My Beliefs

I believe that it's a good thing to incorporate technology in the classroom.  The students absolutely LOVE technology.  When I was in field we took the students to the computer lab to find research about the Boston Tea Party.  We showed the students exactly what website to go to, but they still enjoyed being on the computer and using the information they found from the computer on their group poster.  Also in field, we made a jeopardy powerpoint game for the students and put it on the Smart Board.  You should've seen how excited they were.  The students paid attention the entire time and rarely got distracted. 

Technology amazes and fascinates students.  They love when they get to see technology in class, but they love it even more when they get to create things using technology.  I cannot honestly say that I will be using Digital Story in my classes, but I will definitely use google sites, powerpoints, jeopardy games, etc to improve my students knowledge about technology.  Technology is great and can be very beneficial to students and teachers. 

Lessons Learned

The first thing I learned in going into field was that the pursuit of happiness cannot be for "material" things.  If we desire "things" we cannot truly be happy.  Also from  The New WWW, it was said that the internet has been used as an escape from real life, which has caused a lot of problems for children.  It has caused many addictions.  From Tools for Change, I learned that there is something in technology for everyone.  An example of this is my husband just got a Kindle and has not been able to put it down.  Before he got the Kindle he only read a few times a month, but now he reads everyday.  He just needed a different form of reading to get himself excited about a book.  

From the article, Teen Disconnect, I learned about writing in schools.  There are five things that teachers can do to motivate their students to write: topics are relevant to their lives; teachers/parents who challenge them; receiving detailed feedback on their work; opportunities to creatively write; and having an audience.  In Shift Happens, I learned just how small the United States is compared to other countries, such as China.  I also learned that technology and new learning information is advancing at a tremendous rate.  3,000 books are published daily in the world.  Half of what a student will learn in their first year of college will be outdated by their third year.   

Strengths & Weaknesses

When taking the UNI surveys and looking over the NET standards, I came to the conclusion that I am not very technologically advance.  However, this is not something I didn't know before taking this course.  I have never felt the need to be technologically advanced and if I have questions about computer/technology things, I usually just ask my husband since he's an Information Systems major.  However, being in field for 3 weeks helped me see just how useful technology can be in a classroom.

The first reason that I think technology is useful in the classroom is because students find technology fascinating and intriguing.  They are more likely to listen if the lesson is using the Smart Board, rather than a plain old whiteboard.  The second reason technology is useful is that it can make grading, making homework, etc much simpler.  It takes a little time to learn how to use programs, but once you have done that, then certain things are much easier.  The last reason technology is useful is because technology is only going to get bigger and better.  If we don't learn technology and don't teach it to our future students, us and our students will be at a lost when the entire world is levels beyond what we are in technology.

To improve my technological knowledge I am going to do 2 things: have my husband give me a tutorial about everything I have questions about and find an online tutorial that will give me a basic understanding of different technological resources found in a classroom.  These 2 things will hopefully give me a broad range of information regarding technology.  

Digital Story Reflection

Tahnee Gregory & Aubrey Habel

December 1, 2010

EDEL 3250 Instructional Media

Digital Story Reflection

1. Provide demographics of school, number of students in class and who your cooperating teacher is.  The school we taught at was Edgemont Elementary in Provo, Utah, in the Provo School District.  A few demographic details are the following: Provo School District has a total of 1,863 special education students, ranging anywhere from being deaf or blind to having a traumatic brain injury; Edgemont Elementary has only 499 students, making it one of the smallest schools in the district; and Edgemont has 123 students receiving “reduced” or “free” school lunches.  Our cooperating teacher was Nancy Bishop, a fifth grade teacher who has been teaching for 16 years.  She has 27 students in her class and it’s divided pretty evenly amongst boys and girls.  
2. How is your relationship with your cooperating teacher? Explain. We had a fabulous relationship with Mrs. Bishop.  She is a very easy-going teacher and allowed us to create our lesson plans without given any specific instructions.  However, Mrs. Bishop is not one who uses technology frequently.  She doesn’t even have a cell phone.  She has a Smart Board but told us she didn’t even know how to work it so we helped the best we could and used the basic settings of the board.
3. How does he/she feel about the technology piece you created? Like I said above, Mrs. Bishop is not somebody who uses technology a lot inside her class or outside of her classroom.  She was impressed by any little thing we did with technology because she didn’t know how to do anything.  She did tell us however, that the students really like technological stuff and that they enjoyed the piece we created.
4. How does he/she feel about the lesson you completed? Mrs. Bishop loved all of our lessons.  We tried really hard to make all of our lessons involve the students a lot.  We wanted the students to lead discussions and share what they already knew about the subject material.  One lesson that we did was a taxing activity, where we taxed the students for certain things in the classroom for a few days.  We did this activity to help explain how the colonists felt when being taxed by the king.  The students loved this activity, and Mrs. Bishop was really impressed with the way we were able to captivate the students.
5. How did the the training session go? Explain. To be honest, the training session went alright.  Our teacher was not very excited about learning about the digital story and did not leave really any time for us to thoroughly explain how to make a digital story.  We taught her the basic steps of digital story and that was about it.  
6. How do you feel about this service-learning experience? We don’t feel like we had enough preparation, ourselves, to fully teach somebody about how to make a digital story.  We would’ve liked more instruction about digital story so we could have  felt more prepared.
7. What did your cooperating teacher gain from the experience? Our cooperating teacher probably gained a better understanding of the computer and what she can do, if she wanted, with a computer.  We think this experience opened her eyes to what’s possible when you implement technology in a classroom.
8. What did you gain from the experience? We gained a better understanding of how to make movies on our computer and how to share them with other people.  We also feel like we were learned a ton about the Stamp Act and the Boston Tea Party (our topics), which we did not previously know a lot about.
9. Was it worth why or why not? The digital story was not worth teaching to our teacher because she was uninterested in learning about technology.  She also informed us that she would never have time to make a digital story, and we don’t blame her.  Our digital story took many hours, which in our opinion is not worth it when it’s only for one lesson.

Field Experience Week 3

This week in field was great!  The more I'm in the classroom the more I love it, and can't wait to be a teacher and have a class of my own.  We were able to teach several times this week (only for small increments, but it was still a great experience), and really find several ways of teaching the students about the American Revolution.  

To help the students learn more about the different Acts in the American Revolution (Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Act, Tea Act, Intolerable Acts, etc.), we divided the students into groups of 4 and then assigned each group a different Act.  We then told them 4 things they needed to look for when researching their Act.  We also told each student that we would be going to the computer lab and they would be able to look up information about their Act.  We directed them to a reliable website and showed them where they could find information about their act.  The students really enjoyed being able to work on the computers and find research for themselves.  

Another thing we did to help the students learn about the American Revolution was make a timeline and a study guide about different events and people during this time.  We then proceeded to tell the students that we would be playing Jeopardy and taking a quiz in class.  They absolutely LOVED Jeopardy!  The students really enjoyed the competitive spirit about Jeopardy and got very into the game.  Informing the students that there would a Jeopardy game also got them to study their material.  This activity was technology-integrated as well because we did the Jeopardy game on the computer, which is so much fun.  We had the real Jeopardy background and music, it was great.  

Using technology in class really excited the students and gets them more involved about the material!

Field Experience #2

This past week has been another really great week in field.  My partner (Aubrey) and I have started teaching and have already taught 3 times.  The subject we have been given is the Stamp Act and the Boston Tea Party, and then everything in between as well.  I've never been a huge Social Studies fan, but teaching 5th graders is really fun.  They don't care to knowevery detail, and the information is explained very basically.  I think if high school students were taught the same way as elementary students (in Social Studies) then our high school graduating classes would know more about our countries history (and other countries histories).  

One of our lessons that we did was we gave each student 15 tootsie rolls. Then we told them that they were the colonists and we were the British Parliament-we would be taxing them on certain things.  We taxed them on what color hair they had, what they were wearing, what gender they were, etc.  The students got really into this lesson and got very upset.  We explained to them that this is what the colonists felt like.  They were being taxed on things that they didn't feel were right.  They were being treated unfairly and poorly.  

I've really enjoyed teaching the 5th graders in my class and have learned so much from them and from teaching them.

Field Experience Week 1

These past 4 days have been great. I feel like I learn SO much more being in field than I do when I'm in class (no offense to any teachers). I just feel that I learn by doing, not by listening to teachers lecture or show power points.
My field teacher is Mrs. Bishop and she teaches 5th grade at Edgemont Elementary in Provo School District. She's a fabulous teacher and really has a passion for teaching and for her students. Her students respect her and like to be in her class.
At Edgemont there is a lot of technology available. Mrs. Bishop has a SmartBoard, access to a mobile computer lab, printing/copying available, etc. However, even though there is a SmartBoard in the classroom, the teacher does not use it. She says she's not very good with technology but it is her goal to learn how to use it because she knows it'll be very convenient for teaching subjects such as math. Mrs. Bishop's class does use computers on a weekly basis, sometimes a couple or a few times a week. There is an actual computer lab, and a mobile lab that teachers can check out. These are great resources and my field partner and myself hope to take advantage of being able to have computers brought to the classroom.
I look forward to implementing technology into the classroom and teaching my teacher more about technology.

Digital Story 3

This week we didn't have class and therefore didn't learn anything new. However, this week my field partner and I were finally able to meet with our field teacher. Her name is Nancy Bishop and she teaches at Edgemont Elementary School in Provo. She seems like a great lady, and full of energy and good spirits. When we met with her she told us that she loves her class and the students are great! Whenever a teacher can tell you that her students are great, it's a good sign. We talked to her about teaching a few Social Studies lessons, and her response was that they don't do social studies very often. However, she said she would absolutely try and make time for us to teach the amount of lessons we needed too. I think this teaching opportunity will be great practice for me and my field partner, and it'll be a really neat experience for the students. Not very many elementary schools (or at least from what I've heard) integrate social studies into their daily lessons, therefore making it so students don't know as much as they should about their country, other countries, and so forth. While teaching these 5 social studies lessons, we are supposed to integrate 2 art activities and 1 computer activity, along with our digital story. We've got quite a few ideas already, but are going to observe the class for a couple days before making any big plans. I think this teaching will be great and will be a huge learning experience, and I'm anxious to start!

Digital Story 2

What: This week in class we learned about copygright.  We learned how to give credit to a source if we use their information, and we also learned why it's wrong to plagiarize.  

So What: What this means to me as a teacher and student is that I cannot take somebody elses work and get credit for it.  However, I am allowed to use other people's lesson plans (in the classroom) as long I cite the source.  This is really good to know because in our world we have SO many resources and there's an answer to almost ANY question.  The time to be original is long past, but we can use somebody elses idea and jazz it up.  Honestly I probably need to do a better job at giving people credit for their work, and citing their source when I use it in class or outside of class.

Now What: What this means to my future students is that I have to teach them not to plagiarize.  I have to be the one to teach them how to cite internet sources, and book sources (if they still have books by the time I teach).  When the time comes that I become a teacher so many things will be ran by technology, maybe even every lesson plan.  Teachers are doing more and more with technology and that just means there will be more opportunity to teach students how to cite and give credit for others' work.  Getting in the habit of citing resources is a great thing, especially if I decide to do more schooling, because more schooling means more research!

Digital Story 1

What: This past week in class we learned about digital stories. Our assignment is to create our own digital story with our field partner. This digital story we create will then be used in the classroom where we will be observing (field experience).

So What: I think a digital story is an awesome thing. It's a teachers chance to tell a story to her students using emotion. Watching a digital story will help students understand a subject so much more than just reading from a textbook. Digital stories can also help me a lot in the classes I'm in now. Once I've got the basics down (once I know how to do everything), a digital story could be very useful for me because I could use it to summarize each class, or each unit (for a test, etc...). This technology means to me that I can make class more exciting and display the information more interesting.

Now What: Digital stories can be useful for students in many ways, and some are listed above, but there are a couple others as well. One way is students can make their own digital story if their teacher teaches them how to use the program. This way students are learning the information, but are having fun at the same time. Students can also have a way of showing what they have learned to their parents. I'm really glad I learned how to make a digital story because before learning how many programs I could make a digital story on, I only thought PowerPoint could do things like movie-making. Digital story can help me become a better employee/teacher because having the knowledge of how to make a digital story is something not all teachers have. It's also a great way of showing progress to your employer/principal.

Vidcast Reflection

World War Two

5th Grade Social Studies
Standard 5: Students will address the causes, consequences and implications of the emergence of the United States as a world power. (Analyze how the United States' involvement in World War II led to its emergence as a superpower.)

World War two is not something I remember learning a tremendous amount about. It never really bothered me in elementary school that I didn’t learn a lot about the wars, or other events in history. However, now being in a social studies class, I really see the impact of learning about the past. For our project, we chose World War two because of the impact it had on the United States and still has on our country. So many people contributed to the war and deserve to be recognized. This is why, in our project, my partner and I chose to make our video about the different people involved in WWII. For example, Anne Frank was is celebrated today for being a brave young girl who went into hiding during the Holocaust for what she believed in. And Hitler is another well known name. Without Hitler, WWII wouldn’t have been as deadly.
Our project connects to the NETS and INTASC Standards in many ways. First, according to the NETS standards, we made sure to, “advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.” We cited all of our sources and gave credit to anyone who’s work/words were in our project. In the INTASC standards it says to, “use appropriate resources to facilitate individual student learning.” I think using pictures of people who impacted the war and having a narration of who the people are is a great way of utilizing resources to capture the students’ attention.
Potential drawbacks may definitely occur in the case of a vidcast. My biggest concern is not having enough time to create a vidcast once I’m a teacher. I have spent so much time on this vidcast, and do not wish to spend this much time again. My future plans for this vidcast is to show them in a classroom, whether it’s mine or somebody else who borrows the vidcast. I would love to share with students what I have learned and find interesting about WWII.

Vidcasts

What: Last week in class we learned about vidcasts. After learning what podcasts are and how they work, vidcasts were pretty simple and in my opinion it shouldn't be too hard to create a vidcast of my own. The assignment is to make a vidcast, but it is not due until next week. This week however, I will be doing research about the World War 2 (our topic) and finding as much information and pictures possible.
So What: I think vidcasts can be really helpful in classrooms. They are really good when introducing a subject that will be taught in class because the teacher can show a 5 minute clip and the kids will already have a summary of what they'll be learning. Vidcasts (at least short ones) cannot teach a lesson, but they can be really useful either before learning a lesson or after learning a lesson. Having students create a vidcast after they have learned a section in class can be beneficial because they will be able to take everything they have learned and condense it into a short 5 minute (give or take a couple minutes) clip.
Now What: Having students create their own vidcast is a great assignment because it's not the usual "boring" assignment. Students are engaged in what may be a new way of learning, and they can work with a partner to put their thoughts together. I think vidcasts will be a great tool for parents and colleagues as well as students. Teachers can create vidcasts of different activities, lesson plans, fun class days, etc. This way parents are able to see what is going on in class without actually being in class. Also, colleagues can look at the different vidcasts and learn about new ways of teaching that have been effective in other classrooms. Vidcasts can be a very helpful tool in the classroom setting and I'm excited to one day implement it.

Podcasts

What: In class last week we learned about podcasts.  We learned that podcasts are only audio, not visual.  The assignment that was given was to create a PSA podcast.  My partner and I chose to make a recycling podcast.  

So What: During class we were given many definitions of what a podcast is and where it lives. Podcasts live on websites, itunes, youtube, mp3 players, news stations, dictionaires, etc.  Using podcasts are very useful because it helps get information across in a simple way...all you have to do is click "play" and there is the podcast.  This technology means to me that I can have my students pre-record things (before class) and then they can present their recordings in class. What this technology means to my colleagues is that if I ever were in need of a substitute I would be able to record myself prior to class with all the instructions and information needed for instructing the class.

Now What: Podcasts can be very beneficial for my future students.  For example, if we were learning about birds, students could make a recording with information about birds (about a minute or so), and then add the sound a bird makes.  That way other students would be able to understand which animal it actually is.  Another way a podcast would be helpful for future students would be if the teacher were to find a famous speech and have someone record themselves giving the speech.  In doing this, students would be able to hear the speech instead of just read it on a piece of paper.  Podcasts can be beneficial for teachers as well as for students.  One way a teacher can use podcasts while including teachers would be to record yourself (the teacher) for about a minute or so saying what you did that day in class.  This gives parents reassurance that the teacher really is doing his/her part.  An example of a podcast being used district-wide would be making a PSA about the swine flu and the precautions students and parents can take and then uploading it to the districts website.  

Google Part Two

What: In Thursdays class we learned about google sites and how to create a google site for our classroom.  Our assignment is to create a google site for either a make believe classroom or for a classroom we hope to have one day.

So What: Learning about google sites was something that I truly enjoyed.  I think it's a fabulous idea to have a website where students and parents can go to find information about the students classroom.  One way this google site can apply to me in my classes now is I could create a google site for every single one of my classes and keep track of events occurring or homework and projects that are due.  What this technology means to me is an easier way to communicate with people.  No longer do parents have to wonder about what is going on in the classroom and what events will be taking place and when.  Colleagues can check my google site constantly and read about what's being taught in the class and what activities are taking place.  

Now What: Future students of mine will be able to check what the homework is everyday.  They will not be able to tell their parents that they don't know the assignments or that they don't have any assignments.  Parents will be able to look up each day of the week and be able to tell what is due and which day.  Also, if parents know their child will be gone a certain day or if their child is sick then they can look at the calendar and know what they will or are missing.  This will help me become a better teacher because I will have a greater understanding about technology and how it is helpful in the classroom.  I'm excited for the future when I actually get to implement a google site into my class, and am excited to learn more about google sites. 

Google Part One

What: Today in class we learn about different applications in Google. We learned about google docs, spreadsheets, igoogle, google sites, calendar, etc.

So What: This class was really helpful for me. I know a lot about Google because of my husband (he's an ISYS major), but I've never really explored for myself the different applications. Learning these new things means that I will be able to do many things in a much simpler way. For example, using a google doc is great. I don't have to email things to people for a group project, I can just type it up on google docs and then share it with my teammates. Also, the calendar is a fabulous application because now I can be organized and find my calendar anytime I have a computer.

I think learning these new applications will be very beneficial for my classroom one day. I will be able to have a calendar that parents can check often and refer to if they have any questions. I will also be able to have a google site for my classroom, which parents and students can check as well.

One way this new technology really applies in my everyday life is Matt Jenkins already set up a google doc with everyone's (in our cohort) name, phone number, and email address. Having this information will help with study groups, questions about homework/project, etc.

Now What: If I can be honest, I was really not thrilled at first that so much technology was in the classroom. However, after having some field experience in the elementary schools I have learned that it is such a help. No longer do teachers have to send a million information papers home with the students, just so they can get lost in between school and home, but teachers can have google sites where they post classroom rules, homework/projects/tests, important information or dates, etc. Teachers can also google chat with parents if parents can't make it to the classroom for a "Parent-Teacher Conference." The applications are very convenient.

I think having an understanding of all the google applications is such a great thing when you're a colleague and working with others. Being able to share lesson plans and different project ideas with other colleagues is so beneficial, especially for new teachers. Having other teachers share their knowledge through the google application can be very helpful because of all their insight. When students are old enough I strongly believe that they can find the google calendar extremely helpful, as long as teachers update the calendar regularly.

I am excited to learn all of these new things about Google and am anxious to one day implementing all of the applications into my classroom.

My Hero in Education

My AP Psychology teacher from my senior year in high school was Mrs. Woodward. She taught me many things during that year, but the most important thing she taught me was to love learning, and that learning can be fun.
Every class Mrs. Woodward had an activity or a movie for our class to watch to better understand the material we would be discussing that day. She never stood in front of the class and lectured, but kept the entire class involved in every discussion and lesson. I cannot remember one time when I sat in that class and felt bored or that I wasn't learning something. I still, to this day, refer to that class for many things and have applied many of the lessons I learned in my life today.
After taking Mrs. Woodward's AP Psychology course, I considered becoming a teacher for the first time in a long time. I wanted to impact students like she impacted me. I wanted to show kids that going to school can be fun and enjoyable if given the appropriate environment. The environment Mrs. Woodward provided for me and her other students was truly one of kind. Almost every inch of every wall was covered in either projects, successes students had, or posters/signs to help students remember information from past lessons.
We did multiple group and individual projects throughout that year, but there's one that really stands out. We were learning about social norms in class for a few weeks and one day we came to class and were told that what we were wearing that day would be what we would be wearing for the next week. If you know what a social norm is, then you know that wearing the same outfit for a week is definitely a social norm. A social norm is doing something that is against what everybody thinks is the "norm." That project, wearing the same outfit for a week, helped explained what a social norm was and implanted it in my mind. There aren't many things I can say I still remember learning in high school, but having a knowledge about social norms is definitely something I will remember for a long time.
Mrs. Woodward also showed to me that teachers can be friends with their students and at the same time be a teacher. When teachers understand this, that is when they gain the respect of their students. I have so much respect for Mrs. Woodward, and because of that it made me want to excel in her class.