Looking Ahead

My teaching hasn't really been challenged or changed that much. I did find some new ideas, especially in the last assignment. There are a lot of online tools you can use in your classrooms. Some are for learning and teaching the students, and some are actually for the students to use in their everyday lives. It's great that you can bring technology into the classroom and teach with something that is very familiar to a lot of students. Teaching is definitely not an easy job, but we are teaching the future and need to do our best to incorporate everything we have learned. I learned a lot more about how to use excel and some of the different ways teachers can use it. It's really not that hard and once you start "playing around" with it, it's pretty self explanatory. Sometimes computer programs can scare us if we've never really worked with them before, so I am a lot more comfortable with making different things on that program now. Online technology is a big part of running a successful classroom and I'm glad I got the opportunity to become a little more comfortable seeing what's out there and how to use and incorporate some different things.

Online Tools

We were asked to go to the cooltoolsforschools website and pick a tool from three different categories and play with it. The three tools I chose were:

Presentation tools- Voicethread
Writing tools- Wordle
Organiser tools- Soshiku

The first one I chose was under the presentation category. It is called voicethread. With this tool, students can share their work with other students and are allowed to make verbal comments regarding the pieces. It's also a way for the classroom teacher to create electronic presentations to fulfill the technology standard as dictated by LCSD #1. You can scan it into a scanner, the kids read a piece, and others can comment and it creates a blog between students on their written work. You have to be really careful not to use the kid's real names due to privacy issues and exposure to the internet. It was very easy to use and pretty self explanatory. I would probably try it out in the classroom because of its ease to use and it sounds like a great way to get students involved with each other's work. My mom said she's used it in her classroom before and got a very positive response to it. http://voicethread.com/

The second tool I played around with was Wordle from the Writing tools category. This tool takes texts that you type and the words you most frequently are bigger and bolder. For the students, it shows them that they need to use more colorful words. You can type, or have students type the work giving them a visual cue on what words they use most often. This must be saved as a word document first or else your work is lost if you hit backspace. Again, my mom has used this one in her classroom as well and said it is a pretty good tool to use. I think it would be good as you can show the students that they can expand their vocabulary by using different words. http://www.wordle.net/


The last tool I chose was Soshiku from the Organising category. With this tool the High School and College students can keep track of homework and assignments so their work is not late. They can send you notifications via e-mail or SMS. With this tool you can also save notes, manage tasks, attach files, and share messages with your partners. It's very simple to use and guides you through on getting it set up. I think it's neat that you can "work together" with your partners online to get assignments done. I would definitely recommend this to my High School, and maybe even Jr. High School students. A lot of homework and studying is done online, so it would be pretty easy to pop in on this site to see what assignments and homework is due, and it's free! http://soshiku.com/

Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants

I guess I would have to consider myself one of the digital natives. I see it way more evident now in today's youth, but even when I was in school, technologies were starting to come around more and more. A lot of things like computers and cell phones are a part of everyday life now, whereas they were not that popular 10-15 years ago. A lot of teachers I think do try to use games and different technological ways to bridge the gap. I think it is more difficult to "learn new ways" because you are so accustomed and used to your own ways that it is hard to adapt to new ways. We learn new things everyday, but it is still harder to change the way you feel is right. I think when I teach I will try to use a mixture of new and old ways so you are teaching, as well as trying to adapt the old ways of what students are used to. The sentence "As educators, we need to be thinking about how to teach both Legacy and future content in the language of the Digital Natives" is so true explaining that you can and should incorporate different ways to teach. I think no matter which subject you are teaching, you need to make sure each student understands no matter how you get the material across. It may mean it takes you several different ways to teach the same subject, but as long as they are understanding and learning is all that's important.

Technology Literacy

The three technology tools that I believe teachers today must be proficient with in order to model literacy to students are computers, smartboard, and using digital videos. Computers are a key tool in success in today's classrooms. By teaching kids how to use them and what the different programs are, will help them with their future encounters when using them. The smartboard I am not too familiar with as we did not have that when I was in school, but as I visited my son's Kindergarten classroom several times throughout the school year was able to watch the teacher use it a little bit. It is like an interactive whiteboard that is a lot like a computer. The kids are engaged and learning hands on. It beats the big old black chalkboards they used to have. Digital videos can be useful for a wide array of lesson plans. You can use them for various lessons to teach and show many different subjects. If I had all of these technological tools I would definitely use them and teach the kids how to use them as well. My son would tell me how they do interactive math lessons and such on the smartboard and was always excited to tell me what he was learning. I think it's a great way to get students engaged and put the "fun" back into learning. I would definitely try to get the children as involved as I could while teaching lessons on it. I think that it would be a huge benefit for the students who would get to help use any technological tools because they are learning about them while learning on them! In almost any job or degree you need to know some about computers, so by starting them young at getting familiar with computers will definitely benefit them in the long run. The videos can help bridge the gap to certain lessons by showing them vs. just telling them about certain topics. Some students are better at seeing the picture visually rather than just hearing about the picture. Yes, these tools are very expensive, but I think they are well worth it. On the smartboards and computers you can use games to help teach too. I think it is neat to watch how you can make almost anything into a game and get a much better response from the kids, and you can definitely do that with a lot of technological tools today!

Playing by the Rules

The rules I remember the best would be: making sure you hand assignments in on time, treat others with courtesy and respect, raise your hand when asking or answering a question, and ask permission before getting out of your seat or leaving the classroom. Rules are in place to ensure your safety and overall smoothness of running a classroom, they have a specific purpose. So with that in mind, I really do not think that any of them seemed unreasonable. Most often the consequences of breaking a specific rule, you were given a warning, then depending on which rule was broken you either would be sent to the principal, have certain privileges taken away, or take an incomplete grade on an assignment if you failed to turn assignments in on time. Almost every teacher does explain to you what the consequences would be if rules were broken and I always knew what was expected of me and what would happen should I break a rule. Even in the daycare we have rules set and let the children know what happens should they not follow them. With the younger ones we often have to remind them from time to time, but most of them get it and they do a fairly good job of following them. For my classroom the three rules I think I would choose would be 1.)Treat others with kindness and respect 2.)Ask permission before leaving your seat/classroom 3.)Raise your hand when asking and answering questions The first one I think is a very important one as you want everyone to feel welcome and part of the class. You don't always have to like someone, but treating them badly is not okay! The other ones are pretty standard, but you always need and want to know where your students are and if they just get up and leave whenever it would make it harder to keep track of where everyone is and what they are supposed to be doing. Also, by not having everyone shout out answers and talking at the same time, it will make it easier to keep an orderly classroom and be able to give everyone a chance to participate. Depending on what age group you are teaching would depend on what the consequences would be. Say I was teaching Kindergartners I would probably give them up to two warnings before isolating them or sending them to the office. They usually pick up on things fairly fast so after you have to tell them twice, they should get it. If they still have a problem following them I would try a "heads down on the desk away from everyone" or maybe stay in during a recess. If they continue to break them, I think a conference with the principal and/or mom and dad would be appropriate. Overall most kids generally do well with following the rules, but you will always have those few who will test and push you. Rules make your class run smoothly and should be in place in order to maintain that smoothness.

A Remarkable Influence

I would have to say that the one person who has helped put me on this path to becoming an educator would be my mom. She has been a Kindergarten teacher as well as a second grade teacher. She loves kids and definitely has a passion for teaching. I've watched her and visited her classrooms throughout the years and seeing how happy children and teaching makes her, makes me realize that you really can find a career that interests you that you love doing. I always use my mom as examples when I'm talking about teaching or how I could do things that work for her and her age group. She's helped me tremendously with my daycare center and is always giving me tips and ideas on how to make things better and more fun for the children. She's VERY good at getting children to do things while having fun so they do not dread doing their work. She's all about making it fun for them and gets a pretty good response in return. I guess the best way I can pay forward her inspiration in my career is to continue talking about her and using her in examples and taking her advice as to what she does that works best and makes positive impacts with her students. She can probably see her "ways" through me and my teachings and know that some of the things I do came from her. My physical classroom can also pay tribute by having some of the things up that she found useful in her everyday teachings. Though I will just go as far as Pre-K, there are certain things I can have in our classrooms that can help the kids get prepared for Kindergarten. My mom knows all about what they need to know or should know and I can build off of that to incorporate some of her ideas to surround the classrooms to make them the richest learning environment needed to be successful. I guess I'm very fortunate to have such a great role model who can help lead and guide me on the right path to having successful teaching ways and tools needed to working with children. :)

Becoming an Educator

Children in general have been my biggest inspiration and influence in becoming an educator. Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to work with children and loved babies and kids, and still do. We own a daycare center because not only can I be a part of my own children's everyday lives, but others as well. I am actually not taking this class to become an elementary, middle, or high school teacher. I am taking it to fulfill the requirements for my Early Childhood degree. If I had to choose one of those though, I would definitely see me fitting better in an elementary setting just because I have the most experience with that age group. I understand them a little better and have worked with them the most. The part of being an educator I love the most is watching children learn and grow in such a short matter of time. It amazes me how their little minds work and how much they pick up on from YOU. We are their main source of learning and there is nothing more rewarding than seeing them succeed and grow and knowing that you made a difference in their lives. My main attributions are that I am patient and understanding and I know how to get children to listen and work while having fun. When I first started doing daycare there were definitely days it was a challenge, but I learned how to overcome those challenges and what works. It is important to understand that each child is an individual and unique and what works for some, doesn't work for others. There are certain techniques you can use with certain children to get them to listen and behave better for you. Kids are our future so we need to do as much as we can to get them prepared for their grown up lives. I think there is much more to being a good teacher than just teaching them the everyday basic subjects. We need to teach them about themselves and their world around them. Children are my passion and I think overall I am very good with them. My mom is an elementary school teacher and her students and parents all love her. Her teaching style seems to fit the need of most everyone she teaches, so I think working with kids must run in the family. :) I'm sure some teachers see it as "just a job" but I think it really does take special people to be able to teach kids day in and day out. We have all had those teachers who just seem to be miserable and mean and like they really are not into it. I say if it's not a true passion of yours, to pick a different career. Teaching is a very important job position and you need to put your heart, mind, and soul into it in order to get the most out of it and be the best teacher and educator you can be for our future.