6 - Staying Organized

After searching Google, using the simple string of "class pages" I was linked to Trinity Regional School's class page site. In my elementary and middle school we did not have anything so simple and convenient. I was directly brought to a list of grade levels from Pre-K to 8th grade, and after selecting a specific grade I was brought to a list of each subject and teacher designated to that specific grade level. I first chose 7th grade, and then directed myself to Mrs. O'Grady's 7th Grade Social Studies Page. In her page I found an eye pleasing, fun, and simple way of communicating with students and parents without having to jump through multiple log-in hoops. On this page, it told me what exactly what was going to be taught this year in 7th grade social studies, and it also brought me to a complete calendar of homework assignments and tests easily accessible to parents. This a great tool that all school's should consider utilizing because it makes it so much easier for students, teachers, and parents to keep on track and onto of each other.

I want to be an extremely efficient teacher. I never want students to feel frazzled in my classroom when it comes to me being organized and on schedule with all my out of school tasks. I want to be as productive as possible. Like it said in the podcast, I want it to be"invisible" to my students. I love the idea of using electronic spreadsheets to stay on top of myself and my students' grades and progress in my class. Organization will be key. As for presentation software I want to make day to day lectures as interesting and polished as possible as it is a necessary learning tool. The use of apps will be extremely beneficial for my administrative tasks if I work in a school where the daily use of apps is possible. They will be perfect for note taking, calendars, and calculators. In high school, when ever a teacher would discover a new fun educational app it was like Christmas because it made learning a little bit more enjoyable. Communication is also another major key. I want my students' parents to be very involved in our daily in class lives. I will use software that easy enough for the non tech savvy parents to use (like my mom). I will always want to keep in constant communication because it makes everyone feel at ease.

Before this "Web Evaluation" assignment I had no clue how to use Wiki. I never used it in middle school or high school, and as a first year college student this is my first experience with it. So, in general, I learned how to make use of a brand new software. I can definitely see how this can be beneficial for students and teachers trying to work together. The one thing I do not like about this software was that it took quite some time to get used to and understand, but after I got the hang of it I began to enjoy it. The one thing I would do differently would be to learn how to get more creative and in depth with the software. This tool will definitely be used in my classroom because it allows to me stay organized with my students' work and assignments, and it opens up another window for more collaborative learning.

5 - Web 2.0

Web 2.0 tools have made learning so much more enjoyable for me. My experience with these tools as a student will help step up my curriculum as a teacher. Youtube will be extremely helpful, especially with learning devices such as "Flip Classroom". Flip Classroom is the idea of having lectures at home and homework done in the classroom. Students will go home at night watch lectures, and in class the next day they will have time to have discuss the lecture and work on other activities. Blogs will also be a very helpful tool as they will allow me to track my students' progress and understanding of the in class material. I have never used Wikis, but I can see how it can be useful to the classroom as I look further into the program. While I think using Twitter  in the classroom is a great idea to get older students to want to participate, I may now start to worry that they may get sidetracked in the world of social media. Diigo is an interesting one, and I really like it. It is a direct way for students to receive not only my help as a teacher, but the help of their fellow students without having to go through the trouble of jumping through multiple loops. My main concern as a teacher using the web will be making sure that my students are using these tools safely and efficiently.

Peripheral equipment is anything that connects a computer to other things. This can be done through the use of a USB. Typically, equipment such as mice and keyboards need to be connect to a desktop in order to get the computer itself to function properly, which are examples of input devices. Teachers may also use peripheral input equipment to allow for projecting. An example, of output equipment would be the computer's monitor. But, the most important peripheral would be the use of a hard drive to allow for high-capacity storage. Wireless devices do not need much peripheral equipment.The use of network devices such as wireless internet are necessary in order to access the internet, so then Web 2.0 tools may be accessed as well.

The Web 2.0 tool I am most interested in right now is Edmodo (https://www.edmodo.com). I have been looking into this software ever since I read about it in another classmate's blog a couple of weeks ago. It is safe site where students have the ability to collaborate and work on school assignments. Again, the most important thing about collaborative learning is that it is done safely, and this site guarantees that which is great! Edmodo also allows teacher to conduct online quizzes and allows students to access their grades. This site puts everything in one place, taking some burden of students' shoulders.

As a future teacher, I would love to take full advantage of this tool.  In high school, I took a few quizzes through a similar software and it made it so much more enjoyable. All my students and their parents will have access to this site. It is important for parents to follow their student's progress as well.  This site is beneficial for everyone including school administrators. It keeps everybody in the loop, in one place, with only one password to remember. This site has over 62 million users, and it is hard to find any complaint or bad review anywhere on the internet, so I would say this software will more than likely be used by yours truly.

During this last "Concept Mapping" assignment I gained some simple, yet valuable skills. I learned how to use the software Webspiration, and while it gave me some difficulty I found a lot of value in it. While it was hard to create the physical outcome of the concept map with all the different shapes, images, and arrows, it allowed to me to make connections that would be valuable to my students' study guide. This software has great interactive features that allow students to collaborate right from their home computers. They have chat features that allow for discussions, and a sharing component that allows students to work on one project all together. The way that I could improve for next time is to become better accommodated with the software before use because it can get a little difficult to understand and use at times. I want to make it easy as possible for my students to understand, and I need to work on that aspect as well.

My "In Progress" Concept Map:

4 - Hunting the Web

I am hoping to become a high school history teacher in the future. For me, as an American History student, it was a lot easier for me to memorize timelines and dates when I was able to do something interactive with them. Standard SS.912.A.1.3 requires students to "Utilize timelines to identify the time sequence of historical data." I found a website that allows for students to make shareable interactive timelines and blogs that include features to help fellow students study off of them that work very well in my classroom. It can be found here: https://www.hstry.co. The use of academic software in the classroom is very important because it is beneficial to both the students and their teacher. Interactive timelines can be can be used as presentation software or as a concert mapping tool, because this site allows students to interconnect pieces of information and show relationships. Also, due to its fun and eye pleasing nature it could be used by students to give in-class presentations.

I use Google for just about everything, including my school work. When researching for academic projects Google Scholar was my go to. It was very important for me to find credible sources, and Wikipedia was never an option. Academic databases were my best friend from JSTOR to EBSCOhost,  I was given thousands of reliable articles, websites and newspaper sources. But, if I did just use regular ole' Google to find a source I would have to do a lot of fact checking. The podcast explained to me that I need to be double checking the domain name, which I knew was necessary. But, I never thought about the design of the website being apart of it reliability, which will now make checking sources a lot more efficient and simpler for me.

Working on the "Web Hunt" assignment was a very interesting experience for me. At first I ran into zero problems. I was finding everything without a problem. But, one thing that surprised me was that I had the most difficult time trying to figure out #8, which directed me to find a primary source civil war video. Using Google's special filters for videos frustrated me because it was not taking me to what I wanted. But, after some deep breaths and a restart I think I was able to figure it out, so we will just have to wait and see. Overall, I enjoyed this assignment because it allowed me to learn how to manipulate Google for everything it has to offer. Let's see if you have the skills to "hunt" the web too:

1. Find a program or software that allows you to conduct live in-class quizzes with your students.

2. You are teaching your students the importance of MLA, and how it works. Find a website that helps students learn how to use MLA in an interactive and fun way.

3 - Tech n' Class

When it comes to the ELA Standards there are plenty guidelines that have been prevalent to my life as a student so it is interesting to learn from a teacher's perspective. The one I would feel most comfortable teaching in my classroom would be: "Make strategic use of digital media (textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest." In high school, digital media was my life. My teachers constantly wanted more with the technology they provided us. We worked tirelessly in SMART classrooms that provided the tools to create and produce interactive presentations that we would later present in class for a grade. But, there are guidelines that I may not consider myself an "expert" in and would not be comfortable teaching just yet. The standard that would give me the most trouble would be: "Authoritative sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess usefulness of sources; integrate info to maintain a flow of ideas; include footnotes and endnotes." The first part of this guideline does not frighten me, but the last part does. I have never worked with footnotes and endnotes so I would not know the first thing about integrating them into my curriculum. It now worries me that I was never provided with that knowledge in my own high school classes. 

The internet is a huge aspect of a student's learning community. As a student I was constantly on the web whether it was for research, presentation, or even just social media. As a teacher of high school students, academic portals and feed readers will be used quite frequently. Research is a large portion of the academic curriculum for high school students and applications like such will only make it easier for them. When it comes to programs for class communication, weblogs will play a big role in my classroom. Educational blogging will allow students to show me that they are completing assignments, understanding, and retaining information. Digital citizenship can go one of two ways for high school students; they either get it or they do not. Students in high school are much more independent as they are young adults which may make it more difficult to control them. The most important guidelines for them to understand are obeying copyright laws and making sure their content and participation is of proper etiquette and appropriateness. It is important for these young adults to understand what they do on the internet can affect them in the long run and digital profiles will follow them forever. Applying their critical thinking skills to the their use of the internet will do nothing but benefit them as children of the 21st century.

The Newsletter Design took me a lot longer than expected. Going into this assignment I thought I knew exactly what I was doing. When it came to the creative aspect I needed to learn not to go overboard because there is only so much that can go into a design with the use of two columns. Completing the smaller components of the newsletter did not trouble me, but piecing them all together was the struggle. I knew how to create two columns, use word and clip art, and how to create lists and hyperlinks, so there was no new knowledge obtained from those aspects. There were no negative aspects to this assignment besides the fact that it was unexpectedly time consuming. I enjoyed that I was finally able to take the creative things I knew how to do with Word and actually create something useful with it. For next time, I need to plan ahead and plan out the the structure of the newsletter so I do not have to struggle with placement and design. As a teacher, this use of technology will come in handy with communicating with teachers. I want to be a high school or middle school teacher, so newsletters never really crossed my mind when working with teenagers, and now I understand ways that I can make it effective even with older students and their parents.