Comments-4-Kids | November Summary

We have come to our last post in the Comment-4-Kids series. This month, I had the opportunity to read 3 great kids blogs. Here is what they had to say...

The first blog was written by a 7th grade student named Christian from Ontario, Canada. In his post, Christian was discussing the character Melody from one of this year's Global Real Aloud books, "Out of My Mind" by Sharon Draper. Christian goes on to write about how difficult it must be for Melody to live since she is unable to communicate. However, he indicates that he would certainly try to be her friend because he believes he would still be able to have fun with her because she is able to smile and laugh. This is such a sweet, heartfelt post. In my response to Christian, I mentioned that I was aware of the Global Read Aloud project and that I may have to join-in and read this much talked about book. I also praised him for being so kind, and willing to befriend someone that so many would outcast.

The second blog was written by Faaiua who is a student in Mr. Mark's class at Pt. England School in Auckland, New Zealand. In somewhat of a related topic from another kid blog I read in September in which a student wrote about her love of the game of Minecraft, Faauia created a Google Presentation detailing the technological advances of this popular kid game. In my response, I mentioned how interesting her presentation was and that she did a really nice job with the presentation.

And finally, the last kid blog was written by a student from Mrs. Yollis' 3rd Grade class. Sarah, who is a trained violinist, wrote about her experience auditioning for the Junior Orchestra and included a video of her playing her violin. All I have to say is WOW! This child is extremely driven. Sarah not only plays the violin, she also plays the piano and takes gymnastic lessons. In addition, I commented on how well she did on her video, praised her for her accomplishments and encouraged her to keep practicing.

Project Six C4K-3 Summary

My Personal Learning Network...

Last month in one of my blog post, I mentioned I started my own Personal Learning Network using Symbaloo. Here is a quick update on what I have added...

Social Media Sites:
Vimeo

Vimeo is an excellent site for uploading videos. I actually prefer Vimeo over YouTube! I like the appearance of the videos themselves and Vimeo allows you to select your own thumbnail without having to monetize your videos.

Educational Resource Sites:
Khan Academy
Socrative

I recently posted reviews on both of these sites, check out these posts: Web 2.0 Tools for the Classroom and Learning from the Leaders.

Educational Blogs, Sites and PLN's:
Kathy Cassidy - Primary Preoccupation
Becky Georend - Live the Conversation
TED Conferences
21st Century Fluency Project

I'm was really excited to find the 21st Century Fluency Project, this website is awesome! The 21st Century Fluency Project is a collaborative initiative that was created to develop exceptional educational resources to assist in transforming learning so that it is relevant to life in the 21st century.

Here is my updated PLN...

Project Two - Final Report

Challenges of Internet Safety in the Classroom...

In today’s digital age, more and more emphasis is being placed on technology. In order to well prepare their students, teachers are faced with the challenge of incorporating technology into their classrooms while keeping the content safe for all students. Let’s face it, fourth and fifth grade students are going to be curious and “wander” into areas of the internet that are inappropriate. How can teachers prevent this?

There are many aspects teachers should consider when incorporating technology in their classrooms. For instance, should students be allowed to work individually while utilizing the internet or should all internet use be as a group? A “curious” student is more likely to search inappropriate material while working alone. If he or she is part of a group, I would imagine that if one were to try and stray from the lesson material, the others would either make them stop themselves or grab the teachers attention. Boundaries are another important aspect to consider. Whether its violence, sexual or explicit language, not all parents have the same moral value on what is appropriate and inappropriate. Which means that more than likely the students idea of what’s inappropriate will also differ. The best thing to do is to encourage each student to decide on their own what their comfort level is and stick to it.

Another aspect to consider is exactly how a teacher can prevent their students from stumbling on inappropriate content. Thankfully teachers will not have to face this challenge too often because under the Children’s Internet Protection Act, schools are required to use internet filters and implement other measures to protect children from harmful online content. However, children are becoming more and more clever and are finding ways around internet blockers. With this challenge, teachers should do what they do best and teach the students how to use the internet and what will be accepted or not. There are several ways to accomplish this. For example, teachers can set-up a list of appropriate websites in a “favorites” file and instruct the students to only visit those pages. Teachers should teach their students what to do if they happen to navigate to inappropriate areas of the web. They should also be sure that every students is aware and understands the schools policy on the deliberate viewing of inappropriate content and as well as the fact that all internet search content is stored on all internet devices. This not only serves for purposes of full disclosure, but hopefully will make the students stop and think of the consequences of their actions. Teachers are not only responsible to provide intellectual knowledge but also emotional knowledge to their students so that when posed with a challenge they are able to make the right decisions.

BP Fourteen

My Thoughts on the "Venspired" Blog by Krissy Venosdale...

Krissy Venosdale is the author of the “Venspired” blog. She started blogging as a way to reflect and push herself to think about her teaching techniques. She decided on the name “Venspired” because she is inspired by learning in her classroom. I had the recently had the opportunity to read a couple of post from her blog. Here are my thoughts…

In the first post, Mrs. Venosdale is discussing the resistance students sometimes have to taking risks. She feels it is important for students to step outside of their comfort zone and take chances. She also realizes that this thought applies to her and her teaching methods. For instance, she mentions trying Project Based Learning, and integrating new technologies in her classroom which are both outside of the normal for her, but worth the risk! I couldn’t agree with her more. My comment was that I too am a risk taker and that I also feel it is important for students to take risks because eventually they will be forced to do something different and may not do well. Taking risks are a huge part of learning and growing.

In the second post, Mrs. Venosdale is discussing the idea that students are not challenged enough to reach their potential. Students are “grouped” together with other students that may not be at the same educational level as them, and therefore in a way they are being held back. She feels it is important for students to set goals, sometimes even higher goals than they are comfortable with. The pride and confidence that will be achieved but reaching a goal that they initially didn’t think was possible far outweighs the fear! My response was that sadly most kids do not have parents or guardians who are involved enough with their children’s school life and therefore are unable to help their child reach their potential.

Project Five C4T-4 Summary

PBL Lesson Plan via SMARTboard Presentation...

Project Twelve Part B - Collaborative Assignment

Learning from the Leaders...

In last weeks blog, we had the opportunity to watch several videos of Sir Ken Robinson from the prestigious TED Conferences. The speakers who are invited to the TED Conference are considered to be the leaders in their field and are well respected by their peers. We have each chosen a video to discuss. Here are our thoughts…

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

Founded by Salman Khan, the Khan Academy is a fantastic tool that can be used in the classroom to boost students learning and allows them to go at their own pace. Khan spoke about the creation of the Khan Academy at the 2011 TED Conference in Long Beach, California. What started out to be a way for one cousin to help the other, turned into a multi-media, educational powerhouse used by millions of users each month.

So what exactly is the Khan Academy? Basically the Khan Academy is a resource tool with thousands of videos covering hundreds of topics. Teachers can create "subject" folders and invite students to participate in this unique learning experience. The site is integrated with a "gaming" type software that engages the interest of students and provides positive yet constructive feedback on their progress. Teachers are able to go in and see each students progress and address any issues the students are having on an individual basis. This advanced monitoring system also allows the teacher more time to address those problems areas instead of spending time on lessons that the students are grasping more quickly.

One of the many great points that Khan pointed out in his video what his thought that often so many students are taught a lesson, then tested and receive a passing grade of 85%, and swiftly moved on to the next lesson. What about the 15% they didn't comprehend enough to answer correctly on the test? In response to this the developers at the Khan Academy decided to integrate the before mentioned "gaming" software. The "gaming" or "testing" area is used to gauge students comprehension. The students are given a series of 10 questions and when the students are able to correctly answer all 10 correct in a row, they are given "badges". This fun, rewarding system keeps the students excited about learning and entices them to do better in order to move forward and receive a specific badge. The students in essence are mastering a lesson while having fun!

How can this be applied in my classroom? I really like to idea Khan mentioned where teachers are assigning the video lessons as homework and the students are actively participating on lessons in the classroom. The "flip" allows the teacher more time to interact with the students and gets the classroom collaborating and helping one another. Something else I think would be a neat idea is to after each lesson, divide the students in groups and allow them to create their own lesson video and present it to the class. This could be a unique way to grade students on a variety of subjects and provides more valuable time learning more about the various "tech" tools they will be using.

When used as a tool in the classroom, the Khan Academy can be extremely useful and is certainly a site that I anticipate utilizing in my classroom.

Author: Hilliary Sanders

The video I chose was Teaching one child at a time by: Shukla Bose. Educating the poor is more than just a numbers game, says Shukla Bose. She tells the story of her groundbreaking Parikrma Humanity Foundation, which brings hope to India's slums by looking past the daunting statistics and focusing on treating each child as an individual.

We as united states citizens, live in a country where education is a right, not a privilege. Every child in the USA has an education, no matter if it is public or private. If you stop to think about it, some small percentage of the country might not get the education that we do. We constantly see that you must have a college degree or higher to even be competitive in the adult job world. Shukla Bose, is trying to provide this for the children of India and in the process, giving them and their families hope for the future.

Shukla Bose, made an excellent point, by saying that not all children get the proper upbringing or chance to foresee their future. Building these schools in the poor part of India will deeply increase the results for learning and a better future for these children. Ms. Bose created this idea and giving these children hope. They are going to be challenged and have the opportunity like every other child to go to college and become successful. Some of the mothers were interviewed and gave insight on the change the school had brought to their children. Most children thought they did not have a future and felt basically hopeless. Now the children believe in themselves, and know that they will have a future just like everyone else. Ms. Bose has given the parents opportunities to be involved with their children. Eighty percent of the parents are actively involved in the schools and want their children to learn and be successful. It really touched my heart, that these kids are able to go to school and gain so much knowledge and when they get home everyday teach their parents.

It is truly amazing that Ms.Bose has come such a long way with these kids in just a few years. Her ultimate challenge is to make her kids strong and competitive in the economy and give them some kind of backbone in the real world. She not only teaches her kids english but teaches them to shoot for the stars and reach for their dreams. By these children achieving their goal, maybe this will end poverty and ignorance that holds people in a state of hopelessness.

Author: Claire Williams

The video I chose to watch was Shane Koyczan: To This Day ... for the bullied and beautiful. His humorous and realistic approach to hopes and dreams was so captivating and moving. Even as a young adult, I can easily remember thing that classmates would say about me but thankfully, I was strong enough to know that no one else can determine my destiny but me. Koyczan’s spoken word poem addresses the reality of what children deal with on a daily basis. We often ask children what do they want to be what do they like, and what do they think but criticize and push our opinions on them. How can we tell student ‘you can be whatever you want to be’ but at the same time tell them, “that’s not what you want to do”, or “you can’t do that”. Especially as future educators we must always uplift and encourage students.

As a future educator, it just reminds me that children deal with bullying and tormenting in a different manner than adults do. The cruel and mean comments stick with children. For some, it may help motivate them and for others it could cause them to shut down and not try to achieve their goals and dreams. To hear positive encouraging words make a world of a difference. You must be mindful of the words you say to students and to help build their self-esteem.

I would encourage all of my colleagues to watch this video. While it doesn’t introduce new ways of teaching, it is an awesome reminder that bullying still exists, verbally and physically.

Author: Lauren Patterson

BP Thirteen - Collaborative Assignment

Gobble Gobble 'till you Wobble Thanksgiving Project

In this Project Based Learning activity, students will be paired with a partner and together they will use a local grocery store advertisement to shop for food items to be served at their families Thanksgiving dinner. They will be given a budget of how much money can be spent at the store for their family dinner. They will be responsible for adding up the total cost of the meal and then determine the amount of change that they will receive. The students will be required to include at least one item from each food group based on the Food Pyramid diagram. They will then create a Google presentation to present to the class. Their presentation must include the Food Pyramid diagram, photos of the food items and a breakdown of the total amount spent. At the end of the presentations, the class will discuss each menu and vote on which meal sounds the best!

Gobble, Gobble 'till you Wobble Thanksgiving Project - Lesson Plan
Created By: Hilliary Sanders



Project Fifteen

Sir Ken Robinson...

Sir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources in education and in business. He is also one of the world’s leading speakers on these topics, with a profound impact on audiences everywhere. The videos of his famous 2006 and 2010 talks to the prestigious TED Conference have been viewed more than 25 million times and seen by an estimated 250 million people in over 150 countries. His 2006 talk is the most viewed in TED’s history. In 2011 he was listed as “one of the world’s elite thinkers on creativity and innovation” by Fast Company magazine, and was ranked among the Thinkers50 list of the world’s top business thought leaders.

The Importance of Creativity

Is our educational system diminishing the individuality and creativity of its students? Sir Ken Robinson seems to think so! He believes we are providing an education for a future that we cannot grasps and feels that creativity should be as importance as literacy. Students should be praised for being different and thinking on their own, rather than being judged and grouped together based on standardized testing. I feel that I have a good understanding of the purpose of standardized testing; I also feel Sir Robinson has a point that creativity should be allowed to flourish, not be suppressed.

In his video, “The Importance of Creativity”, Sir Robinson shares a story about a woman who when she was a child in the 30’s, the educational system wrote a letter to her mother and suggested she had a learning disability because she could not concentrate and was extremely fidgety. Her mother took her to a specialist only to find out that she did not have a learning disability but rather was a brilliant mind that liked to dance and had to be moving to think. She became a very successful dancer who made a large fortune because of her creative ability to dance. More so today, doctors and specialist are quick to medicate children that are perceived to have a learning disability. Sadly enough, often times it is the parents who are requesting the medications because they do not understand nor have taken the time to get to know their children well enough and therefore become frustrated and no longer want to deal with a “hyper” child. I understand that there are some children who truly need to be on medications, but I tend to believe that there are alternatives to medications, such as specialized diets that limit the sugar and food coloring intake by children. There is no telling how many other brilliant minds doctors have suppressed for one reason or another. Ultimately it is the responsibility of the parents to make these types of decisions, but as an educator we should see each child’s individual potential and educate their “whole” being.

Another point that Sir Robinson mentions is how students are taught that making mistakes is the absolute worst possible thing. Now, I realize there are many different levels of “mistakes” and I’m certain he is referring to the low level, non-criminal sort of mistakes. We have to be cautious to not demean our students, but rather turn a mistake into a learning lesson. If students stay in constant fear of making a mistake, and therefore never make mistakes, how will they deal with the real world where it is inevitable that mistakes will be made? Students should feel comfortable and confident enough to know that when they do make a mistake that the right thing to do is to take responsibility for it, reflect on the issue, apologize if necessary and move forward. To simply state it, "If you are not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original” – Sir Ken Robinson

In my opinion, creativity plays a huge role in our students and who they will become. Each student is different and has different potential. It is our job as future educators to help find that potential and to see to it that each and every student grows and develops into someone who is smart, well-rounded, confident and eager to grow themselves.

Author: Hilliary Sanders

Changing Education Paradigms

In his video, "Changing Education Paradigms", Sir Ken Robinson asks the question, “How do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century? Given that we cannot anticipate what the economy will look like next week”.

I enjoyed this video very much. It opened up my eyes to how public education became what it is today. It is truly amazing at how much has changed over the years. They were trying to alienate the past and move on quickly to the future. The problem with this, is that it is alienating the students, and making them not want to even be in school. If you look at a few years back, people were to be educated from kindergarten to senior year, go to college, and get a career. This is the routine that has always happened, and now our kids do not believe this. The current system was designed and conceived for a different age.It was conceived in the intellectual culture of the enlightenment and in economic circumstance of the industrial revolution. These students are defined by academic and non academic categories. They believe that if they do not make good grades then they are not smart. So they are prescribed medications to calm them down. We are giving our students drugs to get them focused, and this is not the answer. We should be waking them up to what they have inside of themselves. Ringing bells, divided subjects, age group, etc it is the same routine in every school but Sir Robinson asks why? Why put them together based on age?

Divergent Thinking is not Creativity, it is not a synonym; its the ability to see a lot of possibilities to a question. To be able to see multiple answers not just one. Divergent thinking is a great idea, it really involves the child creative wise, not just memorization. Sir Robinson tells a story about 1500 kindergarten children , who were given a test to measure divergent thinking. 98 percent of the children were put in the genus level. They continued giving this test to children as they got older, and the more students failed it. It really shows that as we get older our imagination and creativity with learning slowly fades. It really shows how students are learning and retaining information in the classroom daily. It really opens your eyes up to how it is going to be when i become a teacher.

Author: Claire Williams

How to Escape Education's Death Valley

I couldn’t help but laugh as I started watching Sir Ken Robinson's video, "How to Escape Educations Death Valley". Sir Robinson made the most valid points about today's educational system in a light, humorous, and very informative manner. Sir Robinson believes that there are 3 principles that the human mind flourish from.

The 3 Principles are:

1. Human beings are naturally different and diverse: Sir Robinson stated that NCLB is focused on conformity instead of diversity. While math and science are necessities, a good and sufficient education gives equal attention to each and every content area. Students will forever be different and it is important to celebrate each child's talents and allow them to excel.

2. Curiosity: Once a teacher sparks the curiosity in a student, they will learn without any further assistance. Sir Robinson believes that a great teacher passes on information but also provoke, stimulate, evoke, and mentor students. If there is no active learning happening in the classroom, there is no education. Teachers must peak students interest and really show them how to learn as opposed to focusing on testing.

3. Human life is inherently creative: Sir Robinson believes that one of educations roles is to awaken and develop students power of creativity. With all of the standardized testing being used, it is safe to say that education has been geared towards testing instead of using standardized tests to help students.

Moreover, Sir Robinson believes that leaders, namely teachers, should create a climate of possibility. It all starts with a great teacher that motivates, and encourages true learning and understanding to take place. For now, education appears to be in its own death valley but, education just needs a revolution.

Author: Lauren Patterson

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BP Twelve - Collaborative Assignment

SMARTboard Basics...

Project Twelve from Hilliary Sanders on Vimeo.

Project Twelve

My Thoughts on the "Dangerously Irrelevant" Blog by Scott McLeod...

Scott McLeod is the author of the “Dangerously Irrelevant” Blog and currently serves as the Director of Innovation for Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency in Iowa. He also is the Founding Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators, and was a co-creator of the wildly popular video series, Did You Know? (Shift Happens). He states that his blog is, “intended to help resolve some of those incongruities for K-12 school leaders.” Mr. McLeod’s blog is certainly one of the most interesting blogs I have read so far this semester. His blog is full of clips and articles that are mostly written by educators or parents who are disappointed with the way the school system's in the respective area are being run. This blog certainly provided me with another perspective on standardized testing, and the diminishing of “originality” in the public school systems across the country.

In the first post, Mr. McLeod linked to an article written by Jack Schneider and Heather Curl who are questioning the “Policy Elites” and whether or not they feel the public school systems that they are reinforcing is good enough for their own children. Mr. Schneider and Ms. Curl feel that students should have less standardized testing and more time for “play and discovery”. They are concerned that the schools are cutting the arts from their curriculum to have more time to prepare students for testing. In my response, I reiterated the fact that my main focus as a future educator was to uphold and align my curriculum with the standards and policies set-forth by our Government and Public School Systems. However, I agreed that the arts is extremely valuable to every child because it allows their creativity and individuality to flourish, and therefore would be my responsibility to incorporate the arts into my lesson plans as much as possible.

In the second post, Mr. McLeod linked to an article written by Amy Prime who is a teacher from Iowa. In her article Mrs. Prime also writes that she is against all the standardized testing and would like to be able to get back to the basics of teaching. She also brings up the “Opt Out Movement” which I previously was not aware of. The movement basically gives the parents the option to “Opt Out” of standardized testing for their children. As a mother, she felt this was the best option for her own children so she opted out. In my response I indicated that I wished there was a “happy median” for this situation and that as a future educator it alarms me how more and more educators are trying to force changes to the national and state mandated standards.

Project Five C4T-3 Summary

Now here's a teacher that is thinking forward!

When you think of technology in the schools, you don't immediately think of technology being in a first grade classroom. Well, welcome to Kathy Cassidy is a first grade classroom! I recently had the pleasure of watching several interview videos in which she talked about her teaching methods and how she is incorporating technology in her classroom.

Kathy Cassidy is a first grade teacher from Moose Jaw, SK, Canada who is passionate about her students learning. She is dedicated to teaching her students skills that they will be able to utilize as they progress in school and on into their future careers. Mrs. Cassidy has been implementing the use of technology in her lesson plans for over 10 years. In her videos, she emphasizes the importance of protecting her students from inappropriate materials found on the internet. She also stresses the need for the parents to give consent for their child to use the internet. This is very important because Mrs. Cassidy opts to use web-based site opposed to expensive programs.

One of the web-based sites she likes her students to be familiar with and utilize is Blogger. Each student is taught how to create a Blogger site. The students are given time weekly to post on their blogs and view comments left by other students from around the world. This type of interaction is exciting to the students and keeps them interested in blogging. This is also a great conversation opportunity for parents who can read their child’s posts and comment on them. Mrs. Cassidy also encourages the uses Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

I particularly like the idea of using Blogger. The advantages of knowing how to set-up, maintain and post to Blogger not only teaches the students how to do it, but gives them valuable social skills that are critical to self esteem and personal growth. The only obstacle I see is not having enough PC, iPads, and such for our students to use. Because almost every child over the age of 4 has some sort of device with internet access, I think it would be a good idea for our school systems to allow our students to bring them to class with them. I know that the school systems are in the process of making devices readily available, but this is something that could be done in the meantime.

Mrs. Cassidy is certainly a someone that you would want to add to your PLN to keep a watch on. Her experience in using technology in the classroom is informative and is extremely valuable as the world continues its “forward thinking" progression.

"There's no such a thing as standing still, for the world is always moving; if you're standing still, you are being left behind." - Andres Lara



BP Eleven

Comments-4-Kids | October Summary

Continuing the C4K Series, I once again had the opportunity to read 4 more kid blog entries throughout the month of October...

The first week's blog was written Billy who is in Mrs. Ripp's 5th Grade class in Verona, Wisconsin. In his blog he discussed the Government Shutdown and expressed how devastated he felt that our Government wasn't going to pay our military. In my response I let him know that I thought this was an interesting topic for a 5th grader and I also felt dissatisfaction with the Government not paying the families of our countries fallen heroes. I also urged him to continue to keep up with the news on the shutdown, and have faith that our Government would eventually make things right.

Next was the blog entry of a 4th Grade student from British Columbia, Canada. In his blog, Andrew announced how excited he was to participate in the Global Real Aloud. The GRA is a project where students are read grade appropriate books and then have the opportunity to connect with students from around the world using the various media platforms such as Twitter, Wiki and Class Blogs. This is a fantastic project that was created by the same Mrs. Ripp's I mentioned earlier in the blog post. The book Andrew was reading was "Out of My Mind" by Sharon Draper. He was trying to relate how difficult it would be to be Melody and not be able to speak. In my response, I let him know how neat it was that his teacher, Mrs. Eppele, chose to participate in such a great collaborative experience and how great it was that he was so excited!

The third blog was by a student from Solon, Iowa. Jaxon is in Mrs. Schroeder's 4th Grade class. Although I couldn't confirm, I believe that Mrs. Schroeder also chose to participate in the Global Read Aloud (GRA) because Jaxon too was reading the book, "Out of My Mind". Jaxon wrote a sweet note to his mother thanking her for his jacket and keeping her up to date on what he was doing in class. My response to Jaxon was that it was great that he enjoyed reading and that it can be both rewarding and fun!

And finally, I had the pleasure of reading a magical story written by Josephine who is a 6th Grade student from Auckland, New Zealand. Josephine is in Mrs. Somerville's class. In her story, Josephine write of a farmer who wanted to have corn with his dinner so he went out to plant some magical seeds only to be trapped in a far off land by his arch nemesis. The farmer fights off his nemesis to return to home. In my response to Josephine I let her know that I thought her story was very interesting and that it is great to have such a great fun, adventurous imagination.

Project Six C4K-2 Summary

Technology in the Classrooms...

PROJECT TEN from Hilliary Sanders on Vimeo.

Project Ten