Technology Tool Blog #1

The technology tool that I found where I was able to use information from was pbs.org/teachers/. I found it very helpful because I was able to find great websites to use in my lesson plans and fun for the students. You can search in almost any topic but I chose to search under social studies economics because I am writing a lesson plan for that topic and I thought it would be good to include some of the websites for the students to look at on our web quest. There was a website that I found where students can create their own pop star and learn how to handle the money and get everything paid off and how the economy was affected. I think this would be a fun way to assess the students on what they learned with budgeting. This website also talks about the tricks of advertising and how owners try to make things look cool. It also has links to different commercials and you can have students watch and see what the makers do to make the product look cool. Something I found with some of the websites was it was hard to convert the video on that website to the mp4 format. I couldn’t figure out what format to use so I wasn’t able to convert some of the videos. You have to be very careful that you don’t pick a video that won’t convert to mp4. This website also has links to non-online tools so you can teach students if you don’t have access to computers all the time. I thought this website is very good to use because it brings a lot of kid friendly websites into one big website and they are very educational. It also uses familiar cartoon shows on PBS to teach these lessons which would make it even more fun for my students.

Week 3 Reflection

This week we learned about how to use information from the internet into our lesson plans. We went onto Youtube and Teachertube to learn how to convert the videos on Zamzar.com. I have never heard of Zamar before so I am excited to use it more often in the future as well as the teaching I am doing now. This information is going to help me teach my lessons because the students will be entertained and they don't have to hear me all day. It is nice to have other resources to help you teach and I think that if the resources are out there then why not use them. We also went onto Engrade to see our grades and learned how to check them. This is a helpful resource not only so we can know what our grades are in this class, but we will be able to use it when we are teaching so the parents wll be abe to check their students grades any time they want. I think that the parents can enjoy these videos by having their children show them the videos. You can also put the videos on the website so the parents will be able to watch them and know what the students learned that day. I think you can also use other teachers to help download the different videos so you don't have to wait all the time it takes to convert the video. This will save a lot of time for all of the teachers and increase your library for different videos. You can also use the stimulations to add variety to the classroom and if there is going to be enough computers, you can have the students do the stimulations themselves or they can do it in a group.

Week 2 Reflection

I think that these tools are very useful in a classroom. For students, it is fun for them to go onto the classroom websites and seeing things that thy have done in class, pictures, and see who is the student of the week. It is also helpful to help them get to know technology better. When they live in a world that revolves around technologies the students will need to know how to access a website and know what a good website looks like. It is also important for the students to know how to move around on a website and use the internet for useful information. I think students will enjoy going on the website to review what homework they have due the next day. I think that a classroom website is important for parents so they can see what their children are doing at school and they will know what homework is due and when so if their student forgets to tell them they will still be able to help the child remember to do their homework. They will also be able to see when big projects are due on the calendar so they will be able to help the students with the projects and not wait until the last night to do them. From other teachers' websites I can look and see what they are doing in their classrooms and take some ideas from them that I think will work well in my classroom and vice versa. It also helps in meetings when we can actually see what goes on when we talk about the classrooms and when to help them with things they need. I have seen a few classroom websites and blogs that I can tell the students really like to go and visit. They have pictures of things they do and students of the week. It is also good for the parents and I think that it can solve a lot of problems when all the classroom information is put up on the website, like different books the students are reading and what they are learning about in school for that unit.You can also put on the website the different units you will be covering so they students will at least know what you are studying and you can list websites that would be helpful if they go and visit before or during each unit. There a lot of good things that can come from using a website but there are a few draw backs. There is the privacy issue to putting up pictures of students so you will have to make the website private so no stranger looks at the website. There can also be too much information on the page for the public eye to see. The first guy singing is a lot of fun. It would be fun to show the students this video and then have them make up their own song to a math concept as groups. I could also teach the song to help them remember how fractions work and it would be fun for them. The second video that goes through the different terms used on the internet so people can be updated to what's going on if they are unfamiliar with the internet. It isn't very interesting if you know most of the terms already.

Week 1: Ideal Classroom Reflection

My ideal classroom setting would be at a school where I was free to teach how I wanted. There wouldn't be a test that measures exactly where each student is suppose to be, but a test that is based on personal achievment. My classroom would be fun and colorful but not to busy so the students wouldn't get distracted. There would be the student's art work posted on the walls and there would be a large updated map and math posters to help the students. There would also be different poems and quotes on the walls. The school's budget would be large enough that I could buy as many books and supplies that I would need to teach my lessons and we could go on plenty of field trips. All of my students would be willing to participate in the activites that we do and the whole class would all be friends. The goal of the classroom would be to be everyone's friend and not to have any tight little groups but have the whole class be one big group. They would feel the classroom was a safe environment away from all of their problems and even though everyone is different, they would all be the same. The parents will all cooperate and help the student with the homework they get from class. They will also read with their students at home. They would be supportive of how I taught and I wouldn't have to worry about a parent getting mad at me. I will use various techniques in the classroom such as movement and group projects. Each teaching strategy will work with the way each of my students learn and I will rotate each one so the students won't get bored. I will use different technologies to teach like power points, movies, projectors, and overheads. I will teach reading comprehension, math, science, language, music, social studies, P.E., and arts, but a lot of these will be combined with the other so I can fit everything in that I want to teach.