"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?"
-- Thornton Wilder, Our Town

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Project #15 Book Trailers

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green



Beauty by Susan Wilson



Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card



Ice Station by Matt Reilly

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Blog Assignment 13


ALEX (Alabama Learning Exchange)
     I really liked ALEX (Alabama Learning Exchange)! I found it very useful. I appreciated the layout and how valuable the information was. It has courses of study, searches, web links, and other places to find resources for teachers. This program seems to be very beneficial.
     To test out this website I clicked on the Courses of Study link. Then I clicked on the English/language arts link. From there it prompted me to choose a grade, and I chose the 11th grade since my major is Secondary Education English/language arts. It took me straight to the curriculum for 11th graders. I thought that was so helpful because I didn't have to look in a million places. It was all laid out for me!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Final Project Summary Post

For our final project Josh and I are are talking about creating a resource website for all teachers to be able to access. We are looking at making it a place to access the videos that we have watched this semester as well as others. It will also pull up videos related to the ones that you are watching.

Blog Assignment 12



Blog Instructions: Go to these links and read the articles on school children becoming too dependent on computers and the other on handwriting becoming a lost art. Do you agree? Disagree? Write a short post explaining your answer.


http://www.newsgates.com/latest-gadgets-computers-school-children-are-becoming-far-too-dependent-on-computers/

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20101105/WDH100201/11050316/Is-handwriting-becoming-a-lost-art-Technology-replacing-some-long-held-skills


I agree with these articles. I understand that this class is all about the ways that we can improve our classrooms and our the way our students learn, however, I don't think we should lose everything we've done in the past.

1.) We lose spelling ability.
     While most people may find this a rather trivial thing to think about...it's a pet peeve of mine. I can't stand to see common words misspelled. When we are so used to using things such as Microsoft Word and phones that check our spelling for us, we lose the ability to spell on our own. One of my professors mentioned just the other day that our "shorthand" that we develop in texting, creeps into our work we turn in on tests. That's fine for our own notes, however it's not acceptable for work that is turned in.

2.) Taking notes proves to be helpful.
     When students take notes, they are more likely to remember what they've written. In fact, many teachers recommend that students re-copy their notes in order to study. In my opinion, this is a great study tool. It also keeps students paying attention in class when they are writing notes.

3.) Writing is a basic skill.
     What's one of the first things we learn in kindergarten? To write. What's the one thing a teacher will hound you on if it's awful? You're writing. I do believe writing is a lost art. Many people can't even form a proper sentence. We depend on programs to correct our errors, and we don't see the need to know how to write correctly. It's my belief that students will always need to know how to write. Always. There will always be essays to be written in class on tests. There will always be short answer questions on tests. We just need to give students a good background in writing. So many people don't even know how to create a properly addressed letter. It makes me sad to think that we're losing that quality in our society.

4.) Conversation is becoming a thing of the past.
     Computers take away our personal interaction. With emails, texting, and instant messaging, we don't have a need to see people and speak with them. I asked my kids in Sunday School the other day how they felt about this [we were talking about dating, but it's still relevant]. I asked them if they text to get to know someone or chat on Facebook. They said well yeah of course. Then I asked well what about when you meet them in person? Is it awkward? They agreed that it was. They didn't know what to say. We grow so complacent with just being able to think before we write, that it becomes truly weird when we see someone in person. People today have no conversation skills anymore. They don't know how to communicate anymore.

In conclusion, I think these articles made some good points. By no means am I saying technology is the devil, and something we shouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, I'm just saying that we shouldn't forget everything we once prized as a society.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Survey Results

I sent my questionnaire to the my fellow South Alabama Diamond Girls. I asked them the following questions

and these were the results I got. : )

Have you learned more about the game in the years that you've been a part of this organization? If so, what? Explain.
Yes. I've learned more about the entire program in general.Yes, it has helped me learn about the rules of the game more in depth.No.Yes I have learned that the spirit of the game not winning or losing is the most important part of baseball
What are applications you could list this organization on?
resume
4100%
Master's Degree
125%
other
375%
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.
Do you think Diamond Girls will take more time out of your schedule this year than it has in the past?
yes
00%
no
125%
maybe
375%
What have you enjoyed most during your time as a Diamond Girl?
traveling,relationships built
Meeting new people. 
supporting the jags and meeting new people
What would be some fun activities to reach out to the new girls joining us this year?
more traveling 
 retreat and big brother reveal
don't know.maybe have more activites where all the girls attend
Do you believe we should be more involved more in the game? If so, how? Explain.
I think more girls should come to the games, even if they aren't working the games.
Somewhat. I believe that this year we have a great group of girls and it will be alot easier to get girls to come to games and get involved! 
We could be. Getting involved and interactig more with the fans.yes and no. we should be involved more in the crowd and the parts of the game like the mascot race and other fun things like that that happen during the game but as far as being involved in the actual game no
Do you believe, as a whole, we show enough school spirit?
yes
250%
no
250%
If you answered no to the above question, how can we change that?
We need to be involved in more projects
get involved in activities on campus and make known to people who we are
Is there anything on campus that you believe we should participate in that we don't or that we did last year and we should again this year (homecoming,etc.)?
homecoming was so much fun.homecoming
Homecoming, Intramurals
Homecoming, we should participate more in spirt week then we did last year and maybe pick a couple more activites around campus
Is there anything that you would change about this organization?
Not that I can think of.more involvement
Making it more well known to the campus and what we do and what we're all about.
I would like to see us more active in the community of the school and for diamond girls to have more standing around campus
Number of daily responses

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Blog Assignment 11


Little Kids...Big Potential
     I was beyond impressed with these first graders. Not only were they cute, they could kick my butt with anything technology related! All the things they were learning were so cool. I think that this is wonderful for these kids. They mentioned how it was helping them with their writing as well. I think that aspect is very neat. I love that they are free to do centers online as well. They seem to love the time they get to spend blogging. These kids were just so awesome! I also loved that they worked in groups. This teaches them teamwork at a very young age. I also loved that they got to use their Nintendo DSs to learn.
      Ms. Cassidy has a lot of wonderful ideas when it comes to education.  I really likes that she introduces technology at such a young age. A lot of teachers would probably not see the use in letting kids that small work with technology. That's when they learn the best though. These students are developing skills that they will use for a long time. I also believe that the idea of blogging is cool for these young kids. They will be able to look back at their work years later. I would love to use blogging in my classroom. It's a neat idea for kids to keep up with their work, as well as what others are doing. It's a good way for them to develop their own PLN. I really enjoyed Ms. Cassidy's interview as well as her YouTube video.

C4K Summary #3-7

   
     All of my kids that I had for commenting 3-7 were so adorable! They all seemed like very smart, very creative children.
     The first child I commented on was Eleva. She is from Pt England. She loves Justin Beiber, which is what one of her posts was about. She gave a little background info about him and discussed his music. Several of her blogs were very good animations about volcanoes, which she and her group did a fabulous job on!
     The next student was Yvette. Yvette's posts were very interesting as well. She talked about why everyone should visit California. She elaborated on Disney Land and all of the other cool attractions California has to offer, such as the beaches.
     Student #5 was Sophie. Sophie was a super intelligent little girl. One post I commented on was about how to deal with anger. She seemed very wise for her age. She talked about how instead of getting angry when someone underestimates her, she just proves that person wrong.
     Student #6 was Taylor T. His post was about how much he loved the beach, and that it was his favorite place. I told him I agreed with him! It's one of my favorite places as well!
     Student #7 was Dakota W. His post was about his class's "O.R.E.O. Project". This project sounded really really fun! I loved that they had all kinds of challenges to do with the Oreos. It sounded like the kids had a blast! My only problem is that I would have eaten all the Oreos before the experiment! I found this project a really fun way for them to learn.

C4T Summary #3

     My first teacher for this post is Ms. Morgan Bayda. Ms. Bayda is a teacher in Saskatchewan. She has traveled around the world working with schools. You can truly tell she enjoys herself as a teacher. From her posts, anyone can see that she is very passionate about her job and for the people she works with! I enjoyed looking at her pictures and learning about her trips!
     The second teacher I was assigned was Mrs. Kelly Hines. Mrs. Hines is a fourth grade teacher in Washington, North Carolina. In one of the two posts I read, she talks about her PLN. It was very nice to hear from a teacher who truly benefits from connecting with other teachers. She talked about how their group they've formed (her and the teachers in her PLN), are better as a whole, than the sum of them together. I didn't get it at first either but she continued to explain. She had to be temporarily disconnected from her group, and while she still maintained contact with the members of her group, they weren't together. It was a good point. When they were all together and when we work with groups, we feed off of one another's ideas.
     The second post I read from her was "A Commentary on Comic Books". It was on the new documentary "Waiting for Superman". She talked about how while, education reform is great, it is not going to be accomplished by one person. Also that if we're waiting on Superman and depending on him, we're in a lot more trouble than we're in now. Superman only saved the day. He didn't clear up the problem, because Lex Luther just kept coming back. We need a permanent solution to education reform.
     Overall, I really enjoyed reading these teachers' posts! They were very different and both very interesting!