Friday, June 21, 2013

C4T #2

For this week I have been assigned William Chamberlain's blog.
William Chamberlain is a middle school teacher at Noel Elementary and Jr. High in Noel, Missouri.

It Would Have Been More Fun...
In the first post I read, Mr. Chamberlain talks about a project he had given his students on figuring out the cost of his baseball trip. Then he went on to ask his students if they had enjoyed the project. One student asked him if he enjoyed the project and another said she would have enjoyed it more if it was a trip she was taking. So he began creating a project for a trip they want to go on. For the project he gave them guidelines on the trip. The trip had to be 5 days in length, each student needed to spend 75 dollars a day for food and 50 dollars in souvenirs. After the students began working, he learned that some students were planning a real trip they wanted to take, some students planned a trip with other students, some had a hard time choosing a place to go and still bargained on hotels, and some students wanted to plan a trip to visit relatives who did not live nearby. The project ended up being a great way to get the students engaged in learning.

After reading this post, I commented saying that while reading I thought to myself, "I do not think that I have ever seen a classmate when I was in school answer a question with a question." I told him when I was younger, I was kind of quiet and did not talk much. I wrote that I like that his students seem to want to learn. They gave suggestions on what would make the project more fun for them. I also do not think that any of my previous teachers even asked me or the class if we liked the project. I like that he keeps his students interested and wanting to learn. I also wrote that I agree with his students that if I can relate to the subject, I am more interested in it.

Whispersync for Voice
In this post, Mr. Chamberlain talks about Whispersync for Voice. He starts by saying if you love to read or be read to, Whispersync is for you. He explains that if you own a Whispersync for Voice enabled ebook and audio book for Audible.com, they will sync as you read them. As an example he says that if you are reading the ebook and need to go somewhere. When you get in the car and turn on the audio book, Whispersync will start where you stopped reading. There are many great deals on books Whispersync ready on amazon for a great price.

On this post, I wrote to him that I also love to read and I think that this is great for all ages. I think it would be a good edition to a classroom and will be helpful for required reading books. I commented and said that audio books were always helpful in my Literature class. I also said that I think it would be good for younger children and help them with pronunciation of larger words.

Here is a picture of one of the Audio books that was Whispersync for Voice ready and only 99 cents.
Image of a screenshot by William Chamberlain

4 comments:

  1. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. It seems that summer has less free time even though the days are longer :(

    I am really curious about what you think the purpose of reading ed blogs is and if you think you are getting enough out of them to put in the time. The teachers that Dr. Strange give for you to follow happen to be (more often than not) very techcentric. This is a tech class after all :) Do you think you are learning more about the tools or the application? Were you expecting something different than what you are getting?

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    1. Hi Mr. Chamberlain. It is okay. I do not mind. I understand that everyone is busy. You are actually the first teacher to reply to one of my post.

      I think the purpose of reading ed blogs is to expand my knowledge, to learn. Many teachers, like yourself, have been teaching for many years. You have came across many different situations in the classroom and you have experience in teaching. When I read the blogs of other teachers, I guess you could say it is like a review. You know what works best and what does not work. I think reading ed blogs gives me an idea of how to run my future classroom and how to keep it interesting.

      The more I think about graduating and teaching, the more frightened I am. Even after reading all the blogs and watching all the videos, I really do not know what to expect when I get a class of my own. I am terrified I won't be giving my students the right tools to keep them interested and wanting to learn.

      Do you think you are learning more about the tools or the application?
      I think that I am learning about both equally. Some tools I learn more about the application and some I learn about just the tools.

      I am not sure what I expected. A lot of this stuff amazes me. I grew up and was taught in a typical classroom. We used computers maybe once a month and none of the work or projects were tech based. I like where teaching is going but I am not too sure I am ready for it. I want to be a good educator but it still freaks me out.

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  2. Mr. Chamberlain has been my mentor (via Twitter, blogging and in many other ways. He is at the top of my PLN. His questions are important. I like the way you responded but you need to work on addressing your fears. Be prepared. That is what school is for! You will never be perfectly ready nor will all days go smoothly. Learning never ends!

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  3. Good summary, Paula. And it's awesome that Mr. Chamberlain replied!

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