My Beliefs

My Beliefs

I believe that there needs to be a happy medium between technology and other forms of teaching. There are several different ways you can use media in writing and still teach the art of cursive, which some experts say is essential in helping both sides of the brain grow and connect equally. We also need to be sensitive to our students and their technological abilities.

I have seen many teachers have their students write out their rough drafts by hand first then type up their final copy. I like this idea but what if occasionally we had the students type up their rough draft and write out their final copy in their very best hand writing. I think this way could keep things fresh and give the student a chance to practice their hand writing skills. They could then illustrate their stories with their own art work. The times that they type up their final story the teacher can show them how to insert pictures from the internet, thus improving their computer skills.

As teachers we need to be sensitive to those students that might not have a computer at home. I observed a teacher that had put some practice tests for the ended of the year tests on her web site. She could track who took the tests, at what time, how long it took them to do it and how well each student did. I asked her what she had the students without a computer should do. She said nothing; they could go to the library and use theirs or go to a neighbor s house and borrow theirs. I didn’t like this mentality of thinking. I believe that multi-media lessons are wonderful and can enrich just about any lesson in any subject but if not used to its fullest capability and doing the same thing every day the students can still become bored.

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

I learned a lot from the videos and articles that I read and after I finished I interviewed my high school aged son. I am concerned that with so much media at children’s finger tips other skills are being lost. How do we find the balance between too much media and not enough?

One of the articles talked about how 82% of students don’t see their social networking as really writing and that they didn’t feel like it spilled into their school life. I asked my son if he thought his social networking helped to improve his writing skills for school, if it made them worse or didn’t affect them. He said that it definitely makes his skills worse. I asked him why and he said when he is chatting with his friends he uses the on line short hand (that’s not what he called it, he said he uses acronyms) so his spelling has gotten worse. So bad in fact that he will spell a word so wrong that even spell check can’t find the word. He also said that he doesn’t use capitalization and punctuation correctly. This scares me. Being a good writer is an essential tool in survival in the really world.

I know that my son has some classes that don’t use technology at all and these classes are his least favorite but he also has teachers that only use media. Too much of a good thing can back fire. One teacher only lectures and with his lecture he has power points that he posts on his web site. I love the idea that the students can go back and watch the presentation again but they are word for word what he wants the student’s notes to say. How much learning is taking place when all the student has to do is stare directly ahead and just copy down what they see in front of them? This same technique day in and day out can get really boring. There needs to be a balance between both styles of learning or you will never reach all of your students.

Strengths and Weakness

Strengths and Weaknesses

As I read through The NET Standards and took the UNI survey I came to realize that I am still a novas in most areas of technology. Some of it is from my lack of teaching experiences and just starting to create my own lesson plans but a lot of it is because I am still learning.

My husband and my oldest son’s best friend are brilliant when it comes to technology. I asked them the same question “how did you learn so much about computers?” They both gave me the same answer. If they had a question or wanted to learn how to do something on the computer they Goggled it and learned as much as they could. I am now doing the same thing. My goals are to be able to develop media enriched lesson plans that will grab the students’ attention and not only teach them core content area subjects but also stretch their technology abilities. I would also like to learn more about video conferencing. There is a whole world out there that students may not otherwise be exposed to.

To help me reach my goals I need to increase my knowledge. I love the section in UEN entitled Professional Development. From there you can find out when and where all the continuing education classes are. There is a class called Use Technology to Teach on March 17 and 18 2011at the U of U. Another class that really sounds like it would be fun is the Digital Video Projects class. It’s March 9 and 16 2011, also at the U of U. Whenever I need to find a Professional Development class I will go the UEN first. Another great resource would be the district office. From time to time they will offer special courses for their employs.

Field Experience Service Learning Project

1. Provide demographics of school, number of students in class and who your cooperating teacher is.

• The students are in the fifth grade, which is approximately ages ten to eleven.
• There are thirteen girls and eleven boys
• There are five Hispanic students, four of which speak Spanish at home and are in resource for help with English. There was one Pacific Islander who does not speak English at home, she too is in resource for English. The rest of the class is Caucasian and speaks English. Another student comes into class, checks in with the teacher and then goes to resource for the rest of the day. He will sometimes come back for computers, PE and science. One other student goes to resource for math.
• There is one high functioning Autistic child, one student that gets pulled out once a week and taken by his father to visit a psychologist ( this same student has a peanut allergy), and one student that is diabetic.
• Our cooperating teacher is Barbara Steele. She has been teaching for the past five years but received her degree about twenty five years ago.

2. How is your relationship with your cooperating teacher? Explain. I really enjoyed my time with Mrs. Steele. The first time that we met, a week before field, she seemed excited to have us and asked us what we needed to fulfil our assignments. When we told her that we needed to teach five social studies lessons she told us that she was getting ready to start teaching a unit on colonization, specifically Jamestown, the Mayflower voyage and Plymouth. She asked if we would like to teach the entire unit. She also gave us stacks of resources to help us develop our lesson plans.

• When we finished teaching a lesson she would meet with us after and ask us how we felt it went, then give us her feed back. She was wonderful to work with and I really learned a lot.

3. How does he/she feel about the technology piece you created? We had not finished our digital story but we showed her our own personal vid-casts. She liked them. She thought that a digital story would be a fun way to start a lesson.
4. How does he/she feel about the lesson you completed? For our digitally enhanced lesson we took the students to the computer lab and assigned them certain activities to complete on the http://plimoth.org/education/olc/index_js2.html web site. For our last lesson I created a Jeopardy game using jeopardylabs.com . If you would like to see or play the game go to jeopardylabs.com/play/enter-title24772

• The teacher said that she really enjoyed the jeopardy game. We had the students feel out a survey listing in order of most favorite lesson to least favorite. The two lessons that were the most enjoyed were the plimoth.org and the Jeopardy game.

5. How did the the training session go? Explain. The training session did not go as well as I had hoped. I have never used a mac before so I didn’t know how to work Imovies but our teacher didn’t want it down loaded onto her computer anyway. Krystal and I both brought in our lap tops but we couldn't get Internet access to show her how to find pictures and put them into digital story. We tried to show her by using pictures we already had on our hard drives but she basically said that she didn’t think she would ever have the time to do something like that and to not worry about trying to show her anymore. Her room is full of technology but she said she would be the first to admit that she didn’t know how to use it very well but that she wanted to take some classes to helper her learn it better.
6. How do you feel about this service-learning experience? I really enjoyed my time in field. It was fun to watch the students explore the plimoth site and get into the Jeopardy game. I loved working with the students and I already miss them.
7. What did your cooperating teacher gain from the experience? I think that our teacher learned that not only does she need to expose her students to more technology and different varieties of it but that she needs to learn more about it her self.
8. What did you gain from the experience? I learned that I too need to become more familiar with different kinds of technology. I want to take as many continuing education classes in the field of technology that I can and until then I need to keep using, playing with exploring the things that I have been taught.
9. Was it worth why or why not? This experience was definitely worth it. When you teach someone else something new one of a couple of things can happen. You become even better at the thing you are teaching or you realize that you don’t know as much as you think you did. I had a little bit of both. I can’t wait to continue to learn and grow both as a student of technology and as a teacher of technology.

Field 3

What: This week we saw our cooperating teacher use technology in a couple of different ways and we taught two technology enriched lessons.

So What: Our cooperating teacher again used her document camera to show the timer as she gave a timed multiplication test. The second time we watched a live program that was being broadcast from Plimoth Plantation. The students and I really enjoyed the broadcast but we could have done more with it. Class from all over the country that had document cameras were able to video chat in questions. I think that this helped the students to stay more focused.

On Thursday we taught a lesson were we took the students to the computer lab and had them go to http://plimoth.org . We had them play the beginning game together then we numbered them off by twos. The ones were the historians for the Indians and the twos were the historians for the pilgrims. They navigated around the web site learning about the first Thanksgiving then wrote a small essay on what they learned, then printed it. The next tecnlogy enriched lesson we did was on Tuesday. I created a computerized Jeopardy game using http://www.jeopardylabs.com . The game was a review of the entire unit on Colonization, to help prepare the students for a test we gave latter. To play the game we got to use the smart board. It was awesome. I have never used one before. It was fun to be able to touch a large screen instead of moving around a mouse on a little computer screen. The last question on the test we gave had a list of all the activities we did for each lesson. We had the students number them in order of their favorite lessons. Both the Jeopardy game and the plimoth.org lessons were the students favorite activities.

Now What: So what does this mean for me as a future teacher? I hope I find a job at a school that has the latest technology but chances are I won’t. What I have found out during this experience and during my field work for Intro. To Education is that most of the technology that the teachers have in their class rooms they have either gotten through grant money or bought on their own. I need to learn how to write up grant proposals and were to find grant money at.

Field 2

What: We had our second week of field. Our cooperating teacher has lots of different types of multi media but she doesn't use it to the full extent to what she can, but there was one particular activity that she did that I really enjoyed.

So What: The teacher uses her document camera once a week to display a timer for the students timed multiplication test. I really like this so that the students can look up when they are done with their test, however there are many more ways to use it. It is possible she uses it for science and the other subjects that we are not there for. On Tuesday we taught a cause and effect lesson on the Mayflower voyage. After our lesson the teacher had registered through plimoth.org to watch a live broadcast about the settlement of Plimoth and yes I know it looks like I spelled it wrong but that is the way they spelled it in 1620. The students enjoyed it. But as part of the program, classes from all over the country either e-mailed in questions or video chatted questions to the program. I wish our class could have participated in this part of the broadcast.

This week we tried to teach our cooperating teacher how to create a digital story but all they have at the schools are Macs and I don't know how to use Imovie. We are going to take our PC tomorrow and see if we can get internet accesses and show her how to create a digital story using photo story.

Now What: First off I know I need to learn how to use macs but I don't think I have ever seen one in person. Next week we are going to be teaching two multi media lessons and try again to teach our teacher how to do a digital story. One of our lessons is a Jeopardy game that I created using jeopardylabs.com I would like to teach our teacher how to create her own. Our other lesson will be using http://plimoth.org/ I am really exited. I hope it goes as planned.

Field 1

What: We started field, it has been one whole week. I am very impressed with my cooperating teacher. She has a great personality and is always joking around with the students and making things fun.

So What: I have been very impressed with this school and all the technology they have. Mrs. Steel and from what I can tell all the other teachers have Apple lap tops so instead of creating something on their computers, then running down the hall or to the other end of school to the printer to change the color of paper, then running back to their classroom to press print, then back down the hall to the printer to collect their printed items, they only have to make one trip down to the printer with lap top in hand.

In the computer lab there are about 30 Apple computers with the large wide screen monitors and the really nice key board. Today the students went their to take a math test. When they were done with the test the computer showed them their score and it will generate a report for the teacher along with graphs so she can see as a whole how the class is doing. The only thing I didn't like was she let the students use their multiplication charts off their desks. The test was on division.

In her classroom Mrs Steel has a TV with a DVD and VHS player, her lap top, a document camera, and a smart board that are all connected to a projector that hangs from the ceiling. I love the smart board. From her computer she pulled up a weather tracking map that she projected on the smart board, the smart board worked as a touch screen. It was awesome to see her fun her computer from it. In the one week that we have been at this school we have seen the teacher us technology seven times.

Now What: I would hope that the school that I some day work at has this kind of technology but I know the chances of that are pretty slim. My kids school doesn't have that kind of technology. But on further research I found out that not all of the teachers at this school have that kind of technology either. One of the teachers work very hard at writing up a grant proposal to get the smart boards and some of the items were purchased with Trust land money. I definitely need to learn how to write up a convincing proposal. I want my students to have all the technology they can get their hands on at school because there may be some students that don't have that opportunity at home.

Digital Story 3

What: I'm a little confused on what it is we are suppose to blog about this week. We didn't have class this week but Krystal and I still met to work on our digital story.

Now What: Krystal and I decided to do our digital story as an introduction into colonization, 5th grade social studies. We found several pictures to help depict Jamestown, the Mayflower voyage, an Plymouth but I am just having a hard time capturing the emotion of it. So today we changed our story to dance. I love dance and feel passionately about it's importance in the school curriculum. Krystal liked the idea so we are off and running. The hardest part is finding the pictures I like. But I'm sure I will later run into problems finding music.

I'm having fun playing around with all the new tools I have learned from Google docs to Creative Commons. I know how important technology is to our everyday lives and enjoy learning about it. I have one teacher that can't even use black board and for me that is hard because she will mention something about an assignment and I won't write it down because I think I will just look at it on blackboard and it is not there.

So What:I think it will be fun to develop different digital story's for different topics but I would love to give my students some kind of research paper to do such as a former president of the United States or a famous women in history such as Florence Night and Gale and instead of a written report have them do a digital story about their topic.

My nephew has moved in with us. I love his teacher. She sends out e-mail all the time to remind us of the upcoming science fair, any testing going on, and grades. I am more connected to his class and teacher than I am to my own son in the same grade. I am definitely using technology to keep in touch with my students parents or guardians.

Copy Write Law

What: This week we learned about the history of the different copy write laws and how they influence us today. We also learned about a great site called Creative Commons. From this site we can copy write our own projects plus we have access to lots of material that is legal for us to use.

So What: As I am working on my digital story and other projects for school, I am excited to become more familiar with Creative Commons. I have always tried to be careful with copy write laws but I am sure that I may have broken some on accident. This easy to use site will help me stay within the limits of the law. I also need to talk to my children about the things I have learned about copy write. I especially need to talk to my older children who are constantly using the computer for projects at school. We don’t want them developing bad habits now and thinking it’s ok to use just any old thing they find.

Now What: I think it will be a lot of fun to use Creative Commons in the classroom. The popularity of YouTube just proves how much children love to publish their creations. This will give them away to copy write their own projects and take ownership of their work. Who knows, some day I may decide to write children books. Now I know of a way to protect my work from the beginning.

Digital Story 1

I can’t believe I forgot to blog on Wednesday. My life just got turned upside down. I just found out my 12 year old nephew is moving in with us TODAY, out of the blue. So now I need to figure out where to put him and his pink stuff, how to get power of attorney, or whether it would be better to become foster parents, and if we should keep him in the school he is in or transfer him to the school in our neighborhood. So many decisions. You never know what life is going to throw your direction. I’m excited to have my nephew come live with us but I am also scared to death. But enough about that.

What: This week we discussed digital stories. I’m really excited to do this project but I know there is no way I can make it as good as the pioneer one, for one we don’t have time to get copy right permission on movies. But we will do our very best to make it great.

So What: Since this is a project we haven’t really even started on yet it’s hard to tell how it will help me now. I look forward to using it in field work. We will probably use it to introduce a new unit or topic. Our cooperating teacher is out of town until next Wednesday so I’m not sure how to start since we don’t know what the students are currently learning and what they will be learning later this semester. I’ve been trying to think of a way I could use this in my life today and I came up with a couple of ways. I could use it in cub scouts at an arrow of light ceremony or a pack night to high light things the boys have done or it could be used in a lesson at church. I could also make digital story to highlight the needs of the pool were a work to help persuade the city council to put in more money. A digital story would also be a fun way to send out a Christmas greeting to all the family show what my family did this year.

Now What: For my future class I am already thinking of a story I could do on eating disorders or on germs. I think it would be fun to have each literature circle create a digital story that retails the book they just finished reading. For Art we could take the students into the lives of famous artist. I’m not sure yet how I would use a digital story for math but I’m sure I will think of one. Also I bet I could get some great ideas from other teachers across the country. That is one of the things that I love about technology, conversing and sharing ideas with people from all over.

Vidcast 2

Vidcast

• Name of Vidcast: Tribes of Utah

• Core Curriculum: Fourth grade Social Studies, Standard 2

Students will understand how Utah's history has been shaped by many diverse
people, events, and ideas

• Rational of Subject Choice: I chose this topic because I feel that the American Indians native to Utah play an important role in who we are today. They were the first people here and should be recognized as such.

• Nets and INTASC connection: This vidcast connects to the NETS and INTASC in many ways. By up loading it to YouTube and making it available on our own sites the parents or guardians have access to what their student is doing in class. The vidcast can work as a model for the students of what you will have them do. I could brake the class into five different groups, assigning each group a tribe to research. Then each member of the group could each be assigned a specific topic to research, such as food or housing. Then the students could work together to create a vidcast similar to mine, high lighting the key points. This lesson integrates, language arts (doing research, writing a paper and writing a script), social studies

( the Utah Indians), multimedia ( creating a vidcast) and it also teaches the students
how to work with others, and how to summarize and pick out key items.

• Draw Backs: I may have given them too much information in the vidcast, leaving them with little research to do. Also from the presentation that is meant to be an introduction to a new unit may not fall into the learning objectives of the standard that was chosen. This vidcast is meant for a fourth grade class, it would be useless on a sixth or second grade class. You never know for sure what grade you may be teaching.

• Future plans for this series: This vidcast is simply an introduction into a unit of several lesson plans on the Utah Indians. We would probably spend a day per tribe, then perhaps go on a field trip to the Museum of Peoples and Cultures in Provo. It would also be fun to play Indian Jeopardy and have the students create their own Vidcasts, demonstrating what they have learned.

Vidcast

What: This week we learned what a vidcast is how to make one and when we might use it.

Now What: I've been trying to think of ways that I might use vidcast in my day to day life now and at first couldn't think of any. I watch vidcasts all the time, especially on YouTube. The other day I looked up how to cover paper back books with that sticky plastic stuff. Almost everyday I watch YouTube videos on Zumba work out routine to get ideas and every day I watch something someone has posted on Facebook, currently my favorite is the wildfire fire fighters dancing to Lady Goga's Poker Face. But for my self I thought as I am making up my own Zumba routines I could tape them then watch them back to see if I really like them, then just like the instructors that I follow on Facebook and YouTube I could post my stuff also. My kids like to make movies with their friends. I could create a blog for just my family members that way my mom could see the things the kids are doing.

So What: As a teacher it would be fun to tape some of the activities the students are doing. Typically the dads always miss out on the school programs that take place during the day but more and more moms are missing out on these things also. As a teacher I could record theses special events and post them on my class web site so that the parents don't have to feel like they are missing out on things. Students love to watch themselves on TV or computer and they love working the camera and doing the technical things. For one of the informal assessments for guided reading the students could act out a part of the book and put on an entire recording spectacle. These are just a few of the ideas I came up with.

Podcast

What: Last time in class we learned about podcast. It was nice to have a project that we could do in class and a chance to work with someone different.

So What: I’ve been trying to think of ways that I could use podcasts now and was only able to think of a view ways. My daughter wants me to teach her French. A good way to help her with her pronunciation would be to make a voice recording, and then upload it on to the computer. I could even put pictures with the voice.

Some times I can’t read my notes that I take from class or I didn’t get everything written down that the teacher had said. I could record a teacher’s lecture then up load it to a computer or IPod. Then I could go back as many times as I need to, to hear the lecture and prepare for a test. Those are just a few ways I can think of to use a podcast now.

Now What: As a teacher I could use podcasting to help with pronunciation of vocabulary words. I could have the students read aloud and record it, and then I could have it up loaded on the computer and create a file for each student. They could then listen to themselves read and see how they sound. I could do this a few times a year so the students and their parents can see how they have improved.

If there was something that the school needed to make sure all the parents knew about, we could make a podcast that was then uploaded to the computer and the computer could then call all the parents. This might be especially helpful if there was a lock down or some other type of emergency that affected the entire school. Podcasting is still something that is new to me. I’m sure there are a million other ideas for this and I look forward to discovering them.

Google Doc. Part 2 Google sites

What: This week we learned how to create our own web page by using Google Sites. I really enjoyed this assignment.

So What: As I was working on this project I was thinking that this would be wonderful for my family. I could create a family web. site. I could have pages for news letter updates, one for pictures and video, and another with a calender of events that we would like to share with everyone i.e birthdays, anniversary, Joshua's school play, Amanda's dance recital and Jonathan's basketball game. I was also thinking this would be great for school now. I could have a homework calendar, a page for resources, and a place to store all my documents so that I have them saved in five places. I really had fun playing around with this site.

Also this week I played around with Google Calenders some more. The hardest part of being in the teaching program is keeping track of what homework is do, when for which class. So I created a homework calendar to share with the rest of my cohort. I tried to link it to our group Facebook page but it wouldn't work. Finally Jason suggested that I create a new blog page and embedded it there. That worked, so we all now have accesses to it and if someone notice that I forgot something then they can post it in the comments. I think this will help all of us to stay on top of things.

Now What: I can't decide which I like better, My UEN, or Google sites. I really like the side bar and how you can see everything there. I think if I ultimately decide to use this over My UEN I would set it up very much the way it already is. Under homework I would have a pdf of any work sheets we did that day, so that if a student looses theirs or is absent they can just print off a new one. I would also direct them to resources/tools for any links to web sites we may have used that day. Depending on the grade I my even set up a way for my students to submit most of their homework on line. I do have to take into consideration that even in today's age of electronics not everyone will have a computer in their home. I would also setup my "Top Secret Files" so that my students can't see it but that my colleagues can. That way if I have something in my collection that they really like, they can just help themselves.

I always want the parents of my students to feel like they are well informed and involved in their child's education

Google Part 1

What: This week we learned how to use many of the wonderful tools that Google has to offer. I think one of my favorites was iGoogle. There are so many things that you can do with it and you can organize it in a way that works best for you.

So What: I have been using Google docs ever since I took Doc. Waters class last semester. At first I didn't like this program. I felt it was some what restrictive compared to Word office but the more I use it the more I like it. When ever I write a paper for school, I can share it with my mom and then she can give me her feed back. I love Google docs for group projects I have had three this week were we were able to work on it at the strangest hours, in different parts of Utah County and still get every ones input and contributions. Last semester I had a class that we needed to do an oral report on a research paper. I used Google docs to make a simple power point presentation. It was nice to be able to just pull up my pp on the teachers computer that projected it on the wall. Another student had his pp on a thumb drive. As he was getting it set up the teacher walked by and bumped a cord, that shut down the computer and the student lost his entire presentation. I felt bad for him and thought " he should have used Google docs".

I like Google calenders, although I am still figuring out how to use it. My favorite feature is having it send you a reminder text message. Now I just wish my husband would let us have texting.

Now What: As a teacher I will use Google calender to keep myself organized. I can also create a class calender with due dates, a look at what is being taught when,and the students birthdays. I could also figure out a way to connect it to my UEN account.

I will use Google docs to collaborate with teachers on lesson plans, grant money proposals and any and everything else. If students have access to the Internet at home I could also give them feed back on assignments before they are due.

I need to play around with iGoogle more to know how I would use it but it is fun to explore.

Why Teach

Why I Want to be a Teacher

I started working on my college degree twenty years ago but personal circumstances derailed me and I ended up leaving school before I had a chance to finish. As soon as I had school age children, I became actively involved in PTA and helping out in the classroom. I loved the all around feeling in the school. Two years ago my two oldest boys were in accidents and because we don’t have medical insurance, all the bills went on the credit card. My husband and I decided that since our youngest was now in school all day, I would go back to work until the credit card was paid off. Because I didn’t have a degree the only thing I thought I was qualified for was to be a checker at Wal-mart. That lasted four days, I hated it. My last day of work there I came home crying. My husband and I discussed it and he said “you are supposed to teach”. The next day I got a job as a substitute teacher. I fell in love with teaching.

I love the look on a student’s face when they finally understand a concept, I love listening to the students’ conversations and hearing their ideas, and to be honest I enjoy being in charge.

Last year I had a fifth grade class that I subbed about two or three times a month. I really got to know the students and they got to know me. On the last day that I taught the class one student said to me “Mrs. Hughes, you are my favorite sub. Do you want to know why? You don’t let me get away with anything”. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a nicer compliment. It was thanks to this class that I decided to become a real teacher.

The only things I don’t like about being a substitute teacher are not knowing what school or grade I’ll be teaching each day and not having the time to develop a relationship with the students. I decided to rectify this problem by going back to college and getting my teaching degree. I am also setting an example for my children. When I graduate I will be the first women in the history of my family to finish college. My mom is also in school. We’ll see who finishes first. I think it will be me.