C4K#7

The blog for this young student was simplistic, but really thought provoking. She listed 7 random facts in a descriptive way about herself.


7  Random Facts About Me!

1.  I have only finished one novel.
2. I have never left Canada.
3. I’m a twin.
4. I was two months premature.
5. I lived in Alberta.
6. I hate Spiders.
7. I have never been to the zoo.

What are some random facts about you?

In response to her query!

1.) I have never been to Canada
2.) I have 2 wonderful boys.
3.) I can speak Japanese.
4.) I love watching movies with my wife and sons.
5.) I am an only child.
6.) My favorite novels are Sci-Fi.
7.) I have taken and helped teach Jujutsu for 17+ years.

I explained in my comment I thought this was a really cool way to blog and that it gets your readers to open the minds to what they think 7 descriptive thing could be listed about them. I went on to say thank you for sharing this with me and the rest of the blogging world and that I was looking forward to her next blog.

Savanna wrote about a local Hockey team the Vancouver Canucks and how she was going to go and see one of their games with her family. She talked about who her favorite player was and who her sister's favorite player is on the team. She talked about how the NHL was going through trades and how she hoped the Canucks would get a few good players. Her ending statement was a question, "Have you ever been to an NHL game?".

In my comment, I endeavored to answer her question. I told her there was not a lot of hockey in this area save the Pensacola Ice Flyers. Winter sports in this area are not as popular as the northern states, I explained. I went on to tell her that I had seen the Bruins play, because my family lives in Massachusetts. I also told her that my youngest cousin was a junior Bruin, which is an honorary Bruin, and was on the USA Hockey team. I told her that I might take my boys to see the Ice Flyers, they have never seen a hockey team play. I thanked her for her contribution to the blogging community and told her I was excited about reading her next post.

Good-Bye, 2011 ..... Hello, 2012! This post is pretty self explanatory based on the title and picture of the post. My student wrote about the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012. The student gives a little background on why we do this tradition and what it means to her now. She moves on to her end of the year resolution, how she planned on keeping them, and why they were important to her. She did four resolutions, one pertaining to her, one pertaining to school, one pertaining to the community, and one pertaining to the Global community. Her resolution is broke up into the goal, why the goal is important, and how she plans on keeping the goal in practice. At this point, I was truly amazed at the thought this young person has put into such an idea, that most of us take for granted. As she ends her post, she leaves the readers a statistic that is really sad for this tradition. Of the people that make New Years resolutions 80% of them never follow through. Leaving 20% of those who make those resolutions succeed in their efforts.

In my comment to her I explained how I thought her previous posts were great reads and even though there were no new posts I was looking forward to this read. I was right, another great post by this budding blogger. She took the time to lay the framework for this post by giving some background on the history of the tradition. She then wrote on how she has interpreted the tradition into her life. I told her that I thought she did a very good job. I explained that I was taken back on her topic of her global resolution, which spoke of fighting childhood marriages in other countries. I told her I would work on helping my friends and family keep their resolutions. Who knows we may be able to push that percentage up to 50% instead of 20%. I explained it is like changing the World we each do our part and those little steps make big impacts.

This blog was simple. Kobey, a first grader spoke of a day where he/she played at a park with Mom and Madison. 

As for my comment, I asked what her/his favorite thing in the park to play on. Even though the post consisted of one sentence it was straight to the point. Although, I feel that Ms. Cassidy could have been involved more in the editing and encouraging process. I understand a first grader will not be a great writer, but the teacher, I believe, should have invested some time in the proofreading before posting. As well, the creativity of the post.

I guess we could look at it from a different point of view, maybe this gross misspelling was on purpose. A new way of viewing what children of that age are capable of doing. Have them post blogs that are meaningful to them and leave their posts in the 100% natural way it was written. This could show the level the school/teacher is educate at or the quality of education those students are absorbing. This manner of blogging could show the gritty realty of our children. We could actually measure a student's progress with blogging in the writing and proofreading field of their education journey. 

The decision on how to take this post is totally up too you (the reader). Only the educator of that class truly knows the purpose of letting this blog be posted in this manner. 

Blog Post #11

Ms. Cassidy used all sorts of technology in her classroom. Her YouTube video Little Kids.....Big Potential and the Skype interview were interesting glimpses into her world of technology in her classroom. When she first received computers, there was little to no interest in the development of a technological program in her school. Ms. Cassidy took the opportunity to create and grow a program on her own. She spent several years trying to learn and perfect her technological techniques. In her You Tube video, she has shown what technology can do for youngest students. Her technology pedagogy has inspired these 1st grade students to blog, podcast, and produce videos. Just think she took those free computers and turned them into a technology tidal wave that keeps growing. Imagine we could do with a technology program.

The technology in the classroom that I found most inspiring was the Blogging. I thoroughly enjoy blogging and I think it can be a powerful tool for students as well as teachers. Blogging can offer so many avenues for students today. Not to mention the act itself improves students ability to read, write, and proofread their own work. Even though many people may see blogging as an introduction to technology in the classroom, I think it opens many doors and opportunities to other forms of media interactions. In classrooms today, technology is new and frightening to some educators. The act of blogging can quell that fear. It can be easily introduced school wide with little to no time. It requires no real formal instruction for the educator or for the students that will be using the free online software. All it requires is a little time, a little drive, and someone willing to proofread the student's work.
As educators we can do so much more with blogging. We can reach out and inspire future students. We can share goals and creative avenues that we are using or plan on using in our classrooms. We can easily create a world of learning, by connecting with other blogging students and teachers. It is as easy as connecting the dots. When I become a teacher I am going to use the power of blogging in my arena. In the end, we are all searching for a better way to use technology in our classrooms. What better way than moving from pencil and paper to keyboard and screen.

Blog Post #10

The video Do you Teach or Do you Educate? had me stop and realize my influence on my future students. This powerful video asked two simple questions of us, future teachers of America, are we going to teach or are we going to educate our students? This question can be easily answered, but not easily implemented. We graduate with high hopes and big dreams for ourselves an our future students and then we are faced with the reality of the educational world. Most new teachers are not prepared for the challenge of education, some are not interested in the fight, and then there are those that welcome the challenge of educating students instead of teaching. We would all like to believe that we are the ones ready for the challenge, but this is just simply not true. That does not mean we can't be ready. We need to steel our resolve and hunker down for the long fight, because some students will fight and bureaucratic teachers will resist our attempt at educating instead of teaching.
I myself would like to believe that I am ready for that fight. I have spent many years in different arenas of employment with no real accomplishments that could stand up in time. Because, of this I have searched my soul for what truly drives me and I believe it is educating students. Instructors that educate students instead of teach, their names are passed from lips of students, to other students, to parents, to communities. Their name and quality of teaching lives in the hearts of the students they have encountered. I want to be that person. I want to be that educator that has made a difference in a student's life. I am not in this employment for the money, summers off, or a steady source of income. I want to challenge my students, make a difference in their educational development, and lead young minds forward on to their learning journey. In the end, I want to be an educator in scholastic and life not just a teacher in the classroom.

At what point do we start to loose the ability to read between the proverbial "lines". I read Mr. John T. Spencer's blog Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home and right off I understood he was referring to technology and students. I finished reading his post and found his ability to hide his soap box, technology and students, with a very funny one, pencils going home with students. Then something struck me, just about every person that commented on his post thought he was a pencil crusader or felt he handled his supervisors problem very well. People were cheering him on in his quest for pencil rights and the ability of students to play Hangman. Someone even commented that Hangman was a great vocabulary builder. Maybe I am being a little to critical, but almost every comment on his post followed the same pattern. It was either "Great solution to the problem" or "Pencils and paper help garner creativity". I continued to read more and more comments and the overall opinion shared by the group was that Mr. Spencer, a.k.a. Mr. Johnson, was helping kids deal with "drill and kill bubble tests" by allowing them the affordability to take their pencils home and use them in a creative manner.
Wow, when everyone is looking up in the sky and you are the only one not doing it, you feel like you may be missing something. Trust me this is not one of those times. I was truly amazed at the amount of people that truly thought this article was about pencils in schools and home life. "Parents don't use them in the factory" come on people, he is being metaphoric. He is substituting pencil for technology. We as future teachers should really focus on being able to see the hidden subjects, because students won't just come out and tell us how to reach them in the classroom. Educators such as Mr. Spencer help us, the students of educating others, by exposing us to different types of posts. So we can challenge ourselves, allowing our minds to grow. When we grow, students win.