ILP "Participation"- Lynda.com Tutorial

(1)    Here are screenshots from the activity log showing that I watched every chapter of the Lynda.com Tutorial (the gray eye next to each chapter's title is the symbol for completion):

(2)    For my second ILP, I decided to watch a Lynda.com Tutorial for Participation. I chose the tutorial titled, "Gamification in Learning" because it sounded like a very interesting topic. I also thought it would be very useful for me to learn about how to incorporate games into classroom learning since I hope to one day be teaching young, Elementary School students. And what better way to keep their attention focused on the material than playing a game! While watching the tutorial, I learned many key aspects on how to effectively incorporate games into classroom curriculum, and I even got to hear some ways that games have helped different businesses with advertising and customer satisfaction out in the real-world. Some main points that the tutorial made about how to be successful when using gamification in the classroom include setting specific goals, incorporating an aspect of competition (like racing games), showing progress with point and leaderboard systems, as well as providing some type of reward for the student's final achievements. The tutorial also put an emphasis on how gamification in the classroom can be low or high tech depending on what the teacher decides will benefit the student's learning the most. For instance, a low tech example would be a simple game of Bingo in the classroom with paper cards where students can mark an "X" to form Bingo when answering a question correctly. Or a more high tech example could involve audience response systems, where the teacher presents a question and the students can race to answer the question as fast as possible either through texts or on a laptop at their desks. Overall, I really enjoyed watching this tutorial as it gave me some great ideas to how I can incorporate storytelling, mysteries, and other games in my lesson plan to make learning an interactive and fun experience for my young students.

(3)    Here is a certificate of completion as evidence that I completed the Lynda.com Tutorial:

ILP "Design"- Prezi

For my ILP in Design, I decided to create a Prezi. I imagined myself as a fifth grade teacher who had just assigned a project to all of my students. Using Prezi, they would have to create an informative presentation about their individually assigned state. In order to give my students an idea of what I am asking from them, I decided to use Prezi to make a sample presentation about the state of Florida, the state that we all live in. I present my Prezi to the class in order to show them what I am expecting from them, to give them some new ideas for their own state presentation, and to provide them with a time to ask me any questions about their assignment. I kept the presentation nice and simple with many pictures in order to keep my elementary school students interested. Here is a link to the sample Prezi that I created for my students: http://prezi.com/24zeovnqx7ys/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Blog Post #10

I really enjoyed doing the Powerpoint Interaction Assignment. In high school, many of my teachers used PowerPoint to create a Jeopardy review game for my class and I always wondered how they did it. I never even knew that the Action Settings button existed. But, now that I have learned this aspect of PowerPoint, I'm excited to create my own fun games for my students in the future. I also like the fact that you can use it to create an interactive book on PowerPoint. I think this is especially important for younger Elementary School kids, as it isn't always easy to keep their attention in the classroom. This is a great tool to keep them interested, participating, and focused on the lesson. I have no critiques on the assignment and I definitely will be using it in my future career. I will be sure to create fun review games, practice quizzes, and interactive readings using the skills I learned in this assignment. Here is a picture of the interactive anatomy quiz I created for this assignment:

Data Collection tools can help teachers monitor students progress to see what they're understanding in the curriculum and what they may need a little more help with. This can help to guide the teacher's instruction in order to meet the needs of all of her students. Say for instance that I were a 3rd grade Elementary School teacher who was teaching a math lesson to my students and I wanted to see if they were understanding the material. I could give out a test on the material and record the scores of all of the students. Then I could use Data Collection tools, like Excel on my computer, to create graphs, highlight target scores, and maybe even complete a written analysis of each assessment. After using these tools to analyze my data, I can meet with each of my students individually to set a personalized goal that they should meet by the end of the semester, or lesson, or year, depending on the curriculum. When my students finally meet their set goal, I will be sure to reward them with a prize, since all young students love getting new toys to play with. 

After looking at a few blogs of my classmates, I really enjoyed seeing the screenshots of their own work. I liked to see how different everyones ideas are and what kind of subject matter they seem to be interested in. It's a good way to get to know them better. I also specifically enjoyed reading the blog posts where we had to find a future technology that was not mentioned in the textbook. It was fun seeing what everyone found and actually really cool to think about all of these new technologies and how they would influence us as future teachers in the classrooms. It even provided me with some new ideas on how I could use some of the technologies in my own classroom. This blog has been a great tool to get to know our class a little better and discover new ideas that I may have not even thought of on my own. In the long run, it will help me to become a more successful teacher.

The technology skill that I hope to learn next would  have to do with editing and putting together videos. In the past, I have been assigned group projects where we would have to record different clips and then put them together in one huge video that we would play for the class. In these situations, I have no knowledge on how to edit different clips, put them together, add music, credits, or any other aspects involved when creating a movie, so I was never a huge help in the editing area. But, if I were able to learn what software I should download and how to properly use that software for video-making, I think that would be very helpful. Especially as a teacher in a school setting, it helps to know how to create fun videos to play on the morning announcements, or educational videos to play for your own students in the classroom. 

In the future, I am hoping that I will be an Elementary School teacher. But not just any Elementary teacher, I want to be one of the best. And in order to do this I'm going to make sure that I use all of the different educational technology tools that I have learned in this classroom. By using Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Blogs, Wikis, and Webpages in my classroom, I will ensure that I am organized, interactive, communicative, and committed to having my students learn the best ways possible. In order to reach these goals, I will have to continue practicing the skills I've learned as well as acquire new skills that we may not have had time to touch on. I also will need to make sure that, especially in this modern era, I keep up with the new educational technologies that are constantly being released and added into the curriculum. I will attend teacher workshops that train teachers on how to properly use all of the educational tools, and also use my future co-workers as resources for questions and new ideas on how to use educational technology most efficiently in my own classroom. 

Blog Post #9

A flipped classroom is a teaching model in which the lecture and homework elements of a lesson are reversed. The structure usually provides prerecorded lectures, like short video lectures or the podcasts we listen to, followed by some hands-on activities in the classroom. The short video lectures that are watched before class may even sometimes be followed with a quick comprehensive quiz that can provide students with immediate feedback in order to help clarify any misunderstood information from the lecture. This approach to teaching is supposed to enhance active learning and student engagement within the classroom, rather than just listening to long lectures the entire class period. The flipped classroom creates more of a workshop environment in the classroom with students being able to inquire about lecture content, test their skills in applying knowledge, and interact with one another in hands-on activities. Teachers are acting more like a coach or advisor during class time, as they are there to encourage students with collaborative discussions. In Chapter 10, they talk about online publications that act as great educational resources on the web. They allow teachers to provide students with educational journals, articles, links to other sources of useful information. By providing your students with this online educational material, prior to discussing it in the classroom, this can help to put the flipped classroom idea into action.  This link is a great source that can provide teachers with educational videos for many subjects K-12: http://www.watchknowlearn.org

Professional development is the process of improving and increasing capabilities of staff through access to education and training opportunities in the workplace. The website http://www.edutopia.org/teacher-development, enhances the idea of the importance of professional development for teachers in the workforce in order to have high-quality teachers who can help their students reach their greatest success. It provides teachers throughout all grade levels, whether elementary or high school, with tons of instructional videos on different teaching techniques, philosophies, and lessons. It also provides links to the blogs of teachers who may have tried a teaching strategy you want to practice, or who just want to share how they used different strategies to help the students in their own school.
Edutopia is a great way to get new ideas for interactive lessons that students would enjoy. They even have a link to "join the conversation," where teachers can see what is currently trending and can add comments to discuss with other teachers about their ideas. In addition, everything on the website isn't only about teaching academics. It also provides ideas for some social programs, like anti-bullying activities, and other events that teachers can host in their classroom and around their school. I definitely think that this website is very helpful when dealing with professional development of teachers. The endless amounts of resources provided from schools all over the country will give teachers new and improved ideas on how to be the best teacher they can be.

The PowerPoint for Information Dissemination assignment this week was very helpful for learning some new techniques that PowerPoint has to offer, and was a nice refresher for some tools I may have forgotten how to use over the past couple of years. I pretty much knew how to navigate around PowerPoint already from all of the presentations I've had to make in the past, but one thing I found very helpful was that now you can insert pictures from the web with ease. I used to only use simple clip art pictures in my presentations because it took too much time to go to a different tab in order to to save each individual picture from the Internet into another folder, but now I realize you can just search the web straight from Powerpoint itself. I also liked learning about Jing because I've never heard of it before this assignment. It's very cool how you can capture your voice and your screen at the same time. That can be very helpful when preparing for a big presentation in the future so that you can hear how you sound, and prepare what you will be saying with each slide. I will definitely be using PowerPoint as a future teacher, as it is one of the best ways to visually present information to students. I will also probably be requiring my students to use it for their own assignments as well, which is why it is so important for us as teachers to know how to navigate all of the different tools, so that we know how to answer any technology-related questions we may get asked by our students. Here is a screenshot of my PowerPoint for Information Dissemination assignment: 

Blog Post #8

After reading Chapter 12, I definitely think that the advanced technology of virtual classrooms is going to be very prominent in the future of education. It provides expanded instructional opportunities for students because students no longer have to be limited to the classes only offered by the high school in their area. Students can find a spot in a typically low-enrollment class by enrolling in a class with students from all over the country in one single virtual classroom. I've even had a personal experience dealing with this, as my high school now requires all students to take at least one virtual class, using Florida Virtual School, in order to graduate. Taking classes online is becoming more and more popular in today's society, especially because it includes aspects of broadcast audio and video, internet chat, and phone technologies with the virtual teachers. And once the aspect of videoconferencing gets more popular in virtual schooling as well, it will basically seem like you are sitting in a classroom from the safety of your home.

A future technology that is being pioneered recently is called Google Expeditions. It is a new technology that produces virtual field trips for students in the classroom. The program requires students to have an individual smart phone at their desk, while the teacher is able to control the field trip on her own personal tablet. Even though some virtual field trip programs already exist, Expeditions is supposed to be much more advanced, using 360 degree rotation and hi-deff pictures provided by GoPro. It also allows the teacher to control the field trip by pausing it any time she wants in order to make comments, write notes, or answer questions. So far, Google has set up many different destinations that can be used for educational purposes including the Great Wall of China, Yosemite National Park, and Verona, Italy, along with many more to come. They are even working on implementing virtual college tours and job shadowing to assist those older students who may not have the resources to visit campuses or explore different career options. I think this invention is very interesting and will have a huge impact on education as it will provide a new and improved aspect to visual learning methods that may already exist, like still pictures in presentations.
Here is the link to the website: https://www.google.com/edu/expeditions/

The digital divide is a term that refers to the gap between those who have easy access to computers, the Internet, and other communication technologies, and those who do not. This can include many different divides, like city and rural areas, socioeconomic groups, educated and non-educated, and even well-developed and undeveloped nations. I definitely land on the side of the divide that has the available access at any time to these technologies, as I can't even remember a time that my family didn't own a telephone, a TV, or a computer. I constantly have access to any information that I need no matter where I go, especially now due to the fact that I own a personal smartphone as well. In my future classroom, I will definitely face problems with the digital divide, depending on the different socioeconomic statuses of my students, as well as the region that I end up teaching in. As a teacher I will need to be aware that my students will have different levels of access to technologies, so when creating my lesson plans I always need to make sure there is an easy alternative to technology, like finding the information in textbooks. In cases where students may need to write papers or create presentations, I will be sure to let them know of local resources that have computers, like the library, and will also make sure to schedule extra visits to the computer lab at school when needed. 

Blog Post #7

Bloom's taxonomy is a method of learning in which students move up to different levels of understanding. The six levels, in order from least difficult to most difficult, are remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. As a teacher, we can use PowerPoint to support our student's learning at each level. For example, if I were trying to teach a Language Arts lesson to my elementary students about the difference between a verb and a noun, I would start at the first step of remembering. So, I could use PowerPoint to create "flashcards" out of the different slides, like one slide could present a word, and the next slide would identify the answer as to whether the previous word was a verb or noun. In order to teach the next step of understanding, I could show a video on PowerPoint that explains the difference between  verb and noun by showing different examples of each through pictures and action videos. Then, after showing them the video, in order for them to apply the information, I would let my students create a chart, one column being verbs and the other column being nouns, and allow them to list in each column as many words as they could think of. After that, I would use PowerPoint again to  have the students help me to create a Venn Diagram that compares and contrasts different verbs and nouns that they choose, in order for them to apply their new knowledge. I would then present a quiz to the class. They would see a word on PowerPoint, then individually decide at their seat whether it's a verb or a noun, along with a reason to justify why they think so, in order to practice evaluation. Finally, for the last step of creation, I would assign each of my students to create their own PowerPoint Presentation to which they would choose 5 words and would have to teach the class, through pictures and definitions, as to how they know the word is either a noun or a verb.

I think adaptive technologies are very important in order to support all student's learning. If a student has a learning disability that hinders his or her learning experience, or excels their learning above others, it it imperative that they receive the appropriate assistance in order to learn at their full potential just like all of the other students who may not have any disabilities, or advantages. There are many types of disabilities that can deal with reading, hearing, seeing, communicating, and so on. But, the great thing is that we now have the ability to help these students through new inventions in technology. I never knew how many adaptive technologies existed in the world today until reading this chapter, as I have only ever witnessed a personal amplification system, for hearing problems, in my own classrooms. I have also known that audio books and recorded texts exist, but I never realized that they were used for those who may be sight-impaired or who may have a harder time processing written words than others. I also appreciate the technologies that help linguistically diverse students excel in school, like different websites, MP3 players, and interactive whiteboards. I can't imagine what it would be like to enter a school where nobody speaks your primary language. Overall, these adaptive technologies are defiantly beneficial to the students who need it in order to enhance their learning, but I do see some challenges that could arise with them in a classroom. First of all, I think it is very important for all teachers to be trained in how to teach kids with disabilities or language differences, because right now not all teachers are and they do not know exactly what to do to provide the best learning experience possible for everyone. Secondly, I also get afraid that if a student has to use these special technologies, or receive extra attention from the teacher, the student may become embarrassed of his/her situation. Teachers need to be sure to try their best to treat all students mainly the same so that the ones who may have a little difference do not stand out from everyone else, as that could lead to them being discouraged in learning.

I really enjoyed the Web Page Design assignment for this week. I never realized how easy it is to create your own personal website, and I found designing it to actually be very fun. It was helpful to learn the different aspects that we have to keep in mind while creating a website, like proximity and contrast, in order to make the page as visually appealing as possible. I now realize that websites work best when they are simple, organized, and easy to navigate, and creating our own web page helped us to apply those aspects on our own. The only thing that I had some trouble with was when our group was trying to move things around on the page to where we wanted them to be, and sometimes Weebly would not allow us to do so, so we had to stick with their original layout. But other than that, there were no other problems. As a future teacher, I could definitely see myself creating my own webpage for my future class. It would be an easy and efficient way for parents and students to keep up with what is going on in our classroom and around the whole school. It makes it easier to have the information readily available at all times so that I can avoid tons and tons of emails from parents about questions that have already been answered.
Here is a link to my group's webpage: http://eme2040g1.weebly.com
Here is a screenshot from our website's home page:

Blog Post #6

I went to the website of the Elementary School I attended back in my hometown of Jupiter. The school is called Limestone Creek Elementary and it serves grades K-5. On the school's main page there was a link that provided a list of all of the teachers and their class webpages. I clicked on a few of them, but the one I found the most intriguing was Mrs. Kerper's Fourth Grade Class. Her page is visually appealing as she added in her own unique picture, rather than just having the school logo sit on her page. She also provides a calendar for all of the students and parents to see, which is very important to keep the parents aware of upcoming due dates and events happening around the school. Mrs. Kerper also provides a PowerPoint Presentation that she showed parents on curriculum night which explains the daily schedule, her rules and expectations, and the way her grading style works. This is a great reference for parents to come back to if they have questions. She also provides a ton of links to educational resources that her students probably use for homework assignments, but it's also very useful for students to have these references if they want some extra practice on the material. Here is a screenshot of her page:

Chapter 7 provides many different types of technology and software that can help a teacher work more efficiently and effectively in her classroom. After learning about these different technologies, I think as a future teacher I would really find the Easy Grade Pro software from Orbis very helpful. It allows teachers to record all of their classes' work, create their own grading system, create their own seating charts, record daily attendance, and many other tasks that teachers are required to perform on a daily basis. It will make grading assignments much easier for the teacher and it even provides summaries of the overall class results so that a teacher can sit back and analyze the effectiveness of her lesson as a whole. This would be very helpful in monitoring the progress of your students in order to benefit them the best way possible. I also really like the software called Essential Teaching Tools from Tom Snyder Productions that allows a teacher to easily create an array of worksheets. All the teacher has to do is enter the content once, and then the software can transform it into puzzles, flashcards, worksheets, and even tests. I can definitely see myself using technology like these in my future career.

After doing the Web Evaluation Assignment, I now think that I have it locked in my brain on what to look for when evaluating a website and deciding whether it would be a good reference to use in your classroom or not. I think it was very helpful to have us create our own evaluation forms because it's a good way for us to remember what aspects of a website to look for to ensure that it is reliable. Evaluating the accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and any other website aspects is essential for future teachers, like myself, and students to do before using a website to either create a lesson plan or use it for research. It made me realize how anyone in the world can put basically anything they want on the Internet, especially when it comes to Wikis, like Wikipedia, and other collaborative sites. I think this assignment was very beneficial because now I know exactly what to look for in order to ensure that my resources are not providing me with incorrect information. However, in the future, I would probably make the assignment an individual one rather than a group project. It got a little confusing when collaborating on the Wiki together and it took us a while to completely grasp the idea of the assignment. Here is a picture of the Web Evaluation form my group created that I used to evaluate a website on the history of the Civil War: