Team Reflection for Project #16 Lesson

We are the Cheetah Girls.

We tried out many different lesson plans before settling and loving our current one.

The idea to use QR Codes sparked as I was observing at St. Elmo Elementary and a teacher was working on a project on the walls outside of her classroom where she was sticking the QR Codes onto portraits on students in her class.

So I asked her what she was doing, and I quickly learned what a QR Code was and I thought it was the neatest thing!

Then BOOM! I knew we had to use QR Codes in our final project.

    JUSTINE: Looking back to the start of project 16, it is ridiculous to remember the process me and Jessica Mose went through to actually spark what we wanted to incorporate into our lesson. We most definitely had our high moments of “Aha! This is perfect, we are on the right track, we are on a roll!” and then all of a sudden we would be hit with an obstacle that brought our roll to a halt. We had our moments of despair, where one of us would start to feel completely burnt out, but the other partner would step up and bring the light back and direction back into what we were trying to accomplish. The fact is our journey to our final presentation was rough, we pulled an all-nighter, we almost broke into tears, while foraging for vending machine food at 2 am and at the end of it, we came out so victoriously! I feel so proud of our final project because Jessica and I invested so much into making this presentation great. Our project was definitely a true testament of the phrase “HARD WORK PAYS OFF”. Ultimately, I’ve gained so much from this project, I’ve learned how to meet my partner half way, especially when we didn’t see eye-to-eye, I’ve learned how to use a new method of presenting, Prezi.com which I love, and will use in the future and as I leave this class I have made an amazing lifelong friend and colleague, Jessica, Team Cheetah for everrrrrr!

Final Reflection Video

Technology & Teaching: My Philosophy

Initially, when I used to hear anything about technology in classroom's I usually thought disaster. I previously thought that students using devices such as ipads in a classroom would be a miss-use of time. Because I know that I am the type of person where if i was able to be on my phone during class time, I would learn absolutely nothing because my phone has so many non-educational distractions on it. But I've learned that technology doesn't have to be a distraction for students because there are ways to set locks on the students devices so that they will only be able to access the educational apps only.
I believe that it is essential that the instructor of a classroom which incorporates ipads into the lesson, should thoroughly teaching technology etiquette, to ensure they do not miss use their electronic devices during class time.

C4T #4 Experts & Newbies

Experts & Newbies is a blog that is not currently actively being used. It was created by John Larmer, the Buck Institute of Education editor in chief.

In the post Project Based Learning vs. Problem Based Learning he talks about the many ____-based learning methods that have been introduced lately. Two of the most popular being Project and Problem based learning.

Summary:

• Project-Based Learning
• Involves designing/creating a product or performance.
• Solves real-world problem
• Involves Investigating to achieve a solution

• Problem-Based Learning
• Begins with a problem
• List what we know and what we what to know
• States possible outcomes
• Share information and solution found

• Both Problem & Project Learning
• Focus on open-ended questions
• Emphasize students Independence

My Comment: 

Mr. Larmer!

Thank you for the clarification. As a students in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama, we have been focusing mostly all on Project based learning and we haven’t touched base on PROBLEM based learning and what it entails. I thoroughly enjoyed your post.

Justine Spicciani

Blog Post #5.B

As I explained previously, before EDM310 I did not know what a Personal Learning Network was and most importantly, I was unaware of the benefits of having a PLN. Unfortunately, during the duration of my semester in EDM310, I did not utilize or develop my rtPLN as much as I wanted to. But I have intentions of using a PLN as a tool in the educational field.

The components of a Personal Learning Network that I plan to use and will continue to use are,

• Twitter
• I think Twitter can be a great way to spread ideas through educators alike.
• Pinterest
• I think the use of pinterest should be introduced in EDM310. It is a great tool for cultivating ideas and projects that motivate students and bring out creativity.
• Teacher Blogs
• One of the coolest ways to learn new ideas are through reading about other educators experiences and insights.

Blog Post #14

Joel Klein has a vision for the future of schools and the educators that make up a school system. In his article Teaching Our Children Can Be a Profession he explains the issues that are apparent in our current United States school system. He also provides solutions that would help the system become a more successful and efficient one. Although many of his propositions seem drastic, he makes many valid points and he presents solutions that may help the education system.

• Problem 1: Educators have a lack of knowledge with academic programs, which results in ineffective teaching.
• Solution: Better academic training for prospective teachers.

• Problem 2: Teachers are able to teach if they simply obtain a college degree.
• Solution: The system should be more competitive, recruiters should only hire from the top third of every graduating class.

• Problem 3: Teachers with more experience are often chosen over newer teachers.
• Solution: Seniority shouldn't matter, teachers should be picked only because of their excellence not because of their experience. 

• Problem 4: Teachers do not respect their career position as a professional position.
• Solution: Teachers should have control over the standards to ensure "incompetent" teachers are "removed" 

• Problem 5: Promotions occur through time, not through achievement.
• Solution: Promotions should be granted to those who have shown great achievement and results through their teaching. 

Out of all of Klein's problems and their solutions the one that I find the hardest time agreeing with is Problem 2, I disagree that it is a problem that teachers are able to selected for hiring if they have their degree. I dint think this is a problem. Interview processes are a tool used to sift through teachers who aren't up to standard. I believe the solution of only hiring the top third of the graduating class is unfair. I fully believe a person's Grade Point Average is not an accurate criteria in determining whether or not a person can be a powerful and influential educator.

Blog Post #13

This week I learned about different ways to use technology in a classroom to help motivate students to learn and to be involved.

1.  In Class Dojo - A short Film the students in Mrs. Giuliani's 5th grade class made an excellent dramatization. They began by showing their classroom before using Class Dojo and it seemed that the students were disruptive and bored and unmotivated. After using the positive and negative points system for every student  it helped the students to be motivated to strive to become helpful and motivated students.

2.  Grodek's Dojo Tutorial helps teachers understand how to set up a Classroom Dojo.  He explains how to create an avatar for every student. A great advantage that the program offers is the feature to create your own positive or negative features. Next he shows how the program can help with attendance as students can double tap their avatar to indicate that they are present that day. At the end of the day, each student and even their parents can pull up their chart and see their percentage pie chart which shows where the positive and negative points are being placed. It's awesome because parents can keep track of their child's behavior.

3.  The news video Technology to Motivate Students brings viewers inside of Ms. Meyer's classroom where the students are reading Bridge to Terabitha. The students are reading this book using many different tools, some are using traditional books, ipads, ipod touches, kindles and different e-readers. The students love using the electronic tools to read because children love being apart of the technological age.

4.  In Louise Morgans presentation, Motivating Your Students to Write Through Blogging she explains why blogging can be so beneficial to a students development in writing. Next she shares resources that a teacher can use to set up a class blog for their classroom. An essential aspect of successful student blogging is having concrete rules that the students abide by while creating their post and while commenting on peers posts as well.


In brief we can motivate students with technology by using tools like,

•  Class Dojo
• motivate students to choose good behavior over bad behaviors.
• motivate classroom participation.

• Ipads, Ipods, kindles
• motivate children to read
• help students have easy access to defining a word in the text
• give students the option of writing notes directly in the text they are reading.

• Student Blogs
• encourage students to write
• get students involved in a global community
• teach students how to leave proper feedback