Comments For Kids: March

In the month of March I viewed two students blog posts in Mrs. Maslowski's class.

1. Harsh wrote a reflection on preparing and taking the PLAN test.

I commented and said, 

2. Danyale wrote about her first impression when reading The 12th Night,

I commented and said, 

Comments For Kids: February

For the month of February I viewed two students blog posts from Mr. Boylen's 7th grade literature class. The assignment was to write about a book that the students recently read and to summarize it but leave questions unanswered so that the readers are left wanting to read the book. I also viewed a student's blog from Ms. Leatherwood's class, where the assignment was to write about overcoming a fear.

1. Destiny B. wrote a great summary about The Prohet of Yonwood.

I commented and said,



2.  Keagan M. wrote about Between Shades of Grey.



I commented and said, 

3. Olivia wrote a beautiful piece about overcoming a fear of hers, 

I commented and said, 

Blog Post #10

Almost 2,000 miles away in Moose Jaw, Canada lives Kathy Cassidy, an innovative kindergarten teacher. This week we were invited to see a glimpse of the wonderful things Ms. Cassidy is doing with her students. Some technology that Ms. Cassidy has incorporated into the classroom are;

• Blogs- The students each have a blog in which they write in at least once a week.
• Wikis- The students use this web resource to learn about things. ex). Traditions, Rituals.
• Videos- The students make videos with a small group.
• Skype- The students skype their reading buddies, and also other experts.
• Nintendo DS- The students use games to help them learn.

Ms. Cassidy is definitely a prime example of an educator who has taken technology and is using it to her advantage to help her students learn. She says "kids and technology go hand-in-hand" and therefore it is not benefiting children when you ask them to "unplug" themselves while in the classroom.

Some of the technological ideas that I would consider using in my future classroom that Ms. Cassidy currently uses are:

• Blogs- I love the idea of children using their creative skills and expression to write freely on a blog weekly. I could see that the blogs were fun for the children and they especially loved that people from all over the world commented and viewed their work.

• Videos- I also think having children invest time and their ideas into a project such as a video will help them learn to work together with their peers and therefore this technology is a great idea for the classroom.

• Skype- In my elementary experience I remember having pen pals in another state and I remember how thrilling it was to write and receive letters from these fellow students. I think what Ms. Cassidy has done with the reading buddies is a 21st century equivalent to pen-pals and I think this global outreach is very crucial to a child's development and understanding of the world. 

It seems as though Ms. Cassidy has had few to no problems that she has encountered while incorporating technology in the classroom. The only problems that I think should be of concern in my future classroom is safety, Ms. Cassidy mentioned she instructed the students not to click on the flashy sidebars that advertise all sorts of things while using their educational games but it is inevitable that students will sometimes break the rules and therefore I think by the time I am using computers with my students we will be using a blocker that prevents PG-13 things from popping up or even being accessible.

It is clear that there are endless benfits of using Ms. Cassidy's techniques in the classroom. As I have observed it seems the students are:

• More Engaged.

• Excited to Learn

• Motivated

• HAPPY!

Project 7.B

Project 12A Smartboard

Blog Post #9

I completely resonate on the powerful learning experiences that can come about from Project Based learning. 

As a junior in college now, I look back on my education during elementary, middle and high school; it's not so easy to remember the lessons I was taught and what I learned. However, the projects that I did really do stick out me. There's something about putting so much effort into something and actually enjoying it that can have a lastly imprint on your brain. I clearly remember my 9th grade project in Mrs. Winas's biology class, constructing a 3-D model of an animal cell. It is truly evident that people learn by doing and digging for intimation themselves with a purpose as their backbone rather than by sitting and listening,  that is why Project based Learning is so important to bettering our education system.

In the article Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning the authors John Lamar and John R. Mergendoller explain the steps in which make project based learning a phenomenal educational method in the classroom today. There is a lot we can learn from how Ms. Mclntyre used project based learning to shape a project for her class.

A Major turn off for students is slamming a packet of papers on their desks giving them step-by-step instructions on what they will be doing. 

• Start with an "entry event" to initiate interest.

• Video
• Guest Speaker
• Lively class Discussion
• Field Trip

• Driving Question

• Give purpose and challenge
• Must be open-ended
• Necessary to pick up main point of project 

• Freedom

• Let the students choose how to conduct their research
• No restricting guidelines
• Room for creativity

• Goal of Project Based Learning
• Give students skills that are applicable to real-world situations.

• Present to the Public 
• Schoolwork is more meaningful when students know it will be on display for parents

The next video Project Based Learning for Teachers was essentially an advertisement for Project Based Learning led by a man named Tony Vincent. It was a fast-paced crash course in what PBL is and why it is ground breaking. In less than four minutes Vincent has taught us alot to know about project based learning. 

• Definition of Project Based Learning

• Advantage of technology
• Schoolwork is more meaningful
• Student-based 
• No more busy work
• Students work over a period of time
• Share with others
• Evidence based
• Problem solving

• Students Learn
• Ccollaboration skills
• Ccommunication skills
• Ccritical thinking skills
• Career and life skills

The message that is stressed about Project Based Learning is that, Students can take charge because they have a voice and choice in their learning!

In today's society it has become more and more difficult to motivate students, with the help of the video What Motivates Students Today we are able to learn from young students to see what we can do as educators to keep our students motivated.

What we need to do is listen, listen to these young students and hear what motivates them and then embrace how they are motivated and remind them of the bigger goal that is ahead of them. A few of the things that motivate the students in the video are:

• Announcements to the class to affirm a great job
• Compliments
• Reinforcement
• Thinking about your future
• Reminding yourself of your life goal

Some examples of rewards that the students love are:

• Clipchart- different colors indicate students behavior that day
• Fake money rewarded for good behavior
• Classroom store
• Different themes for each day of the week
• Food!
• Parties- to reward class's overall behavior
• Brownie Points- you'll be liked if you're a good student

The foundation of Project Based Learning is working in a group and making decisions collaboratively. With the help of the article  Ten Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration Project Based Learning we can get an idea of great sites and tools to use to make working with a group of people easier. A few of the suggested sites are:

• Titan Pad - use to share documents, without email.
• Padlet - use to answer questions simultaneously
• Google Docs - great for incorporating the teacher into the group
• Linoit - colorful way to visually display material
• Quick Screen Share - allows group to share their current screen

In the final example of what students and teachers can teach us about Project Based Learning, we have an example of two students who used Project Based Learning to solve a problem that they found dear to personal lives. Two Students Solve Ketchup Problem.

The first step in the two students' project is they were inspired!
They encountered frustration by the watery mess that occurred when they squirted ketchup onto their food and they wanted to solve it. The boys worked together using each others skills to form a 3-D model of a patent for a cap that would prevent the water from squirting out.
Together they solved their ketchup issue using Project Based Learning.

Project 9: Translating Curriculum into Guiding Questions

Blog Post #8

Wow! What an incredible man! Randy Pausch truly was a man who lived a full and fulfilling life.
In Pausch's Last Lecture I was only able to get a glimpse of the kind of character he was, but it was enough to be blown away as well as inspired. As a future educator there is so much to be learned from Randy Pausch, not only on how to teach, but more importantly, on how to LIVE a meaningful life that continues in your legacy.


In his lecture he begins by spilling the fact that his lifetime will soon come to an end due to cancerous tumors in his brain. He speaks about this tragedy lightly and doesn't seem dis-heartened or beat up at all by this fact. The way in which Pausch has obviously come to such an acceptance of his life's ticking clock automatically gives the audience such a great respect for him and opens them up to listen to him genuinely.

Pausch bases his lecture around his childhood dreams and he emphasizes how important it is to strive to achieve your dreams, in one form or another. Randy Pausch's dreams were to:

1. Be in Zero Gravity
2. Play in NFL
3. Author an article in the World Encyclopedia 
4. Be Captain Kirk
5. Win stuffed Animals at Fairs
6. Be a Disney Imagineer
7. Enable the Dreams of Others

With captivating stories Pausch shares how he was able to achieve/pursue his dreams successfully. Not only was Randy Pausch successful in striving for his dreams but, he created a legacy as an educator. He lived to help students put their creativity to use and dream bigger and achieve bigger things; that alone is a phenomenal thing. 

There are many things we can learn about teaching by watching Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, I feel that the most important would be to:

•  Choose a bigger goal that is not based on yourself to motivate your life and career.  
• Always create a fun atmosphere
• Entertain with props (Pausch brought in pictures, huge stuffed animals, a football, vest with arrows in it, Letterman jacket, etc.)

Pausch died at the age of 47 on July 25, 2008, just ten months after he gave his famous speech, it is always a saddening event to hear of a person dying at such a young age. With Pausch, his passing wasn't such a devastation because the amount of greatness he was able to achieve throughout his lifetime is unmeasurable. His legacy will continue to live on. 

C4T #2 Dianne's Digital Discoveries

Dianne's Digital Discoveries is a blog written by Dianne Krause, the purpose of her blog is to share websites and different technological resources that can help improve the educational system.

Summary Post 1:
In Dianne's post 11/13/14 she explains that Wikipedia used to be a great resource for students in schools to use to easily find information. Unfortunately it has become unreliable because of the editing feature which allows anyone to edit or even tamper with information making it inaccurate.  She provides a link for a new Wikipedia called Wikipedia For Schools which can be used by anyone and it provides access to articles and information that has been proof-read and is dependable.

My Comment Post 1: 

Justine Spicciani says:

FEBRUARY 22, 2015 AT 4:19 PM

Hi Dianne, I enjoyed your post, and I’m very excited to be able to depend on wikipedia again as a reliable source. I remember doing projects using only wikipedia while I was in primary school and then suddenly, every teacher instructed us not to use it as a source because of the editing issue. I’m currently studying at USA to be an elementary school teacher and I look forward to using Wikipedia For Schools with the students because I do believe it can be such a wonderful source and it’s so easy to navigate. Here’s a link to my blog for my EDM310 class if you’d like to check it out, http://spiccianijustineedm310.blogspot.com/2015/01/practice-blog-post-1.html
Justine Spicciani

Summary Post 2:
In Dianne's most recent post, 2/26/2015 she gives great tools to use for formative assessment in the classroom. Included in her post is a link for The Best 8 Web Tools for Doing Formative Assessment in Class, in this link it gives eight examples of websites you can use to help create an interactive learning eviroment where students can submit their answers through devices such as a computer, smartphone or even a remote.

My Comment Post 2:

Justine Spicciani says:

MARCH 15, 2015 AT 8:31 PM

Hello Dianne, Thanks for posting this!
In college we have been using iclicker for a biology course of mine. I really like the quick feedback that it provides. I appricate the links for more useful tools for formative assesment.
-Justine Spicciani