I think the role of technology in education is crucial. In a world were technology changes daily and were students know more about the latest technologies than their teachers, it is essential that technology is used in classrooms. Students need to be engaged in class and without technology, I think we will lose the attention of many. The days of a teacher standing in front of a class and giving a boring lecture, with nothing else to look, at are over. Kids want to learn and technology is a tool in helping them to learn better.
My view of technology has changed in the sense that I am not AS intimidated by it. It is also a lot more accessible than I thought, especially with all the free tools available on line. I have learned how to use a lot of new tools, and it was easier than I thought it would be to figure them out. I am excited to be able to use these tools in my classroom and also maybe to show other teachers what is out there. I think that instead of being afraid of technology, I am now willing to learn because I know it will help me to teach better and it will be funner to use more interesting and engaging tools that will keep my student's interest. I hope that I can remember most of the things I learned, and can't wait to start using them.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
My Interview
I interviewed for the entrance into the Ed. Program this semester. I talked to other students who had their interviews that day, but when I got home from class, I didn't think about it. My interview was scheduled for 8:30 pm, and at 8:36pm i got a call from Pam, which I immediately knew I had dropped the ball. Having had a class with Pam, she knew I was not in the habbit of missing class or being late, so she covered for me. I rushed to put on some nice clothes, sped to the school, and apologized emphatically to my interviewees when I arrived twenty minutes late (not a good start to my professional carreer). Steve and Lisa both had teased me and had fun with the situation and when it was time for the interview to start, they told me to forget about it and focus on the interview. It took me a few minutes to settle down, but Steve, Lisa, and Prof. Garrett were all very nice.
The interview went very well, and at the end I was encouraged, especially by Prof. Garrett, to think about at least student teaching at a private school because she saw the "Pastor side" of me that would be beneficial to students in a Christian school. Originally I had no desire to teach in private schools, but after their encouraging words, I have not ruled out the possibility of doing so.
The interview went very well, and at the end I was encouraged, especially by Prof. Garrett, to think about at least student teaching at a private school because she saw the "Pastor side" of me that would be beneficial to students in a Christian school. Originally I had no desire to teach in private schools, but after their encouraging words, I have not ruled out the possibility of doing so.
Giving Bibles Away at School a No No!
An article from teacher magazine talks about a Louisiana public school that can longer hand out Bibles to students. A federal judge ruled that giving Bibles out violated separation of church and state. The school will appeal the ruling, because they say that the students are not forced to accept a Bible.
It's unfortunate to me that they cannot even hand out Bible's at school, but the country continues to go in that direction. I know I will not be able to force my beliefs on my future students, but I hope in the future that if I am asked, I will still be able to share Christ with them.
It's unfortunate to me that they cannot even hand out Bible's at school, but the country continues to go in that direction. I know I will not be able to force my beliefs on my future students, but I hope in the future that if I am asked, I will still be able to share Christ with them.
Microeconomics Class
I was blessed to be able to take Prof. Bacon's Microeconomics class. I did not know what to expect of the class at the beginning of the semester, but from the very start I loved the class. He is a phenomenal professor, who's desire for teaching is clearly evident. Adding to his great sense of humor mixed with subtle sarcasm, was the unique structure of the class. Instead of a bunch of boring exams that most people (including me) will cram for and not learn a thing, he structured the class in a way that got every student involved and engaged. Also engaging were his assignments. We had to put what we learned into a context of a poem, a short story, and a Pecha-Kucha Presentation. Because of the atmosphere he created in the classroom, I did not want to miss a class, and learning was actually fun. As a result of Prof. Bacon's class, I have picked up a few tricks in helping me to structure my future classes, and hopefully I will be able to make learning fun for my students.
Jacob
In other news about my old High school of Eagle Point, my good friend Jacob just became the new head coach of the football team. Jacob played for the team in our junior year that went to the state championship game and made it deep in the playoffs the next year. They had never been to a championship game prior to that, and have not been back since. But I believe that Jacob will bring the team back as head coach. He has been a defensive coach at the last two schools he taught, and helped take each team to the playoffs with his stout defense. Jacob is a great coach, a great teacher, and an even better person, who is successful in everything he does, and I'm sure his success will continue at Eagle Point.
Eagle Point High School
I was doing some research on the city of Eagle Point (Oregon) were I went to school at EPHS.
I found a great article on the Mail Tribune website that talked about some changes the high school was making to accommodate limited English speaking students. Next year they will be adding more English Language Learner teachers and a new English language development curriculum. Admin. believes that the program will help to improve the English proficiency standards that the school has been struggling with and are encouraged that the rates will increase. When I graduated EPHS eleven years ago, the number of Spanish speaking students was growing every year. The area provides a draw to migrant workers because of the many thousands of acres of fruit orchards. I had heard that the number of Spanish speaking students was catching up to English speaking students for quite some time, so it sounds like the program was long overdue.
I found a great article on the Mail Tribune website that talked about some changes the high school was making to accommodate limited English speaking students. Next year they will be adding more English Language Learner teachers and a new English language development curriculum. Admin. believes that the program will help to improve the English proficiency standards that the school has been struggling with and are encouraged that the rates will increase. When I graduated EPHS eleven years ago, the number of Spanish speaking students was growing every year. The area provides a draw to migrant workers because of the many thousands of acres of fruit orchards. I had heard that the number of Spanish speaking students was catching up to English speaking students for quite some time, so it sounds like the program was long overdue.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Assignment #5
For my presentation I did a SMART Board activity on the Spanish Flu. Actually it is more of a quiz, but at least it is a fun quiz.
For starters, I had to learn more about the Spanish Flu then what I had already known (which was very little). Next I started playing around more with some of the functions of the SMART Board. I downloaded the Lesson Activity Toolkit 1.0 that Prof. Sorenson provided to me on a link. On top of all the "Essentials for Educators" pictures, the Toolkit provided a lot more options to use for this activity. There are games, activities, and what I found most useful were the tools and activities. In the "Tools" icon was a set of pages titled "Notebook Files and Pages." For my first page I used one of the activities called "Balloon pop" It was set up for a vocabulary lesson, so I altered it to relate to my lesson. On the page is a question and underneath it are eight balloons, each with an answer written on them. When the balloon is clicked on it pops, revealing a check mark if correct or an X if incorrect.
The next page in the lesson I used the "Multiple Choice" option under the "Activities" icon in Toolkit. It allows you to type in a question and underneath it are four possible choices. When editing, after you put in the possible answers, it asks you to select the box number with the correct answer. I ended up doing four different questions, which are all contained in the same slide. When an answer is correctly chosen, it goes to the next question until all of the answers are correctly chosen. Then it gives a final score of how the person did on the quiz.
The next page I did is a fun game using the "Blue-Vortex Sort" option under the "Activities" icon. This gives the student a number of words and beneath them are two vortex traps. The student then drags a word to the correct vortex. If it is correct it swallows the word, but if it is incorrect it spits the word back out. To edit this activity, each vortex needed to be labeled (it could have allowed more room for letters) then it allows you to create the words to go inside the each vortex (the left labeled Vortex 1 and the right labeled Vortex 2).
On the fourth page I chose a blank map of the United States with the outline of the states in the "Essentials for Educators" icon. I used the "Question Flipper 2" in the "Tools" portion of the Toolkit. On one side I typed the question I wanted to ask, then when clicked, the box flips over revealing the answer to the question, which I obviously had to type into the box. I also added the abbreviation for ten of the U.S. states to narrow down the possible answers to the question. The student puts a smiley face on what they believe is the correct state, and then clicks on the flipper to see if their answer is correct.
The last slide I used the "Click and Reveal" boxes to insert a question and to cover the answer to the question. A blue box covers the question and answer then, when clicked, they are revealed. I also, for the first time, saved an image that I found online to "My Pictures." I was then able to add this picture to my slide (which was the answer to the question) using by clicking "Insert" then "Picture File" on the tool bar. I was also able to save a clip from YouTube for the first time to "My Video" (which I might add took for ever to figure that one out). I then inserted a link to the clip again using "Insert" on the tool bar.
Once I navigated around the Toolkit in SMART Board, I became familiar with most of the different options. I knew what kind of questions I wanted to ask, so then it became a matter of deciding which activity would go best in providing for each question. I was not comfortable at all, really, with the SMART Board stuff, especially the Toolkit that I added for this assignment. But with some practice, it was not very intimidating. I had a little trouble figuring out how to save pictures and video clips, since I had never done this before, but it was worth the time to figure out how to do so.
I love the SMART Board activities, and I think it will provide a better learning experience for students and also a better teaching experience for teachers. I had fun figuring out how to edit my lesson, and I think the finished product turned out pretty well.
For starters, I had to learn more about the Spanish Flu then what I had already known (which was very little). Next I started playing around more with some of the functions of the SMART Board. I downloaded the Lesson Activity Toolkit 1.0 that Prof. Sorenson provided to me on a link. On top of all the "Essentials for Educators" pictures, the Toolkit provided a lot more options to use for this activity. There are games, activities, and what I found most useful were the tools and activities. In the "Tools" icon was a set of pages titled "Notebook Files and Pages." For my first page I used one of the activities called "Balloon pop" It was set up for a vocabulary lesson, so I altered it to relate to my lesson. On the page is a question and underneath it are eight balloons, each with an answer written on them. When the balloon is clicked on it pops, revealing a check mark if correct or an X if incorrect.
The next page in the lesson I used the "Multiple Choice" option under the "Activities" icon in Toolkit. It allows you to type in a question and underneath it are four possible choices. When editing, after you put in the possible answers, it asks you to select the box number with the correct answer. I ended up doing four different questions, which are all contained in the same slide. When an answer is correctly chosen, it goes to the next question until all of the answers are correctly chosen. Then it gives a final score of how the person did on the quiz.
The next page I did is a fun game using the "Blue-Vortex Sort" option under the "Activities" icon. This gives the student a number of words and beneath them are two vortex traps. The student then drags a word to the correct vortex. If it is correct it swallows the word, but if it is incorrect it spits the word back out. To edit this activity, each vortex needed to be labeled (it could have allowed more room for letters) then it allows you to create the words to go inside the each vortex (the left labeled Vortex 1 and the right labeled Vortex 2).
On the fourth page I chose a blank map of the United States with the outline of the states in the "Essentials for Educators" icon. I used the "Question Flipper 2" in the "Tools" portion of the Toolkit. On one side I typed the question I wanted to ask, then when clicked, the box flips over revealing the answer to the question, which I obviously had to type into the box. I also added the abbreviation for ten of the U.S. states to narrow down the possible answers to the question. The student puts a smiley face on what they believe is the correct state, and then clicks on the flipper to see if their answer is correct.
The last slide I used the "Click and Reveal" boxes to insert a question and to cover the answer to the question. A blue box covers the question and answer then, when clicked, they are revealed. I also, for the first time, saved an image that I found online to "My Pictures." I was then able to add this picture to my slide (which was the answer to the question) using by clicking "Insert" then "Picture File" on the tool bar. I was also able to save a clip from YouTube for the first time to "My Video" (which I might add took for ever to figure that one out). I then inserted a link to the clip again using "Insert" on the tool bar.
Once I navigated around the Toolkit in SMART Board, I became familiar with most of the different options. I knew what kind of questions I wanted to ask, so then it became a matter of deciding which activity would go best in providing for each question. I was not comfortable at all, really, with the SMART Board stuff, especially the Toolkit that I added for this assignment. But with some practice, it was not very intimidating. I had a little trouble figuring out how to save pictures and video clips, since I had never done this before, but it was worth the time to figure out how to do so.
I love the SMART Board activities, and I think it will provide a better learning experience for students and also a better teaching experience for teachers. I had fun figuring out how to edit my lesson, and I think the finished product turned out pretty well.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
What will the classroom look like in 5 years?
A lot of the change will depend on the budget of the individual schools. I think in some schools it will not change much, especially those with a small budget. Technology costs money, and some do not have enough in the budget to keep up with the latest. Some schools will be able to afford somewhat outdate technology, and some will be able to keep up with the latest. I definitely think that many, and hopefully most, schools will have a SmartBoard in the classrooms. It just seems like a smooth evolution from blackboards to whiteboards to projectors to SmartBoards. I know that with the way new technologies seem to become outdated so quickly, there will probably be new tools, that we have not even heard of, used in classrooms. I really cannot imagine how much the classroom will change in the next five years, but my guess is that there will be many changes, especially in the higher budget schools.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Internet Safety
Some of the Internet safety issues are, even though there are filters, X-Rated sites are still accessible. Students may also come into contact with Internet predators. Students can "bully" other students online (cyberbullying).
To help protect, schools can use filters, have students use safe search engines such as nettrekker. You can create a Database through google of the sites you want them to use. Have students work in pairs and reward them to keep each other accountable. Make sure they're supervised. There are programs where teachers can control the students Desktop and see what they are doing.
To help protect, schools can use filters, have students use safe search engines such as nettrekker. You can create a Database through google of the sites you want them to use. Have students work in pairs and reward them to keep each other accountable. Make sure they're supervised. There are programs where teachers can control the students Desktop and see what they are doing.
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