Final Post!

Wow! I cannot believe that the semester is over, and that this class is through!! I was so nervous starting this class, but I have been exposed to so many new resources and I feel confident in using them all! I actually cannot wait to start my own class Wiki and create voicethreads and i-movies for lesson plans :) I just wanted to say thank you to Andrea, because without a great instructor like her, I would have been left in the dust! Thanks so much for all your help and good luck with whatever comes your way!!

I have completed both course evaluations and the final post assessment. I also checked my grades on blackboard and everything looks good!

Internet Safety

(1) For my article of choice, I read "Mixed Signals" from the June 2001 New Era.

(2)I spent my 60 minutes watching the following videos:
-Netzsmart Cyberbullying:Feathers in the Wind.
This video had a simple but powerful message in the form of an old folk tale. Once you say something, you cannot take it back. The same goes for typing or posting anything to the internet. Once you say it, it's out of your hands.
-Netzsmart Cyberbullying: You Can't Take it Back.
Wow. I cannot believe kids can be so mean! Some boys had created a hot or not website for the girls at their school. They all rated the girls on their appearance and then posted their comments to the website. One of the boys realized that once you put things on the internet, you lose control of what happens to it. People can use it in ways you didn't mean for it to be used.
-Netzsmart Cyberbullying:Broken Friendship.
Again, meanness! This video is one of the main reasons you should never share your password with anyone. Keeping it a secret is one of the best ways to protect yourself.
-Netzsmart Julie's Journey and Amy's Story.
Both videos are narrated by girls who started an internet relationship with a man they did not know. One ran away with the man for THREE WEEKS!! Later both men were found, arrested and sent to jail. A prime example of what NOT to do. Do NOT be so foolish. Great videos to warn young girls about this type of behavior.
-Netzsmart Tracking Teresa.
Wow. This was really an eye opener! They found a posting Teressa had made online, which included her phone number. Her phone number then could be linked to her a name, then to an address, then to the school Teressa attended, and times she would most likely be home as well as when her mother worked. Be aware of EVERYTHING you post online and the consequences it might have.
-Netsmart Kiesha's Crime.
This video was horribly made in animation and narration. The principle behind it, however, is true. Cyberbullying can take place between your best friend or your worst enemy. Be careful.
-Netzsmart Angela's Experience.
Also horribly made in animation and narration. The principle behind this video? If you are a victim of cyberbullying, the best thing to do is turn your computer off. Tell an adult and work it out together. The behavior is unacceptable, and with the help of an adult you can nip it in the butt.
-KeepSafe Faux Paw.
This would be a great video to show in the classroom. Faux Paw (a cat) meets a stranger online and agrees to meet them. The stranger turns out to be a mean bull dog who wants to hurt Faux Paw. Luckily, Faux Paw is rescued. McGruff then offers safety tips to avoid encounters like Faux Paw had.
-Frontline PBS Documentary
Revloution in classrooms and social life highlighted this generation's involvement and dependence upon technology. All students use cell phones, myspace, facebook, etc. One teacher noted that discretion and privacy are a thing of the past.
Child Predator Fear featured a mother who, concerned for her children's safety, places the one househould computer in the living room and takes multiple precautions to implement internet safety at home. One study, however, noted that 1 in 7 children are sexually solicited.
Cyberbullying just about broke my heart. A 13 year old boy took his life after chatting with a friend for months about suicide. The online friend even commended the boy, telling him it was about time! INSANE.
-Katie's Story
Incorporating a video game as an instructional tool for teaching internet safety is a great idea! It helped Katie make comparisons between the game and her own situation. In the end she was able to realize that "John" could be potentially dangerous. It turns out he was. He is now convicted and in prison, but because Katie was smart and informed, she remained unharmed.

(3)My most important take-aways include wise advice given in the readings and videos. From the readings, Elder Bednar's talk was the most powerful. He said that we should not neglect eternal relationships for digital videogaming or online socializing. He added a commandment from the Lord: "Thou shalt not idle away they time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it might not be known." The adversary wants us to disconnect from reality, and he uses modern technology to accomplish those designs. We need to keep in mind that immoral thoughts, words, and deeds are still immoral in cyberspace. When engaging in the use of technology, we should ask ourselves if (1) it invites or impedes the spirit and (2)it enlarges or decreases our time to serve others. Elder Ballard echoed Elder Bednar's words when he counseled that we must choose wisely what we watch and what we listen to. The biggest take home message from the videos is that we should be most careful with what we post on the internet. This relates to personal information, gossip in emails or IMs, and people we may come in contact with on the net. The most important thing we can do is to be informed and aware of the consequences of our cyberspace actions.
(4) i. Mindy knew that you shouldn't talk or chat to strangers online. Don't arrange to meet someone you met online in real life. You shouldn't give any personal information out over the web (credit card number, social security number, bank info, etc.). She also knew that you should always keep your password a secret. Mindy knew that she should not visit pornographic websites or other unsafe cites. She also knew that she shouldn't make her blog public.
ii. Mindy was appauled at the improper use of technology and the cyberbullying that takes place in schools. She does not use the internet for socializing purposes all that much, but she said it was good to be informed and aware of what can happen if you are not careful. She supported Elder Bednar's comments.
iii. I was surprised that Mindy did not use the internet for socializing very much more than anything else. Most people are almost addicted to myspace and facebook, but she does not have an account for either. Her boyfriend Jerry has a facebook, so she'll see what a few people are up to when he is on it, but that's it. I am glad she realized the importance of being safe when using the internet. I also liked that she seemed supportive of not wasting our time in virtual reality, but making the most of our time in actual reality.
iv. I think Mindy will share this information with friends and family who do use the internet for socializing and non-socializing purposes. She will be a great source of advice for peers. She will also add it to her knowledge, so if she ever does decide to start a blog or a myspace or facebook account, she will know just how to be safe when using it.

My Google Presentation

Here is my google presentation that I have worked VERY hard on! Enjoy!

Early Connections: Technology in Early Childhood Classrooms

I chose to view the Early Connections: Technology in Early Childhood Classrooms website. It was very informative and provided useful insights for the aspiring teacher.

My Three Lesson Plans

This week I composed three lesson plans for kindergarten science, math, and language arts. Here they be!

SCIENCE LESSON: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgh4t8rt_26w4gkfgb

MATH LESSON: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgh4t8rt_3dxsc27cw

LANGUAGE ARTS: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgh4t8rt_46689qpfn

Also, I watched the two videos of "Bookends of War" and "Inside Kapunahala." Yay!!

Technology Videos

This week are working on our lesson plans. We watched three videos, which were great! Those videos were full of wonderful ways to incorporate technology into classroom activities. The first video, “I Love Spiders” was my favorite. I loved everything the teacher included in her lesson plans; her inclusion of the spider cams and the collaborative website made learning fun for the children, which is the most important thing a teacher can do. I think the collaborative website with a classroom in Missouri led to extensions in other curriculum, which is also important in teaching a unit. In the “Brown Bear” video, the teacher recognized the students’ interests and applied it to their current area of study, which is very important in good teaching. She saw that the children loved reading “Brown Bear,” so she created a lesson where the children could make their own story using the pattern in “Brown Bear.” All children got computer time to create illustrations and then all illustrations were compiled into a slideshow story. Very fun and unique!! The last video about habitats included viewing images online and from software. The teacher took the time to explain copy right laws to the children; when working with technology, it is very important to explain the copy right laws so that the children are aware of what they can and cannot do.

Interview with ECE instructor

This week we were supposed to interview an early childhood educator about the technology they use in the classroom. I interviewed Mrs. Werner a kindergarten teacher from Wasatch Elementary school. Mrs. Werner's classroom had lots of great technological resources! Here's what I learned:

Technology in Mrs. Werner's classroom include: four class computers, a TV, a CD player, wireless internet access, computer projector, DVD and VCR player, and a smart board. If Mrs. Werner wanted needed to use a digital camera or a video camera, she could check either of those out from the school. The school also provided two mobile labs with 30 computers in each that could be brought into the classroom when scheduled.

Mrs. Werner is amazed at how far the school has come in terms of technology. She said she is lucky to have such wonderful resources, now if only she could learn to master them all! Mrs. Werner wishes she had a bigger TV in her classroom. She doesn't like to use the tiny one in the corner for classroom instruction.

Mrs. Werner uses technology to get ideas and prepare materials for the classroom. Mrs. Werner uses her smart board on a daily basis. You can create your own learning games for the children or you can download games or get ideas from prometheanplanet.com. For each objective she teaches, she tries to think of how to incorporate the smart board. Mrs. Werner also keeps her eyes out for good instructional videos, and will show those in the classroom. Whenever the children are doing project work or take a field trip, Mrs. Werner takes pictures with her digital camera, loads them on a computer, and using i-photo creates a slide show for all to enjoy and that she can post on their class website later.

I asked Mrs. Werner how she selected software for the classroom computers. She said that the district provides the standard software on their computer. Any extra software desired needs to be purchased, and can then be used in the classroom. She has not selected any software for the classroom on her own; however, if she were to select software she would try to pick software that goes along with the curriculum. She mentioned earlier about how one of the programs they had on the class computers focused on learning to read, but was really for the middle-of-the-road kids. Software that included levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced) would be helpful, because it could reach all of the students.

Obviously, your technology resources are dependent upon your school, but any use of technology in the classroom is better than no technology in the classroom! I hope to be as lucky as Mrs. Werner, and be at school that provides my class with multiple resources. I liked how Mrs. Werner used the technology for specific purposes that relate to curriculum. Her goal is always to enhance learning, and she formed the technology to meet her needs, not the other way around. When I have a classroom of my own, I hope to do the same.

I COMPLETED PARTS TWO AND THREE OF THE ASSIGNMENT!!!

Week 2 of Science Experiment

Well, I put together my science experiment on plants via VoiceThread. I liked that tool-- really easy to use, not very time consuming either! I can definitely see myself using this to display a classroom experiment.

Science Lesson Plan

For my science lesson plan, I am covering the first grade science unit on plants.

CONTENT: Standard 3 Students will develop an understanding of their environment, Objective 1:Investigate plants and plant growth. In this particular lesson we will be focusing on observing and describing plants as they grow from seeds. We will also be investigating and reporting conditions that affect plant growth.

PEDAGOGY:Inquiry process skills. Observing-- children will observe plants as they grow from seeds. The children will grow a plant of their own, watching it daily to report its growth. Inferring, predicting, hypothesizing, measuring, analyzing data-- we will do a class experiment that will tell us the best conditions for plant growth. One plant will be placed in the dark, one will be placed in the sunlight. Another plant will be given water, while another plant will go without water. We will have one plant that receives sunlight and water. At the end of the experiment they will analyze their findings. The children can report what conditions affect plant growth by measuring which plant grew the most and looks the healthiest.

TECHNOLOGY: Kidsperation. Kidsperation is great for concept mapping! I can discuss with my classroom what we know about plants and what we want to find out. This will be a great lesson guide since it is driven primarily by the children. Every time a child has a question or wants to learn something new, we can add it in. Once the experiment is over, we can go back to the concept map to review what we have learned.

Google Earth Tour

So here is my tour for the health services lesson that I described last week. I would also like a guest speaker from each location to come talk to the children about what they do, what services they provide, and allow the children to ask any questions. Below is the google sites URL.

http://sites.google.com/site/whitneygetour/health-services-lesson


I took the tours that three of three of my classmates put together, and they were AMAZING. I loved the exotic locations they chose, which is funny because they liked the fact that I stayed local.

Mallory did her tour on volcanoes and sink holes... really creative! I loved the photo overlays and the activities she chose.

Ashley Daley's tour was all over the world! It was really neat to be taken to the different locations that I have never been to before but have always wanted to visit.

Alyssa Young did her tour on the ancient civilizations, and she was able to find videos from youtube to go along with her stops of the tour. I think the students would enjoy watching those videos and learning in that unique way.

"Hi! I'm Tour Guide Barbie!"

This week we are planning our virtual tours. I am nervous, because I have never used Google Earth before... but I'm hoping for the best. Take a look at what I have planned for next week.

(1) CONTENT. In terms of content, I went to the Utah core curriculum. I chose third grade health. Standard 7: The students will understand the value of service and effective consumer practices.
Objective 3: Summarize the role of health services in the community.

1. List various health services.
2. Define the role of each service.
3. Identify situations in which the health services can or should be accessed.

I chose to focus my tour on different health services, because I thought the children would find it interesting. I also thought it would be a good idea for them to know where they can find these services, and how close we are in case they need access to them.

(2) PEDAGOGY. This lesson will incorporate the collaborative learning. Once the health service is located on google earth we will collaborate, taking estimates, and using the ruler to find out the distance from the school to the health service. If I could add one more thing, I would have a doctor from each location come to the classroom and share with us about his job. The children could ask questions, too.

(3) TECHNOLOGY. We are using the Google Earth tool to view our health services and to find out the distance they are from the school. I think this tool is a good fit with our content and pedagogy, because it will give the children a visual for each health service mentioned. It will also allow us to measure the distance from the school to the health service, adding to both content and pedagogy. I think a Google Earth tour is a fun, free, and fast way instructional approach to teach this curriculum. It allows teachers to show their students visual images captured via satellite. Google Earth is also something they can learn how to do on their own, which they just might do!

Location	Activity Description	Google Earth Content
1. Utah Valley Regional Medical Center	Measure the distance from the school to the hospital	Ruler, placemark
2. Provo Dental Care	Measure the distance from the school to the dentist's office	Ruler, placemark
3. Personal Health Lifestyles	Measure the distance from the school to the nutritionist's office	Ruler, placemark
4. Provo Counseling Center	Measure the distance from the school to the counseling center	Ruler, placemark

Show time!

Wow! I have made a movie!! It took all afternoon, but after watching the tutorials and getting everything just right, I am very satisfied with the finished product. Watch and enjoy!

In addition to making my own movie, I watched videos that six of my classmates had made (none of them were in my group, because I didn't see that they had posted their videos yet). I was very impressed, and I liked the variety of subject matter that we all chose to focus on.

(1) Ashley Daley's video was a book trailer for "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." She included many exciting images that I thought would make the children want to read the book. It was very well done.

(2) Becky Edmonds created an A to Z book with wonderful images. I loved that she made it her own by making it rhyme. She included both capital and lower case letters in her movie, which is very important for early literacy exposure.

(3) Sabrina Huyett made a book trailer for "The Hatchet." She used awesome music that I think would draw the children in, because it sounded like an action movie. I thought it was great how she asked questions in her trailer, getting the children's minds going, and ultimately making them curious about and enthralled with the book so they will read it!

(4) Kami Orr's movie was images set to a poem. I would love to use that poem and incorporate the faces of children in my classroom. I thought it was a great way to show how we are all different.

(5) Raymond Hamilton did a movie featuring new born babies. The music was a lullaby, and the pictures were so sweet. Again, I would love to get the children to bring me their baby pictures and we could make a movie of all of the children (and myself) as babies. Then we could study how we change from infant to toddler to the way we are now!

(6) Nicole Mahas had the great idea of making an instructional health video. I liked that it was very clear and informative. We should do this, because _______. We should not do this because __________. I would love to make a video like that for the beginning of the year.

My Storyboard

I decided to do my movie about my family. I looked at the Utah core curriculum for Kindergarten science and am focusing on the following:
Standard 2, Objective 1: Describe factors that influence relationships with family and friends. My movie will address the first two factors:
(1) Identify ways individuals are alike and different and
(2) Identify contributions of family members.

My story board takes the following outline, and please remember I am by no means an artist. The finished product will look much better than the stick figures and scribbling you see below:

Page 1

Page 2
Page 3
Page 4Page 5

Week 2 Assignments!

Wow! What a week!

(1) I created a wiki. http://icecreampiestriplechocolatebrownies.pbworks.com/ I have never done that before, and it was definitely an experience. Very cool, though.

(2) What I learned about:

• Web 2.0... I had never heard of Web 2.0 so everything about it was new to me. The tutorial mentioned that Web 2.0 allows teachers to connect their classroom with a classroom from another country. I thought that was amazing, and it was definitely something I would like to do when I start teaching. I remember when I was in elementary school that we had pen pals from different countries, but their letters would take weeks to arrive. Through Web 2.0 we can connect with another country instantly. You learn something new everyday!
• Creating a wiki... again, I had never heard of a wiki either. I thought it had to do with Wikipedia! Nope. A wiki is a website that allows you to add all sorts of content (i.e. videos, pictures, posters!). It also allows you to create discussion pages for comments. A wiki is an awesome idea for the classroom. It will be a great tool to share what we are learning!
  
• Goodreads... wow I must be living under a rock, because I had no idea what this website was either. When it came time to create an account, part of the process had me sign into Gmail and see what contacts were already on Goodreads. There were very few contacts that weren't already on it! I learned that I can post the books that I've read, rate them, and give them reviews. I can also learn about what books my friends are reading-- which is AWESOME, because I love to read and am always looking for a good book. This will be a snap to find one now!

• Diigo... honestly I don't see myself using Diigo very often, but it was still interesting to find out about its services. I learned that I can bookmark pages or websites that I visit, highlight what I want to remember, and keep that handy through Diigo
• .

• Google Reader... I'm not a blogger (this blog is my first), but if I was this would be a helpful resource. I learned that through Google Reader I can subscribe to different blogs, and instead of having to visit each site, I can have them all show up through Google Reader. All I have to do is a click a button on my screen to switch from blog to blog.

• What was the most difficult?Well, I had a really hard time finding the right video on teachertube for the objective that I selected. It took me a while to go through them. I had to watch each one, and at first none of them were right for what I was wanting. I had to refine my search and change words around until I got a few videos that would work.

• What was the most useful? Even though creating a wiki was really time consuming and I had no idea what to do at first, I think this will really be a useful tool in the classroom. I will be able to keep parents informed of what we do each week as well as what is coming up. I liked learning about how to embed videos, pictures, and posters. I can really see myself using this tool and I am looking forward to making a real wiki for my class when I start teaching.
  

Why I love Education

I love teaching young children. I love the things the say, the things they do, and the way they think. I love seeing them experiment, learn, and interact with their environment. They're creative. They're sweet. And they love school. I hope that they will love me too!