My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete

Hey class! I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed being in your class! We had a great group of people in there! I want to say a special thanks to BJ, Katelyn and Crystal! I had the best time making the podcast with BJ and Katelyn and I hope yall enjoyed it as much as I did! I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in a class before! Also I wanted to say thanks to Crystal for just being my friend! We really helped each other get through this class! SO hope everyone makes it out alive and we are finally done.. so give yourself a pat on the back!! Hope to see some of you in my other classes!!

Final Post

When I first entered this class I was not sure how much I really knew about computers. I thought I would know enough to where I would not get anything out of this class but once the class began I quickly realized I was wrong. I did not really understand how to use Excel and I thought that it was pointless to learn. After learning how much help Excel can offer you (as a teacher) I began to think differently. Excel is a great grade book for keeping students grades up to date and in order. The program lets you figure out the average of all the grades for one test as well as gives you the maximum and minimum averages. I also never knew about podcasts. I did not think that they would ever be any use to me but now that we have done them in class and learned about them I understand what they are used for and I have a new appreciation for them. I also never realized just how much information was on the internet to help teachers. I was assigned to investigate teachertube.com and what I found astounded me. Teachers from all over gave fun different ways to help my future students learn! Another thing I found very interesting was everything Google can do for you. I could not believe that there was a PowerPoint presentation! I found that so interesting because even if there are no programs on your computer as long as you have internet you can still make a PowerPoint presentation. I am sure that if I would not have taken this class I would never know that. I really did get a lot out of this class that I am confident will be very useful for me to use in the future. I do not know of anything that I was not introduced to during this semester. I feel more comfortable as well as confident when it comes to the computer and I can gladly thank Mr. Wakeman for that!

iTunes University

iTunes University is an online educational media source and is available to everyone. There are over 100,000 educational video and audio files available. It is open to other universities, giving them the opportunity to put up their educational media files. iTunes University is great for students with learning disabilities as well as students with different learning styles. iTunes University also gives the other universities the choice as to whether or not they want to make their educational media open to the public or have it private. If the university decides they would like to only allow access to their students than they are given their own password-protected site. The password-protected site enables that university the control to manage their content as well as the downloadable resources. iTunes University also makes available some of the most creative K-12 state projects in the country. This is a great opportunity for getting ideas that you (as the teacher) can incorporate in your classroom. Many universities that use iTunes have an internal site as well as an external site. The internal site usually has more resources and is only for the students that attend that university. The external site is for everyone and while it does have resources, they are not as in-depth as the resources you would find at the internal site. All in all, iTunes University is a great way to incorporate the many different learning styles for students as well as teachers.

International School Blogs

This website is about the students in 5th and 6th grade in Nelson, New Zealand. This blog is about what the students do while they are at school. It would be a great blog for the parents of the students to look at. It also has the Star Student, Best Show and tell, students homework and the class calendar. It is very informative. If you would like to look at this school a little more then please click here

United States School Blogs

The first class I found that also uses blogging is Ms. Frandsen’s Class. This class is located in Carol Stream, Illinois. This blog is mainly talking about all of her students actives that they do in the classroom. This first picture is of her class. They are such cute kids! Also she has pictures and videos of her students while they are doing their projects. If you would like to see this classes blog click here

The second class I found online is Oak Ridge Elementary. This blog is from a sixth grade class in Sacramento, California. This blog was an assignment blog the teacher put together for her class. It has their assignments and links to go to that may help them with their assignments. While this teacher did not have any fun pictures of her class; this blog is mainly used for her students. If you would like to see this teachers blog click here

ACCESS program =)

ACCESS is an amazing program dedicated to the promotion of higher education of high school students. It is a program that Governor Bob Riley and State Superintendent of Education, Dr. Joseph B. Morton initiated. The vision of the ACCESS program is for the the State of Alabama to “provide equal access to high quality instruction to improve student achievement through distance learning opportunities.” This is a really great thing for the high school students in Alabama. It really gives them a chance to better themselves. Some of the perks of the program include advanced placement, dual enrollment, and “advanced diploma” courses. The goal of the ACCESS program is to “provide additional educational offerings for all Alabama public high school students.”

Besides this program focusing on the higher education of high school students it is also an amazing program for teachers throughout the state of Alabama. It allows teachers to share lesson plans with each other. If a teacher has a problem coming up with her lesson plan than he or she can just log onto ACCESS and discuss it with another teacher or even see other lesson plans teachers have put on the program. They can also see how well something is working in a classroom. All in all, this program is stellar idea and I really am looking forward to see how well Alabama students do in the future after using the ACCESS program.

Movie!

There were so many things I did not know. It’s amazing that every eight seconds thirty four babies are born around the world. This movie was a real eye opener. I never really thought about a lot of stuff that was discussed in the movie. The comment that I read in the movie that sticks out the most is the fact that in ten years English will be the number one speaking language in China. Another fact that I found so interesting was that Great Britain was the richest country in 1990. I honestly thought that the richest country was China.

I also found that the one in four workers have worked with their current employer for less than a year quite interesting. It really makes a lot of sense. I also found it interesting that by many peoples thirty eighth birthdays they have had ten to fourteen jobs. That is crazy for me to comprehend. Many people go to college and graduate. I wonder how many of those students go on to have ten to fourteen jobs. All I have to say to that is I sure hope that is not me!

ACCESS & Alex!

ACCESS stands for Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators and Students Statewide. This program is particularly designed for high school students. It offers high school students to take advanced classes, electives and other types of courses all from their computer. Alex is a program that helps you, the teacher, with lesson plans and many other things that may be useful in the classroom. It also is a place where teachers can go to learn other tools and programs that may further their learning as well as their students learning. I really like these two programs and think they are great for helping teachers and students! They are offered throughout the state of Alabama. While I do not plan on staying in Mobile after I graduate, I hope that Louisiana has some form of this program!

About Me!

To start off, my name is Jennifer Norton. I am a junior at USA and I am studying to be an Elementary Education teacher. I hope to teach 4th or 5th grade. I graduated from McGill-Toolen in 2006. I have 2 siblings. My brother is 20 years old and attends University of Southern Mississippi and my sister is 13 years old and attends Corpus Christi Catholic School. I live on campus in a house with 23 other girls and I love it! I am a proud member of Kappa Delta sorority and hold the position of Sisterhood chair. I am enthusiastic and friendly. I love to hangout with my friends and do not know where I would be without them. My favorite subject is Science and my weakest subject is usually a computer class. ;-) So, I think that is all I can really say about myself. If you have any questions just ask.