Looking back on my journey...

This was definitely the most beneficial and most enjoyable course I have taken so far in college. I have learned a huge amount of useful information that will help me to create a wonderful, technology-filled, engaging and exciting classroom. I thought I knew quite a bit about technology, programs, web tools, etc. when coming into this class but I definitely did not. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to have taken this course and I've been sharing what I've learned with many others. I'm excited to have learned about so many tools that are highly useful for my classroom but also that I can use for personal reasons. I look forward to the day when I can use all of my knowledge of technology from this course with my students to maximize their success as learners.

Storyboard/movie project

The story/movie project was hands down my favorite assignment all semester. I have been so excited ever since I finished my story and I've been showing it to everybody. If I am so excited about my movie project then my students would probably be ten times more excited about it. I enjoyed creating something using multiple types of media because I have never made something like that. I can't wait to make another movie about mine and Kyle's relationship to show in our wedding. Of course I will make movies to use for teaching in my classroom someday, but making a movie is great for a wedding too. I've known about and had access to Windows Movie Maker and IMovie for years but I have never thought twice about exploring what they do. I'm really glad that I learned about how to use them in class because they are fantastic tools for teaching.

Glogster

While I have loved basically all of the web 2.0 tools we have learned this semester, I really did not like Glogster very much. I played around with it for a while and it was just incredibly complicated to use. I could see uses for it if teachers were making the glogs but I think it's way too complicated for students to use (although I couldn't even figure it out). I think part of the reason I don't see much use for it and don't necessary love the idea of it is because I'm a scrapbook fanatic. I am all about making eye catching things using tangible materials. Glogster reminds me somewhat of a digital scrapbook album and I've never been a fan of those. I guess I could see how it could be more exciting to look at glogs than typical boring posters in the classroom. I also realize that educational posters could be made to hang around the room such as tools for writing a paragraph or something similar. However, I will probably continue to make things by hand and will not ask my students to create glogs because they are just too difficult to create.

Activinspire flip charts

Using Activinspire to create my sine, cosine and tangent flip chart was one of my favorite assignments this semester. I had a ton of fun creating the flip chart and exploring all the awesome features the program has to offer. Therefore, I know my students will have a blast interacting with the white board during my lessons someday. I actually used my SohCahToa flip chart during student teaching in Geometry class at Gibbs High School. I didn't expect them to be as excited about it as I was but I had hoped that the engagement and interaction with the lesson would cause them to better understand the material. I assessed their knowledge after teaching with my flip chart and as I had hoped, the students far exceeded the grades the usually make on assignments I give them. I taught my mentor teacher all about how to use Smart Board tools to make an interactive presentation and she wants to try to use them often. I love how exciting learning can be when the student are involved so I will definitely make interactive presentations for my Elementary students someday.

Storybird

After exploring Storybird in class, I have decided it is probably one of my favorite web 2.0 tools we learned about. I always hear about students who "hate to read" and I believe Storybird could cure them of that hatred. Students love to use the computer and watch movies so I think students would find reading highly enjoyable if they could read books on Storybird. Also, it would be a lot of fun for students to create a story for a project then they all read each other's stories. I cannot wait to have more time to explore Storybird because I'm going to create stories for the little girl I nanny to listen to/read/watch.

Using Inspiration to create digital diagrams

After completing the Inspiration project, I realized how beneficial it would be to use the program in my classroom someday. I've always learned about how graphic organizers are excellent tools to use with students, particularly students with disabilities. I plan to use Inspiration with my students someday because they can use the program to create graphic organizers. The interactive software program is also more exciting for students to use than a graphic organizer worksheet. By using this program, students can organize their thoughts any way they want to. Students feel motivated about learning when given the opportunity to use technology and Inspiration provides tools that would help them succeed. Therefore, I will use this program in my own classroom someday in order to create an enjoyable and positive learning environment.

google sites

I  love using Google sites and I've thought of so many ways to use them in my classroom. I could have my own  classroom website for parents to look at and use but the possibilities are endless beyond just an about me website. I am currently doing my practicum placement in a special education setting and I used Google sites to teach a lesson to my students. I created the main page and posted the  directions for all the groups on that page. Under that page I posted group 1, group 2, group 3, and so on so that every group would have their own link to a webpage. Each group had to go online shopping at a particular store then use a percent off coupon to determine how much of a discount they got with the coupon and how much money they saved. Every group had different stores and different coupons so I made them all their own links on the website. I taught my mentor teacher how to use Google sites and all of the possibilities she could do with it. I can definitely see myself using Google sites for many things in my classroom someday.

To create a google site, click on the link below:
Google Sites

Fall ABCs scavenger hunt

For this digital scavenger hunt project, I worked with a group to present a concept using digital images. We chose to teach the alphabet for our topic. We went outside and gathered leaves to form them into the shapes of letters. Then, we used different photography tools to take pictures of each letter we created. We uploaded the digital images into a presentation using Google Presentations as well as uploaded them into a slideshow format using Picasa Web. I thoroughly enjoyed this activity because I know how much fun my students would have if I allowed them to do it. There can never be enough reasons for students to walk around outside or just get out of the classroom for a while so I would love to have my students do digital scavenger hunts someday. I like that this activity teaches students about how to use certain photography devices, how to create slideshows and presentations, and it teaches them whatever concept they choose for the activity.

All about Webquests

It's concerning how many students now days do not see any part of learning or going to school as fun. In my opinion, there is no better way to teach students that learning can be fun than by using webquests in your classroom. Not only are they engaging and enjoyable for your students, they target all types of learners in the classroom - visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Rather than filling out boring worksheets all day, students are actually challenged in different ways when using webquests to learn a concept. For example, in the webquest Fun With Shapes students explore the concept of shapes by making their own books about shapes, exploring shapes around the classroom, completing puzzles, doing a writing activity about their favorite shape and playing games using shapes. I had never heard of a webquest or seen one until this class and I'm thankful that I was introduced to them. I will definitely try to use webquests in my classroom someday because students need to have the mind set that learning can be fun and learning IS fun! 

website evaluation

I learned a good amount about evaluating websites through this assignment. Before, I never really thought twice about a website being reliable before I just decided to use the information. I have always been the type to type a search term in Google and open the very first link it spits out at me. After this assignment, I understand the importance of evaluating websites before using their information. When I am teaching in the near future, I realize how critical it is to choose only legitimate websites for my students to use. I also plan to teach my students how to go about evaluating a website on their own so that they may use only the best resources available when searching the internet.

course expectations

I consider myself knowledgeable about technology and particularly computers. However, I am not familiar with anything involving technology in the classroom. When looking at the tools we will learn how to use in this class, I am only familiar with how to use Blogger. I'm looking forward to learning about the many other tools taught in this class so I can use them with my students someday. I expect to finish TPTE 486 with a great amount of ideas for ways I can integrate technology into my classroom in ways that will help my students to succeed.

Welcome to my blog :) 
Here I will post about ways I have learned to integrate technology into the curriculum in my classroom someday.