Week #9

First of all, does this guy think he is Dane Cook?
He made some really valid points in the video and everything that he mentioned does drive me crazy about powerpoints. I remember in my public speaking class that people would make powerpoint presentations and then read right off the slide. It seemed pointless. First of all it is really hard to hear the person when they are talking at the presentation, you need to face the people in the class and address them--the powerpoint already knows what you are going to say.

I love powerpoint but I do think it is important that you do use other resources just to mix things up. In my future classroom, I want to have a routine, but I don't want my students to know exactly what we are going to do everyday. In one of my current classes I know exactly what we are going to do every Tuesday and every Thursday. We sit and watch a powerpoint on every Tuesday and on Thursday we talk about a reading that we did during the week. It is such a bore. One day though, he mixed things up and I really enjoyed it. I understand the importance of having a routine though, because many students need structure.
I also love the option of putting pictures and videos in the powerpoint show. This makes it interesting and allows you to show the students pictures of what you are talking about that can help further explain the subject.

Week #8

I believe that it is important to know how to do powerpoint because it helps the students gather the information that you are trying to get across to them. In my personal experience, I'd rather have a teacher lecture with a powerpoint because you have the opportunity to write down what is on the slide and not just what the teacher is saying. Sometimes it is hard to catch everything that someone says, but with powerpoint it is all written.

The only downside with powerpoint is that students tend to just write what is on the slide and tune out to what you are saying. One way to fix this problem is to give them the powerpoint slides printed out and then they can write down extra notes onto the paper. This way they are listening to you instead of trying to hurry and write down what is presented on the slide.

Powerpoint is also great because you can put everything that you need into the presentation. This includes links, videos, music, pictures. This way you don't have to go searching the web for what you need to show the students.

I find powerpoint to be relatively easy and a good way to give information so I think that as a teacher I will be using powerpoint a lot in my lectures. Another reason why I like powerpoint is because it is so much better than using an overhead projector. I have found that it is so hard to see the information when it is presented on an overhead. It always seems blurry and the kids in the back of the classroom can't really see what it says. With powerpoint you can make the font big and everyone will be able to see it.

Week #7

Our webquest is coming along quite well still. During the week I have come up with more ideas of what I could use a webquest for and I have also researched other people's webquests. In all honesty I am not sure if I will use webquests a lot in my classroom because I am not sure what resources I will have available.

This assignment has made me realize all of the sources that are available through the internet. I know I have mentioned it before, but I believe that it is really important that you use different ways to teach because everyone has a different learning style. With different resources you can appeal to different students and they will be able to learn in many different ways. I have always found it easier to memorize certain things when it goes along to a tune.

In our webquest we have two youtube videos that are school house rock. Even though these resources might me considered elementary, they really do help students learn in secondary levels.

So first of all, this kid is an incredible public speaker. I wish that I had his skills. I have always believed that it is very important for teachers to believe in their students. If teachers don't believe in their students it really does show and students cant sense this. Sometimes it makes students not work as hard because they truly don't believe that their life will amount to anything. You should never give up on a student no matter how behind they are, how much they don't care, or how terrible they may be doing in school. The part about how teachers may be the only ones a child has/teachers may be the only ones that care/love them it brought tears to my eyes. It is so important that you recognize that every child is different and may not come from the same background that you did. I was lucky enough to have a lot of support from my parents, but I know that a lot of kids at my school were not in the same situation as I was.

It is also important that you believe in your staff. It is a good support system and you can really learn a lot from the people that surround you at a school. I believe that teaching is one of the hardest, but most rewarding jobs in the world. With a good support system you will be able to do things you never thought you'd be able to do.

I really enjoyed this video and I am glad that I had the opportunity to watch it.

Week #6

I think that webquests have the potential to be really cool. I believe it is important that it actually involves the world wide web or else it will be completely pointless. You don't want your webquest to be something that you could have just put on a piece of paper. In the classroom this will be a great tool because you will not have to print out sheets for everyone and all of the information will be up on a screen for everyone to see. It is also great because all you have to do is click and it will show exactly what you want it to show. This is great because you can just put the video clip you would like your class to see and then you won't have to go searching youtube for it.

I am really excited to complete the webquest assignment. My group game up with a really good idea and I believe that if all goes well it will turn out really great. I think that I have learned the value of having other people to work with so that you can share you ideas and come up with the best possible idea.

The link to the video did not work, so I did a little research and tried to find a video that I could possibly use in my future class. This is what i found:

I like this video because it explains the electoral college in simple english. It is also nice because it gives drawings to try and explain it in a clear way.

Week #5

I think that the internet is a great resource for education. There is so much information on the world wide web. I think it is important to use the internet in your classroom because students these days are very technology oriented. My sister, who is ten years old, knows how to look up information on the internet. The only danger is that there is false information online and there are websites that are not friendly to people under eighteen. This is why you should always post links to secure websites that are not going to take your student to a bad site.
We should evaluate the sites we use because you do not want your students to get false information from a site that you provide, or get the idea that just because the information is on the internet it means it is correct.
The questions I would ask myself while evaluating a site are:

• who is the author? is he/she a credible source?
• are there citations/a bibliography
• when was the website last updated?
• when was the website published?
• is there a "~" in the web address?
• do the photos add to the information?

You can keep your students safe by providing the websites you want them to use to look up information. Obviously, wikipedia is not the best idea since anyone can write whatever they want on that website. There are many tools on pioneer that the student can use to get information. Ebsco is a good resource along with the newspaper databases. These links will give the student correct information and it is safe for them to use.

I absolutely love this video. As a history education major this will be perfect in one of my lessons. The reason why I love this video is because it gives a picture with the name that is in the song. All of the names brought up in the song are very important events in history. I have mentioned it before how I would incorporate this video into my lesson by seeing how much they knew about each of these people/events or have the students pick one of the people/events from the song and do some research on it and present it to the class. Another reason I love this video is because it is a fun song and it is a great way to present these people/events to the class instead of just lecturing.

Week #4

To be completely honest.. I don't really like the UEN website. I think it's very confusing to use and the google site looks a lot better. Maybe in time it will become easier, but for now--not so much. I wish that UEN had the option of importing my google calendar instead of having to make a whole new one. It has some really great resources, but I am just not as excited about that website as I am about google sites.

I have really thought a lot about what you said about needing to relax when you are learning about new technologies. While trying to work on my UEN website I began to get really frustrated because it seemed like I had to do all these extra steps just to have one thing on my page. I think what was most frustrating about UEN is the whole public and private pages. This is a great feature, but I just don't think it is necessary for me. But I did find that when I relaxed and just had fun with it that things came a lot easier and it was much more enjoyable.

Pioneer is also a great tool. It amazes me how many resources there are out there for teachers and students. The invention of the internet has definitely changed the way that people do things. I haven't worked all the way through the scavenger hunt yet, but from what I've seen I am very impressed with what Pioneer has to offer me.

I LOVE the video "Did You Know 2.0". It was so interesting to me and I loved all the facts about technology. I still can't believe that that many children are born within 8 seconds, and I can't even begin to imagine what kind of technology the children born today are going to be using at my age. I was also impressed that 100% of college graduates in India speak English. I had NO idea. I also loved the quote by Albert Einstein that said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." It's complete common sense, but it is so true and it just really impressed me.

I honestly can not wait to see all of the new technology that will be coming out in the next couple of years. I wish that I could think of some of it so that I could be filthy rich, but I don't think that will ever happen. I am so excited for it because some of it could potentially make learning so much more interesting for students. I think that almost anything is better than sitting there and listening to a person talk for 50 minutes. This class has really made me think outside of the box for teaching strategies and what I can do when I have my own classroom. Now I wish that I could just hurry up and graduate so that I could apply all of the things that I am learning.

Video Reflection Week #3

Technology really is a great way to teach the youth of this generation. It offers so many interesting way to give your students information then just lecturing. I"m sure that students get sick of hearing the same voice for an hour a day--so why not let them hear more voices? Play a youtube video, show a movie, let other students teach the class, let them listen to a podcast. There are SO many options.

I loved all the facts that this video gave.

"Todays average college graduates have spent: over 10,000 hours playing video games, over 10,000 hours talking on cell phones, and roughly 20,000 hours watching TV."

"70% of our nation's 4-6 year-olds have used a computer."

"Did you know that there are over 2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month?"

"Did you know that our Digital Learners have sent and received over 200,000 emails or instant messages... by the time they graduate from college?"

"Think of the ways you could use cell phones to teach..."

"Only 28% of 12th grade high school students believe that schoolwork is... meaningful"

"21% believe that their courses are interesting... and a mere 39% believe that school work will have any bearing on their success in later life."

All of the points that the video made were completely relevant. The only one that I have a slight problem with was using cell phones to teach--pretty much everyone has a cell phone these days, but what about those who don't have one? What about those whose parents can't afford for them to have a cell phone? You don't want to leave anyone out or make anyone embarrassed so you have to make sure that everyone actually has a phone before you do that. But I love how this video thought out of the box and really came up with ideas that use modern day technology.

As a teacher you need to recognize that every student has a different learning style and cater to all of them. You should also give your class homework and in-class assignments that are meaningful--and not just busy work. Explain to them why they would want to know this and how it will help them in their later life.