Achieving Your Childhood Dream

First and foremost, I want to applaud Dr. Randy Pausch. He was awesome, his lecture was awesome and most of all it was dedicated to his children. I received goosebumps throughout the entire speech. I learned more about how he accomplished his dreams than the program that he created. In my opinion I was kind of drifting away because I was thinking of my own dreams and how I am starting to stop dreaming. However, I thought he brought out a lot of great points. I even enjoyed the the hello.world video that he presented. This video also showed how he is a people's person as well as family oriented person.

In this speech he broke it down into segments, which I thought was a great way to make his points. It had me thinking the entire time. Even though he has be dealing with cancer he let it be known that that was not going to be the topic of the hour. He made the statement that it was an inspiration to dream, which is true because dreaming can motivate a person to do so many things that they never thought they would be able to do.

I like how he broke down all of his childhood dreams like the point about becoming the NFL player. Even though he wasn't able to become a NFL player he learned some valuable lessons which in that case will work well throughout his life and others. It was a statement that made me think of my future teaching career and that was getting "fundamentals down because the fancy stuff won't work." That makes a lot of sense. I know there were times when in school we would do things and never knew what we were doing, what the purpose was and what we actually learned from it. When the whole time it was to make the teacher look good and all we ever got out of it was nothing. There were so many great points it is too many to state but I like the fact that brick wall are there to stop people that are not dedicated to the things they want to do. I can apply this in my classroom or for everyday life.

In closing, I did not really get much from his program except that it was a success but I did learn a lot about myself and my dedication to wanting to become a teacher. I want to be the Tigger in my classroom not the Eeyore. I want my students to take something from the classroom every second like I did with this video by Dr. Pausch. I want to be able to work harder and not complain. I want to be able to set the bar so that my students can over achieve. However, I want them to know they can achieve greater than the next person. All in all, I enjoyed this video and even though I was supposed to blog about his program at MIT I couldn't because I got more out of it than just the program.

What I've Learned This Year (Mr.McClung)

Mr. McClung made some wonderful points. I agree even though I am not a teacher, I remember when my teachers lack a lot of these points that he made. One statement he made, "Let your audience drive your instruction." There were days in the classroom when the teacher would ask a question and not even give a chance to think about an accurate answer. It was always just listen to the teacher and don't ask questions because every question asked is dumb. Which is horrible because I am still paying for that.

I also agree with the statement "the lesson you teach and the one you plan are always different." I say this because when I have presentations and I know exactly what I want to say or do it never comes out the way I've practiced in front of the mirror. It always seems to flow better because I am comfortable whereas in front of the mirror I am nervous because I can see myself. Weird I know! I also like the point about how teachers have to keep learning. I feel that is very important because it is more exciting to learn something different than the class last semester. I hope that I can implement some of these things in my classroom. I want to be the teacher that I did not have! I feel that these points by Mr. McClung will be very beneficial to me and any teacher.

It's Not About the Technology

I found this post very interesting. I agree first and foremost teachers must be learners. In order for teachers to teach they have to learn. However, they have to be willing to learn in order to keep their classrooms up to date. Therefore, learning and teaching are not the same thing. Just because a teacher is teaching does not mean a student is learning. I totally agree with the statement, "the 21st century is going to be about working smarter not harder." That statement says a lot because during this time and age teachers need to be willing to think about different ways their students can grasp the concept instead of teaching only one "boring way."

I agree with technology being unless without good teaching. I say this because if teachers are

creative and willing to learn how to use different technology in there classrooms then of course it would be useless. There would be no point in having computers. I feel we all must go the extra mile in learning everything there is out there when a person chooses teaching as a career. So many good things can happen when exploring with technology as well as learning what it has to offer to the future leaders of our world.

Michael Wesch

A Vision of Students today is much more different than what i expected. I could totally agree with each and every statement made by the students. College is not what is should be especially if you are attending a big university. To me it should not matter whether or not what type of college I am attending just as long as I am getting the right amount of of education. It is extremely overwhelming to be in big classrooms where the professors do not know your name or that you have to pay hundreds of dollars for one book that the teacher uses rarely. As far as studying and having a life there is not enough time in a day for any of it. When I first attended college I was at least expecting smaller classrooms and less busy work just to say I got my moneys worth. However, I get the exact opposite. Education is changing as a whole. As students we are starting to use more technology to help us understand things or to just get things done quicker and this video helped me to realize that.

There are a couple of things I would change and add to the video. First of all, I would change how fast the camera moves from one student to the next and how the camera focuses on the words. I found it kind of hard to read at times. As far as adding, I would add a group saying at the end to sum up what everything meant. My reasoning for this is because I was not sure at the end what everything really meant. Overall, it was a great video and should be shared throughout all college classrooms.

Karl Fisch

I enjoyed certain parts of Karl Fisch's post. However, I was not that interested. I did agree with a statement he made at the beginning of the post. It stated, "Just because you may not know how to go about achieving it is certainly no reason not to state it." To me that statement goes with everything. I was a little confused as to what he was talking about throughout the post.

I did like the part where he talked about if a teacher is unwilling to make the effort of being technology illiterate then thats the equivalence of a teacher not knowing how to read or write. I find this statement true. The world is beginning to require everyone to know something. It will be to where alot of things we won't need anymore. Therefore, teachers as well as students must know some technology skills because soon the world will be nothing but technology.

What I Learned About Podcasting

I learned that podcasting can be very beneficial, very informative, and a lot of fun if it is done right. I learned a lot from langwitches.org in just ten minutes. I clicked on Podcasting with 3rd graders. I do not know if I did the right thing but it was very interesting to read about the project that was given to third graders. Their project was on Endangered Animals in Florida. It was so great to hear other voices besides teachers. The students were very active, they used different voices to get their point across. It was awesome. I honestly think they enjoyed this assignment. They knew their material enough to talk about it. It almost sounded like a skit but it was very entertaining and informative. I think students will get more out of hearing other students their ages teaching them about things that I would have thought were boring when I was in school. I would have loved to listen to something like this better yet, I would have loved to create this.

The most part I think that kept my attention was the different sound effects and how these children really did this. It was also good to know that these children were using things to better their research skills, speaking and communication skills, their storytelling skills, sound editing software skills, and much much more. I would love to do this in my classroom. I have a different outlook on podcast now. It makes me excited about all things I can do in my classroom. However, this podcast was better than students from EDM 310. Sorry!

Comments on Dr. Strange's Class

I commented on three different blogs. I first commented on Keysha Boltz's Vicki Davis blog and how she wanted to be able to post things online for her students. I then commented on Heather's Sir Ken Robinson post and the statement she made about how students confidence and creativity is killed while their in school. The last person I commented on was Marshalle Ely's Mr. Winkle Wakes and how it is scary that the way we teach may become extinct because technology is doing everything for us nowadays.

Past Semester Podcasts

I think Podcasting is a great idea to get information around the world. However, I think they should be well thought out. While listening to Podcasts from past semesters, I was not enthused about doing a podcast at all because I am not sure what I can do differently to change the way they are being done. Most of them sounded muffled or loud at times. It also sounded as if everyone was reading. I felt like I could go onto the internet or look into a book and read word for word what they were saying. The topics were great topics but the people speaking did not sound enthused about the topic. It was almost dreadful to keep listening to some of them because everyone sounded the same.

However, I give major points to a group with the topic of "Shift Happens." It included two girls and a guy. I enjoyed this one the most out of all because they actually talked to each other. Their voices were very different and they knew their material. It did sound like someone was nervous but I would be too. Their podcast had a lot of great information and it was an attention getter to me. When I do my podcast I know it will not be easy. However by listening to these I hope that I will be able to make a change as far as being able to articulate and not sound like I'm yelling. I also want to be able to know my material so it won't seem as if I am reading.

Search Engines

This article really made me think. I agree with the Bill Thompson. I took it as him saying how we rely on what the Internet/search engines informs us on and that we don't use our own intelligence to really think things through. I will honestly testify to relying on the Internet for certain information and when I do not get exactly what I am looking for I get upset or feel that there is no answer. However, I do not take the time to piece things together and use my own knowledge of one thing or the other.