Blog Post #6

While watching the Anthony Capps interview, I learned very valuable information about project-based learning. Through PBL, students can cover more than just one state standard. An example of this is Anthony's letter to the Congressman. His students had to research important females in history and then include their research in their argument of why or why not the women should be in the combat zones in their letters to the congressman. This project covered reading, writing and social studies standards. PBL allows the students to get involved with their education. It promotes research and personal curiosity. Capps also says not to limit your students so that it promotes that natural curiosity.

Icurio is an online search engine that allows students and teachers to search the web for educational materials from credible websites. This site also allows for online storage so the students can organize their researched materials and come back to the information at a later time.

I will be using project-based learning because I enjoy it's freedoms that satisfy my curiosity. I hope to be able to utilize the Icurio at my school. I want to be able to allow my students every opportunity to be themselves but learn at the same time. Self-identity is important at all grade levels. I want to engage my students as much as possible, so that I know they are learning.

Blog post #5 part 1

A personal learning network (PLN) is a network of people and tools that are there for helping you, collaborate, and any other assistance you need. They can consist of fellow teachers, who have ideas that maybe you haven't yet thought about. A PLN is created through means of social media, websites, classmates, and teachers. You can create a PLN by following people on social media and by contributing ideas through blogs. My first additions to my PLN is my College of Education teachers. I will also be adding teachers who teach social sciences. I believe networking is needed so that teachers can expand their knowledge.

C4K summary for September

My C4K kid, Paige, made a slide show showing sports in the commonwealth from A to Z. She had a few grammatical errors but it was merely her missing a word or misspelling a word. She did her research and the creativeness of the presentation shows well.

My Comment:
"Paige I enjoyed your slide show very much. You are very creative. I like that you challenge your audience to guess which country the games came from. My favorite games are your innovations for Y and Z. You do have a couple grammatical errors, but overall the presentation is very informative. It has even introduced me to some new games."


The 2nd kid,Navaeh, her assignment was to create a new food. She had a few grammatical errors, but overall you get the concept of her short post describing her new food.

My comment:
"Hello Nevaeh. You did a good job on your 2nd post! You followed your teacher’s directions and described your new food. Just be sure to check your spelling. I can’t wait to read your next post Nevaeh."

My student, Evan, was tasked to summarize a story. He did a great job except he had many grammatical errors. He never used quotation marks or commas when someone was talking. But reading his story through the errors, he did a good job with his summary. Had his puncuation been better, his post would have been better.

My comment:
"Hi Evan. I’m Alexandria from the University of South Alabama. I enjoyed your story. Be sure to look at your grammar and puncuation in your story. Overall, you did a great job and I can’t wait to read more from you and your classmates." (I put my link to my blog as my name "Alexandria."

My Sentence Videos

My Sentence is...



My Passion is...

Project #15

IFACNet Search- a search engine for accountants for their day-to-day lives. It provides information for accountants for business, foreign and domestic accounting laws, and newly implemented laws and codes. Once you arrive at the page, just type something you would like to know, for instance, I choose to search IRS. It is power by google, so it is very similar.

Monster.com- a search engine for people looking for jobs. It provides job openings, the job description, the requirements for said job, and the application or the number to send your resume. You can search by job titles, location, and/or company name. The site is very easy to use and can be accessed from anywhere from library computers to smartphones.

Lexis Nexis Academic- a search engine for those interested in law or current events. This site provides newspapers, law reviews, and state and federal cases. This search engine will be useful for law, history, political science students and teachers. This site is fairly easy to use, but you must be a student or teacher who's school has a subscription to Lexis Nexis Academic. If this is true then you will find it on the school's library website. At the University of South Alabama we have Jag numbers. We put in our Jag number and there is a time limit of 30 minutes. You can search everything from the first newspaper to the current ISIS issue.

Wolframalpha.com- This search engine can be used by anyone, especially people looking to solve math equations. I searched the term 'quadratic formula' and it brought me to a page where I put in my numbers and it solved the problem and give you the answer, but it doesn't show how it got the answer. So if you are looking to check your answer this is a good place to come.

Bing.com- with this search engine anyone can search anything. You can search for search engines. You can search for people, books, and more. Use of this search engine is very easy; you just search what ever you want and it will bring up many results.

Duckduckgo.com- this search engine does not track you. It's layout is very similar to google;however, it is capable of placing the answer on the first page. It also helps you to clarify your question being asked. This site can be used by anyone for any reason. It is very simple to use.

Webopedia.com- This search engine is one that is useful for everyone from non users to experts in computers and technology. It can be used for searching terminology and for self-teaching of the computer. I searched 'What is RAM?' and the definition was 2nd on the list.

Mahalo.com- this search engine can be useful for people wanting to learn new things. It has "how-to" videos from note-taking to Kim Kardashian butt workouts. Although you can't enter it into a search box, you can browse through the videos by category. This is very simple to use because it is categorized and they have pictures.

C4T summary for September

Summary of Teacher's 1st blog post
In Larry Ferlazzo's blog post, he tells us how useful infographics are to people learning. He goes on to tell us different places we can find these credible infographics.

My comments
"Hi Larry, I’m Alex Odell from the University of South Alabama. I believe that these infographic are a very useful tool for everyone not just students. They are great for summarizing important information like writing papers or tips on driving safely. Teachers should utilize these when able, to keep the kids attention longer. Kids enjoy short cuts, and what better way to do that than with educational pictures and graphs. Do you use these infographics in your classroom? If so, how well do your students respond to them?
My blog"

Summary of 2nd post
Larry shares a 2 minute video about the near future vote of scottish independence. His blog focuses on English language learners, so he believes this video is too swift for a ELL student. He believes this video is very informative to those not familiar with Great Britain.

My comment
"Like you stated above, the video would be too fast for ELL students. However, one could break the video down to make it more understandable. The information it’s self is interesting. If this happens history will be changed. Do you believe this will encourage more countries to break away from their conquerors? What do you think will happen if the vote is against the breakaway? Do you think Scotland will have their “reigns” tightened?"

Blog post 4

Asking and answering questions is essential for learning in any field. I believe asking questions furthers your learning experience and reinforces information. In my favorite subject, History, I have asked questions and the answer to those questions usually inspired me to think about the subject in depth. My teacher often asked us our opinions and then would ask questions to move us to think more. Being a future educator, knowing how to ask effective questions will help our students to open their minds to a world bigger than them. I noticed my teachers always asked open-ended questions or our opinions.

On the Teaching Professor blog, Dr. Weimer lists three ways to ask better questions. In this post she gives us ways to prepare questions to make sure they are pertaining to the course material. She also believes that asking a question and leaving it unanswered will keep students engaged. Weimer also believes that the teacher is not the only one with good questions. You can get good questions from your students. I have seen this at all levels of education including the college level. I have a professor this semester who is teaching a class for the first time, she has asked us what we would like to focus on in class. She also takes the questions asked during class and asks them later either the next class or on the quizzes. She will also assign you to research the question and educate the class if she doesn't know the answer.

As future teachers we need to feel comfortable saying "I don't have the answer." I was always told that teachers are constantly learning. I feel that this is true not only for teachers but for every human-being. We as teachers, future and current, need to keep an open mind when asking and answering questions.

Blog Post 3

With watching and reading the peer editing materials, I have learned how to approach a fellow classmate without being embarrassed to do so. I have never liked peer review because I was never taught the appropriate way to critize someone's paper. I never enjoyed getting negative feedback, because my papers were being reviewed by people with the same education as me. After learning the steps to peer reviewing--compliment,suggestions, and corrections--I feel confident enough to go to my fellow classmate and address problems with papers, blogs, etc.

If I find mistakes in my peers writing, I will first compliment their work. You can't focus just on the negative or they will feel inadequate. Once we have established rapport, then I can suggest things to make the paper better. These things may include but are not limited to grammar, sentence wording, and organization. Then comes the corrections, the paper must be read over for them. After the corrections are made, another full run through, if possible outloud, will catch any overlooked mistakes. After these steps, more compliments could be used. The self-accomplishment in both peers will be very high in this type of positive outcome of peer review. I am looking forward to showing my future students the correct way to peer review.