Thank you, my wonderful students, for such a terrific semester. First of all, each of you have had perfect attendance!!! That is wonderful; I can't teach you if you aren't here. You have been so responsible about your assignments and so respectful in your interactions with one another. You have been perfect ambassadors for the Christian ethics that are at the core of BPC. You really represent what is the best of this college and have reminded me why I LOVE this job so very much.
Please stay in contact with me as you make your professional journey. Send pictures of that first classroom, let me know if you have questions, or if you need help. I am always just an email away.
GodSpeed!
Fondly, Dr. W.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
WEEK FOUR
Week Four brings with it one of my MOST FAVORITE assignments: SmileBox. SmileBox is a digital slideshow. This is a terrific tool for teachers to have at their fingertips. You can really use it to bring learning to life! I will be modeling it in class on Wednesday. In the meantime, visit their website. There is a paid subscription to SmileBox, but for this class, we are using the one that is free.
Click on the word SMILEBOX to visit the website.
Click on the word SMILEBOX to visit the website.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Week 3
In preparation for Week 3, I want you to go to this website: http://www.cutepdf.com
Download the FREE VERSION. This software will allow you to save your documents as a pdf (portable document format) that is "read only". We will be using this for several upcoming assignments. I would also like you to go to the course document section of Course Sites and look at the sample newsletter. I will be doing a sample for you in class. Again, TIME is critical, so I want you to use technology to make teaching easier! See you Wednesday.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
GREAT WEEK 1 REFLECTION
It was a great pleasure of mine to meet a new teacher. I have to be honest and say that I was very nervous about logging on to the class Wednesday night, and chatting in front of the class, learning about technology, and meeting a new teacher that I have never met. But it was one of the best online class experiences I have had. You made me feel very welcome, and conformable. I am looking forward to this semester. Your story about your life was truly inspiring to me. You are such a strong, determined person to endure the pain you went through and push through to become so successful in life. You are truly an inspiration to others, and should keep sharing your story.
I greatly enjoyed learning more about my classmates, and about their lives. I have been in several classes with three of the other students in this class, and I have learned more about them by reading these papers than I did within the classes we participated in together previously. It was interesting the different ways that each of us were lead to pursue a degree in education, and what inspired us the most. You never know what someone has been through to get where they are today, without reading their story. I also enjoyed reading their comments about my story, and how they could relate to it.
The first video showed me that everything in the future will be at the tip of your finger. You can slide your finger across a screen and it does everything for you, you have the whole world in your hands. I think this is convenient, but may come as a disadvantage to the younger generations. With all of the technology and means of communicating, such as texting, people are unable to communicate among one another. I think technology has to have a balance in schools and in homes. As my husband and I were out for dinner one night recently I noticed a family sitting near us and every single one of the were on some type of electronic device, and none of them were communicating with each other. So I believe that you have to balance your technology, and I am very grateful of it.
The new technology of the character Milo was truly amazing. It was very a little difficult to wrap my mind around and grasp the concept of what exactly was happening. I would enjoy getting to see this first hand. It is amazing what technology can accomplish in today's time.
During my reading my Chapter One of the textbook I learned many new things about technology in education and in the classroom. In the beginning of the chapter it was very interesting to read the changes the teacher, Anna, experienced with technology within 30 years of teaching. She started out with 2 computers in her own classroom and being very lucky to be chosen to have them, and doing fundraisers to purchase software for them, then in the year 2000 having 5 computers in her classroom and them being connected to the local server. I learned that the first educational technology was by radio instruction by pioneer W.W. Charters in 1948, and the first instructional technology was used by James Finn in 1963. A new technology development in 1994 was the World Wide Web. I noticed that the timeline located in chapter one helped me to place how technology developed starting with the first computer used for instruction dating up to the present day.
Located under the 'What We Have Learned from the Past' topic I read that teachers have to change to keep up. Many teachers want to keep using the same format, worksheets, and schedule they have used for years, but with children today being so technological advanced these children need something to always spark their interest and keep them challenged. Located under the 'Why Use Technology' topic I noticed that one of the reasons to use technology was to motivate students. I witnessed this first hand when teaching my lessons last semester during my observation hours. When I would use the Smart Board and allow students whom wanted to participate come to the board to write the correct answers, I would get a response from students you wouldn't have even known were in the classroom because they were not interested before the technology was brought into play.
I have also read in chapter one that technology is used for helping students that have special needs, I also witnessed this first hand last semester. There was a student whom was deaf in the classroom, along with a paraprofessional who went everywhere with him throughout the course of the day. She shared with me that she used a free program on the internet to teach herself sign language in order to be able to communicate with this student. The website was always pulled up on her computer during the day encase she needed to view it for the sign of a certain word. The students in the classroom were also allowed to use her computer in order to teach themselves how to communicate with this student. The last thing in the chapter that caught my attention was that there are many issues that come along with the use of technology in education, such as plagiarism and illegal download. But, we have to remember just as in life you have to take the good with the bad, and students should always know their boundaries when using technology.
I greatly enjoyed learning more about my classmates, and about their lives. I have been in several classes with three of the other students in this class, and I have learned more about them by reading these papers than I did within the classes we participated in together previously. It was interesting the different ways that each of us were lead to pursue a degree in education, and what inspired us the most. You never know what someone has been through to get where they are today, without reading their story. I also enjoyed reading their comments about my story, and how they could relate to it.
The first video showed me that everything in the future will be at the tip of your finger. You can slide your finger across a screen and it does everything for you, you have the whole world in your hands. I think this is convenient, but may come as a disadvantage to the younger generations. With all of the technology and means of communicating, such as texting, people are unable to communicate among one another. I think technology has to have a balance in schools and in homes. As my husband and I were out for dinner one night recently I noticed a family sitting near us and every single one of the were on some type of electronic device, and none of them were communicating with each other. So I believe that you have to balance your technology, and I am very grateful of it.
The new technology of the character Milo was truly amazing. It was very a little difficult to wrap my mind around and grasp the concept of what exactly was happening. I would enjoy getting to see this first hand. It is amazing what technology can accomplish in today's time.
During my reading my Chapter One of the textbook I learned many new things about technology in education and in the classroom. In the beginning of the chapter it was very interesting to read the changes the teacher, Anna, experienced with technology within 30 years of teaching. She started out with 2 computers in her own classroom and being very lucky to be chosen to have them, and doing fundraisers to purchase software for them, then in the year 2000 having 5 computers in her classroom and them being connected to the local server. I learned that the first educational technology was by radio instruction by pioneer W.W. Charters in 1948, and the first instructional technology was used by James Finn in 1963. A new technology development in 1994 was the World Wide Web. I noticed that the timeline located in chapter one helped me to place how technology developed starting with the first computer used for instruction dating up to the present day.
Located under the 'What We Have Learned from the Past' topic I read that teachers have to change to keep up. Many teachers want to keep using the same format, worksheets, and schedule they have used for years, but with children today being so technological advanced these children need something to always spark their interest and keep them challenged. Located under the 'Why Use Technology' topic I noticed that one of the reasons to use technology was to motivate students. I witnessed this first hand when teaching my lessons last semester during my observation hours. When I would use the Smart Board and allow students whom wanted to participate come to the board to write the correct answers, I would get a response from students you wouldn't have even known were in the classroom because they were not interested before the technology was brought into play.
I have also read in chapter one that technology is used for helping students that have special needs, I also witnessed this first hand last semester. There was a student whom was deaf in the classroom, along with a paraprofessional who went everywhere with him throughout the course of the day. She shared with me that she used a free program on the internet to teach herself sign language in order to be able to communicate with this student. The website was always pulled up on her computer during the day encase she needed to view it for the sign of a certain word. The students in the classroom were also allowed to use her computer in order to teach themselves how to communicate with this student. The last thing in the chapter that caught my attention was that there are many issues that come along with the use of technology in education, such as plagiarism and illegal download. But, we have to remember just as in life you have to take the good with the bad, and students should always know their boundaries when using technology.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Who Am I?
I have enjoyed getting to know you better through your stories. I hope that you will remember this exercise when you have students of your own. They each have a unique story and knowing them well will help you be in tune with what makes them tick. I just know this will be a great semester for you. My goal is to fill your teacher toolbox with a variety of tech resources that you will have at your fingertips. Looking forward to our time together...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Fox Hollow
Saturday, May 19, 2012
First Week
I had such fun meeting all of you this evening. I think we will have a terrific semester together! I understand that the link to the second video is not working. I have posted a different link that takes you to the same video in the announcements section of CourseSites, and I will also post it here: Project Natal: Milo. Try and view it before class; it is just fascinating!
I am enjoying hearing from you all; stay in touch. "See" you in class this week.
I am enjoying hearing from you all; stay in touch. "See" you in class this week.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Welcome, Summer 2012 Students!
Today I am happy too; I am looking forward to our semester together learning about all kinds of technology tools. One of the best tools is a blog. And yes, this semester you will be creating one of your own. In the meantime, I hope you will be a regular visitor here at this blog. It is a sort of "one stop shopping" spot for all things EDU309.
You can start by browsing through the blog since you are already here. This will give you a sense of what is on the way. This semester is only seven weeks long, so we are cramming a lot of learning and FUN into a short time.
I have posted directions, examples, videos, podcasts, and more here to help set you up for success. If you sign up for email, you will get notified each time I update the blog (Which is OFTEN!).
So, I can't wait to get started! I will "see" you in the chatroom on Wednesday at 7:40 p.m.
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