EME2040 Blog

Excel has been a very interesting tool to use this semester. I originally had my doubts about its usefulness, but now I feel much more comfortable. As an elementary school teacher, I will use it for attendance, grades, and for other documentation, like survey results. For me, the most interesting thing that I found from my classmates' blogs is website evaluation. I saw so many reliable websites that will be easy to use in my classroom. In addition, I had a chance to look at some of my peers' ILP assignments, and it was very cool to see how creative everyone got. Although we generally covered exceptional student education (ESE) or English as a second language (ESL) technology, I would like to look more into specific devices and programs. In a world with a growing diverse population, I feel like I should be more educated when it comes to these technologies. I would like to be helpful to my students in whatever way I can. Before I begin teaching, I will be sure to attend va

Essentially, The Flipped Classroom is where students do the lecture at home by watching videos, reading a textbook, etc., and the activities in class, which is the opposite of a traditional classroom. It allows students to have access to the course material outside of school and to come to class prepared with questions. Here is a great video on the Flipped Classroom:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCIxikOq73Q , where the narrator describes why and how to flip a classroom, what it looks like, and some extra tips. The podcast discussed "all things open," which included open education, open content, and open source. When I searched these terms online, I found that open education is defined as free and easily accessible education, with free textbooks and other quality materials ( https://sparcopen.org/open-education/ ). This website also gave thorough reasons as to why we should have open education. Open content goes hand in hand with open education. Open content is free edu

Adaptive technologies are any device or program used to assist students with learning disabilities. These technologies allow students to work at the same pace as everyone else, with a little extra help. For example, when I was in seventh grade, we were required to take a standardized test in my language arts class, which was on paper. One student had recently broke his arm and had it in a sling. Since he could not write, he was required to take the test using a keyboard. This not only allowed him to take the test like everyone else, he was allowed to take it at the same time in the same room, without making him feel excluded. One challenge with adaptive technologies is the cost. Not all schools, especially those in lower-funded counties, can afford advanced technologies, so this could place a burden on these schools. Another challenge is implementation. When teachers become certified, they are not taught how to use every piece of technology, like adaptive technologies. So if a stud

So far, my experience with Twitter has been quite positive. It's been really cool to see what my classmates post, like interesting articles, quotes, and pictures. I have had no issues so far with my account. Twitter is a very easy, positive environment to connect with your peers, professors, and professionals. I definitely will use it as a teacher. The Web Page Design assignment was a very fun way to get imaginative with my "classroom." I learned how websites are formatted and what fundamentals go into creating one. However, one thing that I didn't like about this assignment was how tedious everything was. If you wanted to add a text box, you had to go to the side column, click and drag the text box icon to wherever you wanted the box, and THEN you could type. It took me a good hour to format my website. Despite that, I was very happy with the turnout. Having a website is very beneficial to teachers by allowing them to keep parents up to date with assignments, supp

For this post, I decided to look at Saunders Middle School (6-8 grade) in Manassas, Virginia (Prince William County Public Schools). There was a tab dedicated to class pages which had various subjects listed, from Language Arts to Orchestra.  Link:  https://saundersms.pwcs.edu/departments Some pages were not updated, but others, like the ones I chose to include here, were. The first one I looked at was Mr. Wilcher's band class page. There, he had listed the concert schedule, practice schedule, advice to the parents, and a supply list.  Link:  https://saundersms.pwcs.edu/departments/music___drama/band/ Secondly, I looked at Ms. Phillip's Instructional Technology page. Hers was different from Mr. Wilcher's in that she didn't have a schedule or supply list, but instead had many, many links to different technological tools, like flashcards, apps, etc. Link:  https://saundersms.pwcs.edu/departments/instructional_technology_resource_teacher/ My classroom wi

Web 2.0 technologies that I think are useful in the classroom include video websites, like YouTube, and social media sites, like Twitter. YouTube is very helpful in showing students how to do something or giving them more information on a topic, like for a science project or history paper. Twitter, on the other hand, is an easy-to-use, easy-to-access social media site that allows you to connect with your students and their parents on a professional platform. A Web 2.0 tool that I will definitely use in my classroom will be RefWorks. RefWorks allows for students to find credible websites and articles for a research project and save them into one place without the hassle of keeping track of which sites they've used. Not only that, RefWorks has the really cool function of searching websites you've saved and creating them into a bibliography. RefWorks is a great site that I wish I had known about in school. Website:  https://refworks-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/ I really