Goodbye for Now

I'm sure I'll see some of my fellow students next semester. Thanks to Mr. Tashbin for helping me this semester. And thanks to Dr. Strange for organizing this course.

Week 15 Assignment

#1:

• Blogs: I learned that blogs are a way to publish your work so that you have a broad audience. It helps students to realize that they can reach the world.
  
• Google Docs: I had no idea that Google had free software for creating all sorts of documents and presentations, forms and surveys and even websites. All of it is connected to your Gmail account! It's really useful.
  
• Picasa: I used this on my mission trip over spring break to share photos from the trip with all of my friends!
  
• Podcasts & Vodcasts: I learned that there is a whole community of teachers out there trying to educate other teachers about technology and all sorts of other things. I also learned that making a podcast is not so difficult.
• YouTube: I learned that YouTube is more than just entertainment. It's a place where you can post your projects and your thoughts and ideas. My mother was watching lessons about Algebra the other day because she's going back to school and she needs a refresher. It blows my mind that all she had to do was look it up on YouTube!
  
• PLNs: I learned that maintaining a Personal Learning Network is importantif you want to be a life long learner and the best educator you can be.
  
• Twitter: I learned that I hate Twitter and find very little use in it. If people want to tell me these things, they can text me or facebook me. I don't care to follow strangers.
  
• Comments4kids, Comments4classmates,& Comments4teachers: I learned that there is a whole network of educators and students on the internet that are willing to post their ideas and their thoughts in order to benefit others.
  
• iTunes & iTunesU: I learned that iTunes has an educational component that is opening up possiblities for the future of education.

#2: Something I would have liked to learn in this class, but did not, would be how to use a promethian board.
#3: There is nothing in this course that I regret learning. Google Earth was hard for me to figure out, but it is a useful tool. I hope I master it someday.
#4: This class did excite me. There were times when it was a pain to figure out these tools, but I am so glad I did. I can't wait to walk into my first job ready to use technology to enhance my students learning environment. I really like the idea of blogging. I also found out that Billy Collins (poet) has made some of his poems into videos. Maybe other poets have too. As a future English teacher, I can see a lot of potential for technology in my curriculum.
#5: I think that being an independent learner and teaching myself how to use Voicethread and Google Docs and Google Earth was "intellectually challenging."
#6: I was bored some days when we were sitting in class doing work and I was trying to do something, but I couldn't figure it out and the teacher was busy. Honestly, I got on facebook during these times to cheer myself up.
#7: Since I am allowed to say it, I will. I didn't feel overworked in EDM 310. There was a lot thrown at us in the beginning of the semester, but after that, it all leveled out. I completed each week's assignments in less than an hour or two.
#8: I would say I am somewhat tech literate after taking this course. There is so much more that I could learn.
#9: In order to improve my tech literacy between now and the time I graduate, I plan to keep up with my PLN and continue to mess around with programs on my computer so that I can use them well.

PLN Update

For my PLN I follow the Langwitches blog and The Teacher's Podcast. I plan to continue to follow these in order to gain as much knowledge and insight into the teaching field as I can. The latest Langwitches post was about tweeting with elementary school students. You should check it out.

Liz and I did start that blog that I mentioned in an earlier post. Liz has been busythis semester, but both ofus are very excited about continuing to blog together! You can find our blog at: http://caitlizenglishteachers.blogspot.com/.

Week 14 Assignment

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

I really liked this video. I might even share it with my students when I'm a teacher. It's important for teachers to inspire their students to greatness, to help them focus, and to help them develop critical thinking skills. Those are three concepts that really jumped out at me through this video. (I still don't know what my sentence is... I'll have to think about it.)

This student has a very organized PLE. My PLE includes usaonline and my PLN. It also includes my EDM 310 blog and my professional blog that I created with my friend Liz. I would be interested in doing things like this in my classroom. I would like my students to feel like they have the freedom to take responsibility for their classroom.

Week 13 assignment

A topic that concerns me after taking this course is how I am going to incorporate technology into my classroom when I'm a teacher. I think that blogging is certainly an option. I can see having my students keep an online journal of their work. I can see assigning them to write responses to certain literary works or having them write poems of their own. I also think that youtube and skype might be helpful. I could find video's related to what my class is studying or I could have my class post their own videos. When I was in high school, we had to do a project called "The Crucible in 60 Seconds." As a teacher, if I ever had my class do an assignment like this, I would consider video taping their projects and either posting them to our class blog or posting them to youtube. Skype could be useful if I wanted to give my students the opportunity to meet a local poet or a local writer. I am so excited to start teaching and to begin implementing all of these ideas in my classroom.

Comments 4 Kids (Week 14): Cruz's Blog

Cruz made an animated video about the signing of a treaty. I can't even begin to say how impressed I am. When I was his age, I used the computer to play games. That was it. I can't believe he made that video all by himself. It's a little scary to think that my future students will be able to do this. I still have no idea how to go about making a video like that.

Google Earth Project

I made a tour of all the places I've lived. However, I had trouble figuring out a lot of the things on Google Earth. I did my best.

Comments4teachers: Speaking of History

Eric Langhorst is an 8th grade history teacher in Missouri.

Creating Historical Book Clubs
I was so excited to view this presentation about creating book clubs! I love book clubs and would love to do something like this with students in my school someday. Maybe departments could work together. There could be a historical book club and a science book club, etc.

Podcasting with the Experts

This blog post was about an assignment that Mr. Langhorst does with his students every year. He has them watch a documentary about the Donner Party incident. He then has his students debate whether they think the Donner part was at fault for what happened to them. He records this debates and this year, he posted them on youtube and asked some experts to leave some comments for his students. He then created a podcast about all of this. I think this is really cool. I would love to do something like with with my students. I can see this fitting in with Literature discussions quite nicely.

Week 12 Assignment

Dr. Suess - The Zax


This movie does make a good point about being stubborn and not changing in order to move forward. I hope that education makes great strides in the coming years.

Why is it important for students to publish their work?

PS 22 School Choir:

It is so cool that this school choir was able to share their talent on YouTube for the whole world to see it! Students need to post their work so that they have a large audience and so they get used to communicated with others in this "global village."

We've Got the Write Stuff:Paradise
Students should be taught how to share their thoughts and feelings. They should be encouraged to write and think that writing is fun. Blogging is a way to get students to write in a way that is fun and relevant to their lives. Parents and teachers can easily comment on blogs. This boosts students' self confidence.
(This was my Comments4kids assignment for week 13.)

Little Voices, Little Scholars: Mahana
This student was able to share her experiences of her trip to the farm! She'll be able to look back on this post and remember her trip for a long time to come.
(This was my Comments4kids assignment for week 12.)

A Cold Winter Day in Iowa
This kind of creative writing is just the sort of thing that students ahould be encouraged to do. So many people have commented on this students blog post! It is so awesome!