Story boards

Thus far I’m enjoying Story boards. It is powerful way of expressing oneself- everyone has a story to tell. Its fun to think of how to do it, songs that would put you in the mood, a voice that would convey the right feeling, and images that would bring to mind the place. I’m enjoying working with my POD each of the girls are so different it will be fun seeing how we come together. I’m a little fuzzy on how kindergartners would make one on there own. Perhaps it would be a fun way of showing off a class project.

1969 Neil Armstrong steps out onto the surface of the moon and said “One small step for man, one giant leap for man kind,” my mom remembers sitting around her families TV and watching this historical event unfold. She said people thought it couldn’t be done. She also remembers hearing “I have a Dream” speech. The hope of an America lays in the coming generation being dreamers to seeing beyond the now to what it could be- what you can dream you can accomplish. They didn’t think John F Kennedy could be president because he was Roman Catholic, and American would be ruled by Pope. Civil right movement was the big issue- we were standing on the moon- and we could get along with each other. Image what they would think of Obama becoming president a few decades later. It reminded me of my visits to Washington D.C. walking around to the cities memorial building. Seeing them gives me a feeling of ah at the strength and persistence of the generations who lived before me. The baton has been passed to us to make this world a little better. It is our unwritten duty to keep free what they fought so hard for. Learning from the passed makes the sky or the moon with in reach. I can see myself showing this video clip to my class and having them write down their dreams. Bring those dreams into reality will take hard work. The problems of today are not so different from the passed; poverty, economical depression, disease and war. These challenges can be conquered with vision and work. As a teacher by job will be to light the spark and keep the fire of those dreams alive.

TECHNOLOGY REFLECTION

I would like my students to be able to show off the projects and art work they are doing in class to others in the school as well as their parents who may not be able to come in and see it. The technology tool I have chooen to do to this is called Smile box. Smile box is a fun way to share online scrapbooks, photo albums, postcards, slide shows. It has an templates for a news paper that could befun to send out head lines of what happen in class today. It also has a template for a TV- I could have the news flashes about whats going on in the next while at our school. This would be eassy and “cool” way to let parend in on whats their student is doing. It would make student progress a fun thing to hear about. Students could make e-cards to send to there parents for valentimes day, mothers day or just to show off art they have made.Smile box could be used to share photos of things that my class is learning about to my colleagues. Learning to using smile box is like a walk in the park and is fast to send. I can see smile box as a way to make classroom objectives funer by making a slide show of what where learning about. Its more colorful than power point and simpler to use. Smile box has the obshion of playing muisc in the back ground. The down side of using smile box is it is a extra thing for me as a bussy teacher to do. Having students make e-cards would take a lot of comptures and/or time that we may not get if I as a teacher don’t plan for it. Using smile box will help my students achieve more becaseu both of us together will be working harder knowing it is going to be shared with others.
http://wordpress.com/tag/smilebox-tips/

http://www.smilebox.com/learnMore.html

Children are captivated by the moving visual world around them. They are naturals on computers. Do to tie budgets classrooms go without up to date technology that could be available for them. Alice is a free program designed to help students create simple 3d animate for story telling, interactive game even short videos. Alice is helping the next generation of learns. It has, “drag and drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating fist programming experience.” Alice was developed by Carnegie Mellon University computer science program students. According to the CRA (computing research association there has been a significant drop in women’s science interest, “fallen to levels unseen since the early 1970.” The gap in wages between men and women came close in the 1980 and are falling back. Alice helps boosters interested in science by appealing to women desire to sharing stories. While at the same time guys enjoy the video game elements of Alice. Alice would be great in the classroom because it would capture the students interested and give them some basis skills in computer programming. On the down side it would take up a lot learning time as the students get hooked on programming.
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=54742
http://www.cra.org/CRN/articles/may05/vegso
http://www.alice.org/

Google

Google
Having an online belt of tools will be very helpful as a teacher. It is still a new idea to have everything go paper less, but it is looking more and more tangible. An online site for my class to interactive with each other would be a wonderful modern approach to learning. Technology is so engaging to students who are already very comfortable using it.
The Google calendar will be so handily once I get the hang of using it. The calendar has so many possibilities with being able to print or e-mail or just have the students look up online.
I can see Google Doc as being a great way for my colleagues and me to “get on the same page.” How nice to be able to work on the paper without having to meet together and coordinate schedules. Google Doc could also be used as a fun filled group assignment for students to do outside of class.
Taping into Google’s resources is that it’s FREE. It doesn’t cost the school anything. Google is very user friendly, colorful, and has a wide range of things you can do. On the other hand Google is not a certified school site like UEN. With all technology not everyone has access to it, although most do. As a teacher I would have to plan on having a backup plan for when severs go down.
Video
Dr. Deuy Fractions is not my style of music, but I won’t be able to get it out of my head. I can see it being a great tool to learn about fractions. I was rather bad a fractions as student maybe this would have helped.
Introducing web 2.0 has some nice definition of what terms mean. It would have been even better if they would have shown what they look like rather than just logos. I feel like a dinosaur not knowing what some of those terms mean and look like.

Ideal Classroom

As of right know I want to teach the lower grades; mostly likely kindergarteners. When I in vision my classroom I see the primary colors splashed around the room in some kind of IKEA organizational style. I see neat little shelf (Cubby’s) with the students names on them. Loads of shelves jam packed with toys in Tupperware containers. In the main part of the room there’s a chair for the teacher- then surrounding that chair, in a half circle, colorful rugs for the students to sit on during reading and circle time. The desk will be arranged in groups of four or so. The decor around the room will suggest that the kids are working hard and having a great time doing it. We will have a class pet (Gil) the fish and a plant; maybe even a row of milk cartons with seeds waiting to sprout lining the window. The teacher desk will be over flowing with papers, sticky notes, jars, candy, and knickknack given me by grateful parents. Near the door will be the hall passed and pencil sharper.
When the bell rings the students will file some happy some sleepy. Most of them will be happy to be there and want to tell me all about the bug they saw on the sidewalk. The parents will need to hear about what going on each day. Some parents will be helpful by not adding to my workload and ask if they can help with anything. Some parents will be kind by tell me how much their child loves coming. Some will think there child would be better off somewhere else, and I will have to work hard to please them. The children will be eager to do everything, (one or two will be unsure and one won’t want to do anything). On the whole they will be fun and cute. My days will go by learning from them and seeing them grow.