Additional Post #1

Metaphors: What They Are and Why We Use Them

1. I missed the metaphor in Tom Johnson's post because I was reading to deep into the post. I do admit that I did not look in full depth of the post. I honestly thought he was talking about pencils until I reread the post and caught my mistake. Actually, I posted it in my response to the post.

2. Metaphors I have encountered:
(a) I would die if I didn't get those shoes.
(b) I'm freezing to death.
(c) I'm so hungry I can eat a cow.
(d) I'm starving to death.
(e) You need to relax your mind.
(f) Time is money.

3. While teaching the difference between metaphors and similes, I would have my students do a poem for the two so they would be able to see the difference. Since they were the ones to actually write the poems it would be embedded into their minds what the difference is.

4. Metaphors are words we use in conversations that gives the listener or reader a better understanding with fewer words. Writers use metaphors to capture your attention where as speakers use them to get through what they are trying to say with a better understanding.

Blog Post #15 ~ Final Reflection

Blog Post #14

After exploring Jose Picardo's blog, I knew I had to add his blog to my PLN. It will definitely come in handy in the future. I love tip two, "use music more often." I totally agree with that. Kids of today listen to music and learn the lyrics after the first time hearing the song. From experience, I know this work. I had a teacher that taught us pro nouns through a rap. Corny yes but if you were to ask any of her students to list you the pro nouns I can bet that they would sing the "Pronoun Rap."

I have never heard of Hot Potatoes but know I will be using it inside my classroom so that I know that all of my students will learn on the same pace. I have already started using Picnik.com for my own personal use but will continue to use it inside the classroom because what kid don't like pictures. I will definitely keep Jose Picardo's blog and tips in mind when setting up my classroom and teaching.

C4T Comments for Teachers

In the month of November I read and commented on Steve Wheeler's blog. Steve is an Associate Professor of learning technology in the Faculty of Health, Education and Society, at Plymouth University.

The first post I commented on was In Flanders Fields. This was a poem by John McRae that was about the graves in of the falling soldiers in Flanders Field. I commented " I am a student at the University of South Alabama whom is enrolled in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class. I enjoyed the poem. Although I have never been to Flanders Fields I have heard lots of stories from JROTC instructors when I was in high school. One day I hope to go and see for myself."

The next post was A Head Teacher Writes. This post was similar to Tom Johnson's Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home. A guy who wanted to bring in I pads or tablets for every child so they could be mobile and take them home was denied by many. Stating that many teachers, parents, and others were against it because it was a waist of tax payers money or because they were illiterate to using one. I understood this metaphor now that I know that "pencils" is code name for laptops and tablets. My comment was "I love that. Being that I read a paper titled Pencils, I understood the metaphor. I think it is great that teachers call technology pencils. Quite funny actually."

C4K Comments for Kids

On November 13, I commented on Mrs. Yolis' class blog. In additional to reading her class blog we had to do an additional assignment. I learned a little about Mrs. Yolis and how she teaches. My response to that assignment was Mrs. Yollis is the type of teacher that we, as future teachers, hope to become. Not only do she teach her students by using technology but she also involves their family members, classrooms from all around the world, and others who are interested. Her entire focus is on her students, something we need to see in more teachers.
After exploring Mrs. Yollis' classroom blog, I notice that Mrs. Yollis has a lot of links that she encourages her students and other visitors to look and learn from. You can tell that she took time putting together her class blog and updating it on a daily bases.
I read her Meet Mrs. Yollis page and learned that she has been teaching for 25 years. She recently received a masters degree in “Integrating Technology in the Classroom.” Travel is one her and her husband's past time. Their favorite vacation spots are: Hawaii, Montana, Alaska, Belize, the Arctic Circle, and San Diego.
The video How to Comment was a video made by her students. The video included five tips on commenting. Those tips were: compliment, add new information, make a connection, end with a question, and proofread.
I also enjoyed How to Shoot Great Digital Images. It's a video of her students teaching how to take great pictures. Some tips include inhale, exhale, then snap the shutter button.
In the sidebar of Mrs. Yollis’ blog page contains items such as a cluster map. Her blog had 75,589 visitors between January 7, 2010 and November 13, 2011. Where as for EDM 310 only had 51,262 visitors between January 9, 2010 and November 13, 2011. The sidebar also contains awards that her blog has won. Such as Edublog, including first runner-up in 2009 and 2010, a lifetime achievement award in 2010, and also the best overall for elementary in 2009 from Digital Voice Awards.

On November 16, I commented on Lisa, a student in Room 13 at Pt. England School, blog. Her post was Fake Alien Snot. My response to her post was "Hello Lisa,
My name is Raven. I am a student at the University of South Alabama who is enrolled in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class located in the United States. This class teaches us as future teachers how to include technology in our classrooms. I enjoyed your post. Sounds like you all had a lot of fun making alien snot. I most definitely will have to do that project with my students when I become a teacher. Keep up the good work kiddo!"

Final Progress Report on PLN

When I began using a PLN, I had no clue what it really was. I have continued using my PLN not only for EDM 310 but I have learned that when you are planning a wedding and Christmas shopping online this is a very helpful tool. My PLN has grown with many icons for planning that it should be in one of the bridal magazines. I am glad I learned how to use a PLN it is such a good tool for web goers.

Project #16

Blog Post #13

Beginning this blog post I started to do option 3: Engaging in E-Media. Being that I work around technology I knew that I wasn't going to be able to really do option 3. Since I love to read I decided to go with option 4. I read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Aldous Huxley, born in 1894 in England, was one of England's most accomplished authors. When he wrote Brave New World in 1932, he offended many of his readers. When I first started to read this book I was kind of offended by it myself. I have read many books about sex and drugs but none of them touched me the way this one did.
The setting was in London of 632 A.F. This book is about the future where they use sleep techniques and just technology to make the world a happier place. Everything from the present time has been done away with. Such as marriage, child bearing, emotions.
According to this book, sex is like a social affair. At an early age children are being introduced to sex. For the ones who can reproduce they are encouraged to use birth control. Instead of marriage, they believe in "everyone belongs to everyone else" because the thought of having a family would be considered having an addiction to porno.
Children are no longer created by sexual contact but instead by "decanted bottles" and raised in Hatcheries and Conditioning Centers. During the time of development each fetus are divided into five classes and then marked a "Plus" or "Minus" member. Ranking from highest to lowest Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon determined what their status in the world would be and how they would develop.
Emotions no longer exist because if they did no one would be happy and if no one is happy then the world has problems. Instead they were controlled by a drug called soma, a pill that takes its users on a hangover-free "holiday".
There are five main characters, three of which who are considered to be misfits. Lenina, a social butterfly, was known as not being as slutty as the other women. Bernard, an Alpha Plus psychologist who is a loner because he doesn't look like the rest of the Alpha Plus. Helmholtz Watson, a professor at the College of Emotional Engineering in the Department of Writing, loves to write poetry but can never publish it because it is not allowed. John, the Salvage, born by a Beta who got lost on a "holiday" but raised by Indians was brought back to the New World by Bernard and Lenina after one of their "holidays". Mustapha Mond, the world controller of Western Europe was once a physicist doing deep thought research on real science. When discovered what he was doing he was given the choice of being put on an island or to become a world controller. Of course he chose to give up science, and now he is in control of people happiness. Being the person he was before the controller, he has a collection of forbidden literature locked away in his office.
After seeing his mother die from soma, John went on a rampage to get rid of the drug. With the help of his friends Helmholtz and Bernard, a riot broke out and the police were called. Being escorted to the controller, Bernard denied all part in the riot and blamed it all on John and Helmholtz. Seeing that Bernard and Helmholtz were being transferred to an island of their choice, John exiled himself in an abandoned lighthouse. Doing a ritual the Indians does as a purifying, John whips himself in the open where it is caught on film and shown to the public. After being shown, hundreds of the public came to see John for his violent behavior for themselves. When seeing Lenina, the woman he loves and blames, come to watch John attacks and whips her. Seeing John attack Lenina, the crowd goes mad with excitement. The next morning, when they return to see John act again they find that he has hanged himself.

Project #14

When beginning this project, I started by getting the opinion from a graduate of South Alabama but also a retired teacher. Unable to use Skype because of her age but also health conditions, I asked her questions and wrote down her answers. Her answer to many of the questions were "things have really changed." Asking how, she looked at me like I should have known the answer, she said "well baby, first that classes are integrated but now you also have computers in them." She feels that students aren't learning with the technology in the classroom because it's taking their attention away from the teachers but also the teachers aren't doing any work because the computers are doing it all. This brought me to get the view from a "new generation" teacher.

Project #15

C4K #11 Mrs. Yollis' Class Blog

Mrs. Yollis is the type of teacher that we, as future teachers, hope to become. Not only do she teach her students by using technology but she also involves their family members, classrooms from all around the world, and others who are interested. Her entire focus is on her students, something we need to see in more teachers.
After exploring Mrs. Yollis' classroom blog, I notice that Mrs. Yollis has a lot of links that she encourages her students and other visitors to look and learn from. You can tell that she took time putting together her class blog and updating it on a daily bases.
I read her Meet Mrs. Yollis page and learned that she has been teaching for 25 years. She recently received a masters degree in “Integrating Technology in the Classroom.” Travel is one her and her husband's past time. Their favorite vacation spots are: Hawaii, Montana, Alaska, Belize, the Arctic Circle, and San Diego.
The video How to Comment was a video made by her students. The video included five tips on commenting. Those tips were: compliment, add new information, make a connection, end with a question, and proofread.
I also enjoyed How to Shoot Great Digital Images. It's a video of her students teaching how to take great pictures. Some tips include inhale, exhale, then snap the shutter button.
In the sidebar of Mrs. Yollis’ blog page contains items such as a cluster map. Her blog had 75,589 visitors between January 7, 2010 and November 13, 2011. Where as for EDM 310 only had 51,262 visitors between January 9, 2010 and November 13, 2011. The sidebar also contains awards that her blog has won. Such as Edublog, including first runner-up in 2009 and 2010, a lifetime achievement award in 2010, and also the best overall for elementary in 2009 from Digital Voice Awards.

Progress Report on Final Report

Our final project will include myself, Dominique Spence, and Gretchen Mcpherson. We will be doing our final project on the skills we have learned in EDM 310. We plan on using the green screen, Imovie, and podcast to enhance the effect of our project. Our project is a surprise so we don't want to tell too much. Stay tuned for more!

Blog Post #12

While watching Steve Jobs' Inspirational Speech think of are you motivated enough to motivate your students. As he stands before the graduating class of Stanford, he tells them three different stories. Each story has its own moral. Listen and pay attention closely for I want you to describe in three different paragraphs on what you think each moral is.

Before watching this video, I just knew that Steve Jobs was the guy who invented Apple. Since I am becoming a bigger fan of Apple I decided to Google him. Turns up there is a lot to learn about the late Steve Jobs. Like Bill Gates, Jobs is also a college drop out. Many parents force their kids to succeed in college but I have to disagree by saying college is not for everyone. Bill and Steve prove that point clear. Even without a college degree they were able to become successful legally.
In Jobs first story it was about his early part of life. His biological mother wanting his adopting parents to be college graduates so she would be more comfortable with her baby living with them. Although his adoptive parents were not college graduates (adoptive father high school drop out), they still encouraged Steve to go to college. A prestige college at that where they were paying tuition out of pocket. Six months into the semester Jobs decides to dropout but become a drop in student where he learned calligraphy. This was the first skill he learned for Mac. The moral of this story was knowing how to connect the dots. Steve said "you must trust in yourself enough to know that later on down the road the dots will connect." I agree. When doing the connect the dots puzzles I always start from the end and work backwards to the beginning. This scenario even plays with my life. When I was old enough I planned out my entire life. To where I live, who I want to marry, to what I want to be. Although I have changed the pattern of my 'dots' I know that they will still make the same pattern in the end. With that being said it leads to Steve's second story.
Steve's second story was about love and lost. You must love what you are doing. Starting Apple at the age of 20 in his mothers garage, he found what he love at an early age. Ten years later he lost it. He learned that being let go was the best thing that happened to him. He created two different programs Next and the other one is like the new Disney, Pixar. Pixar became large where as Next was bought out by Apple. "Sometimes life will hit you in the head with a brick but don't loose faith." In the end he never lost what he love. This moral ties in to what I have believed in for a very long time. A career is something you love where as a job is something you are just doing. Yes, we all know that some teachers do not get paid that much but if you love it why should the pay matter? My major was once where I knew the pay would be good but the classes stressed me out and did not bring me enjoyment while taking them so I switched to where my heart was, teaching.
The last and final story was about death. Like Steve, I live by the same quote "live every day like it was your last." After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Steve never gave up he just kept living like it was his last. He said that even though he was face to face with death it wasn't nice. "Nobody is ready to die not even those who want to go to heaven." He encourages that you should follow your own heart and mind to not to live in any one else shadows. Like Randy Pausch, it is sad that Steve Jobs past on. It is great that they left a great legacy for many people to come.

C4K Comment for Kids #2

For the past month I have been following two different students. On October 24 I commented on Charlotte's page. Charlotte is a student from 2KJ
"My name is Raven. I am a student at the University of South Alabama that’s located in the United States. I am currently enrolled the class EDM 310 which teaches future teachers how to stay in contact and teach our students by using technology. When I was in grade school my family and I went to the New Orleans zoo or to Biloxi, Mississippi. Yes, there are penguins in other countries. No, I have never been to Phillip Island but will look into going there one day because your slide show seem like you had a lot of fun. Keep up the good work." Her response was "Hi Raven,
Thanks for your comment on my blog i loved it! i love to hear from people all around the world! hope to hear from you soon,
Charlotte."

On October 27 I commented on "We've got the Write Stuff," a year 4 class at Pt England School in Auckland NZ. My comment was "Hi!
My name is Raven and I am a student that's enrolled in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama located in Mobile, Alabama. I really enjoyed your post about the Canadian flag. I love how you had the flag move along the mountains while you talked about it. I have never been to Canada but I do have a lot of Canadian money. Keep up the good work, kiddo!"

Blog Post #11

After watching the video "First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class," I realized that Ms. Cassidy has a class of intelligent 6 year old students. In Ms. Cassidy's first grade class they know how to use blogs, webpages, wiki's, and skype in order to communicate with students from other places. In my class I would like to bring blogs, webpages, and skype into my classroom. I would use the blogs for my students assignments on a daily bases to teach them how to read for comprehension and write correctly. The webpages would allow my students to check and follow what will be going on in class. The most important thing would be skype, because I would like for my students to interact with students in other places who are on the same level as they are.
Of course nothing ever goes exactly as plan without a little trials and tribulations to get to that point. My problems would consider between both student and parents. After graduation, I would like to start off by teaching here in Mobile but then move to Georgia where I will educate in one of the rural areas because I volunteer at my mom school and seeing those kids not having the same opportunity I had in elementary with playing guitars, recorders, learning Spanish. I want to give back to my community. This will be a problem because after school is over many of my students won't have access to a computer unless they go to the nearest library but what if their parent don't have transportation? Not only would this problem stop my students, parents might get upset because their child couldn't do their work. With that being said this should encourage the parents to get on the band wagon so they can't complain why their child is "left behind" technology wise. In order to solve my problems plan A would be to encourage my students to do fundraisers where it will allow them to afford a computer inside their homes. If plan A fails plan B would be to go to my school system and government where I would argue the "no child left behind" act. Like the teacher from the movie "Freedom Writers," I will stop at nothing to better educate my students because by all means the children are our future.

C4T #3

For the past couple of days I have been following the "Tech for Teachers" facebook page. My first comment was on a video titled "Play Again Film Trailer." This video was about children not going outside to be apart of nature anymore. Now days kids spend majority of their time watching television or playing video games. Yes, they make video games such as the Wii or Xbox Kinect where you are the controller. When I was growing up I know I got a bike as a present either every Christmas or every other Christmas. Where as kids now don't ask for bikes, skates, jump ropes, side- walk chalk to make hop scotch. They just ask for games and more games. I am curious on how children of today's time would react if there was no such thing as Wii, XBox, or Playstions? Sounds like a great idea.
The second video that I watched was "Why Let Our Students Blog" by Rachel Boyd of New Zealand. In summary of this video, Rachel gave a couple of good reasons to why our students should blog. Not only should they blog to communicate or to expand outside the classroom but "to give them skills useful for their digital future." I agree with Rachel because while being in EDM 310 I have learned more things about what I can do with my laptop than I did in my computer class. Not speaking bad of my computer class. Kids can learn a majority of things from blogging and also meet new people.

Blog Post #10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?
While watching this video, I realized that I shouldn't have changed my mind in the beginning. I thought I wanted to be a pediatrician but I soon realized that I was not going to be able to deal with seeing very sick children or even the thought of seeing one die on me. I went back to my original plan, becoming a teacher. I chose to become a teacher because I knew I wanted to help children. Not only help them but to teach them and advise them to become anything they want to be.
This video showed the difference between teaching and educating. I think that I have the power of both. You must have both qualities if you are in the education field. One might out way the other but you have both qualities. I will make sure I both advise and impart knowledge into my students.

Tom Johnson's Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home!
In Mr. Johnson's post he disagrees with Gertrude, his school's Curriculum Instructional Interventionist Academic Specialist. She argues that students in low income areas should not use pencils because they would just use them as entertainment. Johnson responds by stating, "I don't hold them accountable. I try and find projects that keep them interested. But if they choose to play Hang Man or go on the pen pal networks, I'm okay with it. There's probably some learning that's taking place that we don't realize."
I think Mr. Johnson uses sarcasm to make his point. Like many others have quoted "don't be scared to learn," and students are always learning that's why we are there. We can advise the students to learn in a creative way. I feel if they use pencils or not they are still learning. Bringing your pencils home in order to do your school work will result in a good grade but if they don't then it will result in either a failing grade or a grade they don't want. I don't think by using pencils will lower test grades. For me for example, when I write or in this case type it stays in my memory therefore, my test scores go up. So in this case a lesson was learned whether it’s part of the curriculum or not.

Blog Post #9

What I've Learned This Year By: Mr. McClung
For my blog post #9, I chose to do Mr. McClung's "What I've Learned This Year 2008-2009" "What I've Learned This Year 2010-2011." In his first blog post from 2008- 2009, he summarizes on his first year of teaching. While doing so he also gave some good pointers to teachers who are coming in. First, you must "know how to read the crowd." He states that "teachers become so concerned with the delivery of the content that they are missing the most important aspect of teaching, and that is checking for student comprehension." I agree with McClung fully. Teachers of today teach according to these CRTs or EQTs. To me, I don't think students really get the comprehension when taught that way. His next pointers are "be flexible, communicate, be reasonable, don't be afraid of technology, listen to your students, and never stop learning." All McClung's pointers are very helpful for first time teachers. It should be about the student, listen to your students, and also never stop learning. You are never to old to learn and everyone wants someone to listen to them.
The second part 2010-2011, was about the third year of his teaching career. After accepting many new jobs, McClung states that this end of the year reflection was easier. The best quote that he said was "I guess the moral of this lesson is that you cannot allow others to stifle your own excitement and joy that you experience in teaching or any other facet of life for that matter." I totally agree with that. Many people go to school to become a teacher but people start talking about the money or how bad the kids of today is so they find another major. I think that if you are passionate and want it to be a career and not a job, then keep that major. His pointers in this post was first "know who your boss is, don't think everybody will be as excited about change as you are, don't be afraid to be an outsider, don't touch the keyboard, and don't get comfortable." I think that McClung is a good inspiration to future teachers. Every future teacher should follow these pointers.

Project #13 Smartboard Part 1

Blog Post #8

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2
As I began watching Miller's video, I instantly became bored. His voice did not catch my attention but his video itself did. Pushing myself to pay attention to what he was saying, turned out that I enjoyed the video. He has very good points where he makes us, not only as future teachers but Americans, think about how we write and read now days. If you sit back and think about it, do you really see that much pen and paper in classrooms now? Just being enrolled in EDM 310 should give you the answer to that question.
Miller encourages everyone in the education field to learn how to write in the multimedia format. This format allows you to not only publish your writings in a book but also online. Everything we use in today's time in some way has to deal with technology. If you were to walk into a classroom and look around the first thing you won't see is a chalk board. There is something like it though, called a smart board.
I honestly can say that I agree with Miller, due to the fact that technology grows all day every day. In a few years, who knows there might not be something called pencils and paper. Besides, who wouldn't want to learn and write the multimedia way? Using pictures and videos can really get your point across instead of just writing it on paper and turning it in. I will definitely be teaching my students this method.

Blog Post #12 by Carly Pugh
I can honestly say that Carly is ready to become a teacher. As a teacher you have to think of ways to keep your students interest and Carly did just that. The playlist idea would be a great idea as our final reflection project. That way it shows Dr. Strange all that we learned and help us put to use what we learned. She took Miller's words and ran with them. She did everything he told us to do when writing with multimedia.
Her links were great. Not only did they help her put her point across they helped make the post more enjoyable. She had categories from humor to serious. I loved the video "leave your mark" because you should think outside of the box and do something in life that people will remember you by. I walk around town and see so many people on the streets and think to myself "I wonder what they had planned for their life when they were younger?" This brings me to the video “when I grow up” and “Don’t laugh at me." I will definitely be showing these three videos in my class.

The Chipper Series and EDM 310 for Dummies
Watching both of these videos showed just how I felt at the beginning of our EDM 310 class this semester. As the class went on I noticed that it became easier. Notice I said easier not EASY! In the video "The Chipper Series," Chipper procrastinates and when confronted by Dr. Strange she comes up with an excuse like every other student has ever done. Like many students who get fed up with not being able to stay on task with their school work, Chipper drops out. After her idea creating her own school that allowed students to come, go, and do as they please failed, Chipper returned back to Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class. In the video "EDM 310 for Dummies," the two girls were at the beginning feeling just like I was, frustrated. As the video progressed it showed that Dr. Strange had come up with a book EDM 310 for Dummies. This book broke EDM 310 down that the girls were able to succeed in their work. I think I could do one of these videos. My group and I came up with an idea for one of these videos. I honestly want to do the playlist project that Carly mentioned in her video.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
In this video, a variety of different educators gave their opinion about how they felt about the way kids are being taught today. I both agree with this video. I agree with the fact that, yes teachers should become technology literate so they are able to teach kids of today's time. Kids are very technology literate and like one of the women from this video said "Kids are very rich developers through their emails, texting, and social networking, but yet all that is band from the classrooms." I agree with her. I am glad that I have learned some ways to stay connected to my students outside the classroom from EDM 310. I believe that educators should use something inside the classroom besides books to keep their students attention and involved.