Final Report on PLN

My final report on my PLN has not changed much from earlier.  I have found a few networks that I will use now that I know about them.  I mention them in some of my earlier blogs. MCPSS is one of them.  MCPSS is something that I will use in order to know what I need to teach. I still use wikipedia and google more than anything else.  There my favorite without a doubt.  Anytime I have a question I ask my parents.   One of them will know.  My parents know the definition to everything.  If I am lost, I ask my parents for the directions.  If I need to know price rates on things that I want to buy, I ask my parents.  Some people's parents are not as educated as mine.  They are older and have not changed any.  They might have to wait weeks at a time to hear from their parents.  They cannot keep up with my parents.  My parents are too smart and too fast for other parents to keep up with.  Everything is right there when it comes to my parents.  No need to drive any where, no need to call anyone, I just ask.    When I teach, I will use my parents to help me.  They will be there forever.

 

 

Special Assignment

 Metaphors: What They Are and Why We Use Them
Before I go any further let me give you Wikipedia's definition of a metaphor.

Metaphor is the concept of understanding one thing in terms of another. A metaphor is a figure of speech that constructs an analogy between two things or ideas, the analogy is conveyed by the use of a metaphorical word in place of some other word. For example: "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphors compare things without using "like" or "as."



1.Why do I think I missed the metaphor?  I missed the metaphor because I did not care about what I was reading.  Another words, I did not take time to really understand what he was talking about. I started reading it and just thought it was a dumb story instead of taking time to see what he was talking about.  Sometimes I just want to be finish with the assignment so I don't take the time to look deeper into it.

2. What metaphors have I come across?  Well looking at the glass half empty or half full is common.  I have also come across some in the bible.
John;27-28
    My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish , neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 

  Not talking about  sheep!!!  Talking about Christians following Jesus.
Metaphors are all in the bible.  Read it and you will see how they are used.

 http://www.biblestudytools.com/kjv/
 
 3. What other things can we do as educators to help our students to understand and to use metaphors?  We could use them.  We could teach the students about metaphors and why we use them.  You could have a simple test that has metaphors on it.  Then ask the kids what the metaphor is and why is it used.

4. Why do we use metaphors?  We use metaphors to get a point across.  We use them so that another person can understand something better.   This way they can get a different view about something.  If you see something that maybe is more relative to you it might help. 

Final Project 16

C4T

My C4T was on Ms. Paula White's blog.  I commented on two of her blogs.  The first blog that I commented on was about how she was allowing her students to finish stories on a wiki.  I thought that was very creative.  It allows students to be creative and come up with their own ideas for a story.  I loved writing stories when I was in school and I'm sure that Ms. White's students loved doing this also.  This is the comment I left on that blog:

One Response to “Wiki Work”

Jude Sanford says:
April 13, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Hello,
My name is Jude Sanford and I am in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class. I was assigned to your blog and I loved reading it. I enjoy being able to be creative. I see that you allow your kids to do the same. Finishing the stories was a very creative idea.
I will be reading your blog in a few weeks and making a summary of it on my blog. If you would like to see it, you can find it on http://sanfordjudeedm310.blogspot.com/ Thanks

The next blog I read of Ms. White was on her putting up questions that her students had asked her.  I loved the questions too.  Some of the questions was:  When is a fact a fact, what did people use instead of road signs before road signs, and what would our country be like if Christopher Columbus had landed on the west coast instead of the east coast?   She also gave you the option of asking a question also.  This was my comment on that blog:
Jude Sanford says:

April 27, 2011 at 7:49 pm

Hey Ms. White,
This was an interesting blog. I liked all the questions that where asked in it. I never thought of what our country would be like if Columbus would’ve landed on the west coast. It makes me wonder where I would be if that would’ve happen. My question: Is the Bible something that men made up for people to have an explanation for why we are here?

C4K Summary Spring

 My first kid that I was assigned to was Andrew, who is a work maniac.  He also says that he is a friendly person.  I told him how hard work can get you far in life.  This is the comment that I left for Andrew:
Hey Andrew,
  My name is Jude Sanford and I am in Dr. Strange's EDM class at the University of South Alabama.  I am kind of a work maniac also.  I think being a work maniac will carry you a long way in life.  Just make sure you work smart also.  Looks like your going to have a great future being friendly, nice, and a hard worker.  Good Luck!!!


http://yollisclassblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/quality-commenting-during-family.html  is a link for Mrs. Yollis' classroom blog.  She takes it very serious which is a good thing.  She takes it so serious that she will not allow comments on her page that have punctuation errors.  I believe she does this because she does not want her kids seeing the wrong way to do something.  Especially if these errors are coming from future teachers.  The first thing I viewed on her blog was the interaction between the students and parents.  April was actually dedicated family blogging month.  The parents would comment on the blogs and the students would comment back.  I think that is a very good idea.  I believe that if parents see what they are learning in class that they can understand how important it is for there kids to learn.  They could also see how hard the teachers are working to help the kids.  This might encourage the parents to make their kids do better in school instead of allowing them to fail and drop out later.  I do believe that parents are at fault for students failing and dropping out.  So maybe by allowing them to be apart in some ways it will allow the parents to take school more serious.

I watched the video on how to blog by Mrs. Yollis.  I knew most of what she was going over because we have been doing that this entire semester.  I did learn how to correct punctuation by using the control button over a word that is marked incorrect.  Another thing that I learned is that I can add information to the blog when I comment on it.  I have did that in some ways but I believe I could improve in that.

Mrs. Vollis has a link where you can see what time it is in different locations across the world.  I believe this can be helpful in at least two ways.  The kids will get more familiarized with how time zones work and it will also allow them to know what time it is where the other kids that they are blogging with is.    Her students are blogging with other students across the world.  She calls this quad blog pals, where there is links to other classrooms.  This reminds me of something we called pen pals.  This is just a better and faster way of that.  Instead of waiting on letters for days, a student can communicate with another student from across the world in minutes. Mrs. Yollis also shows how to use html as I just did here. If my last sentence is in italics then that means I went by her directions correctly. She also teaches you how to use bold this way.

My last kid that I had was Jaden from Mrs. Yollis class.  He is a big Clippers fan.  Since I'm a basketball fan, it was easy to comment on his page.  He wrote about a Clippers game that he had been to.  He wants to know if the readers of his blog had ever been to a Clippers game.  I have never been, but I have been to a Lakers game so I told him about my experiences there.  I also commented on if I would like to see the Clippers play.   I told him how I would love to see Blake Griffin play because he can "dunk like crazy."

Blog Post # 13

http://alex.state.al.us/browseStand.php Alex is a website that deals with Alabama Learning.  Alex stands for Alabama learning exchange.  If you go into one of the subjects on the home page it will take you into that subject and give you things that will need to be taught in the classroom.  They have information on all subjects in school.  There is a place to go on the website to make lessons also.  You can choose from different grades also. 

I believe this site can be very helpful to me in the future.  I have the option of going head and looking ahead to some of the things that will be helpful to me as a teacher.  I have already looked into social studies for eight graders to get a heads up on some of the things that will be taught.  I know of another website that is similar.  www.mcpss.com is to do with Mobile Al school system.  I have saved both of these websites so that when I have time I can learn as much as possible before going into my career as a teacher.
 
 ACCESS http://accessdl.state.al.us/aboutaccess/ is another website that deals with Alabama education.  There website says, "The goal of the distance learning plan is to create equity through additional educational offerings for all Alabama public high school students."  There is a column on the left of the home page that has announcements for the school system.  I believe this website will be more helpful when I become a teacher than it will now.  I believe the websites listed above can be more helpful now because I can go ahead and make sure that I know as much as possible about what I will be teaching.

Blog Post # 12 What Kind Ot Teacher Do You Want To Be?

This week you are assigned to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC-dkIh4i1Y.  You will watch the video and blog on what kind of teacher you want to be.

 I want to be the kind of teacher that does their very best.  I want to help kids become good citizens and know how to help others.  I believe that if everyone would think about other people rather then themselves, the world would be better off.  I want to teach my students this.  That life is not always about yourself.  If you can help someone else by just a positive comment then why not.  We got to many kids that grow up in a negative atmosphere.  This seems to have a snowball effect.  They do it because that's what they grew up around.  Our society has got to change for our future.  If not, I hate to see what the world will come to.  That is one reason that I want to be a teacher that helps others.  EVERYONE, no matter what skin color, no matter what religion, no matter how wealthy someone is, no matter what problems they have.  I want to help people love each other.  Where else is better than in a classroom of young children doing whatever it takes to fit because of peer pressure.  It's our human nature to want to be liked or be number one.  Everyone can't be number one.  No matter how hard we try, we can't be perfect.  We live in a society where we try our best to be that. I'm not saying that having motivation is wrong.  We need motivation and we needs goals that we want to reach.  I'm just saying that their are kids who don't understand how to treat people because of who they are.  That should not be.  Be thankful for who you are and help people who are less fortunate.  So basically I want to be a teacher that helps others help others.

Post progress report on final project

Our group met tonight and we came up with our idea for our final project. We will meet next week to finish it.

A Giant Frog who was hated by others

Blog Post # 11

After watching the videos for Mr. Cassidy, I learned that it's really never too early to start having students use technology.  Ms. Cassidy has her first graders use it.  If they can be taught at that age then they could be at any age in school.  I would also have to say that the earlier they start the better they will be off in the future.  I can remember when  a younger kid in my neighbor had gotten a mp3 player.  I felt dumb because this young kid knew all about it and I did not know anything.  Instead of trying to learn about what it was I turn my back because I did not want a ten year old to know more than I did.  I believe sometimes grownups do not want to try to learn something that a kid might know because they feel stupid when a child knows something they don't know.  I did that on a lot of things, only to later get really involve in that same thing that I would turn down.  An example of this is me going from a playstation to a x box 360.  I use to be really good at games on a playstation.  When the x box 360 come out, I did not want to play it because I was so good and comfortable with the playstation.  I did not want to lose at something that I had never played.  I finally started playing the new x box 360 and I now I love it.  I think grown people do this in the use of technology all the time.  They are scared to go onto something knew because they comfortable with the old methods.  These kids that are being taught by Ms. Cassidy will be ready for life when they are able to get out in the world.  They will be the one's who will be comfortable with the technology that will be used in all jobs.  I think she does a good job on allowing them to go ahead and use this tool.  She has already taught them one thing that is very important: NOT TO SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT ANYONE ON THE INTERNET.  I think a lot of  adults on my facebook could learn a lesson from that.  If you put something on the internet, its there for everyone to see.  It's not a rumor, it's proof you said the stupid comment that you might even later regret.  I don't know how many times I have seen people post the stupidest comment out of anger or some other emotion.  She has taught there kids that at an early age.  They know what they say on the internet is for everyone to read.  I also like how she has her kids blogging.  The students seem to enjoy doing that.  They are learning and still have fun.  I plan on my kids being able to do the same things.  I want them to be excited about their projects as much as possible.  I believe Ms. Cassidy understands how important it is for kids to start at an earlier age.  In the skype interview she explains that she believes that all teachers should be technology literate. She knows that it is not going away anywhere in the future.   She see's how important it can be for the kids to be taught this.  I don't really see any impediments.  If any it will because of the people that are scared someones going to learn more than they will.  I could see how a principle or an administrator could be illiterate about technology and don't want the kids being taught about something that they don't know anything about.  It might make them feel stupid to know that kids know about something more than they do.

Project # 14 Teach Someone

Leslie Roberson and I listen to "This I believe"  podcast on  iTunes.  Madhukar Rao told a story from his childhood of him moving to a new school and the racial tension that went on there.  We  recorded our conversation on our reflection of the podcast.

 Click here to listen to the lesson I taught.