Blog Post #10

Do you Teach or do you Educate?
I didn’t start my college career as an education major. I really had no idea what I wanted to do, except for the fact that I wanted to help people. I decided nursing would be a great path when I was a junior and even got into the program at South. I quickly found out that was not the right road for me however. After much consideration I decided education would be a great direction.
I love the idea of making a difference in a child’s life. I want to pass on my love of science to my students. Science is such an important area of study that many students lose interest in at a young age. As a teacher I want to change that. I want to show my students how science plays a role in our everyday lives and how important it is. If we inspire our students and show them how excited we are about the subjects we teach they will also be inspired.
Don’t let them take pencils home
This was a really inspiring post. I hate that there are teachers like this woman who put down students and don’t even try to encourage them. These kinds of teachers don’t focus on the solution to the problem they just focus on the cause which doesn’t help the students at all. The author really confronted the problem of taking home the pencils and changed it! This was a very thought provoking post!

C4T#3

Editing Out Loud Background Noise with Adobe Audition

Wesley Fryer has just visited Kansas State University for a veterans program where he has recorded some excerpts from the speeches. In his blog he discusses various audio programs that he has used in the past and used on the recordings from KSU to clean up the sound quality. He goes on to discuss which programs worked best for him.
Comment:
Hello,
My name is Audrey Carrio and I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class. I have to admit I am not very technologically savy but my EDM 310 class has really made a difference however. I have never used any kind of audio program before but your blog was very informative and would be a great reference if I ever need to use a program to improve the audio quality.

Post a Photo to a Photo 365 or 180 Blog

Wesley Fryer is a blogger who has multiple blogs he write for. This was a short blog, he discusses how the advances in technology have made it so easy to upload pictures onto the internet. He gives a step by step instruction on how to upload a picture from a smart phone.
Comment:
Hello,
My name is Audrey Carrio and I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class. I have an iphone and one of my favorite features is how simple it is to upload pictures onto the web. It’s amazing how quickly you are able to add pictures and titles to thing with all of the advances we have in technology. Great blog!

Smart Board Instructional

Blog Post #9

Mr. McClungs reflections were really enlightening and enjoyable.  I’m not sure if any of my teachers did this at the end of each year, but I would be really curious to read/hear their thoughts and reflections about the years I was in their classes and the situations they encountered. I think this is a great way for faculty to share their ideas with one another and to address problems they had in an easier manor. This could be a great task principals ask their teachers to do before summer break. 

Reflection of 2009-10

In this blog Mr. McClung reflects about the 2009-2010 school year. He talks about the difficulty he had this year dealing with authority figures and being in a new environment and having to deal with the changes that come with that. “I had to learn how to adapt when the current situation required it. The lesson to learn from here is to never get too comfortable, change is good and ultimately it makes us better teachers.” Being too comfortable can be a bad thing, teachers can become too relaxed which can cause them to be unproductive. Later, Mr. McClung discusses how he wants his students to be independent thinkers and how he wants them to lean on teachers only when they feel like they have hit a barrier. I fell the exact same way, I am naturally just an independent person, my parents taught us that from a young age. I want my students to have class discussions and to have independent ideas from one another and from myself. They need to know it is okay not to agree with your peers all the time; you can be independent and have your own opinions. He even goes on to discuss embarrassing things he has done to get his students involved in his lectures, this is the kind of teacher I want to be as well, you should check your ego at the door. Lastly, he said, don't lose sight of what's important. No matter how bad things may be, as a teacher you cannot let surrounding factors affect how you conduct yourself in the classroom, your top priority are the students.

What I learned in 2010-11

In the section “Know Who Your Boss Is” Mr. MClung discusses the reasons he became a teacher, for the students. He chose this profession because he wants to teach these children the knowledge and information that will last them a lifetime; he doesn’t want to let adults or authority figures influence his teaching techniques. Later, he goes on to say that he is somewhat of an “outsider”, he doesn’t get along with many teachers and spends his lunch time with students rather than in the teachers’ lounge. “It took me a while before I was comfortable with not fitting in with the rest of the crowd but I realized that my common core of beliefs were important to me and that I needed to be myself and not worry about the perception that others have of me.” Being childish and getting along well with his students is more important than being popular with the other teachers in his building, he puts his students and their education above popularity.

Blog Post #8

Is this how we dream?

Dr. Miler believes we are in “the greatest change in human communication, in history. We are moving from a paper society to a listening and watching society. ” We can research not only at our college library but at so many different places through the internet. He gave an example of a paper he wrote on the Virginia Tech violence without even leaving his desk.

 Before the internet, libraries had only a single copy of research material, but online, people around the world can look at the same document at the same time. Every day we are moving more and more to a multi media based society. As educators, we need to be able to teach our students how to examine and dissect information.

Through multi-media we can combine word documents with sounds and visuals. Websites now can offer interviews and feedback right on their pages. We have immediate updates right in front of our faces online. He believes educators should share their ideas freely and not hold onto them, after all our job is to enlighten these children.

Carly’s Blog post

It is really clear how enthusiastic Carly is and how much she wants to help her students! She is going to be an amazing teacher one day. I love her idea to create a playlist on YouTube, and the topics she has chosen are great!  I also think it is important for teachers to have a philosophy to help students succeed. She really understood what Dr. Miller was discussing about multi-media.

The chipper series and EDM310 for dummies

I really enjoyed these two videos. I think we have all been a little overwhelmed with EDM 310. But I really liked the message in the videos. We are becoming adults and that means we are going to have to work for things, they aren’t going to just be handed to us. I know this class is difficult for a reason and all of our hard work is going to pay off. I have already learned so many new things. I made a book trailer today; I am so proud of all of the projects we have done in this class.

Learn to change, Change to learn

“School is just one of the places students learn, they also learn through their community, friends and family, and online.” We limit student’s computer time in schools and ban cell phones, but this technology doesn’t have to be limited. “We have a classroom system where we could have a community system.”  There are so many advantages to having technology in the classroom; we shouldn’t hinder students practice and understanding.  They believe we should start with teachers to get to the children. They have created a place where teachers can interact with teachers from around the world.  Students don’t need the “right answer vending machine” information given to them to ensure they pass standardized tests; they need skills like problem solving and being able to research and sort out the relevant information.

Project #12 Book Trailer

Project #11 Short Movie

blog post #7

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University.  He is not only an excellent professor but an inspiration. He is looking death in the face and he still is able to laugh and make his audience laugh and forget about his troubles.  In his lecture he discusses three topics: his childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons he has learned.

Randy had a great childhood, his parents were loving and gave him permission and the possibility to dream. They were not a wealthy family, just a normal middle-class family. As a child he dreamed of many things; meeting his childhood hero, floating in space, and being an imagineer. He actually was able to reach many of these dreams in one way or another. He didn’t actually go into space but he was able to go into a zero gravity area, he met with captain Kirk, and he worked with imagineers to put Aladin to life.

Pausch said “experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted”.  This quote is so true. I have had plenty of jobs where I thought I was going to be doing one thing or another, and been shocked to find out I am doing something completely different than planned. Those are the jobs that I have actually learned the most from however.  I also really liked Paush’s quote that the leader isn’t always the smartest guy on the team. I have found in many situations that the smartest people on the team are not the ones to step up, the people who can handle the pressure and are leaders do.

One lesson Pausch said he learned, like most people,  was that he experience brick walls in his life. Instead of letting these brick wall hold him back, he used it as encouragement. He said brick walls are there to stop people who don’t want something badly enough. I have hit a few brick walls in my life, and this quote really struck me. I have also found that if I really want something badly enough, even if something was holding me back, I have been able to achieve it. I think people really respond when they know someone has a true desire for something.

The last thing Pausch discussed was enabling others, as a college student studying education, I felt like he was speaking directly to me. He made a comment that one of his advisors said he was such a great speaker that any company he worked for would put him in a sales position; and the advisor said, if you’re going to sell something, why not sell something worthwhile like an education.  I really believe Pausch looked for the best in others, this is a quality I lack but his presentation made me think about and want to improve upon. I want my students to appreciate me as a nice person and aspire to do better in their lives, I want to be as great of an inspiration as Pausch was.

PLN part 1

This is the beginning of my PLN. Being an education major, I chose tiles relating to education and education news. I also chose a tile that connects to my twitter account which will allow me to keep up with my friends and family. CNN is another site that I made a tile for. I am really looking forward to learning more about how to make the most of my PLN!

C4T

In the Creation of the Life Long Learner, Pernille begins by describing how curious and creative children are. She believes students come to school with this curiosity and schools are not responsible for it, even though many claim to be. She wants schools to encourage “maintaining life-long learners” instead of trying to “create” them. We don’t suddenly stop learning once we graduate college. We need to teach our children that they will continue learning new things forever. I want my students and children to be as creative as they can, and to enjoy learning. I chose to be a teacher because I want to make a difference in children’s lives. I also believe they will teach me new things I had no idea about, for we are all life-long learners. I want to encourage my student’s creativity and desire to learn, not just in my classroom but far beyond it as well.

It takes people to make a change not the Government

Diego is a 15 year old student from Puerto Rico. He seems like an extremely bright boy who knows his country is in trouble. He realizes that many children around the world don’t get the privilege to go to school and he intends on taking full advantage of the opportunities he has been given. He wants to impact the world and make a difference; he knows education is the key to doing this.
I am inspired by his post, he seems like an amazing person. I love how his enthusiasm comes through in his writing. I also believe education is the key to solve problems. It’s hard to make a difference sometimes but he seems so determined and has such a desire to do so, I really think he could make a change in his country!