Week 2 reflection

This week we created a Wiki site and blog, as well as an interactive power point quiz. I don't really understand the point of having both a wiki site and Google site, but I do see the necessity of having a blog. Blogs are very useful because you can post make a new post very easily and you can make comments to posts. As a future teacher, having a blog would be very useful/helpful for students. For example, I could create a new post about an idea presented in class and students could comment or ask questions. Overall, it would be a good way to get students more involved in my class.
The interactive power point quiz is also a great tool to utilize. It was really simple to make, and it would be a good way to help students review for an upcoming test. Instead of giving a regular, old school, paper and pencil quiz, this type of quiz might make students actually want to know the information and might make them excited to review material.
This week we met ISTE standards of...
S3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
S1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
S4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
Professional dispositions covered include commitment to professional competence and ongoing professional development

Week 5 reflection

This past week, we learned how to make a movie with "Picasa" movie editor. Our movie had to be about diversity and what diversity means to us as a future teacher. I think diversity is something that all students need to learn about and appreciate. They need to learn and understand that diversity is something you will experience your entire life and it's important to realize that it shapes how the world is today. Making the Picasa movie itself was fairly simple, therefore it's an effective way to get your point across, while catching the attention of your students. If you're getting sick of making the same old power point for classroom lessons, making a Picasa movie can help present factual information as well.
This past week we also learned what to look for when choosing a website to obtain information. It's important to make sure the website has credible information, so you need to see if the author, or other source presenting the information, is credible. The website also needs to display it's information in an organized and navigable setting. The website I evaluated was pretty navigable because it included hyper links of each topic, and then that hyper link led you to the relevant information. Overall, this week was successful because I learned how to acquire credible information from the internet, and then I have the option of taking that information and making it into a movie.

Standards met:
S3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
S2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
S1 Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

Week 4 reflection

For week 4 we had to create a webquest assignment that is based on our academic content standards, and which grade level we're teaching. I did my webquest on researching information on the industrial revolution. I enjoyed this assignment because it's good practice for lesson planning, and it's good to know what resources you should provide to students when assigning a webquest assignment. I originally thought webquests were more complicated, but now I know that they're fairly easy and simple to create. They are also really effective for students to advance their research skills and being able to comprehend information found on the web.
Although this assignment was a useful one, I had trouble making it creative. Because my focus is high school-aged students, I mainly wanted them to be able to comprehend concepts, and different affects of the industrial revolution, which could be boring to a lot of students. Overall, a webquest is a good lesson plan idea, but i definitely need to learn how to be more creative when it comes to presenting the assignment to the students.
Standards met include...
S3: model digital age work & learning, S1: Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, and S4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship & Responsibility.
This assignment also made use of professional dispositions, such as...
Commitment to professional competence and ongoing professional development.

Week 3 reflection

In class this past week, I learned how to work an excel spread sheet and how to make my own survey using Google Docs. I've never worked with an excel spread sheet before, so at first that assignment was a challenge, but the longer I stayed working on the assignment, and with a little extra instruction, I was able to complete the assignment. At first I didn't even know how to create a new sheet, but I learned how to do that, and I learned how to create charts. Excel is very useful in calculating student and class averages, which can be very useful to teachers who don't like to do math. And Now that I know how to work excel a little better, I would definitely use it as an advantageous tool in the classroom, because it would save me a lot of time and manual math work. The Google Doc survey was very easy to use and it could be a very useful tool in the classroom. In order to start creating your survey, all you have to do is sign into your gmail account, go to your settings, and click on the "Docs" link. Then click on the red create button and pick which kind of format you want. For our assignment we used the "form" format. The rest of the application is pretty self-explanatory, and you can have as many questions as you want, and you can choose what kind of question format you want.
The ISTE standards met this week are...
S3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
S1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
S4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
Professional dispositions included: Commitment to Ethics, professional competence, and ongoing professional development

Week 1 reflections

During the first week of class I learned how to create hyperlinks and how to make a Google site. Knowing how to hyperlink and creating a Google site will enhance classroom learning because younger students prefer a learning environment that's more exciting, interactive, and technological. The hyperlinks created on my Google site lead you to ISTE standards for both teachers and students. These are important to reference because technology is now such an integral part of our country's education system. As a teacher, having a Google site can help kids get to know their teacher on a more personal note, therefore creating more respect in the classroom.
During the first week of class, I met a lot of ISTE standards, such as promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility, which pertains to our internet bookmark assignment, in which we gave brief summaries of issues with technology today, such as cyber bullying, equity issues, cultural issues,and copyright issues.
Having more information on these issues contributes to professional dispositions such as Commitment to ethics, commitment to the well-being of students, families, and communities.
As a future teacher, I would use my Google site to post assignments, comments, or maybe follow-up on an idea that was presented in class that day.