Blog Post #6

Why do we ask questions? Teachers generally ask questions to make sure students understand the material being taught to them. Another reason questions are asked is to help the class be more interactive in the lesson. Most students have a hard time paying attention and questions help keep them on task. The questions asked ultimately depend on the material being taught. You should always ask questions pertaining to the material and try your best to stay on topic.
What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher? Teachers should avoid asking “yes or no” questions. If asking a “yes or no” it is important to have another question as follow up. Planning the questions that you intend on asking is a great way to help with this. Open ended questions are the ideal questions to be asked in a classroom. These questions help students be more interactive and get them thinking. Asking one question at a time is also very important. Bomb rushing students with different questions will leave them confused and they won’t know where to start when answering them.
Try to be specific in asking questions. Since there is a goal in which you would like to meet when asking a question never be vague. Vague questions will only further confuse your students. I cannot count the times a teacher asked question that no one in the classroom understood. In one of my English classes this is all my teacher did. We once spent a week talking about one person, but then my teacher asked “Who is he?” Well you can see that there would be many answers to this question.
As an educator it will be crucial that you plan ahead the questions that you want to ask. The questions asked will depend on a lot of things like your class, the goal of the question, the material gone over, and much more. Sometimes, if questions are asked in the proper manner, the students will start asking their own questions. This is always a good thing because every teacher should aim for their class to be interactive.

Project #8 Book Trailer

A House for a Mouse by Rebecca Westberg

Blog Post #5

My Sentence Videos

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Post #4

Benifits of Podcasting
What is a podcast? Podcast is a multimedia digital file made available on the internet for downloading to a portable media player, computer, etc. In the video, Podcasting In The Classroom by Joe Dale, many effective ways of using podcast in the classroom were given. A few effective ways of using podcast

are: it promotes creativity and innovation, it is an effective way of interacting with students outside of the classroom, students can record role plays in character making their learning more memorable and it can offer distance learning opportunities for absent students. Having your students utilize technology, something they are already used to, like podcast in the class helps them be creative and keeps them engaged in school work. I also like the point made about a student missing class, but luckily with podcast she was able to stay up to date on her assignments. Typical classroom learning is a thing of the past and with podcast classroom learning will always be up to date.
Podcasting with First Grade
This post was very interesting to me because I had never heard of first graders being so attentive. Their enthusiasm for creating podcast was very much exciting and whether they knew it or not they were obtaining very useful skills. Some of the skills they addressed where listening, speaking, presenting, and comprehension. All of which are important when learning to read. This post showed me kids as young as six could patient and completes a somewhat difficult task. When creating their podcast these students made sure to re-work it until it was at its best. Using podcast in this classroom also helped some students some out of their "shell." Every student was excited and very hardworking.
Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting
Learning to read is one thing, but learning to read in a different language is something totally different. It amazed me how these students were able to construct a podcast that was completely out of order then put it in the correct order. Learning another language can be very difficult, but using podcast can make it somewhat easier. These students successfully constructed a podcast in Hebrew. They also used another form of technology, a smart board, to help create a good interacting classroom while putting the podcast together. I have learned, from this post, that there are many factors that play in learning another language. It is important that you hear the words consistently, obtain a feeling of the word, and actually comprehend the word in a sentence. Learning with podcast will always be a good way to help students, teachers, and parents stay connected in and outside of the classroom. When used properly podcast can be very useful in the classroom, therefore podcast will be one of the many tools used in my class.

C4T #1

Summary #1
In Mr. Spencer’s blog, Rebel Without a Clue, he addresses the outcome of a decision he made on using faulty equipment. The meeting with his colleagues questioned him to the highest extent as a professional, which at the end of the day made him feel terrible. Instead of not using the bad equipment he used it anyways. This small decision created a big problem for him. When it was ultimately too late Mr. Spencer realized that he should have addressed the principal about the equipment. Overall this blog was simply letting people know that we have to be conscious of all the decisions we make because that one decision, although it may seem appropriate at the time, may come back and haunt us. Educators should also make sure to look at the bigger picture, what’s best for the students, and not just them.

Comment #1
"The teaching profession isn't perfect and there will always be people to question your judgments. In my opinion, following the rules should be one of your main priorities. The only other thing you should always take into major consideration is the best interest of your students. Also, if the teaching environment doesn't seem to suit you, after trying to adjust over an extensive period of time, then maybe the best thing to do is find another place to teach if possible."

Summary #2
In this blog post,An Open Letter to @arneduncan #edpolicy, Mr. Spencer revealed a letter he wrote to Mr. Duncan, the United States Secretary of Education. In this letter he addresses that Mr. Duncan had followed him on twitter, but he thought it was all for the wrong reasons. Mr. Spencer felt he followed him simply because of the Connected Educator Month. If Mr. Duncan really wanted to connect then he should reach out to some of the fellow teachers affected by his education policies. Or he could engage into a sincere conversation with him by using twitter among other ways. Mr. Spencer then goes into detail on exactly what he felt should change in the policies of No Child Left Behind. Mr. Spencer made it clear that he wasn't in agreement with the way the secretary and president Obama went about continuing to use certain policies although they were failing. This letter was Mr. Spencer's way of reaching out to the secretary in a respectable way.

Comment #2
"Hello. I’m Demetrius Hamner, a student at the University of South Alabama. I have commented on your one of your blog post before, A Rebel Without a Clue. This week for my EDM310 assignment I had to comment on your most recent blog post. As a student I have always had to abide by many policies, even if I didn't agree with them. Addressing someone in a high up position wasn't encouraged, but if I was to do it then it always had to be in a respectable way. This letter, although very controversial, was a good example of this. No one wants to hear the truth when it comes to policies created by them. New education policies are created on a regular, but everyone seems to turn their head when it fails. This is because they aren't directly affected by it. We (teachers, students, and parents) are the ones directly affected, but have to go through so much to change it. Hopefully this letter will help Mr. Duncan see that things really do need to be changed."

Blog Post #3

The video, What is Peer Editing, and the slide show, Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial, were very insightful. Every peer should make sure to follow these simple three steps: Compliments, Suggestions, and Corrections. Compliments are something that everyone likes to hear, but you should never overdue it. No one's work is ever perfect and it's okay to say it as long as it is in a positive way. Making suggestions and corrections help complete and effective peer review. I have learned that without taking all three of these steps a peer review is pointless. Anyone can say your work is good, but if your only hearing "the good" all the time about your paper then you will not realize the actual mistakes you have made. Realizing your mistakes is very important because mistakes are one of the best learning tools.

Peer reviews are something that I have always dreaded in school. Why? No one wants to be a "Mean Margaret" like in the video, Writing Peer Reviews Top 10 Mistakes. Peer reviews cause a lot of pressure because no one likes to correct their peers. This is because most of the time the correction is stated in the wrong way. Staying positive is very much important. The last thing you want to do is make your peer feel bad about their writing. As a teacher it will be crucial that you know how to do this. Your students will be counting on you and helping point out mistakes will shape them into better writers, among other thing. Decisions will have to be made, but you will have to figure out the proper way to go about the situation depending on the mistake.
No one likes public humiliation, but some simple mistakes can be pointed out. In my recent C4C I decided that was the way to go. I chose this way because it seemed very much appropriate and I followed the steps from the videos to do so. As I continue in this class I am sure that pointing out mistakes will become difficult, but I will always follow the steps in stating it correctly. We are all adults so getting constructive peer reviews should not be a problem.

Blog Post #2

By: Demetrius Hamner, Michelle Detar, and Miriah Grantham
Professor Dancealot is an entertaining short movie about a professor that teaches but doesn't let the students interact in the classroom. This movie shows how a lot of professors work now days. This very much confused me because when teaching any class you should allow your students to put into action what was explained. We think it is impossible for a student to learn anything without actually attempting it on their own. How can someone learn something if they only hear how to do it? This is the kind of teaching that we as educators need to avoid. This teaching method, as we can see, is completely ineffective. When teaching your class, you should allow them to think for themselves and try things out so they can actually get a good grasp on it. This was a funny but sadly true movie on the downfalls of certain ways of teaching.

My Post

In the video, The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler, a lot of information is given on this particular “networked” student.This video, going into great detail on just how well connected this student is, amazes me on how well he uses all of his resources. Even though he doesn't have class as often. or a book, he utilizes the internet very well when completing his assignments. Connectivism, a theory that presumes that learning occurs as part of a social of many diverse connections and ties, is what his teacher goes by. Before watching this video I had never heard of this term, but in a way it put me in the mind of EDM310 since we are basically being taught in the same manner.
In my opinion, every student needs a teacher/professor at some point. Guidance is always needed, because, as a student, we are still learning. There is no way that we as students could completely do it ourselves. If we could learn everything on our own then what would be the point of us being in school? Exactly, there would be no point. The networked student’s teacher is there to be many things to her student: a learning architect, modeler, learning concierge, connected learning incubator, network sherpa, synthesizer, and change agent. All of which are very important.
Without the teacher/professor being there for the student, there would be no way that he could do it alone. Her guidance was the key to all of the success he had as a networked student. Being able to build his own trail with reliable information isn’t something he learned to do overnight, it took time. This was a very informative video, and it gave good insight on the many ways this student stayed connected. Over time he would be able to build his successful, making his teacher very proud.

Miriah's Post
The video, Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts, found on edutopia, is yet another video that has seemed to amaze me. So many teachers, and just people in general, underestimate how smart these students really are. Vicky Davis is a very inspiring teacher that allows the students to brainstorm and find the answers themselves. She unexpectedly throws out new terms to her class and expects them to find the definition themselves, which they successfully do. Three days into their internet project, her class was teaching her how to do things that she did not not how to do. The students really enjoyed the project, and they felt empowered when they used their own minds to find the answers. This inspired them to get involved with digi teen, which was an internet site where students all over the world would post blogs and videos and share them amongst each other. This is another example of how important technology is in a classroom. Like Mrs. Davis said, not every child can learn with a pencil and paper.

Michelle's Post
In this Prezi turned video, Teaching in the 21st Century, some questions are aroused to make us think about what it means to teach in this day and age. Right now, we have so much technology available to us and very few know how to actually use it. Students have endless amounts of resources at their fingertips. Without us, the teachers, how can they know what is useful or not? Teaching in the 21st century means having to be current with our knowledge on different ways to use technology as a teaching tool. It is up to us to teach them that sites like Wikipedia is unreliable when it comes to research, to show them how to properly utilize Google and all its functions, to teach them that Twitter and Facebook are not only their for entertainment, but can also be used for engaging educational purposes, and so much more. To teach in the 21st century, one must be technologically literate. Because of technology, future educators will have to know how to incorporate all forms of technology into their classroom. As technology changes and time progresses, so will teaching.