Week 3 - Converting Movies from TeacherTube to MP4 using Zamzar:

In which ways might I employ these tools to achieve classroom objectives?

I've used the computer and feel very comfortable with the basics of e-mailing and creating documents. I'm glad that I am in this class so that I will have opportunities to learn more about the wonderful tools that a computer can provide in my classroom.

I was excited this week to learn about TeacherTube and how to convert these movies to a MP4 and save them on my hard drive. I have only played around with YouTube a little bit but haven't really explored all that is there. I'm glad to see that there is a resource available for teachers where they can obtain free educational materials that will enhance their lessons and provide better learning experiences for their students. I think that every teacher needs to take a technology class every year or two to keep up on all the advances that have come out since they were last trained.

By knowing how to find these video's on TeacherTube and converting them to a MP4 through Zamzar, I am now able to save them on my computer for future use in my classroom. Once a teacher knows about this wonderful tool, they can do more than just just read from a textbook to teach their lesson. There are so many free resources available for teachers that we can use to improve our lessons and keep us on the edge. It's important to always be looking for new opportunities to improve our teaching.

Our students are growing up in the technology age. Too many teachers aren't able to keep up with their students. We as teachers need to be one step ahead of them and be able to teach these skills to them and not be left in the dark.

Technology Tool #2 - www.seaworld.org

I just discovered http://www.seaworld.org/ and love what I found. What a wonderful resource to use in the classroom. I would like to teach Kindergarten. The core curriculum for kindergarten has sea animals in it. This would be a great resource to go to for animal facts and lesson plans that is both age appropriate and fun for the students to be able to explore.

One thing I thought was very useful is a complete profile for each of their animals. On the animal profile, they have a picture that can be printed for the students to color, an information book, a sound byte and an animal byte where students can listen to the sound of that animal and get all the information needed to conduct a study on that animal.

There is a fun section with games and activities where children can do puzzles, memory games about animal geography and flash games. I would feel very safe letting children navigate around this page and finding all kinds of things to keep their attention and build their knowledge of sea animals as well as other animals on this site.

One of the most useful locations on this site is the section for teachers. There you will find all kinds of useful information to help you plan age appropriate lessons, provide hands-on classroom activities and read publications.

This is a great site that I would like to refer my student’s parents to. It’s a wonderful place for them to be able to learn together and have fun in the process.

Technology Tool #1 - http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/home

I’ve always been a fan of Scholastic books. I’ve ordered from their online book order system several times and have found that to be a very useful tool for teachers and parents so that the parents can order books and pay for them online.

I just recently discovered that the website is more than just an online resource for parents to order books from their child’s book order forms. At http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/home.jsp there are links for Teachers, Parents and Kids. In each link there are a vast amount of resources available that are both educational and fun.

On their home page, they have links about current events and holidays that teachers can get information and lesson plans for. My favorite section on the home page is the near the bottom. It is titled “Browse Online Activities by Grade & Subject”. The subjects featured here are: Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, Math & More. This is then subdivided into age levels for each of these subjects. There are literally hundreds of links under these age levels and subjects for teachers to use to enhance their lessons. There are also educational games and activities that are engaging and exciting. I found myself getting lost in this website and finding all kinds of great things that will be a great resource to turn to when I’m a teacher.

Under the top links for Teachers, Parents and Kids, you will find a lot more resources that are available. Under the Teacher link, you will find lesson plans, educational research, resources for teachers to set up their class homepage and a lot more useful resources.

The Parent section has some great articles on raising children. It also has information to help the parents become involved in their child’s education. There are video’s, games, articles and many other items that will enhance the child’s learning. What a great website to refer parents and kids to.

Week 2 - How will I-Google help me communicate with my students' parents?

I'm so excited to learn about I-Google and be able to start experimenting with it. What a wonderful tool this is to have on the Internet. I'm especially glad to know that this is a free resource available for teachers to be able to communicate with their students and their parents.

Since I plan to teach Kindergarten, I don't know how much the students will be able to navigate through the class page without their parents being involved. As a teacher, I'd like to have a back to school parent/literacy meeting at the beginning of the year. At this meeting, I would introduce the parents to this class site and show them how simple it is to keep up on their child's educational journey and always be up to date on current class news and calendar events.

I know that parents these days are busier than ever before. Despite how busy they are, they still find time to go online for their e-mail and other purposes. With a class site, they will always be able to know what our class plans and needs are. It would also be a nice place to post additional resources and links that parents can go to supplement their child's education.

In order to encourage the parents to check the class website, it would be nice to periodically show this site to the students to remind them to encourage their parents to check the site. By adding links to educational games and things that would interest the students, it would also encourage the students to ask to go to this website and keep their parents involved with it.

I'm excited for the opportunity to learn about this wonderful tool and look forward to being able to use it in my personal life so that I can be ready to start my class site when I become a teacher.


VIDEO REFLECTION
From this weeks video's, I leaned that we are living in a high-tech world and there are so many wonderful tools available. As a teacher, I feel that it's so important to keep current on what's going on in this worldwide web that we live in. It also reminded me that there are so many resources that I still will be able to learn about. I'm excited for this class and the opportunities that it will provide for me to learn these new and important thing.

Week 1 - My Ideal Classroom

It's just crazy to think that in November I was selling windows and working in the construction business and now here I sit on January 7th with my first day back to college under my belt and I'm on my way to becoming an elementary school teacher. WOW! What a fun journey I've just boarded.

I've had the wonderful chance to help my sister with her Kindergarten classroom for the last 11 years. I've spend so many hours there on late nights and weekends helping her set it up and making it a fun and loving environment. I've also been able to volunteer in her classroom a number of times and look forward to having a class of my own. The picture below is the last creation that I made for her class this fall. I also made a camping display in the reading center that is complete with child sized camping chairs and a fake campfire for the kids to sit around while they read their books. It's been a big hit.

For my own classroom, I want to have a fun, colorful and engaging environment where the children feel loved and are excited to come to school. I want the children to have a feeling of cooperation and teamwork where they can build friendships and all levels of academics are challenged. I believe that in order for this to happen, that parents need to be a big part of the classroom experience. I've been able to see what an impact parents can make as they volunteer in the classroom.

To help involve the parents, I'd like to have a blog set up for our classroom where the parents could always check on upcoming lessons and events. I believe that as they are aware of what we are learning and doing in school, the more involved they will be with their children's education at home. This would especially be helpful for those parents who are unable to volunteer in the classroom. I'd also like to set up an e-mail group for the parents of my students so that I can send out weekly e-mails. This would especially be helpful for children who have parents that are divorced. This way, you could e-mail both parents and wouldn't have to worry about a note being sent home only making it to one parent.

I believe it is very important to collaborate with the other teachers in the same grade so that the students receive the best education possible. All teachers have their strengths and weaknesses. By collaborating, you are able to strengthen your weaknesses and are learning from your peers.

I like to switch things up and find ways to do things better than I did them previously. While routine is very important and has a place in the classroom, I believe that there are areas where it's important to try new things and keep the classroom and the learning experience up to date. I was especially enlightened to this today as I quickly realized that my college experience will be completely different than it was 15 years ago. I'm excited to see how technology will be a big part of my new educational experiences and look forward to finding ways for technology to be integrated in my own classroom when I become a teacher. Wouldn't it be nice for all classrooms to have their own computers where the children have opportunities to use them on a daily basis? There are so many educational opportunities on the Internet and children these days need to know computers more than ever.

As a teacher of young students, I believe that reading and a love for reading will play a huge part of the educational process. Once a child can feel comfortable with their reading, they will excel in all other areas of education. However, everything builds together and you can learn about so many different subjects at once if taught properly. I've had the chance to be a part of this type of education and have learned so much from it. I hope to teach the children that they can do anything they want to do. They shouldn't be limited by what other people think of them.

I've got a lot of big goals ahead of me. I look forward to applying everything I learn while back in school to help me become the type of teacher I want to be.