Reflection

When I was younger and asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always wanted to do something like be a fire fighter or police officer. It was always something exciting that helps other people. I still have those same desires more than 18 years down the road. I want to be an Educator! I know teachers are usually thought of as someone willing to "baby sit" a bunch of rowdy kids all day for not much pay, and when compared to that of a police officer, it looks like you end up with the short end of the stick. However, I am here to tell you how this can be one of the most exciting and rewarding careers. As I learn to use today's technology to aid me in the classroom, my abilities become endless. The image of a teacher standing at a chalkboard and lecturing for a full hour as the students are daydreaming still haunts schools across the nation. It seems that as new technology is added to the curriculum, teachers are still finding ways to make it just as dull and mundane as their previous lectures. The time has come for teaching to not be so much about the teacher's ability to keep 35 students quiet for an hour and administer mandatory tests, but it is time that the learning is given to the students to find out how they will learn best.

Dr. Debra Sprague and Dr. Chris Dede stated in their article titled, Constructivism in the classroom, if I teach This Way am I Doing it Right, "As teachers, we are taught to believe that learning takes place in a quiet and orderly setting. Activities in which students are taking an active role and sharing information with each other make for noisy classrooms." This is what is generally thought to be true in a classroom. But I want you to think back on your schooling. Which of your teachers do you remember the most? What information can you still remember from that class? I can tell you which teachers they are. They were the teachers that were not afraid to step outside of the box and try new activities, and because of that you enjoyed learning. I know it can look or sound crazy in a classroom that is trying interactive activities. I know that it is important that students know how to show respect and there will be times that they will need to sit quietly and observe. However, I feel that far too often we as teachers are simply too scared to try something new because we don't know how it will result.

Another article I read this year was about a teacher using Twitter in a second-grade classroom, something considered to be very controversial. The only reason that it is considered to be controversial is because the traditional style of learning has a hard time evolving. I would like to make it clear that any technology used in a wrong way can cross lines of moral standards and values, and that is why it is so important that we teach these students how to use technology for good and not bad. A police officer, just as a teacher, is equipped with tools that can help him or her do their job properly. For me as a teacher, I do not have to worry about handcuffing my students if they do not participate, but I should worry about whether they are learning in my class or not. This is one of the ways that teachers are able to use a program such as twitter as a great tool in the classroom. "Teaching writing is very difficult, but it's an essential skill. It's how we communicate primarily as humans. And more and more so with the digital world. Because most of our communication is through writing."( Mrs. White, 2nd grade teacher)

During this semester I have found it difficult to pay attention in many of my classes because I am thinking of how much better the class could be with the use of some the technologies that I have learned in my Technology Integration class. I will admit that I was the type of child, and still to this day, that if something does not intrigue me, I have a hard time following the instruction. I know that it can be a challenge to find a style of teaching that every student will be able to benefit from, but I am willing to take that challenge. As I have read many of the articles that have been assigned this semester, I have better understood how I can use tools that even I, felt had no place in the classroom. Tools like cell phones, social networking, and interactive websites can be huge benefits to classrooms, and we as teachers should look for ways that we can incorporate them into the everyday classroom.

This semester I have greatly enjoyed leaning all of the free and inexpensive technologies that are out there at our finger tips. So much is available to us and all we have to do is use them. For example I found on line a neat tool called the "Wii-mote White board" invented by Johnny Lee. It is an interactive smart board made using the Nintendo Wii controller and a homemade pen. It was very simple to use and allows a teacher to have state of the art technologies at a small fraction of the cost. There are infinite amounts of these types of tools out there that are already invented; you just have to be resourceful and not afraid to try new things.

In conclusion, I feel that the time for change is now. Not from bad to good, but from good to better! It is easy to settle into a routine like Mr. Edmund from the article quoted earlier, "who had given the same lecture on this day for the past nine years." It is time that teachers are giving to students skills that they will need in their everyday lives. I want to be the teacher that is remembered! I want to be the teacher that is equipped to with the tools necessary to be a 21st century teacher! I am the future!



References



Bell, R.(March 12, 2009). Today's Living on 'Today's THV at 5': Twittering 2nd-Graders. Retrieved May 11, 2010 from http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=81577&catid=2

Sprague, D., Dede, C. (1999 ). Constructivism in the classroom: If I teach this way, am I doing my job? LLT, 27(1) 6-11. Retrieved May 11, 2010

Week 4

Both of these Documents give their points of how we have not really changed anything in the way we teach with relation to technology. We want our students to be the best learners possible and then we drag them into a class that has not use of creativity. There are limitless possibilities that can be done with technology, and it seems like we have not used any of them. It is time for a change to technology.

https://myasucourses.asu.edu/@@CA892E3F51DE2698C390405B89D5D493/courses/1/2010Spring-T-TEL313-23125-23144-23310-24545/content/_3125167_1/Lemke%5b1%5d.pdf

https://myasucourses.asu.edu/@@CA892E3F51DE2698C390405B89D5D493/courses/1/2010Spring-T-TEL313-23125-23144-23310-24545/content/_3125166_1/Then_Now_draft.doc

Week 6

This article gives a list of the top 10 tools for students to use as they are in school to help them be more proficient and resourceful.
http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23898

This is another article about using Twitter and other social networking in class to help engage the students in the lessons. I like the way that some of these schools are applying new technology, even with older teachers.

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=81577&catid=2

Week 12

This is a great sight for teachers to use that has a wealth of information and tools for teachers to use for teaching a wide variety of History lessons. It is also very well set up and easy to use.
www.Teachinghistory.org

This site has a great amount of material that is very applicable to the classroom. it covers everything form digital imaging to accommodating to students with disabilities, and other needed information for integrating technology in the classroom. Enjoy.

http://www.uoregon.edu/~tep/technology/multimedia/docs/digitalimages.pdf

Week 11

The first site is a great tool to use for keeping up with technology and seeing how the newest online attractions are being used to make educational material. Great for use in the classroom. The second is an easy to use search engine that you can look up valid information.

Links:
http://www.americanhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html

http://www.twhistory.com/

This is a great website that offers tips and guidelines for making videos. It is a great recourse if you are working on a digital story and want to learn how ti record better.
Readings:
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/interviews/

Here is also a link to a PDF that goes over very good rules to follow when making a visual aid.

https://myasucourses.asu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_113860_1%26url%3d

Week 8

The articles for this week I really enjoyed. I don't know how many times I have heard and maybe have even used before the phrase "but I read" talking about a specific topic and us that as their proof of knowledge on the subject. The internet is an incredible tool and there is a lot of useful information, but it is so important to look into anything that is "proving" a point, because it is not always going to give you valid information. I agree with these articles.

Links:
-http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating/

-https://myasucourses.asu.edu/@@CA892E3F51DE2698C390405B89D5D493/courses/1/2010Spring-T-TEL313-23125-23144-23310-24545/content/_3125163_1/I_Read_It_on_the_Computer-1.pdf

-https://myasucourses.asu.edu/@@CA892E3F51DE2698C390405B89D5D493/courses/1/2010Spring-T-TEL313-23125-23144-23310-24545/content/_3125164_1/HarrisSeek_Strategically.pdf

Week 7

This week I have read a few articles on using social networking sites like Facbook or twitter in the classroom to aid learning. I feel that this could be a very good tool as long as it is used properly. There are so many ways that we can use the technology around us, we just have to take that first step into the dark and try it out.

Links:
-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080620133907.htm
-http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/
-https://myasucourses.asu.edu/@@CA892E3F51DE2698C390405B89D5D493/courses/1/2010Spring-T-TEL313-23125-23144-23310-24545/content/_3125177_1/socialnetworkNSBA.pdf

week 13

I first visited the Educaators Reference Desk. This is a great site for any teacher, giving a great data base of lesson plans and topic related resources. It is a great thing that there are sites that help save time to not have to be searching all over the web.

I visited americanhetoric.com and found it to be a useful search engine for finding anything from famos speaches to car insurance. This is a quick way to find related websites and cordinate your ideas.

Week 10

Well I visited both http://www.thistory.com/ and http://www.imaginationcubed.com/ The first is a company that makes videos for special occasions or tributes and could be used for a fun video of teaching avbout each years classes. The imagination site allows for you and others to draw on the screen and you can interact with others to be able to creat a project.

Week 9 websites

I am blogging tonight about a couple of the teacher sites for the class. I went onto Voki.com, toondoon.com and sketch.odpod.com. These were all very fun interactive sites and I really enjoyed them. I found the odsketch site to be very creative and fun. I really want to try it out with my Wiimote smart board. I think that it can be a creative way to draw digitally. The other sites were good but take a little more practice to use.

Week 5

Well I know I am behind in these but here is my week 5 post. So as I went over the articles and the video I really thought a lot about how I need to prepare myself to be digitally literate to help teach the 21st century learners. There is a lot that we need to still work on to "manage" how we use technology, but it is very important to do. I think that one of the things that we as teachers need to do is meet the students on their level of technology, but also teach them how to use their resources wisely as well as their time. We can not just let them loose or they will be strangled in all of the technical ropes out there. We still have a lot to learn!

IDEAL

This web sight "ideal.azed.gov" is an excellent resourse as well as information both for teachers to use in and out of hte classroom. I really like how it has a wide variety of information and different workshops that can be uses by the teacher. It also has a wonderful way to network with otehr teachers and share ideas. The site also has links to other website that can be of help. I feel that there will be a great tool as I prepare myself for the classroom!

I checked out the BrainPop Web sight and found it very useful. I really enjoy the information that they have available and the way in which it is presented. It is sights like these that can help the learning proses in the classroom. I love informative videos and so do most students. I watched the video on Abraham Lincoln and really enjoyed it.

I read the article

"Students Say They Have to ‘Power Down’ When They Enter Schools"

I like a lot of what is said here. I am a big time user of technology, and feel that it has a big role to play in the lives of 21st century learners. It is a tough battle between what can and can't be used in the classroom. I am kind of torn on this article, because they do need to have discipline and not have too lax of a policy regarding when and how they use their technology. For example, almost any job that they take, they are not going to be able to use all of their technology. They will have to put away their phones, or computers, or what ever and use only authorize items. If we let them do these things in school it is going to create a lot more chaos in the work world. It is a fine line of what to do, but I feel there does need to still be limitations at times during the day to prepare them for the real world. I am not throwing out this idea, but it needs more than just allowing for a technology free for all, and needs a better structured way for them to incorporate technology!

Why?

I have created this blog to find out what teachers across America are using in the classroom to increase learning. I have a few creative options of my own but would love to see other's are using as well!