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.