Blog Journal 8

Web quest is an extremely helpful and efficient tool when it comes to teaching. Since my project is on more advanced material such as secondary science, a web quest would be very efficient in aiding the success my project has on a student’s ability to learn. Since we are teaching the students about genetics and punnett squares, a web quest could be great because it is very helpful to use real life scenarios when discussing genetics. Webquests can help the students take what they’ve learned about genetics and apply real life scenarios and begin role-playing to make learning the topics hands on. Webquests make learning more of a game than a chore.
A great example of a Web quest that I think would be most helpful in teaching students secondary science is the webquest entitled “The Science of Genetics.”

This webquest gets students focused and gets their brains working to learn about genetics.
New skills that I acquired last week were the skills I learned with excel. When I begin teaching I will need to be making many spreadsheets. The most important skill I learned was creating a grade book spreadsheet. The shortcuts we were taught is going to save me so much time and spare me of headaches!

Blog Journal 7

If you haven't already figured it out by browsing my previous blog entries, my favorite web-based learning tool is starfall. This website really helps young children to read by making it fun and interactive. The students can play a game and learn the basics of reading, for example letter sounds and working with small words. The website is fancy and colorful and seems to work extremely well with early childhood students. When I become a teacher I will use Excel for many fun activities. However, most importantly, I will be using excel on a day to day basis by using it as a gradebook. Excel is the most convenient and easy way to keep track of each and every one of my students' grades. In the classroom, I will create activities where the students can learn about excel as well. Since I will be teaching young students I will perform the functions of excel for them instead of them actually using the program themselves. I will have the students create their own survey and they will be instructed to go home and interview their family using the questions they came up with. In class, I will use excel to record all their results and we will compare their answers and I will make a pie chart to help them visualize the results.

Blog #6

My personal PowerPoint presentation followed the guidelines discussed in chapter 8 pretty accurately. However, I must admit, I don't think my presentation has met the "content" rule. My presentation was meant to be aimed toward the younger children so I tried to use younger language which took away from the content quality. My presentation's screen design meets the rules pretty closely. I made sure my slides were organized and aesthetically pleasing without overdoing it and making them too crowded.
I will integrate peripherals and non-computer based audio-technology in my classroom through creative videos aimed at teaching a lesson. All students love watching t.v. so how could they not love learning a new lesson from the t.v. It will keep them alert and interested in learning new material. Especially if the video is creatively made and taught in an interesting way. Kind of like the "Bill Nye" videos! I will use my videos with computer based technologies through displaying the videos on the big screen by playing them on the computer and projecting them on to the whiteboard.
I learned many new skills last week that I will be using very frequently in my classroom in the future. PowerPoint is a teacher's best friend and I learned everything PowerPoint has to offer. I can now incorporate more advanced details in my presentations and I'm very excited to start making presentations for my very own class and teaching my very own lessons!

POST #5

A website that I found to be very beneficial to elementary aged students is a website called Starfall. This website is very interactive and met the majority of the rules listed in Chapter Six with the exception of a few. This website made great use of organization to keep students on track and excited to learn. It also used many images and pretty colors to hold the audience’s attention. The website has a very organized method of teaching students in its ability to display headings and titles the students can click to take them forward. The one rule Starfall defied was Rule 16: Do Not Flash. The website uses a ton of flashing text, but I believe it is still okay because I think it uses the flashing text to its advantage. Elementary aged students enjoy the flashing text displayed by Starfall. Starfall is a great tool to use when teaching students to read. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Learn To Read.mht
I think using presentation software in the classroom is an effective way to teach students the material they need to be taught. Students love being in control, and giving them the opportunity to take your role as the “teacher” and make their own presentations will really help keep them engaged in the material. I also truly believe the best way to learn is to learn as if you are going to teach the material to somebody else. Giving students the opportunity to this will force them to master the material so that they may feel comfortable enough to make a presentation and teach others the material they’ve learned.
You could use PowerPoint to support student learning at each knowledge dimension by creating a slide show of steps to solving a problem. Each slide can display one step and provide further details of each step. I think PowerPoint is a great teaching tool. It keeps material simple and easy to understand instead of displaying a big jumble of steps it makes it simple and slow so the students may keep up.

Class Practice #1- Flow Chart

Blog Journal 4

Outlines, Idea Maps, and Storyboards are all extremely effective techniques in teaching students to write properly and effectively. When I become a teacher I will definitely put all these techniques to use through a variety of computer programs. To teach outlines I will stick with the standard Microsoft Word. I could even use the new techniques we learned in class to develop idea maps with Microsoft Word, however I may be interested in using a more advanced software, which I have found online. To create story boards and incorporate branching along the way I think I will look for software that is easy to use to teach my students those techniques. I will create the empty story boards and hand them each their own printout that they may use to fill in with their own personal ideas.
I strongly believe learning techniques like outlining, mapping, and story boarding is essential for a student to learn to write. It will help students stay on topic and it will help them get more organized with their writing. When given an essay prompt, a student can get overwhelmed with deciding what ideas to incorporate or how to even begin. Getting their ideas on paper in an organized fashion through brainstorm trees and then incorporating those ideas into an outline can help students feel less overwhelmed and place their ideas in the appropriate parts of the essay. It's crucial in keeping your writing organized.
Many of the new skills we learned last week will be extremely useful in incorporating these writing techniques in the classroom. Last week we learned to insert shapes in word, and through that we can insert a variety of different concept maps. We can insert bubbles, trees, boxes, everything you can think of to organize ideas. I will definitely put all these techniques to good use in the future teaching world!

Samantha's Podcast

Blog Journal 3

After learning the many different ways technology can be used in the classroom, I have thought about what kinds of technology I will use in my future classroom and what lessons I will use technology to teach. One interesting use of technology that I have witnessed firsthand as I observed a 6th grade classroom last semester, was the use of the classroom website to create learning games for the students. The teacher kept an updated website displaying upcoming due dates for assignments and tests, however, he also created vocabulary games and posted a link on the website. The students could be in the comfort of their very own home and use the website to play a memory game containing the vocabulary words that they would be tested on. As I will be teaching younger grades, I will try to incorporate something like that in to my lesson plans. Maybe I will post word searches or word games for the students to study the words that they will be tested on for a spelling test. I'm excited to learn more exciting ways to incorporate technology in my future classroom!
As I have already mentioned, I will be teaching younger students, so I should not have to many concerns about controlling a technology incorporated classroom. However, I do have a few minor concerns. Even first or second graders can navigate the internet on their own, so as I am not concerned that they will be visiting explicit websites or websites like "facebook", I do express concerns over my students getting off task by visiting other websites, like the "Disney" website or other noneducational websites that younger kids enjoy.
A very interesting web-based tool that I've seen students really engage themselves in is a website entitled Starfall. http://www.starfall.com/ This website is aimed toward younger children in grades K-2. The website contains a variety of categories and different games to help students brush up on things ranging from phonics to learning the months of the year or days of the week. I completed my community service hours helping a first grade classroom and I saw how much fun the students had on this website and how much the website taught them. I hope this website is still in action when it's time for me to teach!

Blog Journal 2

Microsoft Word has been a part of my life beginning with my younger elementary school years. I started using Microsoft Word to type things such as “spelling test” study guides, daily journals, or any other elementary task required of me. As I advanced from grade to grade and entered my middle school and high school years, I began using Microsoft Word for more advanced things, such as book reports, biographies, or papers in general. I have yet to discover all the things Microsoft Word has to offer and I’m pleased to already have learned a few new techniques in this class. Throughout my years as a student, my teachers never really used Microsoft Word for anything more than what their students used it for. My teachers were never more technologically advanced than the students. I hope to advance my technological skills so that my students can refer to me as the teacher who is “technological savvy.”

One example that Chapter 9 gives to creatively use Microsoft Word in the classroom is the ability to create a school newspaper. I was intrigued that one could do such a complicated task on a program I thought to be so basic. The school newspapers at my school were always so intricate and advanced; I would have never guessed that they were made from Microsoft Word. When I become a teacher I hope to teach my students to construct their very own newspaper discussing topics from class or even assign them a research project using MS word to create a newspaper covering details from their research topic.

I have already learned so many new techniques that I can use in the teaching world with Microsoft Word. One skill that stuck out to me personally was the ability to capture things from the internet and paste them in word or paint. This way, if I see a cool excerpt from a website or a cool picture, I can capture it and then add my own teaching twist to it. I can draw arrows on the picture labeling things, I can write little footnotes inside the picture. I’ve always wanted to do that as a student conducting student presentations, but I never knew how. Now that I know, I will definitely put that skill to good use in the future!

Blog Journal #1

• Computers and Technology play a major role in education today and are extremely important in both a teacher's teaching process and a student's learning process. I agree completely with the concept chapter 1 brought up about students using technology to get a feel for real world scenarios. Many elementary school children are already using PowerPoint in the classroom, a program many of them will use in their professional careers. Getting hands-on experience with computers is an excellent way to learn new concepts and I truly believe students would be more engaged in learning from a computer as opposed to a textbook. Another issue that was brought up in Chapter 1 that I was able to relate completely to, was the issue of students today knowing more about computers and technology than the teacher. I've witnessed my fellow classmates setting up our teacher for class on many accounts. For example the student would have to show the teacher how to plug in the VCR so we could watch a movie, the student would have to fix the audio on the teacher's PowerPoint lesson, and many other similar issues have occurred. As a future teacher, I hope to show my students how competent I can be as their teacher, and I hope to learn even more advanced technological concepts so that I may teach my students in the most effective manner.
• When I become a teacher, computers are going to be play a major role in my teaching tactics. As Chapter 1 suggested, I am going to set-up my very own classroom blog. In this blog I will include fun stuff like pictures from different lessons I teach in class, a few learning games that students can have fun with, and I may even post funny videos that relate to things we have discussed in class. In addition to fun stuff on my blog, I will keep an updated calender displaying important upcoming events hosted either by me or the school as whole. One essential quality my blog will have is an explanation of every homework assignment and the due dates. This way, if a student missed a day in class or forgot to write the assignment down, they can log onto my blog at any hour of the day and view the assignment. This will also help parents stay involved with their child's education and keep their children on task. I also plan to use computers to communicate with my students' parents via e-mail, and I will definitely use computers to keep a grade book of the progress of my students. From this class I hope to learn more blogging skills, and I definitely hope to learn how to use the more advanced computer programs like excel, since I will be using these advanced programs for grading purposes.
• I'm very excited to learn everything this course is going to teach me this semester, and I've already feel I've got my money's worth, after learning to set up my very own blog. I'm a total beginner when it comes to technology and computers and I hope to call myself an expert by the time I'm done with this course. I'm excited to read all the posts from my classmates and view their blogs to help give me ideas on how to better improve my own blog. Oh and did I mention I'm really excited to finish school and finally start my teaching career?!
  

You Tube

Blog #0

Questions
1) My prior experiences using technology include basic skills such as Word Processor, PowerPoint, and Windows Excel.

2) I hope to learn a variety of different ways to incorporate technology with learning. Technology has made so much progress over the recent years and I believe many of those improvements can significantly impact my ability to teach students successfully.

3) My learning style results matched exactly what I've discovered about myself over the many years as a student. It was interesting to read about the many ways each learner can help themselves learn to the best of their ability according to their learning style. I will definitely use the tips provided in the future!