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.
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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

:)