Technology in the classroom
During class today we discussed and explored the tools that are available on the UEN website. Initially I thought the UEN website would be very limiting as to the tools it offered to us as teachers but I was quite wrong. After spending just a few minutes on the website I had answered questions that I previously use to have. One of my biggest concerns becoming a teacher is knowing what and where the core curriculum requirements can be found. UEN is awesome in how it not only provides teachers with the core standards but when you go into the lesson plan creator it provides a section where you can go and look up and see where your possible lesson plan might fall into. I think that this will be an extremely helpful tool to me as a teacher especially when it comes time to show administrators how I am using and teaching core curriculum subjects and material.
Another thing I discovered on the website was the very useful resources available to my future students and parents. I think that having an electronic means to let kids and parents reach me is going to be extremely helpful especially if kids need help on their homework or if they are struggling to understand something.
Overall I was greatly impressed with the UEN website and look forward to possibly using it some day to help my students excel in their academic pursuits.
Lesson Plan Overview
Grade Level Chosen: 5th Grade
Subject: Science-Geology formations and behaviors of volcanoes.
Lesson plan title: Push through
Refrences:
http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/5842.aspx
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/chemistry/lesson-plan/335.html
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview?LPid=2695
Monday, January 26, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Something worse than snow?
In the many different and varying types of weather we receive in Cache Valley I believe I have found the worst one. Now the reader might be asking his/her self. "Is it the snow? Is it the cold? Is it the inversion?" My answer to all these questions is NO. I believe that the worst kind of weather we have received in Cache Valley is that freezing rain. Now let me just back my reason for this new hatred of natures fury. I live with my wife at the bottom of old main and on my strolls home I usually walk down the steps and then cross the field. As most of you people out their know their has been snow on that hill for the last couple of weeks now and I have become very accustom to use certain tactics in order to navigate to my humble home in safety. Well after this recent rain things were defiantly different. As usual I headed down the stairs and made my forty five degree turn onto the "snow". Well after my first five steps I felt a noticeable difference in the way the terrain usually behaved. It was like walking on a solid piece of ice. So needless to say I experienced a little bit of panic but figured that I could continue on ward. I again took a couple of steps forward however the hill was getting steeper and I could feel my feet start to head down. Unfourtunatley I am not a skier so after a few seconds of free sliding down the hill I landed on my knees. Even after my fall I continued to slide down the hill another fifteen feet. Talk about embarissing! :( Well after my fall I said, "the heck with this" and decided I had better head to the steps. Despite this decision the ice was still present and I fell a couple of more times before my feet were safley on the sidewalk of the steps.
So the weather I hate about Cache valley is the blasted freezing rain. I just hope we get some snow so that my ego and knees can experience some relief.
So the weather I hate about Cache valley is the blasted freezing rain. I just hope we get some snow so that my ego and knees can experience some relief.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Hey Makenna and Ashley here are some of the sections in our article I found kind of interesting and some of my own thoughts concerning those things. I look forward to seeing what you guys think.
Hamstra used a software application called DyKnow Vision to let her students analyze various passages from the books on computer screens at their desk. She then posted their work on a large-screen monitor at the front of the classroom (the computer lab, in this case), and the students discussed the displayed examples. Hamstra has also had students analyze similar passages using pen and paper.[1]
[2] I really agree with this paragraph. I have seen in my self how you can express yourself more on the computer than you can by just writing.
A survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that young people (ages 8-18) mainline electronic media for more than six hours a day, on average. Interestingly, many are multitasking -- listening to music while surfing the Web or instant-messaging friends while playing a video game[3].
[3] Interesting statistic about how much media and digital stuff kids are getting into.
One way of competing with electronic distractions is to optimize lessons for the MEdia Generation's rapid-fire meme-hopping tendencies.[4]
[4] Make our lessons better.
A recent survey by CDW Corporation shows that teachers are more likely to use technology to ease the administrative requirements of K-12 education than to utilize it in instructional applications. More than 85 percent of respondents in CDW's Teachers Talk Tech survey say that while they are adequately trained on Internet, word processing, and email software, 27 percent have little or no training with integrating computers into lessons. Nonetheless, the survey indicates that more than 70 percent of teachers at all grade levels believe computers are an important driver of student learning.[5]
[5] From this survey it sounds like teachers know technology is important but are not utilizing it in their classrooms especially to enforce their lessons.
Consequently, teachers spend most of the day in drill-and-practice mode, preparing for standardized tests.[6]
[6] Standardized testing is hindering teachers abilities to integrate technology into the classroom.
More than half the students in a nationwide survey by the National Governors' Association said their classwork is easy, and two-thirds reported they would work harder if their coursework were more interesting or challenging.[7]
[7] Class work is easy but not interesting or challenging.
The theory behind Logo was that children, by actually creating their own learning environment, would retain far more knowledge than they would from ordinary teaching methods.[8]
[8] Theory is that by kids creating their own learning environment, they will retain far more knowledge.
The problem, Kay told me in a recent email, is largely with "the difficulty of adults to adjust to new ideas. I don't mean really new ideas like computing, but ideas new to the human race, like science and how it uses mathematics, or even slightly older ideas like reading and writing. Teaching the latter is still a struggle, despite its relative antiquity (and despite the fact that we know very well how to do it best). And real mathematics and real science are not yet taught in elementary and even most high schools."[9]
[9] A big part of the problem of technology getting into the classroom is the adults adapting and using this new technology.
"Kids are bombarded by media," says Blake. "They're completely high tech, and they don't know a different way. When you hand them a book, they're going to say, 'Is this all there is?'"[10]
[10] Technology is the way kids think.
. "This is a mix-and-match generation," Blake says. "I'm looking at these things as a way to hook into what they're doing outside the classroom. When they see that I know how to use the technology, they think, 'This is going to be cool.'"[11]
[11] Mix and match generation.
But in the end, the best way for students to learn about the world they live in is to have a hand in creating it. "The key to teaching is keeping kids involved," says Ryan Ritz, the computer science teacher who first brought the DyKnow system to the Park Tudor School. "They like everything being electronic -- it's speaking their language."[12]
[12] Keep kids involved and interested in what they are learning.
Hamstra used a software application called DyKnow Vision to let her students analyze various passages from the books on computer screens at their desk. She then posted their work on a large-screen monitor at the front of the classroom (the computer lab, in this case), and the students discussed the displayed examples. Hamstra has also had students analyze similar passages using pen and paper.[1]
[2] I really agree with this paragraph. I have seen in my self how you can express yourself more on the computer than you can by just writing.
A survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that young people (ages 8-18) mainline electronic media for more than six hours a day, on average. Interestingly, many are multitasking -- listening to music while surfing the Web or instant-messaging friends while playing a video game[3].
[3] Interesting statistic about how much media and digital stuff kids are getting into.
One way of competing with electronic distractions is to optimize lessons for the MEdia Generation's rapid-fire meme-hopping tendencies.[4]
[4] Make our lessons better.
A recent survey by CDW Corporation shows that teachers are more likely to use technology to ease the administrative requirements of K-12 education than to utilize it in instructional applications. More than 85 percent of respondents in CDW's Teachers Talk Tech survey say that while they are adequately trained on Internet, word processing, and email software, 27 percent have little or no training with integrating computers into lessons. Nonetheless, the survey indicates that more than 70 percent of teachers at all grade levels believe computers are an important driver of student learning.[5]
[5] From this survey it sounds like teachers know technology is important but are not utilizing it in their classrooms especially to enforce their lessons.
Consequently, teachers spend most of the day in drill-and-practice mode, preparing for standardized tests.[6]
[6] Standardized testing is hindering teachers abilities to integrate technology into the classroom.
More than half the students in a nationwide survey by the National Governors' Association said their classwork is easy, and two-thirds reported they would work harder if their coursework were more interesting or challenging.[7]
[7] Class work is easy but not interesting or challenging.
The theory behind Logo was that children, by actually creating their own learning environment, would retain far more knowledge than they would from ordinary teaching methods.[8]
[8] Theory is that by kids creating their own learning environment, they will retain far more knowledge.
The problem, Kay told me in a recent email, is largely with "the difficulty of adults to adjust to new ideas. I don't mean really new ideas like computing, but ideas new to the human race, like science and how it uses mathematics, or even slightly older ideas like reading and writing. Teaching the latter is still a struggle, despite its relative antiquity (and despite the fact that we know very well how to do it best). And real mathematics and real science are not yet taught in elementary and even most high schools."[9]
[9] A big part of the problem of technology getting into the classroom is the adults adapting and using this new technology.
"Kids are bombarded by media," says Blake. "They're completely high tech, and they don't know a different way. When you hand them a book, they're going to say, 'Is this all there is?'"[10]
[10] Technology is the way kids think.
. "This is a mix-and-match generation," Blake says. "I'm looking at these things as a way to hook into what they're doing outside the classroom. When they see that I know how to use the technology, they think, 'This is going to be cool.'"[11]
[11] Mix and match generation.
But in the end, the best way for students to learn about the world they live in is to have a hand in creating it. "The key to teaching is keeping kids involved," says Ryan Ritz, the computer science teacher who first brought the DyKnow system to the Park Tudor School. "They like everything being electronic -- it's speaking their language."[12]
[12] Keep kids involved and interested in what they are learning.
Monday, January 12, 2009
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