My very own website

I like the websites. I see a lot of potential for having a website as a teacher.

It would be a pretty good resource for communicating with parents and helping to make sure that they stay in the loop with assignments and events because lets face it, kids lie to their parents about their homework.

I really can't decide if it would benefit me more to create my own website from scratch or to find a pre-made one that I kinda like and then modify it.

The problem that I have with either option is that I don't feel confident in making a professional looking website from scratch that I would want to have my parents go to, the problem I have with the pre-made ones, at least the ones that I found, was that it was pretty confusing to try to figure out how to edit everything the way I wanted it to look.

I think I will just hope that my future school has web pages for use by each teacher and they have some awesome IT people that will be able to help when I ruin something.

iPad = iLike

I like the iPads.
There is so much potential in all the apps for students to explore and learn things through experience that I may not always have time to teach them.
The potential for fun is also fantastically overwhelming.


I am not sure yet if it would be easy for me personally to integrate iPads into my classroom setting and my lessons on a regular basis just because it is something that I am not used to but they are definitely worth having around just as an opportunity for students to be creative and explore different things.


I know that garage band would entertain me for hours just trying to see how all the different instruments sound and how they work and how to make two instruments sound good together, maybe I would even graduate up to making some sort of melody come out of all that exploration.


Since I know there are educational apps for the iPad I can only imagine what students might learn just being able to explore and learn by experiencing.


I also LOVE the smart board! The possibilities for use in the classroom as an important aid are endless. I can see using them even in a kindergarten classroom because then I can put all kinds of pictures and manipulatives on the board for them to play with and they would get the biggest kick out of it. I also see all the possibilities with the older students like the 5th graders I am with now because you don't necessarily have to erase anything you do and the students can look back at something you did in the morning and you can save things that they did on the board to use later.


Oh the possibilities that technology proves us if we are willing to explore them!!!

Podcasting - More than meets the ears and eyes!

I thought pod casting was pretty cool. I  didn't really know much about it before that class.

I see a lot of potential in using the pod casting in my classroom. I don't know if I would always be willing to put in the time and effort of making my own pod cast but I can definitely see using the already made ones to be an aid for lessons that I will teach or help aid me with my own background knowledge of a subject. 

I could also direct students to them for other subjects that they are interested in learning about as long as they understand the difference between a reputable source and one that isn't.

Websites - Real or Fake?

It was really interesting to figure out if my website was real or fake. I determined that it was a real person writing a fake story with a minor amount of truth in it. 

The Dead Grandma Syndrome was very interesting because it was probably based in some amount of truth but the attitude of the voice of the professor in the article told me that it was fake.

The things we talked about in class about recognizing whether or not a website is real and reputable are definitely things I will need to teach my older students in the classroom. The more they learn early on about using proper websites the better off they will be as they continue to move forward with their schooling.

For my younger students I think I will just limit the websites they use to a few that I know will have enough information for any project that they will be doing, that way they will start out with the knowledge of what a proper website looks like and they won't have any trouble getting all their information.

The Earth, Google style

I had a lot of fun with Google Earth. My favorite features that I got to play with was the night sky part and the 3D buildings part. I loved all the things that you can do with it and I want to play with it more!

I definitely see using this in my future classroom. How could I not want to with all the features it has. I have already recommended the night sky part of it to a fellow student teacher who is teaching a unit on constellations and I know her students would absolutely love to see if their constellations are actually visible right now.

The huge downside that I see to this program is the availability for my students to use it on their own. I know that the computers at my school probably wouldn't work well if we tried to download it. However if we could at least put it on the teacher's computer and use it with the smart board then the social studies lessons would take on a whole new perspective for my students.

The possibilities of Google Earth are just too numerous that I don't see a reason for me to not try to make it available in my classroom

iMade an iMovie!!

I thought iMovie was awesome! We had so much fun getting just the right shot for our scene and then when  we got it to the iMovie software it was really pretty easy. I think it helped that I was able to play around with it while it was being taught.
Putting the scenes in the right order and figuring out what length to put them was super easy and then putting in the transitions was fun and it turned out to be a pretty entertaining video.
The biggest problem that we had with the video was trying to save it, we actually had to redo all of the editing because we couldn't get it saved right the first time.

I can definitely see using this in the classroom. The kids could definitely figure out the software pretty easily and they would have a lot of fun putting together any kind of video, either for a science project or book report or whatever they can use it for.

Photoshop: Friend or Foe?

Photoshop was an interesting experience for me. I had never ventured into its world before and I think I was struck with culture shock.

I definitely learned a lot during the adventure but a lot of the information went over my head too. I will need to experiment with some the tools on my own to really grasp how they work through trial and error.

At this point Photoshop, my collage, and the Mac are still my foe and the scanner has become my friend. I hope that shortly I will be able to make peace with them and we can become the best of friends.