Continuing to Blog

Although, Tech is over I will continuing blogging. This summer my goal is to blog once a week and talk about my journey towards my long term and short term dreams. I hope you enjoy watching me grow and become one step closer to my dream.

This is It

Wow, I can't believe Instructional Tech is almost over. I feel like I learned so much in such a short period of time. The most important thing I learned that technology is important to include in the classroom because it allows you to show your students so much more; they can explore beyond the four walls of the classroom. It also encourages work readiness because by the time my students graduate, computers and technology will be everywhere! I think some benefits of technology are the opportunities that technology opens. Instead of a boring test, you can create authentic assessments and you can also expand the lesson. For example, the text book says read about whales and write about it. Using technology, they can watch videos about whales, they can talk to scientists, they can get more information; it is crazy that with a click of a button, so many opportunities are placed in front of you.

The down side of technology is it could be a distraction as well. There is some much that could be presented that it could be overwhelming. I think it is important as teachers to know what technology you want to use and also teachers need to teach their  students how to use the equipment. I also think the down side, is technology cost so much money. In some districts, computers and Smartboards are great ideas but can they afford to add that in their budget next year?

I think the most important thing I will take from this class is that ideas are unlimited! If you have a vision with technology you can make anything happen! 

Videos

I found the video to be a puzzle game. You have so many pieces and you have to arrange the pieces in a certain way to make an awesome movie. The different pieces are the music, the video clips, and the effects.  I found this project was time consuming because every aspect took extremely long. Cropping takes patience and a vision. The music took two hours! I honestly have more respect for movie makers because making a 1 mintue 30 second videos took abundant amount of time .

Although it was time consuming, I did gain many talents and skills like patience, creativity, and video taping skills. I also for the first time I like having group project. Everyone in my group worked nicely together and build off each others ideas.


2. I would incorporate a digital project during a Salem witch trial unit. I would assign each student a person from the Salem Witch trials and through the unit they will have time to research their person so they can develop a true understanding about the character they have. The last few days of the unit they would learn how to use cameras and then react the Salem witch trials. I think by giving each student  a person they will learn through exploration and experience. I think a challenge would be finding a way that all students could participate in editing the video. Another challenge I thought about was how could I break down making a video so 6th grade would be able to learn it because I found making a video to be extremely hard.



Unit overview

day 1 : As a class students will make predictions about what happen in the Salem witch trials.  Students will also will pick their person

Day 2 : Students will go to the computer lab to research their person.

Day 3:  Students will learn about time period and social norms of that time

Day 4: Students will go to the computer lab to research their person

Day 5-6 Students will learn how to navigate through Imovie

Day 7 Students will practice  making short clips

Day 8:  Students will watch video clips on the Salem witch trials

day 9: students will go to the computer lab again and finish their synopsis about their person

Day 10: students will react the salem witch trials

Day 10-11 : students will edit the video

Day 12: students will watch the video and take a quiz on the Salem Witch Trials.

Photoshop

When we first started doing photoshop in class, I absolutely without a doubt hated it. I didn't make sense to me. When we got the project, I was distraught.  I kept thinking how could I make a banner, when everything is hard for me? After class, I was determine to learn everything we were taught. As I worked with the quick selection tool, the marquee tool, and the filters. I found photoshop to be a lot of fun. For once I could take my creative thoughts and create tangible creations.

 I think photoshop should be taught in class because I feel it will engage and motivate spatial and kinesthetic learners. I feel like in class, we only encourage expressing your thoughts orally and in writing. What happens to the students who have great thoughts but are shy or who are not the best writer? Photoshop allows anyone to express themselves visually. It also builds patience and helps students force on detail as well as the big pictures.

The best part of photoshop is it builds self-esteem. When you realize that you took a blank screen and made an ad, a banner, or just a silly picture, it feels good because its proof that your ideas matter.

I want to open a community center and one of my goals was to have a Tumbler page that shows students works of art, students participating in positive activities, and most importantly students working together.
With the photoshop, now I can enhance my pictures and create a webpage worth seeing.

Excel

Reflection
Before this class Excel was a program that I stayed away from. I thought Excel was for business and math majors. I only associated Excel with formulas. I'm pleased to say that I was wrong. Excel is a computer program that allows you to simplify and organize your life. For example , it is a great for teachers because it allows them to keep track of their students' grades and attendence all in the same doctuments. It also great for keeping track of other things like books or class budgets.

The thing that made me love Excel the most is it allows teachers to engage students who are more visual or kinesthetic learners. A visual learner may understand multiplication if they can see it on Excel. A kinesthetic will enjoy creating charts and finding formulas instead of listening to a lecture.

1. Reading
A students can make a list of goals they would want to accomplish before the end of the month. For example, I want to know 15 high frequency words out of 30 and then every week  they can graph their progress on a pie chart so they can see their progress.
Standards

4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving,

and Decision Making

Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, 

manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.

b. Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project

2. Social students (economics)

Students can research and graph money trends to learn about the great depresion. They can also compare and contrast present till now.  

Standards 

3. Research and Information Fluency

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.

a. Plan strategies to guide inquiry

b. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media

c. Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks

d. Process data and report results

3. Economics 

Making their own business

Students can get into groups and then create their own business. They can keep track of the expensive and profits. 

Standards 

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

a. Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes

b. Create original works as a means of personal or group expression

c. Use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues

d. Identify trends and forecast possibilities

4. Math

They can make pretend schedules to teach time management and then graph how many hours they spend watching tv

Standards

3. Research and Information Fluency

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.

c. Evaluate and select information sources and digital

5. Music/math

They can survey people and see what is their favorite music genre? Then they can ask the classmate how do they feel on scale of 1-5 when you listen to a certain genre then graph their responses.

1. Creativity and Innovation

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

a. Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes

b. Create original works as a means of personal or group expression

c. Use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues

d. Identify trends and forecast possibilities

3. Research and Information Fluency

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.

a. Plan strategies to guide inquiry

b. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media

c. Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks

d. Process data and report results

"ISTE | NETS for Students." Iste. International Society for Technology in Education, 2011. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students.aspx>.

Copyright for Teachers

I am extremely appreciative that I learned about copy right in my class because honestly I heard of copy right before but I did not know the seriousness of it. I thought it was something that only big companies discussed and worried about. I was very surprised that our social networks could be considered a violation of the copy right law. Another aspect of copy right that I found very interesting is the fact that copy right laws are extremely controversial because the law can be interpreted in many different ways. For example, a case can be a violation of copy right in one state but in another state it is considered okay behavior.

For teachers it important to know that we are allowed to use short part of movies,  copy parts of books, and share music in class only if  it is part of the curriculum and going to enhance the students learning.

Since I learned about copy right, I constantly see people violating the copy right law. First time I saw it when a teacher copied a whole book for the class to take notes from. Another time I observed people violating the law is when a teacher showed a whole movie to their elementary class because she felt they were tired due to P.S.S.A; showing a movie was thoughtful but I do not think it fit into their curriculum.

Out of school, I see people violating laws as well. The most common one is  when a person downloads music, movies, and ringtones for free. Another time is when a songwriter used the instrumental of an India Bollywood movie and did not name the source that she receive the music from. Instead she pretended that she produced the song herself.

Like I said earlier, I am very thankful that I learned about copy right during college because  I do not want to get in trouble by making an honest mistake. I think it is teachers jobs to provide students with information of copy right because information on copy right is not  easily obtained and it is not a topic that is discussed often throughout every day conversations.  I think teachers can first show their students by example. If students see that their teachers always site their source or only copy a certain part in a book instead of the whole thing, they will learn because teachers are role models. Another idea to teach students about copy right is by having them do website on the topic they are learning about. This way you can teach a quick mini lesson on copyright.

Smartboard

Evolution of Boards! 

                                          

Evolution of Students

 

One thing in life that is always constant is change; therefore,  the typical classroom is changing  as  you read this blog! It went from chalk boards to whiteboards and now Smartboards. Smartboards enhance teaching and learning because the "typical" students are surrounded by technology unlike other generations. Smartboards are an easy way to connect students outside lives with the different subjects we have to teach. Smartboards make lessons fun and interactive. The best thing about smartboards is they are easy to use. All the tools are self-explanatory and the  interactive tools come with examples. 

Pros

• They are easy to use
• Allows students to practice their computer skills
• Keeps the students attention
• Quick assessments though out the lesson
• Keeps up with today's technology society
• the lessons are easy to make 

Cons

• It freezes
• Only one student can use the Smartboard at a time
• Sometimes it is really slow
• It's a computer so the normal things can go wrong (not saving property, Deleting, & etc) 

I wish a knew about Smartboards when... 

I wish I knew about Smartboards when, I did my hip-hop lessons. I used boring Powerpoints. I think the Smartboard would have enhanced my lessons! I could have inserted music directly into my slides. I could have drawn on pictures to point out exactly what I wanted my students to see. I also could have included interactive instead of  worksheets

I wish I knew about Smartboards when, I did a lesson on nonstandard units. I feel like Smartboards could have definitely enhanced my lesson because smartboard has non-standard objects in their gallery (for example: paper clip and a pen) It also would have been easier to demonstrate how to measure using nonstandard units. Instead I went to every table and showed them individually

The Smartboard was so much fun to work with and gave me so many ideas for the next time I teach! 

Pages, Word, Inspiration

Technology is a tool that we use for practical purposes. Pages, Word, and Inspiration are all softwares that help me create and organize resources for my prospective students and for myself. I believe I will use all the skills that I learned in class because they make teacher's job easier.

For example, in Pages, I created a flyer and an article easily. Pages has many templates to choose from. Also pages' tools are simple. I feel that any software should be simple and easy because teachers do not have a lot of time to learn difficult softwares.

Another practical software is Word because it allows you to make quizzes and test quickly. Words has tools that allow you to make tables. Tables are great because quizzes and other worksheet appear neat and they are also are easy to follow.

The last software that is beneficial for teachers and prospective teachers is inpiration. the graphic organizers can be used for assessment as well as a  guide that helps student's understanding on different topics. Like the other software, Inspiration is easy to use because the tools are very understanding.

As one can see, all the softwares are beneficial for different reasons. However, I found pages to be the most beneficial because all the different tools it comes with. In pages, you can make a flyer, test, articles, and other things that are useful for teachers. It also has templates that were created with teachers in mind. For example they have a yearbook template. Pages allows you to create quality works without investing a lot of time and without spending a lot of money.

Pages  

Word

Inspiration 

Social Bookmarking

A social bookmarking is an easy tool that allows you to collect an abundant amount of different resources. This tool is beneficial to teachers because a teacher's job is to provide their students with resources that they will need to succeed in today's society.  Social bookmarking makes it easier for teachers to collect as well as easy for students to use.

Besides being practical, there are many positive uses for Social bookmarking. It allows teachers to monitor the websites that their students are on because you pick the websites on your site. Another positive use is teachers can bookmark different tutorials for parents so they can help their children. For students, it is easy to use and not overwhelming because there is a few websites unlike typing into Google and looking for resources.

Social bookmarking is definitely something I will use in my class because it helps teachers collect resources that students can use later on. It also can promote parent involement. The most important reason is because it is easy to use for everyone!

Personal Learning Networks

Until I made my Personal Learning Network, I did not know how small it is. I wish to expand it through time. 

Teachers - I talk to teachers to get a deeper understanding of the material and also to learn different aspects of writing 

Twitter- I follow different poets to learn about expression and also I follow different famous people who are the best in their field. 

Library Help Desk - If I am having trouble finding resources or if I need help understanding my topic they are the best. 

Youtube- I use Youtube when I need step by step instruction on anything. They have tutorials for everything. 

Inspiration

An American poet once said, "the ancestor to every action is a thought." If our actions are dictated by how we think, I believe it is very important to organize your thoughts before you utter a word or move a muscle. Therefore, I believe inspiration  is an excellent program because it allows one to organize his or her thoughts in an orderly manner. Learning how to express your thoughts is an important skill that everyone should know.  Due to the fact that it is  important, Inspiration can be used in any subject.

IDEAS- Instructional 

1. Math
- A visual aid that shows how to pick out main ideas in a word problem
2. Reading
 concept map that shows how all the characters in a book connect.
3. English
- a concept map on the different components to a good paper.
4. Science
-provide students with different animals cycles by creating a web

5. Social Studies
- a concept map that shows the different aspects in culture

IDEAS-productivity 

1. Students should create outlines before witting their paper.
2. creating a web of characteristics that describes themselves. Then they can write a poem about themselves
3. Creating an outline for  a speech for oral presentation
4.  they can make study guides
5.  Teachers can create  quizzes for their students.

Blogs and the Classroom

Blogs are beneficial for teachers and students.  For teachers blogs can be their reflective journal. When they look back at their past entires, they can learn from their mistakes and grow into a better teacher. Also, comments from other educators can involve into a support group  among teachers.

Another way it can help teachers is educators can post and share lessons plans. Teachers are required to be creative and current when writing lesson plans. Due to that, they might want to share ideas through blogs. A disadvantage with this is not all lessons are going to be great lessons which means you have to be careful which one you use.

Although it is beneficial from teachers it can help students in many ways.  According to the one of our readings, "blogs are an online journals". If students keep a blog, they can practice their grammar skills. The article also mentions that students write better when the writing is for a bigger audience.  A disadvantage for blog journals is  students may be self-conscious  about their writing skills. For those students, they can create a video blog instead.  Video blogs are beneficial because students can still share their thoughts with the entire world but not worry about their writing abilities. An online journal can also help them express themselves in a positive way.
,
Blogs are useful with any subject especially subjects that  require students to share their opinions. For example, in history or government classes, students can have an online debate about current or past issue in United states.

Another way you can use blogs in the classroom is you can read and comments on experts works. For example, students  can ask scientist questions or an author ideas on improving skills.


Advantages:

• Helps their writing Skills
• Enhances involvements
• Brings Modern day technology into the classroom
• instant feedback from students
• Teaches basic computer skills 
• Connects with real world experts
• Easy to start and use.

Disadvantages:  

• Depending on students' socioeconomic status, they might not have a computer at home
• it is hard to block inappropriate sites
• Constantly worrying about the safety of students. 

Google Docs

Before this assignment , I did not know how practical Google Docs is but, although it is practical it has somethings that is not user friendly. For example, I learned that it is easy to collaborate with others on written works because you do not need to send an attachment unlike Word. Everyone can write their feedbacks on the same version.

Another positive and something I did not know is Google Docs is compatible with any computer system and there is no need to install upgrades. I have a Mac and some of my papers that I write on Word cannot be open on PC computers. Google Docs eliminates that problem.

A disadvantage is there are many steps when printing out work. Unless, you know how to navigate in your print settings it may be hard to print out any projects. Another disadvantage is it is difficult to share writings onto blogs because you have to put a code into your blog.

Although there are somethings that is difficult to use, there are many aspects of Google Docs that I like.


Other Advantages:

• Looks like Word
• Real Time Feature
• Autosave and revision history 
• Easy to Place pictures 
• Ready made templates 
• Changing the level of Access someone has
• list of people who accessed your Doc

This is my first blog post

:)