Blog#7

     Teacher pages are very useful in being able to learn a little bit more about your teacher and what they are like. Most of the teacher pages had information about themselves such as their interests, hobbies, and what they look forward most in the school year. In addition to the class curriculum. From reading different pages about the teachers, I can see how nice it is to get an overall feeling about who your child is spending their day with. Are they nice? Do they dress nice? Do they present themselves in a respectable way? 

Teacher Page

    When I become a teacher, I envision myself using the fancy projectors and smart screens to teach. Depending on the subject that I teach, I might incorporate videos that I learned from when I was in school (If the material is still up to date). Being able to see how the kids react to the material I learned from might be funny as well as educating. Programs like Canvas is something that I will be proficient in consierding that I have had to use this program while in school and the school that I will be employed with relies heavily on Canvas as well. They feel that if students can become familiar with the program now, then they will have an advantage once they graduate and go to college. 

    My experience working with PBworks was good. It was very different compared to other programs that I have worked on. It was very basic, and I felt very limited with what I was able to put into the page that I was working on. Also editing the page was difficult and I had little control on page layout.  I did like how easy it was to learn how to navigate the program itself and understand the limitations but also learning what I was able to actually do on the page.

Blog#6

     My experience so far using Diigo would be good. I can see how it would be a great tool to be use once I am in the classroom setting. I would be able to save sites that I could be able to go back to whenever I needed to. Perhaps, Diigo will become a far more important tool once I am more familiar with the program and am using it on a daily basis or just when I need to go back to pull information from a website. 

    Blogging hasn't been something that I would do on a regular. However, I think that if I were blogging and had a bigger audience, then it might compel me to write more and express more of my feelings. I don't not like blogging but feel that it isn't my thing. I wasn't a blogger prior to taking this class, and even after experiencing having a blog site and having people write on my page, I still don't feel like I would continue to do it after the class is over. 

    A 2.0 tool that I found that would be good for both personal use and for work is Dropbox. It is a lot like "The Cloud" you can store photos, files, and back up my whole computer just for starters. It is a very easy to use program that is usable of many different types of software. Another cool fact is that you can send information to someone who doesn't have the app and they are able to open it without issue. One key factor that is usually a go- or no-go aspect of a site, is the cost. The most you'll pay is $12.99 a month. That is almost the cost of going out to eat one time (paying for only yourself of course). 

Dropbox- Store, Share, Collaborate and More with Dropbox

Blog #5

     My experience with Twitter so far has been not so easy. I find that the layout is hard to navigate. I get the same feeling as I did when I first joined Myspace. For whatever reason, the "vibe" of twitter isn't like Facebook. Granted, Facebook has its own issues, but I find it much easier to find things on Facebook. I would have to work with Twitter more to become more comfortable with using it on a daily basis. But I will say that once I get more used to it, I think it could a tool I could use to further my PLN. 

    The digital divide has huge impacts on students who have and students who don't have computer access as well as the internet while going through school. I agree that students who go without are at a severe disadvantage in the work force. More and more jobs are incorporating technology into their systems. Not having the experience early on could cause a person to be looked over as a job applicant. As a teacher, I would make sure that my students wouldn't be at a disadvantage. That they would have access to the technology to complete the work that does require a computer. I know that with the direction technology is heading, it would be hard to not give out homework that didn't have anything to do without using the web, however, I would do my best to ensure my students would have plenty of time in the computer lab to get the work done. 

    One academic software that I would use is something that my wife used when she was teaching pre-k was a program called Mimio Board. It was a smart board where students could interact. When students are engaged into the material, I feel that it helps retain information. I can say in my own experience, that being able to interact with the information made it easier to remember. Another piece of software I would use is Canvas. Reason being is that a lot of universities use Canvas and with Covid being so widespread, online courses were such a major thing. Students being familiar with Canvas and how to navigate it makes a big difference in their new college experience. There is so much to get used to when attending a college fresh out of high school and even more so if you live off campus and are away from home. Being used to the software the colleges are using will be one less obstacle to overcome. 

    

"A day in the life"

 

Blog #4

     Looking at the Standards and Technology Matrices for ELA, I chose grade 3. The standards for this grade in what I can tell is the beginning stages of being able to find information on the internet. Learning how to first use the tools on the software being used. Being able to become proficient in this makes a big difference on how well a student will be able to navigate the web. Other aspects of the standard guide students through the ways of breaking down and categorizing information obtained and how to use it. Other standards for the third grade focus on words and how they are phrased. This helps students break down context and meaning behind a phrase or paragraph. Understanding how to decipher information early will make a big difference as the child gets older. One things that was really nice about the standard, was that there was a lot of helpful sources for the teacher to use to help teach the information designed for that grade level. 

    I decided to select the 3rd grade educator toolkit to keep in line with the ELA Standards I chose above. Social Studies is the subject area and I would use this in my classroom. It is filled with different criteria that goes along with the standards that are required for that grade level. There is a search box in the Instructional Resource box that has additional information that will help the particular topic. Definitely user friendly. Being able to select the course and to type in key words that will bring up more information pertaining to the topic. It is a great resource to help a teacher hone in on.

    The video on Google was really informative. I had no idea that 90% of those options were available in searching for things. Being able to navigate the internet as a teacher is very important. It saves time and energy searching for information needed to teach your class. I would use the method of searching for similar websites. This I feel would give me more information without having to rephrase the topic in order to get more information. I will also used the (-topic) along with my search to exclude anything I don't need popping up as a result. This will be helpful in making sure the related pages popping up will in fact help me on my way to completing an assignment or task.