Blog post #7

My experience with twitter has been eye-opening. I didn't use twitter before this class, so I never really knew what  it was about or how it worked. After using twitter this semester I learned that is mainly composed of someone writing a tweet, and another person retweeting it. If I'm honest, I  do not really like twitter, it is too much work and too complicated for me. I believe it may be helpful in educational situations as the teacher is able to "tweet" info to the students easier. However, for me, it is just not worth the effort.

Creating the Web Design was pretty difficult if I am telling you the truth. It took a lot of time and effort to make it look sophisticated, creative, clear and full of information. The hardest part of creating this web page was changing the template that was provided, to what a classroom website would look like. I created this page intended as a kindergarten grade level.

http://mrsburnhamskindergartenclass.weebly.com/

Assistive learning technologies assist students that has learning impairments or special needs. This can differ from an Ipad that has an app for a student that needs something explained more thoroughly. Adaptive learning technologies is created to make a more personalized learning. I have seen many students with special needs that require more attention, and most of the time, the teacher is unable to do so. However, because of the assistive learning the teacher is able to accommodate both the student that needs a more help, and the rest of her students.

ILP Design- 3D paint

WARNING: I do not know if you are able to watch the video, it says that you can, but I am not sure. For my design I used 3D paint to create a 3D version of a cube. This would be great to use in the kindergarten classroom to help with recognizing numbers and counting... To create this I first used 3D shapes and made a cube, and then I proceeded to make circle dots on every side that counted from 1-6. I can virtually roll to dice and have the students tell me how many dots are on the side I land on.

ILP Participation- Technology Sandbox

I participated in the technology sandbox event where they demonstrated many tools that are accessible to us as students. I really enjoyed my time there as I learned many interesting facts about the 3D printer and pen. While I was there I was  able to put on the virtual world glasses where I was transported into a virtual reality. It was crazy how realistic the virtual reality was, every turn I made seemed as though I was actually in the fake world that was captured in a computer screen.

Another thing I found extremely interesting was the 3D pen. I was able to even try it out for myself and I believe that would be a great activity to have in my classroom as it would provide a different way for the students to learn their ABCs. Down below is a picture of the 3d heart I made from the 3D pen... I wish I had more  time to check out these devices, but unfortunately I had to leave soon after.

5th blog post!

Rewind to last week, pre hurricane evacuation, I learned about Diigo. I had never heard of this website before, so using it was very different. However, I must say I was very impressed with it. Having the capability to note different websites and share it with colleges so easily is a great tool to obtain. I was quite confused in the beginning, especially when I was trying to bookmark it to the top of my screen. But when I got everything installed I really enjoyed using it, and having such easy access to everyone else's bookmarked websites. Though I enjoyed using Diigo, I don't believe I will use it with my students in the future. It is too complex for four year olds. However, it is a great tool to have when sharing ideas with the other teachers.

Since this is my fifth blog post, I believe I have gotten use to it... At first I had no idea what to talk about nor the tone of the post. I remember putting so much thought in to the first blog I wrote, it basically was a published book! I have enjoyed typing  out my experiences and thoughts through out this semester in EME2040, and I appreciate doing something different than the basic Canvas Discussion board.  However, I don't believe this blogging will continue after this semester, especially since I won't have topics written out for me to discuss!

A web 2.0 tool that I will take advantage of as a teacher is Pinterest. Pinterest, though it sounds childish, has endless amounts of teaching ideas. You are able to search millions of ideas from science crafts, to full on lesson plans. I believe this is a great tool for me to use, because as a kindergarten teacher you are expected to have hundreds of crafts on hand, and Pinterest is a great tool to create them! Not only am I able to search for ideas, but I can share my own as well! Teachers are able to create shared boards in which they can share with lesson plans, crafts, and decorating ideas with each other instantly.

xoxo,
Kat

Wow it is already my fourth blog post... I guess I am an official blogger now!

In EME 2040 we have been working with the online application, twitter, the last five weeks. I have never had a twitter so creating one for this class was a new experience for me. I had to follow seven other people, most were educators, but I also followed FSU football and my EME teacher. Trying to compose my first tweet was a lot harder to do than I thought. Though I have yet to get attached to using twitter, I believe it will be useful in my future career as a teacher to tweet out tips or information that is needed for my students to know.

Digital divide is a current issue that is happening in every school system now a days. The digital divide can vary from some students not owning a computer, to the school not having  enough money to provide any type of technology for the teachers. If this issue was presented to me as a teacher, I would try my best to accommodate and use activities that do not require technology use.

Academic software tools are great resources for students to use in school. There are software tools that even give either student discounts or give them to the students for free. Adobe provides their services to schools free, which helps with the digital divide and provides great resources to students such as adobe premier, and adobe photoshop. In High School I used Adobe every year in my TV Production class. Another great resource is Microsoft. Microsoft includes: Word, Power Point, Excel, etc. These are the most used apps in school as students write essays, create slideshows and make spreadsheets. As a teacher I would definitely use Microsoft in my classroom to give them hands on learning activities.

xoxo,
Kat

Welcome back to my Blog!

This week the blog is about ELA technology standards, CPALMS Educator Toolkit, and the Newsletter assignment... The ELA technology standard that I feel most prepared to teach with is the Smart Board. Being a Kindergarten Teacher, limits the amount of technology devices that can be used due to the fact that they are too young to learn how to use most of the devices. However, a Smart Board allows the teacher to write on the board with an electronic pen and have it appear really big on the board. It also allows the students to get up and write on the board with out accidentally creating a mess. A technology device that I have to look more into is the online story reader, "Story Jumper". It is written in the kindergarten standard, but I have never heard of it.

The CPALMS Educator Toolkit is a great resource as a teacher. It provides the teacher with lesson plans, activity examples, and lesson tutorials to prepare you for the module. There are categories for each class subject and provides the standards for them as well. The one I found most intriguing was the student resource where they provide the Standard rule and expectations for the lesson you are about to teach.

I really enjoyed creating an imaginary school parent newsletter. I used Word and looked up the template for Newsletter. From there, I inserted pictures, colorful borders and different writing sections. I mainly used the newsletter to update the parents on what was going on in the classroom semester 1, and to prepare them for semester two. By making this Newsletter I learned more about using premade templates in Word. If I were to redo this assignment, I believe I could improve on the pictures I inserted.

That is all for this week,

XOXO,
Kat

Blog post #2

The Microsoft application I tend to use the most is Microsoft Word. I have never been in a class that did not use Word, it is an app that allows you to type out essays, paragraphs, letters, resumes, etc. While using this app, Word checks your spelling, counts the amount of characters and words that you have written and fixes grammar mistakes. It is a great way to type up an essay and double check your work. I have used word in countless classes from writing 3,000 word papers to just jotting down quick notes that I learned  in the class. Teachers love Word, because after typing up their work they are able to send it online to all students and cut back on wasting paper and vice versa, the teachers have students type papers up on word and the submit it through an online website to avoid receiving hundreds of papers. Another bonus to having students submit an essay that was written on Word is that teachers are able to check for plagiarism much easier.

Plagiarism is taken very seriously now a days. On the first day of school, teachers explain to the students that plagiarism is not tolerated and if caught, the student is at risk for expulsion. By having students submit their work online, the teacher is able to run the paperwork through a system that checks all websites online to see if the student's work has been copied. As a teacher, I believe it is a very smart idea to have the students turn in the work through the website "turnitin.com". Turnitin.com is a website that tells the teacher the exact percentage of the student's work that was copied. By using this website, not only is it an efficient way to check the students work, but it also encourages the students to not plagiarize, since they are aware the teacher is able to check.

Three technology issues that I tend to notice in a classroom are: copyright, privacy, and the digital divide. I explained earlier that the website "turnitin.com" is an easy and efficient way to avoid plagiarism with in students. When it comes to privacy, I believe there is a fine line. Students should be able to have privacy while on their technology devices, but there needs to be a way for supervising the students, in order to ensure they are doing the right thing. I believe a solution to this issue would be a teacher walking around the classroom subtlety checking to make sure the students are on track. The teachers do not need to go over the students shoulder or read exactly what they are doing, but making sure they appear to be on the correct website. The last issue is the digital divide. It is very apparent that not every child has their own computer to bring into the classroom, I know I didn't have on in high school. It needs to be known that if the students do not have their own computer, that they are allowed to use the computers that are in the classroom or in the library. If there is a big project approaching, there needs to be frequent class trips to the school library so that everyone is able to use the same computer.

xoxo,
Kat Burnham