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<![CDATA[My Site - Blog]]>Tue, 17 Mar 2020 13:06:14 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[TED TALKS]]>Fri, 06 Jun 2014 21:16:50 GMThttp://courthowe.weebly.com/blog/ted-talks

As an educator, I think it is very important to find strategies and techniques in order to improve my role as a teacher. I have had much success with TEDtalks and would love to share some beneficial facts I feel everyone can use. The first video I watched was from Rita Pierson. She has been an educator since 1972, teaching to elementary, middle school and special education students. She was also a counselor, testing coordinator and assistant principal for many years. Based on her high resume, I feel Rita has great educational advice to offer to teachers. The second video I watched was from Pearl Arredondo. She is a teacher who grew up in a struggling family and neighborhood. She is using the childhood struggles she faced to help other students who come have difficult family situations like herself. She wants to make sure every student has the opportunity for academic success and to not back down from their future goals.

The first video I chose to watch was with Rita Pierson. I chose this video because it discussed the importance of student and teacher relationships. Teacher and student relationships are probably one of the mostimportant key elements in having a successful class and classroom. Rita talks about how important relationships between teachers and students are and how teachers should find personal connections which each student to understand them better. She stated in her video, “no significant learning can occur without a significant relationship.” Students need to know that their teacher is trustworthy and only wants the best for them. She gave a very powerful example of how her mother always took her student’s best interests to heart. She held review sessions during recess, would keep peanut butter and crackers in her desk in case students got hungry, visit each students home, keep wipes and soap when students got dirty during recess or couldn’t shower at home, etc. Years later, her students came back and told her how much of a difference she made in their lives because she truly understood them and wanted what was best for them. She told them that they “were truly someone important in this world”, even when they didn’t feel they were. She was someone her students could turn to for anything because she was so open and easily to talk to.

A quote that resonated with me during the video was when Rita said, “kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.” This quote is very true and I have had personal experience with this. When I was younger, I had a teacher who I was afraid of because she was very difficult to talk to. It seemed as if she didn’t care about her students because she wasn’t very friendly. She would even throw new information at us without making sure we understood it. Due to my weak relationship with her, I was afraid to ask questions when I was struggling with the material. Instead, I just sat in my seat pretending I knew what was going on. Students need to feel comfortable with their teacher in order to excel academically. Having positive relationships between students and teachers also motivates students to do well in school because they know they have people who care about how well they do. Students and teachers spend countless days and hours together a week that it is important to have as much of a positive environment as there can be.
Click here to watch it!

The second video I watched was with Pearl Arredondo. She had a rough childhood growing up with her father being sent to prison, to living in a dangerous neighborhood with many gang fights. Pearl discusses many issues kids have to deal with outside of school. When she was younger, she watched her father foam from the mouth. She really needed a support system at school to help her overcome her constant daily battles, especially someone to talk to after what she witnessed with her father. Pearl’s mom was the only person in her life that was her support system. Not only were Pearl’s teachers not their for her emotional troubles at home, they didn’t believe in her ability to succeed in life or even have any chance of graduating high school. Thanks to Pearl’s mother, she proved everyone wrong and graduated high school. She later went on to Pepperdine where she received her degree in education.

What really resonated with me in this video was when Pearl discussed student’s needing a support network. A student has a completely different life at home and a different life at school. Many even have different expectations and goals. Students need to know that they have positive role models at school who can help them move beyond there “at home” struggles. Teachers have such an impact on their students life that many don’t even realize. Pearl wishes that she had teachers who would tell her “you can move beyond that.” As an educator, I am taking this story to heart. I will work extra hard at making sure every one of my students, no matter where they come from, have the support they need and deserve. Teachers are the ones who need to push their students to be the best they can be and to provide them with the proper tools and knowledge to succeed in the world.
Click here to watch it!

Similarities Between the two:
What both of these two videos have in common is how teachers have a huge impact on their student’s lives. Teachers provide more than just being an educator to each one of their students. They are role models who help teach students right from wrong and how to achieve success. The key goal between teachers and students is building a relationship with one another. Understanding ones needs and inspirations is one beneficial way to making a positive difference. Without a positive relationship, it is very challenging for students to have academic success. It is also challenging for teachers to accomplish their educational plans for each of their students, making sure they are learning the proper information at the right time.

TED Talks in My Future Classroom:
I definitely can see myself using TED talks in my own classroom. TED talks offer very beneficial information to teachers on ways to improve learning in their classrooms. TED talks are very inspirational and really show teachers how valuable and important they are to students. TED talks also are a very good educational tool that I can share with my students on educational topics and issues. They offer inspirational advice to students on how to be successful in life. TED talks also bring a more creative side to teaching. Students typically find more enjoyment in watching videos than listening to their teacher present an idea or a lesson. Instead of taking notes about the U.S. government system, they can watch a video all about it with cool pictures and videos to give students a more visual idea of what they are learning. Just from watching these two videos, I have learned so much on ways to be a better teacher and how to improve my classroom.

TED Talks Lesson Plan:
I really enjoyed watching this lesson plan video because it teaches students how to calculate distance but in a fun way. Instead of writing a bunch of numbers up on the board trying to explain how to measure distance, this TED talk does it in a fun way using animated characters while incorporating math into the story line. It also shows them step by step how to find the rate in which the rocket ship arrived to earth. It is very straightforward, providing enough information for students to follow along. I really like how they used two characters racing each other to see who can get to Earth the quickest. Students love games and can do so with this lesson plan by trying to predict which rocket ship will make it to Earth first. They are learning new material while having fun.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH

]]><![CDATA[INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY INTO THE CLASSROOM]]>Wed, 28 May 2014 18:04:12 GMThttp://courthowe.weebly.com/blog/integrating-technology-into-the-classroomHere is a great website I found that does a wonderful job incorporating technology into class lessons throughout all subject areas! Check it out :)

Irene and Erin are both 4th grade teachers; one of them teaches at Pine Glen Elementary while the other teaches at Francis Wyman Elementary School. Both teachers try their best to incorporate I-Pads into each subject area as best they can. Erin talks about how the children in her class love working with I-Pads. It causes less distraction so they can accomplish more work than they could before. Beforehand, students would raise their hands constantly because their pencil broke, or they couldn’t find their textbook. Now, students have more hands on learning and have the tools for a deeper learning experience than could be offered with just a textbook and paper. For literacy lessons, Erin has students use the I-pad to record themselves reading, games that focus on phonics and phonemic awareness, games that focus on spelling, word memory games and also for students to write personal journal entry’s. Irene uses the I-Pad for similar purposes as well as Erin when it comes to literacy. She talks about how students can receive immediate feedback when using the I-Pad to see how well they did on the games. They can also go back and look at all their journal entry’s to see how much their writing as improved. An App that she also uses is called I-talk recorder. Students use this app to capture a photo of their written work and record themselves reading a poem, journal entry or book. When they are done, they can send it to the drop box so Irene can get a sense of where her students are at in reading and writing. When it comes to math, she using an app called ST Math. ST Math helps students enhance their logical thinking and problem solving skills. There are many different games students can play to focus on a specific area they need help with. Irene’s students love using the I-Pad and don’t even realize they are working on math because they are having so much fun with the I-Pad and the math games.

ISTE- T Standard:
4A. I believe that “applying technology in assessing student learning of subject matter using a variety of assessment techniques” best matches the article I read because both teachers use a variety of assessments to test student’s abilities in each subject. For example, in literacy and writing, Irene and Erin have students record themselves reading poems, their own journal entries, stories, etc. to test their reading skills as well as writing. They also have students play games to familiarize their phonemic awareness of sounds and words and to test their spelling abilities. They also use games for students to test their familiarity with sight words. For math, they have games that assess students in different categories of math, such as multiplication, story problems, fractions, etc. Using the I-Pad, Irene and Erin are able to use a variety of assessments to see where students are at in different subject areas or within different contexts of the same subject area (for example, they know their sight words but they cant pronounce them correctly). It is very important to provide a wide range of assessments to test our students knowledge. Some tools and methods may work best for one student but not another. By providing a variety of tools and assessments, we can help each student as best we can by providing them with the right tools to enhance their learning. The I-Pad definitely is a great technology resource that can benefit a wide range of students!

5D. While browsing the ISTE-T standards, there were a few that did not match the article. The one that stuck out the most to me was “using technology to communicate and collaborate with peers, parents, and the larger community in order to nurture student learning.” Both Irene and Erin talk all about how important it is to incorporate different styles of learning and teaching into their curriculum and ways they do such. However, they do not mention how they express their ideas and ways of teaching onto the parents. One thing that I have always learned when it comes to being an effective teacher, is to make parents aware of what is being taught in class, ways to teach the students effectively, and how parents can use some of the tools and methods the teacher uses at school, for them to use at home with their children. Not only that, but some parents may not agree with all the different technology tools teachers are using in the classroom. I think it would be very beneficial if Irene and Erin either sent out newsletters each week of the technology they use during class lessons or to create a blog for parents to see what their children are doing during class each day. I think Erin and Irene are doing a great job using different sources to enhance learning but it is very important for them to share their ideas.

Here is the website for the article if you would like to read more about it!

Teacher experience and expectations

]]><![CDATA[Teaching with technology]]>Sat, 24 May 2014 18:02:45 GMThttp://courthowe.weebly.com/blog/teaching-with-technology

Go Animate is a great tool for students and teachers to use at school and even at home. It is easy for anyone (teacher or student) to make an animated video for others to see that is entertaining for its viewers.

As a teacher, I can use this piece of technology to:
· Present fun videos of lesson plans for my students to keep them engaged with the material we are covering.
· For students to watch when they are at home: if a student missed school that day, forgot what we learned and wanted to see the lesson again, or wanted to study the material for an upcoming quiz, they could easy play the video over and over again of the lesson plan I presented in class
Students can use Go Animate to:
· Come up with their own imaginative stories
·Improve their writing skills
·Learn the key elements to creating a story
·Share their stories with other classmates
Check out GoAnimate!

IXL is a great resource for students and teachers because it provides extra practice over material they are learning in school.
As a teacher, I can use IXL to:
· Use as a review during class before a test
· Provide my students with extra practice so they can better understand the material
Students can use IXL to:
·Practice material they are struggling with or to become more familiar with the material
·      Quiz themselves before a test/quiz
·      Provides students with immediate feedback on how they did
  Check out IXL!

Endless Reader is an App students can use to learn vocabulary, practice their sounds, learn words and letters. They can download it on the computer, iPad, iPhone, iPod, etc.
As I teacher, I can use Endless Reader to:
· A more entertaining learning environment during class to teach my students words, sounds, letters through the fun animations
· Quiz them over spelling vocabulary, sounds, letters

Students can use Endless Reader to:
· Extra practice over their sounds and letters
· More engaging and will encourage them to want to learn
· Teach them new words and how to spell
Check out Endless Reader!

Class Dojo is a great website that helps improve behavior in classrooms.
As a teacher I can use Class Dojo to:
·Monitor my students behavior and provide feedback to their parents
· Create a positive and productive learning environment for my students
· Spending less time on discipline and more time on learning
· To use positive reinforcement for good behavior and actions

Students can use Class Dojo to:
· Have a more positive learning environment
· Makes class less disruptive because they can track their own behavior and other classmates
· The motivation to behave because of the positive rewards for good behavior
Check out Class Dojo!

Triptico is a great interactive resource to use in classrooms for any subject. You can use it for tools such as timers, calculator, games and quizzes.
As a teacher, I can use Triptico to:
· Make lessons more interactive using the variety of tools
· Make games to review with students during class
· Improve and encourage participation

Students can use Triptico to:
· Quiz themselves/ classmates before a test
· Fun and engaging while encouraging participation

Check out Triptico!

Additional Comments:
I hope you enjoyed the links of great websites posted above! Many of the sites were suggested by other teachers who strongly recommend these sites to improve academics and add more excitement to teaching and learning. I researched each site closely and learned how to use them. I am very impressed with how effective and easy to learn these sites are. Each website provides links, videos, blogs, reviews on their sites and how to use them. I think they will be great tools to improve the learning environment for students during class as well as great tools for students to use at home. Networking is a great thing to do when trying to find new technologies for you classroom. It is really helpful to hear other teachers and educators thoughts and opinions on sites and apps. There are so many new technologies out there today that it is not possible for one person to try them all out. Hearing feedback from others on what works and what doesn’t is a great thing to have! Especially when researching new technologies to use in the classroom, it is great to be able to read posts about the technologies on the Internet so that you can try them out right away.

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