What I've Learned...

This summer session I have learned many new things that I did not know before about technology. I did not have the slightest clue how to make a website or make a digital story. Throughout this summer session I was able to expand my skills of spreadsheets, newsletters, flyers, and much more. I was able to make my very own website about myself. I enjoyed making the website even though it frustrated me to no end. I also learned how to make a webquest. I was glad that we got to have partners on the webquest. As much frustration as the webquest gave my partner and me, I know that it would be much more if I was doing it by myself. Overall, I am very excited and proud of the way our webquest came out. I am glad I learned how to make one.

Technologically Advanced...

This week in EDU 241, I got to learn a variety of new ways to use technology. For example, I have never had to work with databases before or evaluate software. This week, I had to do both things. I used the database program Access, to make labels for use in the classroom. I had to come up with my own software evaluation and evaluate several different types of software. One thing that I did this week that I thought my time could be better used for would be the spreadsheets. I already knew how to make and use spreadsheets from previous classes and also from being an office manager at a YMCA camp in the summer.

I will be able to use databases in my future classroom when I would like to send information out to parents. It is very easy to put all the names and addresses of my students into a database and make labels. I will definitely be utilizing this short cut in the future!

New and Old.

The new technology that I have learned this week would be how to make a digital story and also how to make a website. I have never done either of these before so I thought it was quite interesting to learn how. I already knew how to make flyer's and a resume so I thought having to do that consumed time that I could have been using to work on my website. I can use many of the different types of technology that I have learned about this week in my future classroom. I can use a concept map to teach a lesson, I can use a digital story as a more fun way to get an important point across, and I can use a website for my classroom and have the students help me make one. This could be our classroom website and it would be a lot of fun to do this project with my students.

What Have I Learned?

During this semester of EDU 300, I feel as if I have changed somewhat. I like language arts a little more now and I found out that if I apply myself to something, I can accomplish it no matter what it is. For example, when I first read about the book project in the class, I was a little upset. I had never written a book before and I was definitely not a writer. I had a hard time envisioning myself writing an entire book. However, once we got started on the project and working with the writing process, I realized that it wasn't going to be as hard as I thought it was going to be.

I am definitely going to apply some of the things I learned in EDU 300 to my future classroom. For example, I am going to try to implement the reading process, and also activities like the book project in order to help teach my students about the writing process. I also will try to implement the read-aloud that we got to be a part of this semester. I think that is a great way to teach students about inflection, and it is also a great way to help the students relax at the beginning or end of a class.

Over all, I really enjoyed being in EDU 300 this semester. It was a lot of fun and it has taught me a lot of helpful tips to use in the future.

Band Aids...

My favorite poem would have to be Shel Silverstein's poem called "Band-Aids." This poem is great. I love it because it is a funny poem that relates to children. I remember when I was little I would play doctor with my dolls. I would use all kinds of band-aids to help "fix" the doll. I remember my little dolls being completely covered in band aids all over. I think that I related to this poem and that's why I liked it so much.

I could use this poem in my classroom when I'm teaching poetry to show rhyme and to discuss what makes a poem. It would be a great poem to use to keep the students interested and also it would just be a silly poem to read.

Overall, this was one of my favorite poems growing up. It would be a great poem to incorporate into my future classroom and I can't wait to do so!

Magic Talk...

Participating in the magic talk activity in class was really helpful to me. However, it was also quite difficult for me. I love to talk and not being able to talk was really hard. The activity was interesting to participate in because it showed me that it can be done. It was a great learning experience for me.

Magic talk is a great discussion tool for all ages. Students can use drawings, words, or phrases to keep the discussion going. I like magic talk because it is a different way to lead a discussion and complete an activity.

Overall, I enjoyed the magic talk activity in class on Monday. I thought it was helpful to me as a future teacher and I hope to be able to utilize it in my future classroom.

Helpful, or not helpful...that is the question.

We recently had peer conferencing for our books that we are writing in class. I thought that these peer conferences were extremely helpful because the peers that I conferenced with helped me with comma errors and any other grammatical errors they saw. I'm horrible with grammar so having someone to help me look out for these errors was very helpful to me.

While this was very helpful to me, it is not a common practice for me to allow other people to view my writing and correct it. I've learned by doing the peer conferencing in class, that I probably should allow people to look over my writing beforehand.

There are some pros and cons to using peer conferencing in the classroom. Some of the pros are that it is very helpful to have a new set of eyes read your work. It's also helpful to have someone look over your paper to check for grammatical and spelling errors. Doing peer conferencing can help you get a better grade and it can also make you see things that you might not have seen on your own. A couple of cons of peer conferencing in the classroom would be that some students don't like to share their work with others and peer conferencing forces them to. Another con would be that peer conferencing is a time for polite and helpful criticism and some people don't take criticism well.

All in all, I think that peer conferencing is a great way to help students with their writing. It's really helped me through the process of writing this book for class.