Jon Corippo

I enjoyed the speech by Jon. I actually watched the entire thing. He had a lot of valid points and great ways to improve our teaching and make lessons engaging. I agree with him that teachers need to share what they are doing with each other; so we can get better and continue to improve. I will definitely be following him on Twitter.

Christmas Around the World

I made this for my First Graders today and they loved it! It was my first Prezi :)

Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose- Bloom's Taxonomy

Students who understand what they learned usually learned it in a memorable way. When students can connect lessons with media, text, or their own life; they can internalize the information and recall it for future use. Students who have reached mastery can use what they know to create and teach others.

12/5 Failure and Learning

Failure can in a round about way cause learning. My first graders are working to learn how to subtract three-digit numbers with regrouping. Today during homework club several students forgot to borrow and got incorrect answers. Thier mistakes created an opportunity for learning. We practiced the steps and before I knew it they were solving problems independently. Failure can also help teachers as well. I have had lessons that did not go the way I planned. Because of the setbacks I was able to re-evaluate what I wanted and changes they way I presented the information to the class. Failure can be disapointing at first, but can be turned into a positive opportunity for learning.

Learning Networks

Learning Networks can be useful to help students learn and make connections with other students. I would not say it is the complete future of education. I think it needs to be refined and simplified for students to use. Students need to be taught how to use it and how to be responsible with what they put on the internet and how they interact with others.

Khan Academy

I think Khan Academy is a great tool to help students learn without having a teacher actually in the classroom, but I do not think all students will benefit from this type of instruction exclusively. I have students with learning disabilities such a dyslexia and ADHD in my classroom. Having them sit in front of the computer and watch a video or practice a skill online might not be the best way for them to learn. For me personally as a student, I would not like having to read off the computer or watch videos to learn a concept. I have lots of distractions at home, ( kids, husband, work, chores...) Trying to learn a concept or complete an assignment at home doesn't work for me because something else comes up or needs my attention. I can learn best at school and get most of my assignments done at work. I can see how Khan Academy has benefits and I will definitely incorporate it in my classroom, but I can not see it as the only method of instruction.

Guest Speaker Elizabeth Calhoon

I really enjoyed the presentation by Elizabeth. I have tried to use Twitter and Linkedin before and did not really know how to use it. I had thought Twitter was just for celebrity news and to post random things on the internet. I never thought of using it to meet other educators or to share ideas and lessons for the classroom. I rejoined both sites and started following Elizabeth on Twitter. I hope to keep up both accounts and use them as a professional development tool.

Thursday November 21st

Tonight's class went well. I really liked the word cloud and I think it is something my First Graders could do with some guidance. I would like to have them use them for our weekly vocabulary words. I was lucky enough to get a computer in class that worked with the PowToon.

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

I do not agree with the idea of Digital Natives. Many of my students have iPads, laptops, and smart phones. They can play games and listen to music, but I do not think that they understand the importance of internet safety or intellectual property rights. Students need to be assessed on their skills and taught at least the basic skills to be digitally literate.

Fair Use

Fair use is using copyrighted work to criticize, change, or parody it.

Copyright

I do not think that just by sighting the source it is ok to use information from the internet in the classroom. I think that the teacher or student needs to get permission to use ideas or images that belong to another person.

Word Cloud

5 Reasons to Use Technology in the Classroom

Welcome

Ms. Cassidy's Classroom

The blog that I found amazing is Ms. Cassidy's Classroom.  http://mscassidysclass.edublogs.org/
She has a great site that shows all the exciting ways her students use technology. I would love to be able to make a blog like hers one day. I got a lot of great ideas that I could use for my classroom. I am going to look for a First Grade class in Brazil that we can Skype with. It is inspiring to see her kids using technology in their every day lessons. I hope that I will be able to integrate some of her methods into my lessons this year.

First Blog Post

Hello World