Blog Post #10

I really enjoyed watching the video from Mrs. Cassidy's first grade class.  My youngest son is in first grade and this was very eye opening for me.  I have been in his class several times throughout the school year and they do some really great things with technology.  These students in Mrs. Cassidy's class are really adventurous with their education.  I loved how they explained how they go on Wiki and found the "people in Alabama".  They know how to be safe on the internet.  For me, that is most important with young children and young adults.  They use Skype to communicate with other classes and people.  I think that having such a young group of people learning something this advanced is quite astounding.  These students are all different and they are all learning together in ways that even most high school and college students can not compare to.

I think that in my future classes, I will definitely teach my students how to correctly use the internet.  I will ensure that they know how to stay safe while using the internet, and how to find things of educational value.  I think that first educating students on the proper uses of internet technology is the most important tool that I can take away from Mrs. Cassidy.  I think that she has a terrific grasp on technology in elementary grades.  I am not so sure I would allow elementary students to create a Twitter account or even a Facebook account.  I think that Instagram is even a far stretch for me.  There are many parents that would not allow their children to have accounts on social media.  I think they would not feel safe.

I think it may also be a good idea to educate the parents of the students in our classes.  Perhaps even invite them to join in a class session on internet safety.  I think this would allow parents to have a feeling of control and also feel safer about what their child is doing on the internet.  In my children's schools here in Baldwin County, the tech department has VERY strict blocks set up for certain websites that are deemed inappropriate for children of school age.

C4K Summary #2

I enjoyed reading all of these blog posts.  Although there are many grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors, these are mostly very well written.


#4
My comment on Anna Grace W's blog post

Mrs. Erin Byrd (Guest)

Your comment is awaiting moderation. 

March 27, 2015 at 8:57 PM

I love your post! I love reading! Crime and mystery books are some of my favorites. This book sounds very interesting! I am a teaching student and am always looking for new books to read in my spare time. Keep up the good work on your posts! This is a terrific job.


#3
Here is my comment for Adonnis

Erin Byrd on March 16, 2015 at 9:15 pmsaid:

Your comment is awaiting moderation. 

Great role model as well as an amazing football player! My father is from Chicago, so naturally my entire family are Chicago Bears fans! Walter Payton was a force to be reckoned with.

This was a great post. Keep up the good work.
Here is the link to his blog page 
http://per8adonnis.edublogs.org/2015/02/21/black-history-walter-payton/#comment-5

#2
Erin Byrd on March 16, 2015 at 2:02 amsaid:

Your comment is awaiting moderation. 

Alyssa,
I am a college student. Looking back on my high school experience, I can honestly say I truly regret not keeping my eyes, ears, and mind more clearly focused on my studies and what my teachers were teaching. If I could go back in time and just have an hour with my high school me, I would tell her to be more academic and less social. It is great to have friends and fun. At that age it seemed to be so important. Looking back now, I wish I had focused more on making higher scores and grades than having fun with friends or worrying about what was going on outside the classroom.

I like your passion and belief in yourself. Keep thinking that way and I know that you will go so far in your future. It is important to believe in yourself. Have confidence and trust that you can do anything you put your mind to.

Good luck to you in your educational career and never stop learning.

#1
My comment to Andrew

Mrs. Erin Byrd (Guest)

Your comment is awaiting moderation. 

February 17, 2015 at 9:04 PM

I am taking some classes to improve my teaching skills. I was assigned your blog to observe. I must say, this is a very emotional piece. Animal abuse is a very serious crime and people are often not prosecuted for it. This must have been hard for you to research and write. I commend you on your candid response to what you found out regarding animal abuse. I encourage you to continue to find ways to help and advise people of ways to stop it.

Reply

here is the link for my comment:

http://kidblog.org/MsLeatherwoodsCla

Blog Post #9

What can teachers and students teach us about project based learning?
Project Based Learning is an ever evolving tool for us as teachers.  We each have different styles of teaching. We each have different ideas and ways to teach those ideas.  I think that PBL is always going to benefit education in that there will always be better ways to teach something.  
There are so many possibilities with Project Based Learning.  I think that there is a plethora of variations to answer this question.  I do not have the same teaching style as my friend Miss Bailey does nor does she have my same style.  We can collaborate with one another and our fellow teachers/educators and come up with so many different ways to teach our students.  I think PBL is amazing in that there are so many opportunities for both we as teachers to teach our students and for our students to teach us as educators as well. 

Smart Board Project #12A

Smart Board Demonstration

Motivating Students to Learn

Blog Post #8

I am inspired.

After watching the video by Randy Pausch, "Last Lecture", I admit I Googled him.  Knowing the loss that cancer can bring into ones life, I found that he was incredibly uplifting and inspiring.  What a brave thing it was for him to pass along his dreams and thoughts to those before him knowing that his end might be very near.  

"The inspiration and the permission to dream is huge," was, in my opinion, one of the most profound comments made by Randy Pausch in this video.  I find that statement to carry a lot of weight and clarity.  For a child, dreaming is almost as important as breathing, in my opinion.  A child has the world at their disposal.  All they need to do is explore it.

Randy's Childhood dreams were very creative and meaningful.  

His dreams were:

Being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, authoring a book in the World Book encyclopedia, be Captain Kirk, win stuffed animal, be a Disney Imagineer.

My childhood dreams (noting the ones that I have already met*)

Become an artist*, be a ballerina*, be a marine biologist and swim with dolphins, get married and become a mom*, be a teacher, work for Disney making cartoons, (I am making my teacher dream come true right now....which is amazing).

I think that having dreams as a child is so very important to becoming an adult.  It helps you define who you are and what you are passionate about.

Randy Pausch delivers a great commentary of the dreams he had as a child.  I loved how he depicted each aspect of his dream list.  He did get to experience zero gravity, but not so much his dream of being in the NFL.  I think his quote is a perfect fit for not getting what he actually wanted, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted".  

I think that we can all learn a lot from Randy Pausch.  Take the time to further investigate him.  Find out about the books he wrote.  Pausch has some very insightful thoughts on achievement and what you can actually come away with when making the dreams of your youth come true as an adult and in life.  The program that he was part of at Carnegie Mellon University was and still is a perfect example of Project Based Learning.  In this video Pausch used the word "Edutainment", which I think is a great word to use when explaining Project Based Learning.  

"Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us know how badly we want things."

C4T#2

March 15, 2015

I have already been assigned this particular teacher to post on.  Since she only has two posts on her blog site and they are from 2013, I don't think that she is a current blogger.  However, just in case she does still maintain a vigil of her blog, I have chosen not to post again on the same blog post, rather just share again with my peers the lovely post that she made and my comment.  My comment has yet to be released to her blog and is not visible.  But, here is what I respectfully wrote:

here is the link to her blog
https://mymindgap.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/the-importance-of-rest-reflection-and-perspective/

Erin Byrd says:

Your comment is awaiting moderation. 

February 19, 2015 at 6:16 pm

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it”, Pablo Picasso.

I love your post. I agree with you that sometimes we make things bigger than they really are. I am just as guilty of doing that as you seem to be admitting. I am taking my Praxis Exam tomorrow and I am psyching myself out over it. Most of my peers have taken it already and they say it is simple. However, I have been out of school for far many more years than they have, so I feel their perspective may be divergent from mine! I have decided that I am just going to do my personal best and improve upon that. I have time and I can retake the portions I am lacking in.

Good luck to you with your dissertation proposal! What a great achievement thus far to even be applying for it. Congratulations and I look forward to keeping up with your blog and your progress.

Here is the link to my comment

http://www.mymindgap.com/

Project #13

Below is our team link for Project #13.  There you will find our lesson plan, rubric and calendar.

https://drive.google.com/drive/#folders/0B6Mnoch6IkEyU2JNdHdkX2ZlMlk

My Sentence Part B

To my students:

To my parents:

Blog Post #7

This course continually shows us more and more about technology each week.  I am learning and doing things that I have never done before.  A month ago, I had no idea how to create or maintain a blog.  Today, turning in assignments and completing classwork, often is primarily composed through using online resources.  We college students turn in all of our weekly assignments and tests through our Sakai terminals.  Most of the paper works completed are done during class and are very few.  Professors and students alike communicate through the internet.  I think that technology makes communication more easily accessible and basically faster.
Teachers in today's classroom are learning how to provide more innovative and exciting ways to expand education.  Dr. Strange's YouTube video "Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten" shows us that we as college students need to get better equipped to educate our students.  Mrs. Davis, is an amazing media specialist and has been a great help to me in other classes.
Students are learning at a faster rate than we did in the past.  We as educators must realize that our students may soon be teaching us new ways to create and learn.  I know that my own children have helped me with things in this very course.  It is astonishing how quickly their young minds expand when technology is entered into the educational equation.  The idea of being a good teacher is a much more broad statement than it once was.  To be a good teacher, we all must better educate ourselves via technology.  We can not expect our students to learn from us if we are not thoroughly prepared.  Lesson plans must include vigorous technical implementation on top of the normal focus for the intended lesson.  Making our lessons more innovative and interesting will not only capture our students attention, but it will ensure that we are giving them our very best efforts in educating them.

C4K Summary

In following the posts made by these three students, I learned a lot of interesting new things.  These students did a very good job in  writing their posts.  There are the normal grammatical and vocabulary errors due to their age and grade status.  Overall, I found them to be incredibly insightful and well thought out.

Post #4
Here is the link for my C4K comment

http://per2jacob.edublogs.org/2015/02/20/successful-black-male/#comment-4 
Jacob,

I love Will Smith! I am a college student improving upon my teaching skills. We have been asked to view your class blogs. I loved your blog post. I am quite older than you, so I have had the honor of watching Will Smith for many years. My all time favorite thing he has ever appeared in is a TV-series called The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. It is where he really started to become famous. I also love his music. You have chosen a very strong, smart and wonderful influential black male for yourself. Maybe one day you too will be just as famous and influential to another young man.

Good luck to you and keep up the good work.

Mrs. Byrd

Post #3

Mrs. Erin Byrd (Guest)

Your comment is awaiting moderation. 

February 17, 2015 at 9:04 PM

I am taking some classes to improve my teaching skills. I was assigned your blog to observe. I must say, this is a very emotional piece. Animal abuse is a very serious crime and people are often not prosecuted for it. This must have been hard for you to research and write. I commend you on your candid response to what you found out regarding animal abuse. I encourage you to continue to find ways to help and advise people of ways to stop it.

Reply

here is the link for my comment:

http://kidblog.org/MsLeatherwoodsClass/5227482a-7728-433d-91a5-484c3fa6f594/animal-abuse-2/#comment-880

Post #2
Here is the comment I left on "Amy C." post.

This is the link the her blog: http://kidblog.org/class/MrBoylens2014-158thGrLAClasses/posts/0day7iaesnmqi3426oiexnvoq


 Mrs. Erin Byrd

Hello Amy,

My name is Mrs. Byrd and I am taking a class at the University of South Alabama.  I love to learn and this class has led me to your blog.  I loved your post.  It is quite clear how passionate you are about acting.  I, however, am a bit torn.  I love the mystery and imagination that is involved in being on the stage.  I do not love the way I feel when I am on stage.  I sang when I was in high school, and every single time it came down to being on stage, I would literally shut down.  I suppose it is just stage fright and I would learn to get over it.  I applaud you for being so involved in your schools extracurricular activities.  Too often I see students that are not involved and they just have no passion for school.  It is just wonderful to see someone your age so passionate and eager to learn.  Keep up the enthusiasm.  Best of luck to you and your classmates on the play.  I will have to read.  You make it seem so appealing.

Feb 11, 2015, 9:54pm

 

Post #1

This is the post I added to "Amaya's" blog.

It shows as in the following way:

Mrs. Erin Byrd 
Your comment is awaiting moderation.                                              February 3, 2015 at 12:01 PM 

Hi Amaya, 
I’m curious about this story. Can you tell me more about it? I am also a student. I am in the College of Education at the University of South Alabama. 
Mrs. Byrd"

Here is the link:

http://kidblog.org/Smeby/f19c45db-0e14-4ceb-a6f2-94a04cb56466/critter-kin-blog-swap/