Project #15

Vocabulary Ball Project Calendar

Vocabulary Ball Project Overview

Blog #10

I will start by saying that for both non-educators and educators this is a very influential video and is definitely taking the 16 minutes of time to watch it. The question for this week is What Can I Learn from Sir Ken Robinson?

I found his entire video very educational, but I will share some of the most interesting things from this video Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!. He started off his lecture with saying that people are divided into two groups in this world: The people who love what they do, and the people who either do not or are just, as he calls it, "going with the flow". His example he shared deals with education. He says that the education system is always changing or transforming. He then calls it a "revolution". This made me stop and think, what it would be like for someone to be a teacher and not enjoy or love their job. Everyone would suffer, but the children would suffer the most. Teachers have a huge impact in students lives. Students look up to their teachers, and if the teacher is putting negative information or charisma in their minds then that could affect how they live the rest of their lives: how they treat other people, the jobs they endure, the people they associate themselves with, and especially the decisions they make along the way. With a 2 minute conversation in the video, it got me thinking really deep about what he was sharing.

"Human communities depend on a diversity of talent on the singular conception of ability". Wow. This is such a bold example and it really struck me. The subject of college was talked about, and he said that college is indeed very important but at the same time it is not for everybody. Some people do not have to go to college to do the things they love. Not everyone has to be an educator, or doctor, etc. which is what is takes to get to college. The humorous example he gives is when he was talking to a guy who came to his book signing and he asked him what he did for a living, and his answer was he was a fireman. The man shared that he had always wanted to be a fireman, but along the road in school a teacher told him that this was a wasteful career for him and he had so much more potential, that he should do more with his life. No matter what his teacher said, he signed up and became a fireman. Later down the road his teacher and wife were in a car crash, and that student saved both him and his wife's life by pulling them out of the car and doing CPR. The teacher was in fact wrong, and surely had a different thought process after that day.

Project #12 Part A

Blog #9

This week we watched the video First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class and she briefly had her students talk about the technology they used in their classrooms. Also throughout the video it showed previews of the students in the classrooms, and how they used the technology. They used computers for blogging, and in the video the students shared how much they really enjoyed blogging because they like seeing comments from different people. Whether it is from their family members, or strangers, they enjoy seeing new comments when they log into their blogs. The students also shared that blogging is one of their favorite things to do because they can do this both at school and at their homes as long as they have a computer. The students are also using iMovie to make videos, both in groups and individually. They like to make videos of what they might have learned in class for that day, or throughout the week. Also, this is the first video I have seen where the students get to use their Nintendo DS' in the classrooms. These are usually used only for fun, but they get to use them for playing educational games. The students have commented on how some of the games are helping them with being able to spell and pronounce certain words. This sounds like a wonderful tool for the students to use, especially if by saying the word out loud and them repeating the words back actually helps them overall! All of the technology she used from her videos I could see myself using in my future classrooms. I believe that if the technology is used appropriately by the students, and certain rules were placed for the technology then they can be used in the classrooms! There are so many different tools out there used for learning, and I am going to make it my mission to search and search until I think I have found something great. Then when there becomes something even better, I will try out the different tools and so on and so forth.

Project #9

Project #14

Cultural Awareness Project Overview

Cultural Awareness Project Calendar

Blog Post #8

For This week's blog we were prompted to find some tools outside of class about our personal field of study and or interests. My personal goal is to become a special needs teacher in the future. So upon searching I found some very useful tools: videos, lesson plans, and activities especially for special needs children and children with learning disabilities. Enjoy!


Her video is short and right to the point, what she is sharing makes so much sense. Working with the students, and knowing what their personal struggle is and finding ways to help them perform the needed skills for class is wonderful! It takes extra time and patience to help kids like these, but it is worth it when you see a child learning and progress with their learning throughout the school year. What a wonderful teacher! She is someone who knows what she is doing.

Special Education Materials: Lesson Plans
This is a website I have found if anyone is interested in teaching Special Needs students in the future. This website has lesson plans for all different subjects, print outs, word searches, you name it and it can be found on this website. This is a wonderful tool, and while looking through these tools it makes me so excited and anxious to being a teacher one day. I am thrilled to get to work with students I can call my own on a day-to-day basis and hopefully change their lives for the better.

C4T#2

For this week I commented on Will Deyamport's blog. He is a teacher for a Public School District in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In his blog I read for this week, he shared about his attendance at an Edcamp in Jackson, Mississippi. This was his first conference, and he went in thinking positive and very excited to be around other teachers with the same passions as him. Although the turnout was as expected, he still thought it was a wonderful experience and he would definitely attend something like this in the future.



After reading his blog I felt truly inspired. Not all teachers show how passionate they are now a days. Some just do their job and do not get much out of it. This is obviously not the case with this teacher. I hope more people act like this, and go into this profession with a positive mindset.

Project #13

Bird Project Overview Bird Project Calendar