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Junie B. Jones

Beverly Cleary

End of the Semester Reflection

When thinking about all the different technology we have learned how to use over the semester it is mind blowing. The biggest one being the SMART board and learning different and effective ways to use it in the classroom has be great. I don't think my perspective has changed about technology being used in the classroom because, I have always liked the idea of incorporating it in to education. But, my eyes have been opened to see all the different ways we can use technology in our classroom. Also, I now realize how truly important it is to know what the current technology is to use in your classroom. Additionally I have learned there are many great free technologies and programs that are available for teachers to use. I have learned to use these different thing to my advantage such as delicious, igoodge, google search, page flakes even twitter. There are so many more than what I have listed it continues to mind-boggling. I am excited and nervous all at the same time to see how technology will change when I am teaching, as the gap between my generation and next grows with the new technology. My goal as a teacher (when I have my own classroom) will be to keep up with the new and current technologies and utilize them effectively and efficiently in the classroom.
3a Demonstrate fluency in technology system and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. Is the NETS standard I focused on this semester. I believe I have made a lot of progress on this standard in a few ways. First, I have become very fluent with the SMART board. I have used it for many of my lessons this semester and feel I have used it effectively. I have a lot to learn but know enough to effetely use it in the classroom. Second, I have learned how to use the flip video and the software effectively in the classroom through my final project. And Third, I have learned how to use imovie maker to help create a high light video. I know enough about these two technologies (flip video and imovie maker) to create and edit clips efficiently to not take hours.

Assignment #4

My technology project was originally “Day in a Life of a Fourth Grader” but, due to many of the students not turning in a permission slip my project now is call “My Favorite Thing About 4^th Grade”. The very first step for this project was making a permission slip for the students to take home to their parents. I had to include what my project was for and why I was doing it; additional I had to list all the different conditions all the parents would be agreeing to. Once, I had the permission slip written it was give to the principal for approval. After the permission slip was approved it was copied and sent home with the students. A week later I interviewed about 14 students asking them what their favorite subject, thing or project is so far in 4^th grade is. I used a flip video to video tape the interviews and also I was able to video tape some students in the classroom during a math lesson and readers workshop. Once, I had enough clips and imported them on my computer and did a made a test video using the flip-video software. Next, I imported the individual clips into imovie, and started to put them in the order I wanted them in. After I had all the clips in order I took out the sound of some the clips and enhanced the sound in some of the interview clips. Also, I added title and ending slides. Finally I chose a song from my itunes library and added it to the background of the video. I had to take down the volume of the song from 100% to about 11%. This was the last step of the process for completing my movie. I published the movie and it turned out very well. I am not able to put the video up on my blog due the fact that I do not have permission to post it online.

Features of technology I learned to use:

Flip-Video

· Installing the Software

· Import the clips from flip video

· Snapshot

Imovie

· Import clips into imove maker

· Create title and ending slides with different effects

· Enhancing the voice in a clip

· Taking noise out of a clip

· Adding music to the background

NETS Standards

I believe this project fulfills NETS standard for teachers 3d. Model and facilitate effects use of current and emerging digital tools to locate analyze, evaluate and use information resource to support research and learning. The reason this standard is fulfilled is because, I demonstrated an effective way to use the flip-video in a classroom. This video helps to evaluate what students favorite subject or project is during fourth grade. Another standard this project fulfills is 3a. Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. I believe through the process of making this video I have demonstrated fluency in how use the flip video and also using different features in imovie maker.

The first NETS standard for students this project covers is 2d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems. The reason this standard is covered is because each students that participated in this project contributed to the final video by being interviewed and also by the highlight clips in the classroom. The second standard this project covers is 5b. Exhibit a positive attitude toward using a technology that supports collaboration, learning and productivity. Every student that participated loved that fact that they were being video taped and showed a lot of enthusiasm toward the flip video. Most students had never even seen a flip video and realized how easy it was for even them to use for school project. Also by being a part of this video they were supporting my learning for technology class.

This project in the beginning was just a requirement but after creating the vido means so much more to me. The reason this project means so much to me, is most of the students that participated are involved with the after school program where I work. This is my last semester being able to work there, and will miss many of these students greatly. Many of these 4^th graders hold a special place in my heart and remind me of why I want to be a teacher one day. I can play this video when I am having a bad day at school and remind myself why I want to be a teacher. Not only will this movie make you happy but, it will just brighten your day.

Reflection 11

On Friday, I went to the 4^th grade classroom at Holy Family to videotape for my final project. In doing so I also had the chance to observe and see how Ms. Desimone uses technology in her classroom. I was there for math and also for readers workshop. It was fun to see how she used to document camera and SMART board in her math lesson. They were learning about factions and she would show different fraction pieces under the document camera to help them figure out the answer to the problem. She also used the SMART board for students to self correct their math homework. The students would come up to the SMART board and write down how they solved the problem. This was one of my first observations seeing the students using the SMART board in the classroom.

Also, it was interesting to see how the students responded to the flip-video. As you will see in my final project some students absolutely loved being filmed while some other students were very shy and weren’t to sure about being interviewed. Over all it was a great fun hanging out with the 4^th graders.

Comments part 2

Angelyna's Blog

Reflection #10

A couple of weeks ago I went to observe a PE class. It was a third grade and also their Holloween game day. On this particular day students got to play this big game with scary music and the black lights. I was really surprised because I didn't know what to expect but she used a lot of the same management tools that teachers use in the classroom. She also used some technology, she used her ipod and a speakers system to play the music. The game the students played had many different aspects to keep the students actively moving. Over all, it ended organized chaos. It was great. I would use some the management tools Mrs. Ahern used for her PE class some day in my own classroom.

Software Reflection

The first program that I looked at was kidspration. This is a great program for school to be able to use. It has many great brain storming ideas as well as time lines math mats for manipulative's and so much more! It was so cool I would defiantly use it in my classroom one day. The second program I looked at was webspration which is the free online verson. It allows you to create many things and used it as a tool to create a idea web and so much more. There is not as much available online as the actual program but I can use it for my classes next semester.

The last program I looked at was Chalksite, it was pretty easy to use once I got the hang of how to add the assignments and students. I think one of the most useful features about this site is that the students can see their grades any time they want. They can see how they did on a quiz or see if they have any assignments missing. I think that it was pretty easy to use as a teacher having some step by step instructions. But if I didn't have those then I am not to sure how easy it would be to use. For a students to use all they needed was a user name and password then they could see their graded assignments by name and the score.

Over all i found all these different programs useful and will some day use them in my classroom.