Our Final Class

As the semester is coming to an end we had to do presentations on new and exciting websites that teacher in general and specific areas can use to make learning in the classroom fun and engaging. There were many different ones presented some for specific areas in the math department and some where every teacher can use. Mine was concentrated on the biology aspect and how to not only get ready for the AP Biology exam by using a website call Top 20 Biology. It not only has AP exams and tips and little quizzes, but it also has links to Khan Academy and Ted Talks. More for studying and research for specific subjects like Cell Division, The Respiratory System, muscles, and even the full structure of the human body. I really like this tool for not only a teacher guide to helping students for also for students to to study with. I know I am going to use this as a teacher because it is a useful tool for anyone aspiring to be a biology teacher.   

Shelby's Feedback

Today in class we all presented on different professional tools that other teacher could use in the classroom. Shelby L. presented on CoolMath.com.

This websites it a fun way to keep student engaged in academic activities without the students are all done with homework assignments. Once on the website students are either wanting a fun way to get how to do Pre - Algebra or any other sort of math help. If they are golden and have everything down then the students have the option to play games! Which the subject of games there afe of course math games, then there are critical thinking games, and even time originated games.

I believe that this is a fun and engaging way to keep students learning without really knowing that they are doing math in their free time.

GREAT JOB SHELBY!!!!!

Professional Websites

Tonight we learned how to use LinkedIn as a professional resume and also how to search for jobs. As we were setting up our profile our professor warned us on what we should and should not put on our profile because serious job candidates will look you up on LinkedIn. Be Professional. Be Aware. and always be Courteous.

My LinkdIn Profile   

Classroom Lesson Plan

Tonight we are going to learn a new way to gather information about different levels of Biology from Introducation to Biology to AP Biology. There is a website called Top 20 Biology and it has about everything you can think of for the right biology class that any educator within that field would love to have. This site even has little quizzes that are fun for the students as well as the teachers. It even has links to websites like Khan Academy,  YoutubeEDU, and even PBS.

The Future Generation

As the technology grows more prevalent within the school’s teachers need to start adapting to the techsavy world. Thee future is changing where pen and paper are becoming irreverent and the teaching programs are being affected by it.

 Most teachers are still from the generation where technology had no place in the classroom and then you have my generation about to come in and technology is something that has been in our lives since middle school, when cell phones started to become more into our lives, and now we have the smartphones where we can look up anything we need to know. The generational gap that is going to be in the schools is going to be interesting. I believe that schools are moving away from the pen and paper concept and moving to the idea that technology is the way to go and it is the only way to go in the near future. 

Mobile Apps

When you walk into a public restaurant how many people do you see using their phones rather then talking to the person they are with? Almost everyone right? My generation has become the world's prominent users of smartphones and as teacher we need to see that these mobile devices won't go away and can be used inside the classroom. As educators we can find a good side to the mobile apps and find apps that would help with the education process.

Within the apps that I have found there was a few that would help me with the teaching aspect of the concept. One of the apps that would help me and my students within the Biology field is the Biology101 app. This app gives basic information about Biology and does quick quizzes to help retain the content. Below are some examples of the Biology101 Mobile App. 

Flipped Classroom with online Textbook

Hello student,

Tonight we will be doing something different, you will be reading the material that I give you from an online text book on your own and tomorrow in the class we will have several activities to do with what you are about to learn.
We are going to stick with the concept of the Human Genetics, like our previous flipped classroom setting. I will be providing a link to the textbook and I want you to read this content and be prepared to show me what you have learned tomorrow. Please pay close attention to the bold printed words *HINT HINT*!

Online Textbook on Human Genetics Please read over carefully, if you have any questions about the assignment please feel free to email me at Katelyn.dollard@swcu.edu or you can comment on this post and it will send me a notification.

Below are picture of what we are going to do tomorrow, it is called 4 - 3 - 2 - 1, read over this and be prepared to have fun tomorrow! Study hard!

Have a wonderful night,
Miss Dollard.

Social Review

Review three social networks and answer the following questions in review:

1. What is the name of the social network site your are reviewing?

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

2. How is this site normally used by the general population?

Facebook is generally used as a social media site.

Instagram is used as a site where you can post photos and share them throughout other social media websites and use hashtags where everyone can see them.

Twitter can be used a a quick social look up to see what everyone is thinking in 140 characters or less.

3. How could it be used in the classroom?  Give a classroom example.

Facebook - This website has a lot of pages in relation to educational subjects. One of my favorites is the Marine Biology page; it gives stats on what is going on and articles about the animals they newly discovered, there is a lot of interesting things within the page.

Instagram - This is an amazing website like facebook where teachers can find other teachers and give ideas about decorating classrooms, fun activities, and just ideas for fun.

Twitter - I love twitter! This is one of my favorite educational social websites. Students can follow Doctors, professors, and professional in whatever field they are studying. Students can see what the people post or they can follow the articles that they post and learn more that way. More likely than not if students comments, or tag the person they are follow in a post the person may tweet them back, and students will love that!

Visual Learning

Today in my educational technology class we talked about what would help students with the learning process, Some tools that would help teacher are :

***What are Visual Learning Tools? Brainstorm!

Flipped classroom

TedTalks

NBCLearn

YouTube

PBS

Science 360

Flipsnack

Flickr

Ustream

Prezi

Jing

Photobucket

Photoshop

Photo Story

Photosynth

picasa

TeacherTube

VoiceThread

Windows Live Movie Maker

Not only can teachers access these at home but students can as well.

Flipped Classroom Setting

WATCH ME !!! ---> Video on Punnet Squares

Objective:

Students will be able to create their own punnett square and figure out the outcome of the offspring.

Opening and intro activity: (must include two multimedia applications)

“Hello students today we are learning about Hereditary dominant and recessive traits and how they get passed down from parent to offspring. Before clicking the link below I would like you to get a sheet of paper and a writing utensil and while following the video I would like you to do at least 3 example that will be given to you  in the video”.

Student independent activity: 

Find out what color of eyes their parents have and make and punnett square to see if they are in the higher percentile.

Ex)

Classroom Instructional Strategy/Activity:

Today in class we will be doing an activity with statements, and you will hold up a red card meaning never true, a yellow card meaning sometimes true, or a green card meaning always true.

My Card

Evaluation/feedback on knowledge:

At this point I would give a test to each student with different sets of parents and try and figure out the outcome of the offspring. This will be how you get out of class.

Virtual Environment

Virtual Environment is a computer-generated, three-dimensional representation of a setting in which the user of the technology perceives themselves to be and with in which interaction takes place. This is a way for students and teachers to interact with other sources to help with the learning process. Teachers must provide guidelines for the students to follow because there are always going to be students that will try and show off for the other classmates and post and look up inappropriate content. So as a teacher be aware what your students are doing and be prepared for things that you are going to see when you give high school students free range of access to the internet. 

Microblogs

Mircoblogs can be very helpful or a waste of time what students. In my experience as a college student having to follow a microblog I love it. I have to follow a psychologist on Twitter and he is always posting and when I write him he always responds. So for me I gain knowledge from his posts and not only his posts but from him personally answering my questions that I ask him. But not every student or teacher who follows microblogs has the same experience that I do. Again going back yo my college classroom setting other students have had to follow psychologists and they hardly post, or retweet, and when ever they ask questions they have never gotten a respond like I have, so what are the students truly learning? I believe if the teacher is going to assign for students to follow a microblog they mst first scope out the blog and see if they are reguarly posting and somewhat engaging with the students.  

Why this Major?

Let me start off by telling a story. When I was a little baby my mother babysat, up until the I went into the first grade. After I went into the first grade she became a paraprofessional in the field of Special Education, she did this for 10 years. a month after my 16th birthday my mother died suddenly from Type A flu in less than 24 hours, and there was nothing I could do to save her. So I was not even thinking of college after that, my thought process was I couldn’t save her so I was going to save as many people as I could. My senior year of high school came around and I had applied to the United States Coast Guard Academy and got in. Well, my body didn’t agree with that because I had knee surgery 6 months before I was going to be shipped off to NC for training, so they had to decline me. I was angry and hurt and mad at God because I thought that was what he wanted me to do, I though he wanted me to save people. I had a lot of down time during my recovery and I began to think about when my mom was alive and I was just a freshman in high school. When I had a home softball game I would have some down time and would go over to the elementary and help her with the special education students in her class, and I loved it. I remember looking at my mother and seeing the joy she had for not only her job but for her students that she was teaching. After she passed I felt like her joy her passion for those students came within me and something came over me and made me realize that I have that same passion. So after all the recovery time and thinking through about changing my plans I decided not only to attend Southwestern Christian University on a softball scholarship, but to make not only my mother and myself happy, but for the future children I will be able to teach and make a difference in their lives.

This is why I choose SCU and even though I did not plan to go to college at first God always has a plan and always will have a plan.

Looking Back

Learning has became more advanced in the years, comparing my education levels in high school to my parents levels of education is somewhat difficult. As a sophomore in high school I was in pre - calculus  and I had no idea what I was doing, as I went to my father for help he told me that those problems he was helping me with are mostly the sames ones from when he was in college. As I have been studying how technology has become more prominent in the classroom, I began to think about that one interaction with my father, "what if he had the technology we have today"? How different the world would be. 

In many of the cases that I have seen the "older" generation (and I use that term loosely) have grown up with a completely different learning style in the children in today's society. We use laptops to take notes, write papers, search for answers we don't know. The parents of this generation are more of the handwriting both notes and papers, and if they didnt know an answer they had to look it up in a book, or go out in the world and find it. in recent polls the "older" generation have not fully accepted the change in the technology.

As I go through my college courses and start to venture into my degree field classes I am having to take an Educational Technology class I can see how much this world as become independent on technology. If you step outside and go to a restaurant what do you see? A couple on a date not taking, just on their phones on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram? That is the normal way of doing things today. Other than no social face to face communication technology can actually be very useful in the classroom.

As an inspiring teacher I have always been afraid of technology in my classroom. I was raised on pen and paper, taking notes by hand, no technology whatsoever. But as I go through this class I am starting to venture out and accept certain technology. One of these programs is blogging! So swhen I was in high school our classes no matter what subject they were we had to keep a journal. We would pass the journal around and read each other stories, when we were done we would write comments on said story and be done with it. Blogging could be a well rounded way to keep everyone doing the say thing but in a better more easy setting.