Interactive White Boards

I personally love interactive white boards. Granted I do not know how to use one, but I definitely love what they are all about. I've never had one in my classroom as a student, but I have seen a few teachers use them while I was observing their class. I have seen almost every student in the classroom engaged in a lesson when an interactive white board was involved. Interactive white boards are a great way for teachers to handle technology in the classroom and become more confident and comfortable with technology. Teachers can show students so many different things using interactive white boards. For example, they can show students how to navigate the internet. Teachers can use the highlighter tool to highlight key points of a lesson. Teachers can play around with several different colors during a lesson to help the visual and kinesthetic learners. Studies have shown that students respond to displays where color is employed. Lessons can be saved and presented to students with special needs or students who were not present for that days lesson. I love that interactive white boards are clean and attractive. Teachers can keep everything neat and organized so that lessons are not cluttered and students are not confused. I know that interactive white boards are expensive and I do not think that they are absolutely necessary for teachers to have in the classroom. I just think that they can definitely help enhance a lesson and engage students. If I had an interactive white board in my classroom, I would not use it everyday. I think teachers should not keep their lessons the same everyday. They need to be creative and find different ways to keep students engaged everyday. My point is that a teacher does not NEED an interactive white board in his/her classroom to keep students engaged, but it is a nice tool to have, to help enhance any lesson.

QR Code

Standard: 19.0* Students know the quadratic formula and are familiar with its proof by completing the square. 
Grade: 8th 


Scan this code to see what the quadratic formula looks like

Heres a fun way to help you memorize the formula!

Lets put this quadratic formula to use! Watch this video to see how we use the quadratic formula.

Try one on your own! y = x2 + 2x - 3

After you have tried it on your own, check your work with this.

If he can do it YOU can do it!!!

Goals

For my first year of teaching I would love to accomplish all of these goals: 


1. Apply some sort of technology to the students every day school experience, whether it be posting on a social network, checking person emails for homework assignments, or in class activities. 
2. Use technology based resources to collect and analyze date, interpret student work and results, communicate with my students, and maximize students learning with technology. 
3. Demonstrate continual growth in technology knowledge and skills to stay up to date with current and emerging technologies. 
4. Get to know my students on a personal level, never have a high affective filter in my classroom, and make students enjoy the subject at hand. 
5. Learn from my teaching mistakes. As a first year teacher I am most certain that I will mess up, but I would love to take notes from my teachings and finding and learn something new each day. 
6. Design developmentally appropriate learning opportunities through every which way that I possibly can. Whether it be technology-enhanced instructional strategies, or games to excite learning.

Interest Survey

The Future of Classrooms

When you google the words 'future classrooms' mostly all of the pictures that come up in the search have computers in them. Technology is going to play huge factor in the future of our classrooms. The first factor that is going to most likely change is that textbooks will be history. I really do think that ebooks/ereaders will become more and more popular in educating all students from k-12. As an educator I will definitely try and push for no more textbooks. I hope that the future of classrooms will provide each student with some sort of tablet such as a Kindle or iPad. Now obviously these are expensive devices that are probably not the best choice for young students to be responsible with, but it can be a chance for them to learn how to be responsible. Parents can sign a contract with the school to replace the tablet if their child were to lose it and teachers can require students to purchase a good case for the tablet for their school supplies instead of buying book covers and other supplies. I do think that there will be a even ratio between the number of students in the classroom and the number of computers available in the classroom. Children's activity patterns will be supported with the proper technologies to work, experiment, explore, play, and learn. Our future educators will be properly educated to meet the technological needs of their students. Todays teachers are not very educated when it comes to working with technology. I have seen a lot of teachers struggle when it comes to working with computers. Technology is becoming a visible part of children’s lives.  From classroom settings to home use, computers are now a part of how children learn, play, and communicate. Computers are an important part of children’s lives, even those young enough to attend pre-school.

Social Media in the Classroom

There are so many different pros and cons when it comes to social media in the classroom. Today’s generation is definitely a tech-savvy one. All students from the 1^st grade to college level students are familiar with technology and the Internet. Students from 13 years old to all college students have experienced with social networks one way or another. Social media is a great way to increase student engagement and build better communication skills. One good pro is that social networks such as Facebook or Twitter can improve communication among students and teachers. Teachers can answer students’ questions, post homework assignments and lesson plans, send messages and updates, schedule or announce upcoming events, and much more over these social networks. Students can use Twitter and Facebook to get help from instructors or even other students. A great way for teachers, who use these social networks in their classrooms, to give participation points is by having students tweet about something that was discussed in class. Social medias can be a great way for students to express themselves, especially those students who are shy in the classroom. Using YouTube to record and broadcast a lecture would be a great strategy for any teacher to do. By doing this and having students comment on the video or even write a paper on the video gives students a chance to watch the lecture as many times as they want and really take their time to reflect on the topic at hand. A con is that social medias can be very distracting in the classroom. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube can ultimately be disruptive to the learning process. Most students conduct most of their lives over social networks. I know that I personally get very distracted when I have a homework assignment to attend to. I can spend most my time on Facebook when I should be studying. Because of Education 407, I have been introduced to Google +. I love this social network, especially as a student. The hangout part of this network has to be my favorite. Using this tool to teach a lesson is a great way to integrate social media into the classroom. Its especially great to have when you have a small class, because their can be some difficulties with a large group. 

Cell Phones & Group Collaboration

I absolutely loved using my cell phone for this assignment. This is probably one of the best ways to integrate technology into the classroom. I use my cell phone for EVERYTHING! I spent $300 on my camera and I have not used it in 2 years. All my photos are taken on my cell phone and uploaded to social networks from my cell phone. Today at work my boss asked my to call 411 to get the number to the gas company, I literally looked at him like he was crazy. I completely forgot what 411 was because I use the internet on my cell phone to get the phone numbers I need. I make restaurant reservations, check movie times and trailers, book hotels, check and send emails, and so much more on my IPhone. I've become so attached to my cell phone that I wonder if I'd be able to live a day without it! 

This homework assignment was a lot of fun. I loved seeing the picture ideas my group-mates came up with. My group worked really well together. We all had our own ideas and they came together so well. Our group consists of 4 girls and our name is 'The Golden Girls.' We chose the Cinderella story to tell. My job was to take pictures of the evil step mother, mice, prince charming, and a party invitation. I went to PetCo to take the picture of mice and I went to Hallmark to take the picture of the invitation. When I saw that my group mate took a picture of her daughter as Cinderella I immediately thought that our prince charming should be my little cousin Alex. He's about her age and he's just as adorable as she is. When I was thinking about what to do for the evil step mother I thought of my aunts Halloween costume. The picture I got could not be more perfect for the evil step mother. I really enjoyed this assignment and I may find a way to incorporate this into my classroom, for my students, one day. I especially loved working with the google docs presentations. It is so cool to me that all of us can work on and edit the same powerpoint presentation at the same time. It was extremely convenient for all of us. We were all able to put our pictures directly on the presentation instead of emailing each other back and forth. Google docs is something that I will use all the time! I found this snow globe at Hallmark when I went to take a picture of an invitation. I thought it would make a great picture for our cover on the presentation.