Blog Post #6

What are PLN's?

A PLN or personal learning network is an online method that someone can engage and exchange information with a group of people. Educators can use PLN's in a variety of ways. A few examples of this would be: professional development, locating resources, lesson plan ideas, and finding collaborating solutions. There are also many different resources that educators could use and find. One example, for instance, is this; Blogger. Blogger is a great way for teachers, and students, to communicate with individuals they have never met. Two other great, and also popular, PLN's are Facebook and Twitter. We use these PLN's in this EDM310 class. I have noticed that it has helped me get more involved in the class and the peers that are in my class as well as the ones that aren't. I never realized until now, that I started my PLN's a long time ago between my facebook, twitter, blogger, and a few other social media sites. I believe that PLN's are important in a classroom. It allows the teacher to ask and answer questions that may or may not be brought up in the classroom. Also, educators can communicate with one another and possibly learn things from each other. PLN"s, also, aren't just for teachers; they are for students as well.

Project #8

Blog Post #4

My question for my blog this week is, "Asking questions: What questions do we ask? How do we ask?"

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher? I believe we, as future educators, need to plan and think about the questions we want to ask. I agree with Dr. Maryellen Weimer, that good questions make the students think and that they encourage participation. That is the number one reason teachers need to think about the questions they want to ask their students. Dr. Weimer suggest three actions that can help us, future educators, improve our questioning.

1st Action:Prepare Questions

Most educators spend most of their time preparing the content their going to teach, getting organized, and/or finding examples. The one thing that educators may not be doing is preparing the questions they need to ask and how they need to ask them. Also, teachers could recognize when their students don't understand the question they are asking. Not many students will answer the question asked. Preparing questions, either the night before or even the morning of classes, can drastically make a difference in participation. Dr. Weimer suggest that when asking a question, it should be clear all the way around. I agree with her. If you make a question clearer, the students will understand what you are asking and possibly answer it correctly.

2nd Action:Play with Questions

Playing with questions can make students think about it more in depth. Majority of the time, once a question is answered and the teacher states that it is correct, some students may stop thinking about the question asked; others may not. Dr. Weimer states, "Playing with the question means leaving it unanswered for a while and using some strategies that encourage students to think about it." It encourages students to think 'outside the box'. Not just the normal, usual answer. She also suggests that the teacher could accept many possible answers and then discuss how they may or may not be correct. I think this is a great way to encourage students to ponder on the various answers there could be.

3rd Action:Preserve Good Questions

A great way to preserve good questions is to jot down some answers that are given by students. Doing that will bring on more questions that the teacher could ask. Another way to ask some questions would be to use questions that a student in a previous class had asked that pertained to the topic. Some questions asked by students should be valued. They may give you an answer that you wouldn't have thought could be correct. Asking good questions could help students realize the importance of questions. Also, questions are more effective when more thought is put into them. I agree with Dr. Weimer when she mentions that, "the best questions of all are the ones that we, educators, cannot answer."

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Post #3

How Can You Provide Meaningful Feedback To Your Peers?

In order for students to be successful writers, they first must learn how to peer review/edit. Peer editing is working with a classmate (or someone your age) to help improve, revise, and edit their work. The video, What is Peer Editing? and the slideshow, Peer Edit with Perfection! tutorial, introduces three steps to be successful in peer editing.

Step 1: Compliment

When editing a peers paper, you should always start off with a compliment. Something like, "I really liked your topic" or "great choice of wording, it really got your point across." You are helping someone enhance their work. Their hard work! No one wants to have complete negativity towards their work.

Step 2: Suggestions

Suggestions are always helpful when peer editing. If you find something that you think isn't right, a suggestion would be helpful on how to correct it. When making suggestions, you should be as positive as you can. You should also be specific when making suggestions on things such as word choice, details, organization, sentences, and the topic.

Step 3: Corrections

Making corrections is possibly the easiest part of correctly peer editing a paper. You are simply checking for correct punctuation, grammar errors, misspelling, and correct use of sentences.

I absolutely loved watching students act out the wrong ways of peer editing in the Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes. They came up with some very creative names for each wrong-doing. A few of my favorites were: "Jean the Generator", "Off-Task Oliver", and "Defensive Dave". All of these can happen to anybody. "Jean the Generator" was not being specific enough. She would give criticism to her peer but wasn't specific enough for her peer to understand fully. "Off-Task Oliver" was not concentrating on peer editing. He got sidetracked often; which is one thing that I know is easy to do. He couldn't keep his attention on listening to his classmate and distracted others around him. And last but not least, "Defensive Dave". He got defensive over the criticism that was given to him. One thing to remember when peer editing, is to keep an open mind when given suggestions. You don't have to use them, they are just suggestions to help improve your work.