And the Count Down Begins!

I was unable to attend class on Wendnesday, so I am going to talk about my last student teaching placement and how I am going to ICT/Internet in my classroom.

If anyone wants to tell me about the class on Wendnesday, that would be great!!

9 Days till student teaching and I'm feeling a lot more confident in using ICT/ Internet in my classroom. These are skills that I am going to try and incorporate into my lesson plans as much as possible, as I feel the students will truly enjoy them!

I am teaching Grade 8 English and Grade 5-8 Phys. Ed. during this placement at MacGregor Middle School.

Phys.Ed= very comfortable English= not so comfortable

In my English class I am going to try and get on the computers as much as possible! Like I stated in previous blogs, I am teaching a current events unit. I think this unit will allow me to use the computers a lot as I am going to have students blogging about current events and issues. By allowing them to blog I can see what my students are thinking about current events happening in the world. I also like that fact that other students can comment on their peers blogs with their own opinions! This is going to allow for a lot of discussion in my classroom, which is what I am hoping for!

Does anyone else have any good ideas for my current events unit?

I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did during this class! I wish everyone good luck on their student teaching placements... and their teaching careers!


GO CANADA!!!! WOO WOO!!

Presentations - Day 2

Skype & Elluminate Live!

Great Presentation Guys!

Lots of great ideas! Love the fact that you had Jay and Mark in another room around the university! It was a good way to show us how to use Skype!

This is a great way to keep in contact with students! Like Nathan said, it is a great way to help students with homework. I also like the fact that it is a free easy way to keep in contact with other teachers, as questions will probably rise in our teaching futures!

Elluminate Live: I think this would be a great resource to use with students. I like the fact that you can import files, making it possible to do lessons over it. I didn't realize all the great tools that were available!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of the Internet Presentation

Lots of good points!

There are so many unreliable sites out there. It is a good idea for teachers to check out relievent websites before giving students assignments, as this can save a lot of problems.

Viruses.... HATE THEM! ... enough said!

Instant Messaging: great way to keep in contact with people around the world. Teachers can use IM for their lesson plans, as students can interact with other students around the world.

Teacher Resouces- Love that you can find anything on the web, when needed. I haven't checked out Classroom 2.0 or Atozteacherstuff.com... but I'm going to when I get home!

Video Games in the Classroom

Another great presentation! I love the ideas of video games in the classroom! More teachers need to start using them, as students enjoy them. We want our students to be having fun in the classroom, so why not have fun educational games.

In a previous comment of mine to a post (can't remember whos, I think Kelsey's), I was concerned about the cost of Wiis, I like how Tyler mentioned that you can get students to bring in their own Wiis, great idea! Never thought about that!

Presentation Day... Woo Woo!

My group and I are about to present a video that we created on cyberbullying. We worked hard on this video, and feel like our class is going to enjoy it!

(Presentation)

I feel the presentation went good! Cyberbullying is a huge issue in today's schools, and it was good to hear what future teachers think about the issue. Lots of good points were brought up throughout our discussion! Mike said it best, we need to start teaching students at a young age about cyberbullying and the effects of it! Students think that it is just a fun joke, it may be for them, but not for the person being bullied! They need to be taught that it can cause serious physical and emotional harm to an individual.

Even when I was in junior high it was a big issue (As some may recall a Rumor page). People were able to post comments about others in and around their community, and usually they were hurtful ones.

Today, we hear about it during our student teaching placements all the time. This is something that all teachers should be aware of, and when confronted with, should deal with!

Internet Presentation- Good presentation guys!! I learned a lot of things I didn't know prior to this presentation! Its scary to think that one day we could be charged for blogging, higher prices for music, etc. This would limit our use of the internet in schools, and could cause a lot of problems for teachers!

Second Life II

Alright, so round two of Second Life, and I'm still a little unsure if I'm for it, or not! Maybe it was the graphics that threw me off, but I dunno! I am still a little uneasy about letting my students explore using this virtual world. I like the idea of a Teen Second Life, so that my students don't do things that adults can do in the older version (which I'm a little iffy about).

The things I do like: I do like the fact that my students can go on it and explore different places around the world, without actually being there physically. This would allow student's to see places they would normally not get too. I also like the fact that they can go sit through different presentations, PowerPoints, etc.

The things I don't like: My student's can be going into this virtual world, and talking to another avatar, who are totally lying about their identity. I don't want to be putting my students in dangerous situations. Another thing I don't like is the fact that I could be setting them up to become addicted to this program. Many kids have addictive personalities, and I don't want them to be spending all their time using this program. I don't want them going home and going straight to the computer to explore this world. I would rather them go out in real life and explore it themselves.

I am sure Second Life would be a program that my students would like, so maybe one day, I should take the extra time and explore it to find out about security settings.

As for Go2web20.net ... Ahh .. is it ever overwhelming! It would take me forever to go through all those pages, as I do find it terrifying and frusterating! This is something I plan to look through before going into my student teaching placement.

I apologize for all my paragraphs being jammed together! It won't let me add spaces!

Shawn Kleebaum

Shawn Kleebaum gave an excellent presentation on Internet for Educators. He had lots of great ideas that I am going to try and incorporate into my upcoming student teaching placement.

Getting started with Prezi- This seems like a really neat way to create a presentation. Instead of using PowerPoint, I might start using this. Students like change, they may be bored watching Powerpoints, so Prezi might be a good change for the students.

Boogle- Great Idea! I just recieved an email from my cooperating teacher, and I am teaching a unit on current events! I am thinking I might get my students to blog/use a wiki, and write about current events every week. This would be a great way to incorporate technology into my classroom.

Calender- This seems like a great way for students to see when assignements are due. I like the idea of the calender sending a text message to the phone. Students will no longer have the excuse of "I forgot".

Google Docs- E Pals- This would be another great way to incorporate technology into the classroom. It would be great to get my students to email people via epal and ask them about current events/issues that they are experiencing in their country.

I learned a lot of great things that I hope to use in this upcoming placement!!

Virtual Environments

Today's presentation by Glen Gatin was very good! This presentation helped me realize how important it is for teachers to teach their students about the whole world of technology. If students are unfamiliar with this new world of technology, it is going to make it very hard for them to find jobs, as many jobs now require this as a skill.

Teacher's today are so lucky to have all these great resources! Virtual Environments, crazy! but cool! There are many different virtual tours online that teachers can take their students on. By using these virtual environments as a resources it will allow for students to take field trips, that they would not normally get to go on. Another thing I liked about the idea of the virtual environments, is that many students learn by visuals. We hear so much about multiple intelligences, this would be a great way to reach those visual learners.

This is a resource I am going to use in my future classroom, no matter the subject! If it is safe, I will use it! I can either take my students on a trip through Rome for my Social Studies class, or take them on a trip through space for my Science class. There are so many options!

I wish we would have had more time to talk about the safety of Second Life, as I am still a little sceptical about sending my students out into this unknown world. I know there are a lot of great things teachers can do with it in regards to education, but I would like to learn more about how to keep my students safe while using this resource. I am also a little sceptical because I do not want my students to get caught up in this virtual world, and forget about reality.

Internet...Good or Bad?

Today's presentation via Elluminate Live! was crazy...crazy in a good way. I hear about all the distance education nightmare stories on how boring watching a screen is, but this was far from boring. Alec Couros presented his material amazingly from University of Regina, but it was like he was right in our classroom.

One thing that stood out in the presentation was the question is the internet good or bad?

Today's parents are so worried about the bad, that it can blind them from the good. Internet can be a scary thing for many parents, as many are not up to date with this age of technology. I know that there are a lot of creepers out there in cyber space, but technology is so advanced that you can know everything your child is doing on the internet, at any time. So why not show them how to make sure their child is having a positive experience online? And why not show them how to block websites and secure their computers at home so that they feel safe about their child being online?

As soon to be teachers, it is our job to have strong communication with our students parents. It will also be our job to show parents that the internet is a good thing and that it helps make a students experiences at school, a better one. I think if parents realized all the good that the internet has to offer, they would change their minds on the internet being a negitive experience for their child.

If I have parents uncomfortable with their child using the internet at school, I wouldn't mind having an open house night to show them whatever they want to know about the internet. I would do this so that they can become more comfortable with this great resource, and so that their child doesn't miss out on using this great resoure.

Stay Classy!