Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Blog Assignment #13

In today's blog post I will be accessing two different sites. The first one is ALEX, which is an acronym for Alabama Learning Exchange. The second site is called ACCESS, also an acronym, meaning Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and
Students Statewide. Below I will go into detail about accessing and navigating the site; I will also discuss how this information is relevant to me as a future teacher and how I plan to use this information.

Site #1: ALEX
The Alabama Learning Exchange is a website designed to help Alabama teachers with lesson plans and curriculum requirements. I like the design of the site, it is user friendly. On the main page, there are eight main links. The first link is "Courses of Study"; in its section of the site, you can choose a subject area such as Social Science, and from there it gets more specific, for example US Government. In the US Government section there will be lesson plans and websites that other teachers have created. Below the link for the lesson plans is usually one or more symbols. These symbols represent different state tests that the information appears on frequently.

The second link is "Web Resources". In it you will the information tiered just as "Courses of Study" are arranged; the only difference being the final result is a website resource instead of a lesson plan. The "Lesson Plans" link is very similar to "Courses of Study" but the search procedure is a little different. The next button to appear on the main page is called "Search"; it does exactly what it says, it searches, and it searches the sites tied into ALEX.

The fifth link is titled "Personal Workspace". After clicking the link, you are asked to login. This is a place where you can save your work and collect materials; its similar to an electronic filing cabinet. The sixth link is called "Professional Learning"; in it you can find links and access to power point presentations and other resources to help learn and teach ALEX and Thinkfinity. Also ALEX has an extensive podcast collection from credible Alabamians.

I believe this is the most important resource that I have found yet in EDM310 for teaching. I like having all that information accessible and in one location. This seems like it will have the biggest impact on my teaching career as far as websites go. As a student I believe this website will be influential in creating and adapting lesson plans.

Site #2: ACCESS
ACCESS is also a very important Alabama teaching resource. As well as having information for the various courses taught in Alabama, it also contains course requirements, what grades these classes should be taken, and a brief course description. This site differs from ALEX because it is for students and teachers, not just teachers.

Alabama State Department of Education logo

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Blog Assignment #12

The tables have been turned in this week's blog post. Instead of watching videos and reading blogs provided for me, I will be making the blog assignment. I hope you enjoy.

Quentin D'Souza's blog,Teaching Hacks.com is a very imformative blog that I found. There is relevant information there that can help future teachers. I would like you to pick a recent post on his blog, one that interests you, and comment on it. Afterward please write a short summary of what you learned and how it is relevant.

TheOn Course Workshop is a website dedicated to improving teachers and instruction. The link I provided is a list of common teaching mistakes that should be avoided. I would like you to read the article and provide a short summary about which mistakes you think are the most dire, and also write about one bad teaching method not listed that you wouldn't use, and why

Please watch this video on youtube.com. It is called, "The 3 Phases of Educational Technology." After watching the video, please summarize it in a blog post. Try and tie in the video with what you have learned in EDM310 thus far.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Blog Assignment #11

Skype Interview with Kathy Cassidy

I really enjoyed watching this interview as well as the video about what she is doing with her classes. I think that blogging will be important to me as a teacher. If there is a way I can incorporate it into my class, I would definitely do that. I think it would be a great way for students to view facts and opinions of other peers that could potentially be thousands of miles away. I think it would be more than helpful for students to see the work of others to help find ideas where they can improve.

I also agree that collaborating with other people shouldn't be viewed as cheating. It is our job as future educators to teach them what cheating/plagiarism is, and how it differs from correctly citing and using information that is not theirs. I want to use the internet in my future classroom because I believe it can enhance my teaching and therefore, enhance student learning. For example, I primarily want to teach history; If I am teaching American History, I could use twitter to find historians, educators, and other experts in that field. I could gain valuable information from them. Also, I'm sure there would be plenty of people on various topics that would love to share their information with students. I could even conduct a class skype interview similar to the one I just watched.

the word blog substituted for the enter key on a keyboard

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Comments for Teachers #3 Summary Post

Comments for Teachers #3

Andrea Hernandez

Andrea Hernandez's blog is about digital portfolios for elementary students. She has made/help make them for all the students in her class. She is a bit of a pioneer, as there are very few elementary teachers participating in this. She has gone on twitter and used it to build her teaching network. She has laid the ground work that will make a lot of people's lives much easier in the future.

Scott McLeod

Scott McLeod's blog asks, "What If?" in reference to questions asked about education and what it could possibly do, but currently does not. In the end of the post he reveals that we have the means to accomplish all these goals presented, but for reasons such as complacency and apathy (sometimes lack of funding), these goals remain unmet as the classroom paradigm remains the same.