One of my goals for my professional development with regard to technology is to keep up with the current trends and advances in technology. Another goal is to be able to create websites proficiently. A third goal is to be able to integrate technology into my future classroom frequently and efficiently. There are so many lesson plans available for teacher’s use on the internet, so I am weary about which ones to use in my classroom that will actually actively help the students learn.
I can reach these goals by being a member of certain educational organizations such as: the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the International Society for Technology (ISTE), and the Consortium for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching Technology (COATT). I can also reach these goals by reading journals to keep me up-to-date on new advances in technology: such as the Journal of Educational Technology and Society, the International Journal of Instructional Media, and the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education. Plus, I can ensure that my students will receive a solid foundation related to technology by attending workshops and educational seminars every couple of months so that I can broaden my knowledge of new and improved developments in technology and learn how to best integrate technology into my classroom. I can also take some classes over the summer to learn about new and improved ways to teach my students with the use of technology.
I hope to learn how to create websites in the future because I think it would be helpful to have a class website for my future students to use. I looked up Wayne County on the list of Intermediate School Districts (ISD) and I found several resources that I think are very useful. One resource that they had was a job bulletin board that listed teaching positions open in Wayne County. Also, they have workshops that you can attend that are related to technology such as: Using Software to Teach Written Expression and Integration: Video Streaming for Science Curriculum. I would be very interested in attending these workshops.

The author is not really identified, yet the authors for each individual link are listed. The site is not a personal site and the domain name is org, which indicates that the site might not be too reliable. The site doesn’t relate to the curriculum that I would teach because I want to teach second or third graders and they wouldn’t be able to comprehend the information in this site. Also, the site refers to some sexually situations which wouldn’t be appropriate for younger children. The site is not very up to date. The site doesn’t seem to have a date that the site was created but the dates of all of the links are pretty outdated. The site loads fast and uses graphics appropriately but the site doesn’t catch your attention and make you want to read more. All of the links work very well.
By looking at this site, I think that a teacher or a student made this site who were inexperienced with making a webpage. I don’t think the site is appropriate for elementary schools because it has some sex-related information in it that are inappropriate for young children. Also, I don’t think this site would attract a child’s attention and help the child learn. Children can learn to be less trusting on information they get on the internet by having their teachers explain to them that all of the information on the internet isn’t right. They can also look at the domain of the site (com, org, edu, gov, etc) to see if it is a reliable site. When I searched “Martin Luther King” on Google this site was the third link presented. It probably got to be so high on the list because the address has “Martin Luther King” in it, so every time someone searches for Martin Luther King this site appears because it uses the exact words that the person wanted to search for.

I think that constructivism would work in my future classroom because I think that the best way for students to learn is for them to become active participants in their learning and to be able to relate what they already know to what they are learning. I am majoring in integrated sciences and I think that constructivism is perfect for a science classroom because the only way for students to really comprehend science is by doing experiements and forming hypotheses.
Some people argue that constructivism causes children to just construct understandings that make sense to them, which can give them the wrong idea or conclusion about something. Yet, this does not happen in constructivist classrooms because the teacher is always there to help the children and to guide them on the right path. Children learn a lot better when they relate what they learned to real-life expereiences rather than just memorizing facts that the teacher lists off.
I think that this issue should be controversal, though, because I can see some people going to the extreme with this way of teaching. I can see classrooms where the students are on their own all day long and the teacher just sits back and watches. I do not think that this is right. Constructivism should be used but not for the entire school day. Some classes such as history, needs to be taught in the traditional manner at times because students do need to know dates and names of some major events and people that couldn’t be taught to them in a constuctivist way. Therefore, I think that the constructivist way of learning should be used, but the use should be limited.
Lastly, constuctivism and technolgy integration are so closely realted because they both allow students to gather their own information to make conclusions about the world around them.

1. Word
2. Internet
3. Powerpoint
4. Email
5. Excel

1. Word is the most important application that students should learn because it teaches them the basics of computers: how to use a computer and how to type. Most school assignments are required to be typed now-a-days, so students really need learn how to use Word at a young age; around the second grade.

2. The next important application students should learn is how to use the internet. This is very important for students to learn because they can use the internet as a refernce tool to help them obtain information for school assignments. There is so much information on the internet that can help kids learn; children should take advantage of it at a young age. I think students should learn how to use the internet by second grade because chances are thet are already using the internet at home, so it is a good idea to teach children how to use it appropriately and efficiently.

3. Powerpoint is another important application that students should learn how to use because powerpoint is very useful to assign to students to do for a project in school. It helps children express what they learned by making a presentation of it and using images. This really benefits children who do not like writing papers. I think it should be taught around third grade because this is the year when children usually are assigned a lot of projects.

4. Email is another important application. By using email, students can communicate with their classmates and teachers, especially if the student is absent one day. It is a very useful tool for students to ask their teacher’s questions about homework and so on. I think students should learn this in third grade because kids should learn this as soon as possible and third graders are at the level where they would be able to comprehend it.

5. The last application that is important for students to learn is Excel. Excel is a very useful program for students to learn, especially in the area of mathematics. I think that students should learn how to use Excel around fourth grade because that is the grade level when students start to learn about calculating averages and the mean of numbers, and excel is very good at assisting children with that.

If there is a tragedy that happens when you are a teacher I think that it is your responsibility to talk to your students about it. As a teacher you are the adult figure in your student’s lives right now and they look up to you for help and guidance. If a tragedy takes place and you just ignore it then you are just teaching your students to hold in their feelings and avoid talking about issues that are hard for them to deal with. When a tragedy happens you should take the time to turn it into a lesson. You can ask the students how they feel about what happened and give them some background about what exactly happened and why it might have occurred. For instance, if you were a teacher at the time when the hurricane hit, you should first educate your class about what is a hurricane. Then you can talk to them about all of the people who were affected by the hurricane and what people should do about it. Then you can ask the students if anyone knows anyone who was affected by a hurricane before. The important thing to keep in mind when you are talking to your class is to make sure that you are fully educated on what you are telling them so that you don’t give them the wrong information. Also you need to make sure that you don’t take sides on the issue. For example with the hurricane, you need to make sure that you don’t say that what President Bush did is right or not because you have to remain unbiased. You can locate resources to help you deal with a student who is struggling with a tragedy by talking to the school psychologist or searching: http://www.nasponline.org/NEAT/crisis_0911.html

Trying out my blog!