Critical Reflection #2

Reflection #2

The first article I read was called: Before Bringing in New Tools, You Must First Bring in New Thinking. This article was about the new age of technology and how ipads, laptops, smart boards and more are starting to come into the classrooms. I agree with him when he was talking about how we are bringing in the new technology to the classrooms and that changes the tools that we use to teach. He also talked about how we need to change the way we think. Teaching our future generation on the new technology I would agree with him about how we as teachers will not always know the answer to everything or how to do everything.The second article I read was called:Teaching the Right Stuff Not yesterday’s stuff or today’s—but tomorrow’s! In this article he talked about how the times have changed and technology has changed and now is a big part of our education. I thought it was interesting how he said that the three main things he learned when he was in school was how to

write a letter, a report and an essay. Now you write emails, make PowerPoint presentations, blogs and articles. The technology keeps improving and as educators we have to stay on top of it so we know what all the new stuff is. In this article he talked about three main things of technology  that the students should be learning how to do are working in virtual communities, making videos and programming.

Critical Reflection #3

Critical Reflection #3

After playing around with all the different google apps that google has to offer I have found them to be very useful. I had never really used any of the apps that google has to offer until I started this class. I really like the google docs, because I like how you can do forms, presentations, documents and more and they all save right onto your google account so you can access it from anywhere. One thing that is really convenient about google is that it has so many different apps to offer in just one area. Google calendar, Google plus and gmail all are great ways to keep organized and up to date on what’s going. The google apps will be great to use in the classroom for not just the teachers but for the students as well. Having the teacher make a blog or website for the class could be effective for not only the students but the parents as well. As teachers we can update the blog or website with what the students are learning, any homework that they might have, extra practice activities for a certain subject, fun and educational games, pictures of the class and other important dates. Some other apps that I have looked at but haven’t used as much are google wallet, photos, videos, shopping, reader, finance, and more.

Critical Reflection #4

Critical Reflection #4 

Copyright rules and laws play a role in everybody's life whether they realize it or not. I myself have to always remember when I am looking up information on the internet for homework that I have to obey to copyright laws.Th copyright symbol is usually always there, but most people either tend not to see it or notice it because its always there. Copyright laws are very serious matters. In any of my class my teachers always say that if they find out we copyrighted something from a website, book, article or any other source that we would automatically get a zero. Some teachers especially in college would kick you out of the class or even the school. What most people need to remember is that the internet is not a public domain. Schools can even sell you out for file sharing, which has been a huge problem for colleges. Copyright laws are also to protect you and your own work. It is always a good idea to ask the owner of the material if it is ok to use their work if you're not sure. I think that as a teacher it is important to teach the students about the copyright laws at a young age so the can know the rules before they think about using someone elses work.

Critical Reflections #1

Reflection #1

I enjoyed  reading the educational technology and the Bill of Rights for students blog. I felt like it was very informative and I would have to agree with him on some of those things. Before this class I have never used Google docs before I had heard of it but never used it. Now that I have experienced and messed around with some of the things Google has to offer I’m surprised that so many people still use Microsoft Word. Another thing I really liked that he mentioned in his blog was how easy it is to save stuff to the cloud and how flash drives can get lost or smashed. I like the fact that even on Google docs you can save a bunch of stuff on it and then you can access it from any computer. I think that most people agree with at least a majority or all of the Bill of Rights for Students that he was talking about. 



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Special Project

In Ed. Tech class we made picture boxes. I thought that this was a very cute idea and it was pretty easy to make because we had templates to trace. Inside the box once you had it all folded up you could put pictures on all the sides and on the second layer. I think this is such a cute craft and would make a cute gift for a parents or grandparents. 

The outside of the box

One of the inside layers

Second inside layer

Using Google Apps. In The Classroom

There are so many different things you can do on Google. Google has many different apps that can be useful in the classroom such as Google Docs, PowerPoint  sites, calendar and more. You can create a blog or website for your classroom and then you can teach the students how to make their own blogs or websites as well. Google Docs is a good app to use in the classroom because you can have them work on assignments and then they can share them and work on them from any computer.

Apple In Education

I think that using ipads in the classroom can be very effective and helpful. There are so many different things you can do with them and use them for. After using the ipads in class I have learned that there are many different apps that you can get for free that would be useful to a classroom. One app that I found to be useful no matter what grade you are teaching is the whiteboard app, which you can draw or write your answers on them and you can use it for any subject.

Favorite Teacher Blogs

I love looking on pinterest for all kinds of ideas and one of my favorite things to look at are teachers blogs. I love looking at things that they have done in their classroom and worksheets or activities that they have done. I have found so many good ideas from just going on pinterest.

One blog that I really liked was a first grade teacher named Kathy. I really liked looking at her blog because she had a lot of great ideas and information on there.

Favorite Teacher Blog

NET Standards

NET is important skills that teachers should know because technology is always changing. I think its important as teachers to stay on top of the all new and different technology out there so we are able to teach our students.

Technology is in all of our lives and it will keep improving and coming out with more things so its best to keep up with it!

A useful website: NET Standards

VCSU Classes

Overall, I think this semester has been going very well. I really like all the education classes I am in and I am glad to be in the program. I think that Intro to Education and the Ed. Tech classes have been my favorite classes so far because all the things we have done in both those classes will really help in the future for when I become a teacher. I really enjoy making all the different crafts and what not in the Ed. Tech class. I heard that next semester will be a lot more work, so I am excited to start new classes, but not too excited for all the work that is going to come with it. I think that in the end it will all be worth it though.

Snagit Video

Snagit was easy to use and is very similar to Jing. The only big difference between the two is Snagit you can upload to YouTube and other places and Jing you can't.

Doc Cam/Smartboard

I think that this app on the iPad will be useful when I have my own classroom because it will be cheaper as well as easier to use.There are some many different apps that you can get on iPads that are helpful for the teachers as well as fun for the students. iPads are starting to become more and mores popular so it seems logic that most teachers are starting to teach with them. I think that the smart board is also a great tool to have in the classroom if possible because I think it is a great way to get the students involved. The teachers and students will love it because there are so many different things you can do with it.

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we had it at our house and my Grandma, Aunt, uncle, cousins and my cousins son came. It was fun to have everyone together and get to see everyone. I helped my mom and dad prepare the food for Thanksgiving. We had tons of food such as mashed potatoes, turkey, bread, pumpkin muffins, fruit, seven layer salad, stuffing, beans, applesauce and more. I enjoy getting together with my family over the holidays because it gives us all a chance to catch up and spend time together. I had a lot of fun playing with my cousins son, Wyatt who is 3 years old. We went outside and played some basketball and football. It was such a beautiful day with the temperatures right around 58 degrees. Throughout the afternoon the temperatures started to drop and the wind began to pick up and so by 5 everyone started to leave to beat the storm home. I was not very pleased to see that about an hour later after everyone was gone that it had started to snow.

QR Codes

QR Codes can be a fun a creative way to use the iPads for different lesson plans you teach. The kids will be learning the lesson as well as using technology while they do it. You can create worksheets and have the answers be the QR codes so the students can look up and see if they got the answer right. Helpful Websites to Create your own: - - My Instructions for my QR Code Game:

Blurring out faces in images

I used Gimp to blur out some of the faces in this picture. This tool can be helpful when posting pictures on a website and someone doesn't want their picture to be on the website, so all you have to do it blur it out. What I did to blur out the others faces was take the circle tool and put it around the face that I wanted to blur and then I went up to the filter button and clicked on the Gaussian Blur and then picked how much I wanted to blur the face.

ipad rules

I think that having iPads in the classroom is a great idea, but you should start off by either coming up with rules together as a class or coming up with rules on your own for them. 

Cupcake

When making the cupcakes we put them into Photoshop and decorated them. First thing I did was to add color to mine and then next I used the tear drop tool to make the sprinkles on the cupcake. We also used the magic wand tool to delete the background.

Magazine Cover and iSpy Page

Magazine Cover

Making my magazine was a lot of fun because we got to design it ourselves. I liked this project because it gave me more experience working with Photoshop. There are so many different things you can do in Photoshop. I learned how to cut around pictures so you don't get the white background behind the picture, which I think will be useful to me. 

iSpy Page

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I think this was a fun activity and it was really easy to make. I think this is a good project to do with elementary school students. I think you could do this project in any grade but for the younger grades you might have to assist them more then the older grades.

Wild Self

This is my wild self that I made just for fun. 

Photoshop Poster

This poster I created in Photoshop was fun to make. I think that when I become a teacher I will use the skills I learned in Photoshop to make posters for my future classroom. This poster was fairly easy to make all I did was create different layers for each word and then picked a font and color. 

Germ Cover

In Photoshop we designed our own germ cover to put on our hand sanitizer spray. I was surprised how easy it was to make and a lot of fun. I think this was a great idea to do and it made hand sanitizer spray look a lot more appealing and fun. 

Before

After

Form--All About Me

I found this form to be very easy and fun to create. I didn't know that in powerpoint you can make your own forms. All you do it select a blank page and then change the size and orientation of the paper to what you want. After that you just use the shapes and text boxes to create what you want your form to look like and it's nice that you can drag pictures anywhere you want them to be. 

Word Cloud

I found word cloud to be very user friendly all you have to do is hit create and then type in what words you want on it. The more times a word is on there the bigger the word will be. This is the word cloud that I created. I think this would be a fun activity to have your students do or for you to do.

Poster's For Classrooms

Making posters for your classroom is actually a lot easier then I thought. I just went to the website and picked a background and typed in what I wanted it to say and then added some pictures to it. I think the kids would also really enjoy making their own posters for some kind of project or something. 

Poster of the Solar System that I made at How To Make A Poster

Practicum

I am in a fifth grade classroom at Horace Elementary School. Some things that I have learned and observed are how to get the classes attention when they are being loud are the teacher is trying to introduce something new to them. One thing that my teacher does is he raises his hand when they want them to be quiet. It has seemed to work every well with his class because they see him or another student raising their hand so then soon everyone is raising their hand and their mouths are shut. The role is very different being on the teacher side rather then the student side because you see things that the students don't always see. I like that the students aren't afraid to ask me questions. I like being able to help the students out with any questions that they have. I like being more in the teacher position then the student position because the students look up to me.

Snow

Snow in October: This morning on October 4,2012 I woke up to snow on the ground outside my window. I was hoping that it wouldn't snow until Christmas time, or like last year it didn't really snow until after winter break. I don't mind snow but I do mind the cold. The bright side is that the snow is pretty much all melted and next weekend it is supposed to be 65 degree so luckily we are not jumping into winter yet.

Forms

Picture Cubes

Things to use to the picture cube for in the classroom:
-Making them into a dice.
-Putting math problems onto the cube and having them roll it and solving the problem they land on.
-roll multiple cubes and use the pictures they land on to make up a story or sentence.
-Putting the students pictures on it and using for pairing students up or playing get to know you games.
-You can have each student make one by putting their favorite photos on it and then have them tell a story. 

The Template we used

What mine looked like with the pictures on it

What the cube looked like all done and folded up

Reflection #2

The first article I read was called: Before Bringing in New Tools, You Must First Bring in New Thinking. This article was about the new age of technology and how ipads, laptops, smart boards and more are starting to come into the classrooms. I agree with him when he was talking about how we are bringing in the new technology to the classrooms and that changes the tools that we use to teach. He also talked about how we need to change the way we think. Teaching our future generation on the new technology I would agree with him about how we as teachers will not always know the answer to everything or how to do everything.

The second article I read was called:Teaching the Right Stuff Not yesterday’s stuff or today’s—but tomorrow’s! In this article he talked about how the times have changed and technology has changed and now is a big part of our education. I thought it was interesting how he said that the three main things he learned when he was in school was how to write a letter, a report and an essay. Now you write emails, make powerpoint presentations, blogs and articles. The technology keeps improving and as educators we have to stay on top of it so we know what all the new stuff is. In this article he talked about three main things of technology  that the students should be learning how to do are working in virtual communities, making videos and programming.

Reflection #1

I enjoyed  reading the educational technology and the Bill of Rights for students blog. I felt like it was very informative and I would have to agree with him on some of those things. Before this class I have never used Google docs before I had heard of it but never used it. Now that I have experienced and messed around with some of the things Google has to offer I’m surprised that so many people still use Microsoft Word. Another thing I really liked that he mentioned in his blog was how easy it is to save stuff to the cloud and how flash drives can get lost or smashed. I like the fact that even on Google docs you can save a bunch of stuff on it and then you can access it from any computer. I think that most people agree with at least a majority or all of the Bill of Rights for Students that he was talking about.