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.