Lincoln Elementary School

My Overall impression of Lincoln Elementary School, in Cedar Falls, Iowa was what a beautiful place for students and teachers to go to school. The environment was so welcoming and safe for students to express their ideas and participate in the class discussions. Teachers collaborated with each other to learn the new technologies and were very open to new ideas and to what each teacher brought to the table. It is a place were students want to go to school and learn. This was an awesome experience to see all these things in an elementary school.

Some technologies that were used in Lincoln Elementary School that I saw were so amazing, creative, and mind blowing how they used them in a classroom setting. At Lincoln we saw a first grade class use the Mimio-Boards. This was rather interesting, the students really enjoyed being involved in the lesson. They seemed to be more engaged in what was going on because they were able to participate more and actually see what was going on. There seemed to be a lot more that you can do with the Mimio-Board then in a traditional classroom. Another Technology that was used in the first grade classroom was a microphone. The teacher used a microphone when she was talking to the class. This was very unusual but after she talked about why she used one, I thought it was an ingenious idea. She uses it so that students can hear her in all parts of the room, she wont have to raise her voice, and it helps the students pay attention more. I think using a microphone in the classroom benefits both the teacher and the students. The teacher wont strain her voice and the students will be able to hear the teacher where ever they are in the room. Sixth Grade students used Google SketchUp in their mathematics class. They had to create a 3D structure using Google SketchUp. Their teacher didn't know everything about it and the students enjoyed this expect because they got the opportunity to teach their teacher something.

From visiting Lincoln Elementary school I will most definitely use some sort of interactive whiteboard in my classroom. Having one in a classroom just makes for an endless amount of possibilities for me as a teacher and my students to have. They will allow for many hands on activities and for students to be more involved in every lesson! Interactive whiteboards are amazing and the possibilities to use them are endless!

Global Learning

For Global Learning we were suppose to participate in The Flat Classroom Conference. The conference was held in Beijing, China this year. This is a really cool idea, students meet and create projects with other students who have different backgrounds, cultures, languages, and race. They must put all those differences aside and come together and create, pitch, and make their projects. I watched the first two sessions of the conference on the live streaming video. They talked about the different technologies that they were able to learn about and what the mission for this years conference was.
Unfortunately the feed did not work most of the time making it very difficult for me to continue participating in the conference. This project is a great way to get global learning involved in any classroom in any part of the world!

Introductory Preso Experience

For my introductory preso my partner Michael and I created a Prezi. I have used Prezi before but my partner had not, so I had to teach him how to use Prezi to complete our presentation. I think that Prezi is way better than PowerPoint. You can do a lot more with it, add different turns, zoom in and out, change levels, etc...but with PowerPoint you are stuck with the same square and boring transitions. Though I have already used Prezi, I still learned a lot about using Prezi. One thing that I learned was that you can have more than one person editing the Prezi at the same time and on different computers.

My partner dropped the class, so I don't think he took this project very seriously. I think my half of the project was good, but due to his lack of help the project wasn't as good as it could have been. I still learned a lot about using Prezi, I didn't know that you could share with other people and work on it at the same time.

During our presentation we introduced each other at the same time. If we were to do it again, I think that it would be more effective to introduce one person and then the other person. Also adding more pictures that have to do with me for my side and than adding more pictures that have to do with him on his side would have made the Prezi a lot more interesting for the rest of the class.

CCA Expectations

My expectations for this class are that I receive useful information to use in my future classroom. I want to know how to incorporate more technology for students to use in every subject instead of just having a half hour in the computer lab every other week to do research for some project they are working on. I also hope to learn about new technologies that are available to me as a future teacher for free!! I really want to learn more about SMARTboards. So far this class seems like it will provide me with these things. I am super excited to continue taking this class and using some of these technologies in my very own classroom!

SMARTboards in the classroom

This video shows how the SMARTboard is used in a second grade social studies class. The students are willing to participate in the lesson and are fully engaged in what the teacher is teaching them. With the SMARTboard students can be hands on in the lessons and each student can see the board because of the size of the SMARTboard.

I believe that a SMARTboard in the classroom is a great idea. They will help get the students involved more in the lessons and will help the lessons be more hands on. They would make the lessons more fun and they would make the students want to learn. SMARTboards would be a great investment because they would save money in the technology center because teachers can make their own lessons and software on the SMARTboards and just save them to the SMARTboard software. SMARTboards have been proven to work in all grade levels and have shown improvement in students attention spans throughout the day. I would love to have a SMARTboard in my classroom because it would make my students lives easier and my own life easier. Students will want to come to school and participate in class. So yes I believe that SMARTboards should be in the classroom because they improve every aspect of the classroom.

Kindles Good or Bad in the Classroom

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2009/0715/a-plan-to-put-an-amazon-kindle-in-every-backpack

This article explains the plan for the government to provide each of the nation's 56 million K-12 students with a Kindle, or an electronic reading device. This program would equip 400,000 students with Kindles for an entire year. This plan would be 9 billion dollars more than the 6 billion dollars schools use on textbooks but they would save 700 million dollars within the first five years and eTextbooks cost begin to drop. If this pilot plan succeeds the new plan is to equip every student with a Kindle in the next four years. Some Universities have already allowed the use of the Kindle in the classroom when Amazon signed partnerships with some textbook companies. California also allows students in high school to use the Kindle in math and science classes.

The Kindle is the new generation of textbooks. It will save paper, money, and help schools stay-up-to-date with technology. The main highlight of a Kindle is the fact that you don't have to go and pay for textbooks, this saves time and money. The Kindle is light weight so students won't strain their backs by carrying big heavy textbooks around, they will only have to carry their Kindle around that has all their textbooks on it. A draw back to this is if the student was to lose their Kindle they would lose all their information for their classes. Another draw back is that you can not highlight the important information that the students might want to come back and reread for a test. Students might have their Kindles out during a class and you think that they are following along with the text but they could be doing something else on their Kindle without you knowing it. I believe that the Kindle can be a good thing and a bad thing for the classroom. It is good because it will save money, and the backs of the students. It is bad because it can be a distraction for some students in the classroom. I believe that if we make the switch to using a Kindle or other electronic reading sources in the classroom that textbooks should also be available to the students who learn better by reading out of a book, or for students who are sensitive to light. So I leave with this are Kindles good or bad?

Image from: flickr.com by goXunuReviews

Cyber Safety

http://student-web-skills.suite101.com/article.cfm/teaching_cyber_safety_in_school The article Teaching Cyber Safety in School: Students Need to Begin Thinking Computer Safety Early, says that students are beginning to use the internet at earlier ages for school and recreational activities. The article talks about how we should teach students at an early age about the dangers of the internet and how to prevent anything from happening to them while they are online. There are many different ways to get the information out to children about the dangers of the internet, one can have a power point and share it with the class, watch a movie about some stories about kids their ages and what happened to them, and a guest speaker can come and talk to them about this issue. This is a very serious issue that needs more than a parent talk or two about it, students need to know the dangers of the internet both at school and when they are home.

I think that this is a serious issue that needs to be talked about at home and in the classroom. Students need to know the dangers that are on the internet and just having their parents tell them is not enough because come on what kid listens to their parents, I know I didn't it went in one ear and out the other. Having them hear it from their parents, teachers, and maybe a guest speaker might get them to believe that this is a serious issue that they need to know about when they are on the internet. Most of us have probably used some form of internet chat or had a profile on the internet, but using these things right and knowing who you are talking to or who is looking at your profile may cause no harm to you. This is why it is important for kids to learn about internet safety both in school and at home because it could save one of your students lives.


image from iCLIPART for schools.