The Changing Face of Technology

wr blogingbudys to day

This video “We Like Our Blogging Buddies: The Write Stuff with Blogging Mentors” tells about a study done by Patrick Lewis with the University of Regina. His Education major students blogged with first and second grader students in Kathy Cassidy's class. The students also communicated through Skype and met at the end of the semester.

Lewis found that there was a positive relationship for both the education students and the grade school students they were blogging with. The education students had more experience deciphering the made up spelling new language students use, while the grade school students had experience writing for an audience. The grade school students also learned quite a bit about punctuation.

los libros

My class survey was about my favorite hobby- reading books. I personally read a variety of genres and I was interested in which genres other students read.
The first question I asked was "Do you read books as a leisure activity?" Two of my readers responded with yes, and the third responded "When I have time."
The second question I asked was "What is your favorite book? Please tell why." One survey responder said their favorite book was Dear John. Another responder responded with a repsonse about a book called Texas Lucky: "This book is a romance but the characters are so stubborn that the impeding romance is so hillarious to follow! I also love this is takes place in a country setting." The third responder talked about their favorite series as a child, "My favorite would have to be Moreta from Anne Mccaffery's Pern series. I have fond memories of getting the series as a birthday gift when I was a child and my favorite character from the series was Moreta, the namesake of the book."
The third question on my survey was a list of genres to choose from. The first responder chose both Romance and Fiction. The second responder chose Romance, Western, Classic Literature, Fiction, and Non-Fiction. The third responder chose Text books, Sci-Fi, Fantasy. I thought it was interesting that only one of the students responded that they read textbooks.

Gluten free; Glutton worthy!

The most significant thing that I learned from making this video is how easy it was to make. I feel that making a video like this would be a useful tool in the classroom. I could create a link like this to visually explain point, or my students could create one as well. I made this video about making gluten free cupcakes because I come from a family with many food allergies. Many of my siblings are lactose intolerant, and my mom started a gluten free diet over a year ago. I very recently started learning how to eat gluten free. With today's pre-made foods it is hard to keep up with a diet if you have food allergies. I wanted to illustrate that it is possible to use pre-made and still make good diet choices.

Clever Cameron

This EduTopia video about a young man named Cameron has a lot of great ideas about how to incorporate technology in the classroom and school.

My most significant "takeway" from the video was the way in which the adults in Cameron's life understand that all they need to do is give him the supplies he needs, and let him go. Sometimes as an educator it is difficult to back away from "educating" and allow the student to soak information in on their own.

As a child I was homeschooled for most of my elementary and all of middle school years. My family used the "un-schooling" theory, which is basically a new name for John Dewey's Progressive Education Theory. Dewey's theory relates to the idea that learning should be child led. The child should choose what they want to learn, and in many ways how they want to learn it. I was very excited to see that the teacher's at Cameron's school were able to incorporate this very non-restrictive practice into the general classroom by referring to him, listening to his ideas, and incorprating them in the classroom.

I feel one of the greatest implications of this video is the fact that Progressive education can be incorporated into the general classroom. I hope that as an educator I will be able to back up and let my students learn as well as Cameron's educators have.

First day of class!

I am currently a Junior at the University of Central Oklahoma. I have recently been officially accepted to the Professional Teacher Education program. As an English Education major I plan to teach High School English students. I feel that education, and the love of learning, is the most important thing in the world. I hope that as a future educator I will be able to inspire young learners to feel the same way.