Week 15 Reflection

This has been a very busy week trying to finalize all the last minute projects for the end of the semester. My partner and I communicated back and forth over cell phones, email, and Google documents to finish up our teacher work sample. That was a huge amount of work. I saved the TWS in numerous different places because I wouldn’t want to loose it and have to redo it. I have lost information when computers die and it is not a pretty sight. My laptop of six years finally died, but never fear, I was prepared by saving files on two different computers. Windows 2007 and Vista are becoming more familiar to me as I have had to start using them on a new laptop. In addition, I have used technology to communicate with family, friends, and professors this week. I have done some research for final projects on the internet. The most valuable piece of technology that I have learned to use this semester in Instructional Media would be the ability to work on and share documents with others through Google documents. I don’t know why any other instructors haven’t suggested it before, it would have been so helpful with all the group work we have done in the past. In class, I enjoyed trying out everyone’s Webquests. It was interesting to see what others had thought of. I look forward to the final, when we will be able to watch the digital stories.

I watched the video Do You Believe In Me? and was impressed that the young man was able to get up in front of 20,000 people and deliver a speech. Dalton Sherman, a young man of about 12 was the keynote speaker at the back-to-school convocation in Texas. He gave a motivational speech to school personnel. He said that he has confidence in his abilities because they believed in him. He said they better believe in the students because they would all be showing up in their classrooms next week. He said they better not give up on them because in many cases they were all they had. He asked the audience to believe in, trust in, and lean on their colleagues. He asked the audience to believe in themselves and to believe that every child needs to be ready for college or the workplace. He told the audience they had the most important job in the city. I was impressed with this young man and hope that each day I will be able to believe in the students in my future classrooms and give them the confidence they need to succeed.

Week 14 Reflection

Okay, I'm going to try again to load my gabcast. I think I might be able to do it this time. Otherwise, I will try something else new. This week our pod was able to finish up our webquest. Working together, we were able to get it looking great! Well, here's my last attempt at gabcast!

Gabcast! Media Blog #1



Success! I have attached the gabcast!

I watched the video Schoolhouse Rock - A Noun is a Person, Place, or Thing and it reminded me of when I was a little girl watching Saturday morning cartoons. I loved Schoolhouse Rock! It is amazing to me that it is around more than 30 plus years ago. That just shows that good things last forever!

Week 13 Reflection

Well, I have tried three different times to connect my gabcast to this week's reflection and it hasn't worked yet. I used up my five free minutes so if I want to try again, I will need to pay for this experience. The cost seems to be rising as I have already expended my time and patience on this type of technology. Apparently, with this particular form of technology I have been unable to navigate through the "shark infested" waters on my way to "Success Island." In the past, when I have been able to observe what I am to do and then I am able to try it on my own I have been successful. Without any idea of what to do for a gabcast, my results seem to be just be just the opposite, failure.

On a much more cheery note, this week during my field experience I have used various forms of technology. I put the finishing touches on a PowerPoint presentation I had created about the differences between gothic and Romanesque architecture use in cathedrals during the Middle Ages. I spent a great deal of time refining lesson plans with my partner as we prepared a print and digital copy for our cooperating teacher. My partner and I sent a huge amount of time communicating through chat, email, and working on shared documents. In addition, I spent time submitting my technology interview and communicating with other students in the program to finish up our web quest and a presentation for a creative arts methods class.

I have found that I depend quite heavily on internet research when I am learning about topics and creating lesson plans. It must have been very different for educators when the internet was not available. They must have taken most of their information from textbooks. Research must have taken place in the libraries instead of in the comfort of your own home. While creating my teacher work sample, I have remembered to save it in several different locations. I would hate to loose all of my hard work. Learning about shared documents and groups has been my most valuable tool I used daily in my educational experience.

Anyway, I have had three technology filled weeks during my field experience. I will miss the teacher and students we have been observing, but I am ready to finish up the semester so I can get busy in my garden!

Week 12 Reflection

This week I spent a great deal of time on the internet researching different aspects of the Middle Ages. I found it interesting that on a given topic you can find two completely differing views from what I would think are reliable sites. One example of this I found during my research into the Crusades. I came upon some interesting information concerning the Children’s Crusades. Several sources on the internet claim that two different children’s crusades were led by young twelve year old boys which led thousands of children on a holy crusade. Several other sites state that this information is untrue. Another example of differing opinions concerned the children’s rhyme of Ring Around the Rosy. Several sites claim that this rhyme was made up at the time of the bubonic plague to describe what happened to plague victims. Other sites state that this is completely false and that the rhyme is simply a rhyme with no meaning at all. Dr. Ramirez suggested that the way to present this information is to state that there are differing opinions on these topics.

Fortunately, the sixth grade classroom where I am completing my field experience has an overhead projector and a laptop connected to projector. However, both of these technologies are on rolling carts which make it highly improbable to use them at the same time. While preparing a lesson on the Silk Route for the students, I realized that it would be very useful to have a projector that was attached to the ceiling of the classroom. I gave the students a map and a chart to record different goods traded along the Silk Route and I wrote the items on a chart I used on the overhead projector. However, I also created a PowerPoint presentation with a slide show of the different cities and landscape along the Silk Route which would have been a nice addition to the lesson to give them a visual representation of the route. If I were to do this lesson again, on one day I would take the students on a virtual field trip along the Silk Route through my PowerPoint presentation. On a following lesson, I would use the overhead projector to record the student responses of the goods traded along the route. I think the most optimal situation would be to have a smart board, I bet you could record information right along with showing the slide show. I will need to research into this, as I believe it would be extremely useful in the classroom.

Week 11 Reflection

This week during my field experience, I found several uses of technology in the classroom. The teacher emails, takes role and lunch count, does research, uses programs in the classroom, and has the students take tests in the computer lab. The students spend two days a week in the computer labs with the goal of having one half hour of typing and one half hour learning new technology. The first thing Monday morning, the teacher had the students go into to computer lab and take a computerized test on planets. I had the opportunity to help a student by reading the questions and answers aloud to assist her in taking the test. One afternoon, the teacher used the Starry Night program to enhance the classroom discussion on constellations which was part of their current science curriculum. Through this technology, the students had a much better understanding of the way the constellations moved around the North star in the sky than if the teacher has tried to explain it.

During the week, I had the opportunity to speak with one of the computer technicians and gather some interesting information about the technology philosophy at the school. They students go to the computer labs twice a week for one half hour each. During one lab time, the students spend the time practicing typing. Once the students were finished with their typing drills, they were able to get on their email or play games. I found it interesting that each student has an email through the school. During the other lab time, the technician teaches the students different programs. It was interesting to me that next week the students are going to begin using Movie Maker to make digital stories. I asked the technician about this and she said she had recently been to a district training in which she was trained to use Movie Maker and now she now planned on teaching it to the students. This district has training for computer technicians four times a year.

I used a PowerPoint presentation I had created on the geography of Europe in my first lesson I gave to the class. My partner and I used a web quest we had found on the Middle Ages to introduce the student to people of medieval times. Our cooperating teacher told us a trick that she uses to facilitate getting the students to the right site. Through experience she had learned that it was easier to email the link to each of the students because inevitably the students have a problem typing in the link no matter how simple it is. The following day, that is exactly what we did and it was much easier for the students as they did not need to spend a great deal of time trying to get to the right site.

From my experiences in the classroom this week I found that the students were very skilled in their use of technology. I was impressed with the computer technician’s willingness to learn new technology and immediately expose the student to it as well. I thought it was really neat that all the students had email and could sent emails to their friends and that the teacher could use it to help facilitate learning. I am continuing to make additional lessons in which I will incorporate technology as I found the students are very sophisticated in their use of technology. It was very interesting to see the different ways technology is being used daily in the classroom.

Week 10 Reflection

This week, I have been busy using many forms of technology in preparation for my field experience. I have been emailing a few professors, my cooperating teacher, and my field partner getting ready for the upcoming field experience. I have been surfing the web, looking for reliable websites to learn all I can about the Middle Ages. I have been creating and sharing lesson plans with my partner. I have been creating PowerPoint presentations on feudalism and medieval architecture. I have been looking for an appropriate webquest for my students to complete; and the week is not even over yet. As I prepare, I try to keep in mind if I am truly creating technology rich lessons. Am I using technology to inspire the students I will be teaching? Are the sites I am considering really interactive educational sites? Will they be of benefit to the students? I hope I will make wise choices that will inspire the students and help them learn.

Although I watched the video We Didn’t Start the Fire and I enjoyed it, today while watching the NBC News they referenced a video created by students at Village Academy High School in Pomona, California. They are students in Mr. Michael Steinman’s advanced placement language arts class. As part of their studies they had been reading The Great Gatsby about the American dream. Mr. Steinman asked how the students were doing in this economy. Every student had something to say. As a class they talked and did many writing assignments and then they decided to create the video. The experiences they relate are very emotional, so emotional in fact that President Obama mentioned them in a speech on March 10th and actually paid a visit to the classroom today, March 19th. This is an example of an authentic use of technology in the classroom that made some very important people see the economic crisis from the eyes of teens. I recommend watching it. Is Anybody Listening? A testament by Village Academy High School Students on the Economic Crisis can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WMTTrOrKVI.

Week 9 Reflection

Here is the voki I created to speak for me.