The final stretch!

I appreciated all the time we had in class to work on our final project.  Each section seems to be a little bit of a challenge mixed with just the right amount of fun and learning.  I feel like I have acquired several new skill that will help me day to day as well as in my career as a teacher.  My only concern is the fact that I don't want to forget how to use and access the many, many different software programs I have found.  I am looking forward to getting a lot of pactice as I continue my eduation.  By the time I am finished with my Master's degree I figure there will be a whole new world of softward at our fingertips.  I'm excited to see what the future holds for technology in education.

Kidspiration/Inspiration

We were asked this week to play around on "Kidspiration"/"Inspiration" for 30 min. or so. The biggest problem I had was making myself stop after 30 minutes. By the time I was done "playing" I realized I hadn't even begun to scratch the surface. What an incredible resource for teachers and their students! "Kidspiration" seemed to be geared more toward younger children and "Inspiration" was geared for a little bit older student, but both were amazing!

A few of the activities I tried on "Kidspiration" were, "Alike and Different", "Balanced Meals" and the "50 States". In the "Alike and Different" category a student learns to group similar items. After removing items that do not belong and finding a new item that matches the others the student then moves to step two. This step involves critical thinking as the student must think about what makes these items alike, such as animals, or flowers. Then the student is to write down these similarities. Since students learn in several different ways, this is a great tool to help children learn the same idea from many angles.

"Balanced Meals" was a lot of fun. Students are to create a nutritious meal from the library of food items displayed on the side. The students drag the items onto the lunch tray and creat a healty choice of foods for their meal. There are several choices of "junk food" items as well as healthy foods for them to choose from. What a creative way for children to learn to make good food choices when faced with many options.

The "50 States" were a great tool as well. Each state was layed out like a puzzle. Students are to move the states into their proper location on the map and make the United States look as it should. Then they can add labels with the democraphics of the state featuring items such as the state capital, or the terrain in the area...

Mathematics were very colorful and fun for the students as well. The children could learn even basic statistics by learning to use bar graphs from data they can pull from at school. One way they could do this would be to count how many students ate each different meal for lunch in their classroom. The possiblities in "Kidspiration" were endless!

Like I said earlier, "Inspiration" seemed geared toward a little bit older crowd, but had very similar software. The students were able to have help outlining and creating an essay, doing a science experiment, adding hyperlinks to their projects and increasing their vocabulary.

One of many tools inspiration has is a word guide to pull from as you are writing research papers and essay's . If the student were to type in a word such as "happy", not only would they be told it is an adjective, they would also be given a huge list of synonyms as well as Antonymsn(the opposite meaning). The student can then click "insert" and it will automatically insert the word into the writing assignment.

As the students read a book they can also take the main character and find how every other character in the book influences or connects to the main cahracter, such as enemies, friends, relatives, school friends... Students are then able to practice retaining and recalling information which is a skill they will need throughout all of their years of school.

If taken advantage of in the classroom, this software, like all the others we have been learning to use are a wonderful resource for students and educators everywhere!

Powerpoint Presentations

This week both class periods consisted of presenting and watching others present their powerpoint presentations.  I have been impressed by the endless possibilities available through this one piece of technology.  

We were divided into groups.  Each person was assigned a different segment to work on.  I found that it can be helpful to work with other students who have had significant experience with computers, but sometimes it comes so naturally that they just prefer to do it themselves. My favorite project that we worked together on was our comic strip.  We downloaded it to a google account and everyone was able to work on it from home.  Thankfully everyone carried their weight and it ended up turning out well. 

The presentation of our first project infront of the class was pretty frustrating because the music didn't attach like it was supposed to, but we learned from our mistake and now we know what we need to do next time.  I have also learned which students I would want to work with down the road and what we could do to make the finished product more polished and ready to go.

As I refelect on the past several weeks participating in this class I have come to truly appreciate technology. It has been such an exhilarating experience as I've accomplished things I never would have imagined I could do.  I'm looking forward to what is yet to come!

Powerpoint!

This has been one of my favorite weeks in my technology class.  We've been working on 2 different Powerpoint presentations as a group, and lucky for me the other students that joined me are fabulous on the computer.  The taught me several shortcuts and some great tools that will save a lot of time as I put together projects in the classroom.  

For the first presentation our group decided to make a comic strip. Since we LOVE UEN so much (LOL) we did the comic based on the 7 dwarfs and tied each of their personalities into the PPT.  It was fun to see the finished product. 

For the second project we made a book mark with a picture of Helen Keller and inserted one of her an inspirational quotes.  This would be a great way to introduce a new author to my students as they are preparing to read a book.  Another idea would be to have the students even create their own bookmarks. 

  

I am looking forward to next week when we get to present our finished product with the students in another class.  I'm a little bit intimidated to stand up and do the presentation, but that's actually a blessing in disguise because it means my comfort zone will continue to expand which is always a good thing!

Digital Cameras

We have learned a lot this past couple of  weeks about Digital photography.  Sandie asked us to read 3 articles which were all very informative.  The first one was regarding 100 uses for digital photography.  Five of my personal favorites were 1) Using a digital camera to create a "thank you" card/power point with pictures from their presentation to send to guest speakers, 2) Using digital photography students could create "all about me" type of presentation to show the class when they get "student of the week".  3) I liked the suggestion was to create a seating chart using digital photography. This will be something I implement since I am not very good with names until I've seen the person several times. 4) The idea of taking photos of nouns, verbs, adjectives... would be extremely helpful for students while studying English. Studies have shown that learning the same concepts in different ways increase the ability to retain information. 5)Making a calendar of memories throughout the school year would be another fun way for students to recall all that they have learned and take it home to share with their parents.  There were many great suggestions which I will incorporate in my teaching.

Another article I read was the 10 tips for using/purchasing a digital camera.  I need to print this off when I go pick out my next camera in order to be sure I am getting the most bang for my buck! The article also discusses many of the features on the camera and how to make them work for me.  I am going to try to figure out how to use the "continuous mode" on my camera the next time I pull it out.

The third article I read was regarding a kindergarten class that was introduced to digital cameras.  The educators found through using digital photography students were not only learning skills that will be a benefit throughout their lives, but their reading and retention skills were improving as well.  The teachers had students take pictures from throughout the year to put together a presentation to take home and show their parents.  This was one way the parents were able to get a better feel for what their children were being taught at school.

We also learned how to put together a power point presentation.  Our group focused on the 4th grade geology lesson.  We did it specifically on rocks.  I downloaded the theme song to "Rocky" and added that to my power point... kinda fun!

I think I'm finally beginning to catch up a little bit in this class.  Whew!!!!!  

Power Point

This weeks focus has been learning to use "Power Point".  I've always used the iphoto version which I love, but I am finding there are a lot of things that are not available on my Mac that I can do on PP, and vice versa.  We are just beginning to scratch the surface on the many tools that are available, but I can tell it's going to be an interesting couple of weeks. I actually made my first slideshow for one of my professors and received extra credit for doing it.  I'm thinking it was a great way to practice my new found skills =) and earn a few bonus points at the same time.  

On Thursday we were taught how to add a link to our power point presentations so that you can go from any slide on the presentation back to the first slide just by clicking on the link.  This upcoming week we are going to practice with a small group of students as we take pictures on our digital cameras, download the photo's and make a small PP to use for teaching a subject appropriate for the grade level we are planning to teach. We chose to do ours on rocks and minerals.  "Power Point" will be a skill I will use frequently as a student for the next 5 years. Once I have this  mastered  I will be able to use it as I teach  in my classroom as well as use it to be able to help my own kids make awesome presentations they can use to "wow" their teachers.   

Kathy Schrock's Website

This weeks assignment was  great!  We were asked to go to Kathy Schrock's website and look around to see what tools we would find useful in our classroom.  On the website she has been nick named the "Gadget Queen" which definitely seems like an appropriate name for Kathy.

One  of my favorite links she shared was "Dumpr"  where a person can create unique projects with their pictures.  One of Kathy's ideas is for educators to have their students use this site in order to create an "about me" slide presentation.  What a fun suggestion!

I also liked the ability I have on her site to go into archived information to look at several years worth of ideas for how to better improve the students ability to learn.  One of the links took me to a side entitled "wordtalk" which is a software program that is a free plug-in that makes it possible for someone who has a difficult time understanding or reading text to hear the instructions when they are using "microsoft word".  It even has a talking dictionary incase there are misspelled words.

I am looking forward to the future when I will have more time in order to look around Kathy's website in more detail so that I can explore the many different tools she has to share when it comes to technology in the classroom.