Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Blog Assignment 1
I am originally from Venezuela. I moved here when I was almost 13. This year it will be 8 years since I moved to Mobile. I graduated from Davidson High School in 2008. I have been at USA since Fall of 2008. I was planning on going to Auburn, but my mom asked to stay so I did. Most people ask me if I regret that decision, my answer is always no. I have met some amazing people because of that. When I was in the 4th grade I decided what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to be a vet. I got accepted to USA through the pre-veterinary program. Then the summer of between senior year and my first semester of college, I volunteered at Camp S.M.I.LE, which is a camp for children and adults with special needs, and it completely changed my life. Here I am 3 years later, a Junior at USA, on track to be an elementary teacher.
I come from a really big family. I have 25 first cousins on my dad's side of the family alone, so when I was growing up loudness and chaos was a huge part of family time. Sadly, most of my family is in Venezuela, so my family time is much quieter now. I definitely miss the chaos. I have 2 brothers. I am the middle child and the only girl. I am a nanny for a family with twins. Ian and Margot. They are 4 and always keep me on my toes. I am with them 40 hours of my week. I also babysit regularly for another 3 families. In total, I babysit 7 kids. The oldest being 10 and the youngest being 1. I will often refer to them as my children.
I don't have much free time, but what little I have I usually spend it at the gym. I like swimming and summer time. My heart and soul belongs to Camp S.M.I.L.E. I spend only 4 weeks of my year there, but I spend the other 48 wishing that I was at camp. This is my second time taking this class, and I am definitely ready. I am also excited to learn all the new things that have been added, but also to revisit my old friends. For example, blogging. I missed blogging.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Farewell
Wait, it is over!? You don't say! This class has definitely been one of the most challenging classes I have been a member of since I started college in Fall of 2008. I have doubted my will, and my abilities as a student more than once during this class. Yet, it has definitely been one of the most useful, if not the most. It has not been about the biology of cells, the War of 1812, 2+2, or writing informative papers. This has been all about bettering us as future teachers by giving us the tools to challenge our future students to learn to the best of their abilities. To encourage our students to crave knowledge and to go out there and learn as much as they can. Many times throughout this semester, I have wondered why, Dr. Strange, is so emphatic about us going on our own and learning. But now I understand that this is the same exact thing we will want to our students to do, for the not be bound and limited to the four walls of a classroom. That even when they leave our learning cocoon, they should be like sponges wanting to absorb everything around them.
I hope that one day when we become educators, and we find in ourselves in our at our schools lounge during our planning periods. We will share stories about EDM 310.
I hope that one day when we become educators, and we find in ourselves in our at our schools lounge during our planning periods. We will share stories about EDM 310.
Honest Reflection
This semester has not been of an easy ride. This class has been so challenging, time consuming, yet rewarding. I have learned how to use many different tools. My favorite has to be Skype. I find it so useful. You can hold conversations with anybody around the world as long they have it on their computer. I could use this to have other teachers talk to my students as it has been done in our EDM 310 class. I plan on using YouTube, Skype, Picasa, and most definitely Google. I think Google might be the most useful of all. It is so versatile tool. It is not only a search engine, but you can do so much more. It can hold your documents, surveys, emails among many other things. I do not really think there could have been anything else or at least that comes to mind. There were so many great classroom tools that I cannot see adding anything else. Everything I have learned in this class has the potential of being useful. Some of them might be more entertainment based than educational. Google surveys, Vacaroo, Picasa might not necessarily be useful in a special education classroom, but I do not think we should discard them.
I would love to say that this class excited me but that would be a lie. I found it interesting just not exciting. This class was "intellectually challenging" because it made us look deeper at what people all over the world were trying to tell us. When we had to read other student's blogs we were challenged to see views different from our own. I did not have time to be bored with this class. We had enough projects to keep us busy. I believe boredom is the lack of having something to do and not being challenged. This class was plenty challenging. The work load of this will not change, and maybe it should not. Something that I would like to be added to this course is maybe for it to be a little more oriented towards Special Education. Some of the thing we learned are not really useful in a special ed. classroom. A project or tool that is geared for special education only.
I believe that I am technologically literate. This class has definitely made me so. I also believe that being technologically literate is directly related to a person's willingness to learn new things and to change. I was so unwilling to change my ways when I entered this class and now I am leaving a little technologically aware than when I entered. I will continue to be open minded about new technology. I will try to find new tools that are useful for my classroom. I will try and take everything I have learned and apply it.
I would love to say that this class excited me but that would be a lie. I found it interesting just not exciting. This class was "intellectually challenging" because it made us look deeper at what people all over the world were trying to tell us. When we had to read other student's blogs we were challenged to see views different from our own. I did not have time to be bored with this class. We had enough projects to keep us busy. I believe boredom is the lack of having something to do and not being challenged. This class was plenty challenging. The work load of this will not change, and maybe it should not. Something that I would like to be added to this course is maybe for it to be a little more oriented towards Special Education. Some of the thing we learned are not really useful in a special ed. classroom. A project or tool that is geared for special education only.
I believe that I am technologically literate. This class has definitely made me so. I also believe that being technologically literate is directly related to a person's willingness to learn new things and to change. I was so unwilling to change my ways when I entered this class and now I am leaving a little technologically aware than when I entered. I will continue to be open minded about new technology. I will try to find new tools that are useful for my classroom. I will try and take everything I have learned and apply it.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
January 17, 2010
Did You Know 3.0 by Karl Fisch
I found this video to be a complete eye opener. The world of technology is moving so fast that sometimes people do not realize the magnitude of the advances. The past decade has gone by so fast, and the changes have been so grand that sometimes it is all a blur. We live in a bubble marked by the boundaries of our sheltered minds. More often than not, we think that our country is the only one in this planet; when in reality we are only a small percentage. There are countries as the video showed who are far more advanced, but they are just not as widely publicized. I think this video should be a requirement to be seen by many Americans who do not realize that one day there will be a computer smarter than the human brain or that China will be the number one speaking country.
Mr. Winkle Wakes by Matthew Needleman
This is a story that I read in high school, and I actually enjoyed very much. I love to see the concept of the story use to portray such an important message. I think our world has caught on to the fact that technology has become part of our daily lives and that it will remain this way. Schools are very slowly catching up to this concept. The way education has been approached has been the pretty consistent for many years, so school are slow to adapt to the new ideas. I believe that there is no room for this. Schools need to incorporate technologies as early as they can. This is vital for people to survive in the world we live in. It is more than just teaching kids how to use word processors to write papers. This video represents just that because it shows how little the education system and schools have changed in our constantly changing world.
The Importance of Creativity by Sir Ken Robinson
Sir Robinson in a very charismatic way makes a very important point. People should be allowed and encouraged to be creative. When we are kids school is all about drawing colorful pictures and making art out of learning the alphabet. As our education progresses this becomes rare, and it is usually limited to art class. Which is usually ruled by boundaries and students are told how to express themselves. Subjects like math, sciences, and histories are deemed core classes, which are required and very much on top of the hierarchy of importance. Just as, Sir Robinson says, " we are educated out of our creativity." The best works of arts, songs, and dances most often come from mistakes, and this is when our creativity is in full swing. Schools very early on teach us that making mistakes is not acceptable. Our world is filled with people that are afraid of being wrong; therefore, they do not let themselves be free. I believe that this video is very important for future teacher especially those of young children. Schools should encourage their students to be creative and explore whatever talents they may have. We would not want to tell the next Picasso to put the paint brush down?
Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts by Vicki Davis
This video brings up a very good point because most of the kids that are in classrooms right now are growing up in a world of computers. Which means that all of the will not be stimulated to learn by pencil and paper. This idea seems to be more outdated as more and more assignments are posted on the internet or require a computer. Most kids in school are now required to have a computer or must have access to one. She is trying to use all the technologies that are available to us to give her students new ways of learning. The use of all this different technologies gives students important problem solving sources.
I found this video to be a complete eye opener. The world of technology is moving so fast that sometimes people do not realize the magnitude of the advances. The past decade has gone by so fast, and the changes have been so grand that sometimes it is all a blur. We live in a bubble marked by the boundaries of our sheltered minds. More often than not, we think that our country is the only one in this planet; when in reality we are only a small percentage. There are countries as the video showed who are far more advanced, but they are just not as widely publicized. I think this video should be a requirement to be seen by many Americans who do not realize that one day there will be a computer smarter than the human brain or that China will be the number one speaking country.
Mr. Winkle Wakes by Matthew Needleman
This is a story that I read in high school, and I actually enjoyed very much. I love to see the concept of the story use to portray such an important message. I think our world has caught on to the fact that technology has become part of our daily lives and that it will remain this way. Schools are very slowly catching up to this concept. The way education has been approached has been the pretty consistent for many years, so school are slow to adapt to the new ideas. I believe that there is no room for this. Schools need to incorporate technologies as early as they can. This is vital for people to survive in the world we live in. It is more than just teaching kids how to use word processors to write papers. This video represents just that because it shows how little the education system and schools have changed in our constantly changing world.
The Importance of Creativity by Sir Ken Robinson
Sir Robinson in a very charismatic way makes a very important point. People should be allowed and encouraged to be creative. When we are kids school is all about drawing colorful pictures and making art out of learning the alphabet. As our education progresses this becomes rare, and it is usually limited to art class. Which is usually ruled by boundaries and students are told how to express themselves. Subjects like math, sciences, and histories are deemed core classes, which are required and very much on top of the hierarchy of importance. Just as, Sir Robinson says, " we are educated out of our creativity." The best works of arts, songs, and dances most often come from mistakes, and this is when our creativity is in full swing. Schools very early on teach us that making mistakes is not acceptable. Our world is filled with people that are afraid of being wrong; therefore, they do not let themselves be free. I believe that this video is very important for future teacher especially those of young children. Schools should encourage their students to be creative and explore whatever talents they may have. We would not want to tell the next Picasso to put the paint brush down?
Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts by Vicki Davis
This video brings up a very good point because most of the kids that are in classrooms right now are growing up in a world of computers. Which means that all of the will not be stimulated to learn by pencil and paper. This idea seems to be more outdated as more and more assignments are posted on the internet or require a computer. Most kids in school are now required to have a computer or must have access to one. She is trying to use all the technologies that are available to us to give her students new ways of learning. The use of all this different technologies gives students important problem solving sources.
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