Blog Post 10

After watching the video Little Kids, Big Potential you can learn a lot from Mrs. Cassidy. Even though these kids are only 6 or 7 years old, they can use technology efficiently if taught how to do so. It's just like learning anything else at that age. Even though they're not fully literate yet, it's still good practice to do writing sometimes on the computer. It will help their typing skills which will prepare them for upper level grades that require typed papers. Students thrive off independence so doing all those PBL activities will keep them engaged and interested. The children having blogs is awesome for the parents too. They can track their child's progress and even send the link to their blog to relatives or friends of the family. As long as the child doesn't delete the page, that's also a pretty cool thing to go back and look at one day.

In the second video  Cassidy 13 part 1, Dr. Strange asks Mrs. Cassidy how she got started with technology. Mrs. Cassidy definitely believes that teachers should be technologically literate. She said, technology is here and it's not going anywhere. She said, "the world has changed, so we must change." She believes having blogs is rewarding for the children because more than just the teacher reads what they are writing.

The third video Cassidy 13 part 2, she starts out by talking about her own personal technology use. She said it should be based on what you're interested in. Base the technology you use on what you're interested in. If you like to write, start a blog. If you like to take pictures, get a Flikr account. I agree with her opinion on Twitter. I've found tons of people with mutual interests through Twitter and they live all over the country. Some of these people I consider to be really good friends of mine.

In the last video Cassidy 13 part 3, Dr. Strange lets other people ask questions. Some of the questions were, "How ofter do you use blogging? Once a day or once a week or something like that?" Someone asked if she thought cheating was becoming easier nowadays. She basically said teachers just need to be more innovative with the way they get children to present their ideas. With technology being more incorporated, collaborative work is being used more.


After watching the videos, I have learned a lot about real like technology use in a classroom. I really like the idea of getting them to do blogs. I think it would be a great daily activity to have them write one sentence in a blog either responding to a question or just what they did. I will definitely keep this in mind when I become a teacher. Some problems that might occur are that they will get used to doing their writing in a typed form and their handwriting will not improve. I will make sure to have more handwritten writing assignments that online writing assignments.

C4K March

Since the last summary of C4K, I have done three additional ones. Both the first and the second kids' blog posts had to do with the PLAN test. It is kind of like the ACT before the ACT. It's usually taken in the 10th grade and prepares students for taking the ACT in the years following. Both of the kids expressed they were nervous beforehand. One of the students was confident in his English performance but was worried about how he did in Math and Science. The other student just said they were glad it's over and they got days off from school for it. I wished them both luck and reassured them they probably did better than they think! The 3rd one was a book summary. The book was called Making The Cut. The girl said it was like Project Runway but for teenagers. Weirdly enough, the main characters name is Chloe just like mine. The girl said she enjoyed the book and loved all the drama that came with it. I complimented her on her writing skills; she is only in 7th grade and the two PLAN test blog posts were written by high schools and yet the 7th grade girl's post was miles above the other two when it came to grammar, spelling, and sentence structure. Here is a link to her post if you wanted to see how well written it was for a 13-year old Marissa M.'s Blog Post.

Blog Post 9

The article, Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning, is a need to read before dealing with Project Based Learning. The seven essentials are:

1. Need to Know- Basically just give the students the feeling of they need to know this information. Make it personal to keep them engaged in the project.

2. Driving Question- The project needs to have one main question that can be answered afterwards. This is the most important part of the project because this is the purpose behind the assignment.

3. Student Voice and Choice- Students thrive from independence because it's very rare that they get any while in school. Let the pick the subjects and let up on the reins a little bit and let them have some free choice. This will ensure the students are active and engaged in the subject.

4. 21st Century Skills- Let the students know what they're doing is important and relevant. The world will soon be completely technology based. Let them know they're practicing skills they'll need for the rest of thier life.

5. Inquiry and Innovation- The article says to use "real inquiry" which is defined as "students follow a trail that begins with their own questions, leads to a search for resources and the discovery of answers, and often ultimately leads to generating new questions, testing ideas, and drawing their own conclusions." The students must genuinely want to know the answer.

6. Feedback and Revision- The students will not always do perfect work but it's important they we help them see their mistakes and make sure they are actually learning from them.

7. A Publically Presented Project- The students will be proud of what they do and will want to show it off. Let them come to the front adnd present to the class. This will also help their confidence levels by forcing them to talk in front of people.




The video Project Based Learning for Teachers, is a short video about just that, project based learning for teachers. Even though the video is only about 3 minutes long, it got a lot of information into those 3 minutes. It talked about Common Core, what PBL actually is, and how we can benefit from project based learning. The video also talks about the driving question which is the main part of the project. The driving question is your rocket fuel for the project; your overall goal is to answer it and in that sense, it launches your project.



One doesn't really think of technology when thinking about Physical Education but the video Project Based Learning and Physical Education, Andrew Miller addresses just that. An example he gave was for the students to get together and answer the driving question of, "How can we create the best exercise program for middle school students?" The students then got together and did research and applied it to their own P.E. class.



The video PBL: What Motivates Students Today, it addresses what students are motivated most effectively by. Everyone loves to see their hard work be appreicated so do just that. Let them know what an awesome job they did and it will motivate them to do well next time. You can also use rewards like a pizza party if everyone makes an A, or individual rewards like a treat box. Some classes even have a "class bank" where they are rewarded fake money and can "buy" stuff from a class store.


The video High School Teachers Meet the Challenges of PBL Implementations, teachers are looking at the way they've always taught and implementing changes to it by incorporation proejct based learning. I know some teacehers have a problem with this. There's a saying that says, "If it isn't broke, don't fix it" but we need to get teachers out of this mindset. Yes, your way has been successful for as long as you've been teaching, but the world is changing and we must change ourselves with it to adapt.

PROJECT #9

Blog Post 8

After watching the video, Achieving Your Childhood Dreams by Randy Pausch, I saw that Randy Pausch is such an inspirational person. This week's assignment was definitely a longer one, but definitely worth the watch. Sometimes we're distracted by little things (like hour long homework assignments) and need to be humbled by listening to someone like Randy Pausch. Early in the video you find out he has cancer. Without him telling me, I would've never guessed it. He told us about his childhood dreams and that it's important that we encourage that in children; even if they seem impossible. That's something we can learn about teaching. Let children dream. Don't be the person to make them face reality while they're still young and wonderstruck at the world. Another thing he taught us is that metaphorical brick walls are there for a reason. Pausch says, "Brick walls are there for a reason; they show us how badly we want things." As teachers, we definitely won't get everything handed to us. We have to fit so much into one day while dealing with wandering buzzing little minds. We have to be determined and focused on the task at hand. It won't be easy for us, but it will be so worth it in the end. Randy is such an inspirational person and I'm glad I took the time to watch this video instead of the trash TV I usually watch on my lazy weekends.

C4T Summary

The teacher I was assigned to was Mr. Utecht. He is an awesome guy and actually had his own Ted Talk one time. The first post I commented on was titled "Community Trumps Content". It was a video of him talking about the restrictions schools put on social forums at school. It was a really great video and really opened my mind on the subject. Students can learn so much from other students from other schools but we limit everything they can do on the computer at school. After watching the video, I believe there should be an educational social forum where students can discuss ideas, topics, and even get to know one another appropriately. The second post I commented on was titled "10 Ways to Use Google Maps in the Classroom". I'd never thought about it before but it's actually an awesome idea. Some of the ideas were to make a longitude/latitude scavenger hunt, create tours in different countries with voiceover so people could get a virtual tour, and even create routes with facts about stops on the way. I like this because you could use it from early elementary school all the way up to the high school level.

Video to Students