Lesson 4

Hello again fellow grad students!

Well, we are half way through our class at this point, and I am still amazed at how many resources I have been introduced to thus far! I need to keep a log sheet of all of these resources for after this course is finished so that I can refer to them during the 2012-2013 school year! Phew! 2012-2013 sounds crazy, doesn't it? It seems fitting that we are nearly 13 years into the 21st century and that I am just now discovering technology tools that will greatly inspire and engage both my teaching and my students!

The TED website that we visited was awesome. I had to really think about which topic I was interested in researching prior to watching my first video. With all of this discussion about introducing more technology into our classrooms, it got me thinking. Yes, our kids love technology, but yet many teachers still do not. I considered myself to be somewhat "techy" and it turns out I am just barely scratching the surface! I cannot imagine what it would feel like to be a student nowadays in a school setting where teachers truly resisted introducing their students to creative and academic technology. The video that spoke to me the most was called, "Gaming can make a better world" and was presented by Jane McGonigal. The video can be found at the following link: http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

Whew! Talk about somewhat with passion! McGonigal is a researcher and game designer. She focuses on researching how gamers can use their passion for the virtual world to be transferred to improving our real world. Students are escaping to a virtual world every day, and are extremely passionate and talented at completing tasks, problem solving, communicating effectively, and team work. However, their time and passion needs to be implemented into the real world! Well, I believe this starts with public schools and the attitudes of the teachers within the schools.

The technology explorations were cool this week as well. One website that stood out to me was ComicLife, which can be found at http://www.comiclife.com/ . Perhaps this website stood out to me because I have it in my mind that we as teachers need to be connecting the technology that our students love using to our classrooms! ComicLife is fun because it allows students to add spunk, fun, text, and dialogue to their media presentations in a comic book format. I especially liked this website because I think the boys in my class would be especially interested. I imagine this resource allowing some of my shy students to come out of their shells and attempt to share their humor with their classmates in a safe way! How fun!

I realized that if I want to engage my students using technology, I need to make my PowerPoint presentations cooler! I have one particular PowerPoint that I made for my 5th grader music students on Native American Music. I am pleased that I was able to upload some photos, clip art, and link to videos. However, I still feel like it's not engaging enough. I would like to use some of the new resources we have discovered to make my presentation more engaging and interesting. My students tend to respond fairly well to PowerPoints, but in order to keep them interested I often ask them to read the points with me, forward the slide presentation to the next slide, or use a worksheet to follow along. They certainly don't appear to "excited" when I open up a presentation, but they don't complain either. I think this presentation would be more interesting if I was able to make it more interactive, rather than just something for them to sit and watch. I LOVE the online collaborative sites we explored this week that allow multiple users to review presentations, comment, doodle, and discuss. It would certainly make for a fun assessment in the future.

I enjoyed this week because I am certainly a visual learner and teacher! Being a music teacher, I rely heavily on audio, media clips, video, and presentations that I can use on my interactive white board (Smartboard) with my projector. When you teach every student in the school, you realize quickly that using a Smartboard to present content is far better than printing thousands of pieces of paper! Learning about more resources and tools to help me present my material more effectively to my students is priceless!

Lesson 3

Wow! What another interesting week. So much knowledge was gained this week from our Technology Explorations. I had no idea that there were so many text-to-speech programs available for teachers and students to use. Oh, and free as well! Each week I have been humbled a little bit as I realize that I am not "technologically savvy" teacher that I thought I was. These explorations have opened my eyes on how much more I could be doing with my students.

I learned that it is incredibly easy to convert text to speech using such programs as "Read TheWords" (www.readthewords.com). This program is incredible. It can read any type of DTP program as well as a website or RSS feed. I would like to use this program myself to help me focus and get through articles and reading assignments as a graduate student! But as a teacher, I imagine how much a tool like this can assist students with learning disabilities, or even language barriers.

In our blog assignment, we are asked to reflect upon differnt documents that we hand out to our students. I hand out a variety of things to my students. However, as a teacher of everyone in the entire school, I try to save paper in any way I can. Ever since my classroom was equipped with a Smartboard and projector, I use this to display assignments and lessons rather than on paper whenever possible. Of course, this allows me to make the assignment incredibly appealing to look at. The software program we use is called Smart Notebook and it comes with tons of graphics, animated graphics, graphic organizers, fonts, backgrounds, and much more.

I also create a program for each chorus concert I put on at our schoool. Our students perform two times per year for the entire school and parents as well. My first time making a flyer was a DISASTER. I was using Microsoft Publisher, and felt like I had to use the cheesy clip art that it came with. As time has gone by, I have "cleaned" the program up a bit to make it easier to read and get the information across. I also learned how to save an image a "Gif" file which allows me to overlap images to make them more attractive. Below I attached the handout that was sent home to parents for our Veteran's Day Program at our school. One of the worst habits I have is filling a flyer up too much with information, that it becomes information overload. I learned quickly that in some cases, less is more! Make the information simple and easy for parents and students to remember. After all, the point is to get them to the venue for the performance.

Lesson 2

http://www.technokids.com/computer-curriculum/camp/excel-for-kids-technothink.aspx

Before this week, the idea of using spreadsheets and databases within my classroom was not even on my "teaching radar"! To be honest, when we hear the words "database" or "spreadsheets", many of us may instantly think math. However, spreadsheets and databases can be used to create worksheets, gather information, create word searches, and group data that any teacher can benefit from.

Databases and speadsheets are also valuable because they can be used to teach students how to conduct a research or science project, graph progress and changes, and then the information can be charted and graphed. Students need to learn early on in their education the importance of providing accurate data and evidence for many classes. Starting kids at a primary level with fun and simple database and spreadsheet activities will provide them with confidence and familiarity in the future.

I'm sure everyone agrees that the sources we were to explore and interact with this week were awesome. I kept asking myself, "how did I not KNOW about these!?". After lesson two, I believe that I know more about Wiki's than I thought possible! I"m excited to use my PBworks account this summer and get it ready to launch for the 2012-2013 school year. I learned that Wiki's provide teachers and students with a "central learning and communication hub". We can teach our students to collaborate and share information with students from other classrooms, schools, cities, and countries! Students can log in to the system with a user name, edit work, download assignments, share presentations, post discussions, and so much more.

For a teacher who is new to the world of Wiki and why it can be such a beneficial tool in the classroom, I thought that the article written by Lamb that was posted provided a great argument. It was also intersting to listen to the podcast of S

teve Hargadon interviewing Vicki Davis and Adam Frey. They were both honest when interviewed, and provided examples of the pros and cons in using Wiki's in a school. Vicki Davis' classroom almost doesn't even seem like a school classroom! Her high school students were so completely engaged. When watching her in action in the video clip, PBS Digital Nation, I admired the way she allowed them to teach and lead in her classroom, and think that she was correct in saying that her students teach her! Wasn't that video eye opening?

I think that I miss out on some of the latest technology opportunities because I teach in an elementary school. I'm not saying we don't use technology, but it is very interesting to see that students in middle and high schools are so knowledgeable in Wiki's, Google Docs, and podcasts! I plan to use many of the resources were discovered this week in my classroom, hopefully to increase our already creative environment.

Lesson 1

I really enjoyed the resources from lesson one this week. The most exciting ones that stick out to me were the "PBworks" wiki pages. The link to the website is http://pbworks.com/education. Due to the fact that I am an elementary music teacher, this resource is going to be exciting to implement into my classroom. The PBworks websites are easily navigable for elementary aged students and will increase communication among the students, staff, and parents.

The best part about this tool is that it provides a central communication hub, that is accessible from any computer and any location! As a special area teacher, we see every single student in the school (which I love!). However, communication can be very difficult because letters to parents don't always make it home. I'm looking forward to linking my PBworks page to the school website for parents and students have easy access to. I can post videos, assignments, star student information, concert information, and pictures from concerts for all to see. Of course, with everything that we do, parents and guardians will sign a media release form. One downside to technology is that students who are not allowed to be photographed or videotaped for safety reasons are often exposed without the permission of their parents and guardians.

The cool thing with PBworks is that students can create user names, and their identities are not completely exposed. It is such an organized website that teachers can monitor all student activity to prevent any information sharing that is either inappropriate.

In order to implement these tools into my classroom, I already signed up for the free account or trial. Once my PBworks page is set up the way I want it to be, I plan to share the website and include a user-friendly informational guide on how and why we will be using this tool. I plan to sit with the intermediate teacher teams and discuss the many options PBworks offers the teachers and students.

The biggest challenge I anticipate facing implementing this tool into the classroom is getting students and teachers on board to use it! Sometimes an idea looks great, sounds great, and makes sense, but actually doing it is a challenge. I have noticed that whenever teachers share great ideas and conduct "in house" professional development opportunities for exciting software, methods, and so forth, not everyone is ecstatic. I hear a lot of, "is this something we have to do?", or "I have too much on my plate to fuss with this. Things are fine as they are."

I will need to make my PBworks page such a success that teachers will want to learn how to get on board! I will need to provide data and examples of how students are gaining knowledge, skills, and productivity with this tool.

This week's Technology Explorations consisted of a very wide range of tools, websites, and information. The thing that surprised me the most is that I had not heard of any of these cool sites! I truly enjoy learning about fun and interactive educational sites, so this is right up my alley. Although I may not use the podcast idea, I think it was very interesting having some insight into a high school classroom website where technology is very important. I enjoyed listening to one of the podcasts produced by the teacher himself, discussing how people were using twitter to share their thoughts in "real time" regarding the State of the Union Address. I think it would make for a very cool project for students to do a research assignment and create their own podcast! The possibilities are endless it seems.