Project # 3 Presentation

Blog Post #4

Everyone who has ever sat through a long lecture or video in the classroom has anticipated the "dreaded" question and answer period. Until reading, watching videos and discussing other researched material for the blog this week, I didn't know there was so much to consider when asking a question. This becomes a more relevant topic when considering the question, "What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?" As a future educator, I would like to be effective in the questions that I ask my students because I want them to be able to have a substantive and informative discussion. The only way to accomplish that is by using the techniques that I learned from everything this week and begin to understand how I can actively engage those students. Teachers have an

obligation to get the most out of their students, so knowing the vast importance of refraining from asking a close-ended question versus an open-ended question makes quite a difference in how rich the students' answers will be. The research done by Ben Johnson, and discussed in The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom, is significant because he points out the first thing to do when asking a question is to consider what will be the goal of the questions we will ask the students. From his observations, he points out how students can be totally left out of the discussion for long periods of time, simply by the teacher not asking good questions. This shows how important the many different techniques of asking questions the right way impacts the whole classroom, so simply following good question techniques by Johnson, the question pioneer Mary Budd Rowe and others can get us on our way to become more aware of the correct way to ask questions.

The way a teacher asks questions hinges on his/her awareness that there is an abundance of techniques as far as asking questions is concerned. I learned a lot from the video Questioning Styles and Strategies, which discusses such excellent strategies like Think,Pair, Share in which students are not expecting to be singled out, but collaboratively arrive at answers to the questions they

are asked. Students' participation was phenomenal and I could tell it would be a technique I would use. I also liked the interpersonal questioning style, because each student is asked to write down, in a learning log, what their own response will be to the question. This gives each student something to write about the topical question in their own words, so they are all expecting to be called on. Other techniques like that one should be the "gold standard" for anyone calling themselves a teacher, because the knowledge, research and application of asking questions that collectively empower the students' creative minds should always be uppermost in an educator's mind.

Through my own research I found a great lecture video by Bill McComas, titled Asking Effective Questions, and even though it is over an hour long, it was worth every minute of watching it. In particular, for research purposes, the video helped me realize that the same techniques for asking substantive questions go by slightly different terminologies, but equate to the teacher caring about how he/she influences the education of his/her students. Learning that over 98% of questions appeal to the cognitive domain(versus the affective domain and psychomotor domain, see also Domains of Learning)of our senses gave me a basis to study in more detail what types of questions I should be asking my future students. Though off subject a little, I have included the video, Bloom's Taxonomy and the Cognitive Domain, because understanding what the cognitive domain is and why it has such great importance with asking the right questions will help you formulate a successful strategy for asking the right questions. I am now encouraged to view asking questions as a science, of sorts, which will lead me to more research and further understanding the value of effectively asking questions as a future teacher. After all, is it more important to ask the right questions, or more important to ask questions that fuel a young mind to be challenged by the questions we ask them? Whatever your answer will be is tantamount to the kind of teacher (or clarifying communicator) you want to be. I hope you choose well.



Sources: Kenneth Tobin, Whitney Museum of American Art, Abby Chan, Bill McComas, Ben Johnson, Stanford News Service.

Project #4 - Comments4Teachers - C4T #1

My first comment to Mr. Rice was for a post titled, “Make time for…Getting Socratic.” Oddly enough, it was about questions, which is what our blog assignment for this week is about. My comments apparently didn’t get approval from Mr. Rice, but the post his post was about his goals to ask questions the right way and how he was going to go about achieving that. He hadn’t come up with what types of questions he was going to ask at the time I commented, but he seemed very motivated to get started. Mr. Rice wanted to set such a goal because he realized how important asking questions the right way, with an engaging backbone, seemed to be the right way to get more intelligible responses from his students, as well as his peers. I commented on his insight that led him to reflect on how important asking the right questions are. I backed him in agreeing that asking good questions should be a cornerstone of good teaching. I also let him know how supportive I was of any teacher realizing that there was more to teaching than meets the eye, and that his realization had my support.

The second post I read of Mr. Rice’s was titled, “More time for one-on-one conversations.” I thought this was a great topic that would benefit me later as a teacher, since what got Mr. Rice to write the blog was that he had become a little complacent with involving his student’s in one-on-one communication. I can see how this could happen, since having so many students make it harder to have that kind of interaction with the students. I do realize that his concern was with what he was missing by not being one-on-one with his students more often. Both he and the students benefit from being able to ask questions and interchange ideas without everyone being involved at the same time. Having such a learning experience exceeded even his greatest expectations of what lesson would be learned, especially on a day that was wrought with some stress during educating and helping his class on a research paper. I commented to Mr. Rice that he stays with an education model in his blogs and that getting to know his students, as well as them getting to know him, is something nice to realize. I encouraged him to do more of that with his students, because they learn that they are all a team. I let him know that I was learning from his complacency and how easily it could happen, but that he had me to know more about classroom interactions with the students.

My overall takeaway from reading Mr. Rice’s blogs was that he is a reflective teacher who really wants to do his best to show the students, as well as his peers, that he cares about the profession he has chosen. It is always good to see teachers going above and beyond what is required of them. To me, that is at the heart of teaching and an important part of the passion that springs from the well of education.

Blog Post #3

I think that peer reviews are an important aspect of the writing process. It offers the writer an opportunity to gauge where their material can be improved, revised and corrected in order to improve their writing submissions. After reading Paige Ellis' blog assignment, I can see that it is critical to see a peer review as something positive. Sometimes this is not the case, but for the most part I have always taken peer reviews as a learning tool and it always benefited me in the end. It was very helpful when my critic really gave his/her critique in a manner like Paige writes on her

blog and in the slideshow, Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial. Nothing feels worse than thinking you wrote a great paper and a peer reviews it like they have no idea that you are human, too. There is always a positive way to relay how even the worse literary work can be improved upon, and from my experience, it is the most constructive and empowering way to go about reviewing a peers' writing. I always think of peer reviewing as an opportunity for me to learn through another's writing, and as educational tool for the reviewed peer to learn more about his/her own writing. It is a win win situation for everyone involved, but there has to be some level of honesty, which goes hand-in-hand when reviewing.

Like many of my peers, when I watched Writing a Peer Review Top Ten Mistakes, some of those less charming characters from school magically re-animated themselves in the video. What I know now is that they were being honest, but in a not too empathetic way, which made them more like the worst boss you ever had. In peer reviews, you can be just as honest, but in ways that complement(brings to perfection) the writer's work. It is important to read the writing carefully, then

see what you can compliment the writer on and point out the strong points in the writing. You can do this through suggestions that offer the writer a chance to come up with new ideas specific to his/her needs. When it comes to correcting spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentences, learning how to use proofreading symbols correctly gives the writer a specific tool to measure those areas in a dynamic way. This can "quietly" tell the writer what he/she needs to work on in that general area, versus being a "Loud Larry." For those of you who need a more grown-up version of Writing...Mistakes, I have linked a video, No One Writes Alone: Peer Review in the Classroom, A Guide For Students, that is excellent for you to go more in depth on peer reviews. Peer reviewing can be a lot of fun, but as long as it is honest and helps the writer mature, it makes him/her more confident and attentive to what they are writing. Social Sammy's, Mean Margaret's and all of their dysfunctional cousins come a dime a dozen, but a good peer reviewer is one in a million, and I'd rather be seen as a friend building up my buddy rather than tearing him/her down.



Sources: Belief Net, Rainbow Resource, MIT TV, and Tim Bedley.

Blog Post # 2

The central message of the video, Mr. Dancealot, is that to actively engage in learning, you have to participate and not just wait for everything to be a given. With this type of lecture class, you have to do your own research and be focused on new ways of learning. Professor Dancealot makes the case for my conclusion because he provides the student's with the assignment, lectures on it, but he doesn't provide any demonstrations or hands on practice, until at the end when he tests them and no one is prepared for it. If my premise for the video is what I have come to conclude, then I agree with the notion that if you set your expectations to think that the teacher will do all the work, then you won't be prepared if you don't investigate the kind of courses you are taking and what is expected of you to do well in it.

From what I understood about the video, Teaching in the 21st Century, Roberts thinks that teaching in the 21st Century is to get away from the old ideals of teaching and rethink the way that students need to be taught, so as to allow them to be up to date, technically literate, creative and think in collaborative terms. I think that Roberts is providing a great opportunity for us to realize how much the landscape has changed in the teaching field and what kinds of students are now being taught. Like Roberts, I believe that students should be engaging what they learn, because the old way of learning hardly ever afforded me that challenge, which would have made me a more astute student. As an educator, if Roberts is correct, then my whole way of thinking has to change and I have to dedicate tons of more time to fully understanding how to set up a classroom for students that will engage their eager minds and not sell them short by refusing to engage in a changing school environment myself. By providing "meaningful and powerful engagement"(Roberts) to our students, I feel confident that they will achieve much more in the classroom and throughout their lives.

In the video, The Networked Student, the most obvious point for future teachers is that you have to keep pace with the changing environment of the classroom and be prepared to never stop learning or you won't be able to teach at a competent level. Showing how one element of education can have so many different levels of gathering the information, such as Google Scholar, indicates how far and widespread information technology goes to achieve the most basic of tasks for students. I would never have thought that sharing information at such a level requires a thorough

knowledge of the networks that are in use today. Everybody is sharing everything in the digital ether now, and that is why I think the question, "Why does the networked student even need a teacher," points its way back at teachers being the real leaders in the classroom and that more is expected of them than ever before. The illustrations in the video of all the different leader character traits, such as Network Sherpa and modeler, both of which implies someone who leads through positive role model influence, and competent enough to astutely mold the students into strong engagers in the classroom. After all, it should be that a teacher is only as good as his/her best student, which simply means to teach with a passion in the hopes your students surpass even you. I have included a similar video, Connected Classroom by Kristin Hokanson, that expounds on the subject a little more, with the hope that the two together makes the point of teachers being innovative leaders as well as educators. It is a worldwide classroom and now is the time to get connected to that world.

Vicki Davis's thesis in Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts is to connect her students with other students around the world through classroom activities that allow teams of students and teachers to share their knowledge with one another. They are doing this through a connective media vein called Digiteen, which allows them to share comments about their research and writings with their peers on a global scale. This is the kind of thing that I want to learn more about, because thinking that I can link all of the great ideas of my future students with those of students around the world seems to me to lead some great innovations and "esprit de corps" among the nations.

It is obvious that Ms. Davis didn't just have an idea; she implemented it to such a degree that they have already traveled to other nations where they all collaborated on what the project offers. Edutopia is stocked with tools that I am going to be getting very familiar with, especially with the many media tools in their kit. This is The Networked Student after it eats a bag of sugar, in my opinion, because it shows what a teacher can truly do if given a real opportunity to lead his/her students.

I am surprised that I had never heard of flipping a classroom prior to watching the video, but after watching Flipping the Classroom, it seems like something that will catch on and a tool I could use in the classroom. What's so fascinating about it is that it really gives the student and teacher more time to engage, together, the activities that are presented. The research that Dr. Lodge did to arrive at this innovative step in the classroom would seem to work because it allows the student to get the information/assignment before bedtime, which will allow the conscious(before bedtime) and the subconscious(before, during and after bedtime) to have some real time to consider what is presented. The students mind would already be engaging the problem and working on solutions, so it would be great to get the collaborative insights from students and work on those during in-class time. If I knew the classroom could be used with such innovation, I would have started towards a degree in education much sooner. Nice to know we are pushing the envelope so hard.

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Sources: Flat Classroom, Space Flight Now, Video Reality, YouTube.

Blog Post # 1

My first introduction to EDM310 was when I was in the bookstore purchasing the textbook for the class. One of the employee's assisting me said, "Oh, that's a tough class," and I in-kind responded, "I enjoy classes like that because it means I'm going to learn something." One of my strongest philosophies in life is that if you want it; you have to work hard for it, so having the tip that it would be tough, I got familiar with the textbook. Of course, the textbook didn't make it clear what to expect, but later that day I checked my Google email and Dr. Strange had sent out his introductory email: the textbook made perfect sense after I read his email. I'm convinced that Dr. Strange and Marc Prensky (the author of Teaching Digital Natives) are in fact one and the same person, but if they are not, then their teaching philosophies are a great asset for the students of today and tomorrow.

The only fear I could ever have about EDM310 is that Dr. Strange and his assistants ever say, "Okay, today we are going to do everything for you, so pull out your notepad and pen to take notes for the test." In fact, this teaching style compliments what I have been doing in my former online classes, which meant that you had to be self-motivated, good at time management and required to do all of the research and assignments on time. EDM310 is no different to me and I require my courses to challenge me, so all of my worst fears have already been allayed because I've learned a lot already.

Although this will sound odd at first, I can easily compare and contrast EDM310 with my History of Astronomy(HA) college class. I had taken many classes before taking ISS, but none of them required me to become familiar with so many social media sites, such as Twitter, blogging(not as in depth as what I am now introduced to), building websites, writing book reviews and wire service/newspaper articles. Like EDM310, the idea was to get us technologically literate with what is happening in the real world. EDM310 seems to go more into the social media arena in a technologically instructional manner, and even though I had blogged before, this class made it look foreign to me. I know that taking EDM310 and having the knowledge from HA will be very useful as I pursue my teaching passion.

My difficulties won't actually be from EDM310, because I consider it such a wonderful benefit, but from trying to juggle all of the things in my life to make the most out of it. I am preparing to burn many lanterns of midnight oil, catch up on my sleep when I can, and apologize to my family that I have time for them, but not just a lot right now. Since I like working hard, working with others and making any sacrifice to achieve my goals, I welcome all the difficulty collectively as a motivator. Sorry, but I have this odd habit of staying positive no matter what the circumstances, thereby honestly answering question number 5 of this blog post.

I had many questions about EDM310 after my first class on Tuesday, but having did the necessary reading, research and practice, there is really not much for me to ask. For instance: Where do I find out more about HTML code? I googled(Are we allowed to use this word?) it and got a whole HTML reference guide. And so it went with any questions that I asked myself because I listened to Dr. Strange, the videos, the readings and the other references presented to me. I know this is going to be a technological buffet and I am ready to get stuffed with HTMLs, Youtube videos, tweets, skypes, projects and lots of blogs.





Sources: Jamie Lynn; Joseph Thornton.

Practice Blog Post

I grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and left after graduation for a long stint in the military, which led me to journey to many different states,as well as visiting Germany, England, France and the Philippines. I also lived in Hawaii for over three years and had the time of my life, with the exception of the horrible traffic jams. My major interests include education, martial arts(especially Goju Ryu Karate), learning and being associated with the armed forces. I also enjoy basketball, television sports, working out, tennis, playing pool and traveling. I've attended several colleges (receiving an associates degree in General Studies) and all the experience I gained led me to seek an elementary education degree from the University of South Alabama. I am here due me to leaving the military so that I can devote all of my time to pursuing my passion of teaching. The majority of my relatives are from Alabama, Mississippi and California. Being the only sibling in my family to complete high school and attend college has my family looking forward to me graduating.

I entered the field of education because I want to help educate our youth for a successful life which will allow them to meet the challenges of tomorrow with all the right skills they will need to be competitive and enthusiastic about learning. I've always had a passion for teaching because I have always loved learning new things and then share it with others. I've always chosen professions where I would have the opportunity to learn and later teach it to others, and almost always in a classroom setting. Now that I have the opportunity to truly make a difference by using my veteran's benefits, I am returning to college to study teaching at the elementary school level because it offers me the chance to teach eager young minds, with the hopes that my influence will help them throughout their lives. One of the things I do best is share my knowledge, time and resources with others, but I would love to get better at teaching so that I can realize my full potential it.

Sources: www.myfotopedia.com; www.blackbeltmagazine.com.

This is my second test post to get on the even keel with everyone.

My Test Post Title

I have created my blogspot and now I am sending my first blog! If I always click the HTML button I can't go wrong.