4.0 or 4. NO!

This youtube clip just proves that just because there is new technology out , that may be cool, does not mean that it is the best thing for society. So I can pull up my email while I am driving, but when was the last time I called my mom? So I can surf the web while in the tub ,but when was the last time I read a book? Now these questions do not really apply to me because I talk to my mom 500 times a day and read at least one new book a month, but I believe this is the case for many Americans today. While the new wave of stuff my be cool and connect you to certain things, it is disconnecting you from ,what I believe, are more important things.Even the advertisers recognize this because they are putting more money into web advertisement than other places.Watching this clip also made me very aware of the rate that our societies intelligence may be decreasing. If we are too consumed in watching TV or surfing the web then what kind of new, enriching material are we taking in?One of the most dishartening parts of this clips was about the decline of political talk on Twitter when Micheal Jackson died. As my grandmother always says" garbage in is garbage out!"

Truly an Inspiration !!!

Wow, to listen to this man was really encouraging. Talk about a "glass half full" mentality.To hear a person who has a terminal illness say how much life they have left to live is truly inspriring. The goals that Randy Pausch has mananged to meet throughtout his life our incredible. His desire to make sure others try and reach their dreams is great! He wants to teach people how they too can achieve goals and he shows them this by telling his story.

Some goals Randy set for himself may have seemed unattainable to many people. They may have also seemed too long term for someone with his disease, but Randy pushed towards them anyway.He wanted to be a Disney Imagineer - and he was; he wanted to be in zero gravity - and he was.Randy Pausch aslo wanted to platy in the NFL,while he did not do this, he did play in amatuer leagues. I am sure through all of these circumstances,trials and achievements he learned many vauluable lessons,lessons to pass on for generations.

There are several ways in which Randy beleieves on can help another achieve their goals.An important point that I have liked was learning to work in a group.I am taking a class currently where most of of work is done with a group. I really thought I knew how to best do this, but have found it is not always an easy task. Learning to evaluate your peers and be a good team playing can be difficult at times.But, I do feel that working in this group has been very positive for me and therefore I totally agree with Randy's thoughts.It is also a great way to mixed thigns up in the classroom. I feel diversity and keeping the studetns involved and having fun is crucial.
Not only has Randy learned all of these ways to teach others how to achieve their goals, but he has also learned very much himself through doing all of this. His priorities are his family and he loves the life he has been given.We should all be so thankful for what we have! The best way to sum up Randy for me is by using one of his quotes: "Brick walls are there for a reason: They let us prove how badly we want something."

Mr, Fisch

I am completely amazed by Mr. Fisch! I totally agree with him. The thing that amazed me the most was when Mr. Fisch said, 80% of the parents that came to conferences, at least one of them said they were never good at math.I have actually never been a math person. Last semester I had to have my husband help me almost every nght with my math homework and I was constantly telling him how bad I was at it!He would tell me I was not, I just had to look at it in a new way. By the middle of the semester, I was doing the majority of my homework on my own and was so proud of myself. I had just spent so many years hearing my parents say they were not good at it and that I was not good at , I believed I could never be good at it.

I also agree with him in that, it's almost like people are proud of the fact that they are illiterate about some things. I learned so much reading this post. I definitely don't want to be an technologically illiterate teacher, which I often have said I would be. I want to be the best teacher I can possibly be! Truly, his post was extremely eye opening! I cannot wait to share it with my parents and friends!

It is not about technology.

I thought Kelly Hines blog was extremely insightful and true. I definitely agree with her views and thoughts. Technology is important, but it is not all about the technology. I loved her points about teaching, teachers most definitely have to be learners, learning and teaching are not the same thing, and technology is without a doubt useless without good teaching. These are all extremely good points that I completely agree!

I feel like many teachers today have technology in their classroom but do not use it properly, and they waste so much time figuring out how to work it when it doesn't work. Technology can be a wonderful thing if it is used properly by a good teacher, but definitely does not substitute for good teaching. Last semester I observed a teacher who had a SMART board in her classroom, and she used it really well. It was not distracting in the slightest bit. She took classes to teach her how to use it properly, and it was evident. She was not only a good teacher, but used technology in a way that benefited her students. I feel the biggest problem with technology is that it wastes too much time if teachers do not know how to use it properly. I completely agree with Kelly and her blog was absolutely wonderful!

A Vision of Student Today - well a vision of some...

Wow.... this video was very cool! The music went great with the theme of the clip. I loved the way they showed several different quotes in so many ways,although at times, the way the camera moved made me sick! It is always very interesting to see so many statistics and realize how true they are. Sometimes I do not realize how much my life may be similar to a freshman, at a college in another state. There were several things I found did apply to me in this podcast. The amount I spend on books,how many email I will write and papers, the fact that I may have a job when I graduate that does not even exists today and that there are people in my class who pay and yet don't come to class. There were also some things that I thought applied to many students,just not me. For example, their average class size is much larger than mine,some students said they only complete about half of their reading assignments,and one girl said she will read over 1200 facebook profiles... I will NOT be doing that. Towards the end they mentioned they did more in a day than there was time for,thus having to multi task. I totally agree with this. I am not sure a student could function in today's college setting without learning how to do one than one thing at a time. This truly was a great video and I thought it was well put together.

My Presentation

Podcast Resources

The first sound clip that I listened to was from the NPR Ideastream and I really enjoyed it. Every aspect about this clip seemed very professionally done and kept my attention. Typically, I am I visual learner and need to see things as well, but I felt as if they discussed things so clearly I did not need any visuals. Before I knew it, the clip was over!
Second I listened to is the Eagle Nest Radio & Class Blog (3rd Grade Podcasts). I loved this podcast even more than the first! It was also very well done. My favorite part was the precious little kids voices in the background! How sweet! Not only were there voices sweet, but they seemed well informed about the topics and spoke very well. Being able to have a pod cast with my class someday would be wonderful! The picture of the class was priceless, I enjoyed being able to look at it during the pod cast. This class was great and shows others that making a great pod cast can be fun, educational and accomplished by me too!

Video Cast from Last Year

The music in the background was clear and easy to listen to. I felt like the people in the video could have done a much better job of communicating with the audience. Their eye contact was almost non existent and they did not speak in a tone that was easily understood. These two issues, in my opinion, made the pod cast much less interesting than it could have been. A different setting may have made some of the directional aspects better in the video. On the other hand, I did like how clear the focus seemed to be and the microphone picked up okay, it’s just too far away for some of the people to be heard considering how low they spoke. These students could have picked a much better topic to use I think. A more exciting topic would have made a huge difference in the way their entire pod cast was viewed. The entire pod cast seemed a little too scripted for my taste. I found Dr. Strange to do a good job as the mediator. It was a little redundant and it took my computer like 15 minutes to load and then it seemed as if the video cast would never end!!

Next Generation Learning

This video was neat! I haven't seen an interactive whiteboard before now! I really liked how the students who could not afford a laptop were able to have the access to rent one from the school! I also enjoyed how the teacher stayed connected with parents through their blog even while the kids were away on a field-trips.Being a parent myself, I would love the opportunity to see the field trips my child went on when I was unable to attend with her.This would give us conversation that night.I am not really sure how I felt about the Wii activities,but on a small scale it may be beneficial. This video offered several wonderful points and was very put together.Each child being put on the same level is fabulous. I think this shows the kids at a very young age how they should treat everyone the same.

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