Blog Post 6: What do you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?

Project Based Learning Part 1 and Part 2

      The first thing that Anthony Capps said really hit me. "My ideas about project based learning are consistently evolving." That is an extremely loaded comment, and this is the way it should be. The world and the needs of children are always changing, so the methods in which we teach them need to change as well. Then he went on to talk about how most teachers look at projects as ways to make sure that the kids understand what they were teaching them instead of actually using the projects as a method to teach them. He also talked about how he had to tweak projects to make the students learn what the state requires them to learn by doing those projects. Then he went into a few examples of how he has used project based learning. Everything that was talked about was extremely interesting! Hearing him talk about all of the things he has done with his students has made me super excited about project based learning!
      About one third of the way into the second part, Dr. Strange asked Anthony how his 3rd graders' works compares to EDM310 students' works. He basically said that the works are the same, but that's comparing 9 year-old children with adults. The main point they wanted to make with these two parts is that it is important that the project based learning is used as a method to teach not to evaluate if they have learned. This will take a lot of time to prepare, and the results are amazing! Kids love it! Parents love it. The kids are actually learning because they are engaged.

iCurio

      In this video, Dr. Strange is asking Anthony Capps about iCurio. The main cool use for iCurio search engine is the fact that it is filtered content for the children. I think that this is a great tool! It also allows teachers and students to store content that they find useful. They can organize and sort different information. iCurio is easy for children to use. It has a great tool for history as well. There is also a feature for children with different types of disabilities. Overall, this search engine sounds amazing! I just wish that I could use it as an effective tool for high school math students.

Discovery Ed

      Discovery Ed is basically a tool that can be used to find images and videos to couple with different material. This helps keep the students involved. The students can also enrich their learning experience by finding different videos on more specific topics. Dr. Strange has said before that there is no way any teacher will know every single little detail about everything they teach. This tool allows students to delve into their projects much more than basic classroom materials would have been able to provide. I think that it is absolutely amazing! This literally gives the students the power to learn as much as they want to learn about what topic they are really interested in!

The Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers

      This video was Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps having a conversation about different things that would be important for a future educator to consider before they take their first step into their classroom. The first thing is to want to continue learning yourself. The second thing is that it is hard, but you can make it fun. Spend your free time learning your teaching style. A teacher's work is never done, but it is extremely rewarding. The third thing is to be flexible and creative. Be ready to adjust what you were planning in case something comes up. Also, if something turns out differently than you imagined, adapt to that and figure out how it got there. The fourth thing is to reflect on how a particular project turned out. Did the students like it? Was it effective? You need to be willing to critique your lesson plans and get feedback from students and parents. If you find out that you need to change your strategies, change them. Do not be afraid to increase the quality of your lessons! At the end of the video, Dr. Strange added a few things or separated them, but I do believe I covered most of them! I definitely learned a lot from this. The more of these videos I watch, the more excited I get about teaching!

Use Tech Don't Teach It

      All of your students will have experience with technology. It doesn't matter if they're at a low income school or a high income school. Our society is surrounded by technology. Anthony mentioned that you shouldn't teach technology, you should use it. The students enjoy being able to create things on iMovie and other tools. Let your students get excited about what their doing by using technology. They get to share their work! How exciting is that! We have seen how excited children get when we simply reply on their blogs. This can definitely encourage them. There is also a lot of layers of the work that allows the students to learn a lot about the programs. If you want your students to learn how to do something, do it yourself! This can help them learn how to ask valuable questions, and of course it can help you in answering it most of the time. It also helps them problem-solving skills.

Additional Thoughts About Lessons

      Your lesson plan has four layers. The first layer is what you plan on doing for the entire year. Make sure you are covering all of the content that is required. The second layer is the unit. Are the units organized in an effective, meaningful way? Does it makes sense, and is it connected in a certain way? The third layer is what you are planning for that week. You need to make sure you organize your week in a way that allows you to get everything done. The fourth layer is what you plan to do on a daily basis. This plan has all of the details of your day. How do you get their attention? What do you use to keep them engaged that day? Use something at the end to see what they learned that day. Each of these four layers are equally important. I actually believe that this video is the most helpful one for me. Since I'm teaching math, I won't be able to utilize technology as in depth as other subjects will be able to. I always knew that I would have to plan my lessons somewhat like this, but I like the way it was explained. I will definitely be using this strategy when making my lesson plan!

I would like to take a moment to thank Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps for so much valuable information for all of us future educators. I would also like to thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my blog post! I hope you enjoyed it!

Jennifer L. Cole

Project #8: Book Trailer

This Way, Ruby! by Jonathan Emmett

I hope you enjoyed this book trailer as much as I enjoyed making it!
Jennifer L. Cole

Project #6: C4K Summary for September

September 14, 2014: Rocky from Pt England School

      Rocky is a 12 year old that likes to play rugby league and read. I took a look at his previous posts and he seems to be very energetic, passionate, and honest. I commented on his "Managing Self" post.
      Rocky was posting about an assignment they had been given to make a short movie. He felt like his group did a good job on the video, but they had an issue with the camera lagging. After that he rated himself on 2 out of 3 on managing himself due to the fact that he would still mess around at times.
      When I responded to his post, I told him that I think it's amazing that he made a movie with his group. I let him know that you can't control everything, and that it's important how you react to the problem. Then I told him that I think its great to strive to work harder and asked him what he was planning on doing to get himself to a 3 out of 3.

September 16, 2014: Mikayla from Ms. Horst's 5-1 Class

      Mikayla likes to swim. Red and green are her favorite colors. She likes to eat pizza and Kraft dinners. When I was reading all of her previous posts, I realized that she is a sweet girl. She likes when people are nice to her. I THINK that Mikayla is in the fifth grade. I commented on her "What Is My Smart" post.
      Mikayla was posting about how she believes she is body smart and people smart. She said that she is active, and she is confident when she's running. She feels like she can do anything. She likes having friends that she can talk to as well.
      When I responded to her post, I told her that I really liked her blog. I also told her that being active is super fun and good for her. The last thing I told her was that having friends she can talk to is great, and they can help her with many things.

September 22, 2014: Michael from Mr. Salsich's 5th Grade Class

      Michael is in the fifth grade. He is very ambitious, and he seems like a good kid! I commented on his "Welcome To My 2nd Blog" post.
      Michael was posting just some general information about himself. His parents are in the military, and he has been to many places because of that. He has a younger brother. He wants to be an engineer, and he likes to build robots and Lego buildings.
      When I responeded to his post, I told him that my husband is in the military, but we haven't moved as much as he has. I asked him if he liked playing together like my girls do. Then I told him that it's awesome that he wants to be an engineer. At the end, I told him that my daughters like to play with Lego sets too!

I really enjoyed this experience! I had so much fun reading these children's blogs. I hope you enjoyed my post!
Jennifer L. Cole

Project #3: Presentations

Thanks for checking out my presentations!
Jennifer L. Cole

Blog Post 5, Part A: PLNs, What Are They?

According to Welcome to My PLE by Mr. H's Seventh Grade Student and Wendy Drexler

      The student refers to her PLN as her "Personal Learning Environment." First, she learned how to search for information and how to bring it to her PLN. Now that she has her PLN set up, she uses it to learn! The student visits her class site and chooses her own topics to learn about. She likes to use a note taking program that allows her to take snapshots of certain websites and saves the source of it so she can go back to it later. The student likes being able to choose how and when she learns. She thinks that having more freedom prompts her to learn more. To sum this up, this student uses her PLN to store sites that she is researching.

According to PLN - Michael Fawcett (@TeacherNZ) Offers His Insights posted by John Hadley Strange

      Michael Fawcett has a pretty cool PLN story. Before he started his PLN, all he had were teachers at his school. However, he was the only one that was using technology with his students, so there wasn't much growth available there for him. Then he went to a conference where he met many teachers that were doing the same types of things with their students. After the conference, Michael Fawcett continued on Twitter and continued to add people. From those people, he found new sites, web tools, blogs to read and comment on, and ideas for teaching and learning. All of the people in his network were very supportive, and he gives them all credit for helping him and his students. Michael Fawcett has also used Twitter to attend conferences around the world. He could even take part in the discussions. To sum this up, this teacher uses his PLN to give and receive new teaching ideas.

According to Personal Learning Networks Are Virtual Lockers for Schoolkids by Vicki Davis

      Vicki Davis states that a PLN "changes based on the student's current course work." Her students search the internet for tons of information as soon as they are assigned a new topic. All of that information goes on a PLN that is strictly for that topic. Her students have also learned how to set up RSS feeds so that they automatically get new information on their topic. I think that that is awesome! I'm looking forward to learning how to do that! Vicki Davis states that one of her students says that it helps her organize. That is the major thing that I keep seeing throughout my research for this blog post.

      I believe that having a PLN is essential. It is amazing how many doors you can open for yourself and others! I have never had one, and I ended up using some of my research time creating my own PLN!

Thanks so much for reading my blog post,
Jennifer L. Cole

Project #7, Part A: My Sentence Videos

My Sentence is...



My Passion is...

Thanks for watching my sentence videos!
Jennifer L. Cole

Project #15: Search Engines

1. White Pages

      This search engine is "the largest and most trusted source for people, businesses and phone numbers." It is used to identify unknown calls, verify real identities, and control your info. I have personally used this site to see who my missed calls are from. Sometimes they don't leave a message, which is annoying because I don't know who they are or what they wanted. However, I just started searching on here. Most of the time they are from CVS Pharmacy or American Red Cross.

2. Amazon

      This search engine is used for shopping! Most of us college students can say this site is good for finding inexpensive text books. There are different types of memberships you can get too! I personally have prime and most of my time spent on here is reading reviews on my husband's books. Although, I do enjoy looking at other things on here too!

3. Ebay

      This search engine is used for shopping as well. You can even bid on some things. However, I personally find it less appealing than Amazon. That probably has to do with the fact that almost nothing on this site interests me. Or maybe it is because it just looks unprofessional. Oh well, you get the idea!

4. Priceline

      This search engine is used to book hotels, flights, rental cars, and more! I personally have not used this site, but it looks a lot like Southwest Airlines. So, considering I am use to the format of the site, I find it appealing. The reason I haven't used this site before is because I haven't needed to. When I visit family, I just stay at my mom's house. If I'm going to the beach, I stay at my in-laws'condo. However, if I were in need of something like that, I would use this site!

5. Kayak

      This search engine offers the same service as Priceline. You can "[c]ompare hundreds of travel sites at once." I personally do not like the way this site is set up. It is fairly easy to navigate, but I still don't like the way it looks. Of course, there could be a lot of people that prefer this format! That is why I decided to share it with you!

6. Wikipedia

      This search engine can be used to find practically everything. You can look up definitions, history facts, landmarks, geographical information, and so much more. Of course, anyone can change the information, so you can't use this as your only source or as a source at all for some classes.

7. YouTube

      This search engine is used to look up videos. Whether the video is educational or for entertainment is completely up to the user. Since anyone can upload a video, there is a variety of different types of videos. Music videos, advertisements, cats, lectures, and practically anything else you could possibly think of.

8. WolframAlpha

      This is a search engine that can help you with your math. This site is truly amazing! You will see multiple different ways you could write the answer as well as the step-by-step process to solving it! That is absolutely awesome! I would recommend this site to anyone who is having issues in math. Of course, you could always get me to tutor you! I am a Mathematics major after all!

Thanks for reading my blog and taking this journey of searching search engines with me,
Jennifer L. Cole

Project #4: C4T #1

Math in the Middle by Christy

C4T#1, Comment 1: Keeping It All Together

      On this post, Christy was talking about all of the different tools she has tried out to help her keep all of her online information organized. She has tried Diigo, TweetDeck, Feedly, and Flipboard. As Christy was going over her journey with them, she explained the pros and cons of each one as it relates to her personal needs.
      In my comment on this post, I introduced myself as a Secondary Education/Mathematics college student in a course that requires me to have a blog as well as read other blogs. After I introduced myself, I thanked her for providing so many new online tools for me to try out. I also told her that I think it is amazing that she has tried so many sites to organize her information.

C4T#1, Comment 2: Listen and Learn @MTBoS

      On this post, Christy was talking about online conferences with Global Math. She couldn't make a lot of the sessions, but she was thrilled when she found out that they were recorded and put online. She watched "Review Activities That Don't Suck." Then she went on to explain that she was planning on using them for her next review day, but she ended up using one of them the next day! The principal even stopped by and saw how engaged the children were in the activity.
      In my comment, I thanked her for the conference link. I also informed her that I watched the video and liked many of the ideas on it. I said, "I think that some of them could even be used in a high school setting. However, it might need some modifications!" Then I told her that I think it's awesome that she got to use one of the methods the next day and that her students enjoyed it.

Thank you for spending the time to read my blog,
Jennifer L. Cole

Blog Post 4: Asking Questions: What questions do we ask? How do we ask?

According to Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom by Maryellen Weimer, PhD

      It is extremely important for a teacher to spend time preparing questions. The author said, "...I never prepared questions. I just asked whatever came to me at the moment. Not surprisingly, I asked a mixed bag of questions—some stimulating and provocative; some mundane and not especially clear." After the author had been motivated by an article to start preparing questions, the author stated, "... it made a world of difference." I completely agree! I believe a teacher should have prepared questions. When a teacher doesn't fully prepare his or her questions, the questions can seem to have no true meaning. They don't lead to any particular point, and sometimes time will be wasted by rewording the question a couple times. Not to mention, random questions will make students feel like they are just being tossed about the brain of their teacher.

According to Asking Questions to Improve Learning by The Teaching Center

      This source was extremely informative! In this source, you find out that it is not only important to ask the right questions, but it is important to prepare for questions you think your students will ask and respond effectively. I am going to talk about the all of subtopics in this source. However, I will not be covering all of the information from each section, and there is a lot of interesting information here! Check it out if you want to know more!

Asking Questions: Basic Rules

   - Avoid asking questions that suggest the answer. Would you answer a question that was already answered?
   - "Yes-or-No" questions need to be followed with an question that builds off of the student's answer. It is very important to try to get the students to delve deeper into their thought process.
   - Don't ask one question that has many layers. Instead, ask a series of questions that delve into the layers. This can generate a lot more information than just asking one big question.
   - Only ask one question at a time. If you ask 2-3 questions at once, how will the students know which one you want them to answer. Not to mention, their brains will be trying to focus on too many things at once. We all know that multitasking is not effective.

Responding Effectively

   - Give the students' time to think about the question. Students need to be able to process the question and figure out what the answer is.
   - Don't interrupt. Not only is it rude, but it can break the student's train of thought and stop them from delving deeper.
   - Always show interest in what the students are saying, even if they are wrong. Most answers are somewhat related, so try to get them on the right track by positively reinforcing them and directing them.
   - Respond in a way that keeps the students' thinking. Urge them to keep thinking deeper.

Asking Questions: Why Open-Ended?

   - To elaborate on vague answers or comments
   - To show something from a different perspective
   - To provide reasons for conclusions
   - To start class discussion
   - To link information together

Bloom's Taxonomy: Level of Questions Complexity with Definitions

   - Knowledge: Memorization
   - Comprehension: Interpretation
   - Application: Problem Solving
   - Analysis: Determining Motives
   - Synthesis: Combining Ideas
   - Evaluation: Judgment

According to The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom by Ben Johnson

      I think that this source approaches the topic from a unique perspective. A lot of teachers ask questions to make sure that the students understand what the teacher is saying, but does the teacher think about what this is actually doing for the students? After all, teaching is all about the students. It is important to ask questions with substance to determine their understanding. The questions that simply check understanding have many flaws. Here are a few:
   - The students know what the teacher wants to hear.
   - Some students will not want to speak up and feel like they are the ones holding back the rest of the class.
   - A student may think they understand, but they really don't.

Thanks for reading my blog,
Jennifer L. Cole

Blog Post 3: How Can You Provide Meaningful Feedback to Your Peers?

Peer Editing by nrpatric and Tutorial Peer Editing by Adriana Zardini

      These two sources provide almost identical information. The main difference is how the information is given; the first one is a simple video and the second is a PowerPoint. First, they give the definition of peer editing. This is where you help a classmate improve and revise his or her work. Then the sources make sure that you know one very important rule: stay positive. I've always considered this common knowledge, but I can see how some students would need to be reminded of this courtesy.
      Then the two sources went over the three steps to peer review. The first step of peer review is to compliment their work. If you tell your fellow student what they did well on first, it is not only polite but it will help the other student become comfortable with you critiquing his or her writing. The second step is to make specific suggestions. Here is a list provided by both sources of different suggestions you can make:
           1. Word Choice - Boring or Interesting?
           2. Details - Are there enough details?
           3. Organization - Does it flow well?
           4. Sentences - Is it too choppy? Are there
              TOO many long sentences?
           5. Topic - Is it on topic throughout the work?
The third step is to make corrections. Here is a list (also provided by both sources) of different corrections you can make:
           1. Spelling Mistakes
           2. Grammar Mistakes
           3. Missing or Incorrect Punctuation
           4. Incomplete or Run-on Sentences

Writing Peer Review (Peer Critique) TOP 10 Mistakes by Tim Bedley

      This video is quite amusing. The children demonstrate similar topics from the previous two sources but from a different angle, and they shed some light on a couple new areas that I would like to touch on. I think that it is great that this video not only talks about what the student reviewing needs to be aware of, but it also shows the mistakes that the author of the work can make during the peer review process. I would like to mention that three of the "Top 10 Mistakes" are irrelevant. Being too loud and being social with surrounding groups are not problems due to the fact that we are doing our reviews as comments on blog posts. Being too picky is not relevant because it was about human errors due to it being written not typed. So, there are seven relevant mistakes that I will be touching on.
      First, there are four mistakes that the reviewer needs to avoid. Here they are:
           1. Being General
           2. Going Too Fast
           3. Being Pushy
           4. Being Mean
If you are too general or fast, you are not helping your peer. You are most likely just going to make him or her feel helpless or overwhelmed. If you are being pushy or mean, all you're doing is making your classmate not listen to you or hurt his or her feelings. How does that help your peer?
      Second, there are two mistakes that the author needs to avoid. Here they are:
           1. Not Caring
           2. Being Defensive
Please acknowledge what your peer is helping, and take the advice they give you into consideration. Also, your peer is not out to get you. They are trying to help you, so try not to be too defensive.
      The last mistake can be made either by the reviewer or the author. Neither one of the participants in this process need to be off topic. Don't post random things in the blog posts or the comments. Now that we all know the expectations, let's do our best to make the peer review process what it was meant to be!

Thanks for reading,
Jennifer L. Cole

Blog Post 2: What Will Teaching in the 21st Century be Like?

According to Professor Dancealot by Kari Johnson

      This is a video of a professor teaching a dance class by using PowerPoint slides and demonstrating the dance moves himself. However, he doesn't allow the students to participate. The main message of this video is that you can't learn how to do something by being shown how to do it. Simply being shown how to do something will lead to boredom and not paying attention. The video ends with the final, and the students are required to dance the moves taught in the class. However, since none of the students had practice with the instructor helping them, they didn't know what they were doing. I completely agree with this conclusion. You need to practice and experience things first hand in order to truly learn them. Imagine a math class where the teacher has a PowerPoint showing the steps to solve a problem, but you are not allowed to practice. I'm a math major, and I know I would fail that course!

According to What Does It Mean to Teach in the 21st Century? by Kevin Roberts (John Strange Version)

Outline of Roberts' Argument

I. Since information is everywhere, a teacher’s job is to teach students how to validate and use this information to solve problems.
    A. What steps and skills are used to solve problems?
      Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create
    B. Creation is important, but what does it mean today?
      Blogging, Podcasting, Designing, etc.
    C. What other skills are needed for these?
      Paraphrasing, Editing, Experimenting, Searching, Integrating, Networking, etc.
    D. What about Bloom’s Taxonomy?
    E. Where are they learning about responsibility, reliability, integrity, and professionalism?
      Plagiarism, Slander, Copyright, Confidentiality, etc.

II. For the classroom, this means we need to rethink tools and problems we ask students to solve.
    A. Gather and discuss data via:
      Twitter, Facebook, Online Surveys, RSS Feeds, etc.
    B. Talk about reliable sources using:
      Google, Delicious, Wikipedia, etc.
    C. How could struggling students benefit from:
      Audacity, Video Lessons, Dynamic Graphic Organizers, etc.
    D. How could students in many areas of study create an e-portfolio to save and show their work?
    E. How could students be challenged to solve problems online?
      Gain skills through researching process and create many good discussions in the classroom.

III. We can manage technology at school just like we can pencils and paper.
    A. Anything can tempt bad behavior, but they are not the source of it.
    B. Lessons and tools in the classroom need to be:
      Relevant, Challenging, and Engaging
    C. Technology is not strictly about entertainment anymore. Students need to be engaged, not entertained.
    D. Entertainment: passive, for enjoyment, short-lived, doesn’t require relevance, allows escape from problems.
    E. Engagement: active, for learning, long-term results, meaningful and applicable, solving problems.
    F. We need to provide meaningful and powerful engagement that is fun and exciting.
    G. It starts with us:
      See what’s out there, start small, collaborate, and take a risk.


      Roberts thinks to teach in the 21st Century we will need to revamp how we approach teaching. Overall, I can see where Roberts is coming from in this video. He makes several good points! Information is easily accessed, and because of that a teacher's job needs to change some. However, just because the information is there, doesn't mean that the students are using it. Most students don't go online to learn what is needed for school on a regular basis. So, the teachers are the main source of information that is being taught in the classrooms. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of information out there and students need guidance as to how to use it respectfully and effectively. I also agree that there are benefits for students if we use technology in school and at home to further their engagement and ability to learn. However, teachers still have to tell the students to access that information and hold them accountable for it. If Roberts is correct and everything that he suggests needs to be done, then it change the way I teach in the future. I will have many resources at my fingertips to share with my students. It may not be the way I envisioned teaching, but it is not a downgrade. This change will require a lot more effort on my part, and I'm okay with that! It's all for the students anyways, and this gives them a lot more opportunities.

According to Networked Student by Wendy Drexler

      This video is very simple, but it shows the concept of collaborative learning using technology. The majority of the video is explaining this process, but at the end, a question is asked. "Why does [the networked student] even need a teacher?" (Networked Student. 4:12.) The teacher is there to help the student get started, to help them learn about the connectivity process, and to help the student figure out how to solve problems along the way. I agree with this completely. It is very important for students to actually do the work themselves if they want to retain the information for future use. I know that the little bit I have learned so far will be much easier to remember than if I were just told what to do.

According to Harness Your Students'Digital Smarts by Vicki Davis

      Vicki Davis believes that if you empower and encourage students, they can learn to learn. Davis states "every child can learn, but... when you have only paper and only pencil then only certain types of children are going to succeed." I believe this is true! It is unfair to those students who don't learn the traditional way. When I was in high school, I ended up helping many of my friends understand math because they couldn't understand it the way the teacher was teaching it. I just approached the problems from a different angle(pun intended) and with different words. That is what made me want to teach math. Since that moment, I have been saying that everyone can learn math; they just need the right teacher. Now I understand that it's not just the teacher, it's the method, and maybe that's why it is important to bring technology into the classroom.

According to Who's Ahead In The Learning Race by John Strange

      In this video, Dr. Strange is going over different ways technology is used in the classroom. While he is doing this, he is comparing elementary, undergrad, and grad to see who is using technology the most. So, who's ahead in this race? Here's my tally:
      Elementary: //// //// //
      Undergrad: //// / Coming Soon: ////
      Grad: /// Coming Soon: //// //
It is obvious that elementary students are using technology more in their classrooms, but I would like to point out that undergrad and grad are catching up! Now the question is who will win the race? And is it ever truly over? I personally don't think so, but that's a good thing, right?

According to Flipping the Classroom by Ms. Munafo (Uploaded by Lodge McCammon)

      Flipping the classroom is somewhat new to me. I think the term is throwing me off. In my math courses at the University of South Alabama, the teacher gives us sections to read and problems to attempt as homework before he goes over the section. He also puts these on Sakai in case we didn't have the chance to write them down in class. This is the same concept as flipping the classroom. I just look at it as homework to prepare for the next lesson. I think that this approach is extremely useful, and I have personally benefited from it as a student. As a future educator, I look forward to flipping my classroom! This will allow my students to figure out what they are having issues understanding. When they get to class, they can ask me specific questions that are tailored to what the student needs individually. I think this is great! Otherwise, I would spend all class simply explaining it on a basic level instead of being able to delve into the problems to help students truly understand.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog!
Jennifer L. Cole

Blog Post 1: What About EDM310?

1. What are the things you have heard about EDM310?

      I have heard that I need to take this course when the rest of my classes are super easy. Unfortunately, I heard this after I had already taken all of my easy classes. I also heard that it takes up a lot of your time and that you need to be able to learn on your own.

2. What fears do you have about EDM310?

      I fear the steep penalties for late work. Although, I do understand the reasoning behind them. I'm also afraid that none of my group will be able to work with my availability to get together. I know that the course has a solution in the requirements since everyone has to be available during class hours, but I just don't like feeling like I'm restricting others. I also fear not getting an A in this course. I am also afraid that one of my daughters will get sick when there is either a class meeting or a group meeting. My husband is in the military, and it is nearly impossible for him to get off when they're sick.

3. Compare and contrast EDM310 with other courses you have taken in college or high school.

      There are a couple ways this course is similar to other courses. First, this course is a mixture of online and in class. Second, and lastly, the professor informed everyone up front what was expected of them in this course. There are many ways this course is different from other courses. First, this course doesn't meet every week. Some students may like this, but I prefer more time in the classroom. Second, you have to learn on your own. I know that I can learn on my own, but it takes me forever to look up information sometimes. Third, a computer is required for this course as well as a blog. Fourth, and lastly, you have to work with others on group projects. I personally love working in groups, but I rarely find that trait in my fellow group members.

4. What do you think will be the most difficult thing for you in EDM310?

      I think the most difficult thing is making sure my work is creative enough. I know that it will be difficult to come up with something that hasn't been done before. I want to make sure I exceed the creativity expectations for this course.

5. What is the best way for you to address this "most difficult" aspect of EDM310?

      I'm a pretty creative person, so I suppose I'll just do some brainstorming on ways I can make my posts and projects unique.

6. What questions do you still have about EDM310? What ideas do you have about how to address those questions?

      How are groups going to be decided? When will we find out who our group members are? The only way to really address my questions is to ask Dr. Strange.

Thanks for reading,
Jennifer L. Cole

Practice Blog Post: All About Me

Practice Blog Post Outline

I. My Past : Locations and Experiences
      A. Mississippi
      B. Washington
      C. Alabama
II. My Future : Education
      A. Why Education
      B. What Educators Do
      C. My Passions

All About Me

      My name is Jennifer Cole. I grew up in Mississippi and graduated from Pearl High School in 2006. I am very blessed with a caring mom and cool dad. I have two sisters, and I am in the middle. I have gone through rough patches with both of them, but I am close to both of them now. I had my first daughter in February 2008 and married my husband in May 2008. My husband joined the military in January 2010, and we were stationed in Seattle, Washington in August 2010. I had my second daughter in August 2011, and I shared this experience with my younger sister who had her son July 2011. Even though we were over three thousand miles apart, I was able to visit during and after our pregnancies. After three years of only seeing my husband five to eight months out of the year, we were stationed in Alabama where I started the next chapter in my life.
      The next chapter in my life is in education, but why did I choose it? I have known that I wanted to teach since I was in the eight grade. When I was in high school, many of my fellow classmates were having issues understanding math the way the teachers were saying it. Therefore, I ended up helping them understand math by explaining it a different way. This made me want to teach math. I look forward to being an educator because they help students learn how to learn. They teach students how to analyze a problem. In today's world, educators need to incorporate technology to enhance their teaching. Plus, in my personal opinion, all students can learn math. They just have to have the right teacher. I know I will love teaching because my passion helping others. I am currently teaching the three to five year-old missions class at my church, and I am also helping the youth by being their drama instructor.

This is a picture of a couple of kids from my missions class:

Thanks for reading,
Jennifer L. Cole

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