CED535 Week 1

This class should be interesting. I do not currently have a WIKI that my students look at, or a blog for them. I have concerns about these types of communication. I know that our administration does not want us encouraging our children to sign up for an email, or other kinds of Internet sites. I guess my boss is worried that if something happens the school would be responsible. While reading one of the assigned chapters for this week, I was happy to read that statistics are low for incidents with children. I guess I'm interested to learn how to use these sites for educational purposes, in a middle school setting. It's not that I don't think it can be done, or useful. These sites are new to me and I don't know how to use them yet.......but hey.........that is why I signed up for this program. I know my students would enjoy doing these types of activities, but I need to learn how to do it and make sure it's safe for them. My other concern is time. I feel like we are learning great things, but they seem to be time consuming. I guess it'll become easier with time, but right now I feel overwhelmed. Last........ I just worry about putting my students names, pictures, or videos on the Internet. I still don't feel like anything is "safe". I need some convincing! Hopefully these are all concerns that will no longer be on my mind when we finish.

CED530 Week 5

Well.........
Almost done with another class!! I'm going to be very--- happy when I get the Pecha Kucha out of the way. I just looked at the rubric and realized, I need to go back and re-work it a little. I'm sick of looking at it to be honest!! I have an issue with talking (I am a teacher haha) so this 20 seconds per slide is torture. I feel like I can't get my point across in that short of time. But........... I'm really excited to make a Christmas animoto! Unfortunately I STILL have not gotten confirmation on my account :( so the animoto will only be 30 seconds.

The rubric assignment peeked my attention the most this week. I just got home from a 2 day convention about differentiated assessment. Rick Wormeli was the presenter and he did a phenomenal job! We talked about rubrics for a little while, but he has a great deal of information in his books that I have. I'm going to take the information from his books, as well as our class and see what I come up with. I am familiar with rubrics, but I don't use them as much as I should.

CED530 Week 4

Last week, I really enjoyed doing the 30 second Animoto. (I'm waiting for my educator account still) Even though I only made a 30 second one, I thought it was really cool!!! Out of all the things we have done in this program so far, I loved this site. I had so many ideas going through my head. We have a science/social studies fair coming up in March, so I'm going to use the Animoto for the presentations. I'm also going to use it for my personal photos as well.
Thoughts for this week......
I think Prezi looks cool. I have an account I just haven't had time to explore yet. I'm just excited to get to the actual presentations. Sorry Louis, but I'm not a fan of papers and citing sources in APA. That's why I didn't want to be an English teacher. hahaha No offense if you read this
Overall, these past two weeks have gotten me excited about presentations. But......I'm still unsure how the Pecha Kucha is going to go. That should be interesting. I'm sure I can do it, but I really like to talk! My students wish I wouldn't talk as much as I do.
I really liked the book Presentaion Zen and I will definitely refer back to it in the future.

CED530 Week 3

I'm still not sure if I like the whole idea of voicethread. I don't like the way my voice sounds when I play it back. I would rather just talk through my presentation. I do like the whole idea of zen with presentations, but I'm not buying into voicethread. I would rather create a zen presentation and talk my way through it.
I can't believe how bad my power points are!! I really realized this week how much they parallel all the things you shouldn't do. WOW!!! Oh well, that is why I'm in this program. I love the stories that we have been watching. I feel that every class and every new concept I learn have been great. I'm excited to use these teaching tools in my lessons. I'm kind of worried about the Pecha Kucha though. I like to talk and I don't know if I can contain myself to small amounts of time per slide. I guess we will wait and see. I don't really have a choice I guess. haha

CED530 Week 2

The voice threads and digital story telling are going to be interesting. The voice threads are cool because they can be used for so many different ways in the classroom. One of the thoughts that popped in my mind about voice threads, is the ability to give directions on them. If I have a project that I have done for years with my students, I can make a voice thread for it. This way the students can see and hear the directions on the Smartboard. They can see what the outcome is going to be as well. I like the idea of allowing them to hit a button on the board to hear the directions again. I wont have to repeat myself a thousand times.......maybe. haha
I think there are so many options with voice threads and I'm excited to get started. Although, don't like the sound of my voice when I hear it on a recording!!!! I don't know if I'm going to like that part.

CED530 Week 1

I'm really excited about this class. I think it's going to be fun creating work for digital story telling. HOW COOL! This is so funny-----I thought I was the queen of presentations for my classes. I thought they were so ........... cool, engaging, fun, interactive........but after doing some of the homework and readings we were assigned, I now realize that I was wrong. HA HA
I admit to using PowerPoint presentation in my classroom. I thought it was a great tool and the kids seem to enjoy it. I make sure I add games, links, movie clips and pictures to my presentations. One thing I found very interesting and my mind keeps going back to it, is that the left side of the brain is emotional, musical, and moody and the left side is dexterity, facts and hard data. Thus, you can wreck the communication process if your not using logical information. Makes sense, but I never really gave it that deep of thought.

CED525 Week 5 Strategies

Generating and Testing Hypothesis
When people see these words they think of science class. This strategy should be used in every classroom and not just in the science rooms. This strategy makes students think deeper about the concept, or lesson that is going to be taught. The book gave the example of historical investigation for social studies. Students construct hypothesis about historical events for which there is no agreed-upon resolution. I love this activity because my students can discuss their thoughts, listen to other students thoughts and build a great discussion. Sometimes this can even lead into a debate. My students love doing debates, so this strategy always seems to bring an exciting class period. Overall, this is a great strategy for seeing what your students already know and what they need to learn from you.

CED525 Class 4 Homework & Practice

I was very interested in chapter 10, homework & practice. I think too many teachers assign homework for the wrong reasons. The book stated that "homework should provide opportunities for students to deepen their understanding of the content and gain proficiency with their skills". I see teachers giving homework, just to give it. It's busy work that doesn't have a great deal of relevance. Teachers who give crossword puzzles drive me crazy! Why? What is the true assessment? I personally think it's simply busy work. I'd hope that most teachers in the profession have moved past this type of homework. It needs reinforce and deepen the understanding of the content presented. Students need a reason to do homework and they should feel like their learning from it. Design homework that clearly tells the purpose and outcome. I think the students have a right to know why their doing it. I believe that students should be able to see the learning objectives and overall outcome of the unit, or lesson being studied. This gives them an idea of where they are starting and where they need to go. Mastering a skill takes time and a large amount of practice. Not just any type of practice, or review, but meaningful practice. This chapter was full of great ideas and ways to enhance assessment while using technology. The last point I wanted to make was on the amount of homework children get. I always feel bad hearing parents tell "horror" stories about homework. Most of the time the teacher could have prevented such situations. Busy work not only burdens and hinders a childs learning, or want to learn, but it puts a strain on parents. I hear stories time and time again of parents sitting at the kitchen table for hours with their crying child. They talk about their child "shutting down" and not being able to finish the homework. Well, I would shut down as well if I had to do 50 math problems that were ALL the same. I agree with drill and practice, but where do we draw the line for our children? I don't mean to pick on math teachers, but that was a common example of this problem. The bottom line is that we need to make our objectives clear to our students. Make sure they know the purpose of the work. I wouldn't want to do a bunch of work for no reason, so why should they.

CED525 Week 3 (strategies)

Since I'm a Social Studies teacher, I was really interested in chapter 6; Summarizing and Note Taking. Note taking is a skill and there is nothing more frustrating than middle school children who don't know the first thing about taking notes. I don't blame the students, but the teachers need to guide them through this process early on. I remember writing as fast as I could when I was in school. I didn't want to miss a thing my teacher said. My hand would hurt and I feel like I missed a great deal of the material. Looking at all the different ways for students to take notes, I don't think any student should have a sore hand. Organizing information and summarizing the main ideas is what is important. I love using KWL charts because they tell me what my students know, want to know and last what they learned. It's simple, but effective. I was excited to see all the different, but effective and engaging sites that were listed in this chapter. I find that my students get bored with the KWL charts. The charts work in favor, but can also hinder my lesson. Students seem to shut down at times when they see me handing them out. On the other hand, they also know the expectation of the sheet and that is a plus. I will definately be trying some new sites that we talked about in class, as well as the ones listed in the book. Another strategy that we talked about was cooperative learning. I could go on and on about cooperative learning. I love it! I think it's the best tool for a teacher to take advantage of. I do a project every year about mummies, tombs, and ancient Egyptians. I choose groups for my students to work in and complete a large project. I like to mix my groups with children with all different talents. I strongly believe in the multiple intelligences, so I base my lessons and groups off of that theory. Some students love the research paper and writing, where as others enjoy putting together a slide show presentation. The artistic students love the part of the project where they use cardboard and tin foil to re-create the cover of a tomb. Last, you always have that student in the group who organizes the flow of everything. It works great and there are many smiles on their faces when I walk around the room. When I let them pick their own groups it's a mess. There is a lot of goofing around and social hour. I'm loving these new tools and hearing what other people do in their classroom.

CED525

CED525 Class 2

The strategies we studied this week are a great reminder of what educators need to focus on. I think at times we find ourselves moving into a routine and not always thinking our lessons through. Why would a student want to do the work, if they don't understand what the objecctives, or what the purpose is? Setting objectives helps the students understand the direction of the learning, along with short and long term accomplishments. I asked my students to answer some Social Studies questions on an online survey I had created. I used survey monkey to poll the students. I wanted to get an idea of what they knew, wanted to know and what they found difficult, about learning history. It worked really well and they took the questions serious. I explained that the answers they gave would dictate what they would learn this year. In a way I actually allowed them to set their own objectives on what they wanted to learn in my class. I put the results of the survey on my Smart-board, so they could all see. I really like my students to be involved in the classroom decisions and taking an active role in their learning. In our book chapter 2 had great ways to give feedback. Communication and feedback also helps build that bridge of respect between the teacher and student. Praising and showing your students recognition is also an important key to building a mutual respect. Without respect your student will not use their potential to the fullest in your class. I don't care how great of a teacher you are.

CED525A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of teaching and learning

The introduction to this article talked about the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. I've had a great deal of mixed emotions about that act for years. The act is placing a new emphasis on research and having evidence based programs for schools. Honestly, my initial thought after reading that sentence was "why". I thought to myself, why would we need all this research and evidence to show that students learn better through technology. I just thought that was common knowledge and didn't require all these fancy case studies. I liked the paragraph that stated technology is dramatically different in schools today, than years ago. Well...... yes I would have to agree and state that evidence is clear, without research. Our cell phones are also our computers, navigational devices, media players and so on. I did think some of the results of the studies were very informative and useful for educators. I strongly believe in group work and one of the results of this article, reinforced the importance of it. It stated " small-group learning had more positive effects than individual learning" when using technology. I think that more and more research will be done and needs to be done on technology and it's effects in schools. We must use the research to make our schools a safe, engaging, and a technologically based environment. So, I understand the need for all the case studies, but I also think that we don't need to do studies on the "obvious". That is strictly my opinion. I know that this type of research is only going to help me be a better educator. Overall, I thought this article was interesting and informative with all the studies that were conducted.

CED525 Principles of Teaching and Learning

This article reinforced the "goal" an educator strives to achieve. Knowing how your students learn and being able to teach based on their needs. Throughout my teaching career thus far, I have strive to focus on the multiple intelligences and how students learn. Meeting our students "needs" in the classroom is the key to their success. I found many statements and facts throughout this article, that made me reevaluate my teaching style.
"Students’ prior knowledge can help, or hinder learning". I found that statement very interesting. The information you present to a child is only relevant if they filter and interpret the information correctly. Sounds self explanatory, but is it really? Every child learns and perceives information differently. " We cannot control the developmental process, we can shape the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical aspects of classroom climate in developmentally appropriate ways". Educators need to focus on direct instruction, feedback, assessment, and other communication tools. Feedback is not only important for students, but for teachers as well. Teachers need to take the feedback their given and adapt and make the appropriate changes, to enhance student learning. Feedback should be used to help a teacher develop and enhance their teaching style.
Effective teaching involves aligning the three major components of instruction: learning objectives, assessments, and instructional activities.

CED520 End of Week 3

Well.......this class flew by like all the others. I have enjoyed this it as much as the others. I'm excited about the internet tools we just learned about. I just love the idea of publishing work and being able to access it from anywhere, especially my phone. The new tools were interesting and full of fresh ideas. WOW---- I still can't believe all the things I'm learning. I guess I'm a geek and love school!!!! haha

CED520 Second Class

I'm really enjoying this class. I'm looking forward to learning about Wikipedia this week. I haven't done the homework yet, but I'm most excited for that assignment. I don't allow my student to use this site while doing work for my class. I have found in the past that information was not correct. That was years ago though. It should be interesting to see if things have changed.

CED520

Last night was a great start to another course. I think it's funny how we all mesh so well and we have never met face to face. Our new instructor seems funny--it's hard to pull off a sense of humor through a computer, but he was funny and enthusiastic. I'm excited to set up some ideas for my students to work with. The part I'm most excited to explore is safety--that being my biggest fear with technology!!! I'm so------- worried I'll give an assignment and my students will encounter something inappropriate. I'm not worried about them doing these actions on purpose, but I need to feel in control of the situation. I want to guide them in ways that will be successful and useful to their learning. I'm excited to get started in this course. Hopefully I leave this class with a little more confidence. I have gained it in every class thus far!! :)

CED515 First Class

I hope this class helps me become more comfortable with instructional technology. It's great to know a lot about technology, but being able to use it as an educator is another story. I feel I have learned a great deal in the last two classes, but now I'm going to learn how to implement it into a classroom.
Knowing different tools to connect with all the different learning styles is important to me. I highly believe in the multiple intelligences and knowing how to stick to that with technology is important. I feel this class will be a great tool to help me stay on track with that while using technology.
I think this class is going to provide me with great ideas and insight on the technologically advanced educational world. HAHA :)

CED510 Last Night of Class/Class Reflection

I really enjoyed CED510. I really enjoyed the assignments and what I got out of them. I learned what I could do with computers. Many of the tasks I never thought I would complete, but this class has pushed me to try these things and I did them successfully. I liked learning about the different virus protections and how to keep my computer safe. It made me realize how important a protection plan is. My favorite assignments were "under the hood" and "my perfect computer". I liked opening a computer and labeling the components. I had never done that before and I most likely never would have opened a computerIf I haden't been in this class. I always thought I would break it!! I loved the "perfect computer" assignment! Building my own computer to fit my needs and wants was fun. Keep that assignment David-- It's fun! It was a nice way to end the class.

CED510 Class 4

This class has been interesting. I've learned a great deal about computers and how they function. I never knew anything about the components before. I feel very confident about how computers function and what hardware they have. I also liked learning about different virus protections. I'll use that information at home and at work. I know these things I listed seem elementary, but it was all new information for me. Half the battle about technology is protecting your computer.

Week 3 CED510 Managing a computer

Talking about viruses and computer protection last night really made me think about my computers. I know I should be more aware of what I'm doing and how often I update and scan my computers. Sometimes my school computer runs really slow. I know I should run a scan more often, or clean my cookies and delete files I don't use. I think the upcoming assignments will really open my eyes to why we should protect our computers. I guess I just do what I need to do and I never think about maintenance. I should! Our computer tech wants us to run a full scan at least 3 times a month. Also, we need to check for updates. I think about the things I do at school and wonder why we never do them at home. LOL Another goal of mine is backing up everything. I really need to do that!!!

Computer Components Reflection CEDo510 (2nd Class)

The second night of class is behind me-- but the assignments are not. LOL
I think knowing computer components are important because we need to know what were working with. I think learning technology and how it works should include everything. I'm really enjoying learning these new things about computers. I feel a great deal of confidence about computers now. I completed the "under the hood" assignment without a great deal of issues. That was huge for me! Knowing the components and how a computer functions really broadens my knowledge. Hey---who knows-- I may be able to fix my own computer when, or at least be able to spot the issue when this class is over. I'll hopefully know enough to solve my own problems.

CED510 first night

I think this class is going to be good for me. I don't know about computer parts and how they work. I'm actually really scared to do the "under the hood" assignment. I think I better do it with someone who knows how to put it back together. HAHA I can get it apart, but putting it back together may be a problem. I guess we'll find out.
I'm excited to jump in and learn how to do things. I'm one of those people who is really afraid I'm going to break the computer, or do something wrong. I can put ink cartridges in and refill paper, but other than that I fail! I remember about a year ago someone asked me how much ram my computer had. WHATS THAT? Well, I know now, but that's how nieve I was about computers. In college and highschool I used computers all the time, but I was writing papers and doing research. I'm not a big computer person. I use one everyday at work, and I have a lap top, but I'm really basic and would rather do other things than sit on a computer. Who knows, maybe when I finish my masters, I will have learned so much that I won't want to get off the computer. Nah!!
Well, overall I'm excited about the new class and hopefully I can complete all of my assignments without a great deal of stress.

2nd Class-- and I'm feeling more comfortable!!

I enjoyed our second class last night. I feel much better in the setting and doing homework. I enjoyed working with Linda and Shawn. We had a great time--- and Shawns humor made the time fly. When I got to work this morning I was telling a couple friends about google docs. Were excited to start working with them at school. Just a week ago we were all frustrated with how many times we had to send the same email over and over again. We were constantly making changes on it and adding things on-- what a difference it'll make when we don't have to flood out inbox.

So far...... I went from frustration to having fun with what I'm learning!!

Thanks for all the support everyone!!

First night of class

I hope to gain more knowledge on technology and apply it in my classroom. It's hard when kids know more about technology than I do. I would like to learn new and exciting ways to engage my students. I worried I will not be able to keep up with the pace of the class.

I'm new to this technology and communication, but I am interested in how it works and want to learn how to use it properly.

I'm excited to use the google docs page--Although I'm not sure how to tie it into my classroom yet.

So far I have learned how to create and publish a blog site. I really like the Ning and I am excited to use it with my fellow classmates throughout this course. They only thing I'm worried about is not knowing where to navigate at times.