Podcast

Teacher Post #2

I read Once Upon a Time, I was THAT newbie by Paula White. She was called in as a teacher ten days into the school semester. The other two classes were full and the veteran teachers picked out ten or so students out of their class to go into her class. Come to find out these students were the “unwanted”. Either family life was different from the norm, work ethic was not taught or applied and some behavior issues were at rise. As a new teacher, this could be considered your worse nightmare. She was able to make a bond with these students as she taught and learned from them. She was able to what veteran teachers hope to do, make a bond. Being able to see students that you have made a difference in their lives ten years later and they still remember you is something I want to achieve as a teacher. My dad had been a teacher for almost 25 years. I go places and people hear my last name and say, “Are you Mr. D’s daughter?” Of course I say yes did he teach or coach you. They always reply with, “He was my favorite teacher. He helped in ways I still use today.” To have that kind of respect from students with all different backgrounds, family lives and personalities, is something I hope to achieve. At the end of her blog post, Mrs. White stated that teachers are sometimes their own worse enemies. The veterans gave her the students they did not want. They didn’t want to have to deal with. As a veteran teacher, shouldn’t you want to make a difference? Shouldn’t want to be the one that says I want to that kid. He has potential. Regardless of race, background, family history, work ethic or behavior issues. Instead, the veterans gave the newbie teacher these students and went on their way. In my opinion, even though she was a new teacher, she was better for those students than the veteran teachers were. I responded to her blog post saying, Dear Paula,I am currently a student at The University of South Alabama. I am taking an education media course and my teacher directed me to your blog. I am very nervous to start out as a teacher. I am terrified I will be horrible, have kids that don’t care and that I won’t make a difference. I would like to hope that more veteran teachers care about what you are saying. A new teacher on their first job is already nervous enough. Why give them a group of “overload” children that you don’t want? Why make it harder for the new teacher to adjust to what is going and who they are dealing with. This post is very inspirational. I am very excited about my journey as a teacher. There are always those students that don’t have the work ethic or don’t know how to apply themselves. There are those students who don’t have the family life we wish all children had. I only hope I can make a bond with those students nobody wants like you have. Thank you. You can also read my blog about this post and others I posted. Any comments or suggestions are very welcome. I am eager to learn from Veteran Teachers.

I read Incidental Learning by Paula White. She is discussing her going back to fill in for a Kindergarten teacher in which she used to teach Kindergarten and wants to go back into the classroom and teach again before she retires. She was saying how when reading a book to the class she had a few students not engaged. She gave them the opportunity to sit and listen to her read or go to the other side of the classroom and keep talking quietly to each other. They opted to stay and listen to her. She said she hoped they learned that it's not Okay to talk while someone else is talking and hoped they realized how fun it could be to interact with the whole class. I commented on this post that I am 25 years old and currently enrolled at the University of South Alabama under the instruction of Dr. Strange in his EDM310 class. I have always said that it takes a special person to understand and teach a Kindergarten Class. Just by reading this post I know you are that type of person. Giving five and six year olds the decision to listen to you read the book or go and talk by themselves is something I think most teachers don’t think of. Letting them choose to be a part of a class discussion or not, and having them choose to be in the class discussion is amazing. Teaching them they have a choice and you listen and respect to that choice is something very important for their egos. I have a 3 year old and she is a sponge. I also nanny a little girl who is in first grade now. I was with her when she started Kindergarten and even after a few weeks I saw a huge difference. She was reading and writing and this was all in the first semester. Again, I feel you have that special touch in giving Kindergarteners the ability to share, discuss and have an imagination which is most important. Thank you for the post.

History of the Saints Timetoast

Additional Assignment #1

We were told to use google squared and wolframalpha search engines. Before this assignment I had never heard of either one of these. I google squared Duke Basketball, High Schools in Mobile, Alabama and Anatomy of the body. If I were a sports announcer or sports writer and needed quick stats this was a great way to find it. It gave me a list of the main players at duke, their height, weight, where they were drafted and with who. I also added a column that asked PPG(points per game) and it gave me most of those. For the High Schools it gave me a list of all High Schools in Mobile and a description along with the address and telephone number. For someone just moving to Mobile, this could be a good tool to use to find a school close to your area and you could probably add a column to find out what school is in your area. For the anatomy of the body it showed a few organs and a few systems but also gave me other links to go more in depth in each one. Great way to pull up something quick for a review of some sort. On wolfram alpha I searched my birthday, January 27, 1986. It came  up with the day I was born, how many days (8997), weeks (128) and years (24.63) I have lived. Also told me the sunrise and sunset time as well as the moon's position. It is kind of a fun way to get little facts about your birthday! I also good the University of South Alabama. It came up with how many students, full time or part time, how many were graduate students and how many were undergraduate student and how much tuition was. It also showed the degrees awarded and how many were awarded for each major. Another way to check out schools you are interested quickly and easily. I re-read my post for Did You Know and realized that I may have taken some statistics out of context. Like Dr. Strange said, the Bahamas has a much smaller area to cover than the United States, so of course their technology use is higher. It's easier to connect everyone in the Bahamas because it is so much smaller. I think this made me rethink statistics in a way that I can take what Did You Know says and put into google squared or wolframalpha and see how everything compares. Knowing these search engines exist gives me a better aspect on statistics. It gives me a way to compare different things as well as having a quick lookup. It was definitely an eye opener. 

Also Food for Thought is something I found interesting. This just goes to show the ease and capabilities of the iPAD and apple products all around. I fully enjoy my mac and iPhone and don't know where I would be if I didn't have them!

Teacher Blog #1

My teacher blog is jtspencer.blogspot.com. He discussed on 8/25 how he thought 6th grade students should have one teacher. His main points about this topic were that as the sole teacher he felt he could form a relationship on a higher level with his students. He felt that if he needed to spend more time on a math lesson, he could let it run into a science lesson and just work the time out for the following days. He feels the students make certain connections between subjects and activities when he is the sole teacher. I posted on this blog that I believe having students in teams of four or five might work better. You still have the ability to have a personal relationship with the students. You also have the opinions of three or four other teachers, other than your own. This gives you the ability to discuss student's learning style or beahvior. Is the student a discipline problem in your class? Does the student learn better this way or this way? There is also the ability to have a camaraderie between the teachers to be on the same page. Hopefully as a group you are able to work together towards the betterment of the students.
    On 9/11 my teacher discussed a science experiment he was doing in his classroom. He has his students in groups discussing on how to make a solar powered coffee machine. He put a few of the ideas the students were discussing in his blog. His ultimate question to his readers was, "Is this science?" Seems everyone and I tended to agree it was science. It also the possibility of being engineering (building the project), language/writing(students discuss out loud possible ideas, critical thinking, and write down their scientific method.) My response to this post was that I agree with Amberi. I believe this is engineering and science! The students are engaged in critical thinking, problem solving, debating and so forth. There are endless possibilities for them and it seems like they are excited to do this experiment. As Amberli said, there is no wrong way of succeeding as long as coffee is produced. The students have the ability to discuss different ideas and all work together to come to a conclusion. Good Luck! Hope the students have as much fun as I think they are!

Time Management

On the first day of class Dr. Strange stressed the importance of time management. This link will take you to a post I found on itunesU. It is number 25 on the list, "Time Management". It is very interesting. I think if you really have a problem managing your time, you will be able to get some good use out of it.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/time-management/id383911040?i=85059776

The Dimensions of the Dougherty Family :)

The  link below will take you to the powerpoint all about my family!! If you haven't used google docs you are missing out!  It's wonderful! No need for flash/jump drives anymore! You can log into your google account and everything you need is right there. You just need a computer and internet access! Enjoy learning about what I hold near and dear to my heart!

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dcsm7ks9_0dk4jnpf4

Blog #4

Scott Mcleod. I googled him to see what came up- Associate Professor. CASTLE Director. Blogger. Idea generator. Solution builder. Agitator. Catalyst. If you would like to see more about him you can go to www.scottmcleod.net. He also has a blog that had an interesting post on it. "Don't teach your kids this stuff. Please?" He approaches the technology use of the 21st century very sarcastically! It's great. From what I gather the point he is trying to make is if you are not willing to step into this technological era and learn/teach it, you are going to be decades behind in the future. There is no reason not to use technology. We've discussed pro's and con's of technology in the classroom. Should the teacher allow the student's to teach? Is the teacher illiterate in technology? Should teacher's be up to date on all things technology? There are so many questions and the place you can find all the answers/arguments you want...the computer. So if you think in 20 years technology is still not a part of the classroom, you better think again. Because if not, you are in for a rude awakening.


iSchool Initiative
Wow! Only 17 years old and this student has thought of something that most adults only dream of thinking of. Could you imagine what it would be like? What a world of no books, calculators, paper, printing and etc. could be like? Here's the one problem I have..what about face to face contact with teachers/students? Isn't that what educators do? Teach? How do you have the intimacy and the one on one contact with students? I feel teaching has a lot to do with incorporating technology but also with the ability to provide critical thinking and problem solving. The whole day doesn't have to include technology. I agree it is a huge part of it. And soon, it seems, will be all of it. I know for me, I always have my favorite teachers, the one's who taught me life lessons. How can we teach life lesson's if there is no face to face interaction? How can we be able to enjoy the joy of seeing the children each day and teaching them personally? I love the idea of going green and not having papers and books and what not. I hate the idea of not being in a classroom and looking at my students face to face. Hopefully one day, in the near future, there will be a balance of technology use in the classroom and teacher use in the classroom.





What is so funny about this next post is that I have seen it before. About 20 times! I ran across it one day and began sharing with all the friends and family I know on facebook! They truly enjoyed it, as did I. This post is like a role-reveral. It explains what the past generations have DONE to this world and what the future generations WILL DO in this world! This is one of the most positive outlooks someone has for our generation. People are constantly telling us if we continue how we are this world be destructed. This is not a quick fix generation. We are ready and willing to put time and effort into anything that has importance. It is evident that people assume in 30 years technology will take over. Which it very may will. But in the meantime respect this generation. We grew up differently than you (the adults). We grew up in a generation that you made a quick fix society. You made us believe money will buy happiness. You made us believe that the only beauty is on the outside. How do you expect us to change, when you wont change? How do you expect us to live without technology when you supplied it to us? I believe there is a change coming, and it is this generation. We are going to give 100% of ourselves to everything and anything that is worth believing in. This world will be a better place because of us and the future generations to come.





Virtual Choir = Mesmerizing. Amazing. Astounding. I couldn't take my eye's off it. How did he do it? It's things like this that make me truly appreciate the art form of technology. To put something together, with people that have never met, and make it sound like a choir...that takes skills! Skills I can only hope to learn. This was just amazing. This video shows the creative side of technology. The ability to put things together and make something out of nothing. What an incredible job he has done. There is something about this that truly makes something click about technology. It's not just used for social and educational purposes. Videos like these allow someone to be creative as well social and educated. Very moving video.

Blog #3

This video is reminder of what student's do and how technology has impacted their lives...for better or worse? You decide. I can relate to a lot of what these students are saying. I wonder how the creator of this movie was able to come up with this. Where did these statistics come from? We hear about how much students/teens/children play video games, text, send email or check facebook daily and weekly. I'm not sure if this video is showing the negative or positive aspects of technology? Bringing your laptop to class and not using it for classwork seems like a negative. Having to use the chalkboard, which can't show pictures and video, seems to be a positive toward technology. So, as students, how do we balance the use of technology? How do we use it for learning and school more than for social networking? We can't. The children and students of this day and age are raised on technology. Phones, computers and television are the source of entertainment for children these days. Where did the line between watching an hour of television or playing on the computer get crossed and turn into 500 pages of emails by a student in a semester? Why does someone spend money on books and never use them? Possibly because they can get every answer off of the computer. If you think about it, The University of South Alabama has made a huge jump into technology. I know in the Education Department, most of the material I use in my classes are available online. What will the future schools hold? Will everything become strictly online? Only time will tell.




It's Not About the Technology


Ms. Hines wrote something that may help future educators. There is a certain luxury to have access to the technology we as educators or future educators have. It takes a certain type of educator to be able to use this technology correctly. Ms. Hines states that teachers must be learners. I don't know how many times I have been in a class where the teacher didn't know how to pull something up on the computer, how to use the smartboard or anything else that involved technology. Since these teachers didn't know how to do it, and obviously weren't going to put the time in that is needed to learn these things, we as student's suffered. Technology, I feel can give a child a sort of freedom from the classroom. As Ms. Hines puts it though, technology is useless without good teachers. Being able to provide innovation and learning through all different ways, not just the use of technology, is what makes a good teacher. Problem solving and critical thinking are ways to teach a child for the future. If you are going to use technology in the classroom, please do your students a favor and learn how to do it correctly. If not you are doing those students an injustice.


Is Is Okay To Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?


Karl Fisch wrote a post on his blog that was very intriguing. He first off states that a teacher who is illiterate in technology is like a teacher 30 years ago that couldn't read or write. I'm not sure if it is to that extreme...yet. I know my dad is a teacher and is not the most technological savvy person. BUT, he is willing to learn. That's where the difference comes in. If a teacher is willing to learn technology, then we respect that and give him/her the tools necessary to succeed in learning/teaching themselves technology. I am only 24, and I still don't know as much as I want to know about technology, and probably never will. This EDM310 class is giving me insight on what kind of tools there really are out in the technology world. What about these teachers that have been out of college for 20-30 years and never had this experience that we are lucky enough to have? Let's face it. When we become educators, our students will expect us (my generation and the one's to come) to know exactly what a blog is, twitter, facebook, del.is.cous and anything else that comes from this technological world! Teacher's do need to make an effort to incorporate technology in classroom and into their lesson plans. I'm afraid though, right now, students expect their teachers not to know anything about technology. Which is the point that, I think, Mr. Fisch was trying to make? I could be totally wrong..but that's what I got! Let's hope that educators are willing to learn and be taught through this technological process...if not...maybe they are like teacher's 30 years ago who couldn't read or write. Or as someone posted..maybe they are just too lazy.

Videos to go along with Blog #2