The Difference a Semester Makes

Looking back on my first post, I can already see how much I have grown this semester.  After taking TPTE 486, I feel much more comfortable with technology and more confident in my preparation to use technology in the classroom.  All of the technology projects that we completed this semester can be applied in my own classroom someday.  I plan to continue to learn about how I can use technology in the classroom.  Technology is constantly changing and I want to stay up-to-date with these advances.

Classroom Website

Of all of the projects we have done throughout this course, I believe that our classroom website is the most beneficial.  I really enjoyed designing the classroom website because I knew that I plan to create a classroom website for my own class someday.  A classroom website offers information for students and parents, and can also showcase student work.  If a student misses school for some reason, I would have materials online so that the student can easily make up what he or she missed.  Although creating a website seemed like an overwhelming task in the beginning of the semester, it really was pretty simple.  I feel confident in my ability to create additional classroom websites in the future.

Computers in the Classroom

Many of the classrooms that I observe have, at most, five computers in the classroom.  In fact, I am currently observing a middle school math classroom that has no computers in the classroom.  With the increasing advances in technology, it is important that schools teach students how to use technology in addition to their basic curriculum.  The use of technology, such as computers, tablets, etc., in the classroom can not only complement the lesson, but can also help to engage the class in the lesson.  I know that some schools have computer labs that classes can use, which is wonderful.  In my opinion, it would be ideal to have a 1:1 computing environment (i.e., each student is able to use their own computer).  I remember when I was in high school, we only had five computers in each classroom.  Whenever we would use the computers, the teacher would divide the class into five groups.  Usually only one person in each group used a computer.  It would be more ideal if every student in the class had the opportunity to use a computer.

My Digital Story

I decided to use Windows Movie Maker instead of imovie for the digital story project.  I had some experience with Movie Maker before and felt more comfortable with this program.  Through this project I learned  how to find copyright free music, how to edit a digital storyboard, and how to post a video to YouTube.  Using short videos like this one in my future classroom could really accent my lesson.  This video was not very difficult to make and something like this could really engage the class in a particular topic.

Dazzling Digital Diagram

The digital diagram project was by far the simplest project so far this semester.  I choose to start my project by working in the outline mode.  Then, after I finished the outline of my diagram, I switched to the web diagram mode.  I would use Inspiration to create a digital diagram in my own classroom.  This is because Inspiration includes so many personalization options including changing the background color, changing the shape of text boxes, and adding images to enhance your diagram.  It is a very simple project that can really visually enhance any lesson.

Blogging in the Classroom

Blogging in the classroom is like electronic journals for students.  Students may even view blogging as more fun compared to writing out their feedback.  If I were to incorporate blogging into my classroom, I would use it in place of an exit ticket.  In other words, I would have my students write a blog post about the class at the end of the period.  Students would write about what they learned, what they are still confused about, and other comments on the lesson.  This could also function as an informal assessment.

Interactive White Board Activity

I created an interactive white board lesson on vectors via the Activinspire software.  This flipchart included a video introducing the concept of vectors, three different types of interactivity, and an extended inquiry based activity for the class.  The lesson covers finding a vector given two points, adding vectors, and finding the magnitude of vectors.  I really enjoyed this activity because I learned interactive activity techniques that I may be able to use in my own classroom someday.  These interactive techniques include "erase to reveal," "change color to reveal," and "order of objects."  All of these techniques are very simple to use.  With the increasing number of schools with interactive whiteboards now, I know that working with this technology now will benefit me in the classroom later.

Collaborative Resource Wiki

Our math and science resource page was created as a collaborative wiki.  While creating this wiki, several classmates took turns editing our wiki page and adding their own contributions.  This was especially challenging because only one person could edit a page at a time.  The benefits to a collaborative wiki include gathering the input and knowledge of several people and having several people look over and edit your contributions.  Overall, I enjoyed working on the collaborative wiki.  We now have a complete wiki filled with great math resources.
I could use a collaborative wiki in my own classroom someday as a group projects.  I may divide the class into small groups and have each group create a collaborative wiki page on an assigned topic to present to the class.