Today's Class

This is the last class of the semester!

Three different ways that I am going to integrate technology into my second grade classroom:

1. The first way that I am going to integrate technology into my classroom is that I want to have a class blog. I am going to keep both my students and their parents up to date on what is going on in the classroom. I think it is so important to keep parents informed, as well as letting them see what their child is doing throughout the day.

2. The second way that I am going to integrate technology into my classroom is to use and interactive whiteboard. I think these tools are so amazing, and I know second grade students would be so excited to use something like this. Now that I know how to create a lesson and that I have access to SMART Exchange, I can really change up my lessons and keep my students excited to come to class and learn!

3. The third way that I am going to integrate technology into my classroom is too use computer and video games to help my students learn. I think that when a student is excited to do something, they will get the information that I am trying to get across. After being in 331, I now know of games that my students can enjoy playing while they are learning.

The main thing that I learned in this class is to always try something new to relate to students. Technology is such a big part of our lives, and it isn't going to go away. It is important to get our students used to using it as well as letting them enjoy what and how they are learning. I learned so much this semester and it has changed my outlook on technology and its use in the classroom. I thought that you had to be a technology savvy type of person to do a lot of the things that we did in this class. I am most definitely not that good with technology, and I was still able to complete all of the course tasks so I am proud of myself! I know that i can take this information and use in my future as a teacher!

We ended class with a great discussion and wrap up of the semester! I loved this class! I really learned a lot! :)

Today's Class

Ways that the teacher integrates technology into her classroom from the video:

- SMARTBoard
    cooperative learning
    engagement and participation
- Mac Computers
   laptops
   large number of computers
   mobile lab
   access to computers
- Online Collaborative Projects
    connect with peers (world-wide)
- Daily Blog
     assignments posted for parents and students
     open classroom
- Students write blogs
    current events and classroom activities that can be shared
    global audience

We then divided this list into things that we could have done before technology, things we couldn't do before technology, and things that we could do before but can now do better now that we have the technologies. It is important as teachers that we use things that will help our class even if they can only be done with technology. We then did a jigsaw activity with information from two articles about how and how not to use technology in the classroom. I thought this helped because we were able to hear about all of the other ideas, but only being an expert on one of them. I think this would be a fun activity to use in the future classroom.

I know that I need to get going on my Technology Inquiry Wiki! Fun class period! :)

iRLO

I thought this was very difficult to complete. I had a very hard time figuring out how to use Scratch. It took me forever to get the final project completed. The thing I didn't like about Scratch was that every little thing that I would change with my script would change everything. I was getting very frustrated, and I am happy that I am done with it! I definitely took my time, and created a project that I think is satisfactory.

I honestly don't know if I would ever use this in my future as an educator. I think that it is a cool program, and I would have my students use already created Scratch projects. I just think it is way to time consuming and complicated to make these games. I think that this would be fun for the students to play around with and try to create their own. I am happy that I was able to try using Scratch this semester because it gave me more of a background in different things I could possibly use in my future classroom. I also have something to show other colleagues and administration in my future. I'm sure there will be some people who love using Scratch and will use it in their classrooms!

Public Service Announcement

Link to my PSA!

This was a very fun project to complete! Ashley and I had a great time filming this video! We put in a good amount of effort planning the video, getting the props and setting right, and editing it to make the finished product. We had some glitches along the way including not knowing that we had to keep the flip camera vertical when filming with it. This mishap forced us to film a great deal of the clips again. Once everything was filmed, we had some issues editing. Our problem was that we had the video maker on still-shots instead of moving ones. Once we had this figured out, the rest was fairly easy. I love how the video turned out! I personally think it is hilarious while still getting a very important message across. Very time consuming, but well worth it!

I think that knowing how to create a video will help me a lot in my future as an educator. As a teacher I can not only make videos for my students to watch, but I can have them create their won videos for projects. This can make things so much more interesting for the students. I think that this will just add to the fun that students can have when learning something new as well as reviewing older material. Now that I know the steps and a lot of the details, I will be able to easily use videos in the classroom! Very cool project! :)

Today's Class

Today we started out class with the discussion on chapter 10. The group did a great job with their presentation. They used the jigsaw strategy, which was very beneficial to us coming to a consensus as a group about what our vision for our future in education. One thing that we learned is that when we use a specific strategy, we should straight out tell the class what strategy is being used. They all did a good job using multiple technology to make the presentation flow more nicely. Once again, we really need to think through the directions to make sure that the students understand what is expected of them as well as the materials they may need to use. I also am starting to really think about the importance of lifelong learning. It is such and important concept. We then did an activity to see how many different types of technology we could find that relate to our future careers in education. I found some very cool activities and resources that I can use in my future classroom! We then saved them on Delicious so we could use other students findings as well. This really helps with resources and saving time trying to find something useful for our students to do in class. Once again, the was a very informative class! :)

Interactive Whiteboard Lesson

I thought this was a very fun project to complete! It took sometime first of all deciding what I wanted to do. When I decided on creating a second grade math lesson, I thought that measuring would be fun! I then picked out different backgrounds and other fun things that I thought second graders would relate to. Once I had my idea, using SMART Notebook was actually pretty easy. After I got my peer feedback, I was able to fix up my mistakes, and hopefully met the expectations with this assignment! It took me quite a while to get comfortable with the program, but after that I think that everything else went very smoothly!
I think that knowing how to make a lesson in SMART Notebook will help me make things more interesting for my students in my future classroom. Interactive Whiteboards were something that I have never worked with until this class, and I am so happy that I finally did! I have fun using them, I can only imagine how younger students must feel when they get to use them! I know that in the future I want to use activities like the one I created to get my students excited and ready to learn. With just a little extra effort on the teachers part, they can really make a difference on what the students pay attention to and will hopefully retain better. I am excited that I now know how to create and interactive whiteboard lesson, and I plan on using more of them in the future.

Chapter 10! Rethinking Education in a Technological World

This chapter was a recap of the previous chapters. It also brought all of the main points together, leaving the reader with a powerful message that technology is where this world is going, and we need to do whatever we can to make sure we prepare our students for this new society. There were many things that really stood out to me in this chapter. First of all the fact that we were all raised to believe that all learning takes place in school. We are all so used to the idea that school is where all of our learning occurs, and our teachers are the sole source for information. Now with technology involved, learning is more a lifelong endeavour. Individuals can now take learning into their own hands, and learn more about what they want to know more about. Thing such as technical schools and homeschooling are giving people the chance to start doing this. When someone is able to learn a deeper understanding of something they are really passionate about, they are more likely to gain more knowledge and retain the information better. This chapter also discussed student motivation toward education. Students will once again be more apt to learn the material if it is something they really enjoy. This way they will be more motivated to learn, which is so important to gathering and retaining any type of knowledge. Something that also caught my attention is the fact that what is important to learn is changing. Instead of students focusing on memorization of facts, they should have the knowledge to be able to go out and find the information that they need. This makes students more accountable for their learning. It is also evident that many of us will be switching careers throughout out lifetime. This means that people of all ages should be comfortable and willing to go back to school, and do something new that they are interested in. Once again, making learning a lifelong endeavour. It was also discussed how leadership and the government support of technology in education need to change. We need someone that is willing to take this inevitable change, and make it reality. Someone like Horace Mann who did everything he could to change education into what he thought was the best for students to learn. The government also needs to step in and make technology in all school equal, giving all students a chance to succeed on an even playing field.
All in all, this book really taught me a lot about being a future educator. I now realize the supreme importance of incorporating technology into my classroom, as well as giving my students academic choice.With all of my students most likely going in to different work areas when they are older, I don't think they all need the same exact information. This book really showed me a different way to view technology in the classroom, and I plan on using the information to make these visions a reality for my students!