Blog Post 10

In the first video we watched we were tasked with answering a simple question. What can we learn from Mrs. Cassidy? In the video, " First Graders in Mrs. Cassidys Class." Students in Moose Jaw, Canada are very excited when they can write on their blogs. These students know that with posting on their blogs they are improving their reading and writing skills. As well as connecting with other people from around the world. These students know the fundamentals on commenting on others blog,   always leaving something positive and never negative. They also use Skype to video call with other kids from around the world. Having this amount of technology at this young age can improve problem solving skills and their ability to connect with others.

In Part 1, this video Mrs. Cassidy tells about her most important issue regarding the use of technology online. She is extremely careful when it comes to protecting her students while they are online. She never allows the use of last names and never pairs a picture with a name. She shares with us how she believes technology is a very useful tool for students when learning. Using technology can open so many doors to learning in different ways and also teaching in different ways. Mrs. Cassidy tells us specifically why she likes using blogs with her students. She says that she likes blogs because it allows her students to connect with people from around the world, as well as share their knowledge with people from outside of the classroom.

Mrs. Cassidy begins to tell us how far the development of technology has come. She says that all future educators should be technologically savvy, especially when it comes to something they are passionate about. Students who want to become teachers need to get out into the technological world. She suggest starting with twitter, allowing you to keep up to date with current events and stay in touch with people in our life. In Part 3, students from Dr. Stranges EDM310 class ask questions to Mrs. Cassidy. She answers so accurately because she can relate to almost every question. She uses her personal experience as an educator to help students that would like to become educators. She is very helpful when it comes to giving advice to future educators.


Skype Video Links:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

C4T #3

This week I was tasked with commenting on John Spencers blog. The post I chose to comment on was called, " 4 Options for Dealing With the Broken System." In the begging he talks about how he thinks the system is not necessarily broken but rather flawed. He explains how the excessive testing and lack of funding is never going to help anyone. Rather than just complaining about all of the things wrong with the public school system , he give valuable options on how to fix it. Here is what I said on my comment to Mr. Spencers blog post. 

Hello John Spencer, my name is Anthony Esposito. I am currently attending the University of South Alabama and am pursing a degree in physical education. In one of my classes we are tasked with commenting on different teachers blogs, this week I picked yours. Educational careers have been in my family for years, I have seen from the perspective of teachers, students and administrators. I have to agree with you when you say that you believe the public school system is flawed. It is without a doubt flawed, the important thing about it though is to come up with useful alternatives like you have. I agree mostly with the fourth option you proposed. To change the system from the inside. It is important not to " lose your head", when your speaking your mind or trying to make a change. I am glad that there are teachers out there that know there is a problem and are trying to fix it. I look forward to reading more of your posts!

C4K #5, C4K #6, C4K #7

C4K # 5

"Click Here by Denise Vega" is one of Megan L's newest blog posts. This particular post is about a book that she loves very much. She goes into great detail about the book " Click Here by Denise Vega". I have never read this particular book but in her post she explains what is happening quite well. I was also very impressed with Megan's grammar and spelling. She didn't have any errors in her blog post which was very nice. She gave this particular book a 5 out of 5 star rating. Because of this fact I have actually considered reading this book myself. I look forward to reading more of Megan's posts in the future.

C4K # 6

This week I had the privilege of reading Tamari's Blog Post from Mrs. Maslowski's class. This particular blog post was written during Black History Month. Each student was tasked with finding an African American influential writer. Then after doing research on this particular person, they had to write a post about them, their accomplishments and why they think they deserve to be recognized.
Tamari chose to write about Mrs. Maya Angelou. In her post she highlighted on a few of her greatest works, including " I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings", and also "Just Give Me A Cool Drink Of Water 'Fore I Die." Although I had heard of Mrs. Angelou, I had never really known what she has accomplished in her life. Along with several honors throughout her career she also attained two NAACP awards in the outstanding literary work category. I found Tamari's post to be very informative and educational. I look forward to reading more of her posts in the future.

C4K #7

This week I had to post to one of Mrs. Lombards' students in her 7th grade English class, that person was Lowery B. In Lowery's  post, the main topic was about a book that they were reading, " Don't You Wish". Lowery went into great detail about what the book was about and more importantly, even gave examples from the book for supportive evidence. Lowery gave a personal opinion of the book based on how she perciveved it. 
Hi Lowery B, my name is Anthony Esposito and I attend the University of South Alabama. In one of my classes, EDM 310, we are tasked with commenting on other students blogs from around the world. This week I happened to have yours. I really liked how into detail you went with your post about ” Don’t You Wish”. I have never read this book but just from reading you blog post I feel like I would enjoy it. I look forward to reading more of your posts in the future. Keep it up!

Project 9

C4K #6

This week I had the privilege of reading Tamari's Blog Post from Mrs. Maslowski's class. This particular blog post was written during Black History Month. Each student was tasked with finding an African American influential writer. Then after doing research on this particular person, they had to write a post about them, their accomplishments and why they think they deserve to be recognized.
Tamari chose to write about Mrs. Maya Angelou. In her post she highlighted on a few of her greatest works, including " I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings", and also "Just Give Me A Cool Drink Of Water 'Fore I Die." Although I had heard of Mrs. Angelou, I had never really known what she has accomplished in her life. Along with several honors throughout her career she also attained two NAACP awards in the outstanding literary work category. I found Tamari's post to be very informative and educational. I look forward to reading more of her posts in the future.

Blog Post 9

What can Teachers and Students teach us about Project Based Learning?

According to John Larmer and John Mergendoller, from the article Seven Essentials For Project Based Learning. They go into depth about what they think are the key necessities for developing a good project.

1. A Need To Know
2. A Driving Question
3. Student Voice & Choice
4. 21st Century Skills
5. Inquiry and Innovation
6. Feedback and Division
7. A Publicly Presented Project

Within these seven essentials there is always one constant, you must get the kids to actually care about what you are trying to teach them. Each of these different tactics are all made to try and get the most performance out of the students as possible. Many students don't believe that they should pay attention because they don't see a reason they would ever need this knowledge later in life. Or maybe they genuinely do not care about receiving a good grade in the class. This is why Project Based Learning is such a good idea. It provides a challenge to the students that they would actually enjoy to accomplish. Creating a fun educational environment, to me, is the best way to really get students to learn.

In Tony Vincent's video, Project Based Learning is mainly the answering of a driving question. The question is something that will really get the students thinking. Then the students will create an end product to share with others. According to Tony Vincent, Project Based Learning teaches students valuable life long skills such as...

• Communication Skills
• Collaboration Skills
• Career and Life Skills
• Critical Thinking Skills

I have to agree with Tony Vincent when he said, " Maybe Einstein said it best." Einstein stated that, " I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn."

Project-Based Learning and Physical Education was probably the most informative article I read, simply because I am currently on my way to becoming a PE Teacher/Coach myself. I never thought PBL could be used in PE until I read this article. The example they gave was brilliant. It required the students to get into groups and each create a different physical activity for the younger grades. They would have to perform their activity and present their reasoning behind it to a panel. While performing in front of each other they would be getting feedback from other groups.  The payoff of using PBL's in physical education is student engagement! Which in that particular course, is the most important. " You must give up power to empower your students; empower them in physical education.

In the final video I watched, What Motivates Students. Each student is asked what motivates them. Each student had great answers for this question, here are some of their answers..

• When congratulated and given positive feedback, whether from the teacher or other students.
• Everyone wants to be proud of what they have done. It is our jobs as educators to ensure that we make our students feel this way and to remind them that if they try hard enough they can accomplish almost anything.
• Career and financial stability later in life.
• No one wants to worry about how safe their job is, or if they will have enough money to make ends meet this month. With a good education, you are basically ensuring that you have many choices and different chances in case something doesn't work out for you.
• To attain a specific profession.
• Most people know at sometime in their life what they want to be as an adult. A good education and college degree can certainly help with getting almost any profession. 
• Fear of punishment or being banned from certain activities.
• All kids life to have fun. Parents know this and a good technique to ensure your kids do well in school in simply fear from being grounded or not allowed to watch T.V.

I can remember my biggest motivator growing up. My older sisters were always so smart and I always wanted to be better than they were. That and a fear of having to miss after school sports.

Positive rewards are also a very good technique to help your kids help themselves. 

Blog Post 8

Dr. Randy Pausch was one of the most influential and motivational people in the educational field. Among being an astound educator he also developed many courses that he thought would help get the most out of hist students. One of his most famous ones is, " Building Virtual Worlds". He created this project based learning course with the help of scientists and designers, all to benefit his students. You can see how much he cared about educating the younger generations. In his Last Lecture, Dr. Pausch talks about key points in his life that he feels made him who is was. His main message was to follow your dreams and never give up. Dr. Pausch taught me many things in his last lecture, here are a few.

• Never give up on your dreams, you never know how much time you have!!
• To give your students the best education possible you must make it FUN!
• Remember that your not the only teacher in the room and your students are not the only ones learning.

C4K #5

"Click Here by Denise Vega" is one of Megan L's newest blog posts. This particular post is about a book that she loves very much. She goes into great detail about the book " Click Here by Denise Vega". I have never read this particular book but in her post she explains what is happening quite well. I was also very impressed with Megan's grammar and spelling. She didn't have any errors in her blog post which was very nice. She gave this particular book a 5 out of 5 star rating. Because of this fact I have actually considered reading this book myself. I look forward to reading more of Megan's posts in the future.

C4K #1-4

C4K #1
After viewing Megan L's personal blog, from Mr. Boylens 7th Grade Lit. class I was very impressed with what I saw. In her post she created a short slideshow about a book that her class had read recently. It was called "Odette's Secrets." From her presentation I could tell that she enjoyed this book and really put time into her project. She included key quotes and examples of everything that she talked about. She included numerous eye catching clip arts and very intriguing fonts to keep the viewers attention.
In my comment I stated how amazing she had done on this presentation and how impressing it was. Just from watching it I felt like I had read the book myself. With only a few minor grammatical errors her presentation was excellent and very enjoyable to watch. I hope that I can view more like hers in the future.

C4k #2

In Samson B's most recent post from Mr. Boylen's 8th grade class he put up a video about a common trick shot basketball group called Dude Perfect. He simply posted the video to his blog with a brief description of the video.

In my comment I simply stated how much I enjoyed the video and how I would never have seen it unless I was on his blog. So thank you Samson for introducing something very interesting to me, that I will from now on look for myself.

C4k #3

Today I commented on a kids blog from Mrs. Hartmans 4th grade class. In Dakodas most recent post she talks about the book that they are currently reading in class. The book that they are reading right now is called MazeRunner. In this students blog post she says how she can relate to one of the characters in the book. Which to me, is something that shows how much this book is influencing this student.

In my comment I simply stated how I have never read the book. I have seen the movie though, so I do know what is going on. I also stated how I could also relate to the movie as well as the book. I was very impressed with how well the student executed this post about this particular book. With only a few minor grammar and spelling errors this post was very good and very interesting.

C4K #4

This week I was tasked with commenting on Jons blog from Mrs. Maslowskis' class. Although since he did not appear to have any posts I looked around and found another student I could comment on. Joses latest post was about Tupac Shakur, he wrote how he is one of his favorite rappers and why he is so good to him. He believed that rappers should incorporate more of their real life into their music.

In my comment I told him how much I like Tupac Shakur, even though I don't particularly like rap music. To me his music his more than just words and sounds. His music tells a story and it was personal to his own life most of the time. I told Jose that now a days rappers aren't writing like they used to. They are beginning to move away from telling stories with their music and that is why I don't listen as much as I used to.