I have a lot of friends and family members who are teachers. Since I've started school at Utah Valley University to become a teacher, I've enjoyed talking with these friends and family members about their jobs. It's been interesting to get all of their perspectives about teaching and what resources they use to help with their lessons. Last weekend I was speaking with two relatives that have been teaching for over 20 years. They teach in a very small town that has minimal resources available and there is only one teacher per grade. Because of this, there isn't much collaboration with other teachers and they tend to rely on the same lessons they have always taught.
I mentioned to one of them what a great resource the internet is to find new ideas and lesson plans. If I were a teacher in a rural town with limited supplies and no one else to collaborate with, I'd want to rely on the internet for a lot of assistance. I was shocked to hear that these teachers didn't really see a need for the internet and don't see anything wrong with teaching the same lessons as always. This doesn't even mention what message they are giving their students about the Internet and technology.
I asked this same person if they she adapts the lessons to meet the needs of the students in her class each year or just teach the same lesson as she always has. Her response was just as shocking. She said that every year she has "smart students" and "dumb students" and that her lessons aren't always going to reach all of her students, but since there will always be the "smart students" and the "dumb students", there isn't really a need to adapt the lessons each year. How sad is that???
My sister and good friend are also teachers. Both of them have been teaching for less than 12 years. They are younger and have been converted to computers. They both teach in a large city and a large school district. They have resources available for them and other teachers to collaborate with. In fact, they both teach at the same school and grade and spend a lot of time collaborating with each other. As I've learned new and exciting things in this class, they have been excited to have me show them what I've been learning about. While they haven't integreated all of the fun things I've shown them, they have been open to the ideas and want to experiment with them.
I've become converted to technology througout this course and with my own personal experiences. I'm excited to use the items that I've learned about. I hope that when I become a teacher that I'll stay open to new ideas and willing to use the excellent resources that are available through the computer and other forms of technology.
VIDEO REFLECTION:
"Do You Believe in Me?"
What a great video for educators to see. Dalton Sherman is a brave 10 year old boy to speak to over 20,000 people at this conference. In addition, he has had the opportunity to be on the Ellen Show. I saw him on this show and he is very inspirational. I loved the fact that he believes the fact that he knows that he can "do anything, be anything, create anything, dream anything, and become anything". The reason he believes this is because of teachers who also believe in him. I hope that I can be one of those same teachers who can instill belief in my own students. I'm excited to start the journey.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Week 15 - Listen to You Tube
This week I learned about a new technology tool called listen to YouTube. Like Zamzar, this website will convert your YouTube video's for other uses. This site will allow you to download the audio into MP3 format so that you can put it on your IPod or other music devises. This could be a very useful tool for teachers. I've found a lot of songs on TeacherTube and YouTube that are used in the kindergarten classroom to help reinforce the curriculum. While it would be nice to play the "music video's" for the students to watch, it would also be nice to put them on a CD so that you can sing along without setting up the TV and gathering all the students around the television to practice the song.
Like I mentioned in class today, I believe that education majors should be required to take more than one technology/computer class during their final 2 years. I have learned a lot of valuable information that I've been able to put into immediate use in other aspects of my life. I'm constantly amazed by all of the wonderful tools that are available for educators and would like to be able to continue learning about these tools and how they will help me in my classroom and my personal life.
VIDEO REFLECTION:
I love the "Schoolhouse Rock" video series. What a great resource for generations of students. I remember watching these when I was a child and it's nice that they are more widely available for educators to use now. They are fun to watch and very educational in the process. It would be nice to download the whole series and review them before taking the Praxis exam. :)
Like I mentioned in class today, I believe that education majors should be required to take more than one technology/computer class during their final 2 years. I have learned a lot of valuable information that I've been able to put into immediate use in other aspects of my life. I'm constantly amazed by all of the wonderful tools that are available for educators and would like to be able to continue learning about these tools and how they will help me in my classroom and my personal life.
VIDEO REFLECTION:
I love the "Schoolhouse Rock" video series. What a great resource for generations of students. I remember watching these when I was a child and it's nice that they are more widely available for educators to use now. They are fun to watch and very educational in the process. It would be nice to download the whole series and review them before taking the Praxis exam. :)
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Week 14 - PowerPoint Presentations
PowerPoint can be your best friend, or your worst enemy.
For my field experience, we taught a unit about Ancient Rome. It was a really fun unit to teach and there was a lot of fun information available for us to use in our lessons. The more that we studied about Ancient Rome, the more we learned that there are some great primary sources available to use in our lessons. We found that the best way to show the students all of the pictures and primary sources about Ancient Rome was to make a PowerPoint Presentation (which we used for several of our lessons).
This was very well received by the students and they just loved this medium of teaching. On my last lesson about Ancient Roman technologies, their people and forms of entertainment, I made a PowerPoint presentation for the lesson. I didn't practice the presentation during lunch because my last PowerPoint that was presented earlier in the week worked great and I had no problems. However, this time it didn't work out. It was a very frustrating few minutes while we tried to figure out what our plan B was going to be. We saved the presentation on a flashdrive and tried to present it from the teachers computer instead. However, it didn't work on that computer either. It turned out to be the projector that was having the problem.
Plan C here we come! Our final solution to the problem was to just huddle everyone together to watch the PowerPoint presentation on my computer screen. While this worked okay in the end, it took a few minutes to figure it all out and it was a little harder to maintain control of the class when they were sitting so close in the dark room. Had my lesson not had so many valuable pictures of the items we were presenting, I would have just abandonded the PowerPoint and just talked about the slides that I was going to present. However, my lesson relied heavily on the photo's that were included in the presentation.
The computer was a large part of presenting most of our lessons and the students really found it interesting and kept their focus on the lessons better. It was fun being able to use this valuable resource in our teaching.
Following is a slideshow of some of the pictures that were included in my PowerPoint presentation.
For my field experience, we taught a unit about Ancient Rome. It was a really fun unit to teach and there was a lot of fun information available for us to use in our lessons. The more that we studied about Ancient Rome, the more we learned that there are some great primary sources available to use in our lessons. We found that the best way to show the students all of the pictures and primary sources about Ancient Rome was to make a PowerPoint Presentation (which we used for several of our lessons).
This was very well received by the students and they just loved this medium of teaching. On my last lesson about Ancient Roman technologies, their people and forms of entertainment, I made a PowerPoint presentation for the lesson. I didn't practice the presentation during lunch because my last PowerPoint that was presented earlier in the week worked great and I had no problems. However, this time it didn't work out. It was a very frustrating few minutes while we tried to figure out what our plan B was going to be. We saved the presentation on a flashdrive and tried to present it from the teachers computer instead. However, it didn't work on that computer either. It turned out to be the projector that was having the problem.
Plan C here we come! Our final solution to the problem was to just huddle everyone together to watch the PowerPoint presentation on my computer screen. While this worked okay in the end, it took a few minutes to figure it all out and it was a little harder to maintain control of the class when they were sitting so close in the dark room. Had my lesson not had so many valuable pictures of the items we were presenting, I would have just abandonded the PowerPoint and just talked about the slides that I was going to present. However, my lesson relied heavily on the photo's that were included in the presentation.
The computer was a large part of presenting most of our lessons and the students really found it interesting and kept their focus on the lessons better. It was fun being able to use this valuable resource in our teaching.
Following is a slideshow of some of the pictures that were included in my PowerPoint presentation.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Week 13 - 6th Grade Computers
Since I've been working in my 6th grade field experience, I've not had too many chances to see technology being used in the classroom. There are no computers in the classroom and the students only go to computers once a week for less than an hour. When they go to computers, it seems that they spend most their time typing paragraphs that are written on the front board. It appears to be more of a keyboarding class than computers. I could be wrong in my assumptions seeing that I've only been able to witness one week at computers.
We have started teaching our lessons and today we used a PowerPoint presentation in our lesson. The students really loved it and were sad when we finished with the computer portion of the lesson. They paid really good attention and were able to follow along as they took notes and participated in the discussion.
The students have been very receptive to Tara and I and seem interested in our lessons on ancient Rome. It's been a good experience working with them and I'm excited to present the rest of the lessons and see how they respond to those lessons. We have planned to use the computer in most all of our lessons in one form or another. I'm sure this will help them learn what we are presenting and help them keep their interest.
I realize that as a teacher, it's almost impossible to use PowerPoint and the computer in all my lessons due to the amount of time it takes to prepare the lessons that way, but I know that as I find as many ways as possible to use the computer in my lessons, the students learning experience will be enhances because of it.
We have started teaching our lessons and today we used a PowerPoint presentation in our lesson. The students really loved it and were sad when we finished with the computer portion of the lesson. They paid really good attention and were able to follow along as they took notes and participated in the discussion.
The students have been very receptive to Tara and I and seem interested in our lessons on ancient Rome. It's been a good experience working with them and I'm excited to present the rest of the lessons and see how they respond to those lessons. We have planned to use the computer in most all of our lessons in one form or another. I'm sure this will help them learn what we are presenting and help them keep their interest.
I realize that as a teacher, it's almost impossible to use PowerPoint and the computer in all my lessons due to the amount of time it takes to prepare the lessons that way, but I know that as I find as many ways as possible to use the computer in my lessons, the students learning experience will be enhances because of it.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Week 12: Field Experience Overview
As mentioned in my last blog, I'm working with a 6th grade class for my field experience. I have to admit that 6th grade is not my preferred grade that I want to teach once I graduate. However, I'm finding this to be a good experience and I enjoy working with my cooperation teacher and helping her in her classroom. She's been very good to give my partner and I plenty of experience working with the students and small experiences teaching and helping in a variety of subjects.
Right now the students are in the final touches of preparing reports on a different county that they have each researched for their "World Fair" that will be on Tuesday of next week. For their report, they have been taught how to type papers that include a table of content, bibliography and cover page.
One challenge with this project is that the students don't have time to complete their whole assignment during computer lab time. Since the schools use "Apple Works" for their word processing program and most students don't have that program at home, Tara and I have had to help those students e-mail their saved work from the school computers to their home computers in a format that they will be able to use. We worked with the students who needed this assistance one-on-one and helped them either save it to a flash drive, create an e-mail account if they didn't have one or know their parent's e-mail address, or sent it to a parents e-mail address.
It was interesting to see the vast differences in these 6th graders with their experience and abilities to use the Internet and e-mail. It was also interesting to see each of their typing abilities and what they understood about formatting their reports. It's obvious which student have computer time at home by watching their abilities in the classroom.
Right now the students are in the final touches of preparing reports on a different county that they have each researched for their "World Fair" that will be on Tuesday of next week. For their report, they have been taught how to type papers that include a table of content, bibliography and cover page.
One challenge with this project is that the students don't have time to complete their whole assignment during computer lab time. Since the schools use "Apple Works" for their word processing program and most students don't have that program at home, Tara and I have had to help those students e-mail their saved work from the school computers to their home computers in a format that they will be able to use. We worked with the students who needed this assistance one-on-one and helped them either save it to a flash drive, create an e-mail account if they didn't have one or know their parent's e-mail address, or sent it to a parents e-mail address.
It was interesting to see the vast differences in these 6th graders with their experience and abilities to use the Internet and e-mail. It was also interesting to see each of their typing abilities and what they understood about formatting their reports. It's obvious which student have computer time at home by watching their abilities in the classroom.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Week 11 - "Voki" Interview
You sure sound excited! Well it's nice to meet you Shelly. Tell us, what topic will you be teaching while you are with the 6th graders for the next three weeks?
That's great that you'll be able to use technology to enrich your lessons. Good luck in your field experience and keep us posted on how it is going. Thank you for the interview.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Week 10 - How will WebQuests help me collaborate with my colleagues?
The WebQuest process continues. Brook is doing an excellent job at putting together all of the information that we have gathered for our WebQuest. Putting together a WebQuest is a big task and takes many minds on the same page to bring it all together. I'm still tossed about my opinion of doing these as a group assignment. On the one side, it's sure nice to have other people to work with and be able to complete the assignment with. On the other hand, no matter how you throw the dice, there just isn't a way to make it equal work for all the members of the Pod and only one person really learns the process - especially since we've never discussed the process of making a WebQuest in class.
I love the idea of a WebQuest - but don't know the first step of making my own. I've helped contribute to the group as much as possible by looking at other WebQuests and seeing how they work. I've also helped with the ideas of what we want our WebQuest to look like and by finding the information and links for our WebQuest. As with all group projects, there are some students who contribute more than others and some students who fly under the radars and do the bare minimum requirements. I suppose this is good practice for when we are actually teachers. I know that we will have many opportunities to work together with our peers as teachers and that this same thing will happen in the field. By having these experiences as students, we will be able to know how to work with our fellow teachers to achieve a common goal.
VIDEO REFLECTION:
I remember watching this video in class and for a previous assignment. Watching it again made me think about my feelings the first time I saw it. This is a very powerful movie. This time I had my mom watch the movie with me. She was alive for most all of the events listed in the movie. It was fun discussing it with her after watching this movie again and being reminded about all the events in history that helped make us what we are today.
I love the idea of a WebQuest - but don't know the first step of making my own. I've helped contribute to the group as much as possible by looking at other WebQuests and seeing how they work. I've also helped with the ideas of what we want our WebQuest to look like and by finding the information and links for our WebQuest. As with all group projects, there are some students who contribute more than others and some students who fly under the radars and do the bare minimum requirements. I suppose this is good practice for when we are actually teachers. I know that we will have many opportunities to work together with our peers as teachers and that this same thing will happen in the field. By having these experiences as students, we will be able to know how to work with our fellow teachers to achieve a common goal.
VIDEO REFLECTION:
I remember watching this video in class and for a previous assignment. Watching it again made me think about my feelings the first time I saw it. This is a very powerful movie. This time I had my mom watch the movie with me. She was alive for most all of the events listed in the movie. It was fun discussing it with her after watching this movie again and being reminded about all the events in history that helped make us what we are today.
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