Blog Post #7 What Can We Learn About Teaching And Learning from Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture was very interest me and incredibly inspiring. This profesor from Carnegie Mellon was an intelligent, down to earth, and creative man. Randy Pausch teaches us what it means to really deal with something. He choose to talk about how to achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others instead. This was one of the most inspirational lectures I have ever watched in my entire life. Randy is chasing and even achieving your childhood dreams can make such a difference in your life.Childhood dreams are goals one has when young, and can serve as great motivation to attain the things one wants in life. So, what can be learned about teaching and learning from childhood dreams? As it turns out, a great deal. Teachers can be facilitators of their students' dreams. Instilling qualities in students that help them succeed is enabling their childhood dreams. In his case, Randy has been told he does not have much longer to live yet he continues to live with a "nothing is impossible" attitude.

Another interesting point Randy bring up is "Brick Walls." They will always be there and we have to accept that. We should not look at problems in a bad way, but rather a challenge to see if we want something bad enough. Problems will not get in the way of our opportunity if we choose to fight back and go after our goals. When I encounter problems in my classroom I will not give up, instead I will find a solution. There will always be some kind of problem that I am facing in my career, but I know that I will rise up to the challenge every time.

The final lesson on teaching and learning is to never give up. As teachers, we should never give up on a student. We need to show them that we are always there to help make them better. And we should never give up on ourselves. Every teacher is going to have a lesson that they spent so much time creating and it fails. Just because one lesson failed doesn't mean they all will. We must learn to never give up, not to complain, work harder and help others. As future educators, we should train ourselves to find the best in everybody. We should surround ourselves with people who will tell us the truth even if it hurts. We should listen to that truth and use it. The Last Lecture is a video I would recommend to anyone. It is an exceptional speech that gives many lessons for the viewer. In this lesson anyone can learn from Randy is what he called a "Head Fake". Randy uses the example of sports. While many children are put into sports. Parents want their kids to, of course, learn how to play football or how to score a touchdown, there are always other lessons to be learned. These are called "head fakes", lessons like working with others, hard-work... This should always be considered while teaching. During any group project these lessons become more useful and needed.

C4K Summary for C4Ks

CK4 #1

My fist C4K is Dillon's blog. In Dillon's blog, he created a post for comic website review. Dillon created two comic strips from two different website. The first comic stripy from the website was called Toondoo. Unlike others websites, Toondoo is not required email, username and password. Moreover, Toondoo has comic characters were color and different background choices. The second comic strip from make belief comix, Dillon did not like this website because the colors were black and white and backgrounds were solid colors. Toondoo became Dillon buddy, and he recommended Toondoo to everyone he knows.

My comment: Dillon, I really like your blog because you are using two comic strips from two websites, so we can see the differences between two websites. I think you are right because the comic strip you made from Toondoo website looks more colorful and has different background choices. After I read your post, I went to the Toondoo website , made a comic strip for my myself and I loved it. Like you said, Toondoo was not required an account like email, username and password. I love to see more of your comics.

C4K #2

My second C4K is James's blog. In James blog, he expressed his feeling to all of his friends in Hongkong. James missed his friends and wish everyone have a good time in Hongkong.

My comment: Hey James, this is Annie from University of South Alabama. I enjoyed reading your post ,and I think you did great job on your post. How was your trip to Hongkong? Are you have any friends when you visited Hongkong? I never been in Hongkong, and I wish I can go there one time like you, James.

C4K #3

In Dillon's blog, he explained what is love. According to Dillon, love is putting some else needs before his now needs. Dillon thinks love is very strong word when it used in the right way by doing something nice. Dillon also said that love can be good thing, and he hopes everyone use it well.

My comment: Hello Dillon, I enjoyed reading your love post. I hope everyone can think like you, Dillon. You're a kind person because you putting someone's need before your need. To me, love is sacred feelings, I can do anything for that person can be happy.

C4K #4

In Gabby's blog, she was introduce about herself. Gabby like to play tennis,basketball and soccer. Moreover, Gabby's hobby are going to forest and hanging out with her friends. Gabby said that her favorite subjects are art, music and math, and she likes to write poetry and frictional stories. Besides that, Gabby loves to dancing, drawing and singing when she home alone.

My comment: Hello Gabby, my name is Anh Nguyen, and I am a student from University of South Alabama. My favorite subjects are art and math too. Most of people I know they hate math, but now I know you like math too. I like to sing too but not dancing. I look really funny when I dance. Great blog and I really enjoyed your post.

Project #8 Book trailer

Blog post #6

A Personal Learning Network is an informal learning network that consists of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a personal learning environment. In a PLN, a person makes a connection with another person with the specific intent that some type of learning will occur because of that connection.All educators and all learners can benefit from extending their now personal learning network online- beyond the walls of school, the boundaries of their districts and the limits of their experience. You can also ask for assistance,consolation and collaboration. PLN provides more opportunities for you to learn than you provide it.PLN is easy tool for learners,they need to formulate questions, peoples, places interest you on Facebook, Tweeter, or Youtube. I choose to use symbol for my PNL because kids now days can recognize symbol better than a word. Right now, I love to use Youtube to find informations that interest me. I can find videos, places and peoples on Youtube. After I take EDM 310 class, now blogger is another tool for me to connect with others people around the world. With C4T and C4K, I can be able to see other teachers blog and learn the tips and techniques to use in the classroom. ,

I think the PLN is a neat and useful tool for educators and learners. I will use PLN for my future classroom and I hope my students will enjoy PLN.

My Sentence Videos

My Sentence Is...



My Passion Is...

Blog Post #5

Project Based Learning Part 1

As Anthony explains, project allows the students to create a project using all the content at the end of the lesson to show what students had learned. Anthony states that the most important is related to the real world experience. Good project have an audience, keep students interested in mind. The project should have involved community and most importantly it is driven by content. I learned that PBL is not only to show whether students know the material but to help teach the material in a fun and excited way.

Project Based Learning Part 2

Anthony shared with us that not everything was going to help us, so we need to prepared for everything. Anthony gave us example of how one of parent did not want their child to learn culture about Afghanistan, so Anthony has to repeat the wish of parent in his classroom and gave the students another alternative project. According to Anthony, we need to give projects that the students love to do and the parent must be pleasant with the assignment. Anthony said that never limit students with all information, as a teacher, we need to give students opportunity for them to go beyond what we expect them to do. We know that if the students are engaged,that mean they are learning and everything they learn in the classroom is meaningful to them. Sometimes things do not go as planned, teachers need to change assignment at last minutes. Anthony shared a story that his students need to go online and create a comic strip for the story they had read, but the printer wouldn't work and they couldn't print off the comic. Anthony tells the students to write an essay for the most important senses intend print off the comic strip.

iCurio

iCurio is online tools that concert few for purposes. Anthony states that iCurio allows students to safety research for images, audios, video and all online medias. As Anthony says that iCurio i a tool that help teachers and students store what they think is valuable. ICurio keeps audios, videos, and images organize. It is useful and safe for student because teachers can monitor what their students doing on the iCurio. Moreover, iCurio let students save their currently works and continue when they get back on later.

Discovery Education

As Anthony says that a picture is worth a 1000 words and video must worth a million. Discovery Education is a great tool to let the students watch and get more information from videos. Anthony used Discovery Education to give his students opportunity to watch and listen to the video at the same time, so they can easily understand the content. Discovery is a great place for teachers to support their assignment with illustration or videos.

Tips for Teachers

This was a very amazing conversation to listen to. I think this list will be helpful for my career as a future teacher. Dr. Strange and Anthony were create a list about the tips for teachers. First of all, Dr. Strange states that teachers need to be interested in learning. Dr.Strange gave example that if you are not learner then you will not be successful because we have to be learner and be model that behavior for other people and our students. Anthony suggests that let student work hard and play, so students can learn in fun and excited ways. Another tip Dr. Strange explains is that teachers must be flexible, creative and willing to change the planned at a moment notice. Dr. Strange and Anthony explain that the important to get feedback from an audience, so students can be reflect on works and ultimately revise it to get better results. Overall, hard working teacher who want to be learner and have passion to engaged all students can be an invaluable asset in any school.

Don't Teach Tech-Use It

Anthony says that technology is natural for kids and they enjoy to use it. Anthony explains that teachers shouldn't teach kids technology but use it. As educator, we shouldn't expect perfection when their students using technology.Sometimes, students can learn from their mistakes, and teachers must allow students to reflect on their mistakes, so they can understand why and how they can correct their mistakes. Using technology in the classroom also helps students to express themselves, create what they like and be able to share with other people. Specially, technology is clean and a great tool for students to learn through their mistakes.

Additional Thought About Lesson

As Anthony explains there are four layers to creating lesson: year, unit, week and day. I learned that planning a lesson take a lot of thought. In the first layer, the year includes what content standard have to be covered over the course of the school year. The next layer, the unit is typically a 6-8 weeks time period that the teachers have specific content. In the third layer, the week is weekly plan the teachers have in order to complete a unit. The last layer is day, teachers must complete each week expect amount of work in order. After watching this video, I learned that I have to construct my lesson in the future based on four layers to creating lesson to cover all materials that is expected of the course.

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Post #4 What question do we ask? How do we ask?

As the teachers in the future, we surely know that questioning students while teaching can engage students and make the class more interesting in the lesson.What are the right ways to ask questions in the classroom? Basically,after the teachers have taught a concept, the teachers could ask," Does anybody understand or have any question about the lesson?". If the teacher would like for his or her students get engage in the lesson, he or she needs to ask question while teaching.Before the class start, teacher needs to prepared for questions that he or she will asks while teaching instead spends most of his or her time on powerpoint.

Typically,when a teacher asks question and gets correct answers,he or she will move on to the next subject. However, play with question is a better way for students to keep their minds continue thinking about different answers or ideas for that question. Nevertheless, a teacher should ask such questions that helps students practice their skill,communicate with the facts and ideas for the lesson's goals. Specially, a teacher needs to ask clear and specific question to make sure that students understand what is the question about. Usually, a teacher could not ask more than one question at once because most of students confuse which question they should answer. Therefore, a teacher should pauses five to seven seconds after asking question for students to answer it. Do not interrupt students' answers even it is wrong answer. As the teachers, we need to keep students learning by ask them explain their thought and get better answer for it.



There are two types of question:

Open questions is a question has more than one answer and all answer could be possible to the right concept.For example,"Can you explain this concept in your own words? There is no right or wrong answer for this question.

Closed questions is a question has only one answer and either "yes" or "no". For example, what many hour a day? There is only one answer for that question.