Blog Post #2

1. Did You Know? 3.0 - A John Strange 2012 Version
EDM310 Class Blog
Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod

This video was extremely intriguing. It is crazy to think how much more advanced other countries are than the United States. As a soon to be educator I feel that this need to be addressed much more aggressively. In my opinion much of America has become very lazy. I feel this way because there are so many Americans who grow with a silver spoon in their mouth, meaning that they are given everything and do not have to work for much. American society is also becoming consumed by social networks and the internet instead of personal exchanges in which, I feel can be somewhat useful but has also hurt our society.

As a country we need to greatly improve our education systems. One way I feel this could be done is by doing away with standardized testing. With teachers constantly having to teach on such strict guidelines many students are not interested in learning these materials. Students are only learning these materials for a short amount of time and not retaining much of the information.

2. Mr. Winkle Wakes
EDM310 Class Blog
Matthew Needleman

In this video Mr. Winkle awakes from a 100 year sleep.  Mr Winkle awakes finding that everything he knew has changed. There are enormous buildings and everything in constant movement. He is pleased to find that the only that has not changed is the school systems.

After watching this video I disagree with Mr Winkle. I feel that the school systems have changed over time. They have become more modernized with technology being integrated into schools.  I also feel that the material being taught has changed a good amount over time but not necessarily in the right way.  Overall I was intrigued by this video but also confused by it as well.

3. The Importance of Creativity
EDM310 Class Blog
Sir Ken Robinson

Dr. Robinson explains his view on the importance of creativity in the field or education.  He feels that creativity is just as important in education as literacy.  He also feels that all children have exceptional talents but many are overlooked. He goes on to talk about how when we are children we are not afraid of taking a chance and that we are not afraid of making a mistake.  He then tells about how when we become adults we gain that fear and are constantly afraid of being wrong. He feels that we are educated out of creativity in the sense that mistakes are the worst thing we could ever do.  He also goes on to say that he feels thats all teachers, even from all around the world, teach the same subject matter.

This video immediately caught my attention and kept it throughout the entire video. Mr. Robinson has a very interesting way of the way he feels about education. He has valid points through out the entire video. I completely agree with him on everything through his video. One of his best points is how he feels that we grow, or are educated out of creativity. Going off of what Mr. Robinson said in this video much more creativity should be integrated into our schools instead constant lectures. The way that he thinks is exactly how I plan to teach. I want all of my classes to interactive and creative instead of boring and miserable.

3. Pinterest: Using Available Resources
EDM310 Class Blog
Kaitlin Burgess and Bethany Griffith 

I am already familiar with Pinterest myself.  I have had one for a few months but have only used the account once. Traditional Pinterest is looked at only a thing or girls , but it can be used for great educational purposes. It can be used to make creative lesson plans.  Pinterest can also help with organization ideas. I feel that Pinterest, when used the correct way, can be an extremely useful way to create new ideas.

C4T#1 comment 1

While reading Mr. Chamberlains blog post I began to understand something I had previously not seen. He explained how children hide some of their disabilities such as, being socially awkward. . He also explained that those children are looked over and many teachers do not make an effort to understand those children or to help them. I began to realize that I had done the same thing when I was younger. I did not have many friends in my younger years of schooling. As I went through highschool that took a 180 degree turn and i began to understand i needed to help younger children who coped with these things as i once had. In my comment I wen on to say that I do what i am able to in order to help that type of child by making an extra effort to associate myself with them. I do this so that i am better able to understand these children and help them cope with their problems.

I went to Mr. Chamberlains blog and he had not yet posted a new blog so I went back to his most recent one before the first one that i read on. In the blogpost of Mr. Chamberlains that I read Mr. Chamberlains was doing an experiment in which he let his students critique his every move. I thought this was a very interesting way to go bout his experiment. I am a very strong believer in students being very involved with the teacher during class and this was an exceptional way of getting that done.He went on to tell that he was not prepared for his experiment, had no data, and ended up just playing around with the aluminum being used in the experiment. Then he said that none of his students noticed this. He then went on to say that most of them only noticed that he was not wearing gloves. Which makes and interesting argument that in interactive experiments are students really paying attention to what is being presented or not? In my opinion yes they are and I feel that interactive projects are very helpful but this experiment could bring up a very arguable point. In my comment to Mr. Chamberlain i just stated that I was very interested in the way he went about his experiment and learned a lot from it 

Project #2 - Wordle

Blog Post #1

About Me

My name is Chris May.  I am 20 years old. I play football at The University of South Alabama. I was born in Florence Alabama on February 23, 1992. I have lived in Dallas, Texas as well as Huntsville, Alabama. I graduated high school from Deshler High school in Tuscumbia, Alabama. I wrestled, was on the track team, and played football. I placed third in the state in 1-4a in wrestling during my senior year.  I also enjoy playing Xbox and hanging out with my friends in my free time.

I am attending South Alabama because I was recruited here to play football. If it was not for football I would have never known of South Alabama. My major is Physical Education, I am planning on becoming a PE teacher and a high school football coach. I am extremely passionate about sports as well as my family. I was recently selected to the Sunbelt All Conference team which was an extreme honor for me.

Future Classroom

In my future classroom I plan on breaking the usually norm of a constant lecture session. I want my classes to be interactive and entertaining as well as educational. I want my students to interact with each other as well as myself constantly because, I myself am a visual learner and I feel that things are much easier to be understood when the are explained with interactive activities instead of old fashion lectures. If possible I would like my classes to be as technologically advanced as possible, such as having iPads or tablets in class so that every student will be able to have a copy of power point slides and other materials used in class.

I am majoring in Physical Education to become a PE teacher but i am also planning on trying to be certified to be a math teacher as well. I want to do this mainly because it will make it much easier for me to be hired if i am able to teach two subjects. The other reason i will be doing this is because math is my favorite subject and i enjoy doing math and want to try to pass that on to my students. I plan to teach high school and not specifically one grade because I want to leave my options open for job opportunities.

I also plan on using group work quite often. One because it is very interactive and will teach my student how to work with each other better. My students will have more class presentations instead of writing papers. I also plan on giving my students incentives such as extra credit and having some small group competitions for this extra. One reason I will be doing this is because most students dread math and generally do not enjoy math, but if I am able to teach math while making it fun and enjoyable I will have done what I have set out to do.

I want to be the teacher that students enjoy coming to class to see. I want to be in touch with my students parents especially if my students are struggling in my class as long as my students show a will to improve i will do everything I can to help them. I plan to teach all of my students equally and show no favoritism. Instead of having favorite students I want my students to see me as their favorite teacher.

Dr. P

In this video I learned that when you have many things to do in what day that you need to do whichever seems to be the hardest or most time consuming should be done first. Another thing I learned was when doing things look to do the right thing instead of just doing it right. Which was somewhat hard to understand at first but once I understood the philosophy it made complete sense.

Test Post #1

Test number  1