Bog 5

In this class I have learned that I did not know as much about technology as I thought I did. I have now been introduced to blogging and i Google and want to use these applications of technology as much as I can.

My philosophy is that a child's learning comes first. Therefore, if incorporating technology into my classroom will benefit my students then I will do whatever I can to incorporate it into my classroom. I know that I want my students to use a blog as a way to journal their thoughts after I teach a lesson. I have also thought about a way to use the e-portfolio for my students. I could scan work of the students that show their learning and make a portfolio for each student. I can also put information that I send to parents on their portfolios. When I have parent conferences, I will have all of the information in one spot and hopefully the parents will see that I care enough about my class to keep everything organized.

My philosophy has guided me to form my projects based on what I want in my classroom. My wiki is a design for the middle school math teacher and the students.

This class has taught me a lot. I learned that technology is something to investigate, not something to fear. I have begun to use iGoogle because I thought it looked fun. I will continue to try to explore google as they develop new applications so that I can keep up with technology because I need to be able to share this information with my students.

• Are you more comfortable composing documents online than longhand?
• I am more comfortable writing things out longhand rather than on computer.
  
  Have you turned your "remembering" (phone numbers, meetings, and so on) over to a technology device?
• I still use a hand written address book with phone numbers in it. I am afraid that my computer will crash and I could lose it.
  
  Do you go to meetings with your laptop or PDA?
• I do not take a laptop or PDA to meetings
  
  Are you constantly connected? Is the Internet always on whether you are at home or work? Is your cell phone always with you?
• I always have my cell phone with me. I do not have to have the internet all of the time. Just periodically.
  
  How many different activities can you effectively engage in at one time?
• Online, I cannot do that many activities at one time but in my everyday life I am a very good multi-tasker.
  
  Do you play video or computer games?
• There are some computer games that I enjoy to play but not very many.
  

AFL develops learners’ capacity for self-assessment so that they can become reflective and self-managing.

In the middle school grades it is very important for students to learn how to assess their own work so that they can manage themselves and learn to take responsibility for their learning. This is a skill that students will take with them to college. Students are not guided in college as they are in middle school and high school. By teaching students early to assess their own work, we can give them a key to future success.

I am not sure how to use a portfolio in my math classroom but as soon as I think of an efficient way to implement it into my classroom I will.

When I began studying for my comprehensive exam, I learned that everything I have for my past classes is scattered around my house. I need a central place where I can keep track of my thoughts and new ideas I get while studying. I believe that the portfolio would be a good place for my to take everything I have left from other classes and putting it all together. This will affect my learning by making my study sessions more effective.

Reflection

What are your reactions to your findings?
I have learned that I am not as technologically swavy as I have always thought. I am learning new things all of the time.

What will you do differently while searching for information on the Internet now? I will validate the website that I use using the techniques I have learned in this class.

How confident are you with the information you have used in the past? I feel now that much of the information I have used in the past may not have been very reliable.

What are some implications for the future of our students if we fail to teach them these skills in school? I believe that many students will be confused by the information they find on the internet and will have a difficult time determining whether information is accurate or not.

Do you see any advantages for organizing your information via Delicious and/or Google Reader? I like Delicious. I now have a place for the websites that I find that have good lessons or teaching ideas. I would always forget to save them or write them down and now I have a place for my work.

What are some ways you think you could use these tools in the future? For the computers in my classroom I could use delicious to bookmark the websites that the students are able to use. This could help to keep the students from finding incorrect information on the web and inappropriate pages.

What purpose did you have in mind when developing your Wiki and have you started to implement your ideas? My idea is to create a Wiki for middle school math teachers to find tools they need for their classroom. I have bookmarked some pages that I would like to link to my Wiki but that is all I have done so far.

Discussion

How can this exercise possibly assist you in identifying future technology projects for this class and in other areas?

I believe that since I have now attempted to write a blog for myself, I would like to incorporate it into my classroom as well. I plan to teach middle school students and instead of journaling on paper I would like them to use a blog instead.

How is having you philosophy down in writing helpful to you?

By having my philosophy down on paper I am able to see my beliefs and alter them if they change instead of having to think about everything that I believe about education. It rules and best practices change so much that I like having it written down instead of trying to remember what I believe.


What potential uses do you see for blogging? I see that I could use blogging as a from of journal writing for my students. I believe they would enjoy it because we would be using technology and I could read their thought about their learning and their lessons.

Have we met the potential met in the Educational Blogging Article?

No I do not believe we do because there are still a lot of opponents of blogging and many of them are educators themselves.

What is preventing us from doing so? I think that Many people see blogging as free form writing even though it does not have to be. Students can write their beliefs prompts just gives the student a little support.

From the article Creating a Culture for Teaching and Learning, the area that stood out to me the most is Collegiality is What's Needed. This area focuses on how educators should work as a team to do what is best for all students instead of what is best for the few students that each teacher is teaching. I think that schools will run better if they would use more teamwork.

Philosophy Draft

Education is an evolving business. Things change from one moment to the next. I have beliefs that I want to carry into the classroom with me. Some of these involve empathy for the students, teaching strategies and technology.

I had a teacher once that was not empathetic toward students at all. I had an illness and she did not help me one bit. When I get my own classroom I will be firm in my rules for late work and how my class is conducted but if a student has a documented illness I will do my best to work with that student in order for them to catch up and learn as much as they can. Students at the middle school level need teachers that understand their mixed up feelings and I want to show my students that I remember those confusing times and know how it feels to be a misunderstood teenager. By being empathetic toward my students, I hope I can form a community in my classroom that allows students to learn as much as they can.

Research shows that the best practices for teaching change all of the time. Right now, I believe that in a Math class it is most appropriate to use hands-on activities to teach lessons. This allows students to stay more focused on the task at hand compared to lessons that just involve lecture. I have a constructivist view of education so I think that students should do project and work through problems in order to discover the concepts that they are learning and that at some points in a lesson the teacher should just be a guide for the students.

While working through my student teaching I was able to teach lessons using a smart board. I enjoyed using this device because I found that if you allow the students to use it as well, they are more eager to participate in the lesson. I also would like to incorporate other technologies such as i-pods and i-phones. You can use these devices to upload notes and even flash cards for studying.

I believe that empathy, best practices in teaching and technology are important parts of teaching. All of these aspects of teaching are very important to me and the success of my students. I hope that because of my beliefs and my teaching styles, my students leave my class with more knowledge than that arrived with.