Scenario

     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!
   

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!

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.

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.