Blog Post #10

Randy Pausch's Last Lecturewas a professor, mentor, researcher and alumnus at Carnegie Mellon. He was involved in a number of university departments and initiatives. In 2007, Randy Pausch gave a one-of-a-kind, motivational, powerful lecture that became an international media story and a best-selling book. His lecture was about his childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons learned. In 2008, he died from cancer. He did not let his health stop him from being humorous, cheerful, energetic, and youthful.

After watching this inspiring lecture, I learned so many things about teaching and learning. I can't wait to read the book to learn more! Several things Randy Pausch said stood out to me:

"Brick walls are there for a reason, let us prove how badly we want things." There are many brick walls in life, even in the classroom. When a child hits a brick wall, we should not give up on them. Brick walls let us show our dedication.

"We learn from our students, not just the teacher." I absolutely agree with this. This is an inspiring quote for not only teachers, but for everyone.

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." In life we don't always get what we want, but there are always lessons learned.

If someone gives up on you, they have stopped caring. Never give up on your students.

"When people give you feedback, cherish it and use it."

"It's not about how to achieve your dreams, it's about how to lead your life." The dreams will come to you. Karma will take care of itself.

This lecture was one to never forget. I will carry the inspiration from this lecture with me in my future classroom. It taught me to never give up on my students, encourage them to achieve their dreams and learn with them. "Find the best in everybody." This is something to remember every day.

"You cannot change the cards you were dealt, you can only change the way you play your hand." - Randy Pausch

Project #12: SMARTboard

Project #9: Podcast

Blog Post #9

Project #10: Green Screen Movie

C4T #2

Dianne Krause is an Instructional Technology Specialist and Coach in the Wissahickon School District. Her blog has resources and ideas for the successful integration of technology in the classroom.

The first comment I left for Mrs. Krause was discussing eight technology books every leader should read. I found this post very interesting! I have never read any education technology books before. After reading this post, I was eager to read one of them. The book "A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change really interest me. It is important to keep up, stay enthused, and grow through change. I encourage everyone to read at least one of these books, especially if you are a future educator.

The second post I commented on discussed the twelve most perfect ways to ensure you're legally using online photos. This is very important whether you are an educator or not. Most people do not know the proper way of using online photos or images. These tips were very helpful.

I enjoyed reading Mrs. Krause's blog!

Blog Post #8

What can we learn about teaching and learning from these teachers? -Dr. Strange

Blended Learning Cycle: Lauren Macon

In the video, Blended Learning Cycle Mr. Paul Anderson, a high school AP Biology teacher in Bozeman, Montana explains how he is using the blending learning cycle in his classroom. Blending Learning is taking the parts of online, mobile, and classroom learning and blending them together in a classroom. The Learning Cycle is composed of engaging questions, exploring experiments, explaining the phenomenon, expanding on it, and then evaluating. This is what inspired the Blended Learning Cycle. Mr. Anderson begins his class with a good question about a phenomenon. I think this is a great way to start your class off! It gets the students attention and gets their interest. Asking questions is something I will use in my future classroom. After the question, he explains we should be prepared for investigation/inquiry, video, elaboration, review, and a summary quiz. He uses different types of technology during this process. I also explored his blog, Bozemanscience. His blog has hundreds of science videos that he created. He is always learning new things and sharing them. I learned that you should let your students be in control of their learning, questions are important, and that you can learn with your students too. Watching Mr. Anderson’s video was very beneficial. I will use these skills in my future classroom!

Back to the Future: Caitlin Lankford

In the video Back to the Future. Brian Crosby, a fourth, fifth, and sixth grade science and technology teacher, was describing how he “runs” things in his classroom. Crosby talked about how all of his students have a computer, access to a web camera, and their own blog. Basically what Crosby was focusing on in his presentation, was that he does a learning activity with his students, and then to assess them, he makes the students write about it in their blog! How neat? Crosby’s class is very focused on technology activities, yet very hands-on. For instance, Crosby and his class, made a hot air balloon go into high altitudes of the sky and attached a camera to the balloon so that they may be able to receive information from where the balloon is. The children discussed the learned information on their blog and wrote a book about their findings. The children received numerous amounts of positive comments on their research and findings! I love what Crosby did with his class; he made learning fun! I hope that one day, I will have the means to do something special with my class just as Crosby did with his.

Making Thinking Visible: Melissa Canterbury

In the video Making Thinking Visible. Mark Church, a sixth grade teacher at International School Amsterdam, asks his students to talk among their small groups about a video they watched in class the day before. He gives them time to discuss within their groups and asks them to come up with a headline to capture what the video was all about and what exactly did what they watch mean. Church gave his students a strip of paper to write their headline on after they decided on something as a group. I liked that he put the students into groups and asked them to work together to come up with a headline. By doing that, he is engaging the students and allowing them to learn from other students in their group. We can learn from Mark Church his way of engaging the students in the thinking process. Church gave the students an opportunity to share their own opinions and then showing them how to work in groups to come up with a final decision for the headline. I really like the idea of students working in small groups and I think that keeps them engaged in the lesson. From personal experience, I love working in groups and hearing what my classmates say because sometimes I can’t explain what I am thinking or put it in the right words and my group members help me get it out. I love learning from other educators and think it is only beneficial to us especially as young teachers with little or no experience in the classroom.