Journal #6

• The website I found belongs to Miss. Wieneke and she is a first grade teacher at Grove Avenue Elementary School. Her website was very easy to navigate, but I was not a fan of the aesthetic of her page. I felt like it was very minimal and it was not too coherent with theme. She had information on such as calandras, tech resources, school projects, materials, her website provides a lot of information.  I plan on using this as a guide to see what to include on my website. https://sites.google.com/site/misswienekesteacherwebsite/about
• I plan on using technology to advance my students in the classroom setting and connect with the parents. Technology is such a useful tool and I would like to use it to the best of my capabilities. As I have talked about it in many journals and have based assignments on it, I will use class dojo with my students. I will also start using the application that shows how loud the class is. I think that will encourage them to be a little bit more quiet. I believe that anything that is visual will help students improve their behavior or encourage them to participate more. 
• I really liked the smart boards. When I was in elementary school, we had a simpler version and I remember how versatile the board was. Now, the white board has a lot more features and I feel like it will create a more engaging environment in my classroom. I can have the students write on the board, I can display interactive behavior charts. 

Blog #5

1. At first using Diigo was a little confusing, but after using it, it became easy to understand.  Diigo is a very useful software, as I was able to annotate and connect with my peers, without having to be with them. I really enjoyed being able to see what my peers thought about the reading as well. It was a way to have a discussion with my peers even though we were not in the same setting together. The only thing I didn't like about it, was how its a little hard to use. You have to use Chrome and you have to install it to the search engine. 

2. Blogging is something that is new to me and until this class I did not have any experience working with it. Blogging is a place to share recollect your thoughts and experiences and share them with others around. When sharing them, it creates a sense of community as  you may have similar experiences or completely different ones. This allows people to grow and take in the information and adapt it to their personal experience. I am not really a fan of blogging but I do see the positive outcomes of blogging. 

3. A tool that I have found very useful not only in the classroom but in everyday teaching is Google Drive. Google Drive is a very easy to use application that allows you to share just about anything with other people. This could be with other teachers, students, or parents. Another great thing is that Google Drive can be access from just about anywhere where there is internet access. It is also free to use and there is no fee that has to be paid. I will use this tool for sure in my classroom. 

ILP Class Dojo

Hello!

I did my ILP assignment on the software Class Dojo. Class Dojo is a software application that is easy to use and can give the opportunity for the teachers and the parents to feel connected. The application as well also promotes positive behavior by reminding the students that they are able to get points and ultimately receive a price if they behave well enough. For those reasons I enjoy using class dojo.


Hope my video explains the application better.

https://voicethread.com/share/13081658/

Journal #4

• I have recently been using Twitter for this class, and I have been using it to connect with my peers and seeing their ideas and tweets. I have seen how many of my peers share their appreciation, concerns, and daily thoughts on twitter. I have not twitted much, but I do enjoy using it to see what others are up too. When I start teaching my classroom, I feel like I would use twitter to display the students and their work. I would also like to make the account private and only have the parents of the students. Twitter is not something that is needed for teaching or the classroom setting, but it is nice to have. With that being said, I don't think I will use twitter in the future for my classroom. 

• The digital divided is a problem that hinders many students in school, especially when it comes to doing an assignment at home. The student without technology will have issues finding, understanding, or obtaining the material. The main issue that causes the digital divide is financial. The parents might not have the money to have internet at home, or schools can be lacking the funding to have computer labs for the students. Since, I would want to teach at a title one school, which is a predominately lower-income school. One way I can work around it is by sending them the material physically. 

• Software tools are beneficial, especially in the classroom setting. Two programs I would like to use with my students are Class Dojo and Storybird. I like the concept of Class Dojo as it is a kid-friendly version of FB and I could share what the students are doing or directly message the parents. It is also a straightforward, friendly application to use. Another software I recently discovered is Story Bird. I like it because it allows the students to engage with books and stories and even have the ability to create their own. It will enable the students to be creative and share their stories with their peers. 

Journal #3

• The ELA technology I feel most prepared using is LAFS.2.L.3.4, which is being able to identify the definitions of words, which includes new words or new forming words with added context clues. They would be able to do this by being able to access web-based dictionaries. I have the most knowledge on this since it is something I have been doing. One of the standards I feel the least comfortable with is creating audio recordings to utilize it in an interactive storybook. I do not have any experiences with making online books or saving audio on a computer. I am, however, excited to learn how to use that as it is something my students can have access to it, even while away from the classroom setting. 

• The CPALMS Educator Kit is an excellent resource for teachers to use. One of the CPALMS, I would use the second-grade toolkit because it would be the grade I would hopefully teach. In that toolkit, it addresses all the main topics that are taught in school. Each of these topics has many standards within. I would use it because it acts as a guide to help prepare and execute the material well. Especially as a first starting teacher, it will help me understand my students, the curriculum, and their learning. I would be able to use the lessons as a guide, while still be able to cater to my students. 

• The newsletter was a lot more challenging than what I expected it to be. I was not aware of the amount of time and effort it took teachers to prepare them. When I was doing my newsletter, I was having a difficult time making it look nice and cohesive while still providing all the information needed. Even when I turned it in, I was not convinced it was my best work. I felt it was lacking certain materials and did not follow too well. Now that I have more experience working and designing a newsletter, I think that it will become easier as I gain experience. Now that I made a newsletter, I can take that knowledge in my future classroom setting and make the best newsletters possible for my students.

Journal #2

The very first time I used Word was in 3rd grade. Since then, Word has been a program I use almost daily. MS Word is a crucial part of school, as most assignments are created there. Teachers and students use it in the same way. Teachers use it for newsletters, lesson plans, and overall for anything they need to. It is a program that is so versatile that is why it is used so often by both parties.

As a teacher dealing with copyright is going to be a challenge as many ideas have been used up, so taking one may be considered as copyright. To resolve that issue, credit can be given to the person the inspiration was taken from. When providing credit, the students can what it is like and why it is so important to give credit. That way, they can see a prime example of it.

Two significant issues we face with technology in a classroom would be academic dishonesty and cybering bullying. Academic dishonesty is so prevalent in the classroom setting because students are given many assignments that require sources to complete them. When students use those sources, it is easy to forget to cite them or worst case they chose not to. A way to prevent this from happening is educating students on what academic dishonesty is and the reprimands that will be taken if academic dishonesty is present. Another problem that is very prevalent when it comes to technology is funding. Many schools can not afford to provide technology for their students which can create a barrier between teachers and students. The students can not have access to specific material, or the lessons may be outdated due to the lack of tech. A solution to that issue is writing letters to receive grants, it might be competitive and challenging, but donations could help. 

Journal #1

Technology is so prevalent in today's society; it is deeply embedded in our everyday routine. When it comes to using it in a classroom setting, is it inevitable.  Utilizing technology, both as a student and as a teacher creates accessibility to the material and the coursework. The students can use technology to their advantage and learn at their own pace. If the teacher is using a PowerPoint to teach, the student can later access that PowerPoint and go over the material. Another example is the teacher can record themselves giving the lesson and have the students access the recordings from home. Those would be a couple of things that would influence teachers and students to use technology in the classroom.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is an organization that supports technology use in an educational manner. The ISTE has five standards: students, teachers, educational leaders, technology coaches, and computer science educators. The student standard is the most meaningful to me, as I relate to it more. As a student I identify with most if not all of the standards. In particular, I would say I am more of a creative thinker. I express creativity by using all of my resources in order to accomplish the goals that I have. The standard that is bit out of my skill set would be the computer science educator, as I do not know the first thing of computer science, but less teaching it. I believe that I know the most basic skills to get by with this generation of technology. Which would lead me to my next point of being a digital native.


The term digital native is a generation of people who were born during a time where technology was already established. According to Prensky, they are native speakers to the internet and related technologies. In the generation that I am growing up in, I am considered a digital native while my teachers and professors would be regarded as digital immigrants. I would agree with the term of digital native, however, I do think that I am not be as fluent in technology, as maybe some digital immigrants. Although, I have often noticed professors have a hard time trying to figure out how to work their computer or how to upload certain materials on Canvas. In these situations, we (digital natives) help the professors, and usually, it is an easy fix, and yet they are astonished we are able to do it. I believe in the future; my students will help me understand their technology and the technology we have currently will be outdated. This is a pattern that has already occurred with past generations, for example, floppy disk and beepers. I am excited to see how much technology can advance in the future.