Weekly Reading
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/10/06/steve-jobs-apple-co-founder-who-transformed-computers-and-culture-dies-at-56/
I read an article from eschoolnews.com. I thought it was a sad topic but at the same time one that would be relative to our class. This article was about the death of Steve Jobs. For those that don't know who Steve Jobs is, he was an important man for technology to this day. He was the creator and inventor of Apple Incorporation. These products include the Mac Computers in our class to Iphones that some people use frequently each and every day. He co-founded this product back in 1973 and these products have come a long way to being arguably the top product on the market. Steve Jobs always spoke about wanting to "make a dent in the universe." He certainly has achieved his goal. I'm sure even though Steve Jobs has passed, people of the company will always try their best to keep Apple Products to be the best that they could possibly be.
Technical Skills
This week I put my standards on for Project 1: Come to the Edge. I didn't know how to do it but got some help from one of my peers. She showed me how to do it. It was good knowing that my peers are there for my help and of course I would help hem with the knowledge that I know. I found it to be very convenient that the link was automatically posted and all you had to do was just click which standard you wanted.
Field Observation
Today I had my second field observation and unlike my first time, there wasn't any technology used today. Technology can't be used too much because teachers need to go back to the basics of teaching certain lessons at times which i found to be very understandable and reasonable. Since I only observe once a week, who knows, maybe they did technology yesterday and I just missed it. I'm sure they use technology daily because my host teacher does think it is a helpful resource for students to use to advance their learning abilities. I hope the next time I got to do my participatory observation I get to see the students in action using all the technology that is available to them.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Week 6
Field Observation
After going to my first field observation today, I learned how technology is incorporated into classrooms. There was a cd player where children sat down to listen to an audio book. I thought this was great because students are different learners and this would certainly help those who learn best by audio. There was also a SMART Board in the classroom, but the students didn't use it today. There were also a few computers in the classroom for children to play learning games if they had finished the assigned work in time. This is great because it gets children to do more with computers and understand how they work at such a young age. In this day and age, technology is very important so starting at a young age definitely won't hurt.
Weekly Reading
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/10/05/central-high-makes-student-achievement-tech-access-its-top-priorities/
This week's weekly reading came from eschoolnews. It related to my observation and group project because it had to do with technology being included into a classroom. Philadelphia's Central High School has a goal to make their students technologically advanced. The school has wired and wireless Mac Computers for student access at anytime. They want to break communication barriers between home and school and get information to people at anytime. Teachers can post grades or homework online. This saves paper and also gives parents access to view how their child is progressing in school. Saving money is crucial especially because funding has decreased for schools over the past few years.
Technical Skill
This past week I had worked on my group project using the SMART Board. I had never used on before this class and I found it to be very fun. There are many different tools that children can do to create a learning project. One important thing I learned was to "lock" an item on your page. If you don't lock it, it can be moved very easily on the screen by accident. To lock it you right click, than go to lock, than lock in place. I hope this helps everyone else when you work on your SMART Board project!
After going to my first field observation today, I learned how technology is incorporated into classrooms. There was a cd player where children sat down to listen to an audio book. I thought this was great because students are different learners and this would certainly help those who learn best by audio. There was also a SMART Board in the classroom, but the students didn't use it today. There were also a few computers in the classroom for children to play learning games if they had finished the assigned work in time. This is great because it gets children to do more with computers and understand how they work at such a young age. In this day and age, technology is very important so starting at a young age definitely won't hurt.
Weekly Reading
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/10/05/central-high-makes-student-achievement-tech-access-its-top-priorities/
This week's weekly reading came from eschoolnews. It related to my observation and group project because it had to do with technology being included into a classroom. Philadelphia's Central High School has a goal to make their students technologically advanced. The school has wired and wireless Mac Computers for student access at anytime. They want to break communication barriers between home and school and get information to people at anytime. Teachers can post grades or homework online. This saves paper and also gives parents access to view how their child is progressing in school. Saving money is crucial especially because funding has decreased for schools over the past few years.
Technical Skill
This past week I had worked on my group project using the SMART Board. I had never used on before this class and I found it to be very fun. There are many different tools that children can do to create a learning project. One important thing I learned was to "lock" an item on your page. If you don't lock it, it can be moved very easily on the screen by accident. To lock it you right click, than go to lock, than lock in place. I hope this helps everyone else when you work on your SMART Board project!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Educational blog
This past week I learned about the wordle program. This program allows you to generate "word clouds" from words you create. It can be viewed as a brainstorming cloud of words that have the same idea or concept. It is great because you can change the font size and even color! I think it would be great for children because it is a fun activity for them to brainstorm any thoughts that are on their mind.
Weekly Readings
From Eschoolnews.com
What can schools do about bullying?
Bullying in schools has always been a reoccuring theme throughout the years. It is a hate crime and preaches bad morals where students are violent and immoral to their peers. Schools must find ways to stop this serious matter because it is hurting children and leading to fatal accidents. Teachers must be tentative to helping students and being mentors for them. The most recent incident occurred in Amherst, N.Y where a student named Jamey Rodemeyer was being bullied which resulted in himself taking his own life away. This is so tragic because something like this should have never happened. He even made facebook status' talking about how he was bullied and how he was going to end his life because he wanted the misery to stop. The Obama administration claims to have made bullying a top priority in preventing. As a future teacher, I know that I will always be there for my students if ever needed. I feel school is there home away from home and I am their guardian at school and am reponsible in many ways.
What can schools do about bullying?
Bullying in schools has always been a reoccuring theme throughout the years. It is a hate crime and preaches bad morals where students are violent and immoral to their peers. Schools must find ways to stop this serious matter because it is hurting children and leading to fatal accidents. Teachers must be tentative to helping students and being mentors for them. The most recent incident occurred in Amherst, N.Y where a student named Jamey Rodemeyer was being bullied which resulted in himself taking his own life away. This is so tragic because something like this should have never happened. He even made facebook status' talking about how he was bullied and how he was going to end his life because he wanted the misery to stop. The Obama administration claims to have made bullying a top priority in preventing. As a future teacher, I know that I will always be there for my students if ever needed. I feel school is there home away from home and I am their guardian at school and am reponsible in many ways.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Weekly Readings
For this weeks educational reading response I looked at UDL, also known as Universal Design for Learning. This can best be defined as a set of principles for developing curriculum and giving all individuals an equal chance to learn. Universal Design for Learning provides all goals, materials, and objectives that would work for everyone. It allows for various methods and creates a flexible approach to teaching everyone. In other words, students with individual needs can be accommodated to, yet learning the same material as others. UDL is crucial to learning because there is a huge gap between excellent learners and learners with needs.There are three main principles to UDL: Providing principle means of representation, providing multiple means of expression and action, and lastly providing multiple means of engagement.
Providing principle means of representation is also referred to as the "what" of learning. Certain learners may have learning disabilities such as dyslexia and may take longer to grasp information as opposed to others. It is crucial as a future teacher to be aware of these aspects because they must be treated and accommodated.
The second principle, providing multiple means of expression and action is known as the "how" of learning. This strategy of learning allows children to express their knowledge in various ways. For example, if a child has a language barrier and has a difficult time speaking, he/she can express their knowledge in a written text. Providing options for students is important for teachers to recognize.
Finally, the third principle is providing multiple means of engagement, also known as the "why" or learning. This principle encourages teachers to provide various ways to keep children engaged and active amongst each other, but also independently. By trying different methods of teaching, it keeps kids interested because if they did the same things over and over, they would be bored of doing the same thing and eventually "tune out."
Blog
This is my first blog ever and I find it very stressful and confusing. It is giving me a bad headache but I think it can be a useful technological tool. Right now I only understand the basics of blogging but I hope to master it sometime in the near future. To alleviate my stress from blogging I have posted a funny link below and use it as a stress reliever. Hope everyone enjoys it! :)
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