Voki Reflection: Week 11

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I am excited to use digital camera's in my classroom to enhance learning. Digital camera's are a great tool to use for teaching in many ways. I really like how we can use pictures from our camera's for a power point presentation. You can be so creative with powerpoint. We didn't have very much time in class to learn how to use power point and be creative so I just did the basics but I know the possibilites are endless. This week in class was the first time I have ever used powerpoint but my husband and even my 14 year old knows how to use it. My husband used powerpoint for online presentations when he was doing his masters degree. He went to University of Phoenix online. He had to do a power point presentation with other classmates from around the world. Everyone in the group did 2 or 3 slides on their own and that made up the entire presentation. Just think how cool it would of been if they could have used Google Presentations so they could work on the slides together. Knowledge is power! I also thought it was fun using picasa for my pictures. Picasa is another tool I want to play with. There are some fun ways to change pictures. Today at work the teacher I am an aide for asked me to color pictures of emotions. For example one was happy, one was angry, etc. I have been looking for ways to use a digital camera in the classroom setting. While I was coloring I thought about how fun it would be to take pictures of the students emulating these emotions. The teacher was using these pictures for the students to use when they read. I think using a real picture of the student showing that emotion would be even more effective. I love how this class has given me a chance to get my creative juices flowing.

Video Reflection: Digital Cameras

I thought it was funny when Doc. Waters asked the class if everyone knows what a digital camera is. If someone raised their hand I would be worried if they were from some other planet or came here from another dimension in time. When the first digital camera came out I didn't want anything to do with it. I wanted to be able to hold a picture in my hand, not just store it on my camera card. As time went on I got used to the idea. I made a goal to print pictures every month so I could have the physical product. I haven't met my goal as of yet. As more time went on I realized how much money I was saving because I didn't have to develop every picture. Also I realized I could take 100's of pictures just for fun without having to worry about the cost of developing every picture. For instance today I went to my son's school program. I took a lot of pictures, some weren't so great but it was okay because I can pick and choose what I keep. Since the digital camera other great products have come out to help utilize pictures. My son is on a mission. He sends pictures home on a camera card and we save them on a CD. I am going to make a scrapbook online with his pictures that will end up looking like a picture book. Of course there is other great technology like facebook etc. where you can download your favorite pictures on your site. The digital camera has made that task much easier. All of the uses of the digital camera for personal use could also be used in the classroom. I think it might be a good idea for me to take a picture of my students to help me learn their names. It also would be fun to take pictures of memories through the year to put in some kind of a memory book at the end of the year. I look forward to learning more about how to use digital cameras to help with my curriculum. I am sure the possibilities are endless.

Video: Top 10 Things Didn't Learn about Teaching in College

This video was hilarious! I loved every minute of it. Even though I don't actually have a teaching career yet, I have heard teachers express some of the things that were on Dave's top 10 list. One I hear a lot is that it is easier to go to school sick than to make up lesson plans. My favorite one was "The Principals office is still scary". The principals I have worked for as an aide are very nice and easy to work for, but I have heard stories of others around the district. I shared this video with a Kindergarten teacher at work. She didn't know teacher tube existed. She wants to share the video at faculty meeting. I love spreading the knowledge!

We Didn't Start the Fire Video Reflection

What a fun video. I like the song. I remember when I first heard this song in the late 80's, it has a catchy, fun beat. When this song came out I had no idea what it was talking about. I didn't know it was a history lesson. The song is so fast with so many words, I didn't catch all of them years ago. In fact when the song says "Trouble in the Suez", I thought it said , "Trouble in the sewers. " This video would be a blast to show to a upper elementary or secondary class. It is eye catching and nicely done. I wonder if Billy Joel knew his song would be used for educational purposes. I can't imagine writing the song. They did a fantastic job with it!

Reflection for the Week

To Surf or Not To Surf

I think the internet is a great tool to use in Education. There are endless sites out there for teachers to use in curriculum and to help them in teacher development. I have found the UEN Website to be very useful already in my journey of becoming a teacher. I remember my younger years when there was no such thing as the internet. I spent a lot of precious time in the library. Sometimes the local library didn’t have what I needed so I had to travel to a University, which was very inconvenient. The internet offers great convenience to educators who have very little extra time on their hands. The internet is also a great tool for students. My daughter, who is a senior has put the internet to use several times through her years of school. Interestingly though, she had a research paper for her AP College Writing class and was required to go to the BYU Library for her research because her teacher said that the internet is not always reliable. I believe with the information we learned from Kathy Schrock we can navigate our way through the internet’s viable sources.

We should evaluate the internet sites we use because we don’t want the information we get to be wrong or biased. There are sites out there that have an agenda. When teachers or students are looking for information it is important to follow the steps to properly evaluate each website we use. If we use information that is invalid it could end up being like a piece of juicy gossip. We all know the advertisement slogan, “you tell two friends and so on and so on”. Pretty soon George Washington had ten wives or Abraham Lincoln had a lisp. Some people believe all information from the internet is gospel truth.

A good source to use to evaluate a website is from Kathy Schrock. She asks herself five questions when using a website. The first question is who is the author? Are they an expert? The second question is what is the websites purpose? Are they trying to sell something? The third question is when was the site created, updated and last worked on? The fourth question is where did the information on the website come from? The last question is the information useful for my purpose? One other evaluation I would use is to look for the ~mark in the URL. If that mark is in the URL it isn’t a valid resource.

I have a great responsibility on my hands as a teacher to help my students be safe surfers. First of all any computers used at the school should be protected with firewalls etc. so my students aren’t a victim to something they don’t want to see. Or some students might want try to see something they aren’t supposed to so it is vital that the school has those safeguards in place. It is also important for me to teach internet safety in the class. The school where I work just had internet safety week with many activities. The theme was Crash and Tell. It is very important to get this information to my students because unfortunately there are many predators, cyber bullies, etc. lurking. I was appalled at how many predators are on myspace. I am sure it is only going to get worse. If my students know the safety issues, they will be protected and won’t get burned!

Reflection Week 8

This week I would like to reflect on my journey so far. When I sat in my interview today for the Education Department this class came to mind many times as my group discussed current topics. The question was asked about budget cuts and what our views were on cutting the arts. This question made me think about how diverse a teacher needs to be to be successful. As teachers we may have to teach art, and music in the classroom if the specialists are cut. Someone in the group asked, "But what if we aren't good at art or music?" I thought about this class and the UEN Scavenger Hunt. If you aren't good at music there are plenty of music games and interactives specific to the grade to help you teach in music. I didn't explore the art subject on UEN as well as the music subject but I am sure it is the same. Then, there was another debate on the subject of interns. One person in my group strongly opposed interns. She thinks interns are used for the purpose of saving money only. She thinks they aren't as well prepared as student teachers. I disagree with her because interns are going to use every tool they can to do a good job so they will be hired the following year. I think one way to be a good teacher is to use the technology that is available to them. I didn't realize how much technology supports teachers. The school I currently work at only has computers in the library and the typing classroom but I am excited to know that there are elementary schools out there that have a computer for every student right in Alpine School District. We need to find out how they got their computers and follow their example because I am now a technology believer for the classroom!

Video relfection for the Week: Did you Know 3.0

The ending sentence in this video puts what I was thinking into words. "So what does it all mean?" I was asking myself the same question and here is what I came up with. The windows of knowledge are wide open for technology. If you think about how far the world has come from the horse and buggy, it is amazing, but then you think how far the world has come since even five years ago and it is astounding. Something I learned from this video is how far other countries are coming into knowledge also, the windows of knowledge are opened for the entire world, and the US better keep up or we will fall behind even more. Since texting has become so big, I just hope the English Language isn't changed to all acronyms. I also wish I could download one of the chips for the computers that will be smarter than humans in my brain. Okay, in all seriousness, it is exciting to live in a time of change. Bring it on!