Here is my final personal learning network, sorry i couldn’t make it to class today…

Final_Project_PLN.swf

Feel free to visit my entire wiki!!!

http://rbarron23.wikispaces.com/

Hello everyone, here is a little preview of my PLN i hope you all enjoy, sorry no audio yet!

Happy Jinging!

jingcast

Well throughout the semester I have been thinking and thinking about my personal learning network. I have been brainstorming about what particular things that I want to be on there. My personal learning network will consist of many things that will be useful as a future educator ranging from lessons from my field experiences to certain websites that I find useful as a pre-service teacher. One of the major things I would like to cover is the many important uses of technology in the classroom. For example, how to use cell phones as a learning device or how a wiki space can be beneficial to a classroom. My PLN is in the constructing stage, I have ideas running throughout my brain and now I just have to organize them and put them on my actual wiki. So over the next week I will be compiling this cluster in my mind and will finally start to see something coming together.

We all knew that it was bound to happen. We have seen it coming especially since the economy is in such turmoil. It is the last thing a school district wants to hear…..budget cuts. It is a part of life that will be prevalent for many years to come until this economy pulls herself to her feet again. One number that i found astonishing was the figure on the personnel being laid off with the number quadrupling from 11% to 44% that is an outrageous number of faculty getting laid off. In a situation of budget cuts we all know what the first thing that is going to go, all the extra curricular activities. They also are taking a hit by increasing from 10% to 28% from last year. Cuts are never a good thing, it is so hard for a student to get a well rounded education when all of the arts are being cut. Everyone in a school district who is effected by budget cuts get hurt. On a positive note, of all the stimulus money given to the schools, 57% of the priority would be pushed towards new technology in the schools. At least with the little money that the schools are receiving you know it will be put to good use!

The first video that I watched was the one about how education is killing our creativity. I feel that in a way they do. For example in order to be creative you have to take chances and from my personal experiences in school I was always afraid to take that risk just in case I was wrong. I really liked the part in his speech when he said that when we were growing up we were steered away from what we really liked to do because you were never going to get a job doing what you liked. As I am in the elementary schools there are so many children that want to be professional athletes and they want to do something that is fun to them, but the sad thing is that there is a very slim chance that they will ever be able to do such things.

Another great point that Ken made was the fact that teachers want to mold their student’s mind to think how the teachers mind works. The teacher is not open to other ideas and they feel that their idea is the one and only correct answer. This also creates students to be less creative, they want to please the teacher and give answers the teacher will accept. It is our job as future teachers to listen to the new ideas children have because they are the future, we will not see the world they way they see it.

The second video that I watched was the one by Bill Gates and how he is planning to change the world. I really enjoyed this segment of TED because he had some very good points that I really never put into perspective, for example he said that after the first 3 years a teacher has been in the profession they are not going to change from that point on. I just found that very interesting, I want to strive as a future educator to continue making changes with the times because we all know we are just scratching the surface of technology and there is no way that a teacher that will be teaching for the next 30 years will be teaching the same lesson that they did 20 years ago, that is just not going to cut it. Another thing that Gates said that is so important is giving the children an equal opportunity to become a successful student and be able to graduate from high school. It is just so sad that countries who aren’t fortunate enough to have enough money for a sound education system, but what would you expect from a country who doesn’t have enough money to fight malaria. Overall these videos have opened my eyes to problems with our education system that need a little fixing up. It is our job as future educators to make the necessary changes.

1. Sports are very beneficial throughout school in many ways for example teamwork, respect, and fitness.

2. Teacher centered classrooms are a thing of the past.

3. It is extremely important to grab the student’s attention at the beginning of a lesson.

4. Technology is the future.

5. School lunches were awesome!

6. Physical education needs to be a priority in early elementary to get the kids active.

7. Nap time in kindergarten was the best!

8. My favorite things about elementary school were field trips, story time, and show and tell.

9. My favorite things about high school were lunch hour, sports, and broadcasting class.

10. It’s amazing how smart kindergarteners are!

11. In elementary school I faked being sick often just so I wouldn’t have to go.

12. Google Docs is a wonderful program and has a variety of uses!

13. I like the idea of schools going to school 4 days a week to cut down on costs of transportation, heating, and food.

14. The funniest and most creative teachers were the best ones.

15. I loved the social aspect of high school.

16. High school kids should have a larger selection of classes to choose from.

17. Online and duel enrollment are great aspects of education and is a great transition between high school and college.

18. Community colleges are a wonderful thing and save a lot of money.

19. There are too many old teachers that live in the old world, teaching old material.

20. Poetry is a great way for children to express themselves.

21. Shop class should always be a portion of the curriculum.

22. Art and music class too!

23. Indoor recesses should be illegal.

24. Teachers are worth more than their weight in gold.

25. I hated having assigned seating in every class.

Over the past 3 weeks I have been observing the third grade at Cherry Creek elementary school where we have been doing a variety of things. The first day that I observed at cherry creek happened to be on inauguration day, so the kids were given an assignment to write down 3 things that they knew about Barrack Obama and about inauguration day. One way that we could have incorporated the use of technology was to let the children go down to the computer lab and search dependable sources for interesting facts about Barrack that they never knew and share with the rest of the class the facts that they searched to get a better understanding of who our new president is.

Our second observation/field experience had an emphasis more along the lines of technology. The third graders had written reports on how the world rotates and why we have seasons. They got to work with a partner and once they finished writing they got to go down to the computer lab and to publish their work on Microsoft publisher. They children really didn’t have much background with the computers and were constantly asking for direction. One change that I definitely would have made was to put my computer up on the big projection screen so all the children could see and walk them through the steps of getting their “newsletter” set up. I feel that a lot of time was wasted just by going around to each child who needed help, especially since the children pretty much had the same questions. Another good idea that I would have brought to the classroom is when the children were done researching all the information they needed to understand why we have seasons is instead of making a newsletter have them make a booklet of the seasons.

My most recent observation at cherry creek involved me teaching a mini lesson to a couple of kids who were having troubles with spelling words. I went about teaching them how to spell is by making a sentence with the word they were having troubles with in it. I used a different color for the spelling word and had them read me the sentence and when they got to the word they traced it and spelled it out loud. After we covered all of the words we went back and traced the spelling words with Elmer’s glue and let them dry. We did this so they could feel the ridges with their fingers and could tell what words they were with their eyes closed.

There are many great websites out there that help bring technology into the classroom and makes it easier for teachers to integrate technology into the classroom. The web has been so influential for teachers. You can pretty much find anything that you will ever want to know on the internet. For example the other day I was getting my clothes ready for Cherry Creek in the morning and I didn’t know how to tie a tie so what did I do? I “Youtubed” it! I have to say it was a real life saver! You Tube is a very informational place which has endless uses. I found this article about YouTube in the classroom and an idea that could definitely be used by having the children publish their works on YouTube for an assignment. This way the project can be reached at any point in time of the day for the children to study off of or just to enjoy.

Since entering this class I have learned many new things that will ultimately help me become a better teacher. With the times changing it is utmost important to be technologically literate. Throughout my field experience at Cherry Creek I want to bring to the classroom the things that I learn about technology to open the minds of the children and to fuel their fire to be more technological oriented. The times they are a changing!

Over the last 100 years so many things have changed in the world, ranging from how we transport from place to place to what type of television programs are aired. The areas that contain the least noticeable changes are the way teachers teach and students learn. Throughout life I have witnessed many different types of teaching methods, but when it all comes down to it they are all alike in one way or another. As time rolls on our technology gets more sophisticated by the minute. Why not utilize this? I think that it would be very advantageous for the teachers of our generation to apply these newly learned technologies in our classrooms. I mean if they are there for use, why not use them? They will make your life so much easier and most importantly beneficial for your students. For example, when I was in high school and I came down with an illness that I could not make it to school, I had to wait until the next time I was at school to get the assignments. You were especially screwed if you missed on a Friday and had to wait the entire weekend to get your books and assignments.

So how do we fix all of this? We can start by introducing technology early in our student’s lives. The only way that we can be able to accomplish this is by getting the news out and most importantly getting parents involved. The scary thing about this all is by the time we get our teaching job, there will more than likely be new means of technology. We cannot let that prevent us from sharing what we know with our students. Anything that we bring to the classroom will overall help our students in this tech-savvy society.