Sunday, May 1, 2011
Heather Wellman Highlight Showcase Blog Post
I really liked your portfolio showcase that you made. I did not use Weebly to create my portfolio, but I would like to look into it to create a classroom website. From your showcase I learned that I could embed photos, videos, and documents to enhance the overall website. You also mentioned that a teacher could do almost anything they wanted on the website, which makes it sounds very appeasing. With Google sites, which is technology I used, there are not as many features, but it is also totally free. I was wondering what features you had to pay for and which ones were free? I did not realize that you could embed Google docs into this websites, which I think is very useful. As you mentioned you could put a document up for parent teacher conferences and the parents could fill in what times that worked for them. I also liked that you included how you could use this technology in the classroom. I think it is a great idea to have the students use the Weebly as a portfolio to showcase their work to their teacher and parents.
Final Blog Post
For my final project in CEP 416 I made a video using the Jing software about my three favorite technologies that I have learned about this semester. I started off by introducing my blog, which is titled The Thoughts and Ideas of Jessica C. I had the window up of my blog and I was talking over the picture. I said I liked using the blog for three main reasons. The first reason was because I could communicate with the people in my class, more specifically the 3 girls in my house. Whenever I got the chance I could comment on their blogs and tell them what I thought about the topic they were blogging about or give them my thoughts on what the topic that they were blogging about. In this forum we were able to share ideas without all being in the same room. I also said this would be useful to use in the classroom because students could use the blog to share ideas among groups or when they were at home over breaks or on the weekend. The second reason I liked the blog is because I could read my classmates blogs where I would get new ideas about technology, teaching activities, and educational topics. This expanded my thinking and gave me new ideas about teaching. The last reason I liked using the blog is because you can embed pictures, websites, and videos, so the blog is not all text. This makes it more interesting for the students to explore different blogs.
The next technology that I discussed on my video was google docs. Google docs is one of my favorite technologies because more than one student can work on a document at the same time. There are many types of documents that students can work on, like a word document, presentations, spreadsheet, and drawings. All of these programs allow for many different types of student collaboration. Another aspect of google docs that I like is that it makes working on group projects much easier. I have personally used google documents for group projects because you can work in the document at your own convenience and do not have to meet together as often to work on the project. I also mentioned in my Jing project is that I could use this in my internship next year by having the students work on group projects on google docs. The students could work on these group projects at home as well as at school.
The last technology that I learned about this semester that I really enjoyed was google websites. On this website I had an about me section, my resume, lesson plans, and a technology forum. I really enjoyed this technology because I felt that I could use this throughout my teaching career. I could add sections for parents and homework, so that it would be accessible to my students, parents, and employees. This technology will help me throughout my career because I can put my work on the website so employers and parents can see what I am working on in the classroom. I also want to mention that I really liked using Jing to make this video and I know I will use it in the future for other projects. I like it so much because you could switch websites and talk over different websites.
The next technology that I discussed on my video was google docs. Google docs is one of my favorite technologies because more than one student can work on a document at the same time. There are many types of documents that students can work on, like a word document, presentations, spreadsheet, and drawings. All of these programs allow for many different types of student collaboration. Another aspect of google docs that I like is that it makes working on group projects much easier. I have personally used google documents for group projects because you can work in the document at your own convenience and do not have to meet together as often to work on the project. I also mentioned in my Jing project is that I could use this in my internship next year by having the students work on group projects on google docs. The students could work on these group projects at home as well as at school.
The last technology that I learned about this semester that I really enjoyed was google websites. On this website I had an about me section, my resume, lesson plans, and a technology forum. I really enjoyed this technology because I felt that I could use this throughout my teaching career. I could add sections for parents and homework, so that it would be accessible to my students, parents, and employees. This technology will help me throughout my career because I can put my work on the website so employers and parents can see what I am working on in the classroom. I also want to mention that I really liked using Jing to make this video and I know I will use it in the future for other projects. I like it so much because you could switch websites and talk over different websites.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Mini-Lesson Plan Blog
Mini-Lesson 1
I have been working in Mrs. Beasley’s kindergarten class since late September 2010. For this mini-lesson I decided to work with a student one-on-one who struggles in many subjects, but I worked with him specifically on sound letter recognition. I have worked with Tristan many times throughout the semester because he is behind the other students in class in all subjects, including reading, writing, and mathematics. Tristan is still having trouble writing his name because he can’t remember what sound goes with what letter. He also struggles with identifying his letters, which may be one of the main reasons why he cannot remember which sounds go with what letters. I decided for this mini lesson I would only focus on the letters that are in his name, since I only had two weeks to work with him. The first week I worked with Tristan for 30 minutes out in the hallway. I started the mini-lesson by asking Tristan if he could use the letter blocks to spell out his name. I only gave Tristan the block letters that he would need to spell out his name. With the letters he spelled out Tisartn. I asked him why he spelled out his name like this and he said because he didn’t really know how to spell his name. For the next 15 minutes we worked on identifying the letters and their sounds. I would hold up the letters in the order that they appeared and asked him to identify the letter and what sound it made. For example, when I held up t he would say that is a t and makes the sound ttt. When I thought he had mastered this skill I set up the letter blocks in order, like this Tristan. I then had him study it and then I scrambled up the letters and had him put the letters back together. As he was moving the letters I had him say what letter it was and then what sound it made. He was able to identify T, i, and r consistently. With some scaffolding he was able to arrange the letters in the correct order. The next week I went back out into the hallway to see if Tristan had retained any information from the week before. For the first activity I asked him to identify the letters and what sound they made. He again, like the week before, was able to identify T, I, and r consistently. I then arranged his name and scrambled up the letters. When I asked him to rearrange the letters he was unable to do so. I think Tristan struggles so much with spelling his name because he cannot recall the letters or their sounds. I have also noticed from working with Tristan a lot of the semester that he has trouble retaining information. This can be seen even throughout this mini-lesson because he did not retain a lot of the information he learned in week 1 into week 2. Overall, I think Tristan needs to work on identifying the letters and retaining information in order for him to be able to identify his letters and what sounds they make.
Mini-Lesson 2
For my second mini-lesson I worked with Larry, who is a low to middle achieving student in my class. Larry sometimes struggles with identifying what letter an object begins with. For example, if I showed him a book he may struggle identifying that book starts with b. I wanted to work with Larry on looking at an object and identifying their beginning sound and what letter that is. For this mini-lesson I used a game that my coordinating teacher had in her classroom that I thought would be affective for teaching letter-sound awareness. This game was set up much like a candy land board game, except it had the letters w, x, y, and z scattered throughout the board. Each player chose a card and had to identify the object and what letter they started with. For example, if I chose a zoo and I identified that zoo started with z then I would move to the closest z spot on the board. Before we started the game I had Larry identify the letters that were on the board. Larry had a hard time identifying x and y, but identified w and z with no problem. We played the game and Larry was able to identify all of the objects on the card without any problem. He struggled, however, to identify what letter the object started with. I helped Larry by emphasizing the first sound of every word. By the end of the game Larry was better identifying what letter the objects started with.
I have been working in Mrs. Beasley’s kindergarten class since late September 2010. For this mini-lesson I decided to work with a student one-on-one who struggles in many subjects, but I worked with him specifically on sound letter recognition. I have worked with Tristan many times throughout the semester because he is behind the other students in class in all subjects, including reading, writing, and mathematics. Tristan is still having trouble writing his name because he can’t remember what sound goes with what letter. He also struggles with identifying his letters, which may be one of the main reasons why he cannot remember which sounds go with what letters. I decided for this mini lesson I would only focus on the letters that are in his name, since I only had two weeks to work with him. The first week I worked with Tristan for 30 minutes out in the hallway. I started the mini-lesson by asking Tristan if he could use the letter blocks to spell out his name. I only gave Tristan the block letters that he would need to spell out his name. With the letters he spelled out Tisartn. I asked him why he spelled out his name like this and he said because he didn’t really know how to spell his name. For the next 15 minutes we worked on identifying the letters and their sounds. I would hold up the letters in the order that they appeared and asked him to identify the letter and what sound it made. For example, when I held up t he would say that is a t and makes the sound ttt. When I thought he had mastered this skill I set up the letter blocks in order, like this Tristan. I then had him study it and then I scrambled up the letters and had him put the letters back together. As he was moving the letters I had him say what letter it was and then what sound it made. He was able to identify T, i, and r consistently. With some scaffolding he was able to arrange the letters in the correct order. The next week I went back out into the hallway to see if Tristan had retained any information from the week before. For the first activity I asked him to identify the letters and what sound they made. He again, like the week before, was able to identify T, I, and r consistently. I then arranged his name and scrambled up the letters. When I asked him to rearrange the letters he was unable to do so. I think Tristan struggles so much with spelling his name because he cannot recall the letters or their sounds. I have also noticed from working with Tristan a lot of the semester that he has trouble retaining information. This can be seen even throughout this mini-lesson because he did not retain a lot of the information he learned in week 1 into week 2. Overall, I think Tristan needs to work on identifying the letters and retaining information in order for him to be able to identify his letters and what sounds they make.
Mini-Lesson 2
For my second mini-lesson I worked with Larry, who is a low to middle achieving student in my class. Larry sometimes struggles with identifying what letter an object begins with. For example, if I showed him a book he may struggle identifying that book starts with b. I wanted to work with Larry on looking at an object and identifying their beginning sound and what letter that is. For this mini-lesson I used a game that my coordinating teacher had in her classroom that I thought would be affective for teaching letter-sound awareness. This game was set up much like a candy land board game, except it had the letters w, x, y, and z scattered throughout the board. Each player chose a card and had to identify the object and what letter they started with. For example, if I chose a zoo and I identified that zoo started with z then I would move to the closest z spot on the board. Before we started the game I had Larry identify the letters that were on the board. Larry had a hard time identifying x and y, but identified w and z with no problem. We played the game and Larry was able to identify all of the objects on the card without any problem. He struggled, however, to identify what letter the object started with. I helped Larry by emphasizing the first sound of every word. By the end of the game Larry was better identifying what letter the objects started with.
Friday, April 22, 2011
2nd Technology Lesson Plan
Daily Lesson Plan
Your Name: Jessica Carney__ Grade Level: _5th Grade_ Date: April 20, 2011
Overall lesson topic/title: Predicting Shades of Grey and creating a Wiki.
Grade Level Content Expectation(s):
R.MT.05.01: Self-monitor comprehension when reading or listening to text by automatically applying and discussing the strategies used by mature readers to increase comprehension including: predicting, constructing mental images, visually representing ideas in text, questioning, rereading or listening again if uncertain about meaning, inferring, summarizing, and engaging in interpretive discussion
5 – P3.1.3: Give examples of how conflicts over core democratic values lead people to differ on constitutional issues in the United States.
Objectives
Performance: The student should be able to discuss the details of the book and predict what they think is going to happen at the end of the story. The student will then go to the wiki and do their role for the day and post what they think is going to happen next.
Conditions: There will be 4 students in each group. After each chapter the group reads they will go to the wiki and complete their role for the day. On the wiki they can also discuss things like their favorite part of the text or ask any questions they might have. Then each student will need to post about what they think is going to happen in the next section of the book.
Criterion: For the student to be considered participating in the wiki assignment they will need to do their role for the day. The student must also post a prediction about what they think is going to happen in the next section of the text.
Materials & supplies needed:
-30 copies of Shades of Grey
-30 laptops or desktop computers
Introduction to the lesson:
Depending on the skill level of the students in the class they will either read the book Shades of Grey individually, in a small group, or as a class. To introduce this lesson I will split the class into groups of four or five students and have them create a wiki page. They will have 20 minutes to explore the page and figure out how to use the site. In these 30 minutes they will also need to write an about me post. This post should include name, favorite book, and three interesting facts about themselves. Also in this time the class will go over each role and what each role is required to do. There will be 5 roles: the travel chaser, vocabulary enricher, connector, literary luminary, and discussion director. The travel chaser maps out all the main places that the characters travel throughout the book. The vocabulary enricher picks out words that they do not know and defines them. The connector links the book to their personal life. The literary luminary picks out passages they think are funny or important pieces to the book. The discussion director thinks of questions to ask the rest of the group. (40 minutes)
During Reading:
There are 16 chapters in Shades of Grey. In order to finish this book and allow time for wiki posting each group will be required to read two chapters a night at home. When they come back to school they will get together in their wiki groups and post about their role for the day and predict what they think is going to happen next. The students will be given their role of the day so they can focus on it while they are reading and can prepare an answer to post on their wiki. Some example questions could include: The student will still be required to predict what is going to happen next. The students will have 20 minutes each day to work on their wikis. This means that for 10 days the students will be working on their wikis and discussing what they think is going to happen. (20 minutes each day)
After Reading:
After the students are done reading posting on the wiki they will come together for 15 to 20 minutes and discuss their roles and their prediction. The reason they are coming together as a group separately from their wiki is because I want them to also have verbal interaction with one another. If the assignment is all online students may not go and read other students wiki posts. This way the students are exchanging new ideas online and face-to-face. (20 minutes)
Post-Assessment:
The students will post on the wiki a reaction of how the book ended. This will allow the teacher to see if the student can personally relate to the book and if they can give their reaction about how the book ended. This will also show the teacher if the student comprehended and understood the main concepts of the book. (20 minutes)
Your Name: Jessica Carney__ Grade Level: _5th Grade_ Date: April 20, 2011
Overall lesson topic/title: Predicting Shades of Grey and creating a Wiki.
Grade Level Content Expectation(s):
R.MT.05.01: Self-monitor comprehension when reading or listening to text by automatically applying and discussing the strategies used by mature readers to increase comprehension including: predicting, constructing mental images, visually representing ideas in text, questioning, rereading or listening again if uncertain about meaning, inferring, summarizing, and engaging in interpretive discussion
5 – P3.1.3: Give examples of how conflicts over core democratic values lead people to differ on constitutional issues in the United States.
Objectives
Performance: The student should be able to discuss the details of the book and predict what they think is going to happen at the end of the story. The student will then go to the wiki and do their role for the day and post what they think is going to happen next.
Conditions: There will be 4 students in each group. After each chapter the group reads they will go to the wiki and complete their role for the day. On the wiki they can also discuss things like their favorite part of the text or ask any questions they might have. Then each student will need to post about what they think is going to happen in the next section of the book.
Criterion: For the student to be considered participating in the wiki assignment they will need to do their role for the day. The student must also post a prediction about what they think is going to happen in the next section of the text.
Materials & supplies needed:
-30 copies of Shades of Grey
-30 laptops or desktop computers
Introduction to the lesson:
Depending on the skill level of the students in the class they will either read the book Shades of Grey individually, in a small group, or as a class. To introduce this lesson I will split the class into groups of four or five students and have them create a wiki page. They will have 20 minutes to explore the page and figure out how to use the site. In these 30 minutes they will also need to write an about me post. This post should include name, favorite book, and three interesting facts about themselves. Also in this time the class will go over each role and what each role is required to do. There will be 5 roles: the travel chaser, vocabulary enricher, connector, literary luminary, and discussion director. The travel chaser maps out all the main places that the characters travel throughout the book. The vocabulary enricher picks out words that they do not know and defines them. The connector links the book to their personal life. The literary luminary picks out passages they think are funny or important pieces to the book. The discussion director thinks of questions to ask the rest of the group. (40 minutes)
During Reading:
There are 16 chapters in Shades of Grey. In order to finish this book and allow time for wiki posting each group will be required to read two chapters a night at home. When they come back to school they will get together in their wiki groups and post about their role for the day and predict what they think is going to happen next. The students will be given their role of the day so they can focus on it while they are reading and can prepare an answer to post on their wiki. Some example questions could include: The student will still be required to predict what is going to happen next. The students will have 20 minutes each day to work on their wikis. This means that for 10 days the students will be working on their wikis and discussing what they think is going to happen. (20 minutes each day)
After Reading:
After the students are done reading posting on the wiki they will come together for 15 to 20 minutes and discuss their roles and their prediction. The reason they are coming together as a group separately from their wiki is because I want them to also have verbal interaction with one another. If the assignment is all online students may not go and read other students wiki posts. This way the students are exchanging new ideas online and face-to-face. (20 minutes)
Post-Assessment:
The students will post on the wiki a reaction of how the book ended. This will allow the teacher to see if the student can personally relate to the book and if they can give their reaction about how the book ended. This will also show the teacher if the student comprehended and understood the main concepts of the book. (20 minutes)
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Websites to Teach Young Students About Coumputers
http://askatechteacher.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/weekend-websites-28-websites-to-teach-tech-to-kindergarten-first-grade/
I follow @AskATechTeacher on twitter and every weekend she posts a link to her blog that has information about how to use technology in the classroom. The reason I like this blog is because she covers many different types of technology for many different grades. As I was browsing her blog this weekend I came across a post that I found very interesting and it was called 28 Websites to Teach Tech to Kindergarten-First Grade. I am currently volunteering in a kindergarten classroom and I found this post very interesting because my kindergartners are not learning about how to use the computer. I looked through many of these website and found the following very helpful to teach young children about technology.
Clicky’s Web World:
This website has activities that teach students how to stay safe on the computer. This is so important in this day and age because kids have so much access to the computer. I know that this topic is not taught very much in schools and I think this website does a good job of teaching it in a fun and interactive way.
Mouse Skills
This website is an interactive classroom that teaches students how to click, double click, and drag items around the screen. This is important for young student to know how to do because they become easily frustrated with using the mouse and if they are taught early then they will not have this problem.
Parts of the Computer
This website contains a game that has a picture of the parts of the computer and the word of that part. The students are to match the word to the picture, which teaches the students the parts of the computer, so they can properly use a computer by themselves.
I follow @AskATechTeacher on twitter and every weekend she posts a link to her blog that has information about how to use technology in the classroom. The reason I like this blog is because she covers many different types of technology for many different grades. As I was browsing her blog this weekend I came across a post that I found very interesting and it was called 28 Websites to Teach Tech to Kindergarten-First Grade. I am currently volunteering in a kindergarten classroom and I found this post very interesting because my kindergartners are not learning about how to use the computer. I looked through many of these website and found the following very helpful to teach young children about technology.
Clicky’s Web World:
This website has activities that teach students how to stay safe on the computer. This is so important in this day and age because kids have so much access to the computer. I know that this topic is not taught very much in schools and I think this website does a good job of teaching it in a fun and interactive way.
Mouse Skills
This website is an interactive classroom that teaches students how to click, double click, and drag items around the screen. This is important for young student to know how to do because they become easily frustrated with using the mouse and if they are taught early then they will not have this problem.
Parts of the Computer
This website contains a game that has a picture of the parts of the computer and the word of that part. The students are to match the word to the picture, which teaches the students the parts of the computer, so they can properly use a computer by themselves.
Wiki Use
I have used wiki’s for many of my classes to share thoughts and ideas, but I have never created a wiki space for my own personal use. I really like having my own wiki space because you have the opportunity to do whatever you want with an infinite amount of space. The wiki space allows you to add files, pictures, videos, widgets, tables, and many more. I like wiki spaces as compared to a blog or a weebly because you are allowed to have as many pages on your account as you want. For examples if you needed a wiki for your first, third, and fourth hour each class can have their own page that only they can see, but the teacher has access to all three hours on their home page. The other advantage to using a wiki is that as many people can access it as possible. In order to edit the wiki the person has to be invited by e-mail so not just anyone can revise the wiki. I liked this because on google docs anyone can access and edit the page and the information may not be valid or correct. With the wiki no one can edit the page without the teacher’s consent. I like using the wiki and am glad I got the chance to explore it more than just using it for a TE class.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
What Do Kids Say Is The Biggest Obstacle To Technology At School?
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_do_kids_say_is_the_biggest_obstacle_to_techno.php
I found this article on what students, parents, teachers, and administration think about how schools are integrating technology into the classroom. I was surprised about a couple things. Number 1: out of the 300,000 students surveyed 21% of K-2 students had a cell phone and 67% of high school students had a laptop. I thought these percentages were kind of high for how young these students were and I was wondering what their need for these technologies were. Number 2: When students in high school, parents, teachers, and administrators were asked if their school was doing a good job using technology to enhance learning and or student achievement 74% teachers, 72% of principals and 62% of parents said yes, while only 47% of students agreed. This surprised me and alarmed me at the same time because if we are not meeting the needs of our students then we are not doing our job. I found this study very interesting and relevant because we are getting the students opinion on how they think technology is being used in schools. Read the attached article I think you will be surprised by some of the results!
I found this article on what students, parents, teachers, and administration think about how schools are integrating technology into the classroom. I was surprised about a couple things. Number 1: out of the 300,000 students surveyed 21% of K-2 students had a cell phone and 67% of high school students had a laptop. I thought these percentages were kind of high for how young these students were and I was wondering what their need for these technologies were. Number 2: When students in high school, parents, teachers, and administrators were asked if their school was doing a good job using technology to enhance learning and or student achievement 74% teachers, 72% of principals and 62% of parents said yes, while only 47% of students agreed. This surprised me and alarmed me at the same time because if we are not meeting the needs of our students then we are not doing our job. I found this study very interesting and relevant because we are getting the students opinion on how they think technology is being used in schools. Read the attached article I think you will be surprised by some of the results!
Google Docs in the Classroom
This youtube video shows how google docs can be used in a real life classroom. Not only does it talk about how teachers can use it with their students but also how teachers can use it when planning and talking with one another. My favorite part of the video is when the teacher is talking about students who were uninterested in his class seem more engaged now because of using google docs. I think this technology is very beneficial because it can be used in different grades, with many levels of students, and across subjects.
Google Docs: Making Group Projects More Accessible
As a college senior I dread group projects more than any other type of assessment. This loathing stems from the inconvenience of being partnered up with people you don't know, trying to find a time that everyone can meet, and relying on other people's work to determine your grade. It took me four years to discover the break through in group projects...Google Docs. I learned abut this in my integrating technology in the class and have used it for three group projects since then. I like this technology because it allows multiple students to work on and revise a document at once. This means that students don’t have to find a time when they can all meet because they can work on the document from the comfort of their own home, when they have time to do so. Another feature that Google docs has that is beneficial to group projects is a chat feature. If members are in the document at the same time they can chat about changes that they want to make. This technology also eleviates the stress of depending on someone else’s work to determine your grade because you can see and edit parts of the assignment that you feel need to be improved. There is another very similar technology to Google docs, which is called Google power point and is used in the same way as Google docs. This technology can be used successfully in elementary through college age classes. It eleviates having a group of children sitting around one computer working on a document or power point. With Google doc and power point each student can be working at a separate computer on the same document. Since learning about this technology I do not dread group projects as much any more because I can work on it in the comfort of my own home, on my own time, at my own pace.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Working with children who have Autism
I am very interested in teaching special education, more specifically students who have autism spectrum disorder. This summer I worked at a summer camp with a child who had autism and it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Working with Alex got me interested in working with students who have autism. In this blog post I want to discuss ways to help children with autism be integrated in the classroom. As teachers we have to know how to teach children with autism and learn strategies that will make them an integrated and important part of the classroom. The first strategy is to be consistent. Students with autism have a hard time adapting to new things. If they know and learn a schedule or procedure the day will run smoother because they are not guessing about what is coming next. If there is going to be a change in the schedule or activity the teacher or aid will need to notify the child so they can prepare for this. This change may cause the child anxiety, but this will only happen every so often. It is beneficial to have a schedule and protocol for activities so the child does not have to keep guessing about how things are going to be run throughout the day. The next technique to help students with autism in the classroom is to reward good behavior. Since students with autism have difficulties functioning in certain social situations it may benefit the classroom and student if the teacher sets up a reward system for good behavior. An example of this would be if the student had a chart and whenever they behaved in an appropriate manner they got to put a star on their chart. Each time they received 10 stars they get a reward. The key to this system is to know your student. The reward would need to be pre-chosen so the child knows what reward they are working for. If they really like the reward they are more likely to behave. This strategy worked really well when I worked with Alex this summer. Every time he behaved when we were walking to a new activity or during transitions he would get to put a rock in a plastic baggy. Every time he got 10 rocks he would get a reward. The last strategy I want to discuss is to have a ‘safe’ place for the child to go. When a child with autism becomes frustrated or upset they may begin to throw a tantrum. It is beneficial for the teacher to talk to the aid and the child and discuss a place for the child to go when they begin to feel like they are going to have a tantrum. This could be the hallway, office, gym, etc. If they child can recognize or at least be removed from the classroom to cool down then they don’t become a distraction. This strategy also teaches the child to identify when they are going to have a tantrum and then to remove themselves. These strategies helped me when I was working with Alex at camp and will help teachers with autistic students in the classroom.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Comic Strip Making Technology
I have explored the website www.pixton.com, which is a website for students to create comic strips. While exploring the website I created a comic and learned how to use the technology. Creating my comic was not hard after I explored and played around on the website. There were three difficult aspects of this technology that took me a little longer to figure out than the rest of the technology. These two most difficult aspects were thinking of a story and positioning the characters. My suggestion to teachers and students who want to make a comic are to brainstorm what you want to say in your comic. The next step is to map out what you want to say in each panel, and then figure out how to put it in as few words as possible so it will fit in the panel. It is important to remember to be very precise so the comic is not too crowded. The speech bubbles are only so big and at first I struggled to fit all the words in them. Once I figured out that I need to keep it short and to the point the words fit in the speech bubbles and my comic flowed much better. The second aspect that I struggled with while making my comic was the fact that the characters are pre-set to face a certain way. For example, if I wanted the character on the left side of the panel, but they were preset facing right then the person would be talking to the side of the panel instead of the other character. This was very frustrating, but after playing on the website for a little while I figured out that on pixton.com you could rotate certain parts of the body so they were facing the way that you wanted them to. In order to do this you need to double click on the body part and rotate it the way you want it to face. The only downfall to this is that you can’t rotate the whole character; you have to rotate each body part individually. The last aspect that I struggled with was being able to get all of the information spaced correctly on the panel. Playing around with the characters and speech bubbles easily solved this problem and I figured out how to space these things correctly. The struggles that I experienced were masked by the benefits I saw in the comic book making technology. Some features of the comic strip making technology that I enjoyed were that there were about thirty pre-set backgrounds and if you couldn’t find anything that you liked you could download images from the Internet. This is beneficial because the students can show that they understand a concept or a book based mainly on pictures. Even if they struggle with writing they can show they understand because this technology is not solely based on text. Another thing that I liked was that there were many different panel sizes to choose from. You could create comics as small as one panel or as large as twelve panels. I like this technology
I really liked this technology because it is useful to many different types of students. Comic strip making technology is beneficial for students who struggle in reading and writing. In this technology students can show comprehension or the understanding of a topic by the sequence of pictures and the text would be secondary. Since comics have few words the students would have to pull the important meaning out of the text and use as few words as possible to convey the meaning. Overall I think pixton.com will be very beneficial to my classroom and I will definitely have my students create comics to see if they comprehend books or understand a certain subject.
I really liked this technology because it is useful to many different types of students. Comic strip making technology is beneficial for students who struggle in reading and writing. In this technology students can show comprehension or the understanding of a topic by the sequence of pictures and the text would be secondary. Since comics have few words the students would have to pull the important meaning out of the text and use as few words as possible to convey the meaning. Overall I think pixton.com will be very beneficial to my classroom and I will definitely have my students create comics to see if they comprehend books or understand a certain subject.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Midterm Project Ideas
I would like to use Google earth to teach students about geography, more specifically different types of landforms. These landforms would include mountains, valleys, plateaus, plains, hills, and glaciers. This technology goes along with content I want to teach because the students can use Google earth explore what these landforms look like in the real world. It is more beneficial than a picture because the students can see different aspects of the landforms. Some misconceptions I have seen in this content matter is that students believe that the whole world looks like Michigan, which is of course false because there are different types of landforms all over the world.
Digital Story Telling Technology
I decided to use the digital story technology to tell a story about my favorite vacation. My favorite vacation is when I went to Mykonos, Greece the summer before my senior year of college. It was my favorite vacation because I went with my boyfriend and the scenery was so incredibly beautiful. Some activities that we did in Greece was sight seeing, shopping, going to the beach, and hiking. I also loved this vacation because the food was delicious. The favorite food that I ate was a Greek salad, which was much different from any Greek salad I have had in the United States. This salad had many cubed vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, olives, and feta cheese. I thought it was so interesting that there was no lettuce in this salad unlike salads in the United States. I thought that digital storytelling would be useful for my teaching because it can be used in so many different subjects. In this particular digital story the teacher could use it to teach about different cultures or to have the students present a favorite memory to the class. I think it would be useful for students to do storytelling in this way because they tell stories through pictures and few words. This technology would be beneficial for students who struggle with reading and writing because there does not need to be a lot of texts in the digital story. It does help the students with story telling because they have to find pictures and put them in a logical sequence. To make my digital story I used www.onetruemedia.com. I thought this technology was very easy to use and it was free. All I had to do was upload the pictures from my computer or I could have uploaded them from the Internet. Then I put the pictures in the order I wanted them to appear and determined how long I wanted each picture to show up for. After this I could apply transitions, text, and music. The last step was to preview the digital story and share the link on my blog. The only negative aspect to this website was that in order to have the text appear you had to be premium member, which cost $3.99 a month. I was a little frustrated because I found this out after I had created the digital story, so I paid the $3.99. I really like this technology and plan on trying to use it in the classroom during my internship year.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Science: Learning about Food
http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/eggs/index.html
I found this website that I think would be a great tool to teach elementary or middle school aged students about the science of food. There are six different types of food that are covered on the website. These foods are eggs, pickles, candy, bread, seasoning, and meat. When you click on the food there are several different experiements and websites for your students to explore. I like this website because it gives students an opportunity to explore and it gives teachers ideas for experiments and activities.
I found this website that I think would be a great tool to teach elementary or middle school aged students about the science of food. There are six different types of food that are covered on the website. These foods are eggs, pickles, candy, bread, seasoning, and meat. When you click on the food there are several different experiements and websites for your students to explore. I like this website because it gives students an opportunity to explore and it gives teachers ideas for experiments and activities.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Tech Blog: Using Cell Phones in Education
I decided to research how teachers could use cell phones in the classroom. I did this because I believe that most students have access to a cell phone, either they have one themselves or someone in their immediate family has one. Through a little bit of research I found that according to Pew Research 66% of twelve to thirteen year olds and 80% of fourteen to seventeen year olds own cell phones. The students who do not own a cell phone will have access to a cell phone through a parent, sibling, or friend. It would be a shame for students to have access to many mobile technologies and not be using them in the classroom. In fact students are using cell phones in the classroom without their teacher's knowledge. According to Pew Research 58% of teens from schools that don't allow cell phones use them anyways. Instead of discouraging students to use this beneficial technology in the classroom teachers should be encouraging the use of this wonderful technology.
I thought it would be beneficial to research some potential uses for cell phones in the classroom. I found many programs that could be used in elementary through high school and would like to try using some of this technology in my internship next year.
http://jott.com: Jott can be used in the classroom because it allows students to speak into their cell phone and it creates written text. This technology is a lot like speech-to-text on the computer and can be used for taking notes, sending e-mails or text messages, and staying organized by recording homework assignments.
http://www.talkshoe.com: Talkshoe is a website that allows you to create audio-blogs, listen or join live interactive discussion, or listen to podcasts all using your cell phone. Teachers would have to monitor or control what topics students were engaging in, but I like talkshoe because they does not allow inappropriate materials on their website. There are thousands of different topics to choose from or students can create topics that they are interested in. This is a great websites for students to use because they can get their opinion out there and get feed back from a live audience. If this is too intimidating students can post audio blogs that subscribers can belong to. This is a free service to students over the age of thirteen.
http://www.polleverywhere.com: This technology can poll students even when they are not it class. This system is very easy, the teacher can ask a question like, 'What is your favorite food?' and then list three answers like, "pizza, hamburgers, or other." The students then text back their answer to a number given out by the website. This technology has similar benefits to clickers or audience response systems, but is much cheaper. This technology can be used to poll students, keep track of attendance, or see what students know and understand. This technology is free for classes under thirty students and $15 dollars a month for classes under fifty students.
http://www.wattpad.com: A free e-book website to read and publish written work. This website is an easy way to publish and read original works. You need a computer to publish the written work, but you can use the free online application or phone application to download the books. You can read the books on your phone and there are many different genres and lengths.
http://www.chacha.com: This is a service that allows students to text a question to 242-242. The student then gets an answer back quickly and some answers even have websites that have more information about that specific topic. This service is useful for students who have a lot of questions and instead of interrupting the teacher they could find out from another source. Standard text messaging fees apply
http://www.textthemob.com: This is another service that teachers can use to poll the class or find out there opinion on a subject. I like this polling service because there are a lot that teachers can do with it. Teachers can set up a poll with an unlimited number of answers and have the students respond by texting a number given by the site. I liked this site a lot because teachers can ask a question and students can send back a response via text message. Other possibilities for this website are to have the audience pick the winner of a contest, collect questions for a panel, or create message boards. All of these results can be seen immediately. This service is free, but standard text messaging fees apply.
There are definitely pros and cons to using cell phones in the classroom. Some pros are that by using cell phone technology it replaces the need for every classroom to have a set of expensive laptops. Teachers can assign homework on the Internet and students that don’t have a computer can still do their homework via cell phone. I think the most beneficial thing about cell phone technology is that it will help personalize education and allow students to work at different rates and at different levels. Some cons from using cell phone technology is that students could send or receive text messages or phone calls in class. Students could also receive messages with the answers to test questions. There is also potential for bullying or harassment through text messages or the taking and distributing inappropriate photos. The negative that I am most worried about is that students who do not have cell phones may feel isolated and left out. Overall I think using cell phone technology would be beneficial in the classroom.
For more statistics on Teens and Cell Phones visit:
http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/
I thought it would be beneficial to research some potential uses for cell phones in the classroom. I found many programs that could be used in elementary through high school and would like to try using some of this technology in my internship next year.
http://jott.com: Jott can be used in the classroom because it allows students to speak into their cell phone and it creates written text. This technology is a lot like speech-to-text on the computer and can be used for taking notes, sending e-mails or text messages, and staying organized by recording homework assignments.
http://www.talkshoe.com: Talkshoe is a website that allows you to create audio-blogs, listen or join live interactive discussion, or listen to podcasts all using your cell phone. Teachers would have to monitor or control what topics students were engaging in, but I like talkshoe because they does not allow inappropriate materials on their website. There are thousands of different topics to choose from or students can create topics that they are interested in. This is a great websites for students to use because they can get their opinion out there and get feed back from a live audience. If this is too intimidating students can post audio blogs that subscribers can belong to. This is a free service to students over the age of thirteen.
http://www.polleverywhere.com: This technology can poll students even when they are not it class. This system is very easy, the teacher can ask a question like, 'What is your favorite food?' and then list three answers like, "pizza, hamburgers, or other." The students then text back their answer to a number given out by the website. This technology has similar benefits to clickers or audience response systems, but is much cheaper. This technology can be used to poll students, keep track of attendance, or see what students know and understand. This technology is free for classes under thirty students and $15 dollars a month for classes under fifty students.
http://www.wattpad.com: A free e-book website to read and publish written work. This website is an easy way to publish and read original works. You need a computer to publish the written work, but you can use the free online application or phone application to download the books. You can read the books on your phone and there are many different genres and lengths.
http://www.chacha.com: This is a service that allows students to text a question to 242-242. The student then gets an answer back quickly and some answers even have websites that have more information about that specific topic. This service is useful for students who have a lot of questions and instead of interrupting the teacher they could find out from another source. Standard text messaging fees apply
http://www.textthemob.com: This is another service that teachers can use to poll the class or find out there opinion on a subject. I like this polling service because there are a lot that teachers can do with it. Teachers can set up a poll with an unlimited number of answers and have the students respond by texting a number given by the site. I liked this site a lot because teachers can ask a question and students can send back a response via text message. Other possibilities for this website are to have the audience pick the winner of a contest, collect questions for a panel, or create message boards. All of these results can be seen immediately. This service is free, but standard text messaging fees apply.
There are definitely pros and cons to using cell phones in the classroom. Some pros are that by using cell phone technology it replaces the need for every classroom to have a set of expensive laptops. Teachers can assign homework on the Internet and students that don’t have a computer can still do their homework via cell phone. I think the most beneficial thing about cell phone technology is that it will help personalize education and allow students to work at different rates and at different levels. Some cons from using cell phone technology is that students could send or receive text messages or phone calls in class. Students could also receive messages with the answers to test questions. There is also potential for bullying or harassment through text messages or the taking and distributing inappropriate photos. The negative that I am most worried about is that students who do not have cell phones may feel isolated and left out. Overall I think using cell phone technology would be beneficial in the classroom.
For more statistics on Teens and Cell Phones visit:
http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Citation Laws
I think being aware of copy write laws is important for teachers to know and understand. I think to make power points, lectures, and lesson plans more interesting it is good for teachers to put in pictures and graphics from the Internet. It is also important to cite these pictures and give the author or artist credit. This way the students know that you did not make this picture or that the idea used throughout was discovered by someone else. It is also important that your students know how to properly cite information that they gather from the Internet. The earlier that citing is introduced to students the easier it will be for them to know how and when to cite information.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Who Knew?
I was looking on my twitter for interesting articles to blog about and I came upon an interesting tweet by Instructify that I thought would be beneficial for special and general education teachers. His tweet had a link attached to it that explained how to search on Google by reading level. It is actually very simple, all you need to do is go to Google and click on advanced search. Towards the bottom of the page there is a tab that says reading level and there are five different choices: no reading level displayed, annotate results with reading levels, show only basic results, show only intermediate results, and show only advanced results. When you type in a topic you can choose one of these reading levels and find appropriate articles for your students to read. I really like this resource because you can take a more difficult topic and try to find an article that explains it more simply.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
AOII Best Friends by Jessica C is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
How to be a 21st Century Teacher
The above list was compiled by Lisa on her blog I Love EdTech on the blog site SimpleK12. I think many of the suggestions on this list are good, but require a lot of time, technology, and knowledge. I hope that when I am a teacher I will have the technology and knowledge to know how to do some of these activities. I thought it would be interesting to see if people had any other suggestions on what it means to be 21st century teacher.
1. You require your students to use a variety of sources for their research projects...and they cite blogs, pod casts, and interviews they've conducted via Skype.
2. Your students work on collaborative projects...with students in Australia.
3. You give weekly class updates to parents...via your blog.
4. Your students participate in class...by tweeting their questions and comments.
5. You ask your students to study and create reports on a controversial topic...and you grade their video submissions.
6. You prepare substitutes with detailed directions...via Podcasts.
7. You ask your students to do a character/historical person study...and they create mock social media profiles of their character.
8. Your students create a study guide...working together on a group wiki.
9. You share lesson plans with your teacher friends...from around the globe.
10. Your classroom budget is tight...but it doesn't matter because there are so many free resources on the web you can use.
11. You realize the importance of professional development...and you read blogs, join online communities, and tweet for self-development.
12. You take your students on a field trip to the Great Wall of China...and never leave your classroom.
13. Your students share stories of their summer vacation...through an online photo repository.
14. You visit the Louvre with your students...and don't spend a dime.
15. You teach your students not to be bullies...or cyber bullies.
16. You make your students turn in their cell phones before class starts...because you plan on using them in class.
17. You require your students to summarize a recent chapter...and submit it to you via a text message.
18. You showcase your students' original work...to the world.
19. You have your morning coffee...while checking your RSS feed.
1. You require your students to use a variety of sources for their research projects...and they cite blogs, pod casts, and interviews they've conducted via Skype.
2. Your students work on collaborative projects...with students in Australia.
3. You give weekly class updates to parents...via your blog.
4. Your students participate in class...by tweeting their questions and comments.
5. You ask your students to study and create reports on a controversial topic...and you grade their video submissions.
6. You prepare substitutes with detailed directions...via Podcasts.
7. You ask your students to do a character/historical person study...and they create mock social media profiles of their character.
8. Your students create a study guide...working together on a group wiki.
9. You share lesson plans with your teacher friends...from around the globe.
10. Your classroom budget is tight...but it doesn't matter because there are so many free resources on the web you can use.
11. You realize the importance of professional development...and you read blogs, join online communities, and tweet for self-development.
12. You take your students on a field trip to the Great Wall of China...and never leave your classroom.
13. Your students share stories of their summer vacation...through an online photo repository.
14. You visit the Louvre with your students...and don't spend a dime.
15. You teach your students not to be bullies...or cyber bullies.
16. You make your students turn in their cell phones before class starts...because you plan on using them in class.
17. You require your students to summarize a recent chapter...and submit it to you via a text message.
18. You showcase your students' original work...to the world.
19. You have your morning coffee...while checking your RSS feed.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Americans Define 'Learning Disabilities'
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/6872?ref=twitter
I read the above article about how American’s define learning disabilities and was very surprised by the results. This study was conducted by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation and surveyed 1,000 adults, 700 teachers, and 700 parents about their views on learning disabilities. According to this article about 40% of students who are helped under the Individuals with Disabilities Act have a learning disability. It is so important to understand the definition of what a learning disability is because so many students are affected by it. The federal definition of a learning disability is a “neurological disorder that impairs a person’s ability to read, write, spell, or do math, but is not tied to overall cognitive ability.” According to this study 80% of people surveyed linked learning disabilities with mental retardation and 69% classified ADHD as a learning disability, which is untrue because ADHD is an emotional or behavioral disorder. These statistics are alarming to me especially since teachers were surveyed. It is important that teachers, parents, and adults understand that students with learning disabilities just need extra help and are in no way mentally retarded. This mindset needs to change in order to correctly help these children. Some positive outcomes of this study were that 79% of people surveyed agreed that students learn in different ways. I think the most promising statistic found in this survey was that 80% of people said that, “People with learning disabilities are just as smart as you and me.” This survey has opened my eyes to some negative and positive views that American’s have about students who have a learning disability. I think it is important educate as many people as possible, especially parents and teachers, about how to work with students who have learning disabilities because it is likely they will encounter students who have one.
I read the above article about how American’s define learning disabilities and was very surprised by the results. This study was conducted by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation and surveyed 1,000 adults, 700 teachers, and 700 parents about their views on learning disabilities. According to this article about 40% of students who are helped under the Individuals with Disabilities Act have a learning disability. It is so important to understand the definition of what a learning disability is because so many students are affected by it. The federal definition of a learning disability is a “neurological disorder that impairs a person’s ability to read, write, spell, or do math, but is not tied to overall cognitive ability.” According to this study 80% of people surveyed linked learning disabilities with mental retardation and 69% classified ADHD as a learning disability, which is untrue because ADHD is an emotional or behavioral disorder. These statistics are alarming to me especially since teachers were surveyed. It is important that teachers, parents, and adults understand that students with learning disabilities just need extra help and are in no way mentally retarded. This mindset needs to change in order to correctly help these children. Some positive outcomes of this study were that 79% of people surveyed agreed that students learn in different ways. I think the most promising statistic found in this survey was that 80% of people said that, “People with learning disabilities are just as smart as you and me.” This survey has opened my eyes to some negative and positive views that American’s have about students who have a learning disability. I think it is important educate as many people as possible, especially parents and teachers, about how to work with students who have learning disabilities because it is likely they will encounter students who have one.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
I-Pads in the classroom
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/ipad-becoming-valuable-learning-tool-in-region-s-schools-1.1097818#axzz1CxIMoQnK
I have read the above article about using the I-pad and I-pod touch in schools and I am convinced of the benefits. I know that these technology tools are expensive but the benefits to students are numerous and the technology will end up paying for itself. This article focuses on the benefits of this technology will have with special education students. The article says that the I-pad could replace bulky communication or sight boards for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The I-pad and I-pod have many educational games that can be downloaded for about $10.00 dollars or less. These games could possible help with subjects like spelling, science, math, reading, and many more. These games appeal to many students, but students with autism respond to these games because they do not have to interact with people and they can choose the level at which they play. Not only can the I-pad and I-pod touch be used for rewards they can also be used for education purposes.
I have read the above article about using the I-pad and I-pod touch in schools and I am convinced of the benefits. I know that these technology tools are expensive but the benefits to students are numerous and the technology will end up paying for itself. This article focuses on the benefits of this technology will have with special education students. The article says that the I-pad could replace bulky communication or sight boards for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The I-pad and I-pod have many educational games that can be downloaded for about $10.00 dollars or less. These games could possible help with subjects like spelling, science, math, reading, and many more. These games appeal to many students, but students with autism respond to these games because they do not have to interact with people and they can choose the level at which they play. Not only can the I-pad and I-pod touch be used for rewards they can also be used for education purposes.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Hello World: Technology Experience
Hello Word, my name is Jessica and I am a senior at Michigan State University studying special education and language arts. This year I am placed in Mrs. Beasley’s kindergarten classroom at Lewton elementary school in the Lansing school district. I really enjoy working with young elementary school students and am learning a lot about classroom management techniques, age appropriate activities, and technology. In my classroom my teacher uses several different types of technology to help the students learn, but I have been specifically learning how to use the smart-board. I think this technology is very useful because it can enhance a lesson and gets students more interested and motivated. My teacher uses the smart board for morning message, which makes the lesson more interactive and the students pay attention because they want to see what is going to happen next. I also now how to use wiki’s, Microsoft word, and google docs. I am hoping to learn even more about technology in CEP416 and use it in my future classrooms.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Literacy Definition
Literacy is more than the standard definition of knowing how to read and write. It is important for a literate person to realize what the main concepts are incorporated into reading and writing. These concepts include comprehension, fluency, phonics, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, decoding, spelling, writing, and many more. If a student is struggling in one of these aspects then they may have trouble advancing in the skill of reading or writing.
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