Finals...

What was the most valuable aspect to you of creating a Personal Learning Environment?

Being able to share with others what I have learned about technology this semester.

What did you like least about the Personal Learning Environment?

Sometimes I had trouble with Blogger not working or not uploading things.

Comment on the likelihood of your using a blog or wiki for personal or educational purposes in the future.

I love blogs and I plan on using my blogs lots in the future! I think they are a great way to communicate!

Internet Safety Videos

I watched some isafe podcasts, ikeepsafe faux paws, and NetSmarts Video Resources

What were the most important things you learned?

I learned a lot about how easily predators can find you. You have to be so careful not to give out any information that people could use to track you down. Also, I thought it was really interesting to learn about secured websites. I often buy things on the internet or put in information without knowing if a site is secured or not. I will definitely be more careful!

How might you use the resources you discovered in your future classroom or home?

These resources could be great to show to students in your classroom. It is important to provide them with opportunities to use the internet, but we need to be careful about making sure they know how to keep themselves safe both at home and while at school. We need to take advantage of being educated with technology because a lot of these kids' parents don't have those same priveledges. Same thing at home. I will make sure my children know the dangers of the internet and educate them on how to keep their identity safe!

Safety on the Internet

Let our Voices be Heard - M. Russell Ballard Reading Questions:

1. What does Elder Ballard say is our "biggest challenge" related to media?

"Thus our biggest challenge is to choose wisely what we listen to and what we watch."

2. What guidelines have our Church leaders been giving us for safe use of media such as the TV and Internet?

We should hold family counsels to discuss what is appropriate. We should be the biggest influence in our children's lives. Be good examples of what media to view. Limit the time they can spend on tv and internet. Set blocks and filters. Have computers and TVs in an open place. Take the time to watch meaningful shows with our children to lead by example.

3. As a teacher, how can you appropriately influence children and parents to develop healthy patterns of media use?

We can lead by example. We can give suggestions for positive, uplifting media for children to view with their parents. We can provide incentives for viewing those preferred medias. We can be especially careful about what we show in the classroom - that it is the kind of media they should be viewing.

Provident Living guidelines regarding Internet Safety Reading Questions:

1. Which of these guidelines do you follow?

We use our computers out in the front room and we have filters on our computers. We have discussed the dangers of pornography and how to stay away from it. We don't talk to people we don't know of share any personal information.

2. How might you share these guidelines with family and friends?

Talking about them on a blog, bringing them up in conversation, or sending out an informative email are a few ways.

Technology and a House of Learning Reading Questions:

1. What experiences have you had at home with the balance between protecting and providing when it comes to technology use?

2. What ideas do you have for learning to preside, provide, protect, and nurture when it comes to technology in your own home?

Technology and a House of Learning Reading Questions:

1. What experiences have you had at home with the balance between protecting and providing when it comes to technology use?

Growing up, my parents were always warning us about the dangers of the internet and reminding us of how to stay save. They also provided us with opportunities to learn more and experience what the internet had to offer.

2. What ideas do you have for learning to preside, provide, protect, and nurture when it comes to technology in your own home?

Staying current on the technology is very important to me. I will try to stay current so that I know what my children are dealing with everyday. I also think it is so important to make sure my children will know the dangers of the internet and how to protect themselves. This is something that will be talked about frequently - hopefully until they get sick of it like i did with my parents :)

What article did you choose to read for your fourth article?

The Message: Mushrooms, Movies, Music, and Magazines
What were the most important things you learned from the readings?

We need to be careful of the look-alikes. We need to decide whether or not things are wholesome enough for us to be viewing or listening to.

How will what you have read influence your actions as a parent and/or teacher of children and youth?

They need to know how to tell which is good and which is not good enough. They need to be taught the ways to tell if something is of good report.

How can you use what you have learned from the reading to have a positive influence on family and friends?

I can lead by example of what I know is right and wholesome. When others see me making those decisions based off what I believe, they will respect me and follow my lead (hopefully :)

Practicum week 4

This week, our teacher showed a video about Thanksgiving to all three social studies classes. The students were totally sucked in. They loved watching the video and having it wrap up what they had been learning in the previous weeks. They also were able to do a shared reading where the students got the opportunity to read a page in the microphone as the whole class followed along. The students really enjoyed both of these opportunites. I didn't use technology this week. I was going to share a video to accompany my writing activity - but it turned out I didn't have the time allotment to do so. What I wanted to do was to find videos on the internet that were similar to America's Funniest Home Videos. Our writing activity was on the book, That's Good, That's Bad where things that seem good turn out bad and vice versa. I was going to show videos and pause them in the middle and ask the children what they thought might come next to change whether it was good or bad.

Practicum week 3

Once again, the students didn't have computers this week so they weren't able to use technology, but they really enjoyed seeing it used in the classroom. I made a PowerPoint presentation for our social studies lesson which we showed on the school's projector. The administration was great about getting us the projector and video camera and were there to help us when needed. The attitudes of the students seemed to be very engaged while being able to watch a PowerPoint while learning about the Thanksgiving lesson. After being able to experience that technology in the classroom, I am excited to find more opportunites to use technology. I am doing a writing activity this week with the students and I hope to be able to find a movie which shows the "that's good - that's bad" examples which we will be writing about.

Practicum week 2

This week the students didn't have computers (they have it every 3 weeks) and so I didn't see any technology used really in the classroom. The students use a microphone every day (which they enjoy) and they use an overhead but that as technological as it gets on a daily basis in the classroom. I didn't use technology in the classroom this week, but we were able to arrange to check out the projector to use next week.
One thing that I think would be great for these second graders to experience is to use the internet to research about the pilgrims for Thanksgiving. They could do activities on the computer to help them understand what life was like for the pilgrims in the 1600s.

Practicum week 1

I am in a second grade classroom and I guess I didn't know what to expect with the technology in the classroom. As BYU students we see it virtually every single day, but I wasn't sure the capabilities they would have in the elementary classroom. One thing I saw was that our school has a computer specialist, which I think is so great. Our students went to computers on both Tuesday and Thursday this week. We weren't able to observe this becuase it happens to be the same time we leave to go to our math class. I was impressed, though, that they get to go there twice a week.

I didn't have any experience trying to use technology in the classroom this week. We mostly observed and the only activities where we taught were set up by our teacher. Starting next week we will be doing some of our own lessons, so I am excited to find a chance to incorporate the technology into my lesson plans.

One idea that I think would be fun to use for integrating technology into the classroom is to create an interactive powerpoint for our social studies lesson. We are going to teach the students about how the times have changed since the pilgrims and I think that technology is the perfect way to demonstrate that.

Google Earth

I really enjoyed Emily Armstrong's use of the 13 colonies. What a great way to integrate that into technology! Dana Jensen did hers on Hispanic Traditional dancing, I love how she has very specific instructions for her students! Kaylee Simpson did hers on the history of how the laws were past with great links to pictures. It is so interesting to see how everyone has such different ideas about what they would use Google Earth for. It is such a neat too to teach students about what happened and to be able to physically see where those things happened. I found it difficult to figure a lot of things out with Google Earth and think it may be a little confusing for students, but with how much kids know these days about technology, I would probably be suprised!

After looking at some other students' movies, I was very impressed! We decided to do a story, but people had some great ideas and really impressed me! I guess I didn't realize all the possibilites! There were some on political issues, books, and informational! There are also so many fun things you can do with text, audio, pictures, videos, etc... I really enjoyed making the video and really think this is something I will use with my future classes!

Right now, I think I am interested in teaching 3rd grade. It would be fun to have the class create a story together (about something you are learning about in science for instance) and then make pictures, take photographs, and make little videos and have them see how you can take a subject, story, or anything you come up with, and make it into a video!

So I think I am rediculous, but I will post my video later! I am having issues with the uploading! You can see it on Madelyn's blog though!

Digital Storytelling

After looking at some other students' movies, I was very impressed! We decided to do a story, but people had some great ideas and really impressed me! I guess I didn't realize all the possibilites! There were some on political issues, books, and informational! There are also so many fun things you can do with text, audio, pictures, videos, etc... I really enjoyed making the video and really think this is something I will use with my future classes!

Right now, I think I am interested in teaching 3rd grade. It would be fun to have the class create a story together (about something you are learning about in science for instance) and then make pictures, take photographs, and make little videos and have them see how you can take a subject, story, or anything you come up with, and make it into a video!

This week we learned about digital storytelling. It is really neat to check out other people's stories and videos used for elementary schools! We were given the opportunity to use claymation, ripped paper, or photos. We chose to do photos, but there are so many options to do! I am excited for this week to put music and sound and create out story!
(Blogger won't upload the pictures of my storyboard but I will post them asap!)

FREE handbags!

Handbag Planet is giving away FREE purses on the hour for 24 hours. FREE...who can pass that up? I copied Angie, but I also really want a bag so check it out because its worth a shot, I checked it out and they have some really cute bags. Check it out HERE.

Reflection on Tech Savvy Teacher

Madelyn and I decided to do our article for the tech savvy teacher for 3rd grade students to learn about the earth and moon. We went through many of the technologies available on the internet and eventually decided on Stellarium. This program made it easy for students to see how the earth rotates and to watch the moon at different stages. It was really a neat experience for us to be able to learn about some of just the different science technologies that are available to us as teachers. It was really fun to come up with a project for our students to work on. We made our article in Powerpoint and saved the slides as a JPEG so they would come up as images. This was a neat way to see how other future teachers will use technology in their future classrooms!

The Tech Savvy Teacher

This week in class, we were able to learn about TPACK (Techonological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) and how as teachers, we can use technology to help run our classrooms! There are so many great techonological advances that I will be able to use an as educator. One thing I really enjoyed was creating a delicious account. This account allows me to add people to my network and create a bookmark list of links. I think this will be really useful as a teacher because you can have colleagues in your network or you can even invite parents to your network where they can find useful links to help their children understand what you are learning in the classroom.

This week we also were able to learn about Copyright and Fair Use. This is very interesting to me, because I never really thought about how careful we need to be about how we use media clips and songs while educating students. In my link list, I have a link where you can learn more about this concept! The nice thing is, that there are lots of resources for us to access these materials the right way.

Goodreads

So I was raised to be, and have always been quite the reader. I love hearing about books other people are reading, and I love to tell other people about the books I have read, am reading, or planning to read. We signed up for goodreads this week for our IP&T class and I love it!

It will be so great to use as a teacher in the future. With using programs like goodreads on the internet, teachers and colleagues are able to compare, suggest, rate, and group books! I am so excited to get to know this program better!

Whats a Commonplace Blog?

So I learned about commonplace books in an english class I took a year or so ago. A commonplace book is something people used to carry around with them (kind of like a little black book) and when something of interested was said/thought or whatever while in the commonplace, people would pull out their commonplace book and make note so that they would remember!

After I learned about this I was fascinated and immediately went and bought a little pink book that I could carry around with me! Well... I didn't use it as much as I thought I would so I have decided that as I learn new, fascinating things throughout this semester of my elementary education education, I will post them here so not only I can enjoy them, but those around me!