IP& T 287 Dec 8-14

I have loved being able to create and manage my own Personal Learning Environment (PLE). I plan on keeping my own blog after this class is over for my personal use. I love the idea of having a record that I can share with everyone. I found it hard to learn in the beginning how to do everything that I wanted and I was very unsure about coding in HTML. After hours of trial and error, I finally did figure out how to do everything that I wanted to. I still want my own personal blog to look more polished and professional instead of amateurish, but I am confident in my abilities if not that I will have the time to do it. I was most proud that I was able to figure out how to make 3 columns and make my own header and not just use the preset formats that are found on other sites. I still could not figure out how to make the header look right or be the right size and I was clueless on why the background that I tried to put in wouldn't format right. I found that I was spending a lot of time that I did not have on it, so I had to stop myself from working anymore on perfecting it so I could do some other things. I loved doing it though. I plan on having a blog or a wiki for my future classroom and think that it is a very valuable resource to have for students and parents.

IP& T 287 Dec 1-7 cont...

I visited several different internet sites to learn about internet safety. I think that they are a valuable resource to use with students in the classroom to educate them about the dangers of certain online behaviors and about how to protect themselves from them and prevent problems fro occurring. Some of the sites I found to be valuable include ikeepsafe.org, isafe.org, and also netsmartzkids.org. I also checked out the PBS Frontline documentary. I had heard a little bit about cyberbullying before but was surprised about how prevalent it is and I know that it is important to educate children about the importance of not participating in it and about how to get away from it.

Publish Post

IP& T 287 Dec 1-7

I got to read a few articles this week for our Internet Safety Assignment, including "Let Our Voices Be Heard" by M. Russell Ballard . I found them to be good reminders of why it is important to safeguard our family and children from the harmful influences that are found in the media. I read the assigned articles and also a couple others including one entitled "Tangled in the Web" from the Aug. 2001 Ensign, this also an attachment with tip for the internet. I know that it is very easy to get entrapped in doing things on the internet that we never intended to do. For this reason it is important to make sure we follow the guidelines for safety that have been given to us by the church. I have already tried to instill these things in my home, including making sure that the only computers are in common areas of the house and that I talk about things with my children and make sure that they are only visiting appropriate sites. I also know that we have to be careful as future teachers to make sure that our students know the sites that are alright to visit and the procedures that need to be followed.

IP& T 287 Nov 17-23

The students know how to use technology more than I thought although I wish they had more chances to do it. I was able to use technology this week in a guided reading lesson. We were beginning to read a book about kids in an Indian Jungle. I found some pictures of jungle animals and information about then online and I showed them to my group on a laptop. The students really enjoyed being able to look at them and were much more interested in the book afterwards because they has been able to see and actually find out more about the animals background. I think that it is important to be able to integrate technology in many different ways in the classroom, but this was a simple way that could be fast and easy to do everyday if needed. It would also be good to have the students look up the information themselves and share what they found with others.

IP& T 287 Nov 10-16

I feel a little better about the technology use in my classroom. I was able to use a PowerPoint Presentation that I did with a partner as a part of a lesson. I used a projector to show the class. After some technical difficulties, I was able to share a video I found online with the class also. I found that it is important to make sure that everything works well before you get up to use it. It would be great to have computers in the classroom and also to be able to have students do more projects and integrate content knowledge with technology. I hope to be at a school in the future that can provide this.

IP& T 287 Nov 3-9

To be honest I did not see a lot of technology use this week. My teacher did show the class a video and use the overhead projector. The internet is used to look up information prior to teaching. I will use technology this coming week in a lesson and have prepared a PowerPoint presentation with an embedded video clip. In order to do this I will have to arrange to bring a portable projector into the class and I have also checked out a laptop from the McKay Computer Lab. In one of my classes this week, I have observed interactive games being put into presentations and would like to learn how to do that and use it effectively in a classroom setting. I think it would be a good way to assess learning in a fun way.

IP& T Oct 27-Nov 2

This week was our first week going into the schools for our practicum. I have to admit that I was disappointed that my classroom doesn't have a lot of technology in it. My own kids classrooms in Draper all had projectors and computers in them. Because their school is only 2 years old, everything was pretty much brand new and up-to-date. The school that I go to for the practicum is in Riverton and it is a lot older. They don't have projectors or any computers. The schools are in the same district but have a big difference in what they have. I am not even sure what to do for the technology assignment. I am going to ask if there is a portable projector that I can borrow or just check out some laptops for my students. I think that it is important to use something to help engage the students and further their learning.

Critical Attributes & Technology Integration for Read Aloud

A good model for children. Helps teach them fluency. It opens the worlds of books to students. It helps children learns above their independent level. Focus on content.

Example: Short about Peter and the Dragon book shows the artists illustration process. Book preview. Information about the author. Use a document viewer-ELMO. Digital Storytelling. Powerpoint presentation. Smart Board-promethian board, google earth to talk about the author. Digital recording of kids reading using different expressions and interpretations of story. Use a projector. Make a video of kids acting out story.

IP& T Oct 20-26

I got to watch the tour by Alisia and Austin about stadiums and Jessica and Stephanie's about wonders of the world. They both did a good job. There are so many uses for Google Earth. It is wonderful to be able to see the world and all of the many places in it so fast. The program can be used to to show places of interest for many different subject areas besides just geography. I like the idea of showing the places where author come from or the location a book is set in. I am definitely going to use it in my classroom.

My Inspiration

IP& T 287 Oct 13-19

I love Google Earth. It is a blast to be able to see my house with my car in the driveway. I think that kids will love it and there are so many cool ways that this will be useful in the classroom. This would be a wonderful way to teach geography or anything about what is in the world and to make it come alive and real. I am excited to show it to my boys at home. I can't believe I didn't know anything about this before. Want to track the route of polar bears? Just click here.

IP& T 287 Oct 6-12

It was so much fun to do the movie this week. I learned a lot from watching some of my classmates movies. I watched Stephanie Orme's group's movie which was a trailer for Where the Wild Things Are. I learned how cool the effects can be on the pictures. I also watched Aleisha Boehm's group do their poem. They had lots of pictures of themselves acting it out. I think that kids would have such a fun time doing that also. I also watched Courtney Butikofer's group do their book trailer for The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. The found some great pictures that tied in so well with the action in the book. I want to teach first or second grade and I think with a little help even they could create a very basic story using Photostory. I'm sure that they would love to hear their voices or see themselves in a movie. They would also have a great time making pictures of using clay to illustrate their favorite stories. I know that I will be using this program a lot to share things with my class and build excitement.

It's Halloween Photostory

IP& T 287 Sept 29-Oct 5

My storyboard is on the previous post. It is based on a Halloween poem by Jack Prelutsky. It is the perfect time of year to use it. I cited all my sources on the last page. I scanned the pictures from the book and will use a CD recording of the author reading the poem. I have loved learning about digital storytelling this week. I think that it is a wonderful tool to use in the classroom. It is great fun for the students and the teacher to create and share a movie with the class, all the while expanding their literary knowledge and storytelling skills. It was very useful to make a storyboard of the scenes I am going to use, as it creates an outline for me and I can see everything from start to finish. I also finally learned how to use print screen to copy my storyboard into Photoshop. Yeah!

Storyboard

IPT Sept 22-28

I really liked looking at how other classmates did their Tech Savvy Teacher Assignment. Putting the pictures in a slideshow was a great idea. I liked the pictures and postings that showed enthusiasm and personality-it made it more interesting to look at. We were trying to do a screen capture in our program to use as one of our pictures, but we didn't know how to do it right off so we just took a picture of it with our digital camera, which didn't come out as clear. I noticed other classmate's had them on their postings. I just saw the instructions of how to do it on our classes site, so I will be able to do it next time. It was fun to look at everyone else' s sites and see how different they all are. I am really enjoying learning about technology. Now I just wish I could figure out how to do everything myself and not get frustrated by it when what I want to do won't work.

Tech Savvy Teacher

Technology can be used to make science fun for your elementary kids. A digital thermometer is a great tool for students to learn first hand about data collection, observation, and making scientific prediction. It is simple and exciting for students to use!

Simply plug the thermometer into the USB port and open the program Logger Pro. You will see that on the left side of the screen is a table with the seconds in one column and temperature in the other. At the bottom of this table is a temperature box where the children can read the current temperature. The majority of the screen is a graph which will show the changing temperature.
In this lesson, students will learn that friction and light can produce heat Standard 5, objective 3).


First, have the children take the room temperature for 10 seconds and record it. Next, have them hold the thermometer in their hand for 10 seconds and take that temperature. Now, have the children rub the thermometer between their hands and take that temperature. Finally, the children can put lotion on their hands(which will reduce friction), rub them together and take the temperature. The same experiment can be repeated using wood and rubbing sandpaper against it. For the last measurement students can hold the thermometer next to a light source and predict if the temperature will go up. They can predict throughout all the experiments if the temperature will go up or down after increasing or decreasing friction.
This is a great way for students to observe changes in temperature and to become more technologically savvy to boot!

IP& T 287 Sept 15-21

TPCK is Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. This approach attempts to integrate all three components of knowledge. This week I learned about why copyright rules are important and why teachers need to be sure and follow them. I was not sure about all of the rules so it was a good review. I loved learning about science and technology in class, it was fun to learn about all the useful sites. I especially liked being able to see the constellations at http://www.stellarium.org/. I also am excited to use the microscope at http://learn.arc.nasa.gov/vlab/. My dad was an electron microscopist for NASA, so I can't wait to tell him it is all online now.

IP& T 287 Sept 8-14

This week we learned about shared reading lists and created a goodreads account on goodreads.com. It was a lot of fun adding friends and seeing what books they like. I found out that I like many of the same books as my friends but I was surprised at some of their reviews. We also learned how to add rss feeds to our blogs. I think this will be a good resource for our future students so they can go online and actually have fun doing something worthwhile. I am also trying to learn more about blogs. I am glad some of the things I tried to add worked. I am still struggling with other things though. I wish I knew how to do HTML because I am getting frustrated with doing headers and backgrounds. I can't get the sizes right. I can say that it is not very user friendly. I was glad that my sister Kelly showed me how to add music and a special little counter. I feel so cool now.

IP& T 287 Sept 1-7

The purpose of this blog is to record things I learn about in the Instructional Technology for Elem. Education Class (IP&T). Also, it is to write down any other ideas or thoughts that I have about subjects covered during this class. I also want to include any other ideas that would be helpful for teachers. I am really excited to be taking this class, because there is so much that I want to learn about technology. I have no idea how to do a blog so it will definitely be a work in progress.