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Field has been a very interesting experience! I have been observing and teaching sixth grade students! It has been very eye opening and a great time. I was so set on teaching kindergarten or just younger kids than sixth graders but I am opening my eyes to maybe giving the higher grades a thought! I have become to realize that sixth graders LOVE to learn and for the most part are very into their work and want to be at school! They also are a lot smart then a thought and have a lot of good thinking ability and fun communication skills.We have been teaching the students about world economics. We were very nervous because it is such a open topic, however I think for the most part we have been pretty successful. The kids are really excited during our lessons and participate to the best of their ability. We have also had the chance to incorporate technology into our lesson plans and it has been a success. We had the opportunity to use a promethean board and i really enjoyed it, I hope that I will have the opportunity to have on eof those in my classroom as a future teacher. We also have had the chance to incorporate computers into our lessons and the kids enjoyed doing the homework they had on them. We also are looking forward to teaching a lesson where we have added a video clip. I think it will be a great hook for our students to get interested into he lesson.Another thing we have been able to do is to use a few different lesson plan types. I have the opportunity to teach a cause and effect lesson on Tues. We have also had fun incorporating arts into our lessons. Our kids have learned a song on economics, they also have made posters of the different trades countries have made. I have been enjoying field experience however, it has been an extreme amount of stress.
My beliefs about technology in the classroom has two sides. I believe technology can be a great thing in a classroom. One reason I think it can be a great thing is because I think it keeps students paying attention and helps get them engaged in a lesson. For example in one of the video clips we watched where the kids were playing a triva game on the TV fora history lesson. I think technolgy makes lessons more fun and helps kids learn because they are more interested. I also think technology helps teachers keep track of students progress and work they do while in calss.However there also is a negitive side to technolgy in my opinion. We rely too much on technology. We are slowly moving away from books and relying completly on the internet. We are also forgetting the main components of school like reading and writing. Sometimes we are more worried about the technical things instead. I think that technology can also be a struggle for some. Maybe some students feel left out when they do now have the tools at home in order to do an assignment. I think we need to incorporate technology into the classroom, but only to a certain extent. Incorporate it but not let it take over.
I learned so much from these video's and articles. My favorite one was the Why Integrate? Article because it pointed out so many different ways to incorporate technologies and into so many different subjects using so many different techniques. One lesson I learned from this video is it opened my eyes to how many different types of technology there are out there and available to use in a classroom. My thoughts on these articles was how important technology is in this world. I do like the idea of integrating technology into the classroom and I believe it makes the lesson plans and class time more fun and engages the students better than a regular lesson with out technology.However, I think that technology is also going to cause us problems in the future. I believe that we are going to keep relying more and more on technology and we are drifting away from the basics of reading and writing. I think the more we focus on technology we are somewhat fading away for the most important aspects in school. Not only do we rely on technology alot in school but so much in everyday life. For instance when you go to apply for a job these days, they say go online to our website and you'll see our application, what happened to the filling out of a paper application and turning it into a manager? I think in some ways technology is a hastle, however I do think that the good out wieghs the bad.I really like the whatever, whenever, wherever article to. It really pointed out alot of good points and made me think about where we are now but where we are going to end up in the future. I also thought the video about the kids talking about how their parents struggle just putting their phones on vibrate and how many of us have to walk our parents through the most simple tasks in technology. I saw so much truth in that video it made me laugh about the truth behind it but also think about how much technology will change by the time I have kids and what my kids are going to be walking me through?
According to the UNI surveys we took, it showed that operating basic and discipline-specific equipment LCD display projectors; scan converters; laserdisc players; VCRs; graphing calculators in math; MIDI keyboards in music; and scanners and still, digital, or video cameras in the visual arts and use it to support instruction and inquiry specific to the content area is one of my main weaknesses however, I realized I am more weak in technolgy then I have ever realized. Another one of my major weakneses was using audio/visual resources (audiotapes, videos or slides) to access information and analyze the authority, accuracy, currency, and relevance. Although I discovered many weaknesses I have in technology, I also have many strengths. One thing I am really good with is communicating through email and using the internet. One goal I would like to reach is learning how to properly use and incorporate projectors into my classroomm for the future when I am a teacher, but even now for my student teaching and field work. I also want to make it a goal to plan lessons using digital cameras if possible and also learn how to properly use a scanner because there is many things I could use it for in order to have a more successful classroom. One goal I would like to make out of my strengths, is to teach and encourage my students to use email and show them the advantages with email I also want to communicate with my students parents and other teachers through email because I think it is such a great tool for communication. I also want to teach my students how to surf the web properly and safely because the internet is such a helpful tool. The first tool I would use to help me learn about these technologies would be a tutorial on technology http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic76.htm this tutorial would help me strengthen in this area because it shows and tells about many different technologies including projectors. Another tool i would use would be the podcast http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=4819382 it tells about incorporating technology into the classroom and how to operate some of the different tools in technology. I also found some fun surveys that wold be fun to have your students take to see their opinion on using the tools in technology!
This week in technolgy we finally finished up our Webquest and filled out our peer evaluations along with our TCD's. I had a hard time with the Webquest, they were kind of confusing at first but I feel like know that we are done with them I feel a lot more comfortable and can use the many good uses for them in an elementary classroom atmosphere! I think they can be a very productive technology for young children or even students of all ages! We also moved onto digital stories! WOAH! Digial stories are awesome! The ones doc Waters showed to us in class where very fun, intense, eye opening and educational! They were also extremly entertaining! I think I am going to really enjoy creating a digital story with my group! However, I do think it is going to be interesting trying to learn how to use a video maker because it will be a first for me and my team. From my little knowledge on digital stories I think that they will be very helpful in a classroom setting. I think they are a great tool to use as a hook to engage students in a subject you are going to be teaching or even a whole unit! I also think that the kids will LOVE them, if they are anything like the ones we viewed in class. I really liked how the music set such a intense fun mood in the classroom and kept your attention! I also liked all the deep interesting pictures, that is what makes a great digital story! I think that learning to make a digital story will be a helful and useful thing in the future, as a teacher I can keep my lessons interesting my involving digial stories along with webquests in my lesson plans. I'm excited for the weeks to come to learn more about making digital stories!
This week in Doc Waters class we were gave the topic of how to become/ the process to become an educator for our blog. So far on my journey to become an educator its been pretty interesting. First of all, you have to finish up your associates degree along with a few pre-requisets that include classes such as: intro to education, exceptional students, math 2010, Childrens literature and the first computer class that Doc Waters teaches. After you finish up all that, then its on to the tough stuff! You are to take the Praxis II exam and pass that then also have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and pass a group interview to be selected into the Education program. Then you are assigned a cohort ( a four hour period that you will be attending school each day). As you begin the program you go over so many things and start to realize how much it takes to actually become a teacher! There is so much to learn and practice in order to become a successful and great teacher. One thing we focus alot on is lesson plans. I'm sure it is because coming up with good lesson plans that fit the core curriculum is one of the most important things a teacher does. So we learn all the different ways to teach and all the different ways to design a lesson plan. We also learn about the different types of learners and how to accomodate to each type of learner so everyone gets a chance to learn the material they need to learn even if it is in their own unique way! Another thing we focus strongly on is classroom management, because it is important for everyone to feel safe and accepted in class. Technology is another strong focus in becoming an educator, because today's kids are growing up in a different world, they rely on technology and we as techers need to understand the importance of technology and learn how to incorporate it into our classroom. To become an educator we also need to focus on the other things we are learning like incorporating art methods into our teaching, social studies and also know about the foundations of american education! The road to becoming an educator is a long yet fun, interesting and worth while ride! That is the process of becoming an educator up to my point in time, thus far! I'm really starting to realize how much I enjoy the career path I chose! I think one day when I become a teacher I will look back on everything and realize how much it was worth it!
This week in technology we continued going over the wonderful tool WebQuest! We went over how to post it on our google sites page and in our file canbinets. I think it is going to be fun a very useful thing on our sites page. I am glad that we are putting everything and creating our own google sites page because it will be so nice to refer back to and remember all the tools that we can use as soon as we finsih the program and get to start teaching, and even during our student teaching there is a lot of good ideas and technologies to use that we have put on our google sites. I like how with webQuest there is so much variety to choose from! No two webQuests will be the same because there is so many different ideas and ways to create a webQuest and also endless topics! This week I was thinking how I could apply a webQuest into my other classes. I came to the realization that I could easily incorporate a webQuest into any curriculum! One idea i thought about that would be fun and educational was for social studies with the different houses the native americans built and the way they lived. We could take a tour through the village of the Native Americans and experience what it was like for them back in the day! I thought that a webquest would be a very successful and fun way to teach that topic. Not only would it be great to use in Social Studies but just about anyother class! I really like the idea of using webQuest in the classroom, but i am still in the process of creating one! I am excited to learn more on the topic and the many ways it can be effective in the classroom!
