About Me

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I am a math major hoping to become a high school math teacher sometime in the near future. I enjoy observing the lives of others and helping them in any way possible. Unfortunately, I am not omnipotent, so I can't see everyone or help everyone as much as I'd like to. There's nothing I love more than making people laugh and smile. Nothing else in the world makes me feel more valuable than my ability to give people a glimmer of happiness as often as I can. It's fun, it's easy, and I can do it anywhere!

Monday, May 3, 2010

My PLN

Through Twitter, E-Mail, and Facebook, I have been able to stay in contact with current teachers, like Professors Juarez and Odom, as well as my old teachers such as my teacher from Houston Dr. Brink and high school English teacher Mrs. Rigsby. My PLN is evolving all the time and will probably continue to grow long after I leave college. I will continue to influence people with my Youtube, and I will probably always need a second opinion from a peer to help me educate to my fullest ability. I just need the help of the more experienced teachers to help guide me through my first few years, because I know I won't be able to do it alone.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Farewell For Now.

Dr. Strange,

The lessons that you have taught me this semester will probably stay with me for the rest of my life. At least, until senility hits. Though blogs may haunt me forever, it will be a mark that will remind me that I need to stick to my literacy and make sure I never fall behind, lest I may have to take the course again... Which I don't think I have the ability to do... It's terrifying. Thank you for teaching me how to stay ahead of the others. This will probably give me an amazing edge on my path to become Teacher of the Year, my ultimate goal. Perhaps one day, I will be teaching this course in your stead. Please take care and maybe we will see each other again one day.

--Cuong Do



My Fellow Classmates,

We did it. It's over. He may not have been as tough to get through as Juarez, but it certainly went by just about as difficult. Never fall behind the technological standards. You don't want another visit from Dr. Strange. It was difficult enough to handle the first time, I don't think round two would be any smoother. Just be strong, and be wise. We have our whole lives ahead of us, and our careers haven't even started yet. However, thanks to Dr. Strange and Dr. Juarez, I have a feeling that we are way ahead of our future colleagues. Take care, and maybe I will see you on the graduating stage.

Your fellow survivor,
Cuong Do

The Final Post...

1. Things We've Covered

I've known about pretty much everything we have covered in this course for years, however, I have never actively used them so much in my life. Blogging, wiki, Skype, Google, Google Earth, podcasting, iTunes, iTunes U, the list goes on and on. All of these I knew of, but never used to adamantly. I literally had to use most of these just to SURVIVE the course!

Blogs have haunted me all semester. Every week for 4 months, there has been nothing that has stalked me more than the weekly blogs from the EDM 310 class. However, I will not say that each week was without its lessons. The blogging allowed me to express what I did or did not understand, which would later be explained by someone else.

Google, in all of its forms (Google search, GMail, Google Docs, iGoogle), has proven to be infinitely useful. Not just because of the file sharing and such, but the many different sites that your Google account gives you access to, such as Blogger and Youtube. If anyone had a Gmail account, they would soon realize that they had a lot more at their fingertips than just an everyday e-mail site.

Comments4Kids, Teachers, and classmates were interesting experiences. It let me see the differences between students and teachers. It also let me consider how different things for these children are than they were for me as a child. I don't think computers even had a large purpose back when I was in elementary school. As well, watching evolution right before my eyes in my classmates as I see how they were at the beginning of the course to where they are now. How intriguing to watch how people think and act change right in front of me.

There were very many components to this class that I still do not understand the purpose of using. Such as Delicious and Twitter. Why did we have to use them? Why not just use Facebook and the built in bookmarker that is given to each browser? It really did not make sense to me. And what is Picasa? I don't recall using that even once this semester.

2.Woulda Coulda Shoulda

I literally can't think of anything that I don't feel that we did enough of. Everything was discussed or read more than enough to get the point across. I kind of wish we went through more technologies though. Like more in depth about computers or iSoftware or iTechnology. Or maybe we could have done more about the White Board. That could have been pretty cool.

3. Some Things You Wish You Never Knew

I can't really think of anything that I would actively try to unlearn. Everything discussed was pretty useful. I can't imagine anyone that wouldn't find value in the things learned in this course. At least some sort of value in it. Even if just a little.

4. Exciting?!

Exciting? Not really. Because every time I walked into class, that's exactly what it felt like. Another class. Unfortunate, but true.

5. Intellectual Challenge

The most challenging part about the entire course was keeping up with it. Just always knowing what had to be done when it had to be done. Other than that, it wasn't too difficult. Just hard to keep up with.

6. Bored

Just some of the topics were boring really. Sometimes I felt like it was a waste of time, just for me personally. I don't know if everyone felt the same way about the same topics, but for me I found some things to be tedious. Most of the Comments4Kids were insightful, but overall just boring. They were really short and usually didn't say anything of interest. Comments4Teachers was pretty much in the same ball park, just longer. Most of the time it felt like it was just to tell the teachers that we read it, but wasn't interesting enough to retain any information.

7. Change the Course?

I guess the course could be more entertaining. It seemed like the course was mostly busy work and lacked amusement and entertainment. There was a lot of work, but if it were more fun, it would probably seem less like work.

8. Tech Literate?

I personally believed that I was technologically literate before I entered this class. It definitely helped add to what I already knew. I believe I am pretty strongly technologically literate.

9. Maintaining My Literacy

I will just keep on doing what I've been doing. Remember and retain everything I knew, brush up on what I have learned in EDM 310, and evolve with the technological trend as I move along. I don't think I will ever be technologically illiterate. I will continue to learn and use it in the classroom when I get there. Just you wait and see.