Saturday, August 28, 2010

Blog Assignment 2

did you know in white letters on black squares

Response to Karl Fisch's Video "Did You Know"

After watching the video "Did You Know" by Karl Fisch I honestly felt a bit freaked out. I enjoy my cellphone (not a smart phone by the way) and I have a facebook account and spend a pretty good bit of time on the internet, but I didn't realize how fast technology is moving. It is slightly overwhelming to think that the world is changing so fast. I'm only twenty one but I suppose I must be a bit of an old fashioned young person. I like things the way they are, but if I had a choice I would go back in time before people started meeting their spouses online; when people actually had a cute story of how they met, not oh I met my husband on so and so dot com. Don't get me wrong, I think technology is great, but this movie made it seem to me that it's basically taking over the world. Before technology people were much more friendly, and actually had real relationships with each other. We went to our friends houses and we picked up the phone and had conversations instead of just facebooking them.
The movie definitely opened my eyes up to where our world is going. It makes me feel sad in a way, mostly because I've never been a person who liked change. I know that technology is not a bad thing, and I appreciate it, but, at the same time, too much technology scares me. I guess I have no choice, our world is changing, leaning more and more on technology, and Karl Fisch's video "Did You Know" made me realize that.
Response to "Mr. Winkle Wakes" by Matthew Needleman

This video shows how much things have changed in the past one hundred years, but in a funny way. I think showing Rip Van Winkle waking up after one hundred years to see how much the world has changed was creative and made the video fun and interesting to watch. Although the video was cute, I think Mr. Needleman was definitely trying to make a point. The one thing that Mr. Winkle felt comfortable with in the video was going to school. He found that the teaching style hadn't changed in the hundred years he had missed.
The fact that the way things are taught has not changed in that long of a period of time is not a good thing. The world has advanced, we as humans have advanced, as should the style of teaching. The world is very different than it was a hundred years ago, the things students are learning and the speed at which they have to learn them have definitely changed. So why hasn't the style of teaching changed? I feel that is very good question and something that educational authorities need to really think about and consider. Teaching needs to be more than standing at the front of a room and lecturing while students write their hands off. We need some creativity in our classrooms.


Response to "The Importance of Creativity" by Sir Ken Robinson
two hands holding a light bulb
I definitely agree with Sir Robinson that creativity is important. Children are so creative, and sometimes we wonder how they come up with these amazing things. As Sir Robinson said, creativity is being educated out of us. So, we as adults have lost a lot of the creativity we started with. We are so afraid of being wrong that we have forgotten how to be creative.
Academics are of course important in schools, but the arts are put at the bottom of the list. Why is that? Children love music and art and dance. But, they are taught that those things aren't important. There are so many children out there that are being put on medication and being told to sit still, when they probably have nothing wrong with them. Children need creative ways of learning, just because a child may be different doesn't mean there is something wrong, they may simply need a different way of learning. I remember being a child and having all these crazy ideas about things, but I grew up and was taught that was "nonsense" as most kids are. Our creativity is something we need to hold on to, it makes the world a happier place. It is not something that our schools need to educate out of us.
Response to "Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts" by Vicki Davis
What Vicki Davis is doing in her classroom is outstanding. Coming from a person who is typically traditional, I think her way of teaching things without pencil and paper is great. Technology is huge in our world today and her students are going to be well prepared for the "real world" outside of high school. Having technological knowledge plays a huge role in getting a job in this day and time.
Although it may not be the way things have previously been done, Davis' style of teaching seems to really be getting through to her students. They seem excited about learning, which is important. When students are interested and excited, they learn a lot more and school doesn't seem like such a chore to them. Also, Davis teaches in a rural area of Georgia, which goes to show that you don't have to live in LA or NYC to be able to use technology in the classroom. I thoroughly enjoyed this video.

Wordle

A wordle based on a short paragraph about Jessica Rogers

Blog Assignment 1

girl smiling with name jessica leigh in red

Hi there! My name is Jessica, I'm 21 years old and I currently attend the University of South Alabama as a full time student. I am majoring in Elementary Education. In my opinion USA has the best program for my major in the Mobile area. I also work full time teaching preschool, K4 to be exact. I absolutely love it. I can't imagine doing anything else with my life besides teaching. Of course it's not always a walk in the park, but I enjoy finding activities and fun little things for the kids to do that help them learn the material. I also love knowing that I'm making a difference. The kids in my class are currently learning to write their names, which we all know is something that they will use for the rest of their lives. They are also learning the sounds of the letters so that they can begin to read; knowing that I played a big part in teaching them the foundations of what they will need in life makes me feel like I am truly doing something productive, not just wasting forty hours of my week.

I currently live in Semmes, Alabama, but that's not where I started off. I took my first breath in Hattiesburg, MS and spent the first six years of my life in McLain, MS. Mclain is a tiny little community in Greene County MS. I believe the population is somewhere around a thousand, if that. At the age of six I moved to Citronelle, AL, due to my parent's divorce. Why Citronelle? Well, that's where my mother's parents were living. I lived in Citronelle until I was fifteen. My next stop was Mobile, until I was nineteen, and then I moved about ten minutes down the road from where I had been living, to Semmes. I really like living in Semmes, it's sort of like the country in the city. I still visit my little hometown of McLain from time to time to see my dad and his side of the family. I have four older sisters, so yes that makes me the baby. I also have five nieces and two nephews. I don't consider my family huge, but it is bigger than most of my friend's families, and I love it. My family means alot to me, as well as my friends, most of whom I consider family.

Besides teaching there are some other things I enjoy, such as: swimming, watching college football (ROLL TIDE), participating in church events, spending time with my family and friends, playing softball, watching movies, going out to eat, muddin', fishing, doing hair, listening to music, baking, shopping, getting pedicures, reading.By the way, for those of you who may not know, muddin' is getting in a big truck or on a four wheeler and finding a big mud hole and basically riding through it and getting covered in mud. It's kind of one of those things you just have to try at least once. I'm a Christian and I believe that being a Christian isn't just a label, it's a lifestyle and I try my best to live that lifestyle. Well, that's basically me in a nutshell, I hope you enjoyed it :)