Chapter 9 of Rethinking

This chapter talked a lot about how technology is everywhere, and how kids and our students will use technology whether we want them to, encourage them to, or prohibit them to.  I really liked how the chapter talked about how parents should engage in the different technologies their children are interested in with them instead of dismissing them or automatically getting the wrong impression of them.  For example they talked about video games and how some parents automatically dismiss them as bad or wrong and having no educational value, but in reality, many video games do have a lot of educational value to them.  It is important that parents become involved with them and their interests not only will they be spending time together and sharing that interest, but that the child will be learning more because they will learning even more about the technology by having to teach it to the parent. 
I will use this in my future teaching because not only will I try to learn and becomem interested in the new technologies that my students are interested in, but I will try to encourage the parents of my students to do the same so that they too can actively participate in their childs technological learning. 

Chapter 10 and Epilogue of Blogs, Wikis...

In chapter 10 we read a lot about the different shifts taking place in the world of education today.  I really liked going in depth to some of these especially when they started talking about tests.  And how administering tests to students might not be assessing their ability to apply this information to a real life situation in the future.  Instead we think that just because a student recieved a "passing" grade on a test, it means they know or "mastered" the material and are able to apply it independently in real life situations.  This however is not the way it is, and we should be doing something to change that.  Reading this chapter also allowed me to really think about all of the different tools and technology we have learned about and how and which ones I will or want to use in my classroom someday.  I was very intrigued by the epilogue and how it explained an actual teacher who uses technology in his classroom.  I felt like this was very helpful to me becuase not only was it a good example to compare and think about as a future teacher, but I was shocked at how many of these different tools he was using in his classroom and how he used them all in a relatively short period of time.  This showed me that with practice, I too will be able to master these tools and bring many of them into my future classroom. 
This reading obviously affects my future teaching because it is having me do critical thinking about what I want my classroom to be like and what kind of tools and technology I for sure want to bring into my lessons and my classroom, and it gave me more confidence as a future teacher that I will be able to not only use this technology and these tools, but I will be able to teach my students about it and use it in my classroom. 

Exit Slip 11/4

I really liked today's class and the group that presented today.  I felt that the presenters did a great job of creating a good discussion and facilitating the discussion of connecting the ideas we read about in the representation of a venn diagram.  I felt like this way of discussion was one of the more powerful ways of facilitating a discussion we have seen so far this semester in this classroom. 

Chapter 8 Rethinking

This chapter really focuses on how schools can cope with the new thinking and technologies that are being introduced into the schools.  In the beginning I like how they really connected technology to how much the average child uses it outside of school and why shouldn't they be using it inside of school. I also like the idea of doing standardized tests on the computer, allowing them to take them when they feel ready and allowing the tests to be more focused on a specific area.  Technology also allows for new curriculum designs allowing students to learn a certain subject deeper understanding it more than they maybe would have before.  This kind of goes with the fact of how sometimes we teach many things but only a little bit about them.  This would allow students to pick the subjects that they want to learn more in depth. 
 I like this idea of students being able to learn certain things more in depth.  As a future teacher, I dont want to just teach a bunch of things an inch deep but rather teach fewer things a mile deep.  I think this approach will help students remmeber the important information and the stuff we did teach.  Whereas when you teach a bunch of things only an inch deep, your students are more likely to forget what they have learned becasue they have not spent as much time learning it and making connections.  I feel like technology will help us as teachers to teach students more indepth. 

Screencast

I spent a lot of time creating this screencast.  I felt like this was our hardes assignment yet not only because it was new to me, but because I am very picky and it was hard for me to record the screencast.  When I thought I was done and it was good enough, I would always find something wrong with it and want to go back and change it.  I think I spent just as much or more time recording and re-recording the screencast as I did doing my SWOT analysis.  Eventually I just needed to accept that I would probably not be able to create what I feel is a perfect screencast and move on. 
Although this assignment was very difficult for me, I am glad that I did it becasue it has helped me to broadent my horizons and show me more possibilities as to what I can do in the future with my students.  I am also proud of myself that I was able to complete this, what I initially felt was an impposible task, and I now know that I can do anything I set my mind to. 

My Screencast of Jogtheweb.com!

Blogs Wikis Podcasts Chapter 9

This chapter talked about social networking including Facebook and Ning.  I found this interesting because I had only ever thought about these networking cites as personal tools and social purposes.  I have always thought as Facebook as a teacher's worse nightmare, their students sitting on facebook talking to friends and things instead of learning.  But this chapter really talks about Facebook as a means for education.  It gave me a new way of thinking and teaching.  I really liked how they give examples of how to use this in the classroom and some of the benefits of doing this.
As a future teacher I hope to be able to use these networking sites in my classroom.  The thought of attempting this is kind of scary for me because I am afraid students will take advantage of this and use it to talk to friends and things instead of doing what they are suppose to be.  I would maybe try to avoid this by having them do things on facebook outside of class so that if they do decide to talk to friends and stuff they would not be wasting classtime. 

Interactive Whiteboard Lesson

I really enjoyed doing this lesson.  It was hard for me at first because it was a new way of thinking for me and I really had to think outside of my normal box.  However, once I got started it did not take me as long as I had assumed to finish the lesson.  I really enjoyed doing it.  Another thing I really liked about doing this lesson is that we each got to recieve appropriate critical feedback on our lesson.  This proved very helpful especially because this type of lesson was new to me and I was able to see how others went about it and bounce ideas off of them and see their work. 

Completing this lesson will affect my future teaching because it has really showed me that it is good to think out of the box and try something new.  I was surprised how much I really liked doing these types of lessons and I am sure that I will try to use them when I finally become a teacher.  Also, I have decided to go into a local school and test my lesson I designed on real students, so that they too can give me feedback and I can see how well this lesson worked or didnt work.  I am very excited to do this and hope it goes good.  Wish me luck!