Technology #2- Teachertube

Teacher tube is an excellent resource for both Teachers and students in the classroom. This site is geared towards teachers because it was created by educators and teachers. With the features included in on the site such as: uploading support files to attach to my educational activities, tests, lesson plans, & notes makes this another valuable tool to use in my classroom.

I can use Teacher tube to enhance my lessons and activities in my classroom by finding educational videos on this website and use them as an introduction to a lesson for instance about fractions . By showing them this video I will capture my students’ attention and allow me to give a mini lesson plan on fractions with the students engaged in the medium of computers that they are very familiar using. I am so excited to use this medium in my future classroom because it will enhance my learning of the subjects I teach and enhance learning for my students.

Lastly, my students will be using this medium in the classroom with my help and discretion. Older students can use the site on their own at home but I don’t think it is likely because it was designed for teachers.

Technology #1- Blogger ( :

11-13-2008
Blogger is an excellent website tool for both students and teachers to use in the classroom. This website is geared towards students and teachers; actually it’s a public website for anyone to use. My younger students could use this as a classroom journal. I will give them a topic to write about for some of their English writing assignments and let them write them on the computer in class. I will of course have to get permission from the parents to allow them to use it because it is a public website. I will probably have to make sure my students understand what is appropriate to write on a class blog and how to be safe on this website and teach them about internet safety.
But blogger will allow my students to be creative in their color choices, layout and picture for their journal profile and they will be able to use a computer, a medium my students will be comfortable enough with to write these journal entries for our class.

For my older students I will not only have them do a journal entry for our class on their blog every day as homework but I will also create a classroom blog similar to the one I have in my English class in college right now that will allow my students to write about any topic they wish within reason. They will be required to post blogs or comment on a blog at least 2 times a month for the school year.

I also enjoy using blogger because of my experience using it in college and have found it to be a great way to interact with my fellow students and my teacher. I hope my students will feel the same way as they write on the class blog. Another way it can be useful for teachers is that I can also write comments on the class blog and enjoy learning from my students.

Google Sites, Classroom Rules & Zoo Flyer

I have had soo much fun in this class the last few weeks not only with my fellow students but also with the assignments from class. I have found so much relevance with these assignments in and for my future classroom that i am glad i have someone to ask questions to now so its easier for me to create them when i am a teacher.

I continued making my google sites sub pages this week. I made my google announcement page which i had fun with; it was mostly for my parents because my students are so young, kindergarten age. But it is a great way to remind parents about things in the classroom and not have to worry about the students loosing the papers i send home with them. The homework tab is about the same except its for students as well because it is their homework i will be posting about. But this tab is a great idea so not only will my students have a reminder about what is due but the parents will know as well.

I also really enjoyed making the word document about my 10 classroom rules..i cant really explain why except to say that i liked having limitless creativity about what i put on it with the exception of a few requirements...I really enjoyed finding the pictures, creating MY classroom rules and making it fun for my students and parents to read about. I think this assignment was a great idea because rules in a classroom along with the teacher really sets the tone of the classroom for the entire year. So creating rules in my classroom will help me have control of my classroom and allow my students to know what i expect from them.

The last assignment i was able to complete this week was the flyer. I chose to just make it for one of the assignments i created on the calendar in google sites about my class field trip to the zoo. This was a lot of fun too create and i enjoyed making it. I found cute pictures to use to make it fun for my students and parents to read, learned how to make a watermark of zebra strips, i used work art for the title of the flyer and found a cute font to use to make it fun! I think this could really benefit me in my classroom when i need to let my parents know about things that are going on in my classroom and instead of sending it home with my students i just have the parents look at it on my UEN page...that way it doesn't get lost with the students. Which makes my job as a teacher that much easier!

I have to say that i really am learning to be patient and have fun with computers. And 2 months ago i never would have dreamt i would be saying that, seriously. Thanks for helping me enhance my patience with technology and be willing to have a "spirit of discovery" because if you don't technology can be a really big hassle as i have come to learn. I am glad i am learning to be patient with computers now so i can be a better teacher by using it in my classroom with out getting frustrated in my classroom in front of my students and all.

Student of the Week- Google Sites

This week as we continued our in classroom work study on our assignments i learned that being a teacher involves a lot of hard work, dedication, and behind the scenes work outside the classroom. I am glad i am being prepared for my future teaching work load now so i can be a better teacher. I really have enjoyed using and learning about the functions of google sites. This week i created my tab for student of the week and i have to tell you that i had a lot of fun creating them. I had fun googling the pictures of my students hobbies and i liked being able to key in on students in my classroom who are doing positive things to enhance the quality of learning in my classroom. I believe by acknowledging the students who are doing good things it will make my classroom a more positive place to be in and encourage my students to behave. Not only that but the parents of my students will have access to this tab in our classes google sites page and be able to see what their student has been doing in class and recognise them at home therefore encouraging the students to do good at home and at school.

Google Sites & My Home Page

This week i learned about Google sites again in doing our imaginary classroom web page assignment. On this web page i created my classroom calendar and i found out how much fun this program on Google sites can be for me and my students. I think it will be a more appropriate tool for my older students to use starting in about second grade. On this program my students can view upcoming assignments, classroom trips, and breaks from school. I especially like creating this calendar because i can tell my students in a message box what will be included in the assignment or tell them what we will be learning in class that day so if they are absent from class they know what we did and what homework was due so they don't have to bug me about it except to get the assignment.

This tool can also be very beneficial to my students parents. So they know what i am teaching the students in our classroom and so they know what assignments are due. I think this is also a good program for parents because most children are not honest about what homework they have when their parents ask them and this site will allow the parents to know what homework is due for their child and teach them discipline and this will in turn make my job as a teacher more rewarding and easier to attain because i will not have to nag my students about turning in their homework. It will also be nice for parents to use google sites calendar for our classroom and can be used as a classroom newsletter so they know about upcoming field trips our class will be attending and print out the calendar to post in their home so they can prepare for them effectively. This will also prevent the students from losing the newsletters which will create a lot less havoc for both me and my students parents.

I will definitely be implementing this web page into my future classroom because i can see the positive benefits of using it for me, my students and my parents.

I also enjoyed writing a professional paragraph of myself for my students, parents and future employers to learn more about me and my passion for teaching and i also included my top ten dreams to help my students see that one of my dreams was to be a teacher at a young age.

Assigments related to Teaching

I am very excited that you are having us do computer assignments in class as if we were already teachers doing stuff for the students in our class. I was very excited to have an assignment for google sites; i think it is a great resource to use in my classroom and i thought it was fun to create for our ten dreams assignment. It will be a bulky assignment but i can find relevance to use it in my classroom as something my students can use to be informed about what is going on in our classroom as far as assignments, announcements, a calendar of class events and what we will be doing in class each day.

One function that we need create in google sites that i am looking forward to creating is the student of the week and why they were chosen; it's a way for me to recognise and reward good behavior in my students and encourage good behavior from all my other students and create a happy classroom atmosphere for me and my students to learn in.

Another thing i find relevance to is the flyer assignment; using them for things in our classroom. Since i will be teaching kindergarten as my grade focus i chose to do a flyer on a trip to the zoo. I am having fun learning new functions on the computer in word while i create this fun flyer for my students and parents.

I am also excited that you are teaching us things we need to learn for our classroom and then having us collaborate with other 'co-teachers' in the class and learning from each other. I just wish that i would've been one of the students you taught about google calendar because both my teachers either didn't understand what to do or they were teaching someone next to me and not paying attention to me. But it is a good opportunity for us to learn how to teach computer programs to use in our classroom and help us to remember them better.

Kidsperation & Insperation

I Learned a lot about the computer programs Kidsperation and Inspiration this week and found many ways to use kidsperation in my classroom.

After playing on Kidsperation for over an hour i realized what a valuable resource it will be to both me and my students in the classroom. The mathview program on it is a great way to teach students about geometry especially cubes. It's a fun way to learn about volume, area and perimeter and even surface area of a 3-D shape. The students can also separate the cube into parts to see the shape broken down into pieces. I had a lot of fun on this program and my students would also love to use this program because you can change the size of the shapes and the color which allows for creativity in my classroom and makes learning about shapes more enjoyable.

An English program on Kisperation is a great way to help students learn how to write outlines, form a main idea or thesis of a paper and keep their thoughts organized. This program is probably more effective for students 5th and 6th grade to help them with a paper i ask them to write. But i can use it for younger students just to form the basic idea of how to organize a paper to make later grades of writing papers a little easier for my students.

"Why I am Special" program was also one of my favorite programs in the reading and writing section of Kidsperation. Students can write about themselves in text boxes underneath pictures of a heart, head and a house. It asks the students what their unique talent is hobbies etc. This is a great program to help the students get to know each other and create a good social environment for my students. I could even have them create this page and then print them out and either put them in a book for the class to find out about their class mates, make books for all the students, or i could make a wall in my classroom where i take one of my students creations and spotlight them in class and then post it on a getting to know you wall for all my students to read in the classroom. Any or all of these ideas would work well in my classroom; this activity will also help my students with defining themselves as young people by talking about themselves and help them understand that everyone they associate with has different talents and abilities to contribute to our classroom. And in the process i can also learn more about my students interests and what kind of people they are.

In the math section of Kidsperation i found a program about bar graphs that uses tables of virtually any item you give them; the example in the program is about colors; Its asks the students to place the number of boxes in the spaces for the number of each color and see which color was the most popular among students and it asks you to record your observations. This is another great program to make bar graphs a fun interactive for my students to learn about.

I found the program "Alikes and Differences" in the science section of Kidsperation. Made for younger students this program is a great way to teach my students about science and grouping of similar things in the science world. The program even allows my students to browse for pictures of similar things and paste them to the page and then write about why these science objects are similar. It meets all three forms of learning if i do it with them on the computer i can include the auditory, the visual and the kinesthetic students in my classroom making this a very effective tool to enhance learning in my classroom. And i had a lot of fun playing on this program myself.

The last program i found was in Social Studies called "How Well Do You Know the 5o States?" Although i think this program is more suited for a teacher thats focus is on social studies i think this is a wonderful way to test students memory of the 50 states and where they are located on a map. Rather than using paper this program allows for creativity, memory, hands on learning and allowing the students to use a medium they are very comfortable and will make the learning or testing of the states enjoyable for the students. For my age group focus i could probably use this program to introduce them to the 50 states and not as a means of testing them on the states but as a way to be aware of the states names and locations. There is also a function on the computers i could tell my student about after they have had fun trying to figure out how all the states fit together; this function tells them what each states name is. I would have to show them a completed map as an example on an powerpoint hooked up to my computer so they can compare the completed map to theres and see how well they did.

Now for Insperation; honestly i didn't find a lot of reasons why this program would be an important tool to use in my classroom. It was obviously not created for students but more directed for educators; even then i found little use for it in my teaching except to help me create an outline for my classroom lessons. It also had cool pictures but i don't understand why there was just a Van Diagram in the program with a million pictures. I probably will not be using this program in my future classroom and it was worth the ten minutes you told us to spend on it.

However, I will definately be using Kidsperation in my classroom. I had a great spirit of discovery as i played and learned from this program on tuesday; in essence i found my inner elementary schooler, which is not hard to find, but i had fun learning about the programs involved in Kidsperation and could've easily spent a lot more time exploring these wonderful interactive activities for my students. This program has also reaffermed my desire to be a teacher because i am excited to use it in my future classroom so thanks for the assignment.

Integrating Power Points into my Lessons

I had a lot of fun using and creating power points in my group in class this week. We were all able to use our talents with computers, power points, creativity, & teaching to learn how to integration of power points into our lessons as future teachers.

My group used an ABC power point which takes any subject you are teaching your students and have them find information that correlates to the Alphabet in a power point, every letter must have a fact that starts with that letter. Bu doing this your students can have enhanced learning and is very helpful for reviewing information for a test or quiz.

We also used a Van Diagram to compare things likeness and differences such as planets; but i can use any subject to have my students compare and create a power point; i could have them do it on paper but it's a very singular activity that way and doesn't enhance creativity like doing it on a power point would do and can be done in groups with other students and they are able to use a medium the are comfortable with a computer to make learning in my classroom fun and enjoyable.

I learned a lot from my fellow students in our class about integrating power points in my classroom and i really do think i can take all of their ideas and apply them into my classroom. The one that was presented that sticks out in my head was about new years resolutions in a power point interactive; it will allow my students to be creative about new goals for the year and could be shared with other students which will make it more likely for them to accomplish the goals.

One other thing i remember from the presentations that will be of benefit in my classroom is that by using a power point in a lesson versus writing on the black board is that i will be able to be more interactive with my students and not have my back to them as i teach them. I find this very important because many of my college teachers also use this new interactive alternative to teaching and has been very beneficial for me as a student and is something i am excited to integrate into my classroom.

I never realized how much fun i can have teaching and using power points in my classroom for both me and my students and its all thanks to our group presentations about power points in our class. I am finding more and more throughout this class how vital it is that i am educated about computers and technology to be an effective future teacher and have found a lot of relevance in what we learn in class to what i will be doing with my students in about four years.

Powerpoints in the Classroom

I've learned even more about how to integrate power points in my future classroom this week through our groups in class, to create power point programs and teach them to other teachers. It has been a lot of fun learning to work with other future teachers creativity and experience this week.
I have learned that i can use power points for younger and older students in Elementary school. For the younger students ages 6-8 i can help them create this program in my classroom as a learning experience. For the older students ages 9-12 I can make creating a power point a homework assignment to do in groups like we did in our class. They can research about something we've learned in class to enhance review and learning and teach it to the class in 3-4 minute presentation. Not only will this project enhance learning for my students but will allow them to use a medium they are comfortable with which will make the learning easier and more enjoyable. It will also help my students learn to work with other students which is a life long lesson.

The power points we've created in our class have taught me as a future teacher that i can enhance my learning of the subjects i teach as i research and create these power points to use in class. I can even post my examples on my UEN Site for the students to use as a template for their power point creation. And of course i would teach them the tools they will need to use to create the power point and the requirements to complete the assignment. I am sure that when used appropriately, any technology used for any age group except maybe preschoolers will enhance learning in my classroom.

5 Ways to Use a Digital Camera

From reading the article titled, "100 Ways to Use a Digital Camera" i chose five uses i can use in my classroom to enhance my students learning.
1- I can use a Digital Camera to take photos or videos of classroom pets for a unit, "what pets do you have at home?" when my students bring a pet to class and share experiences or things about their pet. Then i can and make it into an album and burn it onto a CD for my Students, Post it on UEN for my students and parents to view, or make into an interactive power point using the pictures taken in my classroom.

2-I can take photos or videos of bulletin boards or classroom ideas from another teacher to make my classroom more creative, interactive and fun for me and my students.

3-I can take photos of my student for an attendance chart to know my students more personally. I could even print out the pictures to put on the wall by my classroom door and have another chart for each day of the week and have a star with Velcro for my students to stick on to take attendance. That way i don't have to waste learning time by taking attendance. Although i probably will take attendance the first couple of weeks in class to know there names and then integrate this new system into my classroom.

4&5-I can use my digital camera to take pictures for class awards: Act of Kindness, Caught being Good, Great Reader etc. I could give three students a candy and an award every week, post it on a bulletin board in my classroom with their picture and their award for the students to look at. I can then post the pictures of those students on UEN for the parents to view at home. Then i can e-mail the parents of these students the UEN Link and tell them their student won an award that week in class. By doing this i can keep my parents involved in their son or daughters learning in my classroom.

I have learning that Digital Camera's can be a valuable tool in Elementary Education. Even for my chosen grade of Kindergarten i can find ways, as i have listed, to incorporate Digital Camera's into my classroom that will enhance my students learning in the classroom and be enjoyable for both me and my students.

P.P and Articles Reflection

I learned a lot this week about computers, digital cameras and power points that i would like to share with you.

In the article, "100 ways to use a Digital Camera" i found a lot of interesting ideas to integrate the use of digital cameras into my classroom. There were so many of these tips about digital cameras i liked that it was hard to choose a few to share, but i found ten that were my absolute favorites.

1- I can tape a students photo on their desk as a name tag so other students and substitutes learn my students names better.
2- I can use photos for attendance and seating charts ( i do better with visuals)
3- I can take photos for my students to create a book about colors ( i could even make this an interactive on a power point)
4-I can take photos for my students to create a book about shapes
5-I can take photos or video of the students on their Birthdays
6-I can send an e-mail with a photo attachment of a student caught being good ( i could even post it on UEN for the parents to see)
7- I can use photos to create faces for puppets in a puppet show
8-I can create a game for matching students photos with students names
9-I can create a postcard with my picture to send to my students over the summer
10- I can use classroom photos as computer screen savers ( in my classroom and on my personal computer)

I had no idea i could use a digital camera for so many fun things to enhance learning in my classroom, but this article has opened my eyes.

In the article of "10 Tips about Digital Cameras" i found very little information about digital cameras that i did not already have knowledge about. One thing i did find interesting however was that, "There is a limit to how much a photo can be fixed....Bad "framing" can be corrected. But if you pay attention to details before taking a picture, you won't have to worry about it."
I never really thought there was a limit to editing a picture, but now that i think about it this article is very informative. I have to learn to take great pictures on my camera so i won't have to take a lot of time fixing the picture on the computer.

I also think it's a good idea, as the article states to, "Always always, always make copies of your original photos." Because you never know what could happen to your camera or your computer. This is something i need to start integrating into my picture taking and will be a good habit to be in when i become a teacher.

The third article, "A Digital Snapshot of a Early Childhood Classroom" i found interesting because my chose teaching focus is kindergarten. I have found in my internship experience with kindergarten students there are a lot of challenges with using computers. But i am relieved to learn from this article that children at any age can learn any subject as long as we as educators make it easy for our students to understand. Kids are a lot smarter than we as adults think they are. So why can't Kindergarten students learn how to use computers?

This article has given me a new perspective on teaching you children about computers. Computers, "1-Involved all the children.... Many students who were previously intimidated by computers became active, enthusiastic participants. 2-Children had a chance to highlight their interests, strengths, and talents....6-Students could express their artistic sensibilities through photographic experiences such as cropping and laying out the photographs and slide frames....They used the computers as multifaceted tools-not just as video games or typewriters.....8-Students received great satisfaction from their work and expressed enthusiasm in sharing their school lives with their families,who were similarly excited to see what occurred during the school year."

But as the article included in this classroom study their are cons to using computers in a kindergarten classroom that i as an educator am thankful to be aware of. Such as where i choose to place the computers, this can affect my students attention to other activities and lessons i am teaching in my classroom if the computers are not placed properly.

As for what i learned in the power point lessons in class; i learned that power point can be a very effective tool in my classroom if used appropriately, just like any other computer tool. I did find it applicable to my classroom for fun interactive lessons to teach my children about road signs for instance. I can connect all the different signs with pictures to other power points explaining what the sign means and even use my digital camera to take real pictures of those signs and attach games to them to make this a fun interactive. I had fun learning how to create power points even though i have used them for many years. I have never used them to create fun activities in my future classroom. I can even use a power point as a homework assignment for my students and post it on UEN as an interactive as well as allowing the parents to see what their children are learning in my classroom.

Overall, I am learning more and more that as i allow myself to have a "spirit of discovery" with computers that as a whole can be a great resource for me as a teacher in and outside of my classroom. As long as i have the right tools and the right understanding of them i can make learning in my classroom creative, fun, and enjoyable.

Powerpoints Reflection

I can use powerpoints in my classroom for my students. I really enjoyed learning about powerpoints this week even though i've known how to use them since i was 15 years old. I also enjoyed helping and teaching others in our class who have never used powerpoint before.

I think powerpoints can be used as a tool to teach any grade level. I think the group powerpoint assignment will be a lot of fun to create and even post on my UEN account. I have learned how to make powerpoints interactive for my students and discovered it would be a great way for me to incorperate a medium that my students are comfortable with namely the computer into my teaching in the classroom. Although i won't use it all the time it will be a great resource to use to have a variety of tools for my students to enjoy learning the concepts i will be teaching them. Until we started using them in our class room i didn't really connect using powerpoint activities for younger students. But as we are using them in these group projects that a teacher can utilize powerpoints for any age group as long as the students are old enough to use a computer.

Computers are so COOL!

P.S. I wouldn't have said that in July of this year but being in this class has deepend my apprecitaion for living in a time when information and resources are right at the edge of my finger tips. I just never knew where to find the right resources and now i do.

UEN Reflection

09-24-2008

I think UEN is an incredible resource for my future teaching. I can use it for my students’ assignments and not have to give out paper assignments. If my students are sick or going on a trip all they have to do is go to my UEN website to see what their homework assignments are, when they are due on the calendar, and print it out or e-mail it to me prior to the trip with out being a huge inconvenience to the student or myself. I could even use it to post my disclosure document for the class and have my students print it out at home and bring it back to class with them to make it a better convenience.

I thought this was a beefy assignment, one in which I will admit was a challenge for me because I am not patient with computers. Normally and just use them for what I need and what I have to do. But after I calmed down and had a “spirit of discovery” using UEN was a lot easier and enjoyable for me. Not only to complete the scavenger hunt but for me to find relevance for the tools in my classroom.

In Pioneer Library I loved Searchasaurus because it has informational “Fun Facts” for my students to learn from and have fun learning. I was also impressed with how SIRS resource is a credible resource for both me and my students to use. I also loved going on teacher tube.com and enjoyed learning they had a website for teachers like youtube. It will be a good resource to use in my classroom.

I found a lot of cool Lesson plans to use in my classroom, but my favorites would have to be on sesame street.com with the math games for kindergarten students. “Grover’s Trash Can Game”- sorting objects and “Walking the Dog”- helps with counting.

The Core Curriculums UEN resource I enjoyed using because all I had to do was select a grade level, a subject, and a lesson plan, objectives, and resources were at my finger tips. This tool will make teaching a lot easier when I know the core curriculums for different grades and make it more enjoyable for both me and my students.

I also enjoyed the resource World Book; even though I do not intend to teach Social Studies I still found it was very informative on Ancient cultures that I have enjoyed learning about. The “Media Showcase” was an interesting tool and would be a great resource for students to learn interesting facts.


Overall I enjoyed using the tools and UEN website and will be able to use all the tools for my personal use or for my students. Even though I had a difficult time completing this assignment I can see that the use of it will make me a more effective teacher.

Internet safety Reflection

09-26-2008

We should use the internet because it contains many useful, fun, exciting, resourceful, and educational websites that me and my students can utilize in my classroom!! As long as Educators teach their students proper Internet Safety and give them the websites as needed in the classroom the Internet can be just as useful as a library! I had so much fun doing this assignment; i wanted to play on the websites i found and i book marked almost all of the websites you gave us as resources that i can use in my classroom. This has opened my eyes to the vast resources that i have through UEN to help me with my teaching!

But we should only use the internet as a tool in our classroom- "nothing can take the place of a great teacher in the classroom". Teaching still happens in the classroom and the internet cannot do all our teaching for us or do all that our students require help with. There are also many dangers with using the internet: preditors, not credible resources, un-useful websites and dangerous websites- that have content not appropriate for children to use.

We as educators should evaluate sites we use for our students safety, to give our students credibile websites to use, to keep ourselves as educators safe, and to teach our students how a good websites functions.

Questions to ask about a website

1- Does the website connect to outside links?
2-Does the website end in: .org, .gov, or .edu?
3-Does the website have a lot of advertisements
4-Does the website have a lot of pop-ups?
5- Is the website easy to use?
6-When was the site updated?
7- Can I find information about the producer/sponsor?
8-Does the Website take along time to load?

I can keep my students safe on the internet by giving them Internet Safety Games to play, showing them what bad websites look like, give them a list of safety questions to ask about the website they are surfing on, and teach them to use common sense when surfing on the internet. I can also teach them to tell their parents immediatly if they see something on a site that makes them feel uncomfortable. If they are in my classroom i will teachi them to tell me so i know what websites to block from the computers.

Using Microsoft Word and Excel

I had to be very creative deciding what to write in my reflections this week. It was hard to incorporate computer programs made for older people to my teaching as an Elementary school teacher. But the challenge made me creative and therefore have better ideas for their use in my classroom.

I have concluded that these programs can be very beneficial for both myself and my students. Microsoft Word can help my younger students write small papers for English and have fun with the typing style,size functions and add pictures if they choose to. This will make my students assignments more enjoyable. I can also use this function to make my class outlines and goals, in a graph by days of the week with assignments.Which will make my teaching easier during the school year.


Also i could use Microsoft Word as a means for all my students K-6th grade as their first assignment of the school year,to find 5 pictures they think describes them on the Internet; like their favorite food, animal, color or something unique about them. For the older students i could make it more difficult by asking them to write something deeper about themselves with their pictures. I can then have my students e-mail me the assignment using g-mail or yahoo with the students name. During the course of the school year i will spotlight students at the beginning of class to connect them with their classmates.I could even make a spotlight of myself for the first class to create an example of the assignment and introduce myself to my students. This assignment will create a fun environment in my classroom and allow my students to use technology to complete it.

Excel is also a beneficial tool to use in my classroom. I can use it with my younger students probably k-2 grade for a math lesson on percentages. I could incorporate the pie charts to make math fun by using percentages with examples that relate to my students, such as their favorite cartoon. Excel can be beneficial for me as a teacher to keep track of my students grades and their homework assignments instead of using paper. I could also use it to evaluate my students understanding of certain concepts i am teaching by using their scores from pre-tests and tests to create a class percentage using the pie charts and bar graphs function of Excel as a way to tell what concepts my students need further help comprehending.

As hard as it was to write this Reflection it forced me to be creative in my use of these programs for my classroom. Which in my opinion is what teaching is all about. Being able to take a subject that not everyone will enjoy learning and making it fun.

What i learned this week ( :

i did't really have anything to write in my Reflections until class yesterday when the class was discussing how they could apply their classrooms. And that finally got my creative juices flowing; I've been thinking about what an affective tool Blogger really is for Teachers and students. I could use blogger to have my students to write in their journals. I of course would post daily topics for them to write about and if they were K-3 grade i would probably do it with them in class and grade them on our class Blogg. And 4-6th i would make it a daily homework assignment to give them an enjoyable way to write and be on the computer.

Blogger would also allow my students to be actively involved in their community and with the students in their class. They could also use blogger, Facebook, g-mail, and Instant messaging to get ahold of me as their teacher to ask me questions about assignments they are struggling on, or if their family is going to be out of town; therefore having a class blogger with the assignments available on it past and future will allow parents to get their homework so they won't be behind when they come back.

If i created my own Blogger for my classes of my older students 3-6th grade, then parents would know when all my field trips are scheduled, assignments if they are available to create online, and announcements. This feature would allow the parents of my students to always know what is going in in the classroom without interrupting their busy schedules or worrying that their children won't bring home important papers.

I have learned in just this short week that Computers can be an effective tool to use in the classroom as long as i know how to use the tools and be able to explain them to my students.

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Reply to English 1010 blog invite

I am replying to your blog invite for English 1010 MWF 1-1:50. This is Stacy Olsen