Final Thoughts...........

I have to say that I was completely inpressed with this class. I had taken a computer class before and was expecting to learn Word, Powerpoint, Access, and Excel. This class was a great shift in focus. I absolutely love the Google Tools and plan to use them from here on out. My favorite part about the class was learning Audacity. Please bring in more tools like this! I was amazed at how easy it was and the fact that it is free, nice touch for teacher's in our area. I immediately began thinking about recording some of my son's book so I will not have to miss story time when I work late. Then I thought how great would it be to use in the classroom. You could do lessons or chapters with interesting voices and sound effects. How else would you expect a 2nd or 3rd grader to read the chapter?? .
I liked the fact that we learned other tools like the Reader, but I guess it is student specific because I have not looked at it again.....sorry. I would love to find out more about the Finance, Maps, Images, and Videos in the classroom. A list of safe sites would be really helpful too. My personal favorite right now is Poptropica!
I would love to see the podcasts taken farther. Maybe team up with the elementary school to to a Utube video?? (privacy laws and all)
I guess what I really want to say it that I thoroughly enjoyed this class and would highly recommend it to any future teacher.

One last note.
Smartboards, if we are going to be using them I think we might need a course on how!:-)

The first podcast I listened to was about students being watchers/listeners rather than readers/writers. I enjoyed listening to the explanation of the article by Dr. Strange and the two ladies different opinions. I thought of quite a few things myself as they talked about how they as teachers would use technology. I liked the idea of smartboards in every class and each student having their own computer. I also like the fact that they addressed the fact that technology is moving so fast that Dr. Strange's prediction was surpassed. He felt like CD Rom would take over in classrooms, but as one of the girls pointed out that many teachers don't even use the CD in the back of textbooks. I like the fact that they talked about kids being interactive with the T.V. shows like "Dora the Explorer". We have a lot to compete with when it comes to teaching kids about technology. Hopefully, we will be able to use it for quality education instead of a distraction

"Txting away ur education" really brings to light the truth about cell phones in the classroom. I know people who can not live without their cell phones. I have people tell me all the time that I never answer my phone or texts and I tell them that's right! There is never anything important said during any of the texts I recieve and it's not like it can't wait an hour to reply. I personally am not allowed to have my phone at work or in the classrooms and it doesn't bother me. I also get off the phone if I go into a store and am at the checkout (which a lot of people do not do!). I work at a pharmacy and it's frustrating that people will come in and talk on their cellphones halfway answering important questions then wonder why their prescriptions wrong or not what they want. Hello! it's your health people!! I also tell people that I'm driving and will call them back later. My friends joke that I can't multi-task, well sorry, but my son is in the car and I would much rather talk to him. As far as schools are concerned, when I was in school you just couldn't have them. Period. I think if it is becoming such an issue that parents should ask cell phone companies to put blocks up like they do for AOL. My child's cell phone should be off from 8 a.m. to 3p.m. unless it's a certain number which would be mine. I remember the days when a parent had to contact the front office before interrupting the class to get in touch with their child. I completely agree that children are overstimulated by cell phones and there is no place for them in the classroom.

WOW! This is so true! I have been around teacher's who say things about their students that are almost degrading. I know that even if the teacher never says these things to the student they still feel it when the teacher addresses them or sighs......you know how it is. I completely agree that we should let every child believe that they can achieve anything. Alex tells me all the time of what he wants to be when he grows up and we talk about what the job is, how long he would have to go to school, and the great aspects of that job.
When I waitressed/bar tended we were always told to "up sell". I really love when he mentioned that we need to treat our kids potential this way. I know for a fact that when you expect more from your students that you can be pleasantly surprised by what they can achieve!

I really enjoyed reading these real teachers blogs about how they want to improve education for our children. I think I could have a million things I would change or want to improve on in our educational system, but I like the fact that these teachers are realistic. They have goals that can be acheived. These are the possitive things we as teachers need to focus on and group together and take to Washington when they want to cut more teachers jobs!

(1) come up with an addition to the brave things blog, (2) a reason you would love teaching and (3) something that you would like to make your school unique if you were teaching.

I think that one brave thing that I would like to do is to require 2 hours of each parents time a year to volunteer in my classroom. I think if we had more parent participation that the students will not only feel their work is important, but that their parents genuinely care about their education.

I think my favorite thing about teaching is the "ahhhh moment". That moment when you see the light bulb go on in a child's eye when they finally make the connection to something that was difficult for them. That's my reason for teaching.

I think every school or grade level should have a small plot on school grounds to use for experiements. The last Pre-school I was at we had a small garden. Even at 2, 3, and 4, the kids learned how plants grow, how to water and weed, and how to pick their own vegetables. We continued with mulch and even earthworm exploration for so many lesson plans. We even did a dinosaur excavation during the fall!

I continue to have more and more respect for Dr. Strange as I read his ideas and thoughts. I have a degree in Human Development specializing in ages birth through eight. I was taught that in order for students to learn you must appeal to what is interesting to the child then adapt other subjects to meet that child's need. I was taught that we must teach the whole child. I love the thought of Dr. Strange's 6 C's and what it could do for our students. I like the idea of "classSPACE" and being able to collaborate with other students. I think opening the classroom to be a true place for learning and not just out of a book, but having the option of exploring the world would appeal to children. I completely agree that we should stimulate children's creativity and teach them how to collaborate. I know that I can not recall the 33rd president, but i know where to find the information. I want my students to realize that just because they don't know doesn't mean they should not try to find out. I am excited to see how technology will change the face of teaching and how our children learn!

I completely agree with Dr. Strange's advocacy against "burp back" knowledge. We don't learn from regurgitation, but through action. I hate the way the school system teaches whats on the test and nothing else. I think teachers have forgotten to teach students how to learn and ask questions. We have stubbed out natural curiosity and replaced it with formulas that will get the answer. I am not a huge fan of "no child left behind". I think that is exactly what we have done. We have kids in 4th grade who read at a second grade level! We don't teach the process anymore. I hope when I become a teacher that we can eradicate a lot of the mess we have created.

I really hate that I missed class on Wednesday, however I did receive some really great news. We will be welcoming a new baby to our family in Jan- Feb. I don't have a doctor's excuse, but maybe every one will understand my absence!

Amanda EDM 310 Blog said...
ALEX is the Alabama Department of Education program website that has a vast amount of teacher resources. It is easy to navigate by the tabs on the left tool bar. The tabs move from course of study to professional development. It is easy to find a wealthy of lesson plans by just selecting the subject and grade level. The site also has educational website links for extended learning and a workspace for teacher to modify or add to a lesson plan. ALEX offers professional development for teacher and administrators.I think I could use this website in planning my lessons in the first years of teaching because they are set up to achieve the state standards. I really enjoyed looking through all the kids websites.
June 1, 2009 11:07 AM
Amanda EDM 310 Blog said...
ACCESS is Alabama Connecting Classroom,Educators, and Students Statewide. It give kids in rural or lowincome districts the chance to have equal access to course and materials for adavanced, AP, and remedial classes. The classes are offered on the web or through interactive video.I think this is a great idea! I went to a rural school in the 90's and we only had one language class,which was Spanish. We had AP classes, however there were only enough to get the degree. There were no extra or interesting classes. I think this is where we are letting some kids fall through the cracks, because they do not have classes that interest them.
June 1, 2009 11:

These are some international teacher blogs:
http://kinderfirst.wordpress.com/ is the Su Ren International School blog. It is primarily based around the schools garden (Plum Garden) and how it grows. The tabs outside the main blog highlights each individual students progress. It has links for homework and outlines the daily schedule. The teacher,Kai Laoshi, also has added the lesson plans for each week. The blog shows pictures of the students painting and gardening. It shows the steps they take and the progression of their plants.
http://blog.educastur.es/cpfresneda/ is also called "Cool School" it is a blog for different European countries to get together and communicate even though they may not speak the same language. Their is not much on the page right now because school is out, but I would love to see this blog in action!

These are some teacher/student blogs in Elementary schools:

http://www.mrwrightsclass.com/ is a teacher blog that's theme is "secret agents". I has class schedules, web links, procedures, and even a photo gallery. It has a bulletin board of class events and a class blog to ask questions. Her themes are very eye catching and fun. One is the attack of the 3rd Graders! The tabs are easy to use and there is a ton of information.

http://staff.bbhcsd.org/wasilt/ is Mrs. Wasil's blog for her 3rd grade class. She has her lesson plan posted. She has links for spelling words and math. Her blog is very student/parent oriented. There is no way a student could miss a day and miss out on school work!She has a homework board and video/ pictures of her class.

Google taking over PC??

I think it would be great to have Google take over hard drives. I for one am constantly looking for something I put on a disk. I would love to be able to pull up all my information from any computer and be able to work on it. How great would it be to never have the feeling of "oh crap!" because your left your drive at home? Not only that, but it would be unlimited space. There would never again be the "please insert another disk" messages or "sorry your hard drive just crashed"! The only thing I would worry about would be the safety of storing everything in the black hole of the web. I would hate to lose all my son's baby pictures because we had a blackout and the server went down. Maybe they will have user accounts with several passwords. I know my friend has a computer where you have to scan your thumb print in order to access it, maybe there could be something like that.
I think I would definitely be all for this idea!

Is Google changing the way we think??

I personally am an avid reader. I can read anything from the comics to case studies and never get bored, but when it comes to searching the internet I find myself getting agitated. I love the new wave of technology and everything at your fingertips, however most of this sites are junk. I have to agree that deep down cognitively our population is changing. I worry that through Twitter and Facebook that we are losing not only our sense of language through misspelling, but our identity. I don't care what the pop stars are doing in their bathroom or what your grandmother has in her teeth after Thanksgiving dinner.....please keep it to yourself! I worry that i will not be able to communicate with my son be the time he is 12 because he speaks without using "and" or "the"!
As a future teacher I would what book reports will look like after kids have searched the internet. How do you teach kids to filter through to the meat of the information??
Don't get me wrong I love the internet and it's wealth of information and that I can keep in contact with my family and friends, but where's the limit, the bar, ...the end?

Google Articles

I found this really interesting blog about Google taking over T.V. ads. I hope this is the kind of "article" we were supposed to find. It talks about how Google will search demographics and pair up with Equifax to choose target areas for advertising. (Equifax is a credit report agency) I thought this was pretty cool for smaller companies, but does it mean that we will now have pop-ups in the middle of "American Idol"?? Not only that but now their going to be checking what we buy through our credit reports? This scares me a little!
If your interested in reading this blog it's located at http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/22202/

Let me know what you think.
Amanda

Welcome to Amanda's Blog!

Welcome everyone to my first blog!