Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'm not sure what we are supposed to blog about this week, so I'll just talk about what I did over the holiday. I really needed this break from school and work. I spent Wednesday with my nieces and nephews just preparing and shopping for Thanksgiving. It was really fun. I can't believe that they are growing up so fast. I spent time with an old best friend of mine also, we went to dinner. It was really nice to see her and be able to catch up on things going on in our lives.
On Thanksgiving I went with my parents and extended family over to my Grandma's house for dinner. We all had way too much food. I really enjoyed visiting with family that I don't get to see very often. It was funny, I had brought my scissors and clippers home from work, so I had to cut my Grandpa's and cousin's hair. All in all it was a pretty good Thanksgiving.
Well, I did watch the videos posted for this week. They were Mr. Deuy Fractions And Introducing Web 2.0. I liked both of these videos. One was a rap given by a teacher all about fractions. I thought that this was such a creative idea. It was definitely a creative way to teach fractions, and I definitely think that students would respond to this kind of instruction. The second video was all about new tools that allow creators to share ideas through different mediums on the web. I thought this video was informative and interesting. It pointed out a few tools that I have never used before, one of these would be Wikis. I liked the video, but to be honest I felt like it was a little boring and a little repetitive.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Our Vidcast Assignment
This is Chelsea White, and My (Nicole Meldrum) video for our vidcast assignment. It is a video of my niece and nephew showing different faces, for different emotions. I think it is cute, and fun.
I also posted the video on You Tube also, here is the url:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI9s6yDzqqE
I also posted the video on You Tube also, here is the url:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI9s6yDzqqE
Weekly Blog Number Twelve
We have learned many different technologies this semester. Some of my favorite things we have learned about are Picasa, Power Point Activities, Zamzar, UEN, and Vidcasts. We have been introduced to many different ways of utilizing these tools to teach our future students.It has been very fun and interesting to learn about different forms of technolgies.
This semester I think that one of the hardest assignments we had was the big UEN assignment. I felt that it was pretty crazy. It was neat though when I finally started getting the hang of it. I thought it was really useful. Zamzar is a online tool that converts files, I thought this was a really neat tool to use. This way I can convert music, and educational videos from you tube, this will be a great help to have on my own computer. This way I can incorporate music and video in presentations to better help my students understand the material I will be teaching.
I plan to use these tools we have learned about in class in my future lesson plans. I think it will be great to be able to go on virtual field trips, have e-mail pals, and to be able to help my students learn through music and video instruction. I feel more equipped to teach my future students how to use and be comfortable with technology. I'm excited to think of creative ways to use technology with my future first graders. :)
The video I watched this week was called Shake it Up, it was a video on how the world has changed. It talked about how the average student will have ten to fourteen careers. It talked about how since we live in a world of instant information we need to make sure that we are teaching students the skills they need to really thrive in the world and in their future careers. It was an interesting video. It once again made a point that technology is changing and we need to be constantly learning as much as we can, so we can teach our students. Here is the url for this video I found on Teachertube:http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=223&title=Shake_it_Up
This semester I think that one of the hardest assignments we had was the big UEN assignment. I felt that it was pretty crazy. It was neat though when I finally started getting the hang of it. I thought it was really useful. Zamzar is a online tool that converts files, I thought this was a really neat tool to use. This way I can convert music, and educational videos from you tube, this will be a great help to have on my own computer. This way I can incorporate music and video in presentations to better help my students understand the material I will be teaching.
I plan to use these tools we have learned about in class in my future lesson plans. I think it will be great to be able to go on virtual field trips, have e-mail pals, and to be able to help my students learn through music and video instruction. I feel more equipped to teach my future students how to use and be comfortable with technology. I'm excited to think of creative ways to use technology with my future first graders. :)
The video I watched this week was called Shake it Up, it was a video on how the world has changed. It talked about how the average student will have ten to fourteen careers. It talked about how since we live in a world of instant information we need to make sure that we are teaching students the skills they need to really thrive in the world and in their future careers. It was an interesting video. It once again made a point that technology is changing and we need to be constantly learning as much as we can, so we can teach our students. Here is the url for this video I found on Teachertube:http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=223&title=Shake_it_Up
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Weekly Blog Number 11
This week in class we learned about power point. For our assignment we had to make two power point presentations.
It was really fun making these power point presentations, for our group we made one about the top five reasons to live in Utah, and the other one was about all the senses to describe the feeling of being grateful. This assignment was pretty easy, I liked it though.
I will definitely use power point presentations in my future classroom. I think that my first graders will respond well to power points. It will help to have pictures and written text about the subjects I am teaching. I think that by using this tool, subjects will come alive for students and help them to become very interested in the subjects I will be teaching.
The video I watched this week was called A Vision of K-12 Students Today. It was a little informative video about how we as teachers need to be able to let our students create and learn by using technology. It really opened my eyes to how little teachers of today are allowing the use of everyday technologies in their classrooms. It made me realize that I don't want to be one of those teachers. Here is the Url: http ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8
It was really fun making these power point presentations, for our group we made one about the top five reasons to live in Utah, and the other one was about all the senses to describe the feeling of being grateful. This assignment was pretty easy, I liked it though.
I will definitely use power point presentations in my future classroom. I think that my first graders will respond well to power points. It will help to have pictures and written text about the subjects I am teaching. I think that by using this tool, subjects will come alive for students and help them to become very interested in the subjects I will be teaching.
The video I watched this week was called A Vision of K-12 Students Today. It was a little informative video about how we as teachers need to be able to let our students create and learn by using technology. It really opened my eyes to how little teachers of today are allowing the use of everyday technologies in their classrooms. It made me realize that I don't want to be one of those teachers. Here is the Url: http ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Weekly Blog Number 10
This week in class we talked about podcasts and vidcasts. These are two very useful tools that can be used in education. A podcast is just audio that can be played over the web and a vidcast is audio and video.
I thought this was a fun thing to talk about. I use you tube all the time, so I am already familiar with vidcasts. Our assignment this week was fun, we had to make a video teaching something and then post it on our blogs. It was nice to get ideas from the class about subjects that we could use for our videos. I really think that you can find a way to teach any subject by using this tool. It's fun for the students to be able to view material, because so many children learn by watching anyways.
In my classroom I think it would be fun to take advantage of this tool. It would be fun to have introductory videos, to introduce new ideas and subjects to the students. I think another fun way to use this tool would be to split students up into groups and have them make videos about gravity(for example). Then we could have a day where we watch all the videos and we could even have popcorn and call it our "movie minute", or something. I think it would help the students to get interested and excited about new subjects.
The video of the week was about student blogs, blogging. It was a cute video that tells many of the reasons why blogging is beneficial for students. It made me really realize that I really do want a class blog for my students. I think it would be fun, and students need to learn literacy with technology early on. This way, students can help put things on a class blog and parents can also access it as well, to know what is going on in our classroom. :)
I thought this was a fun thing to talk about. I use you tube all the time, so I am already familiar with vidcasts. Our assignment this week was fun, we had to make a video teaching something and then post it on our blogs. It was nice to get ideas from the class about subjects that we could use for our videos. I really think that you can find a way to teach any subject by using this tool. It's fun for the students to be able to view material, because so many children learn by watching anyways.
In my classroom I think it would be fun to take advantage of this tool. It would be fun to have introductory videos, to introduce new ideas and subjects to the students. I think another fun way to use this tool would be to split students up into groups and have them make videos about gravity(for example). Then we could have a day where we watch all the videos and we could even have popcorn and call it our "movie minute", or something. I think it would help the students to get interested and excited about new subjects.
The video of the week was about student blogs, blogging. It was a cute video that tells many of the reasons why blogging is beneficial for students. It made me really realize that I really do want a class blog for my students. I think it would be fun, and students need to learn literacy with technology early on. This way, students can help put things on a class blog and parents can also access it as well, to know what is going on in our classroom. :)
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Weekly Blog Number Nine
This week for our technology articles assignment I chose to use the online tool Imeem and to also use e-mail. We all know the purpose of e-mail is to send messages/mail over the Internet. The benefit of this is that you can contact people much faster than using regular mail.
Imeem is a online tool that allows people to create an account and listen to music that they like using a search engine. This is very neat, because you can listen to music for free, and you can make play lists with the music that you have chosen.
I wanted my first graders to learn and be able to be in contact with other students there age in a different state. First, I thought it would be fun to have pen pals, like I did when I was in elementary. Then I thought what is the best way to do this but to involve technology? So I decided that it would be fun to have a class "pen pal" and use e-mail instead of actual mail. I thought that it would be fun to write to another first grade class once a week. We could as a class decide what we wanted to say, and what kind of questions we would want to ask the students. I would do the typing, but I could put it up on a projector screen and that way the students could see what was going on and be involved. I think it would also show them how to send and compose an e-mail. By the end they may even be able to send an e-mail to an individual student themselves. I think that this would be very beneficial for the students. It would help them to learn at any early age to be caring towards other people and it would help them to become more familiar with e-mail. I think that a con of this e-mail pen pals would be that maybe students might get bored if they are not the ones doing the typing, and maybe they would think that it would be dumb. But as a whole I think this could be very fun.
Another thing that I wanted to do with my students was to learn about music. To learn about different types of music, find out what they like and dis-like. I thought it would be fun to talk about why they like or dis-like the music that they do. We could also talk about cultural music and music that uses specific instruments. It may even be good to show them certain types of music that would introduce a instrument for the first time to a student. So, I decided that Imeem would be a good tool to use. Imeem is very neat, because you can search for songs that you like and know, and it also suggests songs that you may like that are like the song you have selected. It would be fun as a class to look for their favorite songs. I could make a play list of all their favorite songs and as a reward we could listen to it at some point in the day. I really thought that using Imeem would be a good way of introducing different types of cultural music to my students. It would be very useful when we are studying a certain country. The only downfall of using Imeem would be that sometimes the site is a little faulty and doesn't display the music. Another con with Imeem is their is no way to know what all the lyrics of a song are before playing them. But I as the teacher could get the names of their songs beforehand and listen to them without the class to make sure that the lyrics are age appropriate.
The videos this week were not available, so I found my own. I found a video on Teacher Tube called How Not to Use Power Point. It was a pretty funny little video. It was a stand up comedy about the ways people use power point. It was really funny, but it also had a lot of good tips. It talked about how it's boring when people put up there whole lesson word for word on their slides of their power point presentation. It also talked about how people can use too many bullets on a slide. It was very fun. I enjoyed it. Here is the Url:http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=6102&title=How_NOT_To_Use_PowerPoint
Imeem is a online tool that allows people to create an account and listen to music that they like using a search engine. This is very neat, because you can listen to music for free, and you can make play lists with the music that you have chosen.
I wanted my first graders to learn and be able to be in contact with other students there age in a different state. First, I thought it would be fun to have pen pals, like I did when I was in elementary. Then I thought what is the best way to do this but to involve technology? So I decided that it would be fun to have a class "pen pal" and use e-mail instead of actual mail. I thought that it would be fun to write to another first grade class once a week. We could as a class decide what we wanted to say, and what kind of questions we would want to ask the students. I would do the typing, but I could put it up on a projector screen and that way the students could see what was going on and be involved. I think it would also show them how to send and compose an e-mail. By the end they may even be able to send an e-mail to an individual student themselves. I think that this would be very beneficial for the students. It would help them to learn at any early age to be caring towards other people and it would help them to become more familiar with e-mail. I think that a con of this e-mail pen pals would be that maybe students might get bored if they are not the ones doing the typing, and maybe they would think that it would be dumb. But as a whole I think this could be very fun.
Another thing that I wanted to do with my students was to learn about music. To learn about different types of music, find out what they like and dis-like. I thought it would be fun to talk about why they like or dis-like the music that they do. We could also talk about cultural music and music that uses specific instruments. It may even be good to show them certain types of music that would introduce a instrument for the first time to a student. So, I decided that Imeem would be a good tool to use. Imeem is very neat, because you can search for songs that you like and know, and it also suggests songs that you may like that are like the song you have selected. It would be fun as a class to look for their favorite songs. I could make a play list of all their favorite songs and as a reward we could listen to it at some point in the day. I really thought that using Imeem would be a good way of introducing different types of cultural music to my students. It would be very useful when we are studying a certain country. The only downfall of using Imeem would be that sometimes the site is a little faulty and doesn't display the music. Another con with Imeem is their is no way to know what all the lyrics of a song are before playing them. But I as the teacher could get the names of their songs beforehand and listen to them without the class to make sure that the lyrics are age appropriate.
The videos this week were not available, so I found my own. I found a video on Teacher Tube called How Not to Use Power Point. It was a pretty funny little video. It was a stand up comedy about the ways people use power point. It was really funny, but it also had a lot of good tips. It talked about how it's boring when people put up there whole lesson word for word on their slides of their power point presentation. It also talked about how people can use too many bullets on a slide. It was very fun. I enjoyed it. Here is the Url:http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=6102&title=How_NOT_To_Use_PowerPoint
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