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: