Summary Post C4T #4

I commented on the blog of JF Hadley. This is an amazing blog that I will continue to follow. I first post I commented on was titled 'Following My Own Advice'. The post was about following the advice he gives his students. With all the distractions today it can be hard to focus and get the things done that we need to do. This was my comment: Hi, my name is Krystin Pavey and I’m an Elementary Education major at the University of South Alabama. I have the same trouble when doing homework myself. I find that a lot of teachers today forget that children need a “brain break” in order to focus better. Some teachers seem so focused on “fitting all of the material in,” rather than giving students the break that the teachers themselves need. What a great post! Thanks for sharing!


The second post I commented on was titled 'Using Their Voices'. I loved this post! It was about getting students to effectively develop and express their ideas. They had to read the material themselves, then again in a small group. They had to find the main idea and the supporting details. Then Hadley posted questions the students needed to answer. The students then used Garageband to record their ideas. Hadley says, "Then the goal was to record a paragraph that answered the question. After doing that, they were listening to see if they had a clear point of view and had proved their point with evidence." This was my comment: Hi! My name is Krystin Pavey and I’m a student in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama. I think this is such a great idea. All children learn differently and giving them the opportunity to explore their ideas in different ways can only be beneficial.

Final PLN Report

I am so excited about the progress of my PLN. I use these website and links all the time and I love having them all located in one place. While this is my "final PLN" I don't think it will ever be complete. I will continue to add to my PLN as I make more discoveries and contacts in the professional world of teaching.

Summary Post C4K November/December

C4K #8


The blog that I commented on for Comments4Kids #8 was that of Blanca. The post I commented on was about the water cycle. This was my comment: Hi. My name is Krystin Pavey and I am an Elementary Education major at the University of South Alabama. This is a great post about the water cycle. I really like the animation in the picture. Keep up the great work.


C4K #9


My blog assignment for Comments4Kids #9 was a student named Millie. She posted about a time when she was without power. She described how horrible it was. This was my comment to her: Hi Millie! My name is Krystin Pavey and I am studying to be an elementary teacher at the University of South Alabama located in Mobile, Alabama. It sure is frustrating being without power. You really don’t realize how much you rely on things like that until you don’t have them. During the months of June-November we are in hurricane season. In 2005, we had a horrible hurricane named Katrina hit. During hurricane Katrina the power went out and stayed out for 5 days. It was horrible. Keep up the great work on your blog!


C4K #10


I commented on a student from Mrs. Huebner's class. Mrs. Huebner has a fifth grade class from Sioux City, Iowa and they had a Skype session with a class from Philadelhia, Pennsylvania. This was my comment: Hi. My name is Krystin Pavey and I am also a student in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class. I love that you guys are getting to learn from other classes around the country and world. I think Skype is a great tool to use in your classroom! Your blog looks great. Keep up the good work!


C4K #11


I commented on a post by Clare. She posted a summary of a book that she read. This was my comment: Hi Clare! My name is Krystin Pavey and I am a student in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed your post. What a great summary of this book. I think that everybody deserves a space of their own. Your blog looks great. Keep up the great work!


Yasmine's Blog


I commented on Yasmine's blog post about horseback riding. Horseback riding is one of her favorite things. This was my comment: Hi my name is Krystin Pavey and I am a student at the University of South Alabama located in Mobile, Alabama. I love riding horses. I am not very advanced and I just like to ride for fun. Your blog looks great! Keep up the good work!

Final Project

This is our Final Project video.  I am so thankful for my group. We were so great as a team!

Additional Assignment #5

I think that the posts by John Spencer are great! Of the assigned posts my favorite was He Just Likes the Class for the Pencils. John shows compassion for his students and respects them. And even though he is a strict teacher, the students respect him. Humiliating and disrespecting your students is not the way to get them to respect you. In the post Just Teach Then to Solve for 'X', Mr. Spencer writes about the importance of teaching metaphors. I especially liked the quote "The world's greatest teachers were often confusing.  They understood that truth involves metaphors." I think that confusion can sometimes lead to a greater understanding and clarity of a subject. 

Project #15 - Movie Trailers

Clifford's Christmas by Norman Bridwell

All By Myself by Mercer Mayer

Blog Assignment #13

ALEX - Alabama Learning Exchange


The website for the Alabama Learning Exchange is a great resource for teachers. The website si broken into several different section to make what you are looking for easier to find. The first of the sections is Course of Study. This section has the ALCOS broken down by subject and grade level. The second section is titled Weblinks. This section has web resources for teachers, administration, and even students. Here you can also submit a web resource that you would recommend for others. The next section is for Lesson Plans. You can search lesson plans by author, title, or school. You can also find lesson plans by subject and grade level. There is also a section for Professional Learning. This section has links for ALEX and Thinkfinity training opportunities. You can also search for grant opportunities. There are also web links to find professional development opportunities, teaching and learning tools, and best practices for things like leadership and evaluation, ELL's, Response to Instruction, Special Education, and more. Another section titled Gallery 360 Podcast Treasury is a great resource for teachers and students. It has podcasts by others that can help you teach lessons. The podcasts are even linked to a lesson plan that can be found on the site. ALEXVille is a blog. The "ALEXVille News" highlights things added to the site as well as important news and updates. The last and most important section to me is Personal Workspace.  In this section you can sign up for a free account which allows you to create a personal workspace for storing and submitting lesson plans, teacher web pages, and podcasts. 


I think that this website is a great resource for teachers. You can store all of your lesson plans and podcasts among other things. You can share podcasts created by your students, lesson plans, or your website with other teachers in your school, in your district, or across the state. 


ACCESS Distance Learning


This website has information on the Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide program. This program allows all Alabama public high school students access to courses high quality instruction to improve student achievement through distance learning.

Blog Assignment #12

I think a good idea for a blog post assignment would to combine the progress report for the final project and a blog assignment. There is a great program that can be used to collaborate and brainstorm ideas. The website is called Webspiration. 

You can view the idea map at the same time with others from your group. Then as a blog post you could post a screen shot of your brainstorming ideas.

Final Project Progress Report

Our final project is coming along. My group, which includes Jennifer Inscore and Matt Miller,  has gotten together and decided that we are going to be doing and movie about EDM 310. We will be recording it next week!

Google Form Results

The average age for the students that responded to this form is 22.5.

Question #2 was to state your major. It was split 50/50 between Elementary Education and Secondary Education. 

The majority of the students are Juniors and Sophomores, 

followed by Seniors, and 1 Freshman.

82% of the students that responded to this form are planning to pursue a higher degree once they have graduated.

73% agree with me and think that EDM 310 should remain a required course for education. The majority of the students that think this should be a required course for graduation, are the same students that plan to use the information that we have learned in EDM 310 in their future classrooms. 

Only 45% of the students wish that there were more blended courses like EDM 310. I once again agree. I think that EDM 310 works well as a blended course, but I don't see how some of the other classes would work as a blended course. 

The majority of the students say that Blogger is their favorite thing that they have learned in EDM 310 so far. I think that Blogger is going to be a great tool for use in our future classrooms because there are so many different things that you could use blogger for. 

64% of the students surveyed said that they plan to incorporate the things that we are currently learning in EDM 310 into their future classrooms. 

In these two questions I was trying to see what these students were more likely to use in the future with their students. It look like they are more inclined to use Blogger with their students. However, 27% of the students did say that they would be most likely to make podcasts with their future students.  

Teach Someone Something

Blog Assignment #11

Mrs. Cassidy's Class

I think that Mrs. Cassidy's use of technology is amazing. In thinking about my future classroom, I am hoping to have 1st or 2nd grade, I think that having a blog myself would be a great idea. I would use my blog to post assignment and upcoming tests and other information that parents would need to know in order to be able to keep up with their child's education. I could post podcasts of lessons if there is going to be a student out for a period of time, so that they would not fall behind. I could also post some additional practice for children that may need some extra help. It would also be a great place to post pictures of field trips and other class activities so that the parents that could not make it would be able to see them. But this is the extent to which I thought I would be able to incorporate these technologies into a class with such young children. Now after seeing these 1st graders in action, I know that there are many more possibilities. These 1st graders were so interested and knowledgeable, I now know that the possibilities are endless. 

Summary Post C4T #3

For the past three weeks I have been following the blog of Steven Anderson. The first post that I commented on was titled A Level Playing Field. It was about equity. Equity of internet access, computer access,  and discussed the access to people and the over reliance on technology. This was my comment: Hi Mr. Anderson! My name is Krystin Pavey and I'm an Elementary Education major at the University of South Alabama. I think that having and using technology in the classroom can be great; If you have it and use it. I personally don't know of any teachers that are without access to computers and the internet. However, I do know teachers that have access to SmartBoards, computers, the internet, and other devices but they don't utilize them. I think this is partly because of the lack of training on incorporating these technologies into their lessons. Teacher training is imperative.

The second post I commented on was Why Are You A Life-Long Learner.... The Follow Up. This was a follow up to a post titled Life-Long Learning in which Mr. Anderson made a Google Form asking for responses on why you are a life-long. After receiving over 100 responses and numerous comments, he posted the results in the follow up post. In my comment I left him my sentence that we created last week."Always strive to better yourself, while helping others to do the same." I think this is exactly why we should be life-long learners, to better ourselves.