My Reflective Blog

2006-11-15T18:24:00.000-08:00

Universal Access....Have I thought about this in integrating technology in my classroom? What am I doing to ensure my technical resources are accessible to all?

Right now , I don't use very much technology in my classroom. My teaching methods are in the stoneage. The most technology I use directly with my students is an overhead projector. I do sit the students who have a hard time seeing in the front of the classroom.
My computer has a video cable hooked up to the TV, but I do not use it often. The TV is high in the corner some students find it hard to see the words on it.
Since our school does not have enough computers for our students to have continuous access to them everyday during my class time. I am hoping to integrate some technology into my geometry class next semester. It is a small group and the computer lab is free that hour. I have varying levels of ability in that classroom. I think that computers will help the lower level ones to have a clearer understanding and will allow the high level ones to keep from being so bored.
I think that technology is such a valuable resource to me, as an educator. I just wish I had more ways of integrating it into my lessons. I will eventually, but right now I am just trying to establish routines. I have such a wide variety of classes, teaching 7th grade math, 8th grade, Algebra 1, Algebra2 and Geometry. I teach the lower levels of Algebra 1 and Algebra 2.
I am really looking forward to integrating a program called Geometer's Sketchpad into my Geometry class.

2006-11-10T06:47:00.001-08:00

Are we meeting our technology standards??
Technology standards for teachers
(1)Basic Computer/Technology Operations and Concepts
I would sincerely hope that all teachers have the knowledge to perform basic operations with a computer. I believe this standard is quite achievable. Every teacher at my school can operate a computer.
(2)Personal and Professional Use of Technology
Most of the teachers at my school find their own teaching resources using the world wide web. This standard is achievable also.
(3)Application of Technology in Instruction,
All teachers should be able to use technology in instruction. Our science teacher uses USB microscopes, computer disections and powerpoints for instruction. I would love to use more technology in my math class, but so far, I haven't had the time and the school hasn't had the money. Hopefully that willl change. This standard is achievable also.
(4)Social, Ethical and Human Issues,
If someone is going to use a computer, then he or she should be responsible in using it. Also an achieveable standard.
(5)Productivity Tools
As educators, we should be doing everything we can to relate to our students. Students relate to technology. We should be using technology to enhance our curriculum. A very achievable standard. It does, however, take some time and money to implement.
(6) Telecommunications and Information Access,
Every teacher at my school uses email and surfs the net. So I am going to say that this is a very easy standard to expect for educator to meet.
(7)Research, Problem Solving, and Product Development,
Teachers should be competent in using computers to research and solve problems. Again, an achievable standard.
(8)Information Literacy Skills,
If we, as educators, expect our students to have literacy skills, then we should possess them ourselves.
(9)Collaborative Planning and Teaching.
I am not from a large school community. The school I teach at has under 200 students in grades 7 -12. In larger schools, I would expect for a media specialist to help teachers use media and other technologies to enhance learning.

The 20 basic technology skills that every teacher should possess fall into one of these standards. These standards are quite achievable for teachers and students. Some just take more time, effort and money.

2006-11-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

2006-11-02T18:10:00.000-08:00

Are we responsible users of technology?

I always thought that I was a responsible person. When it comes to fair use and copyrighting, I think I may be somewhat lacking on the responsibility issue. Only after listening to our lecture, reading the articles and visiting the websites in our techsercises, did I reach this conclusion.

Let me explain. I am a math teacher in a very small school. My books do not have accompanying workbooks for worksheets or CD's. I scavenge the internet looking for worksheets and/or problems to copy and paste into my own worksheets.
I don't get any personal gain from the worksheets that I find or alter to make into my own. I use them for my students. Of course if we really wanted to get technical, I am being paid as a teacher and I am using these worksheets. So, are they making me money?? no. I just like to use worksheets sometimes, instead of having my students do every single problem in the textbook.
As for the limitations of fair use, well I violate the copying limit of 2 documents everytime I make copies. My classes have more that 2 students in them.
I believe that i am using my materials legitimately.
I use the materials in a strictly educational, non-profit manner. My copied materials are of an educational nature. I have never copied an entire textbook. I don't have time to do that. I will never make money off of the copyrighted materials, themselves. I am not going to steal other people's work and publish a workbook entitled the Copyright Violation Math Workbook.

As for how well do we model fair use and copyright guidelines?
I think that, as educators, we do the best we can with what we have. As I said my school is extremely small and on a very tight budget. We teachers scrape for our resources to better our students. I do not claim any of the work as my own.
If I were writing a paper, I would cite my sources using MLA or APA . I never really thought about the copies I make everyday, until the lecture this week.
It really opened my eyes.

2006-10-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

Consider the role of digital storytelling in the classroom. Do you see it as a meaningful tool and measure for learning?
Media is all over in our society. Kids watch DVD's, play video games, listen to their MP3 player/iPod, use their cell phones to communicate, are whizzes at PowerPoint and have their own homepage on MySpace or FaceBook. These kids are our students. Many of these students have the skills of visual literacy..
These students can understand visual messages, communicate through design, produce visual messages and use visual thinking for problem solving.
Digital storytelling is a great way to individualize student learning. If the appropriate technology were available, this could be a wonderful component of everyclassroom. Take for instance in elementary school. If students were studying Thanksgiving, they could put together their own digital story about what Thanksgiving means to them. It would be individualized learning. The teacher would have rubric to follow to be sure that all components were met.
The students learning would be so enhanced, because they got to put together their own meaning through a series of pictures and sounds.- their own point of view...... Some students might use turkeys and pilgrims, while other students might show family members sitting around, and others may just show football games. Also, digital story telling comes from the heart and sometimes that is lost in the classroom.
I think we are sometimes more open and honest when we don't have to speak in front of people. Myself for instance, I don't like attention and I don't like to speak in public (yeah I know I'm a teacher). I write what I think, though. I type with less apprehension than when I speak. Many of my shy students are like that. I believe that digital storytelling is a meaningful tool for learning and measure for learning.

2006-10-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

Digital Natives

I found the readings for this week very interesting and very true. Our students have access to all of this new technology and most of our classrooms are still in the Stone Age in comparison.
I watched the slide show on Marc Prensky's site entitled "Give us 21st century tools" . It really opened my eyes. I am kind of a digital native myself. I could not function without my cell phone. I text message as much as I talk on it. I use IM to keep in touch and talk to my husband while he is overseas. I use MySpace to keep in touch with my friends. I love to play games on the computer, like at Yahoo Games.
It is no wonder that a high majority of students complain that school is boring.
On the slideshow, I found an awesome site that uses games to teach curriculum.
games2train.com . I explored this site and I would love to revamp my classes using this technology.
Are we as educators prepared to embrace new literacies fostered by our "digital natives"?
I am ready and willing. A few obstacles however, lie in the way.
Time. I need time to configure all of my resources. I also need computer time for my students. Which is my next obstacle: Money
The school I teach at has 1 computer lab for the entire school to share. I have one computer in my classroom. I would love for my students to have access to a computer to use in my class everyday.
I really do believe that students learn at a whole new level by playing games. It makes learning engaging and fun. Students get so bored sitting at a desk and listening to lecture after lecture.
We like to live by the philosophy that (pardon my Hick) "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". In a way, our education system is broken. We are not adapting our curriculum to the newly found intelligences of our students. Technology proficiency is an intelligence.

2006-10-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

Think Free

I love the idea of ThinkFree and all of the other document sharing sites. These are so useful. I know this is awful, but you no longer even need a word processor or spreadsheet program on your PC if you have access to the net.
It is also great because you do not have to take your PC with you from home to work. You can save your documents and login in to these sites and continue to edit them.
You do not even need a flash drive.
I decided to go ahead and create my TripLog for my Webquest on ThinkFree.
I am just going to have my students print an empty template out for the time being. But for older students, I would invite them using their email addresses to share the spreadsheet and let them edit it.
Here is my artifact: http://www.thinkfree.com/conversion/2006101013/573735.html

Talkr
I played around with http://www.talkr.com/ but I couldn't figure out what my permalink was in eblogger. I did test it out on one of my blog posts and it was very cool. This site would be so beneficial to teachers who had blind people in their classroom and even audio learners.

YouTube
I am a youtube addict: http://www.youtube.com/
I like to watch the hilarious commercials, like the citibank identity theft commercials.
I think this could be useful to students if they wanted to publish their videos on the web.

Role of Media in Learning
Media can play such a great role in learning. Students love to learn with technology. Given a good amount of time, a teacher can really implement media into his/her classroom. There are so many resources available. Document sharing is the wave of our educational future.

2006-09-27T17:31:00.000-07:00

Blended Learning

I really like the concept of blended learning. It meets the expectation of teaching in the 21st century. Students these days are technology proficient. The students at the school I teach at seem to enjoy assignments more when there is a computer involved. The problem I run into is that the it takes forever for them to get logged in and our server seems to be so slow. By the time everyone is logged in, half of the period is over.
Another problem I run into with getting my class set up for blended learning is time. I think we all have that problem: not enough time. I don't have enough time right now to tailor my class to the technology that I would like to. I have about 120 math assignments to grade everyday , plus I am taking 2 CTER courses and I do after school tutoring . I am hoping that after I finish up the CTER program,that I will have time to organize my online resources and blend my classroom.
I think the blended classroom is a great idea and a great learning tool. Time and student computer access are my two greatest roadblocks at the moment.

2006-09-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

Will my webquest empower student learning?
I hope it does.

My webquest is designed to let students have some freedom in their assignment. The students will develop team work skills: getting along with one another, planning a trip, being considerate of other people's choices, and taking on responsibility.
My students will utilize their abilities to compute gas mileage.
My students will also be able to be as creative as they wish in writing their Road Trip poem.
I also hope my students will realize how lucky they are to live in a nation so great as ours is. A nation that allows it's inhabitants the freedoms of traveling to our monuments and national landmarks. Also, I hope they learn to appreciate why we have the national landmarks that we do and what these should mean to our citizens.
High expectations?? not really.....

2006-09-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

My WebQuest Thought
I would like to design my WebQuest as a cross country roadtrip. Participants will be required to visit each of the 48 continental U.S. states. They will use a site to find lists of various national historic landmarks. They get to pick which landmark they visit in each state. They must pick a common theme to follow, i.e. nature, military, weird............ Participants will log traveling time, state, city and landmark visited in each. They will then total traveling time. I am debating on adding a part in where they get to pick their own vehicle, and give them a set gas price to determine how much gas they would use and how much they would spend. I also want them to write a creative poem that includes a line or two about each landmark they visited. I really think this could be a neat idea.

2006-08-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

After reading the 20 Technology skills that every educator should know, I was a bit suprised at first. Mainly, because I know that more than half of the teachers at my school do not possess those skills and I do not possess all of them. I believe that these 20 skills are realistic. I had basic knowledge in most of the twenty skills before my first CTER class and a more developed knowledge in the 20 skills after my first CTER class.
Basic things like word processing, email, spreadsheet, database, web navigating, electronic presentations, managing files, downloading web software, installing PC software, digital cameras, scanners and storage devices are things that we as teachers should know. A high percentage of our students have these skills and if we are to teach them, we have to "get with the program". I have been using jump drives for a while now. The main reason I know how to navigate with my PC so well: MUSIC. I love music and I download, store and transfer my songs all the time. I use music in my math classroom as part of my positive reinforcement system.
Developing my eportfolio was the first time I had ever designed a webpage. I had never linked webpages. I still have a lot to learn about webpage design and maintenance.
I am lacking in some of the 20 basic skills: educational copyright knowledge
computer security knowledge and videoconferencing skills.