Intrepid Teacher: Singing Hearts

This whole, fascinating journey of Kaia, her dad, Mr. Chamberlain and all the other people around the world who watched the videos, read the blog posts and left comments, has really intrigued to read Richard Louv's book; because it seems to be the driving force that started this whole sequence of events. That's why I love books and reading.

Dear Kaia: Kaia's First Photo Essay

I feel so privileged to be given a glimpse into this young girl's life. She is incredibly cute and it makes me so happy to see her spending time outside, exploring and learning.

With every picture on her post and in her photo essay, you can see her surroundings being put into perspective more and more. These are the goals I strive to accomplish as a teacher.

Turning what is percieved as 'nothing' into art... something beautiful that tells a story... learning.

A fascinating process.

Mr. Chamberlain: Dear Kaia - Voicethread

I'm very much a fan of voicethreads after Dr. Strange's class. I look forward to supplementing my curriculum in this way for my students. I hope when I try this for the first time, my students get as excited about it as I do.

Comments4Kids: Zane's Blog

I commented on Zane's blog about his lego robots and

Kobe Bryant & LeBron James.






I was very impressed by his lego robot.

The New Media Literacies

The New Media Literacies presents their ideas of the skills a person needs to be successfully productive in this new age of technology. Skills like judgement, negotiation, appropriation and play are universal skills that, in any era, would be a crucial element to being an effective artist, citizen or worker. But, yes, the other, new skills that they mention are definitely needed these days if you want to be successful in your endeavors with "new media".
I have good judgement when it comes to resources from the internet. Examples of places that I would rely on are government websites, established corporations or brands and accredited volumes of information. I do my share of playing on the internet. I like finding new things that intrigue me and just letting the trail of interest continue and build off itself. As the movie went on and explained negotiation and appropriation I realized that I posses those skills as well. I'm definitely a multitasker; and the rest of the skills I am going to have to do more research on in an attempt to start aquiring them.

Wendy Drexler: The Networked Student

This was a really great video. Yeah, it makes someone studying to be a teacher think about what the students are going to be like by the time we make it to our own classrooms. However, I believe that a networked student will always benefit from a teacher. It's the same as any networked person... there is always something new to learn so there are always going to be people to teach it to you. I look forward to being that person for my students, that is, when they aren't teaching me.

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream

I enjoyed hearing Richard Miller's ideas and I appreciated him sharing them. I was very interested in the technology of Jonathan Harris that he mentioned. I checked it out and it is really amazing. We Feel Fine is his tool that searches blogs; and Universe is the one that uses the news. Its really incredible technology that you could probably spend your entire life exploring and always find something new. Jonathan Harris is also on TED.com.





In order to achieve what Richard Miller speaks about in his presentation, we need exactly what he says. We need teachers that have the knowledge and capabilities to inspire their students to want to start learning, creating and sharing using this technology; curriculum and lesson plans that are updated to meet these goals and are proven effective; and resources to be made available to everyone.

Comment4Kids: Amber's Fantastic Facts

I commented on a poem Amber posted on her class's blog. Amber's Fantastic Facts. It was impressive. You should read it.

Using iPods for Instruction

I found this great presentation on SlideShare.net, which is a website that let's people share PowerPoint presentations, word documents and PDF Portfolios either privately or publicly. It has a great volume of information on how to use iPods effectively in the classroom.

iPods & Podcasting for Whole Language Instruction

View more presentations from Grace poli.

I think iPods are a great tool for enhancing instruction. It would be a great accomplishment if this technology, and all the technologies of today, could be accessible for every child in the world. iPods can be used for reading comprehension, listening centers, reviewing math concepts... all sorts of stuff. From what I've read, teachers have seen students getting less distracted and in turn learning more.

iTunesU

I can say I will be using iTunesU as long as it stays alvailiable. The iTunesU introduction presentation on YouTube was very informative and persuasive about the advantages of iTunesU.It's awesome that you can practically go to ivy league school's lecture classes, lab experiements, etc. I'm becoming more and more convinvced to invest in a iPhone to have all of this information and all these incredible tools at my fingertips.

Dr. Alice Christie.org

On Dr. Christie's website I explored the Google Earth Resource Guide section. She's absolutely right about using GoogleEarth in the classroom. When I was younger I believe I wasn't as interested in learning as much because I wasn't aware of the significance of what I was being taught. We would learn about the Revolutionary War or the Fall of the Roman Empire but none of it was put into perspective for me. When I'm a teacher, I would love to use GoogleEarth to show my students different regions of the world and our country, for them to better understand the impacts that these people and events that we learn about have had on our world and society. I look forward to exploring all of Dr. Christie's website more thouroughly and printing copies of her lessons using GoogleEarth like Measuring Using The GoogleEarth Ruler Tool .

NPR, Wikipedia, and Virgil Griffith's WikiScanner

I personally do not use Wikipedia. There are millions of sites that are better and more specific for research. I am not surprised that companies try to make themselves look better through Wikipedia.
I applaud Virgil Griffth for his talents and skills. I have yet to acquire the knowledge to know how to do anything close to what he accomplished with the WikiScanner. Maybe one day. I know I won't be learning any of it on Wikipedia though, that's for sure.

Did You Know? 4.0

Interesting.... I didn't know Obama used the social networking sites to raise that much money. He caught on quick. From a building, to your pocket, to a blood cell. That will be interesting to see. Another intriguing "Did You Know?".

Randy Pausch: The Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Wow! What an incredible lecture. Where to start?
Randy Pausch's lecture was "about" ways to achieve your childhood dreams. His talk was in three parts. He talked about his childhood dreams, how he did and we can enable someone else's childhood dreams, and the lessons learned from his experience and our experience of hearing him speak.
He had a ton of excellent ideas and methods to live your life by. There were several that stood out to me. "Brick walls are there to show how bad we want something." "Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals!" "Have something to bring to the table; it makes you valuable. Like his observation about Captain Kirk not being an expert at anything besides being the leader of his crew. I liked what he told us about how "we are doing our students a disservice by setting the bar anywhere" when it comes to our expectations of them.


He spoke about his childhood dreams and how he fulfilled most of them and how some changed along the way. He spoke a lot about the programs and ideas that he used to help other people achieve their childhood dreams. Including: Building Virtual Worlds, ETC and the Alice program. The lessons learned he spoke about included be good at something, work hard, and find the best in everybody. (you may not see it right away but he says wait long enough and EVERYONE will show you there good side.

The greatest part of Randy Pausch’s lecture was the topic of the head-fake. From the point that he explained what a head-fake was… I started noticing everything he was saying and realized that’s what he was doing to his audience. Little did I know he would reveal that at the very end? This was an incredibly inspiring talk. I’m so thankful that I was assigned to watch his video. I very much plan on buying his book and telling my family members to watch this video. I believe it would do them a lot of good.