Well today we spent most of the day learning about websites. What makes good ones and bad ones. We got to explore on Web2Go20. That was fun and I really like some of the profiles already set up and that they were fairly easy to navigate and use to create websites. The downside was that you have to pay for them.
We also learned today how to work dream weaver, well the initial steps. I hope I can remember them for next week. I am nervous about creating my website because I know that I want one for my classroom as a resource for parents and students, but right now dream weaver seems like a lot of work in order to get a website to look as pretty as the ones we saw on Web2Go20. I am also worried about how this will turn out because I am not actually teaching yet and don't know about the classes i'll teach, the assignments or projects I'll assign or even the different links I may want to provide. But I do want to try because I want to practice and learn how to do something I will actually use later on, not create a site just for this class.
We will see how it goes next time!!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
iPad's
So today we had the opportunity to work with ipads. I do not personally have one, but my grandma had one and after she passed away my mom got it, so we have one in the house. I have my own laptop (not a mac) and an iphone so I don't usually use it. I would love to have one. Just right now it isn't a necessity. Personally I thought that it wouldn't be that useful for me personally in the classroom to implement into teaching. I think it is a great tool and would love to own one and use as a resource for teaching and traveling but to create lessons using this seems unlikely.
Today we also got to explore the teacher station that has the document camera, computer and the technology to project information from those areas for the students to view. For me this wasn't a new thing, but having looking at it and touched it without the pressure of a class watching is nice. I got to see how it worked and that it wasn't such a hard thing to manipulate. It was fairly self explanatory.
We also got to play with the smart board. This thing is so cool, but I'll admit way over my head. I mean i would need a lot more time to explore it and or take a class that taught all the cool and necessary information needed to run the board. I wonder how practical it would be in the classroom for someone of my expertise on the board. I think I would waste more time maneuvering it than I would actually teaching, but if someone was more savvy when it came to using the board I think it could be a really effective teaching too.
Today we also got to explore the teacher station that has the document camera, computer and the technology to project information from those areas for the students to view. For me this wasn't a new thing, but having looking at it and touched it without the pressure of a class watching is nice. I got to see how it worked and that it wasn't such a hard thing to manipulate. It was fairly self explanatory.
We also got to play with the smart board. This thing is so cool, but I'll admit way over my head. I mean i would need a lot more time to explore it and or take a class that taught all the cool and necessary information needed to run the board. I wonder how practical it would be in the classroom for someone of my expertise on the board. I think I would waste more time maneuvering it than I would actually teaching, but if someone was more savvy when it came to using the board I think it could be a really effective teaching too.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
PODcast
Today was so much fun. I was a little nervous about working with a podcast and coming up with a topic to talk about but it actually worked out really well. I chose to do my podcast on finding the slope between two given points. I wasn't sure how to find images or if I could sort of work it out as I am speaking. It ended up working out just fine. I found plenty of images related and useful to this idea. Thank goodness for the internet...it still amazes me. I also can't believe that I finished it in a day. I normally take a while to get this stuff done. There are a few pauses that could be taken out if I have time to come back to it an refine it, but for my first time I am pretty proud of myself.
This is a technology that I never considered using in the classroom, but after working with it and seeing the simplicity of it I would love to use this in my classroom. Even if it is for me as a teacher not only a resources to learn from and bring into the classroom, but also as a resource for my students. I can point them to some extra help or I could make my own tutor help or lecture and have them watch it in advance and then we could spend more class time working through the kinks and making sure students understand the concepts they are suppose to learn. I also think it would be a great way for students to share a topic on math and they could then do a small lesson like what I did and through that be able to internalize it better. And by students watching each others they may see a different way of doing it that they understand better.
I am really excited about this and hope to find ways to use this so students can see math can be fun and relatable to real world experiences.
This is a technology that I never considered using in the classroom, but after working with it and seeing the simplicity of it I would love to use this in my classroom. Even if it is for me as a teacher not only a resources to learn from and bring into the classroom, but also as a resource for my students. I can point them to some extra help or I could make my own tutor help or lecture and have them watch it in advance and then we could spend more class time working through the kinks and making sure students understand the concepts they are suppose to learn. I also think it would be a great way for students to share a topic on math and they could then do a small lesson like what I did and through that be able to internalize it better. And by students watching each others they may see a different way of doing it that they understand better.
I am really excited about this and hope to find ways to use this so students can see math can be fun and relatable to real world experiences.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Week 5
Today was a mellow day which was nice. I like learning about the clickers and the other internet program that offered a similar option as the clicker, but for reasonable less. I think this would be a great thing to use for a review day for a test. Because then you could see where a majority of the students answers lie and see what the common misconceptions were or the possible error could be and help change those. It is also a great way to have kids sort of see where they lie and if it is wrong or write and maybe have a discussion about why a majority of the answers are what they are or not.
We also learned about sites that are fake and how to be able to spot those things. Although some of them are fun to look at and physically exist on the internet, it doesn't mean that students should use these as sources or even be looking at some of them. I think that was a good wake up call and an awareness of what people can put online and it really goes along with the phrase "you can't always believe what you read."
My iMovie group was able to finish our video today. It may not be the smoothest thing, but to be able to see how it all works and to be somewhat familiar with how to run the program is a good idea if I ever plan on working with video technology in the future. It might be fun to have groups as a homework assignment create their own lessons about a section in the book and then have them uploaded onto youtube and or another universal site so that our class can go on and watch their lecture and do an assignment or post comments on them as well.
We also learned about sites that are fake and how to be able to spot those things. Although some of them are fun to look at and physically exist on the internet, it doesn't mean that students should use these as sources or even be looking at some of them. I think that was a good wake up call and an awareness of what people can put online and it really goes along with the phrase "you can't always believe what you read."
My iMovie group was able to finish our video today. It may not be the smoothest thing, but to be able to see how it all works and to be somewhat familiar with how to run the program is a good idea if I ever plan on working with video technology in the future. It might be fun to have groups as a homework assignment create their own lessons about a section in the book and then have them uploaded onto youtube and or another universal site so that our class can go on and watch their lecture and do an assignment or post comments on them as well.
Google Earth
Today we got to work with google earth. I had no idea that google earth did anything more than give you directions. I remember when I first heard about it and thought it was cool that you could type your address into the search and it would take you to your house from a satellite picture. So to learn how to do this tour on Google earth it was so much interesting. I thought it was fairly simple and something I could repeat. I also don't know about the credibility of the little tabs we were creating. This made me realize that I should be aware of the random tabs people may have created. I also thought it was really cool that in some of the big cities we could see the town in 3D.
This would be a great thing to implement in a math classroom because I could ask students to find the distance between two points, like their house and the school or their house and a place they would like to visit. They could also do something similar with the tour and then they could find the equations of the line and the slopes of the lines between the two different coordinates.
Today we also got to work a little more on our iMovie. We finished filming and got an opportunity to use the green screen. Then we were able to upload that information and add the scene we just filmed and put the appropriate background there. That was a lot of fun and I think we are one of the only teams from our class that ended up using the green screen.
This would be a great thing to implement in a math classroom because I could ask students to find the distance between two points, like their house and the school or their house and a place they would like to visit. They could also do something similar with the tour and then they could find the equations of the line and the slopes of the lines between the two different coordinates.
Today we also got to work a little more on our iMovie. We finished filming and got an opportunity to use the green screen. Then we were able to upload that information and add the scene we just filmed and put the appropriate background there. That was a lot of fun and I think we are one of the only teams from our class that ended up using the green screen.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
iMovie
Today class was so much fun, I got to finish my picture in photo shop. I forgot most of the techniques we learned about it last week. But I was glad to finish it and pretty proud of what I accomplished, especially being a person who isn't very technically inclined. I then uploaded it onto flicker and got to see some of the others that people had done and they were all really well done. Some of the photos I saw I couldn't even tell which elements of the photo were added. I think this flicker idea where you have a group and you can upload photos to that, I think it would be a great project to implement into the classroom.
We also got to learn how to use iMovie. We didn't really use that much of it. We got introduced to the program and broke into groups and started planning our video. I think it is great to break students up into groups and have to work together in a manner like this. I also thought the videos we saw other people do were pretty incredible. What a great idea for that school in San Fernando to do. I like how they said the traditional presentations done in a classroom would die there, but by creating a video and posting on the web about something you feel passionate about keeps it alive. As I mentioned in class I am not sure how to implement this style of learning into a math classroom. So far I think this project is fun and we have made some real headway on it, but there is a good chunk of it done. I am having a blast and that makes it so much easier to learn!
We also got to learn how to use iMovie. We didn't really use that much of it. We got introduced to the program and broke into groups and started planning our video. I think it is great to break students up into groups and have to work together in a manner like this. I also thought the videos we saw other people do were pretty incredible. What a great idea for that school in San Fernando to do. I like how they said the traditional presentations done in a classroom would die there, but by creating a video and posting on the web about something you feel passionate about keeps it alive. As I mentioned in class I am not sure how to implement this style of learning into a math classroom. So far I think this project is fun and we have made some real headway on it, but there is a good chunk of it done. I am having a blast and that makes it so much easier to learn!
Photo Shop
Today we learned how to use photo shop on the mac. It was a lot of fun. I'll admit that it wasn't as easy to use as I thought it would be. I enjoyed learning about scanning, that was the first time I had ever done that. I enjoyed the fact that you could manipulate pictures and create sense that didn't really happen, but you can make it look like it did. I didn't get a chance to finish my photo today, but I think it is turning out really well.
What I think is so great about learning how to do this is as an educator I can make my presentation of material more fun. Probably not for every lesson because it is time consuming, but definitely try to change things up and this is one way to do it.
What I think is so great about learning how to do this is as an educator I can make my presentation of material more fun. Probably not for every lesson because it is time consuming, but definitely try to change things up and this is one way to do it.
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