Visual Essay Reflection

We had to create a I believe essay.  At first it scared me and I was not sure what the essay entailed. After looking at the "This I Believe" website, I started to feel like the project was due-able. Creating a statement that you believe in can be challenging, but once you find a statement everything else seams to fall into place. Many I believe statements have a story to go behind them. After figuring out what you want to write about and the story. you can come up with an essay. After the essay is created you have to start making the video or recording of your essay. I started recording with garbageband. As recording it would get frustrating because if you mess up you have to rerecord that part over again. When listening to myself, I felt like it sounded bad and had trouble accepting that i wasn't going to be able to change the way my voice sounds. After the recording was done I had to get pictures and start making a video. I found some of the pictures on Google images. Some pictures I got from my teacher I had in 7th grade. I emailed her and asked if she was able to take pictures of the classroom and some of the things we used in the classroom for the video. After all the pictures were collected, I started making my video using Windows Movie Maker. Making the video was stressful trying to get everything lined up perfectly.   I emailed the video completed to my family for there input and feedback to see if there was anything I can improve. They all like the video and thought I did a good job. Once finished I felt proud of what I could accomplish.

Take My Quiz

I Believe...

Open Educational Resourses

Open Educational Resources or ORS is a tool online open to everyone for little to no cost that allows them to learn new information. ORE's can include full course material, syllabi, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, labs and classroom activities such as games or a video.  I think ORE's is a good idea. it allows people to explore new things.  As a student you can use the ORE to see if you would like a certain class, or field of study.  As a learner you can use ORE's to explore new things that may be useful to you as a human being.  as a future teacher ORE's can be real useful for a few reasons. One way they can be helpful is if  I am teaching a certain topic and I am not sure how to plan the lesson, you can use an ORE to get a lesson and then adapt it to fit your needs. Also if you need one more work sheet for the students to do for a subject and you do not have time to make one you can find a already made that fits your needs. I think ORE's is a real good idea that can benefit may people.

 Three sites I found helpful are:
http://www.oercommons.org/
http://www.thinkfinity.org/
https://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/w/page/24836480/Home

I Believe...

I believe that everyone needs a teacher to believe in them.  I always struggled in school, but in 7^th grade one teacher changed everything.  I struggle for many reasons, but the main reason is because I have a learning disability.  A learning disability is a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do math.  There is no cure for a learning disability and it is life-long.  Children with learning disabilities can be high achievers and become successful with the right help.

 In 7^th grade, I was put into a resource room.  Resource room is where students with learning disabilities go to get extra help in any subject needed.  My Resource Room teacher, Mrs. Gleason, believed everyone could do well in school.  Without having her as my teacher, I would not be where I am today.  I always dreaded reading and would avoid it at all costs.  Mrs. Gleason made reading fun and got me really into it.  I now read all the time, even if it is not for school!  She also helped me to do well in school.  I went from grades in the 60’s all the way to grades in the 80’s and 90’s in a few months of being in her class!  She taught me how to study effectively to do well on tests.  Most people don’t take the time to teach students how to study effectively.  By her teaching me to study effectively, I was able to bring my grades up rapidly.  It felt great that I was finally doing well in school!  My teacher believed in me and eventually I believed I could pass and succeed!  She made it fun. If you got above a certain grade you got a sticker on the sticker board and if you get a 100 you get 2 stickers.  Once you got so many stickers, you got a prize and at the end whoever got the most got a special prize. I t gave me more incentive to do well in school.  Without having Mrs. Gleason as a teacher, I may have never been able to take AP and College courses in high school.  Having her as a teacher made it possible for me to go to college.

People sometimes think that if you have a disability you can’t achieve great things and they are wrong.  Many famous people like Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, and Magic Johnson all had disabilities and look how famous they are.  Without Thomas Edison, we may have never found the light bulb.  Walt Disney had many great achievements like the first colored cartoon, the first full-length animated musical film and his dream of Disneyland Park.  Without either of them, where would we be?  I believe that everyone needs someone to believe in them, even if it’s just their teacher.  I want to make a difference in the lives of children someday soon and I know I will. 

Top 10 Cool Tools for School

1. http://ashleyeducates.blogspot.com/
2. http://bryannabujnowski.blogspot.com/
3.http://karisadurfee.blogspot.com/
4. http://carlyc11.blogspot.com/
5.http://bridgit-walters.blogspot.com/
6.http://leebob13.blogspot.com/
7. http://rlagnello.blogspot.com/
8. http://jonathangreer8.blogspot.com/
9.http://sasyouregonnahearit.blogspot.com/
10. http://irishman207.blogspot.com/

These blog resources made my top ten list because I found them all to be useful. I would recommend the resources to other teachers for their own use. I may use some of these tools in my classroom in the future.

Cool Tool for School

Geometry Toolbox is a great geometry whiteboard resource has a virtual ruler, pencil, compass, and protractor. In the website you can choose among various colors to draw the lines or write explanations.  You can create instant illustrations of geometry concepts, from simple measurement to constructions using angles and circles.  I can use this tool in the classroom in many ways.  I can use this on an interactive whiteboard or projector for students to see.  I can use it in groups of students to practice measuring lines and angles. You can use the tool to teach students how to read a ruler. This tool can be very useful in the classroom. 

Budget Cuts: Do they help or hurt the education we receive?

Budget Cuts have become a serious problem in the education field.  In the article, Painful Education Cuts in Budget Deal, it says that more than half of the $38 billion in cuts in the FY2011 bill education, health, and labor.  Federal funds play into attempting to level the playing field for poor students, as well as promising students with disabilities services to which they are legally entitled to.  Without all the funds, students will not have the resources they need to succeed.  They say that the budget cuts for education will not only hurt the students, but it will also hurt the U.S. economy.  In the article, it talks about the research that has been done to prove the point.

Another article, called What School District Budget Cuts Mean For Students, talks about how the cuts will affect the students.  One thing the article mentions is about the class size.  The class size used to average at about 22 students.  Now the class is up to about 30 students.  With  more students in the classroom it is getting harder to manage.

Many schools are starting to cut extracurricular activities.  With the schools not getting the same amount of money they have many programs being cut.  Clubs that are not as popular are getting shut down.  Also, many arts and music classes are being cut too.  With all the clubs and classes being shut down, students are not getting to experience all the different things that are out there.

If the budget cut keeps getting worse, many things will be lost.  Music and art classes as we know it will no longer to exist.  Students will be left with minimum extracurricular activities.  This will keep students from exploring and learning many different areas.  Schooling as we know it will forever be changed.

Twitter

I never used twitter before this class. When I first made my account it was overwhelming. Twitter kept having different people or groups along the top and bottom till i followed 5 people. As a student I could use twitter to help with a class project. Since I am following people in Early Childhood and Special Education they could post a link to a website that could help give me an idea for a project I am assigned to do. As a teacher twitter could help me by other teachers posting links to websites or writing ideas that could help me teach a lesson to the class. Twitter will become very beneficial to any one willing to give it a chance.

PowerPoint

Counting

View more PowerPoint from Caitlin Brown

In class we were instructed to make a PowerPoint using the standards from PennDot Standards.  Using the PennDot Standards I found the slandered I was going to use for my PowerPoint. I chose a standard for math in Pre-Kindergarten. The slandered was in the area of numbers, number system and number relationships. The slandered was to demonstrate the relationship between numbers, and qualities, including rote counting, one-to-one correspondence up to 10 objects, and comparing values of whole numbers up to 10. 

After choosing the standard I started looking for videos that I could possible use. To look for the videos i used YouTube. I found to videos that I ended up using. One was a counting song that i put at the end of the PowerPoint. The other video I put at the beginning of the PowerPoint. This video let the kids meet the numbers. I then started to look for shapes I could use to show them what two equaled and so on with the other numbers. Lastly, I made an interactive game that children could play. I found different objects in a variety or numbers and asked them how many ______ is in the picture. I had different number choices they could choose. If they clicked the wrong answer it went to a slide that said try again, but if they clicked the right answer it went to a slide that said good job.

Before we started this project I knew quite a bit about PowerPoint, so I didn't struggle too much. Even though I knew PowerPoint I did learn a few things. One thing I learn was how to make a lesson plan. At the beginning I did not know how to make a lesson plan, but now I feel pretty good with making one. Another thing I learned was how to hide a slide. When I made the game I was able to hide the slides that said try again and good job. By doing that after one question was done we could skip the slides that said good job and try again and go to the next page. This project was very good because you got to see other people’s ideas as well as show others your ideas with PowerPoint.

Chapter 1 Responce

           Our world is changing very fast. After reading chapter one of Personal Learning Networks, I see the realization that we are rapidly moving towards the digital world. In the book, the authors talk about six significant shifts that are supporting connection and network building. One of the shifts the authors talk about is that we are moving from analog to digital in very big and very fast ways. I agree with the authors opinion.
          In chapter one, the authors talk about how many places are making digital books and journals. Before electronic readers came out, you had to go to the store or library to get a book. I know from my personal experience that it is inconvenient. In middle school and most of high school, I read books so fast and then wanted another one. I always had to wait till it was convenient for my parents to take me. Now, with my electronic reader, I can go onto the internet any time I want and download a book. I have almost every book at my fingertips. With the electronic reader, you can also get a magazine or the newspaper without leaving the comforts of your home. Down the road, holding an actual book in your hands will be considered odd.
          In chapter one, it talks about how Google is attempting to digitalize all books, and how Stanford Engineering library is going to become bookless. Both of those are big steps to becoming a digital world. You can purchase a lot of your college digital textbooks and put them on your laptop, electronic reader, or an ipad. By doing so, it would make college students’ backpacks lighter. Stanford is just one of the many schools that are becoming bookless. Some high schools are getting electronic readers and installing all the books on them. It may make the books last longer because we won’t have any wear and tear from the use, but on the other hand if one of the electronic readers break it will be expensive to repair. It would also allow updates for new editions cheaper and more quickly. We are moving into a digital world, which may bring new problems.
         The world as we know is changing fast. Things like holding a book or taking a test on paper are disappearing. New technologies are being invented that will change the way we live and work. As new generations come to school, the way they learn will be different from anyone before them.

my LOVE for MUSIC!

Did you know that the number of recorded CDs and blank CDs sold were about equal. Now that is prety impressive. To find out mor fun facts about music go to did you know music fast facts.

I have been playing the violin for about 10 years.

Barrage - Devil's Nightmare

I was lucky and got to play with this famous group when I was in high school.

Caitlin Brown

all about ME!!

My name is Caitlin Brown.  I attend Edinboro University of Pennsylvania for Early Childhood and Special Education.  Along with attending classes for my major, I enjoy playing the violin. I am part of Edinboro University’s String Ensemble, Circle K, and International Students Affiliation.  I want to graduate from Edinboro University with a BS. in Early Childhood and Special Education.  With my BS. degree I will start looking for a job in my field while going to school to get my Masters.  When I get a job, I will take night classes as working.  I would love to work in a preschool for students with disabilities.  I will go where ever there is a job opportunity for me.  By using the blog I would like to share my view about the education process that I am going through to get my degree.