Final Thoughts on PLE's

I did like blogging but I'm the type of person that with be very good about posting for a while then forget about it once and stop doing it until I can get back on track. The thing I like most about it the amount of information and how easy it is to send it to a mass amount of people. I don't like how complicated it is to put other things besides text in the places you want. I had a lot of trouble with that in some of my posting. It think having a class blog is a great idea for my classroom. A posting every week about what we did and covered and what parents can do to help. I think it is also good for the older grades so the students have a reminder about what is due this week and what it coming up. In summery I would like to use it and hopefully my students and their parents will like it too.

Internet Safety Doing

I talked to my brother and sister (14 and 12) about internet safety. They didn't seem to keen on talking about it. I asked what they should do to be safe on the internet and their response was don't be stupid. Further questioning revealed that the do know the basics and what could happen if they don't follow the guidelines. They are both smart kids and I don't really worry about them. They both told me they have never been in a chat room, but I do know that on some online games they play with others, they (my brother) do talk. They know not to share their names or personal info. I hope they will be able to give their peers good advice.

Internet Safety Watching

I spent a lot of time on the sites designed for kids. While there are some amazing and attractive resources out there, I couldn't help but think if the kids ever use them out side of school. One of the games, Clicky's Quest, was familiar to me because I had seen my 1st graders play it after they were done with their computer testing. I hope that the kids that are playing these games are not just playing them, but also understanding the purpose behind it. This skill seems to be at a 2nd or 3rd grade level to me.
There are also many great sources for parents who are wondering how to approach this topic with the children. These would be great references to give parents when they ask me as a teacher. I did find of site I really like that was designed for teens. After a short cartoon clip then asked related questions to real teens facing real problems. It is a great connection tool.

Internet Safety Reading

• For my fourth article I read this one:
  
• "The Message: Mushrooms, Music, Movies, and Magazines"

  Spencer J. Condie, New Era, Feb. 1990, 4–6
  Just as there are different kinds of poisonous mushrooms, so are there different kinds of music, movies, and magazines that poison the spirits of men and women.

• I picked this article because it caught my eye, and because it was in the New Era and is aimed towards youth.
• As I read all of the readings and was amazed at how fast all of these problems have come about. As a child, my parents were not really concerned about internet use in our house because we didn't have any connection until I was 9. I don't really remember starting to use the internet. I didn't have a desire to sit at the computer for hours so I wasn't exposed to many things that we are trying to protect our youth from today.
• I have a 12 year old sister and a 14 year old brother. They were the first things I thought about when we watched the informational presentation in class. It the youth these days like them that get caught in these traps. All of the articles gave suggestions for usage of the computer and TV as prevention strategies. I've heard all of them before and try to use them. I think of my home and what we have and we could always do more.
• The impact these articles and the in class presentation have had on me is that you can never start too early in teaching children and youth these things. Many youth are more computer savvy than the majority of adults, and that is a scary position for many parents. I hope I can teach my students about these dangers in a way that is sensitive and strong.
  

Reflections on technology used in my classroom and school

I am in a 1st grade classroom in Copperview Elemetary in Midvale. This school was just remodeled the past year and has some very nice up-to-date technology. Every classroom has a digital projector. This is used a lot so all the students can see they text being studied. We have used it in our introductions to the students. It is really nice and I already have plans to use it in many of my lessons. The digital projector also has TV, DVD, VHS, and computer hook-ups so the students can all see any media version.
Other technology I've seen, is a computer lab that the teacher's can schedule. Each computer in this lab has a program called Yearly Personal Progress (YPP). This program tests the students periodicaly through the year mostly on their math skills but also on reading and comprehension skills.
Each room is also set up with a microphone system. The teachers wear a mic around their necks that they can turn off an on fast, with a switch and it projects all around the classroom. It works wonderfully because even if the teacher is turned around, the class can still hear her. If the teachers need to talk to a student but doesn't want the whole class to hear, she can turn it off and then back on easily.
All of these things are going to be a great resourse for the classroom. I'm excited to use them.

Google Earth report

I watched the 5 American Explorers tour, the Fossil tour, and the Castle Tour. They were all very well done. I liked how they all had something about the place or event and an interactive activity to do that went along with it. I know any age students will love Google Earth, and I hope I will be able to make productive tours with it to help my students learn about the world and history.

Reflection on Google Earth

I've always thought Google Earth was cool and fun to play with, but I hadn't thought of it as an educational tool. I think its great for learning about Geography, History, Literature, and many other topics. You can do almost anything with it (except see the breathtaking views of mountains and water from the top of a hill). It cannot replace the real thing but it can get pretty close. The site that I found had many different tours in many different topics and places. I hope I can use them and any others that I find.

Google Earth

This is a link a Google Earth Tour of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. This site also has many other tours using Google Earth of things in many different categories.

Reflections on PhotoStory

I love this application!! It was so easy! The only harder part in our project was coming up with the story line and writing it. We didn't have to write it ourselves but we wanted something original. Looking at other's projects, I appreciated the variety of ideas. I would love to use this in my class and I think the students would love it too. I want to teach the middle to upper grades, so I think there are a lot of uses for this application. I loved doing ours because of the fun we had thinking it up. We were going to do pictures of ourselves in the parts but we didn't have props or time. so we looked for pictures online instead. We had fun with the variety of pictures and liked that none of them matched. I looked at some that used poems or music lyrics to base their projects on. They were all great. Thanks for introducing this to us! I hope you like our story!

Jaime

Jack and the Beanstalk - A different point of view

Storyboard post and reflection

Here's a sample of our digital storyboard.

I loved doing this project. We got to work together to get our creative juices flowing and had a great time coming up with a story line. One thing I have learned so far, is with many people you have many more ideas come out. Many of the things in the story, I would not have thought about on my own and visa versa. When you stick to a task you can get it done much easier that when you get off task or change your idea many times. There are many programs out there to make life easier for us we just have to find them.

The tech savvy teacher

Jut a little explanation about our lesson plan. The formatting is weird because for some reason it didn't like the HTML formatting from the copy and paste. So I was lucky just to get that posted. I will try to fix it later. Also I don't have any pictures because the few that were sent to me, were sent in a format that I couldn't open and I am still waiting for her to send them again. My other group members hasn't answer my multiple emails to send me the other pics we took. As soon as I get them I will put them up.

I always knew there were so many ways of using technology in lesson plans, but I love seeing so many examples. It's great how the same programs were used to teach so many different topics and for different grade levels. I looked at Michelle's and Lexiee's among others and was very impressed with the creativity in the ideas, especially the phases of the moon using oreo's.

Science with Technology lesson plan

Science With Technology Lesson Plan

3^rd grade

Standard 5 Objective 3

Objective: Students will learn about friction on different surfaces by “demonstrating that heat may be produced when objects are rubbed against one another”.

Materials: Computer

Digital Thermometer and program

Multiple surfaces

Ask your students if they have ever felt a car engine or a computer after they have been running for a while. What they noticed? This is because work produces heat. Work is energy. Ask what things they do that require energy. Ask them to rub their hands together and see what happens.

Stress the importance of having consistency in each test and why.

Have students wait until the control (room) temperature is constant. During that time let them guess which surface will have the most change in temperature.

Open the probe program on the computer and have the students rub it against multiple surfaces:

Linoleum

Polyester

Metal

Cotton

Wood

These were our results for our test:

Control Temperature (of room): 73.7° F

Rub to get friction heat for 60 seconds.

Linoleum: change of 1.5° F

Polyester: change of 16.3° F

Metal: change of -1.2° F

Cotton: change of 10°F

Finished Wood: change of 1.5° F

After completing the temp readings, have students think of reasons why the different surfaces have different reactions to friction especially why the metal surface went down in temperature (if it did). Use graphs on the computer to help students visualize it. (Answer: different resistances)

Assessment: Have them do a write up of the activity, including the steps of the scientific process (assuming they have already learned this) and and analysis of the results.

Reflection on week 3 of IPT

Fair use for educators if a great thing. It make perfect sense that we can use thing with copyright for educating because it is for the 'greater good'. I do understand that I have to be careful about what I use and when I use it. I had been interested/frustrated in copyright laws, especially the ones about showing movies in public. TPACK is the integration of content, pedagogy and technology. It is extremely important to understand and apply this in our classrooms, especially right now when the technological world is taking off. Knowing how these aspects work separately is interesting too but they are most important when they are working together to teach children in the best way possible.

Reflection on week 2 of IPT

Well, I didn't exactly know I was supposed to post this, but I am now. We covered so many resources this week that I felt a little overwhelmed. I know all these will be really helpful but I wonder if I'll be able to keep track of them enough so that I am able to use them to their full potential. The RSS feed were kind of cool though. But if I'm looking for news on anything I will go straight to the source because I usually like knowing news on everything. Most of the stuff I might want to know, I don't need to know. So it will come in handy some times, but not all the time.

Football

In light of our recent humongous victory over UCLA, I want talk about football. I've never been big on sport and still am not really....until I started going to every football game due to being in band. So from 10th grade on I have been to every home (and some away) football games in high school and BYU. I love BYU football because I've seen the ups and the downs.
Previous to this saturday I was scared of the game because I thought it was going to be a good, but really close game between two good teams and I was terrified of losing. People who I told my sentiments to and didn't know football, probably think of my as a lier now, because it was as far away from a really close game as it could get. I am so proud of our team and am hoping beyond hope that we go to a BCS game this year. cross your fingers.....

The good, bad and the ugly....

Well, I'm now a week and a half into school. So far, so good. Strangely, the only thing I'm really having a problem with so far is getting up in time for my classes. I have a 7:30 class on mondays and wednesdays and an 8:00 class on tuesdays and friday. Sarah and I are planning on going to the temple every thursday morning so we don't abuse the ability to sleep in too much :)
Sad event of the week.... My family's dog, Sunshine was put to sleep on monday. She is a Golden Retriever and we've had her since she was a puppy. She was extremely friendly and very loyal. She was 14 years old and was just diagnosed with cancer. In the past few years she lost her hearing and had severe cataracts in both eyes. It was time for her to go. We will all miss her a lot but we know she's not in any pain anymore and probably enjoying her youth very much again. :)
This past week I was also called to be the 2nd Counselor in my ward Relief society. I am shocked and scared but know I can do it with the Lord's help. I know I will learn a lot and help me prepare for the next big step in my life-- preparing for a mission. I feel good about it and I'm hoping to leave by febuary.
This semester with school, band, this calling and preparing for a mission, is going to be extremely busy and probably stressful. (I've already felt the stress by getting a really bad cancersore on my tongue and by having this consistant twitching in one of my eyelids that's making me go crazy)
BTW, for those of my friends who are reading this that are not in my classes at school, all the links and stuff are for my technology class. We are learning a bunch of cool ways to share information and how to use all the resourses that are avalible for us online.
I can't promise that I'll write on here often but I'll try. Thanks for being awesome!

New to blogging

I created this due to pressure from friends and siblings but also to keep up with the technology world around me. I hope to use a similar program to keep my future students and their parents involved in what is going on in the classroom.