Project #16

Additional Assignment #5

Just Teach Them to Solve for X:
This post was about teaching a math lesson. It talks about letting students use metaphors when learning. He says that metaphors are how we make sense out of the abstract. I believe using metaphors is math is a great idea. If a metaphor can help a child learn something, especially in a hard subject like math, it should be encouraged.
Sketchy Portraits:
This post was about eight graders. Everything in this post was very true. Older children, especially ones in eight grade, will test their boundaries. They want to be adults and children at the same time. It is our jobs to try and let them be this. Everything in the life of a child that age is constantly changing.
He Just Likes the Class for the Pencils:
I loved this post. It was my favorite! This post was about a metting with a child, parents, and some other teachers. The child had been acting up in all of the other classes but his. The other teachers say that it is because of the "pencils". This is not true at all, the child likes to be in his class because the child trusts him. Trust is such an important thing, especially for children. We should take time for each of our students, so that they can trust us.
The Medium Shapes the Learning:
This post was about him and his students. They were on a tour of Edison's film studios. He talks about how teachers think that they have the power to unchange a lesson with a medium. Actually, the medium shapes the learning.
Click Here To Go To Tom Johnson's Blog!

"Five Little Ducks" Project 15

Blog Post #13

ALEX stands for Alabama Learning Exchange. This is a project of the Alabama Department of Education. It is designed to share many types of educational materials and information. This website allows teachers to share ideas and plans with other teachers
Through ALEX, you can look at lesson plans, listen to podcasts, and look at courses of studies. I will definantely use this website when I begin teaching. I think it would be silly not to. You can log on and look at lesson plans specific to subject and grade. ALEX also gives you links to professional learning programs. I believe ALEX will be very helpful to me when I become a teacher.


ACCESS stands for Alabama Connecting Classrooms Educators and Students Statewide. ACCESS's vision for the state of Alabama is to, provide equal access to high quality instruction to improve student achievement through distance learning.
The goal of ACCESS is to continue to meet objectives of the ACCESS plan, expanding the availability of ACCESS Distance Learning to all public high schools in the state. ACCESS provides students with advanced diploma courses and additional courses. It provides teachers additional multimedia and tools to enhance instruction. ACCESS wants to provide a 21st century distance learning classrooms for every Alabama high school.
Click Here to go to ACCESS's Website! Click Here to go to ALEX!!

Summary Post for Form

Click Picture To View Full Form

From this survey, I learned that most people want to become teachers becuase they love kids and want to make a difference. I thought all of the 18 people that answered would also put that they wanted the benefits but only two people put that. I thought that was surprising. Another thing that was intresting was that 16 out of the 18 will graduate in 2012 and only two will graduate in 2013. I learned alot from this survey!

Progress Report On Final Project

My group consist of Stephanie Belletty, Leah Davis, and myself. For this project, we have decided to make a movie. In this movie, we will go around and ask a few professors the pro's and con's and what they think of the Smart Board.

Blog Post #12

Watch the video and discuss how you will teach these children, when we dont know how the future will look!

Teaching Someone Something

Summary of C4K 3-7

For C4K number three, I commented on JohnLee's post. His post was called, Our Trip. He drew a picture of a boat on the water. I commented and told him how much I loved his drawing! I also told him how much I liked the colors that he used. On C4K number four, I commented on Emily's blog. She came up with a competition to find the cutest animal story. One of the rules were, that you had to be there to witness the story. I commented and told her how creative this was. For C4K number five, I commented on Liri's post about Cars. She told about how her class watched the movie Cars. She learned through this movie what a real friend is. I commented and told her that Cars was one of my favorie movies. I also told her that there is a lot that can be learned through watching Cars. For C4K six I was assigned to a student who had not published anything. I commented on another students post, but I forgot which one. I am on the search to try and find it. I should have written it down!! For C4K seven I commented on McKenna's post about Halloween. In her post, she talked about her Halloween plans. Her plans were to go trick or treating with her cousins. I commented and told her to enjoy this time while she was young. I also told her that I wished that I could still go trick or treating, because I have a lot of great memories from Halloween and trick or treating with my cousins.

Summary of C4T #3

I was assigned to comment on Brian Cosby's blog, Learning is Messy. On October 6th he published a blog called, Thanksgiving Lesson Ideas. In this blog, he tells about three years ago when his 5th grade was learning about American history. His class spent time talking about the first thanksgiving. He talked about what was really ate at the first thanksgiving. He brought in a 18 pound turkey, and the students brought the rest. His students then wrote what they thought about their Thanksgiving experiences. Six of his students had never celebrated thanksgiving, On October 22, I commented on this blog. I told him how fun this sounded and how it was good that the students also brought in food. This way, he would not kill himself making a ton of food for his class. I also said how it was a great idea for the students to write about it. It was especially good to get the input from the students who had never celebrated Thanksgiving. I thanked him for this idea, and told him how I would try this once I become a teacher. He has not published a post since this.

Click Here to go to the blog Learning is Messy!

Blog Post #11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class
It is amazing that first graders know how to do all of these things! By using a blog, the family members of the children can go comment and watch the progress of their children. The students also use WIki to learn about new things. I love how the students get into groups and make videos. It is good that they are learning how to collaborate at such a young age. Using skype in the classroom is also a very good idea. The students can learn from people all over the world. When I become a teacher I would love to let my children do blogs. I think it is such a good idea. I especially like the idea of family members and others to be able to comment. I believe that when the children get comments, it makes them feel special. I would also love to be able to use skype in the classroom. Letting the children listen and talk to people all over the world, would let them learn a lot. I do not see where there would be any problems with letting the children use these techniques in the classroom. If I did have parents or anyone who did not agree, I would talk to them about how technology will always be here, and that children need to learn how to use it!!
Click Here to Watch First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class

Click Here to Watch the Discussion with Ms. Cassidy and EDM310 Students