Reflection #8

While I was in my Assessment class we have been covering the No Child Left Behind law. It is so frusterating because the NCLB lowers the school standards. I feel like the NCLB is more concerned about making sure everyone is accepted and liked. This is not helping the student or teh teacher to succeed. It is teaching the students how to take tests. What will happen to all these students when they graduate? will our world become like the movie "Idiocracy"? What are we giving these students by lowering the standards for them to achieve? All of this is so frustrating to me. I want to be a teacher but the political leaders are more or less taking it out of our hands.

reflection #7

I'm putting my website together piece by piece. I am having alot of fun with it now that I sort of know what i'm doing. I'm putting my lesson plans and video's on my website so that i can get a good feel of how to do it. it is getting easier as i go on. i have a sense of accomplishment now that i have also posted my "history google" search engine to my site as well. I have even added a blog to my website, i have not had a chance to play around with it yet, but it looks like a great way to stay connected with my students and parents.

Mrs. Adiars classroom

It was a great experience learing how the active board works in a classroom. It was helpful that she showed us all the websites that have been helpful to her as a teacher. being able to see the board in action was a great experience. I think it's great that teachers post their lessons on line for other to use. teaching is a joint effort and i like that no one really cares about making their classroom like no one elses, you can't learn or teach as well if you are shut off to the outside world.

Assignment #3

I did my project individually for two reasons. I am the only secondary ed major in the class and most of my websites are secondary based. everyone kind of all ready had a partner and i didn't mind working by myself on this project. I decided to start a google search engine to store my 30 websites. I choose to learn more about the custom search engine when we all had to pick one or two technologies to explore and then present to the class. I choose to work on Twitter and google search engine. I did not present my findings about my google search engine experience because I was really unsure about what i was doing and i didn't have enough information to be able to present it to the class.
http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=015369964674125843226:8ry1gb-wjjy&hl=en
this is a link to my search engine. I have one search engine with all of the sites on the one. there is not a specific reason to the way i organized it. google does have an option to add subcategories to the search engine but I'm still in the process of figuring out more about it.
some sites that i found useful to me was
http://www.k12.wa.us/
I'm sure that I'm not the only one in the class to have put this site down. this is going to be the place where we find our EARL's and GLE'S. all of the state information that we need is on this site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
the Wiki site about the Industrial Revolution i found helpful because it is a great place to start researching your topic. It has some quick facts and even has resources. I will use this site to receive information about the industrial revolution
http://www.foxnews.com/
I will definitely use this site as a teacher. A news website is always important in social studies. it has current affairs, politics, weather, and the boys favorite...sports. this is a good way to stay connected with the world in a classroom. It puts history in perspective for students. I can "prove" what I'm talking about when i show them that it's on the news.
http://www.history.com/
this is the history channel. I think it is important to be able to find the same information that you are teaching and find it on an informative video. i don't plan on playing videos all the time but i think it is a good way to connect the material to the students especially if they can see for themselves that i'm not making up the informaiton. if they see it in a movie from the history channel it might be more real to them

active board and clickers

The training we received on the active board was an amazing experience. The man who came to train us was extremely helpful and was willing to answer all of my questions, even if they were small ones. I am really impressed with everything that the active boards are able to do. There are templates available for teachers and if you want to make your own you can do that also. the active board looked like a simple enough piece of technology that maybe even I could use it. the quick reference guide we received is very helpful. They really did a good job explaining things in the book. I really hope that I will have the benefit of using an active board in my classroom as a teacher.
Using the clickers was a very easy process. It give immediate feedback. it is a really easy way to assess and helps you to know where your students are. I like the variety of simplicity that comes along with the clickers. I like the idea that if you want to ask a question that you just thought of you are able to program it in without having to have the computer know what question you are going to ask. the clickers also allow every student to respond to your questions. that way they have to participate and it keeps everyone focused.

Reflection #5

I'm really glad i waited to post this last reflection because tech ed class tonight was a great experience. A specialist came in to our class and taught us about the smart board. I think it was a great experience that will be very valuable. The information that was given tonight really encouraged me to want to use the smart board in class. The class I plan on teaching in next semester does not have access to a smart board. That is so discouraging after all of the training we recieved tonight. At any rate I plan on studying the smart board more, I would like to make some templates and us the smart board software to prepare lessons.

Reflection #4

I notice a challenge for digital immigrants when it comes to online resources. I suppose the problem could also arise with digital natives. Problem: when I have to research a project or want to know more information about something the problem comes up when I type in key words for the search engine to pick up. If I don't know much about the topic key words are hard to find. Depending on what I type in different things will come up in my searching. I am working on a research project on Calvin Coolidge and since I don't know much about him it is hard for me to know what I need to type in for those key words to find appropriate material. I remember having this problem back when i was in elementary school and I see that I haven't grown out of it yet. and maybe that's because I'm a digital immigrant

5 thoughtful and insightful comments

Teixeira
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reflection #3

this was my favorite observation:
I observed a 6th grade class at Crosspoint Academy. This was my first observation at a Christian school. I immediately noticed how well the students behaved. My assumption was that these students came from well to do families who taught good morals and discipline. The teacher was very interested in talking with me and explaining what goes on in her classroom. Another interesting thing that I don’t think public schools do (or I have yet to notice) is that the main office has a very precise schedule of each class. The teacher, Carol Heinz, had very good classroom management skills. For example, she transitioned the students very well from one subject to another by giving them 30seconds to put all of their supplies away and to get out their supplies for the next subject. She counted backward from 30 and by the time she was done all the kids were sitting in their chairs with their materials out for English. It was amazing. I think to myself, could I get my high school students to listen that well? I did notice that the students were not able to think for themselves when it came to getting a drink of water. The students have to ask Mrs. Heinz for a drink of water. In this case I would let the students make up their own minds whether or not to get a drink of water. I would encourage them to make their decision based off of whether or not it would negatively affect anyone in the classroom.
I would say that this grade is unique because the students are going through a transition in their life. In elementary school they are the seniors and in junior high they are the low men on the totem pole. I also think they are unique because they go to a Christian school where they uphold Christian values. It prepares them for the world ahead of them.
I never had a chance to ask Carol how many years she has been teaching. From the looks of it she has been teaching for ten plus years.
I liked it because the teacher was the best teacher that i had observed/interviewed. She worked very well with the students, she was willing to show me around her classroom, and she loves what she does

Reflection #2

In my Instructional design class we are working on lesson plans. I'm having a lot of fun with it because we have to tie our topic to at least 4 different subjects. well since technology is a subject I have been creative with finding ways to incorporate technology into my lessons. So far I have done a lesson that requires my students to go online, read a newspaper article, and post a review about the article. I'm kind of learning as I go since I don't have as much experience with technology as I wish I did.

Reflection #1

I went and observed a resource room class last Tuesday. During my observation I noticed that I felt the teacher go to personal with her life. There were something that she mentioned about her personal life that I don't think I would want to do as a teacher. She handled herself very well and I know that she could handle her students comments about her personal life, but I myself think I will stay away from that topic. I know that I will have to give my students some information about myself to gain a relationship with students.

Assignment #2

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/9-12/games/interactive.html
I found an interactive site that helps students with their U.S. geography and U.S. government.
ISTE for students: 4. c. critical thinking; collect and analyze data to identify solutions and or make informed decisions. The students will be able to make informed decisions based off of the lecture that was given and to be able to identify the specific state and to place them in their correct locations.
ISTE for teachers: 2. c. design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments; customize and personalize learning activities to address student's diversity learing styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. I'm addressing student's diversity by coming up with another way to teach them the states and government.
The smart board could improve student leaning in my future classroom because it provides an on hands experience to the material they learned or are about to learn. It is just one more way to make sure the kids will be able to pick up the new information that is learned in class. Since technology is such a part of the students lives I think it will be fun to let the students know that technology can also be used in the classroom

instruc. design

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkxnmR7ZcSE

NETS standards

NETS for students: I want them to learn how to trouble shoot for themselves. As I'm learning how to create and do all of these wonderful things on line I'm also learning how to trouble shoot. Instead of being the first one to raise my hand in class to get help I have decided that I will first try an do it on my own. I believe that people learn best by doing. If I can do it on my own then I think I will be more successful at showing and teaching my students to do it on their own.
NET for teachers: I am currently emerging myself into dgital systems. I'm learning how to apply technology into the classroom, I'm learning what will be most effective and what I can do without.

html & weebly

the html handout that we recieves was extremely helpful. There's something about creating something from nothing that gives me a scence of accomplishment. Seeing what I created when I pulled it up on my internet was really cool. I've never done anything like it before. I always see my brother in law creating things and I never knew how he did it...until now. I feel like I have something to brag about:) I'm just kidding, it's not like I even made anything worth talking about.
I created a weebly account and had a blast doing it! please take a look www.mrswelchsclassroom.weebly.com I likes all of the different options it gave me, it was also very clear and what and how I had to set up my page. I'm adding a little here and there at times so it's not like it's completely ready for when I get into the classroom.