Blog Post #15

Final Reflection

In high school I knew that I wanted to become a teacher. My reasoning was that the world needs better teachers. I had teachers that didn't care how I did in the class and always gave out worksheets. These teachers truly believed that they were doing some good in our young lives. This was not the case. I started to hate school. It became a goal of mine to become a teacher so that I can inspire kids to become innovative thinkers and winners. However, I did not know how to achieve this goal until EDM 310. In the beginning of the semester I was close minded about students using technology in the classroom. I believed that it would turn younger generations into zombie like characters and true communication would be lost forever. However, I have grown through this class and my ideas began to change from technology being a complete waist to technology and inspiring our students go hand in hand if we want the world to become a better place.

I have a love for history and I plan on teaching grades 6-12. I firmly believe in hands-on learning. Burp-back education is not an option for my students. Burp-back education are for teachers who don't care about the student's education or future. I plan on getting my students excited about learning by incorporating a project based curriculum with the incorporation of technology. I plan on using a class blog and the class based social network, Edmodo. I plan on using these resources so that I can keep track of my classes and students as groups and individually. I plan my students on using blogging, Google drive, Facebook, twitter, PLNs, and Edmodo.

As I stated before burp-back education is not an option. A project based curriculum is imperative to the 21st Century student. Kids today don't know what the world was like before social networks or even computers. I remember as a child of getting our first family computer. Children today don't know what that excitement is like. They have always known technology. As an educator, it is my job to help these students harness these technological skills so that they can succeed in our technological advancing world. In my field of study, I plan on incorporating technology with history. Students already believe history to be the most boring subject and useless. I plan on vamping up students excitement about history and learning in general through the uses of blogging and Facebook. This will allow them to gain a personal view on their nations past and the worlds.

I can see my future students complaining about the amount of work that they will have to do for my class. The stress and apprehension that they will feel is something that I can relate too. They will learn many skills in my class such as teamwork, time management, and the skills to become technologically literate. They will master these skills through blogging. Not only will they learn the functions of blogging but the writing and thought process to blog. Through blogging they will connect to students all over the world through writing about prompts that connect America's history to other countries. I will also create group projects that encourage collaboration through podcasts, videos, iBooks, and the use of green-screen.

As I stated, I use to believe that technology was a waste of time. My extent of using technology was power point. However, I believed in hands on learning and that idea has not and will never change. I still believe in fairness, equality, independence, and teamwork.

However, I have changed my view on technology. I now believe that technology is vital for students learning experience. I would use these tools to help my students to become a citizen of the world and to respect other's ideas and beliefs.

Final Reflection Video

Project 13

My group, The Justice League, includes myself, Alex Thompson and Heather Perrin. We used many tools to communicate throughout this class. The main thing we used was Email and text messaging. We also used Skype and Google Drive to have more in depth conversations to gather ideas for project 15 and 16. Skype and text messaging were the fastest ways to talk, however email and Google Drive were the most reliable. In a project oriented class, communication is important for teamwork.

C4KSummary of April

C4K #8 Cade K.

In his post Intro to Russian Studentsz, Cade explains that he is 13 and lives in Iowa. He is a sports fan. However, his favorite sport is basketball. His favorite class is physical education. He loves to stay active. In his free time he enjoys playing video and computer games.

My Comment

I told young Cade that I love sports. When I was younger, I grew up watching my older brothers play football and basketball. When I got into high school, I joined the volleyball, basketball, and tennis teams. I play these sports all the time with my friends. Sports teach you some very valuable lessons such as teamwork. Being able to work well with others is very important. As a junior at the university I have gone through a lot of classes that I have really enjoyed. I am a history education major so I would have to say that history is my favorite class. However my all time love is world history. It's really interesting to learn about different places.

C4K #9 Kya S.

Kya is from Bellevue, Nebraska. She goes on about the rivers that are in Nebraska such as the Missouri River and the Platte River. They also have the Sandhills, Tillplains, Badlands, and Wildcats hills. Their main football team is the Huskers. Most of their state is the Great Plains that contain lakes and hills.

My Comment

I told Kya that Nebraska sounds like a beautiful state. I told her that I am from Alabama and I attend the University of South Alabama. That's in Mobile, Alabama. Alabama has lots of hills in the north but in the south part of Alabama, it is very flat because we are below see level. Alabama has a lot of rivers and lakes. My favorite lake is Smith Lake, in central Alabama. Football is huge down here too. Our main teams are college football teams such as the University of Alabama and Auburn University. I would love to visit Nebraska some day.

C4K #10 Liam

Liam's post was about his Easter holiday and all about the fun activities he did. He enjoyed activities such as the Egg Hunt, Egg Race and face painting. He also spent the night with his friend Riley and they played Minecraft and NBA2k11. They also went to Rileys new house where Liam got a grand tour of the two story house.

My Comment

I told young Liam that it sounded like he had a really busy Easter holiday. I told him that he plays Micecraft a lot. My Easter weekend didn’t have a lot of excitement in it. I explained to him since I am a junior at the University of South Alabama, I live four hours away from my home and I couldn't visit. I told him that the only real holiday or break from school I have is Christmas Break and Spring Break. I don’t have a summer break because I take classes during the summer. I told him that we have something in common though. We both try to make our blog post sound interesting. I try to make mine sound more interesting by using vocabulary that I don’t use everyday and I use a more energetic tones in my blog.

Project #16