C4K #8-11

Comment #8
This post is from Ms. Cassidy's first grade class blog. My student posted a vocaroo of him saying words that start with a "z". Here is a link

I commented:
Hi! My name is Amberli, I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. You did a great job pronouncing words that begin with a z. WOW you are reading good to only be in the first grade. Keep up the good work and thanks fro sharing.

Comment #9
This student posted this on her blog:

Hello my name is Alma Selimovic i am here to blog about my baby sister she is a little brat also shes the devil every morning she takes a book or some wort of thing and hits me in the face with it to wake me up every morning. she says wow if you dont give her what she wants shes so cut but shes a little devil.

I commented:
Hey!
My name is Amberli Chastang,I am in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class at the University Of South Alabama in Mobile, Al. I have two little brothers and they still do things like that to me too. She is just a baby :). That may be a way she like to play with you. Well thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.
-Amberli


Comment #10

This blog is owneed by Kaipara Flats Room 2 News. It is a class blog. The class posted:


On Thursday Mrs Parris told us to plant some cress seeds at school in the class. We were finding out about slow change and how seeds start to grow.
We used cotton wool and seeds and water and a saucer for each group.
We split into eight groups and first we got a saucer and then we got cotton wool and then we put the seeds on and sprayed water on it.
On Saturday and Sunday they all grew.

I commented:
Hi, my name is Amberli Chastang and I am in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama. I really like your post. I also enjoy growing plants myself . It is amazing how plants can grow from a tiny little seed. I also like the cute picture of the plants. Great job! Thanks for sharing.

Comment #11
This was a post on a student's blog from Mrs. Huebner's class:

Instead of being in science for 45 minutes we got to Skype with Christopher Lee. He talked about the Boal Museum and Christopher Columbus. The Boal Museum is located in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. He talked about the sayings for 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He said that was the second grade way and there was a fifth grade way. Christopher Columbus died the year of 1506. His sons name was Diego Columbus. The story back then was really, but now it’s just made up. The person we talked to was a relative of Christopher Columbus.

I commented:
Hi, I am a student in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama in Mobile,Al. Wow,that is very interesting to know. I bet it was a lot of fun being able to skype compared to doing your regular science lesson. Just think you got the talk with someone who actually talked to a relative of the famous Christopher Columbus. Yeah, growing up I have heard many versions of the Christopher Columbus's story. It's good that you got to hear the real story. How Cool ! Thanks for sharing.
-Amberli

Additional assignment #5

Just Teach Them to Solve for X
In this post Mr. Spencer allows his students to use metaphors to understand the meaning of the variable "x" in mathematics. I think the students will be very confused but in the end I hope they will appreciate their teachers efforts to make them understand how "x" can relate to real world problems not just an symbol in math that has no true meaning. The students were also given a better way to learn math before they get to just the memorization of that skill to solve for "x".

Sketchy Portraits: 8th Grade Identity and Pencils
In this post he uses a pencil to describe a fourteen year old's life. I never would have made the connection but after reading the post best a pencil is the best description for a fourteen year old student. Mr. Spencer describes the student life at that age is always changing and is temporary. At that age the student want to be treated as an adult as well as viewed as a child. This is like the gray shade of a pencil. The student's life is like the pencil because a pencil mark can be temporary, changed, textured, and smudged. Mr. Spencer co-worker view the students creative ways of thinking as being rude and having attitude. While, Mr. Spencer view it as an opportunity to self reflect.

He Just Likes the Class for the Pencils
Mr. Spencer is also viewed as the "nice guy teacher" but he is just an effective teacher. He is strict just when he need to be.All he want is for his students to have fun while taking learning serious at the same time.So if his students need more freedom to accomplish that then he allow it. In a meeting with a parent the other teachers were saying that the student was good in his class just because of the technological resources available to the students. But in the end, the student liked his class the best for his willingness to care for him instead of blaming him for their failure to teach. I applauded Mr. Spencer for being that teacher that make an impact in a child's life. I hope I can became an effective teacher and make a difference in a student's life.


The Medium Shapes the Learningg
In this post I was a little confused. But, I think he is saying that just because there is some new hot technology device out that doesn't mean it would be useful to a lesson for students.

Blog Post #13

ALEX stands for Alabama Learning Exchange. ALEX is a great website for future teachers and educators. On the home page there are four main categories. The main categories are course of study, web links, search, lesson plans, personal work space, professional learning, podcast treasury, and ALEXville. The course of study section have all the standards organized by grade level and subjects. There are numerous of lesson plans for every standard. The lesson plans can be very good resources or ideas for how a teacher can teach that particular standard. The podcast are broke into different sections by subjects. There are also many useful links provided by ALEX that educators can easily find. The personal workspace section allows an educator to organize all their resources. There is also a professional learning section broke down into useful websites that an educator can explore to receive help in certain areas. The web resource section is broken into six different categories three of which are specially for students,teachers, and administers.
While exploring the ALEX website in the professional learning section there were links to request training on profession development. There was also a link on grants opportunities. There were a power points explaining the process of grants and tips on writing grants. I also like how there was more than one lesson plan for a certain grade level or subject so there are plenty of examples to help me as a teacher come up with my own lesson plans. I plan to use this website a lot well still in school as well as during my professional career.

Blog Post #12

Assignmnet:

Watch this video on technology in special education. I do you feel about technology in special education? How will you use technology in the classroom differently with special students than with other students? Would there be a difference? Write a paragraph answering these questions and your reaction to the video on your post.







Post:

WOW! Technology is so important to those kids it make their life a lot easier. I never really thought of technology in that way as a life functioning skill. In the video, using their laptops to communicate was easier and it also made learning fun. In my classroom I would always use technology in anything I do with all my students. But, there will probably be some times when my special students will receive extra help. I would help them through technology when needed.

Final Project Progress Report

I will be working with Margeaux Estevane and Amanda Bosarge for the Final Project. We will find a word for each letter in the alphabet that relate to technology. With those words we will provide a screen capture about the word and an explanation to why teachers will find it useful to use in the classroom.

Results from questionnaire

Video of summary



Link to Summary



I sent my qusetiinaire to some follow classmates in EDM 310, thses are the following results:


1.What does fashion mean to you?

comfortability 8 40%
cool and hip 4 20%
professional and mature 1 5%
expressing yourself 7 35%

2.Where do you purchase most of your clothing?

malls 16 80%
designer boutiques 5 25%
department stores 7 35%
fashion shows 0 0%
retail stores 10 50%
Other 2 10%

3. What is your favorite accessory for a winter outfit?

scarf 8 40%
long socks 1 5%
boots 11 55%
leather jackets 3 15%
hats 4 20%
ear muffs 0 0%
gloves 5 25%
other 1 5%

4. What trend are you loving the most right now?

skinny jeans 5 25%
colorful scarves 4 20%
animal prints 3 15%
short hair cuts 2 10%
polka dots and stripes 2 10%
rock star look 1 5%
Other 3 15%


5.How much do celebrities' styles influence your own style?

1 - Always 1 5%
2 1 5%
3 6 30%
4 6 30%
5 - Never 6 30%

6.What are your favorite colors to wear ?

rainbow colors 5 25%
nude 1 5%
black and gray 13 65%
Others 4 20%


7.Which fabric do you prefer?

Cotton 16 80%
Polyester 2 10%
Jean 1 5%
Silk 0 0%
Linen 1 5%
Lyrca 0 0%
Spandex 0 0%
Other 0 0%

8.What footwear do you most commonly wear to class?

flip flops/sandals 11 55%
tennis shoes 7 35%
boots/uggs 1 5%
house shoes 0 0%
flats 1 5%
loafers 0 0

9. How often do you updated your wardrobe?

every 0-6 months 11 55%
every 1-2 years 6 30%
every 3-5 years 3 15%
Other 0 0%

10. Do you wear men's fashion or women's fashion?

I am a man. I wear men's fashion 4 20%
I am a woman. I wear women's fashion. 14 70%
I am a man, but I wear women's fashion sometimes. 0 0%
I am a woman, but my style is "unisex". 1 5%
I wear both. 1 5%

Number of responses: 20


My response:
My survey was all about fashion. I was inserted in fashion on campus because so many people dress with different styles when coming to class. I sent my shivery to 26 students and only 20 responded. Most of the students said around the same thing I would have said. I asked what does fashion mean to them and 15 students responded to be comfortable and a way to express themselves. Majority of the students shop at malls fro their clothing and change their wardrobe at least every six months. Most students like to wear gray and black. Almost all the students prefer cotton.Some big trends around campus are skinny jeans, colorful scarfs, and boots for the winter.Also the students are not influence much by celebrities fashion. I learned that most of my recipients were females too. Google forms is a very easy way to send surveys and received accurate and fast results. I also like how Google provided charts for the result summary to compare answers easily.

Project #15

Summary of Comments for Teacher #3

Scott Elias is a newly appointed principal.In the first post he talks about how his staff complained that there were too many meetings.He writes:

know this will come as a huge shock, but most people despise meetings. When I ask staff about things that are holding them back, almost to a person they have said, “Too many meetings.”

When it comes right down to it, though, these are rituals that are deeply ingrained in the culture of our school. Most schools have a similar situation.

Long, low-energy meetings tend to distract and mute the day. – Martin Fowler

The trouble with throwing out meetings completely is that they do have some value. According to a few papers summarized here, meetings can help achieve the following:

* Shared commitment
* Communicate daily status, progress, and plans to the team and any observers
* Identify obstacles so that the team can take steps to remove them
* Set direction and focus
* Build a team

Being a new leader and getting to know my staff, I’m not willing to cut out all meetings. But what I am committed to doing is making sure that every minute we spend in some kind of meeting serves to move forward the school’s mission and agenda.

Zero-Based Meeting Budgeting
We’re going to get back to basics. At the first regular, monthly meeting of our leadership team, we will remove every meeting from our calendars and begin adding back in those meetings that make sense and will move us toward our goals. We will no longer meet four times per month if we can accomplish the same objective in two highly-productive, focused meetings.

Less meeting time focused on dissemination of information
Since my first day on the job, I’ve made some changes that I hope will whittle down the sheer volume of meeting time. Depending on the sensitivity, items that are “information only” in nature go into an email to team leaders or onto our school blog or wiki. Weening people off email has gone well so far, in no small part thanks to my very flexible group of teacher leaders who have been willing to jump into some new ways of doing business.

Two things I’ve learned in trying to bring this level of change to the day-to-day business of an organization are (1) stop trying to use the “inducement” approach to improving processes and systems (see letter B of Scott’s post on RSS for PD), and (2) stop asking questions like “Do you use Google Docs?” in favor of questions like, “To which email address should I send the invite for this document we’re working on?” It’s all about positive presuppositions. Of course we’re using Google Docs! I mean, who isn’t?

I’ll let you know how it goes, but it’s a start! Look for an upcoming post with more detail on the process of paper-reduction in a 40-year-old middle school.

I commented:


Hi Scott. My name is Amberli Chastang and I am visiting your blog for my EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama. I will be commenting on your blog as well as posting a copy of your blog with my comment on my blog.I think that meetings can be effective if they have specific purposes. I agree with your resource that standing up will make the meeting more effective and more focused on the main purposes.If you can accomplish what you need to in fewer meetings, then your team will probably be more appreciative of the content shared.

In Scott second post talks about his nervousness to speak in front of the school for the first time as principal. He writes:



Tomorrow is the first time I’ll speak (officially, formally) to the entire staff at my school as their principal. I’ve been thinking and stressing a lot over the last week about how that might go. Then I picked up Rework, which was one of the books I read this summer, and found a passage I’d highlighted a few days before I was asked to be a principal:

Don’t be afraid to show your flaws. Imperfections are real and people respond to real. It’s why we like real flowers that wilt, not perfect plastic ones that never change. Don’t worry about how you’re supposed to sound and how you’re supposed to act. Show the world what you’re really like, warts and all.

So talk like you really talk. Reveal things that others are unwilling to discuss. Be upfront about your shortcomings. Show the latest version of what you’re working on, even if you’re not done yet. It’s OK if it’s not perfect. You might not seem as professional, but you will seem a lot more genuine


I commented:

Hi,I am a student at the University of South Alabama and I am always nervous to give a presentation in my class too.Although I know exactly what I am going to say and I feel comfortable with the other students in the class, I still get butterflies when my name is called to present especially if I have to stand up and speak. I really like that passage you shared also. It's true people will appreciate you more if they see you speaking from the heart and when you allow some of your imperfections to show. I think you will do a good job. Thanks for sharing.

Summary of Comments for kids #3-7

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Comment #3
This post comes from Pt England School in Auckland,New Zealand.Sateki is a second grade student there. The students wrote and recorded their paragraphs all about Kupe.Kupe was a great chief of Hawaiki who arrived in New Zealand in 925 AD. Sateki has been learning all about Kupe. Sateki was very proud of these 3 paragraphs. So much so, he slowed down so we could all hear him clearly.I commented I love his post. He did such a great job of telling his story. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.

Comment#4
This post is from student's private blog in the fifth grade:

Hi,

Today in maths, we learnt about ROMAN NUMERALS. It was really funny because there was this funny song saying “III” which means 3 in Roman Numerals. You should listen to it. I think it is on YOUTUBE. Here is a Roman Numerals chart:

Bye

Olivia


I commented:

Hey!
My name is Amberli Chastang,I am in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class at the University Of South Alabama in Mobile, Al. I like your blog it is cute. I also love all your little animals. Learning Roman Numerals is fun and make sure you pay attention because you will see them again throughout life. Have fun learning and I hope you do well in school also. Thanks for sharing.
-Amberli


Comment#5
This post a student's private blog in the seventh grader in Miss W's class in Australia. Brooke wrote a poem about romance movies:

This is my thoughts on romance movies

Romance definitely makes us happier because it makes us forget what has happened or is happening around us and it really makes you feel like it could happen to us!

It sort of puts you in that actors shoes, like all the feelings that the person acting is feeling gives you those feelings and like how you would feel if you was in that position.

Everyone wants to have that person who will always be there for you no matter what!

In movies romance makes you get your hopes up like well maybe that could happen to me.

I commented:
Hi, I am a student at the University of South Alabama located in Mobile,AL. I am in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class. I really like your blog. Anything is possible it could actually happen to you. And having unconditional love is an important factor in romance. Romance doesn’t necessary have to be like the movies may make it seem. It could just be something nice someone will do for no reason.



Comment #6
This post a student's private blog in Mr. Goerend and Mrs Quam's Classes 6th grade in Iowa.Hannah C wrote a poem about the stars:

My Shining Star

The light is shinning

In my heart

For I need to be guided

With you in my hands

you go up

And I go down

and we meet

in the middle

at the heart!!

I commented:
Hi! My name is Amberli, I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I really like your poem. It is so creative and expressive. I also enjoyed other post on your blog. So, keep up the good work and continue writing poems because you are really good at it. Thanks for sharing.






Comment#7
This post is from a student at Alba Middle School who created blog. Friendship posted:

My Photograph

I selected this picture because it shows many different shapes and captures the essence of the ship.

This is a picture of anti-aircraft guns on the USS Battleship.I took this picture from the stairs as I was going up to the next level of the ship.
What would you name this picture?
Please leave me a comment.

I commented:
Hi, I am Amberli Chastang. I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I really like this picture and the angle of the picture is also good because you can see the guns, water, and the sunshine.I would name it " guns of peace" because the guns are no longer being used. Thanks for sharing.

Blog Post #11

Video: First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class and Interview with Ms. Cassidy


Ms. Cassidy used a lot of good techniques for using technology in the class. Her students seem to really enjoy the use of technology as well. Her use of blogs and the class web page is also a good way to allow parents to check their child's progress. I also like the that the laptops become a center in the classroom. The kids seem so confident and proud of their work being showcased on the internet. In my classroom I would most likely try to use all of Ms. Cassidy's techniques. The blogs seem really fun and allows people to leave comments on the student's blog which is a good way to motivate them to do better. The web page would be a useful tool in the class so the students will know what is expected of them and if a student is out one day all they have to do is check the web page so they want get behind. I don't even know what a wiki is myself so that is very impressive that they created their own. I would use wiki in my class too because it is a good way to allow the students to teach themselves. I would also love to use skype in the classroom for guest speakers.I would incorporate the videos with the flip camera by using it in the students' projects as well as some instructional videos for the students to view on the class's web page. Ms.Cassidy is doing a great thing with those kids and seem to really enjoy it. I wish her the best and hope that her students continue to learn through technology.

Project #14 Teach someone something