Final Blog Entry Continued....

I would like to add that I enjoyed doing the smartboard lesson project within the classroom.  When I was doing an observation a teacher was using one to teacher her lesson, not only were the 1st graders eager to go to the board and partake in interactive learning....so was I!!  So when we had the opportunity to put a lesson together using that software I was excited.  This tool will defintely be used where ever I will be teaching in the future.  With that being said I hope that where ever I do teach will have the adequate funds to allow the teachers to incorporate such techonogy in their classrooms.  Funding can be a down fall when incorporating technology into schools because it not cheap by any means.

Final Blog Entry

Incorporating technology is important in a classroom because now in order to grasp children's attention is to do something that they like and enjoy.  Since it probably safe to say that all kids are introduced to some form of technology they would like to have it incorporated in their favorite place to be......school!!! Yayy!!  Some of the benefits to having techonlogy in the classroom is that it could increase class participation because the students might be more eager to be out of their seats while learning at the same time and also not to do that same repetitive lessons from the book time to time.  In this class I have learned that all technology is not easy and you have to learn what works for you.  Also there are plenty of different learning materials that can be productive in the classoom setting.  Coming from someone that is not all that technologically inclined at times I found myself struggling but after playin around with it for a little while I was able to understand the basics and maneuver around to accomplish what I needed.

E Portfolio

http://reetha23.webs.com/

Reflections on Presentations

Matt's IPhone presentation was a good idea.  So good that I did my presentation the same way.  Using his phone was an easy convenient way and probably the last way that people would thing of as to use to present something.

Suzanne's glogster was about the history of using animation in the classroom.  Having animation within the classroom is completely relevant in today's society when dealing with the younger aged children.  Look at all the kid movies out today they are animated so that's what they can relate to.

Gina's glogster about preschoolers and technology was right on point.  After reading it I realized how much technology these children come in contact with at such a young age.  I can't even think about what technology I used when I was 3 or 4.  Nowadays they have the leap pad  and vtech computer for children that promote learning and then they have the more fun technological devices like the DS and any game system.

Edu presentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybiKH2nMtd4&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
here you can view my presentation on E palling

Good/ Bad Example of Portfolios

http://www.immaculateheartacademy.org/.../ (bad)
I picked this portfolio as the bad example due to her set up being somewhat confusing and unorganized.  If I was to look at this it was all over the place and not really appealing to me.  This person is interested in art and has some example of her work.  Although the pictures are nice, the info on them is quite boring.



http://publish.bsu.edu/mgdoublestei/frameset.html (good)
In this portfolio this man is a music teacher.  I like how everything is simple and direct.  He has a picture of himself and gives his explanation of how he became interested in music.  He has places his resume and some a flyer of a concert that he put together ( didnt like how he used single letters, should have written out the word). He also included an article that was written by him that ties music into sports.

Copyright for teachers

Some of the things that were considered a violation of copyright had me surprised.  One wouldn't think that just by copying something for usage in an educational sense is a violation.  I found out that something that is copyrighted comes from the point of fixation.  I was under the impression that it had to have the little copyright symbol ( I know I'm not the only one who thought this)!!!  The idea that I could do something and have it copyrighted is a pretty cool idea.  From classroom discussions I learned all about the "poor mans copyright which is a resourceful way to have your items copyrighted if you don't have the means to do it the proper way.
Within school there are always violations of the copyright law. You can find a teacher that copies worksheets from a book and hands them out to the class and use them for a discussion piece or for homework.  Also video are shown within the classroom numerous times and probaly without the knowledge that they are doing something wrong.  Hey I found that out for myself ( something else I didn't know).
I think that the children show know about the copyright laws so they won't violate it somewhere down the line.  Who knows what path they want to lead in the course of their education and there shouldn't be anything that can negate any of the hard work they have done.

Video in the class

I think video in the classroom is a great tool to have within the classroom.  It will help those students that have to have a visual when learning material.  A good use for video can be in History.  When talking about different war or events that occur you can find that particular war and show it to the class and point out certain objectives within the video.  Also students can use video to help them with fears and participate in speeches.  If a student has stage fright, they might be able to record there speech and present it to the class.. There are numerous ways that videos can be useful in the classroom to just name a few.

PSA Project

The idea of the video was cool at first and when we were going through how to do things as a class it was quite interesting.  All this technology stuff is very new to me.  I was like "COOOL!!!"  Trying to figure up an idea to do with all the requirements was a bit challenging at first. 
  Once me and my partner came up with an idea the next thing we had to figure out was where were we going to tape our video and what scences were going in order.  The actual taping was the easiest part of the project.  We had some issues when it came to editing our video.  Our computer froze on us a few times which was becoming very frustrating.  Thye sad thing about it was that we didnt save it so we had to redo some parts of it.  Lesson learned: SAVE YOUR WORK!!!  Figuring out the correct sounds to go with out video was a bit tideous and working on how to cue the music up correctly.  Once we got that underway everything else was smooth sailing....sorta!!!

Interactive Boards

I have never had the experience of learning from an interactive board.  Due to it being a new technology of teaching it will enhance over the years.  Having to do a mini lesson with the smart board was a great experience for me because I have not worked with them before.  When setting up the lesson, I didnt find it difficult but a little time consuming because you have to do so many procedures for you to have a decent lesson.

The nice thing about a smart board is that it's size allows the children to see what is being taught anywhere in the classroom and it allows them to be part of the lesson.  Some things that i can see being an issue is the idea that they might be required for all teachers and if they are not willing to convert into learning how to work it may be an issue.  Also having all the teachers complete a training in order to succesfully teach using the smartboard.

The smartboard is a really cool tool and i think alot of teacher will benefit from teaching math lessons on it.  There are plenty more subjects in which it can be used because it has alot different material that can be combined with  books that will assist the student.

Graphic Organizers

Using graphic organizers can be a big help to students.  I know for me when I'm reading things I have the tendency to forget what I have read previously.  A graphic organizer is a cool tool to use.  It can be generated to coincide with whatever subject that you are learning.  Students can benefit for the fact that they are able to organize their random thoughts.  For some students having to absorb a lot of information at once can be a bit overwhelming and by using a graphic organizer it allows them to break down the information to an amount in which they can handle. My students use them a lot with reading comprehension ( story mapping- identifying the main characters in the story, the setting, plot, theme, and problem with a solution).  Another kins that i was introduced to in another class that I had previously taken was the KWL chart ( what do I already Know, what do I Wanna know, and what have I Learned).

Social Bookmarking

The whole idea of social bookmarking is like a new adventure to me.  I've never heard of this before until I entered this class.  From what I gather social bookmarking is a networking tool that allows your to search for sites within the internet that are of interest to you.  It allows you to organize, save, collect certain sites.  This tool will help students when doing research and comes along to many different sites that are in tuned to what they are working on.  It's quick to return and look at what you have already saved rather than having to do your research all over again.  Teachers can utilize this tool for the idea of sharing with coworkers.  They are able to social interact some materials with each other without having to be present.  Others are able to look at what you have tagged and use it for their benefit.

Week 3

Excel can help organize various items within the classroom. A few ways in which Excel can be used to benefit the teacher and the students are:
1. it can be used the count the attendance within the classroom or even the different classes within that grade (all depending on how big the schools was and the amount of classes per grade)
2. If the teacher utilized some kind of point system, using excel can help keep traack of the amount of points everyone has
3. If the teacher is doing a health lesson, use the spreadsheet for the calculation of fats, calories,protein, etc for the meals that are eaten
4. Teacher can calculate their grades instead of doing them by hand
5. Measure the amount of rainfall/snow within a time period and design a chart to see the increase/decrease over the times


Microsoft or Google Docs
I'm not really an expert on either software.  I just barely know how to type and maneuver simple task on Microsoft. So with me having to chose which one I'd rather prefer is kind of hard. They both have their pros and cons.  With Microsoft you have access to developing spreadsheet with using Excel but with Google Docs there is the luxury of being able to share documents with various people at one time which makes it a lot more simpler to engage in group projects without having to be in the same room.

Student's Language

I feel that my perspective is not that far off from those that I read.  I am one that is in agreement with the person from the first reading. "A Student's Perspective".  I felt his frustration when he went to the bookstore and they turned him away because he didn't have cash or check. There have been a few times where I have went into places and had to leave becasue they are not technologically advanced due to the fact that I rarely carry cash, only mu debit card. Not only is carrying a card adjusting to the new technology people also see it now as a safety precaution, if you happen to get robbed they can't steal your money if you don't have any cash.  Not being quite computer savvy myself, i just only know the basics.  I do the email and texting but engaging certain programs the collaborate within my teaching is something that I am lacking and will have to increase my knowledge.  Although I do agree and I have become accustomed to having things at my finger tips like reading the news and finding out the weather all from my smart phone. I have a younger brother that lives with me and hge taught me something new.. I told him that i was going to order a pizza once we got home. He told me "I already did it" all from an app from his phone. Haha

Using Google Docs was en experience for me.  In a way it reminded me of microsoft word with little differences.  There were times that I was frustrated because I was trying to copy and past some information and it wasn't going how I wanted it.  The set up was pretty much self explanatory once you got to the page.  When I first signed on I had to remember what I had to click to actually get to Google Docs after the email page.  I think that I will get used to it once I use it a couple more times.