Final Entry :)

The past 5 weeks have been a bit crazy a times, but taking this course has opened my eyes to many programs and tools that I never even knew existed online. I look forward to using a Blog or a PWS for my students and their parents. I was exposed to so many things, like creating virtual classroom and how to make a video with your still clips and video clips using Animoto! These are just a few of the many things that we learned about, that I plan to take with me into the classroom!

A is for Apple: Grading Achievement in Schools

This quick video hits on a couple key ideas when it comes to schools and the way they assess and measure their students. The first thing stated was they if you have a school that is not meeting their needs and requirements then it deserves to change or close. I believe this is known as a schools Annual Yearly Progress. The schools must be at a certain level, and if they fall behind on this, they must improve. If they fail to improve, then they must close their doors. I agress with this. Why should we spend tons of money to send students to a school that is not educating them to the best of their abilities. I also agree with the point that there is to much time preparing for test taking, and getting ready for the test. This interrupts on class time and lessons that teachers may want to plan for their students. I believe that some people are confused, because they think that doing well on these standardized tests is the sole purpose of education. In all honstly, these standardized are creating more problems than anything. I love the girl who asked, "Can creative thinking be evaluated on standardized tests?" This is a wonderful question... and the answer is NO! Although this video was no more than 2 minutes long, it covered many important topics that need to be discussed.

David Warlick's 2 cents worth

David Warlick had some interesting topics dealing with education. His one blog submission on June 19th, 2010 was titled "Zero Tolerance." The title and the picture that he has on here truly caught my eye. As I was reading, I realized that what he was talking about greatly relates to what we have been learning about in our TwT class. For instance, David Warlick stated, "We’ve waited long enough. It’s been 15, 20, 30 years depending on when you want to start the count. Teachers have had enough time to accept and adapt. They’ve had enough time to decide if they want to teach today or yesterday — enough time to decide if they want to prepare their learners for the future, or for the 1950s." I though this was a great quote, because I goes back to everything that we have been learning in our class. Teachers today must be tech-savy. They should understand the many forms of technology that their students are currently using. They should teach in a way that their students will appreciate and understand, rather then to their own preferences. Teachers are there to educate the students, and in order to do so, they must accept and adapt to the new technologies they exist. Similar to what David Warlick said, if the teachers aren't willing to accept the new technologies, then its time for them to find a new career. The whole point behind what he wrote about here, stems back to why we as graduate students are required to take this class called Teaching with Technology. I most definatly agee with what he is saying here.

Mind Mapping (HA 3 MM)

Final Project

Here is the link for my Prezi:

prezi.com/wj2ngx9zdpvy/


This was the fist time I have created a Prezi. I learned about it through a classmate last semester, and have always wanted to try making one. From this assignment I learned that it's not always easy exploring new tools online. The more you work with different sites the more familiar you get with them. I learned not to give up if you are having trouble, but rather to keep trying, especially when it comes to technology. Unfortunatly my microphone was not working on the night of presentations, so it would have been difficult for me to actually present. I did give everyone the link for my Prezi, and I also have it posted again here on my blog. I would have like to have talked everyone through the differences in the video creating/sharing programs that I did my research on. These different softwares Animoto, Vimeo and YouTube can be used in a number of way in the classroom. Animoto is especially good for a beginning of the year project. Instead of writing about, or making a poster or slideshow of what you have done over the summer, students can now take their own pictures and viedo clips, and create their own movie with their own music selection to go along with it. Vimeo would is great for all teachers to use because it breaks videos down into different categories. So a history teacher who may be doing a lesson on The Great Wall of China, can go onto Vimeo and find a video from someone who may have been there and taken great footage. YouTube can also be used in schools, but I know there are many schools that have it blocked. YouTube has a wide variety of information on it, some of which is true and can be educational, but there is also a lot of garbage on it, that is not appropriate for the classroom. I advise any teacher using YouTube in the classroom to be careful, and fully watch the clip that you plan to show on your own, before you show it to the class. I was nervous when I first chose my topic because Animoto and Vimeo were two names that I have never even heard of. I am truly glad that I had to opportunity to research them, and I plan on using them in my classroom one day!

Experience with Google tools

I have truly enjoyed creating a gmail account and creating an igoogle page. I love that it gives me the ability to to chat instantly with my contacts, or even video chat. This feature has come in handy many times throughout this course!

Critique of Engrade

I found Engrade to be an awesome program for teachers to use. It has everything that the teacher needs about the student academic wise right there in one program. The teacher can quickly go from grades to attendance to the class calendar with just one click. One thing I might add to the Engrade program would be a parent contact list. This way if you ever need to contact a parent, all of their information will be stored right there next to the student's information. One way this program would not be useful is that some teachers may not actually evaluate a student's work, rather they can just click a button to assign the student a grade. Students and parents may like this program because all of their information is kept organized and together.