Well, the laptop I have right now doesn't have Word, Excel or Powerpoint (lame, I know, but what do you expect for $40?) but I have used them all in the past.
I did use Word recently for an art project where I had to have a colorful border on it. I was surprised to find a lot of clip art borders that were really fun! One project I would use for students using Word is doing book reports. They can get creative with it and create a cover page with borders or clip art.
A project students could do with power point is to have them make a slide show for an oral presentation. You could have them include a balance of both text and pictures to get their point across. Students could take pictures of themselves and incorprate them into the presentation.
Excel I have only used at work, but I'm sure it has it's uses in the classroom as well. Students can use it for making charts to analyze data. They could put all the students names across the top and then down the sides have how many pets they have or how many people in their family, etc. The students could fill out the chart and compare and contrast the chart to find data such as the average number of people in each household, or how many people have dogs vs. cats, etc.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Week # 12 Entry
K-12 Online Conference
A Peek for a Week
This teacher from New Zealand takes you through a week in her classroom. She starts off by showing the class blog and the different links that are there. She also talks a little about the interactive whiteboard and that there is a homepage on that as well that has links to things the class uses often.
There is a sharing time when the students get in front of the class and share about an event or something they want to talk about. The teacher has them bring photos that she putts on the Smartboard during their presentation.
The class has a writing blog that allows the students to write without their writing being graded. It's very independant work and the pressure is taken off because they are allowed to just write freely without the pressure of doing it right. The teacher uses this as an opportunity to guide them, but does not grade it.
I thought it was interesting how they do fitness. They basically put up a video on the smartboard and the class dances to it.
This teacher does a good job of incorporating technology in her classroom. It seemed like a lot of it was student led and they were able to control it easily. There are 6 students who help other teachers learn about different technology. The one that was shown was the students teaching them how to make their own movie online. I thought it was great that these kids were given the opportunity to teach adults about technology.
It seemed like this teacher had a good balance of using technology in her classroom. She has the students look up the comments on her blog and then map out where those comments are coming from all over the world. I thought that was a great idea for getting students introduced to the world map.
A Peek for a Week
This teacher from New Zealand takes you through a week in her classroom. She starts off by showing the class blog and the different links that are there. She also talks a little about the interactive whiteboard and that there is a homepage on that as well that has links to things the class uses often.
There is a sharing time when the students get in front of the class and share about an event or something they want to talk about. The teacher has them bring photos that she putts on the Smartboard during their presentation.
The class has a writing blog that allows the students to write without their writing being graded. It's very independant work and the pressure is taken off because they are allowed to just write freely without the pressure of doing it right. The teacher uses this as an opportunity to guide them, but does not grade it.
I thought it was interesting how they do fitness. They basically put up a video on the smartboard and the class dances to it.
This teacher does a good job of incorporating technology in her classroom. It seemed like a lot of it was student led and they were able to control it easily. There are 6 students who help other teachers learn about different technology. The one that was shown was the students teaching them how to make their own movie online. I thought it was great that these kids were given the opportunity to teach adults about technology.
It seemed like this teacher had a good balance of using technology in her classroom. She has the students look up the comments on her blog and then map out where those comments are coming from all over the world. I thought that was a great idea for getting students introduced to the world map.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Week #11 Entry
Blog
I read Kevin Jarret's blog on how education plays a role in legacy. I found it to be very inspiring and told him as much! There wasn't a whole lot to be learned, but it was more of an inspirational piece. I just liked how this guy was climbing the ladder in the corporate world and decided that he wanted his life to count for something and decided to become a teacher. I think that it's important for teachers to be thinking of their legacy and to be aiming for the goal of having a good one.
At one point in the blog, Jarret posted this quote, which I have heard before, but really like:
“On their deathbed, no one ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time on my business.'."
I read Kevin Jarret's blog on how education plays a role in legacy. I found it to be very inspiring and told him as much! There wasn't a whole lot to be learned, but it was more of an inspirational piece. I just liked how this guy was climbing the ladder in the corporate world and decided that he wanted his life to count for something and decided to become a teacher. I think that it's important for teachers to be thinking of their legacy and to be aiming for the goal of having a good one.
At one point in the blog, Jarret posted this quote, which I have heard before, but really like:
“On their deathbed, no one ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time on my business.'."
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Week #10 Entry
NU Educators Panel
Question #1 - What experiences have you had in classrooms that have shaped what kind of a teacher you have become?
Question #2 - How does the Education department stay up to date on new technology out there?
Question #3 - What advice do you have for the interview process when we start interviewing for teaching jobs?
Question #1 - What experiences have you had in classrooms that have shaped what kind of a teacher you have become?
Question #2 - How does the Education department stay up to date on new technology out there?
Question #3 - What advice do you have for the interview process when we start interviewing for teaching jobs?
Technology Project Plan
My plan is to incorporate technology into the GeoBear project. For more info on what that is, click here. Students will be helping to design a website for our class that features GeoBear. At the end of the project, students can write a blog entry about what they learned. I will also be incorporating the SmartBoard in this project so that students can interact with a world map on the SmartBoard. Here is my Vocaroo recording! Get excited people.
Reflection #8
What?
Videoing Kids in the Classroom - A blog entry. I was reading this blog on a question a teacher had a concern about video taping students in the classroom.
So What?
Needleman makes a good point of saying that anytime you use video in the classroom, it's probably a good idea to get consent from the parents first.
What Now?
I think we need to make sure we are covering our bases when we plan to use things like video in our classrooms. You will be pretty limited if you have even one parent that refuses to give consent to their child being recorded and you had this whole plan involving video. Maybe you could put that kid behind the camera or work on the editing, but it's something to think about.
Videoing Kids in the Classroom - A blog entry. I was reading this blog on a question a teacher had a concern about video taping students in the classroom.
So What?
Needleman makes a good point of saying that anytime you use video in the classroom, it's probably a good idea to get consent from the parents first.
What Now?
I think we need to make sure we are covering our bases when we plan to use things like video in our classrooms. You will be pretty limited if you have even one parent that refuses to give consent to their child being recorded and you had this whole plan involving video. Maybe you could put that kid behind the camera or work on the editing, but it's something to think about.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Reflection #7
What? A blog entry called, Overload? that talks about how some school districts are overloading parents with too many online resources from grades to twitter to facebook pages.
So What? The blog states that the number of parents visiting these sites is going down the more of them are introduced. Parents are getting overloaded with everything that is out there that schools take advantage of. The author is not slamming these resources, but is drawing attention to the fact that educators need to choose one of them and stick with it. Because there is so much available these days, I think we get excited about the possibilities there are and just go hog wild when in reality, less is more!
What Now? Just because there are all these wonderful, free resources out there for educators doesn't mean that all the time and energy we put into them will be appreciated. Are the resources we are using really necessary? Can we get the information to people in a better way? What about the digital divide? I like using the latest and greatest things out there as much as the next person, but really, are parents really going to be on the school district twitter thread and constanly checking facbook for the latest news on whatever? I think not. So I think this blog makes a good point that there is an awful lot thrown at parents who probably don't really have the time or interest in the things school districts think they will.
So What? The blog states that the number of parents visiting these sites is going down the more of them are introduced. Parents are getting overloaded with everything that is out there that schools take advantage of. The author is not slamming these resources, but is drawing attention to the fact that educators need to choose one of them and stick with it. Because there is so much available these days, I think we get excited about the possibilities there are and just go hog wild when in reality, less is more!
What Now? Just because there are all these wonderful, free resources out there for educators doesn't mean that all the time and energy we put into them will be appreciated. Are the resources we are using really necessary? Can we get the information to people in a better way? What about the digital divide? I like using the latest and greatest things out there as much as the next person, but really, are parents really going to be on the school district twitter thread and constanly checking facbook for the latest news on whatever? I think not. So I think this blog makes a good point that there is an awful lot thrown at parents who probably don't really have the time or interest in the things school districts think they will.
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