Journal Entry 3: Developing Lessons with technology

Chapter 3 is very informative when it comes to using/incorporating technology into your lesson plan. I learned that it should only be used fir certain subjects or topics that would be presented within the classroom. I remember as a kid in the sixth grade I would look forward to my reading class because we were allowed to use a computer to read our books. Another thing that I liked that is probably outdated now is how we were allowed to use the big headphones and listen to our book tapes and follow along in the books as the tape played. A way to get students interested or excited to take a test would be to take an electronic test or quiz. Another interesting fact is to use proper ways like blogging so the students know as well as you how to use it properly.

PBS TEACHERS 

PBS teachers is an extensive learning resource for educators from the public broadcasting service, featuring thousands of lesson plans, proffessional development opportunities, videos, and blogs. there are on demand streaming videos from selected PBS programs plus a special blog entitled "media fusion"

PBS TEACHERS

I really liked this tool because it helps teachers learn in a more entertaining way that could encourage them even more on learning in a certain topic. 

Summary 

This chapter was about how to incorporate technology into your lesson plan and also how to use it properly with the students. It is very helpful for incoming teachers and for current teachers as well.

Journal Entry 2: Transforming, Learning, with unique powerful technology

How does technology create student engagement and collaboration?

Students love to use technology; when it comes to video games, computers, ipads, iphones, and TV’s it will spark their creative attention. All of these electronics have so many uses in this day in age. Kids can play games that help them learn more about math strategies, like last class I said what is the use for kids to be playing video games for hours and hours in a day and one of the students said well you can learn strategies and how to measure how far you are from another player. Giving them and yourself an opportunity to see a different way of learning. With an ipad you can conduct a treasure hunt for your social studies class. For your reading part of the lesson students can use computers to read books and have spelling quizzes where they are being timed. My Biology teacher about two years ago created a Jeopardy game where we would go around the classroom trying to use our knowledge in what we had learned in class, now she would do this so we could remember what we had learned every class since we only had her twice a week. Using technology in creative ways can capture students attention and help them learn more.

One of the tools that I thought was very interesting was Visual Dictionary Online, the reason why is because students not only want to know what the definition of an airplane is they want to know what it looks like as well just because you have the description does not fully mean that you capture that picture in complete detail. The link Below takes you to the visual dictionary.

http://visual.merriam-webster.com/

 One of the most difficult steps that we have come upon in this time in age is how we incorporate Technology into our classrooms, how to take technology and use it as a learning tool. Using Technology in classrooms does not mean that the way schools are structured will change. This only means that the students and teachers will go on about learning new productive ways on how to use technology for a good class learning environment. Technology is very powerful, as I was reading I came across a paragraph that made a lot of sense, since using a lot of technology in a classroom makes me very hesitant, reading this part of the chapter made me very open minded. I read on page 33 fourth paragraph down that you can use technology to teach students what you yourself can’t physically show them. One of the examples was in a science class you are teaching students about how the earth revolves around the sun; now you do not have the equipment to show this physically, so what you can do is go on a search engine like Google and look up videos to show your students how solar system works. Since you are not able to provide that real life experience, why not show them the next best thing. This Chapter overall is about how to  not only use technology in a proper manner but also it gives you an insight of the many different learning styles that both teachers and students have.

The website I have posted below shows a neat way of how students can learn about the solar system in a more interactive way.

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/solar_system.htm

Journal Entry 1: Becoming an e-Teacher

How do new technologies create new opportunities for teaching and learning?As time progresses everything changes, when I was a third grade student; We did not have the opportunities of using any kind of technology in the classroom as oppose to now. Students in this generation are thrown at the world with a much greater advantage, most of the students that I have worked with in the passed like to do activities that are more hands on as oppose as to something that you have to read off, of a book. Technology opens the door to a new world of learning where both students and teachers cannot just only enjoy but also do it in a safe environment, for example a year ago during my sociology class instead of taking our professor giving our class an exam using paper and pencil, our sociology teacher gave us clickers so when every time a question came up we would click in our answer A,B,C, or D. As much as I would like to take a test on paper this was one of the most efficient ways to take an exam.

Encyclopedia of Educational Technologies

The encyclopedia of Educational technology is a collection of short multimedia essays written specifically for teachers and students by graduate and faculty members in the department of educational technology at San Diego State University under the editorship of of professor Bob Hoffman. the site functions like a dictionary similar reference tool with topics arranged alphabetically. you can look up most key terms and concepts related to both computer hardware and computer use in educational business, social settings. The link below leads you to the website where everything is shown and can be looked up on with more detail.

http://eet.sdsu.edu/eetwiki/index.php/Main_Page

The introductory chapter is based on incorporating technology into the new age students classroom, where they should know how big of an importance it is for them to learn to use these new tools because it plays such a big role in their lives. I am really excited to learn on the new ways I can use technology to teach in my future classroom.

Self Introduction

Hello everyone my name is Ana Rodriguez and I am 21 years old, I am an aspiring elementary school teacher. I was born and raised in Dominican Republic for eight years. I moved to Florida with my family when I was eight years old with my father, mother and brother. My parents wanted us to have better futures and more opportunity. I have always been the adventurous child in the family, I love to be outdoors doing things I would never do before, I love going hiking, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, bungee jumping anything that is fun. I am very family oriented; my family and friends are my everything. I am well know-ledged in technology based on the fact that we live in a society/world where we need to know how to use all technical devices. I grew up using computers and have knowledge of basic software, I think knowing how to use technology is a very big deal because it plays such a big role in our lives. We do not use paper and pencil anymore; we use ipads, iphones, or computers. I think being a teacher means being there for your students not just as a teacher but also as if you were their own parent, a lot of students want to have someone they can look up to and I want to be a great role model in the future for my students. I love helping people in general and teaching has presented me with a great opportunity to help students see that learning new things every day and making new friends is one of the best experiences they can have as kids. I also am looking forward to meeting all of you on Thursday have a good day everyone J