Blog Post #7

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

This weeks blog post assignment was to watch, "Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Here in his last presentation, with only months to live upon learning a diagnosis of incurable cancer, he shares lessons from his personal life and professional goals. The driving question asked was, what can we learn about learning and teaching from Randy Pausch. The first thing that really caught my attention was when he said, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." I think he's trying to say that you learn from everything you do, even when things go wrong. I've always heard that we learn from our mistakes and that why we have consequences. Randy also talks about how we learn indirectly or by "head fake," and that this type of learning is everywhere. You never stop learning. What I learned about teaching from Mr. Pausch is that what you teach should intrigue others. Mr. Pausch states in his last lecture, "I think that that’s one of the best things you can give somebody – the chance to show them what it feels like to make other people get excited and happy." Another thing about teaching is that in order to teach, we have to learn from our students. You Cant get anywhere alone in life. Randy Pausch's Last Lecture was truly inspirational and I highly recommend watching it, I promise it will be worth your time.

C4K Summary for February

February 9, 2014
Connor is in Ms. Toal's class. He wrote a post called Sharks. He gave very good information. He stated how many species of sharks there are, and specific facts about a few. Altogether, this post was very well written and informative.

My Reply:
Conner, this is really good information about sharks. I learned a lot that i didn't know before. Keep up the good work!


February 16, 2014
5th grader, Daniel is in Mrs. Caddy's class. On February 5th Daniel wrote a post called, What would you do if someone just gave you $1?. Daniel's response was, "WOULD GIVE HALF TO CHARITY. AND BUY A NEW FOURWHEELER .THEN KEEP THE REST."

My Reply:
Daniel, this is a a tough question, because that is a lot of money. I think you wanting to give half of your money to charity is awesome! This is a great answer! Keep up the good work!


February 19, 2014
Arton is in Ms. Ruiz's 3rd grade class. He wrote a post titled, Family. In his post, he writes about his brother and sister and their dependency on eachother, He also talks about his future spouse. Arton states, "I’m going to have kids with. I’m I positive me and her are going to be together forever, cause I don’t see my self ever having a divorce." He knows what he wants in a family and that is very impressive for someone who is only in the 3rd grade.

My Reply:
Arton, this is a great post about family! I too have brothers and sisters and being able to depend on each other is very important. It's great that you have such high expectations of what you want for your future family. Keep up the great work!


February 25, 2014
Dustin Pfeffer is in Mrs. Millers class. On February 5, Dustin wrote a post called "This I Believe." Dustins post is about night hunting and why it should be legalized. Dustin states that, "Making this legal would save a ton of people from getting in car crashes and on the good side, you get deer meat. It’s a win win for everyone in this situation.I believe everyone would enjoy hunting a night time too."

My Reply:
Dustin, this is a great post and a fantastic idea! Night hunting sure would be a lot easier and yes, you probably would see more deer. I agree that you would have to be extra safe because getting hurt would be no fun. Maybe one day night hunting will be legal!

Project #8, Book Trailer

Blog Post #6, PLN

This weeks blog post was about learning and creating a PLN (personal learning network). A personal learning network is an informal learning network that consists of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a personal learning environment. In a PLN, a person makes a connection with another person with the specific intent that some type of learning will occur because of that connection. At first it seemed very complicated, but once I started, I was very intrigued. We were given 2 websites that help you create your PLN and get started on using it. I chose, Symbaloo.

Once I got my account set up, I started adding tiles that I could use for entertainment, school, and things such as travel, weather, etc. Getting set up was the easy part, but figuring out how to connect with other people is still rather confusing. After watching the videos provided, I can see how it will be a helpful teaching tool. I am going to continue to learn and work through my confusion. Hopefully I can get it down and really be able to use it effectively.

My Sentences

My Sentence Is



My Passion Is

Blog Post #5

In this weeks blog post assignment, we were asked to watch several videos and answer the driving question, What do you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?

The first two videos I watched were, Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher and Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher. The first thing I learned is that students are driven by content. It is best to relate the project on what contents the students are required to use in order for them to learn. The most crucial part of project based learning is for the students to revise and reflect on their work. Student choice is another big aspect in project based learning. It allows the student or originate their own idea so they are less likely to take someone else.
The third video I watched was iCurio. This is a way for students to safely search websites that have been filtered for educational uses. Students have to log in to use it and they use it like a search engine. It has a storage unit so the students can save what they feel is useful and important. iCurio helps students learn how to get organized online, which will help them in the future with other technology.
Other videos that I was asked to watch included, Discovery Education, The Anthony - Strange list of Tips for Teachers Part 1, Don't Teach Tech - Use It, and Additional Thought about Lessons. These videos provided lots of helpful information.
Discovery Ed is a great resource for science and social studies. It shows videos of what the student is researching. It is also a helpful resource for teachers. Students tend to learn more from listening and watching.
Tips for Teachers was extremely helpful for me to think about, for preparing myself as a future educator. It is very important for me to teach myself the material that I'm teaching my students. Work and play are not separate in teaching. As a teacher, I cant be committed to one way of teaching. When I become an educator I need to make sure that I'm getting what I expected to get out of the course, even if the entire goal is not reached. Also, keep the kids engaged. Make the learning process interesting and something they care about.
Use Tech, Don't Teach it taught me that the students really have to constantly use the technology resources in order to use them effectively. There is always room for learning.
After watching Additional Thought about Lessons, I learned that it has 4 parts. It has to fit in with your year, as in it has to cover all of your content standards. Make units meaningful and connected to your content standards. Devise your week so every day, you can get everything done that you need to. Finally, you have the daily lesson, which is how you deliver to your students on a daily basis.
I am going to continue to research iCurio so I can use it in my future classrooms.

Blog Post #4. What questions do we ask? How do we ask?

What type of questions do we need to ask our students, as teachers?

The Teaching Center states, "When you ask questions in the classroom, you are modeling a process that students can and should use themselves; encourage your students to use the following questioning strategies to assess what they have learned, to develop their thinking skills, and to study for exams." This website gives 7 general strategies for asking questions: When planning questions, keep in mind your course goals, Avoid asking "leading questions", Follow a "yes or no" question with an additional question, Aim for direct specific questions, In class discussions, do not ask more than one question at once, When you plan each class session, include notes of when you will pause to ask and answer questions, Ask a mix of different types of questions. When teachers ask students questions, they are actually increasing their learning skills. When students answer questions, they can create their own ideas about the topic. For more information on this website, you can visit the link posted above.

I also read a great blog full of information about problem based learning. Ben Johnson's blog, The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom is a great resource for problem based learning. Johnson talks about how when teachers ask questions, it usually benefits the teacher more than it does the student. Teachers seem to think that if the student does not ask a question, than they understand the problem or topic completely, which usually isn't the case. Johnson's response to this method is, "The fallacy with this thinking is that sometimes the students do not understand that they do not understand, and if they do not know what they do not know, there is no way that they can ask a question about it." When you can get the students to ask the questions, you can ensure that the learning process is taking place.

This week's question was, what do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher? After reading and researching the articles given, I think that it is not enough as an educator to simply ask the question "Do you understand." Instead of just asking questions, Teachers could make it a fun learning activity and reward the students who answer correctly with things such as, bonus points on a test. Challenge the students to work together and really put their "thinking caps" on. It should always be my job to keep my students engaged in whatever topic I am teaching on.

Project #3 Presentation

Project 4, C4T #1

How do we Teach the Complexity of Truth?

This weeks C4T I was assigned to How do we Teach the Complexity of Truth? by Beth Knittle. In her post, she talks about how one mans truth is another man's fiction. In her post she states, "It is one of those funny terms we all know what it means yet we don’t seem to be agree on what is true, just watch the nightly news." She believes that an individual’s reality is different, therefor their ‘truth’ is different. Due to school's lack of time, it is easier for educators to guide us to the most acceptable ideas of the day. In other words, it made those ideas as widely accepted because other view points are not exposed.

My Reply:

Hello, my name is Amber Harris and I am a student at the University of South Alabama in EDM310. EDM310 is a required course for all education majors. It teaches us about new technology that is already in, or will be in schools. In your post, you talk about the complexity of truth. I agree with your post, and also believe that sometimes what is fact isn't always what is true to us. I think schools and teachers are use to teaching the most "acceptable" ideas, rather than expanding opinion. I think teaching opinion rather than fact could get messy at times though. If every teacher taught off of opinion rather than fact, than who would really know what the truth is? I like the way Wikipedia defined truth, in the manner that truth has to have fact. I think that students should have to state opinions in their assignments, but they need a little fact to provide support. Your post was very helpful to me, by making me think outside of the "fact box". If you would like, you can read my blog: Amber Harris or any other students from our class blog: EDM310 I will also be summarizing and replying to this post and posting it to my blog if you would like to read it.


How to Change Education

The first C4T I read was How to Change Education by Beth Knittle. In this post, she focuses on dealing on the changes in curriculum. In her post, she states, "We are still adjusting to the new evaluation system, evidence collection and district and state determined measures of learning progress." Knittle provides a link to a video by Ken Robinson that reminds us that teaching is a form of art, and what is important is where the teacher and student connect to each other.

My Reply:

I really enjoyed your post and i thought the video you linked was very helpful. I'm glad you brought up the topic of new technology in the classroom. I am actually in a class at the the University of South Alabama where we are learning all about the new types of new technology in classrooms. I liked the way he talked about helping your students learn. When i become a teacher i will appreciate these things and take them into consideration.