TPTE Final Post

This class has been excellent for me. I did not have any experience with any of the technologies that we learned about in the class. My learning in this class has reduced my anxiety about technology and increased my interest in using it in my class. My favorite activity was learning about the interactive white board and designing a lesson with Activinspire.  Having familiarity with the interactive white board is very valuable because just about every class room in Knox County uses one. Digital diagraming is also a technology which I can see could be very useful at just about any grade level. The format of the class was good. However, I think it could be condensed to meet once per week for three hours instead of twice. This would allow the concepts, assignments and instruction to be introduced during the class and then work on projects could be done at times determined by each individual student.

Website creation. I did it!!

This Wordle is on my home page of my class website. Because we worked on the website design and creation all summer it really was not very difficult. I think this was a useful assignment and I now have the confidence to actually edit and use this website or make another one when I have my first class. Google sites was a little frustrating at times because you are somewhat limited, at least at my level, of how you can make the website look. However, I was able to make an attractive site which has all the basic information and functionality with Google sites. The best part is that there is no cost associated with the creation or maintenance of the website except for my time and effort. Website development was a learning experience and technology confidence booster.

Evans GSMNP Digital Story

This digital story was fun to create. I was able to use photos that my daughter and I took from various trips to the Smokey Mountains. It is a place that I dearly love so this story was easy to tell. I also learned that creating digital stories using iMovie was very simple. It may sway my decision on buying a Mac instead of a PC. I can see how digital stories could be used to engage student interest. A combination of visual interest and music is a powerful attention getter. I plant to use this technology!

Resource Wiki

Teacher Collaboration!

Developing the resource wiki with other students in the class was a great example of how teachers can collaborate and help each other find great resources on the Internet. Once again learning about wikis has been very useful. It is easy for many people to gather a large amount of information in a short time. I can see how this type of wiki could grow and become extremely valuable over time. My group was all future elementary teachers and I saw some fantastic websites that I had never heard of. I am definitely going to keep all of these sites for future use. I hope that I can continue the practice of sharing resources with others as gain experience.

Blogging

This blog assignment was an introduction to blogging for me. I have found using blogger very easy and the process of blogging kind of fun. I do read blogs online and I have begun to notice more about what makes a good blog as opposed to a blah blog. In generally I have noticed that I do not like to read lengthy posts with ramblings covering more than one subject. Humor is always welcome as long as it seems natural and not forced. I like to read about a single thought or idea. Also it does seem to get my attention if there is a relevant graphic associated with the post. I am going to try to use a blog for my parents and students. I will try to remember the basics that I like. Short, to the point, entertaining and useful. 

Storybird

Worried about school. by jevans57 on StorybirdStorybirds are digital short stories you can make at Storybird.com. After you make the story you can share, read, and print. It is fun and there is no cost. You can create the stories yourself or collaborate with others. I can see having a time in class to share stories that students have created using Storybird by showing them on the interactive white board. Most students would be very excited to see there work on the white board and it would be a great tool for motivating students to write and build their confidence.There is a ton of art users can choose from on the site and build a story around those images. The final product can be printed, watched on screen, or shared in an online library with the world. You also have the option to keep it private on the network. 

Pixlr equals picture fun

Pixlr is one of the Web 2.0 tools that was taught in TPTE. It is basically a place to touch up your photos or just have some fun with lots of different filters and effects. Users can upload pictures from their personal files or take a picture from their webcam. You can edit your photos in two ways: Photoeditor, which is similar to photoshop, or in Retro Vintage effects, which is similar to instagram. The picture above is a picture I took on a trip to Washington D.C. It is the main building of the Smithsonian. I played around with it in the Retro Vintage tools and got the effects you see. If I could just replace the modern cars with antiques it might really be convincing as an old photo. Students and teachers can both use this tool for presentations of various types from posters to science projects.

Inquiry Based Activity

Kids are naturally curious. Inquiry based instruction is a natural way to get students engaged and thinking much deeper. In my Science Education 531 class we have spent the whole course in some way discussing ways to incorporate inquiry based instruction. Science trade books have been discussed as well as the internet. Science based inquiry is an excellent way to incorporate a Webquest or simple inquiry activity using the internet. It is important to evaluate websites ahead of time to make sure students will not become frustrated when looking for information. It is important to teach students that the internet is an extremely powerful tool and when used appropriately can help them answer questions about many different topics. I am designing a lesson for my Science class dealing with conservation. I have seen many websites related to the topic which students could read and use in an inquiry activity.

What the heck is a Wiki?

That is a question that I would have uttered a few short weeks ago. Of course I had heard of Wikipedia, the most famous of wikis, but I had no clue that everyone with Internet access could create one. We learned in TPTE about Web 2.0 and Wikis when we created Wikis for Web 2.0 tools and elementary resources I can now understand how they work, how to set up a wiki and the potential benefits. Wikis are interactive Internet sites where multiple individuals can view, post and edit content for any subject. I can student's using this for group project to work together and then use the end product for a presentation. This is basically what we did in our Web 2.0 project. It was a great way for the class to divide up the work to learn a ton of material in a short period of time. This was one of my favorite activities. Wikis can be open to everyone such as Wikipedia or only open to invited individuals.

The interactive white board is a TEN!!!

The activity using Activinspire to develop an interactive white board activity has been my favorite project in TPTE. My activity is a math lesson designed for Kindergarten. It has an Olympic theme for the number 10. It gives the class several ways to review and practice all the different ways to make 10. There are four different interactive games. The activities use virtual manipulatives and numbers. There is also a fun link to a Sesame Street video "Ten from Tennessee". I had so much fun creating this project and getting to test it out on our Promethean board in the classroom. If I had this much fun making this project I am sure students would have fun playing the games.  I know students love the interactive capabilities and using the special pen or their fingers to draw, move and enter items on the white board. I hope that I have access to Activinspire software in my future classroom.

Digital Diagrams

This is a screen shot from a digital diagram developed with Inspiration software. The software is useful for quickly creating outlines, mind maps, charts and diagrams. I had never used this software before and easily created this one about animals as consumers. It had a good library of images and I only had to go out on the web for a few images. It was very easy to layout and edit the diagram after I had the basics. This would be a good tool to use in various grade levels to present information in an organized way. The diagrams can also be linked to the Internet as I did above on the small book image.  This video could also be used in real time with students giving input to fill in the diagram. If I have access to this software I would definitely use it!

Google Forms

My Web 2.0 tool assignment was Google Forms for our class Wiki. What a great tool. I can see many uses for Google forms from communicating with parents to getting information from students in surveys. You access Google forms through your Google account and it is one of the options for create in Google docs. Putting together the class Wiki for the Web 2.0 tools has been a great example of how to use a Wiki to collaboratively put together useful information.  I am still amazed at all the Web 2.0 tools available for free!

Resume Yikes!

When we were asked to submit a resume I really dreaded it. It has been such a long time since I have gone through the exercise. My current job of office manager, which I have had for 5 years, is a family business. No resume required. The 10 years before this job was spent as a full time Mom of two kids. Again, no resume required. However, as I was forced to go through the exercise it helped me to think about my qualifications, experience and overall was not as bad as I first thought. I went ahead and contacted my references so I will not have to scramble to do that when I start looking for a teaching position next spring. I know I will have some things to update on my resume from my internship year but this was a very good start.

Picasa slideshow

Digital pictures and Picasa

Digital Scavenger Hunt
Today we went out with a group and took pictures for a digital scavenger hunt. Our topic was an ABC scavenger hunt.We then put the pictures into Picasa on the web and made a slide show. Picasa is a free site to manage and share digital pictures. What a great resource. Pretty fun. The potential for using digital pictures in the classroom are numerous to say the least!

The AHA moment!

The AHA moment in TPTE 486 class came very quickly. I realized this is not going to be that hard. I am not really that technology challenged! When I had created a wikki, a website and a blog essentially in one day it was clear. I can really do this. I also realized that in most cases you can either figure it out yourself, google for help or ask the teacher or classmates a quick question.

Web 2.0

Learning about Web 2.0 has been very informative. The entire concept of a read/write Internet for collaboration of all types from family to global applications is amazing. My class is creating a Wiki, a Web 2.0 tool for collaboration, describing several different Web 2.0 applications. My partner and I were assigned Google Forms. Google forms is a tool which as a teacher I could use many different ways from doing a "get to know you" survey of my students, online quizzes, sign up lists for special events, or surveying parents about parent/teacher conference times. I learned how to set up and share a Google form. Each group is going to give a brief presentation about their assigned Web 2.0 tool. The first presentation was Wordle which is a fun application to make word clouds. I have had a great time just playing with Wordle and even was able to show it to my college age daughter who had not ever seen it.Great fun to be technological superior at least for an instant. I am looking forward to hearing all of the presentations on Web 2.0.

Webquests

Getting students engaged using the Internet

Students are naturally curious, love working together and love using the computer. Webquest is a great way to tap into all of these and get students engaged. The Webquest that I participated in TPTE was an authentic activity that showed how a Webquest works. The Webquest has a specific task, assigned responsibilities and guided instructions for finding information on the Internet. I can see using this tool in the classroom for all ages especially for science and social studies. The website evaluation activity which I posted about previously ties into this activity because the quality of the websites chosen can make or break the success for students. The quick inquiry activity  answering questions about rocks was a good example of how the computer station could be used during a center activity. I look forward to using both of these tools in the classroom.

Website evaluation

The amount of information on the Internet is mind boggling. Thinking about how to thoroughly evaluate a website is an exercise I never really considered before. I have thought about evaluating sources when doing research. For example, I always look for the .edu in the web address as one way to make sure a source is credible. However, this evaluation exercise required a much deeper look at a website. As the Internet becomes more embedded in K-6 instruction, I know it is essential for teachers and students to make website evaluation something that becomes automatic. At a bare minimum students should be able to see the warning signs of sites that are bogus or very biased. I also think that is important for a site to be easy to navigate so that students and teachers can determine quickly if the site is useful for their current task. The Internet can be a huge time saver but it can also be a time waster if information is difficult to find. Thinking about credibility, reliability, accuracy, usability, accessibility are all very helpful items in evaluating sites I want to use as a teacher as well as for teaching students to think critically when they are using the Internet.

Welcome and class expectations

Hi. Welcome to my blog.  I have to admit I was a little nervous about taking this TPTE computer class because I mainly use the computer for basic stuff like email and Facebook. However, my confidence is already boosted by the first few things we have done. I have created my first website, a blog and a Wikki page all in one day in TPTE 486. Technology is amazing. I expect to finish this technology class for teachers with some application knowledge and ideas for using technology in the classroom. Most kids love technology and I think it is an awesome resource.