C4T #3

For my third C4T, I'll be featuring Joey Feith, a physical education teacher from Canada. In the first post I checked out, Mr. Feith post about the idea of the #PECHAT. Mr. Feith discusses how this topic became very engaging for the girls in physical education. This chat created a huge step towards bridging the gap between academics and practitioners. I informed Mr. Feith that the idea of utilizing #PECHAT is a great and useful way educators can communicate with others and share their ideas and interests.

Although I'm not planning on being a Physical Educator, this source is a helpful way to becoming an effective educator if the teacher has the willingness to learn. I believe this is an effective way to get girls engaged in Physical Education using technology. It's a positive thing that teachers has reached a point that they are thinking about to what extent they are responsible for the level of disengagement experienced by their former student. This is a wonderful sign that teachers are open to change and willing to take the necessary steps to become better. Open hearts and minds to everyone of or learners is an effective way to create a Physical Education environment. I think we must educate ourselves and learn as much as we can on an ongoing basis.

For my next post for C4T, I had the pleasure of selecting another blog post from Joey Feith! Mr. Feith's blog post focuses on a fun activity entitled #PEPics:2014 Edition. Mr. Feith shares a great way to engage society in a creative photo/video challenge using the hashtag #PEPics for the assigned themes for the month of April. At the end of the month, various creative individuals will be chosen from the challenge to be added to their free resource to help promote the #physed community. I responded to Mr. Feith's blog by introducing myself and letting him know that I was a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I informed Mr. Feith that this activity challenge was an interesting way to get individuals engaged in utilizing social media to their advantage to spread informative information with other people that share the same interests. I let him know that I plan on trying out the challenge that they have set for the month of April and I couldn't wait to see which selected individuals will be featured in their resource tool. I provided Mr. Feith with a link to my blog and informed him that I will be sharing my interactions with him with my fellow classmates and hopes he will visit my blog soon.

Project #12 Part A (using the SMARTboard tools)

Project #15 Lesson Plan

Beyond the Naked Eye!


"Beyond the Naked Eye" is a week long project based lesson plan that will teach 7th grade students about the difference between animal and plant cells. This project will be done individually. After a brief introduction to the material, students will be able to get familiar with iCurio, Google Docs and Discovery Ed as research and presentation tools. The objective of this lesson include distinguishing the key organelles and their function with an animal and plant cell. My driving question is: How do the parts of a cell work?

Blog Post #10

What can we learn from Sir Ken Robinson?

After watching Bring on the Education Revolution, Mr. Robinson provided a brief overview of the climate crisis obviously on human resources. Fundamentally as individuals we make poor use of our talents. Mr. Robinson explains how people think that they aren't good enough at anything so they settle for something else than to challenge themselves.

I can testify to this statement, I once had a fear of not being able to distinguish what my passion was; I had the mindset to work and move up within the company I'm working for rather than challenge myself and use the unique talents I have for children in the field of education. This issue has been resolved, now that I've found out my passion for educating and inspiring children. Mr. Robinson made a great point when he stated that if people don't enjoy what they do, they endure it. Everything in life doesn't come easy; society needs to rise with the occasion. As educators, it's important to create new solutions to better understand our students and their interests. Aiming for student achievement, teachers will need create strategies to bridge the gap different worlds the students operate in. Understanding students is very important to teaching. In order to plan how to teach your students or ways to present a subject in an interesting manner a teacher needs to know what motivates the students, what background the students are bringing to the classroom, as well as the students interests. Mr. Robinson stated education should be an organic progress, allowing students to explore their aspirations is a great way for them to discover their hidden talents and express it creatively. My goal as a future educator is to get to know every student, to make them feel like they matter and their opinions are valued.

Blog Post #9

Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 1

After watching the first interview from Mrs. Cassidy and Dr. Strange I was provided with a different outlook on the use of technology in the classroom. I gained knowledgeable information on how to prepare myself for the 21st century's use of technology. Mrs. Cassidy explains how some teachers don't want to change, but with change there are numerous of ways that technology can help with exploring new ideas and finding resources to help build higher ordered learning for the teacher and the students. Mrs. Cassidy emphasizes that technology isn't going away. The 21st century is changing creating so many opportunities with collaborating with other individuals which helps develop relationships but the individual has to keep in touch with technology. Blogging is becoming very useful, this tool contains an audience which others can see things that strike an interest and leave comments. The importance's of utilizing online tools help individuals learn at their own pace and have good supporters that have the same interests provide information. Mrs. Cassidy talks about how excited her students are when they are able to express their thoughts online and have other people comment on their posts. I am excited about mastering new skills to help engage my future classroom. It's fascinating that Mrs. Cassidy allows her students to Skype with other individuals to share meaningful information, which is one of many ways to collaborate with others from around the world.

Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 2

In Mrs. Cassidy's second part of her interview provided different methods on how to utilize the Internet, post comments and protect individual's identity from being compromised. Mrs. Cassidy instructs her students on utilizing the Internet and other tools to find things that interest them. For instance the use of Twitter, a source that can help students collaborate with other individuals that share the same interests which can help develop new ideas for future projects. Another great point Mrs. Cassidy instructed was to never leave negative comments on another individual's blogs, this is a great way to emphasize how to treat others the way they would want to be treated. When evaluating peers blogs leave positive feedback. I think students should be given guidelines on how to properly utilize technology and also avoid pictures of themselves on their blogs. Allowing students to become creative and use such useful tools to express their interests and knowledge is by far the best way to motivate them to think outside the box.

Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 3

In the last interview session with Mrs. Cassidy, she provided some fascinating facts on how to adapt to the changes that technology will bring. She provided useful tips on how to utilize blogs to update information for students if changes were to occur. Teaching is going to consist of constant learning, gathering data and collaborative work to prepare for the 21st century. As a future educator I will have to provide my students with the importance of collaboration within and outside the classroom, only in a safe way. I will create a HUB for my students and parents to visit to gather sources and helpful tips on projects the students are preparing learn. I will allow students to create blogs for uploading videos, assignments and sharing their creative ideas. I believe that technology will engage students and encourage them to embrace and share ideas with the world when guided properly.

Project #14 Lesson Plan

Effects of Gravitational Force

“Effects of Gravitational Force” is a week long project based lesson plan that will teach 5th grade students about identifying characteristics of Newton's Law while providing them with hands on learning objectives. This project will be done individually. After a brief introduction to the material, students will be able to get familiar with iCurio, Google Docs and Discovery Ed as research and presentation tools. The objectives of this lesson include distinguishing the effects of gravitational pull from other natural forces and identify characteristics of Newton's Law. My driving question is: Identify contributions of Newton to the study of gravity.

Project #9

Blog Post #8

Bringing more creativity to classrooms energizes teachers as well as students, and it means being passionate, innovative, and thinking outside the box. Preparing students for the 21st century is by providing the resources and training necessary.

The use of social networking is a great way to start discussions and share ideas for projects. An appropriate tool to use in my future classroom is called Edmodo, a social-media site for education, to connect parents with the lively conversations happening in the classroom. Using social networking for a serious purpose builds students' 21st century skills of communication, collaboration and critical thinking. I think this a helpful way to connect families with the classroom. I plan on utilizing Edmodo in my classroom everyday. Not only to post daily assignments, but I will hep the calendar current with various events. When I find additional curricular related materials (videos, flash cards, etc.) that I think may help the students understand the concept better. I would post links with a note on how it will help the students especially beneficial to students that are absent. Documents will be created in Google Docs and can share with the class in several different ways. Edmodo also allows you to create quizzes, but I will also use Flubaroo to auto-correct the quiz and have the results sent directly to the student for feedback. This tool is a great way to increase students/parents knowledge and capabilities in the 21st century.

C4T #2

For my second C4T, I'll be featuring Royan Lee's blog: The Spicy Learning Blog. I'll be sharing some interesting facts and sharing our interaction through comments.

C4T #1 Comment/My Response

"Comfort with a Blank Page,"discusses how student need to get really good with the use of a blank page. Mr. Lee provided great facts on how students being able to embrace there thoughts on paper are more likely to: plan well, appreciate complexity, like solving problems and are reflective. Mr. Lee points out how he can contribute to helping the students obtain this knowledge by providing sketchbooks, teach handwriting, teach students to draw ironically as opposed to realistically, share and present visual art are just some of the few he listed. His approaches gave a different insight on how he chooses to introduce lessons to his student.

In response to Mr. Lee's blog post I introduced myself and shared links to my blog as well as the class blog with him. I provided information about the EDM course and how it was mandatory to gain knowledge that we have to become independent learners. Mr. Wheeler was also informed that I'll be featuring some of our comment interactions on my blog. I also let him know that I enjoyed reading his post and I plan on gathering information trying to incorporate the usage of blank paper within my future classroom.

C4T #2 Comment/My Response


For my second post I was able to check out Royan Les's blog post, "What makes a Teacher Credible?" He discusses how he allowed his students to evaluate the importance of a persuading an audience. Mr. Lee provided examples of how the students responded to watching the debates on climate change with Bill Nye, the students stated hoe talking calmly rather than hyper or angry is more of a persuasive way to get their point across.

For my response, I informed Mr. Lee that his blog provided great points on how engaging an audience can be easily influenced by positive gestures and being confident in the material that's being presented. I also let Mr. Lee know that allowing students to provide their feedback allows them an opportunity to see positive/negative ways to keep an audience involved and learn from those lessons. I also informed Mr. Lee that I would be featuring a brief summary of my experience reading his blog posts within my blog and encouraged him to visit my blog soon.

Project #13 PBL

Ferris Wheel of Water – Lesson Plan

“The Ferris Wheel of Water” is a week and a half long project based lesson plan that will teach 5th grade students about the water cycle while providing them with hands on learning objectives. After a brief introduction to the material, students will be placed in groups of 4-5 (depending on class size) where they will be introduced to iCurio, Google Docs and Discovery Ed as research and presentation tools. The objectives of this lesson include collaborative research, completing an assessment rubric, and effectively using Google Docs and the SMART board to present the information they’ve learned. Dubai group’s driving question is: What are the components of the water cycle?