Blog Post #8

Using Powerpoint to support student learning at each level of Bloom's Taxonomy:

If I were teaching kindergarten the life cycle of a caterpillar using Powerpoint, I would separate each level of the Bloom's Taxonomy onto different slides between the lesson.

Knowledge:
Before I start the lesson I would ask my students what they already know about caterpillars. For example: Where do caterpillars live? What do caterpillars eat? How do caterpillars move? These questions will address what my students already know and get them thinking interested in the topic.

Comprehension and Application:
After teaching the life cycle of a caterpillar throughout my Powerpoint slides I will ask my students to draw out the cycle and write a sentence describing each step. Retelling the life cycle of a caterpillar in their own words and through drawings will show their comprehension and their application skills.

Analysis:
Throughout this lesson, I could test the students about the cycle to show that they can separate a whole into component parts. I can describe a cycle to them and they can tell me what step I am describing. Also, asking my students how each step connect to one another is a way they can analyze the cycle.

Synthesis:
After giving my Powerpoint slide, I would read the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and ask my student what they think is going to happen next before I turn the page. They can synthesize by using the information they are told for one page to create the prediction of what is to happen next.

Evaluation:
For evaluation, I can ask my students for their opinions for each step. I can ask them what step in the life cycle of a caterpillar do they think is the most important? What do they think the cocoon of a caterpillar is made of? How long do you think it takes for a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly?


To stay informed of technology trends:

Edutopia

This site is run by an educational organization that strives to innovate the way instructors teach and how they can use the latest tools, ideas, and information in their classroom.

https://www.edutopia.org/

Blog Post #7

Adaptive Technologies are equipment that has been modified so those with disabilities can use them. For examples, those with dyslexia will have access to spell checkers and speech recognition software through technology assisstance. Or those who do not have the ability to see may use text-to-speech software and Braille printers. I have a childhood friend who had an unknown eye disease. She was blind in one eye and could not see very well in the other. She had to use special computers at school that allowed her to magnify everything on the screen.

I loved this project! I used old photos I had of my students when I tutored last year in my hometown. Going through these old photos and made me miss working with children. After I finished creating my website I actually applied to tutor this summer. I enjoyed making the site and being able to say "my class". Weebly really had some cute templates to chose from. This site made it very easy to edit and add cool apps. I included the calendar app in the announcements tab and linked the "Make An Appointment" button to a calendly account so you can actually make appointments.

http://eme2040sac.weebly.com/

Diigo lets me practice annotating articles/ reviews. This application lets me practice highlighting the important information from the text and summarize it for when I need to go back for a quick review. This application also allows me to bookmark a site, tag it, and share with others. When working in groups or in a classroom setting, I can share helpful annotated sites with others. Diigo makes collaborating fun and easy.

LIP "Design" - Edmodo

I created an Edmodo for my imaginary 12th grade English class. I included a few assignments, a poll, and little notes for my students. I once used Edmodo in high school so I added myself as a student :) I also included my fake master's degree in teaching from Florida State University in my bio.

https://www.edmodo.com/teacher-signup?source=landing_page

my login information is:
email: sabelcantu@gmail.com
password: Wagrbee08

Blog Post #6

I could not necessarily find a school website that included class pages. However, I did include the link to the high school (9-12) in my hometown. My hometown is Immokalee, which means "my home". Our highschool's mascot is an Indian and our colors are red and white. The school has recently updated their site and has plenty of cool things going on. There is a lot of information that is public such as an aerial tour of the school, the school's recent tweets and facebook page, and their updated lunch menu. Despite all the interesting information and tabs, the school's site does have applications that require a passcode.
home page: http://www.collierschools.com/ihs
aerial tour: http://www.collierschools.com/domain/1646

When visiting the Technology Sandbox, the interactive whiteboards are what caught my attention the most. When hopefully teaching kindergarten in the future I would use one of these boards frequently. I mostly enjoyed the board that allowed the use of hands. With kindergarten, I can bring items to life and show really spike the interest of my students. This board will also allow me to have more than one student interact with the board. However, the board with the pen could allow me to limit what my students can access and can allow my future kindergarten students to practice properly holding a writing utensil.

In the future, as a kindergarten teacher, I envision myself using technology to stay organized and get my students involved in the class. Databases will allow me to safely store all my documents in one place that I can have easy access to in the future. Through this database, I can not only save my files but I can also organize them. Using apps in the classroom will influence my students to stay engaged. Apps such as Class Dojo will promote/reward good behavior with virtual points that each students' parent can keep track of. This incentive and fun app will also influence my students to stay involved.

Blog Post #5

Web 2.0 technologies that are useful are those that allow students and teachers to connect such as Edmodo. These tools allow instructors to successfully communicate with their students and update them on upcoming assignments or announcements. These tools also make it easy for students to look up necessary documents for class and turn in assignments online. This makes grading easier for the professor. More smiles, Less stress.

An interesting web 2.0 tool I would use I might use when teaching would be TED-Ed. TED-Ed is a site that allows teachers to create and share animated lessons online. These creative and interesting lessons grab children's attention. This site allows teachers to share their lessons with their students and gives them the ability to track their progress. When teaching kindergarten in the future I can use an animated TED-Ed lesson to teach my students concepts such as how plants grow. http://ed.ted.com/

From chapter 12, I believe that Cloud computing holds the biggest promise for education. Using the cloud allows educators to create documents and/or lesson plans and save them on the cloud. By doing this, educators can easily have access to their files online and can share them with other educators. This means that there will be no worries about losing/deleting a file or forgetting it on a junk drive. As a student, I tend to forgot to bring my laptop to class or to the library. This limits me from accessing important files. However, after getting a drop box account and a Microsoft Word Online account, I no longer need to worry about not having my work or laptop with me.  

Blog Post #4

I have a personal Twitter account that I rarely use. When I do go on my account I mainly look at 30-second food tutorials, videos of animals doing cute things, and updates for concerts I am going to attend. I find it very difficult to use Twitter for this class. I am always forgetting to tweet something for this class because I forget that I have the app. The only person I have interacted with on the app is the instructor. I find it beneficial to use the app to contact the instructor instead of email. I do not need to worry about being formal and I can see whether or not the instructor received my message.

Twitter can be useful in my future career because it can keep me updated with the education community. Back in high school, I was a tutor for K-2nd and I found it very helpful to follow the local community schools and the district school boards Twitter pages. These pages posted about upcoming events and helpful tools to use in the classroom.

The digital divide affects student success in schools. There are plenty of schools and families that cannot provide their children with technology. A child who does not have access to tech is automatically behind in society. The world is slowly becoming entirely technology based. Technology skills are needed in order to be successful in receiving a higher education and in the workforce. If a family or school does not have access to tech, due to their location or income, or if a teacher does not possess the necessary skills to teach their students about technology, they are holding that child behind.

I plan on teaching kindergartens in the future. The software I except to use the most are educational games, simulations, and drill-and-practice. Young children have a short attention span. In order to keep them interested and also get them to learn, I will use educational games. Educational games will exercise my student's' skills (hand-eye coordination, memory, critical thinking, problem-solving) while also letting them enjoy a game. Simulations will allow me to show my students situations and items I cannot provide in the class. For example, the era of dinosaurs, a tree growing to adult size, and Earth in space. Drill-and-practice software will allow my students to practice the information I teach in class. This allows for my students to not forget the information.

Blog Post #3

The ELA technology standards I feel most prepared to teach are W/WHST.2 "Write to explain/inform" and Almost all of the Multimedia Consuming standards such as RL.7 "Multimedia:" Literature. However, I need more learning on the standard L.5 "Vocabulary: Use Context Clues" in order to properly teach it to someone else.

The digital citizen guidelines I will address with my kindergarten students are (chapter 9, table 9.2):

• demonstrating the technology skills necessary to use and participate on the web
• protecting personal information about themselves and others
• demonstrating "netiquette" in their web interactions

It is important to teach these guidelines to children at an early age. By teaching them these digital citizenship guidelines they can learn to effectively use technology but to also stay safe and respect others online.

I enjoyed completely the Newsletter Design assignment. Although I was once certified in Microsoft Word, I had to refresh my memory in order to complete this activity. I had forgotten how to split the columns into two and how to add a cute border to the document. Other than that difficulty, I enjoyed creating a Newsletter for my pretend class. I even added an upcoming birthday announcement. This activity can be very helpful for the future because it exposed us to the tools Microsoft offers that we can use later on to create documents like this for our future classes.