Last minute words!!

Thank you Ms. Averitt for such a great semester. I learned a lot of new things in your class and I will definetly be using them when I become a teacher.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday!!!

Blog Experiences

I took a look at Marlena Marsh's blog posts just because we have become really good friends throughout the semester and we had some of the same experiences blogging. First of all, through conversation we both have had we had found out that this was both of ours first time blogging and we had no idea what a blog was before we started this course. Secondly, we both learned about some new technology that will help us in the long run in our classrooms when we start teaching. Marlena and I both talked about how great this new technology is and the different softwares that are out are going to benefit us when we become teachers.

I really feel that blogs are going to be a great aspect for me when I become a teacher. I feel that there are pluses in using blogging in the classroom it will be able to keep the parents of my students and my students up to date to stuff we are doing and stuff that is going on in the classroom. It will also help them keep their children in line with homework and upcoming events/projects. I feel that blogs are going to great in the way that the parents wont have to dig through their child's backpack when they come home and hoping that they brought their homework home with them they will just be able to log onto the Internet and go to my website and find everything on it.

There are also going to be some minuses about blogging and the technology in the classroom. Some the concerns that I have for blogging is not all the families are going to have the Internet. So they will not be able to benefit from this technology. Also I have the feeling that since the students know that the information for the days lesson will be posted on the Internet they many often skip class more often.

Overall, I am very excited to be using blogging and the future technology in my classroom. I will take what I have learned from this course and utilize it in my classroom so my students will be able to benefit from it and learn different things.

Electronic Interaction

For my Electronic Interaction I contacted via email one of my old High school teachers from Mesa, Az. He teaches a Drivers Education class and is also the Varsity Girls Softball Coach at Red Mountain High School in Mesa, Az.

Here is our conversation via email:

Hey Coach Ham,
I have an assignment due in one my classes
that asks me to contact a teacher from a different state and carry on
a discussion/conversation about some aspect of technology and
education.

Here are some of the question I wil be asking you to
answer:
1. How is technology changing education now-a-days?

Technology is making it easier for teachers to make lessons more
relevant to students' every day lives.

2. Do you use technology in your classroom? If so, how?

Yes, I use technology on a daily basis. Sometimes I use power point
presentations with a proxima, dvd, videos, a driving simulation
program, etc.

3. Is there any technology that you wish you had in your classroom? If
so, what would it be?

Absolutely, a smart board would be great!

Thanks Coach Ham, If you could try and get this back to me before
Thursday December, 4th

Thanks again,
Kelsey Volz

Coach Ham's email back to me:
Glad to hear you are doing well. Be sure to come and see me when you are
in town.

Coach

My email back to Coach Ham:

Thank you very much Coach I really appreciate you helping me out. Good luck to you in the future and trying to get some more technology to try out. Soon every classroom will have all the technology any teacher could ask for!!!

Thanks again,
Kelsey Volz

What I learned!!!

I have found this class very helpful and informational. I have enjoyed every minute of it and learning about the different types of technology that can be used in a classroom today. Half of the things we had to do for this class I had no idea what they were or how they worked such as: podcasting, blogging, and the different technologies that are available for blind people. I never knew that I could use blogs in my classroom. I will be using blogging in my classroom since it is an easy way to keep in touch with students for assignments and just to let them know upcoming events and also to keep in touch with their parents and to inform them of what is going on. I had no idea before this class what podcasting was. I have learned a lot about it and it will be a helpful tool to use in my classroom for lectures so if students are not able to come to class they have some where to look and listen to the lecture of that day. I am hoping to be able to use some or even all of these technologies in my future classroom so my students have every opportunity to be successful in their educational quest. I really enjoyed this semester in this class and learning all the different technologies and how they work. There were a few flaws but nothing is ever going to be perfect. There are some suggestions I would like to let others do in the future for this class. First thing is for the podcasting presentation you need to practice a lot before the day of the presentation and it is not as bad as you think it will be don’t be nervous giving your presentation your pretty much talking to a microphone. Haha!! Second is for the ACCESS Lab assignment try and go as a class and not just a couple students going every other week. This will help the teacher be more consistent with what they are telling us.

This was a great semester!! Thank you Mrs. Averitt. I enjoyed having you as my teacher.

ACCESS Lab trip to MGM!!!

On November 21, 2008 Marlena Marsh, Kimberly Pierce and Myself went and visited Mary G. Montgomery High Schools ACCESS Lab in Semmes, AL. We interviewed Mr. Rose who is one of the Psychology teachers and the Director for the ACCESS Lab at MGM. Mr. Rose was very informative and gave some wonderful information about the ACCESS Lab and how it works and how it will affect schools in the future.

First, he started off telling us about the equipment that is required for the ACCESS Lab. The Kodak is the hub that plugs into a live internet connection that connects all the other schools in the area that have ACCESS. The Kodak is a touch screen device that sets and controls everything in the classroom. It allows the teacher to have control over the class and if the teacher were broadcasting a class then it would broadcast in different classes. IT can also call different schools and project to them called video conference. There is no need for a use of a microphone the teacher doesn’t need to have to raise their voice. The Elmo is another piece of equipment that Mr. Rose explained to us and it is document reader. By using, the Elmo it lets teachers work out problems and it is projected onto the T.V’s that in the classroom so the students can see what the teacher is doing and explaining to them.

Mr. Rose also talked with us about two different types of classes that are available. One is the web base class which is through ACCESS. It allows students to go online and login through ACCESS and do their work. It is equivalent to an online course. The second on is the IBC. This is when two different classes are being taught but by one teacher.

The last thing that Mr. Rose informed us about was the helpful internet sites. The first one he talked to us about was Kompozer. He told us that this was probably the best one to use and it was a free HTML. The second one was FTP Surfer which is also a free site. The last one was the most recent it is a new tutorial called “Hot Potatoes”. He suggested if he use any of these internet sites to use this one.

He also told us that there were 120 teachers at the schools and maybe five know about the technology of ACCESS. Mr. Rose has been teaching for 25 years and this is his second year doing ACCESS and he sounded to be very informative and that he wants to try and get every teacher using this piece of technology.

Duke University-The Center for Documentary Studies

I watched two podcasts which were “The South In Black and White” and also the film “Broken.” I felt that these two podcasts were very educational but both in different ways.

The first podcast I watched was “The South in Black and White” this was a very interesting podcast since in one of my classes I am taking we have been talking a lot about this kind of stuff. This podcast discussed how the history of racism is incorporated into literature and other arts at Hayti Heritage Center. The class is going to be discussing different controversial topics and how to deal with race these in today’s society. They talk about different goals that will help improve the racial issues. Each student has to share what their point of view is and how it got them where they are today. During this podcast I saw that the Duke Lacrosse team incident was mentioned many times and it happened to be viewed as an opportunity to start the discussions about race and how to educate people.

The second podcast I watched was “Broken” which was a HIV educational video from South Africa. This one was a little more disturbing to me then I expected. This podcast is about a girl who gets raped by her father and chastised by her mother. She has no way around this which is very sad. She can not talk to her parents about what “another parent” does because then she gets blamed for lying and has to deal with the pain and torture she goes through. The purpose of this video is to inform the public eye about the abuse that many children suffer and go through. This was a hard video for me to sit and watch it was very sad to see what this girl was going through.

Our very own podcast!!

First off I would like to say that I thought everyone did a great job doing the podcast especially since it was a first for many of us. There will always be improvement no matter what. I could not listen to my podcast since it was has not been downloaded to the internet yet. But I do remember a few things that I could have fixed for my self; first of all I was really nervous for a reason I am not sure, and secondly I had a few mess ups that I could have fixed by talking slower and gathering more thoughts before I spoke. I thought Crystal Powell’s and my podcast should have been more conversational and not just a bunch of thoughts from one person.

The first podcast that I watched was Susan Smith, Bridget Thompson-Hall and Angela Minish discussing ALEX and ACCESS, two new programs of the Alabama Department of Education. I felt that this was a very well in-depth podcast but I feel that it could have been more conversational which would have made it more interesting to listen to. There were a few bumps in the road but they are easy ones to fix for the next time. Great Job Ladies!!

The second podcast I listened to was Rachael Beaty, Keller Weathers, and Joye Wiggins discussing some of the blogs they have found being used in schools in the United States. They provide details about how the blogs are used and how they might be helpful to other teachers using, or planning to use blogs, in their classrooms. This was the first podcast of the night and I felt they started us of to a very good start. In this podcast I liked the conversational style I just think they should have used it a lot more. I also think the “um’s” need to try and be cut out. Maybe instead of saying “um”, pause for a second for regrouping your thought. This was a great podcast nice job ladies!!

The last podcast I listened to was Ashley Corley, Brooke Busby and Kimberly Pierce discussing their experiences in blogging and share their ideas on how blogs can be used in the classroom. Again I feel that these ladies could have had a more conversational style instead of just reading straight from what they had written and read off the paper. That being said great job!!

Last but not least I would like to let everyone know that we all did an awesome job and there will always be room for improvement. Keep up the great work and good luck to you all in the future.

Mathematics with Technology

In these two podcasts Judy Chandler who is a mathematic teacher and technology integration speacialist for the Maine Learning Technology. Judy states that teachers should think about how technology is not needed from when studying math, but not to get me wrong it is a great source of information. By using technology is lets students get a different picture of how to use math is different ways. Technology is also a great skill for critical thinking. This allows students to get answers a different way and also by looking at all the different angles and be able to come up with a systematic answer based on their critical thinking skills.

Judy is trying to provide free resources that can be available to teachers and also discussing ways that technology can benefit students. I feel that technology is an important tool and students should be able to learn how to use in the classroom. By knowing how to use different technologies can help you out a lot in the world today.

Growth vs. Fixed Mindsets

The Growth vs. Fixed Mindset is a podcast that is done by a Psychology Professor Carol Dweck at Stanford University. As Carol explained how the student’s mindsets, either if they are fixed or by growth it affects their performance with academics. Carol did an experiment on students and split them into groups of fixed mindset and growth mindsets. Those students that were in the fixed mindset group were the students that become more visibly intelligent and the students in the growth mindset group were the ones that were taught how to take in information and store it. Professor Carol stated “That by telling people that their minds work as a muscle and the more you use it the more it will grow and get stronger just like if you were to work out the more you work out the stronger you will be.” A lot of people have a good chance of believing in them-selves and get better at things.

I can see by using this information in my classroom being helpful to me since I am going to be working such young kids. The kids are still going to be learning a lot and trying to take in all sorts of information and trying to understand everything. But I am going to do whatever it takes for my students to understand everything even if it takes a couple tries of just sitting down and learning the material until they truly understand it and I see that they understand the material.

WGBH- "A Night in the Coral Reef"

I watched the “A Night in the Coral Reef” it was really interesting. It talked about the different fish that live in the coral reef. It also talked about which fish and sea creatures came out during the night time and which one went into hiding so they didn’t get eaten. Only the plant eating fish stay out during the night and then they go into hiding and during the night the flesh eating fish come out and try and find stuff to eat. The night fish hang out at the sea bottom looking for food.

When I was in elementary school we had a different topic we learned about just about every month. One of my favorite topics was learning about the sea and the different types of fish. I always found learning about ocean was very interesting and I really want my students to have the same opportunity to learn about the ocean as I did.

I will definitely use this video and others in my classroom to share with my students. By watching this video it has a lot of wonderful information for young children and even adults to pick up on and learn many different things.

Edutopia Videos

The first video that I watched was “The Edible Schoolyard.” This is a program that teaches junior high school students the origin of their food and how to prepare it. It also shows them how a garden relates to other subjects that they have learned about. This video helps students to get a better understanding of environmental concerns and the value of hard work. This program also allows the teachers to teach different subjects to the students such as: math, science skills which teach them in a new way which helps them excel in the things they do.

The second video I watched was “A Night in the Global Village.” Which is located in Perryville, AR. This Village is ran by the Global Gateway Program, in which is dedicated to ending hunger, poverty and creating sustainable development in the poor countries. This pod cast talks about how kids were taking a 5-acre ranch and divided into groups and had to stay the night living how the poor do. Each group is given a very insufficient amount of supplies and they have to trade with the other groups in order to be able to cook their own meals. The next day, they have to do chores and then it is time to tell what they experienced the night before as they lived one night how the poor do.

I found the first pod cast very interesting and maybe something I could actually use in my classroom and have the students plant a garden and keep up with it and have them measure the each week and see the growth and in the plants. This would help my students get involved in the cultivating process.

The second pod cast would be interesting to take a group of wealthy students to a ranch and have them live one day in the shoes of a poor individual and see how it feels like. These days kids don’t realize what they have they take things for granted.

Accessible for All Presentation

On October 2nd our EDM 310 had the opportunity to have a wonderful guest speaker Mr. Sullivan come in and talk to us about “Accessibility for All.” Mr. Sullivan was very knowledgeable about what he talked to us about. I found his speech very interesting and I learned about a lot of technology that I have never heard of before. He also brought some of the technologies that he was talking to us about. One that really stands out to me was the keyboard thing with Braille at the bottom of it. I am not sure of the correct name. Deaf and Blind people can do all of the same things the seeing and hearing people can just with some modifications.

I will take what I have learned from Mr. Sullivan’s presentation and use it in my own classroom. I also learned from this presentation that you need to make all your websites accessible for everyone

Alabama Virtual Library

The Alabama Virtual Library which is also known as AVL. This is a great resource that students, teachers, and citizens of Alabama can use online access to essential library and information resources. This is a website that can be accessed either at school, or even at home once you go to your Public Library Branch and get a user name and password. Through the AVL, there is a reasonable core of information sources that are available to every student and citizen of Alabama, which is helping raise the level of excellence in schools and communities across the state.

This site has many databases where you have the opportunity to research different journals, magazines, and newspaper articles. When looking at this site you will see many helpful links such as news, campus, home,and frequently asked questions etc. These links contain information that helps the user better understand the usage of AVL. If you click on the campus tab you will be able to look up a book, or any other material you want to search for.

After research AVL I have found a lot of very interesting things that one day I could use in my own classroom for my students. I believe that this site will help my students understand how to search and find different things through libraries

PoDcAsT

The first podcast I listened to was smartboard lesson 146. The podcasters were Ben Hazzard and Joan M. Badge. They were very funny and energetic which made it fun to listen to also the music at the beginning was a good attention getter. This podcast was about clouds, stars, and saints. They say saints elevated above us and the clouds were sheltering us from the stars. For the first five minutes of this podcast they talked more about their lives and later in the podcast they talked about the white board challenge. This sounds more like talk radio to me and I am not to fond about listening to talk radio.

The second podcast I listened to was Connect Learning Episode 99. Again the music was a good attention getter. David Wallack was the podcaster talking with Ann Krembs the Libranian for the school in Boomba, India. David asks Ann how to describe her virtual library web page. Ann talks about how she got 3 students together to help her design the web page. She wanted the students to be able to take the physical library and put it onto the virtual library web page. Ann and the students wanted the virtual library web page to look some what similar to facebook since alot of students used facebook. This podcast had a good flow but it was kinda hard for me to understand and hear what the podcasters were talking about because there was alot of background noise. So I know now when I do my podcast assignment to make sure there isnt any noise in the background that could distract the listener from hearing.

The third podcast I listened to was EdTechTalk. Yet another great attention getter but it was very difficult for me to comprehend what the podcasters were talking about because they were talking really fast and it seemed like they were talking to close to the microphone so it sounded more like mumbling to me. This podcast was about welcoming conversations. It discussed the role of parents in education and how the parents and teachers should be involved in their child/students activities.

The fourth podcast I listened to was MacBreak Weekly. To me this sounded like a news channel. It featured four gentlemen that talked about a variety of things such as: camreas, economic and politically stuff.

Before listening to these podcasts I had no idea what they were I thought they were going to more like movies. Now I know what I need to do when I do my own podcast assignment. I learned some negative things which not to do and some really good tips to use during my podcast assignment.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture is very inspiring. This is my third time watching it and I really enjoy it and it teaches a lot each time I have watched it. As he begins his lecture he is very upbeat considering his condition and what he has to look forward too. Throughout his lecture he talks about his childhood dreams, and the fundamentals that he learned as a child helped him build his outlook on life. Randy talks about his life and some of the lessons he has learned throughout his life. One thing I found interesting was how he said “we can not change the cards we are dealt, just how we play them.”

Randy shares many of his childhood dreams and what he learned from them. I like how he talks about learning to work harder for the things you want most. This implies to me a lot since I am an athlete and I work hard on everything I do and it pays off. As we dream we will come to some difficult things. Randy refers back to “brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.” Don’t let obstacles hold you down - keep finding ways to get better and never give up. As we become teachers we will see many students give up on things and we need to step in and tell them to keep going and things will always get worse before they get better so just keep fighting.

During his lecture he points out what it takes to become successful. Never forget the people that help us along the way. We all need help to succeed in life. Learn to tell the truth, be honest, admit your mistakes and don’t be selfish. Learn to respect authority while always questioning it in your mind to learn why. As Randy was going through his life he said to always have fun. You need to be able to teach people to believe in you, build trust and confidence in your abilities. Listen to your critics – they are outside looking in. Hold your tongue and just work harder and don’t complain. Always be prepared. Everyone has a good side.

In conclusion, this lecture was mainly for his children because he might not be around to tell them what he wants as they are growing up and to live their dreams.
Be good at something – don’t waste your life it could end at anytime.

International class blogs

Jody Hayes- Our Lady of Lourdes School- A school of 10 and 11 year old kids in New Zealand.

As i viewed Jody's blog I saw that it was some what different from the blogs that I had looked at from the teacher's in the U.S. On her blog she has some related links on the left hand side of the screen and on the right side of the screen there is a list of her students names. In the middle she has some posts that talk about what age the students are that she teaches and where they are from, she also talks about what it takes to be an effective leader. There is another post that talks about what the students are going to learning about in Term Four. Which is going to be "Fragile Earth"( the picture above is a photo of "fragile earth". As I was looking over Jody's blog it seemed to me that this blog is probably going to be more of for the students parents since the students are so young.

http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1638

Tracy- Nelson Central School in Nelson, New Zealand.

Tracy's class opened with 13 students in February and as the year went on more and more students joined her class. While I was looking at Tracy's blog it was very informative and said alot about what the kids have and are doing throughout the year. The kids had done a "writing instructions" week. Also, Tracy has some other posts of the students doing the cross-country thing at their school. Tracy also has some posts of a trading project that she had her students do. Each student had a bag of 4 identical items and they had to trade among the students in their class to get 4 different items. I thought Tracy's blog was pretty interesting and showed alot of what the students engaged in what they were learning at school.

http://roomelevenncs.blogspot.com/

Blogs in the U.S

Ms. Copley's 5th grade class at Randolph Elementary School-

As I was looking over Ms. Copley's blog for her 5th grade class that provides some really awesome resources for her students. The majority of her blogs provide what the students have done throughout the school year so far. For example, Ms. Copley posts blogs of the students when they were doing their measurement activities. On her blog she also posts the spelling words that the students need to be studying for their test. Last but not least she even posts "Things to Remember" for both the students and parents.

http://blogs.glnd.k12.va.us/teachers/lcopley/

Matthew Wilson- Teacher and Robotics Coach at Gochland High School

While I was previewing Mr. Wilson's blog I saw that he teaches phyics and geometry. His blogs have a lot of information either that he has posted or that his students have sent him for others to look at. Mr. Wilson puts blogs up that have to deal with information for the whole week. He also has a post where students can look to get help if they need it. Mr. Wilson also has some posts about Robotics that he coaches and what their schedule is.

http://blogs.glnd.k12.va.us/teachers/mwilson/category/robotics/

ACCESS

Access stands for Alabama connecting classrooms, educators and students statewide. This helps allow those students of lower income to get a good edcation and able to get the diploma they always wanted. It provides students with either web or video interaction. Through this type of technology students have the opportunity to take more advanced course electives, which therefore prepare them for higher education. This program also allows students to preview something if they dont understand it from learning it the first time, this allows them to understand the material alot better. Today there are 188 Access classrooms available to all students who attend a Alabama public high school.
Access is a great way to let students broaden their horizon and learn more. The vision of Access is to provide a quality instruction throughout distance learning. I think Access is a great opportunity for students and it should if not already be available for students across the country.

JuSt SoMe PiCtUrEs!!!

Just thought I would add some more pictures this is my Junior College Softball after we won Nationals (5th straight year in a row)











This is my boyfriend and I!! He lives in Arizona still =[













This is my nephew.. He is the cutest baby lol!!

ALEX

The Alabama Learning Exchange also known as “ALEX” is a website lets teachers access the resources they need to be helpful to them while teaching. This website provides many resources for studying for all grade levels (K-9). When you go to the website you can have eight different categories you can click on either for a certain course of study, web links, lesson plans, search, personal workplace, professional learning, distance learning and help. On this website you can also find all these eight different categories for all the grade levels. The professional learning option that you can choose it takes you to different states websites that will aid in professional development. ALEX is a neat tool that allows teachers can implement in their own classroom on a daily bases. I think this is a wonderful site for teachers to find work to help them in their classrooms especially if you are a new teacher you can get lots of ideas from this website.
http://alex.state.al.us/index.php

Google Presentation!!!

In my Google presentation I am going to talk about me and my family and stuff that has happened in my life that would be interesting to my classmates.

All About Me!!! =]

My name is Kelsey Volz. I am from Mesa, Arizona. I am a Junior I transferred from Phoenix College where I was on the Women's Softball team. We won two National Championships. You all are probably wondering why I came South Alabama well the reason is because I got a scholarship to play softball. I have really enjoyed my time here so far. I have never been somewhere where it rains so much hahahaha..

Good luck too everyone during this semester!!

Welcome Classmates

Hello all,
My name is Kelsey Volz. I am a Junior at South. Good luck to all this semester!!