Petcha Kutcha

Here is the slide show from my Petcha Kutcha presentation. I had decided to talk about math because it was something I enjoyed a great deal.

Google Forms

In week 9 we learned how to create Google Forms. In my form I asked students about how much they moved around.

"Sam I Am"

In her video Sam showed a lot of skill when it came to dealing with technology. I found it interesting when she mentioned how a lot of her learning is done through trial. This video also pointed out where learning can also take place in environments not necessarily geared towards education, for instance learning teamwork and collaboration through World of Warcraft.

I think that these both can be very important to incorporate in learning. The "jump right in approach" to some education can help with developing critical thinking skills which carry over into other assignments like when she took it upon herself to find a program on her Ipod to help with her book report. Also, although I don't feel that we should feel that we necessarily should have students playing video games in the classroom but they would get more out of their education if it incorporated what they enjoyed doing.

Wikis

Paula White talks about an interesting tool for the classroom in her video, "Parallel Play or Leveraging the Wiki Platform for High Quality Work." Wikis are a great tool for the classroom. They provide easy access for student collaboration and are easy to use. I also agree that teachers need to incorporate what interests students into these projects allowing them to write about what they are passionate about.

A Ton of Information for the Digital Age

I thought that Joyce's video "The Wizard of Apps" had a lot of great tools for properly using the Web to gather information, share information and overall improve the classroom. I also thought the presentation was rather creative.

I had a little trouble reading some of the slides in the video, but those were provided in a separate link so I was able to go back over it which was really helpful. I also appreciated that she included a link to her wikispaces. It includes links to all the Apps that the video referred to and then some, so its a great resource for finding the online tools you need.

Her mention of people search tools peaked my interest so I decided to search for myself. I was surprised how much information came up. It pulled up all of my public networking sites and who was following my blog, even a criminal background check of myself and one other person in Oklahoma City were linked. I feel its good to know what a potential employer would see if they searched for you.

Video Thread

For my Voice Thread I decided to share some pictures of a Deployment back in 2008.

Project Learning

I thought this video was great. The projects the students were doing seemed to keep their intrest more than the traditional textbook classroom, and students seem to get more out of the material when they do the research themselves.




I think a more hands on approach like this should be implemented in more classrooms. Students enjoy it more, are able to help each other when they are struggling, and typically learn several different topics and skills through the use of projects.

Luis and his Community

Luis' story shows a lot about how the use of technology improves his and his families lives. He also uses technology to learn more at school and to contribute to the comunity.



I found it interesting the different things the students took away from these projects. Not only are they learning robotics, but also how to work together and have the oportunity to teach other students.

About Me

I am 25 years old and have been a member of the OK Army National Guard since Aug 2002.
I am currently a Math Education major at UCO.
I chose to teach math because it a subject that I enjoy and one that many students find discouraging.

Kiwi's Technology

A Peek for a Week from K12online Conference showed some great examples of how to use technology in the classroom. There was a nice variety of different uses for the computers and online blogs. Students improve their writing as well as learning to cooperate by writing online with students from another school, work on their handwriting at the smart board, play math and reading games, and variety of other activities that bring a well rounded education while implementing the technology available.

One of the benefits to these different approaches is how much the students seemed to enjoy learning. Anytime you make learning fun kids are going to be more willing to participate. I also thought it was great how she was having the students show other teachers how to use Xtranormal. Not only does teaching the material help the students learn, but it also boosts their self-esteem.

Classroom Comments

We are only a couple of weeks in to class and already everyone has had some interesting things to share about the class. I commented on Tiffany-326 Kristi's Reflection Blog both of which had great things to share about last weeks videos.

What Charlie would fight for and Teague's New Years resolution are couple of 8th grade social studies student posts I commented on.

Nafiza's World

This video from edutopia follows Nafiza as she talks about how technology affects both her personal life and her education. I found it interesting how these projects was used to teach a variety of different things. Students were not only learning how to use a variety of different technological tools, such as 2nd life and flickr, but were also gaining knowledge of the inequality in education in various countries.

I feel that I can relate to Nafiza's use of technology in her personal life a great deal. I carry a Zune and am fond of the conveniece that an mp3 player provides. It is smaller and holds more music than a cd player, and I can use headphones or hook it up to the speakers in my car. I am also fond of video games, though I don't share Nafiza's enthusiasim for fighters and racing games.

Students can make videos, like what Nafiza's class made to point out the issues with education in various countries, to talk about other subjects. For an example, in a math lessons from throughout the semester can be divided up amongst groups of students to make tutorial videos. It would not only improve their understanding of the different tools, but the students get a better understanding of the material if they try to teach it.

"We Like Our Buddies"

K12Online08's video on blogging showed how easy it is with the tools we have available now to suplement classroom instruction from outside the classroom. It was interesting to see how great of an effect the blogging buddies, had on the first graders writing performance and their desire to learn. I also think that this would be a great way to connect students to tutors in other subjects as well.

Reflecting on The Digital Age

The video on Edutopia about Cameron paints an interesting picture about how technology is important with educating children today. As a math teacher I was particularly interested in how his teacher used the footage Cameron made of himself walking forward and backward as a different approach to teach how positive and negative integers relate to each other in operations.

Cameron's experiences reminded me a lot of my eleven year old sister. She isn't as tech savy as Cameron is but intersting to see how much more easily she learns how to use many of the tools technology provides us, having grown up fourteen years later than I have.

This video shows many different ways that technology can be used to make lessons more engaging and interesting, as well as providing access to many resources to supplement education.