Blog Post #12

This short six minute YouTube video, Braille in the classroom, it helps you understand how braille works, how it is helpful, and some of the different types of braille. One of the devices they use is called braille display. This device will connect to the computer and will transfer the text from a computer screen into braille for the student. In the YouTube video iPad usage for the blind he shows us how to use the iPad from a blind person point of view. As he demonstrates, you can hear how he has the voice control instructing him in he background. The voice control helps him find his apps, tools, or whatever item he is looking for. Having an iPad in the classroom would be very beneficial to the student. Especially since everything is changing into technology.
-Macy Roe:)


My family has a history of hearing impairment. My maternal grandfather wore hearing aids from his 40s on to his death at 89. My mother is very hard of hearing, as are most of her siblings. I have lost a significant amount of hearing in my right ear due to military service and I imagine my genetics don't help with that. I have often thought of what it would be like if I was afflicted with my family's impairment at a school age. This post was a great chance to see what would be available to me if I was a hearing impaired student today. The Hearing Loss Association of America has a section of its website dedicated to Hearing Assistive Technology. In the link they talk about an FM system. I have vivid memories of my grandfather using one of these to listen to the TV. After multiple complaints from my grandmother about him blasting Braves games at full volume they invested in one of these FM systems. He placed the receiver close to the speakers of the TV and he had it hooked into his hearing aids. As an educator, I can see this working well in the classroom. The teacher could simply wear the receiver around his or her neck, or keep it on the desk if it was powerful enough, and the student could take it from class to class. It seems kind of primitive in today's technological world, but if it isn't broke, don't fix it. I guess.
Linked here is a video from Oklahoma about Assistive Technologies that educators can use to help deaf/hearing impaired students. Around the 5:30 mark of the video, the iPad is discussed. It seems as though iPads are becoming quite the norm in classrooms these days. I found this short section of the video to be very interesting, as I'm expecting to have iPads available to me in my future classrooms. Here is a short video of deaf students using iPads for the first time. You can see how excited the children are, but also look and see how engaged they are in their learning. My wife, God bless her, is an avid Pinterest user and heard me talking about this blog post. She very quickly found this board. I don't really know how Pinterest works, but there is some really great information on that link. That's what's so great about our modern world today; there's so much information out there. I think that if we just put forth the effort, real effort, to find it, then we will always be in a position to help our students.
-Kyle Parrish



Assistive technology can help students with learning disabilities leverage their education. It can be a wonderful tool for students that have Dysgraphia which affects a student's writing ability. This disability primarily affects handwriting and coherence. Students with this writing disorder will not perform efficiently when being taught how to form letters. Furthermore, they will probably forget how to correctly form words later because of improper movements of muscles required to write. However, there have been technologies created to help them counter this problem.
Dragon Dictation is a speech recognition application that produces words you speak by recording your voice. It allows you to update social media statuses such as Facebook and twitter by speaking. Dragon allows you to speak and send emails or text messages. Additionally, people can create notes and reminders to help them navigate throughout the day. This technology could be useful for students in the classroom who have Dysgraphia because it would allow them to complete their writing assignments by speaking out their words. As a teacher I could allow a student to use their device to assist them in the writing process. This is another way technology is affecting education in a positive way because it is assisting students who have learning disabilities.
-Justin Thomas



Math is a tough alone, and the hardest subject in school for some. I could only imagine how difficult it could be for a blind individual. In the video Teaching Math to the Blind Professor Art Karshmer introduces a tool that allows blind students to still use Braille, something they're familiar with, and electronic feedback. Instead of the math problem written in one horizontal line the student can align the math problem the way it should be. They are also able to receive verbal feedback of the math problem.
I think this tool is very useful for blind students. It is important for them to understand math because as Professor Art Karshmer said in order to get a job in engineering, technology, computer sciences etc. math is an important part of the equation, and the easier it is to practice and understand it the better, and with this tool its definitely possible.
-Janae Ivory

Blog Post #11

Back to the Future

This video was very interesting, you could tell that Mr. Brian was really into teaching his class. He went over several fun prepared lessons that he has done with his class. One of my favorite activities he showed us was the balloon going into space. I learned that you can have one main focus and cover many subjects. He used the subject language by having the kids pretend they were the balloon, and then write about your trip up to space as the balloon. He covered the subject science by demonstrating how far the balloon will go into space with the camera.

Blended Learning Cycle

In this video Paul Anderson talks about how he uses the blended learning cycle in his own classroom. By using the blended learning cycle he brings online, classroom, and mobile teaching together. I also learned what the five E's were. Engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate. They are also known as the learning cycle, according to Mr. Anderson.

Super Digital Citizen

I enjoyed watching this video very much. The teacher, Sam Pane, made class fun and interesting for his fourth grade class. He found a way to get the students attention, and also at the same taught his lesson plan. Teaching students about the internet and teaching them to be aware of viruses on there is very important.

Project Based Learning

In this short five minute video, Al Wandler a history teacher, explains how he and two other teachers come together to make a collaborative PBL project. I think that is a great idea. I could see myself doing something like this in my classroom.

Roosevelt Elementary's PBL program

In this ten minute video, they go into depth explaining what a PBL project is. They explain how the teachers come together and meet to come up with different ideas for PBL projects. Also, I learned one or two more things about why teachers should use project based learning in their classroom. I really liked how they pointed out that it gets students out of their seat, and they can get more involved.

Project #14: PBL Plan 2

For our second PBL assignment we did ours on Pearl Harbor.

Project Overview

Calender

Rubric

Checklist

Project #12 Smart Board (Part A)

Blog Post #10

Little Kids... Big Potential

This video was really neat and interesting to watch. The video is short and the music was great, it kept my attention well. Having to turn things in on a blog is a great idea for the classroom. Students more than likely work harder knowing their work will be put up online and the entire world will be able to see it. The Wiki tool is a very interesting tool that I could see myself using in my classroom. The Wiki tool was a site, that you could go to and learn different peoples rituals.

The following are the three parts are interviews between Dr. Strange and Mrs. Cassidy.

Interview Part 1
Interview Part 2
Interview Part 3

I learned and took several notes while watching the three interviews. One of the things she stated was that we can piggy back off of each other. This is not stealing peoples ideas. when you put something or an idea on line it becomes available for anyone to see or use. When Mrs. Cassidy was asked how does she keep her students safe on the internet, she answered "I tell my students not to put their last names on their post. Also, not to post pictures of themselves online." Those are two very good points to tell your students whether you have them blog or not. Finally, she made a point about physical education, she gave an example of how to inform students to let the know if they would have practice or not. She explained that you could have a page or a blog that you updated for students telling the students if the gym would be open that day or if their practice would be cancelled or that the practice time has changed.

C4K summary for October

During week four I was assigned to comment on a student named Nicolas. Nicolas is a from Texas, and is in Mrs. Morgan's second grade class. Nicolas posted a very artistic painting of a lava mountain that he made himself. My comment to him was about how wonderful and creative his picture was. I also told him I was impressed. Below is the lava mountain Nicolas drew.

Week five of student commenting I commented on a student named Zaya. She is a seventh grader from Madison, Wisconsin, currently in Mrs.Ripp's class. Zaya's post was very good, a few grammar problems but I understood it and she went into very good detail about it all. Her post was about having to get her two bottom teeth pulled. Also, her second paragraph was about having to get braces put on. I commented back telling her she was brave. I told her I understood everything she was talking about because I have had braces before, and told her some stories of my experiences about my time with braces.

Week six I was assigned to a student named Gavin, a third grader in Mrs. Essenburg's class. Gavin is all the way from Michigan. Gavin's post was a good little paragraph titled All about me. Gavin simply explained his family and a few things he liked to do. I commented back and told him he had a great post. I also mentioned to him a few things about my family and explained how I like to play sports as well.

Week seven I commented on a student named Elizabeth. Elizabeth is from Pt. England School Auckland, New Zealand. She is a sixth grader in Mrs. Somerville's class. Elizabeth posted a blog about the movie Divergent. What are the odds that this is one of my top ten favorite movies. I commented and told her that, I also told her that I liked her pictures she used. Finally I complimented her on how well she explained each of the groups in the movie and that it was a fabulous post.

Blog Post #9. What can teachers and students teach us about Project Based Learning?

While reading the online article Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning by John Lamer and John R. Mergendoller, I learned a few more things about Project Based Learning that I didn't know already. Papers are a turn off, I know this from being a student, but have never really though of it till I read it in the article of how much I'd rather do a fun project rather than write a long boring paper. I think kids should always be able to have their own opinion about things, but should have answers and proof to back it up. Another thing that stood out to me was when they talked about how the students work is more meaningful when more than just the teacher will see it. If the students knew that they would have an audience of their peers or family viewing the project I think the students would work harder on it because they think so much of what their fiends think of them. The Project-Based Learning for Teachers YouTube video makes several good points of why you should use Project Based Learning in your classroom. Some of the examples it is good for are grouping students together, meeting deadlines, addressing an audience, and brainstorming branching questions.

PBL: What Motivates Students Today?

I enjoyed watching this video because it is from a students point of view. I learned that students like to be recognized when they do a good job, not in a bragging type of way but rather compliments. Students are motivated by sports as well, they have to keep up good grades if they want to be on the team of keep playing. Even at such a young age kids understand to have a good future they have to work hard and find a good job, which is also a good motivator. another great motivator the video point out is to reward the kids with fun prizes. Prizes can be anything from being the line leader one day or giving out candy.

Project-Based Learning and Physical Education

As a Physical Education major this article was very interesting to me. This was a great idea for a Project Based Learning project. The high school students were to make a unit of PE skills for the middle school students. To succeed and make something they would like the high school students would have to go online and search games, as well as interview middle school students to find out their interest.

Project Based Learning in PE

This online article is very much like the one I wrote about above. It explains the importance of Physical Exercise and how much the high school students enjoy getting to teach and help the younger middle school students. It also points out by doing this project it is not a waste of time because it is meeting the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) requirements.