Blog Post #3

Peer Editing

Peer editing is a huge deal in College. You would think by your Junior year in college that you wouldn't make quite as many grammatical and spelling errors in a post. Not only does a red line appear under an incorrect spelling word but if you make a grammatical error, usually a green line will appear under that sentence. Though the green line depends solely on what program you are using at the time.
It irks me when students make many errors in their blog posts. I understand the occasional slip up. When it occurs in every post it becomes a bit ridiculous. We are training to be professionals. If you are in EDM 310 you are some sort of Education major (I believe). Therefore, you will either teach students directly or be in an administrative position. Both which you need to have proper verbal and written skills. Correcting some issues should be done privately. A post from a peer should not be complete criticism. Through all the errors I guarantee there is something positive you could and should pull out. Don't be rude. Be encouraging even when correcting.

The Mountbatten

This piece of technology helps blind students in the classroom. This new typewriting types in braille but can do many other functions. Just to name a few of these functions: audio feedback, word processing, even memory space. Braille typing machines have come a long way in recent years.

Special Blog Post #1

Misinterpreted Data
While China has the largest population, India is right behind China with the second largest population. The United States is third largest with 309 million. China has 1.3 billion, India 1.2 billion, and the United States has 309 million.
I searched "How many Loch Ness monsters are there?" I was upset with the answer though. "0. For the most part, the scientific community considers evidence of the existence of such creatures to be a combination of misidentifying and deliberate hoaxes."
"When will the sun burn out?" WolframAlpha says" 5 billion years".
I'm sure WolframAlpha could be very useful to myself and students. Though, google has  the same feature to search for things. But this site opens the most useful information pertaining to your specific search. Not only does it bring up definitions when appropriate, but also charts and graphs. There are also searchable categories so you can go out there looking for information or topics.

Social Media Count
WOAH! Just watching these numbers change so rapidly is phenomenal. It shows how technology driven, dependent, and savvy we are these days. The fact that this is all recorded is crazy. It's also odd to see some of the numbers that don't move all that much. For instance, under Games "new US child 3-11 subscribing to a Virtual World" has gone up to 15 hits in the past 305 seconds. I personally don't think kids should be going online into virtual games, but then again, I would rather my child be online in a virtual world than doing drugs to get into a virtual world. I still think there are many risks for children being online. But in most cases the outcome outweighs the risks.
Technology has completely changed this world and my profession especially. Students are now exposed to a lot of technology in the classroom each day. The use of SMART boards are phenomenal in the classroom. I love that you can exchange lesson plans online and edit activities. You can tweak them to your standards.

Blog Post #2

Did You Know?
This short video shockingly spoke out to me.  It is obvious that technology in general is constantly growing and rapidly changing. The machines we use today as educators are different that 15 years ago when we were students. I remember using floppy disks in Elementary school and even the floppy disks that contained games for the old computers. I don't think floppy disks even exist anymore. Do house phones come with cords still? Technology is ever changing. It is important to be flexible and open to change, because nothing stays the same.
As for our countries issue with education: we need to worry more about bettering our citizens. Our students, children, neighbors, what have you are the future. They will run this country one day. That itself is an extraordinary reason to put more into our education programs. We should want to better ourself as a nation. Each individual should want to try harder to be more educated. We will have less Americans speaking English than there are foreigners speaking English. It is such a small price to pay to push kids a little bit harder in school.

Mr Winkle Wakes

This movie somewhat says the same thing as "Did you know?" It deals with the world constantly changing. Though Mr. Winkle still recognized a few things even after they had changed so much. He saw people being kept alive by machines. Who would have thought a machine could keep a human alive? Technology has become so important in one's every day life. Machines take most people to work every day, we have machines that cook our food, and machines even clean our house.We rely on technology quite heavily these days.
I would have to say that technology isn't a bad thing. It obviously has issues, but the good outweigh the bad. We have come so far in this world. Technology has successfully taken us to the next step in life.

Ken Robinson 

Ken Robinson said, "creativity is educated out of children." I agree with him and that statement. Kids are afraid to be wrong. Everyone knows the phrase "nobody's perfect, everyone makes mistakes." I am a firm believer that you must make mistakes in order to obtain knowledge. You must get out there and not be afraid to fail. If you don't set yourself up to fail you will never push yourself to your true limits and possible success.
He said that there are all different types of intelligence and not one student is the same. You obtain more knowledge by seeing new things, new environments, and things that are different than your normal settings. Education and knowledge is diverse.
I believe that the change must come from the educators. Obviously, we can not force students to be creative or even force them to not be afraid to fail. Students must have the drive to succeed and to fail. Trial and error. A little motivation can go a long way. Some people don't see creativity as a big deal or even important in education. I think the opposite. Students creativity, diversity, and knowledge should be brought out in the classroom and expanded on. I will be sure to praise students for their differences and creativity.
In Ms. Vitulli's class we read "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds. His book was about creativity and a child who felt they were not creative and could not draw well.  The teacher simply told the student to draw a dot and sign his/her name by it. She then framed the dot and hung it on the wall for everyone to see. The student insisted that he/she could do better than the dot, this brought out his/her creativity. From that, I believe you just have to break their shell a little. The student was probably afraid that other classmates might not like his/her drawing and make fun of him/her because of it. The fear of the unknown is always frightening. Sometimes you just have to try it and see if the risk was worth the reward.

Pinterest
Pinterest is a website where people can post pins, repin, and like things from other people's blogs across the world. It is a very useful website. The education pins have many activities and suggestions for teachers. These are especially helpful for teachers on a budget (which is pretty much every teacher).
Pinterest allows people who aren't too inventive to do and create very creative DIY (do it yourself) projects. They are step by step activities that are very simple to follow. It is perfect for children learning how to follow instructions.

Project #2 - Wordle

My Wordle reflects things I enjoy doing and why I am back in school at South.

Blog Post #1

About Me

 My name is Angela Marie Van Vliet and I was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama. I recently lived in Oklahoma for a few months, it was horrible. Then I moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. I have every intentions of moving back to Colorado once I graduate. It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I am a huge fan of the mountains. Hiking and camping are two of my favorite things to do. There was never a dull moment while I lived there, you have so many options of things to do.
 I came back to South because I had already finished two years of school here and it will be the best track for me in my pursuit of obtaining a Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education.  My husband is still in Colorado serving in the Army. The main reason that I want to become a teacher is to help students learn. I want to make a difference in the school system. Whether it be through helping kids or maybe one day fixing the problems in the school system here in Alabama. Education is not something that should be taken lightly. HELLO! Alabama and Mississippi have the worst education systems in the United States.

My Future Classroom

I plan on teaching anywhere between grades one through three.  I am a big fan of books and reading them to the class. Students love to be read to. Children's books can be quite inspirational and can even crack open their shells. Reading books to students makes them actively participate in what is going on in the story. It is a simple and fun way to make them think deeply into the book while still enjoying the story. They do not even realize that they are learning in these types of activities. Simple questions about the illustrations can be brought in from the curriculum or what they have covered recently in class, for instance "What type of animal is this?" or "What color is this?".
I like to make my students think deeply about things, especially in groups. I hated group work when I was younger. Group work would be a great way to bring the class together and let the kids brainstorm on a good idea to work on. For instance, I would make my students organize shapes at their tables. They would distinguish which shapes have 3 sides, 4 sides, or no sides. Then, they would distinguish which shapes were triangles, squares, rectangles, or circles.
I hope to have a SMART board in my classroom but I understand that not all schools or classrooms have the luxury of expensive technology as the SMART board.

Dr Pausch and Time Management

His video really hits key components of time management and organization. I especially liked Randy Pausch's statement and key point "Failing to plan is planning to fail." This is true in everything you do. You can not just "wing it" every time or put things off until the last minute.
On a side note, Randy Pausch wrote a book called "The Last Lecture" that he wrote for his kids so they know how to achieve their childhood dreams.

Time Management-Penn State Learning

My issues are with external distractions or time wasters. I like to watch television and study during commercial breaks. Which obviously doesn't allow my focus to be on studying. I tend to have too many goals I try to accomplish in a short period of time. I need to start cutting out some things and moving them to a later "to do list" so I do not become overwhelmed with tasks.

Test Post #1

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