4.27.2016 Tech in Ed: a sample classroom newsletter

One more assignment for Tech in Ed: A sample classroom newsletter. I built the newsletter in InDesign, a powerful Adobe program that I am familiar with from my days working in a newspaper. For a simple newsletter like this, Microsoft Publisher would have worked just as well. I like the sample newsletters I saw being used with the student's weekly packets that went home to parents each Monday in the First Grade Classroom where I observed. I know however, that newsletters have the same problem as other information sent home: no matter how pretty, some parents just don't seem to read them! These are the students we need to pay the most individualized attention to! Sample Parent Newsletter

EDEL 2200 Building Presentations with Google Slides

As a big fan of Powerpoint, I was happy to find out that Google Slides works almost exactly the same! Here's a presentation I built about fractions:

EDEL 2200 Tech in Ed: Playlists for You Tube

Well here's an optional assignment I should have discovered sooner! Better late than never: this is an embedment of my favorite videos about autism which I became aware of through the class I took this semester (SW2500 Understanding the Autism Spectrum). Now I see on the grading rubric they were supposed to be videos that would be good for elementary students: these would only be appropriate for maybe 6th graders...but would be great resource for parents of any students looking for information on the Spectrum. What a useful too. I think this is my favorite new technology I have learned this semester, with Symbaloo being in second place.

EDEL 1010 Blog #9 Year End Thoughts

It is hard to reflect on the Intro to Education without reflecting on my semester as a whole.  Several classes have been intertwined for me and I'm not sure which class taught me which thing!  But it has been a good semester for me professionally as I have faced the challenges of assignment after assignment that forced me to work with technology as never before in becoming familiar with a few of the internet applications that are available for education.  I'm sure I have just seen a very few compared to the many, many applications available.  But I am also sure that my instructors have guided me into finding some of the better programs available.

My Service Learning experiences were somewhat of a disappointment to me in that it seemed very difficult to get them scheduled with the schools and teachers near me.  I learned most about classroom management from spending time in the classrooms but I felt like ten hours of special ed and ten hours of regular ed. were not enough.  There were so many interruptions to classroom schedules that it made me wonder how teachers ever get the subjects taught!

In spite of the challenges, this is a semester that I'm glad I took at UVU.  I had considered switching to Western Governor's University in January and I am glad I did not.  However, I feel now that this is what I should do.  Through Western Governor's University I can go straight to a Master's Degree and I can be flexible in my physical location while completing the coursework.

Yes, teaching is what I want to do!  I am not totally sure if I want elementary or special education but I know I want to be in the teaching field!

Thank you Dr. Sue Womack, Pam Turley, Dr. Wangsgard, Dr. Damion Smith, Brandon Condie, and Mrs. Donna Hall--my instructors this semester!

4.15.2016 EDEL 1010 Blog Entry #8

This blog is a helpful "portfolio" about the projects and activities I have done for both EDEL 1010 and EDEL 2200 this semester.  I have learned a lot about the technology used by teachers today in both classes.   The best part has been seeing some of these things actually used in the Service Learning locations.  The worst part has been not having enough time in Service Learning!  I did ten hours in a special education classroom first and then have just finished 10 hours in a regular first grade classroom.  Next week I am going to spend an afternoon in a regular fourth grade classroom so I get a little wider perspective.  The ten hours in regular education wasn't enough: if I was doing it over again I would not "count" my special ed hours (required for EDSP 3400) as part of my regular ed time because I feel like I didn't get enough time in regular classrooms.   Doing the special ed hours first prevented me from learning about regular ed classrooms in the same time frame as we progressed through the lessons.  This made the required blog entries more difficult.
I did gain a lot of broad understanding of teaching in the 21st century and am anxious to learn more in the professional portion of the program.

4.13.2016 EDEL 2200 Google Docs Assignment

First Grade Core Standards for Parents

Today I finally completed the Google Docs project for my Tech. in Education class.  I made an informational document for parents to familiarize them with what will be taught to their child in first grade.  I started the project weeks ago and then procrastinated in getting it finished!
I learned several things in the process of this assignment.  One big thing I learned is that Google connects everything to your Gmail account name.  I created a Google Doc in a Google Account that was tied to one email; then tried to link it into this Blogger account which is connected to a different email account!  Confusing!  I struggled and struggled with Why can't I edit my Blogger??
Now I am wondering: Why do I have two Gmail accounts?
This assignment also helped me learn the capacities of Google Docs by requiring me to add a picture and a table.

4.12.2016 EDEL2200 Creating Animated Videos with Powtoons

We All Have Feelings

Today I created an animated video using a program called Powtoons.  There are several internet programs which teachers (and others!) can use to create videos that will help teach a lesson or share information.
I chose to do a video about feelings, which could be an introduction to a curriculum unit for a first grade learning outcome under "Demonstrate responsible emotional and cognitive behaviors" in the core standards.

4.11.2016 Autism Conference

On Friday (April 8th) I attended the UVU Autism Conference.  Wonderful!!  This certainly stimulated some more interest in Autism and especially Asbergers.  I attended presentations by Kristine Barnett, Dr. Stephen Shore, Drs. Francine Baffa and Nichole Wangsgard, Dr.Sally Ozonoff, and Sarah Heuser.  More! More! More!

4.11.2016 EDEL 2200: Learning about Google Forms

Today I finally discovered just how easy Google Forms is to use!  Now I know how my professors make all these tests and questionnaires!  It is so simple with Google Forms!  I can see this will be a very helpful tool for teachers.

4.9.2015 EDEL 2200 Storybird

Storybird is an online program for building picture books. It is easy and fun to do. It is available as a free program or as a purchased program. For this assignment I was required to create a picture book of at least 15 pages: I chose to write a story about cats and using my granddaughter's name in the title. The difficulty was that in the Art I chose, there were a limited number of cat photos to use in my story. I suspect that if I was using the Paid version instead of the Free version, there would be more pictures to choose from! This looks like a great tool that would allow elementary students (or teachers) to create their own books for sharing.     Here's a link to my book: Brynn's Cats

4.8.2016 Tech in Ed: A Sample Flyer

This flyer was built in InDesign and saved as a jpeg in order to be uploaded to the blog. InDesign is a very useful program for building advertising, flyers, newsletters, or newspapers!

4.4.2016 EDEL 2200 Mind Mapping: The Prairie is my home too!

This week I used Popplet to create an assignment for "Mind Mapping". I began with a video about the Prairie, expanded the idea of The Prairie into its elements of Weather, Living Things, Rocks & Soils. Then I further expanded living things into subcategories and added pictures. I can see where each "popplet" could be expanded and enhanced by adding a video; using this one could create "learning center" activities for different levels of students within the classroom. Like many other types of technology, there is great potential, but every project takes time, and some projects take a lot of time!!

4.2.2016 EDEL 1010: Blog 7 Achievement Testing

One thing I have talked to my Service Learning teacher about is the "problem" that evaluating a teacher based on her students test scores does not give her answers about "what to change in teaching the next group of students" the next year. Each set of students are different, and a good teacher is also improving and learning from year to year. Also I understand testing methods have come a long way since I was in school, yet still we have students who struggle with language and culture. Standardized testing are not giving us a true picture of these students' intellectual abilities. Testing is ONE piece of teacher evaluation, testing is ONE piece of student evaluation, but if we are making judgments based on standardized tests ALONE, then we are failing our students and teachers. Standards and curriculum are like policies and procedures in healthcare: Guide to the wise, and rule to the fool.

EDEL 1010: Blog 5.2 Another teacher interview

I visited with Mrs. P today about her teaching experience and how the various federal/state mandates in recent years have changed education at the elementary level. 1. We talked about NCLB (No Child Left Behind) which is federal guidelines that came out in about 2003. NCLB required states to develop standards for each grade, or adopt national standards for what should be taught in each grade/ the skills students "should" have before moving on to the next grade. NCLB also mandated more testing of students and graded schools (and teachers indirectly) based on the students' performance. Mrs. P stated, "I have always believed students should learn certain skills before they move on, and NCLB along with the Core Standards developed help all teachers 'be on the same page.' However, NCLB also requires one year's students to be compared to another year's students and these different groups can't be fairly compared. She felt NCLB was a "businessman's approach to education" and didn't address the needs of students who need special help OR the students that are gifted. 2. The new All Students Succeed Program is less business-oriented and is moving in the right direction. We do want all students to succeed! and that means different things for different students. 3. We talked about the changing focus in early elementary grades, especially kindergarten, to more academics, sight-reading, and use of technology in place of writing: Mrs. P feels like the most important thing she can give her students is self esteem: when they know they are loved, they WILL learn, and they will reach for the stars/their dreams. She feels some classrooms spend too much time on memorization and technology. She emphasizes "the right way to hold a pencil" and legible writing, because students need fine motor skills! Some come to her classroom unable to write any legible letters and also unable to tie their shoes--simply because their fine motor skills have not been exercised. Another big emphasis in her teaching is phonics. Kids who take time to learn to sound out words and learn their meanings are functionally FAR ahead of students who can "read" by sight but can't tell context. Mrs. P does feel like there is an important place for technology in the classroom, but "not all the time!". She uses technology(laptops mostly) to allow students to work at their own level in many skill areas including individual multi-subject projects.

4.1.2016 EDEL 1010 Blog#6 Diversity in the Classroom

Today I observed in a first grade classroom in Heber City, UT. Wonderful experience! But this blog is to be about diversity in the classroom, so I'll talk about that first. This school has four sections of first grade, with one begin dual immersion (Spanish) and the other three all English. The classroom I was in is NOT Dual Immersion. Dual immersion is a great thing--in theory! But I'm not sure we have the right procedures here in the Wasatch School District yet. This particular elementary has had Dual Immersion Program for four years. Here's my biased opinion: Parents with higher socioeconomic status want their kids in Dual Immersion so they become bi-lingual. And students that have English as their second language (or in some cases, initially NO English) get placed in the Dual Immersion classroom. So dual immersion classes are larger and have wider range of ability levels in them. The non-Dual Immersion classes have almost no Latino students and also not all of the highest functioning kids. The Dual Immersion students stay with the same group of students year after year since only one section is Dual Immersion...this alone has it's disadvantages. The classroom I was in has 17 students (was 18 most of the year): all students appear to be Caucasian and from English speaking backgrounds. Seven of these students have Title One assistance (20 minutes pull-out time each day). I noticed slight differences in grooming and clothing, but by appearance the group was fairly homogeneous. Yet even in this thoroughly "Middle Class American" group of students I could see in my three hours in the classroom today that this gifted teacher sees each student as an individual with different needs and therefore deserving of different teaching structures. Yet the teacher, Mrs. P was so clever that I am sure the students are not very aware that she treats each one differently! Their was at least one student in the classroom with apparent Autism (I am not intending to label here!). The teacher does not isolate this student and expects him to take part in the classroom activities and follow classroom rules. She does, however, repeat the rules often and I am sure this is for his benefit as the other students seem to remember them. She also uses other verbal and gesture clues that benefit all students, but especially this student with apparent attention/distraction challenges. She seemed to know when to ignore him (when he temporarily threw himself in the floor over not getting to start with a certain center activity) and when to allow him to get out of his seat and come to her for a needed hug. Mrs. P is very tuned in to teaching each student based on their academic level: reading books, computer activities, and weekly homework packets are different for each student and enable brighter students to be challenged and students who are struggling with basics to also receive ability-appropriate work. This requires a lot of extra planning time, but I can see this teacher is will for it because (in her 31st year of teaching) she is still passionate about her students!