Booksmart
Booksmart is one of my new favorite technology tools that I have found.Booksmart is a program that is used to create books of all kinds. The program canactually be downloaded from blurb.com and is absolutely free. The program is veryeasy to use with a nice layout and self explanatory tool symbols. Booksmart offersmany different templates for each book you can make. Possible books are photo books,text books, quote books, and others as well. Because Booksmart is connected withblurb.com there are online tutorials and how-to's when it comes to creating your book.They also have very helpful representatives if you have any questions.
I really love this tool because it gives students the opportunity to create their own
book. Many kids don't look forward to writing a book and drawing pictures themselves
and this is a good alternative. The layouts are easy to follow and children will have somuch fun making their book. What they won't realize is they are actually learningwhile having fun. This program has the opportunity to help children learn how to insertimages and move them around, change the size and perform other altering actions onthem. It will also help children have a good time writing a story or adding commentaryto different parts of their book. Books are ordered and shipped to you in hardback orsoftcover. I really like the options they have and they are very inexpensive as well. Ithink students will find this to be a very enjoyable learning experience and it can beused at home for the whole family to enjoy too.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Tech Tool #1
Podcasting
One great tool that I am learning to like a lot is podcasting. The tool is very easy
to use. Teachers can find various podcasts that teach the subject they are studying. Whenthey find the podcast they would like to use it can be downloaded to computers in theirclassroom. The actual podcast is an audio or visual media source that has information onwhatever the subject is. Podcasts are offered for many subjects including science,language arts, fine arts, social studies, and many other subjects. It is very easy todownload the program and have students learn from it. I think it is a very fun and cooltool that kids would like to learn from.
I plan to use podcasting in my classroom because I think students can benefit from
its use. Each child learns differently and I believe this may be a great way for students tolearn in a different way that is not offered with a teacher. I like that tutorials can beavailable to each child at home. Teachers can show their students how to access differentpodcasts that can help them study or do homework outside of school. I think podcastingin the classroom would be a great thing because students have the opportunity to learnfrom a source other than the teacher. But, when the podcast is over there is a teacher inthe classroom to answer any questions and clear up any confusion. I hope to becomemore familiar with podcasting and use it in my classroom whenever I can.
One great tool that I am learning to like a lot is podcasting. The tool is very easy
to use. Teachers can find various podcasts that teach the subject they are studying. Whenthey find the podcast they would like to use it can be downloaded to computers in theirclassroom. The actual podcast is an audio or visual media source that has information onwhatever the subject is. Podcasts are offered for many subjects including science,language arts, fine arts, social studies, and many other subjects. It is very easy todownload the program and have students learn from it. I think it is a very fun and cooltool that kids would like to learn from.
I plan to use podcasting in my classroom because I think students can benefit from
its use. Each child learns differently and I believe this may be a great way for students tolearn in a different way that is not offered with a teacher. I like that tutorials can beavailable to each child at home. Teachers can show their students how to access differentpodcasts that can help them study or do homework outside of school. I think podcastingin the classroom would be a great thing because students have the opportunity to learnfrom a source other than the teacher. But, when the podcast is over there is a teacher inthe classroom to answer any questions and clear up any confusion. I hope to becomemore familiar with podcasting and use it in my classroom whenever I can.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Google Sites
As I have continued to work on my final project stuff I have really liked building my google site. Pretending to be a teacher has been great fun.
Google sites is really awesome because it is free to have web pages that can be accessed by anyone. I like the easy navigation of the site and how it is set up. The options for layout are great and the tools easy to use. I really like the insert options for google sites because I can add an image, or the url for the picture. I can also insert a picture slide show from different web albums.
The different theme options help to make my site fun and personalized which is also great. I am also finding that I may want a personal website just for fun. I am almost done with my website and just need to work on my tools in technology page. This semester we have learned about so many tools I am not sure what to pick!
Google sites is pretty awesome and will be when I am a teacher. I think parents and students would be able to navigate the site very easily to get any information they need. I wish my teachers had a website so I could get extra info and they don't. So I plan to have a website as a teacher.
Google sites is really awesome because it is free to have web pages that can be accessed by anyone. I like the easy navigation of the site and how it is set up. The options for layout are great and the tools easy to use. I really like the insert options for google sites because I can add an image, or the url for the picture. I can also insert a picture slide show from different web albums.
The different theme options help to make my site fun and personalized which is also great. I am also finding that I may want a personal website just for fun. I am almost done with my website and just need to work on my tools in technology page. This semester we have learned about so many tools I am not sure what to pick!
Google sites is pretty awesome and will be when I am a teacher. I think parents and students would be able to navigate the site very easily to get any information they need. I wish my teachers had a website so I could get extra info and they don't. So I plan to have a website as a teacher.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Microsoft Publisher
For my blog this week I want to talk about Microsoft Publisher. We were supposed to learn how to use this tool in class and didn't get the chance. I decided to try and use it for one of my assignments. As I opened it up the program was so helpful. It took me directly to a template chooser where I could decide what I was going to work on and how it should look. I had a lot of fun trying to find a cute template for my newsletter.
As I got started, I found that publisher was pretty simple to use. Of course I didn't play with all of the tools, but it has all the basics. I had a really great time moving text boxes around and inserting pictures. It was actually really enjoyable to create my newsletter.
I am not very familiar with Publisher, but I hope to use it for a few of my other assignments so I can become more familiar with it. Figuring out a new technology tool while pretending to be a teacher has been really fun. I can't wait until I actually have students so I can teach them about all of the fun technology tools they can use.
As I got started, I found that publisher was pretty simple to use. Of course I didn't play with all of the tools, but it has all the basics. I had a really great time moving text boxes around and inserting pictures. It was actually really enjoyable to create my newsletter.
I am not very familiar with Publisher, but I hope to use it for a few of my other assignments so I can become more familiar with it. Figuring out a new technology tool while pretending to be a teacher has been really fun. I can't wait until I actually have students so I can teach them about all of the fun technology tools they can use.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Workin on my final project
This week I worked on elements for my final project. Well, I guess all of the final assignments due at the end of class. There is plenty to do and I wasn't sure where to start. Luckily I have friends that knew exactly what we should work on first.
In class we worked on our class rules assignment. This is our one assignment we could do with someone else. I worked on it with Chelsey and Aubrey. Aubrey had come up with some rules that we could use for our own classroom. And I thought, hey that's easy! As I started creating my document I realized that some of the rules she had I didn't like very much. As I seriously thought about rules I may like in my classroom, it was kind of hard for me to think of them.
When I was a kid I didn't break the rules. I just kept to myself and did all my school work. I never really paid attention to what the rules were because I didn't need to. I thought about what might be a good class rule in elementary school and felt I came up with a pretty good list.
To check out my class rules go to my UEN page and click on final project. There you will find my 10 class rules.
In class we worked on our class rules assignment. This is our one assignment we could do with someone else. I worked on it with Chelsey and Aubrey. Aubrey had come up with some rules that we could use for our own classroom. And I thought, hey that's easy! As I started creating my document I realized that some of the rules she had I didn't like very much. As I seriously thought about rules I may like in my classroom, it was kind of hard for me to think of them.
When I was a kid I didn't break the rules. I just kept to myself and did all my school work. I never really paid attention to what the rules were because I didn't need to. I thought about what might be a good class rule in elementary school and felt I came up with a pretty good list.
To check out my class rules go to my UEN page and click on final project. There you will find my 10 class rules.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Kidspiration
This week I played around with the tool called Kidspiration. I had no idea what it was or how it was to be used. After playing with it for about 5 minutes I fell absolutely in love with it! Now I wish I had it at home.
Kidspiration is a tool that lets you make activities on the computer for students to accomplish. Without knowing the system that part was kind of confusing. So I went to the activities portion of this tool first, just to get the hang of things. The first activity I clicked into was a word activity called beginning or end. I didn't want to get too confused so I figured out what everything on the tool bar did. I love that this program allows kids to create diagrams of all different kinds to accomplish whatever the task may be. I also love that the undo button is very prominent in case you make a mistake. Listen is a handy tool so you can hear the instructions and how to do the assignment, and a dictionary and thesaurus is always handy. So before I even looked at any activities I was very impressed.
There were a few activities I really loved that I want to highlight. (I'm sure I would have many more if I had more time to explore the tool.) The first one I loved is called Balanced Meal. In this activity kids have to drag pictures of different foods and put them in the right food group. Then they have to decide which ones could go together to make a healthy meal. The set up was darling and the whole thing very fun to do. The second one I thought would be very useful was called Branches of Government. There were phrases or names in boxes that students had to sort into the 3 branches of government. I always get confused about who is where in the government and this activity would help me remember a little bit better. Get Ready is another really fun activity. There are 5 kids that need to get ready for different events and it was my job to get them dressed correctly. Talk about fun! Paper dolls on the computer :) Another one I liked was called Basic Heredity. Students are asked to sort environmental traits from inherited traits . After they are sorted they g to the writing view and explain the choice they made for each symbol and why.
I found this tool very fun and helpful as well. I think many students would enjoy learning how to play on here. The biggest benefit is that children would be learning so much and think of it as play because of how the program is set up. Not only will they learn many different subjects and work on all skills, they will better their technology skills as well. I found the program to be very easy to navigate and control. I think students of all ages could use Kidspiration even at young ages. Children in K-3 might need a teachers or parents help and the older kids could do it all on their own.
It may be hard to have Kidspiration in the classroom because I think students would want to play on it all the time. Most classrooms don't have enough computers for each student to use at the same time. There would be draw backs such as each child couldn't get enough time on the computer to accomplish an assignment in expected time. Homework with Kidspiration would also be difficult for those children without a computer at home. These obstacles can be solved, I'm sure. Maybe Kidspiration could be used just once a week in the school computer lab. Each child would have that time to complete an activity and get to know the program.
I think Kidspiration could be a wonderful tool for each student to be familiar with. I would love to have it in my school's computer lab someday. I need to be more familiar with the program before I teach students so I hope to have enough time to do that. Overall, I love Kidspiration and plan to use it in the future!
Kidspiration is a tool that lets you make activities on the computer for students to accomplish. Without knowing the system that part was kind of confusing. So I went to the activities portion of this tool first, just to get the hang of things. The first activity I clicked into was a word activity called beginning or end. I didn't want to get too confused so I figured out what everything on the tool bar did. I love that this program allows kids to create diagrams of all different kinds to accomplish whatever the task may be. I also love that the undo button is very prominent in case you make a mistake. Listen is a handy tool so you can hear the instructions and how to do the assignment, and a dictionary and thesaurus is always handy. So before I even looked at any activities I was very impressed.
There were a few activities I really loved that I want to highlight. (I'm sure I would have many more if I had more time to explore the tool.) The first one I loved is called Balanced Meal. In this activity kids have to drag pictures of different foods and put them in the right food group. Then they have to decide which ones could go together to make a healthy meal. The set up was darling and the whole thing very fun to do. The second one I thought would be very useful was called Branches of Government. There were phrases or names in boxes that students had to sort into the 3 branches of government. I always get confused about who is where in the government and this activity would help me remember a little bit better. Get Ready is another really fun activity. There are 5 kids that need to get ready for different events and it was my job to get them dressed correctly. Talk about fun! Paper dolls on the computer :) Another one I liked was called Basic Heredity. Students are asked to sort environmental traits from inherited traits . After they are sorted they g to the writing view and explain the choice they made for each symbol and why.
I found this tool very fun and helpful as well. I think many students would enjoy learning how to play on here. The biggest benefit is that children would be learning so much and think of it as play because of how the program is set up. Not only will they learn many different subjects and work on all skills, they will better their technology skills as well. I found the program to be very easy to navigate and control. I think students of all ages could use Kidspiration even at young ages. Children in K-3 might need a teachers or parents help and the older kids could do it all on their own.
It may be hard to have Kidspiration in the classroom because I think students would want to play on it all the time. Most classrooms don't have enough computers for each student to use at the same time. There would be draw backs such as each child couldn't get enough time on the computer to accomplish an assignment in expected time. Homework with Kidspiration would also be difficult for those children without a computer at home. These obstacles can be solved, I'm sure. Maybe Kidspiration could be used just once a week in the school computer lab. Each child would have that time to complete an activity and get to know the program.
I think Kidspiration could be a wonderful tool for each student to be familiar with. I would love to have it in my school's computer lab someday. I need to be more familiar with the program before I teach students so I hope to have enough time to do that. Overall, I love Kidspiration and plan to use it in the future!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Powerpoint and Presentations
This week we got to present the powerpoint activities we created as a group. I had a really fun time working with the other girls doing activities.Presenting these proved to be a challenge at first. We were kind of frazzled and unorganized with our first presentation. We hadn't gotten together to figure out what we were going to say and how to do it. So we kind of flopped.
The second presentation however went really well. We were all on the same page and organized. Our presentation made sense, and flowed really well. We ended up doing really well and everyone could understand what we were talking about.
Some of our girls didn't dress up for the presentation and it really hurt their grade. I felt bad, but realized how important it is to be responsible and remember what is due for class.
I think presentations in the classroom are good, but should not be expected until 4th or 5th grade. At that age I think they can handle it with reminders from their parents and practice. I hope to teach my students the art of presenting. What is expected and how it should be done. This week was a wake up call that practice is necessary and students need to learn how to present. I'm glad we did activities that are not necessarily presentations and learned how to present them. This week was a great learning experience.
The second presentation however went really well. We were all on the same page and organized. Our presentation made sense, and flowed really well. We ended up doing really well and everyone could understand what we were talking about.
Some of our girls didn't dress up for the presentation and it really hurt their grade. I felt bad, but realized how important it is to be responsible and remember what is due for class.
I think presentations in the classroom are good, but should not be expected until 4th or 5th grade. At that age I think they can handle it with reminders from their parents and practice. I hope to teach my students the art of presenting. What is expected and how it should be done. This week was a wake up call that practice is necessary and students need to learn how to present. I'm glad we did activities that are not necessarily presentations and learned how to present them. This week was a great learning experience.
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