TECS 390

I think that right now is a very changing time for education. Depending on who is our next president will greatly affect education in my opinion. Then there is NCLB which has definitely shaken up the education field. Many people had definitely feelings about NCLB, and they definitely range on a spectrum. I personally feel that NCLB does have potential. Its goal is to make sure that teachers are performing at a high standard and teaching their students what they need to know. This is very important. However, I think that the way that NCLB assesses this goal needs to be tweaked. There is a huge emphasis put on assessments and the students’ performance on these assessments. Since such a strong emphasis has been put on assessments, many teachers are finding themselves having to teach to the test. Also with the rise in importance of technology in education, more and more assessments are becoming computerized. This adds to the stress of teachers because now not only do the students have to know the content, teachers have to teach their students the skills and tips they need to know for taking assessments on the computer.

If you really think about it though, if you are teaching your students all that they really need to know, then you are teaching to test and you should not have to really be adjusting your teaching and what you teach too much. That is just my opinion however. Besides, with the emphasis that is being put on technology, there is a wealth of tools and information that can be found online that will help teachers in instructing their students about everything they must know.

 I think that NCLB has made teachers more responsible for the learning of all of their students, and this is a big load for teachers when we already had a huge load to start with. This combined with other factors are the reasons why many new teachers leave the profession after a few years as well as why there is a teacher shortage. As I get ready to enter the profession, this is very scary. I am hoping that my passion for helping children to learn and grow will be enough to overcome all the stress that I know I will be facing very shortly.

This semester has been a learning semester for me most definitely. I have learned so much. This then includes creating my website, http://jlschneweis.googlepages.com/home. I had taken a web design class in high school, but the design of websites, and eve how to design the websites, has definitely changed a lot in the last 5 to 6 years. As I was creating my website, I was trying to make it look as professional as possible. At the same time, I was trying to include everything on there that was required.

One thing that I think I will change on my website when I get a teaching job is to change the focus of my website. Right now obviously, the focus of our websites is to act as a portfolio and that is about it. However, when I get a job the focus of my website will have to change. The focus will then have to shift towards my classroom, my students, and what is going on in the class. This means that at that time then I will be combining some of my pages and adding pages that are more focused on my classroom, my class, and what is going on in the class. This way when parents, or even future students, go to my website, they will get more information about the class, my room, and me as a teacher, and not so much about me and what I have done in the past to get this job.

I personally like how my web page has a color theme and how it is very detailed and organized. I strove to make a website that was very comprehensive and would serve as a very good electronic portfolio. I think I have accomplished this. I like how I have the links to the pages in a logical order and how the pages have a good amount of content on them rather than just having a single link or document and that’s it.

The one thing that I do dislike about my website is the lack of personal touch on it. I understand that when using a free service such as Google Page Creator that this is to be expected, but I still dislike it. There was really no way to put your personal touch on you website. As an education major, it was tough for me to not to be able to put clipart or word art on my website to spice it up and make it more fun. It just seems kind of blah right now without any clip art or word art. I also dislike how few choices we had for the size of the font as well as the font types. It would have been easier to make your website more fun if you had more than five different fonts to choose from. I feel that it also would have helped with the formatting of my website if we would have had more than like four different font sizes. Overall, I really liked Google Page Creator, but I think that it needs to be tweaked a little to make it a little more user friendly and user pleasing.

I have looked several of the websites of my classmates. There are some great designs out there. However, one of the best websites that I have seen yet is Bret Derr’s. Bret has an AWESOME website. He has lots of content on there is a logically manner without making it look cluttered. He has designed it in such a way that it truly does look like a professional website in my opinion. Besides having just educational information on it, Bret has chosen to add content on there about him and that will help his future students and their parents to get a better idea of who he is as a person. http://bretderr.googlepages.com/home

Another great website is Angela Zordel’s. Angela has a great design; the information on there is relevant, organized, and detailed. She has included not only what we were required to have on our websites, but also other information that tells the audience more about her as a teacher. She too has accomplished this without making her website look cluttered. http://zordelangela.googlepages.com/angelazordel

A third website that I really like is Amber Stoecklein’s. She has a lot of information on her website. This information is put on her website in a logical manner. However, what I really like about her website is how she has a different quote on each page. I love this. I think that this is one way to truly put your own personal touch on your website when using Google Page Creator. http://adstoecklein.googlepages.com/home

The Podcast presenter that I liked best this semester was Kevin Honeycutt. I really liked how his podcasts were videocasts. It was nice to have something to watch while listening, even if it was just him driving. It really helped to keep you interested. I also liked how he did these many times while he was driving and other times when he was at a conference. I liked the topics of his podcasts. Many times I learned a great deal from his podcasts. I really liked how he really made a person think. There were many times that I would be listening to a podcast and would be struck by a comment and it would truly make me think. He also gave some great advice during these podcasts both about life and education. He is a very intelligent person with much experience and he has a gift in being able to help others learn about technology in the way that he does.

I will definitely continue to keep using Del.icio.us. I am the kind of person that bookmarks any website that I go to often, any website that I go to occasionally, and any educational websites that I like and think that I may want to use when I am teaching. This means that I have a very long favorites list on my computer and it is almost impossible to find what I am looking for when I want something. Del.icio.us solves this problem by allowing you to tag your websites. This makes searching for a website extremely easy. Also, it will be extremely convenient to have my list of favorites available to me no matter where I am in the world and no matter what computer I am using. This will be especially nice during training sessions and workshops I think. I also think that this may be something that I use in conjunction with my instruction for my students. For example, I may create a Del.icio.us account and add websites to it that I reference students to for homework, projects, etc. This would be a very easy way to get the web addresses to the students and it would definitely be integrating technology into the instruction and the students’ learning. http://del.icio.us/

I also think that I will continue to use Letterpop. In today’s society, technology is becoming more and more engrained and more important. In the same way, the use of technology by everyone has increased greatly. This means it is very common now to have email addresses for the parents of almost all of the students in your class. If this is the case then, one of the best ways to communicate with these parents then may be via email. This also means that one way to be sure that the parents actually see the classroom newsletter is to send it to them electronically. Letterpop helps with this. However Letterpop can also be used to create newsletters and then print them off. So, as one can easily tell, this website is very versatile and this is a great tool for teachers to use. http://letterpop.com/

Another tool that I think that I will continue to use after the semester is over is Voice Thread. This is a really cool tool. I really like how it allows the creator to really put their own personal touch on their project. I also like the educational potential that it has. This tool could be used in conjunction with just about every subject of the day. It could also be used in conjunction with extracurricular activities and field trips. A teacher could have the students create a replica of the solar system in class. Then during the time that the students were working, the teacher could take pictures and then when the project was completed take a final picture. The students could then put together a voice thread that includes all of the pictures that were taken and include different facts about the solar system and the different planets. Another example of how this tool could be used in the classroom is the students could take pictures on a field trip of what they liked and what they learned; they could do an oral pictorial report over the field trip and what they learned while they were on the field trip. http://voicethread.com/

Another tool that I think that I think that I will continue to use will be Eyejot. I really like this tool. This tool is great to keep in touch with your family and friends who live far away. In the same way however, if for some reason you have to be gone from your students for an extended period of time, this would be a great way to keep in touch with them. For example, if you are on maternity leave or medical leave. http://www.eyejot.com/

There are several tools that I think I may use in the future when I am teaching. These tools include: Big Universe, http://www.biguniverse.com/, Jing, http://www.jingproject.com/, and Google Page Creator, https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=pages&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fpages.google.com%2F<mpl=yessignups. These tools are all very good tools that have great educational potential.

I learned a great deal this semester from this course. Some of the stuff I really love and will definitely use again. Other stuff, I may not use so much. However, no matter how much I liked or didn’t like it, it was good exposure to the ever expanding horizon of technology. I am not a very technologically savvy person, therefore, this semester I was saying “WOW” and “AH HA” a whole lot. I found myself saying this just about every week. This was definitely a good thing however. I realize that technology is becoming more and more important in education as we know it, and therefore, it is showing up more and more as well.

One of the biggest “WOW” moments for me this semester was the week that we learned about video emails. I chose to use Eyejot to complete the assignment. This was a true “WOW” moment for me. I had no idea that it was possible to send a video email. However, I love this piece of technology and I think that it is ingenious. I think that it is a great way to stay in touch with family that lives far away. I also think that it has great educational potential. http://www.eyejot.com/

One of the next biggest “WOW” moments for me this semester was the week that we learned about Voice Thread. As I said, I am not a technology expert; therefore I had no previous knowledge of voice thread either. However, I love this piece of technology as well. It is a great tool that teachers can use to integrate technology into their instruction and the curriculum. It also allows the students to put their own personal touch on the project. http://voicethread.com/

Another “WOW” moment for me this semester was the week that we learned about Letterpop. I grew up in the time period when a class newsletter was about a page to two pages long and it had been typed on a typewriter or on the computer, and was very simple. So, when we got to use Letterpop I was blown away by the many possibilities that are available to us. The possibilities are almost endless. I like the many different choices and I think that it will definitely help the teacher to keep mixing things up. Also it is becoming a more current trend for school to home communication to take place via email as technology is becoming so engrained in peoples’ lives. This means that an electronic newsletter is a way to keep up with this trend and it may help to be sure that more parents are seeing the newsletter. http://letterpop.com/

A fourth “WOW” moment for me this semester dealt with making our own podcasts. I had been exposed to the concept of podcasts before this, but I had never really listened to any and I certainly had not ever made any. So, when we were assigned to make our podcast reflections into podcasts, I was a little worried. I had this idea in my head that creating a podcast would be super hard. Contrary to my original thoughts, it is super easy. This was definitely a nice surprise for me. All you have to do is record your ideas using one of several different programs. Then you convert it to the right type of file and you have your podcast to post where you want. I chose to use Audacity to make my podcasts, and I found that it was very user friendly and would definitely recommend it to others. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

A fifth “WOW” moment for me this semester was when we learned about and how to use Del.icio.us. This is truly a wonderful tool for anyone, not just educational professionals. I think the idea of creating a favorites list so that it can be accessed anywhere in the world is amazing. It really blew my mind at first. I also had a hard time believing that I could reach the set number of 100 websites. I thought that there was no way possible for me to do this. Much to my surprise, when you really keep your eyes open, you come across a lot of great websites and I was able to get 100 websites on my account. http://del.icio.us/

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