Think about education
I probably am not the best person to ask these questions, but I do have a small understanding from the classes I have taken so far that have provided me with insight about such things. I also have comments for these that I would love to share. First, I think it’s great that our government and the political side is interested in the affairs of school/students/teachers. But I also think that they need to hear from the side that they are supposedly “helping.” I don’t believe I have met a single teacher who is in favor of NCLB. Now that seems entirely wrong, considering the fact that we as teachers, and the students, are the ones who are affected by their ideas and laws. I don’t know probably as much as I should know about NCLB, but what I can see of it, I don’t agree with it. It seems that this Act has made school become this stressed, got-to-know these things, and “that’s all we have time for” sort of environment. The idea may be good, but in actuality, I don’t think it is good. Teachers seem to no longer be able to teach “side” things, fun things, and just be teachers to students who need someone to encourage them, and have faith in them. We seem to have lost that and maybe because of the NCLB, I don’t know. I would think that those who have those powers, would find out exactly if their ideas were beneficial to the school before putting this into law.
I could see in the elementary school I interned at last spring that technology was definitely being used. I enjoyed seeing the uses my teacher had for the laptops in her Reading classes, as well as the “clickers” (I think that’s what they’re called). But I did not know about many of the technology tools and uses that I learned in this class! Now I see that others are doing much more in other schools than just laptops, and I see some great benefits. I think the use of technology in the classroom and with students is a great thing. Personally I see the benefits and how it is engaging the students in the classroom, because of the age they are living in. I must say that I have not yet seen a really good use of the cell phone. Maybe I’m not open-minded enough, but I really don’t see the cell being a device to grow learning. I think that is for personal use. But I have heard of some uses that seem to work for the teacher and students, which I think is okay. I on the other hand, would not try and use it – right now anyway. As I said above, I think technology in the classroom is a great thing, and I want to use it, but I will say, I can’t help but think that might be losing some personal connections with the students. Just a thought.
As far as the political candidates, I can’t say that I have been too faithful in following them. I would hope that whoever is in charge of making these decisions with schools, would be cautious to make laws, acts, etc., that would influence and affect schools and those involved for the worse.
Education is so important since it is what shapes the young minds of our future. Because of this, I think we need to be cautious and thoughtful when making decisions about our schools.
Reflect about your own website
After viewing the other’s websites, I feel overall good about how mine looks. I think there are at least two types of styles that seem to be evident when viewing them – and none are wrong. I think my website has a professional, sweet look to it – which I hope catches my personality. Others have the very teacher look, which I actually started out with. But then I found this template that I liked better, and it made me go with this look. But I also think it kind of speaks of my personality. I like fun, bright things (the fun teacher look), but I also like the eye appealing look as well. So yes, I am pleased with how my website looks the second you lay eyes on it. I also am quite pleased with how it has been coming together. I think I spent a couple of weeks working on it when we began, but then pushed it to the side for a while. Finally a few weeks ago I began to shape it up and add things. So I feel like it has come together nicely. I really like the way it is so easy to navigate through as well, which I think is important. As I was going through it just now, I am pleased with how it really does represent many of the things I have done and am doing. It shows a nice portion of my interests, family, and areas of knowledge for technology, as well as the things I have created for the classroom. One thing that I have yet to figure out, and hope to fix with some more time, is why some links are blue and others aren’t. I really wanted them to be the same color, it just looks more attractive, but I can’t seem to do that at the moment. One thing I would like to change, if I don’t take the time do so before this next week, is the front page. I like it, but I don’t think it’s informative enough of me. I realize other links I have tell more about me, but I think it needs to be on my front page. This way they don’t have to go hunt for my bio. Also, I think I will elaborate more, instead of making it a point-by-point description of myself. These are just a few things that I like about my website and am pleased with, and a few things I hope to change later. I can imagine this will be a continuing process as I continue through my classes. The positive side is that it will be a wonderful, well-portrayed website of myself that I can be proud of to share with a principal who may be interested in hiring me!
To check out my web page, go to: http://amybrungardt.googlepages.com/
Classmates’ Websites
It’s hard to just pick three websites of my classmates that I really enjoyed looking at, but since I have to I would pick Carolyn Walker, Jenny May Stewart, and Alicia Denning.
I liked how Carolyn Walker’s website looked very “teacher-like.” As I viewed others and even my own, I see that they looked professionally attractive, and hers not only looks that, but also very much “teacher.” I enjoyed going through several of her links and sites. Each one was set up and worked really well. It was attractively spaced on the page, as well as had great teacher theme animations and pictures. Overall, it looked great and was very easy to navigate! (Kind of makes me want to start all over on mine!)
Second, I enjoyed Jenny May Stewart’s website. I found it to be attractive and set up in a way that is simple, and not overwhelming. I happen to know her as well from other classes, and I would say that her website speaks of her personality very well. I liked looking at it as I went through her projects. I think a principal would be very pleased with her website and know a lot about her just by looking at it. I did notice specifically her resume. I’m not the greatest at resumes, but I did think hers was nice and thorough.
My third choice would be Alicia Denning’s website. Jenny May’s and Alicia’s were similar in appearance, only because they used the same templates. But I liked the amount of information/projects/papers/lesson plans that Alicia added to her site. As I went through her “papers and such” as well as “projects,” I noticed she has added much to them. I’m sure that an interviewer would like to see more of the work that she has done in college and can do when looking at hiring her, than less. So I really liked this about Alicia’s website. She has some great quotes too!
The others looked like they were a great start, and would be good websites – just needed some more time put into it.
Favorite Podcast Presenter
Probably my favorite podcast presenter would be Dan Schmidt of Kidcast from Nebraska. I really enjoyed listening to his podcasts. He shared many different tools that could be useful in the class. But not only did he share what they were, he also shared how you could use them in the classroom through examples or even real instances. I felt like he always knew of a useful way to incorporate the tool to help the students learn better. For example, one of the last podcasts I reflected on was how to use podcasting to help make a field trip more rich in learning for the child. He mentioned a great way that I’m excited to use someday! By having the students make a podcast before the trip, stating their questions or study about it, and then attending the trip, and follow with an answer podcast – that will help them to reach deeper and think more deeply.
I also appreciated the amount of interviews he made with other teachers who could share more about a specific topic. Or even when he’d attend conferences and share a portion of them in his podcasts. One last reason for making Dan Schmidt my favorite podcast presenter, is because he always talked about the tools that we were studying here in our class. It was like I had a good grasp on the tool, now I just needed it explained more, or even ideas of how to use it in my classroom. For these reasons, I would vote Dan Schmidt from Kidcast to be the presenter whom I enjoyed listening to in this class.
What tools
Thinking over this whole summer of “technology learning,” I think I can narrow what tools I will use in my classroom someday. There seem to be a few I do like but don’t know if I will actually use them. For example, they sound good but I don’t know how practical it would be. (This could just be because I haven’t been in the classroom enough to know.) But I do like the idea of using Web 2.0 and blogging. It seems as though students enjoy writing, even to the extent of long written stories, creative ones, and descriptive stories and even poems! It can be hard to motivate students to do so in class on paper. But if they can create their own on the computer (blogging) and then publish it on the internet – that seems to be exciting and motivating to them! Plus, it’s easy to use and free!
I could also see using Voicethread. At first I was nervous to use it, but after a few trials I was more confident. I love being able to do this by audio, video, and using pictures of your own. I would love to use it in my class for book reports or even projects that they would have to do over a specific historical event, place, or person. I like the versatility of students working on their own, or even collaboratively. It could be a great tool to use also for review. I would like to record myself going over the main points that they should know, and this way they can study at home more easily. It could very well motivate them to study! Or if a student misses a few days and needs caught up, I could use voicethread to help them. It just seems as though there is an insurmountable amount of possibilities to do with this, and I could see using it.
Something I will keep using after this class is Jing, my blog and website, as well as Aim (for messaging), and even the podcasts we listen to. I think I could continue learning much from podcasting that the others have posted. As for Aim, I enjoy the instant messaging that it is. I never have gotten much into it, but now I really like it. It’s been useful for me in this class too. I don’t know why, but I really liked jing! Even now, I randomly will video myself doing something on the internet. I think I could use this in my classroom sometime too! As for my blog and website, I want to continue to update that and improve the look, as well as continue to add things to it.
These are a few tools that I can see using in my classroom someday, as well as continue to use even for my personal use after this class.
5 things that made me think
Oh it’s so hard to narrow this very, packed-full summer of technology into only 5 things to elaborate on. I will do my best!
First, I would say that I really enjoyed learning about Big Universe Online Books just because I liked the creativity and usefulness that I could see using in my classroom someday. I enjoy creating books, stories, along with pictures even on my own time (I guess that’s the creative side of me), so I really like the idea of doing it online, for free, and easy to use even for children to do in the classroom! I also enjoyed reading other user’s books that they created. I would love to use this someday in my class. I imagine using it when teaching my students the essential parts that make up a good story. They can be creative as well as learn because they have first hand experience! Plus, I would love to see all the books my students would write and illustrate – wouldn’t that be fun?
Second, I enjoyed learning how to create my own website! I must admit, I had such a time starting out, but once I familiarized myself with it – it was fun. I like the idea of giving the principal who is thinking of hiring me, a website that contains everything about me and all that I know. I think of how I have attached all my projects in this class (and others) to it, that will show all I can do in my classroom! I want to continue to add projects from other classes to it so that it can be a collaboration of many things. I like to be able to fiddle with it daily, when I want and how I want so I am always perfecting it. I used Google Page Creator and found it to be very user friendly. I’m excited about it!
This third one probably will sound stupid to some very wise computer person. But since I was not too technologically savvy before this class (and trust me I am still learning!), I was so happy to finally learn how to embed videos and audio into a website or anywhere! I was always amazed when I saw it and could never imagine how someone might be able to do so. Like, where did they get the audio image? Or how did they get that video to stick to this website? Silly I’m sure, but it really puzzled me. Once I learned – wow I was amazed at how simple it can be. I could do it! So this very simple thing, yet important when you want to do it, was an “aha” moment for me. I learned something new and know it will come in handy!
Fourth, I think I could narrow it to enjoying podcasts. I enjoyed learning how to create podcasts as well as listening to them from other great teachers. I’m glad I learned how to make them, because I can see how useful they can be in the classroom. For example, I would love to have my students create their own (or help each other while working in groups), before going on a field trip. I think it is an excellent way to help the students to think deeper about the content, why they are going, questions they may have and want to know, etc., in which prepares them for the trip. Then they can follow up with what they did learn in the podcast. It sounds very useful! I also liked listening to the podcasts weekly. They took some time, but I did find some really interesting podcasts that I found useful and learned from. I added them to my Del.icio.us so I can keep up with them even after this class.
Finally, my fifth one is using Webcam. I enjoyed learning how to use the webcam and microphone for things I might want to do in my class. I would like to use a webcam when the students are learning a specific subject and let them talk to a person in another place talk about it from experience. I can only imagine how it would impact and capture the children’s attention! I could have them ask the person questions they might have in which they can learn from. Also, I would love to find a way to contact someone in another country so they could talk and learn of another culture. I could find so many more useful things for this I’m sure if I created more lessons and was actually in the classroom. I look forward to using it, if someday my school had access to them!
These are just 5 things that I enjoyed learning about in this class this summer! I hope to be able to use them someday in order to help my students learn, study, and become excited about it’s content! I hope to use technology for the benefit of the student’s learning!
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