Digital Story

Memories

Technology Interview Reflection

After reading through the interview I was surprised at how much technology this school has at it's fingertips. There is an amazing computer lab that the students can use and there are also a few mobile labs that have laptops that the students can use. When I was talking to my cooperating teacher she told me all the things that she has in her own classroom and I was shocked. She has a ceiling projector, digital camera, video recorder, and a lot more things that would be so much fun to have in your classroom. There were plenty of things for the students to use when it came to technology.

Professional Development Plan

My skills before this class were limited. I am not very tech savy and I honestly do not really have an intrest in it. I really like technology, but I am not one to sit down and figure out how to work things.
However, I do believe technology should be used in the classroom. There are so many things that you can do with it and the students really like to use it because they have grown up using it their whole lives. I really want to incorporate power points and WebQuests because I think they are great learning tools for the students. They enjoy the interactiveness and I feel that they learn better when they interact in that way.
I really want to be more comfortable with computers. I always feel like im going to break them and that they are going to die because of something I did. I want to be more familiar with the programs that will be of benefit to the students and I want to know the kinds of resources that I can use in the classroom. There is so much you can do with technology and computers you just have to know what you are doing and that's what I want to be more educated on.

WebQuest Reflection

Doing the WebQuest was not easy. I really liked finding and researching the topics, but it was a little hard coordinating with the group. We all have pretty busy lives and the only way we could get together was at 10:00 at night on google docs. However, it was nice to have that option.
We did ours on the civil war and the people who were effected by it and their views. It was interesting to see what we were all able to come up with. I had a really hard time finding what I needed to find about the states rights advocates. There was not a whole lot of information pertaining to the civil war so that was pretty frustrating.
The whole process was a lot easier than I thought it would be. As stated previously, the hardest part was getting together to put it together.
I have actually already used WebQuests in teaching. My feild partner and I did one to help the students research Greek gods. It was a lot of fun and the kids learned a lot from doing it. I plan on using it more in the future just because it makes it easier on me as a teacher to introduce new topics and the students have fun with it.
My goal has always been to become more familar with technology. I know it will be of use in my future classroom and I also know that the students will want to do things like that becuase its what they know. I plan on using more WebQuests for all sorts of different topics. I enjoy making them and the students like doing them. It's a win-win situation.

Google Docs Reflection

I think the google tools are awesome. There are so many to choose from and they are really fun to use. I did the google earth and it was amazing how you could find your house and look at the streets. I played on that for about an hour just looking at all the places I have lived and been. I really like the calendar too. If I would remember that it was on there I would put actual things in there to remind me of upcoming events. And pretty much having google docs totally saved me so many times. I loved that I didn't actually have to do a group project with my group. Not that I don't love them, but it made all of our lives a little easier to not have to meet. There are a lot of things that you could do with the google tools and they are so fun to play around with. I will definitely use them a lot.