Technology in the Elementary Classroom

This video is a really neat example of one of the really cool things that Smartboards are able to do in aiding classroom instruction. The below video is a demonstration on how you are able to dissect a frog by only using the Smartboard no live specimens needed. I think this is really a good alternative for students who need to perform dissections for a grade without having to actually cut into a real animal.

I absolutely love Miranda’s music!  For everyone who does not know of her music she is a country music star.  What i enjoy about her twitter page is that she is real about what she says. she does not just talk about her up coming shows and tours. She tweets about what she is doing that day how she is feeling etc.. just like us non-music superstars do. In the one post she talks about how it was opening day of deer season back at home for her. Also she talks about how cold it is in Chicago. It is really refreshing to know that some one of her status uses twitter for the same types of things i do as a normal run of the mill college student does. For anyone who wants to have a taste of who she is check this out.

Since no one I know outside of class uses twitter I decided that Oprah would be someone worth while to follow. Much of the tweets that are on her page some how refer to her show. Many explain up coming events that will be taking placeand new guests that will be appearing on the show. Although I did find out that she went to maui before her new season started. Also i thought that it was nice to see that she took time to tweet in remeberance of the victims of september 11th. I am a faithful watcher of her show and a devoted fan so i will continue to follow her and track her different tweets even after this couse is over.

The famous Oprah!

The website We Feel Fine is unlike any other website I have ever explored before. I find it to be very interesting because it allows you to search the web filled with and endless number of blogs to find someone who is feeling the same way you are at that moment. Some people might argue that they simply just do not have the time to log on to this site and check out how people around the world are writing about how they are feeling. This argument is valid especially with the demanding lives that we all live today I myself fall into the category of not having enough hours in one day to complete everything that must get done.

However, most people at some point in their lives have felt a certain way and thought to themselves no one knows how I’m feeling or what I’m going through. Well when we feel like this why not just log in to this site and put in how your feeling and chances are that some one somewhere around the world is having or has had that same feeling you do right now. By reading about the other people who are dealing with the same thing as you it might help you see that you are not alone. Even if you feel like you can’t tell anyone about how you are feeling this site could be a support for you. This is why I think that this site can do some good for people. Also sometimes you might need to feel better about a bad situation that you’re in so you try a search for people who would be in worse situation than you are currently in. This might help to open your eyes to see that your current situation isn’t really as bad as you thought it to be.  Personally I had fun experimenting with this site and think that I might use it again sometime in the future and I think that everyone should go and visit at least once and see what it’s all about. Below is a link to the site explore and enjoy.

We Feel Fine website

This video that I recently found on You Tube is about students who put on their own skits to show their opinions of the use of technology in the classroom.Their teacher is the one who is videotaping the student productions. These students are very creative and I think that you will enjoy watching this video as much as I did. I think that it is good to hear the students take on the use of technology in their classrooms.

I am currently observing at Osage Elementary school in Voorhees NJ. Osage works very hard to make sure that their students are using technology in the classroom every chance possible. The students often take what is called virtual fieldtrips. The students are able to take a field trip without ever having to leave their classroom. Another way that Osage uses technology in the class room is that they do a lot with distance learning as well. This allows for video conferencing between their school and other schools as well as any other place that has access to the distance learning equipment.

The technology is not just reserved for the students either. Each of the teachers at Osage have their own website’s where they post information about themselves as well as home work and information for parents. This helps the parents know what is going on in their students’ classrooms. Also it helps the parents to know what homework needs to be done and a chance to get a feel of what their children’s teachers are like.

Also Osage is starting to implement a new math program which is all technology oriented. Everything is interactive and done through some sort of technology. When we visited on this past Thursday we were informed that be the end of this school year every classroom throughout the school would be equipped with their own smart board.

I look forward to my next ten weeks at Osage and hope that I will leave this school with some new knowledge and skills using these varied technologies in the classroom. Hopefully I will be able to incorporate these technologies in my future classroom.

Osage school website

Twitter icon to illustrate how you follow people and then they follow you.

Just as this article written by Steven Johnson states at the very beginning I to was thinking what is the point of Twitter? I thought that it was a waste of time to constantly just keep updating what you were doing all day long. I must admit that my first impression was one that left me thinking this is a site created for stalkers. Only after signing up and learning more about Twitter through my Introduction to Writing Arts course did I start to realize that there may be more to Twitter than meets the eye.

Not only does Twitter allow you a quick an easy way of communicating with your friends and family but, it also can open a door for your career.  Since I want to become a teacher Twitter makes it possible for me to connect with other teachers and organizations geared towards teaching and things involved with the educational field. Without Twitter I personally don’t know where I would have started to search for the many resources that are right at my finger tips now that I have been using it.

A way I think that Twitter has effectively been a means of communication is the very popular you tube video with Oprah and the Black Eyed Peas flash mob. Most of the communication and planning for this flash mob to actually be successful and take place was done through the use of Twitter.

So I must say that with a little patience and investigating I am now a big fan of Twitter. I feel that with the way technology is changing so rapidly it is a great way for everyone to still stay connected and help to communicate their ideas to the world. Also we are not solely being changed by Twitter but, as users we are helping to change and add to Twitter as well.

Image of a educational comic .

Comic book writing in an Elementary classroom could this be for real?

Yes as a matter of fact it is real and it is happening in schools right now. In a recent article that I just read titled Using Computers to Make Comics in the Classroom Quick and Easy Ways to Use the Comic Life Program With Kids. The author Joanna Szeto explains how her students are making these comic books and stripes to help them to read and write better. Joanna explains that the comics help in many ways with many different types of students. They help second language students with their English skills. The comics aid the struggling readers and writers in the class. Joanna also talks about how the reason comics are so helpful is because the students who may not enjoy reading or have a hard time doing it still enjoy reading comic books at home during their free time. The comics are easy to write because the writing that a comic contains is minimal usually just consisting of a few speech bubbles from the characters mouths.

The program that these students are using is called comic life this program uses clip art and other images to help create the students comics. Once the images are applied the can them be cropped, inlarged, rearranged, etc..  Next the students are able to put up various speech bubbles and insert the text that they want their characters to say.

The comic life program is a great program to use in the classroom. Not every student excels at drawing or even enjoys it . This program lets the students create a comic without being an artist or a great writer.

My thoughts on this idea is that I think that this is a new and clever way to help struggling student excel in learning. This is just another way that technology has pulled through and allowed teachers to reach out to their students in a fun yet still very educational way. I think that a project like this would not only help students learn better but also give them a sense of accomplishment. At the end of this project each student would have invented and written their very own comic. I personally would love to use a program like this when I get my own classroom.

More infromation on comics

Thirty day free trial of Comic Life

 This video shows how a program similar to Comic life is used to make a comic.

Student useung a smart Board

Like most before reading this article my basic understand was that literacy was made up of different books and texts. I honestly would have ever put technology and literacy together as one. Now after reading this article about The National Project to Expand Technological Literacy I can see how the two not only go hand in hand with one another but, can be one in the same. Throughout my schooling I was never formally introduced to technological literacy. The most that any of my schools took the time to make sure we knew was how to type on the keyboard properly.

Now that I am older and attending college to become a teacher I am starting to see firsthand just how important technology is in the classroom as well as to literacy. In this article on page five Selfe states that “Technology has become part of our responsibility whether we like it or not”. This proves to be true in so many different aspects of many people’s lives. Whether it is no longer sending and receiving letters because of e-mail or being able to bring your office everywhere you go with your blackberry. One of the technologies that I have had the pleasure of working with in the classroom would have to be the smart board. These devices let the students interact while they are learning. In my one class her at Rowan University we saw a program that let the students dissect a frog all virtually. This was completely mind blowing. Also the smart board can be used at any grade level from pre-k through seniors in high school. located in the top left corner is an image of a student using a smart board.

After reading this article I made a really strong connection to the fact that lower income students are suffering greatly due to the lack of funds available to supply their schools with the technology and computers needed for these students to succeed. Personally I would love to have a chance to work toward helping these schools get the funding that they need in order for them to have the same advantages that the middle to upper class schools are awarded.

The above image was found at schools.portnet.k12.ny.us.