Blog Post #6

Project Based Learning:

After watching these videos, I started realizing how valuable all of this information could be for my future. The first two videos,Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher and Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher, really explained how PBL (Project Based Learning) is showcasing the act of learning. Anthony Capps goes into detail about how PBL is not simply showing what a student learned, but it is really a form of learning. I enjoyed Mr. Capps explaining what goes into an appropriate project. This was broken down in a way that I feel is helpful for students like myself. The components of a successful project are: student interest, community involvement (when necessary), authentic audience, and the project must be content driven. The "content driven" section of a project is what I feel most people tend to lack in. These components will drive students to work harder and dive into projects to show their full potential. As a future educator, that is all I can ask of my students.

The third video I watched was iCurio. This was the first time I had heard of iCurio. This is an educational search engine geared towards students. The interesting thing about iCurio is that it acts like a normal search engine, but it filters the results for educational purposes. Along with filtering for educational purposes, iCurio also stores content that a student finds valuable for their studies. This tool is very helpful when it comes to learning about virtual storage and organization, which is very important to me. Also, iCurio is geared towards younger children, so it is very useful in elementary classrooms. The content blocking aspect of this tool is key for elementary aged students. I would love to use iCurio in my future classrooms. Watching Discovery Education made me very interested in learning more. I am such a visual learner, and having visuals has always helped me to grasp a concept much faster than whenever a visual is not present. Anthony Capps uses a great example with his students. He encouraged his students to use Discovery Education with a project they were doing on plants. With this tool, students will be able to look closely at the differences in the plants and watch informative videos on the plants as well!

The Anthony-Strange list of Tips for Teachers Part 1 listed tips that all teachers should strive to do. Some of the tips are:

1: Teaching never ends
2: Be flexible and engaging
3: Reflect on your work and revise
4: Learning is constant
5: Have a goal


Don't Teach Tech- Use it explains the importance of technology with education. The video stresses that technology should be used as an aid with teaching, but that technology is not what they need to be taught. The students do need to be taught how to use the technology, but they should be taught one tool at a time. In Additional Thought About Lessons, Anthony Capps explained the four components that are required to make a lesson complete. These components are: daily plan, week plan, year plan, and unit plan.

My Sentence Videos

My Passion Is...





My Sentence Is...

Presentation Project #3

Blog Post #5

Personal Learning Networks

In Project Six- Developing a Personal Learning Network, a Personal Learning Network is defined as "those people, places, organizations, and activities which enable you to learn. When people start building their PLN's, they will make connections that will continue for the rest of their lives. The amazing part about PLN's, is that they never stop growing. Once you make that connection with a few people, you can connect with the people they are connected with, and so on. I have already started making PLN's with my EDM 310 class. We were put into groups and now I communicate with my group every week.

I thought a very accurate description of how well PLNs work was discussed by Michael Fawcett. His video, PLN- Michael Fawcett Offers His Insights, explains some very good points about Personal Learning Networks. He talks about how he sent out a question on Twitter that his student had about Neil Armstrong, and within 30 minutes, he had an answer. The most amazing part is that this definitive answer came from NASA. That is such an amazing example of how helpful PLN's, and today's technology, can be.

C4T #1

My C4T teacher for this assignment was Eric Langhorst's 2014 MSTA Convention - Flipping the Classroom and Google Tools. This blog post was very interesting to me. Eric talks about "flipping the classroom." This is an interesting concept for 21st century teaching. This concept brings activity to a classroom. Flipping the classroom gives students more time during class to do learning activities together. This requires them to do a little more work outside of the classroom so that there is more time for the instructor to go around and answer questions during classroom activities. My comment to Eric on his blog was: Dr. Langhorst, My name is Shelby Begley and I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. Before reading your blog post, I had heard a little information about flipping the classroom. After reading through your post and watching the videos, I have become very interested in this teaching style! I think this is a great way to become more interactive with your students, as well as teach them more. This a style that my EDM instructor has applied to this class. I like the idea of being able to go into my future classroom and spend more time helping my students learn in a hands-on style. I do think that this could become slightly more difficult for Kindergarten, which is the grade I want to teach. I would definitely have to find a way to adapt this teaching style for students at that age. Thank you for sharing this blog, it was very informative!



In Eric Langhorst's blog, Augmented Reality App Brings History Alive at Kansas City's Union Station, he talks about using an application that allows students to use their smart phones on a field trip to Union Station. The app is supposed to make history come alive using augmented reality. My comment to Eric on his blog was: Applications are resources that I feel that students find interesting and fun. They allow students to learn in an "out of the box" setting. I also believe that any time you can allow students to use their phones for learning you should. Some teachers see the idea of using phones and technology in a learning environment as negative that they do not use them to their fullest potential. Thank you for sharing!

Project #15

Search Engines

WolframAlpha
WolframAlpha is a new search engine for me. I had never heard of it before doing this project. WolframAlpha is a website that is extremely helpful for any problems that fall under the math and science categories. I started typing in math problems, and it would solve it for me right on the spot! This search engine would have been extremely useful to me in all of my math classes! WolframAlpha will definitely be under my favorites on my computer now.

WOW
Since WOW is enhanced by Google, they run the same type of way. I looked through this site a little and I definitely would not use it. My computer did not even want me to continue onto this website. After looking around, the information does not seem very credible. I would not suggest using this website.

Yahoo!
Yahoo! is a search engine that many people use today. This search engine is a very general one in the sense that any question can be typed in and Yahoo! will direct you to the website you need to continue onto. Yahoo's homepage serves more as a news site than other search engine's homepages. Yahoo! is still a powerful search engine. Although it is not my first choice, it has proven to be very successful in my past research.

Bing
Bing is a newer search engine. It has become very popular in the past few years. The main use I have had for Bing is image searching. They always seem to have better images and more of a selection than other search engines. Bing also helps bring the people in your social networks together. They help you spend "more time doing."

Ask
Ask is a search engine that serves more as a "question and answer" type engine. I do not usually use this search engine because I never feel as if the answers are totally correct. This would only be a search engine that I use to look up answers not related to academics.

Dictionary
Dictionary is a search engine that I honestly never thought of as a "search engine." It is definitely a search engine that I use very often though! I always find myself going to this website and looking up how to spell words or the definition. This is an amazing search engine for academic purposes. Dictionary gives you everything you could ask for when looking up a word: the definition, the word's origin, and many more. I recommend this search engine to every student and teacher.

YouTube
YouTube is a very popular search engine for videos. Virtually every video is at the tip of your fingers through this search engine. As I have gotten older, I have started using YouTube for academic purposes. This search engine is vital in classes such as EDM 310. Through this search engine, we can create and share our own videos, or learn through viewing other people's videos.

DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is a new search engine to me. I found that it does not track you, so it gives you privacy while you search. After looking through this site, I learned that I really like it. If you type in a word such as "dog," it gives you more definitions than you could ever imagine the word had. This search engine seems to give credible sources and answers, so I would use it again!

Blog Post #4

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher? First we should know what a question is. A question is a statement that hopes to gain or receive particular information. Therefore as future teachers we should always encourage questions from our students and we should always ask though provoking questions. An article I felt to be very enlightening was Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom. Dr. Weimer introduces three actions that a person can take to improve their skills in regards to questions.

Step 1: Prepare Questions
In order to have questions that matter you cannot ask them in the spur of the moment. In order for a question to be a success, methodical thought needs to happen. Planning in advance also helps to make sure the questions are clear.
Step 2: Play with Questions
It is not always best for teachers to ask questions and immediately expect answer. Sometimes it is better to let the questions sink in and let them meditate on them.
Step 3: Preserve Good Questions
There are also times where questions are better held onto. It is the job of teachers to know when and where questions can best be used. A teacher should gauged their questions based on their students discussion and responses.

Blog Post #3

Peer editing is something that we have always heard about, but we may not have always known how to do it properly. I never liked when we had to do peer editing in class, and whenever we had to do it, I feel like we never did it properly. But, as I got into college and classes like this one, I realized that peer editing is actually very helpful. This is something that all young students should grow accustomed to.

In What is Peer Editing?, they said that reviews should contain compliments. I think that this is very crucial in making the peer edits not seem rude. That is the main thing that I took from the video. This video better explained some of the details that I didn't know much about before. Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial, basically restated what the previous video stated. It focused on how much peer editing can help improve your work. But, the way you word your feedback determines how successful your edit can be. Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes states how your peer edit could not be successful. People can sometimes be very picky, and that doesn't work. If peer editing is done correctly, it can be very powerful and helpful. I am looking forward to helping others with their posts through this new information I have learned.