Blog Post #6

What I Learned……

          After watching all of the videos I feel that I have an entire bag full of new tricks up my sleeve for the classroom. Anthony along with Dr.Strange shared many resources and great ideas with views that almost anyone could use in the classroom. Dr.Strange is a professor at the University of South Alabama and Anthony is an elementary school teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary. Both educators coming together in these videos have made a positive impact on me and probable many other viewers.

One of the resources that Anthony shared that truly stood out to me was iCurio. This is a search engine that has been created to provide a safe research experience for children. I love the idea of this because there are million and millions of inappropriate websites that children should never be exposed to. So instead of students using search engines like google that bring up billions of uncensored websites they are about to use iCurio. Plus iCurio allows students as well as teachers to store files a lot like google drive but all in a safe environment for children. Another topic that was discussed in these videos was Project Based Learning. This could idea could defintaly be correlated with iCurio. Project Based learning is a way that students are able to learn something from the project they are assigned as opposed to  assigning a project to assess what they have learned. This is wonderful because it helps keep the children involved and engaged throughout the learning process. So as educators we could use Project Based Learning and allow them to use iCurio. I feel that all of the information that was proved in the videos was great!

My Sentence Videos.

My Sentence is..

My Passion is..

Project #15

Project # 15

Search Engines

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Bing

Bing is one of the more popular search engines. Bing is almost exactly like Google. This search engine is a general search engine where you are able to search almost anything whether it is a website, image, video, etc. This is a very useful tool with reliable sources. The options are truly endless when researching using Bing.

www.bing.com/

Amazon

Amazon is probably one of the search engines I use the most! It is wonderful for students. Amazon has a program for college students where you get a free subscription to Amazon prime for a limited time. But they also have a deal for students allowing you to get Amazon prime at a discounted price. Amazon prime make renting or buying text books easier plus arrive faster. Not only doses Amazon have text books they also offer millions of products at reasonable prices. Although, this search engine differs from Bing or Google because it is a shopping search engine.

www.amazon.com

Dog Pile

Dog Pile is a search engine that I remember learning about in school. This search engine is not as popular but it is a strong resource. Dog pile is literally a pile of popular search engines all combined into one. This search engine allows you to research a topic and it takes information from other engines like Google and yahoo to provide you with the information.  

www.dogpile.com/

Yahoo!

Yahoo is a more common search engine. This is a lot like Google. It provides you with almost everything. Yahoo not only allows you to research but has other tools like Yahoo email, Yahoo social media, Yahoo news, Yahoo answers, and many more. This is a very useful search engine.

https://www.yahoo.com/

You Tube

You Tube is not what you would originally think was a search engine. This is a different type of search engine. You Tube allows you to search of videos only. So unlike search engines like Google and Yahoo that allow you to search many things You Tube is strictly for videos. This is a very popular search engine and it can be used for professional research but can also be used for simple amusement.  

www.youtube.com

Web Crawler

Web Crawler is something that I was not very familiar with. After looking into it this search engine appears to be almost exactly like Dog Pile. Web Crawler allows you to type in a topic and it pulls up the top results from Google and Yahoo. I feel that this is a wonderful recourse and would probably save some time when researching because it only pulls up the top websites for what you are researching.

www.webcrawler.com

Kayak

Kayak is a different type of search engine. This is not a general search engine this search engine is specific to travel. This is the website that allows you to compare different travel sites in one place making it easy to find the best deal for traveling. This is not a search engine I use. But, after looking through it I would be willing to try it in the future.

www.kayak.com

Wolfram Alpha

WolframAlpha is not a search engine that I have ever heard of. But, after exploring it I honestly found it amazing. I am somewhat upset that I have never heard of it before now. This is a search engine that allows you to put in questions and it computes the answers. For example if you were struggling on a math problem you could simply put it into WolframAlpha and it tells you the answer. This is great and I defiantly plan on using it from this day forward.

www.wolframalpha.com

Blog Post #5

PLN

            What is a personal learning Network? A person learning network or PLN for short is a set group of people the one looks up to and trusts to help and mentor. This is a group of people that one can collaborate with and get valuable information from. PLN’s are created so that one may ask questions and learn from this group. As an elementary education major I believe that PLN’s are one of the key ingredients for success. Personal Learning Networks especially help younger less experienced teachers in many ways. PLN’s allow young teachers to receive valuable information and be guided through the process of teaching although, it is also a wonderful idea for more experienced educators to have PLN’s too so that they can collaborate with others to learn fresh new ideas. These groups are formed by creating relationships with others. One might form a professional relationship with co-workers, professors, classmates, and others to form their own PLN.

            I am currently in the education program here at the University of South Alabama. I plan to form Personal Learning Networks as I move through the process of becoming an educator. The way I plan to do so is by forming relationships. I believe we should take full advantage of the resources we are given here in the education department. We can form mentor relationships with professors, advisers, graduate assistance and many more. Classmates would also be an asset to my PLN. In addition to forming face to face relationships on campus, we could also use the resources in EDM 310 by forming relationships online by the use of C4K and C4T. In conclusion I feel that my first addition to my Personal Learning Network will be Mrs.Nonne from George Hall Elementary. I was blessed with the opportunity to observe her classroom and I feel that she would make the perfect beginning to my PLN. 

Blog Post #4

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?

            As teachers we spend a lot of time asking questions but are we asking effective questions? For blog post number four we were introduced to many resources that address this specific topic. “Asking Questions to improve learning” (http://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/strategies/Pages/asking-questions.aspx) was the website that I found the most helpful. On this website you learn about general strategies for asking questions, responding effectively, open ended questions, and refining your questions. This website talks about almost every step of the questioning process beginning with your planning. Then goes over how to specifically asking your questions while teaching. I learned that you should always ask a second question following a yes or no question while teaching. I found this website the most helpful!

            The second source I enjoyed was “The Right Way to Ask Questions” (http://www.edutopia.org/blog/asking-better-questions-deeper-learning-ben-johnson). This article is less factual and more about the general do’s and don’ts. This beginning talking about mistakes teachers often make when asking questions in the classroom. I found this very eye opening. For example a teacher asking the class if everyone understands and without making sure that all the students actually do understand they automatically moving on. This is an example of an ineffective question that many teachers ask. Teachers should give their students a moment to take in the question and make sure that they all do actually understand before moving on to the next concept.

Group Project #1

Blog Post 3

            After watching “What is Peer Editing?” and looking at the slide show “Peer Edit with Perfection”, I feel that I have learned many things from both of these things. The main idea was to explain what exactly peer editing is and how to do this correctly. One of the main things that’s stressed is the idea to always be positive while editing a peers work. I believe this is one of the most important thing you need to do while editing almost anything. They also talked about a few rules. They stated that one should follow three main rules and the rules are to first give a compliment to the work then you should make suggestions and lastly give your corrections. This is something I have taken note of and plan to use in the future.

            The last video that I viewed was my favorite! The video is called “Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes”. I loved that they incorporated children in this clip to teach us how to correctly peer edit. This video teaches us about the steps of peer editing but goes deeper to tell us how not to be too picky and nag over the little things. I thought this was such a perfect concept and it definitely correlates great with the precious video and slide show because it helps you remember to be positive while editing!