Placement Next Year.

For my placement next year, I have been put in a 5th grade classroom. I have only worked with students in the lower elementary school grade levels. So this will be a change of pace for me however I am a little worried. However, I have been able to talk with my teacher and she would like me to develop a class website to use. I think this will be such great practice about what we have learned in this class. I am so excited to see how much of this class can be incorporated in my new classroom. For all of those who will be having the internship next year, best of luck!!

Blogs, Wikis, webpages-- aren't they all the same?!

Before going through with this class, I only knew what a blog was and did not understand why people loved blogging so much. Wikis I had only used in my college classes but really never understood what they were. Webpages I had never heard of before CEP. Now, I am know all about them and the purposes.

Blogs: These are individual to a person or group that they update by posting thoughts, feelings, new ideas or graphics. These have been thought of as more a journal or a personal diary. The user normally updates frequently because people can follow them. This means they can read what they write and comment on their thoughts. Great way to reflect on your learning or life.

Blogs/ CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Wikis: Is a website that allows different people to have access to it. This means they are all able to go in and edit or change the information. The Wiki will update every time someone hits the save button and allows each person to see the changes. It's best used with a large group where changes will be needed. This eliminates the consist e-mail of different drafts or ideas to people and not knowing which draft is the final. Or like in some college classes, a place where discussion forums are done.

wiki / CC BY-NC 2.0

Webpages- (such as www.weebly.com) These are great resources for designing or creating your own personal URL. These web-pages can contain be informational that you would like to teach people about or a way to publish information for yourself. For instance, a teacher could create a webpage where they could put information about the class up. Each parent and student could have the link and check it to see what was going on in the classroom. Or for this class we have created a personal website that allows the viewer to learn about me and see sample lesson plans.

Next Generation of Teaching!

After seeing my teacher and learning about this class, I think it is up to us to take teaching to the next level. I think that just using a computer to it's full abilities is one change that teachers could make. Image, having all of our lesson plans typed and saved on a computer instead of filing it all. This way changes can be made easily without any problems. I will use either outlook or a similar calendar program where I can keep consistent my weekly lessons however change or edit them each week. This way I could refer back to them the next year and know exactly what I did each week.  I will keep a running record of the classroom and the actions to help me remember behavior problems, situations that work and situations that did not. I want to keep up on my e-mail as much as possible because I feel so many adults check their e-mail many times a day and it is way user to send out a mass e-mail than to call each parent on the phone. A classroom website will keep everyone in formed of events and activities that will be going on in our classroom.

Finishing up feild placement!

Next week is my last week in my field placement and I am going to miss my students so much and all that we have been through. I have learned so much from my CT and my students. So I would like to take a moment and reflect on different technologies that I was able to see in my classroom. First of all each teacher has a laptop of there own. I think this is great idea because this way the teachers can take work home with them, to meetings etc. and have everything with them. My CT was lucky enough to have a smartboard, which I used for my lesson plans and just played around with it. They are such a great addition to any classroom and I just love them. Everyone Tuesday and Friday the students get an opportunity to use technology, where the technology teacher would come into the students classroom with a laptop cart. My teacher and the technology teacher would communicate about the students were learning and incorporate that into the technology teacher's lesson.

Second Life: New Technology

I was very interested in this second life. I have never heard of it however I am very interested in the website. It reminds me of a Sim style game, in the way that you create your own character and their life. Then through this character you travel around and live a virtal world. Once you have a character then you can interact with others. The website is based on the idea of 3D and this allows you build objects that look real to life.

After seeing the demo for this website I thought that this website looked like fun and a game. I believe the goal is to create a life and survive. I did not understand how I could use this in the classroom without making it just a game? I saw that it is a good way that they can learn about life and how to manage a house or a car, but I was thinking that they need more out of a game.

I went looking for ideas that teachers have used Second City for in their classroom. I found this blog that had 11 ways to use Second Life in the classroom.

1.  Understanding what 3D is
2. Adding a visual element (traveling to Egypt Pyramid
3. Data Repository with linkage
4. Connection device: online classes, voice with group meetings
5. Apply classroom knowledge: business students applying creating a market place
6. Team building/critical thinking: discovering resources they need to teach each other
7. Research tool: currency exchange with other countries
8. Build awareness of virtual tourism
9. Social devices
10. Create anonymity: confidential information
11. Macinema 

11 Ways to Use Second Life in Education (Michele Ryan)

View more presentations from Michele Ryan.

After seeing Michele Ryan's ideas, I can see where High School or College economics or business class could use this idea. It is a great way for them to explore real life situations in the business world from the classroom. Also, computer designer could use this website to explore this idea of 3D and how to use it. I think that students often learn best when it is seems as if it is a game! 

My only concern is will parents or school districts will be nervous having students on the virtual world. With all the situations that have cam up with online worlds, I could understand parents concerns with not wanting their children to use this. So I do not know if you can set it to only certain things in your classroom or only letting students see certain things, but this might help with some of those concerns.

Video taping- we should try it!

During my TE class we often watch videos of their teaching and how students react to their teaching. While I understand many parents might have issues with their students being video taped, I love the idea. This allows the teacher to go back and reflect on their teaching as well as parents being able to see their student at work. It can be a great way for the teacher to have proof of the students growth throughout the year. A lot of times, teacher disagree on the studetns ability. For instance, in my day care center we had this one teacher say the student could do all of these benchmarks to get the student out of their classroom. Video cameras can not lie about what students can and cannot do.

Parents would be able to see their students behavior during different parts of the day and understand where the teacher is coming from with different issues. I think this would help eliminate the idea that teachers "do not like certain kids" or they are not treated fairly. Students also could watch themselves on video because I think many of them would be embarrassed how they act sometimes. A lot of times students can not understand what it looks like when they are acting a certain way and how it comes across to the teacher.

During student presentations or big projects, the video camera could be running. This way the students could show their parents, family and friends what a good job they did. It can help with public speaking because watching and reviewing your presentations, you learn a lot about yourself.

I do not think that the video camera should be running all day, everyday because that would create a lot of wasted film. I think on some days for like an hour or two having a video camera on would help everyone understand what happens inside your classroom.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zcreem/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Too much Technology

Can we have too much technology in the classroom!? I know that many different technologies have great advantages in using them but when is enough. However, some teachers are trying to do too much. While I see having computers, smartboards, lap tops, tape recorders and voice recorders in the classroom is great but does it take away from teaching. I observed this classroom where the teacher spent so much time worry about if the technology would work or if the students were understanding how to use the program, the actually teaching of the subjects were lost. She was so worried that the students did not understand spelling city or how to write on the smartboard that they spent hours going over this. When does it become too much?

I know that technology is great for helping and improving teaching, but like anything too much is bad.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevewilhelm/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0