PLN

Before today I have not heard of a PLN or Personal Learning Network. A PLN is essentially a group of people, websites, or organizations. Most PLN's are formed over social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. Social media has not only changed the way we communicate but also how far we can communicate. PLN's through social media can help you connect to educators all over the world and share ideas and tips for teaching in the class room. Also having a PLN can help you connect your students to other students around the globe.

As a teacher you are always trying to come up with new ideas for the classroom to keep the students engaged and excited about learning. A Personal Learning Network is perfect for coming up with new ideas and sharing your ideas with others. Before Personal Learning Networks teachers where limited to their peers within their school walls. In many schools their are teachers that are experimenting with using blogs and other online tools to help their students learn. Having a PLN will allow those teachers to reach beyond their school walls to connect their students to others.

You can form your own PLN by using Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Blogger. While forming your PLN the list of information, links, and sites can get extensive. To organize all of this data you can use tools such as Symbaloo. Symbaloo is useful tool that you can use to organize all of your PLN information on one dashboard so tat you can freely move back and forth between networks.

The first addition to my Personal Learning Network will be Mr. Finnigahn a teacher at W.P Davidson Highschool in Mobile Alabama. I have spoken to Mr. Finnigahn about project based learning and i found out that he is one of many teachers that use this method of teaching in Mobile. I have actually planned to go and observe a class that he teaches to see how his students like this type of learning.

This is My Sentence

This is My Passion

Anthony Capps Discussion

In the videos Project Based Learning 1 and Project Based Learning 2 I noticed that the students were more involved and more excited about the subjects that they were having to learn about. From Anthony's experience it seems that with project based learning the students are becoming more independent when it comes to learning in the class room. I also learned that project based learning allows for each student to explore an area of the lesson that they found more interesting and then share the material that they have gathered to the other students. This allows students to not only learn from the teacher but also learn from each other. For example the Afghanistan culture project that Mr. Capps had his students work on. Some students focused on the food, clothing, and life style, and others focused on the warfare. Then all students where able to see what the other students had discovered about different aspects of life and culture in Afghanistan. From listening to what Mr. Capps had to say about project based learning I could see that it creates a more exciting and engaging learning environment for both teacher and student.

The programs I-curio and Discovery ED are new to me. I think it is amazing that teachers are now able to have their students search the web for information with out fear of them seeing something that is not age appropriate. All of the features on the I-curio program are very useful for the students. I love how you can collect websites and information in a folder when you see it on the web so that you don't have to go looking for it later when you need it. I also learned that I-curio has a feature for students with disabilities. For example it has software that can read the text to you. Discovery ED is also a very useful tool in the class room. With Discovery ED a teacher or the students can find multimedia to pair with the lesson that they are learning about. This tool is very useful for the students that are visual learners, and makes class more exciting for the teacher and the students.

The video discussion with Dr. Strange and Mr. Capps titled . Strange Tips For Teachers was very interesting. The tip i liked the most is that Teaching is hard work but can be exciting. I like what Mr. Capps said about not letting your job become work and allow your self to be excited about what you are teaching. I also agree with what Dr. Strange said. He stated that as a teacher you must also be a learner. Teachers don't always know everything and should be open to learning more and gaining different perspectives on different topics.I found these tips very true and think every teacher should keep them in mind throughout their career.

I enjoyed listening to Mr. Capps tell us about how he uses technology in the classroom and how he plans his lessons for the year. I was impressed that his third graders are able to effectively use IMovie with out a lot of help. I like how Mr. Capps explains how he uses his lessons to build on the students skills. He states that he will not go directly into having them use multiple sources to create an IMovie. Instead one week he may have them build a report using Discovery ED, and the next week he will have them use IMovie to make a reflection video on what they learned. Then combine those two skills and have them use both. Before listening to Mr. Capps talk about how he plans his lesson i had no insight into how exstensive of a process planning a lesson is. Not only do you have to keep in mind what goals you want to accomplish for the week but you must keep the lessons in line with what your yearly goals are. I like the example Mr. Capps gives with a Russian Doll Set. You have a yearly goal that you need to meet and in order to meet that goal you must complete each monthly and weekly goal. At the same time you have to make sure the students are comprehending the material. All of these videos gave me a greater insight into what it takes to be a successful teacher and how effective project based learning can be in the classroom.

C4T Project #4

I was assigned to Eric Langhorst who is a 8th grade history teacher in Liberty Missouri.

C4T#1 comment #1

In Mr. Langhorst most recent post titled The Hudson River Miracle Five Years Later posted 15 January 2014 He reflects on how a pilot of a U.S Airways plane emergency landed a plane on the Hudson River. Mr. Langhorst talks about the power of Twitter and social media and how social media has changed citizen reporting. Mr. Lnghorst recalls sitting in a waiting room watching a news talk show and checking his Twitter feed. He began seeing Tweets about a plane that landed in the Hudson River but wasn't sure if it was true because the news channel had not began reporting on it. After a few minutes pass he began to see pictures of the plane in the river, still the news was not reporting it. Then later the news talk show was interrupted with breaking news. He remembers thinking about how this has shown the power of twitter and potential for citizen reporting.

Like Mr. Langhorst I also see the power of Twitter and social media in reporting breaking news. Although Twitter and social media can be great news outlets they can also be an outlet for false information. An example of this is the Nick Saban too Texas controversy. Social media has great power and like what Peter Parker's uncle said "with great power comes great responsibility". There are several people on social media who will report false news or speculation on news especially when it comes to sport news. It is up to the reader to dig deeper into the report to check its authenticity. Twitter and social media have already changed the way we share and receive information. It will be interesting to see how much social media will shape the modern world that we live in today.

C4T#1 comment#2

In Mr. Langhorst's second post titled "Edcamp 2014 Reflections-Why I Love Edcamp" he reflects on the amazing events he experienced at Edcamp. Edcamp is an event where teachers from all over come and share ideas and experiences to help each other in their fields of education. He reflects on how he has attended several Edcamps in Missouri and each one has been amazing. This year at Edcamp Liberty 200 teachers attended to share ideas and discuss different topics. Edcamp is not like other conferences that most teachers attend. At Edcamp teachers are free to stand up share their ideas on the spot instead of having to submit a written copy of their lecture 9 months prior. Mr. Langhorst explains that at other conferences teachers are forced to sit and listen to dry lectures from a professional, but at Edcamp teachers are free to walk around and share their ideas in different groups or just socialize with their peers. Edcamp is truly a great experience with other educators.

This experience sounds truly amazing an i hope that i can have a similar experience when i am an educator. I love how they utilize technology through Blogger and Twitter to connect teachers to the event. I also love the freedom of the event. Teachers being allowed to share their ideas on the spot can be very useful. When one teacher shares their idea and another can freely get up and add to that idea it makes the event more personable.

Asking Engaging Questions

Teachers use several techniques to educate their students and keep them engaged in the material. The most effective technique a teacher uses is asking questions. This can also be ineffective if not used in the right way. Asking closed ended questions or yes or no questions is not a very effective learning tool. These types of questions do not promote participation in the class room. Most of the time a student will just give the teacher an answer that he or she believes the teacher will want to hear with out exploring into the question. Teachers want to prepare their students for the next level of education. To do this teachers must build their students critical thinking and problem solving skills. The best way to do this is to ask questions. The best questions to ask should be open ended, leading questions, and questions that encourage the students own opinion. I found the best guidelines in Asking Questions to Improve Learning

Open ended questions are the best way to encourage students to dig deeper into the material. According Ben Johnson, in an article that he wrote titled The Right Way to Ask Questions in The Classroom, students place themselves in categories that are those who are smart, those who are not smart, and those who do not care. When a teacher ask a simple yes or no question usually the students in the smart category will raise their hand while the ones in the other two categories sit back and let the others answer the question and continue day dreaming or doodling. When a teacher ask an open ended question and pauses for a few seconds all of the students will be prompted to think about what the answer could be. Also there could be more than one answer and other students can disagree and explain why their answer is best. A teacher could also pose a class debate under an open ended question. Class debates is one of the best ways to get all students involved in the class discussion. Posing debatable questions can eliminate the barrier between the three categories that Ben Johnson speaks of in his article.

Some teachers might have problems with students answering questions that are not confident in their answers. This is where leading questions can be effective. A leading questions is a questions that prompts the desired answer. This type of question will help the students that are not confident by hinting at what the answer is in the question its self. When the students answers the leading question with the desired answer you can then ask them to elaborate more. this will encourage them to think critically and build up the confidence of the student.

Teaching is more than just lectures and power points. In order to have you students truly learn and comprehend the material you must pose effective questions that allow the student to think critically. Effective questions also encourage class participation and get students involved in the material instead of just memorizing it and forgetting it after the exam.