Blog Post 14

Problems:
1. Giving more choices of schools to families.
2. Using technology to improve teaching and learning skills.
3. Adopting a knowledge-based curriculum
4. Starting education before a child is 5 years old.
5. Making teaching a more professionalized job.
6. Pick only the best teachers of their graduating classes.
7. Seniority
8. Establish a board to police the teaching profession.

Solutions:
1. Give the families more schools to pick from in their area.
2. Teaching technology skills to cater to their future needs in life.
3. Everything being knowledge-based will help with real life application.
4. Starting a child in the education process starts long before they turn 5 years old. They learn how to do basic every day activities. They are capable of so much before kindergarten.
5. Making your job as a teacher more than just a job. It is your career. People should view teaching just as any nurse, law, and medicine career. They are teaching the future of this country. It should not be taken lightly.
6. Picking only the best in the education graduating class would make things more competitive. It should be taken seriously, and only the true hearts of education should be teaching. By hiring any education major for the job might not always be the best choice. Having a heart and passion for teaching, and wanting a job for a pay check are two different things. It should be taken into consideration.
7. Seniority, this can we taken care of by the school board. Every teacher should be evaluated equally. If they are not doing their job, they do not deserve the job. Many charter schools are moving towards this movement today.
8. This goes along with the board making sure teachers are actually teaching, and not just watching movies. This board will keep everyone in check. It will keep the real task at hand at its correct standards.




Agree or Disagree:

I agree with the statement that there needs to be more options for families to send their children to. I have personal experience with this problem. I went to a tiny county school, but I wanted to go to a bigger county school They bigger school was known to be a top school, with a great education program. I think giving families the choice of which school to attend is a better option than making them go to a school that is lower on the education scale. I believe every child should have the best education possible, but some times It is not always the best option.

Using more technology in the classrooms. I do agree with this. In the century we are in today it is imperative to keep the students up to date with real world application. Technology is real world application in today's classrooms. They need to learn how to use computers for something other than social media. Many jobs require knowledge of excel, power point, and sometimes other more complicated applications.

Adopting a knowledge-based curriculum is important as well. Applying real-world application is important. Yes they need to be full of past knowledge, but they are living in today's world. They need to be capable of doing things for themselves.

I agree with starting a child in an education program before the age of 5. I was in school when I was 4 years old. I also know many people who started in k-3. A child's brain is really developing at this age. They soak up things like sponges. Children who start the education program early have said to have higher scores, and have better grades. Learning starts from day one.

I also agree that teaching should be a more professional job. Teachers hold the future in their hands. It's a big job, and they have big shoes to fill. Teaching should be viewed just like medicine, law, and nursing professions. Teaching is certainly not an easy task, not just anyone can do it. People should appreciate the teaching world more than they do.

Seniority, I strongly agree that this needs to be changed. One of my best friends just was hired at a charter school. They have no such rule as seniority. A ten year teacher is viewed and reviewed as a first year teacher. I believe this keeps everyone on check, and makes sure that every teacher is doing exactly what they are supposed to. I had many teachers in high school that were absolutely terrible, but they had seniority, they were overlooked. This is one of the major problems in the education department.

I think it would be a good idea to establish a board to police the teaching profession. It goes along with the seniority rule. It would keep everyone in check, and make sure everything is up to standards.

In conclusion, I agree with everything that was said by Joel Klein. There are so many problems with the way educators are viewed and education as a whole. It can all start with awareness and action. I believe that schools are aware of the problems that arise today. They just need a voice to take full control of the situations. As a future educator I vow to give my all, all the time. I do not want to be like those teachers in high school that have bad reputations of being "that teacher". This was a great assignment, probably my favorite article to read as well.

C4K November

Joey's Blog

In Joey's blog post he felt strongly about kidblog violating privacy, ruining friendships, and hurting others reputations. He believes that this reflection time is only showing everyone that they are monsters. He had a lot of feeling in this blog post. I was rather shocked by the way he wrote about this topic. He said, "I therefore representative of every young human being here declare independence to everything and anything related to Kid Blog and if it is said by anyone, us as children will have to boycott that person. We have the right to be free from this abomination, and we will." It was rather impressive how he showed his feelings through this post.



Titus's Blog

In Titus's blog post he wrote about falling into his favorite game, Minecraft. He did not have control over his own body. He was collecting bananas and ran into his friends Noelle, Sofia, and Daniel. As the story went on he continues to tell about their adventures. All of a sudden they summoned a wizard. They started running away from people in black suits. The story was said to be continued. He has incredible writing skills. It was such an interesting story.

Isaac's Blog

Isaac's blog post was about a suit he would invent. It was very descriptive and full of excitement. He talked about making the suit army colors. Your hand was actually a phone, so you could really mean "talk to the hand". Your back would have a camera so you could see what is chasing after you. There was a microwave in your chest all for bacon. He loves bacon. Over all it was a great post, and very entertaining to read.

Blog Post 13

Instructions:
How would you incorporate the arts into your elementary classroom using technology?
-Give examples that you would use in your future classroom.
-Keep your activities in your ideal age group.
-Show the Alabama Course of Study requirements for that particular grade level.

Keeping Arts in School

21st Century Technology, Art and Learning in the Classroom

I think it is very important to keep the arts in our classrooms. It is a part of our every day life. We take for granted the creative things in life. Most of your students will end up surprising you. Art is a way to clear their mind, keep them active, and make them think outside the box.
According to, Keeping Arts in School, Test results have proven that "Arts integrated learning increases test scores", says Carlos Cuesta. It is also stated that having the arts in the special education programs has a whole different level of engagement and focus with those special needs children. The arts is a way to keep the students engaged, keep them motivated. They have noticed that the attendance improves when they have the arts incorporated into their every day learning. Arts can be integrated into any subject.
In the video, 21st Century Technology, Art and Learning in the Classroom, They are given the opportunity every friday to get on the "chrome books" to look up a piece of art work. They then write how that art makes them feel. It gives them the freedom to chose what sparks their interest. It is not just what the teachers think they should write about. "Empowering students to drive their own learning" is what this teacher lives by.
The students have their own digital portfolio they can save all of their interest. Those chrome books are only a blank canvas, until they student becomes an artist using them effectively.

Project 12 Part B

Group 5
Project 12 Part B

Blog Post 12

C4T

C4T.2

In Finding My Way in Kindergarten Genius Hour by Denise Krebs, she talks about her experience in transition to a kindergarten class from junior high. She wondered how she would accomplish "genius hour" with them being so young. When the 7th and 8th graders were engaged and given a chance to learn they called that genius hour. She learned from her masters program that young children are so ready to learn and soak things up like sponges. She put their thinking skills to the test when they successfully made a little couch for their reading nook. One child even took it upon himself to make a little chair to match made out of left over bottles they had been collecting. This just goes to show the power of the mind, even in a young child.



C4T.1

Reading About Learning Brains and Metacognition by Denise Krebs.
"Metacognition is “thinking about thinking" says Krebs. She gained this knowledge in her masters program. She was taught that it was important to teach children to think about their thinking as they read.
She was reading blog post and happened upon this information.
"The second article gave questions students should be able to answer. like:
“What do you want to learn about?”
“What’s worth understanding deeply?”
“How do you respond to complex texts or digital media?”
“If I get out of your way this year, what will you be able to do?”
She stated after giving this information, "Students should not only be able to personally answer these questions, but they should be asked to answer these questions by teachers who care about their learning."
It is important to make your students thinkers. They learn so much by asking questions and really thinking things through.

Blog Post 11

What can we learn about teaching and learning from these teachers?

TedXDenverEd-Brian Crosby-Back to the Future

Brian Crosby shows in his TedX Talk that disadvantage students can achieve success just as any other student. They can use technology to keep these students engaged at all times. Every student has access to a laptop. They blog regularly, which keeps them connected to other students around the world. He also uses project based learning to establish the Balloon in space project. It's exciting when they are so willing to active in a project, and actually learn from it.



Blended Online Learning

In this video Paul Anderson goes on to tell how blended learning is ground for online learning, mobile learning, and classroom learning compiled into one. The Learning Cycle consist of the 5 E's, which are, engaged, expand, explain, and evaluate. He also stresses that questions are the key factor to any lesson being taught.
In his science class he uses the following six steps:
1. Question
2. Investigation/Inquiry
3. Video
4. Elaboration
5. Review
6. Summary Quiz
He uses the acronym QuIVERS in these steps.



Mark Church Demonstrates the "Headline" Routine

In Mark Church's Headline activity, he has all of his students watch a video for their introduction to their lesson. After the video they are supposed to brainstorm together in groups to create a "headline" for it. Students then can revise their headline at the end of the lesson to reflect what they have learned. He says this strategy works well with Project Based Learning.



Super Digital Citizen

In Sam Pane's class, he teaches his students about internet safety. He teaches them through an idea of being a "super digita citizen". They are super hero's, and are used in real world situational narratives. The students all create a comic book on their super hero helping them with internet safety. At the end of this project they were able to show their class as an audience, then discuss their work.



Project Based Learning

In this video, Dean Shareski shows how Canadian teachers are using PBL. Their journey of combing English, History, and Technology into one single subject. At fist they were coming in contact with problems, and teachers came to the conclusion that it could not work in a typical school day setting. Now the teachers prefer this PBL structure, and the students as well. They are able to participate in PBL assignments with themselves and interact with their classmates.



Roosevelt Elementary's Project Based Learning Program

Roosevelt Elementary shows in this video what project based learning is, and explains its benefits in this video.
They use real world application in all of their learning. PBL also allows students to work by themselves and with others. This builds their social skills and independence that they will use throughout life. This way no one is left out, the teachers differentiate instructions to engaged all their students intelligence levels. Roosevelt Elementary says that their students are motivated, engaged, and excited about all of their learning in project based learning. It just goes to show how well this strategy really works.