Mr. McClung-What I've Learned This Year

The Post by Mr. McClung was really interesting. He says in his post that the most important thing to a strong foundation for a relationship is communication, I totally agree. He also states that lessons should be student centered and not focused on the teacher. Mr. McClung stated some great facts that us future teachers today can take to our classroom, and one that I know that I'm going to do is I'm always going to be willing to learn. In able to grow as a teacher you need to be able to learn, and who not better to learn from than your students. Teachers must be willing to learn and grow.
A great saying that Mr. Mclung mentioned was "No lesson is ever perfect. The lesson you teach and the one you plan are always different." I believe this to be true and that you can't get upset if it's not like its planed, because it may turn out for the best. also, this goes with what he decided on being at the beginning of the year, He said that he wanted to be positive! I think you should always have a positive attitude, especially in the teaching profession, cause the attitude you have will reflect the attitudes of your students. So always stay positive is a great piece of advice Mr. McClung mentioned.

Can Wikipedia Be Trusted?

Every time we have an assignment for our classes, the teachers will always say not to use Wikipedia because it can be changed by anyone. This has been happening since I've been in High School and still today, and it's my third year here at South Alabama. Having read these three articles, NPR News blog, NPR Article and the Wired Article, I really believe that all those teachers are absolutely right, I don't think Wikipedia can be trusted at all. You never know who is making changes to these entries. You can not trust someone that may not know anything about what their changing. You may can look up simply defintions or simply task on wikipedia but as far as actually doing a important report, Wikipedia may not be the best source to go to. I wouldn't use Wikipedia for my assignments, or suggest it for anyone to use. Having sources that are and can altered shouldn't be allowed to be used as a crediable resourse.

Randy Paush's Last Lecture

I found Randy Pausch's Last Lecture so inspiring. I really like his view on life. He handles his diagnosis so well, and he assures everyone that his not in denial. Not many people that I know can handle something so severe like he did. And, yet he still was trying to encourage others. He really is an amazing and courageous person for doing what his doing and only had few more months to live.

While listening to him talk about his childhood dreams it really was touching and I'm so glad he go to accomplish some of his dreams before he past away. Him wanting to win stuff toys, and meeting his idol were some of his childhood dreams and was a great accomplishment. He didn't give up and its so inspiring. Like he said brick walls show us how much we really want things. His a very driven and hardworking individual and people who actually knew him were very lucky.

I love how Dr. Pausch made it his mission to enable childhood dreams. His teaching was creative and he made is own curriculum. He was such a great teacher, and it's ashamed that we don't have more like him. He let his students come up with their own assignments. To me he mentioned some things that another speaker we listened to had said, that they are killing creativity in school, and Dr. Pausch was putting that back into the schools.

This video of Dr. Pausch's last lecture is well worth the time to sit and watch. It just shows you how amazing this man really is and how he accomplished great and challenging things. It makes you take a look at your life and dreams that you may have and tell yourself that no matter how far fetch your dreams may seem it is possible to accomplish them, you just got to get through that brick wall.

Alternative Web Browsing

Mr. Stephen Sullivan's presentation really opened your eyes and make you think what would you do without these alternatives if you had a disability. There are so many different software's that are so wonderful for people with a disability. It's amazing to see them all, I had no clue of all the advances until I saw this presentation. These browsers really make it so much more assessable for a person that has to have special needs.

BrooesTalk, Marco Polo are web browsers that are specifically for people with disabilities and those are only a few of the many. They allow touch screen, speech icons, and etc. It's awesome all the neat things that they can accomplish now, rather than 15 years ago they couldn't have. Convers a web browser, is a web browser that is voice activated and allows you to speak which Icon you want with using "say cons". This site really opens your eyes, and shows you all the new technology that is advanced for disabled people, it's really a great thing to do since in some cases a computer can be the only thing they can actually do.

Plagiarism and Copyright

Plagiarism to me is when you steal someone else's idea's or words and us the as your own, just like Bates College of Lewiston, Maine had stated on their website. Plagiarism is very easy "sometimes" to do especially students who are in school, rather it be middle school all the way to college. Teachers see plagiarism happen all the time. But it also can be easily avoided. as long as one gives credit to that particular person that they are using their information from they they are okay. You do this by using reference pages, quotes and etc. Plagiarism is a big deal and should not be attempted. how would you feel if you worked so hard for something and it was taken from you and some one else was given all that credit and they didn't even lift a finger. I would be very angry.

To get your work protected and not be stolen you can put a copyright on it and then if a person steals it they either are prosecuted or have to pay some sort of fine. According to the article Copyright Basics " In order to get a copyright you must have the work in fixed form", fixed form is putting the work in a compact disc or in a book type form . This will allow protection to that persons hard work. If you have a worked really hard for something and afraid that someone may steal it, getting it comprighted is the best choice.

Karl Fisch "Is it okay to a technologically illiterate teacher"

I had mixed feelings on Mr. Fisch's post. I do agree with him, in the fact that teachers should be technologically literate and we should know the basic skills of using different kinds of technology, but my question is should we rely so much on computers to do all the work, it's taking away from the teacher becoming creative and finding new and exciting ways to teach the material. But I do see the importance of using technology in our classrooms and how it will help our students become more involved. Technology can be a very helpful and useful resource.

As a soon to be teacher, I would think that I should know all the basic standards of technology that may be placed in front of me for teaching purposes. And I do believe when I do start teaching that I will definitely incorporate technology into my lessons so the students and have that experience. I just want be so dependent on it as most teachers are today. So Mr. Fisch's post was really good and I do agree with him, just don't think we should be so heavily dependant on technology as we all no can not be the most reliable thing to count on.

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

I really believe that our college system is exactly whats on this video Students rely on the Internet so much, its almost like they are addicted to it. Some students pointed out that students look at facebook, myspace, and emails while they are in the classroom and I can 100% agree that I see this all the time in our classrooms today. They aren't at all focused on what the professor is saying they are more worried about whose looking at their profile on facebook or myspace. But then you have to ask the question on why are these students no listening? Some students can't focuse on the teacher because all they are doing is reading right of the power point and not trying to catch your attention at all. They want you in and out of their classroom.

Some students find that some classes are a waste of money and time because they have nothing to do with their major. We have to take so many classes before we actually get into our actual major. Why is this?All they want is our money, and to make it as hard as possible for us cause they think we don't have lives outside of school.

As far as adding anything to Mr. Wesch's video, I don't see what else to add. This video really shows students of today, especially us younger generation. We should really take a step back and look at it all. I agree with him and the students and think that we all should maybe do something about it.

Kelly Hines "It's not about the technology"

I really enjoyed the post Kelly Hines wrote. Some of the things Mrs. Hines mentioned I agreed with extremely. We should not only be teachers but learners. I strongly believe that as a teacher you will learn something new everyday and be willing to or you want be a successful teacher. I believe that if the student didn't learn anything then nothing has been taught, even if you taught for three hours. I totally agree with Mrs. Hines.

Also, Mrs. Hines says that Technology is not the key to education in the future which i agree with 100%. I feel as though some teachers are heavily dependent on technology to help because "it's there", convenient, and also easily assessable. I think I wont allow myself to be caught up with so much of the technology that seems to consume a lot of people/teachers, because then you loose your creativity.

Langwiches Blogsite

Langwiches blog site was very useful in making a podcast. They gave us useful and helpful tips on how to create our own podcast. They had different list of recordings that you could reference to if you wanted to listen to them. The different links that's on this website tell you different techniques to use such as how your voice looks like and gives you helpful tips on how to do this. You can listen to several different peoples podcast to get an idea of what yours should sound like.

I found Langwiches blog site very useful and think that i t will be a great tool for me to learn how to do my podcast now and also, if I teach about any of this stuff later on in my career it's a good tool to have handy for my class to look and and navigate through. I found this website very beneficial and I would use it.
http://langwitches.org/blog/2009/03/08/producing-a-podcast-2/

Video Cast From Past Classes

I really enjoyed listening to Technology Literate Teacher video podcast. You could understand them very well. Their conversation between one another was great, two girl mostly done the talking,but I think they all participated and did really well. They didn't seem to be reading from a script, they seemed to be just having a conversation amongst themselves and enjoying it. They stayed on topic most of the time and I found their topic interesting. These are the things that when I start to do my video cast that I will keep in my of doing.



Things that I may try and do differently is maybe try and be less nervous while on camera, cause it really shows in your movements and also it shows in your voice. I know everyone gets nervous and honestly I probably the worst one. I would try and control my nerves though while doing the video cast. Also, I would try and relax, not look so tense and tight while doing the podcast. I want to be comfortable and try and deliver the message of my topic and not have everyone focused on my being nervous or tense. Overall, I really enjoyed listening to the video cast and can't wait to see what mine is like!
http://gallery.me.com/jstrange/100544

Podcast

I have never listened to a podcast before so this is all new to me.

Smart Board Lessons Podcast was very interesting and understandable. They made it very relataeable , funny and they were energetic about what they were talking about. It's a great podcast for teachers that are working on the end of the year things to do. The website that was given about allowing teachers to give their insight and ideas called Teachersconnecting.org was a great tool for teachers to use I thought. Smart Board Lessons Podcast seems like it would be a fun way to teach the students I would use it. I found this Podcast very useful and interesting.

KidCast is using video podcast to teach. Which personally for me would be a better way to learn other than audio podcast cause when your just sitting there listening you can become easily distracted and also can become mis-communicated because you don't see the body language of the others your talking with. Using video podcast I think would make the students more interested in learning if they could talk to someone over the video/Internet. And you know that their attention is focused on them other than wondering off. I find KidCast so useful in our classrooms today cause students like to be involved.

This Week In Photography was almost like a talk show. I found it could be very useful in our education system now. Its really interesting to me how they engage photos as a teaching technique. They gave useful websites that teachers could go to and find some photography that could be very helpful. I feel that if the students feel as they are interacting and engaging in the lessons they will learn faster. Pictures having them look at the picture point things out will get the students engaged.

MacBreak Weekly I'm sorry I wasn't interested in this podcast at all. I did not really get anything useful from this podcast. They didn't get straight to the point and wasn't focused on what the topic was about. They were kind of scattered, they would talk about it then get off subject. Maybe people who are interested in this topic found it useful and it could help. I just didn't. It was my least favorite podcast that we listened to this week.

I really enjoyed listening to all the different Podcast. My favorite was the KidCast. I think it would really get not only the students interested but the teachers interested also.