Project 8 Book Trailer

C4K Summary

The first student that I was assigned to was, Flora, a year eight student that attends Pt England in Auckland, NZ. Flora's blog post was about a book called Venus Bay. She had read the book and was giving us a summary of what she had read. She thought that the book was a great book for kids. She also gave some good idea of what the characters were like in the book.
I commented that she did a great job on telling us about the book Venus Bay. I informed her that it was not a book that I had not read but it did sound like it was a great one for kids to read. I told Flora all about how, when I was here age, I loved to read books. Also that I would read them for fun. At the end of the post I asked her if she liked to read books for fun as well.

The second student that I had was Kaitlin in Ms. Horst's 5-1 class. Kaitlin's blog was about problem solving and being a mathematician. She wrote down some steps that a person should go through to solve any math problem that they may have. With a math problem, you should always understand the question. A plan needs to be made to solve it. The work needs to be done. The work should be doubled checked and explained at the end.
I wrote back that I thought she had done a great job on listing the steps to problem solving. Her chart was very helpful as to the steps to follow. I agreed with her that without going through the correct process, it would be hard to do anything. I told her that when I was her age I had a kite and I did not follow the steps to putting it together correctly. When I was done, it would not fly. Also I asked if she had something that wouldn't work for her because she did not followed the steps.

My third student was Erika in Mr. Salsich's class. In Erika's blog she wrote about being very excited that she was going to have a sleepover with her best friend Alex this weekend. She talked about all the fun things that she had planned to do with her friend. She also talked about where she had met her best friend as well. Erika felt very lucky to have a good friend like Alex.
I wrote her back that her sleepover sounded very exciting and that she did a great job on listing what she planned to do for that weekend. The way that she talked about the sleepover made me want to have one myself. It also reminded me of the sleepovers that I used to have when I was a kid. I told her, when I was her age, I would plan what I was going to do with my friends for the next time as soon as one sleepover ended. I asked her if she does the same.

Blog Post 6

What I learned from Anthony Capps

Anthony Capps shared some wonderful information in his video Project Based Learning Part 1. Project based learning is a different form of teaching the students to learn required material from the ACCRS. Anthony says, "It not only means that students achieved something, but it's a way to get them to learn something as well." The projects need to engage the students so that the student will be interested in what they are learning. They learn more that way and they will enjoy the process also. Project based learning should be used to get the student to really thinking about what they are learning. Also, always allow the student time to revise and reflect. It is the most important step after students complete their work.

Anthony’s video Project Based Learning Part 2 is just as informative as the first one. Anthony says, "Never limit your students in project based learning by telling them what to do. Always create the opportunity for them to go beyond what you want them to do." As teachers, we never want to set limitations on what the students should be learning. The students are capable of just about anything. Therefore, it is imperative that we as teachers come up with meaningful content in the student’s projects.

He also introduces two programs that I had never heard of before that are called iCurio and Discovery Ed. With iCurio, students are free to search a controlled website that only allows safe and education content. Not only can they search, they can store their findings. This program also offers the student a directory. With the directory, they can search historical figures and it's great for any grade level. Discovery Ed is a program where student can see a professional video along with the picture that comes up in the search. The videos contain experts in what they are trying to find. It's a great tool for students to further their studies without just seeing pictures.

Not only did Anthony tell about Project Based Learning, he and Dr. Strange also gave five Tips for Teachers. The first one is to remember that there will always be something new to learn, so get interested in it. Second, your free time will be your learning time. Third, have a goal in mind when you start teaching. Fourth, be creative while working with the class to keep the all the students interested. The fifth and final tip is to always have reflection time for students to see and correct their mistakes.

Use Tech Don't Teach It is another one of the helpful videos that Anthony supplied. It tells us as aspiring teachers to not just show the students how to work the technology. Give them a chance to play with it first and explore for themselves. Then, once you feel that the students are ready to progress forward, make the assignments a little more in depth. After all, Anthony says, "Technology should not be taught."

Project 7 Part A

My sentence is.....



My passion is....

Project # 3 Presentation

Blog Post 5

PLN’s What are they?

A personal learning Network (PLN) is a combination of people and tools to help you with any inquiries you may have. It’s like a huge support system to help you succeed with your journey of being an educator. You can collaborate and consult with others for anything that you may need. A 7th Graders Personal Learning Environment is a good video for what a PLN actually looks like. All the people and tools that is needed for success is located in one handy spot. You are able to set up and connect with whoever you may like.

PLN’s can help you as a teacher in many different ways. You can chat with other teachers from around the world and get some great ideas on different ways of teaching the classroom. They also help with you being able to attend teacher conferences without having to leave where you are. The video where Michael Fawcett Discusses his PLN gives us some insight as to how teachers can benefit from having PLN’s. I know that I would be able to benefit from a PLN in many different ways as well after watching this video. A PLN will definitely help me in my journey to be an aspiring and game changing educator.

PLN’s are formed by an area of subject matter that speaks to you that you may have questions about. You set out on a quest to answer any questions that you may have concerning that matter. You can start with popular network sites like twitter and facebook. From those you just want to keep digging, searching, and chatting to get to find what it is that you are looking to receive.
I can create my own PLN by starting my search for things that interest me. I can start by following and asking questions to teachers to get a better insight to what I wish to know. There is also a website where I can store all my findings and keep all my information in one spot on the website called symbaloo.

The first person have already added to my PLN is Dr. Strange. I will also add some of my other teachers that I have had and some from around the world. I will also start using a new site to me which is called delicious. I look forward to using my PLN to expand my horizons.

Search Engines

1. Wolframalpha is a search engine that definitly have noticeable differences. When you search it allows you to put in numbers. It's like a calculator and search engine combined. Also, I'm not used to seeing charts when you answer is delivered. I noticed when I wanted to search for a picture it did not bring up more than one picture at a time and you need to be very specific as to what you are looking to find.

2.Bing has some useful points. I saw that bing has a lot of the information that you would find on other popular search engines. Bing also has a neat feature of being able to earn reward points for your searches. You do have to be a member to earn those points, but I thought it was an interesting program.

3. Infospace is not the most visually attractive site, but it gets the job done. I found several responses to the question that I put into the search bar. It does take the most popular responses and displays them first.

4. Ask has its own theme to it. It has a question and answer portion that most other sites don't have. You can even go to questions and answers in your community. It seems to give you factual information, but a lot of Ask deals with you finding out answers from other people.

5. Duckduckgo is site where you have to look around for the right answer. It don't seem to bring up the right answers as the top search. Another thing that I noticed is that this site don't bring up several different pages to search through. It's all on one page. It not a site that I could see myself using.

6. Blekko seems like a pretty good search engine. It brings up different categories when you search. Also I liked the side categories that it gives you on each topic that you search.

7. Yahoo is a good search engine in my opinion. I liked the fact everything can be done from the home page. Yahoo has a range of options versus some of the other sites that I have explored. It also has where you can ask others questions and get fast answers. I like the email feature with yahoo as well.

8. Zoo.com had some useful information. I liked the fact that you could type in one subject and then click on a tab to get different views of that same topic. The set up was visually attractive. It also gave the local weather and showed a list for the most common searches.

Summary Blog C4T

Bill Genereux is the teacher that I was assigned and he had a very legitimate complaint in his first post which was Pineapples Don't Have Sleeves. His 6th grade daughter was sent home with a practice test on reading comprehension skills. One of the questions was setup to where she had to pick the answer that best summed up what the story was talking about. The question was worded so wrong that his daughter could not answer it, and when Bill looked at the question he could barely come up with the correct answer. I even gave the question a shot and I could not determine what the right answer was. Bill was upset that the teacher had sent home the practice test worded to difficult for his daughter to answer. His main concerns was that teachers, and the author of the story, should be getting the questions down to a form where the sixth graders could understand them and that the wording should be correct coming from an educator. In my comment to Bill, I agreed with what he said about the teacher and the author needs to be aware of the content that they are sending home to the students. Even if it was a practice test it should be a good example of what is to come on the real test.

Inspire Her Mind was the second post that Bill wrote about in response to a Verizon commercial that he had seen. The video's message was showing us that we don't need to stifle a girls mind by always telling them what to do instead of them getting a hands on approach. Bill felt like because the girls are being pushed away from getting a hands on approach with building things that it would shy them away from wanting to learn about math and science. Being that Bill has a daughter in the sixth grade, he felt that the video was a good eye-opener for people. Bill is doing all that he can to keep his daughter intrigued with math and science. I complimented Bill on his efforts with his daughter. I did agree with him because I do see where not letting the children be free to explore will cause them to hate those subjects. Keep the child's mind open for any future endeavors they may want to pursue.

Blog Post 4

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?

Asking questions to a class may seem like a no-brainer thing to do, but that's not the case. A teacher can ask questions all day long and still not obtain any usable feedback as to whether the class is really understanding the material. That's why it's important for teachers to know how to ask questions and that's where The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom by Ben Johnson becomes essential information for teachers. Questions that are asked to the class need to be asked the right way. That consist of asking open ended questions and also asking questions that after a few seconds if no one answers the teacher will call on someone to answer. That's the most effective way to get the class to really thinking about the material at hand.




I found the video by Andi Stix about asking Open Ended Questions to be helpful also. Her video is not just about asking open ended questions, it's about asking a question in a way that students will be challenged to dig deep and really think about the question they're about to answer. As aspiring teachers, this is a tactic that we will need to familiarize ourselves with to better understand what the students actually know. Don't just throw out questions that don't support any real feedback. Make every answer count by asking the right questions.

Blog Post 3

How can you provide meaningful feedback to your peers?

Peer editing can be a difficult task especially if you are like me. I'm not in the business of hurting anyone's feelings, but I do believe that you can be critical of someone else's work in a positive way. When editing, you really don't want to come across as being mean. Also, the videos What is Peer Editing? and Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial is very useful when trying to learn how to edit. I have only had a little practice with peer editing before watching these videos and so far, from what I have learned, I'v been doing it wrong. These videos do a great job with letting us know that we need to compliment first and then make a suggestion as to what the person did wrong and how they could improve it. Lastly, check for corrections. I think that if these steps are followed, then the feedback will be positive and the goals that we set out to achieve will be accomplished.


Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes really makes us think about our peer editing because it deals with several different types of incorrect editing approaches. Sometimes, as peer editors, we don't think about the way that we tell a person that their work is not up to par. It may come off as being mean or overly critical. In that case, the people that we are editing shut down and there is nothing else that we can say to them because we hurt their feelings. With peer editing, the main that we have to remember is to treat people as we would like to be treated. Also, we need to consider that this class is a learning experience for us all.

As aspiring teachers, we should have some knowledge of how to talk to people in a way that will make them want to improve. These videos, if truly considered, will be a learning tool for us all.