Experiencing Group

For this group experience my group discussed many ascepts of Middle Level Education. We discussed teaming, the architecture of the schools, and the curriculum. This assignment enabled us to experiment with types of technology. I personally have never used Google Drive never before in all my schooling. It was a fast and effective way to communicate and edit documents including our paper on. It is something I will use on future group projects throughout my college experience and something I would implement in the classroom.

Also it was the first time I had experimented with Prezi. I've always used PowerPoint throughout my schooling, but Prezi gave a greater range of making a better presentation than PowerPoint does. Plus Prezi is much more easier to use.

I thought this project was a great way of getting to work with other classmates who are in the same education classification (ie. Early Childhood, Middle, Secondary). This enabled us to show our skills and gear a presentation toward that field. With totally different schedules the use of Google Drive was essential to getting everything completely and thoroughly on time.

Through using the tools in class, I would use both Google Drive and Prezi in my classroom. Google Drive would enable students in my classroom to effectively work on group projects without having to meet depending on each others schedules. Prezi gives a better visual than PowerPoint and would make a presentation more interesting to sit through.

PowerPoint (Terrific)

For SEDU 183 we needed to create a lesson using PowerPoint. The lesson was based on what level and subject we are concentrating in to teach when we graduate. My expereience with PowerPoint was great because I use PowerPoint for almost everything. So, I was able to do some creative things with my lesson based on what I knew and what I learned in class.

 

 

I did a lesson geared toward Eighth-graders on the political differences between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson and how that led to the creation of the First Party System in American politics. I was able to begin with just a simple overview of each person's background and the ideology adopted by the Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties. I even added a video in the PowerPoint illustrating the feud between Jefferson and Hamilton. Here's a link if you're interested in the video. Some of the animation I used I learned in another class. I also included a review lesson comparing and contrasting the two figures of American history. This can be used to test the students knowledge of what they have learned. Here's my PowerPoint.

I felt that presenting to my peers was good way of presenting what we will teach and how we all feel about using PowerPoint. It was also a solid way of presenting our lesson and explain how we would teach it to a class. I thought the other projects in our group were well done. Each person made the PowerPoint fun and had a lesson set up that students would be interested in. The key with a PowerPoint is to find a way to keep your students interested, so they can get something out of it. You want a student to see the importance of the lesson, not the "oh, not another PowerPoint" feeling.

 



Two More for The Roll

The first blog I came across was the US History Teachers Blog which is a blog where teachers can post and share videos and sites that can be used in the classroom. I found this blog to be interesting because I'm studying Middle Level Education-Social Studies and some of the videos could be used in my classroom. Besides videos for the classroom the blog also offers tutorials on how to use some of the new technology in the classroom. One of the posts I found interesting was one about a teacher offering an in-service instruction on how to use an e-book for a history class. The name of the post was Using the US History e-book. For my blog I could this blog as a source for anyone teaching social studies to get ideas for videos or lessons in the classroom.

The second blog I came across was the Greatest Middle School Social Studies Blog in the World which was put together by a middle school social studies teacher in Connecticut. This blog is similar to what we are doing in this course at the college level. Each student has their own blog to feed ideas off of each other and to ask help from the teacher if they need it while they are at home. As for the front page of the blog the teacher posts his lesson plans for the week, so each student will know what will go on in class and what is expected to be done on their blog. Here's an example of a lesson plan from Week 6 of the 2011 school year. This shows how schools are moving into the social media aspect of technology and incorporating it in the classroom. For my blog this a link a teacher can use to model their blog after for their classroom. It is something that I would use in my classroom because it is a fast way to help my students and for my students to give each other feedback on projects. But ultimately they can share what they learned in class and have discussions about it.

My Beliefs about Technology and Learning

           Technology in the classroom is vital in today's world of teaching. Teachers need to be able to utilize these forms of technology in the classroom. Computers and iPads are becoming a key part in classrooms. These are being used for research in the classroom for assignments. Smart boards are now replacing the chalk board and whiteboard and are an easier tool for teachers to show how to do problems and where to find information on research. Technology will be the future as kindles are now replacing textbooks and that can save districts money to divert elsewhere. I honestly do believe that technology will be vital to the classroom of the future. Yes many things need to be done without technology like solving some math problems without a calculator and writing cursive. Just look back at high school and how much technology was in the classroom. You had laptops, overhead projectors, and smart boards. Schools are starting to move beyond just these few things to using ipods, ipads, kindles, and twitter. We have to become familiar with all of these tools to be able to enhance the learning of our students. By using blogs you can create a classroom community where your students can be engaged and share ideas back and forth to each other. As a teacher I look forward to incorporate multiple modes of technology in my classroom. This will enable me to do different activities within the classroom with those modes of technology.

Important to Me

The most important issue to me in the educational field is money. Many schools are losing funding and are also having to cut programs and teachers. Some say education is at a crisis because of the quality of the teachers and the curriculum. To make schools fully functional and give all students an opportunity to learn and grow the financial stream has to be consistent. For example, here in Pennsylvania the state government has cut funding to education. Who does that hurt the most? Poor schools in some urban and rural area that are struggling to stay afloat from funnelling money to needed resources. Teachers from these schools get cut and they normally are the new teachers who essentially become disposable resources themselves. Schools that are well off cut programs like art and music. I went to a high school that prides itself on its band and art programs. Our high school without the band would be shocking to a community who's motto is Pride, Tradition, and Excellence. Some schools have not upgraded technologically and the needed funds can help schools upgrade to a more technologically-oriented classrooms. Many schools are moving to the latest laptops, ipods, and ipads and incorporating them into the classrooms. When the funds are cut these things are seen as unessential as money will be directed elsewhere in the budget. Another big issue concerning funding is the proposed voucher program in Pennsylvania. This enables a student to leave a failing school to attend a school that is better off. As a result the failing school has to pay for the leaving students cost to attend the new school as well as transportation to that new school. As a result the system will prevent failing schools from improving as funds will be spent on leaving students rather in needed areas in a school district's budget. We can't except a failing school to be punished and not given the opportunity to improve its quality of learning and growth in its community.