Blog Post #2

Professor Dancealot Video
By: Michael Johnson

The modern age of teaching is so outdated and this video illustrates that perfectly. The video sets the scene in a dance class, with students eager to learn the first day. The professor has put together several slide shows teaching different dances such as the rumba, swing dancing, and the fox trot. The students have to take notes while the professor acts out each dance step in front of them, some of the students try to act out the moves themselves and quickly get told that this is not acceptable. The students become bored and withdrawn by the second dance type, they are not engaged and the teacher just keeps teaching. By the end of the course the professor announces that the final exam will be in the ball room, open book, open notes. Once the teacher allows the students to dance they are lost and clueless as to what to do. This video is trying to portray that teaching from a power point each day is basically pointless and non effective. The students are not allowed to be engaged when teachers teach this way, students need to be active and learn in an exciting environment. This future of teaching is drastically different than the way I personally was taught in elementary school, and this change is great. Now days in the classroom students are blogging and learning while playing games that they are enjoying and having fun while doing. You are learning so many different skills and also collaborating in groups. This blows the power point system out of the water, more students respond to things they are familiar with, and technology is one.


The Network Student:  Network Student Video
What a simple, yet powerful video. Kevin Roberts did a great job at compiling the reasons why PLN's are such vital parts of our students educational growth. The question is asked after watching this video, why do students even need teachers anymore in the 21st century? Even though students can basically teach themselves using tools offered by PLN's today there are a few things that teachers can also offer that are beneficial as well.

Teachers are the ones who help students build their PLN's and help the students take advantage of these great learning opportunities. Without the teacher showing their students these tools they would never know they existed. Also teachers can offer their guidance when the students get stuck on a particular problem. It is so much easier when you can just ask questions and get results back, this is the teachers job.

The teachers also show the students how to communicate properly and ask respectfully for help from experts. If the students did not have teachers to show them what grammar mistakes they were making the world would be one huge error. Teachers are still needed in the 21st century even though there are plenty of teaching tools free on the web. This is why it is so crucial for teachers of the 21st century to be computer and technologically literate.

And lastly the teacher shows the students how to sort out good information and propaganda while they learn on their personal network system. Also the teacher must show the student how to turn a web search into a fun excited way to learn. Students can be self taught all day long, but they need that encouragement to keep going. This is almost the same instance as the last blog post we did. The children were teaching themselves English and other things way above there time, but yet they still needed encouragement every now and then to keep going. It is a proven and tested fact, teachers will be around in the 21st century and even after that.


By: Haley Marrs
Vicki Davis is an outstanding IT director and teacher in rural Georgia who has used digital citizenship to teach her students about technology. As stated in the video, Davis likes to call herself a “teacherprenuer” because she customizes her curriculum according to the students she has in the classroom, based on their strengths and interests. Davis is focused on teaching her students to learn how to learn, teaching them new software, how to blog and communicate effectively using online resources and how to generally be comfortable with technology as a whole.
                   She mentions several times that she is teaching her students to learn how to learn. This is evident in the video where you see the students individually interacting with technology and she is watching and participating herself by asking questions to challenge their thinking and skills. Davis has her curriculum and introduces it to her students then it is expected of the students learn how to complete the request at hand. In this particular case these high school students are learning about terraforming, which is a new term to them, and she expects them to look it up and learn to learn. This reminds me of a popular motto by Dr. Strange, “Never tell, always ask”. This is an effective way of teaching because the student has to seek the answer rather than just being told. This allows the teacher to motivate the students to think, just as I did when I personally had to Google the term terraforming for this video.
                    Not only does Mrs. Davis have these students searching for information but they also have the opportunity to teach one another and in this case they have taught the teacher. Davis justifies teachers do not always have to be educated on what they want their students to learn because it is a chance for the student to be a teacher, as this empowers them and they can share with each other. As you see in the video, the students have an opportunity to stand in front of the class and teach their peers which promotes networking skills. These students are blogging with people from around the world and really collaborating with them to learn about other cultures and ways of learning. She has proven herself to be effective by empowering them to embark outside of this rural Southern community by connecting them to the world.

By: Katy Mehrer
What does it mean to teach in the 21^st century? Teaching in the 21^st century, according to the video “Teaching in the 21^st Century”, was talking about how computers have such an impact on children of today. I don’t believe that to be completely true; however, I do feel like it is important for children to learn about computers and how to use them. What I don’t agree on is them having to use them in elementary school. Google has been a big part of looking things up for kids, but I believe that most kids that are using these tools are the children in upper schooling. Most kids learn from themselves with using computers. Teaching in the 21^st century is a lot like it was in the 20^th century. When I was in school, we still had computer labs, and different things to do with computers. I don’t believe it is a must do to teach with computers. I know quite a few things about computers. That is why we have computer classes in college. If you would like to know more about computers, than take a class. That is my opinion on the 21^st century teaching.

By:Alyssa Sherman

“Flipping the Classroom—4^th Grade STEM”

Ms. Manofo states in her video several reasons why flipping is being implemented in her school. At first glance her ideas sound fantastic; every child will get the most out of his or her education. However, while the idea of teaching students their lesions the night before class seems like a great idea, there are some major flaws that cannot be overlooked.

             First and most importantly how can students learn new information, especially in math, if they cannot ask questions while learning? In the video Ms. Manofo says that the idea behind flipping is so that students can come to class prepared having already done some problems. But what if a student does not understand? It is crucial, especially in math, for students to ask questions as soon as they do not understand something. How can a student do any practice problems if he or she does not understand how to solve the problem? While some students may feel more prepared for class after already hearing the lessons, this will not work for everyone.

            A second flaw of the flipping system, as mentioned in the video, is that not every student has a home computer. While students would be allowed to use a school computer in the morning, this plan is not very effective. Students in this situation would have a major disadvantage since they cannot do their homework the night before. Also, the main idea of flipping is to have students prepared for class lessons; this cannot be done when not every student can hear the lesson and prepare the night before.

            While the idea of flipping does have its bad sides, there are some benefits that were mentioned in the video. Students would have the opportunity to see and hear the lesson ahead of class. This would allow students to come to class ready to work, and, hopefully, with questions. This would allow for better use of class time. Another benefit of flipping is that students could watch the lesson as many times as necessary for them to understand. This would allow students to learn at their own pace.

            Ms. Manofo makes some very excellent points in her video about the benefits of flipping, but she does not mention some crucial aspect of this plan. For this system to work some changes need to be made in the plan. However, the idea of flipping could be very beneficial to students overall.

Blog Post #1

It is crazy to think that the future of the world could be nothing but self taught individuals.  During this video of Mr. Sugata Mitra, he basically has proven that the only element that is needed in the education process of a child's learning development is encouragement. He put computers with English information in different areas of poverty stricken countries. Then he would monitor every month or so to see if the children were learning anything. The children did not understand the English at first but then they taught their selves how to read and comprehend it. He was blown away by this because they had self-taught themselves. Basically after many months of different kinds of experiments he has proven in fact that the only thing children need is encouragement to learn. The children taught themselves with the help of a woman boosting their confidence along the way. I love the way he states, "Is knowing obsolete?" Is this the case of our future society? If this is the case, we as teachers may be jobless in the future unless we change the way of learning. There is a part of our brain called the reptilian, here this certain part shuts down the ability to learn when it senses threats. Punishment and examinations are both seen as threats, we give our children threats then we shut there brains down and make them "preform". We need to shift the threat back to pleasure.

What do you want your students to know?
I want my students to know basically how to self organize there educational experience. I want to provide the basic tools of course reading, writing, and comprehension. But I want my students to know that they can teach themselves, by doing this they learn and have fun while learning.

What do you want your students to be able to do?
I want my students to be able to sit down and figure out how to teach themselves. I want to make them be hungry for learning. If I provide the tools, for example centers and or computers I want my students to be able to take these tools and dive into a world of learning that they will love and enjoy. They will also be able to create there own blogs on blogger and we can communicate with other classes around the world. How awesome would this be especially if we were learning about different cultures or environments. Some of these children will never be able to travel across the world but by allowing the students to Skype they can have a first hand feel of other nationalities.

What will be your primary way of teaching your students what you want them to know and do?
The methods that I will take to my students will not be a passing grade on a test confirms what they have all learned. I do not agree with this method. Mostly because half of the passing grades you see the students are doing nothing but memorizing and then later forgetting the material. I want my students to learn by experience, you never forget great experiences they last lifetimes.

What Tools will you use in your classroom?
Of course this is a tricky question because the tools I would like to use are probably not in any kind of budget for the schools around my area. I would like for every student to have an ipad or Mac Book at there desk at all times. This way no student will need any pens, paper, or school supplies. There are some great learning tools on the internet as well. I went to http://www.palmbeachschools.org/learning_tools/4kids/ and they have tons of different learning activities.

What role will students play in your classroom, i.e. how will they participate in the learning process?
The students will play the mane roll in my classroom, they will be the ones that are hands on the entire time. I will basically monitor the classroom but let the children learn with their technologic tools. This is a great way to learn because the class will never be bored. They will always be interested because what they are doing is apart of their generation and its not just the teacher standing in the front of the classroom lecturing. I think that by allowing the students to become the teacher role themselves for themselves will be very rewarding in the end.

Practice Blog Post

My name is Kayla Szymanski and I am very excited to be attending the University of South Alabama. I am 22 years of age and will be 23 in October. I have my own business named Kay's Kreations, where I make custom decals and monogramming. My business has really taken off this past year, it keeps me busy, but it is also very rewarding. I still live with my parents and I have two sisters and one brother. I also have a very serious boyfriend named Brad Jones, we have been dating for three years come this September. I currently am employed by Satsuma United Methodist Church where I am the bookkeeper. I'm also employed with Lafitte Baptist Church as the custodian. I actually attend Lafitte Baptist Church where I sing in the choir and also teach Sunday school to 4th grade children weekly.

I am majoring in Elementary Education and one day I would like to teach K5. I recently got the chance to take a mission trip to Honduras. This trip was life changing and made me realize  that my purpose is to be an educator. Even though the small children could not speak English I was able to communicate with each one. A smile is universal, a wave is too, these small gestures helped me let the children know I was there to help them. I believe that my passion lies there, helping children. I want to be an educator, I feel that I would be good at this. One of our mission team members took me aside and told me that they loved watching me with the kids and also that I have a gift. This was probably the best thing I could hear. Knowing that you are doing what you are destined to do is amazing. So I'm sure it's safe to say that my passion lies with teaching.