Project 14

Blog Assignment 11

Before taking EDM310 I would have thought that Ms. Cassidy's approach to technology was over the top and way too much for a six year old. But now, half-way through this semester I am understand more and more why technology is so important in the classroom. As Ms. Cassidy said "technology isn't going away", so why not start our students young? One of my concerns about having a class blog was the safety of the students but, Ms. Cassidy proves that having a class blog can be safe. I am an elementary education major and I want to teach between kindergarten and second grade and I have thought that my students probably wouldn't be that interested in a class blog but Ms. Cassidy's class proved me wrong. I am excited about all the things I am learning in this class that I will be able to use to make my classroom more exciting.

Additional Assignment #3

The most important thing that Sir Ken Robinson said in Changing Educational Paradigms was that we shouldn't be putting children to sleep we should be waking up what is inside of them. I guess the reason that really stood out to me is because in my K4 class I have a little boy who was recently put on ritalin. He always seems zoned out and it takes him a very long time to complete his work. The reason it takes him so long has nothing to do with his intelligence, he is very bright, it is because the medication slows his brain down too much. There wasn't anything in this video that I did not agree with. I thought video was neat, the artist did a great job. EDM310 is my first class in my professional studies so I haven't really been tuaght much about ADHD. If I did a video like this I would defnitely want to be the narrator.

Summary for C4K #5, #6, and #7

For my C4K #5 I was assigned to Kayla's blog in Mrs. Byrne's class. The post that I read was titled Miners in Chile. Kayla provided plenty of facts regarding the terrible accident that occured in Chile. She also posted some pictures of the rescue as well as where Chile is located on a map. In my comment to Kayla I told her that she did a great job providing facts and that I also learned a few things about the incident that I didn't previously know. I also told her that she did a good job with the pictures and that pictures always add a little something extra to a post.

For C4K #6 I was assigned to Pipita's blog in GSandler's class. His post was titled The Blog. Pipita talked about how much he enjoyed the class blog and contributing to it. In my comment to Pipita I said that his post encouraged me to have a class blog in my future class and that I am glad he enjoys his blog.

For C4K #7 I was assigned to Quossay's blog in Ms. Naugle's fourth grade math class. Quossay did not have any posts so I chose another student in that class, Kylie. Her post was on her trip to the fair. She described the experience very well. She talked about everything from listening to her friend's ipod on the bus ride to the animals she saw at the petting zoo. In my comment to Kylie I encouraged her to keep blogging and told her she did a great job describing her experience.

Summary for C4T #3

I was assigned to Jen Deyenberg's blog Trails Optional. In the first post I read, she discussed her experience at the Growing Greener Future Conference where she had the opportunity to present how to use GPS and Geocaching in the Classroom. I had no idea what Geocaching was so I did some research and found out that Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers. In my comment to Jen I stated that I didn't know what Geocaching was before reading her post and that after finding out what it is it is interesting and seems like a lot of fun.

In the second post she posted a video showing children using Geocaching in mathematics. The video stated that children performed better on their tests after Geocaching. In my comment to Jen I said that through watching her videos I can see what a great attribute to teaching Geocaching can be.

October in Miss Jessica's Room

I just wanted to share with y'all a few pictures from my K-4 class during the month of October. We had so much fun decorating the classroom and dressing up in our costumes for our Pumpkin Party.

Project 13