Blog #16 Technology Lesson Plans

We are writing lesson plans, to turn in as a final,that incorporate technology in them. It has been hard for me to think of ideas on what I should put in my lesson plans. We are supposed to come up with an idea that is unique to a previous lesson plan. I have come up with a few ideas like having the students learn a language over a web cam conversation with someone native to a different country or have the students make a film strip/movie with students in another country comparing the subject in 2 different cultures. We'll see what I end up doing, I'll keep brainstorming.

Using technology in the classroom is something that is new to me because when I was in school we hardly ever used technology, besides going to computers. I believe that it will enhance students' learning. It will not only enhance their learning but it will also prepare them to use technology skills later on in their life.

Now that I have expanded my knowledge in technology, I am able to take what I have learned to my future classroom. Along with that, I can build upon that foundation and learn more as technology is updated. I am excited to experiment around with technology and find new ideas that I can use in my classroom.

Video
School House Rock: Preamble
This movie is a classic! Some of my teachers in either Jr. High or High School had us watch it. That is the way that I was able to learn/memorize the Preamble. I can still sing the song today with all of the words! I believe that this movie is very helpful for students in learning the Preamble.

Blog #15 Digital Story 3

Digital Story #3

I have enjoyed learning how to put a digital story together. Once I got past the stage of understanding what a digital story was I was able to pick up the concept and make an attempt at making a digital story. It’s used to enhance a lesson by introducing the topic. Digital stories can also be given as an assignment to the students, in the elementary. This enables them to use their imaginations to present a topic.

A digital stories is something that can catch the attention of all learners. It is good to have this tool so that we can use various types of presentation tools to our students. Some students within the classroom may be able to learn by stories, movies or pictures. This would be a helpful way for those students to learn the material.

Now that I know how to create a digital story I could incorporate it into some of my lessons. It takes a lot of effort to make one video so I think that it would be neat to take all of the digital stories that we have created and share them amongst each other for the use of all of our classrooms. Also, now that I know how to make these stories, I can help my students through the process if I ever give them an assignment of creating one.

Video: Millennial Generation
This video was very informational in the sense that it shows the younger generation as expanding and imagining what technology is going to be like possibly just several years down the road. It’s amazing how much this generation knows about technology. As the stated in the movie, it’s hard for some of those in the older generation to accommodate to the new technology, but it’s something that has been a major impact upon the world. Technology is a fast paced revolution that will continuously be updated.

Blog #14 Thanksgiving Holiday!

It has been so nice to take a little break from school. I am sad that the end of this break is also the end of our field experience. I was just starting to get use to teaching and understanding the students. It's crazy how fast time flies. Before we know it this semester is going to be over and I'll be starting on my second semester in the Elementary Education Program.

There are many things that I have learned my field experience and it makes me even more excited to do next semester's field experience. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a member of the program. I have learned new information, strategies that I can use and had tons of fun! I feel more prepared at teaching now. The field experience has helped ease me into this.

Now that I have had a little taste of what teaching is all about, I am totally excited to finish the program and start teaching. Now I am ready to finish out this semester and start with next semester. I think I'll even go back and help out in that particular classroom. I want to help those students to learn all that they can and have fun with it.

Blog #13 Field Experience 3

This was the last full week of being in my 4th grade class. I have really enjoyed watching the students progress and grow in learning new things. We have finished teaching our five lessons and I want to teach more. At first I was apprehensive as to how teaching would go. I was nervous that we didn't have enough material or that the students wouldn't understand or like what we were doing. This wasn't the case, the students loved it! One of the students in particular would ask me frequently if we were going to be teaching about the pioneers that day, this made me happy.

This experience has reinforced my desire to become a teacher. I wish that I could just stop going to school to teach school. I love seeing the students learning new things and finding out that they can do something. I feel like I have just gotten to know the students and their abilities and then we have to go back to school. I wish that I could just stay and help those students learn all that they can.

Now that I definitely know that I want to be a teacher, I will try my hardest to accomplish that goal. I want to be a teacher that can make a positive impact in the lives of those that I'm around and those that I teach. Now I have a better idea of how teaching a lesson plan works and next time I shouldn't be as nervous to give a lesson.

Blog #12 Field Experience 2

This week we are still in our field experience. I am in a fourth grade class. Aubri, my partner, and I taught out first two lessons this week, on the pioneers. They went better that what I expected. I didn't think that the students would participate as much as they did, but they're a pretty active bunch of students. When we aren't teaching we are walking around helping students and observing the teacher.

Observing in the classroom gives me knowledge on how to deal with students that are acting up in class or having a hard time focusing. Classroom management is a tool that is necessary in becoming a teacher. I like that we are able to teach in a classroom to build up our experience before we are set out on our own. The cooperating teacher that I'm observing and helping out is stricter teacher that I have been used to, for example reminding students of the procedures of the classroom. She is more sarcastic with the students than I would feel comfortable being.

Now that I have seen some of the techniques that my cooperating teacher has used, I can put my own spin on it. I can take the positive skills that she has taught me and make them so that they fit my personality of teaching. Being able to see good examples and not so good examples of teachers helps me to think of how I as a teacher would like to be. Also, now that I have been able to have a little experience in planning and teaching that lesson plan, I hope that I can become more comfortable with teaching the class. Now that I am able to observe in a live classroom, then I can get the hands on experience that I need to build my classroom management skills.

Blog #11 Field Experience 1

I have absolutely loved my field experience so far! I enjoy going into the classroom and observing, helping out and soon teaching some lessons. My partner and I will be teaching out first lesson this coming monday on the Mormon Pioneers. I am excited and nervous at the same time. It will be exciting to see how a lesson plan works out or doesn't work out the way that you had planned.

I think that it is necessary to have the opportunity to have a field experience because it gives me the hands on experience that I need. I am able to see examples of what works in the classroom and what doesn't work so well. Thus far, my field experience has taught me that teachers need to be very on top of what's going on in the classroom at all times. There are times when he/she needs to disciple a student quickly, for a certain behavior, that's sitting across the room.

All the things that I have learned so far in the EDEL Program I am able to apply to the classroom, that I have been assigned to help out in. There are things that I can now see that I would do differently, in my particular classroom, than my cooperating teacher does currently in her classroom. I am still far away from learning all that I can about the classroom, discipline, curriculum, lesson plans, etc., but I am excited to learn how I can become a positive impact on students.

Video Post "How Not To Use PowerPoint"-PDP Reflection

I thought that this vodeo got the point across about powerpoint in a humerous way. It made remember what not to do on powerpoint. The things that he mentioned wer things that can be a problem while creating a powerpoint and if we aren't aware ahead of time, then this is a good way to make sure you know. This would be a fun little video to show your students before they make their own powerpoints.

My Beliefs-PDP

I believe that technology is important for we, as teachers, to be encouraging within the classroom. Like many have said before, technology is ever changing and it's evolving into something that technological skills are essential to mankind. I do think that there is a balance between using and applying technology in the classroom and using other resources. Students need to gain those skills in technology as well as other skills.

I thought that it was interesting in the "Study: Teens See Disconnect Between Personal and Writing," article that students think that technology doesn't impact their writing skills. I believe that technology would hinder their skills, because if students are just using the internet as a way of communicating and learning information, then they aren't able to get the full effect of understanding others' viewpoints. It's one thing to talk to a person live about their opinion and to gain information. As I said earlier, I believe that there is a balance between technology and using other resources.

Lessons Learned-PDP

I learned that I have got a pretty good foundation for applying technology, but there is still a lot that I can learn and work on. I also found out that I have a hard time teaching students, or coming up with ways to teach students, about how to apply technological skills in their own lives. The video that really opened my eyes was "Did You Know?" This helped me to see outside of my own life as to what is going on in the world. It made me rethink some of my worldviews.

I also thought that it was interesting that some schools are doing without yearbooks and such. The internet has taken over that aspect of life and provided access to keep in contact with others around the world.

Strengths & Weaknesses-PDP

I am not as technologically savy as I thought that I was. Reading the articles, watching the movies and doing the survey really opened my eyes to let me know what I still need to learn in how to apply technology into my own classroom. I believe that I am computer savy and that I am able to work with programs pretty well, after I have learned how to use them. I feel that I know most of the basic skills in using computers. Some of the things that I would like to learn about(that I learned are my weaknesses from the UNI Survey), and impliment into my own classroom, are learning how to effectively use troubleshooting and adaptive technology for students with disabilities.

I would also like to learn how to teach it to my students. I could learn this from watching a tutorial that goes along with your computer and model, on the internet by looking up the webpage. This would help because the instructions are coming right from the source of where the computers are made. They understand your computer and how it works. Another way that I could improve my weakness on this topic is to watch a video on Youtube teacher tube specific to the problem that I could possibly be encountering. These videos go through and explain various problems that could occur and how you can solve the problem.

Another weakness that I have is knowing about the adaptive technology that disabled students can used. To help me learn about this I could observe in a classroom that has need of those adaptations and ask the teacher about them. This would help me to understand the methods that are used and how effective they are. I could also take a short-course about how to work the technology, this could be done within the schools. This would help me to apply what I have learned about the adaptations.

Reflection #9 Digital Story1

My mind is blown away by the digital stories! I didn't know that there was such a thing. I still don't fully understand how to put together a digital story, but I'm sure that I'll get it down sometime. Although, I am excited to learn and to be able to make my own digital story. We'll see how it goes!

Using digital stories in the classroom I think will help to increwase the focus of the students. They need a variety of ways to learn the material. Digital stories will catch their attention and help them to be excited for what they are about to learn. Learning how to put digital stories together will enable us as teachers to give a little summary, about what the class is going to learn, within just a few minutes.

I think that it would be fun to have the students create their own digital stories as well. You, as the teacher could put the students in groups and give them each part of a unit. That way you would be able to have the whole unit presented and it wouldn't take as long as doing lessons for each of the topics. The students would be learning more about technology and building their skills while doing this project. This would help them to be more efficent in our technologically growing society.

NASA Digital Story:
I thought that this story was very information packed! I liked it! The voice was a little flat, but I liked how they encorporated the voices of other historical figures. I liked how they went through and mentioned the missions that NASA has sent off, as well as the people that were aboard and didn't survive. It was interesting to me that they showed the other side of the Race to Space, which was the Soviet Union side. They showed the astronauts that went on the flights and the struggles that they also had.

Blog #8 Education Process (Fall Break)

5:41 PM
Getting to the point that I am right now in education hasn't been easy, but I'm here. I was able to take some classes that would allow me to enter into the Education Program at Utah Valley University right after I graduated with my Associate's Degree. I have absolutely loved the Education Program at UVU. The Education Program is a very well thought through program and has proven to be effective.

I enjoy the Education Program because what's taught in the classes have a connection to what my career is going to be. I feel that I am actually preparing for later in life, rather than just going to school to learn general knowledge. Having a topic that you are interested in makes you excited to go to class. Once the student of the education program is excited then they are more willing to learn and are more likely to pass that excitement on to their students.

All of the things that I have learned from the Education Program, and things that I have yet to learn, will be such an asset in my career, along with being a part of my daily life. I am glad to have the opportunity to be in this program because the classes prepare you to become the teachers of tomorrow. The world is ever changing and so learning new information gives you the boost that you need to give the young students a better education.

Blog #7 WebQuest Final Fixes

Oh! I learned that I should save all of my important files in more that just a couple of places and the various places that you could place them in. I also learned to save the WebQuests in format so that the students won't be able to change or edit anything on it. Our WebQuests should be about finished, with just minor alterations to make. Learning how to make a WebQuest has been fun.

I feel that having a WebQuest will help the teacher guide the students to learn some computer skills. They will also learn skills that will help them to search out the answers, if the WebQuest has a research part, and to gain some skills in following directions without having the teacher there. Knowing how to do a WebQuest means that I will have another way of presenting assignments. The students will enjoy having something different. Having the computer as a way for the students to accomplish their homework will give them some independence. They have to have the initiative to go out and search for the answers themselves.

With this new information that I am learning about, through technology, it keeps me up to date. I believe that students are becoming more and more acquainted with technology that if we don't, as teachers, keep up on it then we are going to lose the attention of our students. I assume that technology will keep expanding and becoming something even bigger. Also, if we are up to date on technology than we can collaborate with other teachers and share the information that we know and have learned.

Schoolhouse Rock-A Noun is a Person, Place, or Thing
I really like the Schoolhouse Rock because they take essential things that you need to learn and they put it to music. The students love to watch the movies and it's a good way to show them visually what a noun is and such. I also like how they repeat what a noun is within the movie. I am going to incorporate movie clips like this one in my classroom, because it gives the students a variety of ways to learn.

Blog #6 WebQuest2

WebQuests are getting easier and easier to understand. It's not the most simple assignment, for teachers, to put together, but I think that the students will really enjoy doing WebQuests. Having all parts of the assignment on the computer accessible to the students, as well as the parents, is helpful for the students to be able to look at what's required of them.

I'm glad that I have this class so that I can learn new things that will be able to help me right now as well as for my future classroom. I am excited to put our WebQuest together. This past class I learned how to hyperlink in Power Point. That is going to help when I create power points for my classroom. I think that WebQuests are going to become the new way giving the students assignments.

It's nice to have all of the information that you want the students to search through, to find information, right there on the WebQuest. I believe that I will use WebQuest to form many of the assignments for my students. I think that it would be a good way for me, as a teacher, to stay organized.

We Didn't Start The Fire
I really like this movie clip. I remember watching it when I was a Sophomore in High School. When I watched it back then I learned a lot. It makes you take a step back and look at many of the things that have gone one in the world recently. You look at the movie and then you can think about what changes those events have led to. I think that this is a good informational movie to show older students so that they can understand what's gone on in history through a fun little movie clip.

Blog #5 WebQuest 1

WebQuest
I had never heard of WebQuest before, so it was confusing to me at first. I thought that it would be more of a burden than a tool, but the more that I look at it and try to understand the system it's pretty cool. If they were to do WebQuests when I was going through elementary school I would have loved it! Having everything on the computer easily accessible for your homework is great! The students love using and learning all they can about technology.

This is a good way for teachers to scaffold their students. They put an assignment with some links on the computer and let the students go for it. It gives the students freedom to have fun with the assignment, but it also gives them only the good websites that you want them to use. I like how you can put the links right on there so that the students know where to go for their information.

I imagine that WebQuest will be a part of my classroom and teaching style. I think that I'll try using WebQuest for big unit projects in my classroom. I believe that it would be a good idea because some of their assignments will be homework and others they'll work on in class, but if you have the whole unit on the WebQuest then they are able to go through and do the assignment that have been assigned for homework at a particular time. It will help them to stay organized and remember what they've done throughout the unit.

Surface Computing Video
Wow! Surface Computing is so cool! It makes me wonder what else they are going to be able to come out with in the future. We are really going to have to be educated about technology or else the students will be teaching us about technology. I feel that they are coming out with some really amazing things for technology, things that will be able to help us to connect even more with the world around us.

Blog #4 Podcast & Vidcast

Wow, I didn't know that making a podcast or vidcast was so simple! I loved learning how to make vidcasts and podcasts. I had heard about a podcast before, but I had never really known what they were. I feel that having these technological skills will help me to better my classroom such that the students will become familiar with technology, if they aren't already.

The students will use podcasts/vidcasts to learn the processes of new material. As a teacher, you could use podcasts by explaining the steps to certain math problems or the format of projects, etc... Then you could post them on your classroom website and if the students needed to refer back to math problems or project formats they are able to access them easily through the internet.

I am going to use the podcast that I made in our classroom for sure in the future. Prerecording a podcast or vidcast would ensure that your presentation/lesson could turn out the way that you would like it to. It would take the stress off of you, as a teacher, and you would already have part of your lesson on video and ready to go, as long as you have a back up plan as well in case something didn't work right.

I think that posting podcasts and vidcasts on the classroom website would be a great idea for a student to refer to if they happened to miss a day in class. This would work best if the teacher put something on from each day, which I think is a valuable tool to use. Then the student would understand a little of what was taught at school that day so they wouldn't be as far behind on their work.

Why Let Our Students Blog?
The video clip made me think through all of the things that blogging can help children learn and accomplish. I had never thought of blogging as a source of education, but now I see it as something that could be very useful within education. I think that it would be fun to have each one of the children do blogs, as we do. Have them do weekly reflections like a journal, but instead on the internet. Give them a question that they can answer. I think that it would be interesting to do blogs and then give them questions about a topic, but a week before it will be taught, so that you can see before hand a little of what the students know already, like a pretest.

Blog #3 Google Presentation

I was very impressed by Google. The Google presentation is a wonderful tool that can be very helpful within your classroom. I like it because it's so simple for you as the teacher or the children to put together a quick presentation. The presentations don't have aren't as fancy as other presentations but it does the job, and that's why I like it. This tool assists in teaching children how to make a presentation with just a few basic steps.



I watched the movie "Man Behind Morse Code" on YouTube. I actually learned more about the Morse Code than I thought I would. This movie would be a great addition to a lesson about the Morse Code. It's more of an information video, but I think that the children would still think it was interest, at the appropriate age.

Blog #2 Everything Google

I enjoyed the lessons on Google. I didn't know that there were so many tools that you can now use from there. I will definitely use these tools within my classroom as well as start using them in my every day life. I liked how the Google documents worked. This will give the students a better chance at working on group projects and having everyone participating. I was blown away at the Google sites. I had never set up a website before, but this makes it quick and simple to share classroom information with all of the students and their parents. I'm excited to start using the Google Calenders to help as a managing tool for my life as well as within my classroom.


Mr. Duey Video
I thought that this movie was a fun way for students to be introduced to using fractions. Putting the information to music perks the interest of the students so that they are more willing to learn about the topic presented. I liked how he kept repeating the process of changing improper fractions into mixed numbers over and over again. It reminded me how that process works.

Blog #1 My Ideal Classroom

My Ideal Classroom would include children helping one another to learn while getting along with each other. They would have the opportunity to teach the other students what they, themselves, learn and know how to do. This then will create independence within the students and a bond between them. The students would be encouraged to use various resources, like the Internet, books, people, etc… This would spark a little interest within the students in that they get a choice of how they obtain the information.

Children should have the opportunity to learn about any subject they are interested in. Having a library within the classroom for the students to learn by would teach them that they can obtain knowledge by themselves. I would also have a scheduled time that the children could read and discover books.

Within my classroom would be different areas that would serve various purposes. For example, in the classroom would include another place where the students would be able to sit aside from their original seats while the teacher is teaching, like a kiva with a white board. This would change the scenery a little for them. I would also include a library within my classroom.


I believe that the ideal classroom would encourage the students to trust the teacher in helping them to learn. The teacher, in turn, would help to guide the willing student to obtain knowledge. I would also have some sort of reward system for the class, so that they can learn teamwork.