Thing #15 - 21/Capstone Reflection

A)   The technology applications I have been exposed to throughout this class, and those I learned while researching for the class, are all very valuable to my students and to myself.  With the shift toward project based education, the technology applications I have been exposed to over the last two months, will extremely helpful.  As I stated before, our school will receive net books for our classes next year, as well as the fact we have a computer lab available for use by classes.  I will be having students use many of the applications I have been exposed to, to aid in their projects, assessments, and daily learning experience.
  As a teacher, I will continue to use the applications to enhance my teaching.  My website is starting to take shape, and with the new found resource, "screencasting," I can create screencasts to post to my site that will allow students to view assignments they either missed or need more review on.  Wordle is a great tool for teaching purposes or review.  The on-line graphic organizers will also be a great tool for students in their daily work or projects.  I think the problem I have right now is that I need to take time to decide how I am going to remember and use all of these wonderful applications the best way possible.

B)   Technology in the classroom allows students to take an active roll in their learning.  They are making choices about how to obtain information, manipulate it, and display it.  Technology allows students to perform authentic tasks, and therefore define their goals, make decisions, and evaluate their progress.  They will be provided with opportunities to interact with each other in a variety of ways so their learning will be enhanced.

C)    I would like to use Prezi to create a timeline presentation of Michigan's history.  The presentation would have different pictures, video's, web links, etc. as a demonstration for the students.  The students will then create their own Prezi presentation continuing the timeline throughout the year and completing it when we reach our current time.

3 – H3.0.10 Create a timeline to sequence early Michigan history (American Indians, exploration, settlement, statehood)

Thing #21 - Screencasting

  The screencast I created was for a graphing lesson using tallies, frequency charts, and vertical and horizontal bar graphs.  I showed it to my students today as we were doing graphing, did a lesson using this today, and having an assessment on it tomorrow.  Of course 3rd graders are good for your ego, they loved it.  It was rough, my first attempt, but the kids liked it.  Because I want to develop a web site for my class, I think screencasts similar to this one for other math areas that students and parents could access from home would be great.

http://www.screencast.com/users/mcquillan1/folders/Default/media/b7ae7b13-22b7-4689-8bd9-166bec8df882

Thing #20 - Wordle

  I entered a bunch of words from our Michigan History unit on the Hopewell Indians and then created a word cloud.  I loved this feature.  I will use it for reviewing important facts, comparing and contrasting student work, current events, vocabulary, and much more.

Thing #20 - Bubbl.us

The following is a mind-map of the Animal Kingdom.  I would use this in our animal unit.  I think I would start with just the title and then build the rest of the mind map with the students as we learn more about each of the classifications.  The amount of information we can put in here is endless.  When finished, I can print this for each student as a review, or they can have access on-line.

Thing #19 - Navigating on the Land of Learning

  First, in order to be a successful on-line learner, the student needs a good computer, or access to a school computer with a quality internet connection.  The student also needs to make sure that the classes he/she picks are good for their learning style and are courses that are accredited and will count toward graduation.  Working with their counselor, the student should make sure they know who will be helping them understand how the course works and if they need special skills, if the course has any cost, and can they take the course from home or do they have to be at school.

Thing - #19 - Extend Your Classroom

  Ways in which I plan to extend my classroom will include a web site, Skype, and virtual field trips.  Since Thing #7 I have been trying to continue developing my web site.  Over the summer I hope to work on it enough to be ready for fall.

 














  Using Skype, I hope to attempt a time virtual author visits.  I am still looking into this, but the more I research it, the more doable it seems.  Marzano  strategies "Questions, Ques, and Advance Organizers" will fill perfectly with this type of virtual classroom.

  I am most excited about virtual field trips as a way to extend my classroom.  Each of our classrooms will be receiving 4 net books next year.  Along with this, I have 3 computers on-line in my room that students have access to.  If I schedule early enough, we also have an empty computer lab for use.  Because of this, I am researching several virtual field trips that go along with my curriculum.

Thing #18 - RSS Feed

  I was pleasantly surprised to find out about the RSS feed.  I have used IGoogle for years and have not explored many of the tools if offers.  The RSS feeds is a valuable tool for educators for many reasons.  First, it allows you to subscribe to articles or blogs and have it "delivered" whenever there are new posts.  You do not have to search for them.  Another reason RSS are valuable is that you can send the posts conveniently through email, right off the post to your peers.  When an interesting or important article is found, it is so easy to share with colleges.  Lastly, as a teacher I may find a lot of Weblog and media sites on the Internet that are consistently publishing interesting and relevant information, and to keep on top of these is nearly impossible.