My Beliefs
I am not going to lie, technology scares me. I found it very intimidating that students will know more about the technology that I am using than I will ever know. I find it hard to know how to teach technology when I know very little about it. I have a fear that I will get up in front of my class and present an assignment to the students with technology enriched in the lesson and a student will ask me a question and I will not know the answer. Technology in classroom can be a good thing and make things so much easier, but with all the technology come the possibility of not working. I find that whenever I want to use technology something breaks or something goes wrong and then I have to start all over, but that is just life.
I want to use technology in my class because without technology my students are not getting the full benefits of learning. I think it would be virtually impossible to teach without using technology. I just have to swallow my fear and learn as much as possible about technology as I can.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned
When this assignment was first given out I was overwhelmed with all the things that we had to do. I kept putting it off, until I had to buckle down and get it done. After starting the assignment I thought that is was amazing. I thought that there was some interesting stuff in the articles and videos that we were assigned to read. My favorite article was the New WWW (Whatever, whenever, wherever) I found this article very thought provoking. I knew that the world was changing and that technology was evolving every day, but I had no idea that it was moving towards this movement of WWW. It concerns me that my students are going to have all these resources available and I have no way of controlling what goes on in my very own classroom. I think that technology is good, but I fear the unknown.
Another article that I found interesting was Tools for Change. I think that this kind of technology is fascinating. I love the biometric recognizer. I like you can take attendance right when the students walk in the classroom, but you don’t really have to do anything, the students do it for you.
When this assignment was first given out I was overwhelmed with all the things that we had to do. I kept putting it off, until I had to buckle down and get it done. After starting the assignment I thought that is was amazing. I thought that there was some interesting stuff in the articles and videos that we were assigned to read. My favorite article was the New WWW (Whatever, whenever, wherever) I found this article very thought provoking. I knew that the world was changing and that technology was evolving every day, but I had no idea that it was moving towards this movement of WWW. It concerns me that my students are going to have all these resources available and I have no way of controlling what goes on in my very own classroom. I think that technology is good, but I fear the unknown.
Another article that I found interesting was Tools for Change. I think that this kind of technology is fascinating. I love the biometric recognizer. I like you can take attendance right when the students walk in the classroom, but you don’t really have to do anything, the students do it for you.
Strengths ans weaknesses
Strengths and weaknesses
According to the survey I have a lot more weaknesses then strengths. My weaknesses include: demonstrating awareness of uses of computers and computing technology in business, industry, and society, I don’t know a lot about the ethics of technology, and the whole section of tools in technology. According to the Net standards I have very little knowledge about technology. First of all it was hard for me to even understand what the Net Standards were talking about, because I am not aware of the terminology that was being used, that is a big weakness on my part. I want to be able to keep up with the times and stay fresh with all the new technology come out these days, so not knowing what’s the best tool to use is a weakness that I would like to correct.
I thought that the survey was hard to take, because we are not yet teachers so I find it hard to answer each question correctly. But I found that my strengths included operating a computer, I know how to store and organize files and folders, I have trouble-shooted before, so I feel that I have strength in that way. I also know how to work the Internet to an extent, and that has been a huge advantage in planning lessons. According to the Net standards my strengths include: Evaluation, I know that I will be doing evaluations on the computer. I understand that I will be using a computer to calculate the student’s grades. I understand that there are test available on the Internet for students to take. While writing my lesson plans I include technology in most every one of them, I find it easy to implement technology, because there are so many resources that are available.
Two goals that I have established I have discussed a little bit above. I will become up to date with new technology as I discover it. I will become familiar with technology tools that I can use in my classroom to enhance learning. Two mini-workshops that are available are: there is a book that is available to buy that is called, technology tools for teachers, it is a Microsoft office tutorial. I want to buy this book so I can become familiar with these tools. At the following website http://thwt.org/workshops.html two online workshops are available to take that are about Teaching for the 21st Century Professional Development Program and Custom Technology Integration Workshops for Schools and Districts.
According to the survey I have a lot more weaknesses then strengths. My weaknesses include: demonstrating awareness of uses of computers and computing technology in business, industry, and society, I don’t know a lot about the ethics of technology, and the whole section of tools in technology. According to the Net standards I have very little knowledge about technology. First of all it was hard for me to even understand what the Net Standards were talking about, because I am not aware of the terminology that was being used, that is a big weakness on my part. I want to be able to keep up with the times and stay fresh with all the new technology come out these days, so not knowing what’s the best tool to use is a weakness that I would like to correct.
I thought that the survey was hard to take, because we are not yet teachers so I find it hard to answer each question correctly. But I found that my strengths included operating a computer, I know how to store and organize files and folders, I have trouble-shooted before, so I feel that I have strength in that way. I also know how to work the Internet to an extent, and that has been a huge advantage in planning lessons. According to the Net standards my strengths include: Evaluation, I know that I will be doing evaluations on the computer. I understand that I will be using a computer to calculate the student’s grades. I understand that there are test available on the Internet for students to take. While writing my lesson plans I include technology in most every one of them, I find it easy to implement technology, because there are so many resources that are available.
Two goals that I have established I have discussed a little bit above. I will become up to date with new technology as I discover it. I will become familiar with technology tools that I can use in my classroom to enhance learning. Two mini-workshops that are available are: there is a book that is available to buy that is called, technology tools for teachers, it is a Microsoft office tutorial. I want to buy this book so I can become familiar with these tools. At the following website http://thwt.org/workshops.html two online workshops are available to take that are about Teaching for the 21st Century Professional Development Program and Custom Technology Integration Workshops for Schools and Districts.
Tech article 2
Technology Tool #2
For the other one of my technology tools I chose to use “read-write-think” from UEN. There are so many tools on the UEN page that it was hard for me to just choose one. But the “read-write-think” was a great tool for reading, writing, and language arts, and as much as reading is emphasized I think that it would be a great asset to have a tool like this that my students could turn to for extra help.
ReadWriteThink offers a collection of online Student Materials to support literacy learning in the K-12 classroom. These interactive tools can be used to supplement a variety of lessons and provide an opportunity for students to use technology while developing their literacy skills. It also has a web resource gallery which offers links to countless useful English language arts resources on the Internet. It also provides standards for the teacher, the idea guiding these standards is that all students must have the opportunities and resources to develop the language skills they need to pursue life's goals and to participate fully as informed productive members of society. These standards assume that literacy growth begins before children enter school as they experience and experiment with literacy activities—reading and writing, and associating spoken words with their graphic representations. Recognizing this fact, these standards encourage the development of curriculum and instruction that make productive use of the emerging literacy abilities that children bring to school. Lessons were also provided for teacher use. This a great tool for both a teacher and a student. This tool provided lessons for a teacher, but it also provided games for students to play.
For the other one of my technology tools I chose to use “read-write-think” from UEN. There are so many tools on the UEN page that it was hard for me to just choose one. But the “read-write-think” was a great tool for reading, writing, and language arts, and as much as reading is emphasized I think that it would be a great asset to have a tool like this that my students could turn to for extra help.
ReadWriteThink offers a collection of online Student Materials to support literacy learning in the K-12 classroom. These interactive tools can be used to supplement a variety of lessons and provide an opportunity for students to use technology while developing their literacy skills. It also has a web resource gallery which offers links to countless useful English language arts resources on the Internet. It also provides standards for the teacher, the idea guiding these standards is that all students must have the opportunities and resources to develop the language skills they need to pursue life's goals and to participate fully as informed productive members of society. These standards assume that literacy growth begins before children enter school as they experience and experiment with literacy activities—reading and writing, and associating spoken words with their graphic representations. Recognizing this fact, these standards encourage the development of curriculum and instruction that make productive use of the emerging literacy abilities that children bring to school. Lessons were also provided for teacher use. This a great tool for both a teacher and a student. This tool provided lessons for a teacher, but it also provided games for students to play.
Tech article 1
Technology Tool #1
For one of my technology tools I chose to do Microsoft Publisher. Microsoft Office Publisher helps you create, personalize, and share a wide range of publications and marketing materials. New and improved capabilities guide you through the process of creating and distributing in print, Web, and e-mail.
I chose Publisher for many different reasons; first of all it is a great tool that not many people know how to use. It also lets students create professional looking documents that they are not use to making. The students have to opportunity to make advertisements, newsletters, newspaper articles, business cards, and other professional documents. Publisher is easy to use in my personal opinion. I find that it will talk you through most things step by step; you can also find tutorials on-line.
For an assignment I had to make an advertisement for a book. It was a nightmare trying to draw pictures to match the book details. In class we shared our advertisement and they were some very creative ones, but the one that was amazing, the student had gotten a picture of the book of the internet and put it in Publisher and made her advertisement that way. When I saw that I wanted to learn how to use Publisher.
I think that students would have a blast making newsletters and then putting them together at the end of the unit and having a book of the letters. Or in your class you could have a newspaper staff and you could have a monthly newsletter come out.
For one of my technology tools I chose to do Microsoft Publisher. Microsoft Office Publisher helps you create, personalize, and share a wide range of publications and marketing materials. New and improved capabilities guide you through the process of creating and distributing in print, Web, and e-mail.
I chose Publisher for many different reasons; first of all it is a great tool that not many people know how to use. It also lets students create professional looking documents that they are not use to making. The students have to opportunity to make advertisements, newsletters, newspaper articles, business cards, and other professional documents. Publisher is easy to use in my personal opinion. I find that it will talk you through most things step by step; you can also find tutorials on-line.
For an assignment I had to make an advertisement for a book. It was a nightmare trying to draw pictures to match the book details. In class we shared our advertisement and they were some very creative ones, but the one that was amazing, the student had gotten a picture of the book of the internet and put it in Publisher and made her advertisement that way. When I saw that I wanted to learn how to use Publisher.
I think that students would have a blast making newsletters and then putting them together at the end of the unit and having a book of the letters. Or in your class you could have a newspaper staff and you could have a monthly newsletter come out.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Learning Log
Today in class we worked on our Web-Quest. We are doing sight words and we were feeling pretty good about it. Then we were discussing it with the teacher and she said that are Web-Quest had no point to it. So we had to switch it up a little bit. Hillary had a great idea to have the students hear the word and then they have to write it instead of showing them the word and having them draw it. We are finally coming together and getting everything the way we want it. We were having problems with getting the sound to work with our clip art, but we got that taken care so know we just have to write every thing out and record it. I realized today that there is so many different tools out there to use and my students will probably know more about them than I will. Web-Quest will be fun to incorporate in my future class, and get the students excited about learning.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Learniong Log
Today in class we discussed Web-Quest. I am excited in a way to create a Web-Quest. Its not what I expected it to be. I thought it was a big old thing that would take forever to create and I had to know all this stuff in order to do it. But actually you can do a Web-Quest with anything. My group choice to do one for Kindergarten and we are going to be doing it with sight words and illustrating them. I am really excited to work with my group I have never worked with some of them and they seem to have good ideas. I could use Web-Quest in my class in so many different ways. I am actually excited to create Web-Quest for my students to do. I think that it will be a good way to keep them engaged in the material. It is also a fun and creative way to get students excited about learning.
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