Prezi

My second comment March 29, 2010:

Mr. Stange,
Very interesting concept. Thank you for sharing. This is an interesting way to think of grades ~ "school’s drug of choice – grades!" I know as a teacher, I am required to keep so many grades per week and quarter. This humor was insightful. I enjoyed watching the ideas from Joe Bower on how to use other tactics rather than grades. Student-self assessments are a very good idea as well as teacher assessments. Thank you for sharing these ideas with us.

This blog that I was assigned to is "A PrairieSouth Staff Sites weblog; here you will find random thoughts on public education in Southern Saskatchewan, particularly the impact of technology on fostering learning."

Take a look!

Survey

My survey was a general survey. I asked my classmates questions about their life and questions about EDM310. I also asked my classmates if they believed teachers need to be technologically literate. One student's response was "Our students are going to be extremely technology literate, so we need to learn ourselves. As teachers, we also need to incorporate some of the skills we've learned in this class in our own in the future." I agree with their response. I received other responses that were similar as well.

I also found out that most of the students that were included in this survey are juniors in college. 76% of the students are not married. I found out that most students enjoyed this class this semester and feel as though they have completed all of the assignments that have been posted as of now. I am posting my results so you can take a look.


My survey results!

Comments4Kids Week 10

This week I was assigned to Mrs. Kolbert's Class blogs. I read Jessica's blog post entitled "Funny Signs Part 2". Jessica has been posting pictures of funny signs that she has found. I have posted a few pictures for you to see. I told Jessica that I really enjoyed her post. These signs made me laugh!! Enjoy!

Comments4Kids Week 9

This week I was assigned to Kindergarten Days class blog. I read about their day 109. These kindergartners had 71 more days in kindergarten. On this day the students started out by working on their calendar and working with patterns. They had a very full day. Throughout the day they went to art, the computer lab, and read a book, Five Little Ducks. The students also recorded a song that went with the book. They liked that. The students couldn't go outside because it was raining. I enjoy how the teacher posts her class blog as they are short and to the point sentences. I really like it. I commented back the same way that they wrote on their blog. I left my blog so they can visit me!

Lisa Nielson " The Innovative Educator" Comments4Teachers

For Comments4Teachers I was assigned to Ms. Lisa Nielsen's blog. Ms. Nielsen created this site "to enable her to share information, ideas, and resources with other innovative educators as well as begin to grow a community interested in educating innovatively." Ms. Nielsen does keep up with her blog and updates it regularly. These are the three comments that I posted to Ms. Nielsen's blog.

First Comment March 2nd:

Hello Ms. Nielsen. My name is Tiffany Lindell Karamovic. I am taking a college class entitled EDM310 for Dr. Strange at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. One of my assignments was to visit your blog. I will be following your blog and keeping up with your ideas. I am glad he assigned me to your blog. I read your post and was very interested. The class that I am taking is actually about technology in education. I agree with you. I am also a sixth grade teacher her in Mobile. I know that at my school students are blocked or restricted on many sites. Students are not able to access these learning communities and technologies. I don't agree with some of these comments to your post. Technology is our future. No, I don't think that technology should be the primary focus, but times have changed. Teachers direct class and students use pencil and paper to regurgitate what they have learned. I can see how students in this time and age would get bored with that, day in and day out. Parents also play a huge role in this online learning experience. If parents are aware of this online learning community, they can be shown how to monitor their children and help them. I really enjoyed your ideas. It sounds as though you are excited to present at the Conference in April. My blog for our class is here! I will be posting a blog post to my blog about my visits to your blog on or before March 21. I am anxious to follow up. Our class blog!

Second comment March 5th:

Ms. Nielsen,
I hope this Webinar went well for everyone. It seems as though many teachers and educators would greatly benefit from TEDxNYED. As I commented before, I am taking a technology class for the University of South Alabama for Dr. Strange. He has had us read some articles and ideas from Michael Wesch which is one of the presenters at this Webinar. I have been looking into the TEDxNYED website. Thank you for posting this information. I will share this information with my classmates and some faculty at my school. I am also going to look up TEDxNYED on Twitter to find out more information.

Third comment March 8th:

Hello Ms. Nielsen! This is an interesting clip. What a great question. If learning has not happened, has teaching occurred?? Do we hold teachers to a higher standard? My thoughts, and my thoughts only, are that teachers are held to higher standards. I know that at the end of each quarter at the school I teach at, the teachers are reviewed according to their EQT scores. How did your students do? Were your students proficient? So, this is a great question. I liked the other comment from Meg Hill. "Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself." ~~ Chinese Proverb. This is very true. Ms. Nielsen, thank you for sharing this strip with us. Do you think teaching has happened if learning has not occurred?

ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide) program

ACCESS is program designed to “create equity through additional educational offerings for all Alabama public high school students.” This program provides advanced courses to all high school students in the state of Alabama. ACCESS allows students to take courses that may not be available at their high school. This program allows students to receive advanced diplomas and take courses that was never possible until now. It doesn’t matter where the students are, if they are in the state of Alabama, this program is designed to help students achieve their goals more easily. With ACCESS students use video conferencing, emails, and real-time chat sessions to complete these courses. ACCESS has opened students to another world. The state of Alabama created ACCESS to help expand access to students, no matter where they may be, to accomplish their school goals.

ACCESS is a very helpful and creative idea. I think that students would find this very helpful and useful. The more and more parents, students, and faculty that are opened to this program, the more the students will benefit. This program was started November 1, 2004. From then on, ACCESS has progressed and improved to help students achieve their goals. So far, when teachers, administration, parents, and students are introduced to this program, they are all open to this program. Students can only benefit from these new technologies. Not only are students furthering their education, but they are also finding out and using new technologies to do this. With the help of online teachers and courses, the sky is the limit for our 21st classroom students!!

ALEX (Alabama Learning Exchange)

ALEX is a project created by the Alabama Department of Education. This program was designed to share all types of educational materials and information through a single website. With this website teachers are able to view the Alabama Course of Study at a touch of a button. It leads you directly to the grade level and subject area you are looking for. This is much more convenient than having to find it through Google or the Mobile County Public website. ALEX also has a link to lesson plans. You can also look up lesson plans for a certain grade level and subject area. These lesson plans have been approved to correlate to the ALCOS. Teachers in our same area and under the same Course of Study have uploaded and shared their lesson plans for other teachers. Next, this website also has a “Teacher Zone”. With this link, teachers are able to view technology tips for their classroom. This can be very helpful, especially to the teachers that are beginning to learn about the new technologies. There is a “Web Resources” link on ALEX that also has correlated web links for teachers to use in their classrooms and lessons.

ALEX has a link called “Podcast Treasury”. I really thought this was interesting. What a great idea. This link has different podcasts that students may enjoy. Teachers can view and listen to these podcasts and use them in their lessons as well. Overall, ALEX is a great site for local and state wide teachers and educators to use. It has all of the needed information all in one. I really liked the web links that this site has. The web sites include interactive sites, live web cams, and really fun examples. Teachers can look up professional development and read material that may answer questions they may have. I think teachers should all know about this site and have it bookmarked if possible. I will be able to share this with the teachers and faculty at my school in case they are not aware of it.

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

What an amazing story. After watching this video I went on to watch the other videos about Randy’s story. I was in tears. Randy Pausch was a wonderful man. His story was very uplifting and real. Mr. Pausch started out his Last Lecture by talking about his personal story and stating he had 3-6 months to live. He also stated he bought a beautiful house and just bought a MAC. He was about to talk about his childhood dreams, how to help others, and the lessons he learned. Mr. Pausch was a funny professor that was very helpful and knowledgeable. His childhood dreams were to be in zero gravity, be in the NFL, be an author of an Encyclopedia article, to be Captain Kirk, win stuffed animals, and to become a Disney Imagineer. How inspiring. Mr. Pausch, in my eyes, accomplished all of his dreams.

When it came to zero gravity, Mr. Pausch went through a tough obstacle to get there, but he did accomplish his dream. For 25 seconds, he got to experience zero gravity while on a plane with students. He first could not go as a faculty member, but he wanted to say he was a journalist just so he could go. In the long run, HE DIT IT. His next childhood dream was to be in the NFL. No, he didn’t actually make it to the NFL, but while he played football and listened to his coach, he realized that people who care correct you to make you better. He learned life lessons while playing football. He kept his letterman jacket and wore it because he could. This story is very inspiring. How wonderful to have these wonderful memories and lessons learned. His next dream was to write in the Encyclopedia and he accomplished that dream. He wrote on virtual reality. Now when it came to being Captain Kirk, he did get to meet him. He created a virtual lab that Captain Kirk wanted to see. He did learn about leadership with this experience. It seems as though we all should learn lessons throughout our lives in our everyday different situations.

His last two childhood dreams were to win large stuffed animals and to become a Disney Imagineer. Mr. Pausch showed pictures of himself with all of the large animals he won throughout his life. He even brought them into the lecture. That made him happy. He accomplished another dream. His last was to become a Disney Imagineer. I noticed he had a Walt Disney shirt on while he was presenting. You could tell that was a big part of his life. His application to Disney was first rejected and he hit a “brick wall”. Not all brick walls are bad. They just make us work even harder. He met John Snoddy and went to lunch with him. In the end, he helped create the Aladdin magic carpet virtual reality game/product. He accomplished another dream!! After he accomplished his dreams he wanted a way to help other accomplish their dreams so he became a professor. He had a class to create virtual reality worlds and his students, by far, surpassed his goals for the class. He keep telling them they could do better even though he was amazed by their work. The students then had other faculty, parents, friends, and other students in line to watch their presentations. What a story. He also touched on “Alice” which helped students to think they were learning computer programming while there was a “head fake”. They were having fun while learning something hard. Mr. Pausch loved that.

He explained that our family, parents, friends, classmates, and professors are all here to help us accomplish our dreams in life. This is so true. So how do you get people to help you? Mr. Pausch answered this by saying this: Be earnest and apologize when you mess up. In the video, his wife’s birthday was the previous day and he had a cake brought out for her. The entire room sang Happy Birthday for her. She was in tears. His wrap up told us all to not complain, but to work harder, be good at something, wait to find the best in every one, and be prepared. What good advice. His final words he talked about what the “Head Fake” was. He said this Last Lecture was not for the audience, but for his kids. This entire story was very touching and powerful. I enjoyed watching this and continued to watch other videos about Mr. Pausch’s life and thoughts. I would really like to purchase his book and read it. I have seen many reviews about it and they said it was well worth it. I know that Mr. Pausch’s family and students miss him very much, but there is no doubt that his ideas and thoughts will never be forgotten.

Comments4Kids Week 8

I was assigned to a class blog that was explaining their 105th day of school. This blog was real neat. The teacher makes daily posts about the students' day. On this day, it was James' birthday. They started out their day by writing thank you notes. They colored buses and went out to the bus and decorated it with the thank you notes. The news came and took their picture. They were on the news that night. Also, they added a green heart to their calendar as it was the 105th day of school. Then, the students read the book Hush and then talked about their blog. They saw that a man named Tom liked their blog and he is from England. The students then went to lunch and came back to do centers. At the end of the day, James' parents brought birthday cake and ice cream to share with the class!! Yum. I told the students that I really enjoyed reading about their day and to keep up the good work!