Strengths and Weaknesses

The field experience that my partner and I had with technology was great. I feel that I learned a lot from the experience. I have a Mac laptop, which I find as a strength to be able to use with technology today. That is the system that the school used as well as all of Provo School District. I have had my Mac for almost 3 years now and almost every day I am learning something new. There are endless possibilities with Macs whether it is iMovie, Garage Band, Photo Booth, and more. We did use Photo Story to create our digital story, but converted it so it could be shown on my Mac. In our classroom we had a smart board, which the board hooks up to your Mac. It was amazing to know to show the students information it was easy as 1,2,3. What I created on my Mac the students were able to see that information instantly as it was projected on the interactive board.

A weakness of mine from the UNI survey was demonstrating awareness of resources for adaptive assistive devices for students with special needs. The Apple website has a section called Apple in Education -Special Needs where it discusses the special features that Mac's have to help students with the following disabilities: Literacy and Learning Disabilities, Vision Disabilities, Hearing Disabilities and Physical and Motor Skill Disabilities. It is an online tutorial that explains things like the iChat where hearing impaired students can see others using sign language to speak to them. As a future teacher I could put my lessons into sign language so that child could engage and interact with the class. It would be important for that student to have access to a Mac computer. As a goal to help me in the future I need to be aware of assistive devices for students with special needs. Every child deserves an education regardless of their disability! For more information on the tutorial that I found: http://www.apple.com/education/special-education/

Another weakness of mine would be being able to learn how to use the technology that was available such as the smart board at the school that we were at. I have heard all about smart boards, but have not really been able to use them that much. The little that we did use them I was struggling with using the pen and when I would write on the board it would not write, as I wanted it to write. We used a graphic organizer overlay and had difficulties with that as well. In order to make my weakness a strength it will consist of me playing around with the interactive board. As a goal I need to practice more with the smart board. I am sure I will get better and be more comfortable with using this tech tool. I found a great tutorial that teaches you the basics with using the smart board such as using Math tools, communicate with others, SMART document camera, creating an assessment, and so much more. To find out more with the tutorial: http://www.smarttech.com/us/Resources/Training/Training+Search This tutorial will further my professional growth by being experienced and educated with smart boards. I will be able to know how they work and what I can be able to do with them in my classroom.

My Beliefs

I have a strong belief on the importance of integrating technology. I hope I can be educated in all the technology tools out there. Our technology is changing daily. In our society today students thrive off of technology. By being familiar with technology tools they will help me significantly in my future classroom. I know that it truly comes down to me wanting to learn and keep up to date with the new technology to incorporate it in my future classroom.

When integrating technology into my classroom I hope I will be able to have the opportunity to have an interactive board. There are several possibilities with interactive boards. It helps students on a whole other level. Interactive boards open many opportunities in the classroom. Interactive boards get the whole class engaged and involved. No more boring lectures or chalk all over you! Not only will the children enjoy the boards, but also parents, and faculty and staff. The boards can accomadate almost any age. I know with out a doubt that it will benefit students in several areas. I believe this is the future for learning!

I am excited to integrate several tech tools into my classroom. I hope that I can share with my students the endless possibilities technology has to offer. I want to teach my students how to create a podcast, vidcasts, convert YouTube videos, interactive power points, digital stories, blogs, their own website, newsletters, collages and so much more. I hope that I can create beneficial and meaningful lesson plans that will have my students engaged and interacting with technology in some way. I believe through technology my students will be better prepared for the future.

Lessons Learned

I have learned a great amount from the readings and videos. Something from the readings that I enjoyed was “Tools for Change,” by Kathy Schrock. In “Tools for Change” I learned the comparison of instructional practices for both the teacher and student. With the student instructional practices it said for the old way that they are the receiver and with the new they are the searcher. Students today are searching and exploring in the educational setting. Another thing I learned was that it talked about the new way for content and it said real-world problems. Tying real-world problems into the curriculum has increased immensely. I have seen this help students make connections on a whole other level with content.

In the “Did You Know” video it was full of powerful information. Some of the information made me speechless. This video was beyond interesting. As I watched this I learned that many things might be affected in the future. For example, it said that we are preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist. It not only discussed the United States, but also other countries such as China and India. Also using technologies that haven’t yet been invented. The video discussed that if MySpace was a country that it would be the 11^th largest in the world between Japan and Mexico. The amount of technical information is doubling every 2 years. After viewing this video I know without a doubt that technology is changing right before our eyes. Our society evolves around technology and we rely on it 24/7.

The other article that I really liked was titled "Study: Teens See Disconnect Between Personal and School Writing". I worry about our youth today because I feel that many of them are losing the ability to communicate with others. So many youth are online using Facebook or texting. Almost everything is abbreviated such as “lol” and teens say things like “U2” rather than writing you too. As teachers need to allow the students to be creative. The article stated that many of the students feel that they are not able to be creative in their school writing, but they can be creative when they are writing on Facebook, in texts or other non-school writing. We can and should allow students to be creative. We have been learning in this class how to do that by teaching students for example to blog their thoughts as a journal, create their own websites, and digital stories.

Reflection #12

7. Provide demographics of school, number of students in class and who your cooperating teacher is.

We have been observing/teaching in Rock Canyon Elementary in Provo. We are working with fifth graders and we have thirty-three students in our classroom. Rock Canyon is a smaller school consisting of around 635 students. Most of the enrollment is white, non-Hispanic. The student to teacher ratio is 43.5 compared to the national average of 15.6. There are more females enrolled than male students. We are teaching Social Studies and have been teaching from the unit on Colonial America. Our cooperating teacher is Mrs. Barnum. She has been teaching for seventeen years.

a. How is your relationship with your cooperating teacher? Explain.

Both of us get along with our cooperating teacher wonderfully. She is very flexible and welcomes our ideas openly. She has great suggestions and advice. She is fun to talk to and we have been able to get to know her as a person as well as a teacher.

b. How does he/she feel about the technology piece you created?

“I thought it was a nice summary of the content we covered and a way to reach learners of different learning styles.”

c. How does he/she feel about the lesson you completed?

“I thought the video was a great way to engage the class and also it was a great hook for the review.”

d. How did the the training session go? Explain.

Overall it went very well, she was very interested and asked a lot of questions. We were able to answer her questions easily with the knowledge that we have. It seems like she will try to integrate more technology into her classroom. She was the most impressed to learn about Zamzar and she is thinking about continuing to use our Digital Story for years to come.

e. How do you feel about this service-learning experience?

It was a positive experience and did benefit our cooperating teacher, but we wish it would have been more useful to her. She only has a Mac so it was hard to take her time and teach her something she is unable to use. Although she doesn’t have a PC, we were able to contribute by giving her ideas of converting our Digital Story through Zamzar, using the Mac program iMovie, and using similar programs. This is definitely a beneficial service-learning project because we were able to reach out and help our teacher learn something new and in turn she will be able to talk with her colleagues and show them. This well then reach throughout the school to the student body who will benefit the very most.

f. What did your cooperating teacher gain from the experience?

“It opened my eyes to more possibilities to use technology into the classroom especially when it is something you can use again. I really appreciated learning how to use Zamzar to convert files. The only downfall is that all of Provo School district uses Macs so I wouldn’t use Photo Story unless I did it from home. ”

g. What did you gain from the experience?

We gained a teacher’s perspective and were able to see how she uses technology in her classroom. This experience has made us want to integrate technology more because of how it connects with our students. We were able to see that connection and its benefits. We also want to reach out to more teachers and show them what an awesome tool Digital Stories really are! We know that many of the teachers have been teaching for a lot of years and haven’t been able to keep up with all the new technology. This is something new and exciting with endless possiblities.

h. Was it worth why or why not?

It was well worth it, but the fact that Provo School District does not have Macs was a bit of a disappointment. It was worth it because of the reaction we received from the students and the teacher. They were all engaged and participated. It was rewarding to see that they actually cared and appreciated our video. The experience was very worthwhile and we are excited for more experiences to come!

Reflection #11

What? I am learning on how to incorporate technology when I become a future teacher. I am performing/integrating technology into our lesson plans that my partner and I teach in field.

So What? This week we were able to integrate technology in both of our lessons that we taught. We used power point, YouTube videos, and our digital story. This means to me as a teacher how many different tech tools you can incorporate into a lesson plan. There are endless possibilities. We are doing this to have experience with different tech tools to see what works and what doesn’t work. Also to have a better idea of what tech tools we want to integrate into our future classroom. The technology that we used is great because there are so many ways you can use/apply it. For example, with power point you can do a review, activity, etc. At our school we are observing at they do not have PCs only Mac computers so there is a downfall with using Digital Story. I think that in a few years that most schools will be turning to Macs. This technology means to my colleagues to know that when teaching the curriculum you can use a variety of great tools to help bring a boring/difficult subject to life etc.

Now What? This technology means to my future students to help them understand that learning can be fun if integrating technology into the curriculum. Children in our society thrive off of technology it is all around them. I think by integrating, as much technology into my classroom will change the type of teacher that I will be in the future dramatically. Some assignments I could give my students such as create a power point about a famous person or about a state/country. Another assignment for a digital story would be create a digital story about World War II, different types of rocks, the weather, genres of books, and so much more. I think that with integrating technology will help me become a better teacher because our society today feeds off of technology and new and better things are created every day. I am sure within the next ten years there will be great tech tools that teachers can use as well as students.

Reflection #10

What? Again we are learning to become better teachers and learn how we can incorporate technology into the classroom. We have been able to integrate some technology into our 2 lessons we have taught so far.

So What? This means to me as a teacher what will work and what will not work when incorporating technology into the classroom. My partner and I were able to use the smartboard for some of our lesson, but it did not go as well as we thought it would. We used an overlay for a graphic organizer. When using the pen on the smartboard it was hard for some students to write up on it and also when they wrote on it the graphic organizer it got unorganized and messed up. We also have been able to use Google Docs to pull up song lyrics that we created. We had to convert a video from YouTube to be able to show it to the students. I am glad I knew how to convert a video by using Zamzar. This technology means to me that I can be able to use it in my classroom for a variety of things whether its using Google Docs or converting YouTube videos. Also it will be great to use Google Docs with my colleagues and also I can teach my colleagues about tech tools and more.

Now What? This technology means to my future students the importance of learning how to use certain tech tools. Also to teach my students that with using the smartboard there are endless possibilities for this tech tool. I hope that when I am a future teacher I can incorporate as much technology as possible into my classroom. I hope that if I have a smartboard in my classroom that things will run smoothly when using it and if not find ways to make it work. This will help me become a better teacher because today in our society children thrive on all sorts of technology. With assignments I could have my students use the smartboard or work together on a group project and collaborate back and worth using Google Docs.

Reflection #9

What? I am learning on how to become a teacher by observing in field. I am helping out my cooperating teacher and helping the students out.

So What? This means to me as a future teacher because it will help me prepare and get more experience. We are doing this to let my fellow classmates and I to have some experience in teaching and getting a feel of what it will one day be like. One technology tool that is used in my classroom is the smartboard. I have used the tool a couple times before and love it. I hope I can practice with the tool and learn new things with it. I know that there are endless possibilities with interactive boards. This tech tool is great and has so many fun features. The kids love it! This tech tool means to my colleagues a great deal because the smartboard is interactive and every student can participate and be involved.

Now What? This tech tool means to my future students to let them know learning can be fun. You can do almost anything on the smartboard. It helps students on a whole other level. Interactive boards open many opportunities in the classroom. Interactive boards get the whole class engaged and involved. No more boring lectures or chalk all over you! Not only will the children enjoy the boards, but also parents, and faculty and staff. The boards can accomadate almost any age. I am excited to hopefully be able to have the opportunity to have an interactive in my classroom or school that I teach at. I know with out a doubt that it will benefit students in several areas. This is the future for learning! Hopefully one day all schools will be able to have this great technology tool.

Reflection #8

What? I am learning how to work effectively with my partner on our digital story. My assignment is to continue working on our digital story.

So What? This means to me as a teacher how important it is to get along with your colleagues when working on projects, lesson plans, etc. If you do not have a good relationship with your colleagues then you may not produce and deliver great results. My partner and I get along great and work great together. We are doing this so we can have somewhat of an experience of what it will be like to work with future colleagues. This technology is great because you are able to communicate back and worth with each other by using Google docs to put together your digital story.

Now What? This technology is great for my future students because they are able to show creativity with something they feel deeply about for example, a student may have a personal interest with World War II because their great-great-grandfather was in a concentration camp. If we were doing a unit on World War II this would be a meaningful assignment for this student to do. I would hope as a future teacher to incorporate digital stories into my classroom and also try my best to get along with all colleagues when working with them. This will help me become a better teacher when working with my colleagues. At times it will not be easy and sometimes my idea might not be chosen but I will have to learn that not all the time others will like my ideas. It is important to be patient and have an open mind with working with future colleagues.

Relection #7

What? I am learning about the importance of copyrights. For this assignment we are more aware of all the copyrights out there. I am able to copyright my own work through Creative Commons.

So What? This means to me as a teacher the importance of copyrights. To know not to use something when it is not copyrighted. Also it will be beneficial for me to copyright my work so someone does not steal my creations. We are doing this to be more educated in copyrights and also to one day teach our own students about copyrights. At a very young age several students plagiarize, but if we teach them about copyright sooner the numbers will hopefully decrease. When working with colleagues copyright is essential say if you were working on a unit and you did not copyright your work and a colleague used your work. They now have all the credit for the work that you did. You need to be aware of copyright. That is why there is great information out there and websites that will help you know what you can use such as creative commons.

Now What? The technology means a lot to my future students. They need to learn at a young age what copyright is and how it works. If they learn at a young age we will have less problems with copyright, as they get older. This day in our society everyone uses everyone’s work from downloading music, images or downloading papers and more it is all accessible with one simple click. I would hope that this will change me as a future teacher by letting my students know that you cant steal from other people. An assignment we can do with copyright is doing an introduction to it for example; I could assign a topic and have the student’s research on the internet on a specific site then come back to class and share. Then I would go through and see who plagiarized and begin telling about copyright. This will help me become a better teacher by teaching my students at a young age and hopefully what I teach them will have an effect on them, as they grow older. Also I will be able to learn more about copyright myself. This will help me become a better colleague by knowing whose work is who’s as well as having my colleagues know what work I have done.

Reflection #6

What? I am learning about digital stories. This week we have to fill out the storyboard which includes an idea for an image and script for that image.

So What? This means to me as a teacher a great way to organize my digital story before it comes to life. With using the storyboard it makes it easy to see how everything will play out. The great thing is that it can be easily changed at any time such as the order of the images etc. We are doing this to organize and write our ideas down before we actually start producing our digital story. If we just started our digital story without doing a rough draft it would probably not flow correctly and we would have to spend a great amount of time editing. This technology is greatly appreciated because I am a very organized person so with using the storyboard chart it is indeed beneficial! This is great with my colleagues because we can share and compare ideas we have for our digital stories if we were doing it on the same topic etc. Then we are able to get ideas from each other and come up with one final storyboard.

Now What? The storyboard will teach my future students how to put their thoughts and ideas down in an organized manner. Assignments I can give my students are introducing a topic and having them go home and get ideas for their digital story then they can come back to class and fill out a storyboard. I would hope that this would help me become a better teacher by preparing students in the process of digital stories. There is a lot of behind the scenes that make digital stories work. It is important for me to take it step by step and not to fast as we start this process of making a digital story. I want my future students to know that the sky is the limit for digital stories as long as they meet the criteria they are able to create anything!

Reflection #5 Vidcast Reflection

Jorduyn’s Day

This vidcast connects with the 2^nd grade Social Studies core curriculum Standard 2, Objective 2: Identify individuals within the school community and how they contribute to the school's success.

I chose to do this topic because of my dear friend who has lymphoma. She was diagnosed when she was fourteen years old, and her family was having financial problems. For example, her mom had to get a job to help with all the bills because her dad was not making any money selling his pieces of art. My friend has really been an inspiration to me. After seeing her positive outlook on life despite all her trials and tribulations it made me want to do something for someone else. That is when I decided to do “Jorduyn’s Day”.

This public service announcement was to help students, faculty, and the community be aware of this cancer and the trials that occur. This is also to help raise money for the family. Even if people were not able to come to the day we planned, it was to let the community and people be aware of things that are out there and ways they can help and get involved. It helps others to put aside what they may be struggling with at that particular time to help someone else, and help some other family with something that in a lot of cases, have bigger things on their plate to deal with.

In the NETS standards, this vidcast connects to the 5^th standard, which is Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership. This vidcast uses technology to promote an event allowing students and teachers to get involved and head up a project to help someone in need from the community. The teachers that are involved are able to participate in the local community and to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning not only about lymphoma but also about how to put an event like this together.

In the INTASC standards the 3^rd standard, Engaging and Supporting All Students in Learning, connects best with our vidcast. Under this standard engage families as partners in learning and accommodating individual students physical growth, connects with this vidcast in getting parents involved in learning about this type of cancer and helping the students accept someone for being different, and allowing the student with cancer to still feel comfortable at school regardless of their disability or health state.

A potential drawback that I can see is that Jorduyn’s day only happened one time and is not an ongoing event because Jorduyn may not be around forever; although, we can do this event every year, but not for a specific child. We could be able to continue this event as a lymphoma awareness charity event. All of the money raised would go to cancer research to help save children in the future. I think that it definitely is something that we will be able to refer to and brainstorm off of to get other ideas about how we can help other children or families in the community.

Reflection #4 Vidcasts

What? -We learned about vidcasts, which are video broadcasts. We are creating an educational vidcast that is 2 ½ minutes to 3 minutes long. We have several options to choose from and tools to use to create this vidcast.

So What? -This means to me as a teacher that there are several options to use to create vidcasts. You can create a vidcast with a how to video, tutorial, public service announcement and introduction to content. Also there are many tools to use such as photostory or jing. This makes it great because you can find the tool that you feel most comfortable using and create your own vidcast. When using vidcasts in your classroom they will meet many needs you want to accomplish with certain curriculum. This will be great to share with colleagues for example, say you are doing a unit on the Declaration of Independence each teacher could create and share a different vidcast to cover the unit. By doing this your colleagues and you will save time and have a variety of things to cover the unit. We are doing this to be more educated and comfortable with this tech tool more and more people are using vidcasts daily.

Now What? -This tech tool has several options for my future students. I think that they will really enjoy using this tool. Each vidcast is their own creation and they can be creative and let their personality shine. I am excited to incorporate this tool into my classroom. We can all benefit from using this tool. I think a great assignment I could have my future students do is to create a how to vidcast on the proper way to fold the American flag and to teach them flag etiquette. The tool you could use is the flip tool. I think that this will help me be a better teacher because children currently live off YouTube. They love it! Using vidcasts will be great because I can connect with my students and show them that they to can upload to YouTube. Vidcasts are truly fun for everyone!

Reflection #3 Podcasting

What? We are learning about Podcasts, which are pre-recorded files that can be broadcasted over the Internet. We are creating a Podcast that is 1-1 ½ minutes long and then uploading it to your website under tools. Becky and I created a public announcement about a girl who has cancer and ways to help raise money such as a fair.

So What? We are doing this so we can learn how to create them and also upload Podcasts. Podcasts are great in many ways. I think that they will be beneficial for kids who were sick or were on a family vacation. As a teacher I could record my lectures or the class discussions we had that certain day. With colleagues we could share information or even our lectures on specific units. This technology tool is a great tool. I think I will definitely use this in my own classroom.

Now What? Podcasting can be very beneficial to my future students if they were sick, had a death in the family etc. Podcasts can be used for lectures or just general information. It is another way for students to refresh what we did that day or if they did not understand the assignment given. For an assignment I would love to do is to create a public service announcement on a specific unit that we are doing. For example, creating an announcement about Lewis and Clark and their Expedition. This will help me to become a better teacher because I will be more educated about all the tech tools out there. I want to be able to accommodate all types of learning styles. As we get further into the semester the more I am learning about meaningful and functional tools that will help not only my students, but also my colleagues and I.

Reflection #2 Google

What?
I am learning how to sufficiently use google docs and all that is within google docs. The assignments we are performing is creating our own google site that has information about ourselves, announcements, homework, calendar, file cabinet and resources for students and parents to access. Another assignment we are preforming is gathering information for our digital story later in the semester.


So What?
This means to me as a teacher is to learn different ways to organize my life for example, using the calendar on google docs you can access it anywhere. Also the endless possibilities that google docs offers with me as a student with creating a document you will never lose it and it is a free tool. This will work great with my colleagues we will be able to share and collaborate together. We are doing this because to inform us that there are new, easy and free tools out there to help anyone if you are a teacher, student, etc. This can apply to me in all areas you do not have pay to use microsoft and can save money.This works great not only for my personal life, but school and even work. My colleagues will love this tool and all that it offers. You can do anything from sharing documents to creating online surveys and quizzes.

Now What?
They can work on assignments and projects from anywhere from their home, school or library. Also I am able to go in and see what they have been working on and am able to edit their work. My schema for Google docs has increased. Before I did not know anything about Google docs. There have been many doors that have opened up. I hope that this will change me as a teacher to let students know that there are several ways to work on things for school. I think a fun assignment that I could have my students do is to have them work on a country assigment and create like a handout they could collaboarte by finding certain information about the country such as religion, transportation, food and so much more. We are the future! It is up to us as teachers today to focus on changing the future of technology. The new technology out there is amazing and can be used in many different subject areas. I hope that when I am a teacher that I am always be willing to learn new technology tools and to be educated in all technology out there. Also I hope to encourage my colleagues if they are hesitant about trying out the new tech tools.

MY Educational Hero

As I look back on my educational heroes one that comes to mind is Mrs. Larsen. I vividly remember going to my first day of high school. I was terrified! I made it to my first class, computer tech. According to my schedule, my teacher’s name was Mrs. Angie Larsen. My teacher began going over the course syllabus and briefly telling us about her. She told the class that she was going to share a life changing experience. Angie got in a severe car accident her freshman year of college that has impacted her life ever since. Angie’s face was contorted as she slammed into the windshield. Glass went flying everywhere, and she had several cuts in her forehead. Her right kneecap was shattered and later removed. Angie had a compound fracture in her tibia; she broke her fibula in two places and her ankle in three. Her abdomen hit the bottom of the steering wheel which almost resulted in her liver splitting into two pieces. Angie’s abdomen was a ¼ inch away from her main artery, however if her main artery had split she would have bled to death.

Throughout my life I will be faced with challenging trials or simple daily problems, I need to try my best to have a positive outlook on what may come in my way. Times will be hard, but I will have to hang in there and give the situation all that I have. My family and friends will be there to help me along when I am down. I had Mrs. Larsen all three years during high school. She was not only my teacher but also a dear friend of mine. Mrs. Larsen has become an inspiration to me over the years and has made a huge impact on my life. I will never forget that day sitting in class hearing about her life changing experience. I need to remember to enjoy every minute of life and tell the people in my life that I love them. Honestly, you never know what life will throw at you and if there is anything I have learned from Angie it is to achieve the goals and dreams that you want to accomplish, and try your hardest to truly live your life to the fullest.