C4K Summary for February

C4K #2 Blog Post and Comment Summary
 I was assigned Kyleigh's blog this week which I thought was really well. In her blog post she talked about how she was excited to start back playing basketball. She had been out for a couple of games due to a knee injury. Kyleigh referred to her teammates as family which I thought was really great. There was also a picture of her and her teammates that she posted on the blog.


I introduced myself to Kyleigh as a student a The University of South Alabama. I also told her how much I enjoyed her blog post because I like basketball too. I never played when I was in school ,but  I do enjoy watching basketball games. I also expressed how excited I was for her to get back to doing what she loves.

C4K#3 Blog Post and Comment Summary
I was assigned Ryan this week in Ms. Leatherwood class. In Ryan's blog post he told a story about him getting his first cellphone. He had to work very hard for his first cellphone. I felt that his writing was very descriptive he used simile's and very descriptive adjectives. He also learned a lesson from this experience. Ryan decided he would work hard again the next summer to buy something else he wanted.

I introduced myself first to Ryan as a student at USA and I told him that I really enjoyed his story. His story made me recall how excited I was when I got my first cell phone. The comparison he made for working for his phone to a marathon runner was a accurate depiction of hard he felt he was working. Ryan learned a very valuable lesson from this experience. When you want something and you work really hard ,then you can accomplish anything.

C4K #4 Blog Post and Comment Summary
This week I commented on Bryan S.'s blog where he discussed social media freedom. He talked about whether people should be punished for the harmful things they say on social media. I liked that he was not one sided on the issue. Bryan discussed both sides telling how some people feel you should be punished and others feel like you should be able to say whatever you want. He ended his blog post by saying that he feels people should not be punished for saying things on social media because that's what it is for.

I introduced myself to Bryan and told him how I really enjoyed his blog post. He had some very interesting points. I feel that people should be punished for the harmful things they say on social media. The only conflict with this is that we have freedom of speech as Americans. Although, we are entitled to this right I feel their should be some limits. I ended with asking him does he think their will ever be any laws to stop this.

Project #8 Book Trailer

Blog Assignment #6

I learned a lot about Project Based Learning from Mr. Anthony Capps videos. One of the first things that he discussed is what Project Based Learning should consist of. In order to be effective it should have a authentic audience, it should interest the students, and it should cover the content area. When you hear the word project you probably think fun and good times but Project Based Learning blends fun with learning. An example in the videos that Mr. Capps used was he had his students write a letter to the congressman on if the they agree or disagree with women fighting in combat. This project met the standards for ACCRS (Alabama College and Career Ready Standards) in writing, reading, and social studies. Not only did it meet the content requirements for the class but it interest the students which is important. We recently discussed peer review in one of our previous blogs and the importance of it. Mr. Capps had his students peer review their classmates letters and pick which ones were the best. The students were able to learn from each others work and mistakes.

Another thing I learned from Mr. Capps videos was to let the students teach you. Sometimes teachers come off as know it all's. When in fact students can teach us just as much as we can teach them. One example he have in the video was a student in his class corrected him ,then she was able to go back to the text and tell him why that was the correct answer. As educators we shouldn't take offense when students do this. This shows the process of deeper thinking. He also mentioned recording students when they give feedback on projects. This feedback can be used to base your future lessons around.

As a student in EDM 310 I have been learning about many resources to get information from. In the videos I learned about two more useful websites. I thought the search engine iCurio was very interesting. Students are able to find information and save it in an organized way. It is also filtered so that students can not access inappropriate websites. He also talked about Discovery Ed which allows students to search for information in science and social studies. By using websites like these students are able to choose what information they think is important and have more independence when it comes to learning.

My Sentence Videos.

My Passion Is....

My Sentence Is....

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Assignment #5

A Personal Learning Network is a set tools and people that you can call upon for help and consultation. Each PLN is crafted to match that single individual needs. If you frequently use Twitter or Facebook to stay in contact with people , then those would be things to have in your PLN. As an future educator I believe a PLN will help me to stay in contact with my students and other teachers. I created a Symbaloo account to keep track of my PLN. I found this website to be very interesting. All the social networks and search engines I use daily are right there on one page for easy access. The first addition to my PLN will be classmates, teachers, and anyone else who can assist in my learning. I have not quite figured out the full use of Symbaloo , but with a little practice I think this website can be very useful.

Blog Assignment #4

It can be hard asking good questions in the classroom. As an educator you want to ask good questions to help your students learn.  So you ask yourself how do you ask good question? In a video by Joanne Chelsey called "Asking better questions in the classroom" she discusses two methods for asking questions. The closed ended questions only require a short answer usually yes or no. An open ended question requires more critical thinking and the answer to the question may vary between students. I think the best questions to ask students should be open ended questions. These types of questions require the students to really think and it shows if they really understand the lesson.

In the article by Ben Johnson called "The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom" I think the most important point he made is about getting all the students to ask questions. When you call on a student in class all the other students will breathe a sigh of relief because you did not call on the them. This is not a effective way of asking questions because once you call on one student all the other students stop paying attention. I think teachers should ask the other students follow up questions to make sure they were paying attention.