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!

observations...

Today during my field placement the students worked on sounds. They do sound cards where each student gets a card and they have to say their sound. For example, there is a /sh/ card and the student has to tell the class what sound that is. It is interesting for me to see because now that I have learned about letter-sound knowledge in TE 301, I see how the students who know their cards are the ones that are good at deocoding words. These students are smart and they are included in the general education classes. Many of the students are included in math, PE, music, computers, and art.

I feel like I am the only one, but I really like my field placement. I think the teacher does a great job of keeping the students motivated. They enjoy reading and writing and that is something I love seeing. I only need to go one more time, but the teacher told me I could keep going next semester.

SMART boards in the classroom

http://www.interactivewhiteboard.net.au/aboutsmart/casestudies.aspx

I did not know anything about smart boards and everyone kept talking about them, so I decided to research them for my choice week. Smart boards are electronic white boards that are used in the classroom to accommodate different learning styles. Teachers use smart boards through their computers by displaying images, text, and presentations that are projected onto a white board. Smart boards help children stay engaged because it is something different to use in the classroom and it is technology, and we all know children love technology. The main reason that smart boards keep students engaged is that the students can participate by pointing out the material using a pen or a highlighter. Teachers can do this also while they are giving the presentation to help the students understand better. Some good things about smart boards are that students can watch movies, video clips, and can easily print off what they worked on. Smart boards are large so they command student’s attention.

There are many disadvantages that I noticed while researching smart boards. One is that it takes a lot of time for teachers to learn how to use their smart board correctly. There is also the fact that teachers have to worry about software and projectors. If a teacher is not good with technology, then they might struggle a bit with a smart board. Not only does it take extra time to install it and learn about it, but also smart boards are very expensive. The cheaper smart boards are about $1000 dollars, but it cost a lot more money every time it needs fixing or a new projector bulb.

Take a look at my resume!

Resume 3

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Google Docs

The thing I like most about Google Docs is that it is just like microsoft word, but it gives you a link, so that you can share the doc with anyone on the Internet. You can also type in any persons email address and share the doc with that person. This is useful for teachers because students can send their papers through email. I think this is important because the students do not have to print their papers, they do not have to waste paper or ink. It is also a good thing because the teacher can open the document and write comments right on the document, so that the child can improve their writing skills. 

Another thing that I love about Google Docs is that it saves the document automatically after anything that is added to it. I remember several times in elementary school and high school where I forgot to save my work and would be so frustrated and mad at myself when I lost it. With Google Docs this problem would not happen. I also think Google Docs is much easier to use than micosoft word and if I think it is easier to use then so would a child. It is a good way to get children used to writing papers on the computer.

SPECIAL EDUCATION

Today in my field placement the special education teacher and I had a very good discussion about her classroom. She told me that at the beginning of every year she goes around to the general education classrooms and introduces herself and gets to know the student. She does this because some day some of these students might be in her classroom. She explained to me that it is a good way for the students to understand that some students need more help in reading and writing than others. She introduced herself as the teacher who "is there to help students who struggle with reading and writing, concentration, and if they have behavior problems." She does not use the words special education. I think this is a really good thing to do when I become a special education student because she said that some students start to come to her classroom and talk to her about wanting to be in her classroom. She says many students will self refer themselves to her classroom because they think they need extra help with reading and writing. I thought that was really cute and I just wanted to share that with you guys!

The teacher also told me that tonight she is going to a meeting to talk to the general education teachers about who they think should be referred to special education. They are going to plan what assessments they can give and what needs to be documented to see if that child needs to be in the special education classroom. She said that after they do these assessments, then they will contact the parents.

Halloween Party and TECHNOLOGY

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nk8A4J2mUP9AAMe6REK6QA8z1IsStZlqagqbu0PqYuX1PLp93VojFHYH8KZFDVlVy54QHAXoiSyv3WiMMQBAFVo3mqSNcAqk581_5ZRlTCsE0RlC67Pkl1Sku7EYSOMrm55o8LogrYQ/s1600-h/GIRLS+AT+PORT+SCHOOL+halloween+and+trunk+or+treat+050.jpg

Today I visited a classroom and they had their Halloween party. The students did a lot of Halloween activities. For example, coloring pumpkins, making ghosts, and making witches hands out of popcorn. There was a lot of food and it really seemed like the students were having a lot of fun. It is interesting to see the kids in a more informal environments when they are not doing work. There was one student that loved doing the artwork and stayed to himself, something I did not expect of him. One of the girls was constantly doing cheers and cheerleading for the class and I had never known before that she enjoyed cheerleading. All the students and teachers had a lot of fun and it was something that i really enjoyed seeing.

It was also interesting to see them using technology at their Halloween party. The students were able to play vocabulary Halloween games on the computer. The students loved doing this because they were able to use technology. All of the students wanted to do this activity first because of the involvement of technology and it really helped me realize how much technology can be beneficial to these students. If using technology gets the students motivated to learn then I need to use technology in my classroom.

CHOICE: CELL PHONES IN THE CLASSROOM

When I went to my field placement one day, the students were doing a project on how to take care of pets. The teacher went around to the students and took pictures of the students working together and of their projects on her camara phone. Later the teacher posted the pictures of the class on her website. I think this is a really cute idea because the students can have access to those pictures and also the parents can have access to them also. This is an example of the cell phone being a teacher tool, but I think the use of digital pictures on a cell phone is also a student tool. I think this because students can also document pictures, especially if students go on a field trip and wants to take pictures they can take them from their phone and then share the pictures with the rest of their class later.

Some other ways that cell phones can be beneficial to the classroom are that the students can use them as calculators. If you think about most student will have a cell phone, so it would be a lot easier to use what you have instead of having to go and buy a calculator. Students can also use cell phones as dictionaries. I know it is important for a child to get used to a dictionary, but once they know how to use them they should be able to look up words on the Internet. Today, students love technology and love learning with technology, so maybe if they know they can look up a word on their cell phone they will look up more words. If students need to look up something on the Internet they can do that on their cell phone also. If they are reading a book about a topic they need background information about then this can be very useful.

Some disadvantages to using cell phones in the classroom are that it can be a distraction. The teacher would need to have strict rules on when the cell phones can be used for pictures, dictionaries, internet access, and calculators because if the students can use the cell phones whenever they want, then there will be the distractions of the internet, texting, and making phone calls. It is the teachers job to be clear on when the cell phones can be used.

Personal Learning Network

I that my personal learning network has really developed this semester in ways that will be beneficial to my teaching. Some of the most practical technologies that I have learned about that I actually think I will use as a teacher is Weebly and Blogger. This is because I think having a class webpage will be really beneficial for my students and my students parents. One of the technologies I am still getting used to is Delicious. I think the idea of Delicious is really good because it is important to bookmark education blogs, so that I can improve my teaching and stay updated, but sometimes I think it would be easier for me to bookmark the blogs on my computer in a folder. I think this would be easier because I do not have to go to a website (which I would bookmark anyway), sign in, find blogs, and make sure I bookmark them correctly. I want to continue developing my PLN by learning about new technologies and learning more about the technologies I have already learned about.