Portfolio for CEP 451

After taking this class on technology I decided to create a website for my final project in another class. I feel really confident making websites now, and I thought it would be a great way to show off all the pictures and documents I got from the class. Another reason was because my printer is out of ink.
The project was basically a summary of the placement I was in, and a collection of documents and information from the classroom. I was in a resource room at Pattengill Middle School in Lansing working primarily with students who are learning disabled (LD). I made the website through weebly.com and when I presented it to the class everyone told me I was making them look bad. I think it turned out well, and my professor seemed to like it.
her is the link. http://cep451portolio.weebly.com/index.html

CEP 416 Class Summary

Throughout the semester this class on teaching & learning with technology has given me a wide variety of tools and resources to use in my future teaching career. I've learned about how to expand my PLN (Personal Learning Network) with sites like twitter, RSS readers, or by reading blogs. I have the tools to find a resource online that will help me on any topic I can think of by using the skills and tools I learned from this class. I learned about copyright, and how to use and teach it in the classroom. I learned about different technological tools that I can use in the classroom like podcasts, or digital storytelling applications.
I think that the most beneficial thing I learned in the class was how to apply all this technology into the classroom. One example I thought was really cool was the lab on voicethread.com, where I had PowerPoint slides and my voice recorded for students or whoever to play. I liked how this could be individualized, and allows every student to work at their own pace. That is one thing that is really beneficial about using technology in the classroom. Students are able to learn at their own pace, go over something a couple times if it doesn't make sense, search for more examples or definitions that aren't in a book. Technology is a great thing that is constantly involved in our everyday lives. It is time that our educational system catches up to it and integrates it seamlessly into the curriculum wherever possible.

Wiki's

This week we learned about wiki's. I created one and I edited a page about my placement school on Wikipedia. I added a link to their school website.

Smartboard

Last week I had the opportunity to view a Smartboard presentation from the TIE's office in the education building. This was one of the topics they had a workshop on the other week during the technology conference. We were given a demo of how a smartboard works and some ideas of how you could use it in the classroom. After that we were given the opportunity to play around on them and discover things on our own, and go through a "scavenger hunt." I was impressed with this technology, they have been in a lot of my MSU classrooms, but the teachers never used them for anything but showing videos. Basically a smartboard is a touch sensitive board that has a projected image of your computer screen on it. It is like having a giant touchscreen monitor, so you can control the "mouse" with you finger, write, highlight, or pretty much anything that you can do on your computer.
Some nice features about the Smartboard include that it will convert PowerPoint's into its presenter tool, and then you can write on them or whatever without any headaches. When you open up a web browser you can highlight things, or circle them and then take a snapshot and it will automatically go right into the document that you have open. You can handwrite on the board, then click on it and change it into typed text, change the font, angle...
The one thing I really liked about it is that everything just becomes so much more fun when you utilize this type of technology. Writing on the board was always awesome in school, but with a Smartboard it is even cooler. Plus there are a lot of interactive tools with it. For example there is a frog dissection activity where you actually cut the frog open, pin it back and find all of the organs. There are "game shows" that you can make to review for tests, and it just makes everything more fun and interactive.
Using a Smartboard would take some getting used to, and it is not perfect. There are some issues with it getting out of "focus" but this is a quick fix just by orienting it. This technology is going to be around for a long time and I am certain that developers will continue to push the envelope and create new and interesting ways to incorporate this tool for learning in the classroom.

TED.com

I was looking at some classmates blogs and I saw a post on TED.com on Chelsea's blog. TED.com is a site that has videos of lectures and presentations on technology, entertainment, science, business, global issues... It has a lot of great stuff from experts, and a lot of interesting stuff.

I watched a few presentations, one was on making complex information simple by presenting it in a form that is easy to understand by using computers and graphics that are simple. I saw a video on a touchscreen that can use multiple points at once, so you can manipulate things more easily. Then I watched a presentation on math education by Conrad Wolfram. It was about teaching kids math with computers. His emphasis was that we spend too much time on learning the calculating part of math instead of thinking up problems that are related to the real world, and how to apply the answer to the real world. He said that one big problem is that math problems in school are dumbed down, and students don't see the value in learning it and don't know how to apply it to the real world. Later he talked about how if you really want to see if a student knows the math have them do some programming to get a computer to do it. He emphasized making math more practical and more conceptual.
One point that I found really interesting and I agree with was that with the help of computers you can introduce students to math earlier than normal. His example was calculus, which is generally taught in high school. He made a computer program to introduce his daughter to a calculus concept. I found this point really good and interesting. It will be very beneficial to students if they are introduced to more advanced problems earlier. With the help of computers they are not limited by their calculating skills, so they can explore more complex problems.

Link to Teaching Kids Math With Computers

Quote

In my CEP 451 class we had guest speakers come in who presented on MiBLSi, which is a positive behavior support system that ties in with literacy. One of the speakers gave us a quote printed on card-stock which I thought was very good. It is from Hiam Ginott who was a teacher, child psychologist and a psychotherapist who has written many books.

“I've come to the frightening conclusioin that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.”

I really liked this quote because it is important to always remember how big of an effect teachers have on children, and everyone remembers having teachers who either made their life great, or horrible. I think this is a good quote to always have in mind so that you can always strive to be the best teacher you can be.

My First Social Studies Lesson

For my TE 401 class this semester we have to create two lessons, on in science, and another in social studies. I taught my social studies lesson on the 19th to my 5th grade classroom at Herbison Woods in DeWitt. I chose to do the topic on early European explorers, because that is what they were learning about. I really wanted them to do a hands on activity, something were they could be very involved. I decided to have them do a role playing activity were they were explorers getting ready for their expedition.

I split them into 6 groups (4 students each) each one had a ship name that I made specific to their community (The Herbison, The DeWitter, the Spartan-popular one). My hope was that this would get them excited about the lesson and willing to put in their best effort. I prepared reading for them to go over about the purpose of their trip, dangers, supplies, technology, and funding. They each had a Captain's Log (worksheet) with questions related to each topic. They had to read the material and then discuss as a group what they should do. For example for "Dangers" they had to decide if they wanted their ship to be armed so they could fend off pirates, but it would cost a lot more money and they would have less room for supplies. While I was going around the classroom I head a lot of discussing going on and the students were really getting into it.

Overall I think it went really good, they were actively involved in problem solving, did analytical thinking and students had to back up that thinking, and they all seemed to be really into it. There were definitely some things I could have done better, for instance I should have had a system if they didn't agree on anything. Because most of the groups were an even number there were a few instances where they were split 50/50, I should have had all the groups an odd number or had some sort of rock/paper/scissors type thing. I was really happy how it turned out though and I think the main strength was that it got the students involved.