The Weather Hat Parade

Today at our host elementary school I got to be a part of the weather hat parade. The students got to design their own hats pertaining to one weather topic. There were so many different hats. There were spring, summer, fall, winter, wind, rain and tornado hats. They were amazing. The students were very creative designing their hats. We all got to march down the halls while music was playing. All of the classes in the school sat in the halls watching us and waving as we walked by. We made our way to the cafeteria where the students’ parents were waiting for us. Then the students marched to the stage in front of the cafeteria and sang a song about the weather for their parents. It was really fun, and the students enjoyed it. I know the students will remember all the weather systems just by having a little bit of fun mixed into their lesson.

My First Elementary School Visit

This week I had my first visit to our host elementary school. I can honestly say the kids were excited. I do not know if it was because of me or not, but they were definitely full of energy. This one boy sat down with me and was showing me everything about his IPad. They use them every day and have many apps to accompany their school work. They all seemed very advanced in their understanding of their IPads. Everyone took great care of their devices and knew how to operate it. Our teacher let the students who were well behaved have a few minutes of free IPad time after recess. This kept most of the students in line while walking through the halls. I know many people only want the IPads to be used in an educational capacity, but I see real benefits in using it as a reward to correct behavior. Most students want to play on the IPad and you can definitely win by not losing the time you would need to correct students misbehaving and distracting their classmates during your lesson. The only way to get my nephew to participate in his class is to give him computer time. In my view if it helps the student and their classmates learn than you are only hurting yourself and your class by not using it. We should teach by whatever methods work for our students, so I think you need to use everything you have at your disposal be it angry birds or another app.

Welcome to Elementary School

Today we had our first visit with the elementary school we will be observing. Our class got a brief introduction to the school. We were given a quick tour of the school, and everyone got to meet their assigned teacher. My teacher has a second grade class, and they use technology regularly throughout the day. Their school has so many different tools to use. They are very modern and up to date with their technology. I cannot wait to see how they incorporate technology into their schoolwork because this is the area I see myself teaching. I am hoping to teach second or third grade so this should really help me visualize what I would like to do in my classroom. The school seemed to happily welcome us, and I can only hope I get the chance to use some of the things I learn from them in my very own classroom.

Goodbye Middle School

This week was my last week visiting the middle school. It was so sad to know that I would be leaving them. On my last day I did get to see them using their IPods. They were broken up into groups and given an assignment based on a person in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Black Cabinet. They were given a member of the cabinet and had to find at least five facts about that person.  Most of the groups used their time wisely and easily found enough facts. However, there were some groups who had difficulty finding all the facts they needed, but overall they seemed to work well in their groups and with the technology. The main problem with the IPods would be the wireless connection making the internet really slow, but most of the students are use to this and deal with it the best that they can. I will miss visiting their class and seeing how well they incorporate new technology with their schoolwork.

PowerPoint Presentation Day at Our Host Middle School

Today during my visit I was able to see the students' PowerPoint presentations. They had to choose three things to discuss during the Progressive Era and have pictures and bullets in their presentations. All of the students seemed to be well versed in how to use this aspect of technology. Their presentations looked to be very well organized and contained everythng the teacher asked them to include. Of course, some students appeared to be more advanced in their PowerPoint presentations than others, and some were nervous to have to stand up and present their project in their class. However, they all overcame their fears and were able to present their PowerPoints to the class. The only problem some of them had was their grammar and spelling, but you could understand what they were trying to say. Overall I was very surprised with how well everyone's project turned out and how all of them were able to stand up in front of their class and present their project.

My First Day

This past week I had my first visit to our middle school. It was a nice size classroom, a little smaller than I remembered. They did have a lot of upgrades in the classroom. They use a smartboard to take notes. When I was in school we used an overhead projector where the teacher would write with a marker and roll the plastic to a clean sheet to start new notes. They use the smartboard to have a PowerPoint on the screen. The teacher also gave them a PowerPoint project that will be due next week. When I was in middle school we had never heard of PowerPoint. They were also going to get to use ipads in class next week to work on their PowerPoint. They were cautioned about the slow wireless connections though. I know in our middle school we only had computer lab that was able to get internet service for us. It is amazing how much new technology is used in schools and how much it affects what is taught in school.

Site of the Day

Did you know you can upload PowerPoints to the internet? Well you can at slideshare.net. This website allows you to upload PowerPoint files from your computer to the web. This site also gives you an embed code, so you can upload projects to different sites across the web. This site gives you the ability to share your work easily with others who could use your work as an extra resource. All you need to do is go to the site and create a free account. That is right this site is totally free. There are no strings attached just sign up with your information, and you are good to go. You can upload any PowerPoint file on your computer. I hope you can find a way to benefit from this site because I know I sure can.

Streamline SC

Today in class we had a visitor, Mrs. Jarrett from ETV. She introduced us to this great site made by ETV. The site Streamline SC can be found here http://www.scetv.org/education/streamlinesc/, and it is an excellent resource for teachers in South Carolina. ETV has put together a site that allows teachers to search for resources to enrich their lesson plans. There are videos, songs, work sheets, quizzes, and even lesson plans created by other teachers in our state. All of the materials on their site are free to use. Teachers may use them however they wish and print as many copies as they want without the fear of violating any copyright laws. ETV is also kind enough to put which South Carolina Standard the materials would go along with, and you can truly see how this would definitely help any teacher in the classroom, especially one who is facing her first time in a classroom. I can definitely see myself using and benefiting from this site in the future.

Middle School Observation

Today we got to visit our host middle school. There are so many different tools they have in our schools now. It is amazing how much technology has affected how our children learn. The internet helps bring so many more resources into the classroom that we did not have access to during my education. There are ways to stream videos to show what you are teaching. Some students may never have the chance to see what snow looks like. The videos would give them the only chance they had to experience snow. You can easily see how this could help students experience what they are learning. They can use a smartboard to play interactive games or an ipod nano to read audio books to them. It is a great way to enhance the learning experience and keep students interested in what they are learning. I could not believe how much was available at our school because it is an older school. Our principal says that they are having problems with the bandwidth because the school was not made to handle everyone streaming videos at the same time, but it is just one of the kinks that must be worked out with new technology. This middle school is really advanced in their technical tools especially for a middle school. I am looking forward to visiting my classroom and experiencing all the advances made since I was a student in middle school. It is definitely going to be different from then to now.

Ipads in Schools

Today in class we had an interesting discussion about our schools moving toward ipads. One student has had some difficulty concerning this with her children. She stated her children have already broken two and the insurance only covers three. When the students break their third one even on insurance the parent has to pay full price for the ipad. These students are only in middle school and are fairly young, so you know they have not learned how to take care of things. I mean really we all see how rough middle school boys are. Also everything must be done on the ipad in these schools. That means tests and homework can only be done on the ipad. Well when the students break their ipads, the ipads are sent out to be repaired. While the students’ ipads are out for repair they have no way of taking tests are doing homework. This results in zeros and getting behind in all their subjects. This to me seems unfair. I know we need to teach our kids responsibility, but all of us know accidents happen. Even as adults we may accidentally break our computer. There should be some way the student could still do their work while the ipad is gone. I love the move toward teaching our children technology. In this fast paced world it has become essential, and I know in order to compete in the global economy this is an excellent idea. However, I believe the schools need to be more understanding and find better fixes to the kinks in their system. There should be ways for the students to do their homework and tests while their ipad is being fixed. The ipad should be a resource not a necessity.

Pdfescape.com

Did you know you can edit a pdf file? I was shocked to learn you could. In class today we discovered a website called pdfescape.com. It is a free program you can use to edit pdf files. There is nothing to download either. All you need to do is go to the site and upload you document. Then you can edit it any way you want. You can delete pages or alter the text. It is a nice website to use if you want to use a pdf file but need to change it a little, remove some unnecessary content or break up the file if the file is too big to upload in its entire form. This is something I could definitely use in the future and will be bookmarked on my computer. I hope you found it useful too.

Welcome

I would like to welcome you to my blog. This is the first blog I have ever had and the first post I have ever made! This blog is my way of keeping track of what I learned in my education class and a way of sharing my experiences with you. You are welcome to follow me as I enter the world of education and see if it could benefit you. I hope that you are able to learn as I do as I go through my classes and take advantage of the experiences I go through. Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you will return.