7. Blooming Technology

Teaching Bloom's Taxonomy through Powerpoint:
Lesson: Discussing a Book
Evaluation: The process of evaluating something consists of assessing theories and comparing ideas. Bringing up issues on a Powerpoint and having students discuss them and evaluate them together while being able to read the information on the Powerpoint would be very helpful.
Synthesis: Using old concepts to create new ideas. Students could be given a concept from the book and then they would each have to create their own Powerpoint describing a idea they gained from this specific concept.
Analyzing: Powerpoint can be used for teachers to break down big ideas from the book into different slides so students can analyze each idea separately until they understand the larger picture.
Applying: Students can use Powerpoint to apply the information they learned in class into a Powerpoint presentation that they can use for their own benefit or to present to the class.
Understanding: Powerpoint helps students understand the information being taught by having all the information in one place with pictures that contribute to what they are learning.
Remembering: Teachers can post their Powerpoint online so students can study the information and it will help them remember it for tests and quizzes.
            Adaptive Learning Technologies are used to help students with learning disabilities and also physical and mental disabilities. Students who are blind could be provided with brail printers and speech recognition applications instead of typing. They could also use a track ball or a joy stick instead of a mouse. Students who have learning disabilities could use spell checkers and also computer provided organizers. I do know students who have has to use spell checkers and certain other programs online because they have trouble learning. Using these things in the classroom could be difficult because students who do not have disabilities could want to use the technology and not understand why other students are the only ones using it which could cause issues in the classroom.
             This website was interesting and I wish I could have spent more time on it to really make it good. This skill is helpful for any career you choose. I want to be a teacher and this would be helpful to parents and students to have a website. Weebly is also a very good website to help make this and it made it very easy and simple. Here is a link to my website:
http://sophiesstudents.weebly.com

I really liked the graphics and the images. The content in this presentation was also interesting.

Should You Still Aim for Work-Life Balance? from SlideShop.com

6. Blogging Productively

Trying to find a school website I could talk about, I immediately thought about my High School. I only graduated two years ago so I do miss it and going on their school website made me very nostalgic. But when I was looking at their website and trying to navigate to a teacher's website, it seemed that none of the teachers even had websites. I would click on a teacher and all that would pop up is this- 

Since this website was disapointing, I went to my elementary school website (which all of my younger siblings still attend except for two of them). This website was a bit more encouraging where all of the teachers had very cute and fun pages but needed a passcode to enter which I thought was good and safer for teachers and students. Here is a picture of one of the teacher's websites- 

This is actually my third grade teacher at Trinity Catholic School and she is still teaching! She has links to all of the spelling words which could be helpful to parents in helping their students study! She also includes a calender with all of their events and a class schedule to parents will know which classes their chidlren are in at what time. This website is very helpful to parents and it is cute and fun to look at! 

We learned in the podcast that productivity tools help people complete everyday tasks easier. Some of the tools they mentioned were Microsoft Office, Evernote, and Diigo. I use Microsoft Office a lot for papers and Powerpoint already. Using Powerpoint while teaching is very important, I believe. It helps put notes on the projector so students can take notes while you explain what you're teaching into more detail. Evernote helps people take notes and it saves automatically so you never lose your information. Teaching using productivity tools is very important while teaching because it helps with record taking and jobs that you do everyday. 

I learned a lot from our website evaluation project and I also got to work with some cool people! We evaluated websites based on currency, accuracy, design, and accessibility. These are all extremely important when you are trying to decide if a website is reliable or not. This skill is very important to have when you are a teacher because you ant to make sure that the information that you are giving your students is up to date and correct. Also, if you are allowing and encouraging children to go on certain websites, you want to make sure that it is appropriate and easy to work. I liked this project because I believe it is important and I understand why we were assigned to it. Here is a picture of my evaluation of the website http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/history-native-americans

5. The Wonderful Web

             In the podcast, we learned that web 1.0 is not used in classrooms as much anymore. Teachers and educators are using web 2.0 which is more sophisticated and has a larger variety of programs and websites teachers can use. Web 2.0 includes Youtube, Facebook, Wikki, blogs, and Diigo. I believe all of these sites can be useful in a teaching environment except Facebook. While Facebook is a good social media site, I don't believe it could be useful in teaching. Youtube could be used to show educational videos to a classroom that apply to the subject being taught. Blogs are good for students to show their thoughts and idea to their classmates and teachers. Wikki can be used for a lot of educational purposes and it makes it easier to do collaborative work. Diigo helps keep work organized and can also be used to annotate work. In the chapter we learned that a lot of things are necessary for these sites to be utilized. We need a computer, monitor, screen, keyboard, and mouse and then we are all set to use web 2.0.
                 I decided to do a review on Librarything. This app and online site helps people keep a large connection of books. It is a lot like a online book club. People can browse other people's book collections and talk to people about books they are reading. They can also get recommendations of book choices through other people's catalogs and other people's posts. This site can be used for Language Art classes and Literature classes. Students can talk about certain books they are reading in class and also share other books they are reading outside of school.
                While this site is fun to share and see other people's interests, one issue I have with the site is that your page has to either be completely public or completely private. So you cannot only share it with your classroom, it would have to be public to the whole world which could worry parents or the school's administration. But overall, it is a good site and could potentially be very useful in the classroom.
Check out this site:
https://www.librarything.com
                 The concept map was actually a fun activity. We learned a new application and it can be used for a lot of things. While this is useful for studying for tests and creating study guides, I could also use it as a teacher to prepare students for tests. The website was a little hard to figure out how to use at first but after having done it for a while, I figured it out and it got a lot easier. Here is a picture of Jamie and I's finished product. I couldn't figure out how to scroll out but here is a screenshot of a lot of it.

             
               

4. Hunting for a Credible Source

• LAFS.2.W.3.7: Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single topic to produce a report; record science observations).
• http://pbskids.org/writerscontest/create-stories
• This website is full of educational games that could be used for little children in school. This link is to a game that could help elementary school students learn how to be creative and apply things that they have read to a story. 
• It helps students create characters and then create a beginning, middle, and end of a story.
• Students could get together in a group and read a story and then create a sequel to this story using the game. 

                The internet is very important in student research. The internet is a place where people from all around can put in their ideas and beliefs and it is open for everyone  to see. It helps students find biographies and facts about certain subjects and it is quick and easy to use. I think the internet is something that has helped students learn more things. I also think that it has made it easier for students to retrieve this information which can be a good or a bad thing. Students can go on the internet and in just the click of a button they can have all the information they need. While this does take away some of the effort students would have to be putting in, it makes projects and homework quicker and easier.I think students should still be obligated in school to have some sources be books that they find at the library or home.
                 Finding if a internet source is reliable has always been hard for me because I believe sites that I probably shouldn't believe. I love Wikipedia mainly because all the information you need is right there but then I have to remember that this information could be made up or incorrect. In the podcast, it was actually saying that you can use the ads on the page to help determine if it is reliable. This is a great idea because a lot of the sites you go on have weird ads that don't relate to what you are learning at all. This is a quick and easy way to figure out if its credible. You can also see who wrote it or the website that published it and look up reviews to see if  they are credible.
               I am still working on my web hunt assignment but so far it has been pretty cool. I've learned a lot of ways to refine my searches and find better information related to what I was trying to gather from my search. Putting quotations around a search helps refine it and brings up better websites. 

• Search for a game that helps elementary school students learn multiplication in a fun and easy way.
• Find a picture of your favorite celebrity and figure out when it was taken.