Reflection #12

Facebook has become a part of many students lives these days.  When the three teachers came to our class to talk, they mentioned that it is best to be very wise about who we accept as friends, and how our facebook page looks to the public eye.  My husband is currently student teaching at a Junior High, and his observing teacher (whom I have as a teacher this year as well) informed me that he heard while observing my husband that my husbands picture is on a students facebook (they took his photo off the NU men's soccer website), and that girls have been commenting saying that he is cute.  This took me by surprise that a student had the guts to put something like that up about a teacher on a public site such as facebook. Even though we do not know who did it, and we probably will never take the time to figure it out, it made me think that teachers do need to be very careful about what they have on facebook, but also, students should also be wise about what they post.  Something like that could be dangerous for a teacher, my husband has no idea who may have posted this on their facebook, but if girls were to comment and say something inappropriate as a joke, it could potentially get my husband, or any teacher into trouble.  Even though we cannot control what our students do, this has just reaffirmed me that as teachers, we need to be extra careful about what we put online, and very particular on who we accept as friends on facebook and other social networking sites.

Comments on Classmates Blogs

Sara's Reflection #10
Jordan's Reflection
Rich's Reflection #11
Jessica's Reflection #6 
Sara's Reflection #9

Reflection #11

I have recently been hearing that many schools are getting rid of recess so that there is more classroom time for the kids to learn so that they do well on the state tests.  The thought of this makes me very sad.  Have we forgotten what it is like to be a kid? Recess was always one of my favorite parts of the day! If I didn't have recess, I would have gone crazy with energy in the classroom, and I know I would not have been able to focus all day long on what the teacher was saying.  I cannot imagine that taking away recess has actually improved test scores, if anything, I imagine that it would make them worse.  So many kids these days are diagnosed with ADHD, and we wonder why, well if we allowed students a good amount of time to release energy and take their mind off of learning all day, they would be more likely to pay attention when it was necessary.  Overall, I feel that the idea of taking away recess is not wise at all, if we want to raise a generation to be physically and mentally healthy, then we need to teach our kids that it is good to take a break and have fun every once in a while.

Reflection #10

Knowing that the Kirkland area has a lot of technology in the public schools is motivation for us as future teachers to be prepared to know how to use the technology.  At the same time, there are still school districts in which do not have very much technology at all. Even though I do not want to rely on technology as a teacher, I do know its benefits, and I feel that it would be great to be in a school with technology to use.  I wonder if it would be very difficult to go from knowing about all of the technology out there in classrooms to working in a school that has none.  I begin to realize that I would rather work in a school that has the option of using technology rather than being restricted to very little resources.  This being said, I have found that technology in the classroom definitely is beneficial and I understand why so many people are fighting to get it in the classrooms.

Reflection #9

Talking to the teachers tonight in class showed me that as a teacher, we do not have to have everything figured out.  Sometimes I get nervous thinking that a child's education will be in my hands. I get even more nervous when I think about student teaching, the thought of being in another persons classroom, trying to do what they do seems somewhat scary. But to see these teachers and know that they had to go through the same things and even though it can be difficult, they still love their job is very encouraging. 

Reflection #8

As I have been creating my own lesson plans for our instructional design class, I realize how beneficial it has been to know how to use the technology in the classroom.  It has made my life easier just being able to create a slide show on the SmartBoard, or even getting part of a lesson from the SmartBoard exchange website online.  Being able to have games and or quizzes on the Board has also allowed the students to get more involved in their learning.  I have already found technology very helpful in just the 30 minute presentations I have done.

Reflection #7

In my elementary school, we had a lot of hearing impaired students.  Our school had a program for a couple of years that was available to everyone which taught kids how to do sign language.  I took this class in 2nd grade and loved it, my mom also knows sign language so I was able to practice with her every once in a while, but over time, I forgot the language, and now I wish I still knew it.  My high school did not have sign language as one of the language classes, and I always thought it would have been really cool to have taken it.  Though it is helpful to know Spanish and German, those languages as well are difficult to remember if they are not used on a regular basis.  I realize that many people who are hearing impaired are now able to get surgery to help them hear, but I still feel it would be very helpful for teachers especially to know sign language so that we can connect with the deaf community.  I would love to see sign language being taught in schools and even in colleges so that this language isn't lost entirely while there are still many people who rely on it.

Assignment #14- week 14

Word: I use word on a regular basis to write papers, take notes, and copy important information from online resources to my desktop so that it is easy to access.  I use fonts, color texts, clip art, pasting pictures,

Excel: I rarely use excel, what I have used it for is keeping track of my work hours and how much I get paid, and turning it in as a time sheet to my boss. It would add up my hours and calculate what my paycheck would be, just by entering numbers into the format.

PowerPoint: I have used PowerPoint's to give presentations and share information, to display pictures and create slide shows. It is a helpful tool to sort out information and keep a presentation on track.  PowerPoint can display photos, text, links to websites, they can have different settings, words can fade in and out, or spin, there are a lot of different features that can be used on PowerPoint.

3 Projects:
Word- I could have students write a story and have a picture on the page with it, I could also have them use different fonts and settings so they learn the features.

Excel- I could have students create their own grade book for themselves so that they can keep track of what their grade is in the class.

PowerPoint- Students can share their family background by using PowerPoint to show pictures of their family and what life is like for them.

Week 12 Assignment

Week 12 Assignement

Assignment #4

My Class website with blog and homework assignments


I used the K12lessonplans.com for my project.  I was thinking originally that it may be somewhat difficult to set up a website for my students where they could see my blog, get pdf's of homework, have a photo gallery and much more all from one website, but it was actually fairly simple with this particular website.  There is a setup page that has all the options a teacher would need, all you have to do is click on it and it brings you to the page where you can write or download whatever you need.   It made me less afraid of creating a website like this in the future.  I was even able to create a link to the Storybird I had made in class with my partner.  This website has a section for a home page, homework pages, blogs, photos, online quizzes, calendars, announcements and much more. 


I didn't have any huge issues while creating this website, it was much easier than I expected.  The only thing is that it didn't have very many options on how the website design looked.  I wasn't able to find a better setting that may be more appealing to the eye, especially a student's eye.  Along with that, I was not able to choose where my links were at on the page, so some are along the top and some are along the side.  These were minor issues, so I did the best I could to make it look good until I can possibly figure out a different way to make it look better.


This project will be helpful as a teacher and for the students.  It will be a site that parents can go to to check calendar events that the school as well as our personal class are doing, they can see when homework is due, when students are sick, this website will be a tool they can use to print off their homework and get it done so they don't get behind.  Since this website also has a blog section, I will be able to hear feedback from parents and students about what I have written or what we did in class.  Lastly, I think that this website will help me stay somewhat organized because it is a place where a lot of information is stored in one place, so it will be an easy resource to go to.

TEACHER NET5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership

Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources. Teachers:

a. participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning

-This website allows the teacher to communicate with students and parents through technology, it makes access to activities and homework very easy, which will allow the students to succeed much easier.
 
STUDENT NET
6. Technology operations and concepts
Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students
a.understand and use technology systems
b. select and use applications effectively and productively.
c. troubleshoot systems and applications
d. transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies

 -This website allows the students to physically use a tool that allows them to find resources that contribute to their classroom.  It keeps them involved and gives them a resource that is appropriate for school use.

Assignment #12- week 12

There are endless ways to use technology in classroom lessons, it can simply be allowing students time to work on the computers and create PowerPoint's or other types of projects, it can involve using the SmartBoard during a lesson, technology can be used by students making podcasts, videos, or blogs.  Technology can be easily used by showing a video or playing music.  The best way to use technology in the classroom though, is to allow the students to work with it hands on.
The difference between technology being integrated into other subjects and technology education is that if technology is being integrated, then it is not the main thing they are learning, the technology is just a tool so that they can learn more about he subject at hand.  But technology education is when students learn specifically how to use technology and they learn the skills of how to work and manage technology correctly.
Some lessons that can be used with technology:
-If the unit is on poetry, technology can be used by creating a video, the students can read the poem as the video shows pictures and the words. 
-If the subject is math, the class can play a math game together using the SmartBoard.  It can be competitive as well as fun.
-A simple way to integrate technology is by allowing students to share their work with their classmates by having them come forward and use the document camera to project their work on the screen. 

Assignment #11- week 11

Link to my comment on Mrs. Yollis' Blog

I commented on Mrs. Yollis' Class Blog, on her post about a pirate poem.  I told them that I really enjoyed the poem because it was a video where the kids read the poem and the words were shown as they read.  I told them about storybird because it is a fun writing and technology oriented projected that kids their age might enjoy, and teachers would enjoy as well.