Final Chapter in the 2008 School Year

This semester has been pretty lax. I have learned tons, but I am ready to start a new chapter in the school book. This year I really started to feel that I was on the road to becomeing a teacher. All of my classes were teaching related and very enjoyable. There are many new things that I have learned that I will be ablt to take on and use in my life and in my teaching career.

In this class there were so many new techniques that I learned to use. I was not sure exactly what to expect when I signed up for this class. I figured that it was a general computer class that you would learn how to use certain teaching computer programs. Little did I know that the class would revolve around what is new and upcoming in the computer world and how to use it in the classroom. At times the class was challenging and I wondered if I could do it. At other times I found it pretty easy really fun. All in all it was a very informing class and I learned so much, some I knew a basic knowledge of and learned more about it and other I was taught all new things.

I know that I will have to take more computer classes in the elementary education program. I am sure that some will be with Dr. Waters. Which will be good because I like the teaching style and I am fimilliar with it. I also think that the information she passes on to her students is useful and fun to learn about. So as I reflect ver this semester as a whole.....
It has been a good year, I have learned valuable information also made some good friends in the process, so thanks. See you in a few semesters!

V-Tech Cyber Spy Notebook

This notebook would be so amazing to have in my classroom. This is some thing that I can use as a reward for my students. It will be a fun tool for them and they will be excited, to play it but at the same time learning new ideas and aspects. On the Cyber Spy Notebook, students will discover a new found knowledge, but they will be having too much fun to notice. On the Cyber Spy Notebooks they will experience an adventure. Durinf he adventure they will uncover more than 100 activities that teach English, Spanish, French, German, math, logic and more. The Cyber Spy Notebook can always have new missions for the students so that they can learn more. All you have to do is connect the Cyber Spy Notebook to a computer and download new content. There are also other games online at the Cyber Spy Headquarters where you can play additional games or post your score for all to see. The Cyber Spy Notebook comes with a real mouse/mouse pad, online ID card, CD rom, and USB cable. It is a good way for students to be rewarded in a positive way with this motebook. It will also be an activity that students can work on as a group and share ideas, they will also be social in a positive way with this.

Photo Story 3

I really enjoyed playing with this new application. It is a place where you can upload your photos, you can add text to the pictures and also sound. I was able to make a whole story of my summer 2008 activites, with my music. To start, I had to download it to my computer and it took less than 5 minuites. You had have Media Player 10 or newer, so I had to download that, which was found on the Microsoft Website and was really easy. After downloading that I was able to finish the download on Photo Story. It is very easy, it walks you through each step. Once you have down loaded the program it takes you through each page step by step. First you download your pictures, I downloaded fifty plus pictures and there was still room for more. Then they gave you an option to add text to the pictures, you were able to chage the font, size, color and other text related options. Then they give you an option to make different transitions between the photos. For example fade in, fade out, star, etc. Once you finish that you move on to adding sound. You can record your own voice to play with the different pictures, and you can add music from your own files, or make music to add. At any time you can preview the project the way it looks so far and go back to any slide. Once finished you can save it, burn it, e-mail it and other options. There were so many options on every aspect of the program, which was a good thing. I really liked this program. It was so easy and fast to make a fun keepsake. I would love using this program in my classroom for students to make their own projects and also to make the year end video. Here is a sample of one that I found on-line: Photo Story Sample.

Web page

I have finished the whole fiasco of finishing the flyer, brochure, newsletter, classroom rules etc. So now I have to move onto the the Google Web page. So far so good! It really helps that we are able to work on it in class. This way you have not only your teacher as a resource, but also other students. It has been really helpful so far. Google is not super user friendly, I do not think but I am working my way through it okay so far. I wonder if I will use google sites, when I have a classroom or some other type of site, because I also think it is not very easy to navigate around and find things on. For example the site for our class there are so many links to follow and go back to. It just seems kind of repetitive.

I would want a more kid friendly site since I will be teaching third grade. One that has photos for icons to click on. For example a pen, paper and books for homework. A lunch sack for the lunch menu, etc. I just like that kind of site better. I will not even look at a site if it is not appealing to me. Also some of the parents, caretakers may not have great computer skills so this will make it easier on them too.

I am excited for this semester to be over. I have learned tons in this class that will be helpful in my teaching career. It has been a fairly easy class, just a lot of material to cover. I am not going to lie. I will be excited to be able to post on my blog for fun and not for homework. I am thankful for this class to MAKE me start a blog it is something that I have wanted to start, but just procrastinated it, but now it is here and set up so it is easy now!

Technology can be a pain in the buttocks!

So this week we started on our final projects. I was thinking that it would be no problem, piece of cake, lets get the party started! Well I had chosen Publisher to do all the first part of the final in, the flyer, brochure, newsletter and classroom rules. So I did all if them and then I saved them on my USB port and figured I would finish posting them on my UEN site at work. Well, that turned out to be a nightmare! First, they would not transfer because my computer at work did not have Publisher 2007 so they would not open. So I figured I would try Google Documents because that is apparently the magic place that can fix everything. Well it will not support Publisher documents, so at this point I am having a small wig out! I had a co-worker helping me through out all of this and even he being as computer savvy as he is, was at his wits end. So I decide to remake some of the documents in word and transfer them to Google documents because I have to have them saved as a PDF, to make things more complicated! I am not sure what PDF stands for, but I know what the F stood for this day! Well when I transfer them over, it completely changes the format, so I have to try and reformat the whole document in Google. When I get it looking somewhat like the original, I save it as a PDF and it looks so messed up! AAAHHHHH!!!! At this time I have to walk away. So my other co-worker came in and said well if you had a Mac this would be easy! Oh do not even get me started, I hate that Macs and PC's cannot perform the same things. Do they not realize how difficult this makes life for me??? So she tells me to e-mail her the documents that I have made in publisher and it will take her two clicks to make it into a PDF. And you know what it does, 2 clicks and it is a PDF. WTF!!! I am so over it now. I have given up, I do not know what the more simple ways would be to transfer it to a PDF from a word document, but at this point I really do not care! I know I sound bitter and angry at this point, and I am, I really am. If I had 4 people helping me accomplish this I can only imagine how others feel! So if it weren't for the whole PDF thing, this assignment would have been a breeze and I would have really enjoyed it. Because I love working on Publisher and making creative, colorful things, but this may have ruined it for me for a while at least. Give me a few months break and I think I may be able to face the PDF/Publisher thing again, but maybe not I may be ruined for life! Oh and I will never make my students use this, not in 3rd grade and if they are older, I will personally find an easy way to make it happen for them and teach them, rather than let them struggle and get frustrated. I know I can ask for help, but for now I am good!??!

Kidspiration/Inspiration

Kidspiration

I has do much fun playing on this. At first I just started out by plating with all of the pictures that they had. I liked how were categorized so you were able to find a group of pictures that coincided with one and other. Also it was nice to be able to search for a certain subject. There were so many ones to choose from, I especially liked the animated ones. I also loved the Pattern Blocks it was way cool to make the different patterns, I made a way awesome butterfly. I think that it would be very useful to learn comparisons, fractions and colors too. The already made games/graphs/etc. would be helpful for students to learn how to move things around and not be afraid to make it their own. It was easy to follow and fun to play. The concept of the programs were very kid friendly and I think that it will teach them concepts on the computer that they will later be able to use on other programs.

The set up on both programs was displayed in such a way that it is similar to everyday programs you use in your everyday adult life. Such as Word and Publisher. It gives you a lot of the same options you can make graphs, add shapes, change the fonts, make paragraphs, insert pictures, etc. It also makes the icons kid friendly and easy to find. I think that this is a good program for students to start out on as young as possible. Even Kindergartners should be able to play around and figure out the concept. There is no better way to learn that experimenting and clicking around. It did not seem like a program that you could cause any major harm to or break anything by clicking on something too many times.

The different aspects that it then lets you develop, like the social studies, math, reading and other programs is all easy and fun. It will help the students better improve their skills in reading, writing, math, vocabulary and other important learning skills.

Inspiration

This was definitely more of an "older" kid program. The structure is a lot more professional, and not "fun" feel like Kidspiration was. This also felt a lot like Word. The templates that were pre-made for students to follow are easy and give students the the right guide lines to follow. By doing this it allows the students to process their thoughts and ideas in a constructive manner.
I could even use this program in my college writing classes, it makes it easy to focus on key points.

In the template wizard you could customize your own templates, this would be helpful for teachers to be able to get the students to cover the right material and the material you want them to cover. There is also an area for the library so you can go there and find information to add to your projects. By having your students use their resources and library you know the information is safe and secure, also that it is accurate and scholarly.

I would love you use Kidspiration for my classroom. Even if I had one or two computers in my classroom for the students to take time to learn and work on the projects. I think that this program would work as a reward for the students. It will also help to have the students be broken into different groups to work on different homework. While some are working on math or spelling, some can be working on the computers as a reward or part of a homework assignment.

Groups: To be or not to be.......

The past few classes, we have ad to work in groups. I have never been a huge fan of group work, personally. It seems like every time I am in a group there is at least one slacker that is there to observe, at the least. I am one of those people that feels that everyone should contribute, but it is hard because I feel if I give that one person a task to complete, and he/she fails, then the whole group suffers. I am maybe a control freak??? I like the idea that everything is done that needs to be done in order to get the grade I need. I know that sounds really bad, but I am not one to do the least amount of work possible to get at least a passing grade. I was always taught to go the extra mile in order to minimize my chances of a low grade. There are some positives I guess when it comes to group work, or so I hear. I think it helps get more ideas out and meet people that you may never talk to. It also helps people that may have a hard time being social be more social.

My experience in the first group (Second Grade Safety) was good. I think that it was a good experience because we were able to pick our own groups. In this group I was with people that I had socialized in class with and we were all kind of on the same page. We all took control and worked really well together. It was hard to do a PowerPoint together because there was only so many things that three people could do. We were able to divvy out responsibilities to make it even, but at the end, I felt like I did not do as much as the other girls in my group. Not because I did not want to, but because there was not a lot to do. So I felt that this may have effected my group grade. Not because of my non-willingness, but because you can only spread out so many things.

In my second group (50 Power Point Activities) was not so good. I was the only one with a book, so I was the ring leader. I did not mind having this responsibility, but I had a hard time getting any kind of input from the group. It was a large group and people were into their own things on their own computers, so I had to take charge. This is why I do not like group work. I had to make all the decisions and do all if the work. I tried to get help/input from other group members, so that I did not have to do all the work. In the end, I did the project and then everyone was very interested in what I did because they found out we had to present it front of the class. This group was a prime example of why I do not like groups.

In my own classroom I may use groups, but if I do, I will assign the different tasks to each student, with this they can come up with their own ways of presenting. For example,they can choose their subject and then in each group there will be different assignments that they can draw from a hat or decide on their own. So one person can be in charge of the pictures, one in charge of writing down ideas, etc. That way everyone is responsible for something and there is no room for slacking and if there is slacking it will reflect on that person and not the group as a whole. This is a way that the students can work together, but have structure.

Teaching technology

We finally cracked the book open this week. It is about time, I was starting to wonder why I bought the book and if I would ever use it. After opening it and exploring the wonder of the inside of it I really am glad I did. I am so excited to use them in my future classrooms.

There are so many good ideas that help get the students more involved with technology and computers, with out scaring them. There are so many activities that are fun yet informative. Many of the activities you could recreate for any ages and any grade. I really appreciate that they place in the lessons the areas that you will help the students expand on and learn more about. Also that it has the ISTE standards so you can make sure you are covering the proper information for the standards. I also think that these lessons are good for me to do to learn more on power point. I also could use some of the lessons for my children to learn more and projects for school.

The assignments that we choose to do as a group was the "Word Art" and the "Poem Senses." I enjoyed doing these, it reminded me of being in elementary school. I always enjoyed doing the crafty creative things in school, so I am sure that I will have the students in my class do the same things.

I wonder how more evolved the kids will be in my future classroom, if I give them an assignment like one from the book and they think it is an easy assignment. I cannot believe how technology savvy kids are now. Even while doing some of my hours for this semester, kids in the third grade are talking about how they need to add so and so to their Facebook or MySpace account and what is your e-mail address. All of this was not part of my third grade experience, so as an "older"' person to them, I wonder if I will be behind in the technology world compared to them???

5 uses for the digital camera in the classroom

1- Taking pictures to put on blogs. I think that the students and the teachers can use this. I plan on having a blog for that class that the students can share photo's of projects and activities in the classroom with their family and friends. Also I am going to post the assignment plan for the week on there so that parents and students can get on and check what is due. I think that this will help the parents especially because the kids may say that they do not have homework, because they do not want to do it, but they can then get on line and check the blog. Depending on what grade I decide to teach, the kids could also have a blog and want to take pictures and post them on their own blog to share with family and friends. You would have to keep a close monitor of what kods posted on their blogs.

2- Capturing memories to make scrapbook pages. Scrap booking has become very popular with families, so in the class room we can take pictures of the children and let them also take the camera home to take pictures in order to make prints of memories, that they or their family could scrap book together. I think it would be fun to make a scrap book in class with the students for the year, and they all be required to make at least one page to contribute to the book. Kids may not have a family atmosphere to take pictures of, so you would have to help them be creative with memories and ideas.

3- Taking pictures during the school year and making a CD for the kids to take home at the end of the year. I think that this would be a great memory for the students to have. They can help select the photo's of different activities through out the year, like field trips, plays, assemblies and other activities. We could even include personal photos of the kids doing their own activities with their family. The students can help me choose the music to add and make it fun and memorable for them. You would have to make sure that you did not have too many of one child and get a good variety of all the students.

4- Have students take pictures of them and their family to make a family tree book. This will come in as a really good keepsake for later in life. They will be able to take pictures of great grandma and grandpas that they will have forever. It is good to show the students where they come from, generation to generation. With the book they can also do some research to have the students learn their family history and background. The students may not have a large family, or may be adopted so you would have to becareful how you worded and treated the students.

5- Use photos for attendance charts. I like this idea, especially for substitute teachers. You know that when they have a substitute they try to sit with their friends and trick the substitute, with photos on their name tag and on a seating chart, the substitute will know exactly where the students should be at all times. Also I would make it so the pictures on the name tag change, when the student has a new photo to display. I cannot think of any major cons on using this, I think it would be very helpful.

I am so glad that I have to write all these ideas down on the blog, so that when I am a teacher I will remember first where I put them and remember them period, because they are written out. I know that there are so many ideas that cross my head about what I want to use and teach in my classroom, and I need to start putting my ideas on here so that I will always have them.

Paparazzi in the classroom

Today, it is usually unheard of if you use wind up camera and do not own a Digital Camera. They are now made in so many price levels that most people can afford them. I have seen them for less that $50.00 given they will not turn out the best pics, but for an elementary student this would be the perfect camera. This would allow them to take pics to capture memories to have for life.

I love my digital camera that I got for Christmas last year. It has a chargeable battery pack that lasts forever, that I love because my last camera ate batteries like no other. Even though I have used it a million times, I am guilty of not using the different features. I really should experiment and learn to use them.

In the articles that I read I found some really good ideas that I would use in my class room. If the kids went on a field trip you could tell the kids to pick out an item that they saw and wanted to write a report or poem on and take a picture of it. They could be part of the memory book that we would add to through out the year.

I also saw a an idea for taking pictures of the lunch food for the week and posting it in the classroom so that if the kids normally brought sacked lunch and wanted pizza on pizza day they would know the day. Because I am sure that most kids do not take the time to read the lunch menu.

In my classroom I would like to have a child star bulletin that you would post a child's picture and have them add pictures of family, camping trips, hobbies, and anything that they wanted to display by themselves.

I really liked the idea of taking pictures of class activities and memories throughout the year and have the students help me put them into a slide show that has music and fun pictures, and I can make copies for the students to take home at the end of the year as a type of yearbook.
The idea of a digital camera in the class room is a good idea for so many reasons, I think even if you had to purchase a cheap one with your own money, until you could afford a nicer one it would be well worth it.

Point to the Power!

I LOVE Power Point!!! I think that it is so fun. especially on the new Word Programs! It has so many more options than the old power point that I have on my computer. I really think it will come in handy when I am a teacher, because I will be able to create fun and entertaining teaching activities for the class. I can use music, pictures etc. so they are not too bored with just learning from the book. I am excited to learn the 50 Power Point activities. I have always looked at power point as "work" but now that we have "played" with it it is fun.

Finishing up the UEN was nice to get over with, for now. I was getting very worn out and sick of playing the UEN website game. I am glad that we got to discuss some of the main points in class. I know that the site will be a good resource when teaching. I know how time consuming and difficult the assignment was for me to finish and I am a pretty computer savvy person, so I can only imagine how hard this assignment was for some of the people in the class. I know that some really struggled, because I hear the troubles that I have. To me they seem simple, but I feel bad because they are really struggling. I think that this class is good for all of us because of all the helpful tools and information we are learning, and I know that we will all survive this semester!

Always practice safe internet!

Internet in education is a great thing as long as it is used properly. There are so many good resources and websites out there to help us inform are students better. As long as you know that the information you use is credible. I also think that the internet can help teachers cut down in research time for projects or ideas that they need to cover.
The sites should be evaluated as credible because you do not want to be teaching your students information that is wrong or outdated. So it is very important to do your own type of research on the sites that you are using.
The questions that you should always ask yourself:
1. Is this an educational site?
2. What kind of links are in this site?
3. Does this information pertain to the student's age that I am teaching?
4. How old is the information?
5. Who made the website?
6. How safe is it?
You should always monitor your students while online. Also I think that they should limited to the sites that they an view, the less that they have to view the less chance they have to come across bad things. I know that the students have the internet at home, but I feel that if I teach them the safety of using the web, that they will have a better chance of using it at home as well. I also hope to incorporate the parents in some way, so that they can help moniter the children at home. I think anymore with the way technology is going, that internet safety will now be included in every classrooms safety curriculum.

Kathy Schrock
We were told to Google her name and learn more about her. Her personal website was really good. I love to see her personal info and pictures, it made her a rela person, not just someone online. I also really liked her Blog, she had awesome links to fun stuff on line. For example http://www.dumpr.net/ is a way awesome site, I had so much fun on it. Her website was very easy to navigate around on.

I also found her educational website on the Discovery page. It reminded me of the Pioneer library and Ebsco. It looked to have valuable links that I could trust and use in teaching. I checked out some of the links and all of them had the contents and the right answers to the questions I ask when on a website.

I do not think that I could do her job and have my whole life revolve around technology. She seems to love it, but I could not do all the research and devote my life to that. i am glad that she loves doing it because it is very helpful to her users and saves us so much time! I enjoyed her site and think that she is a very interesting and educated person.

UEN Reflection

UEN Reflection

In using the UEN website and all links it holds, I found it very helpful but somewhat all over the place. The Pioneer library was easy to use, and very helpful I know that I could use that in any grade of school to help with reports and homework, for me and my students. The information is valuable and trustworthy. I also feel comfortable letting my students use it because I do not have to worry about my students getting wrong information.
I really enjoyed the interactive; I had fun playing the different games and lessons. I like the idea that they are free and informative for my students to use. In Lesson plans there were tons of great ideas, I think that this will be very helpful when it comes to me being a new teacher. I like the idea if taking ideas and making them my own and giving me ideas.
It was interesting to learn about the core curriculum and amazed me how much I will have to cover in a year for my students to get the info that they need. It also helps you cover the different things that need to be covered as a core.
In all I am really excited to become more familiar with the UEN website and all it has to offer. I know that it will be a life saver when I become teacher. I just hope to become more familiar with it!

WOW!

So I am amazed. In my last reflections post, I had mentioned how technology is so underestimated. Well after the dream computer assignment I was amazed! I could not believe how insane the technology is. I had so much fun looking at the "CSI" type computer components. I had no idea that things like that really existed, now if I only had the money to pay for it. For example, I chose a keyboard that was a blue tooth and it was projected onto the desk, so there was no actual hard keyboard. As I look to the future I wonder if this "CSI" technology will be in the classrooms. When I started third grade we had a computer lab that held 28 computers and those were the only computers in the school. Now computers are used at the teachers desks and some students even have lap top's to take notes on. I wonder if someday when I am a teacher, students will be required to have laptops, or the school will furnish laptops for the students to do homework on. I think that it would be good, but you would have to put a lock on the games so they did the work and payed attention!



We also learned about excel. I used excel in high school, so it has been a while. I think that with excel it will be helpful in creating class lists and charts for students. I am not sure how much more I would use it for because there are so many more specific programs that are available at no charge. For example the engrade that we use in this class. It is a place that you can go that is all set up and you don't have to do or format much. I also think that having less to save on your computer will help save space and memory in order to add education programs or games for my student to benefit from.

I hope to learn more in this class about "teacher friendly" websites, that will help me as a teacher be more efficient so I will have more time to plan and interact with my students more.

Technology is so underestimated!

I think that technology has been underestimated. I can think of a number of things that people said would never happen in the world of technology and within a few years it is available. For example, this class. I would have never thought that I would have a place on the Internet to post assignments for the teacher to grade online. I appreciate having this option, because it saves on paper and waste to help the world be more Green. Also the whole world of Facebook and My Space, a place that in just a click you can talk to a friend and see what is new in their lives.

When it comes to education and your students, I think that Facebook and My Space will be a good way to find out more about your students and their situation, without prying. I think that Blogs would be a good way for parents to feel involved in the classroom. You could post activities, pictures, upcoming activities and also general problems in the classroom. If I were a parent I would appreciate being able to see what was going on in my child's classroom, and comment on any concerns I may have.

The whole technology world will only continue to amaze me. I am appreciative of it and keep an open mind about it all, because I know that is seems overwhelming at times, but if I embrace it and learn more, it will make my life easier.

Blog started for class

So this is a Blog that I need to create for one of my classes this semester.
I am going to try and keep it up and keep it amazing, like all of the other
blogs you see out there! So wish me luck!