Class Reflection # 10

Next year I will be in practicum 2 which means I will be doing most of the teaching myself in the classroom. This is a scary thought but at the same time I am excited to show off all the technological things I learned in this class. I hope that I will even be able to show my future teacher some things that she does not know about.

Class reflection # 9

After doing my final project I learned that the scholastic web page has way more resources for teachers than i would have ever thought. here are some of the things scholastic offers to make the classroom more fun, or you could use these for extra credit of homework assignments too.

Lesson Plans
Teaching Strategies
Tips for new teachers
Printable worksheets
Make your own web page
make a calendar
Make a to do list
Online activities
Scholarships
Contests
Interactive lessons
Interviews with influential people
Polls
List of suggested books
Class support
Games
Message board
Arrange for an author to visit your class
Podcasts
News articles

There are so many things on this site that it is hard to keep track of it all, even though I've been there several times. I will definitely be using this as a resource in my class room.

Class Reflection # 8

Today we finished our class presentations. Everyone did a really good job. Some of the web pages that were talked about that I found interesting are teacherweb.com, brainpop.com, and discovery streaming. I learned that we have a free trial through teacherweb.com which I am excited about. I really liked brain pop too. It would be neat to have the kids in my class ask a question and send it in to be answered. Also discovery streaming is a cool website because you can watch discovery videos, the only thing I don't like about it is that you need a user name and password to get in.

Class Reflection # 7

Last week we started on our class presentations. Some things that I learned in class today from them are freerice.com, teachertube.com, wetpaint.com, and rubistar.com. Rubistar is a good place to make rubrics for your class. Wetpaint is a site you can make a wiki website from, and teachertube is a good place to find video clips to use in class. I think freerice.com is my favorite because for every word you know the definition to the UN world food program donates 20 grains of rice. This would be a fun activity to do with your class while helping people at the same time.

Role of technology in Education

I believe that the role of technology in education is to enhance the learning experience. The internet is such a great resource if used correctly, and I learned there is a lot of software out there that I could use as well. I think that our job as teachers is really to show the kids which web pages are reliable and which ones are not, and don't be afraid of information, but embrace it as the way of the future. There are countless ways to use education in the classroom and really it is our job to figure out how to use it in a way that keeps the kids attention yet is still educating them. My view of technology has changed because when i first came into this class I thought I didn't need to take the class because I already knew everything, but now I realize there are so many things out there that I didn't know about, and can use in my classroom now. It is almost overwhelming how many resources teachers have available to them, but now that I know my options I can make informed decisions about what I want would be the best technology to use in my classroom.

Final Thoughts

I am excited to be able to put to use the things I learned in this class. I can't wait to use a class web page to communicate with parents and send homework for students who missed class. Communicate with other teachers and students online, read books online, play online educational games, use the SMART board, Kidspiration, interview people from around the world on the computer, web 2.0 programs, and everything else I learned in this class. This class was great because it showed me some of the programs that teachers have available to them, what legal issues we might run into, and how to be creative in the classroom. I'm am thankful for what this class has taught me.

Assignment #5

here is the link to my class web page:
Go to http://www.scholastic.com/classhomepage
Class User Name: missfclass
Class Password: washington

For my final project I chose to do a class webpage. I have heard that every teacher should have a class webpage, and thought it would be a good idea to get a start on it now. I looked a long time for the perfect spot to make my page and finally settled on scholastic. Scholastic looked like it had a lot of fun resources for kids and it looked like it had the most and best options for a classroom. Some of the features it includes are:

Class Announcements- for parents and students
News Announcements- from around the world
Input your own Google Calendar
Links to kid websites
Teacher Book list
Class photo album
Online activities

It was a little bit hard making a website for my class because I do not have my own class yet. I had to input fake scenarios and I considered making a fake class photo album, but eventually decided against it. The web page its self was a little more confusing that I was expecting too. I would press save, but when I would go back to my site it wouldn't there. Also it was a little slow in loading, and it didn't offer quite as many things as I had hoped. After creating the site, I now feel comfortable with using it, and I think it is a good way for a teacher to have a web page because it has all the basics, and it was set up just for teachers. Scholastic does have a lot of resources you can add to your page too. My favorite part of the web page is the online activities section. You can include games and learning tools that scholastic has on their web page. For example they have something called global trek and the kids can click on it and choose whatever country they want to go to, and learn a lot of great information about it. They also get to meet other kids from that country. I believe that once you get the hang of this page it is a good way for a teacher to make a web page esp.if they do not know a lot about how to make a web page from scratch or do not want to take the time to do that.

The second part of my project was the Google Calendar. I had not used one of these before, but thought it would be easy enough to figure out. I was right, it was very simple to use and another good resource for teachers, either just to use for themselves, or to use for the classroom. I liked how the web site integrated the Google calendar into it. Allowing you to give more detail to the events on your calendar down below.