My Life

when i am hired as a teacher and have my own classroom i plan use technlogy in many different areas. with the world becoming so computer oriented it’s important for people to know how to use computers at a very young age now. there are even programs for children as young as like 1 year! if you don’t know anything about technology soon you’re going to be lost in the world, especially with all the technological advances and how fast they’re coming.
there are many different areas i can use technology for in a classroom, some i plan to employ are:
1. accelerated reader - kids read a book then take a test on it on the computer to see how well they understood it.
2. educational learning programs that focus on certain skills - a game that helps kids learn shapes by getting through a maze stepping on only one shape. games like carmen sandiego where you need to know things about different countries or states in order to figure out the clues to where she has gone.
3. websites that can help kids who were absent catch up. there is a site where you can watch a video with an audio explination of how to do certain math operations like dividing long numbers [5,280 divided by 3] or multiplying multi-digit numbers [46 x 7]
i can also stay up on new technology by subscribing to a technology journal or one centered on education in technology. i will also join a mathematics teachers association to find out the latest programs to use with my students. being a teacher i will have to continually go back and take courses every so often and i will take some computer courses to keep up with the new technology. i will also attend available workshops to further my knowledge of computers and other technologies for educational use.
i hope all these things will help my stidents become more comfortable in a technological world.

It does not give any information about the individuals that created this site nor were any credentials listed. Things that are said seem to imply they are whites that are against African Americans. One of which that leads me to this is that there is a discussion forum that his hosted by stormfront. When I clicked on that it took me to a page that was about white pride worldwide and it was a stormfront white nationalists community. When looking at the address there is nothing that would lead you to believe that it is a personal site. So it comes down to the Affiliation part of the evaluation. To domain name is .org which when evaluating is less trustworthy then .gov or .edu, to me this seems like it would be a .edu link if it was suppose to be beneficial in learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and what he did. You could not truncate the domain name to learn more about the site itself. I don’t feel the content is suitable for an age level but possibly for older individuals in high school but even then it’s not appropriate to look at within school so therefore it is not appropriate at all. I think even if a teacher was teaching about Martin Luther King Jr. this site would be in no way useful in teaching the material. I think in the Design it loads fast and there are very few graphics and what there is its ok but it could be more user friendly, and I think it is meant to look somewhat dark because these individuals are obviously against Martin Luther King Jr’s thinking. No, not all of the links work and when you look at a link you think it is going to be about one thing and it is something that totally shoots Martin Luther King Jr. down. I do not think this site is appropriate at all and would not use it in any type of learning situation.

After reading more information on constructionism and looking more at webquest I feel that I will use some of this type of learning within my classroom. I think it is a great way for students to think creatively at solving problems that is asked of them. For instance, in the example they put in the article on the second link we were took look at about the elementary kids and measuring the length of the Mayflower. I think that it is important for those students to figure out a way to accomplish the task with knowledge they have instead of just giving them the one way of the ruler. I think this option brings out their creativity and problem solving skills, which is important in their young life. It will help them to grow and be able to adapt to their surroundings as they go through life and become more independent. I think it is important though to be able to tell them the simple idea of the ruler to measure. I think this could be brought about maybe after everyone has completed the task and have everyone share how they did it or ways in which they thought of that could be done. I think it is important to give them knowledge in clear-cut facts but also let them be able to think for themselves and let their mind wander. Therefore, I do not think this should be a controversial. I can see why some could be against they idea. I guess this aspect of learning should be limited and not the total style of teaching. I believe some assignments should show constructionism but others should be taught, and I could see why it is controversial.
I think that technology intervention and constructionism are closely intertwined because this type of learning style requires the individual to ask a question and then answer it. The Internet is a good way to gather information and analyze it to reach a decision. Also, as it was mentioned webquest is a constructionism site, so teachers would use the Internet to find different projects they can present to their students. There are so many sites on the Internet and some are made by users like you and I, while others a formed by businesses or experts in a particular field. One than has to be able to identify/analyze the material they find and because of knowledge they already have to determine which would be a good source.
I think that constructionism would be very useful in a classroom in some aspects of the learning that would be done and an elementary classroom. But I do not believe that it is right for all classrooms and should be used and the only teaching style.

so far i have really enjoyed the on-line learning experience. i think it forces students to be a bit more responsible and disciplined in their education. however one downfall to this is that we don’t have the teacher telling us to our face exactly what we need to do and it can be harder to ask questions in an e-mail as opposed to in person. people who tend to be on the shy side can be a bit more outgoing in on-line sessions since they don’t have the anxiety of lots of people being around and lookign at them, on the other hand for those who have problems being around other people on-line classes don’t help them learn to cope or get over their fears. there are some subjects however that are just not condusive to an on-line learning environment. classes that are more discussion based for example or math classes where students may need to visually see the teacher going through all the steps in order to properly understnad the concept.

I think the five more important application software for any individual to be able to comprehend on some degree is: the Internet, word processor, presentation software, spreadsheets, imaging software, and video software. Definitely the Internet is most important in a case. Technology has become so valuable and so much a part of today society that those that know very little to nothing about computers are at a loss. In some sense is seems that it helps out a lot in every day life now. Which range from checking the weather to emailing someone; from doing research to checking up on a Television show for more information or times. There are just so many uses for a computer shopping, who knows maybe one day this will be known as the computer world no one leaves there home for anything. They would work from home, shop from home (clothing, appliances, etc.). The Internet should be taught the earlier the age the better. I needs to start with and age group that can comprehend and then reuse that information on their own to re-due the process. It certainly has to be taught in steps and will take time but I think that by the sixth grade that the students should have a good handle on the Internet and the benefits and risks from it. Word Processing is what I would rank next…it could most defiantly be number one but a lot of the time when writing something you’ll have to locate research and information. Not all papers and such as to be done on the computer it can be written its just neater if done on a computer so that’s why the internet is number one…you can’t get as much access to everything in the world in and faster and more sufficient way then the internet. But word processors should defiantly be introduced to again an age of mid-elementary to higher elementary the children have to be able understand what is being taught to them. The next two are hard for me to decide which should be next I think the both have there benefits. The first would be Presentation software and then Spreadsheets. I believe that the presentation software becomes useful because its a new way for students to present material that they have researched on and I think it creates a nice display to present it to someone else instead of using poster bored and writing it out. Also if one wanted to give other copies to individuals they would just print that many out where with poster board it would be more time consuming to make as many as you needed. The ways I see that spreadsheets would be just as beneficial if not more would be to do graphs and such as a checklist. This would be also beneficial at home for many things (chores, shopping list, taxes, etc.) so therefore it serves a variety of different areas. I think with both of these they can be taught in like six grade because it seems that that’s when the would really start to utilize these two software’s. Then the last two is pretty much the same way I couldn’t decide but I think that Imaging software would be more beneficial then video software because more and more people are buying digital cameras where they are able to load there pictures on the computer so these programs will come in handy for them. I think the video software will become more popular as time moves on as well more people are becoming more interested with technology and how it works and wanting to learn everything they can about it. I don’t necessarily think that these last two need to be taught to everyone well possibly the imaging one can be presented in a general way in other computer classes or even classrooms if teachers find it necessary but I think they could be separate classes if someone really wanted to know detail and the specifics about the specifics.

i remember sitting in class on september 11th 2001. as soon as it happend all the tv’s turned on and the teachers were quick to explain to us what just happend. they showed their concerns and made the students feel safe. as a teacher the issue should never be ignored. i would like my students to understand what just happend and how it will effect our lives in the future. for example because of the hurrican gas prices are going up. i would make sure that my students know that im open to talk to about their concerns. i think the web site NASP would be an excellent place to start on finding information. the most important thing to know is that everyone deals with stress and copes with tragedy differently. forcing the students into talking about it when they arnt ready can do more harm then help.