The was a wonderful class! I wish all teachers were required to take this course! My ahhhhh mainly came from looking at other students work! Many of the students in this class are already tech savy and completed great projects! I am very proud to say that igoogle is now my homepage and I love it!!!!! I feel so organized when I wake up to my igoogle and a great cup of coffee! I also love my delicious account and use it everyday which is another great tool to help with organization and it will be a great tool to share with my students. One of the most exciting skills I learned from this class was how to blog with students in the classroom and I look forward to having some real history discussions. I also hope to create eportfolios with my students and make eportfolios a priority for myself and with students. All of the workshops that I have attended and presentations that I have given and so much more will now be put on an eportfolio along with my resume. That is the best ahhh moment next to igoogle! Concept maps was my absolute favorite project!!! Not because it was so easy and fun but because adding it to my eportfolio the second time using words from my philosophy was my ahhhh moment. It reminded me of all the reasons I love education and being an educator. I am not even going to mention my podcast!
Thank you so much Dr. Wickersham for a great class!
Zearlene Roberts :)
Friday, March 11, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Week 7 Reflection
As a history teacher I loved looking at the students faces when they really enjoyed the class and there is nothing better than hearing a student say “this is the best class ever!” When you get to study culture from other places students can relate if they can hear the music or watch dancing. One of the activities I had my students do was create a concept map. Students would define their words and create a concept map in one of the four websites introduced in our etec class. I wanted to start out with a fun and simple activity to motivate the students and I might add I enjoyed doing this assignment myself. I could do the concept map but my podcast was a total disaster! LOL!
Next I had my students go to Google Images to locate places on a map and follow up with analyzing and evaluating images of the culture from these places. I picked this assignment because students love to look at pictures and the images here are endless. I asked my students to compare and contrast their culture to the culture in Africa.
On day three I had my students go to the computer lab to watch and listen to YouTube videos that I had viewed and selected for students. These videos are African music videos and African dance videos. Students love watching videos and at this age I know they are thinking wow I really like that song or I really am not crazy about that song. I also know from watching the dancing videos students will notice some definite similarities.
BLOG TIME!!!!!
I created a class blog for students to reflect on their African Culture experience. I listed specific things I wanted to see in their reflections for a grade and encouraged creativity and images. I picked this activity because when I was teaching in the classroom blogging was something I always wanted to do and I never made it happen. I really think blogging is so cool.
I also reminded my students that online tutor was available to help with quizzes and exams. I love the online textbook websites for students. Not all of them are great but the two textbooks that I used had great sites for students to play games or quiz.
As I reflect on my own lesson plan the one thing I would do different is have students create an eportfolio at the beginning of the year and build on it. I had students view images and watch videos and these activities would be perfect for a portfolio.
Thank you so much,Zearlene :)
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Week 6 - Can You Hear Me Now?
We have learned so much in this class and I want to do them all! Time always seems to be a factor but the most exciting part of technology is with a quick online search you can find amazing presentations, blogs, wikis, and podcasts that are already created and ready to use or be viewed. When I was teaching I used to download ready to use games for my class or powerpoint presentations already created by other teachers that I could show my class. I thought this was the perfect teaching and learning environment. I was so wrong!!!! My students would have been more engaged had I created a blog and blogged with my students. The article that I did for my discussion this week was about a class that did a wiki writing assignment between high school and college students. In my opinion that is the ultimate learning environment or learning community. I would like to conduct a project just like that with students. Unfortunately the factors that kept me and most teachers from doing amazing projects are time, large amounts of material to teach or most of the time just cover, and access to computers. If I could wave a magic wand I would change the TEKS and allow creative teachers to really teach and every student would have access to a computer all day every day!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Blog Reflection #5
Becoming Information Literate in a Global Society
The site that I explored was All About Explorers at www.allaboutexplorers.com . The first thing I noticed from this site was that it was a company due to the address containing the (.com). The embedded links after going to www.altavista.com still gave the site the appearance that this was a legitimate and credible site. The links all appear to be informational and include activities for students to participate and explore. The site has a disclaimer that states that it was developed by teachers to teach students about the internet. The AltaVista site has very little advertisement and is a very clean site with almost no clutter or busy appearance. I entered explorers in the search and a few but very little sponsored results appeared, mostly educational sites appeared. The second search I tried was www.excite.com and it was completely the opposite from altavista. Excite.com was very busy with lots of advertisement, articles, and videos. After entering explorers as a search almost all results were (.com) sites. To find the author of allaboutexplorers.com I went to www.easywhois.com and learned that this site was created in 2003 by Gerald Aungst and address, phone number, and email were provided. The history was searched on www.archive.ort showing some activity in 2004, very little activity in 2005, lots of activity in 2006, some activity in 2007-2008, but no activity after 2008. This site was designed to present objective information.
The site that I frequently visit is National Geographic at www.nationalgeographic.com . From easywhois I learned that the Registrant is National Geographic Society, it was created in 1995, and it is a company due to the .com in the URL. I went to altavista and entered link:nationalgeographic.com and so many links appeared and appear to be credible. The history at archive.org shows a lot of nonstop activity since the site was created.
I must say after this assignment that google is no longer my one stop shop tool any longer. I help students in the Gee Library everyday and I have students that I tutor and I use google for everything. Unless I was writing a paper or working with students on papers I almost never researched the sites. In college and as a teacher I utilized many websites that were recommended but did not research them further. These are great and simple tools that students should be using everyday and should be learning not to take the internet at face value. I plan to show the students that I tutor the benefits of knowing who is posting information and are they posting credible information. Just to be safe I always directed my students to gov. sites or ed. sites only because I thought researching sites was time consuming but this weeks activites has shown me that it is not and that it is very easy.
My favorites is so full that I have almost stopped using it. Because I use so many teaching tool websites with my tutor students I think Delicious will be my new favorite bit of information learned. Having the capabilities of sharing my favorite sites with my students and fellow educators is priceless. My students will be able to see what I am bookmarking and I hope they will be inspired to bookmark some of their favorites as well especially after they learn how to research the authors, links, and history of the sites.
I must say after this assignment that google is no longer my one stop shop tool any longer. I help students in the Gee Library everyday and I have students that I tutor and I use google for everything. Unless I was writing a paper or working with students on papers I almost never researched the sites. In college and as a teacher I utilized many websites that were recommended but did not research them further. These are great and simple tools that students should be using everyday and should be learning not to take the internet at face value. I plan to show the students that I tutor the benefits of knowing who is posting information and are they posting credible information. Just to be safe I always directed my students to gov. sites or ed. sites only because I thought researching sites was time consuming but this weeks activites has shown me that it is not and that it is very easy.
My favorites is so full that I have almost stopped using it. Because I use so many teaching tool websites with my tutor students I think Delicious will be my new favorite bit of information learned. Having the capabilities of sharing my favorite sites with my students and fellow educators is priceless. My students will be able to see what I am bookmarking and I hope they will be inspired to bookmark some of their favorites as well especially after they learn how to research the authors, links, and history of the sites.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Blog Reflection#4
This week definately gave me alot to think about in regards to assessment and it also brought back many memories of countless hours reviewing chapter tests, unit tests, practice taks tests, and end of semester exams and no doubt they were all designed to see if the students had memorized everything they should. I want to put in a LOL but it really is not funny. I did many engaging activities and projects and research projects but when it was time for assessment the easiest format was multiple choice of terminology which is exactly what most TAKS questions resemble and that is the standard that I thought at the time was acceptable. Electronic Portfolios would have been so much more fun for students to participate in and so much more enjoyable to use as a assessment tool. I always had students create powerpoints for class presentations and I thought that was the most amazing tool. Students would practically cut and paste text add a few pictures and stand infront of the class and read word for word their powerpoint. It was so boaring, mindless, unmotivating, not engaging at all, and then a test would follow on Friday. In reading Electronic Portfolios as Digital Stories of Deep Learning, I related most to the one that states that a AFL should take account of the importance of (and foster) learner motivation. As a teacher I worked so hard to be a fun teacher that did not waste anytime and I promoted education all of the time but this class has showed me everyweek that there is a better way to motivate students and its not BINGO, JEOPARDY, OR WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE! A portfolio could be viewed as evidence that a student actually participated in the lesson and at what level they participated. Assessment is measuring what level the student mastered the lesson. Creating my own portfolio in this class has made me excited about returning to a school and sharing all of the wonderful uses of a portfolio. The article advocates that a portfolio should have three interconnected systems which are an archive of student work, an assessment to show achievement, and a place for students to create their own work. I believe the idea of having students create portfolios with three interconnected systems is a perfect learning environment especially if three different teachers teaching different subjects all worked together on one students portfolio.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Blog Reflection #3 Wikis!
MY WIKI: http://zearleneshomeworkhelp.pbworks.com/
The idea I had for my wiki was to have a place for students to go to for homework help and possibly help each other and post comments. The blog and the wiki are booth amazing tools for students and teachers to use at home or on class assignments. I like the idea that anybody at anytime can learn more and learn what other people think or what others experiences may be on any subject that you are interested in. I wish I had used these tools when I was teaching and I would really like to know how beneficial they really are on a high school level or a middle school level. The idea sounds so perfect and so fun for students!
When reading the article 7 things you should know about......Wikis, the terms share and collaborate are what really got my attention. That is exactly what teens like to do on a daily bases with their Facebook pages. They like people to know what their ideas are and they want people to see their pictures and watch their videos and if a teacher can provide this environment and teach at the same time how powerful that can be.
Through the wiki students are reading and reacting to what is being read (a major goal for every educator) and if you can get the students to add videos and pictures they have created a high level of learning a presentation!!!!!!
Wikis provide a place for students to share and collaborate work, they are very user friendly, and they allow everyone in the class to contribute and these are just a few of the advantages. The downside would be the fact that students may edit or post in an improper way that could be a little risky but could be the very reason that some are engaged. Students like to push as far as they can and this could be a tool that allows students to be creative with their assignments and comments keeping them engaged. When I was teaching 8th grade social studies and studying the Civil War we always had class discussions about what if the South had won or what was the war really fought for and which side was right and which side was wrong. Class discussions are so much fun but only a few participate. Many students do not say a word for fear of being wrong or just shy and a wiki would be the answer for that. A wiki would allow students the opportunity to research if they like and give an answer or response with a little more confidence.
The idea I had for my wiki was to have a place for students to go to for homework help and possibly help each other and post comments. The blog and the wiki are booth amazing tools for students and teachers to use at home or on class assignments. I like the idea that anybody at anytime can learn more and learn what other people think or what others experiences may be on any subject that you are interested in. I wish I had used these tools when I was teaching and I would really like to know how beneficial they really are on a high school level or a middle school level. The idea sounds so perfect and so fun for students!
When reading the article 7 things you should know about......Wikis, the terms share and collaborate are what really got my attention. That is exactly what teens like to do on a daily bases with their Facebook pages. They like people to know what their ideas are and they want people to see their pictures and watch their videos and if a teacher can provide this environment and teach at the same time how powerful that can be.
Through the wiki students are reading and reacting to what is being read (a major goal for every educator) and if you can get the students to add videos and pictures they have created a high level of learning a presentation!!!!!!
Wikis provide a place for students to share and collaborate work, they are very user friendly, and they allow everyone in the class to contribute and these are just a few of the advantages. The downside would be the fact that students may edit or post in an improper way that could be a little risky but could be the very reason that some are engaged. Students like to push as far as they can and this could be a tool that allows students to be creative with their assignments and comments keeping them engaged. When I was teaching 8th grade social studies and studying the Civil War we always had class discussions about what if the South had won or what was the war really fought for and which side was right and which side was wrong. Class discussions are so much fun but only a few participate. Many students do not say a word for fear of being wrong or just shy and a wiki would be the answer for that. A wiki would allow students the opportunity to research if they like and give an answer or response with a little more confidence.
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