3-2-1 DONE!!!!!!!!

3 Things that I learned.....
For the first time in my short education career I was introduced to Moodle. I have often heard of teachers that used Moodle in their classroom with great success. But for me it was just something that I had heard about. I found it to be very useful for this class and a good way to keep up with what I need to do and what we went over in class.
The second thing we used that I found to be helpful was Symbaloo. I now have symbaloo as my homepage on every computer I have.
The last thing that really stood out to me and was helpful was all the things that we use for iPads. I do not have an iPad yet but when I get one I feel like I will be prepared.

2 things I have questions about?????
How would an administrator use Edmodo successfully with his school?
Where in the world does Google Hangout play a factor in anything? It hardly every works and is not reliable.

1......
The one thing that I will use when I become an administrator is the google documents. I found that to be a time saver and easy for the staff to respond to. It would be an efficient way to get feedback.

#29 The People in my Cohort........

I have really enjoyed this graduate school process through Samford. I have had the opportunity to make thirteen new friends who I feel very close to (even Matt, and Mike when he is here). The people in my cohort are great educational people who I learn a lot from. Since we are from all different levels the discussion have often been very informative as well as entertaining. I often get home from class and tell my wife about the crazy things that we talk about and the funny things that are said.

Since we are half way through this process I thought it was important to share my appreciation for the people who I now call friends. I appreciate all of you and having the opportunity to grow professionally with such a fun group. We are all so different but when it comes to the class we are a family and argue like one too. I appreciate all of you and will miss you when this is over. I won't miss Matt but I will the rest. "Statistics SAY" we will all be great administrators. Right Dena?

#28 Student Choice

When an assignment says that it is "Student Choice" the first thing that pops into my head is to choose not to do it. That is a choice, right? Sometimes I think this concept can be a great option to promote self reflection and critical thinking. Student Choice is empowering the student to take an interest in something that they like instead of what the teacher likes. Or you can be like me and just choose to write about the concept to fill my blog requirement. Just kidding Vicky!!! The student choice has required me to be creative and the sad part is that I have a lot of useless things in my head that I could write about for your entertainment but instead I chose to ramble on about Student Choice.

BYOD #27

I like the idea of BYOD in schools if the curriculum supports it. BYOD would only work in my classroom if the kids could bring in power tools to support the curriculum. But I do see how this practice could be useful in a lot of classes. The major problem I see with this is that we can't distinguish between the student using it for school or playing games and being distracted. Devices can be just as detrimental to the learning process as it can be helpful. I still think it is the only viable option for getting new technology to the masses when we cannot afford to buy it for the school. What do we do for the students that do not have a device to bring or internet access on the device that they have? Do we tell that kid that they can;t participate?

#26 Being a fan

I have a big problem with people who call themselves fans but have never been to or even know where the school they pull for is. I also can't stand fans that refer to everything about their team as "WE". A few weeks ago while standing in a gas station on a Saturday waiting to pay for my gas a nice lady wearing an Auburn shirt said "War Eagle" to me since she saw my Auburn hat. I returned the courtesy because I knew what she meant by it. See as an alumni of Auburn University we use that phrase as a way to greet other people that are alumni. We call them War Eagle moments and I have shared them all over this country and in foreign countries. It is something special for Auburn people and really a great feeling to hear it when you feel like you don't know anyone else.

After we had exchanged War Eagle quietly to each other multiple Alabama fans screamed Roll Tide at us. This is where I have issues with some fan bases. We were not screaming our battle cry out to them to annoy them or out of pride for our school. Fans need to act with class to represent their team. Trust me, I understand the rivalry and the hatred that both schools have for each other as well as anyone. At the end of the day you can still act like human beings and respect each other. WAR EAGLE!!

#25 Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship is something that needs to be taught as part of the curriculum every week. Students need to be taught how to use technology to protect themselves on the internet. I see many cases each week where students are in arguments with other students at school about something that was said on a social media site. Recently there have been cases of students taking pictures of other students and posting them on the internet with negative comments. People do not understand how something that they perceive as harmless can really hurt someone else. Cyber bullying is growing faster everyday. A lot of the times its not just the students causing the problems. Parents are involved in cyber bullying too.

Teaching students to protect themselves from fraud is just as important as teaching them to be nice to each other on the internet. With the click of a button someone can steal your identity and wipe your bank account clean. Schools need to teach kids to be responsible with this amazing power they have called the internet.

#24 iPad and SPED

I think iPads in special education are awesome tools. My wife is a sped teacher and she has downloaded tons of apps on her iPads that are educational. She uses it to remediate students for the grad exam with great success. This year I saw her use it with a deaf student to communicate when her sign language skills were not enough. The student was able to show her what he needed using the ipad. I have also seen them work great with students with autism. I cannot explain this phenomenon but it works. I guess it may be that it does not force them to interact with someone and the touching of the screen calms them. I am not an expert but I do believe that iPads are more important to special education than the general education population.