Blog 10

I am very glad that I took this class. I have learned so much valuable material. Learning all the shortcuts and techniques to each program will definitely help me in the future with teaching. I had no idea the things you could do using Excel and PowerPoint. I can't wait to apply them to my future career as an educator.

I am very confident about my group's project. We met up with the teacher and know exactly what she would like done with this project. We have a very strong sense of where we see this project heading. I have a feeling that we are going to do well. The material is there, we just have to create!

Where am I to begin with how I will use what I learned in the classroom? Perhaps the three that I will use most often is MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. MS Word will allow me to create the tests, assignment, reminders, letters, and bulletins. PowerPoint will probably provide the bulk of my lesson presentations. I will be sure to use the animated stories and Jeopardy! Excel is going to be what keeps me organized. I know I will keep lists and grades in order using that program.

I have found that a lot of my classmates and I share the same overall ideas about the classroom. Also, how the technology will primarily be used in the classroom. There was an overall agreement on the uses of Excel and MS Word and PowerPoint, it seemed.

Blog 9

I am very excited with this project! My group has chosen to do the parts of speech lesson, which is right up my alley. I am really enjoying helping my group create the lesson plans. It makes me feel that I am that much closer to reaching my degree by actually creating a lesson.

During the previous week, my group decided that our lesson was going to consist of three main parts: a PowerPoint explaining the lesson, review activities over each specific part of speech, and an overall review Jeopardy game. My group kind of broke the parts up and we are each working on one specifically, then we will bring them together and rework to make them flow. I was given the task of the Jeopardy game. I am having a lot of fun creating the questions! There is a lot of room for creativity with pictures and sound effects that go along with the questions.

Over the past week, I have really learned how to use Wiki. I know we were taught how to use the program a few weeks ago, but I had forgotten everything! :( But now, after having to collaborate with my group members, I am recalling the information that was taught to me and it is becoming easier and easier to navigate.

Blog 8

There are many ways that i can adopt WebQuest into my classroom. I will be teaching middle school level Language Arts. There are so many different subtopics in my area that would be good for webquesting. One example would be learning the parts of speech.
I found this link to a grammar WebQuest that helps the students learn the different parts of speech and apply them. http://fisd.us/middle/teachers/lmartinez/grammar%20quest.htm This particular WebQuest could take place over a series of days.

Learning how to use Wiki will definitely be beneficial to my future teaching career. This program will help me to collaborate with other teachers. We can use this program instead of the endless emails. Also, my students can use it to do group work. I cold possibly make it a requirement for long term projects. I can also use Wiki to monitor my students with blogs and class wide group projects. Wiki is just so much more organized than email when communicating with more than one person.

Blog 7

I found a cool site at funbrain.com that specifically focuses on grammar and sentence structure. If there is free time, I could go to this site and have students answer the questions. The site keeps the score of the students' answers. This is a good way for positive competition as well as a review.

I have found that Excel is an extremely useful program. I know, without a doubt, that I will use it in my classroom for various reasons. For example, making a list for a field trip or homework that have been turned in, creating charts that the students can use, and documenting the grades of my students. When doing book reports with my middle school language arts students, there will be times where they have to read books that I have chosen for them to read. I will make a list of the books with a spot for me to fill out their names and the dates that they took the books and returned them. I will use it for basic organization purposes.

For any project in which data is collected and stored, Excel would be a great tool for all students to use. It is simple to navigate and it allows each student to express their creativity in charts and graphs.

Blog 6

The PowerPoint that I created was based on the topic of fragment sentences. I had fun creating this PowerPoint. But, when looking back at it, I realize that there are some things that I could have done better. For example, some of the graphics to not relate to the topics. It is better to have graphics that relate to the topic for easy recollection. The one on this page is a bit hard to read as well. Also, some of the backgrounds were a bit distracting. I for some slides, it would have probably been better if I would have chosen to stick with a solid color.

There are endless possibilities when integrating peripherals and non-computer audio-visual technologies in the classroom. As I have surly mentioned before, I am planning on teaching middle school language arts. When reading books and doing reports on them, I intend to also show the movie, if there is one and is appropriate, after reading the book. Then we will compare the book and film and its pros and cons. I would also incorporate a camera with a project that each student will do at the beginning of the year and end of the year. I will take 4 different pictures of each student. In those 4 pictures they must have four different expressions which show who they are. They must also write a 100 word justification that supports the expression. I will then take those justifications and pictures and incorporate them into a PowerPoint presentation. We will then play a game where the student guess who the people are based on the descriptions. This activity has a double side to it. It challenges each student to really think and evaluate their photos and write down those evaluations, as well as, help each student to get to know one another.

I found the creation of the Jeopardy game to be incredibly helpful to me now. I think it will be a great tool for me to use in my classroom as a review game. There will be many times in which I will conduct review games and using PowerPoint will be very helpful. Just learning how to use the hyperlinks and connecting slides was awesome. Also, the shortcuts to the ribbon were helpful. Now, making PowerPoints is incredibly easy and takes hardly no time at all.

Blog 5

The site that I have chosen to evaluate is the homepage for my personal blackboard. I am sure most of you are familiar with this site. I have found that this site is easy to navigate. It adheres to most of the rules presented in Chapter 6. For example, the color scheme is consistent and the style is consistent. The words are easy to read and the links are easy to follow. The colors are dull, but precise. The links that are offered are simply written. A person who had never been to this site before could easily navigate their way around using the links that are given.

Presentation software has its advantages as well as disadvantages in the classroom. When used properly, they can liven up a lesson. There are endless ways that the presentation software can be used in a classroom. It can be used as the lesson, a review, or a reinforce. But, when not used properly, they may not be beneficial to the classroom at all. For instance, if relied on to do all the teaching, the students may not be accustomed to learning different ways. Also, it is easy to over do them; if they are too boring or, on the opposite end, too distracting, they can not fulfill the task that they were intended to do.

There are 5 knowledge dimensions that should be Incorporated when teaching a lesson. An example of a lesson in which I would incorporate those dimensions would be through a PowerPoint. I would begin by going over the material on the first slide with a flow chart. I will connect key words with images so that the students can make connections. The next few slides would be simple explanations of the information that are more detailed than the flow chart, but relate. I would then lead the students in a series of examples of the material that they just learned. Finally, there would be a final review for understanding using a Jeopardy game through PowerPoint. Hopefully this lesson will be interesting to the student because of the various formats that I am using.

A paragraph on how you might use PowerPoint to support student learning at each knowledge dimension in a particular lesson. Be explicit in your example! Use Chapter 5 for ideas.

example concept map