Beileve Video Review

Deciding what to write about what the toughest part.  I believe in many things, but which was the most important to write about.   I chose knowledge because it is the most important thing in the world.  Making the video was very fun, even though it was hard to find images that would go along with it.  It was a fun experience, but it a thing I can rarely see myself doing.

Quess and be Right

Believe Video

Hey readers!  Check out my new believe video and tell me what you believe in.

Remove the Blindfold

            Knowledge is a powerful thing, and I believe that it is a vital tool to break free from the barriers that can hold a person back, blinding them from the true picture and no longer allowing those “better educated” – if you will – to lead the herd of sheep off the cliff to their ultimate demise.  This characteristic of knowledge does not fully come from books and academia, but rather by questioning.  Why is this important?  Why does this person say that?  Is that fact, indeed, true?

            This is not a treasure I have learned and been keeping to myself for years, it didn’t come to me in a philosophical epiphany, but rather in a smart-mouth aside between myself and a high school teacher who became one of my role models. 

            Tall, husky, and tattooed Mr. Pohl handed me one of the school’s expensive cameras, “Go take the pictures needed for the administration page and get the basketball page’s season stats.”

            “Why should I?” I replied, being a smart-mouth just to be difficult.  Even though I was not a part of the year book staff, I was going to do what he asked in the end.

            “Do you say that to all the people that tell you to do something?” he shot back.  I stood there stunned, not sure if he was reprimanding me or if it was a serious question.  “You should,” he continued, “always question everything – no matter what.”

            His words still ring in my head to this day.  To question means to not accept the face value that anyone will give you.  With the questions you ask, you will gain the knowledge needed to not be the blind sheep following the shepherd.  To accept whatever a person says – whether that person is an equal or a “superior” – inhibits a person’s freedom and choice.  Not questioning what people say or ask of you limits your freedom and that in itself is where a person’s demise can be seen.

            When a question is asked then an answer must follow; and if no one will provide the answer, then it is your duty – and very much your right – to seek it out for yourself.  This is where the knowledge is gained, found, and used.  Once that knowledge is with you, no person can take it away.  And with this artillery to use throughout a person’s life, he can break through barriers that are placed to stop independent thinking and hurtle the obstacles that have stopped people because they never asked where the key to the locked door is.  Eleanor Roosevelt once said that “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”  If you do not question, then you are allowing them to take you as a blind sheep, to be oblivious to your surroundings, and wear the veil that will obscure the true picture before you.  My teacher asked me to go take a few pictures and report some facts, but I never did take the camera and go about my merry, oblivious way.  It was not my obligation to perform the task; I was not receiving a grade for it like the students in the year book class were.  If I did do the task, I was doing it because someone else didn’t, and that person would receive that grade while I wasted my time.  Question for the knowledge and for your own good.  If you question, you will not let others see you as inferior.  If you question, you will not be led off of the cliff with the rest of the blind herd.

Top 10 Cool Tools for School

Who made the cut for the Top Ten Cool Tools for School?

(1) Andrea's ReadWriteThink 

(2) Victoria's Library of Congress 

(3) Ashley's Educreations

(4) Carly's Free Math Help

(5) Joel's United Streaming

(6) Jonathan's Glogster 

(7) Caitlin's Geometry Toolbox

(8) Angela's Shmoop

(9) Rosa's YouTube

(10) Sammie's TerraClues (I thought it was really handy and cool.) And it never hurts to vote for yourself . . . right? lol

There you have it, readers!

Till Next Time,

-SAS

Cool Tool for Schools

Hey readers,

Let me ask you a question: While in school, was there ever a time where you wish the teacher would make the lesson more fun?  I know I have, so that got me thinking.  With all this fanzy technology around us, how can teachers today use this to the student's (and their own) advantage.  So I surfed around the web and found this awesome website that makes learning fun!!

I love scavenger hunts, and this site offers people the virtual version!!  TerraClues is a scavenger hunting site where teachers can create clues -- or use ones already created by other educators -- the correlate with the class's lesson plan.  These clues can be anything from geography topics, to history, to english, to whatever you are learning.  The teacher makes these clues and the student's job is to find them using the internet.  The best part about this is that the teacher can have their own account to manage which also contains his/her class lists too.  You can give the clues difficulty levels, use either the Google Map or Google Search, and much much more!!!

This is an awesome tool that certainly makes learning fun!  Come one, who doesn't like a scavenger hunt?!  Take a look around TerraClues and even go make your own! Check out the video I found that will help you create your own Hunt!

Till Next Time

-SAS

Apostrophe's the Devil!

Hello, All!

For those of you who are just joining in and didn't read my little bio, my dream is to become an English teacher, or a aclaimed writer -- whichever comes first.  So for my SEDU 183 class, I had to create a lesson plan for a class I would be teaching.  I chose to create an amusing, interactive writing review powerpoint on the topic of aphostrophes, because let's me honest, many people don't know how to use them correctly.  So feel free to flip through the powerpoint and see if your knowledge of the aphostrophe is correct!

The Apostrophe Wants to Fit In

View more presentations from Sammie Schohn.

When first told what the project was about (Create a PowerPoint lesson plan for your students) I thought, "This would be a breeze!"  But after Mr. Smith informed us we had to use PennDot to pick the lesson we where to present.  I hate PennDot.  It made little to no sense, and I felt really restricted even though I already knew what I wanted to teach my peers.  So that was not my favorite part, but the rest of the project totally was!!  I had fun putting together the varying answers and picking the pictures that correleated with whether the student's chocie was right or wrong.  Truely I chose those pictures to amuse myself, I feel like the teacher needs to make the lesson fun for themselves to have a better attitude to teach!  I enjoyed the project and just made me even more sure that I want to be a teacher, even though PennDot was a deal breaker, I got over it.  I believe my love for writing shows through in the PowerPoint because I added my own fun elements and silly sentences that makes the topic even more fun to learn, and keep those rules in the student's head.
But you know, PowerPoints are very helpful in the classroom!  Use mine for example, you can have the students interact with the lesson in order for them to learn more.  No one wants to sit in a hard desk and be lectured to in a monotone voice.  PowerPoints are a great way to get the class up and talking, and to help them learn more in different ways whether by adding videos, links, pictures, diagrams and much more to the PowerPoint.

So don't think that PowerPoints are no good, and can only be used to lecture!  They are fun and interactive, and hey, I add some fun stuff in there to entertain myself as well as the calss!  Leave a comment below to let me know what you have to say, and click my sign out to send me an e-mail asking any questions or telling me what you want to hear.

Till next time,

-SAS