Final Reflection

I have learned about so many more online tools than I even knew existed. I did not expect to learn about so many useful tools. I only hope I will be able to remember how to use them all once I have a classroom full of students of my own. Luckily they are all pretty simple and I have examples of each to review. Although it was a lot to learn about in one semester, I greatly enjoyed the opportunity and plan to take it all with me into my career.

Google Site

https://sites.google.com/site/dpaultpte486/

imovie

Storybird

Storybird is an excellent tool that brings creativity to the classroom. I would love to allow students to use this tool to enhance the writing process. They can group art together to form a story then use their own words to add the text of the story. This can help students who find themselves uninspired.

Animoto

Animoto is a very simple tool for making quick slideshows. It is easy to individualize as it allows you to add photos from your computer or stock photos from Animoto. Teachers and students alike can use this tool in classrooms with ease. I love the idea of giving introductions a little zing by using Animoto. Allowing students to use Animoto to make quick reviews of what they have learned that day would also be a great addition to the classroom.

PodBean and Google Forms

PodBean is a great tool for podcasting. I have never created a podcast, but have viewed several. I found the use of podcast in our class very innovative and useful.I would love to explore this tool more and eventually find ways to use it with my classroom in order to provide students with an extra resource.

Google Forms is a fabulous tool for creating question and answer surveys. There are endless ways in which this could be used with the classroom including an informal all about me survey, a classroom environment evaluation, teacher evaluation, homework assignment, and much more.

Five Senses Inspiration

Inspiration is a great tool I would definitely use in the classroom. I am a visual learner so I find webs to be a fantastic tool for laying out information.

Colors Scavenger Hunt Presentation

Picnik and Smilebox

Picnik is a fabulous online tool that can be used to edit photos. There are many options available other than the basic editing tools. A student can individualize their photo with the creative additions of Picnik. Teachers and students can use this tool for projects, presentations, reports, or class scrapbooks.
Here is a fun picture I edited using Picnik:

Smilebox is another great tool for the classroom and personal use. This tool allows individuals to create scrapbooks, calendars, news letters, field trip reflections, and much more! Pictures, audio, and videos can all be added to creations in order to personalize. These creations can be shared view email, facebook, blog, printing at home or to a store or school, and burning to DVD.

Wordle and Timetoast

Wordle is the first word cloud tool I've been introduced to. I like how creative it allows you to be and how it will organize your creation for you by simply clicking randomize. This tool could be used to create a summary of a blog or paper a student has created. It could also be used in the classroom in order to take a poll.

Timetoast is a tool for creating virtual timelines of events. This timeline can be edited at any time. A class can make one together or students could individually create them and present to the class. Students would need to be aware of the risks of using this site, such as the possibilities of stumbling upon inappropriate information.

Delicous & Glogster

Delicious is a great way to keep up with different websites. I often find great websites that would be useful at later times but then can't seem to find the website again when I need it. With this new tool, I will be able to keep up with my useful websites and go back to them anytime I need to! As a teacher this will be very useful for creating a "stack" of websites that I can refer back to each year with new students. Also it would be useful for students collecting website resources for projects throughout the year.

Glogster is an awesome blogging site that opens the door to creativity. There are so many options for editing your own glogster. I personally enjoy blogging on glogster much more than blogger because of the vast opportunities for individualism. This tool would be very useful for teachers sharing classroom activities, ideas, and questions and concerns. Students could use this site for creating book reports, project reports, and field trip reflections.

Make your own free newsletter

Newbery Webquest

I chose the Newbery Webquest as a potential tool for my classroom because it covers material that would be useful for language and reading development. After completing the task the students should have learned more about the Newbery award, looking at books from a critical point of view, and given them a better perspective on the book as a whole. This could be used in a classroom in order to help students to understand the importance of quality literature and reading for pleasure.

Website Evaluating Checklists for Students

I chose the Evaluation Wizard as a tool for students to use to evaluate websites on their own. I thought this tool would be especially useful for students because it breaks down the evaluation process into author, publisher, objectivity, links from, date, accuracy, evidence, and links to. The site allows students to enter in the webpage's URL and then chose the focus of their evaluation, such as author. Once they have chosen a focus the evaluation tool tells the students in understandable language specific things to look for, such as how much experience does the author have in this area, and provides a text box for the student to type evaluation notes for that focus. An extra bonus to this site is it offers a tutorial to use if you are having trouble finding the information you are looking to evaluate, such as authors name. Overall this seems like a very useful tool for students to learn how to evaluate websites.

Website Evaluation

The website I evaluated, Science with me,  was a free educational website for elementary age children. The website offers science movies, songs, coloring sheets, worksheets, articles, blogger “Science with Mom!” projects and stories to help children learn scientific principles and science the fun way.  They consider themselves as an interactive online science community for kids, teachers, parents, and home-schoolers. Not only is this website full of useful science lessons, it is appealing to children within the K12 range, the information is interesting for children and is presented in an engaging way, and parents are encouraged to become involved with their children on the website by being their science experiment assistant. Teachers could allow children to browse the website during school and chose a focus they want to research. The teachers could then assign them the experiment related to that  study focus for them to conduct at home with their parents and then report back to the class with the results. I would highly recommend this website!

I enjoyed the website evaluation experience because it taught me what to look for when deciding whether websites are trustworthy before introducing them to your classroom. Evaluating websites before introducing them or advising students to look into them is very important in order to keep one's reliability secure as a teacher.

What can Wiki's do for me?

Before our class on wiki's, Wikipedia was the only wiki I knew of. My knowledge on Wikipedia consisted only of knowing that anyone can edit the wiki, therefore the information you find on Wikipedia isn't necessarily reliable. After our class I had learned that wiki's can be very useful in informal situations and within classrooms. I found it creative to use wiki's as a resource for planning a trip or a class project. I had a class presentation in a different course last week and offered the idea of my group using a wiki to collect our ideas in forming our presentation. I think there is still much for me to learn about wikis and believe the best way for me to do so will be through practice and exploration with them.

Course Expectations

From this course I expect to learn  about different modes of technology in order to use them and provide them for my students to create and learn with in my classroom when I am a teacher. I expect to learn more about how to use a blog, use a wiki, use PBWorks, create a classroom website, use Picasa, create a homepage, create a spreadsheet,  evaluate a website,  and much more. I not only look forward to learning how these forms of technology can enhance my own life, but even more,  how they will become useful in the classroom. I expect this course to provide me with the knowledge to know how to use technology in the classroom in order to allow my students to engage.

Informal Introduction

I am from Knoxville Tennessee. I attended Powell High School. I have always enjoyed school and had a great fondness for learning. I came to the University of Tennessee to work on premed but soon realized that wasn’t the direction I wanted my life to go in. Through this realization and a slight breakdown I became attentive to my passion for children and their similar love for knowledge. I have discovered during my learning and working experiences throughout my college career that I am especially interested in the individual relational and social dynamic skills of children through education. I view the school system as a facet of society with many obligations to the children who pass through it and hold it partially accountable for the development of the individual relational and social dynamic skills I find so imperative to children becoming fully developed members of society.