Blog # 6

In the first video provided Project Based Learning Part 1 Anthony Capps tells us that the crucial part of PBL is allowing the students to have the opportunities to revise and reflect on their work. Revising and reviewing is the key to an effective PBL system. What Anthony is saying is that by allowing the student to make their own mistakes and fixing them is the best learning tool that is learned through Project based learning.

In the second video Anthony states that us as teachers should never limit the students when it comes to creating projects to do to as a class. Limiting the students does not allow them to go above and beyond what you the teacher expects. PBL is revolved around a very powerful method that allows students to learn in a group setting and helps their developing mind think outside of the box and create different connections that they might not normally make otherwise. Allowing a student to have a choice on what they will be doing in the project based learning is also key, this allows for students to fully immerse in a topic of their liking and or interest.

In the video regarding icurio he explains how it is an online tool that allows students to safely search websites which also turns up results of audio and video that regard to the topic the student is searching. This website also allows for students to store their previously searched items into a library basically which allows them to return and access the previously searched items. This feature is important because it allows for the students to become organized and stay organized with their searching. This website also allows for searching of certain criteria and also has a directory feature that goes along with the historical features. A good thing about icurio is that it is all age appropriate, meaning that high school students can also find material that they need on this website.

Project #7 My Sentence Video

My Sentence

Blog # 5

I myself have never heard of PLN or Personal Learning Network before we were requested to blog on this subject matter. A PLN is something that allows one to interact with other people, enhance your thinking and also broaden your learning skills.
An example of a PLN could be Twitter. Twitter allows people to interact with one another on a social media platform. Just like any new social media platform it has to be learned, so it is not only allowing you to interact and create connections with people who have the same interests as you, it also helps with you having to learn how Twitter works. The use of hash-tags and be confusing or may seem silly to some, however this is how Twitter works and if you intend to use this form of social media then you must adapt and learn as you go.In the videos and websites provided for us to look at and gather information a couple stuck out as importance to me.
In the video Personal Learning Networks that can be found on one of the pages provided for our reading or watching it states that PLN's can and re developed every day by just conversing with someone about classroom assignments and or things discussed in the lecture that day or whenever. This is news to me because I discuss on a daily bases what is going on in classes with numerous classmates. This being said I had no clue I was starting the building blocks of creating my own PLN by just talking about school work, and past things learned.
In Michale Fawcett video he discussed how he created his own PLN by just conversing with fellow conference attendees who enjoyed the same things he did.He discussed his use of Twitter at the conference, and his choice to keep using Twitter once he returned home. Micheal's choice to keep using Twitter once home from the conference was a great idea because it allowed for his to build a bigger PLN with others who had the same interests as his own. This in turn allows him to seek help from other when he needs to by just a click of a button and a tweet to a fellow friend or colleague. Another great thing about Twitter is it allows us to interact with people around the world so if you have someone who is living in a different area than you are and you happen to be studying, or researching something going on in that area you can ask them and they will reply with no delay. This can d wonders with building bigger and bigger PLN's because this will help the diversity of the group grow and become that much stronger.
I myself have my own Twitter account I created this account in 2010, I have been taking a break from Twitter until recently. I myself did not have much time for Twitter when I had no need for it besides letting others know what I was doing that day/night. I know realize that using and having a Twitter is opening a door to many opportunities that can do wonders when creating my PLN. I might not have realized the true need for me to have a Twitter when I created it however I now understand that Twitter can and will help me out in the long run with my professional lifestyle.

Project # 3 Presentation

Project #15, Search Engines

WolframAlpha is a search engine that can compute math problems or allow you to search what you want. It is a very interesting search engine because it allows for one to caluclate tricky math problems and things of that sort.
Bing is also a search engine that I have used in the past, it allows for one to do searching just as Google or WolframAlpha would allow. It seems to me to be faster and have less adds to filter through verses Google.
AOL is a very popular search engine that many people use, I however did not really like it because it was very add ridden.
Yahoo is another search engine that I was not particularly a fan of because it caused my computer to lag and not work to its full advantage.
Ask Jeeves is a relatively okay search engine I had no bad things to say about it, however it was not my favorite.
DuckDuckGo is a rather nice search engine it created tons of results upon tying in a simple phrase I was interested about.
Lycos is another search engine that I seemed to have no problems with, it provided fast and quick responses to bring up my desired material.
Ixquick was the last search engine I looked at, it had no major problems to me besides I felt that it caused my computer to run slower than normal. It did provided good sources but I wouldn't trade a fast computer for good sources when I can find others.

C4T, Project # 1

The first blog focused around Sketchnoting was the topic of the first blog for my C4T it discussed a visual way of note taking that has gained popularity in conference attendees. Sketchnoting helps to makes ones thinking visual and sharable as the reader is reading a book or watching a movie clip. This is a conference that is open to educators who want to learn how to sharpen their abilities to listen more closely. There is no artistic abilities needed when learning how to sketchnote This is very interesting to read about, technology has come a long ways. Makes me wish I wish I was closer to where this is taking place because it seems like a very interesting event.
The second blog dealt with Now Literacies including digital, media, and global literacy this is preparing students for the changing occurrences that are taking place in our education world today. This is preparing students for a time when it doesn’t matter what they know but what they can do with what they know instead. Interesting to hear how you are preparing the students to the changing world we live in today, whether it be technology or changes in teaching and learning
I have provided the links to each blog below. Great PD Opportunity: Miami Device, is the first blog being discussed the second blog being discussed is The Now Literacies Through the Lens of Sharing.

Blog post #4

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher? This is the question we are supposed to answer in this blog. Asking questions to try and get some kind of reaction to what you the teacher is teaching about is always important. Without some kind of sign that the students are actually listing to you teach, teachers are going to often get flustered. We as teachers or soon to be teachers do not need to loose our cool when dealing with students, we need to take a step back and try to remember how we as students hated to answer questions, or be put on the spot. In the first article The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom, states that we as teachers need to understand we do not know everything, and also understand that the students are not completely clueless. Asking the students if they understand what was just discussed is not a way of trying to make a student feel inadequate if they do not understand, the question is asked to make sure there are no misunderstandings about what was just discussed. However if the student is confused about what was discussed how would they be able to word the question in an understandable matter? This can be combated by the teacher asking very focused in questions on what was just discussed instead of the normal does everyone understand question, the less broad a question is the more likely a question will be asked or better yet answered by the students. Other ways to insure the teachers questions being answered would be asking the question, waiting a few seconds and if no student volunteers then call on a student and get them to answer the question for you. This insures that the students are at least given the chance to answer the question on their own free will versus being called out, however if no student offers to answer than calling on a student is also acceptable. Those were just a few ideas that were listed that can improve the question asking and answering.
In the second article Asking Questions to Improve Learning, it states that teachers should refrain from asking two questions at once, because it can confuse the students and the teacher will be less likely to receive an answer because the students will or are unsure of which question to answer. If the teacher can refrain from asking two questions at once then it is more likely the students will respond positively to the teacher.
This article basically states that for a teacher to get an effective response they should stray away from leading questions, meaning that questions that formulate the answer which in turn gets answered but it stops the students from creating their own critical thinking process. The first two articles helped me formulate my own thoughts on asking questions in the classroom and provided me many helpful tips that I can and will use while I am a teacher. Some other links that can be used to get further reading on this subject are Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom, and a video that can provide help is Questioning Styles and Strategies. These are just a few other links that can proved more insight into what a teacher can do while trying to achieve students to respond when asked a question.

Providing Helpful Feedback to Your Peers

The video What is Peer Editing? Provides a great explanation of what exactly Peer reviewing is. It states that Peer reviewing should not be done in a way to bring someone down, but rather be done in a way to help your fellow classmates out while bettering their writing skills. The video provides three steps that should be followed when trying to give a successful peer review. Step 1. Compliments, complimenting one on the good points you found in their work is always something that should be done. It should be done because it makes the person under review feel as if the reviewer saw something positive in their work. Step 2. Suggestions, suggestions on what you feel would make for a better paper, or whatever is being under review is always welcome. However don't try to push your idea upon the person you are editing, they might not feel the same way as you do and it might just cause problems. Finally the 3rd step is Corrections, while looking and making corrections one should look for grammar, spelling, punctuation and other things that could hinder a paper grammatically and so on.

The slideshow on Peer Editing further touched on the three steps listed above. The three steps are very helpful because it is a written do's and dont's when editing another persons paper. The biggest thing that I took out of all the material we were made to watch was that complimenting, and staying positive were two of the most important things because it is so easy to get discouraged when someone is ripping or you as the writer feel they are ripping apart your hard work. Nobody likes to feel as if they are being ganged up on or that their work was not good enough, so by providing compliments and staying positive while giving a critique its almost as if you the critic are softening the blow of finding mistakes or problems with their papers. In the video Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes this video provides a funny outlook at all the ways one does not wan to encounter when peer reviewing. The video is meant to be funny however the content is not something that would be funny to deal with in real life.