Project 15

Project 16 Summary

This is a picture of my group after a meeting doing our project. In our group we have, Mallory Harris, Sheridan Jones, and Amber Harris. Working with my group was a great pleasure. It was a great experience to work with others. They were always there for me when I had questions or needed help. We did not have a theme to our iBook. Although we did not have a theme for our entire iBook, we did have individual sections of our blog like the picture's we took and gathered individually. My group put hard work into this project and I think all of my group members are happy with the outcome.

C4K Summary

My first student I left a comment for was from Pt England School. Here is the comment I left for Dezarae on her blog post.

"Hi Dezarae, My name is Tyler Mills and I am in class EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. You did a great job on your google slides! It was very interesting to learn about pikopiko. I enjoy eating cucumbers so I am sure I would like the taste of pikopiko."

My second post went to Inez at Pt England school. Here is my post that I left for Inez.

"Hi Inez, my name is Tyler Mills and I am from the University of South Alabama in a class called EDM 310. I totally agree with this post you have done. I am a Physical Education major and I know that eating healthy can really improve your life in every way. It is a good thing that you know all of this information. You have done a great job on your blog, keep up the good work!"

C4T Summary #4

This was my first post on Lisa's blog.

"Great question and thought Lisa! I attend EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. This is my first time hearing about unconferences, but I completely understand your frustration. It would be very disappointing to spend time and work preparing for these conventions to only have half of the people come that registered. I would suggest maybe sending out emails a couple days before asking for a reply back with a simple yes or no, if the person is still planning on attending. This could help give a better idea on how much food will be needed and how many people to expect. It sounds like you are very dedicated and work hard to make these conventions a great experience. Know you are making a difference even if only half of the people are attending, but I hope something can be implemented to decrease wastefulness and increase attendance."



This is the second comment I left on Lisa's blog Thumann Resources .

"Hi Lisa, My name is Tyler Mills from EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. Teachers can surely learn something from your blog and the links you have. Teachers can always learn more to improve or critique their teachings. Sharing this is information that will benefit many people."

Lisa can be a great help for a teacher in need of help with technology in the classroom. I left the link to her website in my blog.

Blog Post 13

I really enjoy the instructions for this weeks blog post! All year we have got our blog post outlines and instructions from Dr. Strange. This weeks blog post he has given up the control and has let us make our own instructions for a blog post and perform it for a chance of him making it a future EDM 310 blog post.

The blog post has to be molded towards your field of study. My field of study is physical education. My blog post instructions would be to write about a sports star that has a positive influence on you and younger kids. A little bit of research will have to be done on the person.

Many players influence me in a good way but no other sports superstar has a positive effect on me like Drew Brees. Drew Brees is the ultimate leader on and off the field. He is a true professional and carries himself in a great manor. He never seems to lose his cool. He went to Purdue university and then after was drafted as the first pick in the second round of the NFL draft by the San Diego Chargers in 2001. He was then traded to the New Orleans Saints in 2006. Brees has been a big helping hand in the rebirth of the city of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. He is a family man. He seems to love his family very much. He has had numerous moments on TV with his son. Brees is a great person and teammate to many people and he is someone I look up to. Here is a link to The Brees Dream Foundation

Blog Post 12

By: Tyler Mills

The driving question for this blog post is, "What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?" The video that I found interesting in the blog instructions was ipad usage for the blind. It showed a man named Wesley Majerus who was blind fully operate a stock ipad. He was giving lessons and tips of how to use the ipad as a vision impaired student. Wesley demonstrated how to operate using Voice Over. The system works by simply dragging your finger over items that appear on the screen. The Voice Over systems reads out whatever your finger comes across and makes a ticking noise when your finger is over a blank area. This is extremely helpful for a vision impaired student and helps them keep up with the rest of the class.

Through my own research I came across an ability to dictate what you want your apple product to type. The process is called dictation which is available on apple products. While viewing the video Dictation on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, by Steve Dotto I got an idea of how dictation works. Dictation works by saying anything aloud and your device typing the words out for you. This may help out a student that is born with no arms or hands to type. The system can be used to type papers in microsoft word and other systems. Mentioned in the video by Mr. Dotto, the dictation can not be used in google drive. I still believe this can be a big help to a handicap person.

By: Amber Harris:

What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?

After watching, "Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children", the video clearly shows educators that if they utilize the technologies available they can actually change a learning experience for a child with either a visual or hearing impairment. I agree that more awareness should be given to professionals to incorporate these types of technologies for children who not only suffer from sensory impairments,but for some teachers there is a resistance to incorporating new media in their daily teaching for the benefit of all students. More teachers need to be equipped with the skills to use these technologies. As with all professional learning surrounding the use of technology, teachers cannot expect to be handed a 'how to' manual on how to use and implement these technologies.
With some research on my own, I asl found the webpage "Computer Based Assistive Technology." This webiste gives 10 assistive technologies, such as Speech Synthsis Software. "Speech synthesizers are basically screen readers. They read text that is displayed on the computer monitor, allowing students to gain independent access to assignments, books, and research. Teachers or students do, however, need to pre-scan material before they can use it. Speech synthesis allows them to access the print in textbooks, and thereby the curriculum, in a way that would otherwise be more difficult, if not impossible. It may even increase student motivation to read." (Montali & Lewandowski, 1996)
How students can use speech synthesis software:
1. Where text is available in digital form (i.e., on the computer or diskette), students can have text read to them.
2. Some screen readers can read in a variety of applications, including the Internet.
3. Some Internet sites have collections of textbooks available to be read by screen readers.
4. Students can control the pace of the reading and the reading selection, through having the computer read only the words they are having difficulty decoding or a whole paragraph or passage.
5. Students can manipulate the rate of read-back to allow for variations in the speed they process auditory information.
by: Mallory Harris
The driving question for this post was, "What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?"

For this assignment, I Googled assistive technology in the classroom. There were some pretty interesting results. The first resource that I cam across was Bookshare. It is a website with a free online library for people with print disabilities. The website help people who have trouble reading.
This website seemed like it could be very useful for me in the future because I am going to be an english teacher and some of my students may be able to get some use out of the site.

The next resource that I found was Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology. This is a website that offers information in its resources section as well as access to the QIAT list serv. The list serv is an excellent forum to keep current with new developments in AT and the latest websites and other resources.

This would be an imprtant website when working with assistive technology because it could keep me up to date with the standards.

I also watched the video assigned by Dr.Strange called Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children. The video was about the different types of assistive technologies that can be found in the classroom and listed some of the reasons why it is important to know about these technologies. Sheridan’s Blog #12 Work For this weeks blog assignment, the driving question is, "What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?". To be honest, I have not thought about what technological tools that could be out there to help with special needs students. When I received this topic, I was actually able to put myself in a current teachers shoes and began to think "what if" I have a student that is blind or deaf. The videos that were assigned for us to watch were very useful and relating to what questions I had about this topic.

The first video, The Mountbatten created by The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, was relating to a device that uses audio/feedback. It can save files, transfer files to a computer, and receive files from a computer. This device is great for a student and/or teacher who does not know brail. Blind students are now not limited to what they can do not but rather be included in projects and be held to a responsibility of doing their part of the work.

The second video, Teaching Math to the Blind by Professor Art Karshmer University of San Francisco, informs us how they have created a touch-pad that blind students will be able to use to learn mathematics. Students will be able to use special (braille engraved) blocks and align math problems in a 2-dimensional way so they may learn as normal students learn. The touch-pad will keep track of the coordinates of each block students can keep up with where they have laid previous blocks. It is a foundation for blind students so that they may learn the basics of mathematics. The picture below is a touch-screen display of graphical mathematics for blind students.

This last video, iPad usage for the blind, I found the most amazing and intriguing. Apple has developed a voice-over for the iPad that enables the blind to use the iPad just as a normal person with normal vision can. Wesley (who is blind) demonstrates this in the video by using the voice-over on the iPad and telling/showing us what all he can do with it. It is amazing technology that expands the blinds capability so far. I love how Apple has created such an amazing tool that not only helps for learning purposes, but also, to help create the feeling of normality to blind students/people. 

C4T #3

In my last two C4T comments that I left they were on Mrs. Deyamport's Blog Language Journeys . Mrs. Deyamport specializes in teaching literacy, technology, Spanish, and gifted children. The first blog post that I commented on was about her love for technology and a conference that she attended in Indianapolis that was technology and gifted students based. She wrote about all of the ideas that she picked up from the conference. She also was very happy to meet some people that she really looked up to and who she is inspired by. She had several pictures of those who she met there.

In the second blog post of Mrs. Deyamport that I commented on she talked about how she just discovered a website called Byrdseed TV . This is a website made by a man named Ian Byrd. She happened to meet this man at the conference she visited in Indianapolis. On the website he has many education tips on several different topics such as Writing, Creativity, Technology, Careers, and more. This website is very helpful for an type of teacher. Rather your a rookie and just starting in education or even if your a veteran teacher looking for ideas this website is very helpful.

C4K #2

Bonus week- No c4k for this week. (no c4k was assigned during bonus week)

This week I was assigned to Mrs. She's class blog. I was assigned to comment on a voice thread on, Little Voices, Little Scholors . In this section of the class blog they were talking about the problems that the class was having with this particular voice thread.

This week I was assigned a student from the Pt England School named Sarah. The blog post that I left a comment on was about Sarah's personal goals.

My comment on her blog was "HI Sarah, my name is Tyler Mills. I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. First of all I really like your blog. I like all of your goals. My favorite goal that you had was caring for others. Being kind to others is a very good thing to do. Keep up the good work Sarah"

This weeks c4k was for a student named Damien, in Mrs. Squires class. Damien's post was on tropical cyclone lusi.

My comment on this blog post was, "Hi Damien, my name is Tyler Mills from the University of South Alabama in a class called EDM 310. I thought you did a great job on this post. I am sorry to hear the bad news that this storm caused. Keep up the great work on your blog post!".

Project 15- Project 12B

Blog Post #11 NOLA

The driving question for this blog post was, "What can we learn about teaching and learning from these teachers?"

The first video was Back to the Future, by Brian Crosby. His video was about a project that he did with his students that integrated technology in many ways. He felt that curriculum has been narrowed over the years and that it is keeping students from having real life experiences. The main idea of his project was to send a balloon up into the air. His class did some reading and activities with pressure to get the project started. This got his students excited. He was able to get his students to incorporate various types of technology into his project. They embedded videos into their blogs, wrote about the science behind their experiments, learned to make wiki pages, used their class Flikr account to write stories about what it would be like to be the balloon, used free online software to design book covers, illustrated their stories with Flikr photos, did more work with their blogs, and made trading cards using free online software. Mr.Crosby also had his students write "high hopes," for their community, their school,and the world. Their blogs got many views which inspired them to ask other people from all over the world to write their own "high hopes." This taught the children to develop their own learning networks. The class also used google maps to track their balloon as it went into the air. By putting all of their work on their blogs, the class got to show off their work to other students. They are doing language intense activities which encourage them to read/write, to learn content, to clarify and share, and to tell a story. These activities encourage them to be creative, want feedback, articulate orally, connect globally/aware globally, want authentic audiences, and remember the science.

The second video was the Blended Learning Cycle by Paul Anderson. He turned his classroom into a video game. He moved from teacher-centered learning environments to one focused on students. He said the biggest obstacle he encountered was trying to get his students to learn independently. He designed each level of the video game around a blended learning cycle. He believes in the power of learning and questioning. He described blended learning as taking the compelling parts of learning: online, mobile, classroom learning and just blending them together in the classroom and using that technology in a powerful way. He said the five E’s of the Learning Cycle were engage, explore, expand, and explain all of which revolve around evaluation. He had a unique way of combining these methods with his quivars. Quivars stands for question, investigation/inquiry, video, elaboration, review, and summary Quiz. He uses the question part of this process as a hook to get his students interested. Next comes the students investigating by examining what is happening- you let the students experiment. You then use a video which frees you up for other things because the students can watch it independently. Elaboration comes when the students read about what they are doing or make diagrams for it. Then they review. He meets individually or with small groups and asks them questions to check their understanding. They can’t go onto the summary quiz until the teacher is sure they know what they are talking about. The quiz tests them on what they know and if they don’t know it, then they go back. He doesn’t think you’ve learned something until you can explain it to someone else. After they go through about five learning cycles, they have a unit test. The students do all the grading, but the teacher asks really good probing questions.

The third video was Making Thinking Visible by Mark Church. He had his students work in small groups to have a discussion about a video they watched. He wanted them to come up with a headline for what their unit was all about. He asked them to think about how their ideas/thinking were extended. He then wanted them to think about the challenge or the puzzle with the topic in general. He asked them to search for human origins. One of the students described his question as, "How could we sum up everything we have been talking about in just a phrase?" Every group had to have a couple of words to say behind their headline. Once they did their final project, he was going to ask them what the headline is now. He was doing this to get his students thinking how the story has changed and how their thinking has changed.

The fourth video was Building Comics by Sam Pane. He was teaching his students how to figure out what information websites might be after. He asked his students, “What kind of power does the internet give us?” He told them to be specific. They had a class discussion about this. He told his students that a digital citizen is a person who chooses to act safely, respectfully, and with responsibility whenever you are online. He then asked them to build a comic about their digital superhero. His class used a website which allowed them to do this. He showed his class how to make a superhero for about five minutes, and then let them do it themselves. He matched the lesson up with English language standards. The students are able to create a narrative between themselves and the superhero in order to put together a complete story. This project gave the students a sense of ownership. The students were able to analyze the situation that they were in and analyze the text structure of the comic book in order to build a complete narrative. He had his students take what he called a, “gallery walk.” This was his way of having them peer review. The children were very eager to share their comics with the class. The english language standards in his project were to write narratives to develop imagined experiences or events, analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to text, ask and answer questions.

The fifth video was Project Based Learning by Dean Shareski. In this video, three teachers worked together to combine history, English, and information processing and embedded the principles of project based learning to create a unique learning experience for students. Project based learning helps to create engaged learners with deeper understanding. The teachers had to convince their administration that what they wanted to do with the students could really be beneficial for them. The kids use technology as a tool to bring the content to life in their classes. Their idea gave them the luxury of time: time to blend ideas into content, time to go deeper into learning, and time to provide quality feedback for students. They are able to give students multiple perspectives. The students love the projects and enjoy doing them.

The sixth video was Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program. The video described project based learning as in depth learning that integrates thematic instruction based on real-world problems using research based projects and presentations. Project based learning helps to take away the fear of public speaking because children get used to it at an early age. They like to have the students make a lot of decisions on their own to create in themselves a sense of power. The teachers put trust in their students and give them ownership of their work which makes the students accountable. Students learn to work independently, cooperatively, how to solve problems, how to communicate with each other, and to support each other. It also helps children to learn in different ways because it incorporates many different intelligences and learning styles.

What we learned from these videos was that teaching with technology can be done in many different ways. These videos showed us that projects should encourage learning from students and that technology can be used to make classroom projects fun for students. These videos really showed us the diversity among techniques for project based learning, but with the same consensus that it is something we should all try with out own classrooms. We all enjoyed getting to see how experiments worked out for these teachers in their own classrooms and hope that we can someday develop such amazing projects as these.

Project 12A

Blog Post #10

While watching Sir Ken Robinson's video Bring on the learning revolution I agreed with a lot of his points and found his public speaking very entertaining. He had a sarcastic type of humor that is very funny. I think he is a brilliant man and has several great ideas about future education. He compared fast food restaurants to the near by specialized sit down restaurants. All of the fast food restaurants are generic and all taste similar. All of the other restaurants like local steak houses are specialized and all are different from one to another and have their own flavor and style. Sir Ken Robinson's point was that education needs to change away from the same one size fits all education. I think that everyone has something that they are good at doing or have a passion for doing. The man he talked to that said he always wanted to be a fireman had a great story. No career profession choice is better than another everyone is different. Sir Ken Robinson made a statement that I really agree with. He said that not everyone needs to go to college. Sir Ken Robinson seems like a brilliant man with great ideas on education and I think a lot can be learned from him.

Blog Post #9

While watching the video Little Kids.... Big Potential I learned what Mrs. Cassidy's students do and what they have learned. Mrs. Cassidy's students have a blog similar to the blog we have in EDM 310. Her students know to not hurt others feelings in there blog post or comments to other students. The kids in the video said that they are always positive in there comments to others. We are taught the same way in EDM 310 and I believe being positive is an important way of communication. There are a couple of techniques that I will take from Mrs. Cassidy's video Interview With Kathy Cassidy Part 1. Her students have an individual blog and a class blog. My class will also have a class blog and an individual blog. There are many benefits of having blogs for my students and class as a whole. My major is Physical Education. While teaching the weather may be bad outside while we are supposed to be doing an outdoor activity. If I have a class blog, I can put a post up before class about instructions of what to expect for the upcoming class session. The topic of PLN's were brought up by Dr. Strange. I have already started to get my PLN going in education. Dr. Strange mentioned that he did not have a twitter before. He made a deal to try it and see how it was. He said the his life has not been the same since he started using it. He also stated that he met Mrs. Cassidy through twitter. Mrs. Cassidy also talked about protecting the students, and protecting them from what they can see. She said that her students never put their last name on their work on the internet or none of there personal information. Something that can be done to protect them while at school is something such as a website blocker, blocking the inappropriate sites. A number of things can be learned from Mrs. Cassidy's interview. The video's were very helpful.

Project #14

In this lesson plan I intend to show my students proper throwing form, introduce them to peer editing, and improve their ipad and imovie skills. On my first day I will show them youtube videos of how to properly throw. Day two I will give the children pointers and tips on their stance and also describe to them the proper steps of throwing a ball. The third day the children will be given the opportunity to practice what they have learned the past couple of days. On the fourth day the students will get into small groups and video each other throwing a ball. On the last day the students will get into their groups and critique each others videos.

Project #9

Blog Post #8-What Are 21st Century Learning and Communicating Tools?

Every job done in the world has tools that are used to make a job easier. For a person in construction an important tool would be a hammer. In education for many years the most important tools to use was a pencil and paper. But with the evolution of technology there are more important tools of teaching now. There are also different ways of teaching also. The method of flipping a classroom has become an effective way to be a successful teacher. I would like to implement this into my style of teaching when I become an educator. Youtube/education will be my most important tool in my teaching career. I am a physical education major. Tons of sports skills, tips, drills, etc. can be found on youtube. I can get my children to start an upcoming activity at home by assigning them videos to watch on youtube. This can get my class one step ahead. If the students come in prepared knowing the rules to a sport or activity more time can be spent on actually playing the game, rather than me explaining the rules half of the class period. While watching why I flipped my classroom I learned some reasons why flipping a classroom is effective. She explains that she has a couple different groups of students. The main group is busy with the task and listening. The gifted children that are ahead of the others and are bored with the task. The last group are the children that are lost and are frustrated that they can not keep up. Flipping the classroom allows the children to come to class all on the same page and spend time doing the activity in class.

C4T Summary #2

While visiting Mr. Jones blog jonesytheteacher I commented on two blog post of his. Both of them were great topics that I was really interested in. The first blog post was titled "Emulator? Or Assimilator?". The emphasis was on whether you should copy a style of teaching and learning, or whether you should use the method of assimilation. The method of assimilation is done by taking a method of teaching and adding your own twist on it. Me and Mr. Jones both agreed that the best way would be to use your own method of the teaching, and not to just copy something.



The second blog post I commented on was my favorite of the two. It was a topic on how you can use a GoPro camera in your Physical education class. I think this is a great idea and I will probably use it in my own physical education class and on my sports teams. This is a way to use technology in Physical Education. Using a GoPro camera gives a view of what an athlete sees during the action of the sport. Football teams all across the United States are attaching them to players helmets to improve there performance and see what that player sees during the play. He also had a video of his PE student using the GoPro camera during a rugby game. I believe it was strapped to his chest. A players game can be improved by critiquing there methods during the game. The videos can also be used for enjoyment of the players to remember an exciting moment during competition.

Project #13

C4K Summary

While visiting Sierra Brown's blog she talked about how her book story was erased. She apologized for not having a book report up for her last post. She talked about the difficulties she was having. She said her project had been erased.

Student #3 talked about her experience with other students. She talked about other people irritating her more than usual when she is having a bad day. She seemed to be having a bad experince with other students or was having a bad day at the time.



The second student I commented on talked about her trip to the zoo. She talked about eating something while she was the visiting the zoo. A lemur came up to her and attempted to steal her food. She talks about her dad saving the day and protecting her and her food. Her blog profile was named Candice The Great.

The first student I commented on talked about their family. They went into detail how close they are to their other siblings. They also talked about their pets in the blog post also.

Blog Post #7

While watching Randy Pausch's Last Lecture I was very entertained. There were many life lessons to learn from his journey in his career. He started of with talking about dreaming. Dreams he wanted to achieve as a child. Some of those dreams were achieved, like going into zero gravity. There was one dream that was not achieved. He wanted to become an NFL (National Football League) football player but came up short on this dream. Dr. Pausch said that he learned the most from not achieving this goal. In life you are going to fail at something, no one is perfect. What you do when your knocked down makes you the person you are. Responding to failure and adversity is very important to being successful in any career.



Dr. Pausch also talked about his teaching at Carnegie Mellon. He said that in his class that was for students achieving a masters that the only assignments that he assigned was group assignments only. Working with others is so crucial in the job environment. While working in the education field you are working with others everyday of your career. It is key that you are easy to work with, and that you get along with others well. In Dr. Pausch's class the students are rated on there working skills in the group. Dr. Pausch and the students in the class rate each other on there group working performance. Dr. Pausch also liked teaching students in a way that is fun and teaches the student a skill at the same time. He called this method the "head fake". I think the head fake method of teaching is very effective and I plan to use it when i become a teacher.

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.

What Will Teaching in the 21st Century be Like?

1. While watching Mr.Dancealot the message of the video was that to teach certain things such as how to do the "Fox Trot" using traditional methods of teaching in the classroom does not work. The author made his case by the students having no clue what they were doing come test day. I do agree with his conclusion. Showing videos of how to dance would be much better than images on paper or a slide.

2. Teaching it the 21st Century By Kevin Roberts (John Strange Version) shows that teaching in the 21st will be dramatically more technology based. The video said that all information is online. It asks the question, "What will be the purpose of teachers"? The video gives the idea that all information can be learned through strictly the internet, by using tools such as Google, Wikipedia, and many more informative websites. I am on the fence with his opinion on teaching and technology in the 21st century. My degree is Physical Education. Most of the information about games and exercises I have are in my head. With that being said, I can find other ideas online if I ever run out of ideas. Instructional videos on things I may not be an expert on may teach them tips and instructions better than I can.

3. Watching The Networked Student raises the question "Why does the networked student need a teacher?" I think the answer to the question is the networked student does not need a teacher. For my major Physical Education a coach is needed. Videos may be able to teach games. Web sites can give information on fitness, but the exercises and techniques need to be critiqued by an expert. Yes videos can be sent and critiqued by a message back, but games are meant to be experienced with others. Participating with others in physical games builds a bond of teamwork that can not be done online.

4. The Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts thesis was to work by collaborating with other students and instilling self learning. I believe you should put the effort in to learn on your own, just like the the statement she makes in the video.If you do not know a word that someone says it can be looked up and found easily on the web. Working with other students on assignments is also a great way of teaching key skills that are needed in life. Communication with others is very important in having a successful career. Working together for a grade can be compared to working with a co-worker on the job. Exposing students to collaborating helps them in the long run.

5. Watching Flipping the Classroom brings up a new method of teaching to me. This method can be useful for me as a teacher. I could tell a student to look up a sport at home. Give them objectives to learn rules, history of the sport, styles of play, and drills to improve their game. Then the student can come into the next class already ready to play the game. For those students struggling to learn how to play, they can be helped by me the teacher or other students that know the game.

Blog Post #1

I signed up for this class a semester ago. I was not prepared for the class at all. So therefore I dropped the course. I am working 40 hours a week so I was very overwhelmed and intimidated by the amount of hours it was going to take. I am afraid that I will be too busy with work and other classes and forget to keep up with this course. This semester will be my hardest semester of college by far. I am determined this semester to get serious about finishing college. The end of my college career is near but there is much more hard work ahead.



EDM 310 so far is like no other course i have ever taken. It is a technology based class that is teacher specific. I have taken computer classes before but none have taught me anything that EDM 310 has so far. The hardest part of this class will be making time to complete the assignments. I plan to stop being lazy, stop putting things off till the last minute, and get serious about my career. To be successful in this class I am going to need to get started on assignments earlier. I will also put school as my top priority.

Practice Post

Hi, my name is Tyler. I am a junior here at South Alabama. I transfered here from Faulkner State Community College. I went there on an athletic scholarship to play baseball. Sports and the outdoors are my passions. I am a fitness enthusiast and spend much of my time in the gym. I have lived in the Mobile area my whole life. I like living close to the water. I love to fish and spend time at the beach. I also enjoy knee boarding, tubing and wake boarding.

I stay very busy during the week going to school in the morning and going to work at 3:30. i work at a local company called Centralite systems. We manufacture electronic products such as air conditioner thermostats, lighting systems, and motion sensors. I have been there for a year and 3 months. I am planning on getting my substitute teacher certificate to get experience with teaching and with being a substitute I can become a coach somewhere also. Sports have been a huge part of my life. They have taught me many life lessons and have molded me into the person I am today. Without the sport of baseball I would have never went to college. Many coaches have taught me life lessons that have made me a better person not just an athlete. If I can have that same effect on my students and players, then I will view my career as a success.