Journal #1
About Me
My name is Nancy Padilla and I am a junior the University of Texas at El Paso. I am pursuing a bachelors degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in elementary education EC-6 Bilingual Generalist. For this course (EDT 3371) I am expecting to understand technology operations, improve my skills, and know how to create artifacts. I also anticipate to learn how to create a lesson plan using smart board. I will anticipate to understanding the importance of of using technology tools in a learning environment and teaching. Integrating technology in a classroom is an effective way to connect with students of all learning styles. Technology helps make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun. Technology also gives students the opportunity to interact with their classmates and teachers by collaborating with one another. Technology has impacted my own learning as a student in many ways. Using technology allows me to access the most up to date information quicker and easier. Technology has allowed me to become more creative and be more connected. I plan to use technology in my future classroom to make it more fun and interesting for my students. My ideal grade to teach would be 2nd grade, and I will implement technology in a math lesson. I will allow my students to use websites side as "arcacademics.com" to play math games with their classmates to further develop their math skills.
My name is Nancy Padilla and I am a junior the University of Texas at El Paso. I am pursuing a bachelors degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in elementary education EC-6 Bilingual Generalist. For this course (EDT 3371) I am expecting to understand technology operations, improve my skills, and know how to create artifacts. I also anticipate to learn how to create a lesson plan using smart board. I will anticipate to understanding the importance of of using technology tools in a learning environment and teaching. Integrating technology in a classroom is an effective way to connect with students of all learning styles. Technology helps make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun. Technology also gives students the opportunity to interact with their classmates and teachers by collaborating with one another. Technology has impacted my own learning as a student in many ways. Using technology allows me to access the most up to date information quicker and easier. Technology has allowed me to become more creative and be more connected. I plan to use technology in my future classroom to make it more fun and interesting for my students. My ideal grade to teach would be 2nd grade, and I will implement technology in a math lesson. I will allow my students to use websites side as "arcacademics.com" to play math games with their classmates to further develop their math skills.
Technology Badge
Journal #2
I have learned a lot about the artifacts that were created by my peers and myself. I learned about things I was not aware about and it filled me with new knowledge. As a future educator it will be my job to prepare my students for a society full of technology. Digital citizenship will be taught in my classrooms, because I have to teach them how to appropriately use technology, and how to be responsible with technology use. It will be my job to teach them about passwords, private information, personal information, photographs, property, permission, protection, and professionalism. Web literacy will also be an important concept in my future classroom. I will teach my students how to make websites, and it will be part of my education system. Before surfing the internet I will also teach my students about copyright. Copyright MUST be taught, because it is a law that ensures that anyone who creates an original work will be compensated for it, and the law will protect how the material is being used. In other words, copyright materials cant be stolen. This does not mean that future educators cannot use copyright works to create educational projects. Fair use guidelines allow future educators to use copyright materials in a safe way. Fair use relies on: the intended use of the work being made, the nature of the work being used, and the portion of the original work being used. It is important to make kids aware of the internet guidelines when planning for technology integration. Technology integration should be used to maximize learning. Using technology tools such as computers, projectors, smart boards, tablets , etc., will teach students a lot of new learning styles, they will become more responsible, and they will be able to provide up to date information. As future teachers should also be aware that technology can be a distraction, and students can take advantage of it. Before integrating technology we should examine the lesson plan to take the appropriate steps in using it. Technology is a great way to interact and be creative. Also, I have learned about Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPack). It is important that we use the three components that make TPaCK effective, which are: making content accessible for students, pairing the information to make it more interesting, and using what the teacher knows and how it will be taught. Teachers should also use educational technology to perform formative assessments. Formative assessments is a tool teachers use to evaluate students needs, it gives feedback, and it guides their instruction. After assessing the student that teacher can involve technology to deliver instruction, and track the students learning. Educational technology promotes independent learning, gives easy access to information, prepares students for the future, promotes exciting ways to educate students, and it broadens the mind. This has helped me grow as a future educator, I will use this experience to expose and help assist my students in new learning ways.
Journal #3
Through class presentations I learned of new ways to teach children. First, project and inquiry based learning. Project based learning is when the teacher assigns a task to the students and they must come together to solve it, it is team work! Inquiry based learning is an active way of of solving problems such as scenarios. Using both of these learning styles will push students to come together and solve problems with each others support. It is important as future educators to be aware of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. The purpose of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy is to inform educators of how to use technology and digital tools to make student learning experiences and outcomes easier. It goes from lower order thinking skills to higher order thinking skills. I also learned about Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition (SAMR) model. This model is a four-lvdl approach that evaluates technology in K-12 grades. This means that technology can be substituted without any change, it may provide substitution only with functional improvements, technology allows the activity to be redesigned, and technology allows for the creation of tasks that could have not been done without it. Before replacing a task with technology you shoulders yourself questions like: What will you gain? Does it add new features? Does the task change with the use of technology? lastly, Does technology allow for new creations that could have not been done without it? This has helped me grow as a future educator, because it taught me that I should always make sure I am implementing technology in the right ways. Learning about these artifacts will help me assist my students.
Journal #4
Newsletter using Word
As future educators it is important that we use a variety of technology tools to connect with our students and parents. Newsletters are a powerful source of communication. Newsletters are used to get a word out that ranges from weekly, monthly, or annually. Newsletters are used to combine announcement and information. Creating a newsletter was very fun, I enjoyed the process of creating it and making it appealing to the eye. I will make newsletter in the future to communicate with my students and parents to make sure everyone is involved in the children’s learning process. Spreadsheet using Excel Spreadsheets are a great source to organize and graph data. I was nervous to work on excel, because I was not familiar with it. However, with help, I was able to navigate through it smoothly. As future educators we can use spreadsheet to help us with grades and other information about or students. We can also implement excel in certain lessons to help our students become comfortable with excel. Teaching students how to use spreadsheet can get them to be familiar with resources that can be set up to numerically solve problems. One example would be to make multiplication tables that the students can use for in-class practice purposes or homework assignments. Timeline Creating a timeline using “Timetoast” was very fun. I had never made a digital timeline, so it was very interesting navigating through the website. As future educators we can incorporate timelines in history lessons on important events. Using a digital timeline will allow students to add images, descriptions, and other types of medias. |
Journal #5
Multimedia Poster using Glogster
Glogster is a great tool to use as future educators to create classroom posters on a specific topic. This website allows you to use a variety of templates where you can add text, images, and videos. I had never used Glogster, but it is an essential tool to teach any subject, because it is visual, interactive, and engaging.
Quiz using Google Form
Creating a quiz using Google Form was new for me, but very EASY. This is a great tool to use as future educators as it will help us create quizzes or surveys on any subject. Google From allows you to decide whether you want multiple choice or short answer. It also allows you to insert multimedia. I will incorporate the use of Google Form to create reading quizzes and quizzes on any given topic to see if my students are understanding the concept. Vey glad I was introduced to this google form as it will be useful.
WordCloud using Tagxedo
My favorite of all has been creating the word cloud. I always wondered how people made the images with words, and now I KNOW! It was very simple and FUN to use. I like how there was a variety of shapes and colors to choose from that made the word cloud appealing. Tagxedo it is a great way to gather main ideas of a particular reading assignment or vocabulary in a fun interactive way.
Mind Map using Bubbl.us
I am very glad I got introduced to this site, because it is a great online website where my future students can brainstorm or organize their ideas incorporating technology. As future educators we can use this site to plan our daily lesson. Bubble.us makes it fun to create mind maps and it keeps students engaged at all times.
Glogster is a great tool to use as future educators to create classroom posters on a specific topic. This website allows you to use a variety of templates where you can add text, images, and videos. I had never used Glogster, but it is an essential tool to teach any subject, because it is visual, interactive, and engaging.
Quiz using Google Form
Creating a quiz using Google Form was new for me, but very EASY. This is a great tool to use as future educators as it will help us create quizzes or surveys on any subject. Google From allows you to decide whether you want multiple choice or short answer. It also allows you to insert multimedia. I will incorporate the use of Google Form to create reading quizzes and quizzes on any given topic to see if my students are understanding the concept. Vey glad I was introduced to this google form as it will be useful.
WordCloud using Tagxedo
My favorite of all has been creating the word cloud. I always wondered how people made the images with words, and now I KNOW! It was very simple and FUN to use. I like how there was a variety of shapes and colors to choose from that made the word cloud appealing. Tagxedo it is a great way to gather main ideas of a particular reading assignment or vocabulary in a fun interactive way.
Mind Map using Bubbl.us
I am very glad I got introduced to this site, because it is a great online website where my future students can brainstorm or organize their ideas incorporating technology. As future educators we can use this site to plan our daily lesson. Bubble.us makes it fun to create mind maps and it keeps students engaged at all times.
Journal #6
The Digital Story Book allows us to create a short story about any topic. Storybird allows us to pick from their various amounts of templates, and arrange our story how we please. Storybird also allows you to add images and text to create the story you want. When using this site you have to be careful what theme you pick, because it comes with pictures you cannot remove. Such sites are very cool to use in a classroom, because they are fun and it allows students to become more creative and develop their writing skills.
Journal #7
Creating a mini lesson using the Smatboard was very fun. Each team got to present their lesson and call on volunteers to try the activities they had planned. My group and I decided to teach 1st graders the water cycle. We would start by introducing them to the water cycle vocabulary, then having them watch the water cycle song and sing along, and after have students come up to the smartboard and fill out the water cycle diagram. As other groups presented, it was interesting to see the many different ways you could use the smartboard to teach writing, science, math, and reading. I can see why many teachers use this in their classroom, it helps kids stay engaged and makes sure that everyone is participating. Instead of handing out worksheets that causes students to lose interest, the smartboard offers many games and activities that make learning fun. I’m glad I got to experience working with the smartboard, this is something that I am excited to use in my classroom and show my future students.
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Journal #8
Creating a Thematic Unit taught me how I can use this tool in the future to create my lesson plans and be able to connect a theme to different school subjects. You can plan activities and chose which technology tools you will use. It was cool to be able to integrate new technology that I had learned about during this class. I really think that it is important that as future teachers we know that we have endless choices of technology to use in the classroom. We want our students to be involved, to interact with us and their classmates, and also allow them to use their imagination and creativity when doing their work. Using this tool will allow me to stay organized and know what I want my students to learn.
For my thematic unit, I decided to make it about the five senses of the human body. I was able to create math, reading, science, and art activities based around this topic for first graders because that is the grade I want to teach. Thematic Units can be very helpful in the classroom and I am very certain that I will be creating more of theses in the future. |
Journal #9
Creating a web quest was great because we were able to put to use everything we had learned in this class. It was easy to create the website and it was easy to maneuver weebly. Doing our thematic unit really helped me a lot because I already had planned out and I had an idea of what my web quest was going to contain. However, creating the web quest actually took time! I had to go more into detail, be more descriptive, and , make sure the website looked appealing. I had trouble with the Introduction, Tasks, and Process. I had to make sure it was self-explanatory. Making the web quest got me familiar with lesson plans, something I will be using as a future resource.
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Journal #10
How have your ideas about using technology changed over the semester?
Up until this class, I always used the same basic technology, I was afraid to use something new that I didn’t know how to work. Now that I learned about so many different software and everything that they have to offer, I’m excited to explore new technology. As a future teacher, I want to make sure that I use tools that will engage my students and help with their learning. This class made me get out of my comfort zone when it came to technology, I feel that now I can easily learn how to use and work with any programs or websites.
What questions or challenges do you still have regarding technology integration?
Although I did learn a a lot in this class and I am way more confident working with technology, I know that there is always going to be changes and new things to learn so I just hope that I don’t get intimidated by it. I also know that technology is very useful in the classroom, but there is still that question of what is the right balance.
What is your plan for continuing to learn about integrating technology in your teaching more effectively?
My plan for continuing to learn about integrating technology in my teaching is to keep using these websites and practice creating different projects on them. I would also want to take another class to further my skills and learn more ways how I can incorporate technology in my future classroom.
Up until this class, I always used the same basic technology, I was afraid to use something new that I didn’t know how to work. Now that I learned about so many different software and everything that they have to offer, I’m excited to explore new technology. As a future teacher, I want to make sure that I use tools that will engage my students and help with their learning. This class made me get out of my comfort zone when it came to technology, I feel that now I can easily learn how to use and work with any programs or websites.
What questions or challenges do you still have regarding technology integration?
Although I did learn a a lot in this class and I am way more confident working with technology, I know that there is always going to be changes and new things to learn so I just hope that I don’t get intimidated by it. I also know that technology is very useful in the classroom, but there is still that question of what is the right balance.
What is your plan for continuing to learn about integrating technology in your teaching more effectively?
My plan for continuing to learn about integrating technology in my teaching is to keep using these websites and practice creating different projects on them. I would also want to take another class to further my skills and learn more ways how I can incorporate technology in my future classroom.