Mathematics with Technology

In Judy Chandler's Mathematics with Technology podcast she explains that technology is essential to education and specifically math education. She elaborates by what tools technology can add to the learning of math. Ms. Chandler states that technology engages students in a "multi sensory, authentic, and collaborative...learning environment". She has found that technology helps students to make connections with past lessons and future education.
Ms. Chandler also made a podcast on Thinking Mathematically. In this podcast she talks about how many student become disengaged from the content of the class while others do not. She believes that teachers need to engage thinking by asking questions. She believes that by asking big questions and engaging the students you can help to direct them in the proper discussion. She tells us to challenge students to think so that they can remember and learn how to learn.
These podcasts can be useful to myself as a teacher but not in the specific way that hers was. I will be teaching English not Math. However, I know that technology and questions can be useful to my subject material as well. As a teacher I can use technology to help students to interact with the literature and history. I also know that I can ask well placed and well thought out questions to help my students to learn the subject matter and really think about it also.

The Stanford Challenge: Improving K-12 Education: "Growth" vs. "Fixed" Mindset

The "Growth" vs. "Fixed" Mindset video on ITunesU was very interesting. I didn't realize that people hold themselves back in their learning. It makes perfect sense that your mind can grow just like any of your other muscles. That you just have to use it to make it stronger and yourself smarter. I also think that teaching the "Growth" mindset is an interesting concept. I would never think that teaching a mindset could make a difference in how people learned.
I believe I can be accused of having both mindsets. When it comes to math I am definitely a "Fixed" mindset. I think I am this way because I have never been good at math. On other subjects I would say I'm a "Growth" mindset because I know that I can learn from those. I can definitely see myself helping my students by teaching the "Growth" mindset. It would be a very helpful tool to my students if I could help them in something that they don't think that they can learn. I would be able to show them that they could learn what they thought was impossible for them to learn!

WGBH Podcasts

The WGBH section in ITunesU is a very interesting tool for teachers. I have never seen or used this aspect of ITunes and I am very excited to find something like this because it has the potential to be very useful to teachers of every subject and every grade level. I watched a couple of the video podcasts in this section and was amazed at how interesting this mini-lessons are. I can definitely see myself using this in my class.
My favorite WGBH video podcast was the Total Solar Eclipse Animation. This is one of those things that you can't actually witness with your own eyes so that is what made this video so interesting to me. This video did a good job both showing and explaining its subject and content and I could see this video as being very useful in a middle or high school classroom.
I think that it would be a good idea for teachers to use this aspect of ITunes not only to help them teach their class material but also to show students that there are many different places that they can go to learn and research topics of interest. ITunes is mostly used to download music so I believe that if a student knew that these types of educational materials existed in ITunes they would be a little more open to learning and researching for fun!

Podcast Reviews

The first podcast that I listened to was You-Tube for Education. Overall I liked their ideas and comments on this subject. They did a decent job with their podcast. However, they could have done some things better. The one thing that I would improve on in this podcast are the way they sounded. I think it would be a better podcast if they sounded more interested and upbeat. They didn't sound like they were really interested in their topic.
The second podcast that I listened to was Possibilities for Using Facebook in an Educational Setting this podcast is close to what my group's topic is. In this podcast they sounded more upbeat and enthusiastic about their topic. What I would improve in this blog is the amount of "um"s, I would also try not to sound too nervous or trip so much over my words.
I know these things are hard especially when you only get one shot. Maybe the key is not thinking about that aspect of the Podcast project!

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture was an amazing video! He really is an amazing person to be so brave in the face of a terminal illness. Growing up I had to deal with the loss of a loved one to lung cancer. It is very hard watching some one you love dieing in front of you. I can relate to what his family went through.
Randy Pausch is an inspiring man because he either accomplished and/or learned something from all of his childhood dreams. Just the fact that he attempted his childhood dreams in the first place astonishes me because I can't even remember most of mine!
I can see how Pausch was able to enable the dreams of others. His attitude and the fact that he was able to achieve most of his dreams is inspiring and makes me want to achieve my dreams! It's also very inspiring that even if he didn't achieve his goals he still learned a great deal from his experiences. That is the sort of lesson people need to be taught...that even if you can't achieve one of your dreams its better that you tried and learned than never trying at all.

International Teacher's Blogs

The first international class blog that I found was for The Livewires a year 3 and 4 class in New Zealand. They use their blog to stay connected to each other during the school year and the holiday's. There really isn't much on this blog currently because they just came back from their summer break. However, they did post about their school's annual triathlon which they just took part in.

The second international class blog that I found was for Mrs. Lowe's Area 11 student's. Mrs. Lowe and her class are located in western Australia. They are using their blog as an experiment to get to know the technology of the blog medium. They are also using their blog to post their writings about their class activities.

Blogs in K-12 Classrooms

The first blog I found was Miss Lee's Classroom Blog. Ms. Lee is a 4th grade teacher and uses her blog to connect herself and her students to their families. She posts what they do in class along with the homework that is due the next day on her daily blog posts. She has made her blog fun by posting a few of her favorite websites including ones for Mad Libs, and Learn to Speak Chinese. She also has links to her classroom website and her Advanced Math Blog.

The second blog I found was for Mr. Craig's 11th Grade British Literature Blog. Mr. Craig is a teacher at Missisquoi Valley Union High School. He uses his blog not only to update his class on whats going on but also uses it as homework assignments. He not only assigns his students work on the blog but also on Facebook. Another interesting thing is that he recommends using Wikipedia most teachers wouldn't touch Wikipedia with a 10-foot pole! Overall Mr. Craig's blog is very educational for his students. He is helping them to navigate the web in a very efficent way and I only wish my high school teachers would have done that for me!