last class!

Today was the last day of ed tech! its been fun, but now I have about four more finals to study for! See you soon, blog!

The final

The final today was on the harder side, but still pretty fair. It had a little bit of each section that we went over, which I liked. There were some, however. that I did not remember the answers to, such as what Creative Commons were and what NETS*S stands for. However, I still think I did pretty well on the exam and I do think that this class was very useful and I will definitely use the information that I learned to contribute to my teaching in my future classroom.

Collaborative Tools Assignment

I also really enjoyed this project because it was very useful for our future classrooms. It was the first time where I made a lesson plan, and I had a lot of fun doing so. I also liked that we got to pick our own groups--it made the project more enjoyable.

My favorite assignment

My favorite assignment that we have had to do this semester was the photo assignment. I had a lot of fun readjusting two of my pictures to make the project look neat and presentable. I also liked that we could use any topic for our pictures, so using old pictures was fun!

almost over?

The next class that we have is going to be the final exam. This class has been very helpful for me. It has taught me that there are many different ways for me to integrate technology into my future classroom. Although I do have to admit that two hour class isnt my favorite, I can honestly say that I learned a lot from this class and I'm glad that I took it this semester.

Todays class

In class today, we reviewed all of the material that is going to be on our final exam. It's definitely going to be a very difficult exam, but I think that if I study hard, I'll do well. I just have to memorize the different names of the different parts of a website and how to use microsoft excel, and then I should be good.

Interactive Whiteboards

Interactive Whiteboads are a very innovative way to incorporate education with technology. Teachers can easily use the whiteboard, while having the ability to write on it and draw pictures to help make the lesson easy to undersand. It is also an easy way to write notes next to pictures so that the teacher can show the students certain aspects of the lesson. I think white boards are a really good education tool and I think that interactive whiteboards will only get more advanced and innovative in the future.

Excel

I am happy that our project for this week uses the involvement of Microsoft Excel. I think that it is a great program that makes it easy and simple to organize data and create useful charts. I think that it is a really good tool for teaching because it can show in an easy way, all of the data that needs to be explained. It also is very useful when calcuating grades. It easily finds averages for you and can list the letter grade of each student right next to the average. Microsoft Excel is an excellent teaching tool and I know that I will definitely be using it in my future classroom.

Powerpoints

I think that powerpoint presentations are a very innovative and useful way to explain a lesson in the classroom. Through the use of powerpoint, you can create a presentation that is both visually appealing and interesting. You can mark down the important points of a topic instead of reading a whole bunch of irrevelant wording that distracts you from the main point. I think that students getting assigned a powerpoint as a project is a very good education tool. It allows the student to learn all about the topic and have a lot of creativity with making it fun and appealing to the other students.

Cell Phones in class

For all four years that I was in high school, there was a fully enforced rule that cell phones were not even allowed to be brought into school. If you were caught, your phone was taken to the principal and you had to get it at the end of the day. While I do believe that phones should not be on ringer during class because it is distracting, I think that there are certain instances where cell phones are acceptable, such as in an emergency. Now in college, there really is no rule about cell phones in class. If there is an emergency, we can leave class and take the call. I believe that if I were a high school teacher in this situation, that I would allow students to keep their phones on. If I caught them texting or just not paying attention, I would take the phone away, but I believe that just having it on just in case is okay.

Why do I want to be a teacher?

I want to be a teacher for many reasons. First off, I think that giving a child the value of a good education is so important. It will help them not only in getting a good job, but it will help them in perhaps more difficult, tasks throughout their lives. Working with children is also very rewarding. To help a child understant a concept that they could not grasp before gives me such a good feeling. I think that every kid has potential to be brilliant and successful as long as they work hard at it. I would love to be the teacher that helps them learn everything that they want to know. I am looking forward to the classes that I will be taking to get closer to becoming a teacher. One of my goals in life is to make an impact on someones life. Even just one person. I think that teaching would be relevant to this goal and I only hope that one day I become a successful teacher and that I accomplish this goal.

How Will Taking Ed Tech help me as an educator?

Taking this Tech ed course will definitely help me as an educator. We are learning how to use different programs, such as powerpoint, word, excel, and fireworks. These tools will help us show and demonstrate to our future students how and why these tools are important. For example, it will absolutely help me teach a class using a powerpoint presentation. Since many kids learn by visual aids, I believe that by seeing the powerpoint presentation in front of them will help and develop their understanding of the lesson. I think programs like excel will help kids learn to organize ideas and set up different tables and charts that will help them in later years. Overall, I think that taking this class is definitely going to strengthen me as a future educator and I am looking forward to learning all of the different progrmas that will make my future class more interactive and useful.