Week 3 Post

They Are First Graders....Are We Ready??????

After watching the the video on these amazing first graders, I asked myself, why can't all first graders do this. I answered myself by saying "Yes they can if we as teacher make it a priority to make technology literacy a goal for elementary and high school student in the classroom and not just hope they pick it up a home.

It would be interesting to see if we did like the teacher in this movie and made technology a priority each school year. I wonder if we would have less drop out rate and more kids decide to extend their educational journey into college. Maybe test scores would be higher. Just a dream now, but maybe if we as future teachers unite and make it a priority in our classrooms maybe the dream will become a reality.

Video 2 of Ms. Cassidy's First Graders

Okay, I've been thinking about this for a few videos about technology in the classroom. I do believe it is important to have technology in the classroom, BUT do I as a teacher want the extra liability on me if something went wrong. It is reality that there is scum out their on the internet and for the most part they are smart scum.

I know she doesn't let her students put their last names on anything but if I were a parent I would be a little skeptical about knowing my child's name, picture, and some information is out there for the world to see! As for this video I was proud of how first grade students could do all they were doing. I hope that some miracle happens and I will get all the technology she has. Wishful thinking on my part.

This is whats Coming

After watching this video on the two year old, I thought it wasn't anything fantastic. To me the parents were making out it out to be this amazing thing. I thought that the child was just hitting the iphone and getting lucky on what popped up. However, if he was mine I guess I would be funny, but I don't think I would post him on the internet.

Podcasts

Speaking history

This pod cast was made by a 8^th grade teacher. The subject was about history, the future of technology, and education. The podcast was basically a discussion about the classroom and what they were doing in their room. This podcast was approximately fifteen min.

Promethean Planet

This podcast was about learning how to create flip charts and apply them into your lessons plans. This also explained how to use the Promethean Board and accessories. We have these boards at South and they are very useful. I used the board when I taught my 5th graders, as a paraprofessional, and it made the lesson so much more interesting. I my fellow classmates are reading, ask before hand, but it fun to play with. You need to try it.

Week 2 Post

Michael Wesh: A vision f Students Today

After watching the video, I was surprisingly not shocked by the subject of this video. I have grown up in this same atmosphere of education as they were portraying. However, in my college journey I do see a change in using technology in the classroom. Technology interest students, we are entertained by technology and how it makes our life more convenient and entertaining.

If I had the chance, I would like to ask my former teachers,"Why is education so concreted in the idea of paper and pencil when our future careers are dependent on us being technologically literate?". As students we learn, I would say, about 80 to 90% of technology from outside the classroom. I hope to be a teacher who will always keep in mind what mine and my students future is dependent on and that's technology.

It's Not About Technology

I have to agree with the writer, Kelly Hines, of this blog and how she points out that their is more than technology to be learned by teachers. She points out four points on how to become a great teacher for the 21st century without solely basing it o technology. The four points are: Teachers must be learners, Learning ans teaching are not the same, Technology is useless with out good teaching, and Be a 21st Century Teacher without technology.

All four made me realize that to become a great teacher I need to be student myself throughout my career as a teacher. I also need to be aware that if my students are not learning that I am not teaching the way I need to be. I always need to questioned myself on how I can get my students to enjoy and understand what I am teaching.

Fish: Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher

In a response to the title, I would say yes that you need to be a technologically literate teacher in today's educational arena. However, I do believe we as teachers need to be a well rounded teacher which includes basic older principles of education. I do not want the computer to rule my classroom. I hope to be a teacher who embrasses technology but who is always conscious of my students learning and understanding my teaching.

Do I agree with the thought of a teacher who is technologically illiterate the same as a teacher 30 years ago who couldn't read or write? Not really! I believe technology is important to get our students ready for their future careers but not make where that's all were worried about in their education.

Gary Hayes Socail Media Count

I was astounded by all the numbers being rapidly addedto sites like Facebook and Twitter. As a future teacher I ask myself. " Where do I, as a teacher, fit in to my students technological life?". I hope to use sites like Facebook as a group page to put maps and study guides on it where my students can communicate with me and each other on the history lesson that I teach. I hope to be technologically literate not for me...but for my students.

Week 1 Posts

Mr. Winkle Wakes

After watching the short video, it was a wake-up call to me as a future teacher to show that technology in our world is being minimally used in the classroom. When Mr. Winkle woke up after his hundred year sleep he went to a business where technology was rampant throughout the offices. Next, Mr. Winkle went to a hospital and also was haunted by the new devices such as a ventilator, computers, and other devices that are used for care of patients. Last, he traveled to a school which he enjoyed very much because it was familiar to him. Children sat at their desk, took notes, and listen to the teacher lecture. Mr. Winkle liked being in school because none of the technology that was used in the office and the hospital was being used in the classroom.

After watching this, I became very aware of how many schools (one of which I graduated from) is like the school in the video. How can I as a future history teacher incorporate technology in my classroom? I would hope to have a smart board and computers to show my students how interactive history can be. I would like to use sites as YouTube for videos on subjects of history or have interactive study guides on the smart board to interest the student while at the same time they are learning and understanding the subject. I am so glad that I was assigned to watch this short video. It got right to the point and made me think on how I could be a better teacher.

Did You Know 3.0

After watching this short clip I was astounded by the technology of this age. I makes realize how much I am missing by going through my day to day life and cheating myself of not learning something new and exploring what is out there. I now have a want to enhance and broaden my horizons in technology. Knowing this will will help me professionally and personally.

In the video it told how now teachers are challenged to teach technologies that have been invented so that we can solve problems that have not been invented yet. The video also stated by 2013 there will be a supercomputer that will exceed the computational capabilities of the human brain. This made me question how that will be possible since it is the human brain that came up with the creation of the computer (Maybe someone will explain to me how that is possible). Knowing all this information on current and future technology, I hope to keep my students as current as possible so that they can become more independent on technology than I am as of now.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

Education has been know to do two things: 1. educating children for work 2. improve on their academic abilities. I asked myself why is this? Why do we box children into a academic society to make them conform to the ideals of what society has expected students to exceed at. Have we as educators and future educators guilty of choking out creativity?

I was very intrigued when Sir Ken Robinson stated that, " If we're not prepared to be wrong, we'll never come up with anything original". As a future educators there is a certain bar that is set, and that is for us to be very knowledgeable in field of expertise. However, as our knowledge increases we also need to be aware of our creativity and to not lose our focus of being a great and original teacher and that our students will remember the knowledge that they received in our classrooms. My hope is for me to never fall form humility and to also understand my students originality and make it prosper into an understanding and enjoying learning.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

This short clip on a teacher in South Georgia has taught her students how to be explorers in technology. Teacher, Vicki Davis has successfully taught rural South Georgian teenagers how to create, explore the realms of technology, and interact with people form around the world using just classroom desktop computers. Her use of web sites to communicate to other students around the world is inspiring.

What I received from this video was how after hearing Sir Robinson's speech about creativity then getting to see students expanding their minds and not getting spoon fed information was intriguing. Also what was clever was how they got to travel and meet other students form other nations that were expanding their technology horizons as well.