End of Semester Relfection

I have learned a ton about technology in education this semester in this class. Before this class i had never used a blog, never used a smart board, and never used those smart response clickers. I also found out a lot of new things with word, power point, and even about the mac that i didn't know. The things I learned are going to help me as a student and as a future teacher to incorporate these type of things into my classroom. very helpful class. I struggle with technology so this was a good challenge for me.

I have made good progress on my NET standard that i tried to focus on this semester. I wanted to try to make progress on the standard facilitate and inspire learning and creativity. I found new tools to help make my things more creative and also informational. Hopefully by doing that I might have inspired one student to look into health and maybe even nutrition stuff sometime. If i did that than it was a success. I also just learned a lot about technology in education and that was another one of my goals, so its been a good semester.

Assignment 4

Here is my project.. i created a blog for a class that I am would be teaching about the Fitness Components as well as the FITT Principle.

The features that I used in this project were creating a blog which i have been learning throughout this year.. but is still something i struggle with.. i am terrible with technology. I also used the power point software which is new to me. I used the transitions, font, background effects, background color, font tools, type of font, and couple others. I have never really used power point at all so all this was new and a struggle for the most part.. but its always gratifying to learn something new.

Some of the issues i encountered with this project was figuring out how to use the power point, and how to get the power point onto the blog. I had to use a different site called box.net in order to link it to the blog which was really confusing. Creating a blog was also challenging for me because i'm not good with technology and even though we have worked on them all year we do things together a lot as a class and when you do it all on your own it can be a little struggle. But i asked questions and got help from some peers to solve the problems.

This project was just a cool way to think about how you can use technology to teach your class. I think doing a blog would be a great way to teach a lesson or a unit to a future class. Students love to use the internet and computers, since they are growing up on them and it lets them use their creativeness with creating their own. They are doing things hands on and I think it's a great way to interact with them and they might even want to continue to blog in their personal time. I can use this as a teacher as a way for students to interact with me in regards to homework or discussion topics. It allows me a change to use my creativeness with my students. I think it just adds flexibility to my classroom.

NETS- Teachers

1. I believe by using the blog and incorporating some power point lessons as well as other internet information it is a great mix of different aspects of learning. I think that it Facilitates and inspires student learning and creativity by doing this.

2. I also believe my project fulfills the Model Digital-Age Work and Learning aspect of the teaching standards as well. I think this project demonstrates fluency in technology systems and it transfers current knowledge and the new different technologies in different situations.

NETS-Students

1. I believe my project fullfulls the Creativity and Innovation aspect of the student standards. The students will have to demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowldege, and develop innovative products and processes using technolgy. They are doing this by being involved with the blog and through the power point.

6. I also believe my project enables the students to use Technology Operations and Concepts. the students will understand and use the blog effectively and they will understand how to use it. They will also see this same thing within the power point.

Reflection 12

What? Mac Vs PC


So what? I thought this was an interesting because some people absolutly love the mac and they would never change and then some people feel the exact same way about a pc. I saw that their are many great qualities about both, I just think it happens to be peoples preference. Maybe growing up their parents always had pc's around the house or vise versa. You can argue all day about which is better but I thought this was an interesting debate even though we weren't trying to accomplish that in class.

Now what? I am very interested to see what happens in the future with both the mac and the pc. Its going to be fun to see what new things come out and what people tend to generate too as far as a laptop choice. Right now I see it as up in the air, but in the future one might come out with something the other cant offer and things will take off.. until then.. we wait.

Reflection 11

What? Word, powerpoint, excel.

So what? The other day in class when we showed the class the cool things you can do with these different software's I realized there was so much I didn't know about each of them. I use them frequently, and still their were many different things I had no idea about that would have made things a lot easier for me.

Now what? Now that I have been introduced to these new tools and software I will feel more confident in using them and hopefully will be able to put them into projects and things that I can use to make life a little easier.

Reflection 10

What? Smart response clickers


So what? This tool is a really effective tool you can use in your classes with really any ages. I had never heard or even see these before this year. In my instructional design class a few of the students have been using them and they are very effective to use with quizzes or anything that you want to test what they learned. You can program the smart response with the questions you would like and it gives you certain choices to pick from. The students each get one of these clickers and when the teacher is ready for the students to take the quiz she hands them out and the questions appear on the smart board and things are ready to go.

Now what? Now with this tool it is just another way to get students involved using technology. Some kid's aren't good test or quiz takes doing it the old fashioned way with a pencil and a piece of paper. This might spark that level or interest with them and they might start to improve in the classroom.

Reflection 9

what? Internet in classrooms

So what? Its amazing how I can remember growing up in school we never used the internet in the classroom. It was always something we did if we needed to do extra research and that was only after I got into high school. Its such a great thing to be able to use because you can find so many helpful sources that make life so much easier for the teacher and for the student. The internet now seems to consume our days and lives, but it makes things so much easier. Now in classes it seems like we are using it everyday.

Now What? Now we are using the internet all the time in every single one of our classes. We are constantly showing videos off the internet, doing research, finding free tools to make our assignments more creative, just constantly using the internet to make things easier. I just find it very interesting how the internet has grown and now it seems hard to get by a day without using it in the classroom. Can you imagine if the internet wasn't here and we had to go back to what teaching was like when we were all little? Things would be so much slower... the internet has been a wonderful tool for the classrooms.

Week 14

Doing the research on what the future or education and technology I came across this article. The article was interesting and brought up a lot of good points. It talked a lot about how in the future teachers might be swaying away from the more lecture based structure they tend to focus upon now. In the future teachers will probably be using their laptops to control everything. Instead of passing out papers they might have a website where they post all of their information and interact through that most the time.. kind of like discovery. During class sessions they will be able to walk you through things a lot quicker by using their own laptop and since most of us have laptops as well it is very easy to follow along. Technology will be more efficient as time goes on and it enables us to be more efficient with our time. No longer will we have to sit and memorize things and do the same boring ways of studying anymore. With technology and the advances that come each year, things will become easier and more engaging and exciting for future students and teachers. It talked about how students who cant make class might have the opportunity to do it via the internet and live feed from the classroom. So they can just view it from home or wherever they can get internet. This would be very helpful because as we all know when you miss class, and we all have to every now and then, you miss out on a lot of important info. We might see an era where all of our homework is turned in online, and teachers give us feedback and correct papers online where its much easier to fix.

This article just talked a lot about how technology is changing and in the years to come their is really endless ways we can go about things school related. They are talking a lot about how school work load might even increase because with newer technology students will be more efficient and it will make things easier. The one constant is that technology WILL change and we ADAPT every year to these changes. They are stressful and confusing at first, but they make things a lot easier in the end.

Week 13

Word- Font, Bold, Italicize, formatting, columns, basically all of the tool box tools. That's all i use with word.

Excel- I haven't personally used excel that much. I have used it for creating different log type sheets and thats about it.

Powerpoint- text box, insert, pictures, shapes, background coloring, video links, bullets.

The three projects I could have my students do:

Word- I could have my students write a short story involving physical activity using one tool from each section of the tool box.

Excel- I could have students create a nutritional table that they would follow for 2 weeks. This way they would have to create a log and worksheet that charts this information.

Powerpoint- With powerpoint i can have my students create a presentation involving different ways to get good cardiovascular workouts. They will have to include picures, color, and some effects.

Week 12

For my online learning experience I decided to do two of them. The first one i watched was "Self-Driven and classroom based: Professional Development in the 21st Century" by Konrad Glogowski. This learning experience talked a lot about how the learning experience is going on in our on classroom or context. We have to make sure as teachers to know our weaknesses and strengths, and use them to our advantage. As teachers, he had a good point about how we can be learners as we teach as well. If we connect with our student, and build knowledge, the students as well as the teacher will learn from each other. With talk about classroom based professional development it lets you reflect a lot about your teaching and ways to improve which i really like. As the century's change, we have to adapt to whats relevant to the students. It might be some different sort of technology, which he talks about, or it might be that we have to examine ourselves and ask the question if the way we are teaching is working. I thought this online learning experience was just a refreshing way to look at yourselves as teachers or even future teachers, and thinking about ways to improve and make your classroom a good teaching environment.

The second online learning experience I watched was "Week in the classroom keynote: Peek of the week- inside a kiwi junior classroom." This was a really cool video. It let you see how they learn each and everyday and how they go about it. I thought it was really cool how she used web2 tools. She had the kids working on organization by using class blog, wiki, and the interactive white board. She also had them working on writing using Google docs, different routines using blogs, and math as well as oral language skills using more new technology tools. I learned a lot about how you can integrate these tools with kids to help them learn. It's really cool how they learn about the technology, as well as the important life skills you need in school to be successful in the real world. I thought this teacher did a great job of that. Some of the stuff they are using are things I just learned and i am a junior in college. It is amazing how creative and tech savvy this teacher is. This video gives you great ideas of some tools you can use and integrate into your future classroom. Excellent video.

Reflection 8

Vending machines. As a future health teacher, and with a large majority of the U.S. being over weight, why do we put the foods we put in vending machines. They are loaded with candy, chips, and chocolate. In order to solve the problems we have with obesity and the health problems it causes, we need to look at the little things like vending machines. I know some schools are making an effort in this area, but other are lacking. If we make a statement and create healthy vending machines this will help send a message to the youth about what kind of eating choices they should be making. This would help with the problems we are having with obesity and cut down other health related issues that come with bad food choices.

Reflection 7

Smart Board: Before this semester started I knew nothing about smart boards, and didn't really imagine myself every using something like this for my P.E./ Health lessons. But as time has gone I have started to use the smart board more and more. The smart board brings three things that I have found very effective for me. The first, is that it has great ways to help create ways for students to interact with the lesson. The second, is it has a lot of different ways you can teach to them. You can use a podcast, videos, or just lecture. This works for auditory learners, visual learners, and pretty much all kinds of learners. I think it brings a good diversity for the teaching spectrum. The 3rd, is all the different ways to chose students. Sometimes it's hard to pick students or to ask them questions because some talk more than others and some really hate to be called on. Some get upset when you randomly choose them as well. With the smart board there are a lot of different items that pick for you. This kind of gets you off the hook, it also makes it fair for the whole class.

I am really glad I was introduced to the smart board this semester, and it is something that i will continue to use throughout my teaching career. I can only imagine the new upgrades that will occur with it within the next 5 years too! technology is always changing. This resource is a good one.