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.

My Favorite Vacation Montage

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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.

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/

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.

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.

Images using Flickr

AOII Best Friends by Jessica C is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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.

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-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.