Blog 10

            For my Data Collection tool, I will create surveys for my fifth graders during math. A week before each exam, I will give the students a survey with a list of all the objectives from that unit and have them rate how comfortable they feel with each on a scale of 1 through 5. Then with the data I collect, I will look at which objectives have the most 1’s indicating the most students need help in this area and focus my review lesson plans on those objectives. This helps me ensure that my students are receiving a review that is beneficial to them and that I am not wasting class time teaching them something they already know. It is also beneficial to me in that I will not come into class with an unnecessary lesson plan made up.

            I found it interesting when looking at people’s blogs that most of them all felt pretty comfortable with power point except for the non-linear function. This is important because students are coming out of school expected to have a basic understanding of power point to do presentations for class and work. However, if most of us did not know how to create a nonlinear power point than the schools probably need to spend more time on technology related education. I also enjoyed seeing how many other classmates used Edmodo; this shows me that it is a thriving form of technology to get information out to students. I do not want to be using obsolete technology when working with my students because then I am hindering their learning. I also learned from reading a blog about Edmodo that students can direct message a teacher on Edmodo. I was unaware of this but it seems like a great tool. This is a much faster way for students to get their questions answer because teachers will see the notification unlike with email where you have to check it regularly.

            For my next technology related skill I want to work with Lynda.com. I saw a few of my classmates did this for their Independent learning project and it got me interested. If I were to be absent from class one day, I could make my power point and record myself speaking and have the substitute show it to the class. This keeps my students from falling behind due to me having to miss because they still get the notes. I will continue looking into Lynda.com by creating an account and practicing with it so I can become well trained in how to use before I use it in my classroom.

Blog 9

The flipped classroom occurs when the roles of what happens in the classroom and outside the classroom are reversed. While at home the students will be assigned pre-recorded lectures to watch that would have traditionally been taught in the classroom. Then the students will arrive in class the next day already knowing the material and now they can focus on clarifying and deepening their understanding in class through the assistance of their teacher and peers.  During high school, my American Sign Language teacher in our second year would assign us videos of her signing our vocabulary words and the grammar lessons that we would watch at home. We were then able to come to class and clarify any signs we had trouble with and practice with our peers. During the first year though, she would have us learn the lesson in the classroom and the practice at home. The benefits of practicing with other students though helped us all better understand American Sign Language because now we had the ability to practice conversations and understanding what other people were signing as well.

http://www.teachertube.com/

            Open is considered open content and open educational resources. These are any works that are licensed for users to use within the 5Rs: retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute. Retain is the ability to control copies of the work by downloading, duplicating it or any other function giving you access to it. Reuse is the ability to use content in more than one way, such as in a classroom and online. Revise is the right to adapt the material to your needs such as translating it for students who do not speak English. Remix is the ability to combine two or more materials together to create a new piece and redistribute is the ability to share copies such as in a classroom.

http://www.opencontent.org/definition/

Everything that was a  part of the Power Point Information Dissemination assignment I already knew how to do. Though I had not used Power Point in a long time, it was nice to brush up on my skills. I enjoyed including speaker notes in my presentation. I have always known how to do them but never have because I prefer notecards. However, speaker notes keep me from having to keep track of notecards and reading from something in front of me. I did not like the nontraditional bullet list because when I create presentations I like things to be uniformed and the nontraditional list subtracted from that. To improve on my Power Point skills, I can continue to add speaker notes into my presentation as it will also help me become a better presenter. I can use Power Point in my class to present lectures, post assignments on the projector or created review games such as jeopardy.

  

ILP "Design"- Quizlet

            I created a Quizlet classroom for second graders. Quizlet is a virtual notecard website designed to help make studying easier by being able to use flashcards, take practice quizzes, play games, complete fill in the blank questions and more. I have my classroom set up so that only I can make changes to the flash card sets and only those who are invited into my class can see the list.  I wrote an introduction about the flash cards at the top of my Quizlet class page, explaining there will be sixteen units of the school year and I posted the first four that go with the first quarter of the school year. I did this so students can keep up with the vocabulary words if they have to miss a few days and so they can go back a study the list from the week before as well because the test are cumulative.

            Quizlet is a great tool for teachers to ensure their students are studying the correct vocabulary words with the correct definitions. It also helps if a student misses class, then the teacher does not have to spend time going back and teaching all the words again from that unit. I am also able to quickly make up quizzes for students due to the quiz maker on Quizlet and I can merge list together so if I want to pull certain words from certain list I do not have to remake an entire new list.

            Quizlet provides a way for me to connect with my students outside the classroom by posting the vocabulary words they need to know and what assignments I want them to complete with these words. I have the ability to update it daily and the students have the ability to study words at their convenience without having to keep track of papers.

https://quizlet.com/join/w4m3EDEQM