Post #12!!!!!!!

Looking through my fellow students blogs was always interesting. I liked reading what people had to say. I really like the post about playing frisbee in the 'write whatever you want category.' I liked some peoples brutal honesty when they did not like something they learned or when they worked with something they did not understand or want to use. The opinions were fun to read. I would have to say my favorite part was when people could link to sites they found useful, as far as web resources. I clicked on some and also found them useful for me, which was why I liked this part the best. Seeing all the different sites and thoughts is a great exposure, and made great use of the blog posting.


I do not have a specific skill in mind that I would like to acquire. I would just like to become more computer literate as far as mobilization. I would like to be able to use shortcuts with proficiency and be faster with what I do. The main thing I would like to work on is learning how to embed items into different forms whether on line or on a power point. I would like to know which software is appropriate online and be able to tell. I just would like to become more knowledgeable about computers in general and be able to maneuver it with ease, being able to help others as well. Being a teacher in a continuing technology advanced classrooms makes me want to become more proficient so my students are not 'showing me up.'


Ways to achieve future educational technology goals will most likely consist of asking someone. I have a lot of tech-savy friends who always offer to help. I just would like to be able ot fix problems myself without needing help. I might look into taking classes in the future, or continuing to fine tune my skills. When i reach my teaching career I will definitely have to make sure my technology skills are at the peak so I will most likely attend more classes to keep up with the new advances. Keeping up with new technology will help me attain future technology goals. In these times, it seems as though I would have to attend a class everyday, but staying on top of new ideas is my goal.

Post #11

Overall, to be honest this semester I have not really used twitter. I will say I learned plenty more about it, seeing as I had no idea of it before. I see the uses but I am not particularly a fan of it. I understand how to get on there. I learned how to follow people, watched people follow me. I made up a status and followed channing tatum. I also used twitter to connect to the store subway to get secret codes to enter to win. I also looked a few times at posts for the class. My experience with twitter is not much, but enough to understand the concrete nature of it.


Honestly, after this class my twitter will sit idol as it has been lately. I think twitter more as an easy stalking tool. It allows people to constantly update the world on what they are doing. Facebook and myspace have statuses but they have other things, and not everyone constantly changes their status. On twitter it all seems to be about updating your followers on what you are up to and honestly I think it is pointless in that nature. I could care less what people are doing every hour. So i'm not planning on using it in other contexts. The only exception would be like the one mentioned above, in a matter of a sweepstakes or something I would consider it.


I do not think of twitter as a useful educational tool, or a tool at all. I feel as though if it was used in school it should only be in upper high school with students well accustomed to the computer and those who should know how to use the computer properly and safely. Twitter can open up the users to a lot of the real world, which is not necessarily the best. Twitter can be an easy way for a teacher to communicate, but then again so is the phone or email. I think twitter is not worth the risk. I think it could be fun to use for a scavenger hunt or to follow your favorite celebrities but not as a teaching tool.

My Podcast!!

Post #10

Web 2.0 technologies exist in many different forms. We have learned about some basic ones such as wiki spaces. Many more exist and can become useful in any technologically advanced classroom. There are so many web 2.0 technologies that would be useful to me. I plan to teach elementary school so using simple technologies would be the easiest. Children in elementary school need more hands on activities so the least difficult to understand web 2.0 technology would be most helpful.

The web 2.0 tool I would love to make use of in my class is create-a-graph. Create-a-graph is a tool used to do just that- create graphs. The create-a-graph is a kid friendly tool that helps kids get started in understanding graphs. The website, Create-A-Graph, leaves the kids in charge of all the decisions such as color, font, size, the information displayed, how the information is displayed and even allows students to print off their final result. The create-a-graph website would be the best for me to make use of as an elementary school teacher and would help my students in math when the begin to use graphs. Upper elementary school grades will make the most use of these graphs.

Web 2.0 technologies have made big strides in education and helping students learn. The best part of web 2.0 technologies is that they can accessed from anywhere. Students can access the tools from home, and help get extra practice without needing to be at school. Some Web 2.0 tools also allow students to keep in contact with teachers from home as well, such as skype, and even wiki spaces allow students to do work or ask questions with teachers able to see the work and provide feedback. Students have many more ways to stay on top of their work by using web 2.0 tools as long as online they focus on their work. I definitely think web 2.0 technologies have advantages, but I think these advantages are the best for secondary schooling. Elementary school students need more one on one, and technology adds a barrier for these young, developing students. As I said i think elementary school students need more hands on activity, while technology is taking over all parts of the world, I think schools with students this young can prevent students from growing up too fast.

Crossword Puzzle!

Post #9

Many great web based resources exist nowadays and help teachers tremendously, giving access to many other sources from one click of a mouse. The web based resource I would love to take advantage of is http://teachertube.com/. Teacher tube provides all you could need in one web page. It gives you access to multitudes of items. Teacher tube keeps you in contact with other teachers around the world, gives new ideas for lessons, shows how to do the lessons, has videos safe to show students and can be easily accessed. Teacher Tube is a branch of youtube but is teacher approved, therefore there will not be any inappropriate videos or language that would have to be censored or could prevent a teacher from showing a clip. Teacher Tube also gives access to clips other teachers have seen as positive for students, and can even formulate group projects. Teacher Tube can bring classes together in order to make a video to share with other students around the world.


Teacher tube is a great web resource for the many reasons I mentioned. I think Teacher Tube would be useful for any grade level or subject. I aspire to teach elementary school so any videos with lessons or lesson plans will be of great aid. Teacher Tube can give me funny, or serious or purely educational videos that will help my students. I can look up math lessons, history lessons or any of the above. Teacher Tube doesnt just have videos it also has documents, photos, audio clips, blogs and much more. This website is like a one stop shop for teachers, offering support in more ways than one. This will be a great use to me when I teach, and to any other teacher no matter what level they teach.


As far as excel goes, I plan to use it for routine stuff. I love having set schedules so I will most likely create our daily time schedule on excel and post it all over the class. Being an elementary school teacher does not require a heavy usage of excel, but I know i will use it for grades and etc. I can also use excel when it comes to graphs and anything with mathematics. I can make charts for certain lessons and make the colors or graphs stand out to attract the students attention. Excel will make certain math lessons easier or will be extremely helpful in keeping track of all the students important information like phone numbers, birthdays, and addresses. Excel will help keep me organzied and ease up grading for me.

Post #8

For my power point #2 I did a version of the jeopardy game. This was very simple in creation but time consuming. As far as the concept of writing, there is not much to critique because the slides consisted of simple questions followed by one or two word answers. The structure was very simple but repeated throughout to create unity, and the spelling and grammar usage was correct throughout the questions. The writing level was simple as the power point was made for elementary school students. As far as navigation each page had its own bubble making sure the player of the game navigated correctly to the next page whether it was to the answer:

or back to the game board:

Throughout these two slides, it is also apparent that I stayed constant with the font, font color, shape for links, and link writing and color. I used the same consistent pattern throughout the slides, uniting them together. One difference was that I typed the answers in a bigger font to take up more room, while the questions I typed smaller, because they normally were followed with a picture. The jeopardy game was well developed in my opinion and flowed throughout the game board making it logical and easy to follow.

Peripherals will be of imporatance and put to good usage in my class. Nowadays printers are almost a necessity and they will be put to good usage in my class, whether getting students to print out their stories they created or their test result, or information about their book or projects we area working on. Printers will be of utmost importance in working with a technologically influenced classroom. Scanners will be helpful to me as far as writing notes and being able to project them to the class or other work I did, or other students have done, the scanner will make it easier to show to the classroom. All of the peripherals will help ease the work of making multiple copies or having to write something multiple times, because it can be printed or shown in front of the class. Projectors have always been vital to the classroom and I would love to make use of that, but in todays times with the introduction of SMARTboards I think that it will become much easier to use other versions of technology. SMARTboards are the new wave of the future and will engage students in working on the boards while at the same time teaching the other students. The SMARTboards are the best example of how I plan to join the scanner, printer, and projector in one smartboard while being able to use that with the computer. SMARTboards will be used with computer based technologies. SMARTboards will be of great usage in elementary school keeping the students actively involved with hands on activities.

We continued working on power point in the last week. I have learned more about power point. I think the best tools I used surround hyperlinking. I was able to make games, such as jeopardy and i learned how to make a story with my own illustrations. For elementary school students, all of the things about power point we have been learning will be of usage because they will help entertain the kids and can become hands on. I made a jeopardy power point about animals which was easy, and was made for elementary students and would keep them engaged in a game, while learning and reviewing at the same times. I learned how to encorporate sounds and moving graphics. Overall everything I have learned about power points in the last week will help me to enhance my teaching, and help keep the students engaged throughout my powerpoints. Incorporating the animations, sounds, and hyper linking will help me create games, and more interesting power points. With education relying more on technology, learning how to keep my powerpoints up beat will help keep my students engaged.