Tuesday, June 25, 2013
New Week, New Subject
Now that I am in the second of my summer semesters, my blog will change gears to focus on Social Studies and the Arts. I think it will be a nice change for me to write about something different.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Looking Back, Yet Moving Forward
As I reread my past posts, I can see how I am developing as a teacher. I have changed form someone who mostly used technology for school and socially into someone who knows ways to utilize technology to aid me professionally. Each project and assignment has brought something different to the table and I had the opportunity to learn from experts in the field and my colleagues.
Some of the highlights of our assignments and what I learned:
Bonk Presentation - for my particular chapter, I learned that free is not as free as we think it is.
My BLOG - I learned how a blog helps to communicate with others easily and a way to keep parents and students informed of what's going on in my classroom. I learned the basic ins and outs of blogging and about RSS feeds.
Infographic - I learned how to use Glogster! I now consider it a way to visually present information and focus on the main ideas. I could see students using an infographic for numerous assignments across all subjects.
Webliography - I learned how important it is for teachers to work together to research different web resources and that in educating each other, we are working smarter. There are many, many amazing resources out there (some for free) that teachers can use in and out of the classroom. Some of them were: IPEVO, Three Ring, Educreations, Toontastic
SMARTboard lesson - I can actually use the SMARTboard (thanks Dr. Gleason!). I learned to really work with the interactive technology and ways to incorporate it into regular classroom instruction. By filming and editing the lesson, I learned more about iMovie and loading videos on YouTube. By working with my colleagues as a student in their lesson videos, I learned about our different teaching styles and ways I could use their ideas to help make myself a better teacher.
Flat Classroom Proposal - I learned about the Flat Classroom Project and what it takes to write and pitch a proposal. Through collaborating with my colleagues to develop and present our project, I learned that going in for a pitch as a team is great because there is a built in support system for the idea. I also learned to think about your project from all angles you can think of and then some, because the administration can ask anything! This project and proposal made me think about innovative ways to incorporate technology and 21st century skills in the classroom. I thought about how I would want to connect students to other students across the country and world for them to see that we are not so different after all.
Thinking about the work I have done in this short amount of time, I want to use what I have learned as I move forward into the next set of classes in the program and leading up to my student teaching internship.
The bottom line: I have learned so much about technology and education through this course. As I think about my future as an educator and the future of technology in education, I am reminded of a pretty famous quote from Walt Disney:
"Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We KEEP MOVING FORWARD, opening up new doors and doing new things because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
Some of the highlights of our assignments and what I learned:
Bonk Presentation - for my particular chapter, I learned that free is not as free as we think it is.
My BLOG - I learned how a blog helps to communicate with others easily and a way to keep parents and students informed of what's going on in my classroom. I learned the basic ins and outs of blogging and about RSS feeds.
Infographic - I learned how to use Glogster! I now consider it a way to visually present information and focus on the main ideas. I could see students using an infographic for numerous assignments across all subjects.
Webliography - I learned how important it is for teachers to work together to research different web resources and that in educating each other, we are working smarter. There are many, many amazing resources out there (some for free) that teachers can use in and out of the classroom. Some of them were: IPEVO, Three Ring, Educreations, Toontastic
SMARTboard lesson - I can actually use the SMARTboard (thanks Dr. Gleason!). I learned to really work with the interactive technology and ways to incorporate it into regular classroom instruction. By filming and editing the lesson, I learned more about iMovie and loading videos on YouTube. By working with my colleagues as a student in their lesson videos, I learned about our different teaching styles and ways I could use their ideas to help make myself a better teacher.
Flat Classroom Proposal - I learned about the Flat Classroom Project and what it takes to write and pitch a proposal. Through collaborating with my colleagues to develop and present our project, I learned that going in for a pitch as a team is great because there is a built in support system for the idea. I also learned to think about your project from all angles you can think of and then some, because the administration can ask anything! This project and proposal made me think about innovative ways to incorporate technology and 21st century skills in the classroom. I thought about how I would want to connect students to other students across the country and world for them to see that we are not so different after all.
Thinking about the work I have done in this short amount of time, I want to use what I have learned as I move forward into the next set of classes in the program and leading up to my student teaching internship.
The bottom line: I have learned so much about technology and education through this course. As I think about my future as an educator and the future of technology in education, I am reminded of a pretty famous quote from Walt Disney:
"Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We KEEP MOVING FORWARD, opening up new doors and doing new things because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
Friday, June 14, 2013
Teachers Teaching Teachers
This week (and some of last week) we had the opportunity to teach each other about the different technological resources we individually researched. Then we posted all of our reviews on the class wikispace.
I really enjoyed learning from my classmates, we all saved one another a LOT of time because this would have been a massive amount of research if we looked at each source on our own. While every source presented was useful in one way or another, there was one that stopped me in my technological tracks.
The resource that really had my attention was IPEVO. A colleague showed us how it works and I was sold. I felt like a kid who gets this particular magazine in the mail around the holidays:
And like those precious children, I only had three words for IPEVO... I WANT IT!
The reason I thought this was because I saw so many uses for it in my future classroom and I saw time being saved. Time would be saved because this thing is portable and wireless and connects with the iPad.
So, what is IPEVO?
It is a wireless, portable document camera! The best thing is the price, schools can actually afford to buy more than one. When my colleague shared this tidbit about cost with us, I wondered how many school have them presently. As she moved around and projected things from different areas in the room, I realized IPEVO can help teachers move through their classrooms during instruction and not be chained to the front (because the stationary document camera is there). Students can also present their work without having to be in front of the class, helping reduce those public speaking jitters.
Visiting IPEVO's blog, I learned about different ways it can be used in the classroom (for numerous subjects) and read some teacher's opinions of the product. Their opinions were positive; mainly liking the ease of use, portability, and cost. Even educational big wig Kathy Schrock [see her March 3 post] is on board with this advancement in technology.
The bottom line:Teachers need to teach other teachers about what it out there and how it can effectively support our students and ourselves. Without my class' Wikispace and research, I would most likely be behind the curve when it comes to technology and other resources in education. So, thanks Heidi for teaching this teacher about something I definitely plan on using one day.
*and thanks to all of my other colleagues, I definitely learned from your presentations too!*
To see an in depth review, visit http://themindofachildblog.blogspot.com
I really enjoyed learning from my classmates, we all saved one another a LOT of time because this would have been a massive amount of research if we looked at each source on our own. While every source presented was useful in one way or another, there was one that stopped me in my technological tracks.
The resource that really had my attention was IPEVO. A colleague showed us how it works and I was sold. I felt like a kid who gets this particular magazine in the mail around the holidays:
 |
| picture from emmasage.blogspot.com |
And like those precious children, I only had three words for IPEVO... I WANT IT!
The reason I thought this was because I saw so many uses for it in my future classroom and I saw time being saved. Time would be saved because this thing is portable and wireless and connects with the iPad.
So, what is IPEVO?
 |
| picture from www.ipevo.com |
It is a wireless, portable document camera! The best thing is the price, schools can actually afford to buy more than one. When my colleague shared this tidbit about cost with us, I wondered how many school have them presently. As she moved around and projected things from different areas in the room, I realized IPEVO can help teachers move through their classrooms during instruction and not be chained to the front (because the stationary document camera is there). Students can also present their work without having to be in front of the class, helping reduce those public speaking jitters.
Visiting IPEVO's blog, I learned about different ways it can be used in the classroom (for numerous subjects) and read some teacher's opinions of the product. Their opinions were positive; mainly liking the ease of use, portability, and cost. Even educational big wig Kathy Schrock [see her March 3 post] is on board with this advancement in technology.
The bottom line:Teachers need to teach other teachers about what it out there and how it can effectively support our students and ourselves. Without my class' Wikispace and research, I would most likely be behind the curve when it comes to technology and other resources in education. So, thanks Heidi for teaching this teacher about something I definitely plan on using one day.
*and thanks to all of my other colleagues, I definitely learned from your presentations too!*
To see an in depth review, visit http://themindofachildblog.blogspot.com
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Flipping That Doesn't Flop
Dr. Lodge McCammon and Katie Gimbar came to campus and taught us about flipping classrooms. This concept was explained as a way to incorporate technology in the classroom and increase efficiency in content delivery. I did find some reasons why flipping is beneficial for teachers, students, and parents. All are explained in the video below:
This video (above) did a good job explaining the basics, but most of us in class wanted to know how this would work in an elementary classroom. Our presenters told us about Hillburn Academy STEM Elementary School, a school in the area working with this idea of flipping the classroom. I wanted answers and found some from a teacher at that school, Ms. Munafo. In her video (below), she is explaining flipping to parents but I think this will help us as pre-service teachers understand the ways this works.
The bottom line: I think this could be a good thing because teachers are working smarter, not harder. I definitely see the benefits for all involved. I would want to do this after having more experience in the classroom, that way, when I do flip, I don't flop.
To learn more, visit http://fizz.fi.ncsu.edu and watch their videos on YouTube (just search flipped classroom)
*all videos from www.youtube.com*
This video (above) did a good job explaining the basics, but most of us in class wanted to know how this would work in an elementary classroom. Our presenters told us about Hillburn Academy STEM Elementary School, a school in the area working with this idea of flipping the classroom. I wanted answers and found some from a teacher at that school, Ms. Munafo. In her video (below), she is explaining flipping to parents but I think this will help us as pre-service teachers understand the ways this works.
The bottom line: I think this could be a good thing because teachers are working smarter, not harder. I definitely see the benefits for all involved. I would want to do this after having more experience in the classroom, that way, when I do flip, I don't flop.
To learn more, visit http://fizz.fi.ncsu.edu and watch their videos on YouTube (just search flipped classroom)
*all videos from www.youtube.com*
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