My Beliefs

I feel that technology shouldn't be an option in schools. It is the future and we need to prepare out students for it. Technology can be integrated in all of the types of classes. Any type of researching, is the best to do it on the web because of all of the available information that takes seconds to find. Students can create power points, story boards, and digital stories for their assignments.

I believe that teachers can include a lot of different types of technology in the classroom. Examples include cameras, interactive games, online tests and quizzes, research using the web, videos, and more. I believe it really does reach out to all of the different learning styles. I believe that I will always be learning more about technology and include it in my teaching.

Lessons Learned

The Did you know video is really eye opening because it shows that we NEED to teach students the latest technology or the USA will soon be on the bottom of the totem pole in the world. I always knew that China was "competition," but I didn't realize that they are basically dominating us, not to mention how much in debt we are to them, that is really crazy to think. I always have thought the United States is so much farther ahead in basically everything so hearing this is definitely humbling and it makes me want to work hard to get the U.S to where we need to be.

In the article on studying about the teens writing, it talked about how students learning needs to be rich, relevant, and real. They feel that by integrating technology, teachers can help students learn this way. In the Millenial Geneology, it talked about what the students thought technology was going to be like in 10 to 15 years and how their parents don't understand very much technology.

I also learned from the article about why it's important to integrate technology into teaching that there are four key components of learning. They said that the student need to have active engagement, participate in groups, have frequent interaction and feedback, and be able to connect it to real-world expert. They said that if the teacher uses these four main keys in his/her teaching, it will enhance the relationship with the students. 

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths:

·         I feel like currently I am continually learning about technology and my skills and knowledge are increasing. Once I start to work as a teacher I will no longer be taking technology classes or working at a software company so I could see this as also being a potential weakness. But for now, it is a strength.

·         I know how to operate a multimedia computer system. I have installed a lot of software, I know how to access files in different drives, and I know how to maintain and organize files.

·         I am very good at looking in search engines and finding basically anything I need. If I have a question about, for example, how to teach a special needs child math, I know I can find information in seconds. I also know how to find if the information accurate, current, and relevant.

·         I  have accounts with facebook, linked in, blogger, hotmail, outlook, salesforce, e-automate, and gmail so I feel like I am linked in to a lot of work and social networks.

Weakness:

·         Macs are an extreme weakness of mine. I don't own a Mac because of the price and I don't have anyone close to me that owns a MAC so it is very difficult to learn about Macs. Every school I have been to uses Macs so I need to make sure I know how to use it when I start teaching.

·         I feel like I know some computer lingo, but since technology is always progressing, it is something that I need to make sure I stay up on and I need to learn more about now. I know that in 2 years there will be a ton more vocabulary and terms that if I learn, I can be more tech savvy for my students.

·         Goals:

o   My goal is that I will be able to have a good understanding of Mac and the programs that teachers use in the school for Macs for when I become a teacher

o   I also want to have my computer lingo continually grow so my goal is to constantly stay up to date on new computer lingo.

·         Website that has computer lingo: http://www.clpgh.org/locations/pccenter/helpsheets/Intro/ComputerLingo.pdf

·         Tutorial: A basic Mac Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq84nV0fAfM

·         Workshop: Apple let's you sign up for a workshop for free: http://www.apple.com/retail/workshops/

Field Experience

My field experience has been in Mrs. O’niell's 4th grade class at Geneva Elementary. Geneva Elementary School is located in Orem, Utah at 665 West 400 North. It opened in 1948 and is one of 48 existing Elementary Schools in Alpine District. It is also the oldest Elementary School in the Alpine district, but is clean and has been recently updated. It is a one-story building with exciting, colorful paintings on the wall the second you walk in the entrance.

                Mrs. O'niell's class is made up of 22 fourth graders – 14 boys and 8 girls. The students range in age from 9 to 11 years old. 8 students are Hispanic, one is Tongan, one is Native American, one is Brazillian, one is from El Salvador, and 10 are Caucasian. There are a number of special needs in the classroom. 12 students work with ESL specialists, 3 students have severe ADHD, and 3 have emotional disorders. The students as a whole are very well behaved and listened to me when I would ask them to do something, whether it be working on an assignment or being quiet. They seemed to be very intelligent and bright students. I really enjoyed working with them and it was difficult to say goodbye.  When someone did misbehave, there was a time when a student wrote a very inappropriate note, the teacher handled it quickly and responsibly and made sure the other students knew why it was wrong and she expects more out of them.

               
Mrs. O’s 4^th grade classroom has a bright and happy setting. Mrs. O’ works very hard to implement classroom management techniques, as well as keep the students on task at all times. The students stick to a very strict schedule and are well behaved. Mrs. O’ said that at the first of the school year she spends a great deal of time focusing on classroom management.

Now that the students know what is expected of them they are able to get the most out of their educational experience. While I was in the classroom I became an active participant in grading, assisting as well as in teaching the students. It was an exciting experience to work with students and help them gain a deeper understanding for math, science, reading and writing. Mrs. O’s main goal, as a teacher, is to help foster a positive learning experience for each student, so that they can have the best educational experience possible. Mrs. O’ believes in open communication with her students and their parents. Parental involvement, in the educational process of Mrs. O’s students, is strongly encouraged. She was a great teacher to work with. She has been teaching for 8 years and knows and understands how to teach the students. One of her biggest strengths was that I noticed was her great classroom management skills. The students listen and respect her. You could also tell that the students trusted her which I feel is crucial in being able to be a great teacher. She was good to work with and before every lesson we would teach, she would go over the lesson with us and tell us what she thought would be good to change or make sure we do. Also, at the end of the 3 weeks when she evaluated us, she went over it with us to make sure we understood why she put what she did and some tips on how to make us better teachers. 

I worked with Mrs. Jennifer Baldwin and we worked very well together. We split the lesson plans so that we would teach together 4 times and each of us would have one time where we taught by ourselves. I think that it ended up being a nice way to ease us into teaching on our own.

We also showed the students our digital story that we created. It went over how dinosaurs turned into fossils and how they could have become extinct and then talked about fossils. The students seemed to really like the movie and after said they wanted to watch it again. 

Overall I felt like this experience really helped me solidify my decision to become an Elementary Education teacher, and helped identify what my strengths and weaknesses are so I can improve my teaching skills before I go out and do it on my own. 

March 14: Digital Stories 2

This week in class we learned more about Digital Stories and Copyright. We learned about a lot of different ways to make sure we are following copyright laws. We need to make sure that the pictures or songs we are using are allowed to be used by the public. Copyright covers anything from maps, music, paining, photographs, motion pictures, and computer programs.

We are also working on our Digital Story this week and making sure that all of the pictures we use, are legal for us to use. I am excited about our digital story and hope the students will like it when we show it to them.

Feb 8 Photostory and Jing

Today in class we learned about how to create a vidcast. Doc Waters showed us cool tools called Jing and Photostory. Jing is a cool tool that can share a snapshot of a document, Collaborate on a design project, Narrate photos, post info on twitter or facebook, teach a friend or family how to use email or other technology tools, basically a Print Screen on steroids! It's really cool and Free :)


Photostory is a windows program that allows you to create vidcasts. You can import pictures, add cool effects to the picture like charcoal, water color, etc, you can import music or voice recordings and create a video. Really cool and simple to do. 


I can use these in my classes right now for my assignments and projects. I can also use this at work or for my person life. When I become a teacher I can use this for my lesson plans to help teach the students on the curriculum.  
Here is the link to the homework assignment: https://sites.google.com/site/mrsitrisclass/resources

Feb. 1 Podcasts

Today in class we learned about how to create a Podcast. I had never heard of a podcast before so it was cool yo learn how to create one, record it on my phone, and put it on my website. That was also our homework was to do that. Maddie and I worked together and did our podcast on washing your hands to prevent germs.

This technology is important because I can use this for creating lesson plans and doing presentations in my classes while I'm in the program. I can also brag to my husband that I know how to do something with technology that he doesn't.

This will really help my students in the future for homework and in lesson plans. Especially when there is a sub and if I want to make sure they understand something fully, I can have the sub play it for the children. Also, I can put it on the websites for the parents to listen to ass well.