Tis the Season of Report Cards: Praising Effort and Setting Goals
My parents also did this when I was younger. I did not always make all A’s, and even when I didn’t my mom would ask me if I tried my hardest and if I truly did they were proud of me and not disappointed at all. My dad would take me out on a date and my mom would give me money to go buy what ever I wanted. I got $10 for every A and $5 for every B, I didn’t get anything for C’s but I don’t think I ever had one. My mom would praise me for a few days and then a few days later she would ask me how she could help me practice and get better at what I had received a B in. The praise helped my confidence and the help from my mom helped me with my coming to her and asking her for help because I knew she would not judge me for not knowing something. My parents were the biggest impact on my grades, and I believe that for every child in school. A parent that takes the time to help their children learn and get better grades will boost their child’s confidence and create a trust within their relationship between parents and child.
THe Matter of the Heart
I agree with you that teachers get frustrated over things that they do not understand. I know this from experience, but luckily I have a very good role model to look up to for my teaching strategies. My mother was a teacher for 18 years, she taught my husband and both of my brothers. If she had a student that was struggling or had a disability, she would research how to help them and she did her best to help. I saw the way her trying this hard meant to her students. Even the students without disabilities would help. No one was on their own in her classroom. As the students moved on my mom would inform their next teacher and suggest the ways to help that student. My mom’s students still look up to her for that, and so do their families. I enjoyed reading this series of posts, it was very informative and it needs to read by all future teachers out there. This is a huge issue that needs to be addressed while they are still learning to become good teachers.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Post #7
Post Response to Randy Paush
In the video Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, Randy tells the audience what all he is going to talk about in his lecture. His main three points were his childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons learned: How you can achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others. Randy emphasizes on these points using stories that have happened to him throughout his life and what he has learned from them. In the video he is dying from tumors in his liver, and wants to pass his teachings on to the next generations guiding them and advising them in different aspects of life and school.
Childhood Dreams
Randy goes through his childhood dreams and tells how he slowly but surely succeeded in all of them. He went through some rough times and sometimes he did not think that he was going to be able to succeed but he did not give up. He hit a lot of what he called "brick walls", which are problems that he had to go through to get what he wanted. Randy says that when you get to a brick wall it is up to you if you are going to give up. I quote "The brick walls in life are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things. They are there to stop the people who do not want it badly enough." Randy also tells us about a time that he was playing on a football team and the head coach had been riding on him all day about everything he was doing wrong. After practice an assistant coach came to talk to him and told him that "When you're screwing up and nobody is saying anything, that means they gave up." Randy goes on to teach "you're critics are the ones telling you they still love you. He tells us about something called a "head fake". It is an underlying message in what the instructor is trying to say. He uses parents putting their children into sports. Most parents do not put their children in sports to learn the sport but to learn sportsmanship and teamwork.
Enabling the Childhood Dreams of Others
When you are trying to help someone achieve their childhood dreams don't give up on them early on, if you wait long enough people will impress you. When teachers are trying to get their students to do better Randy's mentor, Andy Van Dam, told Randy "You obviously do not know where the bar should be and you would be doing your students a disservice if you put it anywhere." This tells us future teachers that we can tell our students they did a good job, but also tell them that we know they can do better. By telling them this they will see that your bar for them is obviously not where they thought it was. This will motivate them to always strive to do better and better, and they will always want to impress you. Teachers always need to push their students as far as they possibly can. Randy says "The best gift an educator can give is to get someone to be self-reflective." Teachers should make students ask themselves if they think that is the best they can do, make them strive to be the best. Randy also recommends that the teacher use a "head fake". The best way to teach someone something is to make them think they are learning something else. An example of that in the classroom is teaching the children a hard lesson, but making it fun to where they do not even realize that they are learning.
What Helps Someone Achieve Their Dreams?
Randy tells us that the roles of our parents, mentors, and students help us achieve our dreams. Parents are there to support us in all of our decisions and aspirations throughout life. He tells us that if our child wants to paint their room to let them, it will be a way for them to express themselves and do what they want to do to their room. Mentors help us make decisions that we would have never thought about making. Students teach us different ways we can present things to our future students to make them more appealing. He tells us to have fun in what we do. We all need to decide if we are a Tigger or an Eeyore in life. Are we going to have fun with everything or are we just going to sit around and mope all the time? Never lose your childlike wonder, its too important, its what drives us in our dreams and aspirations. Randy tells us that when you do the right things, good things have a way of working out.
In the video Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, Randy tells the audience what all he is going to talk about in his lecture. His main three points were his childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons learned: How you can achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others. Randy emphasizes on these points using stories that have happened to him throughout his life and what he has learned from them. In the video he is dying from tumors in his liver, and wants to pass his teachings on to the next generations guiding them and advising them in different aspects of life and school.
Childhood Dreams
Randy goes through his childhood dreams and tells how he slowly but surely succeeded in all of them. He went through some rough times and sometimes he did not think that he was going to be able to succeed but he did not give up. He hit a lot of what he called "brick walls", which are problems that he had to go through to get what he wanted. Randy says that when you get to a brick wall it is up to you if you are going to give up. I quote "The brick walls in life are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things. They are there to stop the people who do not want it badly enough." Randy also tells us about a time that he was playing on a football team and the head coach had been riding on him all day about everything he was doing wrong. After practice an assistant coach came to talk to him and told him that "When you're screwing up and nobody is saying anything, that means they gave up." Randy goes on to teach "you're critics are the ones telling you they still love you. He tells us about something called a "head fake". It is an underlying message in what the instructor is trying to say. He uses parents putting their children into sports. Most parents do not put their children in sports to learn the sport but to learn sportsmanship and teamwork.
Enabling the Childhood Dreams of Others
When you are trying to help someone achieve their childhood dreams don't give up on them early on, if you wait long enough people will impress you. When teachers are trying to get their students to do better Randy's mentor, Andy Van Dam, told Randy "You obviously do not know where the bar should be and you would be doing your students a disservice if you put it anywhere." This tells us future teachers that we can tell our students they did a good job, but also tell them that we know they can do better. By telling them this they will see that your bar for them is obviously not where they thought it was. This will motivate them to always strive to do better and better, and they will always want to impress you. Teachers always need to push their students as far as they possibly can. Randy says "The best gift an educator can give is to get someone to be self-reflective." Teachers should make students ask themselves if they think that is the best they can do, make them strive to be the best. Randy also recommends that the teacher use a "head fake". The best way to teach someone something is to make them think they are learning something else. An example of that in the classroom is teaching the children a hard lesson, but making it fun to where they do not even realize that they are learning.
What Helps Someone Achieve Their Dreams?
Randy tells us that the roles of our parents, mentors, and students help us achieve our dreams. Parents are there to support us in all of our decisions and aspirations throughout life. He tells us that if our child wants to paint their room to let them, it will be a way for them to express themselves and do what they want to do to their room. Mentors help us make decisions that we would have never thought about making. Students teach us different ways we can present things to our future students to make them more appealing. He tells us to have fun in what we do. We all need to decide if we are a Tigger or an Eeyore in life. Are we going to have fun with everything or are we just going to sit around and mope all the time? Never lose your childlike wonder, its too important, its what drives us in our dreams and aspirations. Randy tells us that when you do the right things, good things have a way of working out.
Blog Post #6
The Networked Student
In The Netwoked Student the narrator introduces connectivism, which is a theory that presumes learning occurs as part of a social network of many diverse connections and ties. This system is where the students do all the research and teach themselves. I do not agree with this method at all. I understand that students need to learn to use technology, but it should be limited to what they use it for.
I feel like connectivism should be taught in a class and only used in that class. If other teachers want to use the system, it should be limited to projects that they have to do and submit online, but I strongly believe that it should not be used in all classrooms. This video is supporting a system that some may call the "future". I am looking forward to the advancements of technology in the world, but I am a firm believer in paper and pencil and that students should still learn to use them. If students lose sight of the basics of life.
The video also makes a point to answer the question "why would we even still need teachers?", for us, and they explain that the teacher would be used to teach the students how to use the system and authenticate the material they get out of it. If the teacher's only use is to explain how to use this system, then wouldn't all the teachers be teaching the same thing? Why would a history teacher need to take all of history classes in college if all she is going to be doing is teaching the children how to use the internet to find information and authenticate it? It is pointless for the different fields to have to take all the classes that pertain to their field if they will all be doing the same thing. I do not agree with this system and I will not be using it in my class. My students will use pencil and paper at school, and I may assign a project that they have to use this system and talk to each other out of school and turn it in online.
PLN
In the video, A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment, the students presents how she uses her PLE. She shows past projects and where her future assignment are such as homework. She says that she likes the system and that she feels like she has more freedom. I like these types of programs, but I do not think they should be a part of every aspect in the schools. The students should have to write on paper sometimes and they should have to turn in work that the have written down and taken time on. If all we use are computers and the newest technology in schools the students will get to where they rely on technology for everything and not know how to do it themselves. The future generations should always be taught to write with paper and pencil and look up information in real paper books. If students become completely relied on technology and what if one day all the computers crash? Do you cancel school because none of the students laptops or tablets work? No, you pull out pencil and paper and you keep teaching the lessons the way they are supposed to be taught.
In The Netwoked Student the narrator introduces connectivism, which is a theory that presumes learning occurs as part of a social network of many diverse connections and ties. This system is where the students do all the research and teach themselves. I do not agree with this method at all. I understand that students need to learn to use technology, but it should be limited to what they use it for.
I feel like connectivism should be taught in a class and only used in that class. If other teachers want to use the system, it should be limited to projects that they have to do and submit online, but I strongly believe that it should not be used in all classrooms. This video is supporting a system that some may call the "future". I am looking forward to the advancements of technology in the world, but I am a firm believer in paper and pencil and that students should still learn to use them. If students lose sight of the basics of life.
The video also makes a point to answer the question "why would we even still need teachers?", for us, and they explain that the teacher would be used to teach the students how to use the system and authenticate the material they get out of it. If the teacher's only use is to explain how to use this system, then wouldn't all the teachers be teaching the same thing? Why would a history teacher need to take all of history classes in college if all she is going to be doing is teaching the children how to use the internet to find information and authenticate it? It is pointless for the different fields to have to take all the classes that pertain to their field if they will all be doing the same thing. I do not agree with this system and I will not be using it in my class. My students will use pencil and paper at school, and I may assign a project that they have to use this system and talk to each other out of school and turn it in online.
PLN
In the video, A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment, the students presents how she uses her PLE. She shows past projects and where her future assignment are such as homework. She says that she likes the system and that she feels like she has more freedom. I like these types of programs, but I do not think they should be a part of every aspect in the schools. The students should have to write on paper sometimes and they should have to turn in work that the have written down and taken time on. If all we use are computers and the newest technology in schools the students will get to where they rely on technology for everything and not know how to do it themselves. The future generations should always be taught to write with paper and pencil and look up information in real paper books. If students become completely relied on technology and what if one day all the computers crash? Do you cancel school because none of the students laptops or tablets work? No, you pull out pencil and paper and you keep teaching the lessons the way they are supposed to be taught.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Blog Post #9
What I Learned
In the blog post,What I Learned this year: 09-10, Joe McClung a teacher from Arkansas does a summary post every school year saying all the lessons he had learned from the previous year. I chose the second year be cause I felt that in the post he would be more comfortable in his surroundings. Mr. McClung's second year of teaching because he had some issues with the administration that year, and may mom is an assistant principal and she sometimes has to intervene and talk to a teacher about how they could change somethings and better the learning experience for the students. He tells us that we should not let the problems outside the classroom affect the classroom because the students will be the only ones hurt. I think it is very important for teachers to treat the classroom like an entirely different world! I love how he says to check your ego at the door. this tells us to not be afraid to be or look weird and ridiculous every now and then as long as its for the student's education.
Mr. McClung's most recent post is shorter than his others and almost seems to contain less enthusiasm than some of his previous posts. This post details the problems that can come with worrying about what peers think. Teachers all have a need to be liked by our peers and colleagues, but in this post he talks about not letting that need affect one's teaching negatively. The most important part of being a teacher is always the quality of the teaching. This seems like common sense, but some teachers seem to have forgotten this. In the last part of the post he talks about "challenging yourself." Mr. McClung talks about how he became reliant on old lesson plans and methods of teaching, so when he was offered the chance to teach a new subject, he took it. This is a very good disposition to have and one that can be quite difficult to obtain. Often we become stagnant in our work because it's the easy way out, and this is a dangerous mindset.
In the blog post,What I Learned this year: 09-10, Joe McClung a teacher from Arkansas does a summary post every school year saying all the lessons he had learned from the previous year. I chose the second year be cause I felt that in the post he would be more comfortable in his surroundings. Mr. McClung's second year of teaching because he had some issues with the administration that year, and may mom is an assistant principal and she sometimes has to intervene and talk to a teacher about how they could change somethings and better the learning experience for the students. He tells us that we should not let the problems outside the classroom affect the classroom because the students will be the only ones hurt. I think it is very important for teachers to treat the classroom like an entirely different world! I love how he says to check your ego at the door. this tells us to not be afraid to be or look weird and ridiculous every now and then as long as its for the student's education.
Mr. McClung's most recent post is shorter than his others and almost seems to contain less enthusiasm than some of his previous posts. This post details the problems that can come with worrying about what peers think. Teachers all have a need to be liked by our peers and colleagues, but in this post he talks about not letting that need affect one's teaching negatively. The most important part of being a teacher is always the quality of the teaching. This seems like common sense, but some teachers seem to have forgotten this. In the last part of the post he talks about "challenging yourself." Mr. McClung talks about how he became reliant on old lesson plans and methods of teaching, so when he was offered the chance to teach a new subject, he took it. This is a very good disposition to have and one that can be quite difficult to obtain. Often we become stagnant in our work because it's the easy way out, and this is a dangerous mindset.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Langwitches Blog Post #4
Langwitches, 1st Graders Create Own Read Along Book
In Langwitches, 1st Graders Create Own Read Along Book it shows that podcasts can be very beneficial in the leraning of young students. The teachers record the students reading a book, but when the students were done they sat and listened to themselves they always want to re-record it and make it more theatrical. They wanted to put more emotions into it, they wanted to make it more personalized. Doing these podcasts showed students what technology can do but not how to use it. The teacher uses technology as a tool to make learning more interesting to the children and promotes more exciting ways to read. In one of the examples the teacher uses garage band to allow the students to put animal sounds and other sound effects in their podcasts to let the students put a little more of their personality into it.
Podcasting with 1st Grade
In Podcasting With 1st Grade students make a podcast book report about a book that they read. They had to tell about the story and pretend that they interviewed the characters in the story. And in Langwitches, Flat Stanley Podcast", students make a podcast of the story they read, "Flat Stanley". The students seem to be very excited and animated with what they were reading. Podcasts are a wonderful way to get students exited about reading. Recording the students and then posting them online for all the world to see connects these students to ones all over the place.
In Langwitches, 1st Graders Create Own Read Along Book it shows that podcasts can be very beneficial in the leraning of young students. The teachers record the students reading a book, but when the students were done they sat and listened to themselves they always want to re-record it and make it more theatrical. They wanted to put more emotions into it, they wanted to make it more personalized. Doing these podcasts showed students what technology can do but not how to use it. The teacher uses technology as a tool to make learning more interesting to the children and promotes more exciting ways to read. In one of the examples the teacher uses garage band to allow the students to put animal sounds and other sound effects in their podcasts to let the students put a little more of their personality into it.
Podcasting with 1st Grade
In Podcasting With 1st Grade students make a podcast book report about a book that they read. They had to tell about the story and pretend that they interviewed the characters in the story. And in Langwitches, Flat Stanley Podcast", students make a podcast of the story they read, "Flat Stanley". The students seem to be very excited and animated with what they were reading. Podcasts are a wonderful way to get students exited about reading. Recording the students and then posting them online for all the world to see connects these students to ones all over the place.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Blog Post # 3
Peer Editing
I learned a lot watching What is Peer Editing? I have never thought about it that way. I have always just went straight into critiquing the thing that I was supposed to be proof reading. Complimenting can be hard sometimes, but you have to look for key points that you and that person may have in common. If you disagree with them still compliment the way that they wrote their paper or post.
Next is the critique part. You must read the student's work thoroughly looking for grammar mistakes, misspelled words, punctuation, and sentence structure. You may have to read it multiple times. It is difficult at times to constantly read something over and over looking for mistakes, sometimes its best to take a break for a little while and come back and do it again. When you correct the student's paper you must make sure you use the correct notations. You can find those here, Proofreading Marks.
After you critique someone's paper you must try to help them correct it. If you tell them that they have a poor choice of words or made grammar problems throughout their paper give them some advice on how to correct those problems. Do not give them the answer, give them suggestions on how to correct it. Using these three steps is a very strategic way in critiquing someone but not upsetting them or making them feel like they did poorly on their work. I learned a lot from this video and I will surely use it throughout my career as a teacher.
Assistive Technologies
The Mountbatten helps blind students type like seeing students type on laptops. The Mountbatten can transfer and save files just like a normal laptop. It spell checks for the student and it makes it possible for the blind students to write papers and do documents that other students are able to do. There is also a device that was made to help blind students with math, it helps the students with the difficulty of setting up problems the right way. Also Apple has come up with different settings that will help blind individuals on the ipad to work their way around the ipad and all the apps included. It talks to the person and tells them where they are and what they are typing. It is very advanced and extremely helpful to blind people. It makes it to where they are not left out in the technology era, it keeps them included. In the last video it showed us a teacher trying to teach a blind student's mother what her child is learning on the Ipad . She had difficulties with the entire process as the teacher was trying to talk her through it. The mother realized that the her child went through a lot more difficulties than the other students. I think everyone should have to do this in high school at least to understand what those children go through and the struggles they are challenged with.
Students' Digital Smarts
In the video Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts, the teacher Vicki Davis teaches her class about the latest kind of technology and how to use it. I think all teachers should implicate this. In the video Vicki made a statement, "Learning to learn", this statement is very essential in school. We as humans do not just automatically know how to learn. When we are children we do imitate, and some people confuse that with learning but its not. We must teach ourselves how to learn. The students have to open their mind and be critical thinkers on their own.
Like Dr. Strange has said from day one he is not going to use the burping method with us, he is going to make us learn on our own and I believe that is the best method for a teacher to use in his/her classroom. Vicki did not sit down on day one and tell the students how to do the work, she let them play around and explore it and learn how to use it on their own. Some students may need to be hands on and not have someone sit there and tell them everything, but the teacher is there for the ones that do need help. Vicki has used technology to let her students be part of international interaction. Technology like this in classrooms should be essential. Students can see other cultures and other ways of life, or maybe there is a teacher in India that can teach your students something new that you could not. Teachers are supposed to give students the best opportunities to learn and grow that they possibly can and I believe that this could be done by injecting more technology into schools all around the world.
I learned a lot watching What is Peer Editing? I have never thought about it that way. I have always just went straight into critiquing the thing that I was supposed to be proof reading. Complimenting can be hard sometimes, but you have to look for key points that you and that person may have in common. If you disagree with them still compliment the way that they wrote their paper or post.
Next is the critique part. You must read the student's work thoroughly looking for grammar mistakes, misspelled words, punctuation, and sentence structure. You may have to read it multiple times. It is difficult at times to constantly read something over and over looking for mistakes, sometimes its best to take a break for a little while and come back and do it again. When you correct the student's paper you must make sure you use the correct notations. You can find those here, Proofreading Marks.
After you critique someone's paper you must try to help them correct it. If you tell them that they have a poor choice of words or made grammar problems throughout their paper give them some advice on how to correct those problems. Do not give them the answer, give them suggestions on how to correct it. Using these three steps is a very strategic way in critiquing someone but not upsetting them or making them feel like they did poorly on their work. I learned a lot from this video and I will surely use it throughout my career as a teacher.
Assistive Technologies
The Mountbatten helps blind students type like seeing students type on laptops. The Mountbatten can transfer and save files just like a normal laptop. It spell checks for the student and it makes it possible for the blind students to write papers and do documents that other students are able to do. There is also a device that was made to help blind students with math, it helps the students with the difficulty of setting up problems the right way. Also Apple has come up with different settings that will help blind individuals on the ipad to work their way around the ipad and all the apps included. It talks to the person and tells them where they are and what they are typing. It is very advanced and extremely helpful to blind people. It makes it to where they are not left out in the technology era, it keeps them included. In the last video it showed us a teacher trying to teach a blind student's mother what her child is learning on the Ipad . She had difficulties with the entire process as the teacher was trying to talk her through it. The mother realized that the her child went through a lot more difficulties than the other students. I think everyone should have to do this in high school at least to understand what those children go through and the struggles they are challenged with.
Students' Digital Smarts
In the video Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts, the teacher Vicki Davis teaches her class about the latest kind of technology and how to use it. I think all teachers should implicate this. In the video Vicki made a statement, "Learning to learn", this statement is very essential in school. We as humans do not just automatically know how to learn. When we are children we do imitate, and some people confuse that with learning but its not. We must teach ourselves how to learn. The students have to open their mind and be critical thinkers on their own.
Like Dr. Strange has said from day one he is not going to use the burping method with us, he is going to make us learn on our own and I believe that is the best method for a teacher to use in his/her classroom. Vicki did not sit down on day one and tell the students how to do the work, she let them play around and explore it and learn how to use it on their own. Some students may need to be hands on and not have someone sit there and tell them everything, but the teacher is there for the ones that do need help. Vicki has used technology to let her students be part of international interaction. Technology like this in classrooms should be essential. Students can see other cultures and other ways of life, or maybe there is a teacher in India that can teach your students something new that you could not. Teachers are supposed to give students the best opportunities to learn and grow that they possibly can and I believe that this could be done by injecting more technology into schools all around the world.
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