Blog Post #15 Final Reflection

This assignment required me to look back at my first blog post. I really enjoyed doing that. It showed me how much I have learned and now appreciate technology in the classroom. I learned how important it is to take a class like EDM 310 in order to be a great teacher. Many of my opinions and thoughts on my future classroom have remained the same, but now they are expanded. At first I knew a few things about the layout of my future classroom but now I feel that I know how to more effectively achieve them.
I have always wanted to teach the first or second grade. I am now open to teaching upper elementary. I would really enjoy teaching the older ones now that I am aware of all the technology that is available. I know that you can use technology with the younger ones but I feel that it would be more interesting with the older ones. I stated in my first blog post that I wanted colorful and engaging bulletin boards. Since this class I know how to research and find ideas. I have many websites to help with these in my PLN.
My first blog post only talked about typing stories, playing games, and engaging in blogs for my students. I am now eager to have my students to creat blogs not just engage in them. I will have my students create a PLN that they can use through out the year. I will have my students make book trailers and green screen movies. I am so excited about the technology that I know about now.
I hope to have a smartboard in my classroom for my students use and interact with. I have wanted to use icebreakers in my classroom from the beginning but now that I know how to use the smartboard I plan to incorporate it. I am thinking of having my students to each resaerch on the computer an icebreaker of their choice. We will put all of the icebreakers in a jar and draw one a day and the person that came up with that one will get to lead it.
If I could go back and change anything in my first blog post it would be simply and more technology. I still feel that the students need many hands on activities. In the first post the hands on activities didn't actually include technology but now they will. The activities can be making movies or podcasts. Projects like that are very much hands on learning. The students will learn from following directions and doing the work themselves. I would also change that I prefer lower elementary. I am now thinking that it might be very interesting to work with the older ones. My future class will definitely include technology in many ways. We will have a class blog and many things. I had originally stated that I hoped my classroom had at least one computer well now I hope for many more.


Part #2

Blog Post #14

Teacher Knows if You Have Done the E-Reading
Every teacher would love to be able to track if their students are actually doing the reading assignments. A few teachers at Texas A&M are testing out a new technology called Course Smart. This technology allows the teachers to track their students’ progress with digital textbooks. The teachers are able to see the students engagement indexes which shows the teacher how many times the book was opened and for how long. The students are quizzed to see how well they learned the information. This technology will track the students and be able to report back to the publisher. The publisher can then change things as they see fit.

I would love to have this type of technology as a teacher. I think that my students would be more willing to open their books and do their assignments if they knew they were being watched. I would like to have the students to be able to do quiz at the end of each chapter as well. I would hope that the technology could be able to record how long they stayed on each page also. I wouldn’t want the students to just open the book and leave the room while I am thinking they are completing their work.

As a student I would have mixed feelings about the technology. I would not like my teacher to spy on me. I would feel as if they didn’t trust me. If I can pass the test and do the work why should the teacher care how much time I spend looking at a book. On the other hand if I knew my teacher was watching and monitoring my reading then I would make sure that I did it. I wouldn’t want my teacher to think I didn’t care and was lazy.

If I were able to talk with the teachers in the article I would have a few questions.
Do you feel that the information recorded is accurate?
Do you give a grade according to the recorded information?
Since having this technology have the grades of the students improved?

If I interviewed the students I would ask them a few questions about their opinions.
How do you feel about the technology?
Does knowing that your teacher monitors your activity make you want to do a better job?
Are you honestly reading and studying when you have the book open?

My comment to this article would be that it should not determine if the student passes or not. I do not believe this technology would be something to invest in if it is expensive. The students can manipulate it very easily. I believe teachers need to communicate with the students and be aware if the students are reading. You can engage in open class room discussions to see if students are reading.

C4K Summary for April

C4K #9
Alex is from Mrs. Geldes fourth grade class in Nebraska. Alex’s post was titled “Snowy Day”. Alex woke up one morning to the smell of bacon. He hadn’t had bacon for a year. After breakfast Alex saw that it was snowing and decide to get dressed to go outside. His feet were freezing cold and stuck to the ground making him fall down.
My response to Alex
Hello Alex,
My name is Marie Allgood. I am an EDM 310 student at the University of South Alabama. I am studying to be a teacher. I loved your story. It was very interesting. I was excited to see what was going to happen at the end. I live in the south and we do not usually have snow. I would love to play in the snow one day. I think my favorite part was the bacon! I think I will have to cook bacon in the morning.

C4K #10
Liam is from Leopold Primary School in Victoria, Australia. He wrote about coming back from the two week break they had for Easter. Liam always tries to make his writing sound interesting. He tells about an Easter egg hunt in Leopold that included many fun activities. He saw many of his friends there and they decided to team up so that they could get more eggs. Liam ended up spending the night his friend’s house for a sleepover. The boys enjoyed playing on ipads, game stations, and watching movies. He played outside with his brother the next day after returning home.
My response to Liam
Hello Liam,
My name is Marie Allgood. I am an EDM 310 student at the University of South Alabama. I am studying to be an elementary teacher. I am very proud that you take the extra time to make your writing interesting. I read through your blog and you are doing a great job. Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I enjoy hunting eggs with my children. Sleepovers are a lot of fun. I love playing games on my ipad. It sounds like you had a great holiday vacation. I hope to read about many more of your adventures.

Project #13 Report on Collaboration

My partner and I chose to use google docs and text messages for our collaboration tools. We created a document to discuss when and where we would meet. We also discussed what our imovie would be about and consist of. After we filmed our movie we shared it with each other so that we could both edit the parts we thought need editing. Once we both agreed on the final movie we sent it to youtube from google docs. I feel this was the best way of communication for both of us.