Blog Post #2; 21st Century Teaching

Social Dance section 24

In the video,Mr. Dancealot, this is a prime example of PowerPoint gone bad. How does Professor Dancealot expect the students to learn different styles of dances? He provides a PowerPoint of these different styles of dancing. Even while he was showing the motions of the steps, he was hidden behind his desk. Does that show that Professor Dancealot expects a lot out of his students? I would have to say no. How can you expect students to put effort into a class when the educator does not.Throughout the time of the course the number of students are slowing declining. Where is the engagement from the professor? I feel the main point the author is trying to display is students need to feel engaged with the class. The teacher is there to provide guidance, but how can you correct mistakes of a dance if the teacher never allows the students to actually do the dance.

Changing Centuries

In the 21st Century, it has become clear that our teaching styles has to vastly change to keep up with the times. Now-a-days children younger and younger are advancing into the knowledge of technology. The creator, Kevin Roberts, demonstrates in the video, Teaching in the 21st Century, that educators are know becoming the "filters of the technology." What are the teachers filtering? They are filtering content, websites, wiki, and etc. I understand that a lot of things are becoming technology based such as, games on a tablet for children to learn or quickly typing in a question in Google for the answer. But at the same time, teachers are the foundation to inspiration, to excitement for learning, to generate that one on one learning specifying to each individual student. For example, during high school my favorite teacher was Mr. Pierce. Mr. Pierce was the chemistry teacher, which was a subject a lot of students don't like, but for our school everyone wanted to be in his class. Mr. Pierce taught with so much passion and truly cared to see is students exceed. From him I learned my high school chemistry and went on into college to take college chemistry. Well for college chemistry I took it online basically learning through videos and PowerPoints. Still not understanding the material, I started to looking online, the information still didn't click until I made an appointment with my professor for that one on one time. After receiving the help from my professor I was able to actually understand the material. Teachers are still needed to do more than just "filter." Educators are the life support of the class.

Student Networking

With the video, The Networked Student, the creator breaks down what connectivism is. Connectivism is basically having an individual student connecting with other students, professors and anything else educational online. The student is self-taught. I see how this could work on a high school or college level, but not so well on a elementary to middle school level. Even at the high school to college level, I would have a little bit of hesitation. The big question is, why do we even need teachers? That question kind of breaks my heart. My only question to that is, how far are we going to stray away from human interaction? That one-on-one that unique factors that connect is the ability to have and share inspiration and knowledge.

Digital Smarts

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts, in this video the teacher has really provided a new outlook for her community. This program she is accomplishing for her students adheres to their strengths, making them want to grow as a thinker. She is guiding them for higher level of thinking. One thing that I agree on is that not all students learn the same way, so she is not focusing just on one way. It is an encouraging thing when the student finds empowerment through learning for themselves.

Flipping Out For Education

Flipping the Classroom, this video breaks down how "flipping" a classroom is. The concept of this method is when a student watches a video the night before. This helps the teacher jump right on in with lesson the next day and answer any question the students have. I see the possibility of me trying to integrate this into my classroom if given a higher level grade such as, 3rd through 5th. My only hesitation would be that the child or children who did not watch the video the night before would become more and more behind in the classroom. Other than that one concern, this method is very positive and a simple integration of technology into the classroom and home-learning.

Blog Post 1: "Questions and Concerns for EDM310"

Tears and Fears

Some of the first comments about EDM310 that I heard were "This class is tough" and "Took a lot of time." When at the transfer orientation last summer, I actually signed up for this class. Later I received an email from Dr. Strange and quickly dropped the course. That email gave me concerns about if my HP laptop would be adequate for the course and if I actually was ready to put aside nine hours of my week. A fear I have for this course, is not having enough knowledge of computers that Dr. Strange desires for his students.

Microsoft Office vs. The World

In high school, I took a course called "Business Tech." That course taught me the basics of Microsoft Office, such as: Word, Power Point, Excel and etc. That class was helpful for me to obtain the skills I needed for class's projects but did not teach me more than Office. Than while at Wallace Community College I took CIS, which is a computer course. This course was based on teaching Microsoft Office. So yet again just another course learning the basics of Office programs. Though I haven't been in this class long, I feel that Dr. Strange will prepare me and teach me the skills needed for my professional work after graduation.

The Strange Struggles

Some would say that the projects and the tasks would be the most difficult, but for me would be making sure I turned in my assignments on time. I will need to stay organized and to use the master checklist supplied to me. Along with the master checklist, I will keep a calender and highlight dates and times for due dates. I don't really have questions about this class, so far, Dr. Strange has explained his standards for this course. But I know if I did questions there are multiple resources to help me, such as: graduate students and the internet.

Practice Post

I grew up in Dothan, AL about three hours east of Mobile, Al. I would say my major interest are cinema, music and traveling. I could spend all my money on concerts and movie theaters. The escape or passion from which lyrics or a piece of film can bring is magic. I believe that it is good to escape from stress of everyday life and enjoy a two hour movie. My original plan was to attend South right after I graduated. Later down in my senior year Sony, where my dad worked, shut down. From that occurrence, my parents and I decided that it would be best for me to attend Wallace Community College. It was hard for me to be patient and to figure out if I still wanted to come to Mobile after two years. This is my second semester at USA and let me just say, "It has be adjustment."

I left my family, my boyfriend and my friends behind. My family is growing as I am away from them in Mobile. My parents were high school sweethearts. Typically after 30 plus years of marriage people would assume they aren't in love. But I can see it every time they smile at each other they were meant to be. I have two sisters and both attended Troy University. They are both now married and have children of their own. It's a beautiful feeling to be an Aunt. The year of 2013 was a great year. One reason would be that my best friend, over five years, Zackery finally took our friendship out of the friend zone. I guess one could call me a "romantic at heart" but I love our story. He is back in Dothan attending Troy and working towards the future. I came to a school where I only knew one person, but I would not trade this experience and the lessons learned.

Originally, I was not an education major. It was very hard at first for me to pick a major or even a minor. I went from nursing school to radiology to now education. I took quizzes to help me figure out my skills and best major for me. But still that was not enough, the only thing that I knew was that I wanted to help and to give hope to people of all ages. One day I went to visit my friend,elementary teacher herself, and that day it just clicked. I walked away from that experience and knew that this was my major.

This picture was from my latest concert I went to. I am holding up a new vinyl featuring The Wild Feathers. I went in November with my boyfriend and had great seats. I went for the starring band Needtobreathe and ended up really enjoying the opening act. My passion is music and being with the ones I love. My parents would pretty much say, " I work to pay for my concerts and movies."

I would say the thing I do best is just listening to people. Rather if it is from my friends who would call me to have coffee or people I meet from volunteering. I love to hear people's stories. Someone's personal story could impacted someone else and continue to effect others. I think that's why I love to scrapbook and to take pictures. I do believe the old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words." The one thing I wish and I am actually working on is to complete the task I start. It is easy for me to get side-tracked. For example, this year I am collecting all my change and putting it in a jar. While if I would have tried to do that last year; I would have did about two months and gave up. My goal is to finish everything I start.

Lauren Hidle's Test Post 2

This is my second test Post. I clicked the HTML button which I should always do in EMD310. I am now a Blogger!

My Test Post Title

This is my First Post. I clicked the HTML button which I should always do in EMD310. I am now a Blogger!