Course Reflection

What I have learned from this class

I have learned so much from this class! I had never done 90% of the projects that we completed. A few of my favorite assignments were creating my own website, creating my first blog and collaborating with my classmates using Google docs. I was so excited to have my own website and blog! I’m even more excited with how well they both turned out. The more I use them and change them, the better they look. I never imagined that I would be able to create my own website or blog. The Google docs project was a lot of fun after my group got the hang of it. We struggled in the beginning, but after we finally got going, we created some really great documents together. It helped that I had a really great group.

I can really see how everything that I learned will be useful in my future teaching career. Using the concept map for minilessons will be a lot of fun for the students. They can be fun and colorful and will hopefully hold their attention while I’m teaching. Learning how to create worksheets and tests will be invaluable when I need something made quickly. Likewise, making my own rubrics will be so handy. I think I will use the digital story video maker more for fun, allowing my students to play roles in their own movies. Finally, learning about the assistive technology tools available for students with disabilities is one of the most important assignments that we completed. I had no idea so many options were already available on desktop computers for people that need extra help. It is so important in the classroom to help students get past the struggle of their disability so that they can learn.

My Weak and Strong Points

I think my weak points were that I had no idea what I was doing when I started each new project. I knew less about technology than I thought I did. I also struggled to keep up with the reading simply because I was overwhelmed with all my classes this semester.

My strong points were definitely that I can follow instructions really well and that I loved doing the work. Dr. Wang does an awesome job with step by step instruction, so as long as I followed her instructions everything went smoothly, for the most part.

Interaction Between my Peers and Instructor

Interaction between my peers was great! We collaborated really well during our Google docs assignment, they had some great feedback on my blog posts, and if I needed them for a question I knew I could email them and they would help.

Interaction with Dr. Wang was really good too. She was very good about responding to emails promptly and she was also very patient when we had questions about the projects during our class chats. During one particular chat, many of us had questions about the collaborative Google docs project. She would answer our questions, but we just couldn’t get it. She finally said that she would think about it and answer later. She sent out an announcement that same night and it answered our question in detail. Another time, our class was having problems with making a certain file public so she could see it when we shared it with her. She listened to everyone’s problems and figured out that the setting was not available. It was nice that she listened to us before she graded our work.

Communication Tools

The communication tools that I used the most were Blackboard and email. I looked for announcements from Dr. Wang in Blackboard everyday. I used email to collaborate with my peers and to ask Dr. Wang questions. Both of these tools worked great for me.

My Blogfolio

My experience with creating a blofolio has been frustrating and rewarding. In the beginning it was very frustrating. I had never done anything like this before and it took a lot of time to get used to it. Now, I know how to add a post or a page pretty easily and I can download photos, clipart or other links. I’m very proud of that! However, every time I try to do something new with my blog, it is complicated and it takes time to get it done.  I have fun playing with it and I would love to take the time someday to create a really interesting and beautiful blog just for fun.

Assisstive Technology

Assistive technology is designed to help people that have physical or cognitive disabilities. The technology is programmed into some software and provides special options for those with disabilities.

The assistive technology that we focused on for this assignment can be found on any computer using the Windows Operating System. I simply had to go to the Control Panel on my computer, click on Ease of Access and all of the assistance that I needed was there.

I really liked this assignment because I had never used any of these options on my computer before.  The first change I made was changing my screen to a high contrast of color. My eyes did not like this change and I was anxious to change the contrast back to normal. The second option I used was the magnifier. I played around with this option quite a bit. I really liked it because I see a lot of children in my school having vision problems and sadly half of their parents do not want to deal with getting glasses for their child. I had the opportunity to use the magnifier at my school for one particular child in my class that was born with glaucoma. She does have glasses, but still struggles to see. I have been enlarging the print on her worksheets for several weeks now and she was so excited when I was able to magnify her computer screen during her computer activity. We will now work on getting this put into her IEP so that it will be an option when she has to test. The last changes I made to my computer had to do with the keyboard options. I added a bell that would ring every time I turned the CAPS lock on and off. Then, I added a blink to the computer screen with CAPS lock was activated. These options made it easier for hearing impaired and visually impaired students to know when they are hitting the correct or incorrect buttons on the keyboard. Lastly, there was an option to put a keyboard on the screen for students that could not type, but have to use pointers. I really liked this option for other reasons as well. Because the regular keyboard still worked, I think this would be a great way to help students learn how to type. They would learn to look at the computer screen, not at their hands.

All in all, I can definitely see how using all of these assistive technology options will be useful in my future classroom. I am super happy that I was already able to implement one of the options to assist one of my current students. It makes me so happy to be able to help those children that struggle because of disabilities.

Assistive Technology Powerpoint

 

 

 

 

 

TurnItin Plagiarism Assignment

This assignment was not a new experience for me. I have used the TurnItin system for online classes that I have taken in the past. I had to use it for every paper that I turned in during a summer writing class I took last summer. The system is a wonderful tool for teachers, especially writing and language arts teachers. I can’t imagine how time consuming it would be to try to find plagiarism in all the papers that are turned in at the middle and high school level. If I teach writing and language arts at a higher level, I will definitely put the TurnItin System to work for me. Having all of my students turn in their papers digitally will offer a lot of benefits for me. Obviously, checking for plagiarism will be easier, but grading papers will be made easier as well. I will not have to carry loads of papers home with me, they will be online. I can grade the papers, leave comments in sections of the paper, and send them back to the students at my leisure.

Version 2 receipt

Integrating Technology into English and Language Art Instruction

It is well known, and accepted, that technology is changing the way our children are educated. However,  there is an ongoing debate on how to properly integrate that technology into daily curriculum in a classroom. Some scholars believe that ‘old style’ curriculum needs to be given the boot to make way for more ‘up to date’ curriculum. For example, teaching cursive writing has become a controversy. Some believe that the time spent in the classroom teaching cursive writing would be better spent learning a word processing program. The argument is that cursive writing is outdated, word processing programs are the future and children need to be educated for their future.

Even with the debate that is happening outside of the classroom, there are teachers in the classroom doing the best that they can with what they have. Teachers understand that children need to be taught to use technology in order to have a successful future and most have found ways to integrate technology into their lessons. In this blog I am going to detail effective ways that technology can be integrated into English and language arts instruction.

Digital storytelling or online games are two very simple integration methods that I use in my kindergarten classroom regularly. Children can listen to books being read to them on a Smartboard, a desktop computer or an iPad and then answer questions about the story. This is great reading comprehension practice. Digital stories also offer a feature for learning unfamiliar words. When a child does not understand a word that they are reading, they can simply tap on the word and a pronunciation and a definition for that word are given.  Educational games such as matching letters with sounds or spelling words can also be played on any of these devices. The games usually include cartoons, lots of movement, and music to make them more exciting for children to play. This is one of my favorite ways to get some of my students that struggle with letter recognition to practice their letters. They really love it! Older students can use word processing for writing papers. Word processing programs make note-taking and writing drafts much easier with the tools that are available, such as copy and paste, spell check and word count. They can also turn their papers in digitally from home by simply attaching the paper to an email and emailing it to the teacher, which is convenient and can save time in the classroom. I really believe students need to learn how to use word processing programs so they can be successful college students and successful adults in the working community. It is also important for them to learn how to use an email. For more email practice, the teacher can provide feedback on the papers through email. This is a great form of communication between the student and teacher.  Another great technology tool is concept mapping. Concept maps can be created by teachers for teaching lessons or they can be created by students as projects. It is a fun way to do research and be creative with your data. Accessing online books, or eBooks, is also a valuable use of technology in English and language art curricula. EBooks are usually free and can be an easy way for students to obtain necessary books for class. Most eBooks include tools for note-taking and highlighting that can make using them fun and convenient. Some students would prefer that their book be downloaded onto their electronic so that they don’t have to try to keep up with a paper copy. Lastly, using the whiteboard for literary analysis is a great use of technology for older students. They can go to the board and write directly onto the piece of literature being discussed. The whole class is seeing the same piece on the board which makes the group discussion more cohesive.

These are some of the most popular ways that technology has recently been integrated into curricula. With ever changing and advancing technology, integration methods will continue to change and advance as well.

Web Site Assignment

I really enjoyed creating my own web site. I am amazed with the amount of things that can be created using Google. I have done more in this technology class, and learned so much more, than I thought I could. It has been a lot of fun!

I didn’t run into any problems while creating my website, but it took a lot of time. It was not difficult to navigate, it was very user friendly, but it took time to play around with the program and become familiar with it.

The most frustrating part was when I would hit save and something would change or move and then when I went back to edit, it was back where I wanted it. Even though the program says that it allows you to see your page exactly as it will be on the web while you are creating it, things moved around one time. I had to put some lines and words a little off from where I actually wanted them so that when I hit save they were centered. I believe it was the picture that I was inserting on the page, but I did text wrap the picture, so I don’t know what happened. In the end, I got everything where I wanted it, so It was fine.

My favorite part of this project is just the fact that I did it. When I go back and look at my web site I love it! I am very impressed that I was able to create that. I will certainly be creating more websites in the future and one will be for my new classroom.

Ms. Ewing’s Classroom

Web-Based Curriculum

Web-based resources and tools are used regularly in classrooms to create interactive lesson plans for students. Some of the tools that are used are electronic field trips, electronic publishing, group development, electronic mentoring and even electronic pen-pals . In my personal classroom, I have used a website to take my students on an interactive, online field trip. We had been studying about Ellis Island and this online field trip allowed my students to tour the island while staying in our classroom. They loved it! Using web-based resources such as this one give children the opportunity to step out from the mundane, pencil and paper, classwork and do something a little different. Websites like publishing allow students to learn how to do projects online and even teach them how to collaborate with each other online. These are valuable tools for them to learn to enhance their future in school and in the workplace.

Web Tools

This project required me to fulfill three assignments on three different, specialized websites. I chose to make first grade math the subject of all of my assignments because that is what I hope to teach.

The first assignment was creating a rubric. I used a website called Rubistar to create my first rubric. The website was incredibly easy to use. I especially liked the autofill options for the rubrics on the website. It had choices for the most frequently used grading criteria which made making the rubric quick. It was also easy for me to insert my own criteria and to make changes. I followed the tutorial and easily made my rubric. I was very pleased with how it turned out. I think I will be using this website frequently when I am a teacher.

The second assignment was to create a test and an answer key. I created a math test using a website called Easy Test Maker. Again, this website was very easy to navigate. I followed the tutorial and created a math test with an answer key. I especially liked that I could create the answer key while I was creating the test and they both saved and printed at the same time. It was a great time saver. I also liked all of the options I was given for the test questions. I could make virtually any type of test using this website. I think it will be very useful in my future teaching career.

The final assignment was the trickiest. I had to create an interactive, online lesson using a website called Trackstar. This website allowed me to create online bookmarks onto one web page so that students could follow the bookmarks for their lesson. I did a math Trackstar so I included a tutorial, a practice quiz and an online math game. This website took me the longest to figure out, even with the tutorial. It also took me a long time to find websites that corresponded with my lesson. However, after I got going with it, I kind of liked it. I can see this being put to good use in higher grades.

Trackstar

Math Test. Grade 1

Math Test Answer Key

Rubric

Web-Based Curriculum

The internet has given new life to education and has given teachers limitless possibilities for their classrooms. I can not imagine one day in my classroom without the use of the internet. I use social media to collaborate with my coworkers and to find ideas for worksheets, work stations, educational games, and even decorations for my room or class door. I use email everyday to keep in touch with my principle, my school district and my student’s parents. I use online educational videos and games for my students to play on the Smartboard regularly and my students work on apps that have been downloaded onto our class iPads in their workstations. I use the internet in every single aspect of my teaching work day.

Even with the amount of internet based technology I use everyday, there is so much more out there. There are chatrooms that allow live communication between several people at one time. Sometimes these chatrooms use avatars that move around during the chat. Avatars are 3-D figures that look like people. The avatar may look very much like the person it represents or may be a fantasy figure. Chatrooms are a good way for teachers to collaborate in real time, if they can not be together to have a meeting. There are also bulletin boards that can be used for posting messages. Bulletin boards are not real-time live communication, instead the user can post a message for other users to see as they visit the board. All users can add messages as they visit the bulletin board. Twitter has also become a very popular internet tool for education. Text-based messages can be posted into a twitter feed and anyone following that particular twitter account will see the message. Teachers can use this to keep parents and students up to date with assignments due and testing dates. Twit links can be used to share hyperlinks between students and teachers. Some teachers also use Twitter for an activity called Summing Up. The teacher will ask the student to read an article or a chapter and to tweet the summary using a certain hashtag. Twitter only allows 140 characters so this insures a precise summary. The teacher can then search the hashtag on Twitter and find all the summaries in one place.

Finally, there are a couple internet tools that I have learned in this class that will be invaluable in my classroom. First, is blogging. I have thoroughly enjoyed blogging my experiences with my projects in this class. I look forward to teaching my students to blog and using it for their writing assignments. I also have really enjoyed using Google+ for my assignments. I will be using it to collaborate with my colleagues to make worksheets and plan lessons. I will also use the spreadsheets to chart my students progress. I can even use Google+ to communicate with my students’ parents showing them the grades and progress of each individual child. The vast use of the internet for the classroom is very exciting and it will simply continue to expand as new technologies are discovered!

A Reflection on My Google Group Miniprojects

Collaborating in Google+ with my group was a lot of fun. I had a great group of ladies and we all worked really well together. Some of the projects were pretty confusing in the beginning, but we were able to pull it all together and create some very good projects.

I was in charge of the survey and that was difficult to figure out. I thought there would be a way to create a survey in Google+ so that it could be shared, but I could not find it anywhere. I decided to create my own document survey and share it, but that did not work very well and my group members had trouble taking the survey. After the class meeting, I was able to create the survey the correct way and it went very smoothly for my group when they took it.

The other problem I ran into was the group threaded discussions. I was trying to have the discussion using my email and it was confusing the threads in our discussion. Some of my responses were going into the wrong threads and when I tried to start a new thread for another question, it did not work. I had to figure out how to get to my group page so that I could stay on the correct thread for my discussions.

My favorite part of the project was pretty much all of it. I loved working together creating the story, the slideshow and the spreadsheet. My group members thought of things to add that I wouldn’t have thought of and we were able to correct each other’s mistakes. I can really see how collaborating in Google+ will be beneficial when I’m a teacher. Being able to create documents together with my fellow teachers online will be incredibly useful. Also, keeping spreadsheets and charts of information with my colleagues will be very convenient. It could be used for payments being made, field trips, grades, curriculum, and much more. I am very excited about Collaborative in Google+ and I will be using it often!

Google Group Discussion

Google Power Point

Google Group Story

Google Group Survey

Google Group Excel Spreadsheet

My Experiences in Creating a Multimedia Project

I loved creating my multimedia movie! I chose to do an elementary math video because it is relevant to my elementary education degree. The Windows Live Movie Maker software was very user friendly and pretty easy to navigate. I started by taking pictures with my digital camera and uploading them to a special movie file I created on my desktop. Next I made math problem pages in Microsoft Word but later found out I could not download Word documents into my movie. It would only allow video, picture or audio to be used. To fix this problem, I copied my Word creation and pasted it into Microsoft Paint. I was then able to save it as a picture and put it into my video. After I had all the pictures in order and I was happy with the effects and the flow of the movie I was ready to add the audio. My version of Movie maker was slightly different than the one on Dr. Wang’s tutorial so I had trouble learning how to insert my audio. I easily added a song to my movie, but the audio of me talking had to be recorded with separate software on my laptop and then added. This made getting the timing right very important. Finally, the Movie Maker would not allow me to have the audio recording of me talking and the music on there at the same time so unfortunately I had to scrap the song.

This was my very first attempt at making a movie and it was fun. The Movie Maker software was easy for me to use and figure out and I am very happy with my final results.