Webquest 2

What? We are still working on web quest this week. We are doing it as a group depending on the age of students we want to teach. We had a really hard time coming up with the area we wanted to study. We decided to do it on the Ancient Egyptians and how the writings and goings on influenced the way they lived. We decided to have the our students be farmers who are wanting to live in an area of Ancient Egypt. They would be required to take a journey back in time to study writings and ancient Egyptian lifestyles. Having taken the journey and learned about different cities, they will then have the chance to choose witch one of the cities they would want to be a part of. We would have a mock trial to determine which one was the best city and what factors helped them to determine the fact. It is still up in the air how the final project will look, but I think we have a good basis of study that the students will enjoy. I think they will learn a lot about the subject while creating some great learning as well.

So what? I think I may be repetitive about the rest of the blog. I really do enjoy the fact that there is an activity on the web which will engage our students in higher order thinking skills. I believe that a lot of that has been done away with in the schools. I think it will be great with the ever changing technology we are experiencing. Why not combine the two of them and also let the students enjoy learning? I think it will be fun for the students to do something to break up the monotony of everyday learning. It is fun, but it does provide a great learning process for the students to learn.

Now what? I have great ideas for me as a future teacher. I want to incorporate many things in the classroom that I am learning now in school. I want to do all I can with creative arts in the classroom. I want to do all I can with backwards design and primary sources. I am trying to learn how to do these things without really having an understanding of all the things that I will actually be doing in the classroom. I guess I am being a little naive about how it will actually be, but I know that web quest is one thing that will be done in the classroom. I feel it is a great way of presenting material without having to involve a lot of lecture time. It is a way the students will be able to open their minds to a greater learning and have fun doing it. By having my students do web quests I will know that they will learn a great deal more than me talking to them. Having them take a journey through web quests is an excellent source of learning. I will create many for my students of the future, they will have a good time doing them as well.

Video Twitter in the classroom.
I remember when we talked about using twitter in our classroom, I don' know what happened. I didn't quite understand why a teacher would use this method of teaching. I thought that it would be too distracting for a teacher to deal with, but I understand better now that I saw the video. It is just to combine what the students are interested in and the subject being taught. The teacher said it was to get the students engaged in the subjects being taught. I think it is a good idea to use the strengths of the students to get their attention. It is a great way of helping them to understand a subject. Why not use what we have?

Holiday Blog

I was not really sure what to write about this week given we missed classes and are still doing the same assignment. We are working on Web Quest, which is an online activity for students to engage in an explore. It can be a virtual tour through space and time to a series of worksheets and activities on a subject you as the teacher are trying to teach. It is different experience for students to take on during a class and a great way to keep attention while teaching simultaneously. Our group decided to do the sixth grade core about Egyptian civilization and how the writing has evolved and affected us today in our world.

We are excited about the opportunity to take the students back in time to explore the ancient ruins and read the writings on the wall. They will learn to interpret writings and discuss how these writings were important to them and also how they are important to us today; is it possible for these writings to give us information which may aid in our society today? We haven't really got into the assignment much more than thoughts and how we will set everything up. I am excited for the web quest and I hope that I can learn how to do them well so that I can use them in my future classroom. It seems like an awesome way of teaching with strategy in mind, rather than trying to accomplish the same thing day in and day out all the time.

The class is fun and I see many possibilities to learn. I feel I will become a better teacher by just learning how to better my knowledge of technology and it's simple components. For now I will stay away from the hard and complicating items hoping to eventually know what is what and how to do it. Web quest is a great start I think!

Video for this week was Engaged Learning, I was interested in the video because it showed how the world is changing and how we can learn in different ways. I was interested because I wrote a paper recently about the change in average skills and learning in the classroom. Today our students are considered to be failing in our learning if they are not above average. In the past learning meant being able to even read after having a sixth grade education. I am intrigued by how many teachers will not step up to the plate of technology, yet still they teach the same things with same methods and resources as a traditional teacher would have twenty years prior. Technology bings engaged learning; something that students need to have to succeed in our world today.

Webquest

What is web quest?

Web quest is a learning process that is created to send the students on a journey through some idea on the web that the teacher wants to be taught. We learned that we can create a web quest on the web in many different ways. We are going to do it with PowerPoint. We are assigned to do the project in teams, it will be a fun project to do. It is going to be very educational for those who will be reading it and it will be fun to do.

So what?

I believe the more things a teacher has under his or her belt to aid in the whole process the better. The web quest will be a great tool for the students. It will be fun to see how something I create can help the students to learn. It is not the same way of learning either, if a child can get the same information out of a textbook then how could a web quest not be a good idea. Plus the students can see that I could do something cool on the web that is helping with learning. The parents would be able to view what I have put there as well, they will be impressed that I am using technology in the classroom. I think it is a great idea for the students to have fun, but still be able to learn with deeper thinking skills.

Now what?

I will work to create many different web quests that I could incorporate into the curriculum. I think it is a great idea for the students to interact with some great adventures, and to think the adventures are created by me. I will learn how to implement all these things into my future teaching, by doing so I will be a cut above the rest of the teachers out there. I am glad to be in school and be able to learn many things I didn't know what to do before I started taking classes. I am learning a lot about technology that will aid in the classroom.

Video; Surface Computing

I think of the Tom Cruise movie when he touches the screen and drags items on the screen to another screen. This movie was supposed to be set in the way far future. It is amazing how it is even possible to have the things they do. This just blew my mind. Is it for real? I think that by placing a device on the screen and instantly syncing it by dragging pictures into it could never be possible. I have not seen a device like this in the stores, it said it would be by 2007. It is bizarre how technology can come so far and then what seems to be a movie comes to life for our daily use, Amazing!!

Video; How not to use PowerPoint

I thought this was a hilarious video this week. The gentleman was not too far off base either, there are so many people using PowerPoint to tell the whole story. I think this is why the slides are only so big. If they were any bigger the rest of us looking at the presentation would go nuts with all the information being presented. I attended a job presentation which had so many different data slides that I seriously had to go outside and let my eyes rest for a time. I am a slow reader as well, so the slide would pass to the next one without me having read all the information on the slide; it kind of made me feel stupid. I think PowerPoint is a great tool for showing information, however, the information needs to be presented in a simple manner. PowerPoint is not to show how smart we are, it is to show how we can utilize a tool to help us be a better teacher or whatever career we choose to follow. I enjoy using the tool for my own personal use at home, and I plan on using PowerPoint to show information to parents during parent teacher conferences, showing students lectures, etc. The video was entertaining yet still very interesting.

My Beliefs

Though at times it may seem I do not enjoy technology, or maybe that I don't want to use it in my classroom as a resource. I might seem a little old fashioned about the way I want to teach. It may be because I am uneducated on the matter, but I do think students need to understand technology and incorporate it in their lives. I believe that a child needs to know how to use the Internet and all it's tools, I believe that students need to know what the world expects of them, thy need to develop skills which will aid in a successful life of learning. In order to accomplish these things a child needs to be able to: blog, run a word processor, create a face book page, use the Internet as a search tool, use a spreadsheet, know how to use a handheld device, etc. There are endless ways for a child to learn from the world of technology. If the teacher does not allow technology in the classroom, the students will try and use it anyway or maybe not even come to class at all. I believe there is still a need for balance in schools, technology should be used as a tool and should be used to make the teacher a better teacher. I do not believe technology should replace the teacher, nor do I think that should ever be the case. I believe a student should come to class everyday willing to learn; that same child should not be using a phone or even a handheld to learn unless the teacher specifically grants that option. Children do not need to spend time in classes with great instruction texting and browsing the Internet.

I do not believe in the new WWW; meaning whatever,whenever, and wherever. I am old fashioned in this case because the use of technology is out of control in many areas of education. I think a child is not able to understand everything the Internet offers them. I have seen students playing with phones, trying to understand the device and it's functions and the lesson is never heard. I have seen this in the college courses i am taking now. If these people are anything like me then the whole educational experience is for naught. I do not want my students to be this way. I hope that sixth graders are not trying to bring gadgets into the classroom, if so then I guess I am being a little naive. i believe that there is a time and a place for everything. I believe the reason I am here learning to be a teacher is to help me integrate technology into the classroom as a tool not as a sole source of ecucation. I know I am learning great things to aid in the learning processes of children, and I know I will have many things to help me in my instruction. Technology is one of the tools I believe in using in the classroom to help my students learn, not to teach my students all they need to know.

Lessons Learned

What lessons have I learned from the reading this week in class? I understand the great importance of having students use technology in the classroom as a resource for greater learning. I also realize that I will need to be prepared for the future of technological advance. The world of technology is not going to be the same in two years as it is now. The things that are happening now are just opening the door to greater things. I understand that to teach I must be prepared for it because I will be the one who shares what I know with the rest of the world, or at least children in my future classes. I know much more is being required to become teacher and that the demands of teachers are more now than ever before so i can' say I have not been ready for it or that it has come all at once. I guess I learned so much last semester that this is not new to me anymore. I don't feel the information really gave me any new information to process. I am excited about the future of education, but I am also scared because of the unknown.

I was glad to see that there is a NET Standards for educators because of all that is required in making education a success. If a teacher is not prepared for the future and has no desire to learn something different, he or she is going to hate teaching using the old methods without integrating technology into their classrooms. I have learned that I need to better my knowledge of many different technologies. Many things on the survey was pre-novice and many showed that I had next to little knowledge of computer skills. The survey showed me that integration was definitely an option for me and I have not even finished school yet. The difference between me and those who don't want to learn is that I want to learn and I know technology is most definitely needed in the classroom. I wonder where I have been all this time since I have been in school; why haven't I learned these things in life like the students I will be teaching knw them? I don't consider myself from a different age, but maybe I really don't know much. It makes the task of teaching even more daunting than I had ever imagined. I guess there is one thing I have learned by reading the information; I have learned that I need to work harder at being the kind of teacher everyone wants their child to have. I need to be a teacher who is cool because I know how to manage computers and could call myself knowledgable about tehnology, and I know how to mangage the students in the room as well.

Strengths and Weaknesses

What were your strength/weaknesses according to the UNI survey and NET Standards?During my time studying the content of the NET Standards and taking the UNI Survey, I realized I was a novice at most of the items presented. I noticed that if left to me,I would not be able to accomplish many things having to do with technology and computer based programs. I am OK with word processing if I am not needing to do anything too complicated,however, if I were given enough time with a word processor I could figure out about anything. I noticed that I have little to no experience with ethics or human issues with computer technology, I would not know where to begin if someone asked me what it meant. I am not very experienced with digital systems either, but again I could learn if I had enough time to do so. I have taken a class on excel, but it was a beginning class. I worked with it recently on an assignment and I realized I know nothing about it. Pretty much most of my knowledge has come from hands on experience and the things I have learned in Doc Water's classes.

I want to make a goal to be a technology based teacher in all facets, and use technology as a curriculum implemented tool. I don't want to be one of the teachers who uses nothing but the projector to present lectures. I want to be a teacher who can give the lecture and say, "if anyone wants to have the notes, they are on the Internet". This will mean I will need to know create a website, it will also mean I will need to know how to post information on the web. I want to be a teacher who can show a student how to implement technology into studies rather than be a teacher who is always asking, "what does that mean", and having students show me what's up. I am not to the point where I want all information in the classroom to be digital or on the Internet, but I do want the resources to be available to my students and I want to be the one to give it to them. I want to use the Internet as resources in all my subjects I am teaching. A student will learn much better in the future by having access to many different technologies to help them to learn. If I will be able to use technology to assess my students, I will have a much quicker transition into teaching content assessed. I am glad that grading is done online already in many schools, it just makes the information readily available to all who need to access it. I feel I need a little more information about how to implement grading into my personal teaching practices.

After having mentioned two things that I am not so good at or that I have little information about; I would like to take some additional classes or workshops on how to run excel or another spreadsheet program, and how to use a current grading system used by many schools in the area. If I could learn these two things right now, I think I could feel more comfortable about entering into a realm of personal undiscovered technological talent along with trying to be successful my fist year. I feel that I am not prepared to enter into a school yet. If I could get more help with these items, I know I will feel more prepared as a teacher. I would take a class on how to integrate tecnology into the classroom with many different subjents of teaching. For example, I would love to find a great program for math. I feel that math is boring in schools. If I were to implement a different technological activity each day into my math program, my students will learn to love learning math.