Two lesson plans

I thought that our last blog was supposed to be on finishing up the digital story so here is this one on the lesson plans.

We are supposed to write two lesson plans incorporating technology in a new creative out of the box way. This assignment is very hard especially when all semester we have been doing things in groups and now all of a sudden we are doing them alone and at the end and still supposed to be super creative. I can see that these lesson plans are going to be important for broadening our minds for our future classroom and students but i still believe it is difficult. After Thursday i am going to take a break from school and just enjoy the holidays with family and friends. Happy holidays and i hope you enjoy the break as well.

Last blog for the semester!!

This semester has been amazing and i would like to thank you for everything you have taught us to make us better teachers.

Now to the Digital Story, I am so glad that this is almost done there have been many bumps in the road to finishing this project and i will be truly glad when it is done. This is a very good assignment and i am glad and excited to see what the others have came up with as well. I am so excited for the next semester and being able to use all the knowledge and activities that i have been given.

DS blog after field

Going into this week of course everyone is stressing out about everything we have to turn in but the Digital story i am working on with my group is actually going on pretty well. We are working on making our credits page and then we just have to add the voices into our digital story plus just the few last minute adjustments and we are going to be done. These last key steps are going to make our DS really good and i believe educational to watch. I am proud of my group for settling our differences and coming together to finish this project. It is going to be really good. Now i just have to get through the next two weeks of school and be ready for the next sememster.

Last week of field post

So this week was really hard because i became really attatched to the kids and they all want me to miss school on Monday so i can go to their class one more time. :( It was such a great experience and the kids were truly amazing i don't think i could have had a more educational and amazing experience i really lucked out for my first field. The kids did a rendezvous this week and had such a good time playing the games and getting all ready for thanksgiving. It is going to be really hard coming back to school after this but i am just going to keep looking forward to my own class in the future :)

Week 3 blog

I can't believe it is almost over i really really don't want it to end!!! This week has gone by so fast we had a really good lesson on Monday where Ellie and I dressed up like Mountain men and brought other artifacts to the class to have a discussion it went really well. Then they did group work on a Mountain man and presented them to the class where afterwords we had a Reporter assessment and it was really funny to see the kids try and guess what character they were :) Today they did a huge mural on Mountain men, Spanish explorers, and Native Americans they had a good time and were really creative it was just a lot of fun and i am really excited to finish out next week with them.

Week 2 of field

Well this was a freaking crazy insane week. So Ellie got really sick probably the swine flu :( and so we had to just push back the lessons we had planned to teach and i had to go on the fly with some that i could teach by myself. Ah! but it went ok and the class understood and we still got through and did a bunch of things. Also on Tuesday they had their fall singing program for the parents it was really cute they all did really well. We also had a random fire drill in the middle of my lesson as well so it was just a random tough long week that was still really fun and i just can't believe how fast this is going!! In science we are also making brochures on the computer that is really cool because i have never made one on the computer before so it is working out pretty good and i am learning a ton and the kids are great. Next week here i come ha ha

Week 1 of field

Well this week was interesting i got to meet all the kids and just observe mostly for wed. and thurs. they are all really sweet and the class is mostly boys so when we did introductions they all wanted to know what football team we like of course it was the U :) they are getting ready for this big singing program they are performing on monday and tues and today after the practice it was just very chaotic and our supervising teacher got pretty upset. We got past that and had a veteran in the army come talk to the kids and then I taught them an art lesson which they really liked this week has gone by so fast and there is just so much to do in so little time but i am enjoying the experience and it is really fun.

My Beliefs

The use of technology is much more important and useful in todays society then when i was in elementary. Some schools have computers in their classrooms so the students can them all the time. This bothers me a little bit just because then you can't move the desks around and change the room up a little bit, but other then that i really like that they have computers at their disposal all the time. I also think that now after taking this class it is so much easier to see how to use technology in the classroom. Before i was just indifferent about using technology but now i can see how it can really help.
I am really going to use technology in my class room as much as i can and have it be affective in the way i can teach them new subjects. I think it is a great way to engage and make learning more exciting and to get them involved i am excited to see what i can do and what the students can do in the future.

Lessons Learned

I learned from the articles where i need to get myself in the future. I am not as computer savy as i should be and so i will need to get on learning about them to become a better teacher and helper. I also really liked how using technology to test is more effective in my mind. For example the CRT tests which are the state mandated tests are easier to take on a computer then pencil and paper. Also instead of always having paper tests just in the classroom i can add technological advances and other things like that to make it more enjoyable. I also really liked how integrating the technology into the curriculum is very useful in keeping the students attention and engaging them in learning.
I really liked the article that was titled Teen Disconnect, i thought it was interesting how some students didn't feel they wrote better when they use a computer then when they just wrote on paper. I don't feel that way i think i do better when i write it on the computer even if it is just by making the spelling and grammatic part of it better. Also because the younger generations use abreviations very much that by having them write on paper they would have to learn to write out what they were saying so i have mixed opinions on it.

Strengths and Weaknesses

With the UNI survey i did not get above Apprentice on any of them i really don't know that much about computers which is weird because i believed i did. It was an eye opener to read what i really have no idea about. And the Net survey i feel like i use all of them up to number five. I just feel like i can use everything that goes there and i just make it up to five i just don't get to the 6th one because I don't understand the legal and human issues enough to tell other people about it i am definately going to need to do some studying on that.
My goals as a teacher is to use everything we have learned in Tech and more to help get my students involved and excited about teaching. I also want to learn more about how to use and fix computers at least the basic things so that i can get more involved and be able to help my students by myself instead of bothering the media specialist all the time. These articles and tutorials worked really well because it really showed me what i need to improve on and what is going on. Also doing all of these assignments in class helps me understand what i can do and helps me begin to think out of the box.

Digital Story

Digital stories are a really cool way to get information or to hook the students into the section they are going to learn. The ones we seen in class were really creative and were so entertaining to watch and still gave us information that we needed to know. This would be a great way to engage the students interests and begin a lesson or section of what we are going to teach or even as a wrap up to summarize the key points that they have learned. I am a little nervous to begin this project because it seems a little bit more difficult then the webquest we did and i haven't done any of this before and since my group had a little problem last time i just don't know how much of this i can do alone. It will be okay though i will wipe the slate clean and give my group another chance because hopefully they realize how important and useful this information is. This is going to be such a fun new experince and i hope i will be so excited when we post them on Youtube.

Fall Break

So far this semester has been going pretty well i think. Some of the classes are really challenging and hard to get through. Also group projects are tough because as always there are people who don't do anything and the rest of the group pulls all the weight which i thought might change since we got into the program but it didn't. I am so excited to start field because our teacher seems really enthusiastic and enjoys teaching it is going to be such a great experience. I am learning so much i will use in the classroom it is unreal. So my outlook so far is a good one and i am excited for the rest of the semesters to follow. :)

Video for this week

I love school house rock videos i think they are a wonderful way to teach kids about many different things they are learning in school. They are also very catchy and stay in your head even when you are all grown up.

Oct. 11th blog

This week we are working again on the webquest. I have learned many things like how to hyperlink which doesn't seem like a big deal but it actually makes a lot of difference. This is important so that when you have the children go to a website they can just have a title and know what they are going to look at instead of some ugly url where they don't really know what they are getting into. Now my group and I have to make a few final adjustments onto the webquest and just finalize everything. It is going to be really great to see the webquest completed.

The video for this week

I actually couldn't find the video. . . sorry for the problems.

Webquest 2

This week we did webquest 2. I heard that we learned how to hyperlink things onto our presentations and worked on finishing our webquests. I got the stomach flu that day and so i was unable to attend. So i will need to go back and read the main points on the webquest 2 page which i have done as well as have someone tell me the important points if i missed them. This is important so that i can help finish our webquest and make it a usable document for other teachers. Now i will do more research and figure out what else we need to do for the webquest and try to get it finished.

Webquest

This week we learned about webquest and how useful it can be in the classroom. This type of a webpage is really useful because you can control where the kids go on the internet which is a really important thing to be able to do. Also it teaches a great deal about what you would like to teach them. It is a great web site to learn how to do so you can have all the instructions for a project on there for the kids to read themselves instead of repeating them a thousand times you can just tell them go look at the process page or which ever page it is. Now i am going to be able to use this in an effective way and use it to engage students and have them learn more then i would be able just to tell them because thy have to search for the answer by themselves and it really gets them engaged in their own learning.

Weekly Blog

So what i learned to use this week is the igoogle which i enjoy more then gmail because it just seems like there is more to access and use there and just different things we can add but still get all the good things from gmail. I also like the themes better :P But i have found the google doc and presentations to be useful because after that as a cohort when we are in groups we are using them to do group projects and just stay in touch with eachother which is a great thing because i live in salt lake and can't drive down to meet in groups all the time. This is going to be very helpful when we are out in the field and want to collaborate or need an idea for a certain subject this is just an excellent way to help one another and keep everything going and working when we can't see each other. I also wanted to note it is really cool to have a facebook where everyone can be oon there and we even made a group for us so that we can get on that way since facebook has become such a major part in so many peoples lives. So connecting with parents in the easiest way possible for everyone is going to be excellent when i get into being a teacher because there are all these resources i never knew about to help keep communication between parents and other teachers fast and easy.

The video was good i watched the Web 2.0 it was good to learn what some of those different things were and what they meant because i am not computer savy and didn't even know what they were they alone what they meant. It was also easy to watch because they put in music and a pleasing back ground and a routine of how the information was going to come to the screen. If presentations aren't pleasing they lose there point because no one wants to watch something that doesn't grab their attention.

Week 1 post

For the physical description on the class i would like my desk facing the door with the window on the same wall i am on with a board in front of me and on one of my sides. As well as three sets of desks/tables around the front of me so i can see everything. There also needs to be a calander with special events and things like that on it. Now for students i would enjoy a more diverse class ELL preferably because i feel i can help more with them then a less diverse class. I would just like parents who are involved and care about their kids which i know is unrealistic but still. Coworkers i would really like a friendly environment where we can talk and share ideas and help each other out with problems we may not be able to solve on our own. Teaching techniques i will use it teach to the children what they are ready to learn and maybe a little bit more difficult but not just teach them as fast as i can to get everything in. I want to gear everything towards the kids hands on activities, integrating P.E. into as many things as i can because that is one thing that is being taken away in schools and it is very important to help the kids focus if you get out their energy but in a learning constructive way. I will use every technology i can because i want to be up to date with the new trends and keep it as today friendly as i can. Computers and different programs like that are a must and maybe as a present to myself a black berry so i can organize everything there instead of a day planner to help keep things organized. I want to teach everything the kids need to learn and make it as fun and exciting as possible. Class goals i will embrace Respect, Honesty, Hard work stuff like that and try to make the year as educationally fun as possible. I really want to teach 4th grade because that was my favorite year in school that i can remember most and i learned many fun creative things and did many hands on projects it was just one of the most influential classes i have had. I hope i answered all the questions and did it in an appropriate answer. Thanks for your time!

Edel 3250

Trying to figure out how to post this blog.