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My PLN Progress Report

My PLN is constantly growing and will continue to grow throughout the rest of the semester and my professional career. I have found numerous blogs and feeds that contain great information on education and tools that educators can use. I have used Symbaloo before, and I will continue to use it to organize my PLN. By the next post, I should have everything put together and in order for easy access.

Blog Post 9

Mr. Joe McClung

What I learned this year: 09-10. is a post by a teacher named Joe McClung from Arkansas. He does a summary post every school year detailing the lessons he learned from the previous school year. I chose to write about his second post (from his second year teaching) because I thought that by the second year some of the luster may have worn off. I figure that almost almost all first year teachers see their experience through rose colored lenses, idealizing the experience in some way. Mr. McClung's second year of teaching illustrates this point in a way because during this year, he seems to have had numerous difficulties with administration issues. While never explaining what these are, he does offer some extremely beneficial advice on dealing with these types of issues. He says that if he would have allowed these issues to affect the way he taught his class, then the students would be the only people hurt. The people causing those problems for him would never have been affected, but the students wouldn't have received the quality education they deserve. I thought this may have been the best advice in the whole post. I think it is extremely important to treat the classroom as a type of separate environment where teachers can't allow their personal or professional problems to affect their work.

He offered numerous examples of other good advice throughout the post as well. He says that it is important to "check your ego at the door", which basically means don't be afraid of looking ridiculous occasionally if it helps students learn. Teachers shouldn't be concerned with looking cool or maintaining an image of perfect solemnity. This doesn't mean they should act unprofessional, but it is perfectly fine for a teacher to become extremely enthusiastic when teaching. This should be encouraged because it definitely helps maintain student attention.

Another great piece of advice he offered was what he called "the path least travelled." Basically he describes how teachers generally have a plan for where they want to lead conversation and the topics discussed in class. While some structure in discussions is a good thing, too much can lead to limits on student capabilities. Sometimes students have to be allowed to explore different areas of discussion and learn to think for themselves.

Mr. McClung's most recent post is shorter than his others and almost seems to contain less enthusiasm than some of his previous posts. This post details the pitfalls that can come with worrying about what peers think. We all have a need to be liked by our peers and colleagues, but this post talks about not letting that need affect one's teaching negatively. The most important part of being a teacher is always the quality of the teaching. This seems intuitive, but some teachers seem to have forgotten this.

The last part of this post talks about "challenging yourself." This is an important step in the battle against stagnation. Mr. McClung talks about how he became reliant on old lesson plans and methods of teaching, so when he was offered the chance to tackle a new subject, he took it. This is a very good disposition to have and one that can be quite difficult to obtain. Often we become stagnant in our work because it's the easy way out, and this is a dangerous mindset. Continually challenging myself in my work is something I hope to improve upon as I finish my studies and become a teacher.

These posts are excellent resources for any future educator. I hope to continually revisit them once I become a teacher and learn from someone else's experience to improve my own teaching ability.

Project 9

The Great Gatsby on Prezi

C4T 2

For C4T number 2, I commented on Angela Maiers's blog. Angela Maiers is an educator who firmly believes in the implementation of technology and specifically social networking tools into the curriculum. She runs a consulting firm that assists schools and teachers who want to also implement this into their classes. The first post of hers that I commented on was an open letter to school leaders. In this letter she hopes that they will take initiative and fight complacency in schools. She wants them to make the move to incorporate technologies into the classroom. She also speaks to those who have begun to make the move telling them that she is thrilled with their decision and implores them to use these tools to help students think on deeper levels.

The second post I commented on was a post written by a 6th grade teacher in Georgia named Debbie Stephens. In this post she basically talks about how she views her students as geniuses and hopes for them to view themselves that way. She talks about how she pushes them to create ideas and apply them to make her classroom a better place. She seems like a teacher who is passionate about her work and one that can truly make a difference.

Blog Post 8

This Is How We Dream

This Is How We Dream is a multimedia presentation by Dr. Richard Miller that describes a fundamental change in the way writing takes place. He begins by describing a few incremental changes in writing that have occurred relatively recently. One of the main incremental changes Dr. Miller describes is the migration of texts from concrete objects to online. He specifically discusses academic writing and the ways it has transformed from a library experience to an online library experience. He cites his last paper as a time where he worked online exclusively and was able to find an unlimited amount of information in seconds. Despite this radical transformation in the information is gathered, he still views this as an incremental change in the way people write.

The fundamental change that Dr. Richard Miller discussed was the combination of writing and multimedia materials to create a new type of writing. This type of writing is benefitted by collaboration with peers to create projects rather than simply words on a page. They may contain voiceovers or some type of video or slideshow presentation.

I hope to incorporate this fundamental change in writing into my classroom especially since I will be teaching English. I tend to agree with Dr. Miller's assertion that the entire act of writing is changing. I believe that collaboration on projects is an extremely important thing for young people to get used to because that will be much of what their professional and collegiate careers entail. They will also need to be able to use the internet for properly conducted research and learn the right and wrong ways to use it.

Carly Pugh's Blog Post 12

Carly Pugh's Blog Post 12 is an excellent example of Dr. Richard Miller's assertion that a fundamental change has occurred in writing. These are the types of projects he must have had in mind when he thought about the future of writing. Her post is basically an idea for a project that requires the future teachers of EDM 310 to create a Youtube playlist that details what kind of teacher they aspire to be. Her post contained numerous links to virtually every piece of information she was describing. This has the benefit of leading the viewer on a path that not only teaches about her post but also helps them learn about different topics. With so much information available to be linked into a post, there is the possibility for unbelievable amounts of knowledge to be passed in one small blog post.

The Chipper Series and EDM 310 for Dummies

The Chipper Series and EDM 310 for Dummies are two videos about EDM 310 created by students that do capture some of the issues that students face in this class. The Chipper Series was a story about a girl who always procrastinated and turned her work in late leading her to some interesting places in life. I'm pretty sure everyone in this class has procrastinated to some degree, and I have found that any little bit of work I can do ahead of time helps immensely. The EDM 310 for Dummies video is about some of the frustration that occurs while attempting to complete all the work. It was a funny example of some of the frustrating times all students in this class have had.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn was an interesting video that contained the opinions of a group of forward-thinking educators. They each shared their ideas on what was important in the future of education. Many of their ideas are a summation of what we have been learning and watching so far in EDM 310. The consensus was that education must be radically changed to meet the needs of a changing global job market. Each of the educators stressed the importance of allowing technology in the classroom.

I think this group of people made some valid points. For many job sectors in the future, simple right and wrong answers do not exist and continuing to test young people in this way is counterproductive. I also agree that a greater emphasis should be placed on creative expression in class work because much of what takes place now in a work environment requires out of the box type ideas.

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C4K Summary Post 1

The first student blog I commented on was from New Zealand if I remember correctly. He was a 2nd grade student, and his post was about whales. I commented that I had recently been to Alaska, and while I was there, I went whale watching. He had talked about the size of the whales, so I made sure to tell him that the ones I saw were every bit as big as he said they were

The final student blog I commented on in September was a class blog where the teacher posted for the students. The students gave the ideas for the posts, but the teacher actually posted them. The assignment that the teacher posted on was basically a simple lesson on statistics where students voted on their favorite places to eat. I commented on the fact that most of the students preferred sit down meals, which was quite surprising for elementary school kids. I also mentioned that I enjoyed the questions the students posed.

Blog Post 7

The Networked Student is a video directed by Wendy Drexler that attempts to explain the future of education and the future roles of educators. The video is really well done using simple drawings to illustrate the point. The Networked Student argues that as the 21st century progresses, students will become in charge of their own education more. Students will research topics and collaborate with experts and fellow learners from around the world to learn about an assignment. The students will be forced to problem solve on the fly and participate in a network of learners in order to complete assignments. After the bulk of the research and collaboration has been completed, the students will then create some type of project that details exactly what they learned. Parts of this assignment are up to the students, which could create more interest on their part.

The teacher will also play a much different role in this type of classroom according to the video. Teachers will be facilitators more than lecturers. They guide students on a learning path rather than specifically teach facts about something. When students run into a problem on their journey, the teacher is there to assist them and suggest some way to attack the problem. The teacher manages the progress of the class by staying constantly involved with student work rather than controlling the pace of the class through lecture.

I have mixed feelings about this type of classroom. I love the fact that the teacher does not constantly lecture facts to students leaving them bored and despondent, but the video may take things slightly too far. The video seems to imply that this type of assignment would be the only assignments in the class, and teachers would never actually teach anything about their area of study. They would simply facilitate and help students research more on the internet. The video may not mean for this to be the case at all, and if this was done a few times throughout a course, then I think it is an excellent way to approach the future of education. I still believe, however, that it is important for students to learn some basic tools and facts from teachers that are difficult to understand when simply researched on the internet. That is why I think something like the "flipped" classroom will probably resemble the future of education more than this.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment is a video of a 7th grade girl explaining her class structure. Her class is exactly like the "Networked Student" of the previous video. In her class, they do almost all of their work online and present it in the form of various digital projects. Her class resembles EDM 310 a great deal. Her class is a 7th grade science class where the students are learning about different types of animals. Much like EDM 310, her science class is a perfect example of the type of class that is conducive to a "networked" type classroom.

The journey through EDM 310 is constantly opening up new tools that we can use in our future as educators. Our PLN's will constantly grow until we have a great foundation for our own classroom.

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Blog Post 6

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch's last lecture is an extremely valuable and important lecture with an incredible amount of useful information and tips. He gave this lecture at Carnegie Mellon University before a number of people who were important to him. I've seen this video once before, and I learned even more from it the second time. He gives tons of good advice to people from any walk of life. Although some of the speech contains information about people who most of us have never heard of, he intersperses this information with incredible advice.

The brick wall analogy is one image that really stood out to me on this viewing of the lecture. Randy Pausch says brick walls in life are there to separate those who really want something from those who don't. This may seem like a typical statement about perseverance, but it really stood out to me. This analogy shows how important dreams are because without them a brick wall in life will be a spot to stop and settle. A dream is necessary to help us press on through the walls or obstacles in life and achieve something we really want.

The point he made that stuck with me last time and continues to stick with me in this viewing is that of the "head fake." A "head fake" is basically when a teacher tricks a student into learning something by disguising it in a fun activity. This can obviously be applied to any field of education and requires someone with belief in the good they can do to pull it off. I hope to incorporate fun into my classroom in any way I can because that is what I remember from my years in high school. I don't remember the teachers who taught information in a mundane fashion, and I don't remember what they taught. I remember the videos I made and the groups I worked in more than any information out of a book. A classroom can always use more "head fakes."

Randy Pausch was an inspirational man. The passion that he delivered this speech with really illuminated his zest for life. Even in his difficult battle with cancer, he maintained the demeanor of someone in a much better situation. Out of all the advice this speech gave that might be the most significant.