Enjoy Your Winter Break

To: Everyone

**************And*************

*****And to All A Good Night*****


From: (ME)

++++++++++++++++Kimberly Pierce

My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete

TO MY FELLOW PEERS: THIS JOURNEY HAS COME TO AN END. THERE HAVE BEEN SOME GOOD TIMES AND THERE HAVE BEEN SOME MORE GOOD TIMES. WE MADE IT THROUGH! I AM GLAD TO HAVE MET YOU ALL AND FEEL FREE TO SPEAK WHEN WE CROSS PATHS!!! AREN'T YOU ALL GLAD YOU CHOSE MS. AVERITT FOR YOUR EDM 310 CLASS? I KNOW I AM!!! WHEN I DIDN'T SEE HER NAME ON RATE MY PROFESSOR. COM, I DIDN'T KNOW IF I SHOULD CHOOSE HER OR NOT, BUT LUCKILY I DID!!! "THANKS AGAIN MS. AVERITT"!!! HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL AROUND!!! K. PIERCE DON'T FORGET TO RATE OUR PROFESSOR SO OTHERS WILL KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT!

Electronic Contact

This assignment was more challenging than I thought. I had contacted three teachers weeks ago and no one responded. I was giving up until I finally chose Rex Moak, a physics instructor at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College who I thought would be a good candidate for this assignment. I know what you are thinking, "He has a cool name, Huh?" That's not the only thing interesting about him. He lucked up on teaching and have been doing it for 18 years now. I beleive his story will provide many of you all with hope and inspiration to continue in this profession. Good Luck TO ALL of you!!! And thanks to Mr. Moak for the quick feedback!!!

(Below is the email I sent him and his response)

Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 4:15 PM
To: rex.moak@mgccc.cc.ms.us
Subject: Electronic Interaction Assignment

Hey, my name is Kimberly Pierce. I am a junior at the University of
South Alabama in Mobile, AL. I am majoring in education. A class I am
taken this semester requires we contact an educator outside the state
through the web. During this class I had interviewed a teacher who
specialized in podcasting her lectures. After viewing her site
www.molecafe.com, I thought it would be great to contact her inspiration
for becoming a chemistry teacher. The chemistry teacher I am referring
to is Mrs. LeGrove, a teacher at Mary G. Montgomery also located in
Mobile Al. She took your Chemistry II Class at Pascagoula High School.
She claims you are one of the reasons she chose to teach chemistry as a
profession. If you have any time, I was wondering if you can tell me who
or what was your inspiration for the field you chose and how long have
you been in your field.

Thanks for participating in my assignment, Kimberly Pierce

Sent: Thursday, December 4, 2008 10:26 am
To kc802@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
Subject RE: Electronic Interaction Assignment

Ms. Pierce, I would be glad to let you know my history. My mentor was actually my 10th grade Biology teacher, Dewayne Denton, although I had no intention of being a teacher myself. He taught me his first year out of college, and we were friends until he passed away last year. I was in industry for several years after college, working in the up and down cycle of the economy, and I was in between jobs and looking for employment when he suggested I teach temporarily while planning my next career move (the state was desperate for science teachers). I thought, Why not for a year or two? That was in 1990, when I started at Pascagoula High School and taught until 1997. Then I moved to the community college and have been here ever since. This will be my 18th year teaching (a little longer than I had originally planned!). Thanks for letting me know about Mrs. LeGrone. Her choicest words for me when she was in my class were, as I remember, something to do with Satan, the Devil, and being the biggest pain in her life:) Those are the students I really like to teach! It's always good to know you had a positive (hopefully!) impact
on someone's life! If I can do anything else for you, let me know.
Good luck with your project!!

Rex Moak

ACCESS Lab at MGM High School

I had no idea what an ACCESS lab was, let along, that it was being utilize in high schools in Mobile County before this assignment was given. Marlena Marsh, Kelsey Volzy, and I visited an ACCESS lab in a local high school in the area. Before we entered the lab I was thinking, “where are the computers ?” There were just long tables in the classroom. To my surprise, these students are provided with lab tops that were stored in a metal cabinet until needed. Lab tops in high schools, what’s next? I’ll tell you what’s next or shall I say what is already in the making?We were able to meet and talk with the psychology instructor at Mary G. Montgomery High School. His name was Roger Rose. His personal and general insight on the program ACCESS brought about many interesting and amazing points to surface. I began to think out the box quickly and understand the true meaning behind the “burp back” concept of teaching. From my understanding of things, lower and higher education will some day not exist in the classroom. Students will be able to log their computers at home and complete assignments. With the new equipment out there, they will be able to view their teachers online with web cam or listen to the lessons on pod casts.
He had an ELMO machine which was responsible for demonstrating manual work. The input on this machine was projected onto a large flat screen for the entire class to view. This machine would eliminate chalkboards and chalk. It would allow students to get a better view with little effort. He showed us something called a Kodak hub whose purpose was the same as remote control. It controlled all the equipment in the room and accessed other classrooms who were connected to this outlet. He showed us Murphy’s ACCESS lab through this system. He said it allows him to teacher psychology to students at MGM and Murphy through live internet connection. He can view the students while the students are viewing him. He said he teaches to several students through this live web because many high schools do not have a psychology teacher. This method could save our school system a lot of money. He also showed us ACCESS teaching tools on the web and suggested other teaching software to use such as Komposer, Hot Potatoes and FTP surfer. These software programs are all free for teachers to view and learn from.
During Mr. Rose’s tutor he suggested we go and meet with another teacher at the school who specialized in pod casting. Her name was Mrs. LeGrone. She pod cast all her lectures and has them accessible on her web page for her students to listen. She is taking pod casting with power points presentations to a whole new level. She said the only problem with this teaching method is that all her students don’t own a home computer. She said next year she will put her presentations and pod casts on DVDs because she believes every household owns a DVD player. This teacher is definitely thinking outside the box. You will find her page very interesting. Just click here.

Evaluation of My Experiences In EDM310

First of all, this is the first computer applications class I have taken during my college experience. Everything I was exposed to was new to me. I appreciate this class being apart of the Elementary Education degree plan. If this class was not mandatory, I probably would have not taken it with fear of doing poorly or not being able to understand many of the concepts covered. I am glad I took this class. I learned many new things I had absolutely no idea about or even ever heard of. I took proud in creating my own blog. I think using this teaching tool throughout this class was a good idea. I would much rather submit something electronic than manually any day. My printer ran out of ink during the summer semester but because we don't use printers for any of our assignments, I didn't have to stress about purchasing ink. Times are hard! I learned some simple things during this semester as well like downloading pictures, creating links, and making my blog user friendly for disabled individuals. I learned how to create spreadsheets with formulas, create a slide show, and utilize many of the tools under Google. Before this class, I never got on the internet. I never been on iTunes or Youtube. I created my first gmail acount in this class! I had no clue Google had so many free things to how with many projects for school and my classroom.

To find out what a pod cast was and then to ctreate my own was a great experience! Although I was very nervous and stressed about the whole idea, I am glad I went through with it. I also enjoyed making a customize iGoogle page for my students. My daughter was my first viewer and user and she really liked it. She stayed on there for a couple of hours. I had to made her get off. I had never heard of an ACCESS lab neither. I did not know technology in schools had escalate that much since I graduated high school. *************************AN ACCESS LAB I was a little disappointed we did not create our own website. I had already started bragging to my friends about it. I would have like to learn how to create a program that I could download all my students completed assignments and a create computer generated grade book that automatically calculated their grades and averages for me. Maybe in the furture I can take some courses to be able to create these things myself. I give this class an A- overall. Good Job Ms. Averitt! I hope we made you proud!

Plusses and Minuses of Blogs in a Classroom

The person whose blog posts I chose to read was Elizabeth "Ashley" Corley.She and I seemed to have the same experiences with blogging. We had never heard of a blog until we entered this class. Although we were new to blogging, we found it to be easy to manipulate and use. We learned they blogging can also be benefical to teaching and learning.

Ashley and I were group members for our pod cast assignment. In researching information on our topic "Blogs in the Classroom", we discovered they blogs in the classroom is not new. We just did not know about it. We saw how teachers were using this teaching tool in the classroom and confirmed that it would be a great idea for us to use it in our classroom as well.
The plusses of using blogs in the classroom is that it is an excellent communication tool. Students can critique their fellow classmates' work, submit assignments, and recieve assignments too. Burpback educating is becaming a thing of the past. Students were rather complete assignment on the internet than fumbling with some papers. Children these days are always on the computer. I believe integrate blogging into the curriculum would help me and my students.

There are always negatives to go along with positives. The minuses of blogs in the classroom is that, not every student has a computer at home. The internet can be safely used with the proper procedures or programs but the internet can be very dangerous to children. I find doing my work on the computer easy, but sometimes get a little off course with my assignments becuause of wanting to check other accounts that have nothing to do with my schoolwork. I know this may be a difficult task with students as well. They may start their assignment then start surfing the web if they became bored. For the most part, I still think using blogs in the classroom is a great idea.

TO read Ashley Corley's Blog Posts CLICK HERE!

Duke University Center for Documentary

I listened to Looking Back at 9/11 Across America: An Acoustic Exhibit Presenting American Voices in the Aftermath of the Attack from Duke University Center for Documentary Studies. As many of my classmates discussed, everyone remembers and will always remember 911. The people on this pod cast experiences were much different than mine.

I was in high school. It was 7:30am in the morning and I was looking for my track coach for our new practice schedule. When I opened the door to her office the gymnastic coach was standing at her desk listening to the radio. I proceeded to ask him “Do you know where McDade is?” He looked up at me with tears in his eyes and yelled “Shut up and shut the door!” I was in shock! I kindly walked out unaware with what was going on and continued looking for my track coach. Suddenly, the intercom came on and made an announcement of the first plane crash. I still did not understand what was going on. When I returned to my homeroom class, the teacher went into detailed the seriousness of what was occurring. I was finally getting an understanding of our country’s enemies, “terrorists”. It was a nightmare becoming a reality. This event changed U.S. History forever. What a tragedy! It made me feel angry, sad, and many other emotions all at the same time. But the question still stands, “Was or is going to war the answer?”