IPad

I thought it was interesting learning about IPads and watching the video that had the people that made the Ipad. There is so much that students can learn from them. Access to the internet is so convenient on Ipads and there are a ton of educational Apps that teachers can download for free to teach their students. At my school, we have Ipod Touch's and we use them during our literacy hour and the students use them to learn. They are great! I would love to buy an Ipad and I just bought a new Ipod 4, which I love!! I have downloaded some free apps for education that I can use in the future.

Hydrofracking

This week for class we attended a presentation on Hydrofracking. I didn't know much about it, so I was interested in learning about. By definition, Hydrofracking means, "a process that results in the creation of fractures in rocks. The most important industrial use is in stimulating oil and gas wells." The presenters were against hydrofracking and told us about the negative things that it does to our earth. They told us about several situations where it has harmed people and animals. Hydrofracking is all about making money and harmful for the environment. I think it's important for educators to know whats going on in the world, and especially around us.

Week 4 ~ The UnCollege

I'm not sure how I feel about "The UnCollege". As stated on the website that professor Klein provided for us, "UnCollege connects a network of independent learners to mentors to support learning from real-world experiences and self-designed projects to complement traditional higher education". I think on-line learning is a great thing, and I personally love taking on-line classes. It saves on time, let's the learner participate and do assignments at times that are convenient for them (and let's not forget about gas money)! :) I am a very structured person though, and I'm very good about getting things done. I can see how on-line learning could be very tough for some people, and do be successful you have to be dedicated to it. I don't feel like the last 5.5 years that I've been in undergrad and graduate school has been a waste of time, I feel like I took something from every class that I took. Especially now a days, everything is so competitive, that you need college or some type of further education to get a good job. Granted, there are exceptions, and alot of people make a good living without college, but to me it is very important. It was funny to see that UnCollege was the topic of class last week, because I was just talking with some other teachers at my school about "UnSchooling". This is where parents homeschool thier children, but really aren't teaching them much. There is a family in my school district that have been homeschooling all eight of their children their whole lives, and the students are sooo far behind children in public school. They just decided a few weeks ago to send their children to school, and the child in first grade can hardly spell her name & does not know the ABC's! I don't have anything against homeschooling, but when stuff like this is going on, something needs to be done about it.It will be interesting to see what happens with "UnCollege".

Photobooth in the Classroom

In class last week, we used Photobooth on our Mac's. It was really fun and everyone seemed to enjoy using it. You can take pictures using the webcam & you can also create videos. There are several different interactive backgrounds and effects you can use to enhance your pictures. Students would LOVE this in school! They love using any type of technology, and especially when they can see themselves or take pictures of themselves. We could use photobooth to take pictures of students to use in the classroom, for example, signing up for lunch count, they could take a picture of themselves and I could use that picture as a magnet, that they can sign up for lunch every day. They can also record themselves reading on the webcam, which can help with fluency and they can hear how they are pronouncing and streching out words. We could also use the webcam to do plays in the classroom. They is so much we could do with Photobooth, and I think my students would really enjoy it!

Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation

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If we want people to perform better, we must give them an incentive. Rewards are given to people for a simple set of rules. Rewards concentrate the mind and people are motivated to do things because they’re interesting and important. Autonomy, mastery and purpose are the building blocks for motivation. This can definitely be applied to students in schools all over. Motivation is a huge problem is schools with children of all ages. A lot of children don’t have motivation to learn and to do well in school, especially students from tough backgrounds. Some students just are bored or don’t care about learning. Teachers need to motivate these students and make learning fun. If students want to be in school, and enjoy learning they will be motivated.

Arthur Benjamin's formula for changing math education

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Arthur Benjamin discusses the problem with the Math Curriculum in this country. I also think it is a problem, and the information students are learning is not sticking with them, because it is not useful and not interesting. I can truthfully say that I don’t remember half of the math that I learned in high school. Teachers taught what you needed to know for the test and then moved on to the next subject, making it easy to forget material. Arthur thinks that schools should aim more towards probability and statistics, because very little people use calculus on a day-to-day basis, and it is no help to people. Statistics is all about understanding data, and if more people knew more about statistics and probability, Arthur said this country might not be in as big as an economic mess that it is right now. He also states that teaching match can be fun with probability and statistics by using games, gambling and predicting. Math curriculum needs to change to become more modern, just like clocks changed from analog to digital.

Aimee Mullins and her 12 pairs of legs

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I think that this TED talk was a very good one and everyone should watch this. It was very interesting and Aimee Mullins is a great public speaker. She is definitely very inspirational. I think it would be a great thing for my school to see her, and to talk with people with disabilities. Children would be very curious and interested in her legs, and I don’t think they would be judgmental; I think they would think it was very interesting and have a lot of questions for her. Aimee is right about the fact that adults try to have so much influence over  children, and try to protect them from disabilities and differences in people, when it’s so important to embrace those differences.