Boys' Stories

Ryan: Ryan the Brave Saves Everyone from the Dragon

Josiah: The Enchanted Prince Tries to Save the Princess

Quinlan: Space Story

Reflection #7: Students Reading Books for Podcasts

Josiah:

Ryan:

Quinlan:

To encourage the boys that I nanny to read, I told them that I would record them and put them on my blog. It was great incentive! I told them that I've had people from different countries and different states look at the blog and that got them really excited. It made for a good geography lesson in the midst of reading. Someone from California looked at the blog. My boys have family in CA, so they really connected to that--got them really excited.

I would like to be able to do this more--maybe next time they'll have to practice a little more to be more confident in their reading skills. I would really like to help Quinn know that he knows the words--almost all of them!--he just need to be confident, and patient, enough to read them.

I am excited for what this can mean for future students! (And my boys!)

Assignment #4: Technology Project Plan

I have set up a webpage (www.MissSmith.webs.com) to keep parents and students up to date with the happenings of the class. The site has a plethora of tabs including a calendar, a gradebook, an assignments list, news, resources, and photos among others. I will post weekly learning objectives, assignments, large projects and materials needed, special class events, school events, and other important information on the webpage. I will create a few mock assignments to demonstrate how it works and I will do the same with the online gradebook that I have created that is linked to the webpage.

I chose to do this because I need organization and these two sites are a simple way to keep me organized and all of my information in one locale. I think that students will also benefit from this because they are from the technologically rich world. It's what they know, how they think, what they play with, and how they communicate. by having something online that they can access for a calendar or grades, I believe that students will be able to stay on track more easily. Because of the world that my students come, one that can download or upload anything, anytime, anywhere, I think that this is the best way to keep in touch on a regular basis outside of the classroom.

Follow Up

www.MissSmith.webs.com

I added a million tabs to my site that involve all the stuff that I could think up at the moment. I am 100% certain that I will think of more when I actually get into the classroom, but the site is so easy to manage, that that will not be a problem.

I think that it will be very useful to me. It keeps all my ducks in, at the very least, the same pond if not the same row. I think that it will be helpful in communicating with parents.

My project promotes NETs 3 and 4 for teachers because through this I am demonstrating how to use technology and I am encourage my students to become users of the technology as well as helping them use it properly. Also, it promotes student NETs 5 and 6 because it encourages students to be familiar with the technology world as well as learning more about how it works.

Week Six: Generation IM

Article: Generation IM

I think the part about Wikipedia was pretty funny. We used to use encyclopedias to do our research, now we start with Wikipedia, do some more research, and come back to Wikipedia to add or change the content that we started with. That's an amazing ability and function. Not only are our young people able to access a vast array of information, but they also are able to become "experts," or at least those with knowledge, in the subject area.

"In a digital age, we simply cannot measure a child’s knowledge through an isolated, fact-driven standardized test." We don't need to know things the way we used to. We used to need to know facts to be able to function. Easy things like math, to calculate the new price after a sale; or (from a Christian school grad) Scriptures; or measurements, to figure distances or make a double batch of cookies; or where a state or country is located geographically; or even how to spell. Now, if we didn't store that in our minds somewhere, we carry devices that can look it up and tell us in moments. Our students are learning differently than ever before. They are being taught that they don't need "useless" information, and so are not storing it. Now, we're teaching our students how to critically analyze information that they look up or find. Not how to store what we give them as absolute in their own minds.

“We need kids to think about problems in innovative and creative ways. We need to change the emphasis of education to focus on higher-order kinds of thinking." I think that this is a powerful, true, statement. Lately, it seems that all I hear is how poorly our students are doing educationally; but perhaps that's because of how we're teaching them, and what we're teaching them. Maybe if we taught them how to deal with the world that they will face, not the one we used to face or wish we could face, we would all be better off. But then we run into the fact that there's simply not enough time for teachers to learn about the ways to use and incorporate technology and teach the subject matter effectively. Teachers simply cannot do everything.

I really liked their tips for incorporating technology into the classroom, so here are my notes on that.

Seven Ways to Bring Technology into Your Classroom:

1. Have your students blog

• Easier than a webpage
• Send work to grandparents
• Authentic audience
• Edublogs (free!)
• - Classroom blog site
• Classblogmeister (free!)
• - Classroom blog site

2. Create a social network

• Connect over shared interests
• Respect
• Elgg (free!)
• - Create your own social network (your own class FB)
• Ning (free!)
• - Create your own social network

3. Podcast

• Share research
• Audacity (free!)
• - Edit digital sound files that students record
• Mac users: Garage Band
• - Editing software
• Gabcast (free!)
• - Create a podcast via a phone call to an 800 number

4. Use wikis for big projects

• Better than a blog for separating lots of info into different pages
• Collaborative projects made easy
• Wikispaces (free for now)
• - Easy to create and manage webpages

5. Try social bookmarking

• Share online resources
• Students, teachers, parents, etc.
• Delicious (free!)
• - Bookmarking site

6. Post video

• Video discussions
• Can link to all parents!
• Animoto (free or subscription)
• - Video editing
• TeacherTube (free!)
• - Online video storage
• Avidemux (free!)
• - Video editing
• VirtualDub (free???)
• - Video editing

7. Explore with google maps

• Track Odysseus's journey
• Find major buildings for Beijing Olympics and create models using SketchUp
• SketchUp (free!)
• - Architecture program