My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete

Dear Classmates,
I regret not meeting each one of you this semester. There were a few of you with whom I chatted with each class period and formed a friendship with. I want to say thank you to every classmate that helped me when something was not clear to me. My journey at the University of South Alabama College of Education has just began, so I am sure I will have a chance in another semester to get to know everyone. Good luck on all of your future endeavors.
Sincerely,
Shannika W.
:-)

Things I learned this Semester

I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience in this micro computing class. I think Dr. Strange is an excellent instructor with a progressivism type approach to teaching. He believes in serving as a coach and students learn best by doing hands-on activities. This semester, I learned the many advantages of GOOGLE!! Anything that can be done in Word programs can be done in Google...FREE!! This semester, I learned how to create a website, calculate payments, interest, and monthly rates on loans, subscribe to a blog, and create an igoogle page. All of these thing I learned in this class will be beneficial to me as a future teacher. I can use blogs and my website to keep students and parents up to date with classroom assignments.
This semester in preparation for my final exams, I viewed Dr. Strange's instructional videos. The videos were extremely helpful because they were so thorough. I think the videos would be beneficial to his future students for reinforcement. I would not like them to be the sole method of instruction though because that would defeat the whole purpose of coming to class. When I was in nursing school they made us watch videos on mediasite and they served as an instructional method, and we rarely learned anything in class. I hated mediasite and never benefited from it. However, I appreciate the time and effort Dr. Strange put into the videos to help the students.
~Thanks for being a great instructor/coach Dr. Strange!!

Trusting Wikipedia

I do not think Wikipedia will and can never be a trusted source for information. Throughout my life, I have been warned to believe half of what you see and hear and none of what you read! Mostly, the older people telling me this was referring to newspapers and tabloid type magazines. I think everything on the internet has been jeopardized at some time or another. Whenever I have searched for something on the internet, hundreds of links come up. Sometimes, I click on two or three just to see the discrepancies of each article. Even if and when you are at home using your personal computer, I believe someone is always watching and that is how the FBI catches up with child molesters and others participating in online illegal activities. I am so afraid of banking online although they claim it is safe and secure because of these reasons. People should just use Wikipedia as another reference source and always do follow ups on the information obtained from the site.

Growth vs. Fixed Minds

The study done at Stanford University was very interesting to me. I now see that it is true, whatever you believe will come true. If we believe we can, we are right. If we believe we cannot, we are right. When the teachers at Stanford has these kind of attitudes and conducted research on two groups of students, my believe was only verified. When we have a group of students that are made to believe that their brains can learn continuously and every time they learn, the brain's neurons branch together making more pathways and connectiions, the students strive hard in everything they do. Moreover, when students believe they are born with dead brains, that is the attitude they have throughout their school lives and no one can tell them different.

I have learned that as a future teacher, postitive exoectations is a must. If we do not believe in and have faith in our own students, we cannot and should not expect them to have faith and believe in themselves. As a teacher, during the first days of class, I will let my students know that they will all be successful and we will work as a team to make sure this is true. I will believe in every child in my class, no matter what their file folder says about them.

WGBH Video Usage

I think this website would be very useful to me as a classroom teacher. If all schools are using the iTune web videos and have the projectors connected to the computers like the professors use at USA, I believe the students would enjoy the videos. The videos are easily accessible and are not that long. I have found that they are more interesting than the videos that comes with text books, are the ones teachers have to check out from the library.

The video I watched was about life science. The video was describing what happens in blood vessels and ways they work with the body in fighting off cancer or other types of diseases. The video was colorful and the man that was narrating was not gloomy and boring while he was talking. Even if students are absent and I have a class blog, I could provide the name of the video we watched in class and they could write a little report for me about the video. I plan to use the iTune videos as instructional methods when I become a teacher.

iTunes University

Apple has a new program that they expect will better students. This program is called iTunes University. iTune University provides students access to course content at the palm of their hands if they have access to iPods or iPhones. Apple thinks this program will give students the opportunities to be able to view and review lectures and access other instructional materials. Most students always download music and videos with their iPods and iPhones twenty-four hours per day! This program would make it a leisure type activity for students because they can learn while they sit down to eat!

iTunes University would be useful to me as a teacher, because if a student does not understand part of the lesson they could easily download course material and review the lecture. This would also be beneficial for me as a teachers also when a student is absent. Absent students will also be able to take a look at posted assignments and review them before coming to class the next day.

I would try to make sure that I update the information for my class daily. I would let students know that they may contact me anytime through email if they have questions about the viewed materials online. Information about iTunes University can be found HERE!

Using iPods for Instructional Purposes

Technology use is becoming more prevalent in the educational society each day. When iPods were first introduced on the market, all we knew is that they could download and replay millions of songs. In 2004, Duke handed over free iPods to 1,650 of its incoming freshmen students. The purpose of these iPods were to provide fingertip access to lectures, news, and the school's calender. In addition to the items uploaded into the student's iPods, the school purchased voice recorders to attach to the iPods so that the students could record lectures while in classroom through their handy devices. More information about Duke's iPod distribution and the theory behind it can be found HERE.

Students were interviewed to see what they thought about using iPods for educational purposes. Many of them thought it would be a waste of money for the school, because if they were not required to do certain assignments on the internet at certain periods of time, they would just use the devices to download music for their enjoyment. As a teacher, I do not think I would be a participant in this research study unless I was a foreign language instructor. Duke planned to use the iPods to play back lessons in foreign languages that the student were studying. I think this would be a good idea because when I had Spanish and French in high school , sometimes I wished I had a tape playing the teacher's lecture for me. I hope the students using iPods for instructional purpose took advantage of their schools efforts to keep up with the current technology trends.

Comments on November's Fischbowl

This blog post was about providing wireless internet services to the students at Arapahoe High School. Some of the administrators wanted to know why having wireless access at all times was so important. Most classes in this century requires some type of assignment that has to be completed with internet assistance at some point. Sometimes, there are not enough computers available in the lab and if the student has laptop with wireless capabilities, they can to their work right then and there.

Karl informs us that the internet usage is available Monday through Friday at the time of the posting, and he was trying to have it available on Saturday's also because the building is in heavy usage on that day as well. I think wireless access is great and critical for our students because it provides them with on hand and on time information at all times.

Pictures with Modifiers and Image Tags

Comments on September Fischbowl Blog

The September blog on Fischbowl was interesting, because it posed a question to society of whether of not a teacher insufficient in technology was equivalent to someone 30 years ago who did not know how to read or write. I read the blog, updates, and comments from other readers and I must say that I do agree with this for the most part. Most schools uses some form of technology in their everyday classes. In the morning, teachers have to take daily attendance on the computer and sometimes, administrators communicate with teachers through email.

If you are a new teacher and do not know how to log onto a computer or email notices, you should not be hired. The basic skills required for computer usage such as word processing, email, and some spreadsheet knowledge should be requirements for hiring teachers. Students are introduced to computers earlier than before. Even when I in kindergarten over 10 years ago, we went to the computer lab for instruction on computer usage at least 30 minutes/day/week. Knowledge in computer areas should not require teacher to be familiar with youtube, myspace, and blogs. These areas are not vital and are much more of leisure in my opinion.

International Blog Usage

It was rather hard for me to find blogs used in international schools or classrooms, but I managed to find one HERE! This blog is used through a library at the American School of Brasilia in Brazil. The blog allows the students and the teachers at the school to post comments and pictures about books they have read. The site also recommends books to students. Even though some of the books are rather outdated for my age group, I found some of the content of the books rather entertaining.

Another international can be found HERE. This blog was created by a teacher, Jimbo, who is from Iowa but now teaches in English in Japan. Jimbo was not given a curriculum when he started teaching at the Japanese Middle School, so he had to create his own assignments. Jimbo experiments with different techniques like fill in the blank essays to see if the Japanese children can correctly fill in the correct English word. He also shows videos in English and asks the children to explain what they saw to check their comprehension levels. Jimbo uses a pairing strategy by pairing the students so that they will not feel as disappointed as they would if they get something wrong. I would like to teach English internationally one day, so I will continue to check Jimbo's blog.

Blog Usage in Schools

There is one educational blog found at this site. The blog was created and is used by an AP government and history teacher in Raleigh, NC. The teacher's name is Betsy Newmark and she uses the blog to keep her students up to date with current events in history, politics, news, and classroom activities. The blog has been in use since 2002. The blog is open to the public and viewers are allowed to comment on the content included on the site, and they are provided links to other people's blogs. his blog did not contain any photographs.

Another teacher blog that I found is owned by Tamara Fisher. Tamara is a K-12 gifted education specialist in Montana. on this blog, Tamara offers informative information to teachers in her category or those considering working in the special education field. She tells cute stories geared towards how gifted some special education children are. Society may close the door in their faces, but they are missing out on some of the most talented citizens. On this blog, Tamara also offers informative information about signs to look for in suspected gifted children. The link to the site can be found HERE.
These are the pictures available from the website.

Presentation

ACCESS

ACCESS is the acronym for Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide program. The intent of this program is to provide all students with the advanced courses that are required for diplomas. Some students in rural areas does not have access to courses such as physics and trigonometry. The access program has a mission to interconnect schools throughout the state of Alabama with an effort to communicate with the distance learning courses.

ACCESS works with the ALEX program through communication on and off line. ACCESS provides access to the best courses and teachers through technology; the courses are internet and interactive based. The ACCESS program requires extensive amounts of funds. Videoconferencing is how the teachers communicates with the students.

When I was in high school at Moss Point High School in Moss Point, Mississippi, I had the benefit of using a program similar to ACCESS. We did not call ours ACCESS as far as I knew, we only used the name distance learning. The instructor for my genetics class was the teacher for students at Bay High. It was a fun experience for me because it was new, and I had the chance to meet other enthused students in a different city. The equipment was high tech and there were many rules we had to follow to protect ourselves and the equipment. When I become a teacher, I would like to conduct an ACCESS class.

Using ALEX in the Classroom

As a new teacher, I would try to make full use of ALEX in my classroom. I would first obtain a membership to the website so that I could have full access of the materials. Depending on the grade level that I was teaching, I would research the grade guidelines outlined on the site to see what types of activities I could plan to gain the interest of my students. If I was confused about how to proceed with my lesson plans, I would look over some plans already on the site that was completed my fellow colleagues.

In order to help my students, I would use research of some of the websites recommended by ALEX. These are websites that provide interactive activities for students, worksheets, and quizzes. If possible, I would have computers in my classroom that gives the students the opportunity to use the virtual library offered by ALEX. As a beginning teacher, I think ALEX will be very valuable and benefit my students and I well and help us succeed as a team.

ALEX

ALEX is the acronym for Alabama Learning Exchange. It is a website available as an aid to help teachers in the Alabama school system. There are materials available such as help with lesson plans, virtual libraries, and outlines for material students should learn in each grade level. This website would be quite helpful for a first year teacher. Although they may not know what to expect going into the school year for their specific school, they can research the material on ALEX to have a general understanding of what is to be expected in the state of Alabama.

The ALEX website gives teachers the opportunity to create an account in which they are allowed to access other teacher's lesson plans and use some of the contents for their own lesson plans. ALEX even offer links to other educational websites that teachers can use to access printable worksheets and even quizzes that can be used in their own classrooms. This website gives ideas of activities teachers can use to engage their students more in the classroom. Overall, ALEX is a highly resourceful website for the Alabama education system.

Second Day of Class

Today is the second week of classes for this semester. Everything has been great so far, except for "renewing" my sleep schedule after the holiday break! However, I will be glad when this semester is over. I have always done well in school for the most part, but I will be glad when I earn a degree and get it over with! Since I am majoring in elementary education, most of the rest of my life will still be spent in a classroom. :-)

Fischbowl

Yes, shift definitely happens! During this video, I was like WOW! I could not believe all those statistical facts. We are led to believe the U.S. is the dominant country and now we have more immigrants in our country than there are in their own. It is true many people here do not speak English anymore or may not even know how to speak our language. I’m just glad I do not fit into that category of typical 21 year olds! I will make sure that when I have children, their television, internet, and video game hours will surely be limited. I would want them to be more tuned into the books that are produced daily but are barely read. I think every parent should see this and I believe the way to do that is broadcast it on every television channel at least once a day for the ones who are not computer literate. This video had a positive impact on me and I will be recommending it to some of the parents I know.

Tenative Powerpoint Presentation Plans

My current plans for my powerpoint presentation includes information about my family, friends and what we did during the Christmas holidays.

Introducing Shannika

My name is Shannika Williams. I am currently enrolled at the University of South Alabama majoring in elementary education. I have always been a lover of children, although I do not have any of my own. I have been a bible school teacher at my church in Mississippi for several years. Initially, I wanted to go to school to become a nurse; however, when I started working in the hospitals and nursing homes, I quickly changed my mind! There is a small soft spot in my heart for cheerleading and if I am still at South when the Jag football team kicks off, I may try-out for the season!

My First Post

I am ready to learn how this blog works.