Scenario

In 3-5 years I see myself teaching my own elementary class in my hometown of Dallas, Texas.  I will hopefully be using the many tools and tricks DED 318 has taught me.  Technology in the classroom is very beneficial to the teacher and students.  I hope in the future the school I work at has enough technology for my students to benefit from it.  I will have my students learn how to make their own Animoto videos, wordles and much more.  I think some of my strengths as a future teacher would be that I am very optimistic and creative person.  My concentration is special education, some of the tools given to me from this class will help me and my students.  I believe they are just as smart, they just have a different way of expressing themselves.  Wither it is through a movie, a song or a comic strip.  I plan on incorporating a variety of different tools in my everyday classroom!  This class has taught me a lot about who I am as a future educator!

My Wow Moment

My wow moment this semester was when I actually found out that you do not have to be a technology wiz to understand the many things technology offers!  When I first enrolled in this class and saw the syllabus I never thought I would understand, much less be able to do the assignments on my own.  I have learned a lot about different tools that will be useful and fun in the everyday classroom.  I plan to come back to my website and use the many different links when planning a lesson.

Podcast Favorites

The podcasts that I enjoyed the most were the Tech Chicks.  The site is easy to navigate and you can go back and listen to their older podcasts, you can comment on them and even contact them with what you find useful.  I enjoyed their podcasts because they were fun to listen to and had very interesting viewpoints about things.  I especially liked how they gave you a ton of other useful sites and their input about them.  Most of the sites that they suggested were free sites used for elementary students, which is perfect because I could use everything in my future classroom.

Semester Favorites

I really enjoyed the Animoto website!  I loved this site because it is easy to use and it takes you step by step in creaking your slideshow.  Students of all ages could use this site!  All you have to do is first upload your photos and organize them once they are downloaded.  Then, you chose a song from the library of music on the site or you can upload your own music from your computer.  Students can create an Animoto video in a variety of ways, wither it is creating an about me video, an important person or even in history or a book report!  I wish we used Animoto when I was in school because it is a great way to learn new material and stay engaged in the subject!

I also really enjoyed the site toondoo!  This site is a really easy and fun way to create your own comic strip.  The site has a ton of backgrounds, pictures of animals, kids, food and daily objects.  You can choose how many different scenes you want also!  This site will allow students to broadcast their creativity and ideas in a fun different way other than a powerpoint!

Podcast Reflection #13 Ed Tech #28

This podcast is about a program called SynchronEyes.  This application is easy to use and is great to use when in a computer lab or have classroom computers!  This program allows you to share the computers screens and respond to students using a chat instead of walking to each individual student!  This application also allows you to monitor each students machine on your screen!  This is a good way to keep the students on task and make sure they are not on facebook or playing games on the internet!

Podcast Reflection #12 Ed Tech #37 Pic Lens

This podcast is about a tool called Pic Lens.  It saves time from searching all over the internet for pictures!  Pic Lens is a tool you need to install but once you do an image search it comes up with an easier to navigate thumbnail search!  You do not have to wait for your internet to download the images when going to a new page anymore!  This sounds like a great tool, I am going to look into downloading it!

Podcast Reflection #11 Ed Tech #39 extra normal

This podcast is about a website Xtra Normal.  It is a video building tool that is easy to use and you do not need any software.  "If you can type you can make a movie."  is their tag line because all you have to do it type your script!  You get to create your own movie and pick your characters and their voice!  They even have different languages to choose from for bilingual students!  All you have to do is type what you want your character to say and your movie is done!  Students at various age levels can use this!  It is an easy and fun site to make any type of movie!  As a teacher I can have my students make a movie about someone in history and present them to the class.  It is a fun way of learning!

Podcast Reflection #10 Learning in Hand #24

In this podcast Tony Vincent explains that the most popular hand held today is the iPod and iPad.  If you use these devices along with the computer you have mobil learning.  Mobil learning can happen in a classroom, on a bus or even at home.  He mentions that portability is not as important as the learner to connect, communicate, collaborate and create.  Student have access to learning resources anytime and anywhere.  He even shows you a project he made about the President!  It is crazy to think that there is so much more to do with the iPod and iPad than just listening to music and surfing the web!  I have an iPod touch but have no clue how to use it!  I mainly used it to listen to music only.  I am definitely going to research some more about this!  

Twitter Reflection

I had a Twitter before this class but had only used it because my friends made me.  But now that I have had it and am using it to get in contact with teachers I find it a lot more beneficial.  I like the idea that you can network with other educators.  I do not tweet much but I do follow a lot of educators who have interesting insights to teaching, tips as well has some helpful sites and tools to try!  I did not think of Twitter being a site I would use once I am a teacher until now.  I will definitely keep my Twitter account and follow more and more educators!  

Comic Reflection

I recently used toondoo to create a short comic strip.  At first I was a little sceptic about creating a comic and how to make it.  But this site is actually really easy and fun!  There are tons of different clip art pictures to choose from, such as kids, animals, food and different sceneries.  I will definitely use comics in my future classroom.  They allow the student to be creative when expressing a topic.  I think it would be fun to find ways that the students could create projects on different subjects and make comics to present them to the class.  I think students of every age will enjoy making their own comic!  The younger students could use it to tell a story about themselves instead of subject matter.  I will definitely explor this site some more and start adding to my comic collection for future lessons!

Challenged Based Learning Reflection

In our class we made a Prezi based on challenge based learning.  A Prezi is a web-based presentation tool that uses a map layout and zooming to show contextual relationships. We were put into groups of five or six and were instructed to come up with a topic that was a challenge and needed awareness.  My group chose preventing texting while driving.  We researched online and found some disturbing details about the effects of texting while driving.  We thought this was a good topic because even at a younger age the students could tell their mom, dad or older sibling to stop texting and driving.  This website is a lot more fun to work with and look at than the standard Power Point.  Students will enjoy thinking outside the box and creating their own challenged based activity on Prezi.

Podcast Reflection #9: Tech Chicks #84

In this podcast they discuss "10 Things that CIO’s Can Learn from Angry Birds." 
"You have to play to figure out the rules, the same is true with technology."  Through out this whole podcast they relate education to technology through the game 'Angry Birds'.  They mention that everyone has their different strengths and talents that make them unique.  Teaching is never going to be simple just like this game is not simple to get to the next level.  


They also talk about "Little Bird Tales" which is a tool for younger students to create a story.  There are three steps; upload artwork, record or type text and email to friends!  It is a green alternative to books which is a good thing to be promoting to the class.  It is a complete digital book.  You are only limited if the recordings are too long and the pictures are too large, otherwise you can have multiple pages and lots of fun!


One other thing they mentions was "MyFakeWall".  You make a fake page based on a person or a character.  It is an easy to navigate free site.  It is a great assessment piece, they have to know their persons background, some events and who they might be linked to.  This seems like a really interesting funny site that students of every age would enjoy!

Podcast Reflection #8: Tech Chicks #73

In this podcast the tech chicks mention some helpful tools and resources a teacher could use in the everyday classroom.

123 Certificates

The Tech Chick’s found a great resource to create certificates.  This site offers templates to create individual awards.  There is also an option to upload pictures to the certificates.  123 Certificates is a tool that is handy to have in case of a last minute rewards!

Togetherville

This site offers a safe and monitored way for young students to have a social network.   There also various games and activities for students to play on, its the elementary Facebook. This is a great tool for families to use to keep in touch with relatives or friends that do not live close. 

Podcast Reflection #7: Driving Direction 2011

This podcast is about using the iPad in the classroom.  They talk about the ways it is beneficial to the students and the teacher.  They mention that as a young student they are more with it, because of these iPads.  Another reason it is beneficial is because there are no more handouts and worksheets for the students it is all electronic!  Go Green!  There is also a slighter chance of there being cheating, kids cant just pass their iPad around for everyone to copy off of.  The teacher knows that the student is doing his/her assignment individually.  I hope to be getting an iPad soon!

Kan-Ed Reflection

Wow Kan-Ed is one of the sites I will always have bookmarked!  This will help me so much when I am in my Blocks, student teaching and have my own classroom.  This site is full of lesson plans, standards, activities and resources.  KERC is a great tool for lesson planning.  It is great because it has all of the subjects needed for elementary teachers aligned with all of the Kansas Standards.  netTrekker has numerous amounts of lesson ideas, assessments, quizzes, and interactive activities for teachers to use and incorporate in the classroom.  Thinkfinity is a great resource for teachers.  There are multiple blogs to join and unlimited widgets!  Another cool thing about this site is each day there is a link that shows you the day in past history, and how to incorporate this day into your lessons. I will never lose track of this site!

EduTeacher

This site is very easy to navigate.  There is a bulletin board with recent links, resources and newsletters.  There are a lot of helpful resources under the links tab.  My concentration is special education and I was able to find multiple different tools that are going to be useful in my everyday classroom.  


Zac Browser
Zac Browser is an all inclusive browsing program that was designed specifically for autistic children, although it is nice for all young children, those with disabilities or without. A portal that lives on a PC to various child-safe websites and activities. Safe and fun for young students.


Teacher's First
Teacher's First is a rich collection of lessons, units, and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format. It is a nice and no-frills environment that is easy for educators to navigate.


Inclusive Technology
If you teach students with disabilities or just need some help with students who need a little support in various learning areas, than this is a nice resource to have on hand. You can look up information about sites relating to specific content, and a lot of devices and software that aims to help your students.


Large Pointers
This is a free downloadable set of over 80 alternative cursors designed to facilitate improved access to the computer for individuals with visual or perceptual challenges.

Classroom 2.0

This site is very beneficial to teachers!  You create your own page and can use it to communicate with other teachers, in a way it is the teachers Facebook.  You can give advise or receive from the other users.  Teaching can be very very challenging at times, but by being a member of this site you can vent and learn from others.  they can give you tips on how to cope with the everyday stresses. I could give others advise as well, we can share stories and experiences, its a win win situation!  There is also a forum where you can talk about books, movies and lesson plans.  You can search the other members of the site and read what they have to say.  There is also podcasts you can listen to and they cover a variety of topics!  This website will be very helpful in my future as an educator. 

Original Podcast

Podcast by: Kendall Hogan and Emily Salter


Click here for our Podcast!


Kendall:
http://teachers.net/
Teachers.net is a free website available to teachers with various categories to choose from. As a teacher you can find lesson plans for all grade levels and subject matter. There is also a chat-board for teachers to discuss anything. One could also look for available teaching or tutoring jobs in their area. This site would be very beneficial to an inspiring teacher because lesson plans are made available in every category and there are hundreds of classroom projects to choose from! Everyone go check out this website!


Emily:
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/

PBS.org is a great resource for teachers to use for their classrooms, with information ranging from pre-k to 12^th grade. It has educational videos to share with your students, online programs for professional development, and a variety of lesson plans to choose from.

Kendall:
http://www.elementary-teacher-resources.com/ 
elem teach res.com is a great resource website. You can brose several different categories such as newsletters, lessonplans, educational music, writers workshop, guided reading and the list goes on. Under the lesson plan tab you are provided with some helpful tricks and tips for the planning process. Some other topcis under the lesson plan tab are reading math, song based, themes and writing. Most of these free lesson plans are fun activities to use in the classroom!


Emily:http://www.resources-teachers.com/

Resources-teachers is a great website for teachers. It provides a ton of free printables for your classroom including worksheets, lesson plans, clip art, short activities, and much more. It is set up by seasons so it provides great ideas for fun holiday activities as well, such as st. patricks day or Halloween.

My Avatars

Creating these avatars were so fun!  Try it out!  It is free! :]

voki

build your wild self

Podcast Reflection #6: Tech Chicks #68

This podcast is about resources for teachers to use in their classroom.  PollDaddy was one of the resources. On PollDaddy, you are allowed 10 questions per survey and 100 responses in a free account, the surveys can be used to increase student interaction. PrintWhatYouLike is also a great resource for printing from the web. This website allows you to format the webpages to print only what you want to print or combine different parts of several webpages on one page. MyNoteit is a collaborative note taking site, you take notes that are organized by classes and share them with others. I think this site would be beneficial for college students! CoSketch is a white board that doesn’t require any plug-ins or installations. All that is needed to be done by the teacher is share the link, its that simple!  They talked about a ton of useful resources, their podcasts are very beneficial!

Podcast Reflection #5: Tech Chicks- Episode 71: Sparking Their Creativity

This podcast shares many useful resource websites including; The Stellar Cafe: The Power of One Word, Media College, Aviary, Webnote, Our Courts, Quizlet, CogDogRoo – StoryIdeas, StoryJumper, Zoodles.  These website are all free to use which is amazing for all of the activities and tools available.  I explored all of these websites/ resources and found them very useful!  Web note is a basic website, its a way to bookmark topics and use a 'sticky note' to write about your bookmark.  You can take notes on your computer, which seems pretty simple but it can be used in the classroom in many ways. It’s a good way to organize your thoughts. Our Courts was created by a supreme court justice.  It gives you lessons about civics, but it also has games that can help students remember civics in a fun way.  Quizlet is a flashcard site, you create your own set of flashcards about any topic.  You can search and download others flashcards and vice versa.  You can share your flashcards with the students.  The most interesting part about this site is it grades your answers!  I could have definitely used this website all through elementary school.

Podcast Reflection #4: Driving Directions 2011 Facebook

In this podcast Kevin Honeycutt and two of his friends talk about the issues of Facebook. You share everything digitally now and not mouth to ear.  The main issue on Facebook is  the bulling issues, venting about someone to their friends,  tagging people in posts to share frustrations!  They mention that this way of communicating is sending negativity to each other.   They brought up an interesting point, if I were to make my status "I am mad at So and So", and all of my friends begin to like the bigger that update gets and more aware to everyone on facebook!  They then talked about ways to prevent Facebook bullying.  One way was to make apage for those who get bullied on Facebook.  Another issue they talked about was the long lasting effect Facebook can have.  When you are looking for a job you can be denied  just based on pictures/comments on your Facebook.  I did not think Facebook was harmful, but I know now that there are short term and long term effects of this friend site! 

Podcast Reflection #3: Driving Questions 2010

Kevin Honeycutt interviewed Vicki Davis about her visions for education, discussing some projects she is using in her classroom, she believes it is crucial that students have an academic digital footprint.  Teaching students how to use technology for education, educators can give students the tools and skills to succeed in the future. These days elementary school students are even using higher levels of technology, as teachers we need to educate our students how to use these to improve their study resources. She believes that teachers should be “teacherpreneurs” and customize their classroom to best meet the needs of their students in technological ways. Davis also spoke specifically to preservice teachers when she said, “Teaching is the most noble calling on Earth. …We are paid in legacy.” It takes a lot of hard work and love to be a successful teacher. Staying positive in the classroom is an extremely powerful tool.

Animoto in my Classroom

Animoto is a quick and easy way to create video slideshows. This site is rather easy to understand, it takes you step by step in creating your slideshow.  You first upload your photos and you can organize them however you want just by dragging and dropping.   Next,  you could either use a song from their library, or upload your own music  from your computer.  I can see the students using Animoto in various ways; wither its an "About Me" assignment for the classroom or a presentation on a book they had to read or a topic they had to research.  I could see myself using Animoto to teach a new topic and to keep the students engaged.

Animoto 

Fun with Text

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide.. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.  Teachers can use this in a classroom for many different activities; the students can do an assignment where they have to describe themselves (as we did), name the 50 states, make a list of pronouns or describe their summer.  This tool can be a fun get to know you assignment, have all the kids bring  a picture in and below have their Wordle picture!

Wordle 

Reflection 2 CDK's Education Technology Place

I enjoyed the article, Should Schools Go Back to 1983 Technology?, by Liz Dwyer.  While reading the article, I tried to envision technology in the ‘80’s compared to technology today.  I have heard stories from my parents about typewriters, library research, dictionaries (no spell-check), letter writing, and corded phones but I think it takes living without the last 28 year’s of technological advancements to fully realize how different things were for them.  This article made me thankful for the technology that is part of my everyday life.  I realize that I can survive without this technology from the last twenty-eight years but I could not function effectively in today’s society without it.  Many class requirements include online research, online testing, and/or online communication.  I would lose touch with many of my friends without the use of Text and Instant Messaging.  It would be crazy to be the only one without current technology and I think my friends would become quickly annoyed with my lack of technology. 

The article made me realize how much time I spend online or on my Android instead of talking to people.  With the new technology, I usually communicate through my devices rather than face-to-face or even voice-to-voice. 

I think the technology experiment for this class was valuable.  It made these students realize how much time they spend on their devices and it forced them to communicate more directly.  It also provided additional time for them to do other activities and spend time with their families.  When I am a teacher, I hope to conduct a similar experiment or at least use it as a topic of discussion.  I will want my students to appreciate technology but I will also want them to be able to learn and communicate without depending on technological devices. 

Although the use of technology can save us a lot of time in some areas such as research and communication, it can also consume our time by offering us entertainment, social networking, and simply just browsing.  Our devices seem to become our friends and can take the place of time spent with others.  I have known several gamers that simply lose touch with most of their friends because they become obsessed with their games.  I will keep this article in mind as I go through my tech-filled life and try to make certain I never let technology replace direct contact with others.

http://www.cyndidannerkuhn.info/CDK/Home.html

Reflection 1 Technology Bits Bytes & Nibbles!

After reviewing CDK’s Education Technology Place website, I felt a sense of urgency to learn how to incorporate technology in the classroom.  The video, “I Need My Teachers To Learn 5.0” made me realize that when I am a teacher, I will have to keep learning and stay current with technology.  This video brought to mind several of my high school teachers that were stuck in the past and used old teaching methods.  These teachers just didn’t get it and wondered why the students were frustrated or did not excel in their class.  My best teachers were the ones who embraced technology and used it in not only their teaching, but also our assignments. 

The YouTube videos, “When I Become a Teacher” and “Think Different” had a huge emotional impact on me.  The contrast between the two videos is enormous.  “When I Become a Teacher” made me feel sad because I have known teachers exactly like those depicted in the video.  They simply do not care and their way is the only way.  Immediately after watching “When I Become a Teacher”, I watched “Think Different” and felt the inspiration these teachers/leaders have made on the world.  It made me want to be better and to be like them.  It made me realize that, as a teacher, you can’t simply accept the status quo.  A teacher’s calling is to make a difference, to impact lives and leave a legacy.  I can only hope that I am just crazy enough to help change the world, or at least a piece of it.

If I had to choose only one theme for CDK’s Education Technology Place website, it would be, “never stop learning.”  If a person continues to learn, they don’t accept the status quo, they question things, they challenge others, they are open to many ways of thinking and they use all of the resources, including technology, available to them.  Part of my plan to keep learning and to stay on top of technology is to read more of the links/blogs provided on this website.             

http://www.technologybitsbytesnibbles.info/