Software

We learned many great software skills this week in class.  I think it was extremely important to learn these skills because they are something we will using all the time when we are teaching.  I think Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Word skills are the most important.  As an elementary school teacher, I will have to create tons of newsletters that will be going home to my parents.  It is important to know how to make newsletters and have them be visually appealing as well as informational.  I also liked learning how to create concept maps.  These will help me plan out my units as well as be great tools for the students to use to study or learn.  I think all of these skills are important to learn and eventually master if I would like to be a great teacher.  I also think using the Smart Board is an extremely good tool.  This gets the kids interacting in the lesson and also gives them a good way to stay focused.  I would use it for interactive lessons such as a science lesson where they could observe interactions such as learning how rocks are formed.  This is an essential tool for the classroom.

Websites for teachers

There are many websites out there that are excellent resources for teachers.  My two favorite that we talked about in class this week are Rubistar and United Streaming.  I think that I will use Rubistar very much because it really is a great way to create rubrics for various projects.  Projects and speeches are better ways to assess students than taking tests, so by having a resource such as Rubistar, it makes it easier as a teacher to employ these assessment methods instead of always giving the students a test.  I also really liked United Streaming.  This site has so many great videos on a variety of subjects (my favorite being the Magic School Bus and Bill Nye the Science Guy!).  The videos could be used to further explain a concept or elaborate on the content learned in class.  I also think it is a fun way for students to learn.  Who doesn't like learning from Bill Nye or Ms. Frizzle?  Aside from these two sorts of videos, there are also plenty of informational videos on real life scenarios.  I really liked these two websites and will definitely use them in my classroom in the future!  :)

Inspiration

The program Inspiration can be used in classrooms everywhere.  First, I could use it as a teacher to help organize and plan concept maps for my lessons.  I could also use it  to help me create certain subjects on tests, such as creating concept maps that the students would have to fill in on their papers.  It is also a great tool to make outlines.  Inspiration has many useful templates already created for teachers to use.  For example, one map or outline could be used to help show relationships between characters in a novel or play.  I could also look up outlines that I could use for different concepts in science such as the water cycle or energy.  All of the pre-made outlines/maps can be used either as an instructional tool or as a testing element.  Students can also use Inspiration to create their own concept maps to ensure their understanding of the material.  I can also use Inspiration to create graphic organizers for my students, so they can use them to follow along in the lesson.  It's a program I could use to make worksheets with as well to expand students knowledge.  It also could be created as a study guide, by giving the students maps and outlines to fill in.  Lastly, it can be used even in Kindergarten, because I can add pictures to the maps to give more visual aid to younger learners.  This program is just extremely useful in the classroom.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking can be a useful tool in an elementary school classroom.  Many projects could be done where the students will be using a social bookmarking site such as diigo or delicious.  It is a great resource for group projects that the students will have to do.  If I have all the groups create a social bookmarking page for a research project, when one student finds a useful article, they could just post it to their social bookmarking page and the entire group can find and read it.  Similarly, if there is something we discussed in class or websites with fun games or applications on it, I could post them to my account and then the students could access it from home to check out the sites.  Also it would make projects easier on the students.  Instead of having to write down every web address, the students can just add it to their page and access it from home.  It makes projects and work much easier on both the students and the teacher, and it helps organize everything in an orderly manner.  I could definitely use these types of sites for myself now.  I could use it when working on a group project so that all the group members could see each others articles.  Similarly, it would help me organize the different articles and sites that I find so that it makes it easier for me to locate them all on one site.  Overall, social bookmarking is extremely useful in classrooms.  :)

Google Apps

So while there are many google apps available to the world, many of these are great to utilize in a classroom.  I personally really like the idea of using GoogleApps in the classroom.  Gmail accounts, GoogleDocs, GoogleCalendar, GoogleSites, etc.  GoogleApps have many advantages over the traditional Office apps.  Students can particularly use the GoogleDocs app for collaborative projects among students.  They can each add their own portions to the project and then it can all be downloaded.  This is one advantage of using GoogleApps.  Some disadvantages are that you don't have quite the variety of choices in items such as the font, colors, etc. that traditional Office apps. do have.  Overall the biggest advantage of GoogleApps is that it is all collaborative and students can add their own ideas to a group project, all in one place.  A disadvantage of GoogleApps is that it does not have as many choices as the Office apps on a traditional program.

Blogs in the Classroom

I think that blogs can be extremely useful in a classroom.  For example, I could have students use blogs to create daily journal entries in order to help them with their writing skills.  Each day if they have free time, they can take out a packet of writing prompts and start writing their prompt on a blog.  Then I can let all the students in the classroom look at each other's blogs so they can read them.  Similarly to writing, I can have them practice more writing by creating a page on themselves, sort of like an autobiography.  Of course, the sites would be set as private for each student.  Students could also respond to questions in class on blogs.  Blogs are extremely advantageous for classroom teachers.  Students could share their work online with others in the classroom, as well as gaining valuable knowledge into how to use more technology.  Blogs are also very flexible because students could use them when they are at home and log on there.  But for as good as blogs are, there are still some disadvantages.  For one thing, the teacher would have to be sure that all the blog sites are private and can only be seen by the teacher and the other students.  Also, since the students would be writing their own information, the teacher will have to be sure that the students are writing appropriate entries.  Overall, blogs are a great resource for classroom teachers to utilize with their students.