Blog for week of 2/27/2008

Tonight we learned how to do an oral history interview and submit them to the Library of Congress. It was very interesting to listen to the little bits from the veterans. I would like to do this project and interview my grandpa who was in WWII, but I don't know if time will allow.
We got to work on our Web Quest tonight in class and I am happy to say that I got mine done. Yeah!!! Now I just need to focus on getting my lesson plan done for next week. That will be a big project. I'm looking forward to hearing what other people did their lesson plan on. Maybe I can get some ideas for future lessons.
I can't believe that next week will be our last class. Time has gone by so fast. I have really learned a lot in this class. More than my brain can take in at the moment, but hopefully in the future I will put all of this good knowledge to use.

Blog for the week of 2/20/2008

Tongight we learned how to create a WebQuest. It is pretty cool all the stuff you can do on the computer. I just wish I was more computer savvy. I liked how you can hperlink and add pictures to the WebQuest. I just hope that now I can apply all of this knowledge to the actual project. This should be interesting.
We got the grade back for our group presentation and I have to say I was really pleased with ours. I can't believe that we only have 2 classes left. The first part of the semester has gone by really fast. I hope the second part of this semester goes by fast too.

February 13, 2008

Tonight was very fun. We got to hear all the different presentations about the different types of technology we use in the classroom. It was very interesting to hear all the different types of technology and how in corporate them in the classroom. The presentation about cyber bullying was very informative. I knew that it was out there, but I didn't realize the magnitude of it. As a parent it makes you stop and think about what your children are doing on the computer and with their cell phones. I will be more cautious as to what I let my children do on the computer.
The presentation about desktop computers brought up some interesting points about whether or not a child should learn how to write as apposed to doing all their work on the computer. I think it is essential for a child to learn how to write at an early age. Doing homework on the computer is great, but I still think that you should have work that the child needs to actually write.
Every presentation brought out new ideas for you to think about and a list of resources for you to refer to at a later time. GREAT JOB!!!

February 6, 2008

Tonight we are looking on different web sites at lesson plans. We looked at a couple and discussed how we could adapt it to our teaching, to a multi cultural class, and to students with disabilities. It will be interesting to look at different lesson plans and get some ideas for when I get into the classroom. I think being able to see other teachers lesson plans is a great thing, especially for new teachers. It gives them a starting point to build on with their own ideas. I hope that I will be able to write my own lesson plan when the time comes and viewing these web sites will help me.

My main goal is to work on our group project for next weeks presentation. My group is doing it on smart boards and I have never used one before. I am subbing a lot and the school where I sub uses them all the time. Hopefully they will be able to show me so I will at least know a little bit about them before next week. This will be very time consuming, but I have a great group and I know we will get it done.

There is a lot of information to learn in this class and when you are not very technology savvy, it can be very mind boggling. I do think that it will be very useful for me when I do have my own classroom. Technology is the way of the future and I need to learn as much as possible so I'm not left behind.

Happy learning!!!!!!!

January 30, 2008

I've made it to week #3. I'm looking forward to doing our group projects. I think it will be interesting to finally learn how to work a smart board. I've substituted for a couple of classes that use this and I'll be glad when I finally learn how to use it. It looks confusing to me right now, but it is something that I would be interested in using in my classroom.

I'm finally learning how to use Power Point! It is something that I have been wanting to learn how to do. I just hope after I leave tonight I will remember how to use it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Okay, I just finished my first power point. I hope I can get some written instructions for how to do this because I will not be able to remember.

I just hope I can survive the rest of this class.

Class 1/23.2008

I am learing a lot of information in this class. I just hope that after the class is over that I can remember and take it into the classroom. There is a lot of information to remember though. Tonight we learned what is permissable and not permissable when it comes to copyright. I am probably breaking copyright in a lot of ways that I didn't even know. I guess in the future I will try to be more careful.
When I get into the classroom this information will be very useful to my students when it comes time to write papers or any other type of projects that I have them do for my class.
I hope to learn a lot from this class.

Computer experience

I have been using computers since I was in the 7th grade in the mid 80's. I started out with an Apple computer and we learned how to write a program and put on floppy discs. When I entered high school I took a computer class my senior year. Since then I use the computer for e-mail, shopping on line, down loading music, using word processing, and down loading and sending pictures. In my recent job I used the computer daily for data entry. I have learned a lot from my 13 and 9 year old sons on what to do with computers. My children are always on the computer and probably know more about it than I do.

I plan on using the computers in my classroom to have the students look up information needed for class. I would also like to use the computer to show videos to the class. I am hoping to learn how to do different things in this class that I will be able to implement in my classroom when I become a teacher.