500 word blog reflection

In my educational studies 111 class, we discuss that one of the main ways we can help kids change, is to help them set goals for themselves. We figure out what they want to accomplish and help them do things to accomplish their goals. We should go about changing people in the same way. If what they are doing is damaging to themselves or others, they obviously don’t have greater goals to accomplish. If they are acting detrimental to themselves or others, then yes, we should change them. If they are just trying to figure out themselves, and where they feel they need to go in life, then in this case, if they ask for help we can give them our input, otherwise, we can let them run down their own paths. The way we teach should follow our instincts. There are some kids and people that either don’t have access to technology or don’t want to use technology, yet the world around them is ever changing towards the technology-direction. I don’t think it is logical to do a complete switch from “old fashion” to “new aged with technology.” However, I don’t think it would be a terrible idea to start incorporating each aspect into each other. Students are the same, yet they are changing at the same time. Students are the same in the fact that every student is different, every student comes from a different background and lifestyle, every student is going to learn in a different way, and every student will learn at a different pace. They are changing in the fact that they are being interested in different things, which is ultimately changing the way they learn, and their interest to learn. As a kid, one of my favorite things to do was read. I learned to read at an early age, and always loved to read. And I still do. However, kids now, are growing up with iPods, televisions (not that I did not have a television, we just didn’t use it everyday for our only source of entertainment), computers which leads to ultimately an endless access to information. So kids now are harder and harder to interest when it comes to learning, writing, reading, and math. Why learn to write when you can type, why learn to read books when you don’t need to read books, you can HEAR books, why learn math when I have a calculator that can literally do ANYTHING. What I want for my children is to know that they will learn the basic information that they need to learn, but also maybe some of the “old fashioned” things. Like have books hold a little more importance than they do right now. I think it would be a great idea for teachers to embrace the changing ways, and incorporate technology to lure in the attention of a few more kids. But, like Marilyn said, every kid needs to do some cutting and pasting. Every kid needs to be able to read with a book in their hands. And this is what I want. I am going to use technology in the classroom. I don’t quite know to the extent what I will use. I’m sure I will use some sort of document camera. And I really am intrigued by the idea of sending a voice newsletter out to families or other types of podcasting. I’m sure I will use SMARTBoard, now that I have endless access to it, to create lessons, and have interactive things for the kids to do on there. And I know I want to keep my portfolio updated and use that to my fullest benefit. I appreciate all of the new tools I have learned about, and now have access to. I’m sure none of us will forget, because that’s where it looks like we’re heading.

eBistro.com

This is a pretty nifty site. This site gives you a wide variety of tools and information for teachers to use. I thought it was a great way to compile all the information (That we basically learned from our class), on one site, wrapped into a conclusion, in this cute, creative site. I don't know if I need to ever go back to the site... but for others just beginning, it could be a good (or a tad bit overwhelming) start.

New Tools

Eyeplorer.com

This is another alternative search engine. Use other things besides Google! This particular search engine, along with Spezify and Mugurdy, are "Visual Search Engines." They are based heavily on visuals. This is different from other search engines I have ever seen! It takes a little explaining, so what better than a video that they provide you with (only two minutes). You type in an idea, and it brings up different size sub-topics that somehow relate. Big dots are popular topics, and smaller dots are more unknown facts. It's pretty cool!

As a PLN- Create two lists:

1) Technology projects that you can do as a teacher to enhance your classroom for your students
a. Tech Newsletter
b. Voice Thread for parents or students
c. SMARTBoard
d. Glogster posters
e. Take pictures on the first day, and create a digital stories for them
f. Online white boards

2) Projects that you could have your students participate in that would promote project based learning or just plain fun if you had your dream classroom.
a. A Voki
b. Bighugelabs
c. Interactive White boards
d. Google Docs
e. Wordle
f. Google Earth

Google Site!

Check out my Google site!

http://sites.google.com/site/jensensprofessionalsite/

Wix.com versus Google Sites

I just tried out Wix.com as an alternative to Google Sites. I like Google Sites much more than Wix. I find myself playing around more than organizing. And it seems a much more amateur than Google. I just find myself lost on the page and it just seems crazy.

Tech Newsletter using Youblisher

This is our newsletter made by our PLN. If you click on the picture, it will take you to the full project. You can see here that it is suggesting the use of Puzzle Maker, SMARTBoard, Wordle, and XtraNormal.

We made this document using Google Docs, saved it as a PDF file, and then used Youblisher to make it into a magazine. For as many steps as we used, it was actually fairly simple. It was easy to make, and easy to turn into a magazine-look. This could be a very easy way to share information, and give new ideas to other teachers.

Podcasting Work

I used Garageband to complete my podcast. You can check it out by visiting my Google Site:

http://sites.google.com/site/jensensprofessionalsite/home/interactive-lessons

I think podcasting could be useful. It's a good way to send messages home if needed. It can be just like another method of a newsletter. Or, just a message saying your child is doing a good job. You can practice vocabulary words with them. Practice the oral presentation of the words, rather than just the written presentation. This might make oral tests easier for students if they are used to the format of the test.

Fotobabble

This is a Fotobabble. And it is pretty nifty. We can describe any pictures. This may not be too useful for teachers to use with students, but it may be a good tool for kids to use for projects.

Wikispace

http://hannahross22.wikispaces.com/

This is our Wikispace. This is a place where we can put lessons for other PLN members to see. This was a fairly easy site to use. Everyone had access to it at the same time, which makes things very easy to share. I can see myself having older kids use this site to work together on a project in class. It would also make the website accessible at home so kids could STILL work together on this project.

Puzzle Maker

This is such an easy site to use to make a quick activity for kids. This took me a couple minutes and it could last the kids like a half hour and work on spelling and FINDING the words. And knowing what they're looking for. I think this is a good site because it's easy yet useful.

Newsletter

This is my newsletter that I created. It is not an introductory newsletter into my classroom... It's more of a make believe classroom mixed with factual things of my class that I am interning at. This can be very useful because like Marilyn said, some schools are not letting you print out newsletters for the kids to bring home. So a digital way to do this can come in handy.

Voice Thread

This is voice thread. I think we could be able to use voice thread for many different types of lessons. People in my PLN suggested learning a foreign language, learning the pledge of allegiance, and I suggested learning how to count, especially by bigger numbers (i.e., 2, 3, 5 etc.) I also suggested using voice thread as technological vocab cards. I think this could be a fun and interesting and effective way of learning (especially those who learn by listening rather than reading or writing).

Wordle Example Movie

Here is this embed code... Let's see if this works!

How to use Wordle

To make my screencast video I used Camtasia. And it is demonstrating how to use Wordle.Net. I originally tried to use Copernicus and it did not work. But this worked much better. I don't know if I would necessarily use this in class... But it definitely could come in handy. It was easy to use, and the video works, but I am having trouble trying to GET it places!

Glogster

Here's my glogster about the weather cycle. It is not too fancy, or even very informative, but it can at least be a starting point for other lessons. So this could be good for a starting point. I don't know if I would want to jam-pack one of these things to make is GREAT.

Xtranormal

This! Is my xtranormal.com BRIEF movie. Just testing out some fun stuff. I can see how you could use SOMETHING like this with a certain age group. But like you said earlier, you'd have to really search through the site before you let kids use them in class because of the some of the inappropriate material you can find.

Rubric Making

I created a rubric for Google Earth Tours. It was a really easy site to use! I would probably use it in the future.

Google Earth Tours

Let's see if this works! This is my google earth tour! After I got used to working with the program, I started enjoying it a little bit more. I think kids would be so interested in using this program. It is very interactive, and keeps them busy with the different things you could have them do. (So I had to Jing it because I couldn't upload the video. :) )

Flickr

This is pretty cool. You could do something cute for the kids. You could create a collage of the kids without saving it, and Jing the picture, and give them a sheet with everyone on the picture sheet. Like a yearbook type thing.

Spelling City

I just created a little spelling quiz (also matching my SMARTboard lesson) and it's really cute. It says the words, and can recognize the words to create sentences from it's database. It could really be good for the kids because it's says the words for you to spell and then you can print out a spelling card or certificate.

Webquest

This is our webquest that is teaching about the alphabet. It was really easy to put it together but we can't figure out how to get it any other places. We tried to put in the URL and it didn't work. We tried to embed it, and we couldn't. We tried to Jing it, but we can't Jing the whole page. So... We'd have to really play around with it to figure it out.

Quizlet Quiz

This is my quiz that I created on Quizlet. It happens to match one of my lessons that I created on SMARTboard.

Animals

ASL YouTube Video

This is where I found how to learn about sign language! :)

Online Art Games

This is a featured livebinder! This is all about education and art. I played a few games of matching sounds and then another matching textures. I think potentially this could be another resource like we tried to find teachers' blogs. We can steal things from them and use them in our classrooms. These are other interactive games that kids could play with and still learn.

search engines OTHER than Google

I liked these search engines. Mugurdy gives you a picture of every website, so you can briefly see what you are going to go to. Quintura is nice as well because it gives you other options; you can type in what you think you want to search for, and it gives you other relevant topics that you can click on. Spezify is kind of cool, but it's also a little crazy. It is a little unorganized (at least as far as I can tell). But it gives you pictures of every site too. So it gives you the picture so you can see where you are going, but it's a little bit crazy.

Interactive SMARTboard websites

I've looked at a bunch of different math games at the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives website. They have a bunch of different types of games, as well as a bunch of different types of games within one category. So I played different math games involving fractions, money and color patterns etc. A few of them that I played I could totally see how kids could learn and be interested in them. However, I found one game that I couldn't even solve... So you would definitely have to pre-test these games before introducing them to the classroom.

Oak Street Elementary has a a science interactive list on their website. You can look at temperature, animals, and other types of science things. Now these websites were for the primary aged students. So some of them are a little cheesy, but some of them could be really cool.

Blog about internet safety and copyright information

I think internet safety is very important because you never know who is on the other end of your screen. You can be talking to anyone, anything, anywhere, doing anything. When researching information it is really important to double check your sources and the information you find because anyone can put anything on the internet. Copyright information is very important as well, because as technology advances, the easier it is for teachers to know you didn't do your homework but doyourhomework.com (who stole their info straight from wikipedia) did. :) There are machines now that scan through your homework and pick up any words combined together to make someone else's sentence. Even if it is a common statement like "the sun is hot!" Someone somewhere has said it, so you may not have to quote that, but be ready to stand up for your information.

It is also very important to watch and keep track of where children are going because even if they stumble across a website that isn't too "friendly" for them, they need to understand why they can't go back there, even if they didn't know they were there in the first place. Many kids (depending on age) won't know what is right and what is wrong (they just think they are exploring) unless you tell and explain to them why it is.

Differentiation.

So I used thinklinkr.com to comply my definition of DIFFERENTIATE. Thinklinkr doesn't seem that special... It seems pretty straight forward, and less complicated than Word so maybe that is a plus. But if I were to use Word I could just import it straight from Word into Blogspot. I Jing'd this photo, and I don't know why it is small because it is supposed to be importing Large. So, the definition, No two children are alike. No two children learn in the identical way. An enriched environment for one kid, may not be enriched for another. In classrooms we should teach children to think for themselves.

SMART Board

These are two images from two of my lesson plans. The first one is for 5th graders about United States monuments. It shows the monuments, gives facts, and shows the state. At the end, there is a work sheet that the kids would do recapping what they learned.

The second lesson plan is for 1st graders. It's matching animals, with letters, and has a couple facts to go along with it, with some flashy things to get the kids excited. At the end, it also has a video, a crossword puzzle and tells the kids about the zoo. It also gives them a worksheet to work on as well.

I enjoyed using SMART board, but it was a little tedious. I couldn't get some things so I had to find them elsewhere. The clicking, moving, coloring, grouping, got a little old, but doing one lesson every once in a while could be good, and keep the kids entertained.

Teacher Interview

1. My favorite tools are my computer and the document camera.
2. My biggest frustration is the lack of time to learn how to use
equipment, etc., have time to figure out how resources can help me
and then to become proficient enough that my time isn't being wasted,
as well as instructional time for children.
3. The biggest misconception is that teachers have time to learn,
explore all the tools . In reality it takes a lot of time to learn a
tool, explore a tool such as the internet such to figure out what is
usable and what is not. All of this has to be done on our own time.
4. My hurdles are the same as my frustrations. I do want to learn, I
just can't find the time to do it.
5. My biggest success was being able to use a document camera without
needing much assistance!
6. I am inspired by watching other people use the equipment, etc. I
learn a lot by watching others.
7. I see technology use growing in the future because we have a
generation of kids becoming more comfortable with all parts of
technology. They will probably be leading us to use it more!

-This is from a teacher Riverbend Elementary School in a second grade class.

Teacher Interview

So, I don't quite have the interview questions yet! However, I heard the gist of their thought process and what they were thinking. One of the main points she was telling me is that the biggest problem with technology (for users who have NOT had much experience) is having the time to LEARN about it. She is new to using technology, and the one thing she has and likes is the document camera. She admitted she may like to learn other things, but she just doesn't have the time to learn with her behavioral issue students, being a mother of three, and budget cuts and crazy weird schedules because of it, she just doesn't have time to learn new technology.

Blogs critiqued

http://www.thereadingworkshop.com/2010/01/connect-with-your-book.html

This blog is "The Reading Workshop" and from the few posts I read, this looks to be a blog for parents and students. Which I find intriguing. But what I found most interesting was on How To Read Poetry she listed the poem, and then asked a few questions afterwards. I found this cool especially because the students could potentially answer the questions right there!

http://printables4kids.com/car-color-by-number-mosaic/

This is so awesome! It's a page just meant for activity sheets for kids! Like Color by numbers! Not quite blog material, but it's definitely necessary and could be useful!

http://www.postrank.com/feed/b9cdbcc8f67ab8e9d114efe5f1c64c85

This looks fairly cool. They give you different things with animals. So you could find new interesting way to teach kids about animals.

Slide.Com

Here's is the slide.com School Rules slide!

http://www.slide.com/mscd?bnc=bnc&pxcid=UYyTXOnxxJyUN9X4hLrrkZWMJi-nsCibBy5EfoUuNnvNtMgwJ-ZszMQ8uBqgdw6B&nc=1

1/20/2010 Later...

Criteria for evaluating blogs:

-Easy to read

-Concise information

-If blogging about a specific topic, especially if it may be an unknown or unpopular topic, include brief background information

-Professional language (i.e., you're an fool you idiot homie g dawg. LAWL.)

-Have a clear audience (and format your blog accordingly).

Evaluations of Blogs:

SOON TO COME.

Here's my storybird...

My Hot Air Balloon Adventure! by jensenperdue on Storybird

21st Century Educator

What I mainly got from the 21st century educator was that you have to be open to new things; new methods of learning, of teaching, new technologies (and be prepared if those technologies fail), creativity to use with those technologies etc. I think involving new technology would be a great idea because you could DO so many things.

1/20/2010

I love Jing. I've used it a few different times, and it's just so useful. And it's even cooler because it's free. My brother-in-law is big with computers and he knew about a program like Jing, but it was apparently WAY expensive. And now he can use Jing. :)

Technology Natives

This is my 'toon about past technology immigrants, present technology immigrants, and our technology natives of today (whom I'm sure will save the World... :D )

I jing'd! Technology of the future! SMART Boards will be the new chalkboard. No more paper. Document cameras everywhere! iPod touches will be in the palms of every student.

Homework reflection blog! 1/10

Okay. So there's a ton of stuff we need to blog about for homework! So let's start that. :D

First off, technology I have used from K-12. I didn't really use technology until middle school. I briefly used internet (I think) in elementary school for research projects, but to the extent of Microsoft Word and Google. In middle school, I think it was still just using Word and Google, however now we can throw in PowerPoint for slide shows and different types of typing programs for my keyboarding class. Throughout high school is where I started using different programs. One of the biggest programs I used was InDesign. I was on the school newspaper faculty and we used InDesign to make the news paper. Yet we still had to use Google, Word, and other things. And for other classes I still used PowerPoint and Excel.

Alright, somehow I have to figure out how to add my excel spreadsheet for the digital storytelling research! I might just copy and paste...

Digital storytelling is a good way to link pictures and videos and sound to plan presentations and show themes in an interesting and up-to-date way.

You can plan projects for kids and show examples and how to do it on video. You can plan presentations for business meetings, parent meetings, and in classrooms.

For the age group that I would like to work with, I would like to take pictures for them of the kids measuring themselves and maybe holding up the number of how tall they are. And at the end of the year I can take the pictures again and we can compare how much they have grown. This is a fun way to incorporate math! But I would have to take pictures for them and put the video together.

Planning different types of activities for different age groups could be a challenge. Also deciding what part of the project we would have to do could be challenging as well. Also if there is any sort of technological aspect kids would have to do at home, not everyone may have the resources.

We would have to make sure they either have access to photos and videos and music online, or they have access to technology that can give them those things (e.g. cameras with picture and video, computers, and music).

http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
http://www.storycenter.org/stories/
http://www.edutopia.org/use-digital-storytelling-classroom
http://teachingteachers.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_storytelling
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
Let's see how that works...

Day 1 Reflection Blog

omment about using technology in the classroom, your expectations, your first day observations.

I feel like using technology used in the classroom could be used to MUCH of your advantage. It opens the doors for many different things. You can use some many different things online, and so many different technologies.

I hope to be able to figure out so many different ways to create different plans and activities and presentations.

My first day observations are that I think this class is going to be very interesting. I was a little apprehensive about the four hour long class in the evening. But with our very energetic teacher (not a bad thing!!) I think i'll be able to stay awake and (mainly) engaged throughout the whole class! And it seems like there are going to be interesting activities to do as well!

This was not a very interesting blog... but hey, it's the assignment! Not my fault! :D

Day 1