Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Journal 7 PLN/NETS-T V


My personal learning network is a web based feature that is small for right now but something I plan to work on from here on out. I plan to create relationships with others all around the world that share the same interests, ideas, and creativity that I do to help with my future students. My PLN can include an array of people (educators) or from websites such as my delicious/blogger accounts. Having a variety of educators will help with many aspects such as diversity, differentiation, creativity, ideas, and resources to learn from. A bonus into having a PLN is that it is very easy to access, I can communicate with others, anywhere, anytime, and be up to date with the in’s and out’s of education.
            Twitter is one of the newest ways to communicate these days, and is growing everyday. Twitter can provide a great deal of information, from something such as education or maybe you just have a general education, you have a pretty good chance at finding it through Twitter. My current network is again small but a work in progress, most of the people that I am following share something in common, education. I also currently have some of my fellow classmates on their, I think this is very useful because we can always keep in touch and learn from each other from any experiences we may face, or just share any ideas that come to mind.
            Delicious I find is one of the BEST tools out their, and something that is very important to include in my PLN. My delicious already includes: WikiSpaces, Cool Tools for Schools, Lesson Plan Page, Multicultural Education, and many more. They are all great sites or resources that as a future educator I can use to reference back to when I need help with a certain subject in the classroom, or even just save so that anyone that I am connected to can use as well. Multicultural Education helps teachers to learn about being more open to the different cultures we will see in the classroom. Lesson Plan Page is where an educator can go and get some ideas about many lessons, just in case they ever hit this road block and can’t think of anything.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Journal 10

List 100 Things That Makes Me Happy:

  1. My grandpa (mom’s dad)
  2. My grandma (mom’s mom)
  3. My grandpa (dad’s dad)
  4. My grandma (dad’s mom)
  5. My mom
  6. My dad
  7. My brother
  8. My aunts
  9. My uncles
  10. My cousins
  11. My life
  12. My family
  13. My husband
  14. My son
  15. My daughter
  16. My mother in law
  17. My father in law
  18. My sister in law
  19. My brother in laws
  20. Donkey Kong
  21. My WII
  22. My car
  23. My health
  24. My house
  25. My dog lancer
  26. My dog razzle
  27. My puppy snickers
  28. My cat Ivy
  29. My future career
  30. My job
  31. My accomplishments
  32. Music
  33. Friends
  34. Internet
  35. Email
  36. Library
  37. My education
  38. My college
  39. My professors
  40. My new tv
  41. Christmas
  42. Looking at Christmas lights
  43. Thanksgiving
  44. Valentines Day
  45. The fourth of July
  46. Halloween
  47. My birthday
  48. Disneyland
  49. Sea World
  50. Six Flags
  51. The Zoo
  52. Lions
  53. Tigers
  54. Cats
  55. Ocean life
  56. The movies
  57. Going out to eat
  58. Baking
  59. Having a cell phone
  60. Super Mario Bros.
  61. The military (for what they do)
  62. Parties
  63. Reading books I love
  64. Twilight
  65. Moons
  66. Stars
  67. The beach
  68. The ocean
  69. The mountains
  70. The snow
  71. The desert
  72. Riding quads
  73. Riding jet skis
  74. Swimming
  75. Mexican food
  76. Starbucks
  77. Fruit smoothies
  78. Shakes
  79. Chocolate covered strawberries
  80. Watching football
  81. Watching MMA
  82. Working out
  83. Watching the sunset
  84. Watching children learn
  85. Taking pictures
  86. High school memories
  87. Coloring
  88. Shopping
  89. Attending weddings
  90. Attending baby showers
  91. Going on vacation
  92. Making balloon arrangements
  93. Wrapping gifts
  94. Making family videos
  95. Traveling
  96. Hawaii
  97. Cancun
  98. New York
  99. Japan
  100. The U.S. flag

Journal 9/NETS-T I & III


Hill, W. (2010, November). Scribble Maps Helps Students Visualize Their World. Learning & Leading, 38(3), 40-41.

Summary: Wanda Hill talks about a very useful resource that students can use to help with their geography skills. Geography skills are an important aspect in life to learn about, but when do our students get the chance when they are so pressured into focusing on reading, writing, and math. A program called Scribble Maps allows students to make and share maps. Students can add text and pictures to their creations. Students have the option as to how they would like to view the map, such as: map, satellite, hybrid, or night sky. Students can learn great information such as: population, landmarks, landforms, climate, animals, etc. This sounds like an awesome tool and something I wish I had growing up because I am sure it makes geography projects a lot easier. Easier to gather information but also easier put it all together.
Q1: Does the Scribble Maps program cost anything?
A1: No, Scribble Maps is a free resource, you do not even need to login to create a map you can just start creating what you want. For students, if they are working on saved projects all they need in order to retrieve their projects is use their personal log in which consists of their student ID and initials. This makes it easy for them to remember.
Q2: What if a student has trouble using the program?
A1: Students have easy access to the Contact Us e-mail (for Scribble Maps) and will usually get a response by the end of the day and often by the end of the class period.

Journal 8/NETS-T V

Frey, T.J., Houlton, A.L., & Gruis, E.D. (2010, November). I Can See Me: Webcams in the Classroom. Learning & Leading, 38(3), 36-37.


Summary: Wow technology just gets even more useful with the times. Who would have thought the webcam could be used as an educational tool? The article I Can See Me: Webcams in the Classroom gives some great ideas and explanations of how webcams can help a lot of students and not just those at grade level status but those that may have a learning disability. According to the article there are many uses for the webcam for students K-12. The authors point out that one of the reasons this makes such a great tool is because students love to be able to see themselves; it is part of what they call “I can see me” principle. For example when it comes to the subject reading, if a child was struggling they would very easily learn how to use the webcam and read aloud in front of it. Once the student has finished he/she could go back and watch themselves. Students can observe their own error patterns, fix the errors, and then see new and improved performance over time. This really inspired me to want to learn how and see what other technology tools will be useful in the future classrooms.
Q1: Is this too complex for students where the teacher’s attention needs to be focused on helping with the use of the webcam?
A1: No, the webcam is very easy to use. Obviously for the first time students will need a run down of what to do and what not to do, but using a webcam is very easy and once get view themselves on the screen it is like an incentive to want to learn how to use the webcam on their own, without help to be independent.
Q2: Is this something that will cost a lot and take up a lot of time to set up in the classroom?
A2: Today there are such a big variety of webcams that are inexpensive and easy to install. To supply a classroom with webcams would not cost very much, but who should be putting a price on learning tools that will help students to be more successful? Installation is not rocket science so it will not take up much time; however, it is important for teachers to learn themselves about the newest technology so that they can help their students and not rely on only those teachers that know how.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Journal 6/NETS-T V

Rebora, A. (2010). Change agent. Teacher PD Sourcebook, Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01richardson.h04.html?cmp=clp-edweek&intc=bs&sms_ss=delicious&at_xt=4cb7dc75d0303b73,0

Summary: This article was very interesting and headed in the right direction with how the world is today as far as technology. Will Richardson, a former high school English and Journalism teacher, who is no an educational technology informant. Richardson strongly and encourages the use of technology in accordance with students growth with learning. Schools and educators are strongly encouraged to integrated learning networks into their curriculum. He believes that with all the safety aspects students are taught about the internet they should be taught about useful things. Things such as the variety of resources they can encounter and use for school. This not only gives the students access to some great information but opens opportunities of creativity. Richardson’s goal is to revolutionize teaching and to enhance learning in order to keep up with the ever so changing digital world.
Q1: What is another benefit for students?
A1: This will offer students the opportunity to use technology for something else beside social networks. Social networks are great to a certain extent; however, they do have a lot more negative features than positive. Learning networks will give students the chance to not only help their personal growth but educational growth.
Q2: What are some benefits to schools, educators, or their communities?
A2: School, educators, and the community could use networks as a way of communication on a daily basis. They could share ideas and opportunities that could benefit one another and help those most important, the students.