#9: "The Flipped Classroom," Web Resource, and PowerPoint Interaction!!

A flipped classroom is an instructional teaching design that differs from a traditional one in a variety of ways. A flipped classroom delivers learning material by utilizing technology in an engaging and productive way for students. Students will typically engage in watching online lectures, collaborate in online chat rooms, or research material at home and engage with a mentor in the classroom. It provides students with a more learner based in depth learning style. Typically, teachers will create or play third party videos from the web instead of lecturing. Here are some links teachers might use for their flipped classroom:

• A video for a lecture on Mars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzxgYKyHQY8

• A video for a lecture on the human heart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxUNxvsG7lc

• A video for a lecture on President Barack Obama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J0k9M0pCKE

I found a really cool web based resource for teachers to use with their students to learn about women's suffrage for Women's History Month!! I found it under teacher resources on Scholastic's site. I love that when a teacher clicks on the activity it gives them the learning objectives with an outline of what is in the activity!! The activity is an interactive website that gives students credible information on the history of women's suffrage and the story of an amazing woman from that time.

Here are the links:

Teacher Lesson Plans

Women's Suffrage Objectives

Women's Suffrage Activity

For the PowerPoint Interaction project I found an online template for the popular game "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" I absolutely love the template I found!! The creator made it really easy to use and fun and interactive for kids who would be playing the game. It was really simple to go add in any information for the type of questions I wanted to put in and it was easy to make changes to the layout. The only thing was I would have liked was for some of the transitions to have been smoother and for there to have been more audio and music already in the presentation template.

#8: Gamification, Digital Divide, and PowerPoint for Information Dissemination Project!!

For elementary education, I believe gamification is the technological advancement that holds the biggest promise for education. With gamification, game elements can be added to instructional material to "increase motivation and interactivity, encourage creativity, and deepen understanding of content" (Teaching and Learning with Technology 288). I think those three things are key to getting an enriching education and gamification is the best way to go about that, especially with elementary students. Kids love games and to tie that to education makes learning fun and more interactive for them. My favorite game the book mentioned that I may want to use in my classroom is called the World Peace Game. "This multilevel board game creates an environment in which students representing different countries must achieve world peace despite conflicting views with minimum military intervention" (Teaching and Learning with Technology 288). The book further states this allows students to gain "critical thinking skills" along with "a global political perspective" which are key elements for anyone living in the modern world today.

I stand with being really sensitive to the digital divide. Especially as a teacher, I want to treat all my students fairly and give them all equal opportunity and access to a high quality education. Even if only a few of my students are on the less fortunate side of the divide, where they have poorer access to computers, internet access, etc. I want to implement most of the technology we use together in class, that way students can learn how to properly and effectively use it. As far as homework goes, I would rather assign hard copies of assignments, unless I know all of my students have equal access to the technology they need for it.

I honestly had a lot of fun making my PowerPoint for the PowerPoint for Information Dissemination Assignment. I did my PowerPoint on Marine Life and I loved adding in all the cool pictures of animals and editing them with animations. Before this assignment, I had no clue all of the features PowerPoint has to offer!! I loved learning how to crop out the background of pictures; I learned how to keep the pieces I wanted in it and crop the pieces I didn't want out of the picture completely. I want to use PowerPoint as a photo editor from now on!!

#7: PowerPoint to Support Learning, Adaptive Technology, and My Weebly Page!!

As a teacher, I would use PowerPoint to support my students' learning at each level of Bloom's Taxonomy in specific lessons. Let's imagine I'm creating a PowerPoint on a lesson in music theory. For "Remembering", I would create a slide that presents a diagram or picture of notes on a scale, then I would ask my students to recall the note names as they previously learned them. I could also present this in the form of multiple choice questions on a slide and have the students submit their answers on iClickers. For "Understanding," I would need my students to make connections to "real world" situations, so to do this I would attach and play a YouTube video of a popular song, one that my students would be familiar with, and have them identify the key signature and time signature the song is in. For "Applying," students should be able to apply what they learned, so I would have an interactive slide, with a picture of a treble staff, where students could come up to the SmartBoard, and when I ask them to write a short melody in a certain key signature, they should be able to do it correctly. For "Analyzing," students should be able to analyze a work and connect it to what they learned, so for my music theory lesson, I would have a slide with multiple songs attached on one side, labeled with numbers, and multiple choice answers of key signatures, labeled with letters. I would then have my students anazlyze each song and then have them match the song to the correct key signature. For "Evaluating," I would have a slide for students to use their iClickers to vote on which song, out of the ones they listened to, was their favorite, and then have a class discussion on why they think their favorite was their favorite based on music theory terms. Lastly, for "Creating," I would make a slide with clear instructions for the students, together in groups, to write their own song. Then I would have them play it for the class and record them on my computer.

Adaptive technology is pretty literally what it sounds like. It is technology modified to meet and assist the needs of those with special needs. Some prime examples include word processing (to assist those with trouble holding a pencil or writing on paper), concept mapping (to assist those who need a visual presentation of how concepts connect to each other), word prediction (to assist those physically impaired who may have difficulty with typing keystrokes), recorded books (to help auditory learners or possibly people who are blind), high interest low level books (to assist those with lower than average reading levels), and many more!! Teaching and Learning with Technology also mentions Apple's iBook app, which I love because it has so many amazing features like the speak selection feature, the define option, multitouch textbooks,  and iBook Author for teachers. I think all adaptive technology is amazing and completely necessary in today's education system. The only two challenges with it for us as teachers is learning how to use it correctly ourselves to better benefit our students and having multiple forms of technology in our classrooms at once, which could get a little hectic at times.

In the Web Design Assignment I learned a lot about how to better design a classroom webpage! I learned how to create a page format, how to insert pictures as page backgrounds, how to insert calendars, and much more! I think I want to create more websites using Weebly in my future career.

Link to my Weebly site: http://kaitsclassroom.weebly.com/

Learning Project 1: Option (2): "Design": Prezi: "Charlotte's Web"

For my learning project, I created a Prezi based on the 2nd grade CPALMS standard: 

LAFS.2.RL.1.3

"Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges."

Slide Share: Presentations We Love!!

I really love the message behind this presentation. The slides really capture your attention and are to the point with information. I like that they focus on a critical issue and include questions about it. For presentations you really want use a lot of pictures, diagrams, and videos with only a few words that are colorful and bold to capture attention.

Preparing for the Future of Education. Take A Look Around You. from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano

#6: Classroom Webpage, Efficient Technology, and Wiki!!

The school website I visited was Jackson Memorial High's website. The grades range from 9th to 12th grade. They had links to class websites from each teacher and it appeared they have a website for every class! On the class websites it has the teachers name, the subject, announcements, a description of the class, links to online resources, teacher contact information, room numbers, class profiles, homework with due dates, a monthly calendar, and a list of materials needed for that class. The three main pages I viewed were for Speech and Drama, Algebra 2, and Honors Studio Art. I liked the pages a lot because they were filled with useful information for the students that have that class and it is very easy to access. Each teacher added their own unique touch to their page with forms of clip art.

In order to use technology in my classroom more effectively and efficiently I will need to do many things. As mentioned in Teaching and Learning with Technology, hopefully the school I'm working for will provide a variety of software such as, productivity software, software suites, management software, and administrative software. Productivity software and software suites would most likely give me access to some type of word processor, a database management system, presentation software, calendars, and email programs. When it is connected to a school wide network I can log onto my personal network and access my documents and files on any computer in the school. With a word processing software I could create documents, flyers, forms, newsletters, tests, invitations, and newsletters. As a teacher especially, it will be essential for me to use correct spelling and grammar in my work, like in letters home to parents or on quizzes for students. Most word processors include spell checking and grammar checking which will help maintain my professionalism as a teacher. I would also like to take advantage of whatever presentation software I have access to such as Microsoft Office PowePoint. It would allow me to present information to my students in an organized, flowing manner and I could incorporate many forms of multimedia like pictures, videos, and audio files in my presentations. This is using technology efficiently and effectively because it keeps the students engaged with what they're learning and presents information more effectively than reading it out of a book or lecturing. I would also use some sort of management software to incorporate technology more effectively. With management software I can report grades and attendance to my district. It also allows me to organize data, schedule classes, and create reports districtwide. Doing this electronically with management software is a lot more efficient than doing it all by hand and mailing it to the district or handing it to someone in higher authority than me. 

In making the wiki page, I learned how to more effectively collaborate and virtually communicate with my peers, how to design a wiki, how to properly present information for other teachers to use, how to create an evaluation form, and more! I think what I mainly got out of it was how to properly evaluate websites that I may want to use with my students. I think this skill is imperative as a teacher because you want your students to only access appropriate websites, especially when working with elementary school students. I want my students to learn accurate and up to date information, and I learned how to evaluate that in this project! I really liked the form my group created and I think I might want to use it anytime I evaluate any website, even while I'm in college!

Here is the form we created:

#5: Web 2.0 and Concept Map!!

Based on what was mentioned in the podcast, I think most Web 2.0 tools can be useful in the classroom and to students and teachers in some way or another. I think blogging can be beneficial for the students and teachers because its an easy way for the entire class to be on the same page, literally. Teachers can post reminders about upcoming important dates, they can upload class presentations or podcasts for their students, they could remind them about upcoming due assignments, and much more. If safety is the major concern, there are special websites, like 21 Classrooms, that are made specially for classrooms and protect students' privacy. I think Twitter.com can also be beneficial for the students and for teachers' professionalism. It allows students and teachers to connect with each other, and collaborate and connect with other people outside of their community who may have valuable information to share with the class. Students can also learn proper online etiquette if they use Twitter, which they will most likely take with them throughout their lives and in the workforce. I think Wikis are cool too because students can share valuable information and have resources open to them for projects and other stuff. They can also contribute their own information to the page which will prepare them for knowing how to properly convey information. Diigo is another awesome Web 2.0 tool for students to use. It can help them with research, collecting and organizing data and information, and with properly citing resources. This I feel would be especially beneficial to students in high school who complete research papers for their classes. In order for students to properly use Web 2.0 tools in the classroom, there needs to be proper computer, network, and periphery equipment in (and possibly out of) the classroom. First you would need computers with internet access. Students could only use these tools with properly working computers and moderate to high speed internet access. The internet access would also need to be wireless so the whole school could have access to it off of one school wide modem. You would also need a network system that "stores and automatically backs up data, especially student information and teacher files" (Teaching and Learning with Technology pg. 107). This could be accomplished by storing data on a network server's hard drive (Teaching and Learning with Technology). There are challenges that go along with implementing computers, wifi, and proper networking technology however. The two main big ones are money and teacher training. If the school has the resources and proper teacher training, I think almost all schools should implement Web 2.0.

Diigo is a really cool Web 2.0 tool I might want to use with my students one day. Here's the link so you can check it out too:https://www.diigo.com/ According to the Diigo.com website: "Diigo is a multi tool for personal knowledge management, dramatically improve your workflow and productivity, easy and intuitive, yet versatile and powerful." Diigo means "Digest of Internet Information Groups and Other stuff". With Diigo you can use annotation tools, such as digital highlighters and sticky notes, as you browse the web, you can build a personal library in the cloud with links, pages, notes, and pictures that can be accessed anywhere, provide feedback with annotation, organize information more efficiently, share information in the cloud either by making it public or privately sending it to another member, enable better collaboration for any large or small group where each member can add or subcribe to it and interact with you with "on the page annotations" where the class can read the same article and comment right on the page!

From what I read about Diigo, I know its a tool I want to use in my classroom with my students if they have to do any type of research project! I would want them to collaborate with their peers and me. I would also like them to be able to have the annotating tool because annotating is such an important skill they will use later in their educational and personal careers and I think if they learn how to do it online, it will benefit them even greater in modern society. Annotating the information they read allows them to fully digest and comprehend what they are reading. That may even improve their reading levels and their scores on standardized tests! 

I really liked the concept map activity! I think concept maps are a great tool to use for active learning, especially for visual learners like me. I really liked that on Webspiration you could incorporate a multitude of pictures with (and that are relevant to) the information! In took me a little while to look through all of them and choose the pictures I wanted and I wish there were a faster way to do that, but other than that I really liked the tools provided. I learned how to quickly add bubbles of information and connect them with arrows as well as making the bubbles different shapes! I learned how to fill the information bubbles with color and how to add color to the rim of the information bubble. I liked that you could change the font but I wish there had been more options to choose from. I think next time I use Webspiration I want to try making a scientific or mathematical concept map because I would like to incorporate some of the pictures and bubble shapes from the Science and Math categories.