The Last Lecture....

What is the meaning of life? What is the secret to be successful? These were things I always thought about when I was younger and still think about today as an adult. When I watched Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture, I thought about my life and my life as a teacher. When it comes to my life, I will never be content with the success I achieve. Some people think that is a bad thing but, Randy Pausch showed me that there is nothing wrong with chasing your childhood dreams. When I think about my childhood dreams, the only ones I could think of was becoming my high school valedictorian and going to college so I can help people. Simple right? Never! I worked hard to achieve my goals. I gave and always give over 100 percent. There are and were times in which, like Randy Pausch, I had brick walls that stepped into my life. Randy Paush said, “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” There were many times that I felt like giving up and allowing that brick wall to win, but, I knew with hard work and God anything was possible. I actually achieved both of my childhood dreams. I became my high school’s valedictorian, in 2009, and I graduated from University of South Alabama with a degree in Biology in the summer of 2013.

Randy Pausch said, “When you're screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they've given up on you.” When I decided to become a teacher I knew that my goal was to give my students the tools they need in life in order to be prepared for college. Randy Pausch taught me that as a teacher you should also help your students achieve their childhood dreams. I want my students to feel inspired by my journey. I want students to realize that you should never settle and always give your best. I believe that everyone is capable of doing anything and everything they want to achieve in life. I agree with Randy that if you really want to achieve something, not even a brick wall could stop you from reaching that goal. I want my students to view that through criticism. I want to be that teacher that is hard but everyone enjoys the challenge. I want my students to see that my criticism and toughness as a way to work hard. In the end, I believe that if you work hard in class, you will work hard in life.

Randy Pausch taught me that students should enjoy learning. I believe that students will learn and retain information better when they are having fun with education. Project Based Learning is a great tool to help students have fun in the classroom. I believe the world is nothing but a global classroom that is waiting for fresh young minds to explore its wonders. As a teacher you want your students engaged the moment they walk into a classroom. As teachers we must be mindful that there are many ways to teach children besides lecturing. I always viewed learning as a fun experience and I want my students to have that same experience.

The final thing I learned from Randy is that you should always enjoy life. My mom always tell me to enjoy life and be thankful for the time you have been given on this earth. There will be times in which life will be easy but there will be also times in which life is difficult. However, Randy has taught me you should enjoy both the good and bad times because even those bad times are great lessons. I want my students to realize that chasing your childhood dreams should not only consist of working hard but to also enjoy those moments of learning. Also in life you should always be kind to people because they will be kind to you. I want my students to learn what I have learned and that is life is your biggest educator.

In conclusion, Randy Pausch’s lecture inspired me not only as a teacher but has a person. He also made me realize that as a teacher we have the power to help students achieve their dreams. We should also be mindful of how we talk to students because you never know how you could impact their future. Randy showed me that even when he was working hard to achieve his childhood dreams, he always took time and enjoyed life. He not only enjoyed life; he enjoyed the moment. He made me look at my life and evaluate it. He showed me that even during your darkest hours, you should always enjoy life.

Sources

Randy Pausch Last Lecture

Project Based Learning Project

Here is my webpage it is still need some work: T'Keyan Peoples' Webpage

Open Ended Questions: Are They Really That Hard to Ask?

As teachers, we should always ask ourselves, “How can we become better teachers?” I know there is no such thing as a perfect teacher, however, we should always strive for greatness when it comes to our students. The one thing that as teachers we should always strive for is asking questions. There are many things that, we, as teachers need to know before we ask questions. The overall goal is to make sure that the students understand what exactly we are teaching. It is for difficult at times, for teachers, to word questions to students and they actually understand. Questions are important and is the foundation for project based learning. Questions shows whether or not if students understand the lessons. The big question for teachers is how to word those questions. We should always have the students engaged into the lesson. However, in reality, that is not going to always happen. In my opinion, in order to be an effective teacher, we must ask effective questions. When I say effective questions I mean open ended questions. An example, If Rosalind Franklin was alive, how would she feel about Watson and Crick receiving credit for the model of DNA? A closed question needs no example, it is the typical “yes” or “no” question. I believe that open ended questions have no right or wrong answers. Every student is entitled to his/her own opinion.

When I was in school, I was rarely given open ended questions. It seems that many teachers did not engage in conversations with students. Instead, they asked closed ended questions and taught with traditional learning concepts. I want to teach students in a way that I wanted to be taught and that is through engaging questions and more project based learning. Questions are meant to open a students’ minds for critical thinking. I believe critical thinking questions are important to ask students. Critical thinking question help inspire students especially when it comes to project based learning. Being a teacher is my job to make students interested and engaged in the topic. I believe that if students enjoy talking about a subject they will retain the information and will be able to pass a test whether if its essay or multiple choice. At the end of the day, it is my job to ,as an educator, make sure that my students are ready for the road ahead call life.

Project Based Learning and Alabama College and Career Ready Standards

C4T( Teacher I Chose)

Week # 1

Recently, the world has been impacted with a game that has cause various streams of emotions. All I have to say is two words; Flappy Birds. Yes, that is right, Flappy Birds is a game that has cause so much chaos with such a simple concept. The player of the game only has to tap the screen of the phone to control the bird. Sounds simple does it not? Well many people are becoming obsessed with the game of simplicity. However, what people are not realizing is that they are incorporating physics at the same time. Frank Noschese author of the blog Action-Reaction did a study to prove that Flappy Bird has some physics. He showed various physics formulas to show that the bird in the game is equivalent to a real life red robin in weight. However, everything else in the game is not so close to physics but what we find out is that there is some education to this game. The sad thing about finding out if flappy bird is true, if you do not have the game already downloaded on your phone, you will never know because the company removed the game about a 3 weeks ago.

Week #2

The second blog post that Noschase wrote was about dealing with the comparison of Quizzes vs. Projects. Noschase wondered when students take a quiz do they really understand the concepts of the questions? He went on to post videos showing how students used projects to explain topics in class vs. quizzes on which its knowledge that they have studied. He went on to say that he gives his students quizzes so he can see what they have learned from his lessons. He also assign his students projects so in order to give them a creative outlet and to see their viewpoint of the topic. I believe that students need both hands on learning experience and quizzes. In my opinion, hands on learning gives the students a better way of learning things verses sitting in front of a power point and a teacher lecturing. In reality they have had enough of that style of teaching. Allow students to have fun without them realizing that they are learning. However, an exam in any form or fashion will allow the teacher to see if that hands on approach to that subject was successful or not.

Week #3

The blog post I decided to read from Noschase dealt with teachers and their teaching methods. As the years pass us by and technology advances, teaching should change to, right? Well, sad to say, many teachers are very sensitive about the way they teach their students. The thing about it is, and I have to agree, is that the traditional method of teaching is not helping students learn the material. Noschase calls teachers who do not want to stray away from traditional teaching as reluctant. I believe that we must help our students. As a future teacher I will not entirely stray away from traditional teaching but I will make it as fun and interesting as possible.

Week #4

For my most recent read on Noschase’s blog I decided to go back to an old blog post when he was talking about Khan Academy. I found it as an interesting read and I wanted to know Nischase’s opinion dealing with Khan Academy. Overall, Noschase is not really impressed with the website. He views it as a way of teaching students short cuts verses learning and truly understanding the concepts. He feels that Khan Academy does not truly align with the teaching of Physics. He went on to say that KA needs a dashboard to show students how many times they entered a question wrong and common mistakes that students made in the problems. In my opinion, Khan Academy is a fairly resourceful educational tool. It is not going to be perfect overnight. However, in the end it is all about making sure the student learns and understand the concepts.

(C4T)Rotating Teachers 510

Week #1

My first week I read Michael Gorman’s blog entitled 21st Century Educational Technology and Learning. On one of his blog post Michael was giving his top three interactive digital tools that compare and contrast. The top three were Diffen, Venn diagram and Compare and Contrast map. Even though these are classic classroom brainstorming techniques, they have been revamped into mainstream technology programs to help students brainstorm. I commented and said I am glad that you decided to write about various ways students can brainstorm ideas. Even though these are traditional brainstorming ideas, they are still very effective. As a future teacher, I would like to incorporate these brainstorming ideas on computer and compare if it is better than traditional pen and paper.

Week #2

The blog I covered this week was from David Warlick. The blog post I read was about his experience with the snow storm that affected the many states two weeks ago. He was stating that even though he had a really bad trip, he managed to turn it into a humorous ordeal. In my opinion that is how society really is we try to take negative things and make it positive. Just like the saying goes when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Week #3 & 4

My week three and four blog came from Kelly Tenkely who is the author of iLearn Technology. In the week three post she introduced her fellow readers to Stoodle. Stoodle is like a virtual classroom that allows teachers to upload practice exercise or set up chats with their students. It is an excellent tool to poses as a teacher. Because students have questions regarding homework or the night before an exam. Stoodle not only benefits teacher to students but also when teachers are trying to collaborate on a project for Professional development. I went and commented on the blog post: Wow! Stoodle looks like a great online sight I will use. As a future science teacher when students have questions about homework or need extra practice for a test I will use this website for my students to use. I am really excited about using this website. Kelly’s most recent blog post is about an academy that is deviated to another style of learning. Anastasis learning is through creative thinking, inquiry and creativity. The academy starts in preschool and goes through eighth grade. The semester is broken down into a 5 week blocks and the students are all learning the same topic but just on different creative levels. They break down the goal and objectives by age. The students in the academy are all learning in one big room. The purpose of having them in one big room is to allow the students to learn from each other. The teachers are provided inquiry books for the students per grade level. I think that anastasis learning is nothing but project based learning except the students are on their own when it comes to coming up with creative ideas. I think it is a good way of learning but not teaching.

Comments for Kids Summary

Week #1

During my first week for comments for kids I was asked to read a blog from a child named Jack. Jack lives in Dublin, Ireland. When I read his blog post it really and truly touched my heart. The topic for his blog post was: “What I would do with a thousand euros that was not for me?” Jack said that he would split the money between charities everywhere. He wanted to give his money between the blind, the deaf, homeless and cancer. Once I read his post, I told Jack that is very thoughtful of him to give your money to people in need. Not that many children would give their money to people that they never knew. Jack, your blog post opened my eyes and allowed me to see that there are young people out there who cares about humanity. He replied back to me and said, “Thank You”.

Week #2

During my second week with comments for kids, I was given three different kids post I had to read and post a comment. The first student name was Domenic. Domenic blog was not the average blog. He decided to use his blog to write short story series entitled The Shield. The story is about a two young boys named Braiden and Nondome who are on a quest to find Braiden’s parents and to stop the evil Gandoon from getting the all-powerful shield. I really enjoyed Domenic’s imagination for the story. He really made me forget that I was reading a blog post. His details and deluge throughout the story grab my attention. You are a great writer and I cannot wait to see where this story is going to lead.

My second kid was Brady V. Brady wrote a blog post about the birth stones and what kind of stone each month represent. He also did a short video clip about his birth stone Garnet. He then ended his post asking reader what were their birth stones. I replied, that I was born in March so my birthstone is aquamarine. The one thing that I love about the stone aquamarine is that its color is light blue. Blue, especially light blue, is my favorite color so it is great to have a birthstone that reflects your favorite color.

The third child for the week name was Alexandria. Alexandria topic for her blog post was choosing between text and film. She went and wrote how she chose text or film because she could keep up with the story better. She also enjoys using her imagination when she reads a story. I went and replied by telling her that my favorite series to read are the Harry Potter books. I choose to read books over watching movies because movies do not tell the entire story in comparison to a book. Books allow you to use your imagination, whereas, movies uses the director interpretation of the book.

Week # 3

I had three students I had to comment on for week three comments for kids. The first one is Gulli. Gulli uses his blog post to talk about new mixtapes from various artist. I liked how he was very versatile with his music choices. He not only talked about artist that were in the United States but he also talked about a rap artist from the United Kingdom. I commented on his blog post by giving him a rap artist who I am sure he would like.

The next student name was Gabby C. Gabby did her blog post about her third quarter book project. She posted that the theme to the book was looks can be deceiving. I agree with Gabby that looks can be deceiving. In the end you never know that person you judged in the beginning could end up becoming your best friend.

The third blog came from Carolina Rain. I was not able to find my student so I decided to read her blog post. Carolina wrote a short story on her blog about a mother-in-law who did not like her new son-in-law. Her story went on to say that the mother-in-law poisoned her son-in-law with arsenic in his food. Overall, her short story was great. It really reminded me of a movie that I would see on the Lifetime channel. I hope she continues to write stories like this on her blog.

C4T ( Teacher that I was assigned)

Week #1

My permanent teacher for the semester that I was assigned to was Steven Anderson from Blogging About the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom talked about in one of his most recent blogs about Digital Learning Day. Digital learning day is a day that celebrates teachers that is into online learning and wants to encourage students to get into online learning. They offered various classes for teachers to help them get into online learning. The good thing about digital learning day is that it encourages everyone within the school system to participate. From students, teachers and even administrators are encourage to sign up for the online classes that are offered. In my option digital learning day is a good idea. I believe that if every school system would encourage online learning it would increase student’s excitement for learning.

Week #2

Massively Open Online Courses (MOOC)! Yes I said that correctly. I never realized that someone can take a course that is online for free. Steven Anderson introduced his bloggers the world to MOOC. MOOC, I realized is a great online tool to use. You can register for various classes dealing with every aspect of education. Teachers and even administrator can sign up and take online classes. I commented and said I think that the MOOC is a great idea to get teachers, administrators and students involved into online learning. I believe that teachers would benefit from MOOC more because it will open up another form of teaching. It will also help explain some subject in another manner for teachers to understand so that way they can be more effective as a teacher.

Week # 3

During week three I read Steven Anderson’s blog deals with Professional Development within the classroom. He goes on to say the some teachers use effective PD and others chose to not use effective PD. He gave three good tips in his blog concerning Professional Development: 1. K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid) 2. Reflect. Reflect. Reflect. 3. Play. I believe that professional development is important in the classroom because as teachers we would not succeed without it.

Week #4

Steven Anderson’s most recent post is his choices for Favorite Apps for Learning on the Go. He goes on to explain that he is always busy from being in schools to traveling to different places until he realizes that he misses learning. I believe you can always learn a little something no matter where you are in the world. Your phone, or tablets always contain many learning apps to keep the brain engaged in learning. So of his favorite apps he listed was: Zite, Flipboard, and Twitter. Who knew that twitter can be so educational? Anderson went on to ask his readers what was our favorite educational app on the go? I commented and said these are great apps that you recommended. One of my favorite apps to use when I am learning on the go is YouTube. YouTube is just that one place where I can go and look up anything from educational videos to funny videos.

Project Based Learning and Technology: What a Perfect Match

Growing up in a family education was one thing that I always cherished. I knew that in order to be successful in life, I must receive an education. Growing up in late 20th century and transitioning into the 21st century I witnessed the evolution of technology and the effects it has had in the classroom. Project based learning is not something that is brand new to education, instead, it is the technology that is changing. In this blog post I will give you my scholastic journey and my personal opinion on project based learning and technology.

My public school journey began when I was in the 3rd grade attending Spencer Elementary School. I remember my teacher was using technology to help us learn within the classroom. My teacher used everything from VHS, music and computers. What I failed to realize, back then, I was still learning even though I was playing, watching TV and listing to music. When I watched the YouTube video(s) on Mr. Capps and how he incorporated project based learning with world events made me think about my 6th grade history teacher at Clark Magnet School. She incorporated project based learning every day in class. We discussed everything from the war in Iraq to even the stock market. When I entered high school I realized that my school was focused more on traditional learning verses project based learning. The teachers that taught me used the dry-erase board and worksheets more than new technology. My 12th grade math teacher was the only person who I knew that incorporated the smart board into teaching his classes. However, what I failed to realize was that in 2009, the year I graduated, technology was on the verge of changing in classroom settings.

Since, I have decided to take this journey into becoming a teacher, I have noticed that teachers use smart board, power points and educational gaming to teach students. I am amazed at how quickly technology has changed in the past five years. Teachers no longer stand in front of a class with a dry erase marker and an eraser. Instead, they have a computer and smart board where students can interact with the teacher and their classmates. When I watched Mr. Capps’ videos and listened to how he and other fellow teachers use the new technology that Baldwin County has provided, made me realize that Mobile County is lagging behind in technology. Mobile County, is a larger school district but what I want fellow up and coming teachers to realize is that if you are going to teach in Mobile County; realize that it will take this school system sometime before every student will be able to take home laptops and eliminate books. However, this should not stop anyone from doing project based learning. At the end of the day, MCPSS is making strides toward keeping up with the modern educational technology.

Since, watching Mr. Capps YouTube videos, I agree with his approach of teaching students. I believe that students will retain information better when they are excited about learning. Students should enjoy learning. Going to school should never feel like a jail sentence. Instead, teachers should be creative and realize that teaching does not end at three o’clock. Mr. Capps mentioned that he would sometimes stay at the school until 8 o’clock at night. We should all strive to be that type of teacher. He also mentioned that teachers should not teach technology but just use it. Technology is not going away! Also, students are in the age of technology. We, as teachers, need to grab our student’s attention with what they like to use the most: technology. There are many questions that I wonder about. Will this ideal of project based learning help increase ACT/SAT scores? Will PBL help students with Alabama Course Career Standards and increase graduation rates?

In conclusion, technology will continue to get better as the years continue. I personally can say PBL has helped me understand major topics and allowed me to enjoy school. Luckily, with the use of technology, PBL will become even more effective with students. Project based learning has always been a great teaching method that I know I will use when I become a teacher.