The End

CI 302 has taught me that technology can be successfully used throughout all subject areas, how to integrate technology, and what types of technology and tools can be used in the classroom. I learned how I can easily use technology in a lot of what we do within my future classroom. One thing that really interested me was learning about Apps and tools that make learning more fun and engaging. These were great to learn about and I was amazed at how many different options there really were out there for teacher and student use. 

I think that all of this matters because technology plays a major role of our current society. I have seen how excited students get when they get to use technology in their classes. Because they are so excited, they are better engaged in the learning. I think that as a future teacher it is important to know of great Apps and tools that my students could use with any subject throughout the school year. 

I think that CI 302 had a great impact on my future teaching career, because I was provided a list of Apps and tools, as well as technologies that could be used in my future classroom. Through this class, I also was given an opportunity to write a grant for a technology that I wanted for my classroom. 

The one thing that I really enjoyed about this class was the many tools and Apps that we learned about as well as how to use them in a classroom or school setting. This was something that I can use all through my teaching career. 

One thing that I would change about the class would be to have little to no online classes, but instead meet as a class so that we were able to ask questions or discuss things with our classmates. One thing that I think would have made the online classes more successful would be to have the interviews live in class so that everyone could make it to the interview time. I wasn't able to watch any of the interviews live so I just had to listen afterwards to the interview and responses to questions and comments. 

Grant Project

From this project I learned what writing a grant entails. Before this project I had heard of grants and talked with other teachers about writing grants and what they wrote grants for, but I wasn't aware of what a grant actually looked like. It was interesting to be able to write a grant as well as to see example grants and all of the many formats and layouts that grants can be written in. 

While writing our grant, the first struggle was deciding what we were going to write our grant for. Then, while writing, I felt that the hardest part was actually thinking about the product and its role in the classroom with both the students and the teacher. We had to actually think about how it could be used and how the school could monitor its use in the classroom.

After this project I feel that when the day comes that I have to write a grant for my classroom or school, I will be better prepared and have a greater knowledge of what grant writing is and looks like. 

Interviews

Last week I had the opportunity to view multiple interviews with different education professionals. These professionals consisted of; a teacher librarian, a technology coordinator, 1:1 teachers, a technology integrationist, and an AEA staff member. These interviews were recorded and posted online for us to be able to watch all of the interviews.

My goal as a teacher is to teach in a 1:1 classroom. I love the environment and love how much freedom the students get in and outside of the classroom. Because of this, I really enjoyed the 1:1 teacher's interview. I have had many different opportunities to talk with 1st year teachers and found it very interesting that one of the interviewees was a 1st year teacher. She gave great tips on how she adjusted to the use of so much technology and the different tools. The advice that was given was fantastic and something that I will keep in the back of my mind as a grow in my teaching career.

One major thing that I noticed while watching the 5 interviews were the similarities in the information that was discussed. One thing they all talked about was to never be afraid of the technology that is provided to you. Another thing that I picked up was that even though many people really stress to use technology more often, technology is not the only thing that matters when teaching or planning. All of the different people telling me how important it is for me to be willing to always try new things and have that willingness to fail really got to me. As a preservice teacher, I will take any advice that others are willing to give me very seriously. It was great to hear from professionals that IT IS OK TO FAIL. You have to know that you will fail at things in life, but you should always try again or try even if you are afraid to fail.

From all of my technology classes I felt that using technology was really important and that I needed to use it more often. From these interviews it was great to hear them talk about using technology but it isn't all that matters in your classroom. I completely see how great using technology is, but I often find it a little tough to change up my ideas and try to make them more technology based.

All in all, I loved hearing from these professionals. It was a great opportunity and something that I can relate back to for years to come. There are so many tips and quotes that I have taken away from these interviews that will be very useful in my future career.

Technology Review #2

Educreation is a great tool that I was recently introduced to. It is FREE but does require a login. You can use this tool as an app, on an iPad only, or on the website, which makes it even more useful. I first created my Educreation using my computer but presented my lesson to my students using the app on the CTLT iPad. I found this tool to be very easy to use and loved that you can record and pause until your read to record again instead of having to stop recording throughout the lesson. It was a great tool because it was almost like I was sitting there with the students as they were practicing their vocabulary words.

Here is the link to my Educreation lesson from another class:
http://www.educreations.com/course/lesson/view/03-12-2014-lesson/18559956/

With this tool I was able to write the word while talking them through the steps. Because I recorded my lesson, the students could hear and see me writing the word at the same time. This tool can be used for any age of students! I have seen it used for 1st grade spelling, as well as for 8th grade math. The teacher is able to walk through each step to help explain each step.

Technology Review #1

   

Comic Life is a tool that I was introduced to when I first came to Iowa State University over three years ago. I have used it again since then in different classes as well as in my lesson plans. This is a great tool because it can be used on any device whether it is windows or mac. There is one initial cost you must pay for the app but after that you would only need to pay again if you chose to upgrade your app.

I have always used Comic Life from a Mac computer or an iPad, which means I was able to access my iPhotos through the cloud. You can use this amazing app to create comic strips with personal pictures or pictures from the internet, editing pictures, scrapbooking, and much more. There are so many different options to use Comic Life in schools or in your personal life. I have always used this app to create picture collages or to display information, but I have a family member that enjoys scrapbooking with Comic Life and then sending her pages to be printed using a printing site.

One thing to remember is that because this is an app you must download it to your actual device in order to use it. Once you have it downloaded, you can begin exploring the app and creating masterpieces of any design, shape, and size!

EdCampIowa = GREAT!

What is EdCampIowa?

When I signed up in class to attend EdCamp, I had no idea what I was in for when I arrived. EdCamp is a form of professional development for educators. It is considered an "unconference" because you are never spoken to or at by a specific speaker. It is a great opportunity to meet educators from all over the United States. These teachers have been in your shoes and know what your going through and have an abundance of information that can help you succeed. We all have one common goal and that is to help our students to be the best they can be! 

What Happened at EdCamp?

EdCamp started out with a "get to know you" session where we were asked to introduce ourselves to three people we didn't already know. In this process, I met a technology coordinator from the Des Moines area, a principal from Newton, and an elementary teacher from Boone. It was great to meet a couple people before starting the day so that there were a few familiar faces in the sessions. Speaking of sessions, all of the sessions that I attended were really great! Toby pulled me and a few other people out into the hall and gave us a marker and told us to create a new session for anything you want to know about. I created the Teaching 101 session. Once the sessions actually started we walked through the halls reading the session names to determine what session we wanted to attend first. 

The first session that I attended was about Twitter and how to use it. I have had a Twitter account for about a year now, but I don't really use it very often. We were given chats to follow depending on our areas of interest. It was great to hear how other teachers are using Twitter and other digital tools in their classrooms. There were a couple teachers who used a paper Twitter and blogging system where the students post their posts (on paper) onto their wall, and their peers walk around and post sticky notes with comments to their peers Twitter posts or Blogs. This is a great way to get students practicing correct use of these tools with the use of paper instead of actually posting out for the world to see. 

The second session that I attended was the one that I actually created, called Teaching 101! It was great to sit around and talk about how we should create our classroom communities. They all agreed that you need to build relationships with your students and earn their respect. They told us that by having the first week as a "get to know you" the students get to know more about each other and you as the teacher. One teacher talked about using the toilet paper game where you pass around a roll of toilet paper and each student takes at least 2 pieces. For every piece of toilet paper they have to share a fact about themselves. This means that one student could share over 10 facts depending on how many pieces they take. They also said that you need to show that you make mistakes as well, which helps them to learn to try their best but know that they will not always be perfect. Every teacher in this session highly suggested reading Teach Like a Pirate. I'm going to have to check it out! 

The third session that I attended was about Diverse Learners. In this session, we talked about how to make our classrooms productive and how to accommodate all learners. One thing that these teachers says works is daily 5. Daily 5 is a great way for each student to work at their own pace and on their own special tasks. They also talked about how you need to set goals for your prep time in order to get things done in a timely manor and make these prep times useful for you as an educator. A couple lower level reading programs they talked about were Wilson Read and Second Chance Reading. I will definitely keep these in mind for my future classroom. One quote that I will always remember from this session is: 

Another great thing we talked about is to always think to yourself, "If I were selling tickets to my class, who would buy them?" I feel that this is a great thing to think about when building your classroom environment/community.

My fourth and final session was about How to Make Students Problem Solvers. This was a great session to just sit and take notes from education professionals. The main problem they are all seeing in their classrooms is that students are afraid to fail. We need to teach them that its ok to fail when trying new things. The biggest thing that we need to do as teachers is make mistakes and admit to your mistakes. By doing this, you gain their respect and help them to see that they too can try new things. You need to explain the connection with failing and persevering. Another thing that all the teachers agreed on, was they need to come up with a way to teach their students parents how to teach/help their kids with their homework. One quote that I took away from this session was "from failure we can succeed." They also talked about a great book that teaches us how to teach our students to be successful. 

Now What?

After spending all day in Pleasant Hill at EdCampIowa, I can't wait to go again! I have already suggested this event to many other educators and plan to continue! I took many notes throughout all of these sessions, and plan to take all of what these fantastic professionals have told to about education and being a teacher. I can't wait to read both books that I have posted and continue to take more notes to help me as an educator. 

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn." 
 - Benjamin Franklin

Digital Classroom... Whats That?

This week in class I chose to present on blended learning and how it can help students, teachers, and schools. I first learned about blended learning in my CI 407 class. In this class we had to create an online Moodle course for topic of out choice. I really liked the idea of blended learning because the students still get to experience online learning but they also get to work with the teacher face-to-face when they need to. This is a great way for students to learn on their own through discussions, experiments, and research. I chose to do more research on this topic because of my great interest in blended learning. 

What is Blended Learning? 
A formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place and or pace. 

Why a Digital Classroom?
Having a digital classroom is great for all students, it gives them many different teaching strategies and opportunities to learn. Digital classrooms are great for all students in a way. Some students need more of a blended classroom where they can still go to classes and talk face-to-face with their teacher. There are also some students who work better at their own pace who could handle all online classes and no face-to-face teacher contact. I have seen a lot of digital classrooms through my practicums and observations. It is great that these students are getting a head start on preparation for college and the career field. Many college classes have turned to the online setting where students have the ability to be at home in their pajamas but yet still at school. 

I personally like online classes where things are due weekly to keep me working and on task. I have taken online classes where all 15 weeks are uploaded at once and you work at your own pace. In this setting, I tend to push each week back and end up working on all 15 weeks within the last few weeks of the class. Each student learns differently, and I now know that these classes are not made for me. I really love the idea of an online class, but the teacher has to know what they are doing and take the time to create the class so that each student can understand what is being asked of them. The teacher also needs to be available most of the day to be able to be there for their students and answer any questions that they may have as they work. It is also great when the teacher checks in and keeps things up to date so that the students always know where they are in the class and how they are doing.  

"Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or in the same way."

- George Evans