Observation 5

For my final observation, I was in a second grade classroom. The students had just gotten into class and the teacher had the lunch menu on the smartboard. The students went up and put a tally mark down for the lunch that they wanted to eat that day. This was a very easy way to take lunch count. Once all the students were in the room, the teacher tallied up the marks and sent lunch count in from her computer. Great way to incorportate technology into a morning routine.

wordle

Poll Everywhere

Observation 4

I had the pleasure of watching a classroom that contained a big variety of students. They ranged in ethnic diversity, academic level, and also in the level of how much english they speak. This teacher had seven students speak English as a second language. Two of these students had just transferred to the school recently and barely spoke any English at all! The teacher used this as a great way to incorporate technology by placing the students on the computer. They used a program that let them interact with the story they read. The two girls chose the language as Spanish and read the story in their native language. The story was also interactive and they had to click on each word in order to hear it through the headphones. As they were reading they were also clicking on the words and going at their own pace instead of trying to follow along with the text themselves. This not only helped them to feel comfortable but also gave them the opportunity to use a computer and new technology to help them learn!

Observation 3

My third observation uses technology in a different way. Instead of using technology for the purpose of students enjoying it, the teacher uses technology to aid in her own use in her kindergarten class. The teacher was testing her students on their Dibbles. She had to check them on different kinds of words including nonsense words. Instead of writing down scores in a grade book, she used a Palm device to record the scores. This handheld device uses a program where everything is already programmed in and all the teacher has to do is record the words recognized and the device calculates whether they are on grade level or not. So easy! I was excited to see something that a teacher can use for his/her own benefit other than a computer to keep records on. This allows the teacher to test the students wherever in the classroom and not be tethered to a computer. The Palm device was very compact and had everything the teacher needed to keep data on her students and save it for the entire year.

Observation 2

For my second technology observation the teacher also used the smart board! Like I said before, it is a great and easy way to incorporate more than text books into the classroom. The teacher opened up a document on the screen about idioms. Students were called on to draw lines matching an idiom to its proper definition. Students volunteered to go up to the board even if they didn't have a clue about the word, just because they got to draw with the "imaginary pen". After this, the student had their own little book and also followed along with the story on the board. The teacher used her document camera to display her own story book. After the story was read, the students again went up to the board and answered the same question about the idioms as a post-test to see what they had learned.

This lesson was extremely fun and got the students more involved than if each read the story and did the activity on their own at their seats. I had a great time observing and really thought the teacher did a great job of using her smart board and document camera!

Observation 1

For my first technology observation I had the opportunity to observe a second grade classroom. When I walked into the classroom the teacher had many ways to use technology in her classroom. She had computers, a television, a smart board, and a document camera. For the lesson, she was using the smart board for her reading lesson. The students didn't have a copy of the book at their desk so they followed along on the screen.

This is a great way to incorporate technology and being resourceful. Instead of printing off tons of copies of a story and wasting paper, a teacher can put the story on the board and have students follow along with out making unnecessary copies that get lost in backpacks and thrown away. The book that the teacher was using also had an activity sheet at the end. Students were called on to go up to the board and circle the correct answer following the story. Using a smart board in the classroom is an easy way for students to get to use technology, have fun, and still learn!

Second Life Activity- using Wikis

https://sites.google.com/site/secondlifeactivity/

This is the Second Life activity my group created using a Wiki. We created the Wiki and were able to each work on it and can all edit the wiki at any time. This activity can be used to grade school children, preferably those grades that can use a computer and the internet without problems (6-8 would be perfect!)

RSS

RSS is a really awesome way to stay in touch with all of your favorite blogs, sites, and much more. Have a favorite blog? Follow a favorite tv show? Follow a new channel? If so, you are probably searching every day to find out if anything new was posted. A reader such as Google reader can eliminate all of your searching. Google reader allows you to subscribe to all of your favorite sites which will then show up on your reader when something new is posted! It's like having all the newest information on the internet in the palm of your hand! Quite frankly, I find this kinda cool. I didn't know such a thing was possible until today and am going to take advantage of it.

An RSS could be useful in the classroom setting because as a teacher this allows you to constantly be updated with new information from your favorite teaching sites, news, and more. This eliminates all of the time spent searching and provides a simple way to get new information. If your class has a blog then this would also be a perfect resource to use. Subscribe to every student's blog and then when they post something new, their post will appear on your feed. Easy as that! No more searching through 30 blogs to see if everyone did their homework, it will simply show up on your reader.

If there is a downside to using an RSS then I can't find it. I think it is an efficient and organized way to follow all of the things you love in life. If anything, the massive amounts of information flooding your reader could be a problem, but that is what the filter buttons are for! In my opinion, this is a great tool to use in the classroom and in your own personal life!

Tool Evaluation- Pinterest

http://pinterest.com

1. For my tool I chose Pinterest. Pinterest is an online sharing board for people to share what they like and find on the internet with others. People create their own pin boards in which they can save all of the images and websites that they like. This makes organizing and sharing ideas even easier than before.
2. I would integrate this into my classroom because there are many different educational activities. Other people have already gone and pinned activities, ideas, posters, worksheets, and many other things onto the website. Depending on what lesson I want to teach or any holiday or celebration that is coming up, Pinterest is more than likely to have creative ideas on their site. They also have videos on this site that are educational related and can be shown in class. This site can benefit teachers and students because they have many different ideas for teaching and for learning. If I was doing a math lesson teaching addition I would log onto Pinterest and search the words “math” and “addition” I would scroll through the pins that have come up and click on the appropriate links, these links to websites might also have good ideas on them and I can find more resources that way!


3. This is an effective use of teaching and a valid use of technology because Pinterest is all about sharing. People are allowed to pin any items they would like which gives the users of Pinterest control over the website and their own boards. In a world where the internet and information sharing is a daily part of our lives what a better way than to take advantage of that in the classroom. Many people have creative and helpful ideas and put them in one place. This eliminates the endless searching of websites for good ideas and brings them all into one place (and even includes pictures).
a. The strengths of this tool are the unlimited use and new items being pinned every day. The website does not get boring or outdated because people are constantly pinning new websites to Pinterest.
b. This website is great in my eyes but it does have some weaknesses. This is not a website I would give my students direct access to. There are a lot of great things on Pinterest but since you can pin anything, it is not always suitable for children of a young age. I would recommend this website for teacher use only. A teach can log on, find ideas and bookmark them that way there is no chance of children seeing anything inappropriate. A teacher could even pin all of their ideas onto a pin board and have that bookmarked for student viewing, eliminating the middle man.
c. If I could change anything about this website it would be that fact that it can have inappropriate things on it. I would like to have filters where certain categories are not even allowed to be seen or you can filter out certain images or words. This would allow the website to be more student friendly and they could then find their own activities to do in class.

Design Challenge (Animations)

Each person in my class was assigned to do an animation challenge on PowerPoint. There were many different challenges we could have done but I chose to animate chess pieces as they would move in real life! Unfortunately, since I had to save my PowerPoint as a PDF file, the pieces won't move in my flipbook :(

PowerPoint

You know how to make a PowerPoint, right? That's what I thought too. I LOVE  to put tons of pictures, animations, and fun colors! Turns out, some things only distract children and should be used in moderation. Sure they get a good chuckle out of the "whooosh" sound of a transition slide but in that moment their attention is elsewhere. 

PowerPoint for students should be kept fairly simple. Pictures are used to emphasize points but should not be overdone. Animations should be kept to a minimum as far as transitions between slides but can be used to your advantage. 

I learned many cool things about PowerPoint this week:

• How to customize animations (such as movements of objects and what objects and shapes can do)
• Teachers: use SIZE 18 FONT OR BIGGER! (this way everyone in the class can see!)
• Slide backgrounds should be plain
• Keep topics and slides simple
• Don't over do it on the goofy clip art

I was more than excited to see all of the things I didn't know about PowerPoint! It is a great tool to be used in the classroom both as a teaching aid and for student interactions. Students will be excited to create their own work and teachers will be excited to have an interactive visual for their lesson.

Technology in Education

Hello everyone! I figured I would let everyone know the point of this blog. I am in a technology class at the University of Pikeville located in Pikeville, Kentucky.

We had an assignment to create our own blog that we would be using to display our work throughout the semester. This technology class is based around technology in the classroom for both Elementary grade students and older students. I am excited to display my work and hope that others will too! 

Symbaloo: Your Favorite Websites All in the Same Place

Symbaloo is a website that allows you to keep all of your favorite websites in the same place. This creates an organized way to view all of your information and favorite pages. Symbaloo would be a great thing to incorporate into a High School classroom. A teacher who wants students to use blogs and other information sharing sites can show students how to use Symbaloo to keep all of their information organized and in the same place!

My Flip Book: check it out!

Flipsnack.com is a website that is used to create free Flip Books. This allows you to create your own personal book from any type of document (word, powerpoint, etc.) Flip Books can be very useful in the classroom because students can put their hard work into a cool presentation. Having students create a book about themselves for the first week of class would be a great way to incorporate flip books as well as getting students to present their work and get to know each other!