Doing

For the "doing" part of my Internet safety assignment, I decided to talk to my mother, because I know that she worries about the safety on the computer a lot. Since I am the second youngest, she just has one child, my 17 year old sister, still at home. She is the mother of five girls, the oldest being 28 years old. Although my father is very tech-savvy because he works with computers, my mother is not as comfortable with technology and so we discussed safety precautions that can be taken. My dad has put all sorts of filtering systems on the computer to prevent pop ups and other thing that may have inappropriate or dangerous information on them. My mom decided a few years ago that the computer should be moved from the secluded basement area it used to be in to the upstairs family room right next to the kitchen, a nice open area. I told her that this was an excellent idea, and we discussed what else can be done to make sure the computer is used in a positive manner. I talked to her about the timing, about not wasting time on the computer, and she said that she wants to set time limits for my little sister, but just has not gotten around to enforcing it. She told me that she always sets a time limit for herself when she gets on the computer though, which I thought was setting a great example for her kids. We also discussed the fact that she cannot enforce too much though, because my little sister is older, and needs to make many of her own decisions. We talked about the good things about the Internet, and how you just need to be careful when you use it. I think it was a very positive experience to discuss these things with my mom, and I think it helped her to feel good about what she has done to make sure the computer is safe for her kids.

Other's Presentations

I learned that there is so much you can really do with technology!! I think that you just have to get creative and really think about how technology would enhance the curriculum standard you are working towards. People came up with so many good ideas that I don't think I would have ever thought of, but which really helped to effectively teach what they were trying to teach with their objective! Watching other's presentations definitely helped me get the wheels turning in my head as to what I can do in the future!

Internet Safety Readings

I thought that these articles were really interesting, and they made me feel better about using technology with kids, even with all the bad stuff out there.

1. What article did you choose to read for your fourth article? I chose to read the article entitled "I Have A Question" from the Internet topic tab. I was interested in reading this article because I thought that it would give a more personal answer to the technology question, and I felt that it did--it explained filtering and other important principles of Internet safety in a thorough manner so that I understood exactly how to go about taking those safety precautions.

2. What were the most important things you learned from your readings? I think that I learned that the most that while there are bad things out there, you can take precautions and be safe about the Internet and media use. The articles talked a lot about having open communication--like if something pops up or someone they don't know tries to email them, they tell you about it. I think this is such a great idea! Pornography and other addictions that happen with the media are usually kept personal and private, and so if we keep those communication lines open, they are less likely to occur. I also thought it was interesting that the McKay Today Magazine article pointed out to set a positive example for your children of using technology--to show them how to use it in a good way, and not to model overuse or negative use of the media. For example, watching trashy reality television is probably not setting the best example for children of positive technology use.

3. How will what you read influence your actions as a parent/teacher of children and youth? I think that these articles helped me to see that a lot of times, I don't use technology in the best ways, and children would not glean the best example from me! I waste a lot of time watching TV or on the computer or on Facebook that I could be doing something else. While these are positive things, I need to realize now that I should be setting a positive example of technology and media use. I also think that something I learned that I can use particularly as a teacher is to raise awareness about positive technology use, and to speak out against the negative use of the media and technology.

4. How can you use what you have learned from your reading to have a positive influence on family and friends? I think that I can help my friends to be aware of the dangers of the media, and just to speak up about these dangers and issues. I also can set a positive example for them by using the media and technology in a positive manner--not to waste time--and so that they will see that technology should be used for good and not for all the bad things there are out there.

Technology SlideShare

Practicum Project

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My Read Aloud Technology Lesson

I have not had the opportunity to teach my technology lesson yet, but I will be teaching it on Friday morning right before my class goes off to lunch. I plan on introducing the comprehension strategy, just as I would right before I read a book aloud. Then, instead of reading a book aloud, I will play the Photo Story that I have prepared and have the students watch it. After the reading, we will do a post-reading activity to make sure they understood how the comprehension strategy works in the book. The Photo Story would have my voice recorded reading with expression. The comprehension strategy that my lesson will target is sequencing the events in the story. We will start off reviewing putting things in sequential order, watch the Photo Story, and then put the Photo Story in sequential order. I think that this technology will help students to have a highly visual picture in their minds in order to better remember the sequence of events.

Technology Lesson Ideas

To be honest, I have had a little bit of trouble thinking of ideas that I could use technology with the lessons which my teacher and I have planned out to teach for the rest of this month. However, as I was contemplating further on the topic today, I was thinking that using a Photo Story could make a shared reading or read aloud a lot more exciting for the kids. I think that listening and watching the story could help the students to remember it better, as well as the fact that it is something a little different so that could be way fun for them. I think that doing a Photo Story is probably my best idea that I have so far. I would prepare the students for the Photo Story just like I would to read a book, introducing them to a comprehension strategy we are working on, and then we would listen and watch the Photo Story, and then afterward, we would discuss how the comprehension strategy worked in the Photo Story. My classroom has a computer projector available so the Photo Story would definitely be a feasible idea!

Classroom Inventory

In my classroom, there isn't a whole lot of technology available to the students. The teacher has a computer at her desk which she does grades and attendance on, and there is an overhead projector, but other than that, the students do not interact with technology a whole lot. They go to the computer lab every Monday and seem to enjoy that, but there is not a whole lot of technology to evaluate. One cool thing though is that the three ELL's in the classroom are set up on a program called Imagine Learning which helps them to learn more effectively in the classroom. I thought it was pretty cool that they had access to this resource to help them to learn and to accommodate their hindrances in their learning.

Virtual Tour

Check out my Revolutionary War Tour!

Virtual Tour Plan

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1.Lexington/Concord, MA	In the first activity, I will have the students measure the distance of Paul Revere's ride with the ruler.	I will have them look at the ruler as well as a picture from Wikipedia of the different paths the British and Americans took in the battle.
2. Philadelphia, PA	Students will complete the linked Declaration of Independence Word Search.	I will have them look at a link for the word search, as well as a picture of the Declaration of Independence.
3. Saratoga, NY	Students will read an article about the Battle of Saratoga, considered to be the turning point of the Revolutionary War.	I will have them look at a link for the article, as well as a picture of the battle of Saratoga.
4. Yorktown, VA	Students will read and respond to a short article about the Treaty of Paris which happened at Yorktown.	I will have them look at a link for the article, and type a response to the colonists demands and whether they think they were fair.
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:	The thirteen colonies will be highlighted in a polygon so that students can clearly see where the Revolutionary War and colonies were.

TPACK:

The content which will be used in this lesson is from the Utah State Core, under Standard 2, Objective 2--"Evaluate the Revolutionary War's impact on self-rule." Through viewing the key events of the Revolutionary War and where they are actually located, students will be able evaluate the Revolutionary War, and with their knowledge from other lessons, they will be able to evaluate its impact on self-rule. From this activity, students will understand the key events of the Revolutionary War and will have a better picture of where the Revolutionary War was fought.
The pedagogy which will be used is viewing the events and places for themselves. The activities will be self-directed, with the teacher acting as a facilitator and making sure that the students are viewing the articles and doing the activities correctly.
The technology which will be used is Google Earth, as well as some links to the web, and pictures so that students will receive a better understanding of the events of the Revolutionary War. This technology is effective because students from Utah cannot travel to where the events took place, so seeing pictures and seeing the places geographically through Google Earth helps them to realize that the War actually happened and was a defining part of our nation's history.

Breakfast in Bed Story

Storyboard and TPACK Questions

For our digital storytelling activity, we chose the poem "Breakfast in Bed" by Kenn Nesbitt. It is a humorous and fun poem, and the story will depict pictures of the different scenes.

• CONTENT: We are using a poem that has rhyme at the end of each line--the rhyme scheme is aabbccdd...and so forth. From this, student's will learn about rhyme and the sounds that different words make. Also, the poem uses some creative vocabulary, so student's will see the words with the pictures so that their literacy will be improved. Overall, our content is largely literacy and word focused, as we are using a poem.
• PEDAGOGY: Hearing the story read aloud will strengthen student's listening abilities, a big part of their literacy. The pedagogy used will be the storybook itself, and seeing the pictures as well as hearing it read aloud which appeals to auditory and visual learners.
  
• TECHNOLOGY: We will be using PhotoStory3 to create our digital storybook, which will help our story come to life technologically. We will create the story using audio, pictures from the web, and music in the background. This technology is a perfect fit for the pedagogy of reading the story aloud because it allows students to be able to go back and listen to it again and again. This technology fits with the content because it allows students to hear the rhyme and see the vocabulary words.
  

TPACK Questions

The content we are focusing on in our science experiment is how heat can be created by rubbing two objects together, such as hands or cloth. We are also exploring whether lubricating the two objects (lotioning the hands or wetting the cloth) will affect the temperature change. In order to explore this scientific content area, we are using the pedagogical tool of exploring and experimenting to find out what happens--instead of just being told that two objects rubbed together creates heat, students have the opportunity to actually experience it which will help them to remember it easier. Scientific content is always better when it is a hands-on experience, because that is how the scientists discovered it, and so it helps the students to discover it the same way. We used probes in our experiment because we are dealing with temperature change, and this helps to tell the temperature and the temperature change. The graph the technology creates is also helpful in seeing the temperature change and how the heat is created by rubbing the objects together.

The Tech Savvy Teacher

Our project is designed for third grade students, and addresses the Utah State Core Curricular Standard 5 Objective 3, which states “demonstrate that heat may be produced when objects are rubbed against one another.” For our scientific experience, we will be using a temperature probe, lotion, carpet, cloth, and our hands to show how heat is produced when objects are rubbed against one another. In a third grade classroom, you could introduce this lesson activity by having students visualize sliding down a slide with water and without water, and what they think the difference would be.
For each of the items, we took the initial temperature of the objects, and then produced friction for thirty seconds and took the final temperature of the objects. We started off with rubbing our hands together to produce friction, and then produced friction with rubbing our lotioned hands together. Next, we rubbed two pieces of cloth together to produce heat, and then put water on the cloth and rubbed it together. We thoroughly tested the Utah State Objective because we tested the differences in heat between rubbing un-lubricated and lubricated objects together.
The technology of using the temperature probe helps kids in many different ways. It helps teach kids to compare things and events with the visual reading of the temperature with non-lubricated objects and lubricated objects, as well learning how to read initial and final temperatures in appropriate units. They use their observation to conduct reasonable explanations for what has occurred with the temperature. The temperature probe is an easy way for kids to get an accurate reading, and the Logger Pro application helps students to graph the temperature changes as well. This method of technology is very useful in a science classroom, and fun for kids to use too!

Results of Probe Experiment
Hands (non-lubricated): (initial temperature) 82 degrees Fahrenheit (final temperature) 91.8 degrees Fahrenheit
Hands (lubricated): (initial temperature) 82 degrees Fahrenheit (final temperature) 86 degrees Fahrenheit
Cloth (non-lubricated): (initial temperature) 84 degrees Fahrenheit (final temperature) 92 degrees Fahrenheit
Cloth (lubricated): (final temperature) 75.8 degrees Fahrenheit (final temperature)78.8 degrees Fahrenheit

we love working with the probe!

Pictures (from top to bottom): lubricating the cloth, unlubricated cloth rubbing, lubricating the hands, and unlubricated hand rubbing.

*graph at top of page is the curve that unlubricated cloth rubbing made*

TPACK and science

This week in class we learned about TPACK, which is term referring to combining technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge. TPACK is so important for us as teachers to understand because without knowing about these three aspects, our teaching would be missing something. Technology is increasing and vital for us to incorporate into our teaching; understanding the content we are teaching is important so that we can teach it effectively; and having strong pedagogical knowledge will help us to teach effectively. Through having TPACK, we will be able to be effective, well-rounded teachers.
We also learned about different technological tools to be used in teaching science. I thought that using a computer microscope was really cool, because instead of squinting one eye to try to see the enlarged object, you can just look at the computer screen and focus it. Taking a picture of the object while it is enlarged is also useful; I remember having to draw pictures of what we saw, and this is a much more accurate and memorable tool for kids! I think having a computer microscope in the classroom is so useful and the kids would have so much fun with it.

RSS and Web 2.0

This week in class we learned about RSS feeds, and how to put them on our blog. I thought this part of the lesson was particularly interesting because I had never realized how prevalent these feeds were until we actually began looking for them. Since we learned about them in class, I have been seeing them everywhere! I learned that most informational websites have an RSS feed that you can subscribe to and place on a blog or home page. This updates you on current things that are happening with that website, such as current articles, events, etc. In our society where time is short and life is busy, this technological convenience is perfect! In my future classroom, I could use RSS feeds to quickly access the daily weather to share with my class, or to access current events having to do with our school's website or a unit we were studying. For example, if we were doing a current events unit in social studies, I could have an appropriate news website RSS feed on my home page and save time and energy by quickly accessing articles for my class. There are tons of ways I could use RSS feeds in my future classroom, and I'm sure I will think of tons more with time!
We also learned in class this week about the Web 2.0 tools of delicious and GoodReads. Delicious involves sharing links and bookmarking websites so that they can be quickly accessed and shared with others of my choosing. GoodReads involves sharing good books that I have enjoyed reading or plan to enjoy reading with friends, and reviewing them so that my friends can enjoy the good ones as well. I had actually heard of GoodReads before this semester from one of my best friends who was begging me to join it because we love reading and sharing the books we read with one another, but I didn't take the time to set up an account prior to this class. Now that I have experienced it, I think it is a great technological tool! GoodReads can be useful in my future classroom for my students to share books they have read with one another, and to write reviews online so that I can read them and grade them on these reviews easily, and their classmates can know whether a book is good or not. I think it is a great classroom tool! Delicious would be good for my students to research information and share where they found that information with me, the teacher. They could share where they got information for a certain project so that other students who are struggling could get some help.

My Technology Experience

I have some technology experience, but not too much. My father works with computers, so we always had a computer, as well as the latest new technology. I remember that he would always show me how to do things and I became a quick learner of technology. I also have used computers throughout my schooling, and own my own laptop computer now. Most technology I can pick up fairly quickly, but some I have a little bit harder time with.