Six Goals for First Year Teaching

1. Technology operations and concepts- 1A
For this goal, I want to be able to use technology in my classroom. Even though I am looking to teach the lower grade levels, I believe you can still incorporate technology. I would do this by creating a blog for the student’s family to access to be able to see the latest updates and homework.

2. Technology operations and concepts- 1B
For this goal, I want to use the Google colander. Parents will be able to use the calendar to schedule parent-teacher conferences. Also it can be used to schedule volunteer parents to work inside the classroom.

3. Planning and designing learning environments and experiences. - 2A
For this goal, I would relate it to my literacy center. My classroom will have a fun and inviting word wall tree. As the seasons change, the fruit and or colors of the leaves will change.

4. Planning and designing learning environments and experiences -2B
For this goal, I want to bring in Skype into the classroom. I think it would be great to bring in guest speakers, virtual fieldtrips and other educational opportunities into the classroom.

5.Teaching, learning and the curriculum- 3B
For this goal, I would use the site Jing to be able to put up lesson plan instructions for student that are unable to be in the classroom due to sickness or disabilities.

6. Teaching, learning and the curriculum- 3C
For this goal I would have the students get involved in a classroom blog. We would go over how to blog and how to access the class blog, this way everyone is involved and has the opportunity to incorporate technology in the classroom.

Taking a Side Trip!

After visiting some of the listed blogs from our book, I found them to be actually really useful. When I thought of education blogs, my first thought was that they were going to be really boring, and that I would not understand what they were talking about. One blog that really stood out to me was The Ford Log, in his blog, Peter talks about how he is running his blog for his classroom, how they got the blog up and running and how it is beneficial to be blogging in education. I think blogging with students is such a great idea, kid's have the ability to express how they feel outside of the classroom, they can chat with the teacher if they are too shy to do so in the classroom and they can get updates and reminders on what is going on in class or on campus.

Overall, I found these educational blogs to be very eye-opening, these blogs are allowing educators around the world to come together and connect through experiences, ideas and projects. No longer is a teacher stuck trying to figure out how she is going to work something into her lesson or how to approach a certain topic. Through blogging, teachers can now rely on other educators for advice and help.

Changes in Social Media

You may ask yourself, what os social media? Social media is news, information, ideas or opinions people share freely with friends or peers usually around your same age group; majority of the time they are posted on the internet through videos, pictures and websites like facebook, myspace, you-tube, etc. When we look back ten years ago to see if things like social media existed, the fact was that they didn't. They have only been around for the past five years or so. So what did people do to get the word out or spread news? Well they seemed to manage just fine, they had many options like calling on the phone, text messaging, emailing, writing letters, news through magazines, newspapers or local t.v. Well sadly to say, those options are still available today, but they are not used quite as much as new ways like social networking sites, websites and internet ads. The reality, is that things have evolved over time, we are now working smarter not harder. When I say this I mean that it is so much easier to type something up on a computer than it is to write a letter or making a long-winded phone call. Society today is geared toward convenience and instant gratification. People don't have the time to wait and do things, it is much easier to post things or ideas to a site like facebook and let people interact with you at their convenience.

Social media has also changed in education, technology has continued to grow in schools and you now have teachers using facebook to connect with the students in the classroom, teachers using blogs to post homework and kids creating email addresses so that they can be in contact with other students too. I think this is what education needs,kids nowadays need to have as much exposure to technology as possible, because in reality it is what our society is using in our day to day life and interactions with others.

Using Technology in the Classroom

In today's classrooms, we are now seeing things live on the internet and using computers to take notes,

answer surveys, do homework or even get the notes form a class that you may have missed. As a student it is great to be using technology in classrooms, because in our generation we have grown up using it in everything that we do. As a student, I can say that if my teacher did not use some sort of technology in their class to enhance the lesson and make it more effective I would be honest in saying that I would be very bored and most likely lose interest in what was being taught.

Eventually when I begin to teach, I want to incorporate the use if blogging and interactive technology into my classroom. I really believe, that you need to teach children about technology. If they are in the dark, they will face many disadvantages in school, work and life. It is inevitable that we will be fully reliant on technology in the next ten years or so.

A plus to using technology in the classroom, is that you can interact with the parents either by posting a classroom blog that states everything that is going on as well as the homework assignments or you can simply email back and forth individually with the parent. Also a fun thing a teacher can have set up by a parent is a classroom photo album. Through the year the kids can go online and look through the pictures of what they did during that year.

Overall, I think the use of technology is the way to go. There may be some teachers who may be hesitant to use it, but I think if you take some time and show them how to use it as well as seeing the benefits from it, more and more will be on board.

After watching the Shift Happens clip on YouTube, I was really shocked about what I had just watched.  Not shocked in a negative aspect, but in a way that you realize that the times really have shifted.  I feel that the changes that have come about in the last few year have been great.  We are becoming a society that is learning and finding new ways to be more efficient and effective.  By having all these new technological advances, we are able to connect with people faster, advertise to a more diverse group; either for a cause or for a company and have the accessibility to information at any time.  It is kind of sad though when you think about where we started and where we are now. Everything twenty or so years ago had a purpose; you would go to the grocery store to shop for food, you would go to the post office to mail your bills and letters and you would get the newspaper daily.  Now these are things that can all be done or purchased online.  I guess what I am getting to is that we have lost the day to day human interaction and have become very dependent on the new technology.  Overall I am all about advancing but at the same time keeping human relations.

day 1

Loving this class so far, the professor and people in here are great!!! Looking forward to whats to come :)