Where Do We Go From Here....

This actually is the title of a very old song and the next three lines say, "Do we walk away, or do we keep on trying? After the thrill is gone..." Where I go from here is simple to me, I must keep using these technologies and increase my proficiency with them and learn about others. So many times we learn great technologies and tools we can use, but we don't use them or they don't work like we envisioned and then the thrill is gone. Of course like with anything else, if you don't use it you lose it or forget about it. I have made myself a promise to keep using the technologies that I have learned in these last eight weeks and find various ways to incorporate them into my lessons so that I can expose my students to these current technologies. Technology is every changing and I must do my part to keep up so that I can keep my students current. I knew that I wasn't the most technology savy person, but I had no idea how far behind I was and how much technology had changed in the last few years. This course has brought me back current on available technology and I have promised myself that for the sake of my students, I won't fall behind again.

Do I Google?

Anything I teach, I think first and foremost how my students will be able to relate to it. Many of my students have never been out of Texas, and a good number of them have never been out of southern Dallas. In order for them to get excited about learning anything, they have to see how it connects to them right now. The vast majority of my students don't have internet at home and so just to introduce them to this kind of technology I think would be pretty exciting to them. I chose blogging because anytime my students don't have to do pencil and paper writing they are excited. I thought the blogging would give them an opportunity to express themselves in a different capacity. I know they will enjoy creating the Meez (avatars). I chose the Animoto program as well as the Tripwiser because both give my students an opportunity to express their creativity, but document their learning while at NASA. Many of my students are truly creative. When we complete these activities after returning from NASA, I am expecting my students to gain knowledge of programs that they can use for other school projects and assignments. Not all assignments have to be paper and pencil and using these technologies allows me to gauge their learning and allows them to be creative.
My instruction right is changed forever. I am learning so many things that I am anxious to try with my students. Some of the applications I thought might be too advanced for them, but then I remembered children have an easier time picking up on these things than adults do. What's a struggle for me, will probably take them "playing" with it for ten minutes before they are experts on the software.

Week 6 Reflection

If I could wave my magic wand, I would change my learning curve. It sounds odd, but it's true. I do like to try new things and methods with my students, but when I find one that really works, I kind of like to stick with it. The problem that I have is that the technology changes so rapidly, by the time I hear about it and become comfortable learning it, it has been updated to something else. Teaching and learning using the web 2.0 applications provides teachers with endless possibilities for content delivery. The problem becomes using the right application to ensure student success.
In order for a teacher to use many of these applications, they will truly have to take the time to pre-paln their lessons. I already don't have enough time to do things the old fashioned way, but now I have to find more time to pre-plan my lessons. The article that I read, discussed holding class in a virtual world classroom. As I read the article, I thought how awesome, exciting, and intriguing that would be for my students. I also began to wonder how much extra work would it be for me to incorporate something like that into a lesson. I think every teacher wants to find new and exciting ways to teach their students, but if they are anything like me time is not on their side. It already seems as though I don't have enough time to get everything done, but then to make time to make a podcast or create activities in a virtual world classroom seems overwhelming when I think of it.

WIKI Week

When I first started the project, I had so many ideas that a wiki could be just perfect for. I, like many others, thought about how it could be a great soudning board for teachers all around the state to get and share great ideas. The possibilites for something like this are endless. My first ideas were about how this could benefit as a teacher, but the more I thought about it, the more I began to examine it possibilities for my church, and the list just goes on and on. Although I am not a master of the wiki, I still recognize how someone like me who is a beginning technology level person, could use wikis on a daily basis in all areas of my life.

The advantages of the wikis are countless. However, one of the most important advantages is the ability to coordinate with lots of people and have all of their input and feedback in one central location. A wiki page would cut out phone tag and email when you are dealing with a lot of people and information can be updated literally every second. The more I explore wikis and become familiar with them, I just have not been able to find any disadvantages. The wikis seem to be user friendly (well I have had a few difficulties), but overall I would think even the digital natives could be engaged and find use in a wiki.

After playing around on the website with all the tools, I really liked the Animoto application. Animoto allows you to uploads pictures and it creates a fancy slide show (for lack of better words). As soon as I finish this blog, I am going to put in a couple of my pics and see how neat it turns out.

Week 4 Reflections

Which of the 10 assessment for learning tenents did you focus on and why? What potential, if any, do you see for portfolio assessment? What do you think the creation and development of your portfolio will do for your learning?

I focused on the learner motivation tenet because as a teacher in an inner-city school, I have to find a variety of ways to motivate my students to try and work hard every day. Because a lot of my students have video game systems, IPODS, and other technology gadgets, using technology in the classroom is a motivator all by itself. Students are always interested and want to participate in the lesson when they can use a computer or play some type of game because it is something they enjoy doing and it makes the lesson that much more interesting.

I think portfolio assessment is a great tool. Its implementation would cause teachers like me (who aren't very computer savy) to spend more time learning the technology that our students are using. I agree with the author of my article, portfolios should be in place in the elementary schools and by the end of high school, students should have an accurate collection of their learning to submit to colleges or employers.

The creation and development of my portfolio is teaching me patience because I am haveing a difficult time creating the pages and getting it to look like I want it to. It is also teaching one of the lessons I try to teach my students everyday and that is "it doesn't have to be perfect, but as long as I try my best nothing more can be asked of me." I am really enjoying all of these assignments because I am learning about things that I had no clue about; therefore, these assignments are furthering my learning of technology.

MAPping Activity

What an eye opener!! I thought I could read information online and decifer valid information from personal opinions and fictional material, but I was so wrong. I chose the webiste that had to do with the tree octopus just because it was something that I had never heard of and sounded interesting. By the time I finished navigating the site, I was convinced that I had learned something new. Although the only octopus that I knew of lived in water, this website had convinced me that maybe they could now live in trees in rainforests. The website even had pictures and video to prove that the tree octopus was real. How foolish of me.
This activity did teach me to pay more attention to the makeup of an URL. For instance if an URL has a tilde ~, person's name, or % in the URL then it is a personal site. Also the sites ending in .net and .com can be purchased by anyone, so the information might not be as reliable as the information found of .edu or .gov websites. I always knew that you couldn't trust everything that you found on the internet, but this acitivity gave me tools to further disect the website and validity of its information just by looking at the URL, and if I have further concerns then I can look up the website on www.easywhois.com.
This activity was an eye opener, and if an adult with experience in doing online reserach can be fooled by the information on this website, then surely a child can as well. When teaching children to do research, we must also share with them how to "decode" URL addresses and how to use sites such as easywhois that can help to validate websites that may be used for research.

Delicious
This was another website that I thought was kind of interesting-saving your favorite sites to a web based bookmark. I don't spend a lot of time online visiting websites; therefore I don't have a lot of stuff bookmarked on my computer. Nonetheless, I did think the idea itself is a cool one because computers get viruses and crash all the time, and using Delicious one could always get back to their favorite sites at least.
One interesting thing did happen as I was becoming a follower of everyone's blog, I saw something interesting on Anne's blog. She had a concept map made of all these words in various fonts and sizes using something called Wordle. I thought it was so cool that I did bookmark Wordle on my Delicious account and I am going to play around with it right now.

Educational Technology

After researching and reading many definitions, I believe that my original thought of educational technology was sufficient. Educational technology is using some form of technology (i.e. podcasts, blogs, webquests, interactive games or lessons) to teach a concept or use in an effort to further deepen a student's understanding of a concept. I read several different definitions for the term, but I still kept coming up with the same definition.

After viewing the two videos, I have to come realize the reason I don't use a lot of the technology that was mentioned is because I don't know how. I would love for my students to learn to blog and watch podcasts, but first I have to become more proficient with the technologies before I can incorporate them into an effective lesson. I do find interactive games and videos online that go with my math lessons and I have my students watch the videos and play the games. I am learning how to do many of the technology applications mentioned and as I do, I will introduce them to my students.

Reflective Blog #1

After reading November's article, the area that stood out to me the most was the section of Live Video Cameras in Every Room. When I read the title, it made me nervous because I automatically started to think about every thing that goes on in my classroom. I began to wonder what would someone on the outside watching think? As the author stated, live video feeds would make every teacher evaluate themselves constantly. As a teacher, I always want to give my students everything I have, but to know that everyone was watching would make me plan that much more effectively a top notch lesson and delivery.
I thought it was wonderful how the fifth grade teacher used the technology to link each student to a parent. I think technology of this sort would be great because parents could watch the progress of their children in real time as well as encourage them or redirect them if necessary. This type of technology would give parents an opportunity to view the lessons and maybe be better prepared to help their children at home with assignments.
As the article states, many teachers probably would not welcome the technology, but it could very well help teachers more than they know. I think I would technology of this sort simply because it would encourage me to always give my students the best lesson I could and also help parents be better equipped to help their children.

Reflective Blog #1

Blogging can be an invaluable tool for learning. I agree with the statement made by fifth grader Dominic that blogging gives students a chance to communicate their ideas and thoughts and get the feedback of the entire world. He said that it encourages students to write more. The article went on to discuss the educational possibilities of blogging like archiving and publishing student work and connecting teachers, students, and parents. The article also states that blogging is an useful tool because it gives equity to all students because all students would be given the same space and opportunity to share their thoughts.
The article also goes on to share reasons why blogging is not being as effective as it could be in the educational realm. Will Richardson states: "By its very nature, assigned blogging in schools cannot be blogging. It’s contrived. No matter how much we want to spout off about the wonders of audience and readership, students who are asked to blog are blogging for an audience of one, the teacher." When the semester ends, "students drop blogging like wet cement." Richardson wants to teach students to write with passion, but he notes: "I can’t let them do it passionately due to the inherent censorship that a high school served Weblog carries with it."34 This quote alone states why blogging can not reach its full potential. In order for any new implementation to be successful, there has to be buy-in by all stakeholders. Students will not buy-in to this forum because of the fact that in the end, they are writing in a restrictive environment and the writing itself is simply to satisfy the requirements of the teacher. They can not express themselves freely because of the censors placed on them by the school and teacher. The writer states that blogging ends up resembling a conversation and what kind of conversation can a student have with other students if it has many restrictions?
34. Will Richardson, "The Blogging in Schools Question," Weblogg-Ed, April 13, 2004, http://www.weblogg-ed.com/2004/04/13#a1699.

Every Child, Every Chance, Every Day! (Philosophy)

When I first read about this assignment, I thought that it was going to be a pretty easy assignment because I have a philosophy that I have lived by for the past two years. I then began to look at all the areas that our philosophy should address and I began to get nervous. I thought a philosophy was a simple generalization that I could identify with like “All children can learn”, but this assignment required that I go deeper than the everyday educational clichés and really think about my feelings toward education and technology. The writing exercises were an invaluable portion of this development and encouraged me to reflect on the various aspects of my teaching and its methods.

The purpose of education is to ensure that all students receive the skills necessary to work towards their short term and long term goals. The teacher is responsible for using every resource available to them to ensure the success of each and every student. The teacher is responsible for making the learning “real” to student by helping the student to connect their learning to other content areas as well as real world experiences. The best teacher I ever had was Mr. Manson, who taught Chemistry. What made Mr. Manson so wonderful was he had a way of bringing chemistry alive and he showed us how we used it in our everyday lives. Although the content itself was very difficult at times, he had a way of making it so simple, that the vast majority of his students were able to be successful. Mr. Manson exemplifies what a good teacher is. Teachers are supposed to present the content in such a way that all children feel they can learn it and make connections with it.

Although I was a student of Mr. Manson fifteen years ago, I still try to emulate his style of teaching. Meaning, I try to make mathematics so simple that all of my students can understand the content as well as identify the concepts in their everyday lives. One of the most difficult (worst) classes I ever took in my career was a course I took during graduate school. What made this course so painful was the fact that it was all sit and get, it lacked any type of interaction, and the teacher did all the talking. I took this course about two years ago and it helped me tremendously. Whenever I plan a lesson, I think about activities that I can engage my students in that will give them an opportunity to interact with one another as well as learn from one another.

While trying to develop a philosophy, I had to read about the various philosophical schools of thought. After reading about the six schools of thought, I realized that I identified with the Pragmatism school of thought. I truly believe that no matter what a person’s path, education is essential to them being able to fully function in life. Pragmatics also believe that a learner’s life experiences should be incorporated into their learning and the development of their problem solving skills. Most importantly (to me) Pragmatics believe that since no child reaches the same point at the same time, all children should be educated the same way.

There are so many factors that shape every teacher and every student. I teach the way that I do because I feel that it is the most effective method to reach the students that I teach. I choose assignments and activities for that same reason because I feel it is what’s best for the students I teach. So many times students have so much information stored on the inside, but never realize how it all connects together. I always try to keep the information that I teach very simple because I want all of my students to feel the way that I felt taking chemistry from Mr. Manson, that nothing is too hard for me. I want every student of mine to leave my classroom feeling confident about working with mathematics on their grade level.

As I worked to develop a philosophy and went through the various steps, I did realize that I need to incorporate technology into my daily teaching. I do not use technology in my teaching primarily because I am not as literate as I need to be to have produce quality lessons with technology. I am an automater of information and not an informator; however, this exercise helps me examine my areas in need of improvement. I think a great teacher realizes that they can never reach a point where they have perfected their craft, but rather it is a never ending process to perfect their craft. Every time I think I have found the best strategy for teaching a content area, a colleague gives me an even better method or I find a more efficient way on a website. Great teaching is finding a way to reach all learners and help them experience success.

In conclusion, my philosophy although quite simple still holds true, “Every Child, Every Chance, Every Day!” Great teaching is finding a way to reach all learners, and incorporating technology into my lessons could make it that much easier to reach my students. Fear breeds a lot of things, and I can no longer be afraid of technology because my fears could rob my students of an extraordinary learning experience. As Pragmatic school of thoughts has stated we must use processes and the things that help reach the desired outcomes. My desired outcome for all of my students is success and confidence when it comes to mathematics and therefore I must provide every chance for them to reach the desired outcome.

**Just going through the writing excercises and developing a philosophy, has helped me to evaluate my teaching style and methods used. As I stated in my philosophy statement, I have realized how I don't use technology in my teaching because of my own fears and incompetence. I am already loving this course because it helped to explore technology that I have never used before. I have decided that as I learn to use technolgy, I am going to pass on the information to my students and create projects that will allow them to explore the technology of today. Our school has two computer labs with brand new computers that nobody uses. If I am going to give my students every chance to be successful, I have to equip them with everything I have.