Jon Corippo- New Mindsets & Workflows for Common Core

Jon Corippo's presentation was so inspiring! I really enjoyed his talk about the pacing guide and how it never works. His example about when is "Y" used as a vowel was great example. Teachers are so busy trying to cram an abundance of material that they only give an overview of material yet, neglect to teach students with purpose. I think that is a large component of why students are no longer engaged and have difficulty with critical thinking. Their creativity has been taken away by required standards and has been replace with this notion of there only being "one right answer." In addition, Corippo stressed the importance of professional development. This really resonated with me because I feel that many educators that I have come across do not invest enough in this. Professional development can be as small as going to coffee with other educators or connecting with teachers through social media. There is no excuse for teachers not to continue to flourish in their professional life. As Corippo stated, if you are in education to get out of work by 3 then you are in the wrong profession. We as educators cannot motivate, engage, and have students see the value in their education if we do not value our own profession. The last point I would like to make is the importance of making connections whether it is in or outside the classroom. I think that it it is so important for students and teachers to connect with each other. I agree with Corippo's point that we are much more intelligent as a group rather than as individuals. This video really reiterated the  the importance of sharing with other educators.

Glogster Challenge!

First Glogster

Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose....

Autonomy, mastery, and purpose align with Bloom's revised Taxonomy for the digital age because it addresses students having the ability to be creative and find purpose in their work through the use of technology. HOTS explains the importance of students being able to bookmark their favorite sites or talk about their learning process by using blogs. Students must be personally invested in order to be motivated to reach Bloom's higher order thinking skills. I believe that HOTS cannot exist without intrinsic motivation. In Dan Pink's TED Talk it becomes apparent that autonomy, mastery, and purpose is instrumental in people's ability to have higher order thinking. Though he was talking about productivity in a business market, I feel the same concept applies in the classroom. Students need to know how academic material relates to them in their own personal life in order for them to be personally invested. Incorporating technology in the classroom does just that because we are preparing students for the future and also using programs that they use in their everyday lives. By following Bloom's revised Taxonomy for the digital age model students can find purpose in their work and begin to think outside of the box where creativity can flourish. 

Failure and Learning...

After watching Diana Laufenberg's talk about what learning means I believe failure has everything to do with learning. When you think about success stories the majority of these stories have to do with failure and overcoming adversities. For example, Steve Jobs was a college dropout that had a vision that seemed far beyond his time. He was constantly rejected but ended up being one of the creators of Apple. The importance of his story and every other successful innovator is that they all experienced failure at one point yet learned from it. This is a vital concept to teach our students especially since they have been taught to believe that their is only one right answer. Teachers need to expose students to failure and teach them to understand that failure is a part of the learning process.

Thoughts on Elizabeth Calhoon's PLN Presentation

I was very impressed with Elizabeth's PLN presentation. I felt that in the short amount of time she spoke she really opened my eyes up to the importance of PLN networks. I have been really hesitant to create a Twitter account because I have always associated it with celebrities. My perception of Twitter has been that it is used for promoting purposes and quite frankly I am not that relevant to be sending out tweets. After her presentation I now realize that many professionals use it and it is a great resource for future educators like myself. I am very excited to start using Twitter and Elizabeth really alleviated my fears by explaining that I do not have to feel obligated to tweet anything. In addition, I was thankful for the various sites she presented. I really enjoyed the fakebook site and thought it would be a great tool to use when teaching history. I think Elizabeth is a great example of why teachers should continue to educate themselves when it comes to the advances in technology. She to was hesitant to incorporate PLN networks in her everyday life and now it is her career!!

Are Learning Networks the Future?

I feel that learning networks are the future when it comes to higher education. Many universities already implement online courses and you can now earn a degree online. As for primary and secondary education I feel that learning networks may not be the future because of many safety and legal issues that may be encountered. I also feel that right now in the age of the "tech boom" schools would have incorporated much more technology than they do now. The only way I see public schools having learning networks is if they could get enough funding but until then I believe that schools will continue to incorporate technology little by little.

Khan Academy and the Future of Education

I was very excited to watch Salman Khan's TED talk because I used the KhanAcademy to study for my CSET. While studying for the test I kept thinking to myself how wonderful this site was and if only I had it available to me while I was in school. Though I used it for myself I never really thought about incorporating the site into the classroom until now. This idea of flip teaching and using videos to educate students is a new concept that I had never thought to explore. I am actually very drawn to the idea because it allows students to use various resources to strengthen their comprehension of academic content. I feel that incorporating these tools can only help students to achieve academic success. Having education move towards the route of using academic sites such as the Khan Academy may seem very scary for some educators because they may feel as though technology will interfere with the ways in which they teach. I on the other hand disagree because I feel video, flip teaching, and the Khan Academy are academic tools that should be incorporated in the classroom. Teachers should not think that the Khan Academy will take their place but rather help facilitate a lesson or reiterate any information that a student may have missed. In recent years, education has been moving towards an online education which has contributed to the fears that technology may take educators jobs. It is now possible to earn your bachelors, masters, or even a Ph.D online! I see why many educators are hesitant to use technology in the classroom but I feel that it is necessary. Students need to be exposed to different methods of teaching in order to best determine their learning style. I often times need to hear information more than once for concepts to stick. With flip teaching this is now possible. As opposed to having students reread a chapter in their textbook they can watch a video or even review a lecture from class. I am excited to incorporate technology into my own classroom. I feel that education is moving and will continue to move towards implementing various technologies into the classroom. With that being said, we as educators need to become familiar with these programs. Districts should provide education classes for teachers in order for them to be able to transition into this new form of pedagogy. We also need to address the issue of accessibility. In the TED talk Salman was working with a school in Los Altos  which is an affluent area. How can we as educators make these tools accessible to students living in poverty?

Word Clouds & Powtoon

I really appreciated being introduced to these websites. Creating a word cloud was fun and I would like to use it as a lesson by having students use adjectives to discuss a character in a story. This will not only increase students vocabulary but also help with reading comprehension. As for Powtoon I thought it was a great tool to create fun powerpoint presentations for teachers and students. With that being said, I did however experience technical difficulties using the site. My presentation crashed three times and I became very frustrated with the entire project. I was able to post a link on my blog, but when I click on it the site crashes. If I could get any advice to avoid this that would be great! I was using the computers at NHU.

Powtoon

http://www.powtoon.com/presentoons/f6yQUTvzegn/edit/

Word_Cloud

Lip Dub Video- Fair Use?

I feel that the Lip Dub video is not covered under Fair Use laws because the class did not give credit to Hall and Oats for their song that was played throughout the video. Also, many corporations were displayed such as Pepsi and Gatorade that were not cited. In addition, posters were shown yet the images were not distorted and the photographers had no mention in the credits.

Fair Use- Blog Prompt

The four factors that comprise measuring fair use consists of: the purpose of your character of use, the nature of copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of portion taken, and the effect of the use upon the potential market. It allows the students to use copyrighted work at a certain extent. Students may use information or ideas of authors to educate themselves but must site the source whenever they use information that is not their own. After reading this I found that using and presenting information from the web is acceptable but copyright issues tend to arise when another person profits off of the original owners work. Though students may not be profiting off of the intellectual property of an individual it is important to teach students how to properly cite sources and teach students about academic integrity. Students need to understand the consequences of plagiarism but more importantly the teacher needs to familiarize him/herself with the rules and regulations in order to educate students. Based on the article I feel my future students and I can use the web to communicate information or ideas but we must give the author recognition for the work that they have done.

Digital Native VS Digital Immigrant

   Based on Prensky's article I could not agree more with the concept of digital natives and digital immigrants. Growing up my family was fortunate enough to always have a computer and television in the home. We have grown up using technology and always looked to the web for answers rather than a textbook. Comparing my knowledge of using the web in comparison to my parents I believe that I am a digital native in comparison to my parents who would be classified as digital immigrants. I often hear my parents ask if someone received an email or have trouble navigating through the web. Just the other day I had showed my mother how to share contacts on the iphone and she was blown away. Mind you she has had her phone for two years now!

After reading Hertz's article I understand her dismay with the terms digital immigrants and digital native. As I mentioned above I was fortunate to always have a computer in my home where as many students are not. I believe that labeling people into two groups is not the best approach but I feel that Prensky was trying to explain that we as educators need to catch up to the digital age. Further segregating our students based on particular labels is not the correct way to go about the situation. As opposed to calling our students digital natives, digital immigrants, or digital citizens which all carry negative connotations because they are all binaries I feel that the real issue at hand is to educate ALL students on how to properly use technology. Whether a student uses technology everyday or has never used a computer we need to teach them the proper skills that will contribute to their lifelong success and ability to function in society.

I think as a  future classroom teacher I may have a slight advantage because I was born in the age of technology and understand what an important role technology plays in our everyday lives. In five to ten years the advancement of technology may even surpass my experience. With that being said, we as educators need to continue to educate ourselves when it comes to learning about and using technology. How can we as educators expect out students to learn about new information if we refuse to learn how to use and understand technology? I feel that in order to connect with our students we must incorporate tools that students use in their everyday lives.

What Role Will you as a Teacher Play?

In the article Beyond the Book: A New Role for Your Students discusses how a school in Chicago will be using the web to cultivate student creativity and thought. I found that teaching students how to use the web properly and learn how to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources is a vital skill to have. When I was working towards my bachelors degree I had to write endless academic research papers and often times found myself having trouble locating information. If I had acquired the knowledge to properly conduct research using the web prior to attending college it would have made my life a whole lot easier!I also found that the purpose of implementing the web into the classroom aligns with common core standards. Students will be taught to take other perspectives into account rather than taking what is read in the textbook as truth. They will also be able to compare and contrast sources which will help strengthen the writing and reading skills. Many educators may cringe at this idea because it may interfere with what is being taught but I disagree. I feel allowing students to formulate their own ideas by using multiple web sources will not only strengthen their comprehension of material but will also invoke discussion among other students. The teacher's role will be to act as a facilitator and also add to discussion or address any misinterpretations. I feel that the web is a great way to involve all students, but I do find a flaw in this program and that is which students have access. The article stated that this will take place at schools in the suburbs but what about the teachers working in inner-city schools. What role can those teacher play with limited access to the web? How can they incorporate the same techniques as the school in the suburbs?

My Voki

Edutopia Blogs

As an Ethnic Studies major I found this particular blog to be quite relevant to myself. After reading a blog about teaching children to make sense of all the current events that are going on in the world today without being cynics is something that I strongly believe in. Students often times find truth in media outlets when in reality the media misrepresents the true issues at hand. Mark Phillips states: "Importantly, students should learn that the media almost always focuses on what goes wrong, not on less sensational aspects of the news." Teaching a lesson about how to interpret misrepresentations in the media and to teach students how to interpret information is vital for them to develop their own ideas rather than believe everything that they read or see. Constantly questioning is important for human's development as explained by famous philosipher Socrates. I also found this site useful because the blog provided various lesson plans that teachers can incorporate in their lessons. The lessons are thoughtful and can be relevant to any grade level.

My First Post

Hello World!