Final Blog Entry (500 word)

Teachers can inspire people to change by their open-mindedness, their passion and their kindness. I believe that a teacher can completely transform the future of a student based on the experience that student has in the teacher's classroom. If a teacher is accommodating and willing to help each of their students succeed, there is no reason for any student to not leave that classroom more educated. Sometime kids need a push and they aren't getting the support or push they need from their home life so it is crucial that a teacher can step in to push them past their limits and into success. The question of whether or not we should inspire others to change I think depends on the change, if it is for the better in a positive way I absolutely think we should inspire people to change. When it comes down to it, we cant change anybody because no one can change another person. However, if a student wants to change and their teacher pushes them, supports them and inspires them to better than they thought they could be, that is a good example of inspiring people to change.

The way that we teach should depend on the students, if the way a teacher spends their class time is effective for the students and they learn the material, there is no reason to alter that teacher's method. However, if the students change over the years, the way a classroom is run by the teacher needs to be updated and formed to benefit the students. Students I think are changing over the years just because the world we live in is changing and society is evolving so it is natural that the kids would change with society. As technology and education evolve, the students learning experience will evolve too and they will be used to different things. Because of education constantly improving and evolving, a teacher's method needs to match the students ability.

All I have ever wanted form is to better the future of the kids in my classroom, I care so much about the children of this world and the future that they make for themselves. My life long goal has always been to make a positive difference in someone's life and I believe that by being a teacher, I will have completed that goal. I want the same thing for my children, to have the very best education they could possibly have, to learn in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom. I want my children to be well-rounded individuals that have a crave to learn about the world around them and develop their own thoughts and opinions.

I am going to use technology in my future classroom because I believe that is an effective way of learning and many students could benefit from using technology. I really like the idea of the students making their own google earth tours of their favorite places in the world and then sharing them with their classmates. I also really like the idea of the students each making photo stories or mixbooks about their family and friends and sharing them with their classmates. There are also some faster projects they could do liek bighugelabs.com, or making wordle.net's or even quizlets.com, I think these websites are great tools for my future students to use in the classroom. I plan to use technology in my future classroom as a method, tool and resource to better enrich the learnign experience of my future students.

Apples4theteacher.com

www.apples4theteacher.com is a great website for both teachers and students to use. It has quizzes and games to play with material from every subject. Teachers can use it to get ideas on fun curriculum ideas for the classroom like games to play and students can use it to practice different material at home and with their friends in a fun way. Kids are much more interested and learn the material on a deeper level when they are able to enjoy the learning process so a website like this that allows them to have fun and play entertaining games while still learning the material is very effective and beneficial.

Technology Projects in the Classroom

Technology Projects for Teachers to do: google earth tour's, power point, smartboard, photo story, quizlet, webquest, google sites, wiki.com, storybird.com, mixbook.com, bighugelabs.com, flickr.com, glogster.com, blogger.com

10 Projects for Students to Do involving Technology based Projects: Make a google earth tour of their favorite places in the world, make a powerpoint on whatever topic they choose, make a photo story for show and tell about their friends and family, Make a worlde about how they would describe themselves using different adjectives, make a mixbook of their favorite memories from the classroom, Make a voice thread in the classroom and everyone make up their own question and then comment on each other's questions, make their own quizlet and swap with a partner, create their own game modeling after one of their favorite tv shows.

Ebistro.org

ebistro.org is a great tool for teachers to use to keep themselves organized in a fun way. Thinking of organizing yourself and strategies for teaching as a menu at a restaurant is very fun and exciting because it isn't as boring as a grade book or regular rubric, etc. Everyone loves to eat and so thinking of a job and work to be done as a menu attracts everyone's attention and is a fun way to stay organized.

Websites used for Lesson Plans

Websites as simple as youtube.com can really be helpful in the classroom for showing videos. You can find almost anything on youtube, all the way from Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech, to how to write an essay. How-to videos can be great for kids and well as being able to access historical videos, and educational videos to show in the classroom. Students can each try to find their favorite video about Essay writing and then share them with each other so that the students can learn from each other.

Online Gaming in the Classroom

I think games can be a great way to really intrigue students and get material through to them in a way that interests them. Online games can be used for all different things, they can be used for educational purposes like quizzing the students on material and preparing them for upcoming tests. Games can be a great way to study the material in groups and have it also be fun for the students. Kids can make games as art projects or even just play with them in their down time, if a teacher introduces a fun game that is also educational and teaches the student, they will be anxious to learn more by playing games. They can bring that eagerness outside of the classroom as well and into their homes where they will want to play educational games and in turn they will want to learn. Online gaming can be really effective and beneficial when used correctly by the educators and the students.

Podcasting

Pod casting can be a great tool to use for online conversations and debates, being able to hear the tone of voice someone uses when talking about a certain topic can say a lot about their opinion and spark other opinions. Pod casting is definitely beneficial for educators to communicate with each other, their students and the parents of their students.

21st Century Learning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0vQAdDFGMA

I thought this video was really interesting and offered a perspective that we have been learning about throughout this course, check it out.

Picture of my Game

Games

Click here for full screen version

This is the game I created, I think most of these games could be really useful if they are used in moderation. Many students can get distracted with so many games and not use them for school purposes, but if used briefly I think they could engage students and make it fun for them to make their own games and share with each other. All of the different games available are nice for the teacher to choose from and decide what is best and appropriate.

Voicethread

This is a picture of my voice thread that I made intending it to be for kindergarten students, I asked who their best friends are and why. I dont think voice thread is as effective as other sites but I think it could be useful for biographies or it could be a safe place to express opinions and feelings that could be helpful for some students.

Glog

This is an example of my playing with a glog. Glogging is really easy and very fun I think for both students and teachers. It is an easy way to creatively involve the students and also allow them to be creative while learning at the same time. Tools like this could really influence and improve learning in the future.

Mixbook Scrapbook

I absolutely love this website, I could do this all day :)

Xtra Normal

This is a picture of my xtranormal video that I made using this website. It was so easy to use and play with and it was so much fun being able to pick my own characters and even their voices and decide what I wanted to script to be and even change the background and location. I think this would be a great tool to use to create a video about the topic of class for example the alphabet or math, etc. It is a great way to get the students focused and interested while still teaching them at the same time.

Grading Rubric

This is the rubric that I explored with and I found it very useful and a wonderful tool for teachers to use and communicate with each other in order to improve their teaching and organizational skills.

Google Earth

I made my own google earth tour of my favorite places in the world that I will be uploading to my final portfolio for this class. I even included my own pictures of the places I've been and love as well as youtube videos I embedded into some of the points I included in my tour. Overall I really enjoyed playing around with Google earth and thought it was very well organized and had a lot to offer to both students and teachers. This tool is a great resource for different projects or just for fun that can be used very creatively and individually.

Flickr and bighugelabs

I really like bighugelabs.com because it is very useful for many different things. It is a good source to have pictures on, to make posters on and more. It is really easy to figure it out and really fun to work and play around with. I think students and teachers would both enjoy working with this site and get alot out of it. I didnt like Flickr as much as I liked bighugelabs.com because I've been to sites like Flickr before and didnt get that much out of them, so comparing Flickr to bighugelabs.com just made me like bighugelabs.com more than Flickr but both are great resources for different projects and activities in and outside of the classroom.

Quizlet

learning math

This online quiz website is very useful for students especially younger ones. It is very interactive for students and is a way for students to feel as though they have accomplished alot because it allows them to be independent in something that the teacher sets up for them. It allows the students to challenge themselves and keep trying until they improve which is great for their self esteem. Having quizzes online like this is very empowering for students and easy for teachers to use, quizzes online like this should definitely be used in the classroom as tools for learning.

Webquest

Webquests can definitely be a useful tool for students to use because it is very straight forward and easy for them to follow and it is a way of learning that doesn't necessarily feel too much like school, it is a fun way for them to learn while enjoying it. webquests are a great way to captivate them and keep them busy while allowing them to work themselves and feel independent. Games in general are a great way to learn especially for younger kids, so a webquest is a great way to set up a whole outline of how to get to certain websites.

These are some example webquests I found:
http://education.nmsu.edu/webquests/wq/dino/dinosaur.htm, I liked this one because it was very well set-up and fun to explore with.
http://education.nmsu.edu/webquests/wq/ocean/index.html, this was also a fun way to learn.
http://education.nmsu.edu/webquests/wq/bugs/index.htm, the different tools and games to play are very interactive for students to play with.

Streaming Videos

http://keepvid.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DPbUtL_0vAJk

I downloaded a video of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream speech" off of youtube.com and uploaded it to keepvid.com so I wasnt downloading illegally. I chose this video as an example of showing how to use streaming videos online for educations because it is classic. This is one of the msot important stories of all time and he is in every history book so I thought a movie explaining his speech might be more ineractive for students and captivate them to learn more about history and hopefully other subjects. I think these websites are great tools to help use videos and other interactive activities as a way of teaching my future students more and encouraging them to want to learn.

Alternative Online Bookmarking

Alternative bookmarking online can be very helpful for both students and teachers to use. I explored through readfresh.com, livebinder.com and delicious.com, also simplybox.com, these are just a few. These are very easy ways to remind yourself of websites and blogs that you thought were helpful and a great way to organize your thoughts and different tools to use for teaching without having to remember and look them all up separately. These tools could be very helpful for students to use because it is accessible for them to see the websites and different information that I find useful for the material they might be learning. They can even upload their own websites and information they found that they may want me to look at as their teacher. Bookmarking in general is very useful for organizing everything and reminding yourself and websites or tools you have found, and online bookmarking is even easier and better for both teachers and students.

Wordle of Search Engines

http://www.wordle.net/create

this is a wordle I made about different search engines that I have heard of and used to search different ideas. Google and Yahoo are well known by everyone, but are still great. Yellowbook is nice and easy to use for just about anything you can think of because it is basically like one of those big yellow books that are in every house except they are online and they include more opportunities and information. Bing is a newer website that is also very easy and very similar to google and yahoo. I really like neroo.com because it is an energy efficient search engine, it is based off of google but it has a black background screen and uses far less energy than google does which I like because it is eco-friendly. There are many different search engine websites that are all very similar but it is nice to have many options to use so it broadens our range of knowledge and information.

Games as an effective way of learning and teaching

Games in a classroom can be very effective especially if they engage every different student in the material. I especially enjoyed http://ms.ardsleyschools.org/site_res_view_folder.aspx?id=1dcf8b49-b239-4f40-ab1d-e5641db76817 because it was very easy to use and play around with and had opportunities to make your own questions and also make your own games. I got to make my own are you smarter than a 5th grade game which was really fun for me because I enjoy watching that show and being able to make my own questions and game out of it for my future students was really exciting. for this website: http://www.murray.k12.ga.us/teacher/kara%20leonard/Mini%20T%27s/Games/Games.htm, I thought it was very effective because it lays out how it works right there in front of you so you cant miss a step. I also like the option for music and the other varieties of accesories for the games that some websites dont have. This website, http://its.monroe.edu/content/smart-board-help-links-resources-and-lessons, I didnt find as effective because it was a little more confusing to navigate through and use. It also seems more advanced and like someone would already have to be knowledgable about this topic in order to use it successfully. Whereas the other websites were simple enough that students at an elementary age could use as well as learning teaching on how to better improve their classrooms. The first two websites I enjoyed and I think students will really enjoy the opportunity to not only play games as a way of learning in the classroom, but also create their own games to play with each other.

Smartboard Websites

Websites that use tools by smart board can definitely help with differentiation in a classroom and elementary education. Because students, especially at young ages, have every different types of learning, it is important for teachers to cater to their needs by having a variety of tools available to them. smart board tools are great for these type of situations with students because they have so much to offer and they have many different ways for students to learn and teachers to teach. i especially liked http://www.juliethompson.com/SMART.html because it was very easy to use and made learning difficult subjects easier for younger students. Teachers definitely need to broaden their horizons into the technological world in order to better teach our future generations. Smart Board has excellent opportunities for both teachers and learners and can improve every classroom.

thinklinkr

http://thinklinkr.com/outliner#5685

I couldnt figure out how to embed this, but here it is. I liked this website but I didnt feel as though it was entirely effective, there are lots of websites that do things similar to this site so I just didnt find thinklinkr entirely effective. It is helpful however for organizing different outlines and ideas, which can improve learning as well as teaching

Interview with Teacher

(1) What tools are their favorite tech and web tools to use in the classroom?
powerpoint, imovie, Webschool

(2) What are their biggest frustrations with technology in the classroom?
not enough training, when the technology doesn't work,


(3) What is the biggest misconception about using technology in the classroom?
that it takes too much work and isn't worth it. that the old ways are good enough and the best

(4) What are the biggest hurdles that you face as an educator using technology in the classroom?
getting to know software well enough to be able to use it effectively - to a point where it actually increases my efficiency as a teacher and students' effectiveness as learners

(5) What has been your biggest success with technology integration in the classroom?
Using Webschool (moodle).

(6) Who/What has been your biggest inspiration in helping you to use technology in the classroom?
Teachers who know tech and have been able to use it effectively. The Urban School in SF has been a great model.

(7) Where do you see technology integration heading in the future?
More and more of the "stuff" of a class (at least at the high school level) will be posted on an web-based application and work will be done in "the cloud". More classtime will be spent on actual work and actual learning.

Slide.com

Responses to Blogs

http://www.livescience.com/

This blog was really interesting with different topics available to research and read about. This can be very useful for science and history and other subjects that students may be taking. It is one easy website that contains alot of information that provides tons and tons of knowledge. The videos and articles are helpful for not only students learning, but also teachers and their lessons.

http://www.postrank.com/feed/52e9653411a952dc1619737288ebfe36

This website is also very useful because it provides many different websites and resources with interesting ideas. these different blogs about different topics can be useful for students and teachers in creating their own ideas and how to apply those in the classroom. Blogs and websites like this are helpful for jump-starting different activities and thoughts from different points of views and improve the critical thinking and skills in the classroom.

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/01/19/a-reminder-to-address-and-stop-cyberbullying-re-cry-of-the-dolphins/

Blogs like this are very helpful to have available for the public and everyone to see and learn about. These issues happen everyday and need to be taught to everyone in hopes of eliminating this problem alltogether. Blogs like this are helpful to hear people's stories and learn from them and in turn educate future students about issues like this creating a circle of education in hopes of preventing problems like this all starting with a blog like this

Blogs

Blogs can be useful if they are used correctly, if they are used to write controversial ideas that can be responded to and provoke debates. They can also be useful to write ideas and communicate with people. they can be useful for expressing different ideas and being creative outlets for adults and students. Blogs can be a wonderful tool but they must be used appropriately

Story Bird

http://storybird.com/storymaker/?storefront_slug=chichiboulie&artwork_slug=orange-bird

This is my story bird that I really enjoyed making and I thought it would be very useful and exciting for students to use as a resource for their creativity.

Digital Schools

A digital school I believe can both be dangerous and helpful. They can be helpful for projects and the students ability to learn at their own pace. The reason why I believe digital school as a whole can be dangerous is it teaches students at a young age to rely on a machine for everything they will ever need to do. It decreases their interaction with students and their teachers incredibly. Computers in general can be very useful for researching alone as well as many other things, but there are resources available for these needs in most schools today such as computer labs and libraries. I understand that the way education is going these days is towards digital schools and using the computer more I just hope that schools will utilize the resources they already have before requiring every student to have a laptop which to me seems unnecessary. Developing skills on a computer are very useful and should be taught because those skills will be needed and necessary as we progress into the 21st century. I believe it is equally if not more important to continue to involve kids in verbal discussions, projects and interactions with their peers and teachers. The cost of technology can also be very expensive and somewhat out of reach for many students in different schools.

Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1537564/education

This is my wordle about future technologies in the classroom. These are all different resources that students may be using more in the future to expand their abilities to do different things.

Comics in the Classroom

Comics in a classroom can be very effective especially for smaller kids. Visual aids especially that students can relate to and make learning humorous can help students learn in a way that comes naturally to them. By using comics and other visual aids as a way of getting concepts across, students will subconsciously open their minds more to the idea of school and learning which can not only expand their knowledge but make them excited to come to school.

Facebook Safety

Facebook and other websites that are similar can be great for networking and keeping in touch with people all over the world. However, it can also be dangerous to people who may not be aware of the information they display about themselves on the internet. It is almost impossible for most college students to not have pictures with some sort of alcohol in them and I think that is expected, but it is important to keep things like that among your friends and not for everyone with a computer to see. These websites can be safe, we just need to be aware of what we say and portray about ourselves and who might be seeing it. As long as we are safe and responsible, everything will be fine.

21st Century Teachers

21st century teachers definitely need to be willing to learn and adapt to the new changes that our society is facing. New resources are available on the internet for kids and for many students, they can be very helpful. I think the most important ability for 21st century teachers is to have enough knowledge about all of the resources available for kids and incorporate as many as possible so that each student can find what works best for them. The most important thing in a classroom is balance, it is important to balance class time spent on different things and not emphasizing only one way of learning.

Teachers need to embrace technology more as we come into a more technology based future. I am just afraid that teachers will end up relying on the internet and other technologies too much that their students wont expand their knowledge. Yes, I think it is effective for visual aids and certain things, but there is so much available to us on the internet that I think is completely useless and really just a lazy way to do things that students should learn how to do. I am worried that both teachers and students will get lost in the amount of material on the internet and end up wasting alot of time on a machine rather than interacting with the world

Technology

I have never been good with technology and I have never really had any interest in learning about computers and other technologies. I never made a powerpoint in high school and my internet use in school was very limited. I think that is a good thing for me and the education I received, It helped me to rely on myself and other resources other than a computer. I am excited to learn how to use the computer more and learn different ways to incorporate it into my teaching, I just dont want to emphasize it too much.