My Beliefs

Before completing these readings I felt that technology was important but not as involved as it really is in life! Now I know how that there is this whole wide world of the interconnected web that needs to be brought into my future classroom. The world is growing and changing and that should be no different in the classroom, if we want our students to be able to compete with other countries we have to give them the tools they will need to succeed. I would love to have the most high-tec classroom out there! Every student has a laptop, and we are all connected to the never ending WWW. I know that with this comes new problems and issues of privacy but we have to keep moving with the flow of the world in order to keep evolving.Technology has taken over our simple world and now kindergartners have iphones and are able to do just as much on a computer as their parents. I believe that technology makes learning more dynamic and easier at times but also opens a can of worms that I will have to deal with. Life is so fast paced and kids don't just go out and play any more. Video games and texting are so much more fun, there are times when I wish things were so connected because I feel like our students are growing up so fast! They are losing the simplicity of life and becoming so materialized. There are so many children in this world who don't even have sufficient food and a school how is it that there are children that have 3 ipods, an xbox 360, 2 desktops in their house, and a cell phone. I don't see how it can be so unfair and yet I myself have a cell phone, laptop and an ipod and huge TV. I guess your beliefs are dictated by where you are in the Technological world and I know that mine will continue to grow and change as I do.

Lessons Learned

WOW! Lets just say I learned so much from doing this activity. The readings and videos showed by how I need to step up my game in order to keep up with my students. There are so many tools and new technology out there and if you don't do your research you will be left in the dust. I learned that I don't have to be afraid of technology, rather use it to better my teaching abilities. Our students are growing up in a different time and they are so used to being constantly connected and stimulated which makes teaching and learning a little tricky for us new teachers. Emails, iphones, text messaging, ichat, ipods, mp3's, are all things that we teachers are going you have to compete with. Everyone, not just businesses are controlled by the Internet! Games like World of Warcraft and xbox live are huge, the players are connected to the online web most of the day. Blogs and facebook have millions of participants which causes large traffic. I learned a lot about Internet traffic and how it effects families and businesses. Technology is constantly changing, surface touch screens are becoming huge. HP is creating new computers that are user friendly and they seem awesome to use. The definition of Classrooms are changing. No longer do students have to actually go to school, because the number of on-line classes are growing. You would never have to even leave your house to learn.

Strengths & Weaknessed

Before I took the survey and started to read all the articles and watched the movies, I didn't think I was that bad at the new technological world but my eyes were opened! I feel that I have a weakness in every area because I know a little bit about everything but I am not really an expert in any area. There are many times that I have to ask either Doc Waters or my peers to help me understand something or put it in non-computer lingo. The survey and NET standards brought many things to my attention. Actually the entire PDP assignment kinda blew my mind! I feel like I am strong overall because I am not afraid to ask for help and I am a good learner, if you show me something once I usually can get the hang of it. I was young when computers really came into play and I have used them and I feel very comfortable. I am stronger when I am using a MAC because that is what I am more used to, but now at my job I have been using a PC and this has really helped me become a multi-computer user. Also through my job and this class I feel like my computer skills have grown like crazy, I am using databases, excel, outlook express, I am creating webpages, podcasts, vidcasts, webquests, and know digital stories. I feel like I was very weak when I watched the Social Networking and Did you know? Movies. I had no idea that there was so much going on with our students and everywhere you go people are always connected, you really can't go anywhere, unless you are in a rural african tribe that you are connected to Wi-Fi or you aren't listening to your ipod. The statistics on the did you know? video were crazy, I feel like there are times when I am not moving as fast as the technological world is and that is when it comes to the world of twitter and iphones, I was one of those people that didn't want to get texting on my phone and know you can't hardly live without it! When it comes to the basics of computer uses like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Internet Explorer I feel like I am very capable of any task that is asked. That has come from experience and trial and error. The thing with computers is that you can always go back and fix something. There isn't always one answer to how to do something on a computer and SAVING is Key to not wanting to break your computer. One thing that I really need to work on is backing up my info! This summer my hard drive crashed and I lost EVERYTHING! So now I have become smart and know how to save my work. Overall this was a wonderful lesson that truly will help me become an all around better teacher because a huge part of teaching and learning is correcting your mistakes and evaluating yourself... Well after this evaluation I know what I need to work on and how I can become a better technological individual.

DIGITAL STORIES To the MAX

Well lets just say overwhelmed is a good word to use when I left class this week! We are embarking on a new technological adventure and it is going to be difficult but a very amazing task. I had asked teachers about digital stories and they say that they are wonderful to use in their classroom to break up regular teaching and learning. I know that I would have loved to watch digital stories when I was in elementary school. It is such a fun way to introduce a new topic to your class. You hit them with a bang and then they emotionally become involved in their learning.

Digital stories are short movies filled music, narration, and video clips. They are suppose to invoke a strong emotional tie with the watcher. Pictures can say a thousand words and instead of reading you are giving your students a chance to learn through watching. Sometimes seeing something is a lot more powerful reading about it and that is what we are doing. Digital stories don't need to be long they are jam packed with images that cause your brain to think.

So why are we learning how to create our very own Digital stories, well that answer is the same like all the other things we are learning in this class. With the growing technology of the world we as teachers have to take that into our classroom. Times have changed and everything is digital, people don't just sit at home and talk and read any more. Everything has a technology tie and that is what stimulates our students, they are used to computers, ipods, PSP's, XBox, and the list seems to grow longer everyday. Even the children in our future classes will have Iphones and cooler technology then we the teachers might have. In order to stay with the times and keep our students actively engaged in their learning we have to give them opportunities to get that sensory engagement in the classroom. I wouldn't use a digital story for everything but there are many things in the core that would be taught more effectively through a Digital Story.

Now that I know what a digital story is and I will be learning how to actually make one I know that I will be become a Digital story master! I am very excited because I have a MAC and this will give me a chance to work on my imovie skills. Me and my team have not decided what topic we want to cover in our story but I know that through all our many examples in class we will find something that we will be proud of! I was very overwhelmed when I left class but know that I have had time to think about everything I know that Doc Waters always prepares us for what we are expected to do so I had to take a step back and realize that we are going to get through this together. Everything we have learned thus far has gotten me so excited to become a teacher! I can visualize myself using all these skills in my future classroom someday and I know why this class is so beneficial.

Movie of the Week

I was unable to download any of the examples on our class site! I think they weren't compatible with my MacBook so I am just going to reflect on all the examples of Digital Stories that we watched in class. I have to say that I was very blown away by the stories we watched in class. I thought there is no way that I am going to be able to do this. I was horrified when we watched the example of the Holocaust Story, no matter how many times you see those tragic pictures they never get easier to see. I can only imagine how much of an impact that would make on a student. Especially as the years go by because the Holocaust is getting farther away and soon we will have no survivors and our future students will not even realize how much of an impact it was on our history. Every example gave me a very good Idea of how to make my very own Digital Story and I am very excited to get to work.

Life as an El Ed Student at UVU thus Far....

So it is fall break this week, which makes me really mad because I love my Thursday classes, but that of course gives us time to sit and reflect on the semester so far. I don't know what I really expected going into this program but I know that my results are amazing. My Cohort is AWESOME! We are all so different and yet we all have the same passion for teaching. My teachers have all been so amazing to work with, I can tell that they all want us to succeed and truly care about helping us develop into the best teachers, they are providing us with the tools that we will need to teach on our own.

I have to say that I am just amazed by all that I am learning. It is so nice actually being in the Program because everything we are learning is actually applicable to what we are going to be doing in the classroom. I was really nervous when I found out that we were taking Social Studies methods because I thought that is going to be hard to teach, but Axel quickly put us at ease and now I know what I am doing and I actually understand what Social studies means. It isn't all facts and dates, everything in life is history and we all have a story to tell, and I am excited to help my students to discover this.

From the very first moment in everyone of my classes I knew that this was going to be a tough semester filled with huge assignments and lots of READING! I am so grateful for EdEl 3250 because there is no required text, I love reading Doc Waters website! It seems that now all the reading starts to blend together and that is how it should be I guess, life is one big pizza not small pepperonis thrown about. What I love most about this program is that our teacher's are modeling for us proper teaching methods, because that is what I feel I need the most help with. I know that I am suppose to be a TEACHER and everyday I am getting closer to that goal.

Nearly Completed Webquest... YAY

Week three of Webquests and my team has worked really hard. We were putting out final touches on everything and making it look really fun for kids. We totally forgot about the credits page so we had to go back and look for all our sites, crazy us! I have been looking at many people's webquests and I have to say that everyone has been working really hard on these. We went over the Rubric and Peer Evaluations this week as well. I really like that Doc Water's lets our input have a say in our grading. There are hundreds of us and 1 of here and that is such a huge job to grade everything. Plus it is wonderful practice for us to help us familiarize ourselves with creating Rubrics. And as teachers you are constantly being evaluated and learning how to take criticism and applying it to make you better is a task that all of us need to learn.

So why do we care about creating Webquests? Are they going to make us better teachers? Technology is a huge part of our world and just like our older generations are having difficult times getting with the technology age, I don't want to be lost. We have to realize that our students are going to be coming into the classroom and they will know how to use the computer. Everything is changing, people aren't writing anymore everything is typed. With this change comes changes for the future teachers. If we can use the amazing World Wide Web to help our students learn, why not! Technology makes things easier and that should help free up time to teach your students more and to really dig deep into their learning.

Now that I know how to create webquests, PPS's, and do hyperlinks. I feel that I am more comfortable in a computer class. I plan on using webquests to enrich my teaching and to break up the normal routine of class. In fact everything I am learning in this class will be very helpful in all areas of life not just my personal classroom. I can create PPS's for staff meetings, community meetings, family slide shows, just about everything. I have had people at my current job and friends ask me questions about websites, google docs, blogs, and hyperlinks all of which I am now an expert at! I am really glad that this class is part of our program classes.

Movie: Schoolhouse Rock - A Noun is a Person, Place, or Thing

I LOVE SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK! In fact we even used a School House Rock song in our Webquest about weather. There is pretty much a School House Rock for anything and everything you could think of. We have seen many of them in our other classes this semester so far. I still remember Conjunction, Junction- What's your function, and I'm just a Bill from when I was in school. Learning something through a Song really helps you remember, and even now I can still go back and start to sing and it brings back all the memories of the lessons I did that were associated with that unit. To many these seem silly, but to be honest, kids are SILLY and they love this stuff and it takes the heat off you as the teacher for a minute and lets the kids listen to some one else and also enjoy a catchy song.

Hyperlinks... Anyone!

This was our second week on Webquests! We reviewed as a class what we were suppose to be creating and learned how to put everything into a PowerPoint. All of this is very new to me, I am not very computer savvy and so I feel that this is such a beneficial class for me. I had never heard the word Hyperlinks ever before in my life. I had no idea that so much went into creating a presentation. I have to admit I was very naive when it came to this lesson. I am so used to my Mac Laptop, which does everything for you. I had to really listen to what Doc Waters was teaching us. When I came to a problem, she didn't just tell me how to fix it. She told me to stop getting stuck in the "Box" and you know what, me and my group mates figured it out. We are almost finished with our Webquests and I couldn't be more prouder. That is what I feel this class does for me. It pushes me past my comfort zone and is teaching me so many valuable tools that I will use constantly in my Teaching career.

So why does it matter that I am making a Webquest on Weather for 2nd graders? Well in teaching in learning you have to learn how to create fun and engaging lesson plans. If you want your students to continue to want to learn you have to keep them excited about what you are teaching. Webquests are fun and interactive ways for students to take on a role and solve a problem or do a fun activity. Breaking the normal routine and letting your students take charge of their learning every once and a while can really help the flow of your classroom. Also as a professional teacher, I know that I will have to make presentations and lessons just like these. Without this class I would really feel unprepared to go into the work field. I really was blown away when we started talking about making our own Websites, blogs, podcasts, and vidcasts and look at me now, I have done them all and now I am working on a super amazing Webcast.

Now that I have these skills, I know that I will be able to apply them to my teaching and learning in the classroom when I become a licensed teacher (oh I can't wait for that day). I know that I am qualified and have gained very useful skills. I never feel like one moment is wasted in Doc Waters class is wasted. I have grown so much over these past 5 weeks, it is unreal. I have shown everyone I know my website, and I can't wait to finish my Webquest so I can show that off as well. Being creative is a huge part of teaching and using technology to help you do that is so wonderful. Technology isn't my enemy it is my new friend.

Video:

We Didn't Start the Fire

Ok so I am being completely honest, I am not quite sure why you wanted us to watch this clip. I love this song and have listened to it every since I was a little girl. But I wasn't sure what it had to do with Webquest. But what I got from it was that teaching has been around forever and will continue to change and grow over time Just like our history. Also so things are just hard to learn like history but this song really helped put faces to stories. I loved the movie, and I felt like I learned so much from watching it. Just like my future students will if I use the technology that I have to help make my teaching more meaningful. On a side note, I really like teacher tube. How cool is that, that there are all these amazing resources out there that you can get to with just a click of a mouse. I have a new respect for the world of technology and I am so excited for what is in store for me.