Make-Up for ASP

For my make up assignment I went into a third grade classroom at Hawthorne Elementary and worked with a couple students on typing their plays that they were working on. It was pretty typical, I had to remind a few of them repeatedly to keep their fingers on home row. Many of them tried to keep their hands and fingers on the correct keys. Some students needed more help than others navigation the computers to find what they already had typed. I had one student who just forgot to save his the last time he worked on it and had to start over. So saving sometimes can be an issue. For the most part they were on their own and I just kept an eye on them and was there to help if needed. It was pretty straight forward, just like during the ASP at Hawthorne.

3/1/12- Visit SIX

On my last visit I think we finally started figuring out how to make the students more interactive. We ended up bringing the computers downstairs to where the rest of the students were. This helped a lot, so that students were to the point of not getting enough time on the computer. I think they all didn't want to miss out on anything that was going on in the downstairs if they were upstairs working on computers. I think this idea helped a lot and Hawthorne might be starting to get the right idea for the technology in the after school program. So hopefully the second cohort will have a better experience since it was more figured out and put together. Overall I didn't learn much from this experience, it was too jumbled and no one really knew what was going on.

2/23/12-Visit FIVE

I was gone for a conference meet (Track & Field)  on the fifth visit I should have had at Hawthorne Elementary.

2/16/12-Visit FOUR

On my visit to Hawthorne, one would think by the time the visits were halfway over, things would have gotten figured out better. But they were still pretty messy, we again just worked with the few kids we could get to come into the seperate classroom and work on their computer skills: typing, math, and other various games/activities. We had to supervise really well to make sure the students were only going on websites that were aloud.

2/9/12- Visit THREE

The first time going to Hawthorne it was pretty jumbled and we were still trying to figure out how to work with the students (who wanted to actually come and type). We basically just helped the students with their typing or math games when they needed help. We had less students this time, but started getting more of different ages. We got in some kindergarteners and first graders who needed significantly more help with their typing so that gave us something more to do.

2/2/12- Visit TWO

Gone For a Funeral.

1/26/12- Visit ONE

On the first day at Hawthorne, we were still trying to organize how it was going to happen. I was outside for about half an hour or so just hanging out with the kids. Once we finally went inside it was pretty unorganized but we ended up getting quite a few students to work on computer typing games. They were in third grade, and got bored pretty easily. Especially knowing the other option could be going outside to play. After a long day of school, the kids would have rather gone outside then do more school work. We had about 5-6 kids the whole time, switching out of course. Susie Miller had to try pretty hard to find kids who wanted to come practice typing though. Not a super successful day.

Innovation Assignments

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vZgwGRluu2mGD0b8WUnH7gmYAIPxpTZBAO53-0Pvt2U/edit

I would chose to use an iPod Touch in my classroom, they are more reasonably priced and are smaller and more portable than an iPad. They have such a wide range of educational apps that a teacher can buy to achieve the success of their students. You could use it for practicing states and capitols over and over without having to print off blank copies. A teacher could use it for flashcards so they students could practice on their own free time whenever they had the chance. There is nothing to clean up, all you have to do is put them away. All ages of students would be able to understand how to use them.

Week 12

I believe a part aside from learning what is being taught in the classroom, students learn social skills. How to interact with peers and how to treat elders. When a student is kept at home to take online courses, that would be a lot like being homeschooled. The fun part, for me at least, about going to school was getting to see all my friends and make new friends. 

 This subject is very broad, there are many angles to argue from. Like in this case study, Michael needed the online courses because he did not have time to sit in class for 8 hours out of every day. Some students may benefit from online courses. But others may not, they may just think of it as a free be to not go to class. But even for students who would benefit from online courses being offered may not be able to be for the hefty tuition being asked for. I think that if the schools is entirely virtual than why would they need teachers, or as many teachers as now. They could use the teachers salaries to pay for online courses. If that happened, then teachers would lose their jobs. 

   I believe teachers are extremely necessary, one can't ask a computer when not understanding something. In my opinion, this world is depending on technology every day more and more, soon it may be out of our hands. What if the Virtual School crashes, then students will be without education until it can be fixed. 

   I do not think the government should require high schools to have online courses, as more and more schools try it out, if it is successful then maybe eventually it could be required, for some subjects. In my experience I adore being able to go to my teacher and ask as many questions as I would like until I understood the material. With an online course, you just can't do that. 

Podcast-Graph.tk

Vocaroo Voice Message

Week 10 Case Study

Some financial obligations with podcasting would be having an even higher level of technology needed would enlarge the funding needed to support every teacher. Technology can be frustrated to maneuver and hard to understand, the older teachers may not be able to manage that technology. It could result in losing class time trying to set the podcasts up. Podcasting could also help teachers with planning. If they already have what they want to say they can edit and use whatever resources necessary they may need for their lesson. From personal experience, I know how hard it is to listen to a teacher and copy down their slide slow or take notes when they start talking to fast. So with a podcast, students will be able to give their full attention and pause and rewind when needed for notes, or understanding something. I also have a hard time paying attention and get distracted easily in a classroom, but when working out and listening to my ipod I am able to concentrate better. Students should still be allowed to only miss a certain amount of classes or have to attend a certain amount. But not have every class be mandatory, since the lectures would be available online. 

Week 7 Contextual Analysis for Digital Story

My project would address the Art learning objective since it shows the different colors of the color wheel as well as what group they belong in. Whether it be a primary or secondary color. The fact that colors can also be grouped into warm or cool. What monochromatic means and the way to remember all the colors of the rainbow.
With my digital story it would help incorporate a fun way to show the different colors and when primary colors are mixed, they make other secondary colors. This digital story would not be a lesson by itself, I would use it as an introduction to colors, and get little kindergarteners interested.

Week 6 Case Study

          Students would learn many tasks that would be useful to them beyond the classroom. Students will learn how to use their own creativity, writing skills, designing skills. They could learn something that they never knew they enjoyed, and maybe help them decide a career path.


          Teachers would need a wide range of knowledge to be able to teach their own students how to create a digital stories. For some teachers, this task might be a hassle and create more issues instead of using technology, such as digital stories, as a positive tool. If teachers do not understand how to create them well enough for themselves. Teachers may need more or less training depending on their age and how up to date with technology they are already.

             Digital story telling can be beneficial to students who are shy and students who are outspoken. I stated both in the same category first, because it would even out the classroom. For students who jump right in and answer every question or go first to speak in front of the entire classroom. But also students who are shy and do not want to answer right away in front of the whole class. For students that are shy, it would make them be able to really express themselves, just in a different form. They would achieve higher if they are not so far out of their comfort zone. Students need to be able to speak in front of an audience but this could be helpful and a less stressful way of going about that. Outspoken students, on the other hand, would also be able to express their opinion without influencing others to agree, or change their minds completely. Digital stories can be a positive tool in the classroom for both types of students, as long as they are used correctly.

Week 4 Case Study Response

1. Miss Walker did a good job reviewing the proper way to summarize or paraphrase but I feel she should have told her students that copying and pasting is not the correct way to write a research assignment. The students may have not known what plagiarizing was, so Miss Walker should have told her students what was wrong with it. She could have also taught them how to cite correctly, so that if they needed to cite they could, without plagiarizing.

2. I think students should at least be in middle school to be ready to use Wiki's. They need to know how to use computers accurately along with navigating websites. Also they should be able to type well enough and fast enough to produce a lot of information on their paper without taking an excessive amount of time. Students younger than middle school may not know how to use Word Processor, let alone a website.

3. Each student could be assigned a certain amount of questions they have to answer. So every student has to do their part by answering their questions assigned to them.

4. I think if Miss Walker didn't explain plagiarism before the students started their assignment she should have allowed her students to edit their work. But if she explained in advance then they should receive a zero for plagiarizing.

5. Some groups students are in  may get distracted or end up missing details in their research because of certain students in their group slacking off while other groups might not have that issue. Students should also apply more than other internet sources to write their Wikis. So there is not a lot of repeat information. A main issue is plagiarism, even if it is explained what and why it is unacceptable, that will always big a problem teachers need to work with.

Week 2 Case Study Response

Math & Interactive Whiteboards

Background questions-

             This student provided information concerning how technology in the classroom can be a positive asset. They gave enough background details as to why students would achieve higher with the ability of using technology in the classroom. The after school intern did their research and wrote about what they discovered would be helpful in a classroom. It was said students will get to use Smart boards or Interactive Whiteboards to drag objects and sort and problem solve. This will engage the students to be more cooperative getting to use the “teachers stuff”.

Activity Plan-

            The intern provided two different activity plans. The first was easy to follow, I would be able to use it in a classroom myself and understand what the purpose was. Activity Plan Part 2 was harder to understand, although I could still interpret what the intern was saying. To me, it seemed a bit complicated, with uploading pictures and teaching the students how to make the pictures small icons to be accessible enough to sort into a three-part Venn diagram.

Technology Integration Rationale-

            In this activity it will widen the student’s knowledge of how to use an Interactive Whiteboard, while at the same time, learning the specific differences between shapes and sorting. With these activities the students will also learn about other subjects, or areas in math using the same activity. The intern’s use of technology says they think it should be used in a positive way to learn to the best of their ability. This activity can be made simpler or harder (depending on the students knowledge). Making the Venn diagram smaller or larger can change the toughness, and the shapes they have to sort harder to classify. The technology increases opportunities for student interaction by having an assortment of shapes and colors to organize into specific areas on a Venn diagram; including what they have in common.