Thinkfinity

To start off, I want to say that Thinkfinity is awesome. My group did a quick over-view of what the site is all about but mainly focused on one of the major links that they have at the bottom of the page for Smithsonian History Explorer since we are all history majors.

Thinkfinity gives many links to other great teaching websites whether it be for math, history, science, you name it! Then those sites give you links to other helpful teaching sites! It's great. It also gives you news in education, interesting facts, discussions between others using the website, interactive tools and lesson plans!!

The Smithsonian website is awesome. I was really excited about this site being that I want to be a history teacher. It has a ton of awesome lesson plans that were fun, interactive, and used technology. What I found really cool was the fact that it has all of the Smithsonian artifacts online so you can view them without having to go to the museum! Another great tool. Also, it had a ton of ideas on how to incorporate the media and technology into a history lesson plan.

The only thing that is limiting about this website is that it mainly only focuses on American history, so if one was to teacher European history, they wouldn't be able to use the information given, but perhaps the teacher could look and get ideas from it.

I really don't see any flaws with the Thinkfinity site as a whole and the other websites that are linked to it. It seems overly helpful and I'm sure there was plenty that I didn't even get a chance to look at because the information just seems infinite. I will definitely be checking this site out a lot now to gain more information on it and will most likely use it in the future in my classroom.

Post for 1/25/11

"There's nothing magical about any tech tool. Real magic rests in the minds and hearts of teachers using digital tools to introduce students to new individuals, ideas and opportunities." - This quote from the Flickr website I find to be SO true and crucial towards my lens of teaching and learning. It's true that many students and people in general think of technology as a very magical tool, but it's what the person does who is using this tool that makes it magical. Nowadays technology is EVERY WHERE you look, and people are learning more and more about technology as the years go on. There is more technology in the classroom now than there was when I was in junior high and high school. I had never heard or seen a smart-board until I started observing in the classrooms for my field experiences. Another quote on Flickr, "encourage a culture of questioning, respect, and risk taking" is another idea aspect that I would love to have in my classroom. What is learning without questioning, respect, and especially RISK TAKING? Taking risks are what helps us learn - whether we fail or exceed with our risks, we will always learn from these risks.

I then decided to read The New Literacy article and I have to say I agree with everything that was stated. I know that from having a lame Livejournal when I was a lot younger, myspace, twitter, and a facebook, I'm on the internet a lot more and constantly writing things and typing. My parents have commented multiple times on how fast of a typer I am without even looking- my mom has always considered herself to be a fast typer, but she always says she is nothing compared to my typing and speed. What we're doing right now with this blog helps us get our ideas across to anyone who decides to read it, and it helps us think, learn, write and type better and more efficient. Also, as students, we know what is proper for online writing and texting as opposed to writing a 12 page paper for a history class. Just because there are these new forms of writing doesn't mean that we are going to degenerate from the societal and academic acceptance of good writing, it just means that we are evolving in an age that is technologically advanced.

Lastly, I looked at the Pew Internet website and found it to be very interesting. I really liked the data points the website gives about the internet and what people feel about it. Also, the articles about how technology and the internet may not be helpful when it comes to students and individuals with disabilities. It's great to know this because as an aspiring teacher, it's good to know that, depending on what school district you're in and depending on the culture and diversity of the students in your classroom, who might or might not have access to technology and the internet.

One key concept that I just want to point out about the internet is that, yes, I love it, but there is a ton of information out there, and I want to be able to teach my students at an early stage what is acceptable to use on say a history paper and what is not. I didn't learn any of this until college and I feel that it might have benefitted me more so in high school when writing papers for my classes - I never really knew what to look for online and I believe that the earlier the students learn how to access good information for their classes, the better off they will be.

Post due for 1/20/11

Great teaching and learning, I believe has to deal with the material and how the teacher presents it. The most memorable classes in middle school and high school all dealt with teachers who were enthusiastic about their material, knew what they were doing, and used different materials to present the topics. I know that I learn best when I have more than one way of learning material and when the teacher is enthusiastic and loud. Being that I am wanting to become a history teacher, there have been many experiences with my past history teachers that have shown me how exciting it can be to teach this subject and the many ways one can do so. I remember in my 9th grade European history class we had "stations" that we had to go to throughout the classroom for about a week. We were given a packet and we had to answer questions based on the information each station had. One station had a short movie on the computer, one was a poster-board with information, one was the textbook, etc. I really enjoyed this because it gave us a more hands-on experience rather than the teacher standing in from of the class lecturing. That was one of my most memorable experience with history before college, and there were many others in different classes. Now that I am in my Junior year of college, I have been observing and tutoring in classrooms for my field experiences for my education courses. Spring of 2010 I was in an 8th grade American history classroom and was able to see the different ways one could teach this topic to students. The students seemed to really like when the teacher would give assignments on the computer. One great assignment was to create one's own newspaper based on information on a Revolutionary battle. Each student got to pick which battle they wanted, and then on their own computers they had to do the research and follow the criteria in order to create a decent newspaper. Technology in this form was great because it got the students utilizing different search engines and the different ways to search for something. Also, they were able to figure out how to use a document and template to make a newspaper.

I want to be able to do similar things in my classroom that I observed in the 8th grade American history class and that I was a part of in my 9th grade European class. I want to create a more hands on experience for students because I know how boring a lecture can be even though I love the subject of history. Hands-on experiences, I believe, help the students remember particular topics better which let's them excel. I also want to have more universal design in my classroom. Universal design allows the teacher to have different ways and ideas of teaching a topic to help all students because each student learns differently. I want to be able to give outlines with fill-in the blanks while helping them on a smart-board, show a short 5-minute film on the topic, and do "stations" in my class in order for each student to retain and learn the subject better.

From experience, I have seen how well some teachers utilize the technology in their classrooms, but I have also seen how some teachers have no idea how to utilize the technology in the classroom. I hope to be able to learn every way I can to use technology in the classroom whether it be the computer, online games or quizzes designated for my subject area, the smart-board, etc. I am a huge advocate of using technology in the classroom, and anything that is given to me in a classroom, I want to be able to use properly and effectively so that way my students have the best advantages to learning the material. These seem to be the most challenges teachers face, and therefore learners seem to face the same issues because of the teacher's lack of knowledge.

I'm not sure if I have a lot of pressing questions, but I do want to know what websites there are that are fun, not too "young" for middle to high school students, but are informative and effective in my subject area (history). Also, I have no idea how a smart-board works, and I have seen many teachers fail at trying to use it while their class is in session, and I know that I do not want to be one of those teachers. Kids that are K-12 are raised knowing how to use technology and they love it. I want to be tech-savvy because I know that students will love the use of technology in the classroom.

-Danielle

First Post

hello :]