PDP~ My Beliefs

I believe we all need to incorporate technology in our classroom. In all of our education this semester we have been exposed to many tools that will be helpful in our future classrooms (and it doesn't include a fraction of the available resources). Not only because there are so many resources that are helpful and fun in a classroom, but because technology, so why not educate students about the benefits as well as the dangers oftechnology use. I feel it is our duty to educate students on technology to the best or our abilities.

PDP~ Lessons Learned

PDP~ Strengths and Weaknesses

On the UNI survey I scored as an apprentice in almost all areas because I havent created learning activites for he classroom. I have not been able to create learning activites and therefore I have not been able to reflect on my abilities as a teacher in those areas. I feel like I personally can do almost anything required of me on a computer, and if I can't, then I will figure out how. That is one of my biggest strengths in this area; I am always willing to try new things and I know I can do anything I put time and effort into.
In my lesson planning for other courses I have made an effort to add in technology use and presentation. It is an important part of the NET standards to incorporate technology in planning and designing learning environments and experiences. With a changing world that lives and dies with the newest and greatest, we as teachers of the next generations must stay on top of it all. If we are aware of and able to use technology, students will see what we are teaching as more related to their lives. That will be one of my greatest strengths as a teacher as well; my ability to and desire to instruct my students in many different ways will help me later on.

Digital Cameras & Picasa

We learned about using digital cameras and Picasa to edit those pictures taken on our digital cameras. It was very interesting to see all the different things that can be done in Picasa that other photo editing tools cannot do. My sister uses Picasa religiously and swears it's the best but I have never really played around with it like I did this week. I definitely downloaded it to my own computer so that I can learn to use it even more. It is important to be aware of the different functions available on our digital cameras as well. I am a big picture person and love snapping all sorts of different types of pictures. I have played around with my camera quite a bit and I feel like I know it pretty well, but getting to know Picasa better will benefit me for classroom use as well. The tools available through Picasa make it very easy to upload and share photos on my blog and classroom website, and is a great tool for students to be able to use as well.
Students using Picasa for assignments in all different types of classes is definitely a possibility I see in the future. I think it is important to offer different types of media for students to express themselves while still teaching the content area you are working within. It is always exciting to learn and discover new tools that allow students to be individuals and learn in their own way.

Internet Safety~ March 28

In learning about Internet safety I was very impressed with the importance to educate our students about the dangers that come when using technology. While there are many benefits to using the Internet that we can teach students the negatives need to be clear as well. It is important for our students to know about the unlawful activity that they sometimes unknowingly engage in. By creating the different medias of information for our students to gain information about Internet safety we can more effectively teach all the different things we want to. The newsletter can be given to parents and the brochures can be more quick reading for students to get the facts quickly, while the flier could be posted around the school or passed out to spread awareness.
By giving students more information about Internet safety we will be able to stop a lot of the activity that students engage in that is inappropriate and damaging. By spreading awareness many of the things that students do when they are younger and unaware can be eliminated. I am looking forward to educating students about this in order to create a more safe environment in my classroom and in the school in general.

March 15~ Digital Stories 2

Last week we learned more about Digital images and copyright laws. This information is very helpful, because as teachers we can't expect our students to not plagiarize if we ourselves are doing it. While for the most part our educational resources will not be checked by a board of people seeing if we took material from other sources, it is important to bring new ideas and activities to the table. We can use some material, images, etc in our lessons and examples for students as long as we give credit to those sources. As long as we are doing our best to not cheat the system we can expect the same from our students.
In creating our digital story we have found ourselves filled with ideas that will take up a lot of time and space, and we are trying to figure out how to weed down our ideas. In searching for pictures for the story we have had a little difficulty getting away from the Disney pictures, but having more mythological images will help make it more realistic and take the students' minds off of the Disney version as much of the little mermaid. We are still trying to figure it out, and trying to keep those copyright rules in mind!

Digital story 1- march 7

This week we learned a little bit about digital stories and how we can use them to evoke emotions and teach our students about the things we want to. It is helpful to use emotions every so often in the classroom especially in language arts because deeper conversation will occur that can cause new thoughts and greater learning. As a future english teacher I plan to use emotional learning and connections with my students to create foundations of trust in the student-teacher relationship; once that relationship is founded students can feel more comfortable with me as their teacher as well as in the classroom community. I enjoy focusing on more light hearted things for the most part so our digital story is going to be evoking those happy emotions in those who see it. I hope by putting a happy spin on this assignment we will be able to be a more enjoyable and fun for the students.