My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete

I just wanted to thank my classmates for a fun and interesting semester. It was fun learning with you guys! Thanks Dr. Strange for teaching us so much!

What I Learned

I learned so much in this class. I had experience using spreadsheets, however I did not know you could do so many things with a spreadsheet. I also learned that you do not need a book to learn. The internet is full of good information and technology is such a helpful tool in the classroom. I cannot think of anything else I could have learned. I entered the class with a negative opinion and thinking I would learn nothing without a book, however I learned a lot.

The Blog Experience

Before this class I did not know what a blog was. I learned what they were and how they can be affective in a classroom setting as well as in everyday life. They offer information to everyone seeking it through technology.

Although I have learned a lot by using blogs in the classroom, I cannot say I would use them in my classroom. I do not have much time to do blogs and they do not interest me very much. I do not really like to write so I did not really enjoy doing my blogs. However, the subjects we blogged on were interesting to me. Also, blogging provided an inexpensive communication tool and a way to share information.

I read Kathy Bentley’s blog and I found it to be interesting. Although she did well on her blog and packed it full of information, she did not seem to enjoy making the posts from the sound of her entries. Her photos were good and her blog was up to date. Although she did not enjoy it she did well.

Although blogs were used in some classrooms, I did not find them used in all. How could podcasts be used in a PE class? There are still many questions I have about uses for podcast in certain classrooms.

Project Hope

Nilaya began the podcast with, “It happens simultaneously, losing your keys, getting papers, instant loss of self esteem.” She said that you feel hopeless and invisible the day u become homeless. You feel as if you are no longer in the rest of the population and you do not have a place to start. You do not know where to start, and you say where do I go today or where do I start today, and begin to feel subhuman.

Nilaya, became homeless when she ended an abusive relationship. She now lived on one income instead of 2, so she sought a roommate which worked out well until they were laid off. She then said to herself maybe I can get two jobs. Can I pay 1200 and utilities? It was impossible and out of the question. No possibilities with her, especially with a small child, it is hard to ask for help from friends.

Where did I fail she asked herself. It is the matter of one paycheck. Unable to pay her rent and not wanting to ask friends for help, she looked for shelters to go to. She was denied emergency bed because she was not evicted; she left willingly because she did not want to ruin the good relationship she had with her landlord. She said it made it harder because she was lying on a community bed which was scarce and full.

She then ended up at project hope. In a bad situation it was the best thing that happened to her. They helped her in many ways. In that moment Project Hope was good for her but she wondered because she was still on a waiting list. Homes for Families help homeless families find places to call home. She listened to the meetings because they brought food. She started to see changes in things they were working on, and it then clicked for her because she saw results. It took her another year to find a home in Massachusetts, which happens far too many times. She met with groups of parents that claimed they were glad it happened to them because they view homeless people as bad when in fact they were homeless. Being in Project Hope changed their viewpoints on people. It was not instant gratification but it was important to understand the bigger picture and important to understand the impact we can have on the community as a whole.

Electronic Contact

My contacts name is Ashley Abrams. She teaches at Anacortes High School in Anacortes, Washington. She teaches PE, grades 9-12, and loves every minute of it.

She is also the volleyball, basketball and tennis coach there. She played all three in high school and finished her eligibility in college playing volleyball and tennis. She loves to be active, so being a coach and PE teacher is just the thing for her.

Before she taught in Washington, she taught in Augusta, Georgia at Augusta Christian. She was also an assistant volleyball and basketball coach there and PE teacher as well. She has been a teacher for four years now and she is going back to school to get her masters.

She does not use blogs for PE but she said other teachers in her school do. However, she does use the internet. She post her grades and attendance on the internet. I also tried to get a picture with her and her class but she said she does not take pictures in class.

EDM 310 Podcasts

For podcast one I chose Randy Pausch’s Last lecture by Christina, Sandy, Brian and Ginny. They did really well and did not read from a paper. The only thing I saw wrong was that they all did not interact in the conversation. They took turns talking but never really discussed passionately. They were asked the questions by one person like it was staged. Although they answered well, they should have been more eager and less staged.

For podcast two I chose how technology is used in the classrooms at South by Scarlett, Lisa and Mandy. I liked learning about e books and other possible learning tools South uses. Although it was interesting to learn that technology was used interactively throughout the university, no one jumped in and added their opinion and rarely asked questions. They did not read from a paper and they picked up the conversation later in the podcast. They were afraid at first it seemed but did well in the end.

For podcast three I chose Burp Back Education by Ashley, Sandy and Robyn. They sounded like they read from a paper. They had really good information and ideas; however they needed to interact with each other instead of just presenting their information. There were some awkward silences during their conversation, but overall they did pretty well.

For the fourth and final podcast, I listened to ACCESS by me, Allison and Kellie. Our podcast sounded like it was read from a paper. We should have been more prepared. We had a lot of good information but we did not interact with each other well and it seemed like it was scripted. It was really boring to be honest.

Mathematics with Technology

As a mathematician at Maine, Judy Chandler is urging teachers to incorporate technology into their classroom. Many teachers find the technology just creates more work and do not want to incorporate it in their classrooms. Judy Chandler found that the technology helps the students communicate with their teacher as well as increase critical thinking. She believes anyone can benefit and learn from technology.

Thinking mathematically is hard to do. How do teachers go about asking questions that challenge their students? The second podcast talked about how accomplish that task. If a student is challenged then they will be more prepared for life.

I agree that technology is a useful teaching tool. I also agree that students can be challenged in a good way. Through technology and classroom learning students can learn so much and can also teach the teacher things. Technology offers a wide variety of learning for the wide variety of learning types.

I came into this class blind and thought a lot of technology was a crock. I now realize that technology is very useful although it can be difficult at times. I will definitely use technology in my classroom and I will encourage my students to use iTunes for research and to help them learn.

"Growth" vs. "Fixed" Mindset

Many students go into a classroom with their mindsets being fixed on am I going to look smart or not. They base their activities on what they think their intelligence is instead of what it actually is. Other students think their intelligence is something they can develop their whole life through education. If we teach students the growth mindset then good results are evident.

An eight session workshop was created where half of the students got the 8 session workshop on study skills and a growth mindset, and the other half just got study skills. Researchers thought study skills were great and motivating, but they did no good whatsoever for the students because they did not have motivation. For the most part, those students’ grades continued to decline.

For the students who got the growth mindset lesson, they received information telling the students things like their brain is a muscle and it gets stronger with use. These students were told they can increase their intellectual skills. They were also told no one laughs at babies and tells them how dumb they are, they just have not learn yet. At the end of the semester these students had shown a significant rebound in their grades. The teachers could tell which kids were in the study skills and mindset kids and they didn’t even know there were two workshops.

Ross Bently, a world renowned racecar driver coach, saw the connection between a growth mindset and optimal performance. Top races last for hours and in the course of the race mistakes are inevitable, and the difference between a winning driver and a losing driver is how you handle those mistakes. Drivers were tested on if they could stay in the zone. It is important in the business world, at all levels, for people to believe in growth of skills and to admit mistakes and overcome them. If you cannot keep up with the changing world, then you cannot learn and grow.

9-12

I chose to watch energy flow in the coral reef ecosystem. The coral reef, found in tropical waters houses itself near the surface of the water because it needs sunlight for photosynthesis to survive. The reef is surrounded by plants, algae, and animals which help the food chain repeat again and again.

The reef could not exist without coral which is made up of many organisms. The fish eat the polyps in the coral reef by extracting them with their powerful jaws and teeth. Parrot fish create a lot of the sand at the bottom of the reef and sea cucumbers eat the sand and collect debris and algae from it keeping the ocean bottom clean.

These podcast were helpful because they were relevant to the grade levels that I want to teach. They gave so much information and they were videos so they showed examples. The videos are a good alternative to reading at a book and kids love to watch videos. They learn things from videos and do not even realize it.

The videos were also a good teaching tool for me to apply in my classroom because I am going to be a science teacher, and they all applied to science. There were so many interesting videos from NASA and NOVA. They were all very colorful and sparked my imagination, so the videos would be a great teaching tool I would consider using in my classroom.

Edible Schoolyard/A Night in the Global Village

The Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School offers edible organic delights from their schoolyard. There is a garden and adjacent kitchen which help students learn in many ways. They learn subjects such as math, history, science, and about life. The garden is a center for literacy for teachers and through the amount of preparation needed to plant the garden, students learn a lot.

The garden is the center of attention and the students learn about things like photosynthesis, ecosystems, how to cooperate with each other, and how to work on projects together. A child who is brilliant in one area may not be brilliant in another and the garden gives them opportunity to do hands on learning. The garden is a way to improve school and make kids want to learn. The kids do not think about school as school, but it really is, they are learning lessons that are important for life.



Heifer Ranch is a nonprofit organization that helps the less fortunate families all over the world. While kids and teachers visit the ranch they stay in shacks that represent housing of families that live in poverty. The places represent Guatemala, Thailand, Zambia as well as generic urban slums like Appalachia. There is one group that is in a refugee camp, this group is not allowed to communicate in English, and they do not have a fire or food. Kids are separated into groups or “families” and placed in each country to live their lesson.
The kids of all groups have to learn how to bargain for items they need to survive.

With one member pregnant and one who loses use of a hand, the “family” is at even more of a loss. They all have to work together to communicate to cook their food and ,make a fire. Adults can take the role of elder or of a two year old. If the adult picks the role of a child then another member of the group has to step up and be the leader. Alliances were forms as negotiations continued well into the night. Kids learned how to be independent, how to work out their problems, and they had to wrestle with choice. Most kids found that they need to take imitative in their own community and they lived the lesson.

Both the garden and ranch help the kids to learn valuable lessons and they have hands on learning. They were both very interesting.

Podcast

The podcast started out with music which made it inviting to listen to and entertaining. The people seemed to enjoy doing podcast and were enthusiastic about the subjects they were speaking about. They did not just read from a piece of paper but actively held a conversation with each other. In some of the podcast people collaborated from different states.

KidCast and MacBreak Weekly gave feedback on student’s podcast. They encouraged kids to do podcast and said they should be taught how to do them. Also, they told them a little about what to put into their podcast and presentations. Academic information is the message. They think that kids doing the podcast and being able to say they did them is not enough. We as educators need to take it farther and let kids have an extended conversation where they take an idea they are interested in and do research, record their information and share it with a group of people.

ConnectLearning withDavid Warlick was a conversation with librarians about podcast in the library. They agreed that collaboration with teachers helps enable the student and the teacher. Podcast can be done it in the classroom and at home as well. Students can connect with the community as well. Work can be done nationally by doing discussions and class debates, and students can keep track of notes and can go back to the podcast from class to help them study or write their papers.

These were just two of the six examples. They were all helped me understand the use of podcast in the classroom. Although I used to think podcast were pointless and useless I learned they can be very useful and interesting. They not only informed me but gave me ideas to use in my classroom.

ACCESS Visit

I chose to visit one of the first ACCESS labs in Mobile, Alma Bryant High School. The teacher for this course is Samantha Smith. She is over the English department as well as the collaborator for Spanish at Bryant.
The lab is small, however significant. Mrs. Smith informed me that although the lab looks advanced, it indeed has become outdated. She hopes the grant will continue to be provided.

She reconnected with the school she collaborates with, Chilton County, to show me how it worked. She has interacted with up to three schools within one semester. I was a little sad to not get to see interaction with the students. I went during lunch time. However, Mrs. Smith did get to sit down with me and log onto her computer.

It was amazing what kids can do with ACCESS. Teachers post assignments, much like a syllabus, and kids have to complete the assignments on the computer. There is NO PAPERWORK, which is amazing. The kids also take quizzes and test online. This makes it easy and convenient for a teacher to grade assignments and not get the excuse, “you lost my paper, I turned it in.”

Another neat thing she showed me is that the teacher can, through her account, imitate one of her students. This allows her to log into email and see if the students have been sending notes in class. She can even see if they erase the email. She can also see when assignments are submitted.

This is a really good program. Not only is it easy for teachers, but it gives students more than one perspective on learning. It also gets students involved and begins to prepare them for college. I really enjoyed my trip to the ACCESS lab.