Unit VII Reflection - Lessons Learned

As a future educator, I would say this has been one of the most helpful courses I have taken thus far. So many of my courses leave me wondering what I have even learned. I often find myself asking, "How has this course prepared me to be a better educator?" This course has taught me so many great things I can use in the classroom. Specifically, this course has taught me the basics of planning and organizing a website for use in my classroom.

I plan to use a classroom website similar to the one I created for this course in my future classroom to keep parents up-to-date on class happenings as well as to post fun, educational links for my students. I will use my website regularly to post links to things we are doing in class for parents and students to look over at home. Assuming that all my students have access to the internet at home (I will check with parents at the beginning of the year and then again halfway through the school year), I may post links to review games or videos to include as part of my weekly homework assignments. If my students are unable to access the internet at home, this may be something that I may still do optionally.

Although I did not include it in the website I created for this course, a useful webpage I plan to include would be "This Week's Homework", including a complete list of homework assignments for the week as well as links to relevant games or reviews as I mentioned above. I believe that using the computer regularly as part of my homework routines will making homework more fun for students.

Unit VI Reflection - Technology Integration

Before taking this course, I had little to no knowledge of technology integration. I have always known that I planned to use technology in my classroom, but in the past I had no real ideas of how I would integrate this technology. I reviewed several websites for ideas for technology integration, and this website was my favorite. It includes several fun ideas for using technology in the day-to-day classroom routine, such as viewing the weather forecast online each day, using online news sources, and using the internet in the classroom to further research history.

I found this article published on the New York Times website weighing the pros and cons of technology integration in the classroom. Although technology integration does have many, many advantages, there is evidence that test scores have remained stagnant in many areas after integrating technology into the classroom. Technology may not be moving us toward higher test scores, but are standardized tests the most important measure of the effectiveness of technology integration? As is discussed in many of my education courses, teaching to the test is not always effective. If teaching to the test is ineffective, then the test is also not an appropriate measure of the effectiveness of technology.

The use of technology in the classroom is likely to continue to increase in the next several years, and perhaps only time will tell of the effectiveness of technology integration. I can only imagine that as technology becomes more effective in and of itself, the use of technology in the classroom will also become more effective.

Unit V Reflection - My Pinterest Addiction

I'm not sure where to start a conversation about Pinterest. I guess a good starting point would be to say that Pinterest is quite possibly the single greatest website ever developed. Pinterest is full of new recipes to try, home decorating tips, and tons of wardrobe ideas. That's all great, but what really got me hooked on Pinterest is the wealth of classroom ideas and resources that I have been turned on to since I started using Pinterest!

A quick search for "bulletin board ideas" or "classroom organization" and three hours later my eyes are tired and I have tons of ideas swimming around in my head. Pinterest has evolved since its inception in 2010. In the early days, Pinterest was by invitation-only. You had to know someone who knew someone who was someone's cousin, I suppose. Thankfully, I got the invite and I was in!

I do believe "Classroom" was the first pinboard I created. I feel like immediately I was bombarded by cool ideas from teachers! Most of the ideas I see on Pinterest are pinned from teachers' or homeschooling blogs. I find that more and more often my peers and I find ourselves in deep conversation about all the cool lesson and classroom ideas we have come across on Pinterest! We follow each others' boards so that we can feed off each other's ideas. I feel like Pinterest is by far one of the easiest ways to collaborate and share classroom ideas now.

I do check Pinterest quite frequently, whether I am looking for a recipe, a classroom idea, or a new cleaning technique. I do spend much more time on the site than I would like to admit. Pinterest is particularly dangerous since the development of the android and iPhone apps. Quite often I find myself looking at classroom management techniques and suddenly realizing that what I really should be doing is keeping my eyes on the road... kidding, mostly.

 

Unit IV Reflection C - Using Videos as a Lesson Presentation Medium

I'll be honest; I love the internet, I love my computer, and I love YouTube, but I have never had the desire to create a video before. I think the primary reason I have not attempted video creation in the past is that in my head, I thought that to create a video I would have to record myself, and I do not like being in front of a camera.

For this assignment, I used only animation. Using GoAnimate, I was able to create a two-minute video for free. GoAnimate was so simple and very self-explanatory. Although I did only use the free version, I can imagine that paid version has many more features and may even be worth the six dollars a month subscription fee once I begin teaching if I choose to use animated movies. In the meantime, the free version did just fine. The main problem I saw with the free edition of GoAnimate is that not only was the time capped at two minutes, the dialog was capped at ten lines. Again, this is a feature I would be willing to pay for.

Although I did enjoy GoAnimate, I still prefer PowerPoint or Prezi presentations for lesson presentation. In the future, I can imagine that if I make videos at all I would prefer to use a video camera and then edit it to my specifications instead of using a plug-and-play type application such as GoAnimate.

Unit IV Reflection B - Using PowerPoint Presentations in the Classroom

Before putting this presentation together, I had never designed a PowerPoint with a young audience in mind. I found that I had much more fun creating a presentation to show to elementary students than I ever have when creating a presentation for my college peers. In this presentation, I used several slides to create an interactive multiple choice assessment. After reviewing the item, the students select one of two answers. The answers are hyperlinked and redirect to a slide that shows whether or not the answer was correct or incorrect. If incorrect, the next slide is a second presentation of the question. I love the idea of using PowerPoint as a way to informally assess students in class!

Multimedia can play an vital role in any classroom. I plan to use multimedia such as PowerPoint presentations frequently in my lesson plans as a way to make the lesson more interactive. As one of my classmates suggested in her discussion posting, PowerPoint is better suited for some subjects than others. Science, for example, is generally best learned with hands-on experiments and activities while history might be best learned using interactive presentations such as the multiple choice PowerPoint assessment I mentioned. I do feel that it is important that PowerPoint, or any technology actually, not be overused in the classroom. Although technology is great and more important now than ever, basic instructional methods should not be forgotten.

Unit IV Reflection A - Integrating Technology into Lesson Planning

Before completing this class, I had not thought very much about using technology as a part of my lesson plans. I knew that I would use technology in my classroom, but I was thinking solely of technology as a convenience for me as the teacher. I'm glad to be thinking outside of that box I placed myself in.

In this assignment, I was able to modify an existing lesson plan to include a spreadsheet component. The students will use weather statistics from the previous year in this unit about weather and climate. They will plug this data into an excel spreadsheet. Depending on the experience level of the students, we could use this data to generate a chart or graph using excel. The possibilities for expansion on this idea are nearly endless.

I plan to use a KWL chart for all my unit plans. In case anyone was unaware, a KWL chart is a graphic organizer that organizes what students already know, what they want to learn, and then what they have learned at the end of the unit. KWL seems to be used more often in Early Childhood Education classrooms, but it is a valuable tool at any level. By using this, I can see what the students hope to learn and then use that to direct my lesson. 

For example, if the students want to learn about trends in the weather, we can find appropriate data and create a table showing weather trends. If anyone is interested, here is a link to a printable KWL chart online. In ECE we usually complete one KWL chart as a class, but with older students, each student could complete one. You could even have a set of binders, one for each student, containing KWL charts for every unit.

I usually ramble when I start to reflect on my assignments because I just have so many ideas for things in my classroom!

Unit III Reflection - Productivity Tools

Before this class, I had little experience with Excel. I have used Excel in several simple applications, but generally use Microsoft Word when creating a simple table. I was aware of how to use Excel to create tables, but I had no idea how to use formulas and calculations in an Excel spreadsheet. 

I think it is very important to introduce students to productivity software such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint early. Students are expected to be proficient with these programs now with no formal training, so it is important for us as their regular classroom teachers to expose students to these programs in various applications.

I found a site online from the Sabine Parish School System in Louisiana that lists several resources for teachers using Microsoft Excel at different grade levels. Among the many useful websites listed was this website from the Franklin Institute detailing some different ways to integrate Excel into the classroom. According to the Franklin Institute, "the instant creation of graphs and charts from spreadsheets in various styles reduces the tedium of drawing and coloring and lets us get right to the exercise of selecting, interpreting and querying data". Although I think it's necessary for students to learn to graph by hand, it is helpful for them to learn how to apply these mathematical concepts on paper as well as using software.

Another of the ideas I found on the Sabine Parish School System website was a lesson plan using a virtual lemonade stand. The children collect all the data needed to sell their lemonade and then plug it into excel. This idea would be cool to use for a class fundraiser. The students could organize a bake sale and use excel to track all their expenses and profits.

The use of software in the classroom results in basically endless possibilities and is now not only a way to add fun and variety to the classroom but is necessary to prepare students for the real world.