Blog post 13

ALEX stands for Alabama learning exchange. There you can navigate to many different sites such as lesson plans, podcast, web links and much more. This site can be used by teachers, students, or anyone wanting to just learn. it's an awesome site with many resources for teaching and learning. I absolutely loved the lesson plans section. You can go there and get ideas and add things to them or take things out and make it your own.

 I clicked on podcasts and what i found there was great. Videos that you can use in your classroom as teaching tools on different subjects. I will most definitely be using Alex in my classroom. You can also find all of the Alabama content standards. This site can be used for so much and it will be my future friend. Wow, just when I thought i had found all that I could I see that they even have ways of incorporating blogging into the classroom.

ACCESS is a distance learning tool. You can use it if you are struggling in a class or even in college. You can use it to improve student achievement in more than one way. It has test prep on it, offers college credits, and so much more. I believe that this is a tool that needs to be announced in all high schools and students should start learning to use it and let it help them in areas of weakness and benefit their strengths.
I graduated in nineteen ninety six and I wish that we would have had something as this to use for tests and study and college credits. it's amazing what technology has to offer now that i never had. I must say that I have really enjoyed this blog because I will be using these two sites in my future.

Summary Post C4K 7,8,9,10

We had several blog posts to read this time. We read from students and teachers. I enjoyed reading each blog and seeing what imagination these kids have.

 Blog Post # 7 Lesson Three – 9:23

The student's blog post from Mr. McClung's Class

This week our track team attended their first meet of the season in Bentonville. Overall we had a pretty good showing as a team, but I would be re-missed if I didn’t acknowledge the performance of my distances runners for that evening.

·         Our 4×800m team of Jordan Pilkington, Luke Renner, Andrew Henry, and Ramsey Jones finished first with a time of 9:23.

·         Ramsey Jones finished 3rd overall in the 800m run with a time of 2:17 and 3rd overall in the mile with a time of 5:12.

·         Luke Renner finished 8th in the 800m run with a time of 2:22.

·         Patrick Ragan finished 20th overall in the mile with a personal best time of 5:44.

This was an excellent first meet for us as a team and we are only looking to get better and stronger as the season continues.

I responded and told them that I am not to familiar with track but I know that it takes hard work and dedication and that I was proud of their team.

Blog Post #8

This week was a class of ten and eleven year olds. The following is the blog. 

This week we had a lot of hard work but it  was worth it as we learned a lot of new information and we increased our knowledge. This week i learned about the UN and WTO. I learned that the UN stands for the United Nations and that WTO stands for TheWorld Trade Organization. I also learned about what the UN is and same for the WTOas they all help our world. I also learned about Journalisim writing and we did a report. I thought I did very well, thanks to this website:http://writingfun.com/. I also learned about angles and how to measure them and why they are useful. Also in maths we learned about lots of different types of diagrams such as a Carrol diagrams and Venn diagrams.

Thanks KH

Below is my comment back:

Hi my name is Lara Bishop and I am in EDM 310 at the University Of South Alabama.One of my assignments was to read and comment on your blog. As a future teacher I absolutely love your blog. I really love that you are so passionate about learning so much this week. I also want to be a writing teacher and I love writing. This is why I looked up the website you provided. I really liked that and I will save that to share in my classroom one day. You keep up the great work because education is something that will stay with you forever and it is great to always continue to learn.

Blog Post #9

Mrs. Yollis is a 3^rd grade teacher of  24 years and an amazing one at that. Her blog was about her class blogging and how she uses it in her class blog and incorporates the parents into the class. I commented back to Mrs. Yollis and told her how much I loved her idea of blogging and the safety that she introduces with it and how she has inspired me to incorporate blogging into my own class. Mrs. Yollis is an absolutely amazing teacher. 

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Blog post #10

Miriams  blog was about her vacation to Hawaii and kayaking to captain Hook Monument. She had several pictures of her vacation and her kayaking and being close to the dolphins. she had a beautiful vacation and displayed beautiful pictures to show us that, I also told her that I was kind of jealous and that I wanted to go and see Hawaii and those dolphins. I also told her that I was proud that she was given an opportunity to go somewhere so beautiful. 


Wow that was our final comment for kids. I will most definitely continue to follow these students and the teachers. 

Blog Post # 12

Blog Post 12


Watch the video below on Glogs. This video shows an interactive way to make projects more interesting. After you watch the video answer the questions below.





1. What do you like about Glogster?
I love the idea that there is no mess, no waste of paper. The best part is that you can interact with it and actually use it as a research tool and what you write on the paper isn't the end of what you can learn.You can actually dig deeper and learn even more. So many paper projects are boring and leave you hanging and this never would.



2. What do you dislike about Glogster? The only thing that I worry about is the cost of it.


3. Do you think Glogster will benefit the classroom or not? Most definitely by making projects more interesting, less time consuming and you can learn more than what you see on the poster.

4. Is Glogster something that you would have in your classroom. Why or Why not? Most definitely. I cant wait to finish this blog and go research it further.

Progress Report on Final Project!

My group for the Final Project in EDM 310 includes Olivia Bush, Rachael Gammil and Dana Johnson. We will be posting our Final Project in the near future. We are not telling what is now though because it will be a surprise when we are all done! So stay tuned for that Final Project! Surprise Surprise!

Project 15

Teach Me Project # 14

Blog Post # 11

First Graders Using Technology In Mrs Cassidy's Class

Time has surely changed since I was a first grader and that is great! We have children as small as first grade that already hate school. I think if more classes were more like Mrs. Cassidy's classroom more students would be excited about the school day. I love how the student said they still like to write in their books but they like the blogs better. They seem to like the encouragement form family and friends on their blog. I also love the fact that this is already teaching them about internet safety. We have teenagers that only get on facebook, youtube, and other social networks and not on the internet to learn. By giving children access to the internet at an early age they will learn more about what it has to offer and they can balance learning and social. I have to say to hear about first graders blogging really shocked me. Our children are getting smarter through the years and this is outstanding. I do believe that we owe a lot of the credit to the internet. Watching the children make videos was great! This will make the children want to learn so the video will be just right. Skype in the classroom is like a  free field trip to explore new things. I am thankful to the video because I haven't thought about this. Mrs. Cassidy has made me want to go back to first grade and be in her class. I guess instead maybe I will teach first grade and make my class this interesting and more.Way to go Mrs. Cassidy and Dr. Strange for proving just how rewarding technology in the classroom can be.
I loved how Mrs. Cassidy used so many different safety features in her classroom such as not using the students last name and not using the right pictures on the names of the students. This is one of the reasons that I was worried about blogs. I wish she would have been asked about the use of the  nintendo ds in the classroom. I would like to know how she incorporates this into learning other than what the one student said. This is something that I would love to use in the classroom. A child learns better when they are having fun and not realizing that they are studying. I will be looking for more posts from Mrs. Cassidy as well as follow her on you tube.

Computers are powerful tools that provide students with a place to practice what they are learning!

A Midsummer Nights Dream By Alma Bryant High Theater Department

A Midsummer Nights Dream By Alma Bryant High Theater Department

Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM will be performed in the Alma Bryant High School Auditorium April 7 through Sunday, April 10. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday performances begin at 7 PM and the Sunday matinee begins at 2 PM. General Admission is only $5.00! Tickets at the door. The show was amazing last night! My Son Kyle Pipkin has one of the lead parts in it. Come out and enjoy!

Blog Post 10

An Open Letter To Educators


The blog is by Morgan Bayda, a teacher in Canada. Dan Brown is who you will find in the video and they both agree that education is going downhill. Dan Brown mentions in the video that he dropped out of school because it was interfering with his learning. He was fed up with big classes. long lectures. high tuition and books. never opening some books, boring classes, and memorizing facts and spitting them back on a test. Basically he believes you are just learning facts. "Society don't care how many facts you know." I can agree on many levels with them both because I to pay high tuition and buy books that are never used and I often walk out of a class not knowing what I just heard or didn't hear. some times I feel like I am teaching myself so why pay the tuition. Some classes are so bad you could just stay home and study and learn more so why pay a teacher to read to us. I will say this about Dr. strange, his class is very demanding and he set's deadlines and you best make them to pass. But in the end we will leave EDM 310 knowing what we learned and using it in our classroom one day to make it different than what these educators above are talking about.

Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home

This post was somewhat ridiculous to me.Seems like instead of finding ways to encourage learning teachers are more interested in doing studies on pencils and testing scores. Wow! That has got to be the craziest thing I have ever heard. How is a pencil going to make a difference on a test store.The point about the low income families was just really inconsiderate. Some principals and teachers need to wake up and realize that test scores can be helped by adding technology and imagination in our classrooms. We as a generation need to broaden our imagination and focus more on what we are teaching and not what we have at home. We need things at home to help parents teach with us at home. 

Comments For Teachers # 2 and # 3 Summary

My C4T # 2 was to comment on a page called Cooperative Catalyst and there are many different teachers and many different blog posts. At first I was like wow, how do I choose between all of these and then I found one about a book and I was sold. I am a fan of reading and during my breaks from school and summer I love reading. This is why I chose to read the blog titled, The Influence of Teachers by Teacher Ken (Kenneth Bernstein). Bernstein is a social studies teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Prince George's County, Maryland public school. I found him on twitter and am now following him for more insight on teaching and great books to read. Like I said above I love to read so my next book to read will be The Influence of Teachers: Reflections on Teaching and Leadership.  I have already found the book for the kindle at Amazon and I will be sure to get it next. The reviews made me want to read it even more. In Bernstein's review of the book he gives a brief description of many things including tenure, pay, classroom settings, learning, teachers getting along with each other, and much more. He focuses more on what he calls the heart of the book and that is the last few chapters. In the last few chapters the author talks about drop out rates and what Dr. Strange refers to as a burp back education and how this he believes in making our drop out rates go up so much more. Kids want to be engaged and not just watch a lecture on power point. The author and me and even Bernstein relate to this the same. If a child is engaged in the classroom and the material then they will be excited to learn and that is our job as a teacher to do this and be devoted to more than a burp back or regurgitated education. In my comment I stressed the importance of us as teachers not just looking at teaching as a job but as a place to make a difference in a students life and give them something to remember and hold on to for life. I also added how as teachers we influence these children more than some of their parents do at home and some strive to be just like us so we have to do our best at being the best that we can possibly be.

My C4T # 3 is also by teacher Ken. Yes you can tell I love him and his writing and most of his views. His blog post is No Independent Thought or Discussion Allowed in AP class. This blog was really short but it hit home with me because my son has recently gotten in trouble for commenting in an AP class. The blog speaks of this very same thing and states that teachers take the creative thinking out of the classes. In this particular class that my son is in they either watch a lecture and listen as she speaks off of a power point or she hands them hand outs of a power point. There is no extra work, no class discussion, no reviews, nothing. I emailed her and she said that she is only preparing them for what college will be like.  Like Bernstein in his blog mentions, all AP classes can't be bashed but many are turning into the same thing. Many of our teachers need to read the book above. Don't you think?The most important thing in this blog to me was this one sentence, "And if we elevate these skills and develop good ways to chart our progress in conveying them, perhaps our children will finally be invited, encouraged, and made to think."