Virtual Class Meeting

The virtual class have been very useful. I have had to find solutions to my problems and not wait for others to bail me out. I had to try various programs that I knew nothing about and try to use them and also why I was thinking this would be great to use in the classroom, if I can figure out how to use it. Technology has changed so much over the years and I can't imagine how much more it is going to change. I am always helping my mom and dad out (they know less about technology than I do) with their technology issues. As educators it is so essentaial that we put away our fears of technology and apply it to our classroom. My students have enjoyed learning more about technology and they are learning it through me. If I want to make sure that my students are prepared for the future I need to continue to educate myself as well. These virtal classes have taught me to take risk and not wait around on others to help me through the problems that I might encounter. I think that is why many people don't use technology.

voki

I think that voki was so much fun. I have students that hate to write and I could see voki being a motivation tool for them. I couldn't stop playing around with it myself. I tried the different sound effects and characters. I believe that it could be a problem for some you would need to set some boundries. This is the first time I have every made a voki I had seen them before, but didn't know what they were called. This class has taught me so much. I hate that we are at the end.



Get a Voki now!

Overcoming!!!

While checking my projects Dr. Koppenhaver found that my link to my web quest was not good. I had already fixed it previously. I kept thinking did I need to upload to badongo. I kept checking others links and noticed that everyone had this number at the end of theirs and mine just said account. I just knew that I missed something. So I looked for information about what the letters and numbers meant at the end of the link. So I decided to try find my web quest without logging in and post the link that way. I noticed that when I found my link I had numbers at the end of it, so I link my post and what do you know it worked. I feel like I have overcome my fears of technology. I have tried out things that I never knew were out there. I have found that if I don't get it their first time that I am usually able to find it the second time, or I can find out how to do it on the Internet. I feel very proud of all of my accomplishments this semester. I know that I will continue to use the technologies that I have learned and will also grow in my knowledge of technology now that I feel more knowlegeable of how to use it in my classroom.

Podcast

The podcast that my students created turned out great. Reading the articles helped me get a better understanding of how to use them. Gabcast was very simple to use it was very user friendly. I was actually surprised how easy it was, I guess I was expecting to download something to get it to work, but I didn't. Gabcast allowed me to listen to the podcast, before I saved on in my folder. The other program seemed a little more difficult to use. My students recited a poem about matter for our podcast. Using podcast would be great to let parents know what is happening at schhool. My students and I are planning to do additional podcast on stories that we have written.

Matter #1

Updates on Technology

This class has made me try so many new kinds of technology that I didn't even know existed. When this class began we had to do certain projects that I was a little unsure about and was also unsure how to incorporate into my classroom. The digital text that we made was somehting very easy to do using power point. My students have also made power points of what they want to do when they grow up. I really enjoyed doing the webquest about frogs. My students are getting ready to learn about lifecycles and this is a good way to incorporate that into my lesson. I have done webquest in the past with my students and I knwo that they enjoy working on them. My students also created a wiki ( which they thought were very cool) on matter. This was a great way for me to assess my students knowledge in a fun and exciting way. I see myself using wiki's again in the future, I believe that this is a great assessment tool. Podcast was also exciting for my kids to create. I thik that podcast could be very useful to inform parents of upcoming events in the school or in the classroom. The thing that I feel that has been most useful to me is the social bookmarking. I have a lot of my websites in my favorites that I am unable to access at school, now I am able to find them at school when I need them. This technology class has taught me so much and I feel that my students have learned more about Technology through me. Using technology has shown me other way to assess students learning.

Delightful Delicious

Social bookmarking is something that is very new to me. I had never heard of delicious or any of the other social bookmarking sites before. Delicious allows me to save the websites that I use often and lets me view them from any computer. Since learning about delicious I have been using it at school. One teacher asked how to find the DPI math site (it is sometimes hard to locate)which we use a lot. I told her I have it marked on my delicious site. She was very curious as to what it was and how to use it. I was very excited to explain to her what it was and how to use it. I thought that marking things in your favorites was a great thing to do, but using delicious is so much better. Delicious allows you to view others post as well. While viiewing others posts I have found many additional sites that I have found very benefical. One such site allows you to type a letter in English and it will translate it into Spanish. This is very helpful for me, because I have several non-english speaking parents that I need to communicate with and this tool allows me to do so, since I am not fluent at Spanish.

Wonderful Wiki

I really enjoyed doing the wiki in class on Monday. It was very easy to do and I think that my children would love to do these. Using wiki's would be a great way to assess students understanding. I think I am going to start a wiki with my literature circle group. I will let you know how things go.
Wiki Update
My class has been learning about matter. I wanted a different way to assess their understanding, so I decided to let them do a wiki. I am still learning exactly how to use them, but I was happy with our first product. Our wiki is still a work in progress, but I was able to see how much my students had learned. Even the students who are normally quiet were involved. I am still planning on doing a wiki with my literature circle group. We have been reading Flat Stanley and are going to do research on different community helpers.