Final Video Post

FINAL PROJECT

MY PLN

My PLN hasn't changed much it has just improved more. Recently I have purchased a Mac computer which has let me use Imovie and Face time. I have also started to use Skype a whole lot more. I use Facebook practically daily and twitter maybe weekly. I use Facebook to contact friends and my twitter  is mainly for contacting classmates about assignments.





I plan on learning about more apps, and social networking sites. I really enjoy google doc presentations. Since I was introduced to it I have used it a few times for class presenations. When EDM310 is over I plan on using a blogger blog account related to my life and not the class because I do enjoy blogging.

C4T

I commented on Manaiakalani blogger site. They posted about how to have Google accounts and how they have currently added some new features to the google pages and desktop pages through out the school computers.
She went on to talk about how to sign u for them and how to use them as well as where to go to find out more about the programs that they added. They only added three at a time so that they wouldn't feel overwhelmed with learning new apps but that if they enjoy these tools then they will continue to add on more later.



They choose to add Blooger, Picassa and Google reader.
She also spoke and gave directions for everyone to transfer and redirect their user accounts.
Since I commented on the first post the teacher has not updated the blogging site further.

C4K April

C4K #6 I wrote Emily from World Of Fun blog. In her blog she wrote about being in year seven and getting to go do all sorts of outside adventures. They get to pick 3 activities to do each time they go to the water. She really enjoys surfing and wishes she could do it more than all the other sports and activities but she cant because everyone needs a chance to try it out. They also play beach games and go wave boarding and boogie boarding.

C4K#7 I visited  Mrs Phares' Fourth Period class blog. They talked about this band called  Sleigh Bells. They are a up in coming bad. They were featured on the new MTV show SKINS. This is a link to one of their videos. I really enjoyed this post because they put up a sample song of the band and pictures of the band as well. 

C4K #8

Blog 8 was a girl named Hannah. I really enjoyed Hannah's blog because she really went into detail. She told me what Seezdah-Bedar was and posted a lot of pictures showing what she did all day to celebrate it. Seezdah-Bedar is celebrated on the thirteenth day after Norouz, the Persian New Year. They go down to a country side or lake or stream to picnic with family all day and then when it is time to leave they take the Sabzeh (sprouted wheat or lentils) which had adorned the Haft Seen for thirteen days.  The Sabzeh which by now had turned yellow symbolizes sickness and problems and is thrown into a flowing stream at the end of the picnic.

This traditional painting of Seezdah Bedar is taken from the book Persian Miniature Paintings. 

Metaphors

1.) I didn't quite miss the metaphor in the speech. I thought it was a metaphor I just didn't think I had to mention that it was. I think people miss these types of things because they think to hard into it or don't think about it enough. I've missed things before similar to this and I think its because I tend to over think things instead of just going with it. My teachers have told me before that I need to stop taking things so literally and stop second guessing myself.

2.) I realized that I do use a lot of metaphors myself. The other day I was telling my son to not be such a "couch potato" and to go to the park.

3.)  I think we can help students understand what metaphors are by using them in the classroom and explaining what they are as well.


4.) Good metaphors help us think of things and understand things as well as sounding funny or being fun to say. If you'd like to know more check out this Site.

Blog post # 13

Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX) is  done  by the Alabama Department of Education. They put the site together to help out  Alabama teachers. It has all subjects through all grades and shows what the children in that specific class should be learning.
 It also helps you by giving you multiple lesson plans to choose from
so you can teach your children the selective subject in a fun way. I like this site and will use it when I teach to help me find new lesson plans and new ways to teach so I stay fresh and this way the children and I will have a hard time getting bored. I think this site is great to help people out who love to teach but aren't very creative and also help out people who are just in a jam and need a quick lesson plan thrown together, maybe for a substitute.

There are also podcasts on Alex and numerous web links for teachers and administrators. I think that Alex will help me a lot in the classroom so I can expand further than text books because you are also able to share your lesson plans and the outcomes of it on Alex.





Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators, and Statewide Students (ACCESS) is available to any public high school. The goal of the distance learning plan is to create equity through additional educational offerings for all Alabama public high school students. I found it harder to search around this site than Alex. This site talks about Ap classes and how technology has changed the way of schooling. In some cities where classes weren't available they are now because of online classes in general. Access is technically an online learning center and it it rising in students. This is very similar to a college online class. It also has test prep, and advanced placement available.

Blog Post #12

This blog assignment was to create a blog post you think should be part of the EDM310 blog assignments.
I think we should have a assignment to discuss the ways we used technology before EDM310 and the ways in which we use it now. Also, how we planned on teaching in our classroom before EDM310 and how talking EDM310 has changed the ways we plan on teaching now.

Before I took this class I planned on using some technology in my classroom. I planned on using power points and videos. Now after talking this course I am open to so many more things. I plan on having a blog for the class as well as using a smart board if available and Skype to expand the learning experience. EDM310 has opened my eyes to many possibilities for technology in the classroom. I am so excited to show the children ways to be in touch with the world and learn through technology and all if has to offer.

Project #15 Book Trailer

Progress report on final project

Our group includes: Michael Oakwood, Christopher Clevenger, Nicole Wilson, Rachael Hurtz, and Pamela Todd. We met on Tuesday, April 12th to plan for project 16.

After some brainstorming and talking, we have two possibilities for this project.
1. Create a Wiki that would help teach a subject or a group of subjects
2. Create a movie for future EDM 310 students that would inform them what to expect before they register for the class

We are meeting next week to finalize our plans so we can begin to create the project.

Teach someone Something

Blog post #11

 Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom is the blog of interest this week. She wrote her blog about  her uses of technology in the classroom. She is a first grade teacher from Moose Jaw, SK Canada. Ms. Cassidy  and her students use blogs, wikis, videos, and Skype. They use skype to talk to many people who are proffessionals in the subject they are studying at the time. She has been using technology in her classroom for about eleven years now and didnt plan on being technology literate until the school gave her computers to work with.

She wasnt fully supported by her administrators and most of the other teachers werent using technology as she was so her main support was from the school district’s technology coordinator.

I hope to use blogging in my classroom. If im not able to have each child have their own blog then I will have a class blog. On the class blog I will post everything we have been doing in our class and assignments that are coming up. I will also post tutorials on how to help your child do the assignment. This is also great so that a child wont miss to much if they are absent.

The blog may only be open to children, parents and staff because of safety issues. I will have to stress about internet safety and the proper uses of a computer since these will be middle school children.

C4T#3

I commented on The Thinking Stick Blog. They were talking about students and the way they communicate. A student  texted a techer to talk about a assignment after she found the teachers number in a directory. They went on to discuss that children will choose the way they want to communicate with us and it seems to be more technologically advanced. That being said they wondered if counselors and teachers should have a facebook for students to communicate with them since this is what they are into these days.

I think that we should try and have student blogs and a classroom blog so that teachers and students and can what we are doing in class. This will help parents understand what we are doing and we can post assignments due and the instructions to them so that parents can help assist their children. I also think this would be great because when children miss school because of injury or illness they can see what they have missed in class that day or week.

If we are going to have a facebook for students to communicate more with us there should be a few rules. This facebook page should be private to inly parents and students of your class. Also this should be a facebook page dedicated to your class only not with your friends and family. that being said there should only be school talk and appropriate language on this site. Nothing unrelated to school or class should be talked about.

Blog Post #10

Morgan Bayda,  is a elementary teacher from Saskatchewan, Canada, she posted an article on her blog . She speaks about how she dislikes the way Universities are teaching theses days and how they havent changed the way they teach.  She winders why we arent teaching with more relevent methods. We need to keepupwith todays technology and todays exciting ways to teach. She had posted a video in her blog about a guy who says he stopped going to school because the ways they tought was getting in way of his learning.

I have been going to school for about 18 years and I have learned that I am a hands on learner and other times I have learned by listening if its a subject I am interested in.  Alot of teachers teach in different way but they are always taught to teach the standards and it sometimes get in the way of letting them teach fun and exciting lesson like they want to. Most of my professors are very intellegent and know mass amounts of material in their field but just because they know the material doessnt mean they are great at teaching it.

I have taken all sorts of classes. I have taken online, in class, and online and in class combo classes. I enjoy being in class because I love listening to the teaching and their own stories, plus I hate reading and their is a lot of that online. Online you are your own teacher for the most part. I usually take online courses because I dont have the time to o to class and sometimes it hasnt fit into my schedule of classes. Sometimes I dont learn a whole lot when I take classes online so I try not to take them if i dont have to.

John Spencer's Pencil Integration blog post talked about standardized testing and keeping the scores high. I understand that we need to be teaching the information on the tests so that they can score high and pass the tests but I feel like there is so much pressure on testing thses days. Id you give children the right tool and teach them well I believe the knowlegde the end up having and the more they retain is not measurable by test but better.

C4K Summary

I visited Mrs.Naugles 5th period Math class blog. In her blog she doesnt just speak about math and what shes doing in class she also spoke about going to the insectuarium and lucky charm projects. I enjoy the mathematic blogs the most but that only because I enjoy mathematics.

I also visited Pt. England class blog.
Each individual student has their own blog on this site. they use their blog to explain and show what they are learning as well as talking about their favorite or recent vacations. Some of them even talk abou their test scores and how they have improved from last year or how they plan on improving from now on for the next test.

I also went to Korero Pt England blog.
on this blog they have made a music video which showed sites of their town and alot of girls dancing. They also put up blog videos discussing the books that they have recently been reading in class. They would read a passage of the book and then they would speak on a podcast about what they liked.

Blog post #9

Mr. McClung wrote a blog post, What I've Learned This Year , to document his first year teaching. The things he talks about are very important and make me anxiuos as well. Like trying to impress the admistrative staff and not letting your students down. We must realize that we are only human and so are our students. We just need to try to mae the best lesson plan to our best ability and ask our students to just try their best as well. We should all set our goals high but have them be resonable and possible as well.

Children want and need to be heard.  McClung writes that as teachers we should never stop listening to our students. The number one thing that people want is for someone to listen to them. Everyone is to busy talking that no one listens to anyone anymore. Our students may not be being listened to at because their parents may be to busy with work and what not. So I feel that we as teachers should listen to our students as much as possible to show them good listening skills and that people do care about what you have to say. Also a good listener is a good friend.

In his blog he also speaks about how we need to not be scaredmof technology. I was never scared of it but now I am becoming more familar with more social networking sites and other educational online tools.Our children and students are going to expect us to be technology literate so we may as well start now. Thankfully I enjoy technoogy and everything it has to offer.

Blog Post #8

The universe is full of ideas that belong to no one.  I watched This is how we dream Part 1&2. These videos were about changing the way we view things on the internet. He talked about changing the way we learn things online. For instance he said peple view normal recorded, boring lectures. He wants to make them nice and add audioto pages.

They mad a black history segment recently and had multiple pages that had videos, informationa as well as audio to keep you interested and have a great information flow. I believe that producing and consuming multimedia is important for teachers because it can expand the amount of knowlegde we can retain as well as keep us entertained and the children happy.

I also watched EDM310 for dummies. I thought this video was really funny because I  know alot of people who actually get like this. I get mad but id never break my computer because then what are you going to do when you cool off. I do plan on making videos soon. Not for school though. For now im going to make kidney videos to try and show what im having to go through in hopes of bringing awareness and hopefully finding a donor for myself and others. When I start teaching in the classroom im sure ill make videos for the children to watch and film them as well for them to learn new things in different ways.

I watched the video Learn to change, change to learn. I think that this is a great way of talking about what we should start doing in ours schools. The children today are learning in more than one way. They are hands on. Hands on technologically and hands on in the museums and libraries. There are many ways a child can be educated, whey not do it in a way they want to? They will be more excited about learning and will expand their minds into different ways of larning new things.

The surprising thing about what motivates you and Power of time. were both good videos. One was about people who focuse on the past and regret. They are called past positive and past negative. some believe their lives are already fated but most of us are future oriented. We trust that when we make descisions about our future that it will work out.

The surprising truth about what motivates us is a great video. I love how they let people do whatever they wanted for 24 hours and they came out with new exciting things and fixed multiple problems. They just gave employees freedom and they expanded theyre minds and companies ideas and they didnt even have to be paid and extra incentive to do it. The incentive was to have autonmy. To be able to make their own choices and do the things they wanted to do the way they wanted to do them. FREEDOM.

Smartboard

the results of the presentation survey can be seen here.

Short Movie project #1

Project #10

MY PLN.
This is what I consider my personal Learning Network.  Throughout the semester I have started using more and more network realted sites and applications. I know use blogger.com to share what I have learned from other blogs and videos with other students. Not only so I share these videos and blogs with students but twith teachers and my family and friends as well.

I also use facebook, twitter and gmail to share information. Soon I will be using Skype . I love the tools I have learned from google such as presentaions and document sharing. I used to only use it for email. Im sur I will only expand the use of these tools I am currently using and come accross new exciting ones as well.

blog #7

I really enjoyed Randy Pausch's VIDEO :Last lecture and achieving childhood dreams. My favorite part about the video is when he talks about the brick wall. He says the brick walls come up o keep others out who dont want things enough to work hard for them. They are there to show you how much you want it. If the brick wall comes up its not to show you that you cant have what you want but to make you realize how much you need to work to get what you want. Others may not want it hard enough to work for it so they will be stopped at the wall while you work over it to reach your goal.

I have reached many brick walls in my life. Like him I have horrible health. Im not exactly dieing but my body could give out anyday with my health being the way that it is right now. When I was in Highschool I had to go on homeschool a few times so that I could continue working towrds my diploma. I had to be put on homeschool because I was hospitalized for a kidney transplant and then again when I was having kidney rejection episodes. I also had to take multiple semesters off of college so that I can go on dialysis to stay alive while waiting for a kidney transplant. I really really want to graduate college and have a masters in education. It is my dream to finish college. I am getting tired of how long it is taking and how many brick walls ive had to climb over to get where I am today. I will continue to climb over as many walls as I need to to get to my ultimate goal. I started last semester with my biggest wall so far. I am currently going to school full time with a 3 year old son and while being on dialysis for 5 hours a night. I am on my second semester of doing this and although it is a very hard struggle I am very satisfied with the progress I have made.

Brick walls are there to help us show our dedication. They are there to seperate us from the people who dont really want to achieve their childhood dreams. He talks about getting feedback, e says whenever you stop geting feedback it is time to worry because it means that people dont care enough anymore, He also mntioned showing gratitude and to not complain to just work harder.
Its not about how to achieve your dreams its about how to lead your life. If you lead your life in the right way the dreams will come to you.

Pausch died from pancreatic cancer at his family's home in Chesapeake, Virginia on July 25, 2008 at the age of 47. He is survived by his wife, Jai, and their three children, Dylan, Logan, and Chloe.^[

summary c4t

I recently viewed and commented on Care Carrillo's Blog. On January 22nd 2011 she posted about parents and holding them more responsible for being late,not feeding children or not making sure they are doing their homework. The blog question was how could we give parents a grade.
 We would be grading the following categories:

1. A child should be at school on time, prepared to learn after a good night's sleep, and have eaten a meal.
2. A child should have the homework done and prepared for examinations.
3. There should be regular communication between the parent and teacher.
The children need to be fed breakfast and have a good nights rest as well as be to school on time. Children are getting in trouble for not being on time to school and its not their fault. Also many kids dont want to eat so you cant force them. Many kids have trouble sleeping or night terrors so its hard to grade parents when they cant do anything in their power to help against these things. Ever situation and child is different.

Also, parents mustwork and most parents havent been in school for years which makes it hard to help with homework sometimes. So I agree that parents should be "graded" ( even though there is no real way of grading) because they need be a good role model. Fell free to post on my blog.

C4K Summary 1

The first blog I commented on was Mrs. Ligrins Class blog. The children talked about going on the  Asessippi  skiing trip. They watched the movie flicker two times on their long trip to Canada and listened to music on their ipods. They all suggested that everyone must go because it was an amazing experience for them.

The second blog I posted on was a math blog  asking If you know how to Geometry. I love geometry and angles. I love teaching math and cant wait to teach my students math. I love numbers and problems as well as problem solving. I am the only one in may family that enjoys mathematics and so I am also the one who is called for help when it comes to math issues. Even when im at the store or restraunt I will try and find excuses to use math such as finding out what percentage the clearance items really are or if things are markde correctly. Or what we should tip based on what we spent on food.

Pt. England School was the 3rd school I commented on. I commented on room 15. The school Is in Auckland NZ. I commented on a girl named Doris's blog. She had drawn this picture about a butterfly and talked about how she had recently learned about butterfly  and had sent her information to a science teacher to make sure everything she knew about the Monarch butterfly was correct.

blog #6

In the video the network student  there are children learning through blogging and sharing information that they have found through scholary websites and professors. Then they are also learning by reading each other reflections and seeing how others interpreted things. I think this is a great idea. I of course dont think it great for every age group or to be used in every subject. I love that you can share everything to virtually anyone and learn so much from what others have already learned. What about people who dont care to read though. This is hands o but its hands on the computer not hands on with a classroom and a professor. So I think that in certain feilds this should not be used.

For instance in the nursing field you could read instructions online and scenarios of what to do if things go wrong but until you get that hands on field experience that should be attached then things just arent the same. I think this theory would be great with college students. When a college student is taking basic classes I think this could really expand the learning possibilities as well as keep them interested in what they are doing.

It open up alot of different ways of learning for the student. Even though the learning will mostly all be done through technology students could pick if they would rather read about something froma professor or watch a video of it actually being performed as well as listening to audio speeches and lectures. Then after all this is done they can collaborate with many other students and share what they have found and learned and debate on their feelings towards it.

I love this welcome to my ple video. I think this is great.everyone is talking about having computers in the classroom to take over the books and having the students do all their work online but so far no one has shown us what it would look like. Until now. I love the set up she had on her desktop. She made an excellent point that its not like they have a choice wether to do their work or not but now they can choose how to do it and in what order. I LOVE LOVE LOVE  the paperless idea and possibility. I think this is a huge step towards the right direction. She obviously enjoys it and likes how neat her work turns out when using doc sharing or powerpoint rather than paper and pencil. She also benefits by being able to send her projects to  science professors to make sure her information is correct.

I read why smartboards are a dumb initiative and I kind of disagree, I think smartboards are nice. You can make presentations or lesson plans at home and post them online and show everything through smartboard in your classroom. You cant do this with a projector. Yes we have gotten by with white board and chalk and we still could to save money if we had to. For those of us who arent worried about the money smartboards do help alot and they keep up with the technology of our children today. Even Michael Staton said you can use other ways to teach our children but the smartboard is a nice gadget.

I also read why I hate white boards and I think that for our future teachers who are more technologically literate this would even be a great idea to keep the teacher involved and interested. I know I love having all my stuff online because i can access it anywhere and work on it at any time. Also I really enjoy working with technology and making presentation neat and nice looking so that it keeps everyone entertained.

I found a classroom chronicals site where the teacher explains all the ways she uses the smart board and why she loves it so much. This really helps me debate my point of why I like them. If you set it up correctly you can save time and be very organized as well as keeping the children engaged with the many possibilties it offers.

Timetoast 9b

Blog #5

The benefits of podcasting in the classroom.
I really enjoyed This Video. It opened my mind to the possibilities of podcasting and vodcasting in the classroom. I love the idea of having the children be able to view and review the notes taken in class. This makes it easier to study for an upcoming test or to make up work and not be behind in class when you are sick. This is also a great way to keep the children interested. Every child says they love watching and listening to them. So I fully support anything that enables children to educate themselves out of the school.

Students as Contributors: A Podcast with Silvia Tolisano

I completely agree with this Podcast. I agree that every child learns differently. This being said we should allow our children to have many ways of learning in the classroom. We have smart boards and over head projectors. we let children watch videos and come to the front of the class to solve problems. Some are visual learners and some are hands on learners. We have many ways for different children to learn different things so I think the we should have as many possibilities as possible for them to become educated.

I loved Eagles nest radio. I like that they made a whole lesson out of the audio. This is great. I like that the children are involved in this audio. Having the children involved makes them have something to be proud of. They can go home and show it to their parents as well as be very involved in the lesson which in turn will help them retain the information better. The more they enjoy podcast and vodcasts the more they will view them and learn. It opens up a whole new world of opportunities. When children use these tools not only will they learn the information they are presenting, they will learn how to use the computer and develop skills that they wouldnt get out of a book.

100 ways to use the ipod to learn and study better.
This website was very informative. I love the fact that you can find almost anything online and find multiple ways to use it. I love that we can now listen to spark notes and cliff notes to books on the go rather than having to read them. This is really nice for me because I have to drive to mobile so I have a good 6-9 hours a week in driving to school that i can be listening to a book review or even a book on tape. Its also great for notes and music learning in the classroom. You can go from teaching a lesson with your notes to some quiet music time while the children read to themselves.

Podcast

My Group and I did our podcast on Wikipedia and education. This is the Link to listen our podcast.

Timetoast

Blog 4

"Dont teach your kids this"
 I believe that we should watch our children on the computers. Go to blog There are planty of horrible things on them but also if you have blocked sites and teach them how to porperly use the computer there shouldnt be to many problems. Also if you but the computer out in the open at your home and in the classroom then children are less likely to do unappropraite things with them.

"The Ischool"
Watch Video
This is crazy. This idea is as I said crazy in many ways. For one i think its an amazing Idea but also I cant believe we have become so technologically advanced that something like this is possible. I love entertaining the idea of it saving the universe by being "Green". Im not sure how many people are actually open to this idea though. I feel I dont know enough about it to give a 100% evaluation of it. He says it cost $150 but do you have to pay monthly like you do with a phone? Is it just for classes because some sites are bloccked? If im paying monthly it may as well work for other purposes.

Also, many students in my class did a survey the other day and said they would much rather pay for a book that is being handed to them (which was over $100) rather than get a ebook for $12. This because we have been having problems with online comunications. So what if a phone get broken? freezes? what then, we miss those assignments. I like the opportunity to do online classes because it fits in with my lifestyle. I will admit that personally I learn alot more when I am in class and enjoy having a teacher student relationship. Theres someone there to answer your questions and go in depth and you also learn alot of other things from them you wouldnt normally. Going to class also keeps you socialized and alot of people need to work on there people skill and learn how to communicate better verbally rather than texting, email or chat.

"Lost Generation"
Watch Video
I enjoyed this video. I feel that we are heading into the deep end as a society. I also feel that we can change the outcome of our future before things get worse. The things we do now effect our future. The things we teach our children and the kids in our classroom will determine the outcome of our lives and our earth. We are workoholics. We need to focus more on our earth and our families. The future generation is depending on us and we are depending on them. So the knowledge we give to them matter. The things we do also make a difference because, they see what we do.

"Teaching in the 21st century"
Watch Video
I do like the thought of having updated technology in the classroom. I feel that we need to do what it take to keep the children engaged in interested in what they are learning. So if it takes the new and improved technology to keep the chikdrens eyes fixated on what im trying to teach them rather than falling asleep I am all for it. Im questionable on the topic of every kid playing or using electronics in the classroom all day long but I will be using some myself to teach my lessons. I believe that students should be familiar with the tecnology that is out there to stay up to date and help further their education. By helping them do this I hope to have most students become tecnologically literate because as you see the world is evolving and most things are transitioning to pure technology.

"My sentence"

project #5

Blog post #3

A Vision of Students Today-
Watch Video

 I personally loved this video. I liked the things they put in the video that bring problems to light. Such as paying hundreds of dollars for textbooks that are never used. Or students are playing on their computers in class instead of using them like they should be. Sometimes I feel we shouldn’t be buying textbooks when most of the things we need to use we can find on our computers anyways .I hate the fact that most teachers don’t know many of their student because the class sizes are anywhere from 50-100 students. I know this can’t always be helped because students need school and there is a shortage on teachers but you would also think that the students that pay for a class would at least show up.

"Its not about the technology"
Read the blog
 I do believe that we don’t need to be completely technology literate although I do consider myself to be technologically savvy. I believe that teachers should be open minded and willing to keep up with the modern day technology because the kids we teach are going to be and it’s only a matter of time until the technology that we use is introduce in our elementary classrooms.

"Its okay to be technologically illiterate teacher?"
View page
I think that it is not okay to be technologically illiterarte in todays society. For one we are very advanced and it would be best if everyine had some knowledge when it comes to technology. Also I think its safe to say that if you have it you may also have a one up on someone you interview against for a job if you have it and they do not. I dont think that you wont ever be able to find a job or live without it. I just believe that life is better with it and its best to keep up with our world or else your going to be left behind. There are plenty of teachers out there who have been teaching 20+ years and still do things the same way (without technology) because that is how they started and they are comfortable doing it this way. If you are getting great results from the children then do whatever it takes. There are plenty of ways to keep the students interested in what you are teaching without using high tech devices. Also many schools cannot afford these things such as laptops and smart boards.

blog 2

Did you know?
I found the movie to be very intertaining. To see that the United States is not number one at everything is informative.I thought it was crazy that soon when students attend a four year school that by the third year everything will be outdated. Almost how it is now in the educational feild. So many things are constantly changing that we have to re-take classes or buy the new and updated electronics just to keep up. I also loved seeing how fast electronics have evovled and reach the population faster and faster from television to ipods.
Mr. Winkle
I like the Mr.Winkle video. I feel that schools should remain like this video. I do believe students could benefit by being technology literate but there is a certain time and place for that, such as the computer lab but not all day. I feel for young students it would be to distracting to be on computers but for college students I believe it would and does benefit us to have many ways to learn.

The TED video was great. I  do believe there should be creatives ways to exand our childrens minds. I understand that some parents and schools are scared for the childrens safety when we have technology in the school but this could really help our children excel if it is done correctly.

I very much enjoyed Vicki Davis video and look into technology in the classroom. I would love for children to have class in their day where they could learn to Wiki and blog and explore the opportunities they have to learn on the internet. It is full of endless information and knowlegde. As long as children arent on the computers all day I entertain the idea of learning how to use the new ways of communications because it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for their futures.

Wordle

Practice Post

My first post.
Hello my name is Rachael Hurtz. i am 24 years old and am a elementary education student. I have lived in California most of my life and plan on moving back sooner or later to be with my family. I have a three year old son named ashton and i have been engaged to Joshua Scott for three years as well. I love photography and have been doing it since i was a child.
The most interesting thing about me is that i have had crohns disease since i was 11 years old and was put on a drug called Asacol which failed my kidneys. Since then i have had two kidney transplants and am currently on a few waiting lists waiting for a 3rd. while i wait for the third kidney I have to do dialysis to stay alive. Dialysis for most of you who do not know of it, is a machine that filters your blood and removing waste products for many hours at a time acting as your kidneys. I finally now do this at home 4-5 times a week for about 3-4 hours each time. I have had multiple surgery's just so I can do this to stay alive and now I stick myself with two very large needles every treament which i am now getting used to. I should be in the nursing field I know but I have been in hospitals most of my life and I would like a change of scene. Also with my health condition and family life the education field just seems like the best choice for me.