Love Technology

It Is Not the End....But Just the Beginning!

2009-06-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe our class has come to an end! I’m so fortunate to have taken this class because my knowledge of technology has grown even more since last semester. One part of this class that I really enjoyed was listening to the final projects. I feel that I learned so much from everyone’s presentation. Everyone did a great job with creating a visual to use when presenting their information. I feel that my confidence has greatly grown using technology in my classroom as well as on my own personal level. This class has given me the courage to explore programs and incorporate them into my future teaching. One idea that I got from this class is to make a slideshow of pictures using Photobucket. Next year for Open House, I’m going to create a slideshow of my students working in the classroom for parents to see what their child is doing throughout the day. Prior to this class, this idea would have never crossed my mind! Even though this class is over, I feel that the want to know more for technology will not end for me. I learned a lot of new things from Dr. Smirnova and other students in the class. Thank you to everyone for making my learning experience unforgettable and enjoyable. Good luck to everyone in the future! :)

Photobucket and Flickr

2009-06-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

You learn something new everyday! I never even heard of Photobucket or Flickr until I had to choose my final project. I'm the type of person who takes pictures and leaves them in my camera forever. I eventually download them onto my computer and that is the end! After learning about these two programs, I felt encouraged to be couragious and use my pictures to make things. Both programs are very simliar and have many features that one could do with their pictures. Below, is the website to my power point presentation where you can learn more about both programs, watch a couple of youtube videos, and learn about some ideas on how you could incorporate these programs into your lessons. Enjoy!

:)
http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/75467/Photobucket-and-Flickr

Changing Learning from Boring to Fun!

2009-06-07T12:51:00.001-07:00

I really enjoyed learning about all the different Web2.0 tools to use in the classroom. There are so many different ways a teacher could spice up their lessons so that they have students engaged in the learning process. One of my favorite Web2.0 tools I would use in my classroom (if my students were older) would be blogging. I think students, especially in high school, would love to create a blog and use it to post responses and discussions of books they read. One Web2.0 tool I read also read about was Wiki pages. This would be great for students in high school to use if they had a group project to complete because they could all have access to the group's page. Students can make changes or add to the page anytime they want to.
Another Web2.0 tool that was mentioned in the feedback was one that involved a computer that helps students type papers. I thought this was a great tool especially for students who are LD or are ESL students. I never heard of the tool until I read it on someones post. They use the tool in their classroom. I was thinking that maybe I could have my first graders try it when they publish their books in Writer's Workshop.
There are so many opportunities on the Internet of Web2.0 tools that one may use in their classroom. I found the website that listed all the different Web2.0 tools to be helpful. I have it booked marked on my computer that I'm able to refer back to it quickly.

Our First Class Meeting

2009-06-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

As I have learned from Monday night's class, technology does not always cooperate! I was continuously getting kicked off because of my Internet connection which was very frustrating! I kept missing bits and pieces of class which was annoying!
It was interesting to hear everyone's view on Internet safety. We all pretty much had the same views and ideas of what we thought is important for children to know when using the Internet. I liked reading everyone's lesson plans and got some good ideas from plans I read. One idea that I did not think of was to create a contract for using the Internet. This was suggested by Carla in her lesson plan. I feel this is a great way to have students become involved and hold them accountable for their actions.
I felt that I learned a lot of good ideas that night on how to incorporate and teach technology safety tips to students.

A New Beginning!

2009-06-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

Part 2

After taking literacy and technology, I realized there is so much information about technology that I could be incorporating into my classroom! I felt that I wanted to continue learning about technology. The first meeting with my group was a success! We used WizIQ which I liked much better than gchat. The members of my group were very involved with our discussions and did a great job. I'm looking forward to collaborating more with my group members and continue the journey of technology!

Easy Grading!

2009-04-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

No Pens and No Paper!

http://www.engrade.com/teacher-gradebook.php?c=1

http://www.engrade.com/teacher-comments.php?c=1

Here are the two links to get into my engrade website. The other website I posted did not allow you to see these pages. Sorry!

Digital Story Telling

2009-04-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

Digital Story Telling

This assignment was very fun and I really learned a lot of new things about making videos that I did not know prior to this assignment. I have never used movie maker before so at first I had to play around with the program. I would definitely recommend using digital story maker to all teachers. It would be great for older students to use when completing a unit and could make a movie for a culminating activity. Also, this could be used with younger students as well with teacher's assistance. Using digital story telling would definitely spark students' interest in learning and make learning more appealing to them!

Since my computer is not allowing me to post my video, I have added some pictures that I used in my video. I took pictures of my students' work of different types of writing we do. We do Writer's Workshop everyday, but sometimes students become bored with the same old routine. This is when I feel is it important to change writing a little and incorporate the other content areas as well.

Easy Grading

2009-04-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.engrade.com/teacher-gradebook.php?c=1

Here is the link to my demo grading book. I have never used an on-line grading system, but I will have to say, I actually really liked it! I thought the program I used, engrade, was very easy to understand and follow. First, I took time to explore the program and play with the different options it had to offer. It was very easy to set up my class because I simply had to type in my students' name and their ID number. I was then able to add the assignments that I had. Since I don't always grade assignments out of 100, I liked how this program allowed me to type in the point value of each assignment. Another feature that I enjoyed on this program was that at the bottom of the column where the grades were posted for an assignment, the mean for the students scores was listed. When it comes time to report cards, I always spend a lot of time and effort on my comments because I feel that is most meaningful to parents. I discovered on engrade, there is a comment section. When you click on it, you can write comments for your students. This I found helpful because I could add comments to next to the student when I grade their assignments. If parents have questions, I could simply pull up my comments because that is where I would explain why I gave them the grade they received. I also thought that having the information be accessible for parents was terrific! Parents could frequently check their son or daughters grades and see their areas of weakness in order to get help their child out quicker than waiting to get the report card. I didn't care so much for the attendance section because most schools take care of that already. I feel that section I would not use because I do attendance on a spreadsheet provided by the office. I think one thing that would improve engrade is to have different sections as projects, homework, tests, classwork, etc. as an option for teachers so that their grade book could already be broken down into sections instead of creating them. I would think, overall, teachers would appreciate having this website to use in their classrooms. Teachers who are older and have been teaching for a very long time may not like this program because it is technology, which scares some older teachers. This is a easy way for teachers to stay organized with their grading and also have it set up the way it works for them. Also, this program is nice because you can access it from home because you only need to log onto the website in order for it to work. The only downfall is that the website may not always be up or the Internet may not always be working properly and that would you cause you not to get on. I thought that having the parents be able to access their child's assignments is nice, but at the same time, could be hard. First, parents need to know the program and be able to sign up and learn how to access their child's grades. Also, parents who do not have Internet access would not be able to do this. Some parents may become overwhelmed and check their child's assignments everyday and consistently call the teacher for explanations of why their child received the grade he or she did. I would find this to be quite annoying if a parent was consistently calling me or complaining because their child received a 95 instead of 100. Don't get me wrong, I always want parents to be involved with their child's education, but sometimes they become too involved.
The district I work in recently bought a program similiar to engrade for teachers to use. We have not yet been trained, but we will be implementing it for the new school year. I hope it is easy to follow like I found engrade to be!

Social Interaction is Important!

2009-04-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

After reviewing the readings we had for the week about collaborative and cooperative teaching models and social interaction models, it hit me that this class is a perfect example of all of these topics. I thought the explanation I read in the reading by Ted Panitz helped me to better understand the two terms. Collaborative teaching models is the philosophy of interaction and cooperative is a type of interaction a group must use in order to become successful. This class, Literacy and Technology, is a great example for both terms.
This class is a model of social interaction because we are all socializing and interacting with each other in different ways. Whether it is in a group meeting or in a meeting with the whole class. We are all working together in order to learn about implementing technology with literacy. I view this class also as a group effort because we are all learning from each other. Dr. S. helps to enrich our social interaction because she is the facilitator. She encourages us to share and bounce ideas back and forth to each other and guides us in the right direction.

Love Crosswords!!!

2009-03-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

I believe that having students complete assignments, like the crossword puzzle, allows them to understand the excel program better than listening to someone lecture about the program. I know that when I have to learn a new program on the computer for my smartboard, it is easier for me to absorb the information by doing it myself. A teacher may have his/her students complete an assignment for the subject area on excel by creating different activities for students to complete. I think it makes more sense for students to have a purpose, like making the crossword puzzle, because they are more likely to remember how they made it and the different tools they used on excel.
I definitely think using the excel program and vocabulary words would help students learn about the program and their vocabulary words. This assignment would beneficial for older students starting from third grade and up. I believe it is vital that students are exposed to computer programs at a young age because they are going to know how to use the programs and become more familiar with them as they become older. It also makes learning fun for students because they do not look at creating a crossword puzzle as learning. Many students think of it as having fun and little do they know they are learning too.
I don’t think I would do anything differently the next time I make a crossword puzzle. Before I started it on excel, I mapped out the words on a piece of paper so that when it was time to make it on excel, I just had make the boxes for the words. The directions were very clear cut and I had no trouble following them step by step. Instead of using black to fill in the boxes that did not have a letter, I filled it in with blue. I thought that it looked more appealing to first graders to be a little more colorful. I also have different pictures posted around the puzzle that relate to the topic. Using a crossword puzzle is a great way to assess students’ vocabulary knowledge in a subject in another form that is appealing and fun to them. The cross word puzzle that I created, I am going to use with my students as a quiz after we are done with the chapter. I’m interested to see their reactions to this type of test!

Creating a crossword puzzle on a web based program was much different than creating a puzzle in excel. When I created the puzzle in excel it took me about 25 minutes to make it from start to finish. When I created the crossword puzzle on the web based program it took about 5 minutes. It is nice to know that there is a way to create a crossword puzzle so quickly. I did like creating the crossword puzzle on excel because I learned more things about the program that I did not know before. For example, I did not know how to make the numbers smaller in the box and how to highlight the lines of the boxes. I feel more confident that I know how to make one in excel, but if I had to make one again, I would probably use the web based program because it was much quicker!

Technology Can Be Frustrating At Times!

2009-03-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

Our class this past Monday was an experience! It was very frustrating because we spent more than half the class trying to figure out how to post our visuals and 5E lesson plans so that everyone could view them as we presented. I feel that it would have been beneficial to have had a lesson on how to do this because only two groups were able to present. I really enjoy listening to other groups when they present their projects because I always learn something new or hear something I did not pick up on when I was completing the assignment.
I really enjoyed completing the crossword assignment this week. Since I do not have much experience with using excel, I found the YouTube video on excel to be helpful. I liked how the speaker gave examples for using excel such as keeping a payroll and grade keeping. I was glad that as I listened to the speaker, I was able to watch what he was doing because it make more sense to me to watch what he was doing than just listening to him.
During literacy centers, I have a the computer center for students to complete as an activity. I usually have students listen to a story, play starfall, or go to other educational websites. I have been trying to find a website for students to practice their spelling. I really enjoyed exploring spellingcity.com because there were so many great games for students to play. One of the reasons why I think this website is really great is that you are able to type in and choose the spellings words that you want students to focus on. I have found with other websites that you are not given this option and half the time the students can not read the words. I also like that spellingcity.com has many different games for students to play so that they do not become bored with the same ones. I have introduced this website to my students little by little and they are loving it! I also thought this website was great because you were able to pick three options, teach me, test me, and play a game for the words. This is a great website that I would introduce to parents at open house next year!
In the video, We Think, I definitely agree with the statement that the computer and Internet is a big conversation. It stated that more ideas are being shared now than before. This is evident by just reading other people's blogs and commenting to one another. Not only using blogs, but e-mail is another way of communicating and sharing ideas with one another. I have a friend who teaches the same grade in my district. Her and I are always e-mailing and texting back and forth new ideas we have come up with that we feel is worth sharing with each other. I liked the analogy of sharing ideas on the internet is like building a bird nest. This is so true because people leave their piece for other people to read and build upon their ideas.
Podcasting was something that I was not familiar with! It is a great way for students to demonstrate their knowledge of material. I did not know that you have to download your recording to a special program. There were many programs that one could download and listen to themselves. It is really neat that the students are really involved because they are the ones who edit their own work. I feel that any student would really enjoy using podcasting. I'm interested in learning more about podcasting and would like to explore kidcast for more ideas.

Collaboration is the Key!

2009-03-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

Thank God for snows days!!!!! My group and I all were home from work today so we decided to start our group project on the constructivist theory. I found the information listed on the webquest very informational. There was only one website that did not work. I liked the view of the constructivist theory, but I would not only use this theory all the time in my classroom. Students use their prior knowledge and build on from their experiences. I do believe that students should be active learners and that the teacher should act as the facilitator.
My group took the project and divided it up into two parts. One couple did the oral presentation and the other couple did the visual power point. After both were completed, we came together and discussed what we did. We just have to work on our lesson plan.
It was interesting to learn that the five E's are used to create a lesson plan based on the constructivist theory. I thought that the five areas were easy to understand and implement into a lesson. I thought the most important one out of the five was engage. I feel that teachers really need to engage their students in the beginning of the lesson because if they are not hooked in the beginning, it is very hard to get back their attention once they are off track to start.
Well, since I have been doing work all day, I'm going enjoy a little bit of my snow day and add more later on!

Technology Goes On and On and On and On

2009-02-28T09:25:00.000-08:00

I really thought making the power point for chapter 8 was great because I really got into the chapter and learned a lot of new material. I thought it was a good idea that my group broke down the chapter and each person was responsible for a certain part. This made it fair and easier because we were not overwhelmed with looking at too much information. It take a long time to put together because we did not meet in person, but did it through gchat. Rebecca was nice enough to volunteer to put all our information together. After we all did our research and created our slides, we sent it to her to put all together. I really felt that we all worked together and helped each other by giving positive feedback and suggestions. After we presented our power point, it was suggested that we should have included more points of asking questions to our audience and engaging our audience by giving them multiple choice questions. That was a great suggestion and the next time we would definitely input that. I think if we had more time to do it , we would have done it a little differently. We weren't even sure if we had to do it because it was posted and then taken down. Then we saw it posted again and only had a couple of days to complete it.

The one point that I feel is important in chapter 8 was the part about bullying. I feel that children do not understand that certain things they write on IM, email, text message, etc. do count as bullying someone else, when in reality, it does. I feel that students should have a class and be instructed on cyber bullying and the consequences of posting things on the Internet. I feel children are naive sometimes and think that what they post they can only see. I feel we should stress to students that if they post something on a website like Facebook or Myspace, people can have access to what they posted.

Another assignment that we had to complete was rating different websites. I found this to be very informational and eye opening. I never thought to review a website. I thought the forms we needed to use were excellent because they were not too long or too overwhelming. They were good and I will continue to think about the forms we used to rate the websites as I use new ones in my classroom. It is so important that students are able to experience rating websites too because they need to understand that all websites are not valid and you can't believe everything that you read on the Internet.

I really enjoyed completing the Mind Map. I used Inspiration to create my mind map. It was fun exploring it and using the different tools available. It was not hard to do, but it was very time consuming because I wanted to explore my options and then trying to get it the way I wanted it on the page was tricky. I saw Steve used a different website to make his which I would like to explore. Making the map made me think how I could make one to incorporate into my lessons. Since I teach first grade, I think I would make them a little different than I would for older students because I do not want to overwhelm my students or confused them. Their little minds can only take so much as I have learned!!

Well, anyway, the learning continues and we will see what brings for next week!

Reflections on Web Evaluation/Group Project

2009-02-16T18:06:00.000-08:00

Evaluting the websites was very interesting and helpful! I liked using the rubric and hopefully I will be able to use the evaluating tools in the future. I found it smart to have a rubric for different wesbites for elementary, teacher websites, student websites, etc.
After much confusion about our powerpoint presentation, my group finally made it for chapter 8. We were all confused because at first it was posted and then taken down and then posted again. After many hours of meeting on gchat, we finally created our powerpoint, which once we started it, we were on a roll. We found it easier to break down the work into parts and we all worked on our own part and then came together at the end to put it all together. Our group really worked well together because everyone was opened to suggestions and ideas and all gave each other support. It has been a long road so far...but with the help of my group members they have kept me from going crazy!

2009-02-11T16:43:00.000-08:00

Technology is Taking Over...

The soothing music in the background was the best! That was a nice touch to start the class. I thought our first on-line class meeting went well, until the end. Allowing us time to talk with our groups in our own chat rooms and create a motto and group name was fun. It was a good activity to start with because it allowed us to explore using the tools so that we were familiar with them when we were in our class chat. It was fun to hear the other names for the groups and to hear their mottos. It was interesting to also take the on line quiz and hear the discussions and explanations of answers. Since I did not have a microphone, it was a lot for me to keep up with because I had to type my responses. Next week, I will hopefully have my microphone up and working. To me, it seems “real” when people are talking for discussions rather than typing because I feel like I’m sitting in class listening to a conversation. I was doing well until I had to post the power point our group made on moodle. I’m still having trouble with posting it because it does not let me go beyond a certain point. The one group that was able to share had similar answers when compared to our group’s responses. I felt that all of the five standards really related to one another because all the “tools” listed for the standards could really have been used across the board. Technology is great, but not all the time. At the end of class, Dr. S. had trouble with the program, got kicked off and was not able to get back on. Our group did not know we had to meet for class on Tuesday. We are planning to meet Thursday.
To be continued…………

As I read Net Generation, I found myself saying, “Yea, that is true!” I considered myself a NetGen kid because without the computer and my cell phone I would be lost! I have important dates set on my cell phone. When the day comes it will remind me of what I have to do that day. To me, it is a part of life. To my parents, they think I’m crazy! Many NetGen kids are so comfortable with using technology, that it scares the older population. Even in the school I work in, there is a teacher who is older that does not even know how to check e-mail. She was not raised with technology like our students are today. I just saw on the news last week, a new website where you can type in dates and things you need to remember. It will send you a text message to your phone on the day you have the event set for. It was interesting to read the statements made by high school students about technology. The one that is stated, “Technology is part of our world” is so true and one of the main ways we communicate with others. What would life be like without technology? I think it would be MORE stressful………..
After viewing the standards for technology, I feel that standard two is not implemented in my school. We do not provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards. All grades go to computer class, but never take an assessment of what they learned. Maybe giving students a variety of questions about the computer would give the technology teachers more of an insight as to what he/she should be teaching to the students. I feel that I’m ready to meet the standards, but not all at once. I would like to take my time and really know and learn the standards and be comfortable with using the different tools for each one.
Del.icio.us. was a new website I have never heard before. It was interesting to watch the video and learn about the website. The resources that they have seemed to be very helpful because this website gives people a chance to post interesting articles or things they would like to share. Diigo is like Del.icio.us. I found it interesting that you could highlight paragraphs, add comments to other postings, and bookmark a page you found interesting. You can keep in touch with other people and view what other people are interested in. You can collaborate with others to bookmark, highlight, and sticky note things that are useful to you. The one thing I liked about this is that you are able to communicate and share information to other people and work collaboratively. This website sort of reminded me of facebook.

Well, I’m getting tired and need a break…….. Bye-Bye!

This is the real one!

2009-02-06T14:15:00.000-08:00

And The Fun Begins.......

Well, this is my real blog! Sorry for the confusion!!! Our focus for the first two weeks was to explore the different tools we will be using for this course using technology. Before I could explore any of the tools we would be creating and using, I first focused on exploring moodle and becoming familiar with how to operate it. It was overwhelming to look at all the assignments that we had to do for the second week. Talk about no time! I felt that every second of the day I was online completing assignments or trying to figure how to create something. One thing that I liked about moodle was the way our weeks are set up for us. It was very easy to follow what was expected of us for each week and the assignments we had to complete. We also had several choices to look at for blogs, wikis, and personal websites. I thought that having the assignments posted with videos that modeled how to set up different tools on the computer was very useful. Since I’m a visual learner, I was able to not only read how to complete certain tasks, but I was also able to watch a demonstration of what to do.
Who are you? Since this is an online class, we never see each other in person. I liked that we were able to post our picture on the discussion board and write an introduction. This is a great way to communicate with others and read other people’s posting. Now when we meet online for class, I will at least have an idea of who I’m talking to and they will not feel like a stranger.
Website, blog, wiki?? How on earth am I supposed to make one? That is what I said to myself during the first class because I have heard of those three things, but never actually created any of them. After spending some time (actually I should say a lot of time) on moodle, I was able to explore different sites for blogs and wikis and picked the websites that I thought would work best for me. I thought the freedom of letting us choose which website we wanted to use was beneficial because not everyone has the same taste. I was able to create a blog and wiki, but I’m still not sure about my personal website. That is something that I’m still exploring!
Two or more heads are better than one! Monday was our first meeting as a group online. At first, it was confusing because we were not sure how to use g-chat and how to invite people into a chat. Within a few mintues, we were all in the same chat. Since it was our first meeting, we were all getting used to the format. We never decided on a facilitator because we were just learning on how to use the g-chat program. Some of us in the group kept getting kicked out of the discussion which was frustrating. As a group, we discussed assignments and questions that we had. I thought this was good because I understand some assignments better now than when I was just exploring on my own. After our discussion, we decided that next time we were going to try another chat room because we all did not love g-chat. Hopefully, the new program that we will try to use will be better.
I thought the video “Learning to Change and Changing to Learn” was very inspiring and convincing about the importance of technology. There were some persuasive points that were mentioned on the video that made me think twice about technology. One statement that sticks out in my mind is that when students go out to the “real world” and have jobs, they are going to need the know how to obtain data and communicate to others through technology. Most jobs require the usage of technology which is not in the standards teachers use to create their lessons. Teachers should be encouraging the usage of technology and providing students the opportunities to learn via webcams and satellite from others students around the world. I feel that teachers are too focused on preparing students for state assessments that they do not stop to think about what skills students are going to need to survive in the work field or in society. Viewing the video helped me to change my learning statement about technology. I feel that all students, starting in kindergarten, should be exposed to indepth learning about technology, not just the basics. As teachers, it is our job to prepare students for the future and prepare them for the work world, not just for a state test that they take and the next day forget about. I feel the problem is that there are not enough teachers out there who are really knowledgeable about technology; rather, they are “scared” of it. What do you think?