Lesson 8

Yeah, it's the final blog for class! Once I finish this blog I will start blogging solely for school purposes (classroom assignments, what's going on in math class, etc.). This week the purpose of this blog is to talk about the benefits of using different online communication tools within the classroom and any security benefits that the school system has in place. Personally, I am constantly using email to communicate with my parents. In this day and age almost all people are online at some point during the day. The biggest benefit that many have in using email is that they do not have to worry about talking with others over the phone. Due to the restraints on my time schedule while at school I find it easier to send a quick email to the parents regarding what is going on in class and how their child or children are doing in class. I have not had the opportunity to use different communication tools with my students in the classroom. I do feel that this school year I will definetely implement blogs into my classroom. I teach math to three different classes each day, however I do have one class that I have A.R. time with. I feel that it would be awesome for the students to set up their own blog to do book reviews on. This would allow students throughout the school to get an idea of what kind of books are available to them and what the book is like. Lastly, the school system that I teach in has a wonderful security system for our use of technology. The system is set up to reduce any malicious software that could infiltrate the system.

Lesson Seven

Lesson seven is regarding technology that I use inside of my classroom. I teach a 5th grade math class to around 75 students everyday. Every day I use the Smart Board to teach my classes. I feel that this is a very valuable piece of technology that I am very grateful to have at my fingertips to use daily. Due to the fact that I do have larger classes it is sometimes hard to use one form of technology (programs) with each one of my students. However, the school I teach at had the pleasure last year of purchasing the use of a program called Success Maker. Again this year we are starting the year out by testing all students in the school system on Success Maker. This program is used by our district to test all students for RTI in reading and math. Once all the students have been tested our school develops a schedule to allow all morning math classes to have the chance to continue to use the Success Maker program. The biggest benefit for using Success Maker is its reliability and dependability. The program is designed to give us, the teachers, an idea of how a student would perform on the CATS test at the end of the year. Also, the math form of the program allows students to practice all aspects of math that they will see during the school year. By doing this the students will have the chance to see different topics before they are actually taught in the classroom.

Lesson 6

The lesson for this week (lesson 6) was a very interesting, yet confusing lesson. I have never had anything to do with WebQuests, and honestly I was very confused through many parts of the lesson. I enjoyed viewing previously created WebQuest that would be beneficial to use in my classroom. After viewing the different WebQuests that other teachers/educators have created I felt more at ease with creating my own. Boy was I wrong! I used the website that Dr. Goldberg recommended for creating my WebQuest. Setting up the WebQuest was pretty easy. The website was great to give step by step instructions. The main issue that I had with the website was that I could never get it to allow me to insert any clip-art for making the WebQuest more appealing to my students. Also, I was not happy with the choices that I had to change the font (including the size), background colors, and font colors. I felt that I was very restricted with what I could and could not do.
On a positive point I will explain a little bit about my actual WebQuest. I created a WebQuest that would incorporate mathematics and vocational skills together. Many, if not all, students are unaware of the concept of budgets for a large or even small family. I used this concept to build on the idea of allowing the students to separate into groups that would create a menu and grocery list on a budget for a family of four. After the students created the menu and the grocery list they were required to go on a shopping spree to see if they could remain within the budget they are given. Using this basis for the central idea/concept the students will learn how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide using decimals and fractions.
Below is the URL for the WebQuest that I created.
http://questgarden.com/108/13/7/100810144345/

Lesson Five

Lesson five was an interesting lesson to go through. This is my first time using any sort of electronic communication besides email or the occasional chat. Just signing/creating this account I realized that this was going to be an interesting technique to communicate with not only my teacher for the course, but with the parents and guardians of all my students. Looking over the lessons that I did last year I realized that I have not only short changed myself but my students as well. There has been plenty of times that I could have easily used chats and/or blogs with my students in the lessons. The major reason that I never used any of these among others is because I have never been to familiar with anything other than email. As soon as we all hit our teenage years we feel that we MUST have an email account to communicate with our friends without our parents knowing. Needless to say this was me as a teenager. However, times have changed. At an earlier age students/children are getting email accounts through school and privately, they are using cell phones for chatting, and constantly chatting online. Before a student walks into my room they have more than likely already used some form of electronic communication. Toward the end of the first school semester the school district placed Smart Boards in the classroom. Using the Smart Board will allow me to open up new doors to my classes. I can also use the school new Mac Books or my personal laptop to allow my students to participate in different classes across the world. I have been doing research online about how other countries teach math in their classrooms. I think that it would be an amazing experience for my students to participate in a math class that is occurring in a country on the other side of the world. I would also like to create a lesson that allows my students to communicate through online chat sessions with other schools. As the school year approaches I am trying harder and harder to come up with ways to allow my students to communicate electronically with other students from different areas.

Class Blog #4

Going over the assignment for this lesson I realized that I am actually on top of using power points in the classroom. During the last year I did not do as many power point presentations as I wish I had, but I am glad that I did do some. However, I feel that I could still learn many more things to help me in the classroom on using power point presentations. Looking back over what I did in class last year with my math students one particular power point presentation really jumps out in my mind. During the second semester of the school year, I had to do a final lesson plan to finish my KTIP portfolio. I decided to do the final lesson plan as the cumulative project of a fraction unit that I had been teaching. The main objective of the lesson was for the students to make something called "goop" using what they learned during the unit. The students were placed in groups and each group had a different recipe to "fix" using different fraction techniques. To start the lesson off I created a power point presentation that broke down the whole lesson. In each subset of what I broke down I showed the students a video from YouTube showing how to make the goop correctly. At the end of the power point presentation I included an open response for the students to do individually after their group had correctly made the goop. There was many things that I wish I could correct about the power point presentation. I wish that I had included actual pictures of what the goop would look like after each step was performed correctly. Also, I wish that I had included a slide or slides of what the students had to do to fix the recipes that they were given. However, the part that I was the proudest of myself in doing was including the YouTube presentation. I had to work hard to figure out how to insert the video into the presentation, but I was tickled when I finally accomplished it. Lastly, I found that the students seemed to be excited by not only the whole lesson, but the video more than anything. The students liked the fact that I had thought ahead enough to place the YouTube video in the power point. Overall, I feel that power point presentations can be very helpful in the classroom. However, with the major improvements that schools are making in the technology department there is hardly a need to make the presentations any more. If a teacher is using Smart Boards in their classroom they just have to make a few clicks and a presentation is already there for their using.

Lesson Three

Going over all the reading and doing the graded assignment for the week I realized that I did not know as much as I thought about desktop publishing and word processing. Breaking down each component allowed me to really examine what comprises each one. I knew before this lesson that I used both a desktop publisher and a word processor for communicating with my students and parents at school. I decided to go through my saved documents on my computer to see what types of items that I used last year at school. Needless to say I soon realized that all my saved items were not at home, but on my school computer. Thus, I created a replica of a newsletter for the parents/guardians that I should have created. The newsletter is missing some vital parts, but was far better than what I had done before. The one thing that I noticed about the newsletter is that I used very little images on it. I realize that some teachers prefer to use a lot of images on their newsletter, but I find that sometimes this can be a major distraction for the parents who receive these newsletters. There are so many different types of newsletter that a teacher can create, but the main part of using the newsletters is to get across a point to the parents. It is a communication tool that many teachers use. Teachers have to stay available at all times to help not only their students, but the parents as well. As a first year teacher I didn't realize how vital the communication between the teacher and parent can be. Sometimes there is a barrier that is created unintentional between the two, but breaking that barrier is very important. If no communication happens between the teachers and parents it is hard for the student to prosper at a desired level. Creating either a weekly or monthly newsletter to give the parents can keep the communication lines open. I did realize that when I re-created the newsletter that I preferred using a desktop publishing program over using a word processor. With the word processor I felt limited in what I could do. However, with the desktop publisher I had the chance to expand what I was wanting to communicate. Overall, I realize that it depends on what you know. If I had no clue how to use either program I would not be able to create a document in the first place. Learning about technology is to use technology over and over again.

Spreadsheets & Databases in the Classroom

Using spreadsheets and databases in the classrooms use to be a taboo that many educators never dealt with. Technology is just now taking over within classrooms. A section of technology that many educators use behind the scenes is spreadsheets and databases. Looking over different web searches regarding the use of spreadsheets and databases I found one website that really stuck out to me more than the others. The following website is from a school in Ohio; http://www.trumbull.k12.oh.us/teachers/resources/usingss.htm
This website is amazing for any teacher! It not only gives examples of what some teachers have done in their classrooms, but it also gives you a break down of how to create your own spreadsheet or database. Some of the examples that I found I would like to use in my classroom. Any teacher or educator can access this website and all its components. Sharing what we do that works in the classroom is another vital area of teaching. Looking back over things that I have done in the classroom I see that I have a long road to go... Over the past year I have not used spreadsheets as much as I could have. Mostly I never used them because I was unfamiliar with them. I have taken a couple of technology classes in college, but I never could remember how or where to start. However, databases seem to have been a popular form of technology that I used over the past school year. From creating letters for the parents/guardians or developing a paper/presentation for my KTIP portfolio.

Blog #2

I know that this blog is posting under the same date as the last one, but remember I did say that I procrastinated a lot on doing this. Not exactly the way for me to start a class, but I will do better. I promise! After looking over the material for the past two weeks I found one thing to really stand out to me. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the different posts that everyone had regarding what they wanted to improve about themselves and technology. Getting to read what others think allowed me the chance to realize that I am not alone in the world of technology. I really feel like I struggled the most last year in finding different ways to allow my students to express their abilities using technology. Teaching a 5th grade math class places some restrains on what you can do with technology. However, I am finding that I can still incorporate technology into each lesson. In my classroom I have a Smart Board (AMAZING!!) to use every day in every lesson that I teach. Having the Smart Board and all the components (Smart Response System) to it allows me to show my students that technology is a vital part of every day life. No matter where we go in the world, some form of technology is being used to get us there. Our cars, airplanes, trains, etc. are solely developed on the concept that technology is the driving force to taking us places. Why should I/we let technology stop there? I feel that technology should be brought into the classrooms for ALL of our students. Not only should students see me using technology in lessons, but they should be doing it themselves. Sometimes we as educators feel that it is too much trouble to incorporate some form of technology into our lesson, but is it? All it takes is a few extra steps, a few extra minutes of our time to develop something that the students will not only enjoy, but will benefit more from. Would you rather listen to the teacher talk for an hour or get on a computer to do your lesson?

Week One

WOW! This is so amazing! I never thought that I would be one of those people who are constantly blogging, but look at me now! So this is my first blog, and I will forewarn you that over the next few weeks you will notice that my blogs seem a little different. The reason is...I started this blog for an educational technology class, but I have already found that I love this. Needless to say, once I am done with my blogging for this class I will continue to blog for my classroom as I can.
This is my week one blog for my class....When I first went over the material for this class I thought I am never going to make it. I have tried over the past year to familiarize myself more with different aspects of technology, but I feel that I have struggled a lot. I am hoping with this class that I can not only learn new things about technology, but that I can also learn new ways to implement technology into my classroom and lessons. When I read that we would have to create a blog and maintain it for this class I freaked out. I told my husband that I would never be able to do this. Needless to say the procrastinator in me came out and I kept putting off starting this blog as long as I could. What was I thinking?! As soon as I started setting this blog up I realized that I loved doing it! To really help myself more than anything I have set this blog up so that I can continue it once this class is over with. I feel that if I maintain this blog not only for my technology class, but for my classroom at school also that I will taking one step forward in my walk with technology. I have struggled with some concepts of the class already...wouldn't you know my luck that I have not received my book yet. It never fails! Well I guess we will have to wait and see what the future holds....