The podcast that we were assigned to listen to was "Growth" vs. "Fixed" Minds which is part of a Stanford University podcast series called "The Stanford Challenge: Seeking Solutions, Educating Leaders (Improving K-12 Education)." To visit the Stanford University iTunes website you can use the following link: Stanford University.This podcast discussed the difference between "fixed" and "growth" mindsets in learning. The first mindset discussed was the "fixed" mindset. According to the speaker for Stanford University, some students have a "fixed" mindset which means that they believe that their basic intelligence is a fixed trait. This lady said that this concerns students because they always worry if they have enough intelligence to complete a task. Other students believe they have the "growth" mindset. These students believe that their intelligence is something that they develop through life experiences and educations.
In order to try to help all students to develop the "growth" mindset, Stanford University employees set up a workshop with eight different sessions. Half of the students in this study received study skills and "growth" mindset classes while the other half received only study skills classes. The results showed that the students who were in the classes of just study skills made no improvements. Their grades continued to drop, and they were not motivated at all by the study skills courses. Stanford University psychologists believed this was because they did not receive the "growth" mindset lesson which teaches the students that their brain is like a muscle that gets stronger with use. In order to prove their theory, the students were given an article about the "growth" mindset. After reading the article, the students learned how to apply this "growth" mindset when completing their school work. At the end of the semester, these students showed great improvements in their grades, and the teachers were distinguish between the students who had the "fixed" mindset and the students who had the "growth" mindset.
At the end of the video podcast, the students with the "growth" mindset were described as "curious to learn" while the students who have the "fixed" mindset just "want to feel smart." As a future teacher this affects me because in order to be a good mentor I also must have this "growth" mindset. The learning process never stops, and as a teacher I have to remember that my intelligence is still continuing to grow. It is very important for students to always be "curious to learn" and remember that their intelligence has no boundaries. As a teacher, I will always strive to be the best motivator for my students and remind them everyday that they can do anything that they set their mind to.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
WGBH Video Podcast "What is a Planet?"
The video podcast I chose to listen to was "What is a Planet?" This podcast discussed the debate on how many planets there are in the solar system. While in school I was always taught that there were nine planets, but other researchers try to prove that there are ten or more planets. According to the International Astronomical Union, a planet is a body that orbits a star, has enough mass to create its own gravity, has a round shape, and has cleared its neighborhood. Through this definition, astronomers are saying that Pluto should no longer be considered a planet; it should be reclassified as a dwarf planet. Although this definition has been created by the IAU, there is still much confusion on how to classify planets because scientific understanding is always evolving. Because of this confusion, this podcast tells us that planet classifications are probably going to continually change.
This video podcast was designed for children in grades K-5 who are learning about the solar system and planets. As a future teacher in schools that are being based highly on technology, I believe using video podcasts in my classroom will be a very interesting and creative way to present a lesson. Podcasts like this one use research from many different areas to help students have a better understanding of what a planet is. Because some students are audio and visual learners, having video podcasts along with other types of technology, such as power points or classroom blogs, will help to meet the needs of children with all different types of learning styles. Before I watched this video podcast, I just though of a video podcast as a video recording of a teacher or other professional talking. Through watching this podcast, I learned that video podcasts can incorporate moving pictures, graphs or other images, and the speaker. Being able to use many different types of moving images or props in the video podcasts will definitely make the podcasts more interesting for children.
As as teacher, I will be able to use video podcasts to teach lessons on all of the different subjects: Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and English. I believe one big benefit of having this new technology available to teachers is that it will help teachers with make-up work. I have always heard from experienced teachers that helping a child complete make-up work can become a major headache. Through video podcasts, teachers will now be able to record their lessons and post them to a class website or blog so that students who miss school will not have to miss the class lesson. Another benefit of creating video podcasts in the classroom will be that parents or guardians will also be able to view the class lessons through the classroom website. If a student in the classroom is having trouble with a certain subject area, having class lessons available for parents to watch may help parents assist their children with homework or school projects.
This video podcast was designed for children in grades K-5 who are learning about the solar system and planets. As a future teacher in schools that are being based highly on technology, I believe using video podcasts in my classroom will be a very interesting and creative way to present a lesson. Podcasts like this one use research from many different areas to help students have a better understanding of what a planet is. Because some students are audio and visual learners, having video podcasts along with other types of technology, such as power points or classroom blogs, will help to meet the needs of children with all different types of learning styles. Before I watched this video podcast, I just though of a video podcast as a video recording of a teacher or other professional talking. Through watching this podcast, I learned that video podcasts can incorporate moving pictures, graphs or other images, and the speaker. Being able to use many different types of moving images or props in the video podcasts will definitely make the podcasts more interesting for children.
As as teacher, I will be able to use video podcasts to teach lessons on all of the different subjects: Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and English. I believe one big benefit of having this new technology available to teachers is that it will help teachers with make-up work. I have always heard from experienced teachers that helping a child complete make-up work can become a major headache. Through video podcasts, teachers will now be able to record their lessons and post them to a class website or blog so that students who miss school will not have to miss the class lesson. Another benefit of creating video podcasts in the classroom will be that parents or guardians will also be able to view the class lessons through the classroom website. If a student in the classroom is having trouble with a certain subject area, having class lessons available for parents to watch may help parents assist their children with homework or school projects.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
EDM 310 Fall 2008 Podcasts
The first podcast that I listened to was a podcast by Erica Sledge, Ashley Cleveland, and Shyane Fant. To listen to this podcast you can use this link: Useful Internet Sites for Elementary Teachers by Erica Sledge, Ashley Cleveland, and Shyane Fant. The topic of this podcast was "Pick of the Day: Useful Internet Sites for Elementary Teachers." During this podcast, these ladies discussed three different websites. The first website that they discussed was http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/. According to Ashley, this website helps teachers to learn how to incorporate technology in their classroom and in their curriculum. Erica discussed the ALEX website. She discussed the different web links on the ALEX website, the lesson plans, and the distance learning feature. Last, Shyane talked about the http://www.teachers.net/ website. She liked the site because this site had ideas for all teachers whether it be an elementary teacher, secondary education teacher, or a physical education teacher. I believe that these girls did a great job explaining each of the three websites that they discussed. The only problems that I really noticed in the podcasts were the numerous uhh's and umm's. This probably just came from nervousness, so with more practice I believe these girls could have done a wonderful job.
The second podcast I listened to was a podcast by Tomeka Washington, Rosilyn Harris, and Marlena Marsh. To listen to this podcast you can use this link: Useful Internet Sites for Elementary Teachers by Tomeka Washington, Rosilyn Harris, and Marlena Marsh. The topic of this podcast was also "Pick of the Day: Useful Internet Sites for Elementary Teachers." Marlena first discussed http://www.rainforestmaths.com/. According to Marlena, this website allows students to learn math while also having the fun rain forest background. The next website discussed was the Alabama Virtual Library website. According to these ladies, this website can be used to search various subjects such as animals, plants, people, geography, science, math, etc. Another website these ladies discussed was http://www.brainpopjunior.com/. This website is a source for children grades kindergarten through third. This website covers subjects such as science, math, social studies, reading, health, and writing. Again, I think that these girls did a good job at covering the topic that was assigned to them. Problems that I noticed in this podcast were also the uhh's and umm's and also relatively long pauses in between some sentences.
Because I am also doing my podcast on "Useful Internet Sites for Elementary Teachers," I felt that listening to these blogs really helped me to better understand what I was expected to do. By listening to these podcasts, I noticed how nervous these girls were with the numerous uhh's and umm's, so I feel like the best thing that I can do to improve my podcast is to practice. Another thing that I feel like I need to do to improve my podcast is to give more credit to the used websites. I noticed that when these girls discussed these websites they really did not mention the name of the website very often. When recording my blog, I am going to try to make a point to mention the name of the website after every couple of sentences. The only other thing that I really noticed was the background noise. When these girls were shuffling their papers, the microphone picked up the noise, so when I record my blog I am going to try to lay my papers out so that I will not have to shuffle from page to page.
The second podcast I listened to was a podcast by Tomeka Washington, Rosilyn Harris, and Marlena Marsh. To listen to this podcast you can use this link: Useful Internet Sites for Elementary Teachers by Tomeka Washington, Rosilyn Harris, and Marlena Marsh. The topic of this podcast was also "Pick of the Day: Useful Internet Sites for Elementary Teachers." Marlena first discussed http://www.rainforestmaths.com/. According to Marlena, this website allows students to learn math while also having the fun rain forest background. The next website discussed was the Alabama Virtual Library website. According to these ladies, this website can be used to search various subjects such as animals, plants, people, geography, science, math, etc. Another website these ladies discussed was http://www.brainpopjunior.com/. This website is a source for children grades kindergarten through third. This website covers subjects such as science, math, social studies, reading, health, and writing. Again, I think that these girls did a good job at covering the topic that was assigned to them. Problems that I noticed in this podcast were also the uhh's and umm's and also relatively long pauses in between some sentences.
Because I am also doing my podcast on "Useful Internet Sites for Elementary Teachers," I felt that listening to these blogs really helped me to better understand what I was expected to do. By listening to these podcasts, I noticed how nervous these girls were with the numerous uhh's and umm's, so I feel like the best thing that I can do to improve my podcast is to practice. Another thing that I feel like I need to do to improve my podcast is to give more credit to the used websites. I noticed that when these girls discussed these websites they really did not mention the name of the website very often. When recording my blog, I am going to try to make a point to mention the name of the website after every couple of sentences. The only other thing that I really noticed was the background noise. When these girls were shuffling their papers, the microphone picked up the noise, so when I record my blog I am going to try to lay my papers out so that I will not have to shuffle from page to page.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Podcasts
While completing this blog assignment, I listened to six podcasts. The podcasts I listened to can be found on iTunes. The names of the podcasts were SmartBoard Lessons Podcast, Kidcast, ConnectLearning, EdTechTalk, MacBreak Weekly, and This Week in Photography. Listening to these podcasts really helped me to better understand what podcasts were and how to create a script for a podcast. I now better understand how to navigate my way through a podcast, and also how podcasts can be used in schools. Podcasts incorporate many amazing new technology techniques that will be absolutely terrific to use when I become a teacher.
The first podcast I listened to was the Smartboard Lessons Podcast. This podcast was titled "Teachers Connecting 4: Students View of Edtech and Connections" by Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger. This podcast discussed the use of smartboards in the classroom. The main part of the posdcast that I listened to was a group of seventh grade students from St. Patrick's Catholic School. This podcast really reminded me of a radio show or a talk show. Students were able to tune in to the podcast and tell why they felt that smartboards were important for learning, and they mentioned tips for teachers who use smartboards. According to these students some of the features that they use on the smartboard include pulling textbook pages up on the screen, color coding work, using the available internet connection, and having much more visible work. A couple of the uses of the smartboards in their classroom included conducting lessons on the smartboard and viewing podcasts on the smartboard.
Second I listened to the Kidcast 59 Podcast titled "Beyond Passive Listening-Active Engagement with Podcasting" by Dan Schmit. This podcast had a little bit of a different setup than the first because there was only one speaker. The main focus of Dan Schmit's podcast was how to create a podcast that helped children become active while listening to podcasts. Schmit listed many ways that teachers could help their children become actively engaged in podcasts. The first idea he explained was creating a scaffold. He said that teachers could create an outline leaving out some key terms or details from the podcast, and they could have their students listen to the podcast to fill in the missing pieces. The second idea for teachers was to provide reflective questions for students to answer after listening to the podcast. Reflective questions should help the student form an opinion of whether or not they agree with the speaker. Third, Dan Schmit suggested that teachers ask for students to write paragraph summaries of podcasts or paragraph reflections after listening to different podcasts. Dan went on to list more ideas that could help teachers actively involve their students in podcasts. This podcast helped me to see how I could use podcasts as a future teacher in my own classroom. He explained many ways to create assignments associated with listening to podcasts.
The last four podcasts I listened to were also very helpful in helping me to better understand what podcasts were and how to better understand how podcasts are done. The EdTech Talk podcast I listened to was "EdTech Weekly 117" recorded on March 1, 2009. The main focus of this talk was the use of different websites by people of all different ages. Some of the websites discussed were twitter, facebook, and myspace. By listening to this podcast, I felt that this was a podcast that people could listen to to familiarize themselves with current technology and current internet sites. The MacBreak Weekly Podcast I listened to was "Episode 129: Cry of the Wild Woz." There were five speakers in this podcast, and the speakers main focuses were new Mac and Apple news. Last, I listened to This Week in Photography which is a podcast that focuses on different camera techniques, technology, and news.
In my opinion it was interesting to listen to how each of the podcasts were different from the others. Some podcasts have only one speaker while other podcasts may have many speakers and also incorporate interviews. The podcasts that I enjoyed the most were the SmartBoard Lessons podcast and the KidCast podcast. Each of these podcast had very good information and techniques that I feel will be very useful as a future teacher. By listening to all of these podcasts, I now have a better understanding of exactly what a podcast is and how all podcasts can be different.
The first podcast I listened to was the Smartboard Lessons Podcast. This podcast was titled "Teachers Connecting 4: Students View of Edtech and Connections" by Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger. This podcast discussed the use of smartboards in the classroom. The main part of the posdcast that I listened to was a group of seventh grade students from St. Patrick's Catholic School. This podcast really reminded me of a radio show or a talk show. Students were able to tune in to the podcast and tell why they felt that smartboards were important for learning, and they mentioned tips for teachers who use smartboards. According to these students some of the features that they use on the smartboard include pulling textbook pages up on the screen, color coding work, using the available internet connection, and having much more visible work. A couple of the uses of the smartboards in their classroom included conducting lessons on the smartboard and viewing podcasts on the smartboard.
Second I listened to the Kidcast 59 Podcast titled "Beyond Passive Listening-Active Engagement with Podcasting" by Dan Schmit. This podcast had a little bit of a different setup than the first because there was only one speaker. The main focus of Dan Schmit's podcast was how to create a podcast that helped children become active while listening to podcasts. Schmit listed many ways that teachers could help their children become actively engaged in podcasts. The first idea he explained was creating a scaffold. He said that teachers could create an outline leaving out some key terms or details from the podcast, and they could have their students listen to the podcast to fill in the missing pieces. The second idea for teachers was to provide reflective questions for students to answer after listening to the podcast. Reflective questions should help the student form an opinion of whether or not they agree with the speaker. Third, Dan Schmit suggested that teachers ask for students to write paragraph summaries of podcasts or paragraph reflections after listening to different podcasts. Dan went on to list more ideas that could help teachers actively involve their students in podcasts. This podcast helped me to see how I could use podcasts as a future teacher in my own classroom. He explained many ways to create assignments associated with listening to podcasts.
The last four podcasts I listened to were also very helpful in helping me to better understand what podcasts were and how to better understand how podcasts are done. The EdTech Talk podcast I listened to was "EdTech Weekly 117" recorded on March 1, 2009. The main focus of this talk was the use of different websites by people of all different ages. Some of the websites discussed were twitter, facebook, and myspace. By listening to this podcast, I felt that this was a podcast that people could listen to to familiarize themselves with current technology and current internet sites. The MacBreak Weekly Podcast I listened to was "Episode 129: Cry of the Wild Woz." There were five speakers in this podcast, and the speakers main focuses were new Mac and Apple news. Last, I listened to This Week in Photography which is a podcast that focuses on different camera techniques, technology, and news.
In my opinion it was interesting to listen to how each of the podcasts were different from the others. Some podcasts have only one speaker while other podcasts may have many speakers and also incorporate interviews. The podcasts that I enjoyed the most were the SmartBoard Lessons podcast and the KidCast podcast. Each of these podcast had very good information and techniques that I feel will be very useful as a future teacher. By listening to all of these podcasts, I now have a better understanding of exactly what a podcast is and how all podcasts can be different.
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