Thursday, December 10, 2009

Magnifier Tool


MAGNIFIER TOOL:

This magnifer application would be very helpful in the classroom to use for students that have trouble seeing small images on the screen. Even though these images will be posted on the smart board, there are many students who still have trouble seeing it even with their glasses and with sitting in the front so this application would be a great tool to help these students and enhance their learning. Being a future teacher of elementary students and also special needs students, this will be even more important for me to use and know how to use because there is a very high chance that I will be faced with a student with bad sight sometime in my career. I am very glad that these tools are being created and that I am getting the chance to learn all about them because I remember growing up many students were embarrassed to admit that he or she had bad sight so this would prevent this because I as the teacher would already know about this disability and use this tool for him or her and take care of the problem easily. This is great tool and I know for a fact that I will be useing it much in my future career.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

MY PLN: NING

I decided to create a Ning account because I think it is a great way for teachers to share ideas and it can be very helpful to learn about new teaching technology, good and helpful lesson plans and just basic important teacher infomation I may not already know. I think it is important for teachers all over to be in contact if any questions come up during a lesson and for teachers to just help each other out. The way I created this Ning was by making a new account on new since I obviousally did not already have one. I decided to add an account under Elementary Education because that is the teacher I plan on becoming in the futre. I added a picture of myself, added my delicious and blogger account hyperlink and have already made a post on my page. Also I chose a themed backround that I think shows a little bit of my personality since it is very bright and cheery. Because I am also majoring in special education (TAL) I plan on joining the special education teachers ning as well sometime in the near future.
I will keep up with this Ning now and of course in the future when I actually do become a teacher. I also plan on creating more PLN's in the future because there are many that are very beneficial and will only help me become more technoloically advanced and to become a better educator. I plan on creating a class homepage for my future classes which will post all of the assignments due, permission slips, important events, etc. This will be for both the students and the parents of the students so that there is no confussion on due dates and important events, and so that everyone is clear on what is going on in class. I also plan on creating a PLN similar to ONCOURSE so that I can have an easy way to get in touch with my students and if they need to get in touch with me, or if the parents need to get in touch with me it will be very simple. Also I will create this for the assignments page for students to post their papers, projects and work there which many times is an easier way then actually handing it in during classtime. I am very excited to be able to use all this technology in my future classroom because I believe that it can only enhance the students learning and the teachers teaching.

Monday, November 16, 2009

HOW TO GRAPH LINES ON A SMART BOARD



One of the great functions that can be used with the smart board is interactive graphing math equations (lines). This is a great feature because many students often struggle with graphing lines and how to do it correctly. It would be very tough and time consuming for the teacher to go around and teach each student individually and teach he or she so therefore this smart board tool that I have become very comfortable with is very effective, efficient and enhancing. 
This tool is also very simple to use. It is simply an application called SMART Notebook Math tools. It includes interactive gra
phing capabilities, it shows the relationship between tables of values and their points plotted on the graph. In addition, it is very effective how the changed values on the graph are automatically are reflected in the table and vice versa. This tool is a great tool and should be used in every classroom that is studying graphing lines and points and creating tables that accompany the graphs. Here are some pictures that show this tool.
 

Sunday, November 15, 2009

SCIENCE LESSON PLANS FOR ELEMENTARY STUDENTS

These science lesson plans below are great and fun lesson plans for students and classes grades 1-6. All of these lessons are very effective, efficient and enhancing in many ways. They are also very creative so students will enjoy doing them and not even think of it as learning! Hope you find many that you like! ENJOY!

1.) USING MICROSCOPES

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Meebo Communication Tool


This is an easy and free way to connect and communcate with others. You have chat with other people from outside of the country and there is even a chance to use a video to chat and instant message. You are unable to file share so that is a dissadvantage, but you are able to set up a chat room if yo have any questions and there is ahelpful page with frequently asked questions if needed. This can be used in my future classroom by sharing information with my students and getting in touch with my students easily in a reliable way. I could post answers to questions that studnets had in class on meebo too if that was nessecary.

Skype




















Skype is a free software that allows people to connect with family members, loved ones, or businesses around the world. It is basically a telephone call with video. There is also an instant messaging provided with Skype. Anyone is able to use Skype all it requires is access to an internet broadband connection. There are many advantages to Skype for many reasons including it being very efficient, effective and enhancing in many ways. There is really only one disadvantage os Skype which is that one using Skype is only able to Skype with one person at a time which not true with Ichat where you can video chat with up to 3 other people at a time. Skype is a great tool for all different types of people and it would be very helpful to use in a classroom especially if the class is learning about different cultures around the world they wold be able to Skype with other students their same age from a different country. Skype is a great tool and is becoming very popular with men and females of all different ages all around the world.