Blog Post #6

I have always suffered from anxierty with Public Speaking, it has gotten better with age, but it still affects me. I remember being in school and hoping the entire time the teacher was talking, that i would not get called on. If you asked me what the teacher was talking about, I would not know because I was too focused on being called on and giving an answer that was WRONG. As educators, we should stay away from this method. This helps with "burp-back education". It is not allowing the student to think for themselves, it just allows them to give an answer that is either right or wrong, even if it is one word. So, how can we avoid these types of questions?

In Joanne Chesley's video, She explains that opened ended questions are a lot more effective than closed ended questions. This allows the students to engage in discussion and better expand their mind on the material. A close-ended question allows the student to answer with a quick "yes" or "no", which can easily be a guess, so they are not learning as well. She has also mentioned that students are rather unresponsive in discussion without the open ended questions. Ben Johnson brings up a good point in his blog post: "as teachers, we really do not know everything", and he is correct! We need to let the students discuss their answer and their thoughts on how they came up with it. This creates a ripple effect which causes more students to get engaged in the material, and makes them more comfortable. So, when it comes down to asking questions in your classroom, I think it would be very wise to use the "three ways" provided by Martellen Weimer. Prepare Questions While creating or going over your lesson plans, think of ways to include all students in class discussion. Play with Questions. Leave your question unanswered for a while to see what your students come up with. Preserve good Questions Good questions can be kept, hold on to the ones that received great results. I believe that by using the tips and techniques listed above, we can steer away from the unwanted teaching style that many have encountered, and open a new way of teaching,that leads to better futures for our students!

Project #8

Walt Disney's Cinderella

This is my Sentence.....



This is my Passion...

Blog #5

Project #3

C4T 1&2

I was assigned dmlcentral for my required C4T's.

C4T #1 The first post I read was titled "Teaching Surveillance". This was about a teacher explaining to his student what digital tolls they would be using throughout the semester, and correct ways to keep them protected. One example he gives is "dropbox", saying that although it is useful, the company gives itself access to user files, so your material is not always "safe". He strongly encourages his students to back up their data. He explains that he wants to inform his students about all of the potential threats in digital media. Here is the comment I left him: Hello, my name is Miriah Grantham. I am an Elementary education student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I was assigned your blog for my EDM310 class, and it is very interesting to me. I like how you inform your students about the "safety" of their online documents. It always thrills me to read a blog and learn something in the process; You have just taught me things I had no idea about! I look forward to reading more of your posts.

C4T #2 This post was titled "Using Social Media for Women's Rights". This was about helping to protect women like a 23 year old Indian girl who was murdered due to sexual assault. Radhika Takru(manager of social media in Breakthrough, India) started a twitter account to get her voice out in the world about women's rights.She explains that social media is a very successful way to promote organizations to make the world better. Here's my comment:Hello! My name is Miriah Grantham. I was assigned your blog for my EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Al, USA. As I was reading your post, I stopped to follow @Bell_Bajao on Twitter, so I could be able to see this work for myself. What is taking place here is phenomenal. Using social media for women's rights is a fantastic idea, and a great way to support women like the 23-year-old physiotherapy student you mentioned. Being a woman myself, I really enjoyed your post.

Blog Post #4

Podcasting with First Graders

This post was about a first grade classroom making a podcast on the book they were reading. All of the studenst would take turns recording their voices reading a story,and help the teacher edit their readings afterwards. The children really began to come out of their shells by acting out the book

and adding expression to their voices. After all the students recorded their voices, they were very eager to hear the whole podcast put together. I think this was a fantastic idea by this amazing teacher. This allowed the students to gain listening and speech skills as well as social skills and boosting their self esteem. I would have never guessed that a first grade classroom would cooperate so much, and this definitely proved me wrong. This is something I am now considering doing in my future classroom.

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

In this video,we learned about some ways that podcasting could benefit your classroom. One of the examples was a teacher posting his lectures on iTunes. They used a little girl at home sick for an example.

The little girl tells her mother that she has an important test the next day, and does not want to miss the review, but the mother insists she stay home. Luckily, the girl was able to listen to her teachers' podcast and hear everything her classmates heard to be prepared for the test. Another way podcasting is benefical is by integrating it in your lessons. We are shown a video where a teacher is giving his normal lecture about a slave when all of a sudden a voice of an older lady surrounds the classroom and the students were able to fell her emotion. At the end of the video, students talked about podcasting in a very positive way, saying they like it and it keeps them interested. The principal of the school then mentions that it is wonderful for "project-based learning", and I agree.

Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting

In this post, students work together to make a podcast for the story of Purim. A Jewish teacher helped the students write their own parts in Hebrew to create a script. After recording individual parts, the students worked together to put the lines in the correct order to complete the story. Not only did they learn how to make an edit a podcast, they learned several personal skills as well. Such as, Listening, comprehension, speaking, and critical thinking, which is what this assignment was about. By having the students make and edit the podcast, they were using their brains to learn something they have never done before. This showed me that not only are podcasts useful in the classroom, they also help the children learn.

Blog Post #3

Peer editing is a great way to improve yours or another person's work. Your peers are surrounding you; they are the ones that are the same age as you, usually in your class. After looking at the Peer editing tutorial,I now know how to properly edit the writing of my peers. I know that I always need to stay positive, give complements, and make suggestions for corrections politely.

Now that I've watched the humorous video, Writing Peer Review TOP 10 mistakes, I know not only how NOT to give feedback, but also how NOT to receive the feedback. No one wants a Picky Patty or a Whatever William! Both of these assignments were very insightful and are something that I believe every teacher needs to know. Teaching this to our students will make them better writers!

While reading the blogs of my peers,I realized that they both have good blogs thus far. If i were to find a minor error, I would maybe announce it. If I were to find the error continuously repeated, I would email or text said peer. Peer editing is much different than editing the work of your students, because these are college students who are the same age as you, so the feeling of not wanting to offend, is increased. I believe that it is more appropriate at this time to tell your peers in a more private way, since we are so close to becoming professionals. However, I do not think you should ever not tell your peers about this mistake because all you are truly doing is helping their work, and it is appreciated.

Blog Post #2

Professor Dancealot By:Miriah Grantham, Michelle Detar, and Demetrius Hamner
Professor Dancealot is an entertaining short movie about a professor that teaches but doesn't let the students interact in the classroom.

This movie shows how a lot of professors work now days. This very much confused me because when teaching any class you should allow your students to put into action what was explained. I think it is impossible for a student to learn anything without actually attempting it on their own. How can someone learn something if they only hear how to do it? This is the kind of teaching that we as educators need to avoid. This teaching method, as we can see, is completely ineffective. When teaching your class, you should allow them to think for themselves and try things out so they can actually get a good grasp on it. This was a funny but sadly true movie on the downfalls of certain ways of teaching.


Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts By:Miriah Grantham
The video, Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts, found on edutopia, is yet another video that has seemed to amaze me. So many teachers, and just people in general, underestimate how smart these students really are.

Vicky Davis is a very inspiring teacher that allows the students to brainstorm and find the answers themselves. She unexpectedly throws out new terms to her class and expects them to find the definition themselves, which they successfully do. Three days into their internet project, her class was teaching her how to do things that she did not not how to do. The students really enjoyed the project, and they felt empowered when they used their own minds to find the answers. This inspired them to get involved with digi teen, which was an internet site where students all over the world would post blogs and videos and share them amongst each other. This is another example of how important technology is in a classroom. Like Mrs. Davis said, not every child can learn with a pencil and paper.


Teaching in the 21st Century by: Michelle Detar
In this Prezi turned video, Teaching in the 21st Century, some questions are aroused to make us think about what it means to teach in this day and age. Right now, we have so much technology available to us and very few know how to actually use it. Students have endless amounts of resources at their fingertips. Without us, the teachers, how can they know what is useful or not?

Teaching in the 21st century means having to be current with our knowledge on different ways to use technology as a teaching tool. It is up to us to teach them that sites like Wikipedia is unreliable when it comes to research, to show them how to properly utilize Google and all its functions, to teach them that Twitter and Facebook are not only their for entertainment, but can also be used for engaging educational purposes, and so much more. To teach in the 21st century, one must be technologically literate. Because of technology, future educators will have to know how to incorporate all forms of technology into their classroom. As technology changes and time progresses, so will teaching.


The Networked Student By:Demetrius Hamner
In the video, The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler, a lot of information is given on this particular “networked” student.This video, going into great detail on just how well connected this student is, amazes me on how well he uses all of his resources. Even though he doesn't have class as often. or a book, he utilizes the internet very well when completing his assignments. Connectivism, a theory that presumes that learning occurs as part of a social of many diverse connections and ties, is what his teacher goes by. Before watching this video I had never heard of this term, but in a way it put me in the mind of EDM310 since we are basically being taught in the same manner.

In my opinion, every student needs a teacher/professor at some point. Guidance is always needed, because, as a student, we are still learning. There is no way that we as students could completely do it ourselves. If we could learn everything on our own then what would be the point of us being in school? Exactly, there would be no point. The networked student’s teacher is there to be many things to her student: a learning architect, modeler, learning concierge, connected learning incubator, network sherpa, synthesizer, and change agent. All of which are very important. Without the teacher/professor being there for the student, there would be no way that he could do it alone. Her guidance was the key to all of the success he had as a networked student. Being able to build his own trail with reliable information isn’t something he learned to do overnight, it took time. This was a very informative video, and it gave good insight on the many ways this student stayed connected. Over time he would be able to build his successful, making his teacher very proud.