Open Educational Resources!

Open Educational Resources are the resources that are available to anyone at little or no cost that can be used for learning and teaching.

The Exploration Phase:

Source #1-100th Day of School Activities 100th Day of School Activities

 This source is useful because the activity itself is awesome. It activates higher order thinking skills and problem solving. As a teacher I would use these helpful ideas on the 100th day of school.

Source#2-100's Day 100's Day

 Using this the teacher could get an idea of what the activity might look like. Which is really useful if you know what you want to do and just need an idea. As a teacher I would use this as a tool to help get ideas for my class.

Source#3-2D Shapes 2D Shapes

 This is useful for the students that are learning shapes. As a teacher I would use this to get ideas to teach my students.

 Outside Resources:

http://www.hewlett.org/programs/education-program/open-educational-resources 

This website is very educational on exactly what open educational resources are. Very helpful if you do not understand what it is.

http://oerconsortium.org

This website is used for colleges that use open educational resources. There are over 100 colleges that use this resource.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/

This website has all sorts of information on the topic. Also very helpful. 

Teaching Channel!

Using the website www.teachingchannel.org, which is new to me I viewed three common core videos ("Text Talk Time", "Analyzing Texts:Brainstorm Before Writing", and "Analyzing Texts:Overview of a Lesson Series". What I collected from the three videos is that the students are being taught the common core standards which are speaking and listening, reading, and writing. The lessons that Ms. Brewer plans for her students are both distinct and connected, and she really thinks about the certain group of students she has when planning her lessons. She puts the individual into consideration, not just the group as a whole.
 I also discovered two videos from the website in particular other than the common core that we were supposed to check out that I thought were interesting.

 
The first video that I found to be interesting was the "end-of-the day procedure: reflect and connect". In this video the teacher of the classroom showed how at the end of the day she has them all get out their agendas and in the agenda the teacher assesses how their day went so that they can go back home to their parents and they can be involved in how their day at school was, and also they have some things written in their agendas about what they learned in that particular day so that they can also show their parents what they learned. I think that an overview of the students day being put down into their agenda for the parents to check it out when they get home is a wonderful idea. It helps all student, parent, and teacher stay connected through the use of agenda.
Also another video that I watched was "post-its:Little Notes for Big Discussions". This teacher through the use of sticky-notes taught her students to write down the main events and come prepared to their classroom gatherings. I really liked what this teacher did with the post-it notes, because like she states in the video sometimes you come up with a wonderful idea but then you move on to another part and forget the first wonderful idea. So through the use of a sticky note when the group gets together for discussion, they are prepared and all their good ideas are right their on the sticky-note.
I really like this website, it could be very useful in my teaching years to come.

Flipped Learning!!!!

The students in this photo are participating in flipped learning while using their cell phones.

Flipped learning to my understanding is where the teacher pre records their lesson on a video or some sort of power point, and then the kids watch the video and learn the objectives of the lesson at home. When the students come in the next day they already know what is expected of them and they are able to ask specific questions that they may not understand.
 What is nifty or what is a positive about flipped learning is that the teacher does not have to use class time to teach the lesson, the teacher is able to use class time for helping the students and answering any questions and providing further explanation if need be. The only downside to this that I can see is that some kids may not have a computer at home or some students may not be able to watch the video that night and they will get to class lost, behind, and confused that would be a specific implication if I decided to use this method in my teaching future.

http://flippedlearning.org/ This website taught me that flipped learning can also be called FLN and FLN has some goals. The FLN goals are to provide professional learning opportunities on flipped learning and to act as a clearinghouse for distributing best and promising pracitces for current and future "flipped learning" educators.

http://ed.ted.com/ This website showed me that teachers can use this website as a tool to create their own flipped video. You can also watch other videos and base your video off of the other videos that have already been created or you can start your own new one.

http://flipped-learning.com/ In this website I clicked on the "Myth: Students Without Access to Technology Creates a Digital Divide" and one of the points it explained on why it does not create a digital divide and what you can do in order if you do not have a computer at home or a smart phone.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3NgMH97KjsU
I really like this video because it features every aspect of flipped learning and describes the positives and negatives. Very helpful for someone like me who until this knew nothing about flipped learning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHK_a9SuTIk&feature=player_detailpage
I like this video because it shows the students learning and shows exactly what happens. But the reason why I really like this video is because the guy who explains flipped learning in the video says he likes the new method of flip learning because he can challenge students at their level of ability where as before the old method of teaching he says he had to shoot for the middle.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/05/31/the-truth-about-flipped-learning/
This website had a nice article that had realistic ideas for future educators.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a7NbUIr_iQ
This video was awesome. This teacher is awesome. It gave the students opinions in the video as well. This video was really nice because not only does the guy tell you about it but the video also shows you.

Experiencing Group!!!!

     I really enjoyed working with my group. They are all helpful group contributers and they made it easy to work together. And all of them are nice too so it just made it a good time. Since we all have different schedules it was, at times difficult to figure out when to meet but in the end we got exactly what we needed to get finished, done. So it wasn't a problem by any means.
   
  If I am to be very critical....I thought that our final project was very nice. I didn't think it was over the top GREATTTTT!!!!! But I think it got the point across and was very informational.
     I learned that I need to work on some things when it comes to presenting, I also learned I am not the only one who needs to work on presenting. 
     I really enjoyed figuring out and learning how to use the prezi. I like how you can design it to be your own but at the same time it can stay organized and professional. It's like the lamborghini of powerpoints.
     As a future teacher I will definitely use prezi!!! Now that I know how to use it, no questions I will use it in the future :)

PowerPoint!! Ungh/Terrific

What I got from this particular project was that we were requested to make a Powerpoint that was able to be used in the hands of the children that we plan to teach someday. I made my Powerpoint to be geared towards first and second grade special education students to learn how to count the numbers one through ten. I learned that there is much more to Powerpoint then what I believed, and I really liked what I learned.
 I learned that you can make a certain picture move, you can have things pop up at different times, if you set a hyperlink in your slide it will take you to wherever you want it to go, and you can animate whatever you want! That's so exciting :) In highschool I learned to put words into the Powerpoint and read from it.....boringgg. So I like knowing how to jazz it up and make it interesting enough so as not to put people to sleep.
 I put the title of my post as ungh to terrific because for me it started off as ungh and then gradually progressed to terrific. It started off as ungh because of the former thoughts that I had with Powerpoint, I thought of boring and not helpful. But as time went on I realized that it can be terrific, and with all the things that you can do with it you can make it terrific. And as we discussed in class, you could put up a Powerpoint such as what we made in class up on your website some day when you're a teacher and have it be an interactive thing for your students parents to do with their child at home. I think that is such a great idea! I just might end up doing that someday when I become a teacher.
 I am glad that we did this project and I think it was beneficial to present what we created to our fellow peers because what you think is a great idea in your own head can be turned into an even better outcome when you have others helping you, and giving you helpful criticisms. Ultimately, in the end you can end up with something better than what you started off with, because your nose has been in your own work for so long, maybe you missed a key point of some sort and it's helpful to have other people "checking it" and can then go back and fix it.
 I thought that my other peers projects were awesome. I noticed some mistakes in theirs just as they noticed some in mine, but that's what made it so cool to check out the other projects and get an idea of what their ideas were. It was fun to go through their Powerpoint with them and see what they decided to do with the project.

Learning how to count one through ten!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=uxPfPyYp84E
This video is a video that helps teach children to learn how to count. I think it's helpful because it's slow and really breaks it down for the young learner.

Every child counts. Just like the children in this video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db4nfMyB3W0&feature=player_detailpage
I liked this video because it was very inspirational. It showed how they made every child count. It warmed my heart.

Two more for the roll!

http://2020learning.blogspot.com/ 
I liked reading this blog and learning about how the author believed what life and learning will be like in 2020, and how they plan on coping with that generation was interesting.
The author of the blog in my opinion was very diverse in many aspects. In one of thier posts they explain in thier opinion what is weighing down learning. They say that the current school model resembles that industrial economic model of the past way too much and it is not suited correctly for the current societal needs. The author continues to say that educators need to question the very foundation of the education systems as we live in such an information-rich world. That is just one of the many ideas that are able to be accessed on this blog. It makes you think. 

 http://tilttv.blogspot.com/
This blog really showed exactly what its title is which is TILT - Teachers Improving Learning with Technology. This blog is a how to blog and gave a lot of new ideas for teachers who seek to use technology in their everyday teaching. A specific example from the blog that I believed to be a really good idea was how the author taught us how to embed Youtube video onto a powerpoint that the teacher would use to teach the class with. A nifty way to spruce up a powerpoint rather than just sticking in pictures. And that is just one of the many examples on this particular blog.

My Beliefs about Technology and Learning!

I believe that sometimes technology can make learning easier and sometimes it can make learning harder. To me it just depends on the situation.
Technology is used for many things. Here at Edinboro I am taking an online math course, and I feel as if I have learned a lot more using the computer than what I did back in high school. But I would rather read a book without using technology, as in I would actually rather turn the pages in a real book rather than press a button on a kindle.
Some of the most helpful resources that I use almost everyday that makes learning easier are search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, MSN, Youtube, and Wikipedia are a few. Where as you wouldn't catch me running to the library to get out a book and look up the answer manually, it would take up too much of my time. So in that respect, technology makes things much quicker and a lot easier.