Two Best Ideas

One of my favorite ideas was from someone in my group who had her class narrate a story and then recorded it. She made the story in PhotoStory and then her students narrated it. The other best idea was to read a book and use MacNotebook. She first used different letters and then shapes. To use it for older grades, the MacNotebook can be used in other ways. Another idea that I liked was to have students go around the school and take pictures of different shapes and then upload them onto iClicker and then determine if the students understand different polygons. Technology may not always be necessary in every lesson, but I think it can enhance every lesson.

Internet Safety: Doing

I talked to my 14 year old sister about internet safety. She seems to be well-informed of the dangers of cyberspace. She told me that she gets online about 30 minutes every day and that most of her friends are online at least an hour every day. When she's online, she checks her Facebook account where she has about 40 friends in her network, who she is friends with at school. She doesn't have any friends that she doesn't know in real life. I also asked her about cyber bullying and she said that is when someone is mean to another person over the internet. She said that she thinks that people are meaner on the internet because they don't have to face the person. She said that she knows someone who is cyber bullied 1-2 times a week. I was surprised by that, I don't think I've known anyone my whole life who has been cyber bullied. She said the most important thing about internet safety is to not give out any information to people you don't know and just not even to talk to them. I then told my sister about some of the things I learned from the articles that I read and watched. When I told her about the girl who met up with a guy she had met over the internet and then was murdered, along with many other girls, she wasn't surprised. She has heard about things like that happening. I am glad that my sister is well-informed because there are so many children who aren't and they can end up getting themselves into a lot of trouble.

Internet Safety Assignment

Families should place computers in high-traffic areas of the home. Kitchens, family rooms, and studies usually have the most traffic. Because these rooms usually don’t have doors, they are typically less secluded than bedrooms. Position computer monitors so the screen faces out for public view. Also, instant messaging is a cost-effective, easy way to communicate with family and close friends. However, teach family members to avoid public chat rooms, bulletin boards, or unfamiliar areas on the Internet. Such places present an unnecessary risk for children and adults.

I think the most important way that families can provide and protect their families is by simply being aware. Parents shouldn't avoid technology but they should learn all they can about it and then be open with their children and set standards and expectations for their children. They should always be open with their children so that if they have a question or concern, they will feel comfortable turning to a parent.

Elder Ballard says that our "biggest challenge is to choose wisely what we listen to and what we watch." There are many wonderful programs in the media but unfortunately there are many which have the potential to harm families. We have been given the light of Christ and the Holy Ghost that will help us know what is right from wrong, but we must use our agency and choose that which is for our benefit.

What I Learned From Others

I was very impressed with what other students did for their technology assignments in the practicum. One person added a lot of detail, color, and used a video from YouTube that dealt with the subject she was teaching. There are so many resources that can be used--YouTube, music, games, interviews, etc.!

3rd Grade Practicum

Technology In 3rd Grade

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My Technology Lesson

My plan to encorporate technology into my 3rd grade classroom is to first use the promethean board for my math lesson and then the students will go to a website approved by the school district to practice their skills of what is fair and unfair.

Technology-Enhanced Lesson

An idea for a technology-enhanced lesson is to teach math and then have the students play a game on the internet that integrates the lesson into real-life. For example, if I am teaching 3rd grade fair, unfair, and probability, I could teach them the lesson at the carpet and give them examples of how I know what the chances (probability) are. I could also use a spinner and the sudents could determine if the spinner was fair or unfair. There are lots of games on the school's website that the students could play that deal with probability such as dice, spinners, or flipping coins. The students could use these and determine their own probability.

Technology

I am in a school that has so much technology! First of all, my class has a promethean board. I have never seen one of those! I am used to the old projectors but this is so awesome! So we use the promethean board all the time. My teacher has her own laptop Mac and we have 5 desktop Macs in the back of the classroom. Also, if we sign up, we can have laptops for every student offered from the computer lab. I love technology!

Virtual Tour Link

http://sites.google.com/site/utahgeographytour/my-files

Virtual Tour Plan

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1. Utah Geography	Look over all the different types of terrain in Utah on GoogleEarth and explore. Ask the students to write down three  places they would like to visit and why. What do they find interesting about these places?	Layers: Terrain and weather
2. St. George	Look at the different weather temperatures on the map of Utah. Zero in on St. George and write down the forecast for the next week.	Layers: Terrain and weather
3. Logan	Loo at the weather temperatures of Logan and compare/contrast with the temperatures you found for St. George. Which place would you rather live in right now?	Layers: Terrain and weather
4. Lake Powell	Identify different types of geographic elements in Lake Powell and surrounding area.	Layers: Terrain and weather

Sick by Shel Silverstein

Here is our amazing digital story!

The content we'll be using is from Shel Silverstein's poem called "Sick" in order to fulfill 2nd grade's Standard 1 from Oral Language. It states:Oral language students will develop language for the purpose of effectively communicating through listening, speaking, viewing, and presenting. We'll be using poetry as our genre in our digital story. Our medium will be pictures from the internet (URL). The pictures we have chosen are from the internet, mostly of cartoon children who are sick. We will use PhotoStory to complete our digital story.

The pedagogy involved in our project will be new engaging to the students. It will get them excited to read poems and it is easy enough for the 2nd grade students to understand. This will also show them how to use technology.

The technology we will use is PhotoStory. We will narrate the poem with our own voices. 

TPACK Answers

The content of our science project is that the students learn about different physical characteristics of Utah compared to the world.

The pedagogy of our science project is that the teacher needs to be involved in this project because she'll have to make sure the students stay on-topic and that they understand the difference between wetlands, forests, and deserts.

The technology of our science project is to teach students how to navigate through Google Earth. It is a good fit with the content in pedagogy because the students need to learn about geographical components of Utah and by using technology they can see Utah in a realistic way.

The Tech-Savvy Teacher

We have found as the students have been coming into our classroom that they are extremely interested in the world of technology. Think about how many of your students have cell phones, computers, iPods, etc. They are technologically savvy! We, as their teachers, need to keep up with them in this fast-paced world. As we plan our lessons, we need to always have technology in mind so that we truly become a tech-savvy teacher and help our students be the best in this competitive world.

In this science activity, our objective was to help our 4th grade students achieve core standard five which states: “Students will understand the physical characteristics of Utah’s wetlands, forests, and deserts.” Each student was given an outline of the shape of Utah. On this map, they were to identify and label using different colors the different physical characteristics of Utah. We discussed the different physical characteristics of each of these areas so students could distinguish between the different landforms. Students were given the opportunity in small groups to look at Utah from outer space using Google Earth on the classroom computers to aide them in shading in their Utah maps.

Google Earth is a program that can be accessed through the internet to view the world from outer space to identify different physical characteristics. As children explore the world using this technology, they are able to observe and analyze the different wetlands, forests, and deserts in Utah compared to other areas in the world. This is a good opportunity for students because they can become more proficient using the internet and also see areas of the world they may never visit. We have found this to be an effective tool in involving the student in their own learning process. Children need to have the opportunity to learn independence and this activity provides what they need to explore using their own technology skills.

TPACK

TPACK involves content, pedagogy, and technology knowledge. It is necessary for teachers because it integrates these 3 knowledges together so you're getting more knowledge in less time! To be a successful teacher, I need to be integrating these three knowledges together to help my students best.
One of the sites that I explored was the google earth site. Surprisingly, I haven't ever looked too much around there. I looked at my house, very detailed, and also in Tartu, Estonia where I served my mission.

RSS Feeds

It's really handy to have an RSS Feed on my blog. I don't have to spend time going to different websites, but the websites come to me. I can filter the websites to just show news that I'm interested in. I also added a feed for BYU Sports so I can see what's coming up!
As an educator I could, for example, post a link to an RSS Feed for parents to find out which books we have read, are reading, and will be reading in the future. They can also see others' comments on these books.

My Technology Background

I am still trying to figure out this blog thing. I obviously don't know a lot about technology but am excited to learn about it. It's very useful! I can do basic things such as email, send attachments, facebook, google, and that's about it.

Uhm....

Sorry my sight is so lame right now, I've never blogged!! I only know how to use Facebook...wish me luck!