Week 10 Review

This week we worked on finishing up all of our assignments. This term I learned about some new technologies I didn't really know how to use. Other technologies I knew about, but learned how I could use them in my classroom. I think it will be important for me to add technology into my lessons, as long as I have access to some kind of technologies in my classroom. We are in a technology age where children are learning to use technologies  younger and younger.

Week 9 Review

This week we are creating our final lesson. In this lesson we are using 5 technologies we have learned during the term. The lesson I chose to do is the butterfly life cycle for second graders. This goes directly with a science standard about learning different life cycles. The technologies I will be using with my lesson are videos, itunes music, clickers, computers, ipod app.

(Sent final lesson via email)

Week 8 Review

Today we did website design. I am not new to website designing, or HTML, but I am new to DreamWeaver (DW). DW is an awesome website designing program. You can do just about anything you want. I had a lot of fun designing my website. I chose to do a website as if I were a teacher, making one for my class. Doing things like this always makes me so excited to be a teacher! A website is something I will ABSOLUTELY have when I am a teacher. Not only will it be a great place that parents can contact me, but they will be able to see what we are learning, the classes schedule, what homework we have, etc.

Week 7 Review

Today we used ipads and ipods. It was pretty awesome, I have never used either of these things.
When looking at apps I found a ton that would be useful in the classroom. There are also a lot of apps that you can get for free! In an ideal classroom it would be awesome for each student to have their own ipad. But, I don't see that happening. There are so many things that can go wrong. I can see having a class set, where they will be returned to the teacher at the end of every day, but I cannot see them leaving the classroom. They would get lost, stolen, dropped, something spilled on it, etc, etc. There are also things that could happen in the classroom with things getting spilled and dropped. I see more things going wrong with having these in your class than good. But the idea of it is great. Maybe getting a smart board for my classroom would help ;)

(My lesson is emailed)

Week 6 Review

Today we worked on pod-casting using GarageBand. GarageBand is a fairly simple application to use. You drag and drop photos into the program, and stretch or shorten them depending on how long you need them to be. Recording is also easy, push a button and talk into your mic. Then add a background jingle to your podcast. There are many to choose from, you just drag and drop just like you would with your pictures.

Week 5 Review

This week I got a chance to help set up the white board. I have never worked with it before like this, so that was interesting. I don't like that this particular white board was set up with a projector. It makes it really hard to see!! I like the ones Ive seen that you can get in front of it, and there is no projector, so students (and you) can still see what you are doing.
We discussed the eight guidelines of media literacy, and got to make thought-provoking questions to ask the class, who answered using clickers. The clickers are awesome, and would be a lot of fun in the classroom (I don't remember their actual name).

We played with a bunch of search engines. The three popular ones; google, yahoo, and bing. As well as some new ones I've never heard of, some that don't really work, and others that just steal what the popular ones have.

Then we looked at different websites, and evaluated if they were real or fake. Most were fake. Mine looked real, but it turned out they took and copied everything from the actual website.

Week 4 Review

This week we learned about Google Earth. I have used this application before. What was new for me was being able to record a tour of places. It was very easy to do. I think this could be very useful in the classroom. You could mark places along the Oregon Trail when studying it, and similar things for other subjects you are studying in class.