Power Point

What:

This week in class we learned how to save a screen shot. After that we got a new assignment. Instead of creating a power point, we are creating an assignment that our students would do using power point. The best lesson plans will be published in Doc. Waters book. I think my team has a really good idea. I hope we win.

Now What:

For this weeks assignment we are creating an assignment that are students would do using power point. My group, 5Th Element, had a great idea. We are going to create a couple of sample slides to help the students get started. It would be a slide of the solar system. Then the student that was assigned the topic of Saturn could click in my Saturn and it would show them links, that I have already approved, that they can find info and pictures for their slides. Then they would create a power point report on their topic. The first slide will be a wordle of their topic. The second slide might be a picture of Saturn, then when you click on it, it would pull up the info that the student has put in about that picture. Or if they were doing a report on Mars they could have a slide of mars. When they click on the dark spot the info about the spot would appear, then when they click on a stripe it would tell about the stripes.

I really like to use power point. One of the teachers that I sub for uses it all the time. One of the things that she does with her fifth grade class is a jeopardy game on electrical circuits.

So What:

There are so many different ideas on the Internet on ways to use power point and other technology in the classroom that I don't think I will have any problem finding a lot of different ways to use it in my classroom. My oldest son said that his favorite teacher did all of his lecturing using power point then he posted his slides on his web page. This really helped my son. He has communications disorder and it's really hard for him to take notes in class. He says he never knows what to write down and he can't write fast enough to get it all down any way. With this class he could always just go to the class web site and copy the teachers notes. This gave my son a lot more confidence in this class. I want to be that kind of teacher and take into account my students different learning styles.

Video:

I wasn't sure if we were suppose to do the video under power point or power point activities. So I watched them both and then realized that we already blogged about the one under power point activities are very first week. So "Do you believe in me" is on there twice.

This weeks video is called "I am what I learn." I loved the way the girl was able to take one topic, chickens, and connect it to so many other things that she has learned at school. Her math, social studies, language arts, science and even wood shop has helped her to develop a love and knowledge of chickens and has but her on the path to many job possibilities.

I have noticed as I have done some field work for my EDEL 1010 class that most of the teachers do a lot of connecting from one subject to the next but it's so suttle I don't think the students are realizing that's what is happening. When I teach I hope that I can find many opportunities to make connections in my lesson plans and point them out to the students. I hope I can get them to think outside the box and discover things about them selves and the world around them that they didn't already know. And most importantly I hope that I can instill in my students a life long love of learning and discovery.

Kidsperation

What:

This week we learned about kidsperation. Kidsperation is a software program that is a lot of fun for creating a number of educational things.

So What?:

We actually didn't have an assignment this week. We played around with with kidsperation in the class. It was a lot of fun. This is a program that I am seriously considering buying. In class I only checked out the picture view part of the program. I did a couple of different lessons with it. I did one on substance abuse. I put substance abuse in the middle then had a web that went out to the different substance. I gave up on that one when I couldn't find any pictures to go with it. I have since learned that you can copy pictures from the web on to your document. After that I did a lesson on healthy eating. I put" making good choice" in the middle then had a web that went out with to different pictures and their names to choose from an orange or ice cream, soda pop or water. I really liked Jeremy's idea of making a " family tree" for the Greek Gods.

I went to the kidsperation web site and watched the introductory video. I can't believe how much more there is to learn about this product. I think I will down load the free 30 day trial so I can play around with it some more and let my kids use it.

Now What?:

There are so many different ways to use kidsperation in the classroom. I Googled " Lesson plans using kidsperation and found tons of ideas and came up with a few of my own. First I was thinking that using picture view I could have the students make a replica of our solar system, labeling each of the planets and their moons. Then they could go into the writing part of the program and add more detail about the different planets. This could be a science lesson that then connects to writers workshop. I love the idea of using the math section. I have never been very strong with math but seeing it done with the blocks could help me see it visually. Back in picture view you could have a lesson were your put in a question like " Ways to make 100". Then have four different bubbles, one for adding, one for subtraction, one for multiplication and one for division ( each with an example). Then they would need to come up with their own math problems. This could also be done with roots, fractions ( with a picture of a pizza) or any other math concepts. Another fun one would be the life cycle of a plant, the water cycle, weather cycle or animal feeding cycle. There are so many ideas to explore.

Video:

We didn't have a video for this week since some of us blogged about the kidsperation video last week, but I really like to do the video section. So I went to teacher tube and looked up the most viewed videos and found one I really liked. It is called "Pay Attention". It went through Gardner's nine ways of learning and asked what ways do your students learn, then suggested that they learn in all the ways but we need to add a new way of learning, digital. The video gave a lot of statistics on how much time our students spend on computer and so why don't we use theses options to teach our students. It's true but I disagreed with a lot of what the video said. It suggested that we need to use google and a whole bunch of other sites and apps. Yes we need to use technology but we also need to be safe. Teachers don't have time to screen every signal site out there so I think I will stick to UEN. The site also said we should use cell phones and ipods in the classroom. It gave a suggestion to tell the students they had ten minutes to receive a text from some one that wasn't in the the school. That person had to answer the questions what did they eat for breakfast that morning, were where they, what was the weather like were they are and what was the last thing they purchased. The student would then get extra points if the text was from some one in another country. How would a teacher monitor this? Would that teacher then read every text at that time and what about the students that don't have cell phones, would they just get a zero for the day or would the teacher give them a different activate. And what about parent rules of not talking, texting, chatting with people they don't know? This just seems like a risky activity to me.

I do plan on using technology in my classroom but I will be smart about it. Yes students are very good at it and it is a wonderful way to learn, but what about the art of handwriting and sending a good old fashioned, hand written letter to grandma. And what about the feel of a new, crisp book in your hands, one that has never been opened and you get to be the one to feel the crack of the spine. Or even better yet the soft, possibly yellowing pages of a beloved book that has been read by many. I love technology but I also love some of " the old ways". We need to incorporate as many ways of learning as we can to keep all of our students engaged.

Web 2.0

What:

We were suppose to learn about kidsperation this week but our teacher was down with strep. There's a lot of that going around right now. So instead, Doc Waters, gave us the assignment of researching web 2.0. There is so much information about this that I finally narrowed my search to web 2.0 for teachers.

So What?:

There was a really fun application called Storyjumper. Storyjumper helps one wright their own children's book. It does cost many to actually make the hard copy of the book but I think its free to just do one on line. The web 2.0 has a ton of ways to network with people that have the same interests as you. I could find someone in another part of the country or world that is also studying to become a teacher and we could share our schooling experiences and how things are done in our different areas and also bounce ideas off of each other. A great way to do this would be by using google buz. Google buz is similar to Facebook but it isn't as popular yet. From what I can tell though, Google buz is easier to use especially when it comes to sharing photos. Also it is connected to Picasa and many other sites.

I liked what I saw for Fotobabble. I can take a picture of my kids then have them each add a vocal tag for grandma. What a great way to share photos of events in your life with family that couldn't be there. I hate scrap booking but I think I might like it doing it electronically.

Now What?:

It will take some time playing around with all the different things that web 2.0 has to offer but it will be worth it. It will make collaboration with other teachers all over the globe more easy and fun. We can share lesson plans that we can then tweak to our own state curriculum and classroom needs, we can share ideas and experiences of things that worked and things that didn't and get more ideas. It will be fun to see were the future of technology takes us.

Video:

The Connected Classroom was awsome and scary. What really hit me was China and India have more honor students than we have students. I do feel that our children are being left behind. With all the budget cuts how can we get the technology into the classrooms. At my sons high school at the beginning of the year we had to pay a book fee. It was around $100, but there aren't enough books for each of the students. My son never has home work because of the book shortage so everything has to be done at school. The teachers don't even photo copy pages for them to do because of the cost of paper and ink. How are these high school students going to be prepared for college and the amount of homework that goes along with it if they've never had to do it before? They will have no idea how to budget their time. But with technology what it is today you would think the teachers could still assign homework. They could have them do some research on a particular web site, they could scan a worksheet onto their web page for the student to do on line then submit it the same way. When I was introduced to UEN I was surprised to see how many of my children's teachers were not on there. It's disheartening. We can not let our children be left behind the rest of the world.

The one thing I really want to learn how to do is learn how to write a grant proposal for things I might need in my classroom. I've been shadowing a teacher this week at Riverview Elementary. She has six computers in her classroom. The fifth grade teacher down the hall also has several computers in her room. I just assumed that this was a school in a neighborhood that has more money than the school my kids go to but it turns out they don't. The teachers have written grant proposals or got the computers donated. Also many of the teachers have used their own personal money to buy a Document camera so they don't have to make over heads and try to schedule the over head projector for their class time. The document camera is awesome. It is one of the first things I will buy for my classroom. I can't wait to introduce my students to the wonderful world before them.