Tweet It!

Tweeting isn’t just for the birds these days! I am so interested in the way teachers could use twitter in the classroom. So at first when I heard this idea I felt a little bit uneasy, especially because it is such a large social networking website that anyone can have. After thinking about it a little more though, I found some advantages to having an education based twitter account such as communication. This is an awesome way to keep parents up to date on what is going on in the classroom. You can alert parents very easily on things such as homework, materials needed the next day for class, and exciting things that happen in the classroom on a regular basis. Another reason twitter is good for educational purposes is because it is a quick and easy way for students to ask their teachers question. They can just tweet their question and their teacher will receive an instant notification, whether it be about homework or what to bring to class, and then the teacher can respond just as quickly. Also if it is a homework question, other students in the class can then also see it and maybe help their fellow classmate out. I think that if it is possible to make your Twitter account safe and monitored regularly, it can really add a little bit of extra help and information to a classroom. So if our future is going to continuously be technology based, integrating it into the classroom will be a battle worth fighting for.

When the teacher says rap it up, she means it!

Music, who doesn't love it? And since the answer to that question is everyone loves it, why don't teachers use it to educate their students? I had gone to a guest speaker who had a breakout session about using rap to teach. This idea was awesome right off the bat! I think it’s a great way to get kids not only excited to learn but it also is a catchy way to help them remember information. When I was younger my mom had bought my brothers and I a cassette tape we could listen to in the car that sang multiplication facts. I loved listening to this music because it got in my head so quick and I could show off to my friends at school. I think that music is a great way for kids to learn, and memorize things. Not only can teachers make up their own song but they can also YouTube many different types of raps and songs to give them ideas, or even just use in their classroom. I also think this is a great opportunity for teachers to have their students make up their own raps for memorization. Not only can the students be graded on this but they will also acquire a tool for studying and memorization. I really think that since we have so many different options open to use in the classroom we should take advantage of them. It is important for educators to frequently change the way they teach in order to keep their students attention and interested.

WOW!

Technology these days is incredible. I was sitting in my last observation class and I was watching the students interact with the SmartBoard and I was in pure amazement. Not only was I amazed with the technology itself but I was also amazed by the way students know how to use it. The kids in my class knew exactly what to do during the whole lesson, making me feel silly for not completely understanding or following what they were doing. I remember when I was 8 years old, my family got our first at home computer. I was in awe as my brothers and I opened it up, and beyond excited. Forget all of the other toys I got, who cared about dolls when you got a brand new computer? So now, over a decade later, we can chat with people all over the world, through facebook, twitter, and even face to face on skype. It would be so interesting to skype another classroom in a different country and see how our students could interact. It would be like having cyber pen pals! So with this immense amount of technology I feel that education could never be boring! There are so many opportunities to take advantage of!

Power Down Day is a DON'T

POWER DOWN DAY WAS HORRIBLE! It was so hard, but at the beginning I actually enjoyed myself. When I woke up in the morning I was kind of excited that I didn’t have to check my phone or Facebook. It felt good just starting my day having no one bothering me or no one to respond to, just me, myself, and I. I was able to make it through the first hour and a half without even looking at my phone, knowing that since it was off I wouldn’t have to worry about anything. It was a little bit after noon when I started to become a little restless, but that was just before the storm hit. All at once I started itching to use my cell phone. I needed to text my friends and see what it was we were going to do that day, and I really wanted to check my Facebook, it had been almost 12 hours since my last log in. It was getting tougher by the second and I didn’t know if I was going to make it. So, instead of sitting around and waiting for sleep, which was about 10 hours away, I decided to do something worthwhile, and go shopping. So my mom and I (I had no way to get a hold of my friends) went to the mall, and pretty much any other store in Mentor just to keep my mind off of it. My mom really enjoyed the fact that I could not use my phone because we could carry on a conversation without interruption, and I was actually focused on what she was saying. After shopping we went out to eat together and then rented a movie for the whole family to watch. It was a really relaxing day with the family, but I can’t lie, by ten thirty that night, I had turned my phone on, and checked Facebook. So I failed at power down day, but I did try my hardest, it is just impossible for a person in our society to actually go a full day without technology.

A Video Introduction to Technology

http://bit.ly/bTaHNl

Technology is taking education to so many new levels, beginning with the Smart Board. I really like they many different advantages that the smart board has to offer, especially the interaction that kids in the classroom can have with it. This youtube link gave me some quick and easy tips for using a smart board. It was a short tutorial that let me on all of little secrets that you can use to get started with your smart board, and I think the first tip was the best. The introduced the smart board but said that you don’t necessarily need the smart board at all, you can actually just use the software on your computer.

I think the tutorial is a great way to get a new smart board user started. I know that when there is some kind of electronic or new technology put in front of me, I don’t even know where to start but this tutorial gives you quick and easy tips to get you familiarized and more confident in using it. The steps consisted of things such as the magic pen, the ability to zoom in on things, the ability to spotlight things, and also how to erase it all after without erasing the document you are using. I think having simple tutorials like this available to teachers is a great idea because that way they will not feel so overwhelmed when the are first presented with something that might challenge them. This video is a great way to use technology to teach about some new and exciting technology that can be used for classrooms.

Diversity in the Classroom

This semester I am taking Multicultural Education. I picked this picture because it is how I feel a classroom should be. This picture is of many people holding the globe in their hands. I love this picture for a few reasons all relating back to my education class. First I like how each student is of a different nationality. This shows the cultural diversity and is something I find important in a classroom. I firmly believe that each student has so much to offer to their peers and teachers by just bring their culture, knowledge and opinions to the table in a positive way. In my Multicultural Education class there was a lot of conversation on the topic of diversity, with the same result in everyone’s mind; diverse classrooms allow so much more knowledge and growth to its students. The second depiction I feel that is made in the picture is that each person is helping to hold the globe. In my Education class our teacher brought to our attention that each student in our classroom is the future. Students today will be the leaders of tomorrow and that is something all teachers should take into consideration. It is not only important for students to learn math, reading, science, and social studies but to also incorporate into each lesson on how to work with each other and to become a positive role model to our world in the future. To put it simply, the students in our classrooms hold the world in the palm of their hands, and it is with what we teach them that will help them decide what it is they feel they should do with it.

Web 2.0, Interact with Technology

The tool that I found on web 2.0 was an awesome resource for teachers in all areas! It is called E-Learning for Kids (http://bit.ly/co3ebQ ) and has links from what the site is about to subject areas in education. I clicked on grade level one, which opened a page of many interactive games that a teacher can use to get their students involved and learning while having fun. The course selection consisted of language arts, math, science, computer skills, and environment skills, and each had at least one interactive game. I think these kinds of tools are really helpful and good to have in the classroom not only for class, but also as an incentive for some students. It’s a great tool because it is not only educational but also fun and will make students want to play the games. Another educational way this website can be utilized is by centers. The teacher I observed last semester had computers as one of her centers and the kids absolutely loved it. They were so excited when that was the center they were assigned too, even if it meant they had to do something educational. I think it is great introducing technology into the classrooms because it gets kids at a young age to start expanding their knowledge on how technology works, and then how to use it. Its important to get kids excited to learn and I think using the technology we have in our world is a good way to get positive interaction.