Week 8

18 October, 2011
Alphabet falls is an adorable game on pbskids.org. It is designed to help kids practice their alphabet skills, so it would probably be best for kindergarten-aged kids. It makes noise and is cololrful, which they would love.

Week 9

"Caught on Video" had a lot of very good points. It is a whole lot easier to track students' understanding and progress in video form than by a simple letter grade. I'm not sure I agree with doing away with the current grading system. But I think videos can be a great tool in addition to grades for students to learn and show their peers and parents what they have and are learning in class.

Reflection #6

Chelsea shared this website yesterday in Instructional design:

edc448uri.wikispaces.com/file/view/40_ways_to_leave_a_lesson.pdf

I have found it incredibly helpful for that class, and will use it in the future as a teacher. Often times, when we have finished a lesson, we struggle with how to wrap it all up. I know as a student many times teachers didn't really close up a lesson, or did so in the same repetitive, corny way day after day. I don't want to be one of those teachers. I want to keep students engaged and on their toes and I think some of these closure ideas will help me to do so.

Reflection #5

Technology is very useful in the classroom. However, there should always be a plan B. For example, one of my professors graciously created a powerpoint slideshow for every lecture he gives. He did this so that the students in class wouldn't have to purchase a textbook, because the textbook was expensive. Anyway, one day the projector was not working and he had to cancel class. His teaching style is very beneficial to students, but without a plan B we missed out on being tested on a whole class period's worth of notes.

Reflection #4

Miss Gehrke uses a random name selector to call on students sometimes. It is so brilliant! I did not know they existed. This way things are fair and she can not be called out for favoring students. Plus it just looks cool. She did a give-away of small prizes as a reward the other day in class. Students got so excited and cheered for their classmates when they won a prize. As a teacher, this random name selector would also be good for checking for understanding. The teacher could use it to call on students to answer questions. Students won't feel he/she is "calling them out" that way, because it's random!

Reflection #3

The teacher I help out for the AVID program uses a smart board for everything! She never uses the white board underneath. Every day when students come in they sit down and the schedule for the day is up on the smart board. If Miss Gehrke needs to make any adjustments to the schedule she picks up the pen and adds it on. It seems to be effective. Students know the routine, which helps as well, and they love to come up to the SmartBoard and add things in when Miss Gehrke asks them to do so.

Reflection #2

In Instructional Design we learned how to use the document camera. I had never used one prior so it took me a little while, but I realized how useful one of those can be in the classroom. Now I feel comfortable enough with them to use one! They are quite helpful when trying to show students something specific on a handout, or when reading through something with students. I know it helps me to see what the professor is reading from, as I learn visually.

Reflection #1

I observed a teacher using a smartboard in a 4th grade classroom. It was for a math lesson. She had the students come up and solve problems on it. Most students were engaged in the lesson and I learned how to use a few more tools. Once the smartboard lesson ended and students were to work on worksheets in their math groups, the majority of students very quickly began talking about other things amongst themselves and most students were off task. This makes me think about how I will run my classroom as a teacher. It's important to incorporate technology because that often captivates the students' attention. However, there should be a balance. Everything can't be taught using technology and teachers should not use technology as a crutch.

Blogs I Commented On

These are the blogs I thoughtfully and insightfully commented on:

Jodie-Reflection 6
Drew-Reflection 6
Peter-Week 9
Beth-Reflection 6
Chelsea-Reflection 7
Jodee-Reading Games
Kyle-Reflection 3
Stephanie-Reflection 5
Cassie-Reflection 6
Angela-Reflection 4

Glog for realsies

Glog

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NETS

September 8, 2011

NETS For Students:

Creativity and Innovation
	Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

NETS For Teachers:

Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

September 11, 2011

                Prensky made a lot of very good points in his article. Education is taking a turn, and as someone who is much closer to the Digital Natives side of things, I can agree. It is a lot easier for me to learn from a movie or podcast than a professor lecturing. Any time you can combine visual teaching with audio will help catch more of the students' attention as well. 

Scenario

Elementary, 15 students, 3 gifted program, 2 SPED, one with Autism. Available tech: Access to a cart with 30 laptops, shared with one other classroom, Document camera, Flip video camera available for checkout from library.

My First Blog

My First Blog

I think technology can be used as a great tool to enhance student learning in the classroom. However, I am both technologically impaired and old-fashioned. The idea of using a lot of technology in my classroom when I become a teacher worries me, especially because I plan on teaching young children. I read about an elementary school teacher who did not allow any handwriting in his class; everything was to be typed. His doing away with handwritten work, to me seems to put his students at a disadvantage. I recognize that in today's world technology is ever-evolving, and children now-a-days are quite tech savvy, but I worry that over-using technology in class puts students at a disadvantage. I hope to learn to use technology in class in a way that enhances learning.

Blog #5: Smartboards

I learned how to operate a smart board. Before this lesson, I knew nothing. So today I learned how to drag things and how to use the crazy-colored pen.  I was very overwhelmed when first introduced to the smartboard but now it’s so fun and I appreciate its importance in the classroom.

            My lesson is a math lesson for a first grade class. Using gumballs, the students will help solve number problems. I will use the dragging tool as well as the crazy colored marker, calling on students to solve number problems. http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=dd26d41d-fa67-484f-acd1-56b1e991a5f5

            Activboards are quite similar to smartboards but have more features. Also you can draw without the pen, a feature I really appreciate. An article published after the second round of activboards came out states, “The long-term use of interactive whiteboards (i.e. for more than two years) improves the engagement of pupils through the use of high quality still and moving visuals, sound and interaction and increases the dialogue between teachers and pupils.” I agree! I can totally see how students would be more engaged with the use of an activboard. The article mentions that you can use an “ELMO” with the activboard. What is an ELMO?

www.prometheanworld.com/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.5181 -

Blog #6: Generation I.M.

October 4, 2011

Prior to reading this article, I knew that children today enjoy using technology. So the fact that children ages 8 to 18 use 6.5 hours outside of school using media per day did not come as too much of a shock to me. However, I was very surprised to learn that over half of preschoolers use a computer. I want to teach kindergarten and figured I could get away with using little technology in the classroom. That appears to not be possible now. I would use technology in a science classroom by having students, after every chapter completed, do a review involving media. They could make a blog post, create a podcast, or a video.