Web 2.0

one of the ways that i would use web 2.0 in the classroom is by having the students create their own names so that they can use them as their name tags for their desks. I would also like to use google earth to show students where it is that they are now and where it is that the countries that they are learning about are at, and what some of the major cities look like that are in those countries. I would also use it to have the students sing up for presentations just like we do in our classroom.

Kickin' Name

Using Smartboard in the classroom

I think the smartboard is one of the greatest inventions I have ever seen in my life. I really like all of the information that you can put on it, and all of the decorations and tricks that you can do with it. I would love to use this tool in the classroom. I would want to use it to team up with another classroom either in a different state or a different country. It would use it to watch history videos or videos of different cultures. It would be really fun to get to a point where I am so confortable with the board that I could teach all of my lessons with the smartboard.

Making strides in Miramichi

I read the article about the city in Canada that was using smartboards to teach children in a completely different way than ever before. During the social studies lesson where the children were studuing China, every student got to come up to the front and write their name on the board so that it could be translated to Chinese. They also teamed up with students in Texas to grow plants so that they could compare how diffident plants grow in different climates. This is a great teaching tool that is going to open up a great amount of possibilities for learning.

Assignment 1 part #5
exel novice, basic....xls

Technology Literacy

1) Technology should be used in education because technology, in our world, is only going to continue to grow. By not having technology or teaching technology in our classrooms we are handicapping our students. Technology can be a very useful tool in our classrooms, and can help the students want to learn due to the fact that they are getting the information while working with a tool they understand. I also think that the same technology can get in the way of learning, because students could just sit there and check their e-mails instead of following along with the class.
2) Some of the technology that today's students use are iPods, DS, cell phones, digital cameras, laptops, Wii, xBox and many more. I think that laptops would be the most useful out of all the things on the list. You could use laptops in the classroom to quiz the kids, or to have them play a review game online.
3) There isn't that much technology in the third grade classroom that I am teaching in. The most high tech item in the classroom is an Elmo, but the schools computer lab did just get new computers. The classroom that I am a part of is at the required conditions amount of technology, according to Technology Use in Classroom Rubric. There isn't much technology in the classroom and there aren't that many ways for the students to make connections to technology. Some of the things that could be added to the classroom in order to make the classroom more technologically friendly are a smartboard, and computers. A smartboard would be a great addition to the classroom, because them the teacher could lead an entire lesson from his computer. They could also get a couple of computers in the classroom so that the students can have more access to the Internet, and they could also take their reading level tests in the classroom during individual reading time.
4) One of the lessons or activities that I would do in my classroom is to pair each child up with a e-mailing buddy so that they could have their own pen pal. Which would help meet the standards of the NETS in b1 and 4 where it says that students need to learn how to e-mail attachments and communicate with other students via e-mail. In this project the students would be required to send at least one attachment to their pen pal, whether it be a letter or a picture of their dog. Another project that I would love to do is have the students make time lines of individuals who have impacted history, but instead of having then do it on a poster I would have them make a slide show; which would meet NETS standard 5c. The last project that I would like to do to meet NETS standard 3b is to assign each student a different math problem that they have to do on paper, bring in a manipulative, and make a chart or picture for on a Word document.

Webpages!!!!!

Today I had a lot of fun creating my website because it was really easy and it reminded me of the day that I first made my Myspace. I thought it was a lot more simple to do on the Google website, than it was when we were doing it on Smartboard.
http://davelover2.googlepages.com/home

Carnation Elementary Website

I think that the school website has a great layout, although visually it's kind of plain and boring. One thing I did noticed that I think could be improved is that there is no link or button to take you back to the schools Homepage from many of the links that are on the Homepage. I did like that the website had a lot of information for parents about the PTSA. Another thing that I really liked about the site is that they had a connection to the Riverview Distric. They also had a lot of pictures of the kids, which I'm sure the kids love to see themselves on it. I noticed that some of the information on the site was outdated as far back as 2002, so i would like to see a "last updated" sign so that I know I'm getting accurate information. Overall, I think the site is clear and pretty self-explanatory.
http://www.ce.riverview.wednet.edu/new/index.htm

Engage me or Enrage me

The article that I chose to read for class is "Engage me or Enrage me." I really liked this article because it addresses some of the issues that I have been dealing with in children's ministry. Lately we have been dealing with the fact that we just can't get the kids to sit still, but pop in a movie and they sit for two hours. One thing I learned in this article is that the amount of kids that are bored in school is increasing, I guess I just never really thought about it. This article taught me that teachers don't necessarily have to be more high tech or flashy, but they do need to be more creative about the way that they teach the curriculum. Kids are not interested in what has more flashing lights or colors, but they are interested in what challenges their abilities. The most difficult part about this transition (in my opinion) will be that kids are alredy expecting to be bored in class, so initially it may be difficult to engage them.