Screencast Blog

I chose to reflect on Jamie Maurus' screecast. This screencast was WONDERFUL! I can really see that Jamie has had multiple experiences with technology. Everything on her page was so well organized and she had SO many sites and resources. Her voice thread was so natural sounding and she was very prepared when she gave the "tour". I like how she explained many aspects of what she learned that were both included in her screencast but also links that took you outside of the screencast. It helped that she actually went to google docs rather than just telling you about. This just showed me how even when you have been teaching for a couple years you are still learning and exploring. Overall, I think Jamie did a spectacular job and it was a pleasure having her in my house!

Reflection Blog

I can honestly say I learn so much by taking this course. I was hesitant to take this class at first because I am not a huge technology fan but I can say that I picked up on many different skills and resources that I would never have come across if it weren't for this class. I never realized how benefitial technology is to students learning. Before my education classes I always heard children and technology spoken in a negative way but now I see so many advantages.

It was great to be able to communicate with my classmates through blogs, facebook and email. This definitely makes cooperative learning easier. I also was exposed to various new ideas by scoping out other classmates work. Everyone has done such and excellent job.

I think I have come along way throughout this course. It was a struggle at first to try to teach myself new skills that I was unfamiliar with but the more often I used my computer, the easier the labs became! I look forward to implementing technology into my own classroom as well as show others what I have learned!

Smart board sighting....

Today was the first day I had ever seen a smart board!! We had a presentation today by a student who works in the TIES department in the College of Ed. She showed us the many possibilities of using a smart board in the classroom. It is SO cool. I think it is awesome to have a million sources in one unit (internet/white board/powerpoints). On these smart boards you are able to write with a "marker" but can change the writing to highlighting. I think this keeps thing organized and is just another way to incorporate technology into your teaching.

One thing I thought was a disadvantage of the bored is that only one person can write on it at once. This would make it impossible for more than one student to "go to the board" and post their answers. Students would have to go up one by one which can take up a lot of time.

Overall, I thought being introduced to the Smartboards today is essential to my future teaching. Smartboards are becoming more popular and soon they will be in the majority of classroom. Teachers are going to be expected to know how to use this technology.

Next year's internship!!

Recently I had received my placement information for next year. I have been placed in Gompers Elementary School in Detroit Public Schools. I was hesitant at first that there would be little technology being in the DPS but after doing some research I found out that they are building a brand new 20.5 million dollar building that will be open this September! This new building is guaranteed to have multiple technology resources. I can't wait to see what's included. Hopefully I will be able to incoporate some of the things I learned through this class in my lesson planning next year. Wish me luck!

http://www.modeldmedia.com/devnews/gomperspark031511.aspx

Smart Phones-- can they be used in classrooms?

I have heard that smart phones are a form of technology that can be used in the classroom. I guess I am just unsure how these can be a positive attribution. I would think that students would misuse the technology and use it for other purposes. Also, if a student wants to pull out there phone to look something up on the internet or use a calculator, do you?

Someone in my other class mentioned that there is a way to set up a poll/clicker questions and you just text your answer to the number to get accounted for. She said that many students liked this because they got to use their phones in school. I would definitely think that would be the case since so many are "addicted" to their phones.

Wikispace

I found wikispace easy to use. I had to explore around a little to find the different edit buttons, but once I did it was very simple to update. I think this would be a useful site if you had team teaching or were working with a Collaborating Teacher. In this case both of you could edit the pages. I think that it is great that they will show you the recent changes so you won't ever loose your documents. I thought the wiki for CEP 416 was a great site for our class since we were doing so much sharing of work. It makes so simple to just go to the site to see what is going on and post your own documents to share.

Unlike a blog or webbly, there is less creativity options. To me, a wiki seems more professional but not necessarily as "fun". All three of these types of websites make it easy to communicate amongst individuals all over. Blogs are usually more opinion base of the writers where others comments, webbly are more informative, and finally wikis allow multiple people to edit the pages. I see how each has their positive attributes.

Google Docs

I absolutely love Google docs. Before this assignment I had never been introduced to them.. crazy right? Now I have used them with multiple groups in my TE classes the past week.

For the classroom, I think these are great ways of getting in touch with your peers for group projects. It makes things so much easier instead of finding time to meet. I think this is a great new form of group work. Also, it is SO easy to build a powerpoint presentation. I think this should also be introduced to students because it is so fast and easy. Also, it is great if you are assigning a project that can be both worked on at home and at school. Finally, teachers can create documents that students can access to write on their opinions and information too.

I think the only downside of Google Docs is that you need to make sure you trust your students not to mess with anyone's work besides their own, since you can edit others information if the whole group has access to edit.

"Nerd Day"

Last week in my placement it was spirit week, so each kid was asked to dress up to school in differnt themes. The day I happened to be there was "nerd day". I was quite confused when some of the students in my classroom were wearing taped glasses, jeans that were too short with high white socks and suspenders. One little girl even had "NERD" written across her forehead. I was so confused until the principle wished the students a "happy nerd day" via loud speaker.

I was sort of bothered by all of this. This was promoting stereotypes to children as young as five years old. Why was this necessary? Only one girl in this class wore glasses on a regular basis. I wonder if she now feels like a "nerd" since nearly her whole class was poking fun of children with glasses. I suppose I just thought that there are plenty of other Spirit Day ideas that don't stereotype and can be just as fun.

Choice Technology- Letterpop

I had just written a blog entry on communication between parents and students and shortly after I came across a website called Letterpop.com. This website provides many different templates to help make professional newsletters, announcements, and invitations (to name a few).

While exploring this site I came across many "school" related templates. These templates were colorful and designed for teachers. The templates give you plenty of space to write your text as well as upload pictures. You can change your font as well as spacing. I love this because you can pretty much design your work anyway you would like.

I think the site is set up is user friendly. There are plenty of instructions and it does not take much time to create the newsletter since the template is already created. I think this is a great tool for teachers since it is quick and easy and more than just a word document. I think parents would appreciate the extra "time" that teachers put in if their newsletter looks like one of these.

Go to http://letterpop.com/ to view examples and create your own!

Reading is Key

This past weekend my sorority put on a philanthropy at the Boys and Girls club in Lansing, called Reading is Key. For the event we set up different stations that incorporated some type of literacy activity, as well as some miscellaneous "fun" games. Some of the stations were reading stories, making bookmarks and playing word bingo. It was so fantastic to see all of these children so excited to be surrounded by literacy. This really showed me that if you (the teacher) are excited about a subject or activity it is very likely that the students will become excited as well.

Another part of the philanthropy was donating hundreds of books to the center. It felt so rewarding to see all of the books filling up the tables at the back of the room. Each child got to pick three to take home and the rest stay at the center. These students were sooooo excited to look through all of the books and decide which they were interested in the most. This was another time that I realized how important it is to present children with many different reading material. I remember a professor once explained to our class that as long as you can get children reading the content does not matter (in the sense of reading for pleasure).

I thought this philanthropy was so much fun and so rewarding as a future teacher. I hope to be able to come back to the Boys and Girls club to do more events! :)

Parent Communication

One of the things that I think is very important to students learning is good parent/teacher communication. I thin there are many ways that teachers can stay connected with parents. First, I think it is important for teachers to start the year with open arms to all of the parents/care givers of his/her students. This can be done by sending a letter home but I think an even more personal way to form a connection with the parents is by phone call or actually going over to the students house. I think you can get to know your students by getting to know their parents. If the parents are comfortable with the teacher right at the beginning, the parents will probably be more likely to come to the teacher if they have questions or concerns.

Another way to stay connected with your parents throughout the year is by handing out weekly news letters that explain what is going on each week. This way the parents are in the loop and nothing should be a surprise. Finally, I think it is important to make phone calls home every so often when the child has been exceptionally good. Parents need to hear the good just as much they do the bad.

Kindergarten Comprehension

For my TE 402 class we were asked to read an article titled "Kindergarten Can Do It Too". This article discussed learning strategies to test early readers comprehension. I thought it was very interesting since I could relate to it since I am in a Kindergarten classroom for my placement. From observing my placement kindergarten class, I notice that the kindergarteners know and understand that being a good reader means being fluent however, they don't necessarily understand how to make connections and comprehend what they are reading. This article gave great techniques to get students to strategically comprehend what they are reading. The teacher in the article explains to her students what a schema is. I thought this was interesting since that is a pretty advanced concept for five year olds, but the teacher explained it in a sense that the students understood. She is hoping that by knowing this concept the students will make connections between the book and the outside.

Students make a "c" with their hand if they have a connection to share, a "v" if they have a visualization to share or they wiggle their finger if they have a question. Since the students have these techniques they are constantly listening for comprehension and making these text to self connections. Also, the teacher can gauge an understanding for where the students are in their learning. I thought it was great that she made a chart of questions before the book, during the reading, and after. This shows the students how the class is visually thinking.

I think that my kindergarten students in my placement would be able to use these strategies after much practice. While my CT or myself read, the students tend to get way off topic. I think that these strategies would really help them stay on focus. Overall, I loved these strategies. I'm hoping to try them out if I teach early readers!

I thought these might be some strategies you may like to try as well!

Importance of centers in early elementary.

I think the most productive part of the day during my kindergarten placement is when the students are participating in center time. During center time, the teacher assigns students a different game or task to do either individually or with a partner. There is rarely ever behavior problems when it comes to this time and guess this is due to the fact that they have a little more free time then the other times of the day. While the students are busy playing their game, reading in the book center or practicing their writing, my CT is able to do reading or math assessments with small groups and a table. She can focus on a smaller number of kids which is beneficial to each child's learning. Each group is strategically chosen based on their skill level. This way they are all primarily on the same page and have the same struggles. Without center time, my CT would struggle to collect any type of reading assessments.

My responsibility during center times is to call students over that need more one on one focus when it comes to practicing their phonics or numbers. Here we play "fun" games that allow the students to work on their skills. Usually these games are fast pace and I am able to get through about half of the class. Overall, I think students both need center time to have fun and work independently as well as get the one on one time with the teacher that is needed. Teachers also need this time to get their assessments done and develop a deeper look into the progress of each and every child.

Digital story

Sisters are Forever. on PhotoPeach



I enjoyed learning about this technology. I think this would be a great tool to use in the classroom for students of all ages. I chose to base this "lesson" around poetry. Students could either find a poem or write their own poem and then find visual clips that accompany the poem to tell the story. This is a great way for students to use their creativity. When thinking of ideas, I also thought of using this tool to learn more about your students. You could have the students compose an "About me" digital story where they could talk about their family and where they're from- the possibilities are endless.

As a teacher, I could teach a lesson with the information embedded in the digital story. The combination of the visual and audio will help students of all learning style.

I really have nothing negative to say about this program and my experience creating my story. The uploads were fast and easy and everything on the site was easy to comprehend and navigate. I will definitely be using this program in my teaching.

TPACK and Video Recording

One technology that I think students would enjoy practicing is video recording. In video recording telling students can use their creativity to tell their own stories in a visual learning sense. They can also use this technology to tell a story that they have heard but add visuals and voice overs to make the story come to life. Also, teachers can use the digital storytelling to teach lessons to their students. For instance, a teacher may like to create a video to tell the story of the first thanksgiving in for a social studies lesson. This may help students see the visuals in order to learn the content. This goes perfectly with the TPACK. When students are assigned to use the video recording as an assignment they are both practicing the technology along with learning the content.
I think that the most positive attribute of this technology is that it gets students to both learn content as well as practice technology. Also, it seems as though it would be enjoyable to students of all ages.Some of the cons of this technology is that if resources such as a video camera aren't available students wouldn't be able to complete the assignment. Also, students may get wrapped up in the creativity and lose focus of the content objective. With all this said, I strongly believe that the pros out weigh the cons.

Flickr!

Creative Commons part II

This is a photo I licensed with Creative Commons.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/59760530@N06/5463008380/

Creative Commons

Photo Attribution:
[[Image:Harvard food pyramid 9652.png|thumb|description]]

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Here is an image I found on the Creative Commons site. My Kindergarten class has been recently learning about the food pyramid so I thought this image would be helpful to display and explain the the class.

Copyright

In this day and age, more than ever, it is important to teach students about copyright. It is so easy to "steal" music, pictures and other pieces of work with technology making it so accessible. We need to teach our children at a young age how so important it is to site work if it is others. This goes along with not plagiarizing others work as well. Young students might not understand why things must be sited if they are copyrighted so it is good to have a discussion in the classroom around the whys, as well as have the students practice how to properly site different types of work, such as photos.

SKYPE

Just recently we were asked to have a meet and greet with our instructor via Skype. This is a really great piece of technology. The program allows you to get connected with people that are all over the world. This program makes business meetings so much easier. Rather than flying people across the country and across the wold, people can meet via Skype. This reminds me of a movie called "Up in the Air". In this film, a company asks a young professional to fire people over a program like Skype instead of face to face. She absolutely hates it because it is so impersonal. Now that I have touched on a business perspective, I wonder what a classroom could do with Skype? Maybe talk with pen pals in another country? Or meet with their teacher if they have any homework questions? I think this is a really great and easy to use program that connects people on an even more personal basis.

Kindergarten Math Interview

Today I conducted a math interview for my TE 402 class. My goal of the interview was to see how familiar the students were with measurements. This includes the tools they use to measure and the units. I was surprised to see that not many of the students were familiar with measurements. They did not even know what to call the scale that I placed in front of them. There was only one of the five students that was familiar with what a cars speed is measured by and how to find out how a orange weighs. When I asked her how she knew this she responded with "My mom told me her car goes 25 mph". Unlike the other students, this student has been exposed to multiple resources back home. This really showed me how important it is for young students to be exposed to as much as possible back home and at school. The more we can introduce to students the better chance that they will be able to retain this information later on when it is presented.

Thoughts on Lesson Planning...

Before taking my TE401 class, I had absolutely noooo idea on how in depth lesson planning can be. To be truthfully honest I my impression of a lesson plan was simply writing down what you want to accomplish for that day. I have come to learn that lesson plans can and should be much more detailed than that.

When I began writing my first science lesson plan in TE401, I was annoyed at first about how much work was going into this one lesson. It wasn't until I taught my lesson to the Kindergarten class that I realized how great it was that I had all of the necessary components on my plan. While we all know things never go exactly how planned, it is so nice to have a guide in front of you that you can alter when need be. I've also learned that lesson plans serve as historic achieves. You can use them over and over again the next years. You will be able to note what worked and what didn't and this will help you tweak them for the specific group of students.

Although lesson plans do take much time and thought but before I know it I will be an expert and it will come much easier!

Youtube!

Throughout my TE classes, I have heard over and over that we may be faced with many challenges in our classroom. One of these challenges is the lack of technology resources or restrictions placed. From my experience in the classroom and browsing the web I have come to realize how much stuff is on Youtube. There is nearly everything!! This is a great source for any classroom as long as you have internet connection. I bet that you can find something to fit any lesson you are teaching on Youtube. Youtube is also a way to show a real-life scenario if it is impossible to see on your own. For instance, if you are teaching a science unit on volcanoes, you can pull up a clip of a real-life volcanic eruption. Or if you don't have the funds to take students to a petting zoo, you can bring the petting zoo to you. The opportunities are endless! Also, watching these clips are enjoyable to the students. However, one important thing to keep in mind is that you need to choose clips for students that are both meaningful and enjoyable.

Now that you have the idea that you may want to use Youtube in the classroom you need to check out if it is blocked on your school's internet. Many times it is. Now what? Well one of my TE401 professors brought up a great idea that I had never thought of. You can find the clip when at your home the night before and save it to a flash drive. You can then bring it in and it should work. This just comes to show that with every challenge there is a solution!

Where do I fall...?

I read the article "Digital Denizens" (http://www.stockton.edu/~intech/spotlight-digital-denizens.htm). This article discusses the different type of technology users. After reading the different descriptions, I came to realize that I am a Digital Native. This means that I have grown up with technology and feel confident with most technology presented. This seems to be right in the middle of the spectrum. One one end there is the digital recluse and on the other there is the digital addict. I think it is mind blowing to think about those who refuse to use technology. These people are usually those of older generations who lived just perfectly fine before any technology was invented and probably feel no need in learning to use it at this point in time. I on the other hand am lost without my blackberry. It is crazy the difference in attitude about technology.

As teachers, we need to realize that the world is only going to get more technologically advanced and students need to be caught up with the technology that is being used around them. This means that we as teachers need to stay up to date as well. We need to stay in the know constantly about what the new uses of technologies are. This is one of the reasons I see this class as beneficial. It really forces you to explore technology uses that you may have never heard of otherwise. I will continue on my technology learning in hopes that I will bring new ideas to many students some day.

Week 2- The Use of Twitter

I never thought I would create a twitter account. I always thought that it was simply a waste of time and energy. I got this impression from the amount of time my roommates and friends checked their twitter account or how many times they talked about hash tags or celebrity gossip. Near the end of fall semester, I decided just maybe I should create one to see what all the hype is about. I added my friends and was getting requests to be followed as well, but to be completely honest I never was interesting in tweeting or reading what others had going on that day or their random thoughts. I still gave it a try but can still say I am not a big fan. Maybe one reason for this is that I don't know what to tweet about? Or that I never know of a clever "hashtag" or maybe because I don't understand retweeting or why you need to tag someone in a post?

However, this class has brought me to realize that Twitter can connect people on a more professional level rather than just gossip between friends or celebrities. I now see that professionals will tweet interesting articles or ideas that may be useful in my teaching and professional life. I am willing to try to give Twitter another chance and try to become more familiar with it since it is a popular social network. As for in the classroom, I am not sure how this technology can be useful for students. I can see students getting way off topic and using Twitter for other than communicating ideas with their classmates. I guess, I just feel that blogging may be more beneficial and easier to manage and use for students communication. It would be a more structured way. I guess, I am wondering are there other ways you can use Twitter in the classroom?

HELLO!

Hello! My name is Molly Shelton! I am a Senior at Michigan State University. I am studying Elementary Education with a focus in Language Arts. I can't wait to have my own classroom! Currently, I am doing my placement in a Kindergarten classroom.
I have little experience with technology. While I can say that I am a pro at working my Smart Phone and Facebook, I am not that experienced with blogging or other software. I am proficient at Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and browsing the web but I would love to add many more skills to the list.
Through this class I hope to learn how to use many knew technologies that will both help me in my everyday life, as well as in the classroom. I hope to use technology in my classroom to make learning more fun!