Summary of C4K's

C4K #4
WG2011's post
Basset hounds are the cutest dog breeds ever! The basset hound’s ears are some of the longest in the hound family. One of  best features about basset hounds is that they always look sad, even when they’re happy! The basset hound’s legs are very short for a dog as long as it is. The last, and best feature is that they have a lot of extra skin, which makes them look slightly bigger. Basset hounds are my favorite dog breeds! If you me to do a post on a different dog, tell the breed name in comments. :^)

My Comment
I agree with you that these are the cutest dogs ever! I actually own a basset hound, “Callie”. She is the love of my life!

C4K #5
Rayden's Post
Rayden pack your bags your going to your Cousins house’ Mum screamed from the deck I could just hear Mum say ‘YES’ then I screamed ‘YES’ at the top of my lungs.
As I was waiting for my cousin to come to my house I played Madden (NFL) 2009 with my favourite team, The Steelers. The reason I like them is because of Troy Polamalu, I think hes the best player on the field he is a great interceptor and tackler.
After I played about 5 games my nan got to my house. As quick as I could ran to the door and opened it and my nan ran up to the door and greeted me with a big hug. I waited for about an 1hour while Mum and Nan gossip .
Still waiting to because of all the traffic arrive at my cousin’s house in Glen Field. I finally got to his house I sated for 1 week unfortunately he got sick and went to my nan’s house I was cousin lease for 3 week’s.

My Comment
Hey Rayden
It seems to me like you really look up to your cousin, I have a particular cousin that I look up to as well. I enjoyed reading your story.

C4K#6

Ryan's Post
It is now March 25. We are less than two months away from the end of school. Up until today, the weather has been really nice. I’m so ready to go back outside and enjoy the sunshine. It’s a long winter when you are trapped inside because of frequent snowstorms.
Another sign that school is getting out is the beginning of baseball. We started throwing the baseball around a couple of weeks ago. It’s been awhile since I’ve played catch, but it has all since flooded back to me. What is your favorite part of the end of the school year?

My Comment
I am also ready for to school to be out. I go to the University of South Alabama and we get out on May 6th. My favorite time of the school year is now because it is so pretty outside.

Blog Post 9

First of all, I loved reading this post because it gave me many things to look forward to when I become a teacher. These are things that I am almost certain the majority of first year teachers do or overlook and it will be nice to have a background! I think he is absolutely right; new teachers become so conserned with themselves and proving to their fellow employees that they are a good teacher that they loose focus on what is most important: the students. The students should always be a teachers first concern. It really hit me when he talked about making the perfect lesson plan and that it is never perfect. I often do not think about that, but I certainly should. I can make a lesson plan that seems perfect on paper, but that does not mean that all of my students will grasp the content simply based on the plan. Workplace drama.. I do not think that you can ever escape that. As he said, communication is key! Growing up I had a few bad apples for teachers but for the most part they all encouraged me to do my best. I think that I was lucky because my teachers encouraged me to do my best, but never repremanded me when I did not meet their expectations. I know that many teachers do this, and it is sad. As he says, they are children, and neither of us are perfect. I do not think I have to worry so much about the technology aspect simply for the fact that we are being pushed to use it in our education now, while teachers who went to school even ten years ago were not. He ends the post with: "we owe it to our students." We truly do.

smartboard project

Blog Post 8

This is How We Dream:

In this video, Richard Miller made many good points. He showed some ways that technology can be incorporated in Language Arts, which really interested me because I had been curious about that prior to the video. He believes tat educators should discuss their ideas freely. I think this is very important in education! Teachers need to share their ideas in order to better their teachings and help students advance. While I do understand and agree that technology can certainly speed up process time, I am not sure that I like the idea of almost everything being done by video. Now I have to wonder if my education, or parts of it, were a complete waste of time. Maybe that is exageration, and I'm sure that it is, but it does worry me. I think that this idea could work though. Everyone, students, teachers, administrators, would have to adjust to this new technological education. We would all have to learn the types of technology and how each can be used and incorporated into education and the curriculum. Basically, in order for this idea to work, everyone has to want it to work and be willing to actually DO the work.

The Chipper Series and EDM 310 For Dummies:


EDM 310 For Dummies made me laugh, but it also confused me. I am not exactly sure what the point was in making this video? I really am not sure as to what specific things I would want to create a video about. I have a wide range of interests, but I have a hard time coming up with something that I think anyone else would actually want to watch.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn

I think the argument in this video is absolutely correct. The students that we teach will be using so many different technology devices out of school and they are not allowed to use anything but mainly books, paper, and pencils in school. The world needs to know that technology is a good thing and everyone needs to be willing to open up to the idea. It seems that the students have an overall interest in technology so why not use it to our advantage. If technology will make students more willing to learn then we as teachers should definitely take advantage of the opportunity.

The Secret Powers of Time by Philip Zambardo and Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
by David Pink

These two videos were basically talking about society. In "The Secret Powers of Time" it was talking about how as Americans we focus so much on getting things done that we forget about friends, family, and sleep. This video was basically saying that we are way too stressed out and it is pointing this fact out so that hopefully we will change.

In "The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" it was talking about how when offered a large incentive our work performance goes down. Is this really surprising to you though? Not to me. Clearly people do way better when given the option to just take the pressure off of doing a assignment. The study shows that is was not just the case for Americans but world wide. I feel these messages described the growth in people's education and their drive for success in many ways.

C4T summary 1 and 2

This post was by Anne Carnevale
Did you know that YouTube has some great video clips for younger students? I ran across a few recently that are perfect for primary grade classrooms. She goes on to list a number of sites that can help your students.

My Response
I really would like to thank you for posting this because I have never even considered looking up videos on youtube for teaching instruction. I am a student at the University of South Alabama and I am studying to become a teacher, this information will be really useful to me.


This post was by Anne Carnevale
One of the most common questions I hear when working with students or teachers is, “How did you do that?” There are a number of keyboard shortcuts for our Macs that you might find helpful. She goes on to list the ones that could be helpful.

My Response
My name is Bailey Abston, I am a college student at the University of South Alabama, where I am studying Elementary Education. I am a student in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class. I was very excited to see this post on short cuts for the Mac because I am currently learning how to use a Mac.

Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch Last Lecture:

The opening to Randy Pausch's lecture was extremely moving and it really inspired me how this man acted. I truly admire him for his strength and ability to encourage people through his story. It amazes me how someone who has literally been given a death sentence can be so positive and uplifting. This would be the most horrible situation to be in but this man somehow finds a way to make this lecture positive and he acts like nothing is wrong.

In his lecture, Pausch tells us how to achieve your dreams and how to help others acheive their dreams. Pausch states that it is not so much about how to achieve your dreams, but more so how to live your life. I really like this theory and I will apply this to my lifestyle because I did find this very interesting. I would like to think that I will be able to live my life the way this man does. While I do think that this is much easier said than done, I do believe that this is a great quote to live by.

Pausch believes that teachers have the ability to help others achieve their dreams. I absolutey agree with this statement, teachers are a very important part in students' lives and dreams. I found this even more inspirational because I am in the process of becoming a teacher. The goal of my life is to make a difference in a childs' life and it's amazing to hear that this can actually happen. I have always said that is the main reason that I want to become a teacher and simply knowing that it can be a reality and not just a dream is very encouraging for me.

The technique that stood out the most to me was head fake. This is when you make a child think that they are learning one thing, when really they are learning something completely different. He states that these are extremely important for learning and they are everywhere, I certainly agree with him. I really like this technique and I think that it would be very useful in an elementary classroom. Using games to help children learn could be an example of this technique.

PLN Progress

This is the first PLN I have ever created and it seems interesting. I created a Twitter account about a month ago. I updated my profile information and put a picture up. I followed people according to a few of my interests and I was able to find other students and teachers from class using the email search tool. I am currently following 13 people. I am still learning to navigate through twitter and figure out exactly what it is that I am doing. I will continue to learn and eventually I am sure I will understand how everything works.