Blog Journal 6

I chose to look at the teacher pages for Jackson Elementary School in El Dorado Hills, California. Each page was very similar in how they were set up. Each page had the same header with the teachers name on it. None of the pages had any pictures of the teachers or their classrooms. Most had links to important documents. They also all had reminders set up for things coming up in the class. It also seemed as though a lot of the information had not been updated since the start of the year. It says that they send home newsletters and use the RemindMe app to relay information to the parents. Here is an example from a teacher named Ms. Hadden.

Link to Ms. Hadden's page: http://www.myjacksonelementary.com/subsites/Hadden/

Link to main teachers page: http://www.myjacksonelementary.com/Teacher-Pages/

I plan to use as much technology as I can in my future career. I think it can be used to make things more easy and efficient in an classroom. I really like SmartBoards and the fact that students can use them with the touch screen. I think it would be a fun way to play interactive educational games in the classroom. I also think I will use Twitter to help the parents stay updated. As I want to teach elementary level students they will most likely not have access to a Twitter account but if I could make one for the parents I think it would be great. They could also you it to ask questions so that everyone can see the answer!

I really enjoyed going to the Tech Sandbox this week. I got to learn about a bunch of new technology that I knew little about. It also got me to think about how I would use certain things in my classroom. I really enjoyed learning about and getting to use the 3D pens. I think they could be fun to use with the students once or twice a week so that they can be creative while also learning. I could try to incorporate them into a lesson for example having the students try to draw something we are learning about with the 3D pens. They could also all display what they made afterwards. 

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Blog Journal 5

My initial experiences using Diigo have been positive thus far. I think it is a good way to interact with the class through annotations and comments. I also think it's interesting to see people's opinions on certain topics when they annotate. I think it could be used in a classroom setting to annotate readings. I think it would be more beneficial instead of using books or papers because other students could see their peers thoughts. Overall, there has not been anything I disliked about Diigo.

I have come to enjoy blogging since starting this class. I think its a great way to post about what we are learning about and how we feel about things. I also like reading other people's posts and seeing their thoughts on the different topics. I think I would obviously like blogging more if I had a choice on what to write about but overall it has been a positive experience. I think it has made me think more about the topics throughout the semester as well. I also think it allows the class to be creative in how our blogs are set up. 

I think a Web 2.0 tool that I would potentially use in my classroom is Skype. Skype is a software through Google that allows people to video chat online. I think using it to have experts in a certain field talk to the students about what they are learning would be beneficial. I think it opens up possibilities because you can talk to anyone even if they are not local to you. I think it would also benefit in group projects to allow the students to collaborate outside of class. I think it would help to make the classroom more collaborative and innovative. 

https://www.skype.com/en/

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Blog Journal 4

Voice Thread Link!

https://voicethread.com/share/12131787/

Blog Journal 3

As I want to teach elementary level students I researched the ELA standards for grades 2-4. Looking through the standards they all seemed relatively simple to me. The standards were things like "use abstract nouns" or "capitalize appropriate words in titles". All of the standards are skills I use on a daily basis to do homework or communicate with others. I feel as though I would be very comfortable teaching the standards to students. There are a few standards that I understand but am not sure how I would go about exactly explaining or teaching them. An example of this would be "Choose words and phrases for effect". I understand what it means to do this in writing but I am not sure how to help young students acquire this standard.


The CPALMS Educator Toolkit has a wide variety of lesson plans and resources to help teachers in every grade level. I think this toolkit would be especially helpful to teachers in their first few years of teaching that might need help with lesson plans. The tool I would probably utilize the most in my classroom is the instructional resources. It has many fun lesson plans to help students learn while staying engaged. It also includes virtual manipulatives to be used in lessons. I think the virtual manipulatives can be used to help add technology to my lesson and keep the students more engaged in what they are learning. 

The Newsletter Design assignment was something that helped me use Word in a more creative way than I am used to. I also made me think about design and how others would view the layout and colors. I learned things like borders and columns that I knew very little about. I think I could have improved on the overall layout of my articles within the newsletter because I don't think they look very uniform. I also think I could have improved on using different colors throughout because I mostly stuck to one or two. Overall I am happy with how my newsletter came out and hope I get to use Word in a similar way soon. 

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