My Beliefs

My Beliefs

I think technology in the classroom is very important.  It helps in productivity, in helping students learn in different ways, and is helpful for teachers to keep organized and communicate with parents and students.

I am excited to learn more about and experience technology in my classroom.  I am hopeful that my students will have access to computer laptops and that I will have the necessary equipment to create an effective learning environment.

I plan on learning more about technology and keeping up with the changes in education.  I want to instill a desire for my students to learn more about technology and be able to use computers in helping them learn and succeed in school.

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

I was amazed at how fast technology is growing as I watched the video clips.  It was kind of scary learning about how fast things are changing.  It also made me a little anxious to know that computers will be more efficient than the human brain.

It is also a concern that students are exposed to so many things on the internet that can be harmful to them.  I think that kids today will be lacking in many social skills because of email, texting, etc.

It was interesting to me that students can benefit from “Twitter”.  I do believe having computer skills can be beneficial to them for their future careers, but also think that they are going to have a hard time in Literacy.  I thought the website called “Shorthand” was really funny.  It makes me wonder how students will do at spelling in the future.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths and Weaknesses

In most areas on the UNI survey I would rate myself as a novice/apprentice.  I would say my strengths are the basics that I have practiced for some time.  For instance, I worked on computers (databases and word processors (#16, #17) when I was employed in the business field, so I am aware of the impact of them (#5).  I have used the internet for research for papers and lesson plans (#9).  I have had an email account for at least 12 years, so I am familiar with the process (#11).  Instructional Technology has helped me in several areas also, such as personal websites, podcasts, digital stories and copyright laws (#10, #13, and #14). 

I can improve in all of the above areas, but there are some things that I really lack the experience and knowledge in. There are at least two things I would like work on and learn more about which will be very helpful to me as a new teacher.  I am not familiar with adaptive assistive devices for my students who have special needs such as learning disabilities, impaired vision, etc. (#7). There is an online tutorial that will help me learn about resources for these special students.  It is called, “Assistive Technology Training Online Project” (ATTO.buffalo.edu/registered/tutorials.php).

One of the tutorials is for a program called, “Write.Outloud” which speaks letters, words, and sentences.  This is helpful for writing and reading activities.  There is also a tutorial for “BrailleNote” in case I have a student who needs to use this program.

The other area I would like to learn about is video conferencing- what it is and how I can use it in my teaching.  “HighTechLearning” provides a course in which I can learn about this and other skills that will benefit me as a teacher.  The website is:

http://eduscapes.com/hightech/index.htm

I need to continue to grow in knowledge and skills in technology according to the NETS and there are many resources that I can turn to help me.  I just need the desire, the time, and the confidence to achieve success.

Reflection #11

Last week, I forgot to blog.  I know it is too late for this assignment to be accepted, but I wanted to include our experience that we had for my records.

Sarah taught a concept lesson on Lewis and Clark's Expedition.  It went well.  We had to split our lesson plan in half because of the time limit. The second day of our lesson, we started off showing the students our digital story on I-Movie about facts pertaining to the expedition. The students really enjoyed it. It was a good activity for reviewing our subject. I made little journals out of paper bags and twine for the students to write entries about Lewis and Clark's journey as if they were traveling with the group. I found an awesome website with actual journal entries and the students read some of them that I had printed out, and wrote in their own journals about these experiences.  We also gave them snacks of Swedish fish, gummy bears, and fruit shaped gumdrops. It was an awesome lesson!

Reflection #12

SERVICE LEARNING ASSIGNMENT

Sarah Taylor and I  completed our field work at Ridgeline Elementary in Highland, Utah.  Our cooperating teacher was Miss Reinhart.  There are 34 students in the class and the majority of them come from families who are from the middle to upper class.

We had a really good relationship with our cooperating teacher. She was willing to share her knowledge and resources with us. She helped us in getting involved with her students by inviting us to play games, letting us tutor her students as they completed writing projects, and giving us the opportunity create a bulletin board in the hall. She let us teach her students without interference and instructed her students to be on their best behavior for us. She also helped boost our confidence in teaching.

Miss Reinhart liked our digital story (I-Movie) on “The Lewis and Clark Expedition”.  We used the digital story as a review on the second day of our lesson. She really liked our lesson and we were successful in teaching our students about Lewis and Clark.  The students enjoyed watching the movie, also, and were able to learn some important facts about Lewis and Clark’s Expedition.

    Miss Reinhart uses a MacIntosh and actually had a digital story of a relative’s wedding on her computer. She has never taken the time to learn how to use I-Movie.  Sarah taught her the basics of the program as I observed.  We think Miss Reinhart might create a digital story in the future, providing she finds the time to do so.  Sarah told her that she could do a story on anything she wants, such as an end of year video of her class.

    This was a good opportunity for us to help our cooperating teacher learn in a more convenient way. Teachers don’t have much time to spare, so service-learning lessons are very helpful. We don’t think that Miss Reinhart had the desire to create digital stories before we taught her, and now she might find the time to do so.  We think it was worth the effort, even if she doesn’t create digital stories, because at least we were able to teach her something to help her in her profession, just like she did for us.

Reflection #10-Field Experience

This week in field, we got the opportunity to go to Computer Specialties with our 5th graders. They were learning how to type on the keyboard with a fun computer program. They had little black box type shields that they put over their hands so they couldn't peek.  Sometimes it didn't really work because it was too tempting to look at the keys. The students also researched something about a state and printed out information on it.

We get one more opportunity to go to Computer Specialties and it will be interesting to see what they get to do next. We have had a lot of experience using Google.docs this week while preparing our lesson plans. I love the chat feature while working as partners.  It gets a little frustrating to me though, because sometimes things don't work out how I want them to.  Somehow the keys and the typing don't quite mesh.  Worst of all, I am still struggling with alignment of columns etc. It bugs me when I try to print something and things are all out of place. I think I'm starting to figure it out a little better now.

This week we will be presenting our digital story on Lewis and Clark. We still have to finish it up. Sarah will be using it in her lesson as a wrap up of the subject.  Since we are not doing it in Photo Story 3, I am going to brush up on how to use it so I can teach our cooperating teacher sometime soon. 

Instructional Tech Reflection #9

This has been quite a frustrating week with our digital story on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We had copied most of our images to google.docs to be able to transfer to our digital story, however we won't be able to use some of them because of copyright laws. I wrote National Geographic asking permission to use some of their photos and we don't know where to turn since Creative Commons doesn't really have what we are looking for.
As for field, we have had a fun experience so far. We still need to talk to our cooperating teacher about our inservice lesson on learning how to create digital stories. We also need to show her our creation, that is if we could get somewhere on it. Doc Waters, PLEASE HELP!!