The final week

          Online communication tools can be a blessing but can sometimes include some frustration if not utilized appropriately. Email is one of those. Email is great because it allows you to send a message instantly and allows someone else to read it at their convenience. If you call another teacher, you may be interrupting them in the middle of a lesson. I know sometimes this happens over and over again and it becomes very frustrating. Sending an email doesn’t interrupt them and they will be able to read the message at a time when they are not as busy. Most of the teachers I work with are pretty good about checking it and responding to emails when they get a quick second. Email for talking with parents can be beneficial in the same way. It’s much easier for you if a parent is sending emails rather than calling you throughout the day. I also like the fact that newsletters can now be emailed out. For the most part they are informative and parents know to expect them if you have told them they would be sent via email.

            On the flip side, email can have its problems. First of all, when you type something there is no tone or voice. Some people can take things the wrong way and become offended at something that you didn’t mean to be offensive at all. People have a way of reading things in their head differently than the sender would have read them. This may be a major issue in sending parent emails because you may not be able to clear it up immediately as you could if it was someone within your workplace. There are also times when people do not respond to email. They can read it and accidentally forget about it or even say they never received it. This is a problem if it is something you really needed an answer on. You also must be careful with attachments. Sometimes attachments from an unknown source (or even a known source for that matter) can hold viruses that will damage your computer.

            The school I work at has many firewalls to prevent viruses. They have a program that monitors emails and blocks any that may be construed as junk or viruses. Sometimes emails like this still manage to get through though. For the most part, I feel like our IT department does a great job at working to prevent us from getting any emails that we don’t actually want.

            Online communication tools can really help teachers who always have busy schedules. As long as you are careful and use them properly, it can be a great way to send messages to parents and coworkers.

Week 7

One type of software that I would use in the classroom regularly if I had a classroom is Microsoft Word. I have seen many students utilize this software and it is good to start out at an elementary level because they will have to use this software in middle school and high school.

As a paraeducator, I go and observe and assist in many classrooms. I assisted one teacher as she utilized Microsoft Word to meet her writing objective. Students used Microsoft Word to write their personal narrative pieces. Students double-spaced their pieces so they could print them out and meet with partners to peer edit each other’s papers. Using the computers also helped to advance their “home key” typing skills. It also helped many students to catch spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes before they printed them out. Many students in her class also struggle with handwriting. She has 4 students that are special education and have trouble writing words correctly. Using the computer made it easier for them to work with partners since everyone could read their handwriting.

            One problem that did arise was that she has only 6 computers in her classroom. By breaking students up into different rooms, every student was able to work on a computer for a 30 minute chunk and get a lot done rather than just working for 15 minutes in a center. When sending students to the computer lab, she realized that those computers didn’t have Microsoft Word. It was taken off as a way for the school to save money. They were equipped with a different writing program. It allowed students to edit Microsoft Word documents and save documents in a Word format. It seemed okay in theory, but there were so many problems that came up. Some students weren’t able to pull their writings up in the computer lab. They would simply look like symbols. Some students did fine in the computer lab, but after they saved it, it wouldn’t open up on a Microsoft Word computer. A couple students even ended up losing everything they had worked on. I personally think that the school should not have taken Microsoft Word out of the computer lab. There will always be problems with saving documents from a different program and Microsoft Word is something that students can use regularly, especially in older grades. There would have been a lot fewer problems if Microsoft Word were on all computers in the building.

Although there can always be technological issues, I think Microsoft Word is a great software to utilize for writing objectives and more. It is so important that students start using this program early so they can be prepared to write papers in higher-level grades.

Week 6

            This week presented a world in which I knew basically nothing about. WebQuests are something completely new to me. Not only have I never made one, I have also never even done one while I was in school. Now that I am working in a school, I go into several classrooms a day and have never seen a teacher utilize one. Needless to say I had to really delve into the world of WebQuests before I could start making one. I found a lot of WebQuests that were really well done and showed a lot of interesting activities. I feel like WebQuests really would go over best at a high school or upper middle school level. I made my WebQuest for a Kindergarten class since I am not currently teaching, but do help with some Kindergarten classes. While I know they would enjoy it, I’m not sure if it would be an activity that they could do independently. Some schools do not have the luxury of having aids in their classrooms at all times. With that, I’m still debating whether this would really be a tool to utilize in a kindergarten room. At our school we currently have software that children use to learn lessons that they have trouble with. The computer recognizes these for you and gives the child those assignments specific to their needs. It also reports the grades that the children got. Using technology time for this software makes more sense to me than using a WebQuest.

            The actual making of the WebQuest was incredibly time consuming. I first had to get an understanding of the steps of each WebQuest then really try to find good activities that the children would enjoy and benefit from. Then you want it to look visually appealing so children will be interested in participating. Getting used to the website was time consuming because the layout was a bit confusing. You really had to decide on your own what information was supposed to go where. I did this by looking at other WebQuests.

            Overall the assignment was a great learning experience for me because I learned something completely different. I was able to create a WebQuest and visit several WebQuests that were very effective. Although I don’t believe my WebQuest was great, I am still proud of what I have done since it was my very first time. If I keep practicing and researching other WebQuests, I think mine will get better and better.

http://questgarden.com/136/16/6/111123143214/

Week 5

Since I am not currently teaching, I really can’t say that I have used many online communication tools in the classroom before. As I have said before, I am currently a paraeducator and I don’t actually have my own classroom. I do use email for communicating with other teachers in the building though. This helps us discuss many important things like schedules, special events coming up in our school, and field trips that classes may be taking. In addition to allowing us to communicate with other teachers, it also helps us communicate with other schools and the district. The superintendent will often send us emails about upcoming board meetings and expectations. Other schools will inform us if they need help with events they are having or send articles that may be written about teachers or students. It really gives the entire district a sense of community and helps us support each other as best as we can. Emailing makes it very convenient for us all to communicate as well since it allows the teacher to look at the email and respond when they have time. It doesn’t disturb the class like a phone call or visit might.

The only thing that has prevented me from not using other types of technology in the classroom is that I don’t have my own classroom. I definitely understand the importance of utilizing all types of technology. Websites, podcasts, blogs, etc. are all things that promote better communication with students and parents. They also allow students to become more familiar with technology which is a growing medium that they will be using for the rest of their lives. Seeing their teacher use these things inspires them to also get their hands dirty.

If I did make a classroom website, it would be important that I teach my students how to navigate it. Using the projector I would be able to put the website up on the screen and click around showing them how they can use different sections on the website. I would do this within the first few days of school so students would know it would be something that we would be using all year. With older students you may be able to create a web quest that allows them to answer questions by navigating through the classroom website. I would also send a note home with students telling parents the URL and that this is where they should look for the most updated classroom information including schedules and announcements. I can’t wait to utilize online communication tools in my classroom.

Week 4

Since I have never really put things out on any sort of website (I find websites my technological weakness) I was interested to know that you can put PowerPoint presentations right on to a webpage. I have never tried this before, but the article stated that you just had to save the document as an HTML. I never would have thought it would have been that easy. In addition to what I have learned, I think that it’s important that teachers are not the only ones with their hands on PowerPoint. Even young students can use PowerPoint at a very basic level and letting kids make their own presentations gives them more responsibility and lets them use technology. It also helps them become used to getting up and talking in front of people.

I am not currently teaching and decided to do a PowerPoint presentation for 2 of my nieces. They are 5 and 6 and are currently learning their letters and some small words. While I know this isn’t typically how presentations are used I thought it would be a good way for them to be able to look at the words on a screen while we were reading them. I am mostly proud of the fact that they both really seemed to be interested in the presentation. I would fly in different letters and we would spend time saying the sound for each letter and then say the word. It felt like a game to them and they were really getting in to it. They wanted to make sure that they were saying the right sounds and would sometimes even try to guess the words before the letters flew in. If I did the presentation again, I would obviously have to change it up because it would be too easy for most of the kids in upper grades. I liked that it wasn’t exactly a “presentation” but more of a tool to allow  students to participate. If I was trying to teach brand new material though, I would not have as much participation and I would talk about each slide more. Also, if I was doing it again I might put in definitions. That way the kids would not only be able to learn the words, but could also be sure we know what these words mean. For that age, maybe I would just use a picture of the word just to make sure they associate the word with the proper definition. Like I said earlier, the kids did respond well to doing this because it was like a game. I think at that age it is important to use PowerPoint in a way that really gets the students to participate otherwise they would have lost interest in just a few minutes.

Week 3

This week provided a lot of important information regarding technology in the classroom. Many things I have actually seen being used in a classroom before so reading about them in the text provided more knowledge of why they are so important.

One thing that surprised me was how popular tablets are becoming in school systems. Some school systems are even letting the kids use these instead of computers or laptops. The school that I work out doesn’t have any systems like this.  The schools that I have seen are still concentrating on teaching students how to type on a keyboard but you have to wonder if using your “home keys” are becoming a thing of the past. With tablets students are now able to use pens, just like if they were writing on paper. I have also seen technologies that take that writing and turn it into whatever font style you like. These technologies can only get better in the future, so should we be spending more time allow students to learn how to write on tablets rather than showing them how to type at fast speeds on a keyboard?

The next thing up for discussion is handouts teachers send home to their students. I believe that in order to have a successful newsletter or brochure, you must first make it visually appealing to catch the readers attention. The reader in this case would be the parents. If you're sending home a newsletter, including pictures of some of the students in the class, parents are more likely to look at them. The pictures of students catch their attention. It is also important to make it easy to read. You don’t want to use crazy fonts, make the writing too small, or chose colors that might be  hard to look at.  Brochures would need to include the same ideas. It is important to be direct when providing information, but also use pictures, images, and colors to provide something to catch the reader’s attention. If there are too many words on anything you send home to parents I believe they are less likely to read it. They don’t want to hear all of the extra stuff. They want you to be precise and to the point. I think it’s also important that there isn’t just one chunk paragraph. Separate things into bullets and short paragraphs that make it easier to read. This way they can skim it and still understand the things that are going on.

In order for a document to be visually appealing for parents it needs to have a nice balance. You don’t want too much going on with lots of crazy colors and pictures everywhere, but at the same time you don’t want to send home a blank white sheet of paper with black font on it in paragraph form.

The following newsletter is a mockup of something I might create for a class since I am not currently teaching. 

Week 2

This website directly from Microsoft actually provides some ideas for lesson plans using different software. Some of them use excel and I thought it was very interesting because the ideas give you everything you would need for your lesson including objectives, learning outcomes, lesson procedure, and a conclusion.  

Here is a link to the website:

www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/plans

One thing that I thought was very interesting about database usage was the idea that “excel can easily make your spreadsheets into web pages.”  While I often think with an elementary school mind because that’s the type of school I’m currently working in, I think it would be great to utilize this for high schoolers.  High schoolers could learn to create their own web pages and insert charts and graphs straight to these websites.  Doing this would be extremely career oriented. Students could learn to carry this over to their jobs whether it be sharing numbers online for a sales department or sharing a presentation in the entertainment  field on Billboard hits. Not only could this prepare students for a career, it could also prepare them for college. The article states that “many university students use this feature of excel to share projects with other students.” It would be really neat if that could be a skill they could learn in high school.

Link to source:

www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/excel

Teaching scripted programs in special education hasn’t really given me much opportunity to use spreadsheets or databases with students.  In the past, I have use Excel in several of my careers. This would mostly be for databases with phone numbers, addresses, etc. As a teacher, I have really only used Excel to create a sign-out sheet for our i-pod touches. This is my first year though. As a student in high school I was taught to use Excel. I was one of not many students who were taught to use the program though, because I was taking a business-oriented class. The class gave me a lot of data to enter and then would give me instructions on how to create bar graphs, pie charts, scatter plots, and more. I found making these interesting and kind of fun, and I never realized how much I would use it once I got into college and into my first job as an administrative assistant.

Although I have never used Excel as a teacher before, I think it is definitely something that should be incorporated in the classroom. Kids can always benefit from using new technologies, especially ones that are widely used in the business world. By reviewing the Microsoft website I posted earlier and thinking about some of the math classes I collaborate with, I am starting to get some ideas about how I can use Excel more in the future.