My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete

Hope you all had a fairly manageable semester. Hope many more will come. Just keep in mind we will be finished soon. I'm glad I had the opportunity to get to know some of you. I'm sure we will be seeing more of each other as we continue on this wonderful journey. I wish all of you the best of luck, take care. Peace out!!

Last hoo-rah!!

Well, I was very hesitant in the beginning and was afraid of all the computer technological words. Once I got the hang of the class and learned the lingo I felt more at ease. I enjoyed learning how the construct a web site even though it has been very time consuming. I am also glad I did learn how to reuse spreadsheet tools. I learned a little bit in high school but that was a while back. I have decided to keep using it so that I will not lose the ability to use it later in life. I learned how important it will be for us as future teachers to be able to keep up with technology and how to incorporate it into our classrooms. I am satisfied with how much I did learn, however it probably would have helped me if I had received a crash course in basic computer skills, such as how to use some of the functions, for example; copy and paste, hyperlink and such.

Do we trust Wikipedia?

Okay, so I just read the article about the reliability of Wikipedia's information. I have used Wikipedia a lot when doing research papers. I wrote one on the Berlin Wall, thankfully I used other sources to, but it makes me wonder how much was accurate. I can only cross reference the information to see if they say or believe the same thing. I think companies should butt out of Wikipedia especially for the benefit of making themselves look or sound good. I think if you truly believe you are a good company then you should not be concerned with what other sources are printing about you on Wikipedia. I am glad this has been exposed because with more and more students using the Internet to find information for certain projects and assignments, this will show the students that you can not base your facts on one web page alone. On the other hand, I wonder how much misinformation is being taught to our children because of the laid back Wikipedia page. Maybe more guidelines should be placed on Wikipedia, like they should have references to back up their statements. I think when someone brings a lawsuit against them they will change their tune. This is America and that is possible.

Improving K-12 Education

The podcast video discussed the difference in children who think they have different types of learning abilities. Some students consider themselves as limited learners, meaning they only have a certain capacity to fill. While others think they do not have a limited amount of knowledge they can acquire. The psychologist talked about an eight session workshop that was used on a group of students. One group received the study skills mindset and the growth mindset lesson, the other group received only the study skills mindset. The results showed that the students who received both mindset lessons showed an increase in their ability to absorb more knowledge.
I could incorporate this into my daily teaching. Children should know that they have an unlimited capacity for knowledge. I can explain to them that even adults are still learning new things each day. First of all, as a teacher I will have an open mind so that I will not think of my children as having limited knowledge. I will be working with children with disabilities and even with this disadvantage, these children can still have the ability to learn new things each day. I will never let myself think that a particular child is unable to learn anymore than what they already know. I think that would not benefit either of us.

Teacher's Domain WGBH

Playing catch up :)
I watched the video on how a solar eclipse happens. It was very short but informative. I think these videos could be used in the classroom as an extra step to teaching a certain lesson. This video would be something I could use as a visual aid to correspond with my description of what a solar eclipse is. This could also help students who are needing extra help to understand a particular lesson, for instance they could find the link on their home computer to watch with their parents. Parents could also benefit with the iTunes U, this could make their child's lesson more accessible, so that they would have an idea of what their child is studying in school.
The video was a brief clip of how a solar eclipse happens. The video describes how the moon and the sun have to be lined up with one another. The narrator also described how the moon and sun are of different sizes even though they look the same size when you see them in the sky. She compared the size of the moon to a softball and held it up to cast a shadow on the sidewalk. There was also an animated version of the eclipse taking place. I think this was the best part because it could help students visualize the eclipse taking place.
I think I will keep this site under my favorites for further reference. I have a child in school, so this may be of some help to him. I am planning on working with special needs children, so I believe this site will come in handy, since a majority of my children will not have the ability to possibly read. In that case I could incorporate videos to allow my students to learn about the same subjects as the regular education students.