Week #9 reflection

This week I learned that it is not as difficult as I thought to incorporate lots of technology into my lessons. In the future I will search the web for more interactive whiteboard presentations that are already complete. I realized that as teachers we sometimes spend too much time trying to re-create something that has already been done well. I also learned more about webquests and am excited about the potentials that these bring in allowing students to work at their own pace, as well as allowing for differientation in instruction. Webquests not only allows students to utilize technology and learn at their own pace, but it also allows the teacher time to interact one on one with students to provide additional support to students who need this while others are busy working on an assignment that is engaging to them.

Wk#8 Reflection

This week I found the reminder of the "digital native" generation that we will be teaching and how we need to engage them in technology as much as possible in the classroom. I also will remember as I teach to start where students are at and take into consideration where they are from and what that means they are bringing into the classroom.

I look forward to continue to learn more in the class that I can apply directly to the classroom.

Wk #7

This week I learned more about integrating technology into the classroom and the learninng process.
I have been doing homebound instruction for one of my students who is excused for medical reasons from a  month of school. I had been working with this student on worksheets and book work. I soon realized that this was not engaging this student and he was not remember the information from previous sessions. So the next week I went, I brought my laptop along and decieded I need to integrate technology into my approach to teaching this student. He work diligentlty working on a History essay - both research and typing on my laptop, then we did a 50 states matching game online to assess where he was. It was a great change in effort and interest from my student. I left his home thinking... why did it take me a week to use technology.

Week 6 Reflection

This has been a challenging week for me in relation to balancing my classwork for this course and my day job. PSSA testing is occurring, which adds extra stress on our school and the students. This added stress makes the days seem long and overwhelming at times.

Then my web 2.0 presentation was due this week - the powerpoint part of the presentation was not the stressful part. My skills in powerpoint have been improving and I can see the benefits of being able to appropriately use it . The stressful part of this project was using Jing. I thought that it would not take me long to master and use for my presentation. It took numerous takes to get a presentable take to share with other students. And I was not completely satisfied with my end product but I decided I did not need to be perfect in this aspect of my project. I also found that by the last video I had increased my skills and feel that if I would use Jing in the future I would find it beneficial. With additional practice and less pressure for perfection, I can see Jing being a very useful and fun tool to use in the classroom. I see this as a great way to communicate with students via a video link on a school web page to introduce my class and myself to parents and future students over the summer. I also see this being a fun tool to use to communicated expectations and assignments for my students if I am out for training or conference or sick days.

week #5 Reflection

I found this week to be an interesting exercise in reviewing websites.  I visit hundreds of websites throughout a week but I am not thinking about whether they are set up well or visually appealing or easy to navigate or if they are even giving me the best information possible for the topic I am interested in. I found this exercise good of having to review websites to see what specific information they are giving us. I also found the questions about whether the same information or better information could be found in an encyclopedia interesting. I had never thought about that before, whether or not the site is giving us up to date information that is specific and accurate.

I am feeling slightly intimidated by the idea of creating our own website next week, but I am also excited to continue to gain new skills through this class that I can apply to my classroom.  This class has given me a lot of resources and now I need to start sorting through the many options of how to incorporate technology into the classroom and figure out which options are the best to use in a given situation.

Wk #4 Reflection

I found this weeks information on Assisted Technology to be very interesting. I work with Emotional Support students, so I am familiar with Special Education lingo, but my students are high functioning students in regards to motor skills. There are some students in our school that benefit from some of these technologies - or could greatly benefit from more options in regards to assisted technologies to enhance their learning process.

I also found the Desktop Publishing Assignment to be challenging but rewarding. It feels good to be able to put time and effort into an assignment that I was not very confident in my ability to complete and then be able to complete all parts of the assignment. I enjoy working on my computer to develop items that will be useful in the classroom but have not had the opportunity to create items like newsletters or brochures up until this assignment. Now that I am more familiar with the process I will likely use this in assignment I give my future students - giving them the opportunity to utilize technology in an assignment to demonstrate the information they have learned.

WK 3 Reflection

I found this weeks work with digital images very interesting and helpful. The articles clarified terms and vocabulary that I have seen and heard of but could not have put a clear definition to.

I also found the work with creating a flyer a good refresher on how to go beyond the basics of word. I am excited to begin the Desktop Publishing assignment. It will be a challenge for me because I have not have much experience creating newsletters or brochures or graphs. I struggled to make a graph in the last spreadsheet assignment that was a clear representation of my data. I hope to be able to make a graph that more clearly demonstrates the information I need to display.  I plan to utilize the youtube videos that a fellow student shared in a post as a resource to more clearly explain creating a graph using excel.