A Vision of Students Today

The video taught me the problems within parts of the education system, especially concerning students. The majority of the facts in the video showed the disadvantages students work through like the high price of textbooks that are never used or the class size. The video challenged my ideas about education today because now I think we need to make some changes. One thing that I could do as a future teacher would be to learn every child's name. That was a fact presented in the video that said professors don't know their names.
I think one big problem facing teachers and learning is class size. With an average size of 115 students there is not enough class time to give individual instruction. Another change I would make is adding  creativity and the arts into the classrooms. Alot of lessons can benefit from arts based instruction like using movement or theatre. Technology can help teachers help their students because it gives the teacher videos and interactive practice websites. I would use those changes in my classroom as a future teacher.

Mr. Walker's Presentation

I enjoyed the presentation from Mr. Walker about taking video with a smartphone. I especially loved, "think in shots" idea for filming. Since I do not own an IPhone I hope there are similar opportunities available for Samsung, like the adapter he showed to the class. The biggest lesson I took away was that lighting, sound, and the angle of the shot are important. I liked how he presented instructional videos that I could easily access after the presentation and review on a later project. Once I saw the improvement from a poorly shot video to the quality that could have been shot it inspired me. I feel like I could make great videos with a smartphone where before I thought that I was limited by the camera quality. Everything I learned from the presentation I will definately use the next time I plan to take a video with my phone.

Khan Academy Featuring Videos in Education

After listening to the speech about videos in education I believe they could be brought into the classroom as a positive tool for teaching. I especially liked the story I heard about the teacher who was able to assign lecture videos for homework for the students to watch and review and then during class time the students were assigned the homework from the lessons. That seemed to free up time for the teacher to be able to go to individual students for tutoring and help instead of the students doing the work at home and waiting until class to ask their questions. Therefore, I believe that videos in education could be a useful tool for the teacher. 

Los Altos school featured in the assigned video seemed to benefit from video learning. Khan Academy videos are only one example of the possibilities with websites and databases focused on learning videos for students. The main benefit I see with video learning is the amount of time it would free up for the teacher to provide guidance during class for difficult concepts. Overall I enjoyed watching the video.

Making the App Trailer

Since completing my free app trailer project I remember the most how difficult it was to edit videos. I had trouble stopping the video at just the right moment. Using the screen recording apps on my cell phone had to be the most challenging part of the project. Converting videos from screen recordings to computer friendly versions was the main obstacle I faced. I made my app trailer about “Zap Zap Math”, a math app with 100+ practice games for fractions, addition, subtraction, and more. The app has games for all grades K-6.

                In making my app trailer I learned more about how apps help children practice the skills they learn in school. As a future teacher I want to provide many ways for a student to succeed and I see apps making homework fun.  I do hope to use educational apps when I begin to teach, especially because apps like the one in my trailer delivers progress reports to the teachers and parents. Therefore, the parents and educators know how much the child has learned since using the app. 

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

From the assigned video we all watched I took away a lesson about the diversity in learning. Some learn through sight or sound or repetition or movement and I took to heart the viewpoint he presented because he explained that diversity extremely well. Robinson's main point was that schools squander creativity in youth and then expect those same children to be creative and innovative later in life when instead we should encourage creativity in youth. It seems to me that in early childhood education children are taught that they need intellectual guidelines for thinking about their world first before they are allowed to think outside of the guidelines presented to them. I do not want to go along with that method of teaching.
I agree that when a child shows constructive creativity we as teachers should encourage those ideas. As a future teacher this video helped me understand how diverse learning is for each individual child. I hope to be a teacher that does encourage abstract thought and diverse thinking through allowing myself to be accepting and understanding about that diversity. As is common, most individuals find a structure and routine that they like and then never allow themselves to deviate from it. I hope to be a teacher that not only encourages but loves diverse learning methods.