Blog Post #14

Write a post in which you discuss if texting should be allowed in the classroom for educational purposes. If you think it should, explain how you would use it if you were the teacher. If you think that it should not, give a reason for your answer.

1. read 12 ways to text message
2. watch Is texting killing our language?   a ted talk by John McWhorter
3. Answer the question below.  Use a bold header
     a. Should texting be allowed in the classrooms as a learning tool? Why or why not?
4. Include a link and a picture in your post.

Should texting be allowed in the classrooms as a learning tool? Why or Why Not?

My major is Elementary Education. In my opinion, texting should be allowed in the classroom because I think that it will enhance learning. I think if used effectively, texting can be a great learning tool. The reason why I say yes to texting is because it will capture the students' attention therefore engaging them in their learning. With a well structured curriculum stating when to use texting, I think that teaching by texting will work. For example, the teacher can ask and answer questions via text messaging scheduled at a certain time during the class period. The teacher may also want to break the class up into small collaborative groups and assign part of the group to ask questions pertaining to a particular assignment and the other part to answer the questions. The roles can also be reversed during the class period or on the next class time.

In giving his ted talk, Is texting killing our language?, John McWhorter stated that texting is another way of speaking. In other words, texting is not writing at all, it is speech. Therefore, we shouldn't concern ourselves about texting ruining our language because speech was here long before writing was and will be here long after writing is gone. From my aspiring teacher's view, I think texting will not only serve as a communication tool but as a teaching tool as well. I think it will lead to teachable moments regarding spelling, grammar, punctuation and the use of language.

Final Report PLN Project #2

After looking back at my first PLN report, I realized how much I have grown in regards to realizing what PLN tool and person would be most beneficial to me in my career. I have come to the conclusion that for right now, the answer is pretty much the same that is was in my first report except for the fact that twitter is the first on the list because with it, I can consult and collaborate with people such as Kathy Cassidy, Mrs. Yollis. Peter H. Reynolds, Anglea Maiers, Dr. Vitullis, Dr. Strange, Jabiz Raisdana, and Sir Ken Robinson. I am also followingTED Talks  and Fable Vision.  Some of the people that are apart of my PLN are educators at The University of South Alabama, some are Elementary Teachers who created classroom blogs, some were apart of my C4T and others created educational videos that I found to be relevant in regards to education, inspiration and information.

Discovery Ed is still apart of my personal learning network because as an aspiring educator, I know the importance of engaging the students and not only ensuring that they know the state standard contents but to be sure that I am adhering by them as well. The last but not least PLN that I will continue to utilize is YouTube. Like I stated in my first report, I am an audio and visual learner and I think that videos are one of the best tools that can be used to stimulate both of those styles of learning.

Smart Board Part B

C4T #4

My c4t on November 10 was Angela Maiers. The title of the particular post that I commented on was,"Around the world with Curran."  Curran is a seven year old blogger. He became interested in blogging by helping his mom document on a map all the comments she received on her blog from around the world. Curran liked the idea of interacting with people from all over the globe. He shared with Angela his dreams and intentions and she allowed him to make his first post on her blog. Curran began his comment by asking people where they were from and what was the best thing about their state or country. In my comment to him via angela's blog and on his own personal blog, I commented that I was from Alabama and I hope to teach school soon and that my state is known for its beautiful beaches and its love for football. I also commented that I will take Curran's advice a create a classroom blog for my future students.If you are interested in following Angela, follow her at http://www.angelamaiers.com/blog

On November 13,2013, I was assigned to Angela again for my c4t. I figured that since I am majoring in Elementary Education that I would read her post on bullying. The topic of the particular post that I chose to read and comment on was Bullying is not just a youth problem, it's a human problem. In this post, Angela said that a bully is a person of any age that causes physical harm or emotional distress to anyone. She also gave a couple of other definitions and that is when I realized that bullying does not stop after elementary school. Angela asked if we knew anyone that fit the description of a bully and that is when I felt compelled to comment.In my comment to Angela Maier, I stated that when she said that bullying is not just a youth problem, it is a human problem, that she could not have been any further from the truth. I told her that If she would have told me that when I got forty years old that I would be bullied, I would have told her that she was  out of her mind. I informed Angela that  the bullying took place on my job and I did not want to report it because I thought that telling would make me look weak. To make a long story short, I confronted the bully and a couple of other people followed suit. The bully apologized. I said all of that to say that if I, being a grown woman felt so helpless then how much more do our youth feel? We have got to put programs in place to empower them and let them know that they are not alone. I ended my post to Angela by saying that the students really do matter.

On November 19, I heard back from Angela and this is what she said,Tracy, Thank you so much for sharing your story. It is so inspiring and empowering to hear that you stood up to your bully. It takes great courage to do what you did. And I give the bully credit for being "big" enough to accept responsibility and apologize. I think this happens to adults much more that we talk about. Stories like yours are important to ensue that no one stays silent about bullying. Thank you! 

C4K Summary for November

C4K9

On November 5th, I was assigned to a little girl by the name of Sarona for my c4k. The title of Sarona's blog was, "Most Memorable Time At School." Sarona said that her most meomorable time was at  FiaFia when she got to pick a group that she wanted to be in. Sarona picked to Samoan group because they taught a lot of dances that she did not know and she loved to dance.

In my comment to Sarona, I introduced myself and told her that I enjoyed reading her blog. I also commented that I can tell that she loves to dance by the excitement of her words. I also told her that I love to dance too. I told Sarona that I was glad that she got to choose the group that she wanted. I asked her if she knew that dancing was good for the mind as well as for the body. I ended my post to Sarona with telling her about a saying that we have in the United States. The saying is, "Dance like no one is watching."

C4K 10
On November 13th, I was assigned to the infamous Mrs. Yollis. I watched a video that she did on commenting. In the video, Mrs. Yollis gave some very important tips concerning the proper way to make comments. She said that you must begin with a greeting, give a compliment, add relevant information, ask a question, proofread your comment before you post it and end with a sincere closing. Mrs. Yollis went on to explain why she rejected certain comments. She said that comments are what makes the blogs come to life.

I responded to Mrs. Yollis by first introducing myself as a student of EDM 310 at The University of South Alabama. I also commented that I agreed with the fact that comments are what makes the blogs come to life. I also added how I excited I get when I receive comments. I told Mrs. Yollis that she and her class has been such an inspiration to me and that I will continue to follow them long after my days with EDM 310 and Dr. Strange are over. I invited her to follow me on twitter and I thanked her for being apart of my personal learning network.

C4K#10 Continued
On November 16, I went back and watched the other video by Mrs. Yollis class titled," The Benefits of Global Blogging," that I should have watched along with the one that Mrs. Yollis did on commenting. Mrs. Yollis began this video saying that the teachers used to be the only audience that the students had but now, that has drastically changed and the students and the teacher are both thrilled. The students in the video commented on how they enjoy being apart of an on-line learning community. They also shared the safety practices that Mrs. Yollis had taught them. The students like to skype and talk with students from all over the world.

In my comment to Mrs. Yollis and her class, I told them that their video was so impressive. I also commented that I feel apart of the on-line learning community that they so eloquently spoke of. I told the class that it was such an inspiration to see them making such positive digital footprints. I asked Mrs. Yollis if I could borrow her acronym,"Yappy," to use in my future classroom so that I can help my students to stay safe on-line through daily practice. Visit.http://yollisclassblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/video-mrs-yollis-talks-about-commenting.html for some great tips on blogging.

Blog Post #13

By: Tracy Armstrong

#6 on Ken Robinson's top ten ted talks

One of Sir Ken Robinson’s favorite TED talks is of Mae Jemison addressing the need to teach the arts and sciences together. It amazes me that eleven years after Ms. Jemison gave that talk that we are still discussing the fact of whether we should teach art along with the sciences or not. Ms. Jemison  says science and art are manifestations of the same thing. They are avatars of human creativity. They spring from the same source. In other words, we must learn that they cannot and should not be separated. The most profound statement that Ms. Jemison said was that,” science provides understanding of a universal experience and the arts provides universal understanding of a personal experience." Both science and art requires a vision that must be put into action. They are both equally important because the actions will be built upon by future generations. We have a responsibility to contribute to the legacy of our country. We cannot afford to fail to act for the future. We can learn from thisTED talk by Ms. Mae Jemison that our understanding of the arts and sciences must be expressed and shared in order to further the growth of our nation.

By: Shakeya Andrews

In A Girl Who Demanded School Kaneya spoke about her life growing up. When she was 5 years old she found out that she was engaged and after that she spent most of her time learning how to become a good wife for her soon to be husband. Kaneya’s mother raised her while her father spent most of his time away working. When her father came around he would abuse her mother and take the money that the family had earned but he never helped his family out. Her mother did not have the opportunity to get an education, which is why she pushed her children to go after their dreams and get an education. Kaneya’s dream was to become a teacher so she worked hard while she was in school to fulfill her dreams, but she didn’t have a chance at continuing her education because she knew that she would be getting married soon. Kaneya teaches us that no matter what obstacle we face, continue to go after what we want because we can do whatever we put our mind to. Even though she did not get the chance to continue school and become a teacher when she wanted to, she still chased her dream . Kaneya asked people to help support her so that she could take a trip to America to finish her education and surprisingly people were willing to help. She persevered because she knew that she had the right to get her education. In spite of challenges kaneya was granted the opportunity to finish her education. I learned that there are four things that we must carry with us when we are trying to reach our goals. In order to reach our goals  we must be the best we can be, be confident, be bold, and be fearless. Kaneya says, “If you can change your world, you can change your community” such powerful words and very encouraging.

Shane Koyczan by: Emma Boren

Number 8 on Ken Robinson’s top 10 ted talks is Shane Koyczan’s To this day... for the bullied and beautiful. In this video, Koyczan talks about his life growing up. He says that he was bullied, and then he became what he did not want to be; a bully himself. Through this whole video, Koyczan tells his story. He tells about his dreams growing up, what he wanted to become. He says that not only was he called names but his dreams were called names also; Stupid, silly, unrealistic, and more. He wanted to be a writer, and when he was told that was unrealistic, he said he wanted to become a wrestler. That was also silly they told him. This was his whole life. He lived with his grandmother who would make him pork chops when he felt sad. To Shane, pork chops were the same thing as a karate chop. His grandmother thought it was cute, but it ended up getting them into some trouble. When he fell out of a tree and bruised his whole right side, he and his family life got investigated. When asked Shane told them “my grandmother gives me karate chops when I’m sad.” When the story got out and everyone figured out what really happened, he began to get called pork chop. After telling his story, he goes into his poem. His poem is a story about three different kids who lived their lives being bullied. They are depressed, they get put on pills for their depression and everyone around them thinks they are pill poppers. They consider suicide. They try to figure out how to be invisible, how to make it stop. This video was so eye opening to me about the issue of bullying. I knew it went on, but I never knew the extremity to which it went. Shane Koyczan’s talk can teach people a lot about the way kids feel when they get bullied.

 

Project #15 Project Based Learning Plan #3

This Lesson plan is for 2nd grade science. Through research, collaboration and lecture, students will be able to identify and list the basic components of our solar system, including the sun, planets and Earth's moon.The link when clicked will take you to your learning plan.https://sites.google.com/site/lessonplan15/

Blog Post #12

How to Escape Education’s Death Valley: By Tracy Armstrong

After watching ted talk by Sir Ken Robinson, I learned that as a future educator that I should be concerned with educating the whole being of the students. The only way for this to be done is to control the climate of our classrooms by engaging the student’s curiosity, individuality and creativity. We should not just sit back and work off of the commands of conformity and predicated academic ability. According to Sir Ken Robinson, Death Valley was a hot and dry place where nothing grew until the climate was controlled. He also said that Death Valley was dormant until someone took the time to cultivate it. I think that Sir Ken was trying to tell us that in order for our students to flourish in all areas of their lives that we as educators need to give them the necessary tools to stimulate their whole being. Sir Ken also demanded us to stop leading students to believe that it is wrong to make a mistake and to instead help them to become original and prepared to make mistakes. The thought intended here is that learning takes place once the mistake is corrected.

How Schools Kill Creativity: By: Shakeya Andrews

In Mr. Robinson’s video he explains how students are not being allowed to be creative anymore. Students should have the opportunity to express themselves in the classroom without being ridiculed for failing at what they tried. He also says that creatively in education is as important as it is in literacy. Education is what will lead our children into this uncertain future that we sometimes are unable to grasp. In the video Ken says that “No one has a clue where education will take us in the next 5 years,” which is very true. However, being able to use our creativity can enhance the places we are trying to go. Mr. Robinson believes that kids will take a chance in whatever they do without being afraid of the outcome. Society is causing our students to lose their ability to be creative by placing so much emphasis on how well they succeed at attempting to be creative or do things correctly. One of Ken’s famous quotes is “I believe this passionately that we don’t grow into creativity; we grow out of it.” He firmly believes that students are born with creativity. Ken wants our society to live by Picaso’s quote which states that “All children are born as artist; the problem is to remain an artist when you grow up.” Ken also said something that I found very interesting. He said, if you’re not prepared to be wrong you’ll never come up with anything original. Students lose their excitement for being adventurous and when they reach the adult stage because they are scared to be wrong.

Watch Ken Robinson explain How School Kill Creativity

Changing Education Paradigms by Emma Boren

Ken Robinson starts off this video Changing Education Paradigms by describing education and the process of how it has changed throughout the centuries. He states that everyone, everywhere is trying to reform the public education system. Education is either economic, trying to teach kids in a way that they will find their way in the economy of the 21st century, or education is cultural; education that gives children a sense of cultural identity while encouraging the process of globalization. The problem is that we are trying to meet our future goals while doing exactly what was done in the past. This process alienates children who don’t see the purpose in school. This is becoming more common since it isn’t really necessary to have a college degree to get a good job anymore. Robinson says that the problem with the public education systems is that they are still designed for a different age of time. We need to raise the standards. Children are classified as “smart” or “not smart” based on their academic ability and this causes many brilliant people to believe they are not smart. Mr. Robinson then goes on to explain the chaos of the fictitious epidemic of ADHD. It is the modern plague he states. However, it is not really an epidemic. He states that children are too routinely medicated for ADHD. These children live in the most stimulating century, and they are being punished for their interest in the modern technology such as cell phones, computers, tv, etc, because it is distracting them for the boring aspect of school. The ADHD “epidemic” has been growing parallel with the importance on standardized testing. Robinson also states that it is shown that the further east you go through the country, the more the children are medicated to stay focused. The main victims of this epidemic are the students of the arts. Art requires aesthetic thinking, when the senses peak, but education is becoming more anaesthetic. This shuts off the sense and deadens the self to what is happening. Education is still modeled on the interests of industrialization. The schools are organized factory lines; ringing bells, separate facilities, and divided subjects. They are also dividing the kids into batches based on age. Robinson makes a great point, who is to say that age is the best way to divide these children? What about how the perform based on time of day, small groups or large groups, individually. Education is conformed to standardization, and we need to be going the opposite direction. This is what Robinson means by changing paradigm. The last thing he talks about is divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is essential to creativity. Children learn to see many different answers to the questions, and a lot of different ways to interpret the question. Divergent thinking teaches children to not think laterally. When kindergarteners were tested on their divergent thinking ability, 98% of them tested in the genus level. This number drops as children get older, thanks to the standardized way of teaching and testing. Children are taught their whole school lives that there is one answer to a question, it’s in the back of the book, but it is not okay to look at it, copy it, or talk about it. This is cheating in school. Outside of school, this would be known as collaboration. This is the direction we need to be taking our classrooms. As Robinson lastly states… “Most great learning happens in groups.”