I am defined by my work ethic and dedication to me beliefs. I have a passion and drive for agriculture, industry, and developing youth through positive experiences. Through the years I have found that I have struggled through using technology. However, I have combated this by opening my mind to use different applications and Internet sites. This has been something I have been working on over a period of time and will be an item I will always be striving to better myself in.
I feel that technology is a must in all school systems. As a teacher I must strive to enlighten students on what is out there and how to use it. I know that many of my students will be brilliant at using different Internet and computer tools. This is something I can use to my benefit. I can learn from student experiences and give these ideas to other teachers and students who do not know of these either. Technology can touch so many students in a variety of different ways. Technology can aid in teaching students who struggle in terms of learning from a formal education in the classroom. Computers now can make connections that teachers in the past could have never dreamed of! Tools that I find will be extremely beneficial in the classroom is pod casts and voice thread. During school time, there are many instances where students miss classes from sports, sickness, and other reasons. As a teacher I believe I can make shortened lessons and post them online where students can access them. This will allow students to keep up even though they missed class.
With all this passion and proactive learning, I hope it will take me far in the years to come. In 5 years I hope to have finished my masters degree and be teaching at a junior college in Kansas!
Monday, May 2, 2011
KD's Wow Momment
My wow moment for this semester was how easy it is to get more techie without stressing yourself or your talents out. Being this class, I could only do the basics of using computers and the Internet. The most advanced site I had was Face book. Yes, I was very good at using face book and loved the apps on it. However, I was really isolating my talents on one site and not branching out.
Once this class got going, I went on an exploration into the technology sites out there and how I could use my computer in ways I never dreamed I would. The thing that really struck me was how just a little effort learning about a site could make you very good at using it.
The things I learned in this classroom will help me in years to come and right now in the moment. It opened doors to new things I can integrate into my lessons. I have all ready seen some of the benefits of technology and I can not wait till I can see more!
Once this class got going, I went on an exploration into the technology sites out there and how I could use my computer in ways I never dreamed I would. The thing that really struck me was how just a little effort learning about a site could make you very good at using it.
The things I learned in this classroom will help me in years to come and right now in the moment. It opened doors to new things I can integrate into my lessons. I have all ready seen some of the benefits of technology and I can not wait till I can see more!
Podcast Favorites
There is no doubt that Tech Chicks were my favorite pod casts to watch. They used humor and made the listening exciting. Also, they had many useful tech ideas that I could use and have my students use. Each episode I watched had many different sites and resources. My favorite post of the tech chicks was Chicks at Chick Fil a. This episode had creative sites that I loved. These sites included things like using the Angry Birds game to help students learn, http://myfakewall.com , and http://littlebirdtales.com . The reason I found these so attention grabbing was the visual stimulus they had with each site. It allowed students to make the story their own.
The tech chicks have a way of giving teachers sites that can be used in a variety of different situations and classrooms!! Tech Chicks are a resource that more teachers need to take advantage of.
The tech chicks have a way of giving teachers sites that can be used in a variety of different situations and classrooms!! Tech Chicks are a resource that more teachers need to take advantage of.
Semester Favorites
This semester I have learned a lot about different technology I could use in a classroom and for different projects and presentations. However, a few of these really stuck out in my mind. These were Animoto , Wordle, and Toon Doo.
Animoto really opened up a new door for me to make technology fun instead of just something we have to do. Animoto was very inventive as I could put in pictures, words, musics, and graphics. I found it easy to use once I figured out the details of how it worked. Animoto would be very neat to use in the classroom because it could act as an introduction clip or a item to stimulate deeper thought in students.
In addition to this, I found wordle to be a useful tool when introducing new vocabulary. I liked how it made the words look different and more fun! I would love to use this in my classroom and post them around the room for all my students to see. These would be great for students to develop as well. They could use this as a review tool and create them on what they feel are the most important concepts on the unit.
The final new tech thing I found that called to me was Toon Doo. This was a site that allowed me to make cartoons over whatever I liked. I love using humor in everyday life. It helps lighten up the day to day bore of just going to school! This site was easy to use and seemed to have almost any picture, background, and other graphic a person could imagine
Now, there were many other new tech devices I learned about that I could implement into my classroom.
Animoto really opened up a new door for me to make technology fun instead of just something we have to do. Animoto was very inventive as I could put in pictures, words, musics, and graphics. I found it easy to use once I figured out the details of how it worked. Animoto would be very neat to use in the classroom because it could act as an introduction clip or a item to stimulate deeper thought in students.
The final new tech thing I found that called to me was Toon Doo. This was a site that allowed me to make cartoons over whatever I liked. I love using humor in everyday life. It helps lighten up the day to day bore of just going to school! This site was easy to use and seemed to have almost any picture, background, and other graphic a person could imagine
Now, there were many other new tech devices I learned about that I could implement into my classroom.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Reflection 12: Tech Chicks #26
Another episode packed with web reasources.
GeoGebra is a neat math site. It has a twist on math that will entain a variety of different students from different walks in life. It has connections with algebra, calculus, and other math techniques. As an added bonus, it gives different reasources for teachers to use, ideas for the classroom, and LESSON PLANS. I looked at some of them and they have some good ideas to incorporate into lessons across the cirrcullum.
http://www.geogebra.org/cms/
The next tool I liked was a mind mapping tool!http://www.mindmeister.com/ . This will allow both students and teachers to make concept maps of different ideas and topics. People can do this online with a varitey of people putting their input in on the project. It gives users the options to share it online with others to expand the ideas even further.
Also, there was a variety of different ways to utiize google maps. These allowed ways to create your own map with google and how to compare two points on a map. It has ways to embed codes on these sites to add them to different areas.http://map.talleye.com/index.php
http://www.mymapsplus.com/
This would be a great way to get students interested in certain topics in history or geography. I believe it would allow students to make connections from topic to topic with more ease.
GeoGebra is a neat math site. It has a twist on math that will entain a variety of different students from different walks in life. It has connections with algebra, calculus, and other math techniques. As an added bonus, it gives different reasources for teachers to use, ideas for the classroom, and LESSON PLANS. I looked at some of them and they have some good ideas to incorporate into lessons across the cirrcullum.
http://www.geogebra.org/cms/
The next tool I liked was a mind mapping tool!http://www.mindmeister.com/ . This will allow both students and teachers to make concept maps of different ideas and topics. People can do this online with a varitey of people putting their input in on the project. It gives users the options to share it online with others to expand the ideas even further.
Also, there was a variety of different ways to utiize google maps. These allowed ways to create your own map with google and how to compare two points on a map. It has ways to embed codes on these sites to add them to different areas.http://map.talleye.com/index.php
http://www.mymapsplus.com/
This would be a great way to get students interested in certain topics in history or geography. I believe it would allow students to make connections from topic to topic with more ease.
Reflection 11: Tech Chicks 48
Another exciting podcast by the tech chicks. These ladies are really starting to grow on me with their great humor and Internet sites for teachers to use.
My first interesting site is Lit 2 Go.http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/. It is a free site!!! It has a bunch of different stories, poems, and prose in a format very accessible to students ( MP3). Students and teachers can download these files onto a computer or mp3 player. If you have it on your computer, you can read along and listen to the story at the same time! Also, it gives you the option of listening, reading, or printing out the story to take it different places.
The next site is the Kids Weather Report. http://kidsweatherreport.com/. I liked this site because of the visual learning capabilities. I found it very useful in working with my young nephew. It portrays the weather outside as a picture. Students do not have to read to comprehend how they need to dress or how they should prepare for the outside conditions. It shows pictures of the weather and children dressed in appropriate clothing.
On this podcast there was a variety of sites that looked interesting. The one that really touched my heart was 25 ways to make a difference.
http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com/
The amazing part of this was it was began by a 10 year old. It is proof that anyone can work with technology. It was started to honor her grandfather. It encourages people to try to make a difference in their world. This could be used as a challenge based learning activity for students to do!
My first interesting site is Lit 2 Go.http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/. It is a free site!!! It has a bunch of different stories, poems, and prose in a format very accessible to students ( MP3). Students and teachers can download these files onto a computer or mp3 player. If you have it on your computer, you can read along and listen to the story at the same time! Also, it gives you the option of listening, reading, or printing out the story to take it different places.
The next site is the Kids Weather Report. http://kidsweatherreport.com/. I liked this site because of the visual learning capabilities. I found it very useful in working with my young nephew. It portrays the weather outside as a picture. Students do not have to read to comprehend how they need to dress or how they should prepare for the outside conditions. It shows pictures of the weather and children dressed in appropriate clothing.
On this podcast there was a variety of sites that looked interesting. The one that really touched my heart was 25 ways to make a difference.
http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com/
The amazing part of this was it was began by a 10 year old. It is proof that anyone can work with technology. It was started to honor her grandfather. It encourages people to try to make a difference in their world. This could be used as a challenge based learning activity for students to do!
Reflection 10: Tech Chicks 70
This episode of tech chicks was a great resource for starting and younger teachers still learning the ropes. This is a definite builder of teacher skills. The first site is 21 Foundation. It is dedicated to developing 21st learners to 21st teachers. It wants to help match creativity of students with what the teachers do in the classroom. This would be good to have as a personal resource or to help your fellow teachers or administrators to advance making connections with students. Check it out at http://www.21foundation.com/.
Another site I found neat was Sixty Symbols. This site is a collection of videos about science. It is really geared to middle and high school students. It provides good resources for the classroom and can help with student understanding in difficult classes like physics. Having videos for students to access will promote further learning and having a better grasp upon subject matter. http://www.sixtysymbols.com/index.html
The other two sites I believe are great for teacher education students and new are continuing teacher are 100 Essential Blog Posts for the first year teacher and 100 video sites every educator should have! These can improve your teaching skills and aid you in connecting with students from every different view of life. It gives many different tips and strategies for teachers to use. IT IS A MUST TO LOOK AT !!!!http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/01/12/100-essential-blog-posts-for-the-first-year-teacher/
http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2010/100-video-sites-every-educator-should-bookmark
Another site I found neat was Sixty Symbols. This site is a collection of videos about science. It is really geared to middle and high school students. It provides good resources for the classroom and can help with student understanding in difficult classes like physics. Having videos for students to access will promote further learning and having a better grasp upon subject matter. http://www.sixtysymbols.com/index.html
The other two sites I believe are great for teacher education students and new are continuing teacher are 100 Essential Blog Posts for the first year teacher and 100 video sites every educator should have! These can improve your teaching skills and aid you in connecting with students from every different view of life. It gives many different tips and strategies for teachers to use. IT IS A MUST TO LOOK AT !!!!http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/01/12/100-essential-blog-posts-for-the-first-year-teacher/
http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2010/100-video-sites-every-educator-should-bookmark
Reflection 9: Tech Chicks 84
This tech chicks pod cast immediately caught my eye. They started out with talking about the Angry Birds game. This is a fun innovative game that children love to play and beat. I , personally, love playing this game. My nephew and I play this game together and have a great time. They found a sight that tells the top ten things that CIO's could learn from this game. It covers ideas like people secede best when they are allowed to use their best talents. This proves that any game can help gap the bridge between learning and fun! http://bit.ly/f13aeP There are many valuable lessons to be gained by using games . It develops thinking on your feet and quick decision making skills on small tasks.
The next area I found to be useful is Little Bird Tales.http://littlebirdtales.com/ This is a site that helps younger students develop their abilities in creating stories and plot lines. It is a free site. Students can create the story and then make it into a book which they can have online. Once a student or other person creates a story, they can share it with the rest of the little bide tales users.
The next area I found would be useful in my classroom is My Fake Wall.http://myfakewall.com This is a site that allows students to create a facebook wall for different characters . These could be like people from a book or a person from history. This would allow students to research people and put it in something that is interesting to students like FAKE FACEBOOK! You get to develop there friends, wall posts, information, and relationship status. One thing to keep in mind is that students will have to have an email address.
The next area I found to be useful is Little Bird Tales.http://littlebirdtales.com/ This is a site that helps younger students develop their abilities in creating stories and plot lines. It is a free site. Students can create the story and then make it into a book which they can have online. Once a student or other person creates a story, they can share it with the rest of the little bide tales users.
The next area I found would be useful in my classroom is My Fake Wall.http://myfakewall.com This is a site that allows students to create a facebook wall for different characters . These could be like people from a book or a person from history. This would allow students to research people and put it in something that is interesting to students like FAKE FACEBOOK! You get to develop there friends, wall posts, information, and relationship status. One thing to keep in mind is that students will have to have an email address.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Challenge Based Learning Reflection
Challenge based learning is a different way to get students involved in their own learning. It gives a new twist to make children use their brain to solve problems while learning important material for the classroom!
In my project my team and I made a prezi project about saving water. My group looked into all the ways that water is used, how we can use less water, and new water technology. We learned all about water uses and conservation techniques. When we presented our project to the class, we developed a way that everyone could get involved in our research. At the end of the lesson, we challenged them to implant one water saving technique into their everyday life. This could be anything from turning the water off while they are brushing their teeth to installing a new shower head that uses less water.
I believe this would be very neat to use in a classroom. It would give students a chance to show what they believe is important and explain to a class why! This could be in a classroom or in a whole school system. I would love to see many school teachers use this as a project in their classrooms.
In my project my team and I made a prezi project about saving water. My group looked into all the ways that water is used, how we can use less water, and new water technology. We learned all about water uses and conservation techniques. When we presented our project to the class, we developed a way that everyone could get involved in our research. At the end of the lesson, we challenged them to implant one water saving technique into their everyday life. This could be anything from turning the water off while they are brushing their teeth to installing a new shower head that uses less water.
I believe this would be very neat to use in a classroom. It would give students a chance to show what they believe is important and explain to a class why! This could be in a classroom or in a whole school system. I would love to see many school teachers use this as a project in their classrooms.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Reflection 8: Tech Chicks #71
This episode was developed totally to sparking kids creativity! The podcasts is dedicated to different tools kids could use.
The first website is made by Peter Reynolds. It is an inspirational story of how a teacher helped them dream big! Every teacher needs to try to aid students in making their own realistic dreams come true. You can find this story at The Stellar Cafe: The Power of One Word. Please share it with other teachers and students. It's a great way to get motivated.
Aviary is a cheap option for students to use. It is free! It will help students edit images,audio, color and vector. This site gives students examples to learn from. It would be a great way for students to do projects in class while not making it expensive for parents to buy.
Our Courts is a site to help kids learn about civics and the law system. This explains students citizenship role in the community by a former supreme court judge O'Connor. It has a variety of games like Argument Wars, Do I Have a Right, Supreme Decision, eLections, Pick 12, ReDistricting, and There Should Be a Law. The teacher can have the class play this together as a team or individually. It would be neat as a closure or opening activity for talking about government,FFA leadership or debating.
The last one I found that would be great for students to take place in is StoryJumper. This is a site that will help kids organize, create, and review stories. This is a free site ,but you can order hard backs for $24.95. It gives very simple ways to do the books with a basic start up information area. I believe it would generate curiosity and inspire students to think outside the box.
The first website is made by Peter Reynolds. It is an inspirational story of how a teacher helped them dream big! Every teacher needs to try to aid students in making their own realistic dreams come true. You can find this story at The Stellar Cafe: The Power of One Word. Please share it with other teachers and students. It's a great way to get motivated.
Aviary is a cheap option for students to use. It is free! It will help students edit images,audio, color and vector. This site gives students examples to learn from. It would be a great way for students to do projects in class while not making it expensive for parents to buy.
Our Courts is a site to help kids learn about civics and the law system. This explains students citizenship role in the community by a former supreme court judge O'Connor. It has a variety of games like Argument Wars, Do I Have a Right, Supreme Decision, eLections, Pick 12, ReDistricting, and There Should Be a Law. The teacher can have the class play this together as a team or individually. It would be neat as a closure or opening activity for talking about government,FFA leadership or debating.
The last one I found that would be great for students to take place in is StoryJumper. This is a site that will help kids organize, create, and review stories. This is a free site ,but you can order hard backs for $24.95. It gives very simple ways to do the books with a basic start up information area. I believe it would generate curiosity and inspire students to think outside the box.
Reflection 7: Tech Chicks #73
This episode goes over tons of links that are available on your computer. I picked out a few that really interested me to share with you!
The first one is a demo of google docx. With this demo you and all of your students do not have to have a google account to see it. This would be a great thing to use for a class day project. A person can do the activity on this site and then copy it and put it on a word or picture program. Your class can do a spreadsheet , document, or a drawing with this ap. Look it up on http://docs.google.com/demo.
The next one that could be neat to put into place in your classroom is the Recordists. This site has a variety of sound effects you can use in the classroom. The sounds include things like planes, mudslides, and thunder. They have ones you will have to pay for and ones that are free!So, this could be great to incorporate into projects for yourself and students. Find it at http://www.therecordist.com/pages/downloads.html.
Also, Zooburst is a augmented reality site that does storybooks. These are similar to pop up books. A person can create their own or look at their examples. To make the books you must have a webcam. You can find this at http://www.zooburst.com. Using this site you can get children more interested in lessons or use it as a review. Teachers can add words on page or verbal words.
The last ap is for your i phone or i pad Zentomino at http://www.littlewhitebearstudios.com/zentomino.html. This is a puzzle game that is very popular right now. It would be a great way to get kids minds working in the morning by having them do puzzle games. What makes this even better is the fact that it is FREE!
The first one is a demo of google docx. With this demo you and all of your students do not have to have a google account to see it. This would be a great thing to use for a class day project. A person can do the activity on this site and then copy it and put it on a word or picture program. Your class can do a spreadsheet , document, or a drawing with this ap. Look it up on http://docs.google.com/demo.
The next one that could be neat to put into place in your classroom is the Recordists. This site has a variety of sound effects you can use in the classroom. The sounds include things like planes, mudslides, and thunder. They have ones you will have to pay for and ones that are free!So, this could be great to incorporate into projects for yourself and students. Find it at http://www.therecordist.com/pages/downloads.html.
Also, Zooburst is a augmented reality site that does storybooks. These are similar to pop up books. A person can create their own or look at their examples. To make the books you must have a webcam. You can find this at http://www.zooburst.com. Using this site you can get children more interested in lessons or use it as a review. Teachers can add words on page or verbal words.
The last ap is for your i phone or i pad Zentomino at http://www.littlewhitebearstudios.com/zentomino.html. This is a puzzle game that is very popular right now. It would be a great way to get kids minds working in the morning by having them do puzzle games. What makes this even better is the fact that it is FREE!
Reflection 6:Tech Chicks # 76
This episode goes over new tips for the beginning of the year. Every year can be a new stressful event because the different kids you will have in your classroom. A teacher will have to memorize the new names, find how they like to learn, and a new group to be apart of clubs and organizations. The tech chicks go over new applications for teachers an students.
The first one I thought would be useful in my classroom was the iphone microscope. This is an ap you can put on your phone. This would be very useful in y ag classroom. I would like to use it especially when going over my entomology section in class. It would be fun to go explore outside and be able to take pictures of different bugs. After doing this, we could bring it in and put the pictures on ipads and talk about the differences in the bugs. It is a very neat ap and is less than $15! Check it out at
http://crabfuartworks.blogspot.com/2010/09/crabfu-5-iphone-microscope-mod.html .
The next Internet site I would find useful is Developing Critical Thinking through Web Research Skills
http://www.microsoft.com/education/teachers/guides/critical_thinking.aspx?WT.mc_id=criticalthinking_redu_site . This site is dedicated t help students lean how to search the web with accuracy and purpose. It will help children develop critical thinking skills while browsing on the web.
Finally, the one I was excited about was them talking about Wordle! I have used Wordle before in my technology class, but I am always looking for new ways to incorporate into my classroom.This site gives 50 ways to use wordle. Some of the ones I enjoyed were using it as a setup for a quiz, to show grading criteria, and how to show key characters and ideas in a reading. Look at this site for more information at https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_157dpbsg9c5.
The first one I thought would be useful in my classroom was the iphone microscope. This is an ap you can put on your phone. This would be very useful in y ag classroom. I would like to use it especially when going over my entomology section in class. It would be fun to go explore outside and be able to take pictures of different bugs. After doing this, we could bring it in and put the pictures on ipads and talk about the differences in the bugs. It is a very neat ap and is less than $15! Check it out at
http://crabfuartworks.blogspot.com/2010/09/crabfu-5-iphone-microscope-mod.html .
The next Internet site I would find useful is Developing Critical Thinking through Web Research Skills
http://www.microsoft.com/education/teachers/guides/critical_thinking.aspx?WT.mc_id=criticalthinking_redu_site . This site is dedicated t help students lean how to search the web with accuracy and purpose. It will help children develop critical thinking skills while browsing on the web.
Finally, the one I was excited about was them talking about Wordle! I have used Wordle before in my technology class, but I am always looking for new ways to incorporate into my classroom.This site gives 50 ways to use wordle. Some of the ones I enjoyed were using it as a setup for a quiz, to show grading criteria, and how to show key characters and ideas in a reading. Look at this site for more information at https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_157dpbsg9c5.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Reflection 5: Tech Chicks Cyber Monday!
The tech chicks strike again! This episode talks about the tech chicks new facebook page. This page will announce the new pod casts and if they are at a convention. People like me can be friends or like the facebook page. With this facebook page, we can send them messages and have a personal email address for them. This page will be dedicated to facilitating discussions and answering question. The end of the episode , they talked about Gamez4Touch.com. They gave many codes for different classroom games. After you put in the code, the game belongs to you and you can get the free downloads. I codes included things like touch physics 1 and touch physics 2 for the ipad or iphone, and play with your peeves ( physics), and musical lights. If you would like to get the other codes, check out the pod cast at http://techchicktips.net/. This would be a great way for kids to develop problem solving skills and be a great break from the everyday classroom lesson.
Reflection 4: Tech. Chicks Lesson 80
Tech chicks prve themselves very useful once again! The Tech Chicks on this round provided useful information for teachers. They started with saving teachers money. Teachers money is a valuable commodity that is being decreased amoung many districts. They give a small way to save money by using free calandar and planner site found at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/20-free-printable-calendars-planners-2011/. This site has every kind of calanar needed including ones for sports, activities, and others. THe one I found extermly interesting was the video school site called http://vimeo.com/videoschool. This site has a bunch of how tos on how to many seccsessful videos. It gives clues to do video tricks and a person dose not have to log on to see the videos. So, this knowledge can be free in a sense. The other part I found a must have for a future teacher was Top 10 Sites for Images and Clipart at
http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/35376 and 11 Free Resources to Learn About Creativity at
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/11-creativity-resources/. I love putting visuals in my powerpoints and having new clip art and gif sites to go to would be great to enhance my graphics on them. This would help students visualize what we are talking about better. Also, I am always looking for more creative ways to discuss topics and display my ideas. This could be useful for myself and my students. For more information check out http://techchicktips.net/.
http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/35376 and 11 Free Resources to Learn About Creativity at
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/11-creativity-resources/. I love putting visuals in my powerpoints and having new clip art and gif sites to go to would be great to enhance my graphics on them. This would help students visualize what we are talking about better. Also, I am always looking for more creative ways to discuss topics and display my ideas. This could be useful for myself and my students. For more information check out http://techchicktips.net/.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Classroom 2.0
Networking is a key component to succeeding in the world. I have been told many times that it is good to know a lot , but it is even better to know a lot of people. Knowing a broad spectrum of people can open up many doors to chances to educate yourself. As a teacher, it is not only important for me to educate myself by learning from others , but also vital that I learn to help my students with knowledge and experiences of others. Classroom 2.0 could really help me out on this. Since I am not a member I could not post anything. However, I went ahead and looked at the other opportunities on this site. The first thing I noticed was the initial wanting to help on this site. They had a group of hosts that could answer any questions you could have about the site and how to use it. Also, it had a member list, videos, and links to learn knowledge about the site like proper forum conversation, exc. The discussion forum was my favorite part. This is an area where a teacher could post a question and other teachers could answer back with ideas over the topic. One topic that caught my eye was Vocab in the Classroom. This is one area I am working on improving in myself and I would love to enhance it for my future students. Some of the ideas included a visual thesaurus and spelling city. This would be a great way for starting teachers to get their feet wet and get ideas from older more experienced teacher who have been in the same situations. Look at the site at http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/vocabulary-in-the-classroom.
Edu Teacher
When exploring the Edu Teacher website, I found 3 resources that stood out to me. One was the TV option. This has a variety of pod casts that go over different sites. They were very fast and fairly exciting. I watched a few videos including Imgur, blipsnips, and poll code. The Imgur was very enlightening. It broke down links and html and what they do and how to use them on different sites. It even explained what embedding means which helped me understand what I do on my own personal website. The next resource I liked was the conference page. This page went over the upcoming education opportunities for teachers to work with other teachers. Examples of these included the Web 2.0 in Denver and the discovery channel education conference. I believe it is very important to correspond with other people to learn from them and what works for them in different situations. The last really useful resource I found was the 1 cent area. It went over what we could do for the community. I know that getting students involved in something they care about or see in everyday life is a great way to connect. The topic right now that just ended was for the Just Make a Wish Foundation. Every time a person clicked on this site a penny went to the cause. There was many other resources available. Please check it out at http://edutecher.net/change/.
Kan-ed Reflection
While on the Kan-ed website, I found many professional development activities, education techniques, classroom teaching ideas, and websites to receive information from. My favorite part of this site was the online resource tools. This area had sites like Kids info bits (http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/KidsInfoBits;jsessionid=A5CCAA936A39FC42289B4255B32CCEF1?locID=klnb_lrnstation), Gale group (http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/start.do?prodId=STOJ&userGroupName=klnb_lrnstation), and World Book (http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/home?null&gr=Welcome+Kansas+Education). Kids info bits was very neat. It was useful the way they had it broke down into separate section like plants, animals, people, technology, health, and many more. When exploring the tabs, I found that going through the process and choosing a section would take you to more breakdowns of types and then supply you with a variety of resources and works cited. This was so easy that it would be even useful for my students to use when doing a research project. The other part I liked was the section where students could get on and use this site also. The backpack was where students could save their information they are working on in class. I know this would have been very useful for myself in high school because I lost zip drives and discs very easily. As a teacher, I feel this would be a great site to incorporate into my classroom. It would aid me in organizing my teaching and my students as well. I encourage all teachers to check it out at https://coeksu.learningstation.com/portal/.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Podcast Reflection 3: Tech Chicks #79
Wow! Tech chicks are amazing. The information they gave was extremely useful. This episode the talked about Tech Forum which focused on using cell phones in the classroom and promoted educators working together to form new ways to use technology. The tech forum is a place were the videos and discussions were all videoed. The jargon generator was the first place to start. This site is http://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html.html . It goes over different adverbs, adjectives, nouns, and others. It helps you learn new words and make you sound more educated when discussing information with other educators and with students. Also, it gave a new science site called http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/lawrencehallofscience.org. This is a science site that will help a person use science in a fun way. . This is a very usable site for teachers to incorporate into classrooms. It gives how to videos and offers a variety of professional development and resources for teachers to use. Also, they gave a bunch of FireFox add ons teachers can put in place in their classrooms. One of these was a word center. Here it would accurately pronounce the word. This could help students learn new words and say the correctly. At the end of the podcast, it went over Black Friday deals. This was very beneficial fr myself as a teacher and needing to save money. It would go over the different ads going to be on Black Friday. This would give teachers the leg up on the different deals going on. This site is located at (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/black-friday-by-bradsdeals/id399280347?mt=8). The best part about this application is that it is a free source! Overall, the tech chicks gave me a lot of new resources to use as a teacher. I can't wait to listen to the next episode to learn even more!
Animoto in my Classroom
After working with the animoto website, I discovered how easy it is to jazz up pictures and make a short video to catch students attention. I believe www.animoto.com would be a great way to not only introduce or summarize a topic, but also a great way to let them use there creative minds to form their own videos about a topic. This would be a great eye catcher to show at the beginning of a unit. It could have pictures of the main ideas of the subject matter with key vocab words to go along with it. Also, I think this would be a way to incorporate a short review that the students can watch at home. This could be as little as putting all the leading important points into a slide and have short definitions or pictures that explain them. This would not only help students when studying , but also aid them if they miss a class period from sickness, games, or other events. The last point I would like to bring up is how the students could make these themselves. I think it would be a good project to do at the beginning of the school year. The students could make a short video about themselves to help me learn more about them. After they learn how to master this site they can make reviews for each other as a fun way to study.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Using Twitter as an educator
After using twitter for 4 weeks, I have come to really enjoy using the links and resources from other people. It is a great way to ask a question and get an answer fairly fast. I especially like the principals that I am following on twitter. They give links to interesting education sites and uses a person can find on the Internet. This would be like Steven Anderson tweeting 20 Websites To Find Free eBooks at http://bit.ly/e4kujZ. I believe this will be very useful for me down the road in not only finishing my education but, also teaching my students. As a teacher, I can borrow other teachers information and clues about how to connect with students. After looking at Steven Anderson's tweet, 50 ways to use wordle in the classroom, I was amazed by the different learning options for students. http://bit.ly/dE9cAm.
When I teach, I would like to incorporate twitter into my classroom. I think it would be a good discussion forum for my students. In ag they can follow a variety of organizations that our agriculture related and network with companies and producers on twitter. These sites could include the National Cattleman's Beef Institute in Washington D.C. to many others. By following these people, they can learn about new sites that will teach them about ag in ways I could never dreamed to. For example, Beef Cattle News keeps an update of all prices like "Record U.S. Cattle, Hog Prices Seen on Shrinking Herds, Increased Demand" http://bloom.bg/ecAe5M.
When I teach, I would like to incorporate twitter into my classroom. I think it would be a good discussion forum for my students. In ag they can follow a variety of organizations that our agriculture related and network with companies and producers on twitter. These sites could include the National Cattleman's Beef Institute in Washington D.C. to many others. By following these people, they can learn about new sites that will teach them about ag in ways I could never dreamed to. For example, Beef Cattle News keeps an update of all prices like "Record U.S. Cattle, Hog Prices Seen on Shrinking Herds, Increased Demand" http://bloom.bg/ecAe5M.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Fun with Text
Wordle and Taxexdo could be a very useful website to make use of in a classroom. These sites would be able to capture student’s creative side. There are a variety of ways I could incorporate this in my classroom. I am very interested in using this to introduce a topic. I would like to take all the words in the unit and make a wordle and then let the students look at it to get an idea of what we are going to be learning. Another way to use this would be let the kids make a picture of the words to review the unit. After they make this, I would have them do an outline of what these terms mean. These are only a few ways to use these sites but I encourage everyone to check them out!
<www.wordle.com> and <www.taxexdo>
<www.wordle.com> and <www.taxexdo>
Monday, January 24, 2011
Reflection 2: Website!
“Technology is opening minds with a new set of keys” ( Technology Bit and Bytes Website). This quote is a good way to describe this website. The site has so many different ways to search the web and to learn and be inspired from different quotes and short movie clips. It has many different links to different site and you tube videos tagged. I explored a few of these different clips and short stories. The first was Celebrate Kansas Voices. It was a slogan to improve cognitive learning. It encouraged people to learn another language. It really means a lot to me because I have taken two years of German. This language opened doors to me that I never imagined. I went to Germany and experienced the culture and learned even more German. I try to use it every week. I am getting a little bit rusty and need to take a refresher course on how to use preposition and verbs correctly and vamp up my vocab.
I enjoyed listening to “When I become a teacher”. It composed all the ideas of what makes a bad teacher. It really centered around how good teachers make a difference, but bad ones can hurt student's future potential. I found it interesting that these writers and producers thought of a different way to express what we need as educators. They didn't go the normal route of telling us a good teacher is kind, knowledgeable, and other things. Instead, they talked about the traits that teachers shouldn't have. It was extremely refreshing.
The whole site contained a lot of information for future teachers. It had resources to use and inspirational sites and videos.
http://www.technologybitsbytesnibbles.info/
http://www.technologybitsbytesnibbles.info/
Reflection 1: Technology Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles
Blogging is one of the relatively new ways people are using to transmit ideas and thoughts to others across the world. I , personally, do not have a blog. However, I am a follower of four of my friends blogs. They discuss issues in agriculture and show how agriculture influences everyone.
The technology blog was a different topic than I have looked at. It was interesting to see how many technology and school articles tagged on this blog. I read through 4 of the articles and learned about the technology issues and how funding and students effect them. There were two which really caught my eye.
The first was “Can e-books bridge achievement gaps” by Nora Carr. One of the neat facts I found was “a 500 book home is as good as having university educated parents”. This is something that hit home for me. My parents did not go to a four year university. They went to a technical college. My dad went through diesel mechanics. My mom went through basic business program based around accounting. However, my parents were very dedicated to their children in providing a huge book selection. When, I was growing up we went to the library once every two weeks and had a huge library consisting from children's books to full length novels and encyclopedias. Now, I am a 4.0 student at K-STATE and looking at master's programs in animal science. However, the advancements of e-books have made books easier to attain and take up considerably less space. By having books on the Internet, families can get books for less money than buying a $20 plus hardback book that ends up collecting dust on the shelf. Families can get more books to provide for there children and students will be able to reap the rewards of further learning. The only problem I see with e-books are the big initial investment. Parents will have to buy a lab top, desktop, kindle, or other technology. This can be very expensive for some middle or lower class houses. I question whether e-books can be used in every community for all students.
After reading about technology advancements, I decided to take a step back in time and read “ Should schools go back to 1983 technology” by Liz Dwyer. This was an experiment students did in a classroom. 90 percent of students took part in giving up all there technology that had been created after '83. They couldn't play PlayStation 3 or Game boy Advanced. However, one kid got an Atari to play. This for me is a very interesting thought. When I go into some classrooms, I sometimes question whether students depend to much on technology to do activities for them. Some high school students actually struggle with basic math and have to get a calculator out for simple things like adding and subtracting. It poses the question of “ Have we become to dependent on technology”. For me I find this very scary.for the world's population. If a natural disaster would happen, would people be able to function and survive without there microwave or cellphone? I am doubtful on many people's abilities. I, personally, hate keeping my cell phone on me. My favorite activity is to go fishing, hunting, camping or play with my livestock. Technology has been a benefit in some ways, but I often wonder how far is to far.
After reading this blog, it has gotten me more curious about other blogs. Also, I am excited about learning to create my own blog. I would like to dedicate mine to people understanding production agriculture and all the great things that come from it!
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