Final Report of My PLN/PLE

PLN: Personal Learning Network; PLE: Personal Learning Environment.
I'm very selective as to what and who I include in my PLE/PLN, but I am still open to websites to expand my Network, if you have any suggestions, I am willing to check them out!

Tools:
YouTube
Twitter
CoolToolsForSchool
Google
Google+
Google Reader
Discovery-Web 2.0 Tools
Prezi
iTunes Store
Hudl
SmartTech
ThinkQuest
Facebook
BuildingAPLN
Go2Web20


Other People:
Evan Bailey's Blog
EdTechPost
Jarrod Robinson
Laura Holifield

Blog Post #13

     This weeks blog post has been a hard one to complete for 2 simple reasons: finals are just around the corner, and the very nature of this assignment. The assignment is as stated: "Do not use any electronic (powered by electricity or batteries) entertainment or communications device (except a land line telephone or in the course of your employment) for 24 consecutive hours. If you break this activity by using a banned device, you must start the activity over again. After the third attempt (or a successful conclusion, whichever comes first), write a post in which you describe the outcome of the activity; discuss its difficulty for you; specifically identify what made the activity difficult (or easy); discuss the help (or interference) by others and identify those others and their relationship to you; reflect on what you learned about the media and about yourself as a result of the exercise. Finally, reflect on what your students will be like when they arrive in your classroom after living lives filled with media and no 'e-media fasts.'"

     I've been trying to get this done, but it's been challenge on a few different levels. The first of them being that all of the classes notes (particularly this one) are on the internet. I can easily recall multiple occasions when I have chosen not to use such electronics for a period of time greater than a day, but mostly all of the instances that I can remember I have been intentionally "off the grid" and isolated myself to get closer in my relationship with my God. It's easy to do when you put yourself in such situations because you're in the mindset and the atmosphere/culture/newly created society that doesn't implore the use of electronic devices...at least for a few days or a week. Sometime's even a month or more. I personally don't see how people can fully isolate themselves away from the world, they're missing so much awesomeness! *Yes, awesomeness is a word, the spellchecker just said so.*

     I believe that even if technology weren't so heavily integrated into our school's curriculum that this assignment could still be quite hard for many many people, including myself. We as american citizens reap the highest quality life that this world has to offer, and we're always looking for something else to do, why? Because we hate being bored. However, since we have all the amazing accessories that we do, such as iPods, iPads, iPhones, MacBooks, and portable video gaming devices, we never have to worry about that awful feeling of boredom. There are so many material objects that have been created over the years that have influenced the evolution of American society and the meaning of living in the world today. Technology has made itself a near necessity in this world.

     This brings me to my final objective: "Reflect on what your students will be like when they arrive in your classroom after living lives filled with media." As stated before, the very purpose of this class is to enlighten the students of the significance of technology and how to successfully incorporate tech into the educational experience, which kind of goes hand in hand with "what is the significance of being an Educator compared to a teacher". As an educator, encouraging students to be life long learners is one of my responsibilities and is an easily attainable goal with the application of technology in the classroom. With that being said, and knowing my chosen career path, I'm not exactly sure how much technology will be utilized in my classroom, but I have a pretty good feeling that when it is, it will most definitely be a fun, enjoyable hands on learning experience.

Project #15 - SmartBoard Instruction Part 2

C4T# 4

C4T# 4 Part 1
So, I have been assigned to Mr. Robbo's Blog for the final C4T for this class. I have been subsribed to his blog for many weeks now, possibly a month and a half. His real name is Jarrod Robinson and he teaches PE in Victoria, Australia and he also is well trained in Information Technology and has done many many many wonderful things for the PE teachers all over the world. Here is how you can find Mr. Robinson:
email at jarrodro@gmail.com
Twitter – mrrobbo
Blog – http://mrrobbo.wordpress.com
Website – http://www.mrrobbo.com
Skype – robbo6486
Delicious – Robbo64

Mr. Robinson has been blogging since at least November of 2008. The blog post I read,Great Web Tools for Health, Exercise & Actiity, was very informational (just like I'm sure all of the other's are). Over the past couple of months he has been looking for "websites that help to visualise, mashup and track health and exercise." There are 2 that I am particularly interested in.
First One There Wins

This application enables people to set up races via Google Map. The web service then tracks all runs that the competitors complete and the first person to complete the designated total is considered the “first one there” and the winner. How about challenging a friend on the other side of the world to a virtual race between two famous landmarks.





earndit.com works like a rewards point system. It enables the user to earn real prizes and has incentives for the activities you complete. Just have to connect your runkeeper, foursquare, Nike+, Garmin and/or other services to earn your points. Once you have earned enough points, you can redeem your reward from an extensive and ever growing list. But of course you have to be a member.

C4T #4 Part 2
Today I went back to Mr. Robinson's blog and read his latest post entitiled "Top ‘Apps’ For PE Teachers – Part 13." What this post explains is the use of more apps. There are 7 apps in this post: PE Games, Video Coach, SnapGuide, Video Pix, iCoacher, Great Coach AFL, and AFIT for iPad. All of these apps can be used in a PE Classroom or for coaching and can be very useful tools!
I did end up leaving him a comment, it said something like this: Hi, it's me again. A few questions came to mind: How do you find these apps? Where do you look for them? How do you know where to look? Is it just one website? Do you have a database? Just wondering because I'd like to search for them too.
...I eventually figured out that most of these apps are from the iTunes store.
And I believe this concludes my very last C4T for this class! Thank you for reading!

Blog Post #12 - Create Your Own Blog Post Assignment

***Instructions: "Create an assignment for a Blog Post I should have created in your area of speciality (math, history, elementary ed, special ed, whatever). Write the instructions that I should have put here. Then do it."

My area of "specialty" is Physical Education (NOT) Physical Activities.

***My instructions to Project #12
     Instructions: Think very hard and creatively on why and how Physical Education classes and not just Physical Activity classes are important in the school system. You may use any resources you can find. The goal is this: you are in a scenario in which the school system is trying to get rid of "Physical Education" (physical activity) classes and your job is to persuade the school board why they couldn't be any more wrong than they already are. Put together a presentation from any visual aid presentation tool such as:
--Prezi:
--Your very own Video with some formatting from iMovie,
--*PrezentIt:
--*SlideRocket: A revolutionary new approach to communications designed from the start to help you make great presentations that engage your audience and deliver tangible results.
--*Vuvox: Music video app.
--*Zoho: The online tool for making powerful presentations. Whether you are a professional, a teacher, a student, a businessman, a salesman or anyone looking to put together a cool presentation, you have come to the right place. Zoho Show's pre-built themes, clipart and shapes coupled with features like drag-and-drop makes it an easy application to use.
--Empressr: The rich media presentation tool. Tell your story anyway you like. Add photos, music, video, and audio, and share it publicly or privately in an instant
--OneTrueMedia: We took this one for a try this week – definitely easier to use than Vuvox (but I was also a little dissapointed by some of the limitations in the free version).
--SlideShare: A very popular tool for sharing Powerpoint presentations and more, online, or embed them in your blog or website.
--Glogster: A different way of expressing things, yourself, and viewpoints.
--*Vcasmo: A multimedia presentation solution for personal photo-video slide show, business presentation, training, academic teaching, sales pitching, seminar.
     Before making your decision on what presentation tool to use, I recommend searching through CoolToolsForSchools; try not to use the lame, boring routine PowerPoint Presentation. Then compose an article that goes into depth as to why the school boards is wrong and explain all the benefits you can think of for PE classes. When you run out of ideas search the web again and look for some more reasons to use in your document. This document should be substantative and as professional as possible. Upload your presentation to YouTube and attach the document as the "description" part of the video.
     If done successfully, your paper and presentation should provide inspiration and motivation while captivating the attention of your audience (the school board and others who oppose PE in school) and persuading them to not just void there motion, but to put more resources into the Physical Education department. Be sure to properly credit your sources for any and all of the information you borrow. I want you to be as creative as you can, within proper reason. If you want, you can use green screens, iMovie, or other tools that you have used in EDM310 already.




***My assignment of Project #12 (Note, I have not created my visual presentation yet, this is just the Document).

To the School Board,
     Right now I am a second year student at the University of South Alabama, located in Mobile, Alabama. During my years in high school and throughout my tenure in college, I have heard time and time again that the School Board has suggested removing Physical Education classes from the Public School System curriculum. I believe it would be wise for both parties to openly express and communicate our thoughts to reach a proper conclusion to this troublesome dilemma.

     My first motion is for us to take a step back, together, and go back to the drawing board. Yes, I think that the curriculum itself, the way it is now, is a main source of the problem we are facing here today. In a class I took at South Alabama, EDM310, I learned what it means to be an educator, and not a teacher. My entire outlook on what it meant to be a teacher was transformed because of this class. Being involved with the school system, in any way, is not a responsibility to be taken lightly. Education is not a joking matter, it should be a job that people are proud to be apart of. With that said, we all should be as professional and creative as possible, and in all that we do we should strive to educate students in an understandable manner, encouraging them to be successful in the future.

     I believe the very curriculum itself is flawed. We as educators hold the responsibility of ensuring that our students retain certain knowledge and skills needed for life in the "real world." Math, Science, Social Studies and Literature are all very necessary courses to maintain in high school. In Alabama public high schools, every single student that intends to graduate from high school is required to take and pass certain “graduation exams” for the following categories: Math, Reading, Language, Social Studies and Biology. This kind of bugs me, why isn’t there a “graduation exam” for physical fitness/health? If it's our responsibility to ensure that the kids we pass on know how to think critically and write, then why shouldn't we take on the responsibility of educating our students about the significance of healthy living and proper diet and exercise? Shouldn't we also be teaching our kids how to take care of their bodies as well?

     There are many many reasons why people argue that PE classes are not needed and should not be mandatory; the reasons vary and can and typically do include any and all the excuses a person can come up with to get out of PE class. On the other side of the coin, why should somebody on the chess team be made to play baseball for an hour a day? Why should an uncoordinated adolescent be made to play basketball? Why should an artist, a painter, have to dress out for dodgeball? WHY? I have done some research and found several reasons as to why people want to rid themselves of PE classes, or for a lack of a better word, Physical Activity classes. This article contains points and counterpoints pertaining to several controversial statements.

     Some people may argue that students should have the right to abstain from physical activity. While I fully acknowledge this argument, understand this: statistics show that if kids aren’t encouraged to exercise in their youth they don’t make exercise a practice after childhood and teen years. Individuals have no right to choose to attend school and take the classes the state says they should take. The state doesn’t just impose a curricular compulsion, since physical attendance is forced—there’s nothing unique in principle about enforced PE.

     Other’s may argue that physical education classes aren’t important and not worth their time. My counterpoint to that is this: Physical Education classes are just as important as mathematics and social studies. While physical activity classes may not be the most delicious flavor out there, it would be beneficial to remodel our thoughts behind the design for the PE courses in the school’s curriculum.  The motion is this: For the State School Board to rewrite and submit a standard course curriculum to their schools to follow. Then each school revises said curriculum, with supervision and approval of the school board, in the schools best attempt to most accurately draft each type of students curriculum (Honors Student, College Prep, IB, Advanced Placement, Special Ed; if it’s legal to categorize students like that).

     Kids and parents love the idea of recess and physical education on the elementary level, but most kids and parents disapprove of physical education on the secondary level. Why do you think this is? I have several ideas to explain the exclusion of physical education on the secondary level. When kids our young they are full of energy, and at times it even seems that they will never run out of energy. High school students, on the other hand, are starting to experience puberty and hormones raging out of control. This is a time in students lives when the girls start to worry about what they will wear to school, and guys start worrying about which girl to ask out. They just don’t have as much energy to expel, nor the gumption to get hot and sweaty everyday of high school. That fact helped me to orchestrate a conclusion for the problem: physical education classes don’t have to be physical activity.

     My proposed revisions include: Physical Education as subject category, like English, Math, Science and Social Studies. The Physical Education category shall include all of the following classes: Core: Human Anatomy and Physiology, Concepts of Fitness and 1st Aid, and 1 Physical Activity class. Electives: Drug Education, Diet and Nutrition, Weight Training with Kinesiology (how to put a workout routine together), Personal Health, Basics of Exercise and Weightlifting, and Physical Activity classes.

     As I was doing research, I came across an article that said something like this: “The facts seem to show that physical education is not really helping any. While it remains a requirement, childhood obesity is steadily climbing.” I figured obesity would be an interesting topic to talk about because the way the PE curriculum is set up now does not appear to be working. Even though I am making a motion to expand upon making PE a core education category doesn’t necessarily mean that more people will want to get more active, but at least they will know how to take care of their bodies because they have been taught.

     I know this is a lot to ask of our teachers, but after all, aren’t they supposed to be professional educators and life coaches? This motion is not to make more work for us, but for us to collaborate in an effort to attain a better, more creative, and more efficient education system for our children. When we retire, who’s going to be taking care of us? Will they know how? In closing, I remember that this letter is a letter of proposal. It is intended to spark ideas, create collaboration to reach a mutual goal in fixing a problem. I hope to hear from you soon.
                  Sincerely,

--Travis D. Snyder

Progress Report on Final Project

Group Name: Scholars United
Group Members: Keeley Bryan, Emily Nadeau, Amanda Warner, and Travis Snyder
Project Theme: I'd rather not elaborate on this out of my suspicions that somebody else will borrow our theme. However, we have successfully created a project theme and I believe that it will be a great overall project. We have assigned parts to everybody and this looks to be a good project.

C4K World Blog Challenge

Over the last 3 weeks I have been assigned to read one persons blog 3 times, once every week. My assignment is Tatyana S
Her 1st post is Have You Read the Hunger Games? She's reading the book right now and she like it. She doesn't want to stop reading it. Though, I haven't read the book yet, it does look like an interesting story.
Her 2nd post is My Confirmation and the Name I Chose. Tatyana talks about the Sacrament of Confirmation. The first thing she had to do was pick a Saint that had a certain name. After that she had to make a prezi, and here's a link to her Prezi and I think she did a pretty good job with her creation.
Her 3rd post is

Our assignments got seriously messed up and I tried to keep up with them as much as possible. It was so confusing. This is my best attempt at the C4K for the month of April.
For the last post of April, I have been assigned Vinolias Blog. Her latest blog post is just a video, simple. In the video she explains things about herself, her name, her age, her family, her favorite color, her friends, information of that nature. When the video was recorded she was only 7 years old. 7 YEARS OLD and already putting videos on YouTube. That is what's up. That's all the reason I need to help influence the integration of such use of tech in schools over here. She's a sweetheart for real.
The comment I left on her post simply says that I watched her video, and said that tech is always changing and growing and expanding and the odds are that tech will be far more advanced in 7 more years from now.

Project #16 Separate Collaboration Update

Keeley Bryan
Emily Nadeau
Travis Snyder
Amanda Warner

Creativity and Curiosity: My Thoughts - Special Post #12A.

1. Do schools in the United States systematically destroy (or inhibit) the development of curiosity and/or creativity in students? If yes, why does that happen? If no, how do you counter the argument of Sir Ken Robinson that schools do undermine the development of creativity in students?
We live in "the age of technology" and believe it or not, technology is NEVER going away. In most places in the world, technology is now a necessity of life, not survival, but life and the most important place technology needs to be incorporated into is the school system. Why? Because there is a movement going on right now to get out with the old and in with the new, quite literally speaking. We're at the point where students (or anybody for that matter) can get answers to almost any question they have via internet. The old fashioned way of teaching is boring. Students come to class every day, listen to boring lectures and write down notes all day in each class and go home to what ever they do at home. While the new way of teaching is far more interactive, way more fun, and actually teaches skills students need to succeed in the real world. It provides oportunities for students to learn life tools and characteristics to succeed.
Well, this is a tricky question to answer because I believe that the answer(s) can be influenced by several factors. The most important variable that needs to be considered is the school somebody went to, the mission statement of that school and if the school actually achieved their mission statement. The next factor is the student. Did the student care about what was being taught in school, his education? Did the student use creative techniques to get answers to his questions? Another factor that needs to be accounted for is the fact the questions themselves. "Do schools in the United States systematically destroy (or inhibit) the development of curiosity and/or creativity in students?" What schools are being talked about? Public schools? Private schools? Charter schools? All schools? Or just some schools? But enough beating around the bush. I honestly think that some school systems do, in fact, "systematically destroy (or inhibit) the development of curiosity and creativity in students" simply because of the way they are set up.
Over the last few months, I have read a lot of articles, observed a lot of videos, and my mind has been transformed by what I am going to call the School Tech Movement. To make a quick summary of this movement, it's transforming education system from the way it is now to technologically integrated. Sure, some schools have smart boards, and some schools have large magnificent computer labs and there are "Smart Schools" in America, the middle school I went to was a "Smart School" at the time. A lot of what goes on in today's learning environment for most kids is outdated and boring. Granted not all communities will have the money or gumption to dig into this concept and new practice, but others will. It all starts with the teachers. As my friend Keeley Bryan sais in his Blog Post #10 "Teaching puts too much responsibility on the educator and not enough on the student. Education puts all emphasis on the student’s comprehension. ...Educators must understand that the mind of a student is not an empty bucket to pour information into, but rather the mind of a student is a consuming fire that is hungry for all sorts of information. Educators MUST learn that it is not their job to cram information into a child, but to encourage the child to ENJOY learning within the bounds of the curriculum that is assigned." I HIGHLY encourage you to read this entire blog post. He explains it much much better than I could. Back to the main question: Why does the school system destroy/inhibit the ability of students to be creative and curious? The answer is simple: because of the way it is built and the way teachers are teaching and not "educating" and finally because of the curriculum teachers are following. PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO, IT WILL HELP EXPLAIN MY STATEMENTS, ENJOY!

Here is a link to a page I found that helps explain what a "Curricula" is. Imagine if we could change/modify this to what it should be now, with EDUCATORS in charge instead of the old fashioned teachers!

2. Can a curriculum be developed that increases the curiosity of students? If so, what would be the key components of such a curriculum?
I mentioned "curriculum" in the answer to the previous question, coincidence? I think not! I have been surfing the web and doing some researh to help me develope my opinion for this answer. I have came to the conclusion that a lot of teachers are still thinking the same way for too long. Most teachers automatically think "that a well-defined curriculum determines what is taught (and learned) in a school." They automatically assume that what the information they go over in class is magically absorbed into their students brains because they have gone over it. That is so wrong to do. By definition, a curriculum is a complete outline of all the courses an institution has to offer. However, a syllabus is an outline of the material that is supposed to be discussed in class to some extent. Do I think a curriculum can be developed that will increase the curiosity of students....yes, but to a small extent. Of course the class curriculum will have to be put together properly and must be very flexible. Most of the "ignition" will have to come from the educator and how the information is presented, as well as how collaborative the class environment itself is.

3. Can a curriculum be developed that increases the creativity of students? If so, what would be the key components of such a curriculum?
Yes, the assignments and projects delegated to the students have to be the right ones. In Mr. McClung's blog post "What I Learned This Year" Mr. McClung takes time to reflect about what he has learned. He explains 7 key rules to follow:
"1.)How to Read the Crowd: Deliver your lesson plan to your students and for your students, not for you or your supervisor.
2.)Be Flexible: instructors like to plan "perfect" lessons, you have to keep in mind that each and every students in your classroom come into your classroom with their own agendas and problems from different things. No lesson plan is ever perfect, the lesson plan you teach and the one you plan are always different.
3.)Communicate:Communicating is the best way to resolve any issue in the workplace. In addition, communication is the pathway to building that much desired rapport with fellow teachers.
4.)Be Reasonable: As teachers we hold very high expectations for our students....sometimes they live up to those expectations, and sometimes they don't. Often we build our expectations too high for students, and become upset when they do not meet the expectation. DON'T. Teachers can sometimes really loose touch and forget that we are dealing with children. They are not perfect and neither are we. While its fine to have lofty goals for our students, we set our students up for disappointment when a goal is not met and we scold them for not coming through. Our job as teachers is to simply pick them up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again.
5.)Don't Be Afraid of Technology: Grown adults everywhere are afraid of computers like it's a bad horror film and computers are trying to take over the world. Technology is our friend and is essential to living in our microwave society of today. We should not become overwhelmed by technology and simply give up before we start. Here's a video that provides significant use of technology in the education environment.
6.)Listen to Your Students: You may be the only person that does. Communication skills are often hard to develop and this is one way to build a relationship with your students.
7.)Never Stop Learning: It's never too late to change your way of thinking, learning, or style. We do everything short of beg students to learn on a daily basis, but sadly some of us refuse to learn and grow as professional educators. We work in a learning environment, so why not soak up as much as you can? We owe it to our students."

4. Can a teacher's actions increase the curiosity of students? If so, what would be those actions?
YES! YES! YES! YES! and YES! It's all in the pitch/delivery. If you give all the information to the students all of the time then odds are that they'll never learn how to think critically and figure things out! By building relationships with the students, you get to know the students on a more personal level and then will be able to create lesson plans for students on a more individual/specific level than on an entire class level. 1 on 1 is often the best way to go. I know from previous experience that when teachers put tests, questions, assignments, projects into forms that interest me I am already more motivated to do the project just because the project interests me. Cliff hangers are good as well, they can spark curiosity as well. There are a lot of techniques teachers can apply in there classroom to make learning more creative and fun. Mix things up, provide extra credit opportunities, outside assignments, things like that to challenge them to think about a certain idea in enough depth they'll want to research the topic on their own.

5. Can a teacher's actions increase the creativity of students? If so, what would be those actions?
Maybe? If a teacher is creative than the students are creative. Goes back to the psychological principle of "Monkey see, monkey do." Body language, and of course, the delivery of the lesson plan to the students. How it is created, what the assignments are and how they are discussed in class. The resources available for the students. Success comes from experience and experience comes from failure, failure comes from attempting, attempting comes from curiosity. So where does curiosity come from? Curiosity is the recognition and pursuit of new experiences and information. Without curiosity, personal growth comes to a standstill. Curiosity fuels creativity.

6. What would help you become more creative? What role would teachers and/or schools have in that process?
Curiosity and research would help me become more creative. Thinking outside of the box. I am already a very spontaneous person, so being creative is definitely not a challenge for me. It's not about what you do, but it's about how you do it, and I like to mix things up. Of course, I think about things and hit "brick walls" and can't think of any other ways to do things, but then that's when I seek information from outside resources such as other people in the same field, internet sources, books, YouTube Videos, things like that. Sometime, I might just ask a question (only slightly related to the problem at hand) and ask him to expand on how he would go about doing something. other times, i'll get right to the point.

7. What would help you become more curious? What role would teachers and/or schools have in that process?
Mixing things up? Change of plans? I honestly don't know how to control ones curiosity. Perhaps I should watch Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? video again. it just dawned on me that curiosity and creativity can go hand in hand. Albert Einstein once said "imagination is more important than knowledge." Which is true, without imagination, what would the world be today? Without Curiosity, what would the world be today?
Curiosity can be attained by asking questions without well known answers. Everybody saw the apple fall from the tree, but Newton asked why.

PART 2
The quotation that serves as a picture was taken from Curiosity Fuels Creativity: Teaching your kids to be curious by Elli.
Who is Elli? How can you contact her? Will you do so? Why or why not?
Elli is a writer for InGoodMeasure.Net. She was born and raised in Colorado and now enjoys skiing, playing tennis, and hiking in the mountains of Salt Lake City, Utah. She was the curios kid in school, the annoying one that asked all the questions. She reminds me a little bit of Albert Einstein in her theory of a curios person is more suited for success than somebody that doesn't ask as many question. Reason being: curios people are more engaged in their work and are motivated to learn as much about the information they are researching as possible. I know this is true because I can attest to it. I have been the kid that has questions and I don't stop looking until I reach the correct answer or an acceptable conclusion. I want to know about all of the info as I can in the field of study that I am in. It's a lot of memory, and some people don't think that it's possible, but I figure it isn't impossible to know more than a lot of other people, and doing so will get me further in life simply because I started out with more base knowledge. Will I contact her, probably not. Why? I just can't at this time, there is too much going on with final examinations right around the corner and multiple projects due in several classes. I'm a tad bit overwhelmed to worry about getting into touch with her right now, but perhaps in the future. For anybody that is interested, she is reachable at Google+.

Blog Post #11

Mrs. Cassidy's 1st grade class has huge potential in learning about all the wonderful tools the internet and other sources of technology have to offer because they are already blogging!
Here is a link to an interview with Mrs. Cassidy. Her approach on technology is very strong and focused. She uses technology in her classroom on a regular basis for several reasons! Even when she's at home she's on the computer looking for more things to use and get more familiar with. Once again, I'm not real sure yet of how I could use technology for a PE Class outside of the use of tech today such as YouTube and iPhones. But if I were going to be a teacher of some other kind, say, an English teacher. I believe blogging would be a primary tool in my class simply because blogging can provide more things than just a regular essay can. When students write essays, who do they write to? The teacher. Say essays had to be posted on the internet in the students blog. They would have a worldwide audience. Next, as a English teacher, it would be my responsibility to teach the kids how to read, spell, and use proper grammar and punctuation. Blogging would provide endless "worksheets" and study tools as well as access to the internet to explain why and how their mistake is incorrect.

Project #12 - Book Trailer

Blog Post #10

Today I am going to write about my decision of being an education major. Several ideas come into mind when I think about it. I suppose the drive for this ambition comes from my desire to positively influence peoples lives in the most effective way possible. People in the education profession spend more time with people's kids than parents often do. When I "take a step back" and look at the world and society as I know it today, I see an image that's been created out of continuous failures of the parents of the kids in the world today. How hard is it for kids to grow up this day and age? Honestly, I don't know, and I probably will never fully understand what it's like. I believe that I can help teach the kids how to be successful and what meaning their life has. Why they shouldn't quite and why they should get an education. Why they should want to be the best that they can be. Teaching to me, is all about coaching. I grew up playing sports my entire life, no matter what I am doing, I have always had a more experienced "coach" educating me on what to do, how to do it, and why to do it. I can't say that I grew up in a dysfunctional family, but this is what I can say: I was born and raised in Ocoee, Florida. Spring of my 8th grade year I moved to Alabama because the crime was so bad. Helicopters flying over the house EVERY SINGLE NIGHT looking for somebody else. People getting robbed, murdered, shot, stabbed, you name it, it was being done on a daily basis. Drugs were prevalent in my neighborhood and got to the point where my parents didn't want me outside after the sun went down unless I was with a group of friends or my family. We got out of there just in time, I remember going back and visiting to watch all of my friends graduate. The place has gotten much worse. All of that being said brings me to my main point: I think I can say that I know what it's like to live in a rough area, but I've never gone through the bad things many others had to go through.
I intend to be the person that kids can look up to and know that they can come to talk to about anything and everything without any hesitation and also know that are conversation would be completely confidential and that we would work together to overcome anything that would a problem for the kid(s).
I've said it before and I'll say it again: my goal in life is to be the greatest football coach possible. measured not by wins and losses on the field, but by the victories achieved off the field as well. I know very well that it's not going to be easy, but if it were easy, everybody would do it. Now, I don't plan on doing this all by myself, which is where a very well created network of professionals would come into play. I still have a ton to learn and even more connections to make. I am looking forward to the day I can look back and say yes, the world is a better place. It's great to win some football game's but there is no feeling like being the first to graduate from high school, the first to go to college, the first to pay for there own car from there hard earned money, the first to graduate from college, nothing in the world can provide more inspiration than knowing you have the ability to do anything you want to do, all you have to do is work for it.

2.) I'm going to be an educator of Physical Education, not Physical Activities, which is what most schools seem to think is alright. They just let them run around for about an hour for "recess" if they choose to dress out. My goal it to get the students to understand the importance of going outside and getting active in there community daily in a positive manner. Weather it be exercising, or helping. To educate them on the importance of an education and making the most for themselves and setting themselves up for success. Those are a few goals of mine. In the classroom, things sometime have to be kept simple to be effective. Assigning projects that keep them interested will definitely be a beneficial practice of mine and there will be homework to keep them busy. Hopefully I will be put in the position to make them better people and more aware of how important there life can be. That's what I'm all about. Thank you.

Project #11 - Short Movie

Blog Post #9

I have read a few of Mr. McClung's blog posts WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2009 and TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 2010. In WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2009 Mr. McClung reviews his very first year of teaching. He talks about many different problems and how he overcame them. I agree with all of what he says. There are always problems to be faced everyday and every students has a different personality. The same classroom will be different everyday and teachers have to go with it and accommodate the students the best the can in every way they can. Patients is one of the most important elements a successful teacher must possess.
The second post talks about how new environments cause a challenge because a lack of comfort and results in a change. Change is good, more change = more knowledge. He also explains how he had to sometimes act crazy to get his students to pay attention in his class. Also, since the new students are 8th graders, he had to change his teaching style up to adapt to the mindsets of 8th graders. He also mentions that there was conflict in the work area between him and his superior, but he didn't let that bother him because when things get to much in the way, it's the kids that suffer and to get the best performance out of a teacher is to let it be.