Blog Post # 16: Final Reflection

Final Reflection

C4T #4

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus

In this post, Tyler Rice started out his thoughts with a Mark Twain Quote. He wrote about how we as people do not really experience any longer, but we instead are taught about experiences. I found this post to be very thought provoking and interesting. I made me look at the world from a different view point. 

Impacting Students a Book at a Time

Here Annie Palmer writes about the importance of reading. She wrote how children sometimes do not have an interest in books and you have to engage them any way you can. I agree with her, I believe reading is one of the most important things for students to learn. 

Blog Post # 5 Part 2

Personal Learning Networks

Before starting this semester I would have had no idea what a PLN was or how to acquire one. Throughout EDM310 I have learned quite a bit concerning this. On our weekly checklists I have been keeping up with my C4K and C4Ts. These have been the most useful in expanding my PLN. After I comment on these blogs, I always add them to my PLN by subscribing to their blogs. I keep up with what they do week to week and go back and read more of their posts. I have found this to be a really good connection with others around me that are interested in the same things as I am.  Twitter is also a great way to expand your PLN. After following all of the EDM310 staff, and some other teachers as well, I have been able to keep track of them too. These types of social networks are an easy and great way to expand your Personal Learning Network. I have also found some great tools I can use while doing my EDM310 assignments. Dr. Strange's checklists have led me to a bunch of great sites that I cannot only use now, but also in my classroom when I become a teacher. 

Project 6: C4K #8

Caelin

In this post, Caelin had some poems she had written posted. I introduced myself and explained how much I liked her poetry. She did a very good job and I can appreciate her work because I know how hard writing poetry can be. 

Brendan

Brendan talked about a unique way of printmaking. I introduced myself and commented on how much fun it seemed. He seemed to enjoy learning about this subject. 

Katy

In her post, Katy wrote about her first and second quarter in school while also incorporating her vocabulary words at the same time. I thought she did an excellent job and her writing was really good. I enjoyed reading her post. 

Blog Post #14: Teaching Can Be a Profession by Joel Klein

In this article by Joel Klein, he picks the number one thing he would have about education. He said it was not an easy question because there are so many things that need to be changed, but he would start with this: to professionalize teaching, making it well-respected like being a lawyer or doctor. Klein then goes on to discuss all the problems he see in education and why it isn't considered a well-respected profession.

Problems

1. Teachers need better training

2. Seniority distraction

Here is how Klein addresses these problems:

• Teachers need better academic training
• Only hire the top third of our graduates
• National teacher examination
• Supervised internship of from one to three years
•  Merit-based career ladders

I believe that teacher's do need better academic training. Joel Klein said that pretty much anyone with a degree can teach. Sadly this is true. If trained our future teachers better, they would have lasting affects on our children and future generations. 

When it comes to the selection process of hiring teachers, we should only be hiring the very best. We want our country to flourish, so we need our children to have the best education possible. If we only hired from the top third of the graduating class, it would help insure this. 

Furthermore, Albert Shanker proposed a national teacher examination. This would show schools who was best suited to teach and who should be hired. Other professions have entry exams like the one Shanker would incorporate. 

 Another idea Shanker had that Klein writes about is having our prospective teachers complete a supervised internship from one to three years. This would cut down on the hiring of incompetent teachers.

Lastly, teachers should be rewarded based on merit, not seniority. As I'm sure many can attest to, there are teachers out there who have been teaching for years, but are not necessarily the best for our students.  

I agree with what Joel Klein had to say. If schools and colleges took this changes to heart we would have a much better public school system for our children to attend. Many believe the going into education as a career is easy. I simply do not agree with this. Teacher's are unappreciated even though we trust them to educate our children property. When we start treating teachers as professionals, changes will begin to take affect. 

Blog Post #13: What Did I Leave Out?

Research in what ways technology is utilized for special education students. Formulate your answer and include links that show from where your information came. 

Technology is used daily in special education classrooms in the majority of schools. These students are able to learn successfully through these assistive techniques. Students with certain types of disabilities have certain types of technologies that teachers use in their classrooms. These types of things take learning to the next level for students. 

Students with mild cognitive disabilities in Reading, Writing, and Math use interactive storybooks and software with text-to-speech capability, word prediction software, and graphing software. These types of things have been proven to help them have a better learning experience.

For the students that have sensory disabilities like blindness or vision problems, there are converters for text-to-braille, screen readers, and magnification control panels to help them. If a student is hearing impaired there are amplification devices available for teacher's to use. 

There are other things like iPads, iPhones, tablets, and computers that different apps can be downloaded onto to depending on what the student needs. These apps have been specialized to target certain disabilities for students. Teachers are able to use these for teaching in the classroom. 

With the use of technology growing in our schools, the greater amount of students it is affecting. This has opened doors for many students, and given them opportunities that they never had in the past. Many do not embrace the use of technology, rather they hold on to what is familiar for them. People need to see the use of these things as helpful and seize onto them. 

Project #12: SMARTboard Instruction Part B

Our SMARTboard lesson plan was created by Jessica Harris and Lauren Lee.