21 April-My Beliefs

I believe that technology should definitely be used in the classroom. If we don't use technology in the classroom, how will our students be prepared for the future technology that is coming about? Technology is something our students are growing up with. It revolves around our lives and the lives of our students. I believe that using technology in the classroom can make a more ideal learning experience for our students because we will be using what our students are used to.

I believe that technology will continue grow in different tools we will be able to use in the classroom as teachers. As the years go by, more and more technology will be implemented into the classroom. Some things that are already invented, and somethings that are soon to be invented. I know that I will need to keep up with all the new stuff.

I believe that there are some forms of technology that do not need to be used in the classroom. This includes calculators. I know that people rely on calculators and don't use a piece of paper to figure simple math problems out, but I do believe that everyone needs to know how math operations work. Each student needs to know how to do their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems so they know how it all works.

21 April-Lessons Learned

I learned about media mobility. Media mobility is making media accessible and available anywhere at any time and how technology is getting closer to more media mobility.

I also thought the Did You Know; Shift Happens-Globalization; Information Age video was pretty cool. It brought up a lot of things I never thought of. Information such as: the 25% of China with the highest IQ's is greater than the total population of North America. I also found it interesting from that same video that the top 10 jobs for 2010 didn't even exist in 2004. It brought to my attention that we are preparing our students for jobs that don't even exist yet, preparing them for technology that hasn't been invented, and preparing them for problems that aren't problems yet. This means I need to stay up with all the new technology so I don't fall behind.

I guess I'm concerned with how fast technology is moving forward. It is growing exponentially. I am concerned with being able to keep up with the fast growth of technology. I feel like technology is supposed to make our lives easier, but as it exponentially grows, some may fall behind and then will be left doing things the hard way, or will make things more difficult trying to use the new technology.

21 April Strengths and Weaknesses

I'm not a pro at technology, but I do know the basics to some parts of technology. I have grown up with a computer and other technology so I don't feel as behind as maybe my mom might feel. I know that technology is growing though, and that I will constantly have to learn new things to keep up with the growth.

Strengths

*I use email when required for classes, check it regularly, and maintain my folders in an organized manner.

*I use a word processing program for all my written work. I feel like my work looks professional.

*I use lists of web resources and make profitable use of web search engines to explore.

Weaknesses

*I don't know any trouble-shooting techniques.

*I don't use spreadsheets

*I don't use graphic organizers

Goals:

I want to be able to use spreadsheets and graphic organizers better and to be able to use it to help make teaching easier.

The teacher that I did field with used spreadsheet to keep track of all the books she had. She organized them in different categories and recorded it all in spreadsheets. This would be cool to integrate into my own classroom.

Tutorials:

These two tutorials will help me learn the basics of spreadsheet and after learning the basics, I can eventually use it to store data and information.

Google Spreadsheets Tutorial #1

Google Spreadsheets Tutorial #2

14 April- Field Experience weeks 1,2, and 3

I did my field work at Scera Park Elementary. My cooperating teacher was Mrs. Becky Weatherly and a teacher of the 4th grade. My field experience was different than everyone else because my situation is different. Right now I am only doing the program part time so I was not assigned to any school or teacher and only had to observe a classroom for the 3 week period. Because of this I was able to choose the school and teacher. That’s when I decided to go to the elementary school I attended when I was elementary age. I volunteered in Mrs. Weatherly’s class for the time everyone was doing field work.

As I was in the classroom, I learned a lot. While being in the classroom I got to do many different things. I graded papers, helped with all the paper work of being a teacher, I got to work in small groups and with individuals, and I was also left in charge of the class at times. This class was a very social class and loved talking with their neighbors. This made it challenging when the teacher left me in charge because they knew I wasn’t “boss”. As the week went on and the following weeks came, they started to know that when the teacher left the room, I was in charge.

From this experience in the classroom, I learned a little bit about classroom management. I realized that classroom management takes a lot of practice and planning. I learned that you need to know your students and you need to know what works best for your class. From comparing my experience with this recent field experience to other previous times in the classroom, I have realized that each class is different and each teacher is different in their techniques for management. There will be different students with different personalities and from different backgrounds each year. Each class will be different to manage.

My favorite part of the field was working in the small groups of students. When I worked with the small groups it would be anywhere from 3 students to about 6 students. I think this was my favorite part of field because I got to teach these students and help them learn. Since I wasn’t doing the same thing as everyone else in this class, I didn’t get the opportunity to get up in front of the class and actually teach a lesson. Working in the small groups was my opportunity to teach just a little bit. My overall field experience was definitely a good one. I learned a lot of things and took a lot from this teacher that I can use in my own future classroom.

This classroom didn't have very much new technology in it. the technology they had included: a projector and screen, and and ELMO, they used cd players to listen to reading, and they had a computer lab at the school. The technology they had at the school wasn't much different from what I had when I was in elementary school besides the ELMO. I had never seen an ELMO and thought it was pretty cool. It had the same purpose as an overhead projector. I didn't even know it existed until coming to this class. I do know that the amount of technology is increasing at elementary schools and that I need to keep up to date on the new technology. I know that I will need to know how to use the new technology.

3 March- Digital Story 2

We learned about intellectual property, creative commons, copyright, cyber ethics, and fair use. This is all good information to know as a teacher, and a student. I never knew the copyright laws were so strict. This information will be really useful because now I know how to stay safe and completely avoid getting in trouble for breaking copyright laws. This applies to me because now I know somewhat of what I can and can't use for presentations, digital stories, videos etc.

Now I know the process I have to go through if I want to use a song or movie in my classroom, but I also now know where to find music, pictures, and other stuff that is not copyrighted. Knowing this information, I will be able to pass it on to my future students and help them understand copyright laws and everything else we have learned about so they can make digital stories with no problems. I think my students will love making digital stories. My sister has actually made a digital story for her class with 3 other girls and loved it. Kids these days know so much about technology. Their world revolves around technology, so giving them an assignment like a digital story would be a breeze to them

24 February- Digital Story 1

We just learned about digital stories in class. I think using digital stories in the classroom will make class more exciting. There are so many different things to do in the classroom and students like variety. This will be a good resource added to my pool of things to do for class. I love making things and being creative. This is a good way to create things for my future classroom, or practice making things for my future classroom. I think this will also be a good thing to use if I ever have a presentation I need to do. I could use digital stories to help get my point across.

My future students could also make digital stories. Children these days are so good at using technology and love using technology. I think they would have so much fun making digital stories all while learning at the same time. I could also use this assignment as a group project to get my students collaborating and working together. Knowing how to make digital stories could change the way I teach because it is another thing I can use in my teaching that I never would have thought of before because I wouldn't have known how to make one. This will also help me become a better teacher because our world is turning into a technological world. Everything revolves around technology and our students will also revolve around technology. Using digital stories will help with this.

17 February- Vidcast Reflection

Ashleigh Simmons

EDEL 3250

Vidcast Key Assignment

Colors- I Am A Rainbow

My group and I decided to do our vidcast on the colors for kindergarten students. The core curriculum is under fine arts. It is standard 1: Students will develop a sense of self. And objective 3: Develop and use skills to communicate ideas, information, and feelings. Underneath the objective 3 letter b. is where it gets more specific. It says students will recognize similar colors as being members of the family of reds, blues, and yellows and shapes as being similar to squares, circles, and triangles. We wanted to focus on the colors.

We chose this topic first of all because we thought it would be a fun one to do, and second of all because we thought making a vidcast of colors would be a good introduction to teaching colors in the kindergarten classroom. I really like the song we chose because it talks about each of the colors and something they can compare to. Music will definitely be a part of my classroom. I know that whenever I hear a catchy song I remember the lyrics whether it be a song for learning, or just a fun song. By putting this song to pictures that match the lyrics, we are helping them remember the colors better because we are engaging multiple senses all at once.
In my future classroom, I would like to use this video as an introduction to colors. Then I would use it as a review of colors. This is a song that the kindergartners could learn to remember their colors and start to compare their colors to other things. The one thing I remember in elementary school was always learning songs to remember things. I want to make music a part of my classroom as a learning tool. The song in this video could be one of the songs my students will learn.

10 February- Vidcasts Week 1

So, in class we learned about vidcasts and all of the different options and resources we can use to make vidcasts. I thought all this was pretty cool! I have always wondered how people make so many cool videos and have just never known even where to start. It will definitely be fun to play around on as a student, as a future teacher, and just as person! Vidcasts can be used for so many different things. Knowing how to do vidcasts can help if I ever need something for a class presentation, or if I need to make a video of a bunch of pictures for a family reunion, or to prepare for my future classroom.

I will definitely be able to use vidcasts in my future classroom, whether I use them for classroom instructions or whether I let my students make vidcasts. Just today my little sister was talking about how she was making a movie with 2 of her classmate friends for a class project. I could definitely implement vidcasts into my future classroom. I also love that we can put our vidcasts on youtube and share that resource with others and in return use other teachers vidcasts for our classroom.

3 February- Podcasts

In class we talked about making podcasts. We talked about how we can use them in the classroom, and then we made one. It is so nice learning about all of the free technology out there that we can use as resources in our classrooms. We are learning about podcasts so that we can use them in our future classroom. I don't know if this can apply to me as a student or in my everyday life right now, but it will definitely be of good help in the future.

I can see myself using podcasts on my classroom website for days when a student might miss class and the lecture was on instructions for making something, or something that was important to be in class for. I would upload them and then the students could listen to them at home with their parents. I think students would enjoy making their own podcasts also. That would be a fun activity for in class.

27 January- Google Part 2

We worked on the classroom website. I thought this was awesome! This was so much information all at once, but this will definitely be useful as a teacher. We are working on this to show us what a useful tool google sites can be to us as future teachers. I don't see this being of use to me as a student but will, like I said before, be useful as a teacher.

This will help with communicating with parents and students and is also a way to share with other teachers. This technology will help me to give information to others without an overload of effort. It is something that I won't have to keep recreating. I will just have to improve upon it. I love how you can do so much with it. It is a resource that can be used for collaboration, sharing information, organization, etc. It is all of these things in one place which is nice!

20 January- Google Part 1

I am learning so much about Google that I didn't even know about. We went over Google Docs, Calendar, Spreadsheets, and Presentations. I thought each of these were so cool.

Google is such a wonderful, FREE resource that will help me as a student, a teacher, and a parent. I am so grateful we learned more about google. I have had a google account for about 3 years now and had no idea I could do any of this with it. In a way this makes everything so much easier. I don't have Microsoft Word on my computer, or a printer, so it has been a hassle having to email all my assignments to myself in the right format, and then print them at school, or take a thumb drive with me everywhere. Now I can just do the assignment anywhere and have access to it everywhere there is internet. This is definitely helpful to me as a student, and will be helpful to me as a teacher for the same reason.

Google will help me as a future teacher because you can do so much in one place. You can collaborate with other teachers on lesson plans, presentations, etc. Google will help me be a better teacher. I have not always loved technology because sometimes it scares me just because I don't always know how to use it. But google seems so simple to use and can definitely be a good resource. I will just need to explore it a little more and get the hang of everything it has to offer. I love the collaboration part of google docs. It blows my mind! I love how more than one person can work on the same document at the same time, or even at different times. This will help with team assignments that we can give to students, much like the one we just did in class. I already love google so much more now!

13 January- Introduction- Special topics blog

I am definitely an interesting character and have many unique qualities about me. I love singing and any form of music. Music is a huge part of my life. I sing a lot. I may not have an amazing voice, but I sing to express not to impress. I love nature. It amazes me to just look around and see how amazing our surroundings are. During my free time, I try to take it all in. I also enjoy dancing with blasting music in depths of my bedroom while no one is watching. I love being me because I know I'm the only one that can be me.

I remember always getting the best teachers in elementary school. I loved my teachers and looked up to them. They were my heroes and I wanted to be just like them. I didn't realize that I wanted to be a teacher until my senior year of high school. I wanted to be a math teacher. But then I realized that teaching math just wasn't for me. I wanted to be a teacher, but I also wanted to change lives. I wanted to use my strengths to help others. That's when I decided to be an elementary teacher. I had teachers that changed my life and I knew I could do the same for others. I love children and have loved them my whole life. I love watching them learn and grow and discover new things.

My goal as a teacher is to create an environment for learning and discovering. An environment where students will feel safe expressing themselves. I want students to love learning. I want them to have the same elementary experience I had. Elementary school was the best and maybe that's why I am gravitating back towards it. I am excited to discover more about me as I prepare to become a teacher.