C4K Summary for February

Averie B. wrote her blog about the Super Bowl. She wanted the Broncos to win. She also talked about the Puppy Bowl which is an alternative to the Super Bowl. Animal Planet puts on a show to raise awareness for unadopted puppies.

Zach wrote his blog on his upcoming birthday. His birthday list includes coffee, cbox games, and a trip to the wave pool.

Wareagle wrote a blog titled This I believe. The frustration of the increasing prices is noted in this post. Their irritation of the prices is focused mostly around food and xbox games.

Cade's blog post is about the book project he did. He describes the theme of the book Hunger Games with pictures he finds to be depictive of the main points.

Not All Great Minds Think Alike.

I think just about everyone has heard the saying: "Great minds think alike." I do not find this to be completely true because not all great minds think alike. If they did, I don't think much of anything would be accomplished. There are many different people out there with many different ideas. As a future teacher, different ideas are music to my ears. If we all had the same ideas there suddenly becomes no room for progress. A Personal Learning Network is a great way to connect with other great minds and exchange ideas. What is a Personal Learning Network? "It is those people, places, organizations and activities which enable you to learn."

There are a countless number of different outlets for PLN. Some examples are blogs, Youtube, websites like Edutopia, and more unlikely ones like Pinterest. These all can help us become better teachers and effectively engage our students. Michael Fawcett made a comment about needing to look outside the staffroom. If the tools are out there, why not utilize them? There are also numerous ways to organize your PLN. I find Symbaloo to be the most convenient and user-friendly. You have everything you need in one place. You can connect all of your PLN outlets to your Symbaloo. It's almost like a page of apps. It harnesses the cloud as well. Personal Learning Networks are tremendously important. “Don’t worry about feeling afraid and apprehensive about your lessons because that way you know that you are learning and good learners make better teachers. You can handle everything if you’re well prepared, flexible and have the learners at your centre and if you think you might lose it – simply hand over to them and take a breath!“ Teachers never stop learning new things. Bigger and better ways to do things are always being developed. It is our job to make sure we are aware and up to date. PLN’s are a great way to do that.

Calvin and Hobbes

Conversations with Anthony Capps.

What do you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?

1. Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher (10:03)
2. Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher (13:45)
3. iCurio (8:08)
4. Discovery Education (4:33)
5. The Anthony - Strange list of Tips for Teachers Part 1 (12:59)
6. Don't Teach Tech - Use It (8:49)
7. Additional Thought About Lessons (3:25)

After watching these videos, I think I have a better understanding of what I need to be prepared for as a teacher. I discovered that teaching is a continuous learning process. My day won't end when I leave my classroom. I will forever be uncovering new ways to keep my students engaged. That's my job. My goal is to hold 100% of my students attention a 100% of the time. I learned that there are many different programs to help me do just that whether it's iCurio, discovery education, or something else. I need to make myself familiar with these technology aids. Although like Mr. Capps said, "Don't teach tech-use it". I need to find ways to incorporate technology into my lessons without taking time out to particularly teach it. I learned that I need to be flexible. If something doesn't go the way I planned, I need to be able to make modifications accordingly. The students may take longer than expected to grasp the concept or unexpected events may put a damper on our time; you never know! To receive advice from a teacher, who is still very new to teaching, is an opportunity I will always be thankful for.

My Sentence Videos

My Sentence is...


My Passion is...

Questions Anyone?

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher? That is a great question. Honestly until I did a little bit of research on the subject I had absolutely no idea. Questions are one of the most important parts of teaching; but how do we ask a question in a way that it engages the students(encouraging critical thinkers)as well as testing their understanding of the subject. Here are a few ways to do just that:

1. Open-ended Questions:We need to make sure we are asking questions that don't simply require yes or no answers. "A closed-ended question structures the response for the student and it can be answered by one word, such as yes or no, or by a very brief phrase. An open-ended question, however, leaves the form of the answer up to the person who is responding. Thereby eliciting more thinking and yielding more information." An open-ended question requires the student to actually think, be creative, and use logic. This is a step in the right direction to train critical thinkers.
2. Plan Ahead: "When you write out a question, you can make it clearer … not just the wording, but clearer conceptually." A confusing question does no good. If anything, it diminishes the situation. By planning your questions ahead of time, you prevent the confusion of whether the student is having difficulty with understanding the question or the concept being taught. A teacher I had in high school used to say "Prior planning prevents poor performance."
3. Structure: Ask a question, then call on a student. According to The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom this was researched by Mary Budd Rowe. It has shown to be very effective in that it gives students time to think about an answer. They don't just automatically ignore the question because they did not get called on.
4."Think Time": This follows along with number 3. I watched a video titled Divergent Questioning in 8th Grade Math. He had one particular concept that stuck out to me called "Think time". After he asks a question he holds up his fist for an appropriate amount of time and then proceeds to open his fist. During the time in which his fist is closed the students must think about the question and develop an answer. As soon as he opens his fist, then and only then are students allowed to raise their hands. This makes thinking time available for students who don't know the answer right away. When a teacher asks a question and someone immediately raises their hand, most likely every other student in that classroom stops thinking about an answer. In their mind, they believe someone already knows the answer. Therefore, why should they even bother. It's intimidating! I like this concept because it creates a level playing field.
5. Explain Your Reasoning:Why? You should ask the student how they came to that conclusion. Whether it is right or wrong, ask why. By asking them to defend their answer this will convey their logic to everyone in the class. I cannot tell you how many times I have been in a class, especially math, when the teacher asks a question, someone answers it, the teacher says "Correct!" and I am left thinking "Wait! What? How did they get that!?" Just because one student understands something does not mean everyone else does. Even if the student answers wrong if you ask them to explain their answer it gives them the chance to realize the flaw and correct it. Getting a student to fight for their answer instills passion without them even knowing it.

"Does everyone understand?" is no longer an acceptable question for teachers. "Yes or No" is no longer an acceptable response from students. Why?, because now you are informed and know how to get the most out of the question you were already going to ask.

Project # 3 Presentation

Ooh! Guess What!

I had the pleasure of reading the blog Ooh! Guess What! written by Dawn DuPriest, a 7th grade math teacher. She had some very insightful thoughts on our changing education system.

The first blog post of hers that I read was titled "What it’s like to live Common Core". Mrs. DuPriest started by stating some common assumptions about Common Core State Standard (CCSS). The purpose of CCSS is to help assure that every student in the same grade nationwide is on the same level. Mrs. DuPriest says it best, "The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a set of learning objectives. They lay out what kids should know and be able to do at each grade level. That’s it. They’re goals." She goes on to say what she likes and dislikes about CCSS. For example a few of them include.

Likes
1.The consistency: She believes national standards were needed and that having every state(that is the not including the ones who have not adopted these standards)on the same level as far as education will help aid our education system in success.
2.Strategy: CCSS helps the students become better learners.

Dislikes
1. Technology: She finds that technology is not used enough in assignments.
2. Application: After the 8th grade CCSS has little to no practical application.

She then goes on to say "All that said, if we can get past the nonsense about fighting educational reform, if we can accept the premise that we really do have some re-thinking to do about how we approach mathematics in school, if we fully accept our role as developing critical thinkers, and if we can embrace the vast resource pool that’s just becoming available to use as Common Core comes online – we’ve got a good shot at making this thing work. There’s more to do in other areas, but this will start some terrific conversations."

The second blog post of hers that I read was titled "Hour of Code activities!" In this post Mrs. DuPriest talks about the use of coding as an outlet for teaching. The new innovations happening in coding and programing make it easier than ever. Her students use Khan Academy and Javascript for their coding projects. Mrs. DuPriest uses various projects to teach her students how to think mathematically. "Rich math tasks really take on a new dimension when they’re done in a programming context. The feedback is instant, the visuals are rich, the numbers are never easy to work with, yet mental math and estimation are crucial to understanding if your results are reasonable." There is no doubt that technology is soon, if not already,going to be a big part of teaching.