Important links: My Teaching tools

click hereto go to Sandi Sadlock's teaching tools

My EDM310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete

I just wanted to thank everyone for the great experiences that I have had in this class. It had been many years since I have been back in a classroom and you all have made it so comfortable to be there. Everyone has been very supportive when it came to giving positive input after presentations and everyone is always willing to help out a fellow classmate. I especially want to thank my podcast group, Christina, Brian, and Ginny. I think we did a great job coming together as a team. And thank you Dr. Strange for all that you have taught me in this class. When entering I had no idea what I was in for and I have obtained more knowledge then you will ever know. I am thankful that I will have these tools to take with me into my future. Thanks again to everyone. I will miss you.

Things I learned in EDM 310

Wow were do I start. I was pretty computer and technology illiterate when entering this course. Throughout the course I have learned many valuable tools. The biggest one is how to use a blog. I have also learned about podcasts. I did not even know what a podcast was before this course. I have also learned how to use the tools on IGoogle which have been very helpful with spreadsheets, documents ect. I have learned how to plug in formulas now when using charts that I was unfamiliar with before this course as well. I am very thankful for the information in which I have attained. I will take it with me on my journey on to becoming a teacher.

electronic Contact Assignment

For this assignment I used a young lady named Lindsey Walter. she is a second grade teacher at Mashburn elementary in Forsyth County Georgia. I first contacted Lindsey by phone and then we e-mailed about the technology that they are using in her classroom. The first thing that she told me about was the Promethean boards. Promethean boards are white board that are very similar to smart boards. The teacher can connect their computer to these white boards, they are used for television, Internet, flip charts to teach lessons ect. In order to use these boards you must have a stylus which is like a pen that you can use to write on the boards. These have taken the place of all the dry erase boards.
A second thing that they have is something called an activ vote. They are a voting machine that is in the shape of an egg and have the letters A-E on them. Each student gets their own and the teacher can create multiple choice tests and the the children answer their questions on the activ vote and this records the answers from the students. The students also have slates at their seats. This way they can write on their slate and it will show up on the board without the students having to get up out of their seat to write on the board.
As far as computers go in Forsyth county each class is equipped with four desktop computers and then they have laptop carts in which they can check out a laptop for each child for different assignments. Also each classroom is equipped with their own scanner, their own DVD players and even digital cameras. They have many computer software programs that are available to them and they are allowed to use blogs in their classrooms as well. At this time Lindsey is not using blogs but I am going to try and talk her into it!
I am very thankful that Lindsey took the time to talk to me and e-mail me with all of these amazing tools that they have to use. I think she is a pretty lucky lady to be working for a county that supplies the teachers with all of the wonderful gadgets. I am sure it makes her life a whole lot easier as a teacher and I know she says that the students get very engaged in the activities because they truly are part of the assignment. If you would like to check out Lindsey Walters school page I will post the web link here on my blog.
http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/130120717101444997/site/default.asp

The pluses and minuses of Blogs in the Classroom

Before entering this class I had very little experience when it came to blogs. In fact most of the things I had heard about them were negative. Such as people blogging about how they were going to shot students ect. I thought wow those blogs are a pretty scary thing. I stayed far away from them. It was a world in which I was leery to venture in to. It seemed so beyond anything that I would do on a computer. I am happy to report that I have gotten over my fear of blogging and now have a new understanding of the blogging world.
In this class it has taught me how to use a blog in a positive way and how I can use blogging in the future as an educator. I had no idea how far that this could go in the classroom. I think it has been a positive experience for me in this class. I enjoy looking over the different assignments and what i have learned. I now also have a tool in which I can use when i am out in the teaching world. If you keep up with a blog I think it is a great tool. It does take time but i think it was well worth it in the end.
I enjoyed looking at my fellow classmates blogs to see what they thought of different subject matter and assignments as well. The classmate that I chose was Christian Ardoin to look over and read. To be honest she was one of the few that had completed her blog by the time I was ready to post mine. I think Christian has a great way of looking at things. I like her because she does not hold back and you know exactly what she is thinking. I think she is going to be great in her field and I wish her the best of luck with her future teaching career.
I am so glad to be completing my blogs and again to have this to look back on. I have so many teaching tools just connected to this one blog that I will be able to use in the years to come. I am happy I am no longer scared of the blogs and that the blinders have been taken off so I can experience a whole new world of blogging out there.

Center for documentary studies/ Duke University

The first one I listened to was by kelly Marks about fears. She started thinking about this when she lost power in her home and started to feel fear. She started wondering what other people were afraid of so she went out on a college campus to ask people what they were afraid of. She found that some were very common and others were kind of irrational fears. The more irrational they were the more people wanted to talk about them. it was interesting to hear the different things that people are afraid of.
The second was by Tim Tyson and Tom Rankin. It was about the south in black and white. There was a cross burning incident in which they want to discuss what it means and whether it was a racist issue or not. The South in black and White is a course in which they can talk about history and bring the racially divided together through history. They will have gospel music and spirituals and different southern story tellers to tell the full richness of this type of history.

Podcast assignment

I just finished listening to some of our classes podcasts and my groups podcast as well. I really enjoyed this assignment. The group I was assigned to was " The Last Lecture" by Randy Pauch. My partners were Brian O'Gwynn, Ginny Grant and Christina Ardoin. I was very excited to be assigned to this podcast both for the subject and my group participants. The positives about my group is that everyone was passionate in my group about the subject matter and everyone had very good speaking voices. I felt that our podcast flowed very well and as a matter of fact I felt it was one of the best ones that I listened to without being biased. The one thing I think that we could have improved on is spending a little more time with my group before we actually recorded. To get our thoughts a little more organized. But overall I felt the podcast was very successful, especially it being our first one.
The second podcast I listened to was another podcast about Randy Pauch done by Brandy
wimberly, Amanda Bently and Daniel Griffin. Overall they did a really good job and like our group seemed to be excited about the subject matter. The one main thing that they can improve on is one of their members seemed to use inappropriate words and language for this type of podcast. It came off as a little adolescent. The other two did a great job!
The third podcast I listened to was about UTube done by Heather Rodgers, Delana Bemis, and Chris Borchardt. They had a lot of great information about UTube and had great opinions about it. I think that they did their homework well. The one thing I think that they would improve on is to use a more enthusiastic speaking voice to keep the audience captivated. There were times were things got quiet it needed a little more flow to it. But overall I think this group did a great job on their podcast.
The fourth podcast I listened to was about experience with using blogs. This podcast was done by my classmates Nikita Reed, Angela Hyer, and Carmen O'Conner. I felt that this podcast did not flow very well. I also found that some of the conversation was a little adolescent. I think that I would just word some of the things different. I do feel that they had great ideas for blogging and had some great opinions. It just seemed that as a group that they just did not mesh that well. Some people in the group seemed to be more prepared then others.

Mathematics with Technology

Judy chandler is a professor at Maine who wants to get other Mathematics teachers to incorporate technology with their teaching. She has found that many teacher are reluctant to use technology in their classroom. They feel that it will create extra work, or that their ways of teaching are working just fine. When teachers use technology with their students she has found that it increases critical thinking, that it is helpful with data analysis, and it also enhances the communication between student and teacher. She is a Strong believer in integrating this into learning and that it will help out all students especially those that are struggling with mathematics.
The second podcast was about thinking mathematically. How to look at the problems in a more rounded way. She said that teachers need to ask questions to their students that they may overlook. challenge them to think harder and they will remember and learn more. She said this type of thinking will prepare them for life long learning.
I agree with Judy Chandler that no matter what subject you are teaching technology plays a significant part in the classroom these days. Technology can do nothing but enhance learning and teaching to the students. This day and age every teacher needs to look at all the possibilities that are out there, because if you just write it off you are doing nothing but a disservice to your students and yourself as a teacher. This a computer generation that we are teaching and what better way to teach to the children then trough ways that they are familiar with.
I have stated before in my blogs that I, even as a future educator was a little reluctant about all the technology that is out there, before taking this class. Now I can't even believe I would have shorthanded myself by not allowing myself to learn of all the teaching tools and possibilities that are out there. I am so happy that my eyes have been opened to this whole new world that I knew nothing about.

"Growth vs "Fixed" Minds

This was a video podcast done by Standford University were a psychologist did a study on two groups of children. One was a group which they called the fixed minds were before they do a task they want to know if they are going to look smart when doing it. In this group all they were given were study skills nothing else and they found that throughout the year that it did not help out much if the students were not motivated in the first place.
The second group was the growth mind set group. This group of children were taught that there brain was like a muscle and it would grow over time. That the brain got stronger with use. They could increase there intellectual skill, that people did not make fun of babies as they were learning new things. They were given an article to read that taught them how to apply this to their schoolwork. Throughout the year the teachers did not know that this had been done but were able to point out what children were using the growth mindset and which were not.
I think that there was a very important lesson learned when doing this experience. That children need to know that it is ok to ask questions, it is ok to make mistakes but that learning from the mistakes that they are making is going to make them smarter and more confident. You can't just through something at a student and expect them to learn it all and take it in. It needs to be a hands on process. A process in which they can apply every piece that they are learning to what is put in front of them. The most important thing is a child's confidence. The children that are scared of looking dumb are the ones that are going to loose out because they are afraid to ask questions. We need to teach the children that this is learning and that everyone is making their brains stronger everyday with the new things that we comprehend.

WGBH Podcasts

I just finished watching a couple of the WGBH podcast videos I watch one about Cancer research and I also watched one about planets. Both of these videos were very educational. The first one about cancer was about a researcher name Dr. Fulkman who believed that blood vessels helped tumors grow. He believe Angiogneisis occurred when a tumor was present. Many people were sceptical and did not believe him but he did a couple different studies that finally proved his theory. The first study was to take a cornea of the eye that had no blood vessels and implant a piece of tumor and sure enough the blood vessels grew to the tumor and it expanded in size very rapidly. But then he went beyond that to prove his theory and found the particular molecule out of thousands that would cause this to happen. He then had people on his side now understanding what he had proven.
The second video I watched was about what makes a planet a planet and all of the controversy that has surrounded that the last couple of years. Many planets have been added to the solar system to later be removed to be either re-named a dwarf planet, an asteroid, or a comet. The most recent to be removed was Pluto. The one thing that made it different from the other planets was that it did not clear its own orbit. They are also trying to add a new planet named UB 313.
These videos that I watched is a great free learning tool that you could use in the classroom to help go along with the material which is being learned. The great thing is that the children can pull up these podcast videos for free. This again will be something that I add to my list of teaching tools in the future. It is so nice to have so many free tools at our fingertips that we can use to further our students learning as well our own.
I am very thankful to have this class which is opening my eyes to the vast array of possibilities for my teaching future. I had no idea how many things were out there for teachers to learn. It would be a shame for teachers not to take advantage of these types of learning opportunities when there is so much that it can add to what we are teaching in the classroom.