Blog post 19: Using video for teaching and learning

https://ed.ted.com/on/DYONCkgn

As a 5th and 6th grade Science teacher I have used videos many times to help me in my daily instruction, students like it and they appear to be more engaged when I use them.  I actually do have trouble finding the correct and good types of videos to show my students on the lesson being taught, I'm actually looking for videos that will catch their attention, show good graphics and have some type of exciting things in them like explosions or dramatic scenes.  Students now a days don't like to see very instructional videos where there is a lot of talking going on, or someone doing an experiment that doesn't involve some type of reaction.  When I was teaching the periodic table of elements, I showed my students a video on alkali metals and they were astonished at how reactive these metals are to water, they wanted me to play the explosions over and over again because they found it to be exciting and they were extremely engaged.  We're currently working on earths changes, rocks, minerals and soils, so they love to see rocks that I have to show and videos that show volcanoes and how lava travels on the earth.  The ideas that I have to use videos consist of the following:

The first idea I have for using videos for teaching and learning is for me to find some educational videos for myself, videos that will show me how to increase my knowledge and gain materials that will assist me in the classroom.  These videos give me a visual on how to create lessons based around what I'm teaching, such as anchor charts, foldables, projects, etc...   They also provide me with information on how to engage students in the lesson and what type of engaging questions to ask the students during the lesson.

Second idea consists of providing students a project to do and allow them to research for the project, they are to make sure they utilize a video to assist them with their presentation of their project.  They are to utilize videos to assist them in researching and how to attach these videos to their presentation, they are all going to present what they have to the classroom.

Finally, students will placed in groups and will be shown a video on how to create videos in class.  They are going to have to create a video on labs and things they have learned, and want to learn in Science class.  This will be a video to use as reflection at the end of the school year, to show them how much they learned and what they had to go through to get to the point that they are at.

In conclusion, videos are very useful and an important part of teaching and learning.

Blog post 18: Using Google Photos for teaching and learning

As a 5th and 6th grade Science Teacher I know that Google photos will definitely be extremely useful to use in my classroom, pictures help me in my Science classroom all the time.  Students respond and understand things better with pictures and videos, they get a view of how things look and act or react.  One that I've I've always like to do as a child is draw pictures, as a teacher I see that my students like the same things I did when I was young, they like to draw as well.  Through pictures students tell me what they see and know about what we are trying to learn at that time, this helps me gain a better understanding and if the students are learning the lesson.  I always have my students create anchor charts to assist them in the process and understanding of what we're learning, they can also take ownership of the project and share ideas and prior knowledge of the subject.  Google photos is a great link for me to use with my students, it is free and very accessible to me and my students.  It is available to use along with the other google links, which are very useful as well.  The first idea that I have to use Google photos is the ability for me to upload pictures and share with my students during class, or through links that I share with them for class.  Uploading pictures for my students will also allow me to have them place them in chronological order, share their ideas about them, share them with others and write down definitions.  The second idea I have for using Google photos is to give my students a lesson and have them download photos to share with me and the classroom, they are to gather these photos and explain to me and the classroom how they relate to the lesson and where they found their pictures for future reference and for other students to be able to use.  The third and last idea I have to use Google photos is to have my students create a photo album with pictures of themselves, they can share it with the class but they definitely need to share them with their parents.  They are to add pictures of things that define them, what they like, what they want to do with their life, favorite thing to do, sports, teams, etc.....   This project will allow me to see who their are and get to know them better, I think this project will be extremely fun for my students and they will definitely Love to share it.  Google photos is a great link and I plan to use it in class this school year.

Blog post 17: Google Photos assignment

https://goo.gl/photos/t7PFHYnR4Z2PhimE7 COPY


Manifest Destiny, the fight continues.

Blog post 16: Self-directed Learning using Feedly

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2016/11/8-techniques-many-tools-create-engaging-student-centered-lessons/

Being a 5th and 6th Grade Science Teacher, posts that I read from EdTech blogs have allowed me to keep up with the new age of technology and get fresh ideas on lessons and how to manage my classroom.  The first link that caught my eye to read was from EdTech blog in Feedly, the reason I was interested in this post is because I'm always looking for new ideas to engage my students in my classroom.  I sometimes struggle creating lesson plans and coming up with great ideas, so I felt this post would provide some input and pertinent information.  The post is called "8 Techniques and Tools for Creating Lessons That Actively Engage Students", which includes technological apps a teacher can use in their classroom to engage students interests.  Some of the apps that this post mentions are as follows, first one I would like to mention is Socrates.  Socrates is an app that allows teachers to submit questions, quizzes and even get the results of those quizzes.  The next app I am definitely going to use in my classroom is jeopardylabs.com, this app allows me to create a jeopardy game with the information I'm using to teach my lesson at that time.  I know my students will definitely be engaged in this app because they are very competitive and always want to play games in class.  Definitely happy I ran into this app, definitely going to enjoy this one.  Another app this post talks about is Skype, in which I do have a little experience with.  I do like this app because it does allow you to put a face on the people that you are communicating with, whether it be in the United States or somewhere else around the world, students will be able to share ideas on how they live and what they study.
The next post that caught my eye was from the 21st Century Principal, "When Strong Leadership Takes Advantage of Others and Setting Aside Our Ambitions".  This post really interest me because it is something that I've seen not only in the education world, but in other jobs that I've had in the past.  The post that Principal J. Robinson submitted was very interesting, we all do look for a strong leader to help us, especially during hard times or to fix things that we feel need fixing.  There are very few strong leaders that are able to lead without being bias, or taking advantage of leading without being biased or gaining personal gratification or get things done the way they want it.  Most people that are involved in trying to fix things think twice about offering their opinion or attempting to change things to try and fix the problem, they fear failure and being blamed if it doesn't goes as planned.  The bad part of believing a leader is that people feel they don't have a choice but to accept what plans and ideas the leader brings up, whether it's good or not.  It's unfortunate that I've worked under a dictatorship, in which your ideas or beliefs don't count or matter to the person that is in charge.          
http://the21stcenturyprincipal.blogspot.com/2016/06/when-strong-leadership-takes-advantage.html

Blog post 15: Using LiveBinders for teaching and learning

I teach 5th and 6th grade Science at Culberson-County Allamoore ISD, this is my first year as a Science teacher and I taught 5th and 6th grade Math last year.  Binders is one of the things that I have my students use every year, and keeping them organized is a huge battle with my students.  I sometimes have them use tabs, but its' always confusing to them on what and in which order the tabs should go, plus they get very frustrated having to keep their papers in order and from falling out of their binder.  This is my first time using LiveBinders and I find it very interesting and useful, I still have a lot to learn about it, but from what I've seen and worked with so far it's very helpful and appears to be easy to use.  The three ideas I have to using LiveBinder in my classroom are as follows:

Idea One:

LiveBinders is a free link that my students and I can use, plus we can all work together and share information on lessons.  Using this link in class will help the students keep all their information in one place, save the students money and save me space in my classroom.  I will be able to provide students with homework and they can turn it in on LiveBinder.  

Idea Two:  

Students will be given group assignments in which they are going to be required to submit information in writing as well as include pictures and videos to assist them in the appearance and providing different type of technology.  Students are able to open their LiveBinder from the comfort of their home, which will them to work and even communicate with each other on their assignments.  I can have my students add pictures of themselves, things they like and places they would like to visit in their binder.  I would also like to see what interests them about Science, so I can have them include information on what they like about Science through pictures or videos.  

Third Idea:

Another idea I have is for students to have more than one binder, they can make a new binder for each TEKS unit that we cover every six weeks.  This will allow them to be able to go back to their specific binder to study for a semester or final test, easier access and they can share what they learned and help each other understand the information that was not quite familiar to them.  Science requires that we do labs, which I can have my students research labs that interest them and submit the in their LiveBinder to share with me and the class.  The best part about this is that they can include a video to model what they are trying to tell us with the lab, or they can even include pictures to demonstrate.  

Week 12: LiveBinders assignment

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=2113544 My Live Binder consists of different types of lessons that I teach throughout the school year, these are just a few that I teach.

Blog post 14: Final lesson ideas

      I'm a fifth and sixth grade Science teacher at Culberson-County Allamoore ISD in Van Horn, Texas, which is why I chose to use lesson from TEKS Unit 5, TEK 5.7A   Explore the processes that led to the formation of sedimentary rocks and fossil fuels.  This lesson involves students learn about deltas, canyons, erosion and forces that change the earth such wind, water and ice.  I chose this unit because it is one that I am getting ready to teach and the students appear to be excited to work on this lesson, I always gain prior knowledge of lessons a week prior to starting them.  The Web 2.0 tools I plan to use are Edmodo, as I feel this tool will help me provide the students all the information they need to do their lesson, take quizzes to asses their learning and submit polls for thoughts and snapshots to bring a picture to what the lessons are about.  This link helps me keep everyone together, and it allows the students to meet in one place no matter where they are at.  Students will create a model that will allow them to show erosion, as well as how water is involved in this process.  Not to mention that they can work on their assignment at home as well, take quizzes, submit snapshots and polls.  The best part of Edmodo is that I can have parents get involved and view what is going on with the lesson, they are able to get a first hand view of what their children are doing and what it is they face on a daily basis at school.  The next Web 2.0 tool I plan to use is Google Drive, this is one that I personally use myself at work.  I like this because I can design and submit all the required forms that the students will need to do their lesson, plus the students can meet for their lesson in and out of class. Definitions can be distributed to all students and have them work on them with a Frayer model, which gives them time to work on it and they can easily submit it online This also allows me to monitor what the students are doing and I can provide assistance or advice when I or the students feel it is necessary.  The lesson will also require students to create models outside of the classroom, in which I feel they can take pictures of their progress, download information from google and compare and share what they are doing on the website as well.  I can also share ideas with the students in reference to the lesson and the model we will be creating outside the classroom using Pinterest and I also feel that using Evernote will be a great tool for students to use for this lesson to stay connected and share the lesson and pictures.  Another web tool that I plan to implement in my lesson is Prezi, just need to see how I will use most of them without confusing or overwhelming my students.  These are the web tools that I plan to use, any more ideas will be greatly appreciated.  

Blog post 13: Helping a Teacher use Wikis

Identify problems that you observed in the scenario:

Jane had the right idea of using Wikis and implement it into her classroom, but it appears that she lacked the knowledge and experience to start implement it successfully.  Jane also lacked organization in her project, she should have obtained more information or help using links on how to organize projects.  Jane should have placed the students into groups of two instead of three or four because when you have too many students in a group, it can lead into to many problems such as the students not agreeing with each other.  Next, Jane should have placed them into groups before advising the students to generate a research question about water.  It would have helped Jane to provide some information and modeling on how to research for different things to the students, giving them an idea of what she is looking for and a list of good research materials and websites they can visit.  It also appears that Jane failed to provide a rubric to assist the students in the project and essay, and she also failed to assign advise each group to assign different roles in reference to who is doing what, this would have avoided a lot of problems with students not participating or doing everything in the project.  Jane should have also advised the students that they were going to be reviewing each others work, and that it will all be done with good respect and they would each talk to each other about editing or deleting their work so there would not be any hard feelings or anyone getting angry.  

Prioritize the Problems you identified:  Generate some possible solutions for the top 3 problems:  

Reading this problem scenario was very interesting, I did see a lot of problems with what occurred in Jane's classroom.  If I had to prioritize the problems I identified it would be in the following sequence.

1.  "Only one student was involved in writing the essay."  This appears to be most important to me because there is obviously no structure and cooperation within these groups, each group was probably not given a rubric or instructions on how to assign each group member an assignment for the project.  

2.  "Some of them just copied information directly from other websites. In another group, students embedded attractive pictures and videos in their wiki, but the content of the pictures and videos had nothing to do with their research questions."  Plagiarism and learning how and where to look for information is crucial, this is what these groups are going to base their project on.  Jane could provide the students information about plagiarism, and how they can cite their resources properly.   If they are mislead at the beginning, they will be working on the wrong project and will not identify how to research for the correct information.   

3.  "Some groups focused on making their wiki look pretty, changing formats frequently, but paid little attention to the content."  The first thing that students need to understand is the content of their project, work from there to make sure they align their project according to what the lesson is about.  Jane could also provide a rubric as to how she wants the project to go, what she expects in order for the students to obtain the best grade possible.  

4.  "She observed tensions regarding ownership and credit."  Students need to take pride in what they are doing, gain responsibility for their work and learn at the same time.  A group is also supposed to work together, share ideas and give credit to all that in the group with the finished project.  

5,  "Other students made only minor editing."  Editing each others work is a great way for students to see look at each others work, edit and criticize it.  Students that edit their peers work can also see what they probably are doing wrong or right, gain some ideas and share ideas with each other.  

6.  "Student became upset when he found out his entry was deleted by his peer."  Students need to be able to take criticism and positive comments, even if it means their work will be deleted.  Groups need to collaborate and agree with the editing and deleting of each others work.  

7.  "One student said "I want to cry when others changed my page!"  Students  should be advised that they should not take criticism too serious, it is a way of growing and improving their work.  Sometimes your peers can better see what you are writing, and they can assist you or give you credit for your work.  

8.  "As a result, students ended up writing their own paragraphs separately, but were reluctant to revise the work of others."  This is a result of students not working together and failing to collaborate with each other, assure that students all agree with editing and deleting their work as a group, and you will avoid students not willing to work as a group. 

Add at least 3 links that can back up your ideas or can help Jane to learn more about Wikis:

1.  Wikispaces Classroom:  

This link assists teachers to organize projects, monitor their progress, have students collaborate, organize classroom experience, and online and remote learning.  This link gives the teacher the ability to manage their students projects, monitor their projects, have the students collaborate their learning and share ideas.  The best part of this link is that it's free, so the teacher and students can all use it.  

2.  PBWorks:

This is another link that Jane could use to create a classroom and have access to create assignments projects and keep track of her students, they can collaborate and share ideas as well as submit their work in this link.  This is also a free link they are able to use and they can even connect with people all over the nation and world if they desired.  

3.  Wikipedia.org:  

This link is a great source for information, Jane can use this to have the students use to research information they need for their project.