Friday, July 20, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Project 13
Project 15, Smart Board Instruction Part 2, was a little different from our other projects. We were unable to meet face to face during the planning period. This could have been difficult, but having the group that I did made it very easy. Everyone was able to cooperate and get the planning done without ever meeting in person.
The planning started via texting and Face Time. We contacted each other using these tools to give our ideas and input for our lesson. Considering we are all majoring in elementary education it was pretty easy for us to decide that we wanted to create a lesson for kindergarteners. The lesson we ended up teaching was on patterns.
Once the ideas started flowing, Google Docs became very useful. We each created two slides for our lesson. Once everything was created and put together, we met in the lab to film us teaching our lesson.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Final Report on PLN
My PLN has constantly been improving. I am getting more and more comfortable with Symbaloo and my organization skills have become even better. I have become more comfortable and efficient using the tools that EDM 310 has introduced to me.
C4T 4
Post 1: Denise Krebs’ post was about her great experience of presenting at the Iowa Reading Conference. She presented the session “Joining the Conversation”. She explained how grateful she was for the help that her PLN gave her. She concluded by saying how much more confident and passionate she has become as a teacher.
Comment 1: I began by introducing myself. I congratulated her on her presentation. I said that she seemed to be very passionate about what she does and that I believe that I too am passionate about teaching.
Post 2: In Denise Krebs’ post she shred the link to GoodReads.com. She shared all of the books that she has read throughout this summer. She has read professional books, children’s friction books, children’s non-fiction books, and short stories.
Comment 2: I commented by thanking her for sharing the link to GoodReads.com. I then let her know that I visited the site myself and found it very useful. I told her I will get use out of it now and once I start my teaching career.
Blog Post 13
I really got a lot out of this video and found it very interesting. There were some great ideas brought up. I really liked the idea of having students create their own blogs. Instead of having them take a multiple choice test after a project, I think it was a great idea to have them blog about it. This really gets them learning on a higher level. Having students write about what they have witnessed not only gets them leaning on a higher level, but it enhances their writing skills too. Thanks to technology, they are able to collaborate with others outside of the classroom. This is truly amazing.
The statistics in this video are shocking. This video really got me thinking. It opens your eyes to see that there are some classrooms out there that are not preparing their students for the future. The classes are irrelevant to what the students need to be learning.
I believe that students deserve a quality education. They are certainly paying for one. As a future educator, we need to make certain that our students are as prepared for the real world as they can be. Incorporating technology into the classroom is a solution to all of this.
This video really got me thinking. It helped me to realize the answers to my questions “what do I want my students to know?”, “what do I want my students to be able to do?”, and “what do I want my students to have experienced?” I want my students to know how to use technology and understand its importance. I want my students to be able to communicate and collaborate with others across the country or around the world. I want my students to have experienced a higher level of learning.
I think that Dorothy Burt made some very valid points in her blog post. It is true that teachers are expected to know how to do much more now than in 1999. Technology has come a long way and teachers are expected to keep up with it. I got worried when I saw her long list of things that teachers should be able to do. However, after reading it over, I found that I was able to do almost all of it. Technology is used so much every day. We don’t even realize how much we use it. I agree that teachers should be capable of everything on Dorothy Burt’s list.
I really enjoyed reading this post and watching the video that goes along with it. It is quite obvious that Miles Webb is very passionate about what he does. I like how the students’ tasks were turned into much more, with the help of digital technology. This was a very good idea and I hope to do something similar with my future students.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Progress Report on Final Project
I am in a group with Makenzie Cunningham and Courtney Hieronymus. So far, our iBook is coming along great. We have a welcome to the jungle theme and our iBook is a survival guide for EDM 310. We already have all of our chapters planned out and have equally divided up work for our group meeting tomorrow. I am really excited about this project and I think it is going to turn out great.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Blog Post 12
For my assignment I want you to think back to your elementary education experience. Was there much technology use?
Watch the video Discovery Student Movies: Technology in theClassroom. Do these students make a valid point? Do you believe elementary aged students are too young to learn with technology or should students be taught with technology at a young age?
Write two or more paragraphs comparing and contrasting your elementary education experience to the experience that the children in this video are proposing. Then explain your views on whether or not you believe technology is important for elementary grades.
When I was in elementary school and even in middle and high school, we really did not do much with technology at all. Besides learning how to type, I never learned anything else about technology in school. I think that the kids in this video make a valid point and technology should be incorporated into younger grades. The younger, the better!
When I got to college, a lot was done online. We had to keep up with our own emails. Also, important class information was posted online. Not to mention, there are plenty of online classes along with work that is to be done online. Luckily, I had grown up around technology because my dad is a software engineer and thought it was very important for me to have a computer. If I hadn’t been surrounded by technology in my home life when I was younger, which some kids aren’t, then college and the real world would have been much more difficult.
I know today is much different for kids than when I was growing up. Today, it is more common than not to be surrounded by technology. I feel that it is the teacher’s job to educate their students on how to use certain types of technologies and how to use them properly. If technology is incorporated into the classroom at a young age, students will always be up to date on the latest technology and using it will become second nature. This will make for easier transitions in the future. For those students who already have technology as their second nature, incorporating it into the classroom will make class more relatable to them and they will learn and understand why it is important to use technology properly and in a positive way.
Our society, today, is so reliant on technology and different devices. I feel that our students should be prepared to enter into this society. It doesn’t make sense to keep students away from technology when they are going to be expected to know how to use it and know how to use it properly in the future.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Blog Post 11
I never would have thought that first graders would be capable of blogging and this use of technology and the internet. I think that is really great that Ms. Cassidy was motivated enough to attempt this with her first grade class. She proves that children as young as first grade are capable of learning these techniques, which means any grades should also be capable.
It was not only amazing to see what all these students have learned, but it was also great to see how excited they were to learn. They were very proud of their blogs and seemed enthusiastic when they were explaining what all they have been doing.
I would love to incorporate blogging into my classroom. I really feel like it would help my students learn to be better writers and produce work they are proud of. I like how Ms. Cassidy taught her student how to use the internet in a positive way. That is a skill that could never be taught too young.
It is incredible that Ms. Cassidy started all of this because she got five computers into her classroom. She could have used them for something else, but she has really done something amazing for her students. She believed in her students and didn’t underestimate them. As a future teacher, I need to be mindful to never set the bar too low for my students. Students, no matter how young, are capable of great things. Ms. Cassidy is a great role model for educators.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Blog Post 10
The message that I got from this cartoon was that these are two different brands of pencils. This cartoon is boring in color, which represents learning without technology. When we incorporate technology into the classroom, learning can be a lot more “colorful”. Though technology is more expensive, it pays off more in the long run and can result in a better education. This might not be the message that John T. Spencer was trying to convey, but that is what I got out of it.
This post was very clever and I really enjoyed the writing style. The principal was against games in the classroom. He only wanted teachers to focus on “the rote memorization skills”. He was suggesting that this was the only way students would pass “the rote memorization test”.
In reality, students are learning more from these hands on interactions, than by strictly memorizing facts. When facts are memorized they are often forgotten after the test. These “games” relate more to the students, are more fun, and encourage learning. Also, what is learned is more likely to stay with the student.
Teachers and principals today are so worried about what their students will make on their standardized tests, that they are too afraid to try anything outside of the box. This post does a good job of portraying this. As educators, we need to be more focused on benefiting the student and making sure that they are learning and retaining the material. By making the material more relatable to the students, this can be accomplished.
Scott McLeod has a blog called Dangerously Irrelevant. On it he talks a lot about technology and it importance, leadership, and the future of schools. He has received several awards for his technology leadership work. He has even come out with his first book, What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media.
In his post titled “Don’t Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?” he uses sarcasm and irony to get his point across. He is telling everyone not to teach their kids about technology, the internet, social networks, etc. because he is going to teach his kids this and they are going to be ahead and have “a leg up” later in life. I think that it is important to incorporate technology and the internet into the classroom and students who have access to it really will be on a different learning level. I really enjoyed the sarcastic manner in which he wrote this post.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
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