Wednesday, December 1, 2010

My Beliefs

Being able to teach children is definitely one of the most rewarding experiences I have been involved in throughout my life. Growing up I was able to go to school and learn from some truly amazing teachers and my parents. They helped me to become who I am today by teaching me strong moral values and giving me the education I would need to succeed.

During my field experience I was again impressed with the new upcoming generation of students. These students were bright and very curious and not afraid to explore new ideas. I loved to see them think, form ideas, and also use their imagination to solve and answer the questions we gave them. They came up with some great answers, ones we hadn't thought of, but most importantly, they were not afraid to try, and possibly make a mistake.

I also loved seeing all of the new technology in the school. Our school was fairly new so it was wired with all the latest technology in the classroom. I thought it was interesting to see how they could quickly and efficiently give attendance, and order the class lunch selections, and get the daily announcements over the link to the office. There were some glitches in the process, but once these are worked out I thought this was a highly effective way to manage the school. I thought it would be very beneficial to train the teachers more in the technology so they would be able to use these tools to their full potential.

I also enjoyed seeing how the students loved to see the digital story. Our classroom had a very sterile environment. There wasn't art displayed on the walls, and there weren't any "frills". Our cooperative teacher was very focused on teaching, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, I did feel that our students would have benefited from having more experience with the arts, or at least bringing an aspect of art into the other lessons. By just including some music into our digital story, social studies took on a whole new idea, and they loved it.

Education is one of the most important and life altering experiences a person will go through during life. I look forward to finishing my degree in education and being able to help my students gain the knowledge they will need to make a difference in the world, and most importantly to prosper, be successful, and happy in life.

Lessons Learned

I thought all of these videos, and articles were very interesting, and helped me to see how complex technology is and how much it affects our lives.
As teachers I thought the power point about “tools of change” was really interesting. I can see how computers really are linked with our future literacy. There are so many exciting new tools for the classroom which will help our students be exposed to different methods, and also different ways for us to be able to assess their knowledge and create more interesting lessons. There were also many ways to help our classrooms run more efficiently shown in this power point. I loved the interactive “smart boards” and electronic hall passes and lunch selection tools. There were just so many great ideas; I would definitely use these tools if they were available in my future school. This type of technology helps save time and energy and is much more efficient.

I appreciated the video called “millennium generation”. This really helped me to see the deep thinking and great ideas our students will have. We need to be able to help our students cultivate these ideas into action. These are the ideas which will eventually become inventions and help to change the future of our country. Look at computers, their beginning was in a garage in California. We need to encourage our students to think outside the box. It’s their future and ours.

I also liked reading the article about “Why integrate technology into the curriculum?” It reinforced the ideas I already had about how important technology is in the classroom. By using technology we are able to reach students in many different ways. It allows us the opportunity to use different methods and means to teach. Every student learns differently, we need to vary our lessons and give variety so every student has the opportunity to succeed and reach their full potential.

Strengths and Weaknesses

I felt like I was able to go into my field experience with great appreciation and knowledge of technology used in the classroom. I thoroughly loved creating digital stories. I enjoyed collecting the information and pictures to create the projects. It was so exciting to see how the students related with the digital stories and how much more interested they were in the subject by simply implementing this type of technology into our lesson. Creating digital stories was definitely one of my strengths. I also feel that another strength I have gained from my technology courses is- “the spirit of discovery”. I am not afraid to try new things and explore uncharted territory. In looking at the UNI survey and the NET standards I felt that over all I would rate myself as an apprentice in most of the computer technology skills, and that I have a good base to know how to find answers and continue to learn and research the areas I need to improve.

As I worked at Willow Springs Elementary in the Canyons School District, I realized the need I will have to learn to work on a Mac computer system. In order to use the digital story we created on an IBM compatable computer we had to email the digital story link to our cooperative teacher’s email. This was efficient; however as a teacher I will want access to my projects and information directly, not having to go through additional links. As I looked in the UEN there were many courses offered. The first course I would take would be, “Making the Most of you Mac”. It is designed for new users and also offered through the UEN Professional Development Course Catalog.

Another area I will need to work on would be using technology resources to engage in ongoing professional development. Technology is constantly changing. I will need to continually stay educated and informed on technology advancements and development. In my future classroom it is important to me to be able to provide my students with the latest technological training and experiences. I feel that technology is so important and I want them all to have a good base to build from as they continue their schooling. UEN also offers courses covering these areas in their professional development courses, but I also found an interesting program offered through the University of Utah ETEP (Education Technology Endorsement Program). This program consists of 18 credit hours involving courses in software/hardware, and technology pedagogy. This is normally a 2 year program. I thought this sounded amazing. There are so many resources out there to stay current and informed as teachers.

By being able to identify our weaknesses we will be able to continually work and educate ourselves to help make our weaknesses eventually our strengths.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

EDEL 3250 Field Experience Service Learning Project

EDEL 3250 Field Experience Service Learning Project
Heather Allan and Elisa Kelson
November 28, 2010


1) Our first meeting with our cooperating teacher was the first week of November.
2) After discussing the curriculum our class would be studying during our field experience we decided with our cooperative teacher to create a digital story about Utah’s geologic features.
3) We started our digital story in the computer lab at UVU and continued work with our story at home on our personal computers. By downloading the photo story directly to our computers we were able to create and edit our digital story at home, making it much more efficient than trying to find times to meet in the computer lab.
4) We showed our digital story during the last lesson we taught about Utah Geography. We used it to give the students another overview of all of Utah’s geographic features before they started creating their Utah geography salt dough maps. The students loved the digital story and thought it was great to hear our voices on the movie. They enjoyed watching the digital story and it kept their attention as well as refreshed their memories of the different areas and landforms. The coordinating teacher as well as our field supervisor who observed our lesson both commented on what a great movie we had created.
5) We talked with our coordinating teacher about technology in the classroom and talked to her about creating a link to her blog and website, as well as telling her about the photo story program we created our story with. Our coordinating teacher used a apple computer so she would have to create her digital story with a different program. She enjoyed our digital story and the other vidcasts we created to supplement our lessons, but she didn’t use technology in her classroom very much the only equipment she used was the over head projector.
6) A) By going into this classroom we were able to show the cooperative teacher current technology could help enrich her lessons and help provide her students with more learning experiences. We could help her by sharing the information we have on creating digital stories and vidcasts along with giving her assistance in setting up her classroom blog and it’s links in her Canyon’s School District site.
b) By working in this classroom and seeing the need we were able to address a need in our community and assist in providing additional help in this classroom.
c) In working in this classroom we became very aware of the need for additional help in this grade level, since most of the classes were set at 31 students.

7) We were assigned to work at the Willow Springs Elementary located in Draper, Utah in the Canyons School District. This was a new school built only four years ago in a new urban higher income area. Our assignment was to work with Miss Crista Holt in the 4th grade. Our class had 31 students, with 18 boys and 22 girls.
We enjoyed working with Miss Holt and felt that she appreciated our help in the classroom. We assisted her in various areas with; reading groups, spelling groups, and math groups. She was good to communicate with us and let us know what she needed and also very easy to work with and helpful. We treated Miss Holt with respect and professionally and she returned that same respect to us.
She liked our digital story we created but I don’t know if she will herself create something of that nature. She didn’t use very much technology in her classroom and was only interested in having us help her in creating a blog link from her Canyon’s School District site to her blogger account. She seemed always so busy she was unable to devote the time necessary to create and use this type of technology.
She said our lesson was well done, and gave us positive feedback on it. She was always very supportive of our lessons and good to give us helpful hints to improve. We provided many lessons during our field experience teaching more than 8 different lessons over the three week period.
The training session was alright, she only had about 5 minutes in the morning before the students arrived. She was constantly busy creating her team lesson plan for the day, they made their plans for teaching each morning and lunch hour. We were able to discuss technology and talk about how we created our digital story and how she could put links to vidcasts and podcasts on her professional site. She was interested in putting links into her Canyon’s Site which could link her students and parents to her blogger account. We helped give her ideas of how to accomplish this.
This was a good experience and gave us the opportunity to discuss the tools we have already learned in our computer technology course with another teacher. Our cooperative teacher had also attended UVU four years prior, but her computer course was very basic and she said she had learned very little. I feel very fortunate to have had to opportunity to learn so much about technology over the past two semesters. Technology is such a benefit if used correctly in the classroom. It opens windows and minds to new ideas and gives everyone the tools to success.
Together our cooperative teacher and we were able to have a positive experience working in a classroom collaborating information with each other. As student teachers we gained the experience and were able to observe Miss Holt’s teaching style, and Miss Holt was able to observe the use of technology new to her used in the classroom to enrich our lesson. I felt we both gained knowledge from each other. It was a great experience for everyone.
During our field experience we were able to observe many areas involved in teaching. We were able to create interesting lessons, digital stories, and also use our interpersonal skills to help guide our students and help them learn and understand.
This was a great experience and totally worth the time and effort. We learned so much and enjoyed the chance to experience teaching first hand. We had many learning opportunities and experiences which helped us better understand and will continue to help us grow and develop into highly qualified teachers.


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fETsgsoInYphPRXYoLjRAEJ2j_vzcP55Xitqlh_fdYQ/edit?hl=en

Friday, November 26, 2010

Final Field Experience Blog

What? The past three weeks I have had the most amazing time student teaching at Willow Springs Elementary in Draper, Utah. We were assigned to a fourth grade class with 30 students. It was a very exciting experience and I learned so much. We had a wonderful time teaching and being able to see our university lessons played out in classroom experiences. Great to see how the students responded to us and how we could create lessons which they could understand and enjoy. In looking back the most important areas that I noticed affecting our lessons were classroom management, lesson direction, expectation of students, and computer technology incorporated into our lessons. When I learn to master these areas I will know I am ready to go out into the world and teach. Our students loved the technology we used in the classroom, especially the YouTube digital stories we used to supplement our lessons. They thought it was great, and it held their attention so well. Also with the problem of teaching about geography without a map in the classroom (our class maps were broken during our visit), that was interesting. Thank goodness for technology, and being able to modify and think of other methods to teach. We were able to pull up examples of maps and different slides relating to our lesson so we were still able to teach the students about Utah Geography.

So What? Now we are starting to work on our Student Teacher Sample and the other various assignments relating to our teaching experience. This is a long process and it is such a blessing to be able to understand computer technology—so I am able to work more efficiently with my partner, and also I am able to create interesting projects with all of the tools I have learned from Doc Waters during the past two semesters. It’s a long process, but I’m not worried, I feel very confident in my knowledge of computer skills and I feel so lucky I was able to take this course. I loved my teaching experience and am so excited to start teaching and get out into the field and work. I have worked in many fields over the course of my life, and at 43 it is so nice to be back in school training to do something I love, and that will make the difference in the lives of children and in our community and world.

Then What? I am now thinking of all of the fun I am going to have this summer. I will be taking a million pictures and videos of every experience my family has in camping, traveling around the state—so I will be able to create some neat digital stories and virtual field trips for my future classes. In working with the students I can see how they enjoy seeing these digital stories and its fun to put in some of my own pictures and my own children so they can relate to the stories better. Plus we go to a lot of different interesting places I want my future students to see and experience. I am going to use my technology skills to start working on building an amazing site, which my future students and their parents will be able to easily use. As I worked in this class I could see all of the different areas which could have been improved by including more technology into the teaching and into the administration of the classroom. The possibilities are endless and I am so excited to jump in—Thanks Doc Waters for giving me the knowledge and the “spirit of discovery” to be able to learn and love computer technology in the classroom.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Field Experience Week 3

What? This was our last week in the classroom. We had a great experience and were able to use technology throughout our classroom time. We did continue to have technical issues with showing our information because of school Internet connections and so forth, but eventually we were able to have our final digital story work without a problem. The students enjoyed the digital story and thought it was cool to hear our voices recorded into our video- that was fun. They also enjoyed the pictures and picked up information from the narration. This helped them in being able to retain the information for the assessments and to be able to understand more of the different features. Over the week we created many different slide shows and information video clips for the students. This worked well and helped to enhance our lessons with large pictures the students could see well. Small printed pictures wouldn't have had the same impact. The students wouldn’t not have been able to see the pictures well and it wouldn’t have been as effective in teaching. Especially since our classroom maps weren’t working during our field experience. We talked with our cooperative teacher about technology and her main question was how to create a blog and link it to her Canyon's Site. We came in early and helped her look at options.

So What? As we looked at the blog she already had created and then saw her site, we realized it was probably most effective to put a text box into her Canyons School District Site with a link that would take her students and their parents directly into her blog. She doesn't use technology in the classroom but I think if she had more time to research and work with the different technology she would incorporate it into her lessons. I don't feel like any of her 4th grade team use technology and where she is new I assume she is just following their lead. I think they could really use a math resource site with games and additional information for the students and their parents about the math concepts they are studying, the students continue to struggle with the basic facts, addition, multiplication, subtraction, division--even though they are teaching them algebra. By giving the students a site where they could practice their basic skills maybe the students would be able to catch up and understand better.

Then What? I enjoyed my field experience and I also enjoyed being able to understand and be able to easily create digital stories to enhance my lessons. I feel that there are so many areas I will be able to incorporate technology into my classroom, the possibilities are endless. I plan to create sites to help with educating my students and games and links to help them practice and build their basic knowledge. I also love the idea of being able to communicate with my students and parents through a website, and I feel this gives them the opportunity to ask questions and understand the goals of my classroom. I also like the idea of giving my students the opportunity to learn technology themselves and help them understand these tools. By learning now they will be able to use these tools as they continue through school and it will help them work more effectively and also enhance their learning.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Week II Field Experiences

What? This week we started our actual teaching and were able to use technology with our lesson. We created a digital story about Lake Bonneville. Since our computers are not apples we weren’t able to directly play our video from our files, but we were able to upload our movie into YouTube and play it that way. This worked well and we were able to give the students an interesting look at the Prehistoric Lake Bonneville. The students enjoyed the visual effects and music with the movie and I think it really was the hook to get them interested in the subject and turn on their minds to learning.

So What? As we discovered our class needed some additional teaching on understanding maps, and their “global address” we were able to create additional digital movies which helped us explain and show through pictures where they are located in the universe. It was great to be able to create additional educational videos to match the new lesson we needed to create. I continue to enjoy the speed of working with movie maker—and I really like the special effects it offers. The kids love the special effects. We also were able to use the over head projector with our lesson; this helped us be able to show maps from their texts on the board, and other maps in books. I love the projector—it’s a great invention.

Then What? We talked with our coordinating teacher and we will be helping her set up a blog so she will be able to communicate better with her students and their parents. I think it is very exciting to be working in the field and seeing what a great benefit technology adds to our lessons and to teaching. I am so glad we have had the experience to learn all of these technology tools they are such a great skill to possess as a teacher. I will definitely be using more technology with my teaching this week, and I am not afraid to create other digital clips in a pinch. I love working in all of these different technology areas. The one thing I am looking at now would be purchasing an apple computer system. It’s been a great week.