end of the year reflection

Since the beginning of the year, I have seen the importance of technology in the classroom. By learning about smart boards, active boards, web sites, and blog sites I have just seen a glimpse of the technology that is out there. After observing a few classes I am seeing just how important it is to use technology in the classroom. Technology helps keep students more interested and on task when teaching. Using the smart board allows students to interact with the material which is a great thing. I have worked on being more creative in my lesson plans. For my Reading Methods class I dressed up as Amelia Bedelia as I began to teach the class. This was a stretch for me because I am not accustom to doing this. I however got into character and had a lot of fun with the lesson. I hope to do more things like this. Along with dressing up I used the smart board to display my lesson plan and teach it to the class. I am going to continue to incorporate technology into my lesson plans and be as creative as I can with how I teach my lessons to a class.

thoughtful comments

thoughtful comments:

Jenny

Amber

Jessica

Angelyna

Teixeira

reflection 5

I just got back from benaroya hall. I noticed that at the beginning of the show there was a projection of snowflakes on the walls. When the symphony started to play the projection was turned off and it changed to pinkish colored lights. I began to wonder how this happens. There had to be projectors on the wall somewhere, but I could not see them. I am curious how they do this. I would love to look in to this more.

reflection 4

I found out that you can import a power point presentation onto the smart board software. This is very helpful! I found that it is a lot easier to create a presentation in power point and then import the presentation. You can simply put a cover on the top of the slide so not all of it shows at once. I ended using power point for a majority of my presentation. This is because I am more familiar with the power point software. I used a few smart board slides and then used a few smart board slides.

Reflection 3

This week I worked on creating a smart board presentation. It was a little difficult to do. I would have thought that it would have been an easier process. It took forever to group items, find pictures online, and change the background. I did not think that the process would have been so complicated. I don't think I will create a lot of smart board presentations while I am a teacher. It takes forever, and I didn't think it was any better than using power point.

Final presentation:

links to my favorite web sites:

kidspiration

I would use this tool to create different lesson plans for students. I would allow students to retell or create stories using pictures and words to illustrate their ideas. In math students could use this tool to create word problems using pictures and words. In science students could use this tool to group different animals based on their different characteristics.

teachertube

I would use this to help visual learners in the classroom. This is a kid friendly site which I love. I would use videos from this site to enhance my lesson plans.

one new thing I learned how to do:

• change the color of the font, and the background of a smart board slide.

show powerpoint project and blog if time:

Reflection 2

In class last week we looked at a few different web sites. We explored a site called kidspiration and then looked at a free online grading tool. I really liked the kidspiration site. It had a lot of different lesson plan ideas as well as ways for kids to interact with material taught to them. The grading tool was helpful as well. It gave us an idea of how other grading tools work. I got to see how to list items, how to come up with a grading scale, and how to post grades. This was a great experience.

Reflection 1

I visited Costco today with my mom. There I found huge flat screen TV's. My sisters and I commented on how amazing these were. My mom went on to talk about how they were not like normal tv's. She said that they have a projector in the back of them that allows the image to be displayed. They are not like the other TV's which have different pixils in them and display different colors. I would love to look into how these TV's are created and how they differ in image quality. I found this to be an interesting fact.

Final Project

Explanation/description of project:

For my technology project I created a lesson plan using the smart board software. I posted my slides as well as two audio podcasts on a new blog web site. For this project I used wordpress.com. I provides a link to my blog below. Check it out!

technology project

I posted my slides to this site. Also I used a pod cast to describe how I created this presentation. I also talked about the tools I used and the new things I learned about while creating this project.

Thoughts about the project:

This project was very time consuming. I did not think it would take so long to create the project. I did have a little fun though. I figured out how to use the different features of the smart board software. I also figured out how to use another blog web site. Probably the most frustrating thing was trying to post my slides onto my blog. I tried both on blogger and wordpress.com. I was able to post the slides but they were all jumbled and did not appear in the order in which I posted them. Wordpress.com was a little better. They provided a link to each slide. This was annoying though, because I have 11 slides total. I did not think that people would want to go through and click on 11 links to view the different slides. I used freecorder to record a couple podcasts describing how I did my project and linked them to my wordpress.com blog site. This project was a great experience. Though stressful and time consuming, I learned how to create lessons using the smart board software. By creating a lesson plan I also learned how to use the different features of the smart board. I also learned how to create a new blog web site. I will hopefully be able to use this smart board presentation in the classroom at some point.

NETS for Teachers:

The completion of this project modeled many different NETS for teachers. 1a. I engaged students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources. I created a lesson plan using the smart board software. This lesson plan helps students know how to find the perimeter and area of squares and rectangles. This is a real world problem a lot of students do not know how to go about this. I taught them a skill they can use in their everyday life. The technology used was the smart board software. 3a, 3c: I demonstrated that I was somewhat fluent in using the smart board software. I also became somewhat fluent in the use of the wordpress.com blogger site. I also was able to communicate to information effectively using these two different technologies. 4c: I provided a lesson that catered to both visual and auditory learners. If I presented this lesson plan I could also cater to kinesthetic learners by modeling what I meant using a tangible object.

NETS for students:

The completion of this project modeled many different NETS for students as well. 1a,b: I used the smart board software to create an original lesson plan. This is my original lesson plan and it is an expression of my learning as a student. 2a,b: I created a lesson plan using the smart board software. I used a new blog site to post my ideas. I also used a pod cast to explain how I went about completing the project. This interacts with a number of different audiences. My peers and teachers can read my blog and listen to my pod cast. 3c: I first created a lesson plan using the smart board software. Secondly I had to figure out what blog site I wanted to use and how I would go about posting my ideas. I used a podcast to explain my ideas and how I went about completing my project. 4c: for this project I had to use a lot of critical thinking. I had to figure out a way to post my ideas onto my blog site. Since I couldn't post my slides directly to the site I had to come up with an alternative way to post my ideas. I ended up using free recorder to create a pod cast. 6a,c: I gained an understanding of how to use the smart board software as well as how to use a new blog web site. while completing this project I had to do a lot of trouble shooting. Some things did not work at first. I had to try and try again to get things the way I wanted them to look.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my technology project!

In class assignment

Today we looked at many different resources for teachers. I especially liked the tool kidspiration. I loved how you could use different pictures to illustrate your thoughts. This would be great to use in the classroom. In math class a student could make up number sentences and then illustrate them. For example 1/2+1/2=1, .50+.50=$1.00. Also this site had a lot of other resources. They had different projects that the kids could do. Different templates for each subject, that have the kids work on different activity pages. I would definitely use this tool in my classroom. I also liked the grade book software. I think this free software is helpful. It is fairly easy to add assignments, grades, and students. The only problem with this site is that it sets a limit on how many students you can add to your class. I wouldn't use this in my class, however, it is nice to practice on.

class 11/17/09

I missed class on November seventeenth so to make up the class I watched the videos posted online and talked to one of my class mates (in person) about what she learned. Jenny talked about how she learned about the importance of networking with people. It is important to make connections and get your name out there. I watched the different videos online and I learned a few other things. One of the ladies talked about how to improve lesson plans. She talked about how she never writes out the lesson plans showing the GLEs and EALRs. Since she already has a curriculum to teach off of she works on improving the lesson for certain students. Say she had four ELL students she would focus on improving the lesson for them so that they would understand what she was teaching better. Another thing that was emphasized is that we need to get our name out there. We should use our connections and not be afraid to try new things. When we first start teaching sometimes we will not get a job right away. Substitute jobs are sometimes all we will get. We should work to get our name out there and let teachers know that we are available and willing to sub. for them. Sending emails as follow ups are key. This way the teacher knows how the day went and knows you want to come back. A lot of times teachers will talk and you may get referrals for sub./full time jobs from the connections you have. Persistence pays off.