Online week

Lesson Plan:
I think that Justin and I created a great lesson despite us having totally different majors. With the two of us having different majors was the only thing that created a problem when we first started and was pretty much the only problem we had. I think that it will be a fun lesson to teach and I am ready to teach it because I think that everyone in the class will have fun with it.

Class:
I think that this class has gone very smoothly and I think it was very organized. The organization of the class played a key role into what we were able to get done and learn in the class. I don't think anything could have been done differently. I learned a lot of new things with technology that one day I hope to integrate into my classroom to make my students successful. I do believe it is a must that technology be used in the classroom by teachers because it makes it a better learning environment for the students. All in all I think this was a wonderful class to be a part of because not only did I learn a lot of new things but I also met a lot new people.

Week 12 Voicethread

This is a great tool that would be helpful for both teachers and students in many different subject areas. Students would be able to hear and see what the teacher is talking about. The students would be able to share their ideas while listening and watching which makes this tool so good. I don't think I would use it in my lesson because I'm not very familiar with it enough but it does seem like it would be a great tool to use. I also think I would only use it in my classroom for certain classes. As an Ag teacher, tools like these are hard to integrate into the lesson but could possibly be done.

Week 8 PPT Blog

Natali and I were able to finish our powerpoint presentation Monday. It went really well. We chose Integrated Technology in the Classroon as our topic. Working with Natali on this project allowed me to learn a lot of new things and ideas about Microsoft Powerpoint and how to integrate them into our project. Natali obviously already knew a lot about Powerpoint, and this allowed us to finish ahead of schedule. So in all reality I was lucky to get such a good partner and this was so much better than working by myself.

week 7

I think that educators should draw the line when it comes to technology before it becomes distracting and irrelevant. The types of technology that we have learned about in this class such as wiki, blogs, and powerpoint are examples of uses of technology that can be very beneficial to the way the students learn.

Online chats and instant messaging allow students to share ideas about what they’re working on. With these chats they are also able to keep interacting and sharing ideas about projects even after class is over. This is a good tool because most classes are relatively short and that makes it hard to finish group work. I think that they can also become a distraction unless the teacher takes the proper steps to insure learning. They also allow for isolation and disconnecting in the classroom.

Text based communication allows people to decide exactly what they are going to say and when they are going to say it. This also allows for a more thought out idea rather than spouting out something off the top of their head.

I think podcasts are another way to share information. Students create them together just like they would a powerpoint or other type of presentation but instead of being full of text, it is created to be a type of audio teaching tool. Good things can come out of podcasts just like anything else and anytime something new is presented, learning is enhanced one way or another.

The article claims that video gaming helps studying because it causes interaction with other peers. They say that students are able to learn more from one another than by adults. The article also claims that through video game making, students can become better at math, and improve self-esteem and confidence. I agree with the article for the most part. To me, I think that there are some confusing points relation to video gaming. Personally I think that there are skills that one can learn from video games such as hand and eye coordination but I don’t believe as a parent I will allow my children to play them everyday.

Week 5

I think that every student is different and has their own individual way to learn. Some students learn better with hands on, others learn by listening, and some have to be shown how to do something before they are able to do it. As a teacher I think that we need to know the types of learners the students are and adjust to them in a way that they learn to the best of their ability. The test that we just did will also let us as teachers know a little more about the students that we are teaching. These types of tests can become very helpful in figuring out things about the students that we might not find out any other way. I also believe that what the test shows might not be true because the student might have interrupted the question different and we need to take that into effect.

Week 4

Unfortunately I haven’t used spreadsheets all that much. After learning a small bit about them, I believe that they can become useful to me as I become a teacher. From figuring grades to make some sort of student list, they have many advantages to make life easier. I believe that if there is a way to make something easy, I’m going to figure it out and use it.

Teachers use spreadsheets all the time to figure grades and calculate a large amount of information at one time. The main advantage that a spreadsheet has over a calculator is that a person can enter equations to figure numbers throughout the entire document instead of figuring each number one at a time. The three functions that the book talks about such as storing, calculating, and presenting information are the only functions that I can think about. If a person can figure out these three functions with a spreadsheet they pretty much have a spreadsheet figured out.

Week 3

Inspiration is full of many new ideas with technology and how to apply them in the class room. As an Ag teacher I was surprised that I found ways that Inspiration could be helpful to me and also a teaching tool. Ag is a science and there are many science related topics that might be helpful to me. One in particular that stood out was the classification web. This exercise would allow me to teach the classification of different breeds of animals in a more interesting way than just using a handout. Another exercise that caught my attention is the budget plan. As a teacher that will be traveling and attending various activities, this would allow me to map out each trip and figure a budget out. Since most Ag programs are on a tight budget this will help with spending less money.

Chapter 5 explains spreadsheets and how they can be used in the classroom. All of you know by now that I will be teaching agriculture and shop classes. As an Ag teacher I could have students use spreadsheets for a variety of things. One of things that I would be able to teach by using a spreadsheet would be the different types of feed materials and how much to combine for different rations. This would be very helpful in order to show visually how much goes into each type of feed. Ways that students could help each other during writing would be providing ideas before the writing process is started and during the writing process by reading over each other’s paper. This will produce better papers in many aspects such as new ideas from one another but also errors will be caught before the paper is turned in resulting in better grades. Last week I explained why I thought blogs were a good idea and how they could be used in my classroom. With blogs comes comments and I think that comments with limitations would be a good way to support peer feedback