Mercy Watson Fights Crime

Blog Post #6

In my journey as a teacher I will have face many questions. Who will I go to for advice? How will I get my questions answered? The answer to those questions is through a PLN. A personal learning network is a group of people or resources for you to go to and receive information that they have. With the networks of communication in our current day information is drastically easier to come by. There is limitless information on the internet.



I have already started to develop my PLN. It is not very big yet because my journey in an education career is just starting. I am sure it will become bigger and better the further along I get into my career. In the video Michael Fawcett discusses his PLN Fawcett discusses how he developed his PLN. He uses twitter as a main source for his PLN. He talks about his passion for space. He got a response from NASA when he put up a post about something space related. Twitter will play a big part in my PLN. Twitter enables you to communicate with anyone across the world that has the site. Blogger is another site that I will use for my PLN. In EDM 310 I have already been using blogger to reach out to other teachers and students. I will continue to do this a reach out to even more people to exchange information and ideas. The teaching career is a long journey of continuing learning. Problems and questions will come up. They will need to be answered and worked out. With a good PLN base I will do just fine in handling these situations.

My Sentence

My Passion

Blog post #5

This weeks blog post assignment was to watch videos of conversations between Anthony Capps and John Strange. Anthony Capps is a former student of EDM 310 and is now a third grade teacher. In the first video Project Based Learning Part 1 his idea of project based learning was to show what you learned in the lesson. Anthony also said, "my ideas of project based learning are constantly evolving." I think this is true with all learning. Methods of learning are always changing. A pencil, paper, and a chalkboard used to be all that was needed in a school. That is not the case in a classroom today. Anthony teaches in a classroom with third graders. They all can operate either a mac book, or an ipad. I learned from his first video that education will be very different from the way I was taught. Anthony Capps had an interesting project he had his student do. He had his students write letters to a Congressman. His students picked the best letters to send to Congress. He introduced peer editing to them by doing that. It seems like children would really really enjoy this project.



Another video that I found interesting was The Anthony- Strange Tips For Teachers Part 1. In this video there was good information that Anthony and Dr. Strange presented. The video presented good tips for a biggining teacher. A point was brought up by Anthony Capps that a teacher is always learning. Hard work and dedication is related to this. Just like any profession or anything you do, hard work is key to being successful. He explains that taking your teachings and learning process home with you is important. I agree with him totally. If your interested in something you tend to know more about things. Being flexible was another tip. Being flexible is a part of adjusting to your job and what ever it throws at you. Technology is usually reliable, but sometimes problems do take place. A power outage could be a situation that is faced while using electronics in the classroom. A backup plan is needed in case of that situation. Anthony seems like a very bright person. I think he will make a big impact on many students.

C4T Summary #1

In the first video I viewed Mrs. Hamada's blog on her methods of teaching dance to her physical education students. She was not the best expert on the skill of dancing. She wanted to introduce dance lessons to her students because she thought they would enjoy it and it is a great way to get a cardiovascular work out. She brought in instructional videos on dancing. She got great results out of this method of teaching. This proves that in physical education you may not be an expert in something, but you still can involve technology into your teaching to improve it.



In my second post on Mrs. Hamada's blog I left a comment on her post about physical literacy. Physical literacy deals with four different categories. Do you introduce different surfaces to students such as, a wooden court, grass, artificial turf, ice, and others. Do you introduce the skills it takes to perform on the different surfaces? This is the second bullet of physical literacy. The third topic deals with game sense, fair play, and coaching. The final topic is teaching students ways to properly fall on the different surfaces to protect there safety.

Blog Post #4- Asking Questions

Asking questions are very important to learning. I do not think there is a day that goes by that a person does not ask a question. That right there proves the importance of asking questions. When in a classroom, students ask questions to get a better understanding of the assignment or subject. When a teacher is asked a question by a student, usually a few others in the class have that same question that they would like answered.

When teachers ask open ended questions it promotes more than just a yes or no response. Responding with a yes or no, or I do not know does not aspire as much thinking as an open ended question. An opened ended question method is a great tool to use in the classroom. Silence after a question that a teacher asks is not a bad thing. Silence after a question is a great method to use. The silence period gets the students thinking one there own of the question you just asked. There are many ways asking questions can improve your teaching. I found the Asking Better Questions in The Classroom Video very helpful, the link is attached in the title of the video if you would like to view it.

Blog Post 3- How Can You Provide Meaningful Feedback to Your Peers?

While watching the video What is Peer Editing , The interactions made while peer editing are very important. Students may easily be offended by harsh comments made about their writings. This is a key reason why giving a compliment is the first step in peer editing. Starting off with a compliment gives the writer confidence, and they become more willing to listen to other advice you may have. While critiquing others work, staying positive with them can make a big difference on the person outlook of getting better at writing.

The second step to peer editing is giving suggestions. The first video states to keep an eye on word choice, using details, and organization. Word choice and vocabulary can make someones writing more interesting to read. Using detail helps a reader understand the complete message a writer is trying to get across. The final step to peer editing is making corrections. While making corrections look for, punctuation, grammar, sentences, and spelling. Staying positive in Peer editing is very critical, you do not want to discourage a writer.