Educational Society

I choose to look at the National Association for the Education of Young Children website, http://www.naeyc.org/,  because I felt like they were a great group that is doing great things in the education world. If I were to join their group when I became a teacher would benefit from it in many ways. One thing that they have is an annual conference with many speakers, and presentations that cover many topics and issues that educators must overcome. Attending something like the NAEYC conference and expo would definitely have a positive impact on any educator that attended it. Another way the NAEYC helps educators is all of the links they have, such as "Communications Skills for Challenging Conversations" that is basically like a mini training session that you can do your self on your own time to help you improve your skills as an educator. Another thing that the NAEYC website has is a page where their are topics of interest with things that are very relevant to you as a teacher, and after going through a few of them I already learned a lot from exploring the site.  

Alice 2.3

After using the computer program Alice 2.3 I have a new appreciation for computer game designers. It was a very interesting program with a lot of potential but not worth the time it takes to create something. I spent two weeks trying to create a game that I could use in my classroom  and the best I could come up with was a short game to teach kids their right from left. If we had a year to spend figuring out every little thing about Alice 2.3 and how to use it to its full potential than maybe I could see the benefit of it, but as a teacher just starting out I don't think the Alice program will be one that I use in my classroom.

Feedback

Today's class was the first time since high school that I had used verbal feedback in the classroom. In most classes the teacher will use a rubric, sometimes online sometimes on paper and give written feedback for projects and presentations. It was weird to me to sit with another student and just talk to them about what I thought of her project. With verbal contact it was harder to come up with things to say, even with the rubric pulled up on the computer screen. With written feedback you can keep the feedback for the next time or if you want to make corrections. It is also easier to focus when you are writing down comments rather than sitting face to face with the person and being put on the spot. I definitely prefer written feedback over verbal but I did like hearing the positive comments directly from my partner. I think a mix of written feedback with positive comments would be the best way to evaluate a presentation.

Multiple Intelligence

After taking the multiple intelligence quiz I found that I am musical smart and self (interpersonal) smart. The results that I got from the quiz were very accurate I felt like. I loved finding out how I am ranked according to the M.I. scale. I found this to be a very interesting assignment but really struggled with having to use a shared document to record my results. Relying on other people to get things right is very difficult for me and having to hope that no one messes with the format or mixes up everyone results was very stressful. I do however think that introducing shared documents and collaborative learning to students at a younger age will help them with the concept of team work and using a new form of learning to show what they know. Overall I found this activity to be very interesting and helpful because I know that I can use a Google doc in my own classroom one day and maybe even give my students the same assignment so they can know how they learn best according to the M.I. scale.

Real Examples

These days just because you are teaching early elementary school doesn't mean those kids aren't familiar with technology and how to use it. Using blogs in the classroom to have students discuss activities that they did hands on in the classroom is a great way to utilize technology and to draw them into what you're doing. For example you do a science experiment in class, you can have the students post their findings and results on a blog and comment on other blogs and discus the results, or why they came to different conclusions. Another way to incorporate blogs into and elementary school class would be to replace English journals with blogs so that you know the kids  are participating and parents can see the progress of their children. 

The War On Technology

  It seems to me that these days its a war between technology in classrooms, teachers who are unwilling to use it, and students who can't step away from a computer screen for more than 5 minutes. By educating the educators on how to use blogs, social media, tablets, and all these other tools we can work with students rather than against them in the war against technology and everyone can come out on top. 

  Blogging in the classroom would be a great first step. Its easy, its free, and once you figure it out it can be fun. It would also be a great way for teachers to keep contact with the parents of their students. Blogging can be used as a way for everyone to have a voice in a discussion and it lets the students have that "technology time" that they crave. Blogging not only benefits the students and parents but the teachers as well. There are thousands of blogs out there for educators with tips on using technology and thousands more helping teachers figure out how to stay updated with the changing times.Free Technology for Teacheris a blog that provides anyone with free apps and many other ways to use technology for free in the classroom. At first I hated the idea of blogging, but after exploring it for awhile I see that it can be one of the most useful tools as an educator.  For example in a kindergarten classroom blogs could be used in place of keeping a journal for certain subjects. You could also use technology as a reward when students finish the assigned work, such as a blog post, they may use the rest of the time to do what they wanted with the computer as long as it was still educational.