Weekly Blog Number Eight

This week in class we learned about Zamzar. This is a free internet tool, where you can convert files. It is awesome, because you can download a video, change it's file format if needed and have it on your hard drive. It is pretty cool.


This assignment was fun. I had a little trouble at first getting my videos in a place I could find them. After that it was smooth sailing. I really enjoyed looking for videos that could be considered educational. It was fun to find this Bill Nye video, I remember watching Bill Nye the Science Guy as a kid. I don't know what else to say really, but I enjoyed this weeks' assignment.

I am definitely going to use this tool in the future. I love that I can search you tube for educational videos and then I can upload them to my own computer. This way I can put videos in a power point presentation, on my classroom blog, or just play the video for the class. I think it would be fun to have a video of the week that the class could journal about. It could be about something that we had learned about in the previous week. I just think it would be so fun, and I think my little first graders would love it. Hopefully it would make the subject come alive, and that way it would be easier for them to remember what we have just learned. I plan to also use the simulation kind of videos we talked about in class for virtual field trips.

This weeks video was interesting. It was a video about technology and students thoughts about how it is changing, and how they thought it would change in the future. I thought it brought up some interesting things about how our world is all about technology. It is pretty amazing. In the video one kid said how he thought one day we won't even have credit cards, that we will just use thumbprint technology. I can see how that could be very possible within a few years. It is exciting how technology keeps getting better and better. This video just made me realize once more how I need to be continually learning about new technology and not be afraid of it.

Weekly Blog Number Seven

This week in class we learned about Picasa. This is a tool that you can use to edit and view pictures online. With Picasa you can edit pictures in many different ways. It is a pretty neat program.

I feel like this is a very useful tool for teachers. I think that I will definitely use this program for pictures taken in my class. I thought it was neat how you could edit pictures in so many ways. I really liked that you could crop, change fill light, shadows, change the glow, and even more. I uploaded this program on my computer and it automatically uploaded all of my pictures to the program; I thought that was awesome.

As a teacher I plan to use this tool for pictures that I want to use on my class blog. I think it would be really fun to use it to make web albums, that parents and students can go and look at about things we have done in the classroom. It would be useful for students if they were old enough to edit pictures they have taken for class projects and stuff. I think that this is another tool that is free for teachers to use. I like it!

Weekly Blog Number 6 (October 11, 2009)

This week in class we learned about digital cameras. We learned a lot of fun ways to use digital cameras in our classrooms. We learned that by using digital cameras we can save a lot of time and money. We had to get in our groups and make a presentation teaching some curriculum, using our pictures.It was a fun and relaxing assignment for me.

By using digital cameras, I can make learning new concepts interesting. These cameras are fun to use in the classroom, because children really respond to pictures. Children love to take pictures and they love to see themselves in pictures.I think that by using digital cameras, I could teach many things; and by using pictures that we have taken children will become excited and more involved in the learning process.

In the future, I think it would be fun to use a lot of pictures that we have taken as a class to put up around our classroom. We could have pictures for letters of the alphabet, animals, colors, etc. I think that it would also be fun to take pictures throughout the school year. I could take pictures of our class in each unit that we are in, and then I could post them on our classroom blog.One idea I had that might be fun, would be; as a class we could have a lesson on the environment. We could go around the school and take pictures of our environment. Then, I could put a presentation together and show the class. The students could also take pictures of their "home" environment, and they could put a little poster together for the class. I just think that things like that could be really fun.

The mashup video we had to watch this week was awesome. I loved that someone was clever enough to put all these clips together to make one big video, that flowed so well. I think that it was very creative and I think that students would love to have assignments like this in the classroom. The other video we were supposed to watch, I could not find on teachertube.

Weekly Blog Number Five

This week in class we learned about internet safety. We learned how to spot a website that has true information. We also learned what we need to look out for when using the internet, when teaching our students.

This week was a lot less stressful than last weeks' assignment. It was helpful to know how to identify a good website from a bad one. It is good to know that a reliable website will usually be public. I also learned that a reliable website will have information given by an expert on the subject. I had no idea that online bullying was such a big issue. It is nice to be aware that the Internet doesn't have to be a scary thing. The Internet can be used to help teach and make subjects come alive to students.

I plan on teaching first grade, so I don't know how much computer time as a class we will get. I do plan to utilize the Internet, even if it is just used to play educational games to get children used to using the Internet and the computer. If I don't teach first grade though, I would have the students use the Internet regularly. We could have groups go on the Internet to find out as much as Benjamen Franklin as they could. We could then have the groups present a fact to the class. It would be a fun way to introduce many different subjects of study. As a teacher I will pre approve sites that the students can get their information from. I will have a program on the computers that I can set to keep dangerous and inappropriate material off the computer.

The video I watched this week was from Teacher Tube again, the url address is:

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=838&title=Why_Let_our_Students_Blog_
This video was a short little video about why we should let our students blog. Basically the video said blogging is a good way for children to learn and express creativity. Blogging is a good way for children to connect the process of learning to write with the online world. As a first grade teacher, I think it would be fun to have a classroom blog to post pictures and events that both parents and children can access.