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.