Advice to Future Students

Dear Future Students of ED 307,
       Before taking this class I want you to keep an open mind. This course is filled with topics that will be truly helpful in the field of education. Though this only benefits you if you keep your mind open into incorporating them into the classroom.
       Face it here is what you think of technology:

and your uses of these technologies are far from educational. In this class you are able to learn how to use these, well maybe not Facebook to better your teachings. You will also learn how to be ethical in your teachings. 

In the class my favorite piece was skyping with the eighth graders and learning what different types of technologies they actually use in their classroom. This makes the class realistic and opens you eyes to the point of the class. The world is evolving, our students are going to know about technology before us and they are going to be able to use it before us. One item I found really fascinating that the students used was blabberize: 

'

I wish that I had known how much students really do use technology in classrooms before taking this course the first time, it makes you take the class more seriously.

I'm a 90's kid

Courtesy surpr1zzm33

I grew up in the 90's, obviously because I am only 20 years old. The sad part about being a 90's kid is no one understands anything from the 90's unless you are a 90's kid. I remember TV that didn't involve teen pregnancy, a life before cell phones, what a land line is, that Kal loves his orange soda and Myspace was my Facebook.

Courtesy of Youtube

As a 90's kid I remember when TV used to be decent. We had Boy Meets World, All That, The Amanda Show, Rugrats(NOT RUGRATS ALL GROWN UP), Lizzy McGuire, I mean come on where did all these good shows go! We even had better music not this Justin Beiber kid, I mean who didn't love NYSNC or Backstreet Boys. 

Courtesy of polyvore

Current Event- Flipped Classrooms

In the following news article it talks about a 24 year-old teacher who has created a classroom that gets students to use the technology that they have to help them with their education  When students come into the classroom they use their smartphones to scan a code that sends them directly to their assignments for the day.

Courtesty of bangordailynews

As an new teacher these are ideas that I could keep in mind to help my students incorporate their technology as opposed to keeping them off from their technology.  Many teachers are afraid to use this approach because they are unsure of technology and think it may hinder the teacher lecturing to students. Though from the courses we are taking now we learn that this is not an effective approach, lecturing, anyway and that educational approaches need to be mixed.
This is important to know because it makes us aware of one teachers approach and educates us on what may work in our own classrooms.
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/09/23/education/flipped-classrooms-count-on-interaction-technology/?ref=search

10 Things

Having to depict my 10 favorite things is pretty difficult. There are many things that I enjoy but coming up with my 10 most favorite to share is not as easy as I thought it might be. However here they are:
          #1- Post-Its - Simply because there is nothing better than a good post-it. They come in different colors, shapes, designs and sizes.  I have a little collection of my own actually.

Courtesy Jaycross

        #2- Organization- So its not the funnest thing to think of but I find organizing very soothing and very fun. I'm   a little organization freak, makes working retail a bad idea.

        #3- Colored Markers/ Pens- Writing in black and blue is not on any of my lists ( and i'm a list maker with my post-its). I feel that writing in color makes everything a little more enjoyable.

Courtesy David Guo's Master

      #4- Books- I love to read. Its a new found passion of mine. Reading in grade school was always to strict and I never did well with reading what I was assigned. However with my #5 favorite thing, my kindle, reading has become enjoyable again. My #6, watching movies, is also quite easy with my kindle HD. 

      #7- Kitchen Aid- I am a baker, #8 baking, and with my wonderful Kitchen Aid that is constantly being used life is good. 

       #9- Music- Everything is done with music in my house. My family is all very into music and its one thing we all have in common. 

       #10- The HGTV channel- I am obssessed with redesign and everything DIY with houses. My favorite show is Love It or List It, its addicting. 

Video in the Classroom

Video can be used within the classroom in various ways. It can be a tool to get different students to interact, it can be a tool to teach, and it can be a tool used in various ways.When I was going to school, prior to college, we did not use video in classrooms other than watching a movie or a video. Through this course I have been taught or discovered new ways to bring in video.

One of these ways to bring in video is our 'How To' project that we are working on ourselves. This could be a way for students to alternatively create a way to explain how to do an activity without writing it down or creating the same old power point. Its a way to get students creating new ideas that are unique and original. This is a unique way to assign a project to a group of students however not all students will have what it takes to create this video and some may not be comfortable making this video. An example of a how to video one way:

Video via Youtube How to Tie Shoes

Teachers can also use video to assign homework or to give instructions. This is a unique way for teachers to get the information out there at the ease of themselves. It is one way that the teacher won't have to repeat what the assignment is again and again. This is also helpful for absent students because they can watch the video when they get back or from home. We also use video in college when we have students from other schools taking the same courses, we do this through a similar fashion to skype. 

Photo Courtesy tuchodi

In today's classrooms there are many ways that we can bring video into our classroom's in ways that benefit ourselves and our students. Today's classrooms are beginning to embrace technology and one of these ways is by bringing in video, in a better sense then watching a movie, that's not the best use of technology.

Courtesy of AV Hire London

5 Things

If there were five things anyone should know about me they are a really simple five things. I'll start with the most obvious one I am a very family orientated person. Coming from a large and crazy family I find that family is one of the most important things in life and they come first in my life especially my two nephews.

This is a photo of the ladies in the family, a few years back but still shows how we are. :)

Second fun fact about me is I am a surprisingly good cook and baker. Which comes in handy because I really enjoy eating food. As a professor of mine once said "There are foodies and there are non-foodies." I am a foodie!

This is some yum pesto chicken with fresh tomato and mozzarella made it myself. 

Third fun fact that one must know about me is I am a little obsessive compulsive when it comes to my organization. In my world everything has its place and I am very adamant about these places being just right. Which leads to my fourth fun fact and that is that I am a control freak. I feel that the first step is admitting it and I do admit I like to have things go my way. 

My last and final fun fact is that music is my escape. There is nothing that can't be solved with a little music, it can even calm my obsessiveness. :) The current song stuck in my head just happens to be the following, thanks to works soundtrack. 

 

I feel that these five facts are important to know because theses are all me, these make me who I am. I find that these are the most important facts because these are what define my everyday. Hope you enjoyed learning a little about me!

Skyping With the 8th Grade

As part of class we were able to Skype with eighth graders today and see the set up of their classroom and how they use technology in their classes. From this experience I was surprised to see how much these students use technology in their courses. They were even using sites and tools that we have not been introduced too. The tools they used were voicethread, pixton, edmodo, blabberize, prezi and google drive.
I feel that this was a valuable use of class time and that it was very useful for us as future teachers. From the tools that they described to us I am very interested in finding out more on blabberize and edmodo. I feel that edmodo would work well with a lot of classes we take at Husson.