Way to Excel!

This week we worked on creating interactive spreadsheets that could be used in the classroom. I'm very math oriented so I really enjoyed learning about the formulas! I never knew there were so many other things you can do with Excel other than as a way to organize data. This activity was a great way to get acquainted with all the tools of Excel and how to use it as a source to make quizzes or practice sheets for students. Another thing I really enjoyed about this project is the feeling I got when I had completed my spreadsheet and was really proud of my finished product.

Inspire Me!

This week we worked with this program called Inspiration! It is used to make web charts and diagrams. This is probably the first program that we've worked with in this class that I had no experience with and I also didn't even know such a program existed. I think web diagrams are a great way to organized information and I like being able to make them look neat and clean looking. I don't draw circles very well, nor do I ever leave enough room for certain information when I hand draw diagrams, so this program is great! Hopefully making digital diagrams will be something that I do for my future classroom!

Making Movies!

On Monday we got to explore an Apple program called imovie. This is a movie making program where you can put in both video clips and pictures with audio and cool transitions. I've worked with Windows Movie Maker before and this program was very similar. Other than working with the program, I really enjoyed viewing many of the movies that Jeff has made of his family. These familiy videos were like scrapbooks in digital form. I've always been a fan of making scrapbooks, but imovies are definitely a great alternative. There are so many cool effects and things that you can add to the movie, and I love being able to watch the end result and see the whole thing all put together. From that classroom activity, I've decided to make a video for my boyfriend for our anniversary! Although it takes lots of time, I think it would be a very neat idea to use this program in the classroom to document students activities and work.

Picture This!

This week we learned all about digital images and how they can be used in the classroom. It was fun experiementing with the many different ways to upload and save images. I've been familiar with uploading images and using a digital camera for a while, but since we use Macs in the lab I am always learning something new about the Mac.

Wednesday was a really fun day in class! We got to go on a digital scavenger hunt around campus. It was awesome getting out of the classroom and doing an assignment that could be used in the classroom. It is a great way to incorporate digital images into the classroom and a great way to get students to observe and discover things around them that they might not have ever noticed before. Along with doing this project, I really enjoyed seeing what other groups took pictures of as well. I definitely feel more comfortable about using digital images in the classroom!

My first lesson plan!

This week we learned all about how to make a curriculm connection lesson plan that involves the use of technology in the classroom. It was very neat to learn the many different parts to a lesson plan. I especially like the ABCD format of the instructional objective. I'm so glad we go to make a lesson plan to integrate technology into the classroom. Lesson plans are essential to managing a successful, organized classroom. I know that as a beginning teacher I will make very elaborate lesson plans so that ever step of the process is planned and thought through.

Another thing that we learned about this week, was the usefulness of the Tech Lab. It is a great resource for textbooks that schools are using. I really enjoyed looking at all the different textbooks and how the units in each book coresponded with the state standards. I'm sure that I will be using that resource in the future.

Training complete!

I really enjoyed class this week, because we got to do more hands on activities and further explore how to use and edit wikis, blogs and webquests. I really enjoy using wikis and experiemented by starting one with a friend of mine. I feel that by doing so I have a better understanding of how they work, since I'm not the only one editing it. I can see a use for these in the classroom. I especially hope to be able to incorporate blogs into my classroom. I feel like students would feel much more classroom envolvement and responsiblity through reporting about the classroom activities.

This week, we actually got to create our own webquest activities. I like researching and finding websites that are good resources for the classroom. I feel that it is very important to make sure the websites are reliable and valid before letting students use them, which is why webquests are very cool, because they lay out the websites for the students. A cool alternative to reading information out of a textbook!

WebQuests are Awesome!

Today we learned about WebQuests! These are really cool sites created by teachers as an interactive tool to get students more invovled with using the web. We were provided with some great resources and examples of WebQuests. Exploring the different examples today made me really excited about using these types of things in my classroom. It definitely allows students to explore outside of textbooks and do activities that are more engaging.