Blog Assignment # 3

Peer Editing
According to the video, "What is Peer Editing?", there are three important steps in editing a classmate's work. Step one is compliments, because it is necessary to stay positive in order to make the student feel good about their assignment. Then suggestions, whether it's about word choice, detail, organization, sentences, or topic. Third and lastly, make corrections. Be specific about punctuation, grammar, and spelling errors. Decide whether or not it is appropriate to do publicly or privately; you do not want to embarrass your classmate. The things to remember are to stay positive, be specific, and complete the three steps with each peer review. The slideshow, "Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial", pretty much includes the same information in the above video.
In "Writing Peer Review Top Ten Mistakes", there are actually eleven mistakes made, which I found interesting. They are: being picky, apathetic, distracted, generalized, mean, loud, pushy, off-task, speedy, or defensive. It is important to remember to take peer reviews on your own work seriously, and to be clear and kind when reviewing another's work. Peer review is very helpful if done correctly. By following the advice of these videos, one can learn how to properly critique a classmate's work without being rude or overcritical. It is also relevant to know how to react to another's criticism of your work, by correcting any mistakes and considering changing things based on their view of what you wrote.
Special Education and Technology

Ms. Lacey Cook, a special education teacher at Campbell Collegiate, implements technology in her classroom to benefit her students. Some of her students cannot talk on their own. They used to use a laminated page with the letters of the alphabet on it. They would point to letters to form words and communicate with their teacher. But now, they use laptops to type what they want to say. Not only does this help the students that lack the ability to speak on their own, but it gets them more interested in their work and excited to complete their assignments.
Ms. Cook also has a student that needs someone to read aloud to him to understand a book during silent reading. He used to have to go into the hall with an assistant, but now he uses an ipod touch and is allowed to stay in the classroom with his fellow students. Technology is a wonderful teaching tool for the disabled because it assists them and allows them to communicate and participate in classwork.
Education Apps For Special Needs Kids
The Itunes Store offers many educational apps for Ipad, Iphone, and Ipod Touch. Based on this video, the Ipad makes learning more exciting and motivates special needs children to learn to read, write, count, etc. One app that I found interesting is called Alphabytes, and uses four basic activities to help kids learn to read and write. They can go through the letters of the alphabet and look at pictures for something that starts with that letter (e.g. E for Elephant), trace the letters and learn to write them, spell basic words, and match letters with pictures of things that start with that letter.
I think this app could be used for kids of all kinds of disabilities to engage in reading and writing. Many kids get discouraged when they mess up or don't catch onto something quickly with just a pencil and paper. But with an Ipad, Iphone, or Ipod Touch, children have fun learning because it's like a game. Using the touch screen is fun and much more exciting than writing on notebook paper or pointing to letters on a laminated page.
Your Students Can Teach You, Too!
Vicki Davis is a teacher in Georgia who likes to use technology in her classroom. She says that you don't have to know everything before you teach it because students are excited to figure out some things for themselves. Davis calls hers self a "teacherprenuer". She instructs her students about new technology and uses a wide variety of terms, which she expects them to look up if they don't know to broaden their vocabulary.
Davis and another teacher, Julie Lindsay, founded Digi Teen, a website used by teachers and students around the world to teach collaboration and digital citizenship. Davis also uses Google Docs for groupwork in her classroom. Her students learn about using avatars in a virtual online program in this video. Edutopia is a useful website that supplies teachers with many useful educational tools.