Week Four

PowerPoint presentations are an essential tool for utilizing educational technology to its fullest.  The ease with which you can create a professional looking slide is the best attribute of PowerPoint.  The slides can be very simple or very complex, whichever you decide.  With simple clicks of your mouse the slide can go from black and white to colorful backgrounds and text, clip art, photos, and sound effects.  The possibilities are limitless. 

For my EDOL 533, Educational Technology, class we were assigned the task of creating a PowerPoint presentation and presenting it to a school-age child.  The presentation I presented was on Long Division.  Since I am not a classroom teacher I presented to a fifth grade student I go to church with.  The presentation showed the steps and strategies for solving long division problems without remainders. 

The thing I was most proud of in my PowerPoint presentation was the simplicity of it.  I believe that my biggest struggle in creating presentations in the past has been including too much information.  Since my target audience was fifth graders I knew that I needed to be very simplistic in my style and very organized. I didn’t want to distract them from the importance of the mathematical strategies. 

If I were to create the presentation again I might use more of the sound effects and clip art to enhance the presentation.  I like the simplicity of my first presentation since I was intending to introduce new material.  If I were using it on a later day or as a review I would like to make it more fun.  For example, after we had solved the problem as a class using Smart Board markers I would like to have applause as we move to the next slide.  I might also add a split screen challenge slide where two students could go to the front of the room and compete to solve the problem correctly the quickest.  There are so many possibilities that I could add and change the slides for each successive day in that unit. 

The student I presented to is a bright girl.  I know she is a good student and mature for her age.  She loved the presentation and thought it would be really neat if her teachers used PowerPoint presentations in class.  They currently do not.  She is familiar with them from church only.  I think that it is important for teachers to respond to technology and the things their students enjoy.  I would love to be able to present to an actual class to get a better feel for how a diverse group of students would respond.  Then I would know how to teach the material more effectively.  I am certain that I will be creating more PowerPoint presentations in the future as I become a classroom teacher. 

Week Three

Communication is a skill that is vital to the health of a parent-teacher relationship.  Parents want to be informed of activities, tests, field trips and events going on in their child’s classroom.  The easiest way for a teacher to let all the parents of her class know about these important things is through a class newsletter. 

I took an Introduction to Education class at my local community college last semester.  I wanted to begin working toward my teaching certificate but didn’t have the ability to start right away.  I figured that taking an introductory class would help me decide that education was indeed the right field for me.  I started that class and I began substitute teaching part-time.  I have absolutely loved being in the classroom.  There is never a boring day like I used to have in my accounting job.  The students are eager to learn and eager to please, for the most part. 

As a part of my class I was required to create a class newsletter for a fictitious classroom.  I worked hard on my newsletter and took great pride in creating that.  I dreamt of what I would want my future class to be like and the activities I would want to have for my students.  I used Microsoft Word to create the letter.  I will now look back at this newsletter and review it based on the things I’ve learned in my Educational Technology class. 

          The thing that I see as most visually appealing in this newsletter is the fact that it is in a newsletter format.  The titles are in large print and easy to read.  They are red to catch the parent’s attention.  All the work is neat and there is colorful clip art to add to the theme.  I believe the parents and students will appreciate the photos included.  That will be fun for parents to watch for their student on the newsletter. 

Looking back at my old newsletter I see different fonts that may be confusing for the reader.  I corrected that to an easy to read font and made all the fonts the same except for the spelling words.  This will make it easy to distinguish the spelling words quickly.  By making the fonts the same I am conveying the message that I want this newsletter to be neat and to the point. 

I streamlined this newsletter and made it easy to read for parents.  I also added the calendar to give parents a quick way see what is up next for the classroom.  This helps communicate quickly and straight forwardly with parents.  I believe the messages I want to convey are being conveyed. 

Here are the front and back pages of my newsletter:

Week Two

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/MathCIMandMGraphsSpreadsheets36.htm

This website above is a lesson plan for students in grades 3-6.  This lesson incorporates Microsoft Excel spreadsheets into an elementary school lesson.  I was surprised at the prospect of using spreadsheets with elementary school students.  I did not learn to use Excel until I was in college.  Being a former accountant I always used large spreadsheets with complicated formulas.  I didn’t expect to use them in the classroom. 

This lesson plan shows students how to graph data quickly and easily.  They will graph the difference in their estimated and actual data.  A simple way to do this so that students understand is to use a bag of M&Ms.  The students are each given a Ziploc bag of candy and they will make an Excel chart of how many of each color they estimate to be in their bag.  The students can also learn how to change font colors to match their M&Ms.   

I hadn’t thought of it before but now I can even see how I could use Excel for fun math activities with younger grades like first or second grades.  If students were choosing their favorite sucker flavor I could create the spreadsheet and project it onto the Smart Board for the children to observe.  They would have a visual aid to follow and see the graph of favorite flavors.  Introducing children to concepts early is important for laying the groundwork for when they get older and need to apply the concept and create the spreadsheet and graph on their own.

If I were teaching students to alphabetize words I could do that very quickly with Excel’s Sort A to Z function.  I would list all the words randomly on my computer.  Using the Smart Board projection the students could see the words. There are then two options depending on time and level of student involvement.  The students could either go up to the board one at a time or write the correct order and then check with the Sort A to Z function or I could just give students time to write the words in correct order in a notebook.  After the students have had time to order the words I would simply select the group of words and click the function.  It would show the correct order instantly and the students could see the correct order. 

As an educator I will also use spreadsheets administratively.  I could use them to record students’ attendance, grades, to create address lists and to print labels.  Spreadsheets are easy to use to make quick lists and tables.  At the beginning of the year parents have lots of forms to sign and return to school.  By making a quick spreadsheet I can list my students vertically and the forms horizontally.  As students bring forms in I can quickly go across the forms to check off those completed. 

Another way to use spreadsheets is to create mailing labels.  By making a student/parent address spreadsheet I can quickly import those to Microsoft Word in order to print labels from any printer.  Most Avery labels from Wal-Mart or office supply stores have templates on Word that will print easily.  This is one way to make sending parent letters that much easier. 

From teaching to administrational uses Excel spreadsheets can be used in the classroom in so many ways.  It is important that educators find the uses that fit with their classroom curriculum and make their work more effective.

Week One

During my first week of class I have learned so much about how many ways there are to incorporate technology and education.  I did not know that there were standards for technology.  The NETS standards for teachers and students are so important for a classroom teacher.  Having these standards help keep educators growing and efficient.  I was very interested in the theoretical foundations chapter of our textbook.  It talked about students’ learning styles and different perspectives on learning.

The thing I learned this week that I will use immediately in the classroom is that children do not learn in the same styles.  The Index of Learning Styles (ILS) was developed by Richard M. Felder and Linda K. Silverman.  The learning styles are:

·         Active and Reflective Learners

·         Sensing and Intuitive Learners

·         Visual and Verbal Learners

·         Sequential and Global Learners

As I teach my students I must always be aware of the different learning styles they represent.  My lessons should incorporate both ends of the spectrum to create an effective learning environment for everyone involved. 

          In order to incorporate different learning styles into my classroom I must address the students during my direct teaching, their responses, and classroom work.  As I teach I can explain new concepts through dialogue and then reinforce the message with visual aids.  If I were teaching a Math lesson in an elementary school classroom I could have students come up to the Smart Board to fill in answers to the problems.  This would give visual and verbal learners the instruction they both need.  I could address sensing and intuitive learners through their assigned work.  Sensing learners would enjoy memorizing multiplication tables for an assessment.  Intuitive learners would enjoy work that involved word problems or open response questions where they can express different possibilities involving the multiplication of an object. 

          The challenges to incorporating different learning styles of learning into my classroom will be that students may become frustrated with the different styles I use.  To address this it is important that I be firm on the expectations of students.  They may not enjoy the work they are doing at every moment of the day, but they are still able to learn and reinforce new information through all the activities assigned.  I must keep the classroom engaged in learning.  Another challenge will be in my planning time.  As I plan lessons and work I will need to very diligent about addressing the different students’ learning styles.  It will be a balancing act to address everyone‘s needs.  To address these challenges I could create a unit checklist.  The checklist could be used to make sure I am addressing each learning style during a unit.  I would be able to check off the activities that are beneficial to a specific learning style.  This would be a good reminder for me of who I need to address as I make my weekly lesson plans. 

The different learning styles of students were a subject I knew very little about at the beginning of this week.  After reading from my textbook and online articles I now I feel like I can incorporate different styles into my teaching and I will be able to overcome the challenges I will face in doing so.

Welcome!

Hi everybody!  This blog will be a comprehensive writing for a graduate class.  I am just beginning my journey to teacher certification.  I have a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Kentucky.  I started in a local C.P.A. firm immediately after graduating in June of 2008.  I was never satisfied as a public accountant and when I had my first child in June of 2010 I finally got the courage to chase my dream of being a teacher.  I have been substitute teaching part-time since October and am so excited to begin classes.  I had looked to other online schools to begin but none were as helpful as the University of the Cumberlands. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy my blog throughout this semester. 

Mrs. Brittany