final post

At the start of this class i was excited to make a blog because all of my friends had one but i'd never gotten around to making one. I've liked having one, and actually have made another for my husband and me. I think all of the things that we could add to our PLE was the most helpful, i don't know if i would have gone out of my way to make all the differnt links etc, onto my site had i not been introduced to it in this class. The annoying part about the ple is not having enough time to actually post stuff that i'd like to do. besides that it's been a lot of fun and i know i'll continue to use it, it would be great to make a class one as well for my students to visit if they wanted too.

Talking with my sis

I talked with my 15 year old sister about internet safety specifically when she is chatting online. I found out that she doesn't do as much chatting as she did when she was a little younger because she doesn't play as many of the games that she did online when she was in middle school. But i told her about the importance of never giving out your real name and making sure that her screen name isn't close enough to her real name. I told her that all they need to know is her high school and since her name is really unique a creep-o could get any info they wanted from just that alone. I told her about sexual harassment over the internet as well as bullying over the internet and the proper things that should be done if that ever happens to her. I think that she knew most of the info but it was probably good to get the reminder and hear it from her older sister, that i was concerned for her and wanted her to be safe.

the internet safety videos

1. What were the most important things you learned? I learned that simply putting my name and home town on the internet makes things quite a bit more fishy. I learned that i want my younger sisters to know that the games they play on the internet are going to be risky when they are talking to a lot of people and that they must not give out their personal information. It's really important that they understand sexual harassment on the computer too, also the importance with not playing with pop ups. I also didn't understand the idea of the differences in "viruses" and "worms" etc. i hadn't heard of a lot of them so i need to be more aware of the stuff that i am opening on my computer.
   
2. How might you use the resources you discovered in your future classroom or home? There will be lots of protecting factors on my school computer and I will find an appropriate way to teach all of my students no matter what grade they are. I really think that it would also be wise to bring in a police officer as well to talk about things that could happen.
   

Internet saftey articles reactions

1. What article did you choose to read for your fourth article? Leave it alone by Elder H. Burke Pererson
   
2. What were the most important things you learned from the readings? I think the most important things i learned from my reading resulted in a change of heart for me, a renual that i need to make sure that in my family with my husband and i that i am taking these things seriously, i think that it's easy to think that these things wont be a big deal for us because we know we're both good people and want to do good things, but we need to help each other not just be good but be awesome and representatives of Christ in everything.
   
3. How will what you have read influence your actions as a parent and/or teacher of children and youth? I know for sure all internet use will be in our family room and limited to a half hour of recreation a day. I know that we will talk openly about the issues that the internet can bring in our lives and make sure that my student/children feel comfortable coming to me with any concerns or problems.
   
4. How can you use what you have learned from the reading to have a positive influence on family and friends?I think that i can learn to say, yeah that's a pg-13 movie, but i really don't think it's going to be very wholesome. I know that if i am trying to be good about everything as far as morality it will remind my friends that they stand for the same things too and that we'll all be better off in the end if we don't fill our lives with trash.

Internet Safety Tips

Are you aware of the things that could happen to you when you go onto the internet? 795 million cyberspace users in 2004. 20% have computers in bedrooms, 1/3 easier to talk to people on the internet than in person. Vulnerable to exploitation, pron, inappropriate information, hate sites, gambling sites. 405 of kids visited inappropriate sites. 90% of 8-16 year olds have seen pornography on the internet. typo squatting, bad sites of misspelled child character names. Truth and domain names act, so that this can't happen anymore. spam and spim inappropriate email. Kids will open up and look at the annoying pop ups that look like games but are gambling sites. hate sites 8667 at the end of 2003 10296 at the end of April 2004. Online plagiarism, piracy 455 of high school students have plagiarized from the internet. 3-4th graders 60% go on the internet alone, 46% use e-mail. Cyber bullying is just like old fashioned playground bullying but they can do it 24/7. Blogs allow posts about mean things. 59% have more than one screen name. Cyber bullying can have deadly consequences, depression, suicide, and murder. People online may not be who they say they are. Predator builds a false sense of trust and then brings the kids in for attack and molestation. Some have killed their victims.

last week in the class

well the students really seem to enjoy every time that technology is used in the classroom, even just my listening to books on cd and playing the vocabulary computer programs, i think that it allows them to come out of their norm a little bit but they can still take a lot from it. my partner used her Google earth presentation on bats all around the world in our class this past week and i'm hoping that we can get everything else together for our down by the bay stuff by the end of the week. Her bats presentation went really well overall, there were some technological issues, but the kids seemed to really respond well to it all. they got really excited when everything was zooming in onto the world etc. it was fun to see their eyes light up because something was being taught in a little different way. It's been a really rewarding experience in the classroom, i've seen how my recording hobby can really play into the classroom and i'm looking forward to being abe to do it again.

Week Number Three

This week was totally fun because we decided to involve technology into the classroom! The students are doing a unit on Rhyming and they were reading the book, "down by the bay" Lynn and i thought it would be really fun to actually record the rhymes that they made up in the lyric part of the song as individuals and then also record the whole class singing the song. I bought some recording equipment and took them into a back room using the free download program, "Audacity" and recorded their voices saying their rhymes and then got the whole class to sing it while i played and sang the song with them with my guitar. We are going to be putting together a slide show with the pictures they drew and them holding watermelon's too. I'm really exctied to see how it all turns out!

sub teaching

So this week we had a couple of subs in the classroom it was actually a great experience for us cohorts because we were able to have the whole class to ourselves. Before the cohort i felt a little intimidated by the idea of teaching a class, i didn't know how long it would take to be able to gain control of them. I am grateful for an aweosme teacher that has set forth aweosme management skills that makes it easier for us to control them, she shows great love for her students and it makes a big difference when there are subs because they understand that they have something to live up to when she gets back. I hope that my class and I develop the same relationship of trust and understanding that Mrs. Foote has with her students.

First Week of Practicum

Man did I ever learn a lot in my practicum this first week. I am in a first grade class and it's amazing to see this teacher just have these six year old kids around her finger. She has an amazing management plan her ideas are so simple but in the same way so genius. I love that when they are walking in the halls they have "bubbles" in their mouths and arms tucked in so that they can't touch anything or say anything. Halloween was a really fun time too we were able to see the kids enjoying having fun and the teacher even got to integrate some writing and read aloud's into the class too. Here is a picture of us on Halloween that i hope you enjoy!

Google Tours

I looked and and talked to some of my peers about their Google earth tours. They all had really differnt ideas, one group decided to do famous places where sports teams play, i thought that was awesome because you could even compare it to the coliseum and have them see that we have our own kinds of coliseums in the world. I also talked to Laurie about hers they are going to take their students on a tour of the different places where Native Americas live and i really liked even more that they could have a pop up picture of the kind of houses that they lived in. Lastly there were a few of the wonders of the world, i still didn't even know what they were so I'm sure young kids would really enjoy learning about them so they could be more informed that i am.

Google Earth

I decided to post a link to a castle to set the tone of a book we may read like Robin Hood or such things. Kids love to learn about princesses, and knights in shining armor. I this week i learned that you can make a virtual tour around the world on Google earth. I also found out that wikipedia is set up with the maps so that you can read more about the places that you are searching for. I also think it's awesome that you can take measurements with a ruler and measure the latitude and longitude of each place. This could be used in the science, geography and math units.

Fun Videos!

This week was really fun to see how each group got so into their projects. After viewing a few of them i am amazed at the level of creativity. i really like the hungry caterpillar with the clay it was so cute. I watched a couple that were about books and were kind of reading rainbow style to try and hook my interest, and I'll admit that they did. I didn't know anything about the books they presented and now I'd like to have them in my classroom library! I know that my fifth graders will love to have this kind of opportunity to made things on the computer. What an awesome way to be able to make a movie for history or science. maybe if we're studying geography having them try and be travel guides of certain parts of the world. THis program was easy to use that they would catch on very quickly. I was a fun project.

This is my brother's band and i wanted to show how you can make anything with pictures into a story to help creativity.

Fun Movies this week!!

this week i really learned that making movies and different slides to help engage the class can be really fun. At first i didn't see a need to have a story board i just wanted to dive into it and start making my slide show but i'm glad that i did it so that this next week when we actually make the movie i'll be really prepared and know exactly the steps that i need to take to have a complete and successful slide show. The ideas presented like claymation will be really fun to do in the class even if i haven't decided to do them for this specific project. i think that I'll be using this stuff in my classroom to learn. It will be a lot more fun because of the technology that we can use.

Story Board

This is my story board of a little "fairy tale" that i wrote about my brothers band.

Other science postings

I was able to look at summer and Amy Johnson's blog from our class they both had really fun ideas with using the internet to help them in the classroom. Summers was about finding the different organisms in a pond through the internet because she wouldn't be able to get all of her kids our in to the nature very likely. The other one allowed students to explore the different surface of the planets via a program on the internet, they then colored different pictures about those surfaces. I know that there are still so many great ideas out there and the more looking that i do on the internet the more fun we will have in the classroom.

Copywrite's for educators

It's awesome that we are able to use so many copywrited materials either fully or partly for educational purposes, it really shows me that education is looked at as important. To me the point that we are supposed to look at copywrited materials and how they are effected in the business world is really nice. For example i know that i would really love to play some of my brothers music so more people could hear it and become familiar with it if it relates to what we are talking about in the lessons, however other music artists may feel it is harmful to their business and i need to respect that too.Tpak really helps to make the use of technology balanced with what really needs to be involved so that technology doesn't take away from the learning but certainly helps it.

the science wonder!

I made my way though a lot of science class with out really using any technology at all, it wasn't until i was in the physical science class for elementary education that i started to realize that there really are a lot more fun things you can do with technology to make stuff fun. Not to mention all the things we explored this past week, with the solar system and GPS in order to really understand things not ust in theory but see them in actuality. It's been a lot of work to get it up and going but i figure once you do the activity once it's always going to be faster and more fun the second time. It was a good project for the week.

The Tech Savvy Teacher

The Tech Savvy Teacher:
Here is an article so that you can collect some great ideas about being the coolest, savviest teacher around. This week is a science experiment working with GPS...check it out!


“Spruce Up Your Students Lives”



As part of the fourth grade science objectives students must classify Utah plants. A simple way to do this is to classify using the categories of grass, tree and shrub. We have created a simple project that will send your students on an adventure!



You will need the accompanying worksheet, the following websites, GPS tracking system (enough for groups of 4 to 6 students) and an adventure location. Some suggestions would be the school grounds, local parks, city buildings, a local university. Please obtain permission where necessary. Before you begin, make any necessary arrangements to transport students to the adventure location.



First, give the students the accompanying worksheet and direct them to the list of common Utah plants located at the bottom. Ask them to go to this website, http://extension.usu.edu/range/ or Google their specific plant. Draw a simple representation of identifying characteristics.



As the teacher, instruct the class in GPS technology. Accompany students to the adventure location. Have students identify their chosen plant, obtain a sample, and record the GPS location. Return to the classroom.



Have students confirm their choices using the website provided earlier. Compare GPS locations found by the students. Emphasize that everything on the earth is located by coordinates.

A yummy day

So today we used something called delicious, I'm pretty much amazed that there are so many resources there are. I feel pretty silly doing all of this but it's really cool to get to know that there is so much to explore. It only took like five minutes for me to find a ton of ideas for the third graders to use about art. I'm so floored how fast technology has come and that I should be in the middle of it but there is still so much that I have to learn.

Oh my melting mind.

Well pretty much I've found out this week that I don't read, and that i don't have any interest on things with updates except the waves at home that I can't even see because the mountains are in the way. Not that I'm complaining, I've decided to be a more interesting and well read person, even though the Twilight series are still in my to read category i feel like I may be a little more rad if i do read them. So please keep updating your books so you can help this uncultured reader receive more rad points. thanks. i don't want my mind to melt.

IPT 287

Well folks here we are in class, this week I've learned that I'm excited to use technology in my classroom, why b/c i want to be one cool cat of a teacher. I know what I don't like in classes and what I do. I mean really who didn't enjoy computer time playing Oregon Trail in elementary school? We may not have those sweet green pixalated screens now, but I don't think that the kids will complain too much if they're sent over to google earth to find their own house in Utah and then explore the rest of the US that was traveled by it's founders to get here. It's no Oregon Trail but I think it will do the job fine.