Last Blog

We have come to the end my friends.  I'm done with my website.  I am so glad I learned how to use that tool.  Now I can make websites for my future classes and use it as a way to keep up with friends. 

I now have only one more education class until I am done with the minor.  12 more hours this summer and I will be "gradumutated!"  Have a great summer and I hope our paths cross again!

iMovie

Wow!  What a great tool!  I didn't realize how easy it was to make a movie.  This is a great way to show students a topic and how the teacher uses it in real life.  I had a lot of fun making this and hope to use this in the future. 


Here is a video of some of my girls and the progress we have made in a few short years! 

End of Semester and Spreadsheet

Spring has sprung!  The birds are singing, the air is clear, and we are quickly approaching the end of the semester.  So with this beautiful weather, we are having to spend more time inside working on papers, homework, and other end of course stuff.  I don't know about ya'll, but my brain is about to bust! 

With so much information being thrown at me, I hope the important stuff sticks.  This spreadsheet, I consider, is important.  It was a great activity to learn how to use functions in excel that I did not previously know existed. This is a great tool to use in my future classroom.

Web 2.0 tools

I have had so much fun learning about all of the cool tools available online.  Every time I go home to my family I have to tell them about what we are learning in class.  It was especially fun last night when talking to my 12 year old cousin.  He was telling me that he was learning word and PowerPoint in school.  I asked him if they allowed the students to get online and look at some of the tools we have been using.  He said no, but was excited to learn more.  Technology is the future for all of these students.  I'm glad we get a jump start  in school to learn how to use and how to incorporate these tools in the classroom.  

Inspiration

 

If anyone needs to teach this subject, feel free to use this!  

Scavenger Hunt

Erin's Picasa Album

Erin's Picasa Album

Erin's Picasa Album

Glogster

The presentations over all of the new tools have been awesome.  I love learning about all of the different technology available in the classroom.  Glogster is definitely one of the tools that can be easily incorporated into the math classroom.  Not only can students make one about themselves so that we can learn about them, students can make presentations on different math concepts.  This will be a fun and exciting way to get kids working and thinking outside the box in a high school classroom. 

Wordle and Twitter

I definitely enjoyed both presentations!  Awesome job!  Wordle seemed useful for classroom, even though maybe not for mine.  I don't know how I would use that in a math classroom, unless I was trying to teach history of math.  Then, it might be useful to see what the author thought was the most important words in a passage would be.  Or, for my own use in trying to make lesson plans.  I might be able to use it to see what words are used most often in a lesson.

Twitter, on the other hand, seemed extremely useful.  As a teacher, I could use that for assignments, and immediate feedback.  I could also see my students using it to ask simeple questions.  As a coach, I could use twitter for updates for the week. 

Thanks for explaining such useful tools!

Webquests

I really enjoyed working with the webquests.  I found them to be useful tool for students to learn several different lessons.  One, how to search the web.  By allowing our students to use the web, even if we dictate what websites to look at, they will start to understand what is on the internet.  Two, what a good website looks like.  Students need to understand what a good website looks like and what credentials are posted on the website.  Three, whatever we are trying to teach them.  I'm still thinking about how it will work with my content area (math), but I'm sure if there is a will, there's a way!

Rapture...?

I was listening to the radio this morning, and according the voices coming out of my car, the rapture is supposed to take place May 21, 2011.  What happen to 2012?  There is too much to do between now and May.  I won't even have graduated by then!  And what about the Rugby World Cup?  It's in New Zealand this year (in October)!   So just for anyone who has a big event on their bucket list, to do to it!
Stay warm!

Still the beginning

We are still pretty early in the semester, but My Oh My!  Where does my time go?  There is so much going on between classes and outside activities!  I'm so excited to see what the rest of the semester holds.

I'm super excited to be using what I've learned in my education classes.  This is the second week of BHS girls' rugby practice, and I have been using information from my 355 class to plan the day and write objectives.  I haven't used as much technology in that setting because we are outside most of the time.  However, it has given me ideas for the future.

This weekend, UTWRFC  is traveling to Atlanta, GA, to play Georgia Tech.  It is our second regular season game and we are PUMPED!  Wish us luck!

Reflection of Website Eval

Beardenrugby.com

This is the website I chose to evaluate.  I was pretty impressed with the amount of information on it.  Any players who wanted to play had an intro on the home page, and contact information for the coaches.  The only conern I had for it was, the players full name is on the website.  For kids under 18, this may not be safe.  However, the coach could have gotten a permission form from their parents that we do not know about. 

Overall, I really like it.  While the website is not applicable to everyone, it could be a good model for a website that another teacher or coach may want to create.

Website Evaluation Website

http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html


This website gives 5 criteria for assessing websites like the one Jeff showed us. 
Authority:
  This website was published by New Mexico State University.  I think a website posted by a university probably uses this resource for their students and would be great for other students
Accuracy:
  Since the information provided can be seen on several other websites, the information is at least consistent.  I think the information is reliable since several of the websites we can compare this one against have good authority also.
Objectivity:
  When looking at objectivity, we also have to assess the goal of the website.  A university may not be objective, even for this website, because they want to make their students critical of the information.  While the author may not be totally objective, the information presented is helpful and useful. 
Currency:
  This website was updated in April 2009.  Information, especially in this day and age, can change so quickly.  However, for a website evaluating websites, since nothing has changed on who or what can be posted on the website, the information is still useful.  
Coverage:
  This website does not cover as much information as the one Jeff showed us from Cornell, which may not make it the best website out there.  However, the information given is a good starting point for evaluating a website. 

Wiki's

So the wiki's have been an adventure. I have really enjoyed working on them and working with them.  I am slightly technologically slow (and working on Macs has not helped this), but have been able to work out a few kinks.  I realized you can save pictures to your hard drive from facebok by clicking on the right button. So I have been able to add some of my favorite pictures to my Wiki.

However, I am having trouble deleting pictures from my wiki.  Has anyone been able to do that?

Learning Expectations for this Course

I am really looking forward to taking this course.  I want my classroom to be ready for the 21st century so that I can engage my students and increase their learning experience as much as possible.  However, I am very technologically illiterate.  This class will be a challenge for me, but I am looking forward to learning so much.  The potential for our classrooms to grow in the future is so great, and I want to be apart of the growth. 

About me

I am from Maryville, TN and have lived in TN all my life.  I am a math major hoping to teach high school geometry or algebra.  I want to be a teacher because I enjoying helping others, and I think high school kids are really interesting.  I play rugby at UT.  Our first game is January 22 in Knoxville.  I hope that the snow is gone by then!  I also coach at Bearden High School and have been doing so for a year and a half.