Project #5

This is my google presentation about my travels. I hope you enjoy!

C4T #1 Summary

In C4T#1 I was assigned to "What Ed Said" Blog. The first post I commented on was titled, "What do you believe about learning?" In this post she told us a story about a student, "A." "A" was a bright student but since he had a late birthday his school would not let him advance on, which I found to be completely ridiculous. Also, in this post she told us about her flexible learning style school. Her school is a K-3 school but the way the school divides up the students is very different. The students  are divided up into mixed age groups, ability groups, and interest groups. Overall, I found her school to sound very interesting and I look forward to hearing more about it through Twitter. The second post I commented on she had posted a video, which I have posted above. First in my comment I told her that I really enjoyed the video and that I thought it was very inspiring. Second, I told her how I planned on using the video in my class someday. In addition to the video she posted her factors of resilience. In her list of the factors of resilience I found that modeling persistence to be the most important and that in addition to modeling flexibility I think that we should also teach flexibility through other methods.  The What Ed Said blog was great.

Blog Assignment #2

                                               "My niece Edy sitting up in her Boppy"


Did you know?Well overall the video was very “eye opening.” However, after the conclusion of the video I was left wondering whether or not the facts were authentic because at the end of the video there was not any indication of where the statistics came from. Yes, I know that the video stated that it was researched by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod but I what to know how they came about their results, if their research was legitimate, and who else was involved in the research yet the video did not offer any of this information. Consequently, I had to look up the researchers to find out more information about them and to see for myself if they seemed reliable. In the end I verified that Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod were in fact educators from the U.S. and were reliable sources.
After verifying the results, universally the video demonstrated to the viewer how technology is such a significant part of our lives. The video also showed the viewer how far technology has advanced just in the past few years. In addition, it showed the viewer how fast technology is changing and how it greatly affects the children of the world. Yet even though technology is advancing so rapidly the students in America are at a standstill, whereas, students from other countries are advancing with technology. In this competitive world the fact that American students are at a standstill is unacceptable. In order for the American students to compete society must change the way it thinks of schools and technology. As Americans we must advance the technologies in our classrooms and put a higher emphasis on the importance of education in order for our children to be successful.

Mr. Winklle WakesMr. Winkle Wakes representation of how far technology has advanced in general and has not advanced in classrooms was ludicrous. Yes, I understand technology has not advanced as much as it should in the classroom but we do not live in the Stone Age which is how the video depicts our classrooms. We do have smart boards and computers in many of our classrooms. In addition, our teachers are implementing these technologies, if available, into their teaching methods and curriculum. The old traditional way of teaching, standing in front of the classroom and lecturing, is fading away. Teachers are using different teaching styles to teach the traditional subjects in a new way.
In spite of this I do understand that technology is not advancing as fast as everyone would like. However it is a work in progress, many of our experienced teachers were not initially trained in these technologies but they are being trained now. In addition, educational curriculum for up and coming teachers has made a major shift in the past few years. Teachers are now being trained in these technologies; teachers are learning to initially put the usage of these new technologies in their curriculum. Moreover, the main reason why technology is not advancing rapidly enough in our classrooms is because of finances. This country does not put enough emphasis in education. Therefore, more often than not our education system does not receive enough money to pay for things like textbooks much less smart boards in every classroom.


Ken Robinson says schools kill creativityKen Robinson says schools kill creativity was very insightful. I strongly agree with Ken Robinson statement that “creativity is as important as literacy.” However, even though creativity is essential our education system does not do enough to motivate student’s creativity. It was very interesting when Mr. Robinson explained that the educational hierarchy is the same worldwide science and math come first then the humanities then the arts are last. In order to prepare our children to become well rounded adults and productive members of society we must change this hierarchy. As a teacher, I will implement the arts to the best of my ability into the core subjects.
In conjunction to bringing in more of the arts in the classroom, we also must put an end to people who are disheartened or belittled because they do not excel in academics. Children must understand that there are many types of talents. For example, Mr. Robinson told the story of the choreographer of Cats and Phantom of the Opera and how as a child she was taken to a doctor because her teacher suspected a learning disability. However, after talking to the doctor for a while the doctor and the parent stepped out of the room, but before they left the doctor turned on the radio. The doctor shut the door then turned to the parent and said “Just watch her. She’s not sick, she’s a dancer…,” this story was shameful to teachers. Her teacher suspected a learning disability just because her talents did not lie in the traditional academia area. As a teacher, I will celebrate all of my students’ talents not just the talents that lie in academics.

Cecelia Gault interviews Sir Ken RobinsonThe dropout rate comparison between the U.S. and Finland is deplorable. Also, the fact that the number one country in the world education system is so poor is ridiculous. Our society needs to come together to change this, we must act now before it is too late. If we do not act soon our children are going to fall so far behind that they will not be able to catch up and in this competitive world a good education is crucial. As cliché as it sounds our children are our future so, for our future to be success our children must be too and our children cannot be successful without a proper education. Society must change its view on education. Also, I agreed with Sir Robinson statement that there needs to be a better balance between art and science.
If I had a student like Cecelia Gault I would encourage her creativity, let her use the available technology, and let her research subjects, as appropriate, that she finds interesting.


Harness Your Students Digital SmartsVicki Davis is a very innovative and creative teacher. I really liked her teaching method. I liked how she let the students be the teacher. I also liked how she was using new technology and learning with the students as opposed to learning it herself first then teaching the students. Having a collaborative learning style classroom was very interesting. There was only two problems to this video realistically this would be very difficult to implement into my classroom first due to the fact that not every classroom has this much technology. In addition, these methods are mainly for secondary level students so it would be difficult to implement these methods in my elementary classroom.
Overall the thing I liked most about this video is that Vicki Davis was not the traditional style teacher. She used modern technology in her classroom; she taught things in a more creative away, and the most interesting thing was that she approached learning differently.

Project #2

Blog Post #1

Eden "Edy" Claire Harshman, my niece

I was born and raised in Mobile. I have one sibling, a sister, Nicole who is ten years older and married to Andy Harshman. They have been married for four years and live in Tuscaloosa. They recently had their first baby, Eden a.k.a Edy. Eden Claire Harshman is an adorable baby girl who was born 8lbs 7oz on December 1^st.  My niece is a big part of my life and I go to see her and spoil her as much as I can, she is everything to me. When I am not in Tuscaloosa visiting my niece I am in Mobile going to class and working.  I am a nanny for The Scaturro family and there are three childern in their family Grant, 4, Makienzie a.k.a Maki, 6 and Jordyn, 12; i love my job.  I also enjoy  traveling in my free time for instance last year I went to Universal Studios and New Orleans, the year before I went to New York, and the year before that I went to Italy.

When applying for colleges USA was never my first choice in schools but after my first semester here I fell in love with the school so I decided to stay. I stayed because USA had everything I wanted in a school for instance, the classes are not too big but also not too small either and I have never had a professor who did not know my name. I chose education because many years ago I decided that no matter what career path I chose I wanted to work with children. Then, in high school I worked at a daycare for four years which is where I found out education was the right career path for me. I am an elementary education major but I plan to get my graduate degree in History in hopes of having a wider range of jobs available to me after graduation. I hope to attend The University of Alabama for graduate school because it has such a good history program.  

Practice Post

My first post.