C4T#1 Summary

The teachers blog that I commented on was Elvira Deyamport who is a Gifted Elementary teacher for grades 2-6.
Comment 1
The first post that I commented on was about a computer science program called Hour of Code. She talked about how she got her students to participate in this program and to explore the basics of coding. She describes how the tutorials for this program may seem like a game but is actually problem solving and logic. These tutorials use Angry Birds, Flappy Birds and characters from Frozen to better engage the kids in computer science.
The comment that I posted to that post said "I have never heard of the Hour of Code before reading your post. It sounds like an awesome program to learn more about computer science. I have never been the type of person to be interested in computer science, but after reading your post and then visiting the website, I think that I am going to try a tutorial and see how I really like it. This program sounds like a great way to get kids more interested in coding and learning how to better use computers."

Comment 2
The second post that I commented on was about how social media inspired a few writing prompts for her students. One example was the students had to pick an inanimate object or animal and write a letter giving advice to that object or animal. Another writing prompt, which is my favorite, is writing a scary story in five words. some examples are "The internet is down worldwide," "Imagine the world without pizza" and "There is no wifi here." These different styles of writing prompts encourage students to be more creative.
The comment that I posted said "I really enjoyed this post on how social media inspired the different styles of writing prompts that you assigned to your students. These writing assignments were very different and they let the students be creative in what they want to say. I will definitely be using these writing prompts in my classroom once I become a teacher."

Blog Post #6

What I learned from these conversations between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps is that project based learning is a good way to have students interact and be involved in real world problems. It keeps students interested with things that are relevant to their lives and keeps them involved in their community. PBL is a different type of learning strategy that helps students have a better understanding of concepts, improves their communication and social skills, increases creativity, and also improves writing skills.

Another program that Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps talks about is iCurio. iCurio is an online tool that allows students to safely search websites that have been filtered for educational uses. It is directed more towards students and has a storage capacity so that they can stay organized with all of the audio, text and video that they search.

Project Based Learning Part 1
Project Based Learning Part 2
iCurio

My Sentence Video

My Sentence Is...

<iframe width="420" height="210" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tuBuJnDDgsw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

My Passion Is...

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EJRQrVy4GHE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Blog Post #5

PLNs, or Personal Learning Networks, are sets of people, places, tools, and activities which you call upon for help, consultation and collaboration and it enables you to learn. They were originally for just family and friends, and maybe some people you with worked with, but it has evolved since the internet has upgraded.
As a teacher, a PLN can help me:

• Get help and learn from professional specialists
• Get lesson plan ideas from experienced teachers
• Provides more opportunities for teachers to learn
• Helps you stay connected with other educators
• Keeps teachers up to date with the changes in the classroom

In order to create your own PLN, you have to invest time to find and connect with people you trust who you also share interests and passions with. The growth of your PLN is also determined by your eagerness to reach out and connect with new people, professionals and your mentors, who would be the individuals who you highly respect and will help you grow.
Once I create my PLN, I plan on keeping in touch with my group members and many of my peers. I will also use Facebook and Twitter to help build up my PLN.

Project#15 Search Engines

WolframAlpha
This search engine introduces a fundamental way to get knowledge and answers by doing dynamic computations based on a collections of built in data, algorithms, and methods. They aim to collect all objective data, implement every known model, method and algorithm, and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything. There goal is to build on the achievements of science and other systems of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers. With a world class team and participation from top outside experts in countless fields, their goal is to create something that will stand as a major milestone of 21st century intellectual achievement.
This search engine is a great way to learn how to do calculate math problems and many other topics as well. The different topics that you can search are linguistics, measures, history, statistics, chemistry, finance, art, music, and so much more.

ChaCha
This search engine gives free, real time answers to any question both online and through mobile phones by using one of their mobile apps. It has become the leading answers service with more than a billion questions to date all in a fun, conversational format perfect for those in need of fast, free answers while on the go. It enables advertisers and marketers to reach and engage their customers in real time.
This search engine lets you ask any question and it will directly answer your questions. It also shows you other questions that people have asked and the most popular questions.

Blekko
This search engine is one the top spam and virus free search engines used for the latest updates on news, gossip, dates, and much more. Their mission is to create a differentiated search experience by delivering high quality, curated results and organizing content into categories. Blekko's technology operates on a unique system that intersects their own original search index and editorial evaluation. Using the text from the web stored in their data center, they distill the text and links down to a small semantic database, and they use that database to map queries to a large list of editorially crafted slashtag filters. Slashtags are a way to limit results. It is a tool used to filter results, rather than search the entire web, it allows you to search just the sites you want searched.

Lycos
Lycos is one of the original and most widely known internet brands in the world, evolving from one of the first search engines on the web into a comprehensive digital media destination for consumers across the world. It is a web portal that encompasses a network of email, web hosting, social networking, and entertaining websites. Lycos has a network of easy to use community and social sites whose products and services include tools for blogging, web publishing, online games, email, and search.

HotBot
HotBot is a search engine that is currently owned by Lycos. It use to be one of the most complete search engines, Now it mainly provides a portal to other search engines. Along with other sites associated with Lycos, it helps bring people together to interact, conduct commerce, have fun, and experience the best the internet has to offer.

DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is a search engine driven by community that emphasizes protecting searchers' privacy of personalized search results. It distinguishes itself from other search engines by not collecting any personal information and by showing all users the same search results and helping users get to where they want to go in fewer clicks. In order to get users the best instant answers from the best sources, they introduce DuckDuckHack, which is an open source platform where anyone can suggest or create instant answers for their results.

Dogpile
Dogpile was created by InfoSpace and is powered by Metasearch. It returns all the best results from leading search engines including Google and Yahoo, so that you can find what you are looking for faster. Dogpile looks at all the different search results, decides which are most relevant to your search, eliminates duplicates and reveals the remaining results.

Excite
Excite is one of the most recognized names on the internet  and among the internet's most personalized portals featuring a completely customized start page. It is a collection of web sites and services that offer a variety of content showing news, weather, etc. The content is collected from over 100 different sources.

Blog Post #4

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?
While reading the first article by Ben Johnson, I started realizing that my teachers always asked that one question, "Does everybody understand?" Sometimes after that question was asked, I really did not understand, but I was one of those students who would not speak up and say that I didn't or even ask more questions about the subject to better understand.
The strategies that are mentioned in the article, "Asking Questions to Improve Learning," sound like effective strategies that would get the students to answer more questions, better understand the material and also to participate more in the classroom. The strategy that I particularly like is to ask a mix of different questions. These questions should be closed, managerial and open questions. Closed questions have a limited number of correct answers that test students' comprehension of important information. Managerial questions ensure that the students better understand an assignment. Open questions have multiple answers and is the most effective in encouraging discussion in the classroom.
Some other strategies to know about asking questions in the classroom is to ask specific questions, do not ask more than one question at once, unless it is a yes-or-no question which you can follow with an additional question, and also include notes with your questions. As future teachers we need to know that we do not know everything and there is no reason for us to assume that the students know nothing.

Blog Post #3

Before watching these videos, I knew what peer editing was but I didn't know how to approach it and what to say while peer editing. These videos taught me a lot about how to better peer edit and what to look for.
Peer Editing is working with someone you own age, usually in your own class, to help improve, revise, and edit his/her writing. In order to better approach Peer Editing you need to follow three easy steps: Compliments, Suggestions and Corrections.
Step 1 Compliments: Always start with telling the writer what he/she did well.
Step 2 Suggestions: Give the writer specific ideas about how to make their writing better.
Step 3 Corrections: Check the author's writing for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
These three steps is what I will use to peer edit my classmates in EDM 310. I will always stay positive and be specific when I comment on my peers posts, which is also the importance of peer editing. You always want to make sure that you stay positive and be specific while peer editing.