Blog Reflection #15: Extra Credit

This was a blog was titled Using Cell Phones and Scan Codes in the Classroom.  I am sure many people have seen these scan codes popping up around you neighborhood, in stores, on packages, and in airports. Well if you have never seen these codes, they are called QR coded or Quick Reference Codes and they are taking the world by surprise. Jeff Utecht is trying to explore the possibilities of using these QR codes in the classroom and with the larger school communities.  This seemed like an interesting topic, because I haven’t heard much about QR codes. I have now actually seen them in magazines and some advertisements I get in the mail but I really do not know how they would work in the classroom, it is something interesting to look into!

This is what the scan codes look like:

Does anyone know more information about this???

Blog Reflection #14: Extra Credit

This is another blog a read from a Principals Reflection blog site.  The blog, Cultivating Authenticity in Learning, was about using Skype in the classrooms.  He basically restated what our professor has been saying about the debate of using technology in the classroom.  This principal is pro-technology.  He believes that it only gets students more engaged in what they are learning.  He talked about this program they have based on the Holocaust where students are able to skype with Holocaust survivors.  So instead of reading a second-source textbook, they are able to get accounts from primary-sources who were actually witnessed and were a part of history!!

Blog #13: Extra Credit

A Principles Reflection  

This was a great blog about an eastern school principle who traveled to schools in Iowa who are using the 1:1 laptop ratio in their everyday classrooms. After visiting these schools she came up with many different observations as to why all schools need to be 1:1 laptop ratio.

We need to prepare our students to be doers and creative thinkers who can compete with their peers all around the world. Schools that don’t use these methods are at a disadvantage. Students in schools with 1:1 programs don’t ask what they have to do to get the right answer.  Instead, they are asking thought-provoking questions, challenging assumptions, making interdisciplinary connections, applying acquired knowledge, and are immersing themselves in authentic learning experiences.  Each 1:1 school in Iowa represents a “Field of Dreams” to each and every student enrolled there (Scott McLeod!)

Final: Scenerio

I believe that some of my strongest attributes as a future educator is the empathy I show for other people.  I really feel strongly about getting to know my students and connecting with them in deep, personal levels.  When students feel that a teacher really cares about them, and connects the curriculum to their daily lives, then they are more open to learn and they are more apt to actually let the teacher know about their problems.

I think technology can open many doors to both teachers and students.  The standard that I chose from National Education Technology Standards was #3: Digital Age Teaching.  This standard states that teachers will collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.  A teacher can really get to know a student by volunteering in their community and by having a really great relationship with the students parents.  Parent-involvement is a must, when it comes to student achievement!

One way I can do this as a teacher is through Digital Media.  I can have students create a video about their family history (migration, genealogy, etc) or their culture.  I can have them talk to their parents and collect stories and pictures that they will be able to use.  Then I can have them edit everything on the school computers.  I can have a family night were the students will present their videos to the community and celebrate their families and their culture!  If everything goes well I can encourage the faculty of my school to make this an all school event, where different grade levels use  different  websites to get their projects done.  Some of this resources can be Animoto for lower grades, Glogster and Voicethread for upper grades.

Twitter Reflection

So I got a Twitter account at the beginning of the semester, and whoa is it amazing!!! I started following lots of education professionals and they just post so much valuable information and resources!! Plus, I can always get a personal twitter account just to be random! lol I really like following this technology teacher who is based out of Junction City, her name is Amy Trujillo and she really gives tons of valuable information.  I think you all should get a twitter account and start following people who will only make teaching less stressful for you!! Hey and you should follow me too!

Final: My Wow Moment...

My wow moment was probably GoogleDocs.  There are a bunch of wonderful resources that I can use as a teacher.  I think that it is such a wonderful resource because as a teacher you can group your students up and have them work and edit on different computers simultaneously.  I know that I have used this resource many times after finding out about it.  The best part about it is that it is all free!!

Final: Favorite Podcast

My favorite podcast is TechChicks.  I really like how well they present the resources in their podcast.  They are very upbeat and funny ladies!! Some of the other podcast presenters were really monotone so I couldn't really even stand hearing them.  I believe that even if you have the most valuable information if you present it in a boring way you will never truly be able to captivate the audiences.  I know I would become disengaged and started thinking of other things when I heard over other podcast presenters, but every time I heard the TechChicks I would really stay focused on the topic they were talking about.  I felt like I was actually sitting there next to them and having a girly girl conversation.  Their actual website layout is also nice to look at and very organized!!

Final: Semester Favorites

This semester I learned a lot in technology class.  Reflecting back on all the wonderful resources I was exposed to I would say that Prezi and ToonDoo would be the two resources I enjoyed and will actually use in my classroom.  Prezi is this website were you can create a presentation using a canvas were you can organize text, video, and images to follow a certain path.  During the week we discussed Prezi we also discussed challenge based learning.  This is where students create videos or different presentations and challenge their classmates to become better citizens by doing certain tasks.  You can find a description of the project here.

In class our team focused on tornado safety.  Our  challenge was to have students come up with their own family/household emergency tornado plan.  This is what our final presentation looked like:

Tornado Safety on Prezi

 I enjoyed Prezi so much that I actually used it for another presentation I did in my seminar.  The focus of this presentation was to talk about the different diversities.  Our group choose the topic of exceptionalities and  focused on Autism.  This is the Prezi we presented; I was actually in charge of putting it together and I'm really proud of how it turned out:

Autism on Prezi

The other resource I enjoyed was  ToonDoo.  This is a website were students can create comic strips.  I found that it can really reinforce certain concepts that students are learning.  Many times concepts can be too abstract, but if students get to break them down and put images to words they are able to really understand things.  For example, the comic strip I created was about the U-Curve of Cultural Adaptation.  There are four stages: Honeymoon, Hostility, Humor, and Home.  In the first stage the person feels euphoria, in the second they feel anxiety, in the third they feel rejected, and in the last stage they adjust the the new cultural.  All of this information is presented in this comic strip:

By sotoangie | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Challenge Based Learning Reflection

In class we created a Prezi involving Earth Day and a challange we could present to our classmates or future students.  Prezi is a website were u can organize your presentation inside a large canvas instead of a powerpoint.  You are able to insert text, images and videos and you are also able to choose the rotation of them.  I think this is a great website; instead of powerpoints teachers can have their students present on the Prezi. 

Challenge based learning is also great because it gives students the opportunity to learn about something that is environmentally important and challenge their classmates to do something about it and in turn change the world.  You can learn more about challenge based learning here .


This is the prezi our team created.  We did ours over Tornado Safety, and our challenge was to get students to come up with a family plan they would follow in case of a tornado.

Tornado Safety on Prezi

Edutecher Site Reflection

I visited the EduTecher website. Fist I noticed was the links. WOW so many resources by subject in the links tab. You can share links, notes, and messages. You can also comment on others links. There is a EduTv which was also very informative. So many helpful resources that are very beneficial to teachers. You should check it out!

Classroom 2.0 Site Reflection

This site made by teachers and for teachers. I love how it is interactive and I can post questions for fellow teachers. I'm also glad that this has many resources for multiple ideas. Classroom 2.0 is interactive and more like a blog site that any teacher (that is subscribed) can discuss information and is helpful to all teachers across the board.

ToonDoo Reflection

So this is a comic strip about the U-Curve of language acquisition.  The first stage is the honeymoon stage where people feel happy and excited because they are learning a new language.  The second stage is hostility because they are feeling down on themselves if they are not able to succeed they feel people are making fun of them.  The third is humor because they are able to look at the bright side of things.  And lastly the stage of home is where they are accepting of themselves. 

I created this using ToonDoon.  This is an excellent tool that teachers can use to reinforce a certain concept or topic.  Students are able to use both pictures and words to illustrate what they are learning.

By sotoangie | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Podcast Reflection #12

The podcast started with Maria Knee sharing her experiences at EduCon 2.2, and the goals of learner-centered, constructivist education that are the centerpiece of that conference. Then they go on talking about how computer labs are often being used and how it fits in with their classroom goals. The bad and ugly about computer labs is that they are being used for test prep; and almost exclusively for Accelerated Reader quizing.Then they discussed the good practices of computer labs which were, having students create content by having small group projects with some students while the other students work independently. They also discussed how teacher can use different tools for different goals and activities, the lab, classroom computers, and IWBs.

Podcast Reflection #11

In this podcast Wesley Fryer shares different techniques on how to save online videos from websites like Youtube and Vimeo, to your local computer’s hard drive. This is skill is important for teachers who wish to integrate online videos in their classroom since schools usually block websites such as, Youtube and Vimeo by content filters. In this podcast he explains how to use the software MPEG Streamclip to convert downloaded FLV (Flash format) files into other formats which play in media players like QuickTime and Windows Media Player. He also explains how to use MPEG Streamclip to "trim" video clips into shorter versions, which can then be exported and shared in class with students. I found MPEG Sreamclip useful because many times I have come across good videos I have wanted to use for classroom presentations, but I’ve had to search for a different (shorter) one. Now I know I can always use MPEG Streamclip to trim videos.

Podcast Reflection #10

In this podcast Anna and Helen share their experience at ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) in Denver, Colorado. They also share different links and resources that teachers can incorporate in their lessons or pass down to their students. Most of them are FREE, however my favorite one is the Toddler Timer and it cost 99 cents. This timer consist of four different timers which are:


1.The Quiet timer: if you put a child in time out or if you tell the class we are not going to recess until everyone has been quiet for five minutes… you start the timer and it starts counting down. If you’re too loud the timer STOPS counting down. The louder you are the longer the time is.

2.The slow timer: you can control the countdown speed. You can set it for ten minutes but if the kids are acting up you can slow it back down where you can make a second last a little bit longer OR vice versa, if the class is being good you can speed up the timer and make a second last a half of second.

3.The sharing timer: Use it between a group (2-6 kids) of kids that are sharing something (slide, toy, station..etc). Set the timer, Each child is represented by a little animal so when you start the timer the little animal pops up in the middle of the screen to let them know how much time they have left. THEN once they have run out of time it goes to the next animal to let them know its there turn. It eliminate the whole “you’ve been taking to long…”. Everyone has the same amount of time.

4.Activity timer: You can set it for seconds. Most timers are set for minutes. You have the options to do a voice countdown too.

Podcast Reflection #9

Teachers of our youngest students are often left behind when trying to implement new technologies into their curriculum. They may receive the “hand-me-down” equipment and issues related to teaching the youngest classrooms are not addressed through in-service. This presentation demonstrates 3 web 2.0 tools that are ideal for transforming learning to students in the early grades: Voicethread, Dipity and Blogging.
In my tech class we have tried both Voicethread and Blogger and I believe this are really great resources.  Usually teachers have kids journal and what better way than to do it online and teach them about technology.  

Kan-ed Portal Site Reflection

Okay so in class we discussed an awesome site that is made available to Kansas teachers. KanEd is has many useful resources that will help teachers in their classrooms and also benefit student learning.

As I looked around the site one link that caught my use was the links it provides to different websites were teachers can get ideas on lesson planning. One of the ones I really enjoyed was the Thinfinity website. This website provides you with many lesson plans on a variety of content areas and it aligns it to state standards. This is great because many times you get lesson plans from the internet but they are not aligned to state standards whatsoever.  Having this tool is beneficial and takes a lot of the hassle out of lesson planning and making sure what you are teaching your students is relevant to the standards!!

Animoto Reflection

So Animoto is this great alternative to slideshows.  Here you can make free 30 second videos about anything and everything.  It literally takes about 5 minutes to make a video.  If you want to make videos longer than 30 seconds you can upgrade your account to the plus or pro account.  They are either $5 a month or $39 a month.  The great thing about Animoto is that if you are already teaching you can apply for a free plus account.  Once you have the free plus account you can use the website for student presentations and also to showcase what your class has done during family night or parent teacher conferences.  I encourage you all to check it out!! P.S This is the video I created; it would be like a getting to know Miss Soto kinda video that I could present to my students the first day of school!!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Podcast Reflection #8

K12 Online 2010 – Kicking It Up A Notch Keynote: Intersections

This was a presentation about different ideas for teacher to “kick it up” in the classroom. Time and space are reluctant to learning, and there are many different new resources on the internet for teachers to use and get familiar with. With examples such as Google docs, Skype, second life, DimDim, and Eluminate are great tools to use on the internet. Blogs, wikis, and podcasting are also great tools outside of time and space as well. These different interactions allow for more freely interaction with students in your classroom. The entire curriculum can be used in different ways to make these subjects interesting with using technology, content, and pedagogy.

Podcast Reflection #7

Tech Chicks Podcast: Anna’s a bit of a Klepto Episode: 075

These two girls are great and they always provide good resources and tips for teachers to use in their classrooms. One particular topic and link they included in this podcast was, “Top 10 Technology Tips for New Teachers”. This is a great site for new teachers to go to in order to have resources and topics when they are entering their first year in teaching. It provides meaningful tips on how to incorporate technology in the classroom to better engage the students and provide meaningful lesson plans that the students will enjoy. These tips are something that a teacher could use throughout numerous years of their teacher.  That is definitely a resource I would use when I start teaching myself. Another link and topic the tech chicks talk about is, “Tom Barrett’s 11+ Interesting Ways to Get to Know Your Class”. This site provides different and fun ways for teachers to get to know their students the first couple days of schools. These interesting ways can range from creating a single sheet the students need to fill out to even doing a fun activity with the whole classroom so everyone can get to know each other. Not only will the teacher get to know their students, but the students will also get to know each other through this fun activity. These are a couple of my favorite topics and links that the Tech Chicks provided for me on their 75th episode!

Podcast Reflection #6

2010 PRECONFERENCE KEYNOTE Sharing: The Moral Imperative

In this podcast Dean Shareski talks about the importance of sharing ideas with teachers all over the world. His presentation starts off by a variety of ways to teacher can share ideas and communicate with one another on the internet. Dean makes a comment about before the internet we would never feel obligated to share things with other teachers and schools. Many teachers love to share and know that there is an abundant amount of resources to communicate on the web these days. Teaching is sharing, and if there isn’t any sharing there is no education. Blogs have become one of the most popular resources teachers have began using more frequently. Another popular resource teachers are starting to use is Skype, which is a fun tool to make free video calls to anyone in the world as long as they have Skype too.

Podcast Reflection #5

Tech Chicks: It’s not THAT much shorter# 74

In this podcast Anna and Helen share their experience at ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) in Denver, Colorado. They also share different links and resources that teachers can incorporate in their lessons or pass down to their students. Most of them are FREE, however my favorite one is the Toddler Timer and it cost 99 cents.  This timer consist of four different timers which are:

1.The Quiet timer: if you put a child in time out or if you tell the class we are not going to recess until everyone has been quiet for five minutes… you start the timer and it starts counting down.  If you’re too loud the timer STOPS counting down. The louder you are the longer the time is.

2.The slow timer: you can control the countdown speed.  You can set it for ten minutes but if the kids are acting up you can slow it back down where you can make a second last a little bit longer OR vice versa, if the class is being good you can speed up the timer and make a second last a half of second.

3.The sharing timer: Use it between a group (2-6 kids) of kids that are sharing something (slide, toy, station..etc).  Set the timer, Each child is  represented by a little animal so when you start the timer the little animal pops up in the middle of the screen to let them know how much time they have left. THEN once they have run out of time it goes to the next animal to let them know its there turn. It eliminate the whole “you’ve been taking to long…”. Everyone has the same amount of time.

4.Activity timer: You can set it for seconds. Most timers are set for minutes. You have the options to do a voice countdown too.

Podcast Reflection #4

Prove It Keynote: “Asking Bigger Questions About Assessment”

In this podcast Gardner Campbell explores a larger historical and cultural context for the issue of student assessment. He talks about proving what educators do to make a difference in the students learning. I found it interesting how back in the day “proving” happened publicly and orally; these test had a very social dimension to it. They were mostly test of credibility or even reputation. The purpose of this podcast is to start with complex questions of meaning so that educators may construct assessment wisely.

Podcast Reflection #3

“How Google Transformed My School”

This podcast video is pretty interesting. In this video they talk about how Google Applications change an entire school because it allowed communication, collaboration, and consistency. It just made it that much easier by:

-all stored online (you can access from any other computer with web connection!)

-invite people to view the documents and edit them

-everyone can be on that document and watch it being edited

-g-mail

Some beneficial ways and reasons to use Google Application are:

-lesson planning—share with other teachers and admin

- edit or no edit privileges

-spread sheets (organized data)

- Google forms: questionnaires and assessments

Fun with Text Reflection (Wordle and Tagxedo)

So I just created my first Wordle ever!!! Yay! So what is Wordle? Wordle is this great website where you can create different word clouds.  They can be about anything and everything.  Our assignment was to create a wordle to describe our personality and traits. 

Another awesome website where you can create word clouds is Tagxedo.  It's basically the same as Wordle except that you can actually chose different shapes for your creation!! So this word cloud was created using Tagexdo, and it's about my area of concentration (ESL).  Basically I included words that I feel are important to keep in mind when working with ELL students.

  

 You should check both websites out and tell me what you think!

Reflection 1: Technology Bits, Bytes & NIbbles

Going through the stories on the blogs webpage I noticed a few stories that caught my attention.  The first one that I started reading was titled “History Tools that Have Google Maps/Earth… really amazing”.  I thought the websites that were presented in this blog were pretty awesome especially for social studies and ESL teachers.  History Pin is partnered with Google and works as a place where people can go and see what different cities and places looked like years ago.  While I was reading this, I thought of how I could use this.  I was thinking that as an ESL teacher we are encouraged to collect biography cards from our students in order to get to know them.  In addition to having biography cards I can have an activity where they bring old and new pictures of where they come from so they can make like migration maps of where they come from and then they can present them to the class. 

There were two other stories that I connected with.  I have a niece (Genesis) that just turned four.  She is very sweet and very bright.  This past Christmas, my sister gave her some Disney Princess Barbie’s and also some flashcards of shapes and colors.  She was most excited about the flashcards and she hasn’t put them down ever since she got them.  She gets enthusiastic when it comes to learning, so during winter break I decided to give her my iPod touch.  I deleted everything of mine and I uploaded some learning applications and kid-friendly games.  She really enjoys her iPod and is always asking me to download more applications.  I was really excited to learn that PBS has applications for their toddler shows.  My niece really enjoys watching them and I feel like she would really benefit from these applications.  The other blog I read was about Kindergarteners in Oregon using technology in their classrooms.  I though this was a brilliant idea because times are changing and students learning styles are changing as well.  I know that if they were to implement this in Kansas’s schools my niece would really love it because she is already getting practice at home!

Reflection 2: CDK’s Education Technology Place

Going through your website, CDK's Education Technology Place, I discovered a variety of things.  The stuff I first looked at was the different pages you had on the top of your page.  I clicked on the student websites and I found a few websites of people I know.  These websites were nicely done, and I hope that at the end of the semester I can say the same about mine.  The other link I clicked on was the Movies one.  Here I found a really catchy song that enforces the idea that teachers need to learn how to use technology because as a society that is what we are gearing towards (a digital/tech-savvy society).  In order to engage our students we need to infuse our lesson plans with technology so they can become eager to learn.  A video that enforces the idea that technology is increasing is the Shift Happens: Did You know? video.  I had watched this video before in my Anthropology class and our professor there was really into the way technology is shaping our society, and to be honest it’s awesome!  Besides the videos that were inspiring and gave me goose bumps I found links to other resourceful blogs.  There were also links to websites like Twitter, KSU and others.  I think your website is a great webpage to have bookmarked because it offers a lot of valuable information and links to different places that as future educators may be of great help.