I FORGOT GOOGLE DOCS!

I forgot to add google docs to the technology that I want to use as a teacher. It is one of my favorite things we have learned about this semester because it is so easy, and I need easy because I want to teach younger students. I love how I can receive my students documents through e-mail and it saves automatically!

this semester in CEP 416...

I feel that I have learned a lot of useful information this semester in CEP 416. I feel that I will use this information about technology throughout all of my teaching career. I really like the idea of having a class webpage. That way the parents of my students will stay informed on what is going on in the classroom and get to know me better. I think that communication with your students parents is very important and having a webpage will help. Another thing I think I will be using a lot of in the classroom is Wiki because I really like the idea of having all of my students work in one place. I also like how all of the students can have access to it, edit it, and can look at their classmates work.


I want to continue to explore SMARTboards because I have never seen one being used. I researched smart boards for week for my choice week and I really enjoyed learning about it. It is fascinating to me how much technology has changed even from when I was in school. Even though I did some research on smart boards, I would love to see one being used by a teacher in different classroom settings. I would also like to explore Prezi. I really enjoyed making a prezi presentation, but I want to learn more about it. I think it is a fun way for children to learn and I think it is something students would really love.

Last day of field placement...

Today I was able to help a boy write a story about his home life. It was a such a good experience to be able to help him and talk to him about his family. When I left for the day the boy said, "thank you for helping me today." It was so nice.
Today was my last day of my field placement and the teacher had every student go around and say something to me! It was so nice and they all came up and gave me a hug. It made me feel special and like I was a part of something.


Anyway, I just wanted to say that my best friend was in the hospital for two weeks and when she went back to school, some of her teachers told her she only had a certain amount of time to get the work in and it was not enough time, for her. Other teachers were understanding and would ask her what is wrong, actually caring. It just made me hope that someday I am one of those understanding teachers. My best friend really appreciates teachers that actually felt for her in a situation like this, and I hope my students can feel that way about me someday.

Keeping track of the writing process on Wiki

Check out my Wiki page here


I made my Wiki page a place where my students can keep track of their writing. They will post their brainstorming, peer review, revising, and final draft Google Docs in the Wiki chart. That way all of their writing process is in one place and they can edit it as frequently as they want. They will also have to upload pictures or resources they want to use that have to do with their writing. I made my Wiki page for students who are writing a personal narrative, but it could also be used for a research paper or any kind of paper. Wiki is different from Weebly because it is a page for several people. Weebly is mainly used as a website for one individual, but Wiki can be used by a whole class and each person in the class can edit it.

Some advantages to using Wiki in the classroom are that every student in a class has the ability to edit and update their class Wiki page. The students and the teacher can post any sort of link and even Google docs. It is nice for the teacher that all of their students work is in one place. I can just click through the links and look at my students work, and there is no wasting paper or space. Another important advantage to point out is that the students in the classroom can look at other students work. It is a good way to share their work with the rest of the class. A disadvantage to the Wiki page is that only one person can edit it at a time, so if there is a certain date all of the work needs to be turned in on and every student is trying to use the Wiki, it will not work. Some people might have to wait or try to do it earlier.

Collaboration

Parents are a huge part of their children’s education. Not only is the parent’s involvement important, but also it is the law. Part of No Child Left Behind is to increase parent involvement. This week, I did reading on collaboration and the main benefit to collaboration is that the teachers and the parents have the same goal. They understand how important the child’s education is and work together to identify problems, set goals, and try to understand that child’s individual learning needs. The parents know what is best for the child at home, so they can work together to put what is best into the school environment. The team works together to learn how the child is learning and then keep using that method to continue improvement.

With collaboration there needs to be respect between the parents and the teachers, so that if a problem arises then the they can work it out together before it explodes in to something bigger. It is the teachers job to make the parent feel included in their child’s education, and a way to do this is by letting them know what is going on in the classroom and how their child is progressing. It is also important for parents to be a partner in their child’s education because research shows that parent involvement increases a child’s test scores, attendance, and good behaviors. The parents also need to be involved outside of school.

When I went to an IEP meeting the teacher and the mom wanted something different for the student. The mom wanted the student to be in the general education classroom for every class, but the special education teacher thought the student would benefit from about 10 hours a week in the special education classroom. What would you do as a teacher to try to convince this parent that this might be the best way for the child to learn? Or would you go along with what the mom wanted? What would you do to make this collaboration work?

Wiki

Before CEP 416 I had never used a Wiki page. I really did not know anything about them, but I had heard about it a few times and that is why I decided to research Wiki pages for my choice week. I think it is important to note that Wiki pages are free. I also read that teachers really believe that it increases learning because students love using it because of the use of technology. Every student in a class has the ability to edit and update their class Wiki page. The students and the teacher can post any sort of link and even Google docs. When I am a teacher, I know that I want to use Google docs with my students so that they do not waste paper printing off copies and handing them in. With Google docs the teacher gets an e-mail from each student so I think that could get confusing having about 25 different e-mails, that is why I want my students to turn their Google docs in through Wiki. That way all of the assignments are in one place and I can easily access all of them. 

Some ways that students can use a classroom Wiki page is to set up ideas for projects, share links, share assignments, and portfolios. If you want your class to interact with each other the Wiki page is a great way to do that. A big advantage to a Wiki page is that students can save their work at school and if they have Internet at home, the student can get their work and continue working on it or show their parents. One disadvantage to the Wiki page is that only one person can edit it at a time. It is hard for every student to get his or her work on the page by a certain day if only one person can edit it. That is why it might be a good idea to set up certain times where students can put their work up.

LEAP FROG

Today during my field placement I noticed a lot of the students using leap frog. It is where you run a pen over the words in a book and then the words are read to the student. THE STUDENTS LOVED IT! It makes reading fun for them and they kept wanting to read!