Breanne's Blog

2009-12-13T09:29:00.000-08:00

I came across this comic strip and thought it was really cute. I know that for projects I have waited to do them, hoping I would come up with some cool way to present it, and I end up waiting until the last minute to start the project and and have to come up with some random idea on how to do it. Sometimes it works out great and then sometimes it is horrible. I just know that often times I end up doing a project at the last minute because I do not know how to start it or present it. And then I end up having to come up with an idea quickly because I have ran out of time. So when I saw this comic strip I thought I had to post it because it is definitely true. I wait until the last minute with a lot of assignments and that ends up being the inspiration on how I am going to do it because there is no time to come up with anything else.

blogs, wikis, and webpages.

2009-12-10T15:50:00.000-08:00

Over the course of this semester we have played around with blogs, wikis, and different webpage sites such as google site and weebly. We've explored them and learned the pro's and con's of each piece of technology. I found that I liked using each one for different reasons.

As I have said many times, blogging was my favorite thing to do in this class. At first I wasn't very excited about it. Making my own blog and being a blogger wasn't something I ever planned on doing. But as I started reading blogs and writing about things that interested me, I found that it was something I really enjoyed doing. I thought blogging was best for sharing your thoughts and ideas. There was no limit for how much you wrote so you could type a huge blog about a topic or just blog one idea and wait for comments and a discussion to begin. Blogging I felt was best for random ideas and thoughts to be posted: what was on your mind. My RSS included a lot of blogs about classrooms or educational technology. These were usually about what was new in the educational world and what had been happening lately. I loved reading these because they kept me up-to-date on things. I felt that blogs were not something that needed to be organized or professional, that a blog was just there for others to find out about you and what interested you.

I just discovered wikispaces and found that it was a fairly easy website to use. This is another website that you can write just about anything on. I thought that wikispaces was best for its editing purposes. It's a website that you can share what you know on and others can edit and make corrections or add additional information. I thought having discussions on here would be better than on blogs because the discussion is right there in front of you. Because of editing, people can add stuff right on the site. It's organized onto one page so you don't have to jump around to see people's responses.

For our webpage site, I used weebly. When looking at my weebly I think of it as more of a professional webpage. I share a little about me and then include my resume and first lesson plan, soon there will be a second. My webpage is a site that I would want employer's to look at, fellow coworkers, or professors. I see my weebly as being more organized and put together, not random like my blog or wiki. I think weebly is best for professional use because it is a portfolio about yourself. Using it to display my resume and lesson plans I think is a good idea and will definitely come in handy in the future.

These are just some of the ways I used blogs, wikis, and weebly; and what I thought they were best for. I'm sure others have different ideas about these pieces of technology, so what do you think? :)

2009-12-06T16:31:00.000-08:00

"When the Teaching gets too Real"

I was reading through Jim Burke's blogs and came across a blog titled "when the teaching gets too real". He referred to a couple of experiences he had in his personal life that related to something he was teaching in class. One of the two examples he had stuck with me. He was teaching a lesson on Siddhartha to his senior class. He says in his blog that Siddhartha is the classic story of a young man who demands of his parents the right to choose his own path. He begins to share that the teaching gets too real because his son who will be turning 18 in a few months is wanting to join the marines and fight for his country. And as much as he doesn't want him to do that, he knows that it's his son's right to choose his own path. Burke then goes on to say that as he is writing this blog, he hears President Obama in the background announcing that he will increase the troops deployed to Afghanistan by 30,000 in 2010. I know that this blog stuck with me because my brother made the decision to join the army last July. As much as my mother did not want him to, he wanted to choose his own path. He is told that he is going to be sent to Iraq in March. I get to see him for the first time in 5 months this Thursday and am very excited about it. I know that I am going to be a mess when he leaves. I am very proud of him for serving his country and I will continue to pray for him every night. This blog really hit home because I know that I will feel instances like these as a teacher like Jim Burke does. I have times like these frequently during school when learning new information. I find relations to my personal life a lot. I just thought Jim Burke's blog brought up something interesting when stating that sometimes the teaching gets too real.

Using Wiki in the Classroom.

2009-12-06T15:59:00.000-08:00

After playing around with wiki and creating a website, I found that using it in the classroom would be pretty neat to do. I immediately thought that creating a classroom website would be a good idea. The website could include homework, notes taken in class, study guides and practice quizzes, as well as a discussion page for teachers and a discussion page for students and their teacher.

I thought that updating the page each day would be a good idea with notes that were taken, as well as assignments. This could be very helpful for students that were not able to make it to class or if they lost their notes or forgot what assignment they were suppose to do. If a quiz were coming up, practice quizzes added by the teacher to the page as well as study guides would be a good idea. I know that I can be very unorganized and lose papers given to me in class so I think a website like this would be very helpful.

On this website I would also want to include a discussion page for teachers. On this page teachers could discuss topics they are teaching in the classroom, different ways to teach activities, and feedback on what they found was the best way to teach a subject. There are many different things that teachers could discuss on this page. But I thought this would be a good idea because it would allow teachers to express their ideas and thoughts and receive feedback on them.

I would also want my wiki page to include a discussion between students and the teacher. Students could post questions for the teacher to answer. This would allow other students to be able to read the question and answer in case they were wondering the same thing. Questions on subject matter could be discussed, as well as more direction on homework assignments. Students could also share their ideas and thoughts about different subjects. It could almost serve as a blog. There are many ways that the discussion could be used.

I think having a classroom website would be creating something collaboratively with the students. It would involve the students more and would make things more interesting in the classroom. Students would be able to use the website for different assignments that they need as well as edit the webpage and post ideas they thought were important and questions they need answered. The website would bring the teacher and students closer together because it'd be a website made by all of them. I definitely would like to create a website with my students when I become a teacher. I think that it would turn out to be very helpful.

Personal Learning Network.

2009-11-29T08:37:00.000-08:00

To develop our PLN's, or Personal Learning Networks we have used blogging, twitter, our RSS feeds, and bookmarking.

Blogging was my favorite thing to do when developing my personal learning network. It still is my favorite thing to do. Blogging allows us to share our ideas and elaborate on them. Blogging also allows us to look at other student's blogs and read about their ideas and thoughts. This helps open our ideas to different perspectives and different outlooks. I also learned a lot when reading other people's blogs. Often times people blogged about other blogs they had read and included the website, so I was able to read about new ideas that I knew nothing about. Blogging is beneficial for the classroom because it allows students to express their ideas and thoughts and allows other students to read about them. You can also have a discussion with comments on your blog too, which brings the students closer together because of them communicating their ideas to one another. I think blogging is a great thing to do.

Twitter allowed us to update our statuses and read other people's statuses as well. We could "tweet" ideas or just "tweet" about what we were doing. Twitter could be helpful when wanting others to know an idea of yours or access a website that you have posted. Twitter allows you to communicate with others such as your coworkers or students when becoming a teacher. A con about twitter was that you could only write tweets and not discuss ideas. I think that blogging is better than twitter because on twitter you have a limit for how many words you can type so that ideas that you express are limited but on blogging you can write as much as you'd like.

Our RSS feeds I found were very helpful. On my RSS feed I saved educational blogs that I was interested in as well as a couple of my fellow student's blogs/ When I wanted to write a blog, I often relied on my RSS feed to provide me with new blogs to read and write about. After reading these blogs, I would write about them in a new post on my blog, as well as share the website for others' to access. RSS is very helpful when wanting to keep up-to-date on what is going on in the educational world. I liked using it for this class.

The last thing we have used for our Personal Learning Networks is social bookmarking; or also known as My Delicious. I have only used my delicious to access places such as my group member's blogs and the class website. But it does come in handy because every important website that you often access can be bookmarked on that page. After it has been bookmarked, you can log into your delicious and all it takes is a right click to access the website you need to get to. When using a computer that is not your own, you won't have your frequently accessed websites bookmarked in your favorites, therefore you can log in to your delicious account and your websites will be right there. Social bookmarking is easy and can be beneficial for the classroom.

I think learning how to use all of these Personal Learning Networks will help me a lot as a teacher in the future. I'm glad that this class has shown me how to develop a PLN.

Plant Book.

2009-11-22T17:30:00.000-08:00

In my SME class, we had to choose a fruit to make a plant book that discusses the life cycle of that plant and how it became this certain fruit. The fruit I chose was the "apple". This weekend I have been spending a lot of time searching information and reading my course pack to make my book. The information we have to find for the book is: seed dormancy and germination, how the seed develops roots, stems, and leaves. The function of each part. Then we have to explain how the plant makes food, the development of flowers and the processes of pollination and fertilization, how the ovary develops into a fruit with seeds inside and how the fruit and/or seeds are dispersed. Then we finish the book with an explanation of how our plant uses food to stay alive. Almost all of the pages need a drawing of the specific information discussed. Such as a drawing of the apple blossom; the apple trees flower. And a diagram of the flower labeling each part (pistil, stamens, sepal, petals, stem, leaves...) The book has to be very detailed and explain each part of the plants' life cycle.

Although the project is a lot of work, I think that it is a good assignment to have students do. Looking up all of this information and making it into a book is helping us future teachers learn how to explain things correctly, as well as display it in an interesting way. Students would rather learn about the life cycle of an apple tree by reading in a colorful book rather than a boring sheet of paper explaining the processes. I think that if students in the classroom were to do this project, they would learn more information because of how it is being applied. Instead of just reading and memorizing the information, they are making a book and having to learn the processes in order to explain them themselves. I would definitely consider having my students make a book to explain a plants life cycle or even a different subject.

Image Swirl.

2009-11-18T13:19:00.001-08:00

While searching for a new technology to research, I discovered freetech4teachers.com and added it to my RSS feed. On this website I found a blog about Google Image Swirl. It's an image search option that is a lot like Wonder Wheel. When trying it out, I searched for images of a "rose". When I did this a grid came up, similar to the grid we see when searching an image on regular google image search. I then clicked on a picture of a pink rose and two circles appeared. The circle on the left of the screen was a web with the image I had clicked on in the middle and a bunch of tiny images of different roses connected around that image. On the right side of the screen was a circle including the images I had first seen in the grid after searching "rose". In the left circle, I could click on a rose and a new circle would appear with more rose pictures attached. If I were to click on a image in the right circle a new web would replace the web on the left with that picture you chose as the center with more pictures branching off of it. This may sound very confusing but if you try it out it is actually very interesting and easy to use.

I haven't had experience with Wonder Wheel or Image Swirl before so when trying it out I found it to be a lot of fun. I think that it could be very helpful in the classroom when needing images for projects or activities. If students need images for a poster of the same object, just different views or perspectives, it comes in very handy. Just looking up the word "rose" I found roses of all different colors, sizes, and in all different areas. It was really neat to see all the possibilities that I could use. The teacher can also use image swirl for activities and powerpoints. The variety of pictures can help activities and powerpoints be more fun. Everyone loves pictures!

The pros of this technology is the diversity that it offers. You don't have to use the same boring image anymore and you no longer have to struggle finding images. It offers so many. You don't have to think to yourself, "what different keyword can I type in to get different/more images?" Image Swirl gives you a lot of options! The only con I could think of is that it looks a bit complicated. When you search an image it comes up with all of these pictures and different webs and can look confusing. If you are looking to just find a picture real quick, you may not need to use Image Swirl. But other than that, I thought it to be a good tool to use.

Click here to try out Google Image Swirl!

Homeschooling.

2009-11-14T13:07:00.000-08:00

This is more of a discussion topic than anything, but I had dinner with my cousin Wednesday night and she was talking to me about what I'm studying and asked me the question on whether I was going to teach and then after I have children, homeschool my children or put them into public schools. I guess she just recently pulled her two children out of public schools to homeschool them because she feels that a lot of schools are falling apart. She said there are certain public schools that she would have her children enrolled in but because of where she is located her kids cannot attend those schools. She doesn't like that a lot of programs are being taken away from schools because of the budget cuts and feels that she might as well just teach them at home. I didn't know how to answer this question because I hadn't ever really thought about it. I believe that I would decide to have my children in public schools because I want them to be able to create personal relationships with others and experience things in the outside world. I wouldn't want my children to feel that they were stuck at home all the time. I understand that they may learn better because of the one-on-one help they would be receiving from me but I still think building relationships is very important. It's hard for me to answer this question though because I have never talked to anyone who has been home-schooled so I am not sure how it effected them and I don't know all the pros and cons for it. I would like to sit in on a day of homeschooling though just to see how the curriculum is set up and how different it is from a public school.

Cellphone use in Education.

2009-11-14T10:13:00.000-08:00

For this weeks assigned blog I researched on using cellphones for educational purposes. At first, I found this to be absurd. I couldn't imagine how cellphones would be helpful in the classroom. I thought of the ways I use my cellphone: to communicate with my friends and family, to text my friends and family, to take and receive pictures, and listen to music sometimes. But after researching the topic for some time, my eyes opened up to ways that cellphones could be helpful in the classroom.

I read things such as homework alerts, pop quizzes or polls, researching topics on the web, reading books, looking up definitions, making calculations, taking pictures and making videos for class projects, etc. I was amazed after I realized the different ways the cell phone could be used. I had never thought of simple tools such as the calendar for homework alerts, or the calculator to make math calculations, or the camera to take pictures or make videos for projects, being helpful for the classroom. But now I can see how it would be. I know many people who use their cell phones to organize their schedule and mark down deadlines. This could be very helpful for class. We take pictures with our cell phones to capture that moment in time and those pictures could make projects stand-out more and be very creative. It's just strange because we have always been taught to turn our cellphones off or on vibrate when in class because they were seen as distracting and a disturbance. Now we are wanting to incorporate them in the classroom? I like the idea of using any sort of technology to benefit the classroom. So if we can make using cellphones for class purposes work, then I'm all for it.

After researching this topic, I did think of different cons for using cell phones in education. For one, not every one can afford to have a cell phone and because of school's budget cuts, many schools may not be able to afford each student having a cell phone. Also, if you were to use the cell phone to do research and look up definitions and things like that, an internet package would have to be added to your cell phone plan which makes it more expensive. Another con is that though the cell phones would be meant to be used for classroom use, there would still be problems with distractions due students contacting their friends/family while using the cell phone for "school purposes". Other problems such as not having service or if it is a pay-as-you-go phone, not having money on the phone, could interfere when pop quizzes or homework alerts are sent to the phone and not received.

Although I like the idea of incorporating technology in the classroom, I am still not quite sure how I feel about using cell phones in the classroom. I would like to have all sorts of technology be used in the classroom and if cell phones can prove to be more beneficial for the classroom than not, I'm all for it. But right now, I just don't know... What are your thoughts?

Here is the website I looked at:

10 Ideas for using cell phones in Education

2009-11-13T10:05:00.001-08:00

In my SME class we have been learning about plants. For an activity, our teacher had us plant pinto-beans. We were given two plastic zip-lock baggies with a folded up paper towel in each of them and each bag was stapled 5 times about an inch above the bottem of the plastic baggies. We then were instructed to put a pinto bean each day for 5 days above one of the staples and the same amount of water was to be put in both plastic baggies. One baggy was to be placed in the light and one baggy was to be placed in a spot where no light was received. Then we observed the beans as they progressed.

It now has been a week since Day 1 bean was planted in the bag. For the bag that was placed in the dark, the bean has a long stem and roots. For the bag that has been sitting in the light, the Day 1 bean has only sprouted a little stem. We discussed in class why the results may be different than we had assumed they would be. I found that my beans in the light were probably not progressing as much as they should be because I put them by a window so the temperature was different. I also didn't make it so that my bags were sitting up straight so that may have had some effect on the growth of the beans for each bag as well. To fix this, I taped my bag to my bookshelf so now it is up straight and it is also away from the window, or cold temperature. The bag in the dark is also standing up straight as well.

By doing this activity, it helped me understand how plants grow. I saw that with water and the minerals in the water I was able to make a plant out of a pinto bean. I think this would be a great activity for students to do in the classroom. They could learn about how plants grow, what plants need in order to grow, and the parts of a plant. I think this activity would also help students remember the information because it is hands-on and a fun activity to do. I would definitely have my students do this activity when teaching about plants.

Digital Storytelling.

2009-11-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

For my digital storytelling, I made a story about my trip down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My friends and I decided to take a road trip down to Myrtle Beach for Spring Break '09. We had an amazing week there and I can honestly say it was my favorite vacation because of how beautiful it was and how much fun I had with my friends. I would love to go there again.

I made this my digital story because I thought I could easily make it a classroom activity for all the students. The question to answer being: What was your favorite vacation? The students can then produce their own digital story about their favorite vacation. This story would include captions and photos like the one I made. After making their digital story, the students would then need to present it to the class so that other students can learn about their favorite vacation as well as see how the students used the digital storytelling technology to make their story.

I think that digital storytelling is neat and very useful. It is a fun way to learn and would keep the students attention easily. It is always good to find new and interesting ways to present information to students because of how easy it is to lose their attention. The digital story also allows for students to show their creativity. When making their story they would be picking out the photos they would like to incorporate as well as making the captions. Will I use a picture here or just a blank slide for my caption? Questions like these will be presented and the students will be able to make their own decision on how they want their story to look. Digital storytelling allows students to express their own ideas and be themselves.

A Trip with my Friends on PhotoPeach

2009-11-04T19:44:00.000-08:00

An educational blog I found included an article that speaks of a dream that Murray Fisher had to build a maritime high school. The Urban Assembly New York Harbor School will open its doors on Governors Island next year. Their students can learn about boat building, marine biology, etc. The inner-city students attending the high school have moved on to marine specialties in college. It says in the article that 1 out of 5 students didn't even know how to swim before coming to the school.

I thought this was an interesting and inspiring article to read. Fisher talks about in the article how he wanted to build a maritime school all his life. He says that when he was in grade-school he would often skip out on studying to go fishing. I liked reading this article because it made me happy to think of someone who had always wanted to build a school to help other people learn and the fact that he actually did it, is inspiring. I would like to visit the school once it opens to see what all the students will be doing. I think it's pretty cool that they will be learning about marine biology as well as how to build boats. So instead of it focusing just on marine life, you learn about technology too!

Check out the article below:

NY Harbor School article

2009-11-03T16:33:00.001-08:00

A blog I've been following has a link for a spelling bee online. I was warned by Johanna, the author of the blog, that it was addicting but I tried it anyway. Now, I can't stop trying to spell words. (I have failed multiple times). Johanna explains at the end of her blog different techniques she used when trying to spell words. A few of them I could relate with. At first I tried to be able to spell the word just by listening to it, but often times I couldn't make out exactly what it was saying. For words that I could understand but still wasn't positive on how to spell, I would type out to see if I could visually recognize them. Visually recognizing the word is usually the technique I use when trying to depict the spelling of a word. Another thing I have noticed is something Johanna refers to as "learning by doing" where you just type in the word without even acknowledging it because you are so use to typing it. During the spelling bee I found that there were many words that I could just type in without realizing it and there were many words I barely knew how to start. It all depends on what words you use when writing/typing. Johanna relates in her blog teaching and spelling. She says that sound indicates spelling but is most likely the least reliable because a lot of sounds are alike. I agree with this because I spelt a lot of words wrong during the spelling bee when I relied only on sound. Johanna says that visual methods of spelling should be used which I completely agree with because it is something that helps me best so I know that it could be beneficial for a lot of students. Also, semantic relations between words are helpful when remembering how to spell a word. I really enjoyed reading Johanna's blog because it made me think of the ways I have learned to spell and the techniques I use now when trying to remember how to spell certain words. I also really liked using the spelling bee!

Click here for Johanna's blog!

Click here if you'd like to try out the spelling bee!

Personal Learning Network.

2009-10-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

Since the start of the semester we have been developing our Personal Learning Networks, or our PLN's. This has included twitter, blogging, our RSS feeds, and bookmarking.

My favorite thing to do when developing my PLN was blog. Blogging allowed us to share our ideas and elaborate on them. Blogging also allowed us to look at other student's blogs and read about their ideas and thoughts. This helped open our ideas to different perspectives. Not only that, but I learned a lot reading other's blogs. Often times people blogged about other blogs they had read and included the website, so I was able to see a bunch of different and new information. Blogging I think is very beneficial for the classroom because it allows students to express their thoughts and allows students to read about other people's ideas. This provides for a great learning experience.

Our RSS feeds were very handy. When I wanted to write a blog, I often relied on my RSS feed to provide me with new blogs to read and write about. Saved on my RSS feed are a few educational blogs that kept me up to date on what was happening in the educational world. After reading these blogs, I would write about them in a new post on my blog, as well as share the website for others' to access. RSS is very helpful when wanting to acquire the news and keep up-to-date on things. I have enjoyed using it in this class.

Last but not least, we have used social bookmarking; or else known as My Delicious. I have only used my delicious to access places such as my group member's blogs and the class website. But it does come in handy because every important website that you often access can be bookmarked on that page. After it has been bookmarked, you can log into your delicious and all it takes is a right click to access the website you need to get to. When using a computer that is not your own, you won't have your frequently accessed websites bookmarked in your favorites, therefore you can log in to your delicious account and your websites will be right there. Social bookmarking is easy and can be beneficial for the classroom.

I think that developing a personal learning network has been a good experience and will be useful when I become a teacher. Having and knowing how to use all of these things will be very helpful later on.

voiced presentation.

2009-10-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

I was nervous to put my voice on the internet for others to hear because I didn't like the way my voice sounded after being recorded. It was interesting to learn how to post my voice in a presentation. I'm glad I was able to learn something like this and hope to incorporate it somehow in the classroom.

Stars, planets, and moons.

2009-10-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

I used google docs to make my presentation. I really enjoy using google docs and had never used it to make a presentation so I thought I would learn how to do so. Especially because I plan on using google docs when I become a teacher. For my presentation I decided to talk about stars, planets, and moons. I learned about astronomy in SME this semester and was taught different ways to teach astronomy for elementary classes. BBP helped me a lot when making the presentation. I found myself wanting to include a lot of text because that is how I have always made presentations and how my college courses have presented powerpoint presentations to me. After reading BBP I realized that it is easier for students to learn with less text. Therefore, I tried to slim it down and minimized the definitions for each object. I also included pictures to show examples and help the students hold onto the information better. Pictures also help to keep the students' attention. I enjoyed using google docs to make my powerpoint presentation and definitely plan on using it in the future!

Michigan's Great Lakes.

2009-10-21T12:18:00.001-07:00

In my SME class yesterday, we did a little experiment to explain gravity's influence on the flow of water through rivers and lakes. We were first asked to identify all the lakes and rivers starting from Lake Superior and ending in the Atlantic Ocean. Then we were given styrofoam bowls to represent the lakes, straws to represent the rivers, and a big plastic container to represent the Atlantic Ocean. We were then asked to construct a contraption that when putting water in the first bowl (Lake Superior) the water would flow from that bowl into the straw connected (straights of mackinaw), into the next bowl (Lake Huron), through the straw (St. Clair River), into the next bowl (Lake St. Clair), through the straw (The Detroit River), into the next bowl (Lake Erie), then the straw (Welland Canal), into the next bowl (Lake Ontario), then the last straw (St. Lawrence River) and finally into the plastic container (Atlantic Ocean). The only contraption that worked was the groups' who elevated the lakes. Lake superior was elevated the highest, then Lake huron came next, then Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and then the Atlantic Ocean. This demonstrated that the rivers flowed due to gravity.

I really enjoyed this project because it was a hands-on activity that helped me remember all the lakes and rivers connecting the Great Lakes. It helped me better understand the concept of gravity and how it effects the flow of water in rivers and lakes. I will definitely use this sort of project in my classroom to help explain these concepts to my students.

"You Can Vote However You Like."

2009-10-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

On my RSS feed, I have a blog relaying educational news. I came across an older blog that speaks of Ron Clark, an inspirational teacher who is known for his different teaching methods. One of the teaching methods that he used led to his students becoming famous. It is one of his methods to sing and dance during class to get the students engaged and keep them entertained. During the presidential election, the students came up with a rap, "You Can Vote However You Like", to try and get others to vote. The article states "he students' performance carried a message: Cast your ballot because you support a candidate's policies rather than just his skin color." I think its great that Ron Clark inspires these students to do more in school. To get more involved. The article also speaks of Clark wanting the students to be globally aware, so he has taken them abroad to other countries. This provides the students with actual experiences and memories that they will carry with them forever. I hope that I become an inspirational teacher like Ron Clark.

Check out the article!

Google Docs.

2009-10-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

When I learned that I would be using Google Docs to type up my resume I was a bit hesitant because I wasn't exactly sure how to use it. I struggled figuring out how to start a new document, that is how bad it was. After using it though I found that I really liked it. It is very easy to use and I don't know why I haven't used it this whole time being it is so convenient and free. Why did I pay money for Microsoft Word when I could have gotten onto Google Docs for free?

A couple things I liked about Google Docs was because of how easy it is to use and because it saves your work on the website and you can access it from anywhere. It also allows other people to read your work and edit it, which I found could be very helpful. I liked that I was able to write my resume at home on my parents' computer, then I saved it, and accessed it at my work computer, and then was able to edit it later on my laptop in my room. I could do this at all of these places because of it being on the web.

When thinking about how Google Docs could be used in the classroom, I immediately thought for its editing purposes. Students could write documents on a subject and make the documents accessible to other students for them to edit. This helps children become better writers and proofreaders. Google Docs allows the students to access their document from anywhere, edit their document at any time, and allow other students to either view the document or view/edit the document. Then, other students can read the document and edit it. Because of the different ways that Google Docs can be used, I think it would be very beneficial for the classroom.

Always Remember to Read.

2009-10-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

While looking at the blogs that I saved to my RSS feed, I came across a blog titled "Remember to Read". Jim Burke blogs about how English teachers plan to read books and articles but never get around to reading them, and because of this, often feel burnt out. This reminded me of myself right now in school. I buy books with the intention of reading them but end up having to wait until winter, spring, and summer break to start and finish them. School gets so overwhelming and takes up so much of my time that I don't end up making time to read my books for pleasure. I need to start making time because I often do feel burnt out.

In his blog, Burke shares some tricks that he uses to ensure that he reads. The first trick he mentions is bringing a magazine or book wherever you go because then when you have some free-time, the magazine and/or book are right there for you to grab and read for a little while. Another trick he mentions is make a deal: I have to read this much before I do this. If you make deals with yourself to read before you take on another task, or read a magazine before you receive the next subscription, it will ensure that you get some reading time in. Another trick Burke speaks of is read in the car. I myself have never listened to an audio book but it is definitely something to do. Burke speaks of belonging to audible.com and receiving two books to listen to in the car each month for $22 a month. I think it is a good idea to sign up for this because instead of listening to music in the car you can be learning and listening to a story. This can help satisfy your need to relax and just read a book even when you don't have time to. You can just listen to it in the car!

I found Burke's blog helpful because it reminded me that I need to take time out of my busy schedule to relax and read a little bit. He states that we need to take time out for ourselves and read because other work that we do may end up feeling like a chore rather than a choice.

Take some time to sit back and read Jim Burke's Blog!

Student response systems.

2009-10-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

For task 2, I chose to research student response systems, most commonly known by students as iclickers. I chose to research this technology because it was a new technology presented to me that I had no idea how to operate when first handed it during my journalism class freshman year of college. And the funny thing is, it may be one of the easiest technologies to operate.

In my college courses I have used iclickers for lecture courses. Iclickers are affordable to buy and are not an inconvenience because they are sold at most books stores, if not all of them, on campus. Iclickers are used in the lecture courses because it keeps all the students participating which can be hard to do with such a big classroom. It also allows students their privacy which is something I really enjoy. I have always been a student who hasn't wanted to share my thoughts in fear that they may be wrong, so iclickers are very helpful for me. All I have to do is click a button for which ever answer I think is correct and then the correct answer is displayed on the screen and I find out whether I was right or wrong. This also brings up how easy iclickers are to use. After you register the iclicker for your class, all you have to do is turn on the iclicker, and select a button that is labeled with a letter (A, B, C, D, or E) which corresponds with a certain answer to the question. Iclickers are also used in lectures to take attendance. This is a very good thing because it makes sure that students are coming to class and learning, instead of skipping out like often students do when they are enrolled in a big lecture course. Teachers often give extra credit for attendance and having iclickers makes taking attendance so much easier than going through names or having students sign in. The last thing I have used iclickers for during a lecture class was to take a poll on something. If the teacher needed an opinion, he/she would ask us to press a certain letter for whatever we thought and then we could see feedback on what the majority of us students chose.

In my elementary class, I could use Iclickers for quizzes because it records the answers that the students gave which takes away from having to waste paper as well as spending extra time grading the quizzes. I could also display a couple of questions to use the iclicker on after going over a concept or subject just to see how well the students comprehended the information. This would be very helpful because it would let me know what areas I needed to review before quizzing the students on the information. Iclickers being used in the classroom would get the students prepared for multiple choice and true and false questions on quizzes and tests. The technology would provide experience for the students with formats like these. There are only a couple downfalls I thought of when I thought about using the iclicker in my elementary classroom. One would be the added expense. I wouldn't be sure if the schools budget could provide the iclicker for students or if parents would have to purchase them for the student. The second downfall is losing personal contact with the students. Verbal communication and active participation would have to take place in the classroom as well as using the iclicker. Being that elementary classrooms are smaller, keeping the students communicating with each other and the teacher is very important. All in all though I think that the iclicker is an affordable, easy to operate, and very beneficial technology to have in the classroom.

2009-10-08T13:07:00.001-07:00

Here is an article written by Mike Moore that speaks of the difficulties dealing with parents and how exactly you should deal with them. This is one of my many concerns when thinking about teaching later on; how am I going to react to some of the statements made by parents or fellow teachers and staff members? Mike Moore writes 14 steps on what you should do when interacting with a "toxic" parents. Some of his steps I agreed with but then there were a few that I wasn't so sure would result in a good conclusion to the discussion. Moore speaks of selective silence being a good technique. In some cases it may be, but it could also result in an even bigger argument because the parent could take it as the teacher did not know what to say or the teacher is ignoring them. Another technique Moore lists is saying nothing and walking away. Again, I can see this resulting in a bigger problem. I do believe discussing an issue and trying to get to the bottom of it is one of the best ways to resolve a dispute. So it is hard for me to imagine a discussion ending in the teacher saying nothing and walking away could result in a resolution to the problem. I do agree with Moore when he states that teachers need to remember that they are not a doormat and need to stand their ground. I believe this is very important because if they do not do this, they could be seen as not fit to teach a classroom. All in all, I think Mike Moore's article includes some interesting thoughts and I wanted to present it to the class and hear what others thought of it. Do you agree/disagree with Moore's steps?

Moore's article

The Progression of technology.

2009-10-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

I found this comic after searching education comic strips and found that it related to this class. I thought it was pretty funny because it definitely lays out how things are today. Technology is such an important thing to young people and often older generations have no idea what we are talking about and how to use it. The comic begins with a student saying she found a blog about how to use technology and the teacher does not have a clue as to what she is talking about. What is a blog? What is technology? Our generation relies on technology so much that we assume every one else, at any age, does as well. I personally could not imagine living without my cell phone, my Ipod, or my macbook. These equipments are seen as a necessity for me. The comic strip ends with the student posing the question "when will these teachers every learn?!" Which brings the humor into the whole thing because usually it would be a teacher saying or thinking the same thing. But because technology is so predominant in our lives, we expect others to learn about it. I know that technology is going to be used quite often in my classroom. I find that it makes things interesting, makes areas easier to demonstrate and easier for students to focus on, and it presents a variety in the classroom. After thinking about the progression of technology, I often sit and wonder what technology is going to be present when I have a classroom. What new things are we going to be using? What new technologies are we going to have to learn about in order to keep up with the generations to come? This comic strip poses all of these questions and has really got me thinking...

My slideshow! :)

2009-10-03T12:06:00.001-07:00

Here is my slideshow! I really enjoyed making it. I never knew that you could take a screenshot of websites, pictures, or anything. I've seen pictures that my friends have edited with picnik but have only done that once with one of my pictures. It's actually very fun to do. I plan on using picnik a lot more!

Picnik is a program that could be used in classroom. Having different effects done to educational pictures and adding text to pictures would attract the students to looking at them. Depending on the age of the student, (middle school, high school, and college), students could use picnik for journalism and magazine editing purposes. I do think that picnik is a very cool and fun program to use. Flickr was also helpful with editing and organizing my photos. Both of these technological programs can be beneficial for the classroom.

Twitter response.

2009-10-02T11:42:00.001-07:00

After using twitter for the past couple of weeks, I have realized that I do not have much interest in it. It reminds me of facebook status updates, so I find it almost pointless to have a twitter account when it does the same thing as facebook. The only thing I have used twitter for is to say what I am doing at that time because I am so used to doing that for my status updates on facebook. Yes, twitter is a means to communicate and you can post websites that you think others should check out, but I guess I think that better mediums could be used.

Depending on the grade level, twitter can be used in the classroom. Twitter would be most beneficial for students in high school and in college. It can be used as a means for students to communicate with other peers and their professors. Tweets can be made to express student's opinions and ideas. This can help other's in the classroom gain new perspectives about different areas being taught. Twitter can also be used to post websites for other's to look at. In my case, twitter would not be used in the classroom because of the grade level I want to teach. I, myself, being 20 years old, still do not completely understand twitter; therefore I know that my 3rd or 4th graders would have a very difficult time understanding what is going on.

I honestly don't think I will use twitter unless it is for a class. As for using it professionally, in the classroom, or to communicate with others, I think that there are better ways to do so. I do believe that twitter can be used for these things but I personally probably wouldn't use it.

Incorporating Images in the Classroom.

2009-10-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

In the classroom, I would use images like this one to teach the subject of astronomy. This picture is of the Milky Way Galaxy that our solar system lies in. Images like these will be used to give the students a better understanding of what they are learning. To incorporate images in the classroom, I would hang posters around the room for students to visually analyze during class. Pictures like these can also be displayed on powerpoints and videos. Images like these help students grasp concepts better because they can actually see what is happening. Instead of studying out of books and off of notes, they can study visual aids and how they work. Some students learn better by visually seeing things because it sticks in their minds easier. I am one of those students. While taking an exam I find myself remembering visual aids better than the notes that I studied off of. Incorporating images in the classroom is important because it gives the classroom a variety in ways for students to learn.

Photo Attribution:

Original Image "Our Milky Way Galaxy"

flickr.com/photos/14150482@N02/2544902240/

By: Sir Mervs

Released under an Attribution license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

My Licensed Photo

Tailgating by Breanne Mason is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Why is the English Language so difficult?

2009-09-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

I decided to google "Technology and Education" and came across Marilyn Western's "Technology Tips for Classroom Teachers". I clicked on the "Fun Powerpoints" application and came across a powerpoint that clearly explained why the English Language is so hard to learn in only sentences. An example in the powerpoint is "I shed a tear when I saw the tear in my clothes". The words "tear" are spelt exactly the same but have two different pronunciations and meanings. This website opens our eyes and opens our minds to how difficult English is for children to learn. Take a look:

http://www.edzone.net/%7Emwestern/english_files/frame.htm

Technology Integration.

2009-09-23T18:12:00.000-07:00

My freshman year of college I worked at Bingham Elementary School in Lansing, MI through the America Reads program. Being an underdeveloped school, they did not have much technology to work with. While accompanying the students during class, the only technology they did use was the television and VCR to watch movies with. For an hour of the day, certain grades had computer class where they played with the Internet and different programs. During Bingham's afterschool program, students of all grades would sit at tables in the cafeteria and read off of a projector and write the sentences they were asked to write. These were the technologies that Bingham Elementary had and used.

Technology was integrated throughout my Astronomy class last semester. Our lectures were projected on a screen with the Microsoft Powerpoint program. We also watched movies such as Armageddon with a DVD player projecting the movie on a screen in front of the class. We used the Internet to access youtube videos and angel online. For the class to answer questions, we would use our Iclickers to select the answer we thought best answered the question. My astronomy class was the class that integrated the most technology so far in my education.

Neat Ways to Learn.

2009-09-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

This semester I am taking SME 301. Before my first day of class, I had a very uneasy feeling about what the course was going to entail. I had heard from students that the class was very difficult and time consuming. We were also warned by advisors after getting into the college of education that this class was a huge workload. Now that I have started the class, I see what everyone was talking about with the workload, but I enjoy the way that the class is set up. My teacher does a very good job at helping us learn new ideas as well as helping us learn how to explain new ideas better to students. I have a couple of examples. We just finished our lesson on the different arrangement and motions of molecules in solids, liquids, and gases. To help us learn easier, our teacher provided us with a teacher materials box that included some marbles. To help explain the motion and arrangement of molecules, she had us work with a partner and move the marbles, depending on what state of matter it was in, as well as explain what was going on to our partner. For instance, when I would explain the movement and arrangement of molecules in a liquid, I would move the marbles so that they were sliding past each other but still hitting each other, and explain that in a liquid the molecules hit and slide past each other moving farther away from each other. We did this for each state of matter. The marbles of the solid would be close together and vibrating, while the marbles of the gas would be bouncing off each other and moving far away from each other. We now are learning about astronomy. Our teacher provides us with a light in the middle of our groups' table, the bulb representing the sun, and a styrofoam earth that we use to revolve around the sun. We also rotate the styrofoam earth and include the tilt to explain day and night and the seasons. Both the earth and sun representation, as well as the marbles as molecules of a substance, are very good ways to teach students about different scientific concepts. Even though SME 301 can be time-consuming, I know that it is going to benefit me greatly in the future.

...Involve me and I'll understand."

2009-09-20T12:34:00.001-07:00

“Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.”

--Chinese Proverb

While browsing the web, I came across this quote that I found to be very interesting and meaningful. It is meaningful for me because it explains exactly how I learn in class. Sitting in a lecture, watching slides, and writing down notes, is not a good way for me to learn. Yeah, I may be able to memorize the notes and 4.0 the exam I am studying for, but as soon as I leave that classroom after the exam, that information I just memorized is no longer with me. When teachers show me how something works, some of the information stays with me, but not all of it. A great way for me to learn is to involve me in the process. I am a hands-on learner, as I know many people are. When taking an exam, it is easier to look back at a time when you were involved with learning and remember what it is that you need to know, rather than looking back and trying to remember some notes that you wrote down from a slide on a powerpoint. I believe that good teachers can teach a student in whatever way helps them best. I believe that involving students while trying to teach an idea is a great way to get the information stored into their long-term memory. Many teachers do group activities and experiments that involve students working together and sharing their knowledge with each other. This helps students acquire a lot of new ideas and helps them look at ideas in different ways. I thought this quote was a good quote to bring to the classes' attention because it makes you think about how you want to teach your class in order for them to learn best.

Response to Blog.

2009-09-18T16:29:00.002-07:00

While reading other student's blog, I came across one that stuck with me. Jamie Thompson's blog included a video of students pleading to teachers to give them a chance to surprise them. The video remarked about all the things that students did not like about their teachers or what they needed from their teachers in order to succeed. A quote that stuck with me was "Sometimes we need an extra push, even if we complain". This stuck with me because I have thought the same thing. I have complained about the push from others around me, but then I have thanked them in the end because I would not be where I am now if it had not been for them. Everyone needs someone to push them to do better and show them that they care. I also agree with Jamie on the quote "just because I sit in the back of the class, don't assume I don't want to learn". I too sit in the back of classes due to being shy. And I have had teachers who have thought I was a slacker or did not want to learn; until they read my papers. I have never liked being judged for being shy. I am glad that Jamie found this video and brought it to the classes' attention. It has a great message behind it and I only hope that I can be a teacher like all the students in the video want to have.

Technology Background

2009-09-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

Over the years I have had experiences with many different technologies. On the computer, I have used programs such as Microsoft Powerpoint, Excel, Word, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox for classes in high school and in college. I have used search engines when using the Internet. Just recently I bought a Macbook and have become familiar with programs such as Itunes and Iphoto. I use a USB drive to save my documents on and transport them to other computers. I also own an Ipod and MP3 player that I use to listen to music. I own a cellphone that I know how to operate, but give me another person's cellphone and I have no clue what to do with it. Even though I am more familiar with certain technologies over others, I still need more experience with all of them. I believe that I know how to "get by" when operating these technologies. I have never learned in depth how to use each technology. This ties in to what I expect from this course. I expect this course to guide me into getting a closer look at all the technologies I have used, as well as new ones. I expect this course to show me things I never knew I could do with the technologies I have been using. I expect this course to present new technologies I have never even heard of. I expect to finish this course with a whole new understanding about certain technologies that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.