Blog Assignment 2

Did You Know
     In a YouTube video made by John Strange titled, Did You Know? 3.0 - A John Strange Version 2012   he showed facts from studies that were completed. These facts included information about the educational and technological world of students in the US.Some of these facts were quite alarming once you were to stop and think about them. One of the facts that really caught my attention was the following: "By 2025 the number of English-speaking Chinese is likely to exceed the number of native English speakers in the rest of the world." Gordon Brown, UK Finance Minister, 2005. When you think of that it is kind of a concerning matter. One we have many people living in the US that can hardly speak English the other thought that came to my mind when I thought about the previous statement was why is America not taking more of an stand to promote foreign language in the schools.
     I also realized from watching the video clip that our world is so much more technologically advanced then most realize. For example the video showed that, "1,393,519 are made on Google EVERY MINUTE". Another statement that was shown was, "2 years ago 93% of all 8-18 year olds in the United States had computers in their homes". As educators why are we not using this advantage of technology to teach students. We do need to be preparing students for the jobs that will be available to them once they are grown. In order to do that educators are going to have to start educating themselves on the world of technology themselves.


Mr. Winkle Wakes
 Mr. Winkle Wakes is a YouTube video that gives us a look into how our world is changing. From the everyday jobs that people have to the way modern medicine works. Computers, I Pads, and other technological device surround our everyday life. In this video Mr. Winkles has a hard time coping with all the changes in the world after he has been in a hundred year sleep. The only place he can find comfort is inside a classroom. For in the classroom their was not distractions from the outside world. No major uses of technology.
In K-12 schools their is not a lot of technology that is used. You have you library that has computers that are mainly used for things such as writing papers or doing research for a research paper. You might have one or two computer labs but if you look closely at what students are working on it is usually the knowledge of typing skills that are practiced over and over. It is true that their are a few classrooms with Smart-boards but not many.Most teachers have to constantly rely on that computer literate teacher to come and show them how to bring up PowerPoint on the projection screen several times in the first couple weeks of a new year. Even at the University of South Alabama were I am attending college you still have the same drill teachers lecturing students on facts. Most of the classrooms still have chalkboards and the teacher panics if the projection screen is not already turned on when they walk into a classroom. I have come to really love walking into the College of Education where the computers are nice and the equipment consist of more then just a chalkboard and a few pieces of broken chalk. We need to embrace technology and learn to really use it so that it can be taken with us into the classrooms that we as future educators hope to enter.


Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
     In the video  The Importance of Creativity by Sir Ken Robinson I feel as if many good points were made on the element of creativity. I work as a K2 teacher at a local daycare and some of my fellow co-workers may find me a little too structured for K2. It amazes me though because these co-workers mainly see me outside of my classroom for example in the hallway or in the lunchroom. Inside my classroom however it is a different world. We have a curriculum that we are suppose to follow weekly and we are given things such as color sheets and worksheets. Yet the idea for the most effective teaching by others at my work place is to talk about the color sheet and let the child color it. Where is the fun in that I ask. Instead in my classroom we might have a color sheet on a monkey because we are learning the letter M lets color the monkey, then glue brown felt on it so it feels like a monkey, now lets talk about what that monkey  eats and let the kids make some bananas and bugs. Another example of creativity in my K2 room I like to use is scissor skills. The kids get to cut up a plain piece of paper however they want and then we talk about what they are doing and I get some of the greatest answers from them. The other day one of my little boys looks at me and says, "Look Mrs. Constance I am making an airplane and it is flying...Oh no it crashed. That is okay I will fix it". All of that came from a simple white piece of paper and a pair of safety scissors. Now I greatly respect all of my co-workers for we all have our own ways of teaching but I think that Sir Ken Robinson was correct when he said, "We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it, or are rather educated out of it.
     As future educators we should want to strive to see our students excel academically as well as creatively. Most of us all had that one teacher that just amazed us when we were in school that made learning fun. I am not talking about the one that let us get away with talking on our cell phones; but the on that  had you make a video or act out Hamlet instead of write a paper on it. Or the one that made a racing game/relay course for you to review for a test. We need to be getting creative with this upcoming generation. We need to be learning from them and bettering the way we teach them so that they can become the doers of tomorrow.


A Vision for 21st Century Learning
     In the video titled,  A Vision for 21st Century Learning,it shows a new vision for learning where kids would not even realize that they are sitting down to learn. The concept of this idea is to take things such as Greece and the empire that once surrounded it and turn it into a virtual world. The concept would be seen as a video game to kids when in truth they are learning such things as the way the government worked, different types of architecture, as well as even learning to speak Latin. This idea could change the ways classrooms work dramatically. Taking this program and using it to help your students learn could have amazing results. You could do things other than just history you could take and use science as another program. Have students study the cell body by doing things such as having to make the digestive system properly function within a virtual world the possibilities are endless and the understanding of the material could be shown still with test; but also including more projects and demonstrations of the students knowledge instead of just pencil and paper methods.
     I do want to make a notation on this though even with programs like the one mentioned, I do not think that these programs should be the only method of learning. Their are so many students that only attend school online instead of in a classroom and I feel as if  students need a well round experience. The reason I say this is these programs could be so beneficial but if we can to rely solely on them we would lose so much. Students still need to know how to write correctly not just type, they need socialization with their peers, and they need to be required to use their minds and creativity to create task set for them.


Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

     I was really impressed with the video  Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts. Vicki Davis just amazed me with what she is doing with these high school students. She has taken teaching to a whole new level. The students were accomplishing things like making blogs and interacting with other students worldwide where we are just being introduced to that this semester. She had different groups of students working on different project and the students teaching one another.  
     I was really impressed by a comment that she made about the fact that her students were teaching her new things as they were learning throughout the year. You hear a few teachers say that you should teach your students as well as learn from them. Most teachers though can not come up with something that their student s have taught them yet this teacher could and that is an important part of teaching.

About Me Wordle

Blog Assignment 1

About Me
      My name is Constance Michaele Dixon and I am 22 years old. I was born in Huntsville, Al, and lived there until I was two years of age. When I was two years old my family moved to Mobile, Al. I recently got married on October 15, 2011 to my best friend. We have 4 four-legged children that we love very much. We have a Pitt Bull named Darby, a Boston Terrier named Tiki, and two Pugs Toofless and Gracie. My husband and I also recently discovered that I am excpecting and that my due date is September 8. Family is very important to me and I cherish mine even though we have our faults. I am attending USA for a major in Special Education / Secondary. My mom and grandmother were both Special Education teachers and I knew that teaching was what I wanted to do even when I was little. It was confirmed about a year and a half ago when I met a very special boy at my work and he taught me so much about my self and about those with special needs.
      I am currently working at West Mobile Baptist Child Development Center. I teach K2D which is the older K2 group. We are a Christian facility and we use a cirriculum program called ABEKA. I love the kids that I am able to work with even if I have a bad day when they hug me as I am leaving and say, "I love you Mrs. Constance", it is all worth it. When it comes to hobbies I enjoy taking my dogs to the park to run around. I also love to go horse back riding I have a 10 year old Quarter horse, gelding. When I have time I love to curl up with a good book. My favorite thing to do out of everything else is to bake with my husband; well it is more like I bake and he licks the bowl.

Randy Pausch and Time Management
       I actually enjoy watching Randy Pausch's lectures. I was introduced to him about six months ago by my husband. My husband actually asked me to watch the one called "Achieving Your Childhood Dream". It was very insightful and made us really think about our relationship with one another and what we wanted out of life. Now the, "Time Management ", video is very true and I like the saying that Randy Pausch used about doing your worst task first he said, "If you have to eat a frog don't spend a lot of time looking at it and if you have to eat three frogs don't start with the small one". I think that Randy Pausch is inspirational and that he has a lot of wisdom. I recommend his videos to my friends all the time to watch.The video that we were assigned to watch was actually just a clip from the full video,I have included the link for the full version of Time Management. I also included the link for the other video that I was speaking of earlier; Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, in case anyone was interested. For those that might not know anything on Randy Pausch at the time of the, "Achieving Your Childhood Dream", lecture he actually had 10 tumors in his liver. He also passed away in July 2008 from pancreatic cancer.