TPTE 486 Course Reflection

This technology course has been very beneficial. It has provided me with many resources and tools that I likely never would have encountered otherwise. These programs, tools, and resources will be a great help to me as I start my internship and begin to teach in elementary school.

When I look back to the beginning of the semester when I was extremely excited that I could successfully set up a blog, I can see just how far I've come. And although, I am far from an expert, my comfort level with technology has definitely increased.

At the beginning of the course, I wrote in my very first blog post that I had three expectations for the course. 1. To be able to use what I learn in the course in my future classrooms; 2. To use technology to communicate with my students' parents; and 3. To have a better understanding of the technological resources available to me. I believe that all three of these expectations have been met through this course.

Every single project or assignment we completed in this course is applicable to an elementary school classroom. From wikis to WebQuests to flip charts to digital diagrams, every single project can be used either by students to actively participate in learning or by myself to create better opportunities for learning.

Two programs or tools that we worked with in this course are especially beneficial in communicating with students' parents. These two are Blogger and Google Sites. These can be used to create classroom blogs and classroom websites to provide constant access to important classroom information.

And lastly, I am most definitely walking away from this course with better knowledge of the technological resources and tool available to me. Working with such a wide variety of tools and programs and compiling them all on the classroom website will ensure that I have access to these tools and resources and examples of each of them.

Creating a Classroom Website

Over this semester, we have gradually been creating a classroom website that can be used in our future classrooms. I created my site using Google Sites. Here's a link to the website: https://sites.google.com/site/mskingsclassroom1/.

Google Sites was a very easy program to use to create my website even though some tasks required trial and error. Some of the difficulties I had included formatting text that I copied from assignments and editing major layout items such as the last date revised, but after spending some time working on these issues, I was able to make the site look just how I wanted it to. And some things that I found particularly easy to do were inserting pictures and links.

One aspect of the project that I thought was especially beneficial is that we created and compiled our websites over the whole course of the semester. And we connected each project or assignment to our website in some way.

Google sites could be used in my future classroom as a way to communicate with parents and students. Having a classroom website gives parents access to important classroom information at any time. It also provides resources and extra academic practice for students. For these reasons, I think classroom websites are a necessary part of a classroom.

Digital Story

This assignment was to create a digital story with some educational value. I created my digital story using iMovie. This was my first experience with iMovie and my second experience creating/editing a movie in any movie making program, so this was definitely a new experience for me. 

The directions in the course packet were the most helpful tool for me in completing this digital story. Without them, the process would have taken much longer and been much more frustrating.

One thing that was beneficial about the instruction of this task was that we were given plenty of time during class to create the digital story, and when we had a question, the appropriate instruction was given individually. This was nice because some of my classmates were more knowledgeable about creating movies, so they may not have needed to hear the instruction that I did. So they did not have to stop and be slowed down to listen to something they already knew. 

I really enjoyed this project, and I can definitely see myself using it in my classroom. The course packet contained a list of educational topics for digital stories. Many of these ideas could be given to upper elementary students to create their own movies. One topic that I would like to use in a classroom is to create a movie trailer for a book. I think this would help students be able to summarize a story or novel they read in class.

Here is the digital story I created. The topic is a poem about nature written by Emily Dickinson.

Inspiration 9

The current assignment in TPTE 486 is to create a diagram using Inspiration 9. This program has worked very well for me, and I can easily see myself using it in my future classroom.

My diagram's topic for this project is the writing process. The five steps of the writing process branch out from this main topic. Then I provide what is included in each of the five steps in a third level of the diagram. This diagram helps meet the third grade standard, GLE 0301.3.3 "Know and apply the steps of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, evaluating, and publishing." It also meets the NETS-T standards 2 and 3, which are "Designing and develop digital age learning experiences and assessment," and "model digital age work and learning."

I really enjoyed creating this diagram. Inspiration 9 made the process go smoothly. Being able to easily add, delete, and connect pieces of information made this assignment easy and fun, and being able to customize the design was a great feature of the program. I also liked being able to add notes to certain boxes. This allowed me to add the information that I felt was necessary but was too long.

I could see myself creating many diagrams for my future classroom through this program. I think having visual aids is very important and helps students grasp the topic. I might also use this program in my class by having my students create their own diagrams to show relationships between various items.

Here's a picture of my diagram.

Flip Chart Instruction

Our class has begun to work on flip charts this week. I really enjoy the assignment because it allows for choice and creativity; however, there are some things that I think could be changed in the instruction given to us for using flip charts.

I think we could have combined two days worth of class into one. I feel that we spent a lot of time reviewing the basics of ActiveInspire. And although instruction of the basics is necessary, I feel that we could have gone over them in one day instead of continuing this instruction onto the next day, but I may view it this way because I like to see an example and then learn it by trying it out on my own.

One part of the instruction that I thought was the most helpful was when we got to see how to create the different types of interaction step by step and then practice it on our own. For me, it would have been helpful to have more of this type of instruction.

I also liked how we used the story boards. I usually start a project by doing one part at a time, but this helped me see the whole picture before starting to work. I also liked that we were able to change things on our story board if they didn't quite work the way we wanted them to at first. It wasn't something that we had to stick to no matter what. I saw it as more of a guideline or an outline that I might use when writing a paper.

I really like this assignment, and I can see how this would be effective in a classroom. Of all of the projects we have done in this class, I believe this is the one that I see being used the most in actual classrooms; therefore, I am all for flip charts.

Interactive Whiteboard

Over the next few class meetings, we will begin creating a six page flip chart of any subject or grade level we choose, so in preparation I have considered all the ways I have seen interactive whiteboards used and the ways in which I think they are useful. 

I recently visited a Kindergarten class that made good use of the interactive whiteboard. They used it for their morning routine. Each day the teacher draws a name to find a student who will carry out the activities on the board. They go over the date, how many days they have been in school, an activity (this day's activity happened to be about money), and a matching game to help learn sight words. I thought each activity made great use of different techniques in the activities. I'm sure this class used the interactive whiteboard in other content areas as well, but I only observed half of the day. 

I think interactive whiteboards are a great way to motivate students and make learning fun for them. From what I have seen in various classrooms, students love to get the chance to do an activity or write on an interactive board. 

Interactive whiteboards are also useful because they provide other ways to present information, other ways for students to retrieve the content, and other ways for students to show their understanding. Using an interactive whiteboard is just another step closer to having a universal learning environment. 

Digital Images

Before this section on digital images, I had a very basic understanding of digital images; although at the time, I thought I knew a lot about the topic. I knew how to take, upload, scan, screenshot, crop, and adjust contrast and color; I did not realize this was only part of the information out there about digital images.

Through this class and the projects we have done with digital images, I have learned about the different file types: JPEG, GIFF, TIFF, and PNG. By using Picasa and Google Drive to create slideshows and presentations, I learned how to adjust resolution and picture size by inches or pixels.

There is still one thing I would like to know about digital images. All the work we have done in class has been on Mac computers, but adjusting size and resolution works a little different on a PC. Since I have a PC, it would be beneficial to know how to make these changes on my own computer. I have figured out how to adjust the size in the program paint, but I have been unsuccessful in trying to adjust the resolution.

I don’t see how I could teach without using digital images. They help enhance and clarify content. I will likely use digital images in every subject area throughout instruction. 

Here is a slideshow I created in Picasa Web Album.

Resource Wiki

Over the past week, those of us in the elementary education program in our class section created a resource wiki. We were all responsible for the front page, the layout, font, and ordering of the resources in the wiki; furthermore, we individually had to find five educational student websites to annotate for the content pages in the wiki.

I believe this experience was useful. We were able to collaborate to create an easily accessible consortium of  resources in various content areas that we can use when we are teachers.

It was also a good experience because I was able to get a better idea of the resources that are out there that I would not have not considered before. These websites could potentially help my students in great ways, and it's important that I give my students all the help that is available.

This project could be used in my classroom one day for a group research project. The wiki makes collaboration easier. But instead of finding educational websites for children like we did for our assignment, my students could use this to find articles or other resources they can reference for whatever their group projects are.

Reviewing a Wiki

For this blog post, we were supposed to review a wiki. I enjoyed this activity because I found a great wiki. Mrs. Ibrahim's second grade wiki contains the topics covered over the whole year as well as a compilation students' writings. I love this idea because it's important to let students practice writing as much as possible, and I've already decided that in my own classroom I want my students keep daily journals. But after seeing this, I may just make it a daily wiki journal. Having the daily journals online can make it more interesting for the students and allows the parents to have easier access to their children's works.

The home page explains what a reader will find in the site in a concise paragraph. This is important for individuals visiting the site for the first time. The home page also contains a picture to add interest, but in my opinion, the picture is too busy and cluttered. It is somewhat distracting.

There are also links to the various pages in the wiki on the home page. The first group of links are organized by student's first names. These will take you to individual student's pages where there is a self-portrait of the student and some information the student has written about himself or herself. From the student's individual pages, visitors can go to the student's personal narrative to read more of the student's writings.

The wiki also contains a navigation bar on the left side of the page. There are links to various subject pages found here. These lead to the various topics the class has covered over the year.

Seeing how wikis can be used in a second grade class has been a great experience.

Inquiry-Based Project

This week I created a science inquiry project for first graders in a wiki. In this project, we were to find websites that match up with Tennessee State Standards and NETS-S Standards. Then we were to create questions that the students should be able to answer after researching in the sites. This project was very fun for me because I was able to work with content that I might one day teach.

To search for an appropriate topic, I found a first grade science textbook and the teacher book that are used in Tennessee. I learned a lot by looking through the teacher book. Each lesson states what Tennessee State Standards it meets.  This was very helpful. Each lesson was also linked to another content area which will be very useful when I'm teaching my own class.

Another thing I learned about from this activity is the NETS-S Standards. Before this activity, I had never heard of them before, so it was nice to get to look them over. I could see how my inquiry activity fit different standards and how to change or improve my inquiry activity to include more of these standards.

One thing I realized from this lesson is how hard it is to create directions and activities for students who can only read at a first grade level. It was a challenge to make the directions simple enough so that my students could understand it. To make it a little easier on them, I designed it so the students could work in partners. I also put reminders throughout the directions to ask for help if they get lost or confused. So hopefully this will help too.

I could easily see me using this in my classroom. It gives the students a chance to be curious and research topics on their own instead of just reading a textbook or listening to the teacher talk all the time. I would probably use an inquiry project in either science or social studies because there is more research involved in those subjects than in reading or math. Hopefully, the use of technology can help spark an interest in learning.

 

WebQuest

This week in class we learned about WebQuests. We looked at five different WebQuests to decide which one was the best based on efficiency, group work, higher order thinking, and the quality of the websites' technology aspects, e.g., the background color, the font color, layout, and working links.

This task was very helpful. I learned what to look for when searching for good quality WebQuests for students. This is very important because there are many WebQuests that are poorly made and a waste of time. And being able to pick out the good ones is a much quicker task than creating one from scratch.

Also from this task I have gained a great resource. WebQuest.org contains thousands of searchable WebQuests that I can choose from.

WebQuests can be a great tool used in the classroom. I will just be very picky about the ones I assign my students because from the few I have looked at this week, many contain spelling errors. And a lot of WebQuests don't teach students enough for the amount of work they have to put into it. But if I am to find one or even make one that I think is worth my students' time, then I will definitely work it into the schedule because I love the fact that it is inquiry based. It draws the students' interest and gets them questioning, and this is exactly what we want them to be doing in subjects like science. Students will be more motivated to learn if they are interested in the topic.

Educational Website Evaluation

For our website evaluation assignment, we were to look at one educational website in the age range that we will be teaching, so I evaluated a website that targeted Elementary School students. We were supposed to evaluate the site based on its author, publishing body, biases, accuracy, currency, design, and accessibility.

I had very little experience evaluating websites before this assignment. I would chose websites for my own study or entertainment based on a length of the text, and whether the graphics were modern and up to date. I also tended to stay away from sites that had a lot of clutter. I never paid much attention to the author or the publishing body unless an instructor made that part of the assignment in researching for a paper or project.

After completing this assignment, I feel much better equipped to evaluate a website. I now know what I should look for when deciding whether or not to recommend a website to my peers or my students.

One thing I definitely would have considered in evaluating a website before this assignment is accuracy. If I found a fact that was not true or found many spelling and grammar errors, I would immediately stop using it. If they did not get the information right on one part, then how do I know if any of it is correct?

From this assignment, I've realized that it's important to learn about the author. It's good to question if he or she is qualified or experienced in the field. I wouldn't want to recommend educational games designed by an someone who has never worked with children and doesn't know anything about what's developmentally appropriate for them. Also being affiliated with a university adds credibility to the author's qualifications.

Knowing who's publishing the website is also important to consider. This is something I probably wouldn't have ever looked at before this assignment. But a professional website is much more credible than someone's personal site. It also probably wouldn't hurt to do a little research about the publishing body to see if they publish a lot of educational sites.

Accessibility is another aspect that I wouldn't have considered without this assignment. And I cannot just consider how accessible the site is to me. What's easy for me to access might not be as easily found by a class of kindergartners or first graders.

Overall, this assignment has been a great help to me. I believe it will be a good skill to have when trying to find websites that I can suggest to my students.

Wikis

Over the past couple of weeks, we have learned about Wikis in class by watching podcasts, watching videos in class, and becoming a member and editing our class Wiki. We've learned that Wikis are useful for collaborative work where each member of the Wiki can edit and save his or her work. After learning how to use a Wiki, our class started wondering how we will take what we have learned and use it when we have our own students. After searching for some ways to implement Wikis into my future classroom in the Wiki Walk-Through and 50 Ways to Use Wikis, here are some ways I would like to use Wikis in my classroom.

I would really like to use Wikis for literacy purposes. One idea from the 50 Ways to Use Wikis site that I would like to use for literacy is creating a "Wikibook," I'd have to provide a good amount of structure for an assignment like this. After brainstorming in class, we'd pick a main idea for our book. I would then give students an outline to follow and give them each different tasks to make the book come together. The good part about using a Wiki for this is that students can check each others work and make suggestions and changes to the different parts of the book.

Another way I would use a Wiki for literacy is by having an online book club. My students will all be able to comment on, discuss, and ask questions about an assigned book from the class.

These uses of Wikis would be better for older children who have better computer skills, and since I will only be certified to teach Kindergarten through sixth grade, I would probably only use them for fourth through sixth grade.

However I fit Wikis into my classroom, the two sites linked above will be great resources for me when I am actually teaching my own class.

Welcome To My Blog!

Welcome, everyone! Thanks for visiting my blog about my journey through TPTE 486. I will make weekly posts about the technology and its usefulness in education that I learn about in this class. Hopefully, what I learn can be helpful to those of you who read my posts.

I have some expectations for this class. Probably the most important is that I would like to be able to take what I learn and use it in my future classroom. Technology is becoming more and more important to our society, so I see no reason why it should not be implemented into our schools, and more importantly technology can help our children learn. For example, making use of the internet can be a great help to our students' learning because it provides such a vast amount of information that is so accessible. Podcasts are another great use of technology in the school. Students can watch or listen to them when they are absent, and this will keep them from falling behind.

Another expectation I have for this class is that it will help me communicate with my students' parents. By creating classroom websites, I can provide information for the parents to access any time. And through this class, I expect to learn other ways to communicate with parents.

My overall expectation of this class is probably obvious. I would like to walk away from this class with better technology skills. I want to have a greater understanding of how to use the resources available to me. And if there is something I do not understand right away, I want to have the skills to be able to figure it out.