C4K #2

1. For my first C4K, Briana posted some questions and answers her teacher asked about a book they are reading. She did post the questions and answers so it made it much easier for the reader to understand. She gave great descriptions in her post that made me imagine a character’s voice in my head. I think this is important for blogging, because it shows the educational use and assessment use of blogging. Most blogs I have read by students have been about a topic the students have been given or just free writes. To see Briana’s blog being used to post questions and answers online made me think about how I could do this in my future classroom for assessing students, instead of using tests.

"I like how you included the questions your teacher asked in your post. It makes it much easier for the reader to understand where your comments are coming from. I really liked your comments that you included, but I would have like to have heard some more from you. I liked hearing how you thought Melody's voice sounds. Your description made me imagine her voice in my head."

2. Amily discusses about how her hero is her mom. I thought this was very sweet, and told her that I am sure her mom would be so proud to see her blog. I think this is one great thing about blogging. We get to share our ideas and make connections on how we feel. I connected with her love for mom with the love of mine. I was so happy to get to read her post, because It helps me realize the connections we can make in blogging.

"I think it is really great that you see your mom as your hero. I am sure your mom would love to see your blog and how you think she is your hero. I also love my mom very much."

3. Isabella wrote about her hobbies such as ballet and her interest in dissecting animals. This is something I was not fond of, but something that interested me as a reader so I commented back by saying:

"I am glad to see how much you enjoy science and dissecting animals. I get sick dissecting animals, and science is a very hard subject for me. I also really enjoyed reading your post, because you used many details on your potato lab. That seems interesting! I would also love to grow a large sunflower. Thank you for your post."

After posting my comment, I got a reply from Isabella not to long ago, and I commented back to hers. She asked me about college and why dissecting animals makes me sick. She also said how excited she was that I had commented on her blog, and how she never thought someone would be interested in the blog. For this conversation me and Isabella are having, I am so glad we have these C4K assignments. I am so proud to be able to give Isabella more confidence in blogging.

4. My last four C4K assignment was from Megan, and her post was about the Cardinals in baseball. Although I am not a big fan of baseball, she gave me so many interesting facts to read that I became quite interested in her post. She listed different facts such as the year the baseball was made and some people who are in the hall of fame. I really enjoyed reading her post, mainly because it gave me some great insight and opinion on a subject I did not know much about. Her post helped me realized that you can learn new things just from reading blogs and that it is important to read blogs because you may find new information on something that could make you change your mind about things you may not like.

"I love your post mainly because it taught me many things about baseball! I am not a big fan about baseball, but you gave me so many interesting facts that I could be interested in watching the Cardinals now! Thank you for your post, and sharing your facts. Knowing your facts about Mr. Melina makes me think that the Cardinals might win the World Series!"

Lesson Plan Two

What Will They Think?



In the What Will They Think? project, students use their understanding of graphing to make predictions, based on a small set of responses, about how a larger group of people will answer questions about ideas for new food products. The class conducts a survey of themselves, then larger groups of their peers. Based on analysis of the data, students compare the effectiveness of their predictions made by educated guessing, hand-drawn graphs, and computer-generated graphs. In the final step, students write a report summarizing their analysis, write a letter to a food-product company explaining their ideas and findings, and make a presentation to an audience.

Please feel free to check out my lesson plan on my Google Site!

Blog Post Ten

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning?

In Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture, he discusses his story about how he became successful and achieved his dreams. He discusses many key points that I could learn from about teaching and learning, but there were a few points that really stood out to me such as the importance of dedication and self reflection.

Dedication
My favorite point he made about dedication was about the brickwalls. He says that when things get you down “brick walls” are there, and they are there to let us prove how bad we want things. I think this holds true to both learning and teaching. The key to learning is making mistakes! Sometimes we may not want to climb those brickwalls, but in order to be true learners, we climb those brick walls to show our dedication and determination. He says brick walls stop people who do not want it bad enough, and I think that is very true! As a teacher, it is important for us to help our students get past these brick walls with constant encouragement and support. We must be dedicated to pushing our students, because if they mess up and we are not there to guide them, then that it shows that we, as teachers, gave up on helping them. Teachers and students must “never bail, because the best gold is at the bottom of the barrel of crap.” I found this very influencing and so very true. If we do not complain and just work harder, then when we get to the finish line, the rewards are so much sweeter!

Self-Reflection
One main key Dr. Pausch discusses about is the importance of self-reflection. You self reflect in numerous ways such as through peer feedback, an audience, and the way you treat the people who help you. It is always important to have critics! He used peer feedback to show students how they ranked against their peers. For learning, this is great for self reflection because you get a chance to think about how can you improve your process or how you treat others. The one thing as learners and teachers that we must realize is that must listen to this feedback. We have to open our ears, and listen to what others have to say, because feedback is the most valuable tool for learning or teaching. One thing that is also important for self-reflection is having an audience. In Dr. Pausch’s video, he talks about how the students displayed all their work in a show. For teaching, we should always incorporate an audience for our students whether it be their peers, the school, or a public audience. Having an audience gives the students a want to make their work exceptional, because they are showing it to other people. As for self reflection and learning, this is important because it gives you the chance to look at your work and make sure it is acceptable to show to a general public.

A few additional things about learning and teaching that I learned from Dr. Pausch is that it is important to have a PLN. His whole success story is based on the people he got to know. What is also important for learning and teaching is how you say things. There are always good and bad ways to say things, and it is important for anyone to watch the way they say things. It is also important for teaching to not set specific goals. By this he meant, that we must say that what they are doing is good, but they can always do better. By not setting a limitation, we are expanding what the students can do. Also for teaching, you have to make it fun while they are learning something hard. This is great for learning, because how much more do you learn when the project is fun versus when it is boring? One last key thing I learned about learning and teaching is that you must roll with the punches. Dr. Pausch says you will get arrows in your back, and sometimes anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Blog Post Nine

Back To The Future

After watching Back To The Future, we were really impressed with Brian Crosby, and all the wonderful ways he enhanced his classroom. Mr. Brian Crosby is a Fourth Grade Elementary teacher at Agnes Risley Elementary School in Sparks, Nevada. In Mr. Crosby's classroom, there is tons of participation going on. Instead of sitting around listening to Mr. Crosby lecture, his class is up doing activities and projects. We learned from this video that participation plays a big role in students’ learning. The video shows that allowing students to participate in activities and projects keeps them more interested in learning versus sitting and listening to a lecture. We also learned a lot about different key elements to a more technology-based, productive classroom that would help with the student’s learning process. Every student in Mr. Crosby’s classroom has access to a computer at their desk. Also, instead of using a quiz or test to check understanding, Mr. Crosby has each student create a blog and post everything they have learned. Their blogs also contain pictures and videos that the students took themselves. We learned that his process is a excellent way to help students connect with others, improve their writing and reading skills, and improve their overall learning process.

The way Mr. Crosby teaches his class is completely outstanding. We learned from this video that it is better for the class to be actively learning, because this shows them that learning doesn't have to be boring. Having students get excited about learning is what we believe all teachers would want. Mr. Crosby’s students learn how to maintain blogs, put videos and pictures on their blogs, video chat with other students from around the world, and much more. All the projects that Mr. Crosby does in his classroom help connect, collaborate, and motivate his students. It is wonderful that his class is ready and eager to learn, and we hope that we can become teachers like Mr. Crosby.


Blended Learning Cycle

We learned many things about teaching and learning from this video. One of the main things we learned is that it is important to try new things. In this video, Paul Anderson, who is a high school AP Biology teacher in Bozeman, Montana discusses blended learning and how he uses it in his classroom. Blended learning is almost a mixture of instructional based learning with project based learning. For example, one thing we learned about and we really liked was that instead of lecturing to introduce a topic, Mr. Anderson gives his students a video to watch of him discussing the topic. This way he can spend more class time doing other things such as projects. We found this really useful for teaching.

As for learning, we saw many different useful points from Mr. Anderson. One thing he discusses is how students have to be hooked into learning, so our driving question as the teacher must be something they want to respond to- something to spark their interest. Also, he discusses how he used shared spreadsheets so his students could enter in their own data and see the results. This helps the students see their responses and how their engagement creates results. This makes it much easier for the student, because instead of looking at a chart, they are a part of the chart. We would love to use this in our classroom, even to see percentages of how much students like a project or assignment or not. Mr. Anderson uses a quiz just for students to assess themselves, and they get multiple tries to take the quiz. We do like the idea of a quiz just for their self assessment, but we would rather use Mr. Crosby’s ideas of blogging to check understanding.

Making Thinking Visible

Mark Church is a sixth grade teacher at the International School of Amsterdam. In the video, he shows the class a video, then divides students into small groups to discuss their ideas and opinions. Each group is then given a big sheet of paper and instructed to come up with a headline that encompasses what they are learning about.

This is a great example of project based learning in action. We really liked the way Church showed the students a video, then let them discuss their ideas in small groups. The students are so much more engaged and involved than they would be if they were sitting through a lecture. Having them come up with a headline encourages both creativity and critical thinking, which are staples of the project based learning method.

We were impressed by the ideas these students were coming up with! Church displays the headlines on bulletin boards, then at the end of the unit the class revisits the assignment to see whether or not their thinking about the topic has changed. This is a great way to show students that thoughts, perspectives and ideas are always changing and evolving. To us, that’s what the learning process is all about.

Project Nine: Podcast

C4T Assignment Two

For my second C4T assignment, I was assigned to Heidi Siwak, an innovative teacher of technology in Canada. She is an award winning teacher and has been recognized by the globe and mail as one of Canada’s innovative teachers. Her students and her explore integrative and new learning projects, and have won national awards for innovation in technology. Overall, Heidi is a very great role model for teachers trying to apply project based learning in their classroom.

Art as Inquiry: Lessons in Persistence

For my first post to comment on, Mrs. Siwak discusses her experience with teaching art to her sixth grade students. She discusses how she has taught art before, but it has been a while since she has had to. On her first day with her sixth grade students, she starts with a discussion-How do you feel about art as a subject? I would have never thought about starting with this question, but it is such a wonderful idea. After asking this question and hearing some responses, she can get past the barriers and negative attitudes that some students may have towards art. She then talks about how the students responded. Some do like art, but more found art frustrating. When told, “tell me more,” many students figured out that the reason they get frustrated with art is because they start with an idea in their head of what their art should look like. Then, when their art does not meet that set expectation, they end up with those feelings of frustration. Siwak continued to surprise me while reading the post. The students start their art process with learning types of lines, and another discussion-“What is it that causes art to look bad? The students then come up with three key components as to how to produce quality pieces of art.

1. Focus
2. Reduced Speed
3. Persistence

The students then made line designs of their names, and were very proud that with the commitment to these three components, their work was of much better quality. They then started to learn about how artists lines. The next thing that I found extremely useful for an art class was that Mrs. Siwak says instead of them producing art, she asks them to “experiment.” This to me is great, because this takes the pressure of the student that they have to meet someone else’s expectation of quality art. Instead, they get to really enjoy drawing.

Here is an excerpt from my comment:
"I really enjoyed reading your post, because I love art and know how many students get frustrated with it. It was a great idea to change the concept of "creating a piece of art" to "experimenting." This takes pressure and stress off the student. I really enjoyed how through active learning, the students were able to figure out what it is that causes art to look bad. Persistence, slowing down, and focus are a key to doing almost anything 100%."

Communication, Communication, Yes ... and!

For my second post to comment on, Mrs. Siwak discusses how she broke down the processes of communication for students that she feels does not come naturally for most students. Most students shy away from true communication and collaboration. She discusses how hard it is for students to fully participate in integrative thinking, because the students have to learn how to be comfortable with hearing their own thoughts as well as others. She then talks about her results in watching the students collaborate. As students become more comfortable, the student’s body chemistry becomes more open and relaxed. Even if they feel uncomfortable, using this confident body chemistry will help them feel more confident. This is very useful information, because of how many students are uncomfortable with collaborating. She also discusses with her students a "yes, and..." idea, instead of a "yes, but..." By doing this, they can accept their own ideas and be positive for others ideas. Her ideas in the classroom are great lessons for upcoming teachers.

Here is an excerpt from my comment:
"I have seen adults who still lack in communication skills with others. I found it really interesting how your students, after working in groups and engaging in conversation, changed their body chemistry. I loved how you said, "I shared the research about body chemistry and how standing in a more confident position causes reactions within their bodies that allows them feel more confident." What a useful piece of information for your students! Also, I have never though about the "yes...and" instead of "yes..but." This really changes the ideas of students and their interaction. They do not have to disagree with anyone this way. For most students, disagreeing is intimidating, which enables them to speak less."

Blog Post Eight

Studyladder - Kayla Christie



Why I chose StudyLadder:

1.Made for teachers by teachers!
It is much easier to look through a website if the person who made the website complete understands what you are looking for as an educator. Studyladder was made by teachers not only to help other teachers, but to help students, parents, and homeschoolers with teaching and learning resources. As a teacher, you just add your students and can assign certain activities for them to do.

2. Common Core State Standards
There will be no more searching! With Studyladder, you do not have to try to figure out what activity would go with what standard. As a teacher, you can search the activities by the standards, thus making our search process for activities so much simpler.

3. Subject Content and Resources
Some tools may not have all the subjects you might need, but Studyladder has over ten subjects including math, literacy, safety, language, and health, just to name a few. In Studyladder, the students and you receive access to THOUSANDS of teaching resources. These activities include whiteboard activities, interactive activities, video tutorials, printable sheets and booklets, auto marked assessments with reporting, and printable certificates.

4. Made for Student’s Interest
Other sites may have some boring worksheets you can print or a boring thirty minute quiz you can take, but Studyladder goes completely against this. Each activity is made to hold the student’s interest. They are all short, usually ten question activities that are bursting with color and interaction. Also, most students would not just want to go on some website to do any sort of assignment, so Studyladder has a virtual rewards system that include the students being able to create their own avatar, pet, and room. Keeping the website engaging and something the students want to come back to, makes this site perfect for students.

Oh, and did I mention it is FREE to schools!

How would I use Studyladder? How does it benefit me?

Since I am becoming a secondary math teacher, and this site is mainly used for kindergarten through sixth grade, I would probably only be able to use this site for introducing basic concepts for each chapter. I would use Studyladder to help refresh the students’ minds by using some activities from the site. I would divide the students into groups of 5 or 6, and let each group write down the problem, the process to answer the problem, and the answer. Together, they would decide how to correctly work the problem, and I would tell them I am going to pick one person from one group at random to explain the answer. From using Studyladder I expect great benefits, because to me, it is much harder to get student’s engaged in math. Many students shy away from math, because they think it is too hard. With this site, I get the benefit of having my students actively engage in math activities. In addition, I get the benefit of my students understanding more, because I am not standing in front of the board showing them how to do math. They are the active participants of the learning process I have facilitated.

If you would like to learn more about Studyladder, please check out the Studyladder Website or the Studyladder Twitter Page for additional links and resources to use in your teaching.


Animoto - Chelsea Hadley

I decided to choose a tool named Animoto. Animoto is a site where you can upload pictures or videos and create your own video slideshow. You can pick your own music, style, and text. There are about 50 different styles and you can also share the video and create the videos from a phone. This tool is really cool to me because it will allow students to express their own personality and creativity. To start making a video slideshow the first thing you do is decide which pictures or videos you would like to have in your video slideshow. When deciding which pictures you would like you can choose from your computer library, upload pictures, and even use pictures from other sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo and many more. I think it is really neat that Animoto has this feature because these days everybody loads their pictures to Facebook and all the other sites. After deciding your pictures you will next create your style. While creating your style there is many background and themes to choose from. You also can choose your own music and add text to your video slideshow.After finishing your text, It is time to share your video. You also have many sites you can share your video with like Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, and many more. I think it is very important that students express their hobbies and interests so that we know who they are and this site does just that. I think this would be a great project at the beginning of the year for students to introduce themselves to their classmates and teacher.

Voki - Anna Kern

Voki is a fun and interactive way to use technology in the classroom. Students create customizable avatars(or 'Vokis'), then share by e-mail or post them to any blog or website. Vokis are engaging and completely customizable. Students personalize their avatars in multiple ways: Select a character, change the style or clothing of the Voki, personalize it's background, and finally, students add their own voice or use text-to-speech. Using Voki in the classroom is a great way to encourage creativity through technology.

There are numerous lesson plans and resources for teachers to browse on the Voki website. Several revolve around the students writing reports then using text-to-speech with their Vokis, so the Voki reads the report or paper out loud. Another idea I found on Voki is for teachers to instruct students to create 'Voki Ambassadors' to present information they have learned about topics like Earth Day or health and nutrition. The possibilities are limitless.

This is my EDM 310 Voki!
MeeGenius! is a site dedicated to children's books that are digital and narrated. Some books are free, most cost about three dollars. I love this site because it is user-friendly and allows teachers and students to read books anytime, anywhere. As the book is narrated, each word is highlighted so the students can see and hear the words being read. This is great to engage students and help struggling readers.

Using MeeGenius! and Voki together, students can read a book as a class on the Smartboard, then use Vokis to reflect on the characters or present information they have learned. These are great resources for elementary school students, because they allow students to use their imaginations and express themselves.

Project Two

What is a PLN or Personal Learning Network?

A PLN is a connection that we, educators, make that goes past the four walls of our school. It is a way of asking questions globally through social networks and through the web. As Dr. Strange said, "your PLN is the set of PEOPLE and TOOLS that you can call upon for help, consultation, collaboration, or other assistance." We can make these connections through the use of different online tools such as Symbaloo or Twitter.

Who/What is in My PLN or Personal Learning Network?

My method for organizing my PLN is Symbaloo.

In Symbaloo, I have arranged different websites and connections that I can easily access all on one page. My main tool of use for creating a PLN is Twitter. Through twitter, I have established connections with other educators, schools, and pages of my educational interest.

Some of the people in my PLN:
Tom Vander Ark
Kathy Cassidy
Chalkup
Leonardo Effect
To see more, you can visit my following list on Twitter!
Kayla Christie's Twitter

My Reflection: Before this class, I would have never thought about a PLN. It may have crossed my mind a time or two, but I never engaged in extending a learning network for myself, as an educator. I have had Twitter and Facebook before, for personal use, and now it makes much sense to me why creating a PLN is so important. It is just as important as having these social media websites for personal use. They keep us updated and connected. We can ask strangers questions and receive meaningful feedback beyond our city or even state. I am really glad that I have now been introduced to the concept of PLN, and I am also glad for all of the resources that I have found because of my PLN!

Project Thirteen

Lesson Plan #1, "Don’t Judge a Book By It’s Cover!" Created by Group O'Keeffe for Project #13

In this lesson plan, third grade students evaluate book covers. It covers five days, each consisting of a forty-minute class session. As students look at different book covers, they are asked to analyze what should be included on the cover, what should be left out, and decide why. Students demonstrate, in this project, that they can comprehend and understand a book. After studying and discussing several book covers, students recreate a cover from a book they have already read. Enjoy!

Lesson Plan Overview
Lesson Plan Calender
Book Cover Rubric

Feel free to check out our Lesson Plan Website!

Blog Post Seven

#1 Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher -- Group O’Keeffe

What we found that helped us learn the true concept of project-based learning was one of Anthony Capp’s first opening statements. In this statement, he said that projects are something we normally think of being at the end of the lesson as a way to show that the children learned what we taught. In project-based learning, projects are the direct method of teaching. In one example by Anthony Capps, students sent letters to congressman about women in combat and used iCurio, a filtered, educational search engine, to show past historic figures who were minorities and were allowed to serve in combat. The students all made opinions on why or why not they agreed and were able to apply their content found from iCurio in a letter. The students picked 8 out of 28 letters from the class to send to the congressman. From this example, we learned about two of the most crucial things in project-based learning, which are students having an authentic audience and the project being in the student’s interest, such as the community. In addition, the project must be based on the state standards, which tell us what the children are supposed to learn. One of the greatest things that we learned about project-based learning is that it is crucial for students to be able to critique each other’s work as well as reflect on their own work. In non-project-based learning classes, students are graded on mistakes. If you make ten errors, you make a 90. From this type of learning, students are continuously taught that mistakes are bad! In project-based learning, the student is allowed to make mistakes, in order to reflect from them, correct their work, and use that knowledge in the future.

#2 #2 Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher -- Group O’Keeffe

One main thing we learned from this video of Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange discussing project-based learning is that not everything will go well. We make mistakes, and nothing will always go as planned. We also learned that project based learning promotes student choice. For example, Anthony Capp’s students are asked to explain child life as an Afghanistan child. Some student’s talk about poverty, some talk about food, and others may discuss other subjects. The students are creating an opportunity to go beyond what we want them to do. We learned that project-based learning takes a lot of planning and work as a teacher for it to be successful. The project may not be successful for our end result, but is successful for the students as for their learning. We are always learning about how we can improve and can receive meaningful feedback as educators. We also learned that the students, parents, and administrators are supportive of project based learning, because as Anthony Capps says, “they know when students are engaged, they are learning”. The students are more prideful for their work, because they are very engaged into it. The parents/administrators get to see these students retain all of this knowledge and apply it to real life situations. Overall, we learned that project-based learning is a great and more effective method of teaching compared to other “burp-back” ways of teaching.

#3 iCurio – Group O’Keeffe

From this video, we learned that there are many different uses for iCurio and ways we can use it effectively in our future classrooms. One way we can use it is for a filtered search engine. Icurio’s information has been pulled and collected along state standards. Also, iCurio can be used as storage capacity for students. This storage capacity is used much like the bookmark tool on our computers. Students no longer have to worry about forgetting their flash drives at home. They are able to log into iCurio and save any information found. As educators, we can use this for projects and class use. If we have a resource we share in class, we can save it to iCurio for our students to look back at just in case they are absent or want to check it out further. For projects, the students can use the educational information provided and use it during and after school. There are no more cancelled assignments because of fire drills! We can save our assignments online for our students to access at home. Icurio gives both the student and us, educators, practice to get organized online. We can save all the information we use in class and continue projects to extend past the classroom while knowing that our students are web searching safely. The most important thing we learned about iCurio is that it is useful for any grade and any subject.

For additional information on iCurio, please check out Kayla Christie’s Blog Post Five.

#4 Discovery Education -- Group O’Keeffe

What we learned from this video is that Discovery Ed is more than just text from a website. It gives the students illustrations and video to go along with the text. Discovery Ed enriches the student’s research experience as well as gives them a way to make what they are learning stick. We all know it is much harder to learn about something if you are just reading about it or if you just see one picture of it in your textbook. This allows children to go past that and truly understand what they are learning in class. We learned of one example that we could use. This is example is that we could be learning about plants in science and so we could assign student’s different plants. Discovery Ed would make ways for these students to extensively learn about each of these plants through videos and pictures. In addition, Discovery Ed is a great way to allow the students to be effective users of technology. We say this, because now, in this generation, we are not relying on our textbook for information. By using this online tool, we are assisting our student’s in progressive 21st century technology and allowing them to effectively broaden their online educational resources.

#5 The Anthony-The Strange List of Tips for Teachers Part 1 -- Kayla Christie

Through the Skype video between Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange, future educators such as myself get to learn many different useful tips for our future classrooms. The first thing I learned by watching the video is that as an educator, we are constantly learning. Our whole life revolves around school, and we end up modeling this behavior for our students. Some people may think that revolving your life around work is a bad thing, but it is just the opposite. For example, I have not even started to teach yet, and I pin future projects that I could use in the classroom off of Pinterest. It is just something we love. As an educator, we are constantly on our toes, and by that, I mean that we have to prepared for anything. You never know what is going to happen that could cause your plans to go completely haywire. Also, reflection is the key to teaching! We are constantly trying to improve all parts of our teaching including our lesson plans and the end product we hope to see from our students. In education, we are consistently thinking ahead, and this changes the way we see our work. It is no longer a job; it is a lifestyle.



#6 Use Technology Don't Teach It! -- Anna Kern

This video is a discussion about technology in the classroom between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, a former EDM 310 student and a 3rd grade teacher in Baldwin County.

Anthony talks about effectively teaching technology in the classroom. Which means to not teach it at all! Instead, Capps suggests teachers use technology. Technology is not something that should be on a teacher's to do list; it should be smartly introduced to students by using it. For example, have students create a book report using iMovie or research using iCurio. Introducing one technological tool at a time is key. This ensures students have the time to ask questions as they become familiar with and eventually master the tools. Time at the end of the week or lesson for students to reflect and ask questions is also important. As students become comfortable with the skills they've learned, new technological tools can be introduced.

Using technology gets kids excited and allows them to share their work. These are real tools, and learning how to use them effectively is a skill that students will use throughout their lives.

#7 Additional Thought about Lessons -- Chelsea Hadley

In this video, Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps have a Skype session and talk about how a teacher should plan their year with the standards and other things that need to be done through the year. This video gave me a really good understanding how to do lesson plans. Anthony says that there are 4 layers to a lesson plan. The first layer is the year. Anthony says that you should have a lesson plan and make sure that it covers all of the yearly standards and content that needs to be taught. The second layer is the Unit. Unit means the unit of teaching, and the length and time chosen. Units are usually 6-8 weeks long but within that will be a daily and weekly plan. The third layer is the Week. The weekly plan is about setting a goal and completing it by the end of the week. The last layer is the Daily lesson. Daily plan is what you want to have accomplished that day. These four components make up one well written and successful lesson plan.

C4K Summary

My first and most favorite C4K assignment was from BooBoo in Mrs. Martin’s 4th block English class. In this blog, the students were asked to state a belief of theirs and include a personal story of how they came to this belief. In Booboo’s “This I believe” post, she discusses that her belief is to “live like you were dying.” By this, she meant that no one is promised tomorrow, and we should every day as if it was our last. I fully agreed with her on this. She explains her story that is about her father and grandmother. Her father and grandmother were in a car accident and were stuck in the car as it was on fire. Her grandmother proceeded to wrap a shirt around her fist and bust a window open in order to escape. She says if not for her grandmother’s courage, she would not be alive now. After this story, If I would have not believed in living every day to the fullest, I do now! Booboo gave great details on her personal story, and I would recommend anyone to read it. This story really touched my heart, and I think it is a great story to share in public in order to express her belief.

My second C4K assignment was from Amarah in Mrs. Lieschke's Class. In her post “Holidays,” he wrote about her favorite part of the holidays. Amarah’s favorite part of the holidays is relaxing. She had one thing that upsets her about the holidays though, and it was that her parents still make her go to bed early, even though she is not in school. I agreed with her that the best part of the holidays is relaxing. I included my favorite way of relaxing is by being with my family. I also gave her some advice that it is a great thing for her parents to want her to go to bed early still, because being well rested makes you a happier you for the next day. It was quite easy to relate to Amarah’s post, and it was easy to understand.

My third C4K assignment was to Rowana in Mrs. Lavakula’s class at Pt England School in New Zealand. This post was the most fun for me, because I am commenting on a girl’s post from New Zealand all the way from Alabama. In Rowana’s post “My Weekend,” she talks about celebrating father’s day with her family. I found it awesome that Rowana and I have so many similarities on how we celebrate Father’s Day. She talks about how she wrote a letter for her dad and grandfather and how they both responded to her letters. She also talks about her night after giving them the letters and her nightly routine of showering and eating. When commenting back, I told Rowana how similar our Father’s Days were. I also told her about my favorite part of her post was when she wrote the letter to her dad, and it said, “You will always be in my heart.”

My fourth C4K assignment was in response to Angel from Mr.Rhodus’s sixth grade class. The sixth grade class posts about questions that we typically do not think about such as “do birds get shocked when they sit on wires?” The question Angel answered was, “how much does the sky weigh?” She talks about how the sky does not crush us because of how we breathe. She said that because we breathe in air and out, the sky does not overwhelm us. I thought that was interesting, because I would have never even thought about how much the sky weighs. I told her how intriguing I thought the subject was and how she really got the reader’s attention.

My reflection: C4K #2 and C4K #3 were the most easy to relate to. C4K #1 was the post I could use the most in life and best post I could reflect on. C4K #4 was the most informative. I think by commenting on these children’s posts, we are really helping their confidence. It is also helping us expand our confidence in commenting. I would love to use blogs as these teachers have in order to show projects we have done in math, as well as receive feedback on them.