Blog Post #14

I thought Jose Picardo's "Top 10 Tips for Using Technology in the Classroom," was very informative. There are many tips that he talked about that I never would have thought to incorporate in a classroom. One of the tips that I liked was the use of music and iTunes. As a lover of music I think that this would be a great way to keep children interested in certain topics. I also really liked how he included Skype in one of his tips. Skype is a great way for children to communicate with others all around the world.

One of the other tips that Picardo suggested was to use social networks. I think that this is a great idea because so many children already use social networks. You can make small groups, communicate easily with your students, and set the privacy to whatever you want. He also talks about using the smartboard more efficiently. This is something that we have been working on recently in EDM 310. I cannot wait to use a smartboard in my class.

Blog Post #15

Final Project

Blog Post #13

I chose to do option 4 for my blog post assignment. The book that I chose to read was called 1984. I read this book once before in the 8th grade and hated it. I disliked it so much that I could not even make myself read it. I believe that now as I have grown older I have developed an appreciation for the book. It is interesting to compare this book in retrospect to EDM 310. I believe 1984  looks down on technology to some degree.

The book is about a man named Winston Smith. Winston Smith is a low- ranked member of his regions party. The party's leader is called Big Brother. Big Brother is apparently watching you wherever you go. Big Brother knows everything that you say and even everything that you think. Winston does not like Big Brother. He meets a girl named Julia and they start to have an affair. Winston also keeps an illegally bought diary of his illegal thoughts. Winston confides in a man named O'Brian who he is sure is a member of the Brotherhood, which is a group seeking to overthrow Big Brother. Unfortunately this is not the case. Soon after meeting O'Brian, Julia and Winston go to there usual meeting spot in a room above the store where Winston bought his illegal diary. The shopkeeper turns them both in and Winston finds out that O'Brian was secretly a member of the reigning party. O'Brian tortures Winston until he finally begs him to torture Julia instead. With Winston's spirit crushed he has now been defeated and is a loyal supporter of Big Brother.

Progress Report Final Project #16

My partner, Jenna Reynolds, and I have discussed most of what we will be doing for our final project. I think we are going to choose one of the classes we have taken in the past and reform it while incorporating the use of technology. We have a class picked out and can't wait to use the smartboard again.

Blog Post #12

Watch the video The Role of Technology in a Society. Discuss whether or not you agree or disagree with the message. Argue your point and follow the requirements in Writing a Quality Blog Post.

The video The Role of Technology in a Society was interesting because it was a different take on technology. Throughout this class we have been watching videos about how technology can be helpful, so it was interesting to see how it could possibly be hurtful. I do not agree with much of this video. I do not believe that technology has affected society in that many bad ways. If anything society has been great for us in communicating, research, and creativity.

The whole incident with the child that killed his parents over a video game was bizarre to me. This could have happened with anything. He could have killed his parents over a toy or just not getting his way. While the maker of this video has a good point about the addiction of technology, I do not think it is as drastic as she makes it seem. I am a firm believer that family should come first and technology should not get in the way of this but there are many ways to incorporate the use of technology in family situations. For instance, playing a family game on the Wii.

Blog Post #11

Getting to see the different types of technology that Ms.Cassidy used was amazing. I never thought that a person would be able to incorporate that many different things into a class of 1st graders. The children seemed to love working with the computers and the smartboard. I think that I could use many of the types of technology Ms.Cassidy used in my own classroom. If I had to pick one, I would use blogs. One of the children said that his blog helped him to spell better and this is something that I have never given thought to . Another thing that I thought was interesting was the incorporation of the Nintendo DS into the classroom. This seems really fun and effective.

The problems that I think I would encounter would be finding the appropriate time for each child to use the same amount of time on the computer. It would be up to me to make a schedule so that every child could get all of their work done. Another thing that might pose as a problem would be the Nintendo DS. While I think this is creative and fun, I could see the children fighting over it. I would probably resolve this by setting turns for the children to take on the DS. I think by incorporating all of these different types of technology into the classroom the children would benefit by gaining communicating, researching, and writing skills.

Blog Post #10

As a teacher I intend to educate rather than teach by making sure that the tools I use to educate are up to date and relative. From being in Dr.Strange's class I have learned the importance of incorporating technology in the classroom. I did not have this very often growing up and I feel like I was missing out. I do not want my students to feel this way. Technology is such a big part of our society that I find it almost unfathomable to teach without it.

Another way I want to educate instead of teach is to make sure that the children can relate to the material that is being relayed. I am sure that this will not happen for all lessons but I at least want this to be possible for most. For most of my classes all I did was memorize. Much of the material that I would "learn" would go in one ear and out the other. I want to make it possible for my students to relate and remember what the lesson was on. I feel as though I can do this by making the lessons more enjoyable and creative.

Tom Johnson's "Don' Let Them Take the Pencils Home," was very informative. The argument that Johnson wrote about was whether or not children should be allowed to bring pencils home from school because they lower test scores. This argument had a message in it. As teachers we often look at the problem rather than the solution. If we do not take a step back and look at how we can fix the problem, than it just keeps reoccurring.

Gertrude is the name of the woman who is trying to keep the children from bringing home the pencils. She argues that the ones who bring home the pencils play games with them rather than learn. Johnson argues that even if they are playing games with the pencils, they can still be learning. If the play hangman they are practicing writing letters and spelling words. There are so many different ways of learning.

Blog Post #9

The first post of Mr.McClung's that I read was "What I Learned this Year (2008-09). " In this post McClung writes about his first year teaching as a stand alone teacher. He talks about how the student comes first and we as teachers often forget this. Teachers make lesson plans and get so worked up about how they will get evaluated that they forget how the student will interpret it. We cannot get stressed to much about the lesson plans because they will never be perfect. The important thing is to make sure we realize our mistakes and learn from them. He also mentions technology and how we should not be afraid of it. We as teachers need to embrace and take advantage of it.

This is probably my favorite blog post that I have read this semester. It was great getting to hear about a teachers first experiences in a classroom. It prepared me for some things that I will encounter when I start teaching. I really enjoyed how he incorporated the importance of communication in his blog post. I agree that most conflicts can be resolved through communication.

The second blog post that I read was "What I Learned this Year (2009-10)." This blog post was about Joe McClung's second year teaching. He moved grades form 6th to 8th. He writes about the transition and the hardships that he had to overcome. McClung also talks about teaching subjects that you really have no idea how to teach. This is helpful to many people because I am sure most teachers have to deal with this at least some point in their career.  

This post reached out to me just as much as McClungs first post did. He wrote about another important thing to do when it is your first year teaching, and that is finding a friend in a school mom. I know this is important because my mom was a school mom. I can remember how much she helped my teacher and how grateful my teacher was. Another topic that I enjoyed reading about was discussing current events in school. McClung says that so many of these children do not think for themselves and we as teachers must figure out a way to help them do this. 

Blog Post #8

Richard Miller's "This is How We Dream," hit home for me. As a lover of books myself, I feel that it is important to have a love for literature. Miller also spoke about how you can by any book now virtually, for only a fraction of the price. I have a Nook and I love it! There are so many paper books that I have purchased that I have never even opened. I have never really thought about it, but this is a waste.

 Miller also talks about how we share knowledge infinitely through the internet. This means that anything you put on the internet is there forever. It is never really deleted. This is amazing to me. This is one of the reasons why it is important to be smart about what you put on the internet. It would be awful to put something horrible on the internet and know that it can never be erased.

 This video was an eye-opener. It made me realize that times are changing. Every day they are making new technology, always something to replace whatever came before it. The way we use to do thing is dying. Pretty soon we will not even need paper anymore, everything will be done through the internet. This is why it is so important to be technologically literate.

 Carly Pugh's blog post was informative and very well written. The assignment that she came up with would be a great one for this class. She does come close to writing with multi-media. It was like she was writing with videos. She put text with it, but there was a video every few sentences. I think that she did an amazing job with getting her point across.

 The video "Learn to Change, Change to learn," had some great points. One man in the video talks about how they are blocking blog posting and other creative outlets for children in schools. We should be incorporating those in our schools. I really appreciated how another man talked about how most children today are in a "nearly now" state. He also says that this is a great state for learning. Simply put, times are changing and technology is a part of this world. We should embrace it.

 Personally I loved "EDM 310 For Dummies." I thought that this video was clever and creative. I would love to be in a video people can relate to. When I first started EDM 310 it was a bit overwhelming. This video made excelling in the class feel possible.