April 25th Post

7th Grader
All I can say about this student's PLN is WOW!!! I thought I had a nice PLN until I saw hers!! I am certainly going to watch this video again to try and improve my PLN! I wonder if this teacher has assigned all of this or she has went above and beyond. This is yet another reason for teachers to be technologically literate. Kids these days know how to use so many tools that it would be a shame not to let them explore and find things that otherwise they might not.

2 Questions
What great questions to ponder.
1. My sentence? Well, I have been thinking about that since last night in class and the sentence that I have some up with -
"I have decided to be master of my own happiness ... Clean up the present, embrace the future and let go of the past."

2. Was I better today than yesterday? This is a question that really got me thinking about how short life is and how we take it for granted. I want to live my life to be the best and most fulfilling life it can be. With that said I have decided to do my best EVERYDAY to do at least one thing better than I did the day before. I think that life is only what you make of it and I want mine to be GREAT!

2nd Post on my PLN

When I first started this class I had no idea what a PLN was. I am proud to say that now I know. A PLN to me is my way of staying up to date with what's going on in the teaching world and also about the latest technology available to teachers. I watched a great video about PLN's. CLICK HERE TO WATCH

I have never used Skype before this class but now use it almost everyday as well as twitter and facebook!

I have really enjoyed working on my PLN! Since I've started I have bookmarked over 100 sites on delicious. I think that this will further my career by being able to continue to add to this as a grow a a teacher. One of our comments for kids assignments The Kindergarten Class has really inspired me to become the kind of teacher that really goes the extra mile for their students.

March 26th Post (Blog Post 10)

Saved as draft and forgot to publish!!

Morgan Bayda

I am reading this post as an assignment for my EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama. I am majoring in Elementary Education and this is a very interesting piece as we battle this debate on a daily basis. It seems as if our school would already be on board with actually educating the students. We are being “schooled” to tell the truth. Well, not all classes, but most of mine now are just “burp back” classes. It is very true that when you are forced to memorize facts and burp them back, odds are you will forget them. The Educational Media class I am taking now has forced me to try, explore and research new things about new opportunities being offered to us. Yes, I do realize I said forced, because if I had not been obligated to take this course I probably would never had known. However, I am thankful now that I have become a more critical thinker. If I do not know the answer, I will find it for you. It has really opened my eyes to a new way of life. I can only dream that you can change the way we are all educated and the generations to come. I thoroughly enjoyed the post as well as the video. I am very thankful for people like you trying to change the way we teach, therefore changing the way we learn.

Project 14 "Interactive SMART Board Presentation"

We chose to do our presentation on "How to use the SMART Board". As a future teacher the SMART Board is a new a fun tool that we can use to make teaching fun! My son's Kindergarten class just got a SMART Board about a month ago so I was VERY interested in how he was going to use it at school. I actually used this presentation on my teaching project with his class.

Project 15 "Interview" Videocast

For my project I chose to interview my son's kindergarten teacher about technology. Her name is Cindy Bentley. She has been teaching Kindergarten for 30 years so I thought she would be a good candidate for this project. Here are the questions I asked her....

Hi, my name is Amy Stork and this is my interview for EDM310. Today I’m going to interview Mrs. Cindy Bentley and she is actually my son’s Kindergarten teacher at Nan Gray Davis.

Welcome Mrs. Bentley

First lets start out by you telling us a little about yourself and your teaching history.

Mrs.Bentley answers

Great so now let talk a little about Technology.

Do you think that it is important for today’s teachers to be technology literate?

Mrs. Bentley answers

Mrs. Bentley would you say that you are technology literate?

Mrs. Bentley answers

What are some ways that you use technology in your classroom?

Mrs. Bentley answers

In what ways do you think that the school could use technology more?

Mrs. Bentley answers

Do you think that students now days have an advantage or disadvantage over students 10 years ago because of all the technology available? What are the advantages/disadvantages you think they have?

Mrs. Bentley answers

Would you say that your students are technology literate?

Mrs. Bentley answers

Thank you for letting me come and interview you and for your time today Mrs. Bentley!!

Google Earth Project!!!

I have finally figured out how to do a google earth Tour and also how to paste it to my blog!! GO ME!!! This took me about 2 hours to figure out ow to do this that the actual google earth tour I'm afraid is not very long! However, I hope that you will be impressed that I actually got it on my page!!

My tour starts at my house. Next I travel to New York, NY to visit the Brooklyn Bridge. I then move onto Paris, France before returning back home!

Hope you enjoy it!

Project 8 "How To" Teach using the Smart Board

I decided to do my project 8 on How to teach using the Smart Board. My intended audience would be future teachers or current teachers who are new to the Smart Board. I found the Smart board so useful and interesting while we were doing our other project that I decided to go to my son's Kindergarten class and try some of the sites we found out on them! They LOVED it! I used technology by recording some of the lesson I taught them.

April18th Post

When thinking of something to write about for this week I could not think if anything else but the reason that this class even exists TECHNOLOGY! I found this very interesting movie on youtube. Watch it and see what you think is important to teach kids!




I believe that kids should have every advantage to learning! Learning should not just stop at books and paper it should NEVER stop! There is so much available to teach with that teachers In Mobile County aren't able to use because administrators are either scared of the danger or worried about what the kids will be doing on the internet. The benefit far out ways the risk of going on the internet to learn. Most of the kids nowadays have for more knowledge of technology tools than most teachers do. I think that it should be mandatory that teachers know how to and USE the technology that is available!!

Comments for Teachers wk 13 & 14

My Teacher to follow these weeks was Ann Carnevale.




I found this blog VERY helpful as a future teacher! I have bookmarked this site and will most certainly be using her tips! Here are my comments.

Amy Stork Says:
April 5th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Hi! My name is Amy Stork and I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Dr. Strange’s EDM310 class. I have been assigned to follow your blog for the next 3 weeks. I really liked you information on the desktop bookmarks. I recently bought a MacBook Pro and am still learning all about it so thanks for the tip! Here is a link to Our class blog and also MY blog.

Thanks!
Amy Stork
http://edm310.blogspot.com/
http://storkamyedm310.blogspot.com/


Amy Stork Says:
April 16th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Hi again!
Let me start off by saying THANKS for posting all these great links! I have bookmarked your blog and will most certainly being referencing it when I become a teacher! These sites look like great ways to celebrate National Poetry Month!
Thanks Again,
Amy Stork

Comments for Teachers wk 10&12

I had issues with my teachers that i had to email Dr. Strange about which is why I am just now posting.



My teacher for weeks 10 and 12 was Tom Johnson. I found his blog to be very entertaining and enlightening. Here are my comments that I left!

HI! My name is Amy Stork and I am in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class. I was assigned to follow your blog and post on three topics. I really think that it would be a great idea a phone in the classroom BUT, like you said the school would probably not let the students use them!! I think it is awful that there are endless possibilities out there for students to learn but schools are either too set in their ways or too afraid to let them use them! I look forward to reading more of your blog! You can find my blog at http://storkamyedm310.blogspot.com/


Hi!
Let me start by saying how much I enjoyed reading this post. Everything you argued for is something that is very important to me! If children cannot ENJOY learning then why should they keep doing it. Oh yes I know out of fear of the punishment they will receive or better yet the fear of not being rewarded. It has gotten ridiculous at how much time and effort is put into coming up with "rewards" for children to learn when all that really needs to happen is a LOVE OF LEARNING!

Comments for kids week 14

This week for my comments for kids I listened to this little girl read. It was recorded on Vocaroo so I left my comment on vocaroo as well.

TimeToast Timeline

April 4th Post

Let me just say that I was BLOWN away with the details on Kaia's blog! This is something that she will have for the rest of her life that documents her childhood. Her father is so dedicated and thoughtful to have started this. When I first read about this and how it kind of got picked up by Mr. C's class in Missouri and then went all over the earth I was amazed at how technology can connect people but also how kids can talk to people from other parts of the world. By talking to people from the very places that they learn about in school they are actually able to picture the places rather then just see pictures in a book. Also the blog by her mother is great for keeping 21st teachers connected and stay up to date!

Survey

I did a survey about when and how people go to school! Here are the results

SCHOOL SURVEY

April 11th Post

Oh, it is so important to publish your student's work to the web through blogs, podcasts, videos, or any other medium. I could list several examples and reasons why but I will list these videos instead. I will leave it up to you to view these and decide for yourself if it is worth the positive reinforcement provided from doing this. Be proud of your students and everything they achieve.

"Let There Be Peace On Earth"
These kids are SO amazing!! I found myself watching almost EVERY video they had on youtube! The teacher WOW! This is the kind of teachers that we need to encourage our kids and to change the world!!


An anthropological introduction to YouTube

and also Kaia's father documentation of her life

Dear Kaia

Comments for kids week 13

This week I had to comment on Samuela's favorite thing at camp
She made a short video of camp and put it to music. I thought she did a great job adding the music. This was my comment to her...

HI! My name is Amy Stork and am I student at the University of South Alabama in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class. I loved your video! I think it was very creative of you to put it to music! I remember going to camp when I was younger and trying to stay up as long as we could! (we used to get in trouble too HAHA!) Can't wait to see more movies and KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!