Comments on other Blogs- 2nd half

Melissa Newhouse

Bethany Pitroff

Daley Landon

Inna S

Matt Walton

Melissa Newhouse

Educational Blog

Blog

This blog was about parent involvement. Do you want it/need it? What is too much? What is too little? How do you involve parents? etc. I realized that this idea of parent helpers is not only new to me, but new to many people. I never grew up with any kind of parent in the classroom helping out. Now it is so greatly emphasised, I wasn't sure if it was just because I grew up in Montana, and was a Washington thing, or if it was a new thing everywhere. This lady wasn't sure how to incorporate parents so I think I am not the only one who this is a new concept for. I just commented and said that I have learned a lot about how helpful parents can be in the classroom and gave examples from experience and from what I have heard from others. I also added a few tips that I have learned that get parents on your side and should set you up for more smooth sailing that year. I tried to give helpful and relevant information to add to the community.

Reflection # 7

I have a question to pose in this reflection. It may be easily answered, but I have always wondered about it. For example, the Activboard vs the Smartboard. There are pieces about the Smartboard that I like, and pieces about the Activboard that I like. I think most people come across the same pros and cons for both of these boards. Some people may be more critical of one than the other; however, there are a few common things about each that is liked or disliked. My question is... "Why does someone not make one that is a mix of both?" Now there may be copy right rules and legal things that stop this from happening, and if so, then my question is answered. However, (i could be wrong) I do not think this is the case. I have always wondered why, when technology is so advanced, a third person doesn't come up with a technology that contains "the best of both worlds." If you know what is good about one and what is good about another, you research what people like and prefer, then why is a third not made that has the pros from both and eliminates as many cons from both as possible? This is the same with so much technology. I have just always wondered why the third person never came along made a combined piece that essentially is better than the first two that were created.

NU Educators Panel

Do you find incorporating new technology in the classroom to be an helpful/easy task or more time consuming?

What is your best piece of advice for a first year teacher?

What is the one thing that you learned while teaching that has impacted you the most in your life/beliefs/teaching styles?

Technology Project Plan

The below link/video is a short description on what I am going to do for my technology plan. Basically, I want to create a web page by using a very handy and easy cite that will be very beneficial to me as a teacher. Also, I am going to create a video and link it to my web page. I want to create it as a reference so I will remember how to and TO do it for the students. I think little videos will be great for the students.

Podcast
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vyM2SZjNrJxeyzAGG

Assignment # 3

Tool Box
I created a tool box that contains twenty different websites. The toolbox was designed to help me, as a future teacher, to have websites to refer back to. Above is a link to my toolbox and all the websites contained within it. I created my toolbox on Mindomo.com. I really liked this website. I was able to place a title with the website and if necessary I could create a subcategory explaining what that site had available for me to use as a teacher. My toolbox is organize in a spider-web like format. In the center is the name of what I am doing. (For this it was called "Helpful Websites") Then I created subcategories off the main title and moved them around so they were easy to see and did not appear to be a jumbled mess.

When I was deciding which websites to put in my toolbox, I wanted to choose ones that I thought would be helpful to me and my area of interest. I chose to use some math sites, reading sites, ELL sites as well as ones we have learned to use in this technology class. Ones for the Smart Board, weebly, etc. I think these will all be very helpful for me once i begin teaching in my own classroom. I will use this toolbox to teach lessons, to refer back to websites and lesson plans on these sites. I can also use it to teach my students new kinds of technology. Students today like to do things hands-on, and if I was unaware of so many websites, I am sure they will be too. I can introduce these new websites to students to help them later in life as they use technology more and more throughout their education. When it comes to sharing this website, I will have it posted to my blog. I can also send the website home in a letter or email so parents can check it out if they so desire. Sharing with my other colleagues will be easier. I can have it available to them and suggest which sites I think may be useful for them to use. If I have it posted in my own email, or my blog everyone will have access to it.

Math Learning
This site talks about the many different learning styles that students have. I really like this site a lot. It gives many options for the teacher, some that I would never have thought about doing. One was redesigning the classroom. I would never have thought that this would make much of a difference for the students. I have always heard that warm colors are good in classrooms, but something as simple as moving things around is also helpful for the students. Along with that there are many areas in math covered in this site and I found it very helpful. I think teachers would definitely benefit from this site.

Math Games
This is a great site for kids to enjoy. It has many different games that can be played that help understand different math concepts. This site also incorporates science, reading, telling time and other subjects in school. So many of my classes have been talking about how you can integrate subjects and I think this site is great for that. It may also be helpful to teachers when they are looking for ideas on how to integrate subjects. I enjoyed looking at this site. I think it was well put together and very beneficial. I have gained ideas from it for projects I have had to complete this semester. It has much more than just games on it, but games are great for students. Many students hate math so if it takes games to help them love it, then as a teacher you need to incorporate games. Each student learns differently and a teacher needs to be flexible and learn to adapt and adjust his/her teaching techniques.

Ten Teacher Tips
This website gives the teacher 10 very useful tips about teaching math to elementary students. I think they are all great tips and will help the teacher teach the concepts and make the concepts easier for the students to understand. This is more useful to the teacher, but the students will get help from this site also. This site had very good insight. They are simple little tips, but good nonetheless. Some were tips that maybe you wouldn't have thought of as a new teacher, or something that your cooperating teacher may not have taught you. They are very helpful and I think teachers and students would really benefit from this website.

"Caught on Video"

This was a little weird to me. I think it would have taken me a little while, as a student, to get used to a teacher constantly filming everything that is going on in the classroom. I thought some of the ideas like bringing the outside in, filming for absent students, students filming themselves solving problems, and filming a before and after learning experience are great ideas (to name a few). There were a few that I thought were odd or farfetched, but maybe that is just because this is new to me and would feel uncomfortable to me at first. It is very interesting, this idea of videotaping everything. I think it can really come in handy and also engage the students. I think some students will love it and others will not like it so much, so I think there will need to be a line drawn on when too much video is making some students stop learning. I would like to see it put into action before I ever tried it.