My Blog Comments II

Amber
Jenny
Heather
Emily
Angelyna
Teixeira

End of Semester Reflection

At the beginning of the semester I set a goal, to grow myself and learn more about teaching and technology in education. Throughout the semester I took steps to ensure that I continued to learn more as a student and as a teacher. I read a wide range of educator blogs and accumulated a fair amount of tools and resources, some of which I shared in my resource toolbox project. I also experimented with new technologies like Google Earth and brainstormed ideas on how I would integrate these technologies into class projects and lessons. During my teacher interviews and classroom observations I made it a point to ask many questions and learn as much as I could about their advice and experiences with teaching. It's been an exciting experience this semester because I've learned so much and I plan to continue to be proactive in my learning in the semesters to come! If you'd like to read more about my goal that I planned at the beginning of the semester, click here.

Software Programs: Kidspiration and Chalksite

Kidspiration
Kidspiration is a creative, visual learning program that incorporates the use of pictures and icons to enhance students' learning in various subjects like reading, writing, science, social studies, and mathematics. This program would be excellent for various projects. I love how user-friendly it is and how educational the templates they provide are. I was able to easily create a few fun documents of my own and export it as a .jpg image in order to send it via email or publish it on the web. Kidspiration documents can also be saved as Word documents for easy saving or printing purposes.

-Prewriting or brainstorming
-Story Webs
-Timelines
-Venn Diagrams
-Graphs and Charts
-Grouping and Classifying





Chalksite
Chalksite is an online grade book program that provides its services free for the teacher and first 5 student accounts. I thought it was relatively easy to use and the way in which it was organized in different tabs was extremely efficient. We were able to practice adding students, assignments, and grades and it was all straightforward. Chalksite also provides a website through the grade book account which I think is a nice option to have and makes it so teachers don't have to create another account through another company to host their class website.

Word, Excel, Powerpoint OH MY!

Below is a list of the features I use most often in the following programs.

Word
-Draw Tools (create a line/shape, textbox)
-Word Count
-Formatting Palette (font, list, spacing)
-Zoom In/Out
-Borders

Excel
-Insert/delete row
-Formatting Palette

Powerpoint
-Slides
-Slide Design
-Transitions
-Insert Pictures/Clip Art


Students can learn how to use these programs through simple or complex assignments such as:

Word
Keyboarding exercises
Typing up an essay, poem, or story

Excel
Data entry from a class science experiment's information
Data entry from a class survey or other statistics

Powerpoint
An "About Me and My Family" presentation near the beginning of the school year
Group presentation on a particular topic
Yearbook Presentation-End of the year collaborative classroom Powerpoint that includes pictures and video of different classroom activities and projects that were done that year

Education Blogs

I explored the Free Tech 4 Teachers blog today and found so many great resources and ideas it is difficult for me to pick just one post to share. You can click here to view a large list of some of the resources. I am probably most excited about the learning potential behind virtual tours. Through the World Wide Web teachers can take their class on numerous fieldtrips without ever leaving the classroom. You can click here to read the full post; it basically introduces two virtual tours, one to the Vatican Museums and one to China's Forbidden City. These tours are a fabulous way to bring history to life in the classroom and provide an authentic learning experience for them. It makes learning more dynamic and engaging. Students could also "visit" the Lincoln Memorial, or any number of other tours available online. I looked up "virtual tours" in Google and came up with a number of possibilities which I listed below and will likely add to as I discover more. Fieldtrips online are something I had never even considered before but it is a great idea. Students can begin by researching a famous or historical location and finish the project by actually viewing panoramas and videos of the site as a class. This is also the perfect opportunity to integrate cultural music and art.

Other Virtual Tours:
Israel, Israel map
Additional Virtual Tours
Even More Virtual Tours

K-12 Online Conference

I chose to listen to the "Kicking it up a Notch: Games in Education" K-12 conference. You can click here to listen to it.

Games have been an important element throughout history in virtually every society. Games are not a new idea, they have been around forever, but it is how we use games to teach and to learn that is key. Students who are given the opportunity to reflect upon their game experience in interpersonal communication are more likely to be more engaged with the learning. "Edutainment games" like Reader Rabbit or Math Blaster are most prevalent in schools but are not nearly as effective as other types of game play. These games do not provide authentic learning experiences but are more focused on being fun. Serious games are designed to go deeper and have greater intrinsic value. One example of a serious game is Ayiti: The Cost of Life. This game requires important decision-making and leads players to consider the real world issues of poverty and the right to education. The conference presented two important elements to game play in education. First, it requires time to learn and experience the activity to it's fullest extent, and second, the teacher must act as a guide in the learning process. A game must be engaging, factually accurate, and combined with critical thinking. Teachers should consider how they will let everyone in the class have a turn, possible reflective activities they might use, and how to integrate game play into the curriculum content. I learned a lot about what is crucial when integrating game play into the classroom and how to make it an authentic learning experience. A game that will lend itself to learning will most likely involve one of the following skills:

• Problem-solving
• Collaboration
• Curriculum connections
• Logic
• Strategy

Other games that the conference mentions:
Line Rider
Light Bot
Physics Phun Sandbox (video)
Quest Atlantis
River City Ransom
Squeakland

Credit: "Kicking it up a Notch Games in Education"

"Caught on Video" by Bob Spankle

First of all, let me say that his is a really great article. Spankle's suggestions for how to use Flip Video in the classroom opened my eyes to the possibilities! I especially love these ideas...

-Filming a student on the first day of school asking her what her dreams/hopes/goals are for the school year. Playing that back towards the end of the year and asking her to reflect on it.
-Constantly capture the excitement of learning from each student.

-Capture all that great “Hands-on,” experiential learning that can never be captured by a traditional assessment.


Wouldn't these make for a wonderful video montage for parents to see at the end of the year? I am intrigued by Spankle's idea of video footage as concrete assessment and evidence of learning, particularly on a regular basis throughout the year. I think that if integrated seamlessly in a well-thought out plan it would be extremely useful! This article taught me a lot about the ways in which to use video recording in the classroom and how it might be used as an assessment tool or a way to update parents on their child's progress. I believe students would enjoy sharing parts of their learning experience with their families too!

Credit: Caught on Video by Bob Spankle

ActivBoard and Clickers

Last week we visited an elementary classroom and learned about the Activboard and clickers from the teacher. The Activboard appeared to be very similar to the Smartboard except that you could not write on it with anything but the special pen. The clickers (Smartboard) or voters (Activboard), which I believe are similar to the ones that they use at UW in some of the classrooms, are an excellent way to quickly quiz or get feedback from students. It's a great way to assess students' knowledge while at the same time protecting student privacy. I love the idea of having a diagram with empty a,b,c,d labels and multiple choice answers for students to answer.

My Blog Comments

Emily

Angelyna

Heather

Teixeira

Jenny

Amber

Progress on my Goal

This semester I decided I wanted to focus on my own growth as a student and as a future teacher. My desire is to discover engaging ways in which I can teach my students, and how I can incorporate technology into my classroom. My plan was to learn from others in the educational field and build a foundation of knowledge that will hopefully make my teaching both efficient and effective. Specifically, the National Educational Technology Standard that I chose to devote my time to was #5 Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership. You can read more about the details of my plan here.

This semester I have been reading many blogs by teachers and others in the educational field. They have a lot of helpful feedback! I've found many valuable resources through their websites; once you find a really good blog (one that goes in-depth and has a lot of "meat") you're likely to find even more great blogs that they follow. I've been keeping an organized document of all the helpful links and online tools that I'll likely refer to when I begin teaching. I cannot tell you how excited I get when I learn about a fabulous teaching idea! Additionally, at every classroom observation I've been conducting, I ask key questions of the teacher that I feel gives me a better idea of what to expect when I start teaching. I feel that I can learn so much from their experiences. Some of what I've learned I have shared here on this blog with my personal reflections on how I would use this information in my teaching. It will be interesting to see what else I learn this semester and what I can share with all of you!

HTML

I believe I first learned HTML while in junior high. I learned the basics online including how to change the background color of a page, manipulate font (bold, italic, size), create bullet points, include a link, make a table/chart and make a divider bar. I've forgotten a lot and could probably use a refresher course, but there are a few key basics I can still recall. I likely learned a little bit while I was in high school, but I honestly don't remember if I did or not!



We went over some basic HTML and practiced writing code in class on textedit (for Macs), I think a lot of it came back to me pretty quickly. There are definitely a lot faster ways to create a website, but I feel that sometimes HTML makes things a little less complicated. I know when we were using Weebly to create a sample class website some of the functions were just more trouble than than it was worth!

The School Website

I decided to take a look at Maywood Elementary's website, this elementary school is a part of the Northshore school district. Upon entering the site, I was instantly struck by the organized link bar on the left hand side of the page. It made navigating the website fast and efficient, I didn't have to search far to find what I was looking for. The homepage was clearly marked as Maywood's website and displayed important upcoming events. I especially liked that the website listed the staff directory complete with email contact information. I have found while trying to contact schools to set up observations that some schools do not even have the email address of the principal or office manager available. The only thing I found confusing is that when I went to the "About Maywood" page it would display a different sidebar of links on the lefthand side and so I had to go back to the main page in order to see the original (and more complete) sidebar of links. Overall, I found that Maywood's website was excellent!

Credit: Maywood Elementary

Reflections on Generation IM

I was somewhat surprised and caught off-guard at the technology statistics that the article shared. I find that a lot of what the article saying is true, I see it in the lives of my younger siblings, in classrooms, and what I hear about on the news. I agree that it is perhaps more than just teaching them new information and how to use that information, it is about teaching them about what they already have learned and will learn from outside sources and how to evaluate it for credibility.

"Young people spend about 6.5 hours a day outside of school using media. That’s more than 44 hours a week reading, surfing the Internet, playing video games, listening to music, and watching TV."

There are three main barriers addressed in the article which are common reasons why technology is not used more in the educational setting. The first two have to do with educators' own knowledge and development of technological skills. This gives me hope that I can take my learning into my own hands and prevent my classroom from being the one that's "behind the times". It seems to me that the key is to constantly be an active learner and explorer so that I know what is out there and the new possibilities that I can integrate into my teaching. The most current and freshly developed ways to integrate technology into one's classroom is blogging, social networking, podcasts, wikis, social bookmarking, video technology, and google maps. This is a great place to start, but I know there currently are and will be more technological resources as the world continues to develop, and I intend to discover them!

Credit: Generation IM

Beginning of Semester Reflection

Technology's role in the grade school classroom is like a wide plain, it is full of possibilities. Students are learning more and more from the technology available to them outside of class, and at a younger and younger age. As educators, we have the opportunity to benefit from their strong interest in technology and use it to our advantage. If they are interested in learning about marine life, we can take the time and provide credible and age appropriate resources through websites and books that they can reserve through the public library online. Through the use of class blogs, video and audio clips, and wikis, teachers can enhance their lesson plans and make them come to life at a whole new level. Awareness of the technology available to us is the first step, and taking action and implementing these technologies into our classrooms is the next. Through technology, I feel that the classroom can become a much bigger and more interesting place, and both teaching and learning can reach astronomical heights.

Interactive White Boards

This study involved a class of sixteen 1st grade students. On some days they used the digital whiteboard in their literacy lessons and on other days they did not. Due to the fact that there are many additional variables involved, no conclusive evidence was reported.

"The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between use of the digital whiteboard as a delivery tool for literacy instruction in a first grade classroom and student attention to and participation in the literacy lessons. Student attention was identified as looking at the speaker, looking at the digital whiteboard, looking at reading material, manipulating props and materials used to present material during the literacy lessons, and not manipulating other materials that are not a part of the literacy lesson."

I learned from this article that the more actively engaged students are with their learning, especially when they get to interact with the materials, the more likely they will be motivated to learn. In addition to engaging students, teachers have to consider building upon prior knowledge, pacing their lessons so students are ready for the next concept, and a creating well-focused lesson plans. The article suggests using dark, large print and the use of text boxes to emphasize the essential concepts in the presentation of information. The article also states that "short meaningful chunks of information for short intense periods is more beneficial than lengthy lessons". I believe the idea of small chunks of information is key to the success of students' learning, and would like to read more about it. In the study, the students used the digital whiteboard to read text and write on the SMART board during their literacy lessons. I love how in the article they mentioned some of the students' responses to using the SMART Board, one child's response was: "My finger is magic". Based off of student response, they loved any opportunity to use the SMART board and in this way be actively involved. The SMART Board seems to me to be an excellent teaching tool because of the many levels that a class can get involved through the use of it. Also, the excitement that students have regarding the SMART Board is reason enough for teachers to at least consider integrating it into their classroom!

Credit: The Digital Whiteboard As a Tool in Increasing Student Attention During Early Literacy Instruction (found via SMART Board website)

Turning on the Lights: Students Today

I agree with the idea that school opens the doors to learning new things about the world we live in. For me, school has definitely taught me ways in which to think critically so that I don't merely swallow everything I see or am told. I have begun to see how today's youth come to school with an entirely different background of knowledge than the youth of yester year. This particular quote stood out to me, that, "Teachers would no longer be the providers of information but instead would be the explainers, the context providers, the meaning makers, and the evaluators of information that kids find on their own" (Prensky).



I think that learning about both the past and preparing for the future is crucial to a well-rounded education. I learned about Prensky's four practices, and think that the practices that Prensky introduced in his article are excellent suggestions for schools to consider. The idea that we take advantage of technology rather than ban it, getting feedback from students and parents, connecting students to the world, and considering the future are such relevant topics in any type of classroom.

Credit: Turning on the Lights by Marc Prensky

My Story

My decision to become a teacher stems from my love for children and my love for learning. My desire is to inspire the passion for learning in my students, whether it be a joy for learning the arts, science or mathematics! Though I am only a single individual, I’d like to be a positive influence in the educational domain. I’ve begun this process by being a leader in my own life through volunteer work and mission work to serve the community, both locally and globally. If you have not read Jeremiah 29:11, I encourage you to do so! This verse speaks to me so much as a student and as a future teacher. My desire is to help build a solid foundation for my students' future and inspire in them the desire to learn and be all they can! It may change in the future, but as of today I would ideally like to teach second grade. I have heard so many amazing things about this grade level and my experiences with second grade students has been remarkable. I will not limit myself though, and will happily work with children of all ages.