Interactive White Boards

I've actually never heard of interactive white boards before, and after learning about them, I think they are pretty cool.  Interactive white boards should be used as a tool in classrooms everywhere, It keeps the students entertained and what to participate, because well you can touch it! There are pros and cons to having really cool things such as the white board in the classroom. The pros are it can bring multi media into the classroom, you can be interactive without sitting behind a desk, and physically act with the display. You can go outside the box with this, you can draw, write and have students interact while you are doing so. The cons in having a Interactive white board from what I have read and heard, is that its hard to write on, if the board is sensitive you could have glitches and it could just be frustrating to work with. The hardest thing about cool new gadgets in the classroom is learning out to use them. Even though you still have the white board working you have to still go back and forth to your desk top to change the item on the screen. Last but not least the price, White boards can be really expensive especially if a school doesn't have the money to spend on up to date technology.

QR BAR CODE LESSON PLAN

RH.6-8.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.


1.) Students will use this website with the assigned names for important people in American History, and understand why they are important  

2.) Students will scan this to refresh there memory about important people in American History. They will also be given a Constitutional Crossword puzzle to work on.  

After the students have finished there assignment, they will each be assigned to a group in class and discuss what they thought was interesting about each individual and why they believe they are labeled as Important people in American History. 

ISTE Standards and My First Year of becoming a Teacher

 The National Education Technology Standers and Performance Indicators for Teachers are very important for all new incoming teachers. This is something I know that I will use in the future when I do become a teacher. These are my firsts goals becoming a teacher.

1. Technology Operations & Concepts: I will be using technology constantly during my time as a teacher. My goal is to stay up to date with the latest technology and they come. Because of the change I will be able to grow and learn more about technology.

2.Planning & Design Learning Environments and Experience: My classroom will have an environment that is welcoming. My lessons will be mostly topics that are real life experiences. I will have students be really involved in using technology.

3. Teaching, Learning & the Curriculum: By still incorporating technology in to the curriculum, I will guide my students into becoming better learners and to go beyond of they are capable of doing. I will also help my students advancements in technology.

4. Assesment & Evaluation: As a educator I will apply technology to create problem solving. I will use different forms of technology such as Google docs to create test, quizzes, assignments, and projects for my students. As they do there assignments and student work, I will be able to use the data base and see were each of my students stand and were they need to improve.

5. Productivity and Professional Practice: Teachers use technology to enhance there productivity and professional practice. Life long learning is important for my students and myself. I will be learning along side with my students every step of the way in my first year of teaching. I will create blog accounts for each and every one of my students parents so that we can both see were we can make improvements in their child's learning skills. weather its improving on a test, or a homework assignment.

6. Social, Ethical, and Legal Issues: I will ensure to my students parents that I will to what ever I can to the best of of knowledge to sure that their child will learn and become a better individual in society, as long as they are on bored and know that along the way I would need their help.

Survey

The Future

It's hard to think what the future will be. Or for that matter the classroom. I believe that there will be a change but not a dramatic change. Technology will dominate around the classroom, that's for sure. Schools can hopefully insure that every student has a laptop, and well educated on technology and how it benefits them in the real world. Student will love using the technology, and so will teachers, but it's the level of technology for them to understand. For students it will be easier to adapt to newer technology then teachers. For example older teachers do not like to use technology and use old school methods. Other teachers like using newer tools such as technology, but in the future maybe these teachers would rather sick to the older tools of technology then the newer ones of the future. Technology to some people gets easier and sometimes becomes difficult to use or understand. I could be wrong. Technology could be 10 times easier than what it is today. I hope that in the future technology is dominate and simple to make my life and my students life easier, because to me that's what technology is all about.

Social Media in the Classroom

I think incorporating social media sites to the classroom is a great tool. I have to admit, I am a big fan of social media, weather its Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or apps; like instagram, and Google plus. Using technology is such a benefit in the classroom, it keeps things fresh and up to date. Its something that really helps these kids get in tocuh with the real world, and  its problems. I love how people take these social medias sites to a whole other level. " Like if Historical Events had a Facebook Status", I've also seen "Like If Presidents had a Facebook Status", and other creative sites that relate to school topics. I would use this in the classroom to use as a source. Sometimes its a pain to go through the search engine and type in a topic and for them to show multiple sources and not knowing which one is a pain. This is 10 times easier buy using Facebook and showing the time lines of what happened during a historical event. There is a fine line between using social media sites because it could be distracting and sometimes the occasional "Can I add you on Facebook?" happens. Right now that is the situation my sister is going through. The main teacher that she is a assistant to used Facebook as an assignment for her elementary school students, and now her students are trying to add her on Facebook? Really?! When should a fifth grader have a Facebook!

Cell Phone PIctures

I actually had a lot of fun doing this assignment. My cell phone takes some pretty bad pictures, but since my ipod has a better camera I got a lot of use out of it. This is one of the greatest ways to integrate technology in the classroom. I am always taking pictures with my ipod now since I've downloaded all these different apps, that change the photo to black and white, pixel, and many more options.

My group was great. We really worked well together, our ideas flowed. My group had four girls so our team tv name was " The Golden Girls", it made sense since it was the four of us. the assignment to was to use our camera phones, and chose one of our favorite fairy tale stories. So all of us decided to do our project on Cinderella. The last time I watched Cinderella was when I was about 5 so all I really remembered was the ball that Cinderella attended, the glass slipper, and  the ugly evil stepsisters. Luckily Brianne had created an outline so that we new what pictures needed to go up and in what order. I was assigned to take pictures of the evil step sisters. I struggled a little because I really didn't know who or how I was going to take this picture. Lucky for me I got an email from Amanda and she sent me a cute funny picture of herself and her nice and I had to use it for the evil step sister section. We used Google docs to create our power point and got everything done by Saturday night. Our project turned out great, and I would defiantly use it in the classroom.  

shifthappens

After watching " Did You Know 2.0, and 4.0", I was pretty shocked by the some the facts that were shown in the video, and how fast technology grew in a short amount of time, and how technology has changed our lives for the better. While watching 4.0 I did realize that the digital world took up so much of the real world. I do spend a lot of time on internet then I do reading a book, watching T.V or even opening up a magazine, because it's all right in front of me as I am surfing the web. In 2008 during the presidential debate I thought it was smart how  president Barack Obama use social networking instead of attending campaign fundraisers like John McCain and raised more money then he did in a short amount of time. In " Did You Know 2.0 ", the facts that I found to be fascinating is how countries such as India, and China are more developed than the United States, in areas of education. What really grabbed my attention was the last two minutes of the clip when it encourages you to ask the question to your principle, " How are you helping my child become illiterate in the 21st century, and when it encourages you to ask your school board, " Are you providing the resources and training necessary to prepare students to be successful in 21 century society?" To be honest I never really though of those questions, and to me that is important. We can use technology effectively in the classroom and to help education our children with, it can open there eyes to show them whats out there in the world today.