Final Reflection

This week I looked at Meghan's highlight showcase. She did an awesome job of using Jing to take me through her online portfolio. She created this with weebly and using Jing to show us how she created here website. I thought this was a great idea. I have never used Weebly to make a website so this was actually helpful for me to see how this website works. I think she did a great job in her highlight showcase and gave a really good explanation of how to use this website and how she created her website. I think that by using Jing she was able to show us what she was doing on her computer to create her website, but also was able to give audio for explanation. I really enjoyed her showcase and learned a lot from it.
Highlight Showcase
This semester has taught me so much about technology and how to integrate it inot the classroom. I learned a lot of new things from my classmates as well and I feel confident in the fact that I will be able to integrate technology into my teaching in the future.

Literacy Lesson Plan

Recently I created a lesson plan that I posted onto my online portfolio. This lesson plan dealt with a Literacy Discussion, but it integrated technology into the lesson. I think that when people think about technology in the classroom they focus on using technology for Science. Literacy is one subject that can get left behind when it comes to technology. Many people view Literacy as something that should be kept with books, paper, and pencils. I, however, feel that technology can really enhance literacy as well as a students reading or writing. I used technology to help with group discussions and to have the students use what we discussed in class to make an online story. I think this is a great way for the students to move onto the next stage of the discussion and create something on their own.

Science Outside the Classroom

Article

This article talks about learning outside the classroom, focusing on Science. I think it is so important to give students the information they need to gain access to learning outside of school. A simple way to do this is to send home weekly newsletters that have websites or even attach articles or ideas for parents to do activities with their children outside of school. This helps the students and parents become a part of learning.

Taking Advantage of All Subjects

As a future educator I feel it is important for me to have a plan for how I want to teach my students. I also feel goals are important. One goal I have for myself as a teacher is to integrate all subject areas. I think that too often teachers forget that subject areas can be mixed and used together to form really powerful lessons. One way I plan to do this is to mix subject areas with Physical Education as well as Music. Taking a science lesson and turning it into a game where students can be physically active can really help students. By having students be active they will be able to retain information because it was in a way that is fun and in terms they understand. I also feel that allowing students to be physically active is important especially younger students. Music is a great way for students to retain information as well. Adding a song to a lesson or having students create a song to help them remember information will allow them to remember what they learned as well as fully understand the information; especially if they created the song on their own.

I think that by having these goals and using these new ideas will help me to enjoy my teaching each and everyday as well as allow my students to enjoy the lessons and information I am teaching. Using just a text book or worksheets will only allow students to go far with their learning. I hope to use the mix of subjects to make learning more fun and interesting for my students.

Wiki

This week in our online class we looked at Wiki's and making our own Wiki page. I was surprised by how easy it was for me to create my website and add in pictures of pages that I wanted. I was able to easily edit pages and add in things. I think this website is different from other website sources or blogs because it is much easier to edit and add in pages or pictures. I also like the fact that members are able to add onto pages or edit them. This makes it easy to get new information from others and also have people edit your work for you. In a blog other people can't come in and add or edit a page they can only leave a comment. I really liked the fact that this website allows people access to do these things.

I would definitely use Wiki in the future for my teaching. I would introduce my students to this website early on in the year and have them create their own account and set up their own wiki website. I would have this be their own website for the year where they could display their work. I think one main thing I would do is have students to a book report online. This would allow them to create pages for their book report as well as add in articles or pictures. The students could easily add in quotes and citations as well. This would also be a great place for a virtual research paper. After the students were done it would be easy for me to go in and edit or help them. I would also have other students do peer editing on their classmates projects. This is an easy way for students to share their information and projects as well as give feedback and help. At the end of the year the students could then present their projects and website and also easily share this with their parents at home.

Google Tools

This week we were asked to explore Google and the tools it has to offer. Google is such a great resource, especially for teachers. I could see myself using Google and it's tools a lot in my future teaching. Google Docs is one of the tools I use the most and I would probably use a lot with students. Google Docs is a great place to make a document, especially if you want this document to be shared or edited. If I were having students to a group project or presentation I would have them use the presentation or "PowerPoint" on Google along with Google Docs. Students could work on this document from anywhere and all edit it whenever they had time. As long as all the group members had the link and were able to edit they could go home after school and see what their group members had done and either change or add to that. This is great because not everyone is able to figure out their schedules to get together so this could be done throughout the day whenever each individual member has time. I would also have students use Google Docs for peer editing. The students could write a paper and then type it up into Google Docs and share the link with their classmates. The other students in the classroom could edit the document online and give feedback right on the document. This is an easy way for others to see a document as well as give suggestions without the student having to go and retype and re print the entire paper.

Google Reader

This week I decided to look more into Google reader. I have made myself a Google reader and it helps me to keep track of blogs or website I like to read. This application allows you to save links to certain blogs or other websites and puts them all in one spot. This is done through an RSS feed and this reader can be linked to other websites like my blog or Facebook. I have found that this tool is useful for me when I want to look for resources on education or stories that I can blog about or research for classes. This tool helps people to have all their websites in one place as well as save their favorite blog posts or stories so they can refer back to them at a later date. This website is great for people who like to reader multiple websites a day or want an easy place to keep all thier favorite stories and blog posts.

Needs to Be Fixed

Article

I could go on for pages about No Child Left Behind and my feelings on this, but instead I'll ask you to simply read the article I linked. This article says it right that the NCLB bill is broken and it needs to be fixed.

Education Hot Topic

There is a lot I could write about when it comes to education hot topics. Specifically, for me, the events occurring in Wisconsin. I have family members who teach in Wisconsin and are witnessing first hand what these events are like. I myself am planning to move to Madison, WI when I am done with student teaching to pursue a job there. The events happening worry me about my future as well as my families, but in a time like this I think it is important to try and focus on some good things happening in the school system and look on the bright side of my future. While looking for some articles on the events occurring with teachers and the union in Wisconsin I came across an article that I found really interesting and I wanted to share it on my blog.


Article

This article is about students in a Wisconsin public school system who will be receiving iPads for use in school. The iPads will be used by students to do homework and assignments as well as virtual textbooks for AP classes. This is just one example of how schools are taking advantage of technology and moving forward academically and technologically to improve learning. The article also shows that these virtual textbooks will help save the school money on textbooks. We talk so much about technology and how it can really help learning and students and this is just one way that one school district is taking advantage of the technology out there.

Student Publishing

Student Publishing
The technology I choose to work with this week is a website called Studentpublishing.com. This website is used to create story books online. The website allows for different page layouts as well as different background to use on each page. There are stickers to use for images as well as a tool that allows you to upload your own picture to use in the story. The color and size of any image can also be changed. The pages can be text and picture or just one of the two. The book can have any amount of pages and any story can be told because it is all made from scratch. Your own drawings can also be made with the drawing tool in teh left hand menu of the site. This website allows you to have a classroom or individual log in as well as the opportunity to publish the book in hard copy.

I think this would be a good tool for the classroom. The students could create their own stories in workshops during class and then create their story online when it came time to publish it. This would be a great way for students to be creative with their work because they can create their own layouts and pictures. I think it would also be a great way for students to display their work. The disadvantages to it would be the typing portion. Younger students who don't know how to type may have difficulties making their book, this would probably get a good tool for older students to use individually and younger students to use as a group with their teacher. I think this would be a good project for writing.

Benefits of Twitter

I have been using Twitter now since September and I am starting to see the benefits it can have for me as a future educator. One way Twitter has been helpful is as an educational resource. I follow discovery education on twitter and I frequently go to their profile page to look at their tweets when it comes time for me to make a lesson plan. This profile frequently tweets about lesson plans for different topics or resources to use with lesson plans. I think this is so helpful for a starting teacher to get ideas and resources for different lessons. I would definitely recommend people to follow this group on Twitter and explore their website.

NCLB

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/03/20/obama-s-war-on-schools.html

I found this article while looking through some tweets this morning and I found the opening paragraph to be really interesting. I really think it is true that people in the government, who are making educational policies, don't fully understand how these policies are effecting education. I feel that people who work within school systems and see the education happening first hand need to have more of an input with educational policies being made by the government. I'm not naive and I do know that this is probably not going to happen anytime in the near future, but I do hope that changes will eventually come to the public educational systems and the government will see that these changes need to be made.

Speech Development

Article
This was such an interesting article to me. This is about a family that video and sound recorded their home for the first three years of their child's life. This footage allowed for education researchers to gain information about speech in children. One aspect of speech and speech development I find important is the therm "baby-talk". I think this has become a natural reaction with babies and many adults speak in baby talk to young children. I work in a preschool that has classrooms for infants, toddlers, 2 year old, 3 year old, 4 year olds, as well as preschool program for 5 and 6 year olds. In our preschool we are told during training that baby-talk is not used with any child even infants. We are taught that direct speech is very important for the development of the child and their own speech development. Having this job has changed the way I interact with young infants and toddlers. I now see how important it is to speak to them as I would to an adult, obviously with simpler words. The children understand what I am saying even if their own speech isn't fully developed. I think this is such an important part of speech development for everyone to remember.

Webinar

Link
I was looking through some education tweets and came across this webinar. I thought it looked interesting so I wanted to share it with everyone. I think having a sound and successful digital learning environment is important for any school and can really increase learning.

What Does it Take?

A question I've been asking myself a lot lately is "What does it take to be a good teacher?" This is such a hard question for me to answer because I feel that there are so many aspects of good teaching. I think a good teacher needs to care. This may seem trivial to mention, but I feel that it is important even after 5 or 10 or 15 years that a teacher still maintain the same passion for teaching as they did their first 3 or 4 years. I also feel it is important for teachers to maintain strong relationships with families of students. Getting to know the students and their families well at the beginning of the year will make for a strong bond of trust with everyone in the classroom. Another aspect of teaching I find to be very important is to stay up to date. It is important that teachers learn about new strategies, techniques, and technology. If teachers can stay up to date then their classroom will be the best learning environment it can be. The world around us is always changing, therefore education should be following. Students are interested in many different things and these are changing everyday. If a teacher knows his/her students well then they will know what these students like and are interested in. The teacher should incorporate these things into the classroom and the children's learning to keep them interested and engaged. I also think that this will help the students to see why what their learning is important and how it pertains to their daily life.

Iphone 4

I recently bought the iPhone 4. I was amazed at everything I was able to do with this "phone". I say phone like that because this goes beyond what a conventional mobile phone should or can do. I am able to play pretty much any game I want on this phone as well as call or text my friends and family. I am also able to access all my social media sites with just one touch of an icon. I can set alerts to tell me when someone has posted on my Facebook or tagged me in a tweet. I am becoming more involved with Twitter now because of this phone and the accessibility to the site whenever I want. I think that this phone also has multiple educational uses.
One application I downloaded right away when I received this phone was a calendar and to do list app. I was able to put in reminders for special dates as well as work meetings and assignments. I think this specific application could be great for students, specifically special education students. For students who struggle with remembering tasks or need to be reminded of how to do a task step-by-step or even need a calendar to tell them the events of the day, this app would be perfect. The teacher could pre-record all of this information into the phone or even ipod and the student would have access to it all day whenever they want. There are also applications that allow for people to type what they want to say and the phone will read it out loud for them. I found this to be a tool that would be helpful to some students who have difficulties speaking or speech impediments. The student could type what they want to say and the phone would say it for them. There are devices that already to this, but they are large and hard to carry around. The phone is small and very portable and easy to manipulate because it is touch screen. Many applications also allow for captioning while listening to or viewing a video or audio. This would be perfect for deaf students or students with hearing impairments.
Overall I think this phone is amazing for me as a college student, but it would also be great for any student who needs a little extra help in the classroom.

Educational Benefits of Facebook?

While working on a project for another class I came across an interesting video about facebook and how it can help learning. I found this to be interesting because so many people feel that this and many other social networking sites like twitter or myspace have no benefit. I wouldn't say that facebook is the most educational site there is and that I would even use it on a daily basis in a classroom, but it just goes to show that social media as well as technology as a whole can be Incorporated into the classroom as long as you are creative enough to find an appropriate way to use it.

Video

New Literacies and Social Networking

I have been working on a New Literacies project for my TE class and I have come to find that the internet and technology are a huge part of my literacy. Social literacy, to me, has a lot to do with social networking and the online world. I think that this is such an important topic to discuss with students. One thing that I feel is important about social literacy and social networking is safety. I think that parents or teacher should be introducing students to online networking websites so that the students know from an adult what these are. If a student is introduced to a social network such as facebook by a friend they may not know the dangers or privacy settings they can have.
Having an adult introduce social networks to students helps them to fully understand how to use the program and the benefits of the program on an educational level. The adult can also explain what privacy settings the students can and should use as well as what the dangers are of social networking.

Professionalism

Recently in my classes we have discussed professionalism and what this means. We had a discussion the other day about the protesters in Wisconsin and whether or not their actions were professional. This could be a very heated debate, but in the end my opinion is that standing up for what you believe in and showing the passion you have for your work is not unprofessional. I feel these teachers and other workers are fighting for their rights and the quality of their work. Education is such an important field and the job of a teacher is one that is not appreciated enough. I wanted to try and connect this to technology and I feel that social networking can really help this cause. Because of blogs and Facebook people around the world are able to read about these events and they are able to show their support through these social networking websites. I think the power of social networking can be a factor in helping these people and their cause.

New Literacy

In my TE class we are working on a New Literacy's Project. This project asks us to use a technology to talk about a new literacy. For my project I am doing social literacy and using an online scrapbook to show what my literacy is as well as how to use it. I think that social literacy is so important due to social interactions as well as the growth of social networking. I feel that children can really benefit from the use of this technology, for projects specifically, but also learning about this type of literacy because it will be very prominent in their life and education.

Lesson Plan

For my lesson plan I would like to use Slideshare. This is a website that allows students to create their own presentation of how a plant grows. I also found a website that will allow students to interact with the life cycle and see visually how this cycle is done. The website I found was click here. This website was very interactive and allowed students to see the process of a plant growing and the different resources needed for a seed to grow. I thought these website used together would help teach the students as well as fulfill the GLCE. The main content ideas were:
Students will be able to use a computer to navigate around the website and learn about the life cycle of a plant as well as establish that a plant needs certain resources to grow.
Students will be able to display the different stages of the plant life cycle by creating a slide show.
The GLCE I found was this
This is a 4th grade GLCE
L.OL.04.15 Determine that plants require air, water, light, and a source of energy and building material for growth and repair.

Digital Story

For my digital story I choose to work with Glogster. I thought this would be a fun tool to use and I have tried this before so I thought I would do some more practice with this technology tool I choose to write a story/poster about a place I would like to visit. I decided this would be an introduction to a lesson I would do with my students. This would be the initial idea or layout of the lesson

Storytelling Project

A place in the world you would like to visit

-I want to visit Italy

-I would like to visit the museums

-I would like to go to different restaurants to eat the delicious food

Lesson Plan

Have students create their own poster to share as well as write a 1 page paper on why they want to go there and what they would do in this place.

I really like the creativity you can have with Glogster, but i think there are some limits because it is only one page that is being made. I think for this particular assignment for students, though, this would be a good tool to use.. I would have them write up a separate paper so there wouldn't be much need for multiple slides to describe their trip.
Here is my project:
Digital Story

Changes

There is so much news lately on education and the events occurring in our state and others. I have to admit I don't understand everything that is going on, but I thought I'd make this blog post and ask how other people feel about the recent events. So if you have any input leave a comment.

New Technology

This week I choose to look at some organization technologies. For many students in Special Education or who have a learning disability organization can be a key factor in their ability to keep up and follow school work. Many students need to have portable schedules that they are able to carry around with them during the day. One tool I looked at was google calendars. This is a tool that I have used in the past and it has been very helpful for me. The google calendar is set up like any other calendar, but it is used on the web. You can set certain events to a day or repeat an event so that it occurs on everyday or specific days. One good aspect of google calendars is that a reminder is sent to you when an event is happening. I set my reminders to go to my e-mail a day before it is going to happen. This has helped me keep up with school work as well as meetings for work. I think this tool could be very helpful to students in the classroom because they could have their reminders sent to their phones or have a device that allows them to keep their calendar open throughout the day so they know what they are to be doing. Although I am sure there are hundreds of different calendars and organizers on the web Google is one of the most known search engines on the internet. I feel it would be easy for students to use the technology as well as access it. The fact that the calendar is linked to your e-mail is also helpful for parents and teachers. They can communicate with each other and the student through these e-mails and any event that needs to be remembered can be put right into the calendar.

Learn More

GPS

I recently took a trip to Wisconsin from East Lansing to visit some family. I used my GPS to get to my destination and during my drive I began to think about how important that piece of technology was to my drive. I also began to think about the last time I used a map or even looked at the map in my car. I realized it was before I had gotten my GPS. GPS systems are becoming even more common in a vehicle than a map. Although I still think it is important to have maps and to teach children to use them I also think it is important to teach children to use the technologies of maps. In schools today I don't see why students shouldn't be taught how to use GPS systems as well as different Internet map resources in connection with maps. The students will most likely come into contact with these technologies in their future and it will be useful for them to understand how to use them.

Photo Web Gallery

Slideshow

Creating this web gallery was a lot harder than I expected, but I think I have gained a lot of useful information about photos and creating online.

I made the image above using Picnik a few years ago. I found out about Picnik through Facebook and used it to make fun pictures of my friends and I. When I saw the website in our lab for this week i was kind of surprised. I never really thought that this website could have educational value, but then i started to think about what types of projects students could use with this application.

• Creative art projects
• Making posters or documents for English assignments
  
• Putting together pictures for a collage or a time line of their life-this would be good for a social studies lesson plan.
• Using different pictures for a history lesson or presentation

This tool could be really useful for all of these projects or even more. This would be a really fun way for students to create something and explore a new tool online.

Images in the classroom

Photo Attribution
Original Image-Christmas Tree
http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=223106
By Lotus Head

Using images in a classroom can be a very powerful tool. I have seen different photos or drawings up in classrooms that have really caught my eye and made me think about the meaning behind that image and why it was there. In my own classroom I would like to have an environment that is full of images. One specific aspect I would like to bring to my classroom is culture and diversity. I want my students to be well educated in both of these topics and see that no matter where a person comes from or how different they are from you everyone is equal and can work together as a group. By exposing students to different cultures I feel they will be More open to people who are different than them. The type of image I would choose for this would probably be a photo that shows different areas of the world or different people. I have uploaded an example of the type of picture I would use. I would also base the photos on the students in my classroom. I think it would be useful to bring in pictures that represent their own lives and cultures so that they could connect to one another and also see that something of themselves is in the classroom.

The picture above shows a Christmas tree. This would represent a Holiday of one culture or family. If students in the classroom celebrated different holidays than Christmas I would put up different images for those holidays.

Copyright

The Internet is such a huge resource today that it is almost impossible to stay away from it. In many schools the Internet has become the number one resource for student projects and papers. Although this is an amazing tool and is extremely helpful it can also be very challenging, especially when it comes to copyright. There are a lot of students who probably don't understand what the word copyright really means. When I was in high school I thought I knew exactly what copyright meant and how to cite information and sources, but once I got to college I realized there was so much I didn't know and was probably doing wrong when I was younger.
I think it is very important for schools to educate their students on the rules and regulations of copyright and materials that need to be cited. I have recently found the CC website and this is an amazing tool that I wish I would have known about earlier. When students are placed into computer science or any other type of tech. class in high school this subject should be one of the first that is talked about. Having students do a workshop where they go onto the CC website or other similar websites can really help them to understand the laws and policies set out for materials online. This can help keep the student and school out of legal trouble and also help the student in the future when they are creating projects and writing papers for college level classes.

My Picture-Copyright

This is the image I used to upload onto Flickr. I added the copyright information for it which was something I had never done before. To view this photo you can look at my Flickr page by going to Flickr.com and Searching for CB906.

The new telephone

Skype and video to video calling have changed the way people communicate. Recently I started to use Skype so that I would be able to keep in contact with family members. Having family that lives in the U.P and Wisconsin it is an amazing tool to use so that I can continue to have face to face communication with my family. I think that this tool has changed the way we communicate. People who live over seas or hundreds of miles away from family and friends can still feel like they are connected to that person. A phone call can only do so much because that face to face interaction is not there, but the use of Skype has helped to change the way we communicate with people who aren't with us on a daily basis. This tool can really help with students as well. If a student has to be out of school for an extended period of time this would be useful for them. The student would be able to keep up with their homework as well as be an active member of the class. In my high school a student from a neighboring county Skype's in on a Spanish class. The student sits in a room with a computer and the classroom has a large TV in the corner so that all the students can see him and he can see all the otter students. This tool can really be useful if the time was taken to use it.

Bringing the web into the classroom

I have been thinking lately about how to bring technology, mainly the Internet, into the classroom. I know there are a lot of schools who may not have computers, or the amount of time the student can use the computer is limited, but how can teachers help the students to use that time to learn about new technology. In my college classes many professors have integrated technology into the lectures, group work or homework. I have been introduced to multiple new technologies that have helped enhance my learning and creativity. I feel that if I would have been exposed to these earlier, like in high school or middle school, I would be able to use them fully now and could do even more. It is a tough topic to discuss and money is always a problem, but I still believe it is possible to introduce Internet technologies into the classroom, but as someone who will be a teacher soon I need to start thinking of some creative ways to do this.

Discussion

Discussions in the classroom are not a new idea in education, but the ways to facilitate and carry out a classroom discussion are. There have been some new ideas that have come about in education on how to handle classroom discussions with students. In my teaching classes as well as my CEP classes we have talked about different ways of carrying out discussions and new tools or strategies.

One way to get students involved in discussions is to have them be more student based. by giving the power to the students rather than the teacher more students may feel comfortable opening up and talking. Most discussions in a classroom are teacher-student based, but by having the discussion student-student based or led there is more room for the student to open up and say how they feel or voice their opinion on a topic.

Another strategy is to give students a role. Splitting students up into small groups and having each student hold the role, ex. facilitator, reporter, etc, the students will feel more in control and more likely to participate. This gives the students a chance to feel as if they have a role of leadership and therefore they may be more likely to participate. New ideas of discussion can be used in any class and this can really help students to feel more comfortable in the classroom and during discussions.

The use of Twitter

In the past I have been skeptical of the networking site Twitter. I thought it was just a place for people to write about what was happening in their day or what they were going to eat for dinner. The only experience I had ever had with Twitter was hearing about "tweets" that celebrities or athletes were publishing. I never wanted a Twitter account and didn't think it was for me. Last semester though I was asked to set up an account for my CEP class. At first I thought I would just be making this account for the class and never using it again. After a full semester though I realized that Twitter is such a useful tool for education. I am a follower of a handful of professors and teachers and am able to see very useful and interesting articles and blogs thanks to the tweets from these people. This semester I will be working more with Twitter and other groups that involve this website. I am very excited to explore this networking site more and get into contact with more people that will be able to help me in my quest to become a teacher and after.

Welcome!

Welcome to my Blog!:) My name is Courtney and I am currently a Senior at Michigan State University. I am majoring in Elementary/Special Education as well as English/Language Arts. I hope to someday live in Madison WI and teach Elementary Special Education. This blog is set up so that I can share my thoughts and ideas about technology for my CEP 416 class. I hope to be able to explore many different technologies and to become an expert in others. I previously took a class that focused on technology in the classroom and hope that this class will help me to further my understanding of technologies that I will be able to use with my future students.