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.