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.