C4T #3 Summary

     During my third round of C4T I was assigned The Blue Skunk Blog, which is a blog written by Doug Johnson that deals with the impact of technology upon education.
     The first post that I commented on was BFTP: All Administrators Can Learn.  The post dealt with the inability of some administrators to take leaps of faith in regards to the expansion of PBL practices.  To be more blunt, Mr. Johnson detailed the lack of faith with scarce funding in response to experimental education programs, and he also discussed a learned helplessness that many teachers had learned in respect to this problem.  My comment involved my thoughts on how confidence and a never back down attitude can carry you a long way.
     The second post on which I commented was BFTP: Distracting Technologies, and it was about students using technology for purposes such as games and social networking during class.  Mr. Johnson also discussed the possible ways in which to combat these behaviors.  I commented that I believed that these behaviors had to be tackled on the individual level, and how they were very akin to doodling and daydreaming.
     All in all, I would say that it was a very productive and interesting round of C4T's.

Blog Post #12

     For blog post #12, my group decided to utilize Google Slides in order to collaborate.  Below are three links that lead to our individual presentations.  Please enjoy.

Teaching Math to the Blind

The Mountbatten Brailler

Technologies for Hearing Impaired

     In the spirit of collaboration, I will leave you with a photo from the famous movie Shichinin no Samurai or Seven Samurai in English by the famous Akira Kurosawa.  It's interesting that many people do not know that this movie is what the movie The Magnificent Seven by John Sturges is based on.  If you're ever in the mood to watch a fantastic movie about seven brave warriors putting their lives on the line to protect the innocent I would highly recommend either.

EDM310 Project #10 Interview Movie

     Here below I present a video interview with my senior English teacher who I believe is a perfect example for a teacher that utilizes PBL to great effect in her classroom.  I hope that you enjoy it.

EDM310 Project #12 SMARTboard Project

     I regret to inform that this project is late due to technical difficulties, but without further ado I would like to present my project #12.

Lesson Plan Part B

     Below I have posted a link to the Google site for Group 1 TT2's Lesson Plan part B. Please enjoy.


Preparing for Natural Disasters

Blog Post #11

     In this blog post, we have been tasked with determining what can be learned from a set of videos that show how different teachers utilized PBL in their classrooms.  The videos included Brian Crosby's Back To the Future, Paul Andersen's Blended Learning Cycle, Mark Church Making Learning Invisible, Sam Pane's Building Comics, Dean Shareski's Project Based Learning, and the Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program.

     Time after time in these videos, teachers were able to seamlessly apply project based learning to their classrooms and curricula.  These teachers engaged their students in a multitude of projects ranging from creating comic book characters to collecting data from and launching weather balloons, and I must say that these projects were quite intriguing.  I suppose the take away message from all of these videos is essentially that children shouldn't be limited by what a teacher believes they can do.  The students should really be given the reins to their own education because they are obviously quite capable of achieving astounding feats on their own, so instead of giving a student a specific goal or  stringent objective I believe that it would be much wiser to set them on a path and watch as they crack the sky.  In essence, I would say that my belief in the limitless potential of the individual and the belief in a new generation of learners was reinforced.

     In closing, I will leave you with John Gillespie Magee Jr.'s poem High Flight in honor of the limitless potential that all students possess.  I have also included a picture entitled Girl Touches Stars by Vreckovka because the stars are out there you just have to reach for them. 

                                             "Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air...

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark or even eagle flew --

And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

C4K Summary October

C4K #4
     For C4K #4 I was assigned Ishita whose post was titled The Band Geek and was a short book review, and her review ended in  the book's recommendation.  I commented that Ishita had done quite a good job in summarizing and giving her opinions in regards to the book itself.

C4K #5
     For this commenting session I was given Sophie who had written a post title The 14th Goldfish, which I will not lie was a tad confusing.  The post itself had no relationship to a goldfish but was instead a story about Sophie's grandparents.  However, the story was well crafted, and her grandparents seemed like lovely people.

C4K #6
     This iteration of C4K had me commenting on a young man named Ryan's blog whose latest post was called Baseball.  In summary the post was an interesting story about the final climactic moments of a baseball game, and I was quite amazed at this young man's ability to craft an engaging narrative.

C4K #7
     In my latest C4K, I visited Alizhay's blog and commented on her post titled Music.  Her post was short but detailed and focused on a project that she had recently completed with a classmate.  The project itself was her crafting musical notes out of modeling clay, and there was a picture included denoting their fantastic work.

     All in all, I'd say that it was quite the interesting session of Comments 4 Kids.