Blog Post 3

In the video What is Peer Editing and the slideshow Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial, both explains that a peer is someone of your own age and editing is making suggestions, comments, compliments, and changes to writing. With both of these being stated, the definition for peer editing is working with someone of your own age-usually a classmate- to help improve, revise, and edit his or her writing. When peer editing, you need to keep in mind the three steps: 1. Compliments, 2. Suggestions, and 3. Corrections. While doing these three steps, be positive! Remember, you are helping improve someones work, how would you feel if someone were telling you how to improve your work? Also, be specific! When you're giving suggestions or corrections, make sure you tell what sentence or word could be changed. Don't just say "I think you should say this," you need to say, "Maybe instead of this sentence, you could say this." When making suggestions think about these areas: word choice (Did the author choose interesting words?), using details (seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling), organization (Can you understand what the author is trying to say?), sentences (Are the sentences too long or too short?), and topic (does the author stick to the topic or talk about things that don't really fit?). And for corrections make sure to check for spelling and grammar mistakes, missing punctuation, and incomplete or run-on sentences. So, remember, stay positive (try to make suggestions and corrections in a positive way), be specific (give the author specific ideas on how to improve his or her writing), and complete ALL 3 steps (compliments, suggestions, and corrections). If you do all these you will be very effective at peer editing!

The video Writing Peer Review:Top 10 Mistakes is too funny. This video consist of young students' showing us how NOT to be a peer editor. There is Picky Patty, who points out the tiniest details. For example, she tells her classmate that half a centimeter of the title is not underlined and that there is too much space between her comma and the next word. Picky Patty doesn't care about the process. Next we have Whatever William. His partner is sharing with him ideas that he could use to improve his paper, and he says whatever to it all. Then we have Jean the Generalizer. She tells her partner somethings that he could change, but she isn't specific as to where the changes need to be made. Next is Mean Margaret. She doesn't know how to put words kindly and makes her partner feel bad. Off-Task Oliver is next, and his partner is trying to give him valuable advice for his paper, but he cannot concentrate on the paper. Last we have Defensive Dave. Dave's partner is trying to be helpful, but Dave takes offense to everything. When being a peer editor we must always remember to compliment the good things in the paper, and make suggestions and corrections in a positive way, while also being specific. We don't need to be to picky, we don't need to speed through and not be specific, we don't need to be mean about it, and we definitely do not need to be defensive. Remember our peers are trying to help us become better writers, we need their criticism!

Blog Post 2

Mr. Dancealot

The video Mr. Dancealot shows excellent reasoning to why it is important to have interactive learning not just lecture. During the conclusion of this video, everyone meets in the ball room and Mr. Dancealot turns a video camera on, tells them to start dancing, and he leaves. Obviously all the students' cannot even imagine how to begin because they weren't shown basic skills in the classroom. For this video, I agree wholeheartedly on the conclusion this author chose. He explains what I mentioned at the beginning, that you cant just have teacher show their students' a power point, you need to interact with and explain to them why and how to make your students' understand.

Teaching in the 21st Century

In the Video Teaching in the 21st Century by Kevin Roberts I now see why it's so different teaching now then a few years ago. Roberts is seeing how technology is becoming a part of our everyday lives. Most everyone is just using technology to stay entertained, instead we should be embracing all the qualities that technology has. Roberts believes that to teach in the 21st century students must be more engaged rather than entertained. I agree with Roberts, teaching is absolutely changing. It is true that "students can find information on anything, anytime, and anywhere." With this being said, little by little we lose a student's attention day by day in a classroom. If we do not embrace technology in educational and useful ways, then how are we going to be good educators? One part of being a good educator is by teaching students whats used in today's society and how they learn from it.

The Networked Student

Wendy Drexler's video The Networked Student explains what is evolving now and what will be in the near future. He explains that you have many connections, not just in your classroom but worldwide. Even though the network connections help us connect to more people, we loose sight and connection to the people around us. There needs to be a limit to social connection, so we don not loose our connections to the people that are right next to us. We were asked this question, "Why does the networked student even need a teacher?" Well, we need a teacher to guide us, be a model, and be there for us to ask he/she questions. Teachers are here to help us learn and to be mentors, without their guidance we would be nowhere.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
In the video Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts by Vicki Davis, she gives extraordinary reasons to why using technology nowadays to learn is the best way. When Vicki says, "I believe every student can learn, every child can learn, but where children have trouble is when you only have paper and only pencil, then only certain types of students are going to succeed," I could not agree more. Children these days are more involved with technology then ever before, and it's up to teachers to teach in the way that society works. Of course we shouldn't go overboard to where we use technology in every subject. For example in science or chemistry I still believe we need hands-on demonstration labs to learn some aspects of how both science and chemistry work that you can't learn from a computer.

Flipping the Classroom
After watching the video Flipping the Classroom I thought to myself "This may or may not be innovating." I don't see how this would work very well on young students' compared to, lets say, high school or college students. Young students' have the attention span of Daffy Duck, especially when their at home and want to have fun and relax from seven hours of school. On the other hand, flipping the classroom would work very well on the high school level or above. It would give them a chance to learn more difficult material and spend more time in the class to go over it. For me, as a future teacher, I don't believe it would be very useful because I am teaching at an elementary level, and do not believe that my students' would take much out of it or even really pay attention to it.

Blog Post 1

I have heard so many different things about this class, both good and bad, that it was hard to grasp what the class was really about. Multiple girls have told me that it was one of the best classes that they have ever taken. They did mention that at first they were terrified because of all the horror stories they have heard about the class, but at the end they had walked away with new information they would carry with them through life, as well as their teaching career. On the other hand, many students would tell me that I would absolutely hate this class and I needed to prepare myself not to do as well as I would hope to do. All the people who had said something about this class, did give me some advice. They told me to stay focused, and turn in all work on time. After hearing all of this I had so many mixed feelings about the course. Here is a link that tells us why EDM 310 is different: 9 Differences:EDM310 is Different

Some fears I have include: not understanding a blog post or an assignment, forgetting to turn in a post on time, that I will not do something the correct way that Dr. Strange wants. My main fear is that I will not put as much effort in EDM 310 as I should, which will leave me with a non-passing grade in the course. Although, all of these are avoidable, these will still be a fear throughout the semester. I just need to learn how to pay attention to all assignments I turn in and make sure I go down my checklist to see if everything is completed before I hit the "submit" button.

This course, EDM 310, is completely different than any course I have taken in high school or college. There are two main reasons. One, I have never completed a course where all assignments are due online. Two, never in my life have I posted on a blog, created a blog, or even thought about creating a blog. There are few similar aspects between EDM 310 and other courses I have taken. One of these aspects being that in other classes I do have to turn in some assignments and discussions online. Another being to better our writing skills. Lastly, All classes that i have taken, that I'm in now, and that I will take in the future have and will better prepare myself for my profession.

I believe the most difficult thing for me in EDM 310 will be the blog posts. Never in my life have I done a blog, so this is something extremely new to me, and probably just as new to every other person in my class. Why will this be the most difficult for me? It will be difficult to me because with it being new, I have to learn all new tools to be able to use the blog. Also, blogging involves a new way to communicate with others. This is something that just takes practice, and I have to make the time to make myself practice using it.

When you think about it, we all have to start with something difficult in order to make it feasible for us to do in life. For example: When we started learning how to read, we would strive everyday to accomplish a new step just to learn how to read. This is what we have to do when it comes to blogging, so we don't make it as difficult on ourselves. I have to approach this with a positive attitude, and prepared to learn new and exciting things about blogging. If I do this, I feel as if it will not be as difficult, as well as relieving a lot of stress because of the thought of it being difficult.

There are a few questions I still have about EDM 310. One is, What kind of group projects will we be doing? Two, Do we get to choose our groups? Three, Will I get to add my classmates as friends on my blog (if that's possible)? Four, When do we start our group projects? To approach these questions I could first go look in the syllabus and see if that answers any of these questions. Secondly, I could send an email Dr. Strange, and lastly I could easily ask Dr. Strange, or one of his two assistants in class.

Practice Post

My name is Brittney Kent. I am from a small town called Arab, Alabama, which most of you (if not all of you) have probably never heard of. It is 6 hours north of Mobile. I have went to Arab City Schools my entire life, but lived in three different cities (Blountsville, Arab, and now Guntersville). I played volleyball and softball from sixth grade up till eleventh grade, and that's when my sports career ended. My cousin and I got in a go-kart accident, which left me with my right elbow and right wrist dislocated and my right wrist fractured, and my cousin got away with just a few bruises. After wearing a cast for sixth months, a full arm brace for sixth months, and a year to completely straighten out my arm again... I now have Osteoarthritis in my entire right arm. If I write, type or drive with my right hand a lot of times I just have to let that arm rest and start using my left hand. There are times when it hurts so bad, I just want to put everything to the side for awhile, but my family has kept me strong and has told me that I cannot put life on hold even for a second just because of this. They are my biggest support system.

My parents got divorced when I was just 2, and I live with my mom and stepdad. My real father, along with my stepmom, and I do not get along much at all. I have one real sister, one half sister, one half brother, and two twin stepsisters. I also have 5 dogs, and 2 cats. We have a husky (Nala), a yorkie (Tanner), a mutt (Sam), a porkie (Sophie), a golden lab (Holley), and my two cats names are Uno and Stella. Some of my interests include: playing with my animals when I am home, cooking, I absolutely love watching football (ROLL TIDE and GO SAINTS!!), I still love volleyball and softball, and to go on road trips. Growing up my mawmaw, pawpaw, mom, sister and myself would go on at least ten road trips every year, and those are some great memories I will always cherish. Also, growing up I always thought I would go to the University of Alabama, and that's where my family wanted me to go. Well, I got accepted into UA, but also at South and I loved both. In April of my senior year, I still hadn't decided on where to go and I was leaving for college in 4 months and didn't know how I was going to choose. Well, a couple days later I attended a scholarship dinner and I started talking to this older man, and he asked me where I was going to college, so I explained to him why I haven't decided. This old man said to me, "I am not trying to persuade your decision, but my son went to Alabama and absolutely hated it only because no one really liked him because he didn't party." Right then I knew I needed to go to South because I'm not big on partying and I wanted to make friends that liked me for me. I wanted to make lifelong friends.

When I was a little girl I would always pretend like I was teacher, and while growing up I always thought it would be fun to be a teacher, but I wanted to keep my options open. I started helping everyday after school at the elementary school for Extended Day (Which is where kids could stay at the school until six at night because a lot of parents worked 30 minutes or more outside of town and they would not get off until five at night. We would plan music time, arts and crafts, recess, time where they needed to do homework, and some other activities as well). Every since then I have known that I wanted to be an elementary school teacher! Not only because of this reason, but throughout life, so many people have told me that I would make a wonderful school teacher. I have had a lot of inspiration, and I am extremely grateful for all of it! It also helps, that I love children!

I have two main passions in life and they are volleyball and cooking. Of course I can't play volleyball like I used to, but my accident has not stopped me forever. I still hit the ball around with friends, and strive to do better every time. I do have to take breaks to rest my arm, but so what? I cannot let that come between something I love to do. I always would help my mawmaw in the kitchen when I was little, and even through high school I would ask my mom to let me cook supper. Everyday I think of new ideas that I could try to make, and sometimes I just start throwing stuff together, and it actually comes out pretty tasty. There is never a time that I don't want to play volleyball or cook.

There are a few interesting things or fun facts about myself. One is that I am terrified of needles. I pass out every time I get a shot. Second, I love jacked up trucks. One day I will own a $72,00 crimson f-350 with at least a 6 inch lift. Third, my goal in life is to make someone smile everyday. If I can do this, I feel a sense of accomplishment. Lastly, I absolutely love deer meat, I could eat everyday of my life.

TEST POST!

This is my first test post!

My Test Post

This is my first post. I am now a Blogger!