Assignment #3

http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Lesson+activities/Notebook+activities/Browse+Notebook/United+States/Elementary/K-3/Social+Studies/Chronological+Order+Part+1+SMARTcreated.htm

For my SmartBoard activity, I chose to do a 1st grade social studies activity. This activity's focus is on historical chronology. It is extremely basic (today, tomorrow and yesterday), but it involves what all children need to learn. We do not inherently know what past, present and future mean; we must be taught.

This activity meets NET Standard #6 for students (Technology Operations and Concepts). How does this activity meet this standard? Well, to go forward in the activity, we must click the forward arrow and if we want to go back we must press the back arrow. This action models that of turning pages in a book; therefore students are transferring current knowledge to learning of new technologies. Also, there are "rules" to each slide and the students must follow those rules by doing certain actions; this the students are understanding and using technology systems. As for me as the teacher, I think that this activity allows me to facilitate and inspire student learning (1); this activity is a groups activity that I think 6 and 7 year olds would find engaging.

There is no need to twist my arm - I am completely sold on the SmartBoard or any interactive White Board. I find this to be such a unique way to engage students visually and physically. Through activities and games where students participate, I think students will better retain the information due to the fact that they are physically involving themselves. I know that this would be that last place they would turn up due to funding, but I think Christian schools would greatly benefit from an interactive White Board, especially those Christian schools that are located in churches and share classes with Sunday school classes. The SmartBoard allows you to save what you have done as opposed to erasing it every time class is finished. This is the same case in schools that share classrooms with other classes. I know in high school, our Math class was in the classroom as our history class. An interactive White Board would have been very useful to say the least.

Blessed - Reflection #4

I just must say that I feel so blessed to be able to be in this class, be exposed to a vast array of types of technology and have access to them. There are so many regions in the world, within our country as well that do not have the ability or the resources to access any type of technology, let alone the amount that we do in our weekly class. Technology opens up an individuals world. Thinking of my English classes in Brazil, I want so badly to be able to bring technology to my students. My students are extremely poor and have basically nothing; the path to their future is restricted due to their economic status. For these young students, I believe that the three best skills they can be taught are reading (in their native language), the ability to speak, read and write in English and technological skills. I believe that with those skills, they could go much farther in life regardless of their economic status. The laptop program that is working to give low economic students across the globe laptops is an outstanding and wonderful project! When teaching English, or any language for that matter, technology is a huge help. By bringing technology to my students in Serrote dos Bois, Brazil, they could not only learn English more proficiently, but they could also develop the skills needed to be successful in the real world later in life.

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Assignment #2

According to Education World, this website is the educator's best friend. At first I thought that was a cute little slogan, but after browsing teh site I realized that their statement was absolutely true and in no way an understatement. This website has so many free resources just a click away. On this website you will find lesson plans, technology integration, a professional developement section and a school issues section.
URL for Education World = http://www.educationworld.com/
Teaching Today is an absolutely fabulous webiste! I found so many useful resources and tips or suggestions here. Particularly, I found a lot a great suggestions for teaching ELL as a whole (which I will do eventually) as well as helping ELL students in your regular classroom. The suggestions and tips are just "here, try this", they are proven techniques that are effective as well as ones that work just as effectively with native speakers. Also on this website are ways to integrate technology, free downloads, lesson plans and teachers's blogs.
URL for Teching Today = http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/
At Teachnology you will find many of the same resources found on Education World's website. Lesson plans, teaching tips, worksheets, and theme ideas are available to use within your classroom for free. The lesson plan resources are categorized by subject area. They also include an ELL section (YAY!). This website and Education World are very simliar. If you cant't find what you need here, search Education World and vice a versa. I would start at Education World; in my opinion, Education World seems to be a bit better.
URL for Teachnology = http://www.teach-nology.com/
My fourth choice is Bookhive. I found it through a county library's website. This website is valuable because it provides a list of books by various categories. You can search books by grade level or by genre. I know for me personally, I have a somewhat hard time deciding what age/grade level a certain book would be appropriate for. This website takes the guesswork out of choosing an appropriate book. Whether you need a book to read for a read aloud, for pure enjoyment, or a book to coincide with a lesson, this is the website for you.
URL for Bookhive = http://www.plcmc.org/bookhive/
Delicious is an interesting tool that can be used for personal use or public use within the classroom. For example, if your students were doing projects on a historical figure, a state or country, or basically anything, a delicious account can be used to collect websites that would be beneficial and relevant to the student's projects. A delicious account can also be useful with any lesson to help students understand a concept better and if they wanted to learn more about something discussed in class.

Enterprise Elementary School's Use of Technology - Reflection #3

Last Friday, Feb 20th, I went and observed at Enterprise Elementary School in Federal Way. I arrived in the morning just as their day was beginning. School announcements were done on television. Upper elementary students, probably 5th or 6th graders were in charge of it. They had this cute news center set and news desk they stood behind and read the daily announcements. They had special guests, like the librarian to discuss some reading suggestions and the principle to encourage the students for the day. I thought this was a very neat and fun way to use technology. While the announcements were going on, students in the 3rd grade class I was in were working quietly on a math journal. You could tell that the students were paying attention though; every so often they would look up when something was of interest to them. This reminded me of the article we read recently, "Generation IM". In the article, the journalist remarks how children today can be listening to music, doing homework, and im-ing their friends online. I also think that this is a good outlet for children who are very dramatic and love being on stage. It also gives students practice speaking in front of others (i.e. enunciation, voice projection, presence, etc.)

Children and Technology - Reflection #2

I was watching TV tonight (Yes, while doing my homework) and I saw this commercial for the first time. It was promoting a camera and a HP photo imaging program where you can upload photos, edit them and send them via email all in one location. So far, not too amazing sounding. However, the individual who was demonstrating it was a 4 1/2 year old girl (super cute, by the way). She uploaded pictures to a laptop, edited one (she enlarged it) and then she emailed a couple to her grandparents. The advertisement said: "so easy, anyone can do it." At first I thought that was clever advertisement, but after I thought about it, it is sort of misleading. Just because a 4 year old can do it, doesn't mean everyone can do it. The 4 year old in the commercial probably is very familiar with computers and technology. This commercial demonstrates the fact that this up and coming generation is extremely technologically savvy. It this 4 1/2 year old can do this at her age now, imagine what she will be able to do by the time she is in 5th grade. As teachers we need to cater to this 'way of life' of our future students and integrate as much effective and relevant technology into our classrooms and instruction.

Web 2.0 - Reflection #1

I looked at two things on Web 2.0. First I played around with Flickr. I spelt my name. I have always liked collage style things. Here is my name:
I don't think that I would use this during class, but I think that I would use it on my own to enhance a lesson or presentation. I might also be fun to make name tags for the students' desks or something similar to that.
I also maede a google map. I titled it "My Travels". Here is my map:
View Larger Map
I think that this would be great to use when studying abouut anything related to other countries (sports, languages, geography, etc). You can upload pictures, videos, basic facts, etc. I think this is a great way to get students involoved. This is also nice because they can access it anywhere not just at school - a great way to get parents involved too.

Reflections on "Generation IM: Getting through to today's teched-out children"

This is sooo true! Children today have grown up in a completely different world from their parents and their teachers. I do agree that children's' brains most likely have developed differently from their parents due to how they grew up. How to effectively teacher today's students is a huge dilemma today for teachers. Fortunetely, we are closing the gap on the technological divide. New teachers from here on out are more similar to today's students because they too grew up in a world full of technologies (grated, not as much). The 13-year old describes as doing research on the computer, IMing a friend and listening to music all at the same time was supposed to sound somewhat shocking, but to me it did not. That same description fits me too. Right now I am writting this blog (homework), listening to music (Michael Buble), and talking to my friend overseas via IM. I guess this is a good thing beacuse it means I am similar to my future students to some degree.
Today primarily everything is done on the internet regarding research. I remember when we did use encyclopedias (all the way back in 5th grade). I guess that is going to be one of the fun things I will be able to tell my grandchildren . . . "When I was your age we had to look facts up in a book." And then they will reply "What's a book?"
Beacuse of the way children are today, it is important to integrate technology into the classroom and into lessons. Students will no doubt be able to understand and grasp the material better and they will be able to relate to it. The key to success with integrating technology is to provide proper training for teachers on how to use all these fancy technologies.

Using the SmartBoard

I thought that the SmartBoard was super fun to work with. It is definitely something that I would need a significant amount of practice with to use it effectively in class. Once I learn the ropes, I am sure that it is simple. One major things that I need to work on is how I position myself. I find that it is rather easy to stand directly in front of the board preventing students from seeing. I think that doing that is natural because we are used to being in front of a computer screen. I think that SmartBoard is a wonderful invention. Every class should have one, but they will only be an effective tool if teachers are trained properly.

"Improving Instruction with Interactive Whiteboards (on the Cheap)"

I discovered the Smart Board, or as they call it and Interactive Whiteboard, for the first time last year in a math class. I was 'wowed' just like the author of this article was. I thought it was to coolest thing ever. I attended a Christian school K-12, so needless to say we did not have a lot of fancy, or unfancy for that matter, technology at my school. I agree with the author -- these boards can and have made a huge difference in students' learning (they understand better and they pay attention more). One thing that makes them so wonderful is their versatility; they can be used for any subject and with any age. Along with improving students' learning, it connects more with the students. By using the Internet in class, whether it be to show a video, do an activity, or disclose facts, the teacher connects with the student by using something that is so central in every student's life. I think that using the Smart Board is a basic and simple, aside from the cost, to integrate technology into the classroom.
Dian Schaffhauser, "Improving Instruction with Interactive Whiteboards (on the Cheap)," T.H.E. Journal, 2/21/2008, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/22082