End of Semester Reflection

This semester I have learned a lot about the wide variety of technology available and how to utilize it in the classroom. I had never dreamed about all the different resources that were available to teachers - from Smartboards, to Prezi's, to Storybook and so much more. There is so much potential for implementing technology everyday in the classroom in order to make lessons more engaging, stimulating, and fun. Besides learning about the amount of technology available, I have gained confidence in my skills of using technology in a classroom setting. I have learned how to present technology in a classroom and how to use a Smartboard. Also, I feel like I have gleaned a whole heap of insightful hints on how to be a great teacher. Thank you Mrs. Adair!

When I chose my NET's at the beginning of the semester, I hardly understood what NET's even were. I feel like I have come far in learning about them. The NET's for Teachers that I focused on this semester were:

Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating
contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS·S.
a. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity
b. Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress
c. Customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles,
working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources
d. Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching

Although I still have a lot to learn relating to the NETS, I have learned how to design and incorporate technological learning experiences using the my new knowledge of the tools available. Technology is a great way to engage students in the learning process. It is especially helpful when it comes to students with different learning styles because there is much variety when using technology in a classroom. There are also a lot of different ways to provide formative and summative assessments through technology. There are many ways that students can participate in fun activities that assess what they have learned. Also, technology gives students opportunity to be creative and original through technology tools. 

My Oregon Trail Technology Project

Week #15 - Skype

I found a lesson that was called East/West Culture Exchange where a fourth grade class from Taipei, Taiwan was wanting to interact with students from another part of the world. The Taiwanese students spoke both Mandarin and English and were hoping to discuss language, holidays, and class assignments over Skype so that they could learn more about each other's cultures. I use this in a lesson to teach my students about geography and other cultures.

The Student NET's that this project would fulfill are:
2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
c. Develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.

The Teacher NET's that this project would fulfill are:
1.  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.
d. Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments
4.  Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices.
d. Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools
5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources.
a. Participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning

Reflection #12

I was helping in an AVID class last week and was talking to one of the girls in my group who was struggling on a math problem. She had been watching tutorial videos online to try to get help. However, the videos were not well made and thus were of little use to her. Two things about this struck me. The first thing is that it is awesome that kids can just look online for homework help instead of having to wait for a time to meet with their teacher. The second thing is that when using an online resource to to homework, it is important to have a way to check and make sure that the resource is reliable and well-made and that the information is accurate. Technology is great and makes life a lot more efficient, but if the technology that we use is not accurate, then it is of very little use to us.

Blog Comments #2

1. Comment on Angie's Blog 
2. Comment on Sarah's Blog
3. Comment on Amanda's Blog
4. Comment on Tootsie's Blog
5. Comment on Trey's Blog
6. Comment on Bethany's Blog
7. Comment on Alyssa's Blog
8. Comment on Kendra's Blog
9. Comment on Sigrid's Blog

Reflection #11

Once upon a time, in a great castle far, far away, there was a library. Here piles of great literary works had been organized and sorted neatly onto shelves. These books were the pride and joy of the king who resided there. Every night he would spend time in his library, reading his many books. Today, a man sits at Starbucks. In his hand, he hold a Kindle and is reading intently. On this one, small device, a whole library of books is stored. This library is his pride and joy, and he carries is around in his coat pocket. The availability of books today is amazing. Instead of hauling a backpack full of books around, a person can simply carry a small electronic device. It is amazing how available books are today.

Week #14 - The Future of Technology in the Classroom

In their article How Information Technology Can Enable 21st Century Schools, Ted Kolderie and Tim McDonald say, "IT (Internet Technology) has been limited to reinforcing—albeit improving—existing modes of teacher instruction rather than transforming them." Kolkderie and McDonald propose that IT has the potential to totally rework how we do school here in the United States. Instead of a "factory mode" where all students are required to learn the same things the same way at the same time, IT is making school more customized to each student. Kolderie and McDonald say that there are huge opportunities for IT to make "mass customized" educational environments for each student to learn. Much like an amazon.com shopping experience where the website is tailored to each customer's interests, curriculum could be adapted to each student so that they can be taught in their learning style about the things they are interested in. All this will happen while increasing their grades. This is the future of technology in the classroom.

Reflection #10

There are some ways that technology hinders education. In talking with a speech pathologist yesterday, she was noting how she has seen a steep incline in amount and severity of speech issues in the past few years. She believes that this is due to many factors, one of them being the increased amount of screen time kids are getting. Instead of spending time playing and interacting with other kids or their parents, they spend enormous amounts of time vegging in front of the TV. Kids no longer just watch TV at home now. Anywhere they go, parents turn on their favorite shows for them on iPads, iPhones and other devices. Because all of this screen time leads to a decrease of interaction with people, many students' language and speech is not developing at normal rates. The speech pathologist hoped that parents will begin to realize that kids need interaction, and that they will stop feeding them a constant diet of television shows, no matter how educational they are said to be.

Week #13 - Microsoft Office

In Microsoft Office, I generally use three major programs: Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Usually I use Microsoft Word to write documents and take notes in classes. The features that I use the most within it are Save, File, New, Copy & Paste, Font, and Word Art. I use Excel to make spreadsheets to neatly compile information for my work. The features of Excel that I use the most are Font, Font size, Borders, Wrap Text, Merge & Center, New Sheet, and Sort & Filter. Power Point comes in handy to make presentations and present projects to an audience. When making a Power Point, the features I use to build it are New Slide, Design (choose format for project), Font, Insert Photos, Hyperlink, and Animations, in order to make nice presentations.

To help young students learn to use these programs, I could construct three projects. The first project would be with Microsoft Word. Students would interview one another, and then write a paragraph or two about their friend on a Word document. The young author would select the font and the font size that he or she desired, and they would incorporate a creative title made with Word Art. The students would learn how to file and save their documents. Also, I would show them how to Copy & Paste for when they wanted to rearrange sentences within their short essay.

In order to use Excel, the students would ask what was the favorite food and least favorite food of everyone in their table group. They would then build a spreadsheet listing the compiled information. Students could experiment with font and borders and would sort  the names alphabetically.

For Power Point, the students would build a three-slide presentation called "All About Me." The students would put on their power point things that they want to share with the class about themselves. They would build the Power Point using a design, font, and animations of their choice and incorporating any pictures they have available.

Reflection #9

When I was observing some classes at Lakeview Elementary School here in Kirkland, the school was plagued with some computer virus issues. Thus, many of the teachers were unable to use anything involving technology that they had planned. Although the teachers were caught by surprise, they each had a back-up plan, and were able to teach well in spite of the technology issues. I think it is always important to be prepared and flexible because one never knows what kinds of challenges one will encounter each day in teaching.

Reflection #8

This week, the wireless internet at Northwest University has not been very reliable. I never thought I would rely on the internet as much as I do. From working on group projects, to communicating with friends, I am extremely dependent on the internet working. Also, more of my education than I ever thought possible requires internet usage. I think, as a culture, our dependency on the internet will only continue to grow. Although the internet is extremely helpful, what would happen if all the internet somehow shut down for a lengthy period of time?

Week #12 - Dr. Robert Marzano

Today in an article by Dr. Robert Marzano called "Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards," I read amazing statistics stating that there is an average 16 percentile gain in the achievement of students who are taught with an interactive whiteboard as opposed to students who are not taught with this technology. The large figures in this fact surprised me. However, something that surprised me more was another fact: in 23 percent of the case studies, teachers without the interactive whiteboard technology had better results. Dr. Marzano looked into this fact, and he discovered that teachers who are not confident or familiar with how to thoughtfully and thoroughly incorporate this type of technology into their classroom actually have better success without it. Dr. Marzano offers some basic tips for teachers when using interactive whiteboards.  His first tip is for teachers to organize their information well - to think through their organization strategy before they even begin making their slides or flip-charts. His second tip was to keep digital flip-charts simple. Although it is always important to have visuals, too many and too much information on one slide can be overwhelming. Another tip he offered is for teachers to use student feedback well. When teachers incorporate feedback like virtual applause on correct answers, the teacher needs to spend sufficient time explaining why the answer is correct. Although interactive whiteboards can be a huge help in teaching, they can also be a hindrance if the teacher does not know how to use them well.

Reflection #7

Today I got a Pintrest account. As I was exploring the endless number of creative ideas on Pintrest, I thought about the amount of collaboration that is available to people today via the internet. Through reading educational blogs, listening to webinars, watching YouTube movies, and exploring Pintrest, one can learn so much. I feel like these avenues of collaboration are going to be of huge assistance to me as a teacher. Instead of depending only on my own creativity in decorating the classroom or constructing class projects, the internet gives me the amazing opportunity of taking advantage of the ideas of thousands of other supremely creative minds.

Something I Stumbled Upon. . .

I just found a well-laid out 5th grade assignment for one of my favorite books when I was a tween! Call It Courage is a exciting story about a young boy coming of age on the Pacific Islands. Mr. Telles has a great way to have his 5th grade students interact with the story using all different types of learning styles. Check it out here.

Week # 11 - Educational Blog

I visited an educational blog called Full Circle Associates: Connections for a Changing World Online and Offline. This blog was more of an educational blog for business people than for students. However, it was still reaching out to and engaging a community of learners. There was one article that I really appreciated that talked about taking time to pause in order to rejuvenate, recollect, and reassess. I have been thinking about this lately and related to it. I left a comment with my experience and my thoughts about it. I hope that this will encourage those wrapped up in the business world to take a step back, and take time to rejuvenate themselves and get new vision for their path. See my comment here.

Week #10 - Bloom's Taxonomy

As a fairly beginner education student, I had heard about Bloom's Taxonomy in passing and observed the diagrams, but never really understood what it was. I found out that Bloom's Taxonomy is a system of classifying thinking and learning. Teachers often consult Bloom's Taxonomy when formulating lesson plans. For more information, you can read this informative article: Bloom's Taxonomy Article

Assignment #5

My Final Technology Project focuses on learning about the Oregon Trail. For students living on the West Coast of the United States, I think it is important to learn how the pioneers of this region came here. In this project, students will work together in groups to research, write a screenplay, and act out the script to make a movie.  Having fun is important to learning, and students will enjoy interacting with history as they reenact scenes from the days of the Oregon Trail.   
For more information, check out this podcast:
Vocaroo Voice Message

Week #9

The Tech and Learning article "Caught on Film" by Bob Sprankle is packed with great ideas of how implementing a video camera into everyday teaching engages students, enhances teaching, and encourages learning. I learned that creating videos often in class is a great way to help students remember what was taught -- they can review lessons via video, and they can make videos of themselves solving problems. Videos are also a great way to communicate with parents -- send them highlights of the class through videos. A video camera is also great for chronicling the year --videoing exciting learning moments and experiences throughout the school year so the students can remember highlights throughout the year. Another great idea that caught my attention was to, as a teacher, always carry your small video camera so that if you see something that applies to what you're teaching about, you can film it and later show it to your class. Another idea that Sprankle presented was having your students make tutorials for the next year's students on how to do well in the class. "Caught in Film" contained a lot of great ideas for incorporating video cameras into the classroom. It inspired me to, when I have a classroom of my own, invest in a small video camera to capture the joys and the processes of learning in my classroom.

My First Flipsnack!