Final Post

*I have learn so much about blogs and how they work. I hope to continue to blog even in my future classroom.

*Also, we learned how to make a presentations using Google docs. I also did a presentation teaching some one how to use a Promethean Board and software. I will certainly be making a lot of history presentation using Google in my classroom.

*When we made our first presentation about us, We learn how to size up our pictures using Picasa and I was amazed on how easy it was.

*One of my favorite assignments was when we got to make our own podcasts. I had found it would be great when I am out one day and all my substitute would have to do is open my podcast and let me give the assignment.

* We used YouTube a lot in our blog assignments and I also learned how to embed it into my blog.

* One of the blog/posts I read was Dan Carver's blog on education. He has a real want and desire to educate. I hope I will have te same drive he has for his students.

*My Personal Learning Network has grown leaps and bounds from the time I first started this class. I want to keep expanding it because I know when I finally receive my degree my student will think the stuff I learned now is going to be "old school".

*Twitter was a really neat thing to learn because it is a faster way to keep up with people.

*To keep up with other teachers and students outside of our region I used Audacity to do teacher interviews with teachers in Birmingham. I also will use this tool for when I am out of class I still can communicate the assignment to them and explain it as well while the substitute over sees things.

*For comments4kids I was amazed it these students blogs and how well they were doing when using technology. I hope to use a blog to showcase my students work.

*Comments4classmates was also great because I was able to see what was going on in my classmates blog and see there thought on the assignment. I believe that my future students would find it interesting be able to comment on their classmate's work.

*Comments4teachers was interesting because I liked reading teacher's blogs and what they were doing in their classroom.

* iTunes and iTunes U were great tools to use when listening to podcasts of professors from outside the region.

*The use of html tag modifiers help people who are visually impaired to help them hear what the picture is about. I am so glad I learned how to do this because I may have students who are visually impaired an this tool may make them feel included.

*In my profession I hope to be a progressive teacher. This means I would like for my class to branch out of the classroom and do hands on activities rather than sitting in straight rows and taking notes while I lecture. That is not all children's learning style. Being a secondary social science teacher, I want to make history come alive to my students and for them not to regurgitate what I teach, but to truly understand the lesson.

* Google forms was a great way to get quick feed back from my peers on any issue I wanted information about.

*Google Earth was very exciting and one of my favorite things to do in this class. I will certainly use this in my social science class.

*Delicious is a great bookmarking tool which keeps all your websites organized and you can get to them quicker.

*I feel I am more technological literate than before taking this class. It has helped me tremendously to reach for a higher standard of learning.

*The future of schools I believe is more technology and less paper and pencil if we all work together we can transform education into something more interesting and fun for our students

* My intellectual trail, I believe, is and has been a good one. I look forward to expanding on what I learned in this class.

2. I would have like to play around more on the Promethean Board and learned more on it.

3. I thought the whole class, while tedious, was beneficial and will help me in my future classroom.

4. I really liked learning audacity because I have used it outside of this class. I have used it in my EDF 315 class doing a teacher interview.

5. I thought everything was rather interesting in this class

6. I thought some of the blogs were rather long and boring but for the most part they were very interesting. To correct this I might chose shorter videos.

7. I did not feel overworked in this class I felt that some things were confusing, but for the work load it was okay. I would take out twittering because I did not use it that much for this class or in my future profession.

8. I feel that I am more technologically literate more so that when I started this class. I feel I can always improve on my knowledge of technology, but for right now I am at the "good" stage.

9. I want to keep blogging and expand my knowledge on teaching technologies (like smart/Promethean Boards).

April 18 Post

I think I got a little out of sync with the blog assisgnments. This week is for me to talk about somethingthat I have found interesting in E.D.M. 310. One thing I found interesting was that I learned how to use Audacity which is a sound recording site that we used for our podcasts. I actually used Audacity to interview a teacher in Birmingham by using my speaker phone device on my telephone. This made it conveient for both me and the teacher. In the future I will use Audacity for when i'm absent from my classroom and my students can still hear my voice and I can give the assignment and explane it rather than the substitute. This was one of my favorite things in the class so far.

April 25 post

It's sad to say that this seventh grader's P.L.E. puts mine to shame. It does make me want to learn more about how she created her P.L.E. From January to May, I can say, that I have learned so much more than I imagined I would when I entered this class. I hope to keep pushing myself to learn more technology for my student's future education.

What Will Be My Sentence?

This video does in fact make you put in perspective where your life is and where your life is going. I hope my sentence will be about how I changed the reputation of social science and how I made it more interesting for students to understand and appreciation for history.

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Promethean Presentation

Google Tour/Favorite Places to Visit

Zax/P22

Comments 4 Kids
Here is my comment to Kayla: "I loved your camping story! Rock climbing sounded really exicting and so did the cake baking. Keep up the great work!"

Both of these videos are very interesting and are true for teacher's work ethic. The Dr. Seuss Zax cartoon was very humorous and true for so many of today's teachers. Tenure is a great thing to have for a sense of security of teachers, but so many teachers shut down after about 5 years and seem to be in a rut from then on out. This turns them into creatures like the Zax, they don't want to make change while so many wonderful things like technology grows around them. This would be a great video to watch at the beginning year faculty meetings for teachers.This P22video made me want to become a music teacher after hearing those children sing! If you read into the song, it may remind you on how some teachers may be nervous about technology comming to their classroom.

TimeToast Timeline

My Time Toast Timeline!

Skype

This week I finally used Skype to see and talk to my mother in Birmingham. This was also the first time she ever used Skype also. I really enjoyed using Skype and will continually use it in the future to keep in touch with my family and friends that live in northern Alabama. This was a great experience.

Week 13 /April 11th

I think blogging student's work, if it is approved by the parent and the school, would be beneficial to show the internet world what your are doing in your classroom. I personally feel that when you post student's work on the internet (blog) it should be anonymous just for safety reasons.

Comments 4 kids
This week I read a story about a girl named Karen in New Zealand(I believe). She wrote about going to Australia and how it was very hot. She really liked her Mum's friend's house because it had an air conditioner. The story was very descriptive and interesting.

Comments 4 Teachers
This was my comment to Dan Carver:
I am still working on my degree in secondary ed. and believe that this profession does not need to be beaten down with testing, and the overwhelming stress level when testing comes around each year. I couldn't imagine worrying about if my student's test scores aren't "just right" that my teacher evaluation will be effected. Still loving the blog! Keep up the good work! :)

Teacher Interview

I interviewed teacher from the Birmingham area. He is history teacher and his focus is on government. I learned so much from this teacher. Even though he has only been teaching for a few years he is very knowledgeable in his field of study. One of the questions I asked him was about Professional development and if there was enough training for medical emergencies? He said there was not a lot of training for teachers because they had a nurse in a separate building at the school. He thought that every teacher needed to have a basic knowledge of medical training. Another question I asked was about the demographics at this school. He answered by saying most of the students at his school were about 98% white. The school is established in a very rural area and most of the students don't get a chance to interact with other ethnicities. I also asked him about unions and what role they play in the school system. He responded by saying they give teachers some protection against law suits and anyother infridgements. They also are teacher's advocates when it comes to government decisions on education.

Promethean Board Instructional

This is an written instructional on how to use a Promethean Board

1)The first thing you need to do is to get registered on Promethean Planet

2)The next thing is to explore the site and do the tutorials on how to find and create flip charts

3)What Are Flip Chart? Flip charts are Not your average paper flipping devise. On a Promethean Board, flip charts a computerized slides that a interactive and make learning a lot more interesting

4) No Need For Chalk!!! Promethean Boards use a computerized pen or wand to write anything you wish on the board.

5)Now that you know the basics of the board, I will now explain how to teach with the Promethean Board

6) When you create or find what flip chart you want for your lesson plan for the day you then can take it from Promethean Planet and put it in you Promethean software that is on your computer( this software will look like what is on the board)

7) When you explore your Promethean software you will find there are many kinds if tools to the right of the screen. These tools are there to enhance your flip chart. Some examples of these include: maps,math tools, games, diagrams,ect.

I hope that this instructional tutorial helps you when you get to teach with one of these Wonderful boards!!!

Vocaroo

This is my vocaroo recording.

Week 12 Post

Comments 4 Teachers

Copy of my comment for Andy, a ELT professional

Hi!
My name is Monica and I am in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed reading your latest post. It really sounded like it was a great weekend of learning and professional development. Great Post!

Comments 4Kids

This week I left a comment to Kahui, a student form New Zealand. He talked about going to the park and drew a picture of the park he went to.

Regular blog assignment

This week's blog assignment was about Mr. Chamberlain's blog post on a child named Kaia and how he communicated with her and her father. His blog showed how his class used voice treads to make communicating a lot better with a child that could not read quit yet. This type of technology has opened many doors for not only kids that can't quit read yet, but for the adult that can't read or people with disabilities. I think using this type of technology will be great for everyone.

The next blog I read was Kaia's father's blog and how the concern was about letting small children on the internet. This is my concern during this whole process of learning technology in this class. I feel that while technology is the future and it does make learning more interesting; do we take it to far? I know there are certain security measures that teachers can take to make sure that they're students identities are protected. However, there are so many internet 'scum" out there that can find out anything they want. I believe that if you want to give a child a blog I think it should be between that child and there parents.