Weekly Reading

In my weekly reading of the article "The World is Open for a Reason" it talks about so much content is fee and open for learning. Open educational resources have made a huge impact on the educational possibilities of learners. There are several reasons why institutions and organizations freely share online content. Some of these reasons are Information Dissemination, Student Assistance, Supporting Alumni, Sharing Teaching Practices and Ideas, Program, Department, and Institutional Marketing, Goodwill and Global Education Efforts. By sharing many can communitcate with their colleagues. Sometines the motivation to share educational content can be personal. For the most part they desire to attract new students or help the ones that they have complete their courses.

Shawn

Weekly Reading

In my weekly reading on the article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part II: Do They Really Think Differently". I learned that children today are being socialized in a way that is completely different from their parents. Video games, text messaging, emails, watching TV, and cell phones have changed they way today's children socialize and even learn. New research has shown that the brain can be reorganized and changes and organizes itself differently based on the inputs it receives. The old idea was that we as humans only had a fixed number of brain cells that cannont be replaced, but now research shows that our brain cells are replaced constantly. The article also talked about attention spans with children ad if they have changed. The attention spans are short when it comes to the old way of learning, but when it comes to something they are interested in such as video games they will have a longer attention span. So it is not really todays technology that accounts for a short attention span.

Shawn Travis

Last Day!

Today was my last day observing in the classroom, the second day of doing my math lesson for Rombach. I even learned of two interesting sites the host teacher uses every day for the class.

She uses wordcentral.com and superkids.com for the word of the day the children are defining to broaden their vocabulary.

And with that, I need sleep after this long day.

Heather Clark

DONE!

Well, block I and our little Blog group! We have done it! We got through our block I semester and many of us are preparing for block II, and I wish you all the best of luck with that.

I finished off my practicum last Wednesday, and was happy to be done.  I feel like I have learned a lot of things, both to do, and not to do, for my future classroom.  What about you?

As I was leaving, I received hugs and well-wishes from my host teacher and from the students.  They were all very sad to see me go, and I was sad to be going but glad to know I had such a wonderful experience.

MDL in real life

I have been able to use my net book/mobile learning device, all over the place.  Whenever I go away for a weekend, or even just for a few hours, I use my net book to keep up with other classmates and on assignments when I am away from my home.  I have also used it when I was working with my host teacher to create my Philosophical Critique paper.  I had to interview my teacher and I type a lot faster than I write so I brought my netbook to take notes on what my teacher was saying and because of this, I was able to get exact quotes for a lot of my questions.

Overall, I had some reservations about the net books and the cost of it, but it has become very handy throughout the semester and I plan on using it next semester as well!!!

Using Laptop in class

I was observing in the Social Studies class when a student mentioned a resource the teacher did not know what he was talking about. At the same time I had my laptop on and with internet connected for another activity, so I was able to search the word and found the resource he was referring to, what it is, and where it is found. The students were then able to write the resource in their notes so they can use it in a quiz that was scheduled for the next week.

Heather Clark

MLD in School

In my setting I see the students using small laptops like our netbooks to play math games for practice in content, etc. In Social Studies one day, a student was given the opportunity to look up information about Native Americans because he finished the activity for the class and had extra time to learn more about the new topic.

During lunch that same day, two girls were also using the small laptops to work on assignments for their main teacher and to find websites to use. They were having trouble shooting problems, but with assistance they were able to handle the problems with the laptops.

Heather Clark

Mobile Learning in the Classroom

In my host classroom, I have seen students use Macbook laptops in the class to connect to the internet and use research.  They also use these Macbooks for math games online.  I think that it is really cool that they have the money and resources to allow students to work with technology.  I have noticed that some students clearly do not have access to a computer at home, so I think that it is really good that they have this access at school.  One student I worked with did not know where the space bar was or how to use a search engine.  It is important that students know how to do research as they get into high school and more importantly, college, and I feel like this experience in the classroom is extremely beneficial for students.

Netbook Use

Last Friday we went as a class to Barry Elementary school.  We were there to teach some activities on electricity.  Both Carrie and I brought our net books and were able to show a short video to our groups of students before starting.  The video was really interesting and cool and caught the students attention.  Unfortunately, the speakers that are built into the net book are very small and do not produce a lot of sound, and we had to tell the students what was happening in the video because they could not hear the narrator.  Overall, it helped us to transition into our activity and gain the children's attention.

Melissa Santana

Field Experience

In my setting, I am surprised again and again how my host teacher connects to students with the content in the class. I see ELA often in my time there and see her set the students up for guided reading, learning centers, and independent reading before letting the students go. The students are reminded from the start to keep on topic that way and she can focus more on the groups she leads in guided reading.

Heather Clark

MLD in other settings

I used my notebook at my observation setting earlier this week to help the Social Studies teacher while the students were discussion natural resources. One of the students gave a resource and tried spelling it, but the teacher didn't know what he was talking about. So I googled the spelling he made and a wikipedia page for "stalactities" came up, from that I was able to write the correct spelling on the board and explain what stalactites are for the students. This usage was helpful to the discussion and topic of the class and didn't take a lot of time from the lesson, especially since the teacher continued the lesson while I was searching for the word on google.

Heather Clark

Field Experience

One of the great things I got to be a part of in my host classroom was a guided reading. This was done in groups of three based on reading levels. Each student would take turns reading a page. While they were reading the teacher would keep a running record to keep track of fluency. I thought that my teacher did an excellent job at asking questions throughout the story and making sure that they could comprehend what was happening in the story. After watching the guided reading I got to do my own. I had the group read the story and I came up with two activities for comprehension of the story. One was a puzzle. I photo copied some pictures and had the students put them in order as it was in the story. For the other activity I used magnetic letters and had them spell out vocabulary words from the book. I was greatful that my lesson went well and the students were engaged and able to perform the activities.

Shawn

Reading Thoughts

I was particularly interested in the assigned reading we had on the website "Welcome to the Digital Citizenship Wiki!" Before reading this article I did not know what digital citizenship was. I learned that it is "a process where all users of technology can learn what is acceptable use. It provides a framework in which all users can begin to ask what they should be doing with respect to technology. It is an attempt to provide a consistent message to students, teachers, parents and all users alike about what they need to do to be productive users of digital technologies" (http://digitalcitizenship.pbworks.com/). There are nine elements that make up Digital Citizenship, and they are all very new and important ideas that people should be aware of. Our society needs to use technology appropriately, and this will provide more opportunities for everyone.

-Heidi Bennett

Using the netbook in other settings

I think another way to incorporate using the netbooks with students outside the classroom (other than the nature walk) is to create and interactive program that goes along with exhibits at a local museum, then go on a field trip to that museum and have the students work in groups to complete the activities in the interactive program.  These activities will not have to be completed in order so that students do not all crowd around the same exhibit.  The students will be expected to finish the entire program before the field trip is over and post their activity responses in their blog when they return to the classroom.

Melissa Santana

Nature is Everywhere!

This is a picture of a beautiful maple tree located on SUNY Cortland's Campus. The tree is full of vibrant colors, and it is mostly a deep red color. Fall is my favorite season of the year, because all of the trees leaves change so many different colors. I particularly liked the tree I took a picture of because, red is my favorite color, and this trees leaves have so many different tones of red on each of the leaves. I will be observing this tree throughout the semester, and eventually all the beautiful leaves will fall off this tree and the winter season will begin.

-Heidi Bennett

My Nature Walk

I took this picture on my nature walk. I have these awesome woods behind my house. I thought this tree was really cool because it was pretty tall, although you can't tell because I wasn't able to get the whole tree in the picture. I wonder how long it took the tree to get to the height it is and what kind of history it saw in its life.

Also, you can see my umbrella in the top of the picture because when I went on my walk it was raining and I didn't want my netbook to to get wet. Although the weather almost reminded me of Racquette Lake, I had fun on my nature walk observing the things around me.

Heather Clark

NATURE WALK

Last weekend I went to Watkins Glen State Park which is known for its many waterfalls and trails. It was my first time and it was alot of walking but many beautiful sights to capture on camera. There were tunnels, lots of steps, waterfalls, trails that led into the woods, a cemetary, bridges, and a park. One of my favorite pictures was taken from the top of the hill, on an outlook where you could see across the park into a field. A great view of how beautiful Fall really is!

Nature Walk

There is an example of MDL in use

Here is Humphrey on my Nature Walk

He is a very cute puppy!

Woods

More woods

Here is the path that we walked along during the nature walk

Cool branch

Humphrey exploring the ground

I was checking my netbook's ability to take close-up pictures.  I think it worked pretty well.  I did not like having to carry the computer around in the woods, it made me very nervous to walk around with it open so that I could continue to take pictures and it takes a while to load when I close the computer so I do not see that being an option.  I would not really see this as a good idea for younger children as it is very expensive and risky to have kids taking these outside just to take pictures, I think that it would be much more economical to use a digital camera and a notebook to journal, and upload the pictures when they get back to the classroom. 

Melissa Santana

Ups and Downs of using a Net Book!

The net book is a very small, and lightweight laptop computer. It is convenient to bring with you on the go, and it weighs less than some of my school textbooks. I love being able to access the web whenever and wherever I want, and it even has a long battery life. My laptop has really bad battery life and I need to plug it in frequently, but with the net book I barely need to charge it. The downside of the net book is that it does not have a CD drive, and this means you cannot install anything in the form of a CD.

-Heidi Bennett

Field Experience

The fourth grade classroom that I am hosting in has been such a great experience for me. My host teacher has her computer hooked up to the television (mounted on the wall), and it has a sentence with a underlined word that shows up on the television screen. The students need to write down the sentence in their journals, and then think of synonyms that are associated with the underlined word. The children have so much fun doing this activity, and all of the students have a chance to be involved and respond. She writes the words that the children came up with, and then she goes on a website that has all the synonyms words, and together they see if they came up with all the words.

-Heidi Bennett

Here is our group!! Shawn, Heidi, Heather, and Melissa.

Positive attitude!!!

Weekly Reading

I read a website for homework that has introduced me to many different types of tutorials on "Top Ten Tools For Young Learners," (http://glovely09.wetpaint.com/page/TopTen+for+Young+Learners)
and this is something important that you can introduce to your students. There is a particular tool that I found would be useful in my fourth grade classroom, and it is the "Kerpoof Studio." This website lets children create their own movie, and I would have my fourth grade class create a mini movie based on a chapter book they read. They can add pictures, text, and they have complete control of individually personalizing the story they read. This is the direct website that you go to for creating your own story board, (http://www.kerpoof.com/#/activity/storybook.)

-Heidi Bennett

field experience

Field experience-

One of the great moments in my field experience was teaching my class lesson. I had learned a lot from my host teacher and gained confidence through watching her and adapting her great ideas to my own lesson. I taught a lesson on friendship. It went very well and the students really enjoyed the activity. I did a read alout based on the topic of friends, then we had a discussion about it and i wrote what they said on the marker board. This was one of the good ideas that I had learned from my host teacher, to discuss the book and then use words from the book as vocab words and write them on the marker board during the discussion. After the discussion I explained the next activity of the lesson. I had taken pictures of all the students in pairs and now I was asking them to write about how the person in their picture is a good friend to them. This was a great experience for me and the teacher liked my activity idea so much that she did something similar for one of her lessons.

Shawn

MLD

Mobile Learning Device

I have found things that I like and do not like about my netbook.  I love that it is small and light, which makes it very portable and easy to use at school and work, but it does not have all of the options that my personal laptop has.  I cannot put disks into the netbook so I can't install programs that I have already purchased.  I have also found that the netbook is very slow at starting up.  I do not shut it down, I only put it in sleep mode because it takes to long to shut down and start up, and it also takes a long time to connect to the Verizon Network.  The small amount of memory on the netbook is also a problem for me because I like to save all my pictures and documents in an easily accessible place, but I have to carry around an external flash drive as well as an external mouse because I find that the mouse pad on the laptop is too small and difficult to navigate.  

-Melissa Santana

Games for Kids

Daily Technical Tricks and Resources

I found this article with 10 good sites that children can use to play games on a classroom computer. All of the sites have educational games and help students practice topics within the classroom or give them a chance to do something that interests that and de-stress without violence or misbehavior.

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2009/09/10-free-educational-game-sites/

The best part about the article is that the sites are defined with what grade levels the site works with with bios about topics and what type of games are on the sites.

Heather Clark

MLD Experience

My experience with the mobile learning device has forced me to adjust to a small keyboard and touch pad. This was hard to do at first, but the more practice and time I spent on the net book, the better I became at using it. I use my net book to create unique calendars, and fliers for the classroom that I am hosting in. I use pictures and colorful fonts to make my papers more appealing to peoples eyes. I found a great website that is a tutorial for creating appealing fliers and calendars for the classroom. The website is below and you can copy and paste the link into your browser.
(http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Bwd8C3UVA0kJ:www.epa.net/launch/epafls/download/content_uploads/subsites/taps/spls_/_classes/Creating%2520a%2520flyer%2520with%2520MS%2520Publisher.pdf%3Fversion_id%3D568788+how+to+make+microsoft+publisher+flyers+eye+catching&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiZ3ZXnnmkqV2trA9lB0I2hfMYZKZ9rC-t-LEXoXhBhQaYL8YnRr9sp3KBdICisORSUJQQU5NJ3CHHj_jwaeTaAdTNBFF5N1bUcbuGP1qAk2YFIfSZPSOqItmdKTliu-_o6nPUx&sig=AHIEtbTaOcMvkANVHY0Io8t88a7noEZ4UA)

Heidi Bennett

You can use your computer as a phone!

Daily Technical Tricks and Resources

I have recently learned how to use the computer to make phone calls. If you have a Gmail account, it allows you to use your computer's microphone and speakers for free, to call your friends and family. It is so convenient to call people directly on their phones from your computer, and it allows you to have your hand be free to do work and talk at the same time. I do not own a house phone, and so when I misplace my cell phone it is very difficult to find at times. But the fact that my computer can call it, save me time and energy of looking for it. I found a website that has easy to follow directions, and a video that provides you with short tutorial about how to use your Gmail account as a phone (http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/call-phones-from-gmail.html).

Heidi Bennett

Field Experience That I Will Use In My Own Classroom

I have learned many new ideas from my field observations, and there are many cool puzzles that my teacher uses to help the students practice adding and subtracting. They have to label each of the letters of the alphabet with a number, and they have a word and the children have to find out the value of the word with the corresponding numbers with each letter. They also have to add certain words, and then they have to subtract the total of two specific words. I am going to use this is my classroom because I saw how much fun the students were having fun. I think it is important for students to have fun while they are learning and practicing new things.

-Heidi

field experience

Field Experience

In one of my observations I watched the teacher use the smartboard for sentence work. The students came up to the board and made corrections to the sentences and filled in the words. The teacher also assisted in this activity writing in words as the students mentioned them. I had the great experience of teaching the class using this system on the smartboard. The teacher allowed me to teach the whole lesson using the smartboard and calling on students to come up and make the corrections.

Shawn Travis

Technology in the Classroom

Field Experience

I am observing and participating in a fourth grade classroom at Randall Elementary School in Cortland. There is a rolling cart that is filled with about thirty net books for each of the children to use individually. The students are eager to use the small computers, and it helps them to practice on improving their typing and computer skills. The students use the computers weekly, to either type up their autobiographies, or use it to do a fun math activity. It is so interesting to watch the children use the net books, because the keyboard is a perfect fit for their small hands. When students use the computers they become very quiet and involved with the work that is asked of them. I believe it is important for children to become engaged in their schoolwork in more than one way. For example, the students are using their reading skills, writing skills, and computer skills all in one to create one assignment which is their autobiography.

Heidi Bennett

First day in 4th grade

Field Experience

On Thursday September 23, 2010 I went to Mrs. Riley's 4th grade class for the first time. I was introduced to the students as another adult in the class with authority, then I was given time to observe the class and how they interact with each other. I thought Mrs. Riley isn't doing community building to optimize student interaction and good behavior as Kim Kennedy is teaching us about. The children aren't really focusing in on the read aloud while the teacher reads to them, maybe they would pay more attention if they had paper copies of the book. Although I did notice hand-raising when students wanted to talk and some students even related stories to their own experiences so classmates could understand points in the book better.

By the time the day was over, I learned some students have reading problems and I believe one student has attention problems. This class will help me learn about working with different abilities within one activity and increase my patience when working with individual students.

Heather Clark

First day in the classroom

Field Eperience


On Monday, September 20th, 2010, I went into Leesa Ferris' 4th grade class in Homer Intermediate School.  I was there from 12:40-3:10, giving me a good start to my 50 hours of observation.  My first impression was overwhelming.  When I walked into the classroom, I was briefly introduced to the few students who had returned from lunch early, then the math lesson started.  The teacher called out six girls who had done poorly on their last homework assignment (counting money) and asked me to re-teach the lesson in the hall while using play-money.  I was unprepared and confused because I have not been able to teach a lesson to students before, and I would have preferred some time to prepare and plan my technique.  The girls would not stay in their seats and they would not listen to me.  They kept getting up and playing with the money while I was trying to teach them the lesson and I felt like they were not learning anything.  The class is a little crowded because there is a teacher, a student teacher, me, and when we get started there will be another student from our class in that classroom at the same time.  I feel like this will be a little too much and the block I students in Ms. Farris' class will not get the chance to learn with the students because there are so many other adults in the classroom.  At the end of the day, the students go to recess and are able to let out all of their energy that they built up throughout the day.  Some students chose to stay inside to do some research on another project or to finish their classwork.  During this last half hour, I was able to grade papers and see some of the students potential.  I am looking forward to September 29th, when I will be able to go back into the classroom and learn more from the students.


-Melissa Santana