Technology Article #1

I am so excited about my new discovery.  Earlier this year I was fiddling around on the Internet and I stumbled across a website entitled Plymouth plantation.  The website is awesome!  It has a lot of information about the original plimoth plantation.  From the home page  you can click on educational programs, and from educational programs you can click on online learning center. This allows the user to experience "You are the Historian, Investigating the First Thanksgiving."

"Investigating the First Thanksgiving," is a neat experience.  It takes the general public and allows them to have a first hand experience with something that occurred long ago.  It also allows an individual to visit a place which may not be accessible otherwise.  It is a fun and free technological experience. I love the idea of taking my future students on a virtual field trip.  Taking a class of students on a field trip back East is simply not feasible, but having them take a virtual field trip to the Plymouth plantation from the school computer lab is a wonderful alternative.  

I love the idea of virtual field trips.  There seem to be so many available for those willing to search them out.  I am thrilled that in my future teaching career I will have the opportunity to give my students first hand experience through technology that they may not be able to access otherwise. 

Reflection #15

So web quests are still cool but a little bit tricky to pull off in PowerPoint. I am grateful that some of my group members are PowerPoint savvy, because I am not! I am great at photo shop etc. . . but PowerPoint is not my strong point. (Granted, I am getting better.) So we worked today on our quest and we are finally working out all of the kinks. We have been working separately on all of the various elements required, but today we decided to google doc the whole thing so we can compile all of our work.

It appears to be a pretty neat quest so far. Hopefully it continues to be neat-o. I need to work a bit more on the two aspects that were assigned to me. I have the last two sections on the teacher page that I need to work on. Process and Resources, I am kind of on a standstill till some of the other members post their information. A lot of what I will post depends on what they post. Well, so far so good. Positive thinking, this web quest assignment will turn out great! (Even if it still makes me nervous, new things usually do.)

Reflection #14

Back at school!

So this was our first technology class since we have been in field. We learned about webquests. I thought I understood what a webquest was, but turns out I was a little bit foggy. I am excited to be working on a webquest, hopefully it will turn out great.

I like the idea of giving students an assignment/task, and then helping them to accomplish that task by use of the web.

A webquest involves two main pages a student page and a teacher page. They are almost like mirror reflections of each other. (Both containing similar information.) The student page contains links to Introduction, Task, Process, Evaluation, Conclusion, Credits, and Teacher Page. The teacher page contains links to Introduction Learners, Standards, Process, Resources, and the Teacher Page.

Webquests are cool, and I am excited to look at webgarden, and see what it has to offer.

Reflection #13

I was just told that my reflection for my technology interview needed to be posted as a blog. Ooops.  I have the reflection done so here it is.

This technology interview was enlightening.  Westside elementary school seems to lack technology that I assumed they would have, yet they have technology that I assumed they wouldn't.  I am shocked that they don't have any Apple computers in the school, but I am thrilled that they have two computer labs plus one traveling lab.  I am surprised that they don't have wireless Internet.  I am glad that they will be getting wireless Internet in the near future. To be limited to wired Internet is ridiculous in this day and age.  

This Experience has greatly affected  me as a teacher.  I am going to be very careful when applying to various schools and districts.  I want to make sure I am in a school and working for a district that supports modern technology.  I want to work for a district that provides laptops and wireless Internet for their teachers.  In order to be the best teacher possible, I will need support from my employers.  One aspect of that support will be technologically based.  

I am excited to use technology in my future classroom.  Technology opens countless doors for not only teachers but students.  Technology is the future.  Students need to be comfortable learning from and using technology.  I want my future students to succeed in their lifetime endeavors.  To succeed they must be comfortable with technology.  I surprise myself by admitting that I am excited about technology, I can't wait to become more fluent in various aspects of it. 

Reflection #12

Last Friday my  husband was in a motorcycle accident on the freeway.  He had surgery on Saturday, and came home a few days ago.  (It happened while he was on duty, so the police department has been both concerned and helpful!  Our LDS ward has also been great with bringing meals this week, etc...) 

Needless to say my last week of field has been interesting.  It has been challenging to balance my school obligations with my family responsibilities.  I was able to teach my last two lessons on Monday and Tuesday of this week.  They went very well.  The kids had a blast, and things went according to planned.  On Monday we set up the teams for the Classroom Olympics, and then on Tuesday we had the students participate in the Classroom Olympics.  

We assigned each student to one of the five Ancient Greece City-States.  That became their team for the Olympics.  They were required to take on the role of an Ancient Greek citizen and act accordingly.  They did awesome!  Both lessons were super fun.  Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to reuse all of the lesson plans I have created, because they turned out great!

Well, I need to head out the door to take my husband to see  his orthopedic surgeon.  Wish us luck.  With luck I will find a way to make it to classes next week.

Till then Adieu.

Reflection #11

Today we taught our first lesson.  It was our technology integrated lesson.  We have been prepared for a while, our lesson plan has been written for a few weeks and we felt that everything was good to go.  

But, then the drama began.  Yesterday we obtained the projector that we were going to use to present our power point.  We wanted to do a trial run before our actual lesson, and boy am I glad we did.  We couldn't get our computer to hook up to the projector. (We lacked the proper connector.)  

We thought we would solve the problem by burning the power point and using one of the schools computers to show the presentation.  We then realized that the computer the school provided did not have a power point program; so that wasn't going to work.

After brainstorming we figured that we might just have to scrap the presentation.  But then good things started happening.  Late last night I came across the cord that we needed to piggy back our computer into the projector.  

Early this morning we tested it out and it worked great.  We went on to teach our lesson, the kids loved it.  I was surprised that our presentation really did gain and keep the students attention.  It was a smooth lesson, and I don't think we would have changed a thing.  the kids were involved, active listeners, and on task.  what more can a teacher ask for? 

I am looking forward to the lesson that we will teach tomorrow.

Reflection #10

Hello again,

I have now been doing field for a week.  (One down, two more to go!)  I have been enjoying the experience.  I might regret admitting this, but it is way better than regular school.  

It has been nice to be around young students, it is refreshing to remember why I have an interest in teaching. 

We haven't done any student teaching yet, we start on Tuesday.  I am looking forward to that.  I think that it is going to be a lot of fun.  Our first lesson that we teach is going to be our technology enriched lesson.  We have a really cool PowerPoint introducing Ancient Greece that we are going to show to the students.  It should be a lot of fun.  My only concern is with the teacher obtaining the projector we will need to show the presentation. Hopefully she takes care of that and things go smoothly. 

Moving on to a technology related aspect of field...For the next two weeks the students in our sixth grade class will spend forty-five minutes per day in the computer lab practicing their typing skills.  Crazy!  I am glad that they have the opportunity to work with computers and practice skills that they will rely on for the rest of their lives.  

Hopefully I enjoy this coming week as much as I have enjoyed this previous one.  

Stay tuned for my next exciting entry on "Field Work Week 2"

P.S. I am anxiously awaiting a grade for my digital story!  I am curious as to whether my teacher likes it as much as I do!

Reflection #9

In class today we turned in our digital stories. It feels good to have ours turned in. I think that we did a great job, and I am excited to see what kind of grade we get.

I have already finished the website assignment so I didn't really need to work on that today. Although, all of the sudden I am missing some of the pictures that I posted under student of the week so I will probably make sure that those are showing up before I call it good to go.

We discussed all of the things that need to be done during field and all of the blogs (5) that will need to be done the week of final. I feel as if I have a good grasp on what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by, so no worries there. I enjoyed class, it was a good review, and hopefully I will be able to stay on top of my field assignments.

Till next week
Adieu

Reflection #8

It seems like it has been a while since I have posted, but I guess it has only been a week. Our digital story is completly finished, which is great, so I only had to work on a single assignment this week.

This week I worked on my class website. It was a lot of fun. It has a main page with my picture, info about me, and contact info. It also has a pages with a calendar, students of the week, announcements, technology in our classroom, and homework assignments.

This was a great assignment, and it helped to cement the process of a making a site in my head. Every teacher I know has a class website, and I am sure that when I begin teaching I also will have a class site.

It is beneficial to parents as well as students to know what is going on, and have a central place to go when looking for information.

Reflection #7

FINISHED! At least, I think that our digital story is finished. We might try and work on the audio a teeny bitty bit. But, we might not. So we are basically done!!!! Yay just in time for fall break. To have this assignment done, makes me so excited that fall break is beginning to seem like spring break!

Seriously though, I really enjoyed this project, making a digital story is fun. I can't wait to use this in my future teaching career, but also in my life. (Family movies, stories, etc...)

Although we didn't use photo story to do our digital story, I think photo story is cool and I might try it someday. One thing that has really impressed me is how easy all of the different programs are. They are so universally user friendly. Who knew! Well hopefully, we have accomplished our goal, and you enjoy our digital story!

Reflection #6

Goodness Gracious! Today was a crazy day in class. We had been working on our storyboards, and I thought that we had a good grasp on what we were going to do. We had started to figure out our narration, music, and images and the order and flow that we wanted them to follow, but then we thought we would switch topics. BAD IDEA

We are now back to our original plan and things are flowing much smoother. We are to the point where we have gathered our information and have a general outline of the order we would like to present our information. We are super excited about our digital story, and have high hopes that it will be awesome! Our digital story is something that ties directly into a lesson plan that we have previously created for our social studies class. It is neat to learn how we can tie technology into our future lesson plans. It really is a great way to enhance curriculum. I am looking forward physically beginning our digital story. The preparation is done, and now the fun begins!

Reflection #5

In class this week we focused on narration and storyboarding. We discussed how our digital story needs to have a strong opening and closing, and follow a format that presents information clearly. I learned that there are three goals when creating a digital story, they are to inform, influence, and touch. Through the use of narration, music, and images these three goals can be met. A digital story contains various elements. Some of these elements are point of view, dramatic question, emotional content, economy, pacing, voice, soundtrack, types of communication. The element of voice consists of three types, they are narrative, informative, and persuasive.

Moving on, I want to touch on storyboarding. Storyboarding is the process of organizing images, text, motion, interviews, and music. As I storyboard it allows me to visualize how my story will be put together. My personal storyboard contains/will contain images, narration, music, transitions, and citations. Storyboarding can be a wonderful aid in the process of creating a digital story.

I am so excited to use digital stories in my career as an educator. One way that I might use digital stories with my students would be as an assignment, what a great way to see what students know. I might also use it to set up a lesson, or hook my students on a certain topic. I could also use it to enhance previously created lesson plans, give them an extra touch. There are countless ways that digital stories can be used in the education process from both the side of educator and student. Digital stories are a wonderful medium, that I am thrilled to be learning about.

Reflection #4

Today we were introduced to creating a digital storybook. I am really excited about this assignment, a little bit nervous too. I am not the most technologically savvy person, so this will be a learning experience for me.

From what I understand a digital storybook is another way for us to present information. (In my opinion one of the best ways to present information.) I think that digital storybooks will be an awesome way for me to introduce different topics to my students. What a fun way to let them have an overview of what we will be learning.  

While in class I had the opportunity to view an Internet site entitled www.digitalstories.org, it was an interesting site with a lot of information.  It had some really good examples of what a digital storybook is.  I enjoyed the opportunity to view various examples of digital storybooks. 

My focus for this week has been scripting my digital storybook.  Scripting goes hand in hand with designing.   My first goal was to choose which standard and objective I want to teach. 

After choosing my subject area, I have been sorting through various images, music, and information that I would like to share.  The intent of my digital storybook is to engage students in the learning process by sharing factual information in an unemotional manner.  I am excited to be learning about this teaching method and have no doubt I will find it a useful skill in my future classroom.  

Reflection #3

Today we learned about making a Google site! (Website) Totally fun. So I have been trying to decide what the difference is between a blog and a Google site. I have come to the conclusion that a Google site is something that you set up and tend not to alter very often, whereas a blog is something that is continually evolving.

I am having so much fun learning about all of these different things and I can think of countless ways to utilize them. How fun would it be to have a classroom website where I can post links to different things that might interest the students. It would also be really fun to have the class site include a basic picture and small bio about each student in the class along with a link to their individual blogs and information needed to contact them. We could make it a closed site that only they could access for security issues. Then the kids in the class would only have to remember one on line site in order to find and connect with any other student in the class. Combine this with smart boards and we would be set to go!

Seriously, I really enjoy learning about these different technologies and cannot wait until I have my own classroom and can utilize them in an educational setting. Thanks for providing instruction and answering my many questions!

Reflection #2

Today we learned about "Google documents," and "Google chat." Both of these things were mentioned in our previous class, but today we got an in depth, hands on lesson. (If I understand correctly "Google chat" is a instant messenger, and "Google doc's" is a wiki. Google doc's is a wiki, because it is a place where multiple individuals can collaborate on one document all at once.)

Class today was a great learning experience for me. I have never used a Google document/"wiki" before and this was a neat experience. I appreciate someone taking the time to show me how and what to do when using these Google features. I think that Google documents work the best when not all collaborators are working on the document at the exact same time. In class today I noticed that when all individuals are working at the same time it can not only get confusing, but information may be lost due to multiple people submitting their work at the same time. If multiple individuals are going to be working on the document at the exact same time Google chat is a great way for them to communicate. By using Google chat to communicate with each other it leaves Google documents reserved for work only.

I am excited that we learned about Google documents today, because I have a group project due on Monday and we are going to use Google documents to put together our handout. The plan is for each of us to contribute our individual sections and then collaboratively tie them together. Google documents is perfectly suited to our group, we are all busy individuals and by using this wiki we are able to accomplish something that would prove to be much more difficult otherwise.

I have no doubt that in my future career as an educator I will utilize instant messenger's and wikis in order to not only communicate with students but also with other educators. What a great way for us to share ideas and collaborate in the classroom and workplace. These Google tools allow busy individuals to correspond with each other when other options are unavailable or simply not feasible.

Reflection #1

Today I was asked to post a reflection on technology and how I might integrate it into my future classroom.

This is a totally loaded question to ask. I could go from tangent to tangent concerning my opinion on different types of technology and how I might integrate them into my classroom.

I am loving all of the different things that are available through the Internet. Some of the things that pop into my mind are the things that we touched on in class today, G-mail, blogger, and facebook, just to name a few. All wonderful resources that can be used interactively with a class.

What a great way for a teacher to stay in touch with her students outside of the classroom. It is also so important that students in this day and age understand how to utilize the wonderful technology that is available to them. So often technology is viewed as something that attributes to antisocial behavior, but with all of the things that are available (previously mentioned) technology can be used as a way for students to stay social and interactive while connecting through a learning opportunities and assignments.

All in all, I am excited for technology and the ways that I will be able to utilize it in my classroom. I am enjoying learning about new technologies and the ways that I will be able to utilize them in my future career.