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.

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.

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!

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.

Powerpoint Activities

This week in our class we talked about using powerpoint for other activities. I guess I didn't realize how many things you can do with powerpoint instead of a presentation. We split up into groups to create two activities that could be used in the classroom. Our first choice was a comic strip which is so fun. Doing an activity like this gives kids creativity to express themselves in a good way that they can share with others. For our second activity we decided to come up with New Years resolutions as if we were children. The activity was very simple and easy so it would be great for use in the classroom. Creating a slide about their resolutions is awesome because they really have to think about what they want to be better at and once their goals are on paper or a slide, they are more determined to actually do it. My group and I had a really great time. Working together helped us get to know each other a lot better. It was fun to work together to solve problems along the way. Overall the activity for this week was so much fun. We had a blast getting to know one another and bettering our powerpoint skills.

I plan to use activities like this in my own classroom because every student can benefit from it. Normally I don't do well working in groups but this time it was different. I had a really fun time working with other girls and learned to work better in groups. Each child would learn a new powerpoint skill and application while bettering their social skills. Powerpoint activities can be a fun project for any one no matter what age or grade they may be in.

Digital Cameras

My 5 favorite idea for using a digital camera in the classroom

1. Take photos to create a yearbook as a class
2. Take photos of problem areas in the classroom and have students brainstorm
ideas of how to fix them
3. Take photos of extended family members and make a family tree.
4. Take photos to create a seating chart.
5. Take photos to create photo vocabulary cards for ESL students.

As we have continued to learn about digital cameras in the classroom I am loving them even more. I didn't think about how many different ways a camera could be used in class. The above are my five favorite ways and this is why.

1. Using a camera to creat a class yearbook is a great way for students to socialize. When they have to work with other students using the camera and editing pictures they learn teamworking skills that are very important. They also learn how to use different programs that have page layouts for use in a yearbook. They can learn vital skills in writing and editing when working on pages to be put in a book.

2. As an intern I have been in many classrooms that have been unorganized or messy. Teachers have so much to accomplish each day and I am sure fixing the problem area in the classroom is in the back of their mind, but the last thing on their to do list. Having students take a picture of that area is great because it helps the children become familiar with their surroundings initially and will make them aware of the need to be more observant daily. Once they have taken the pictures they can brainstorm different ideas of how to fix the problem and make the classroom a better place. I think I could also incorporate a lesson on environment with this activity. We could learn about how different components in an environment affect the organisms inhabiting it.

3. Learning national history is important, but learning individual history and heritage should be just as important. Each student needs to learn of their own heritage. Where there family came from, why they ended up where they did, who they were, and what qualities those people possessed. Many students would find this information interesting and want to relate it to who they are and how they are different from their relatives. Taking pictures of immediate family and extended family still living could be a great visual way of organizing the basic information students would need to continue their education concerning personal history. Students could have a great time taking pictures and collecting stories from living family members and then organize all of that information into one big family tree.

4. When school starts each year I will get 30 new children in my class. I will have 30 new names and faces to learn and that could be difficult. Usually students are alright if you don't know their name the first week of school, but usually want you to know it by the second week. Students don't only want me to know who they are, but other students as well. On the first or second day of school I would love to have my students use digital cameras. I would like to pair them up and have them take a picture of their partner. They can learn a little bit about them and have at least one friend in the class. Then I would use those pictures to create a seating chart and name tags for each desk as well. If I look at their name and face each day I am sure I can learn names faster. They can also learn each others names and have a good time doing it.

5. I can't imagine being a spanish speaking child in a classroom full of english speaking students. I would be so nervous, confused, and scared to be there. As a teacher I want to help those students transition into school a little bit better and help them learn english as effectively and quickly as possible. The first thing I think I can do is to get other students involved. I don't want the spanish speaking student to feel out of place or like the other children don't like them. I want to get the other students to take pictures of everyday things they use or like. As a class we can take those pictures and make them into vocabulary flashcards to help the new student become familiar with everyday objects.

Digital cameras can be very useful in the classroom and I plan to incorporate them into mine. I love the article we read with 100 ways to use them and hope to use as many as I possibly can.

Digital Snapshot Response As presented by this article, there are many positive things to using digital cameras in the classroom. The more obvious benefits that I thought of right away were: kids learn how to use a camera, they can become proficient in photo editing programs, and have a great time. But, this article pointed out the many positive ways camera use can enhance curriculum learning. The author told about how the children would use their cameras during an experience such as an educational field trip. When they returned to school each child would upload their pictures and start to add captions about what was going on in the picture. Doing this helped stimulate the childs creative thinking and helped them apply thoughts and change it into words on paper. Going through this process helped students engage in writing and actually enjoy it. Also, students would automatically be so engaged in the subject that they wanted to discuss their thoughts with other children. This aspect is helping students not only learn something, but gives them the opportunity to teach it to someone else and really learn the information. Children are suddenly growing academically and socially. The author also discussed how fun digital cameras were for the students. They loved taking pictures and uploading them. They suddenly had the power to change their pictures so they were exactly as they wanted them. Students were very advanced in their thinking and figured out how to do as much with a picture as they could. Soon children in kindergarten were making slide shows that could pass for a junior high school student's work. When the year was over and slide shows were presented to each parent, they were amazed. Each child had learned so much that year and learned how to apply their knowledge in many different ways. The positive feedback from parents helped encourage the students to do better and continue to succeed in school. Although there are many benefits to using digital cameras and computers in the classroom, teachers found many obstacles and problems with them too. Finding a spot to put computers in a classroom was one of the biggest issues. If they are in a predominant area of the classroom each student can be monitored sufficiently, but other students get distracted. They found that having the computers where they could be seen all the time just made concentration for students working on other assignments even harder. Another obstacle faced was that of monitoring the time each student used on the computer and making sure they were using it appropriately. With one teacher in a classroom, it could be nearly impossible to watch those students on computers and all the others. The last problem I would like to mention is that of equal time when it comes to cameras and computers. Some students could be very familiar with digital cameras and using the computer. I'm sure those students would love to be on the computer and taking pictures constantly. The goal with using cameras and computers though is to get all students involved so they can all benefit from the activity. If teachers can figure out how to solve issue one and two then issue three may be easier to deal with. Those children less familiar with cameras and computers could get the help from the teacher as needed and not be the center of attention in the classroom. Balancing the time between students may be difficult, but could be easier with a time limit for each student. With any kind of system in place the third problem could be fixed quite easily. Overall there are many positives and a few negatives to using digital cameras and computers. If teachers are willing to work through the challenges and find what works for their classroom the results could be very rewarding. After reading this article I plan to use cameras in my classroom. I have interned in a class where cameras were used as an extra activity to reward a small group of students for good work. But I believe cameras should be used regularly to benefit every child. I loved going out in with my own classmates and finding pictures this week. We went out and applied ourselves to the real world and it was pretty fun. I also got to know the two girls I was working with. I experienced my own positive results from a one day activity. I would love to use cameras in my classroom as the author of the article did. I want to be able to teach my students how to use a camera and altering programs. I think if I can teach a subject and have students use a camera to show me what they learned that would be awesome. For example, if we learn about physical exercise and how to keep our bodies healthy, I would want my students to take pictures pertaining to what they learned, add captions, and put it in a slide show to teach the rest of the class. With this kind of assignment the students are evaluating what they learned, teaching others from their perspective, and having fun while being social. I hope to get around any obstacles I may face and really incorporate cameras into my classroom.