Rand Pausch's Last Lecture

Who is Randy Pausch. Well, from a short period of time and doing some research; I have learned a lot of important things about him. One of the most important things I learned from him was never give up. He was a very caring person on along with being a professor, a husband, and father of two. He taught at many college students at four different University.

Harvard University, Brown University, Carnegie Mellon and MTC University, and University of Virgina. At all four University Randy Pausch touch many lifes, but not like he touch millons in his last lecture. In Sept, of 2006 Pausch was diagnosed with one of the deadly cancers there is, Pancreatic Cancer. This cancer is said to be the most deadly, because human only have 4% 5-year survival rate. With Randy doctors told him he only have 2-6 months left. Through his time left, Pausch really wanted to reach out to everyone from his students to many parents. In his last lecture he talked about CHILDHOOD DREAMS one thing that we have.

As I listen to the video and his childhood dreams; I began to think about my childhood dreams. One of his dreams that caught my eye was the one about becoming a professional football player. He never made it to the league, but one example he used was when his coach asked him and his teammates. How many players can play in a game, and how many can touch the football? They all said only one coach. The coach said "your right only one, so let me show you what the others do while that one player got the ball". In telling his story about playing football; I remember somethings or quotes he said. One that I remember was "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted". Reading this meant alot to me and really touched me.

Before closing I want to also tell you a little about a program that he and another professor started together. The program was name "THE DREAM FULFILLMENT FACTORY". In the program (ETC) Entatainment they had students working in small groups or teams to make things Edutainment. The focus or success of ETC's was "Focus on People and Learning to work in groups. Many students joined the program and enjoyed being in it. One of the students that I remember that really touched Randy Pausch was a student name Tommy Burnette, that had a dream of writing STAR WARS movies.In my closing I can't forget these words "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS". Tommy never gave up and he wrote the next couple movies for STAR WARS. So dreams do come true.

Can Youtube Be Used for Educational Purposes?

My second podcast I took a look at was by Adrienne Lynch, Joylyn Reese, and Brian Stevens; Can Youtube Be Used for Educational Purposes? Well, they went all the way out and gave great information about the website and how well you as a student can use Youtube to help you out in your class work and if your not understanding what's being said in your classroom.

They went on talking about how students can do projects and put them on Youtube for everyone can see. How some history teachers can use it to look up old history stories from the past. I really think they did good on giving good points about how good Youtube is for education.

Over all both podcast was great; and I think the facebook one and with teachers getting out to their students will be a big change to the educational field and facebook.

Facebook as an Educational Tool

In the podcast I had to check-out the podcast about FACEBOOK and EDUCATION by Theloa Hines and Larrica Smith. First thing first I think they did a good job on talking about facebook and what all you can do and put on there. They only spoke a short period of time about facebook and education, which I thought they were gonna talk about more.
I really like what was said about the teacher ideal about using Facebook to get closer to her students and enact with them about what's going on on campus and in the classroom. They kind of jumped off track bring up Myspace a lot and the age groups. True, fcaebook was for college students only, but just like Myspace kids can find many ways to work around that.

Best of Fishbowl...Creating Personal Learning Networks. Pt.1, August

Out of all of the best fishbowl blog that was posted up Creating Personal Learning Networks caught my eye. This blog talks about not only teachers but you as a student can make your own Personal Learning Network.Wow! Very impressive really.I feel like and think that coming up with your own Personal Learning Network shows and says a lot about you and what you have in mind for todays youths&adults and on to the future world.

I know your asking and saying what is Personal Learning Network.It is a collection of resources that you can go to when you want to learn something. This includes family and friends, teachers, and people in the local community. It can also include non-human resources, such as books, journals and other forms of media.

One comment that I read was from a student that thought that coming up with the Network was a fabulous idea. He also gave good pointers about the project. One of his comment was "From what I can see, it appears that your goal with the project is to get students interested in creating their own PLEs and in the act of writing/reflecting on the development of a personal learning environment". So with saying if your gonna make or start a project that you may think everyone will love; make sure that the project can give students and teachers the chance to do more.

Making teaching easier

In SmartBoard Lesson it’s a mission that shares information and resources so teachers will utilize their Smart Boards in a way that they can increase learning in the classroom.
In my searching on SmartBoard Lesson Podcast I came across this teacher site. What caught my eye was the picture at the bottom of the article. On the website it shows and gives teachers the chance to create things and puzzle for their students; that may help them out on math or any other subject that’s been taught. On the site two people helps you out on producing and starting your own mention. One site they talks about is Jigzone.
1. One of the people who called into the show mentioned a fun website that works great with the SMART Board. It's called Jigzone and it allows you to create a jigsaw puzzle from pictures that you upload. There are a lot of ways to use this for educational purposes. For example, here is a graphic I created using a graphic editor (PhotoFiltre is good free graphic editor).

The Shanghai American School (SAS) was organized in order to develop students with a positive attitude toward education, which in terms will encourage lifelong learning, healthy lifestyle, and appreciation of esthetics. Others objectives are that students will build mastery skill of communicating and learning. These students are instilled with the responsibility to think clearly, logically, and independently as members of a self-governing society.
These educational objectives are reinforced by strong teaching objectives and even more effective curriculum guideline.

Teaching Objectives

1. The teacher will provide the best possible education for each student by encouraging and requiring creative and critical thought stressing maximum involvement of the student in discovery, inquiry and problem solving.

2. In order to enhance the probability of success, the teacher will keep the student and parents informed of the student's progress.

3. Within established curriculum, the teacher will provide appropriate alternatives to accommodate individual differences in achieving academic excellence and educational objectives.

4. The teacher will teach the structure and content in a positive environment that is conducive to learning.
Curricular Objectives

The curriculum will:

1. Reflect a coherent and orderly progression of objectives from pre-kindergarten through grade 12.

2. Be designed to develop in the students a broad understanding of different cultures.

3. Be integrated across subject areas to promote holistic learning.

4. Permit students to enter Shanghai American School and subsequent schools with minimum academic disruption.

5. Provide maximum growth for individual students and be designed to emphasize problem solving, inquiry, discovery, self-direction, as well as creative and critical thinking.

6. Within limits of available resources try to accommodate students with varying learning and language ability.

7. Be reviewed regularly in the light of new developments in education and the needs of the international community.

Pupils in the first grade at Morrison Academy in Taichung, Taiwan have developed a strong independence as readers and writers. The core of their reading, writing, speaking, and listening comes from twenty-seven high quality literature books. Two top priorities of these first graders are comprehension and vocabulary. Using the Open Court program these students are able to enhance their phonics, which is a vital part of bringing security and depth to the students reading skills.
Part of their curriculum is to use the effectiveness of the writing process. This process allows the students to brainstorm and organize ideas, draft their writings, obtain peer and teacher feedback, revise, edit, and then publish various and selected pieces. Spelling is developed through context as opposed to isolation. By using the D’Nealian script model, handwriting becomes less laborious as motor skills develop.

Roosevelt Elementary fifth graders has committed themselves and others to achieve their highest potential academically, socially, and economically. By ensuring the Bully Prevention Program parents are able to ask question (e.g. What is Bullying? What to do when your child is bullied? What to do when your child is bullying others? Who to contact for help?). These students has developed a blogging site where they express their views and opinion on economic issues, space websites, and regions. http://rooseveltfifthgrade.blogspot.com/

School Research

Performance Report:
Notice to Parents/Guardians - According to
Wis. Stat. 115.38, school districts are required
to publish a School Performance Report
for the parents and guardians of their
students by May 1 of each year. Additionally,
the school districts are required to notify
the parent or guardian of each pupil enrolled
of their right to request a paper copy
of the School Performance Report.

Lincoln Elementary

Lincoln Elementary, located in Oskosh, WI, is a school who has build it mission and values on laughing, learning, growing, and believing. Lincoln Elemenatry encourages its students to excel in high academic goals, by rendering small class sizes. Located next to UW Oshkosh allows for various patnerships. Lincoln offers numerous educational programs. A few offered programs are SAGE (Student Achievement Guarantee in Education) is a state program that reduces class sizes in K-3; SAIL (Students Achieving in Learning) initiates tutoring, site-based mentoring, and PALS (Partners at Learning). To better modify students learning, Lincoln has incorporated a new computer lab, playground, and accessibility.

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