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Smart board & Smart Notebook

Last night's class was all about the smart board. I have worked with the Smart Board before and I have recently discovered Smart exchange. Smart exchange is a great way to enhance your presentation with a pre-done presentation. You can tweak it to meed the needs of your lesson. One cool thing I really liked was the Magic pen. I like how when you form a circle it zooms in on the part you circled. It does the same thing for the square part. You can also draw something and it will go away. I love learning about the interactive and flash related components to make your lesson more interactive. I want my students to be engaged in the content and I want to guide them in a more fun way. I already knew how to make power points and now know how to make a prezi. My next technology exploration will be with the Smart Notebook software. I know I will use this to enhance my lesson plans as an aspiring educator.

Reflection to Todd Nelsoney's Flipped Classroom

Wow, after watching Todd's tutorial on a flipped classroom I feel so much more knowledgeable on the concept. Its hard to just think of one tip I learned from him. So,I combined the key pointed that I learned from the tutorial. Here is the link :http://www.sophia.org/tutorials/flipped-class-webinar-with-todd-nesloney-091713, if you would like to watch what I did and reflect on it. He uses a blended model of the Flipped classroom by having the students watch short videos ( no longer than 6 minutes ) and then come in and join into a group of 4 students. The students read their summaries and answer each others' questions. Sometimes he has the group choose the best summary and they read them aloud to the whole class. I learned that the projects or assignments do not need to be graded in order for the students to have success. Another tip I learned from Tod is the no video no fun policy. If a student does not watch the video, they have to come in and watch the video and then do a group of worksheets on the concept. The students are engaged and excited in coming to his Math class and when the students are excited to go to class the teacher is doing a grade A job. I would definitely use this in the classroom after he told me that his students progressed by having a flipped classroom. I want to teach but I want to engage and excite my students and now I know how to - Flip my class! I love how he has his students create their own video and how he shares it with the world. I had this idea right away when I first heard of this concept. This is a great authentic way to assess your students. Todd made some great points throughout his whole tutorial and he gave some great advice. I want to buy the book "Teach like a Pirate" now and I will definitely look into Remind 101 for my future classroom. If I were to ask Tod a question it would be about his content, "Do you use the text book content to help guide your instructional videos?" I am sure he would have a great response to this question. Now that I think about it, I notice that tonight's class was totally FLIPPED! How do I know this? Well, First I watched Tod's tutorial on "Flipped Classroom". Then, I summarized what I learned in my Blog. Lastly, I created a question to ask Tod. I just did a W-S-Q and didn't even know it until now! Personally, I love this concept and I can't wait for my teaching position to implement it! Even if I am a Language Arts teacher I will incorporate it at least once a week. Technology is advancing and I love how teachers are becoming "with it" by adapting to the student's interests in the new technology.

Flipped Classroom

I think having a Flipped Classroom would be a great way to implement the instruction in a new way. If I were to implement this in my future classroom, I would make it fun. I would have the students play an interactive game to go along with their Math. I would have the students make up a cute story book to go along with a Language Arts lesson. Another way I could use a Flipped Classroom as a performance assessment. The students could record themselves explaining their research topic and make their own tutorial and teach the rest of the class. Students would get creative and be highly engaged in making their movie and lesson fun. Students love to create things and they love technology so why not integrate the both concepts together? I love flipped videos and I think it is a great way to have the students reflect on the material and learn more about it one on one. By having the students summarize they are retelling the material which is on the lower level of Bloom's. When the students arrive in the class they can discuss the topic and give their opinion on the matter. The teacher will then be able to address more higher level thinking activities to promote connections and be able to analyze and compare the material with other concepts. This is directly aligned in the Common Core Standards and is aligned with the new PARCC assessment for Language Arts and Math.

Prezi Expert

Now that I practiced with Prezi at home I feel more familiar with it. I wanted to learn so bad that I taught myself so I could incorporate it into my classes in the Intermediate Fieldwork classes. I made three Prezis before learning about it formally. I played around with it and used templates to make two milestones projects. Personally, I found it easier to use a template. When I become 100% comfortable with Prezi, I will make my own from scratch. I like making Powerpoint presentations so I knew I would love making a presentation on Prezi. Everyone told me , Educators, that Powerpoint is so old and Prezi is so new. I was intrigued and excited to learn as much as I could about this new thing called Prezi. I had some technical issues when animating and using the new technology but I overcame this obstacles. I feel more comfortable and just made a Social Studies Prezi about George Washington. I need to make a unit on Social Studies so I wanted to use a standard that I could elaborate on. The unit is a new design I have never worked on before and it all starts with a Performance Based Assessment * Students are able to act out and perform the new knowledge they obtain from the 7 lesson plans I designed. I wanted to make my Prezi and incorporate it into my Unit Plan. This is a great way to integrate Technology into my lesson plans. Here is the link to my Prezi :http://prezi.com/8sxggllmoq7d/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy.

Prezi is super cool! I encourage aspiring educators to use it in their practice and in the field!!!

My thoughts on Gamefication

In my philosophy that I just recently typed I stated that my lesson plans were incorporate games into the everyday curriculum in order to make learning a more fun and meaningful experience. Students love to play games, regular games or video games. When I saw gamefication my mind was blown away. I thought it was amazing that a teacher could incorporate their assignments into a video game form. Students would enjoy this over a boring drill worksheet any day. If a teacher can use the newest craze in technology the students will be interested and will look forward to going on and playing the game. The material is still being presented to the student and the student is still mastering the same skills but they are learning these skills in a more authentic manner. Students would think that the game is entertaining and look forward to earning a badge and moving up a level. If you make it competitive the students will strive to do their best and succeed to win the game. I know that I am competitive and if you turn something into a game I will be super engaged in the assignment and questions being asked. For example, our teacher had us play Human Tic-tac-toe, in which we answered questions about methods of teaching reading. I took very detailed notes and felt highly confident to play and my friend and I were very enthusiastic about winning. Overall, Gamefication is a very cool and unique way to get your students engaged in the material!

Technology Expert

The last class my partner and I zoomed through all the assignments that came our way. We made a website about how to use mobile devices in the classroom. Although, IPhones and other smart phones are not allowed in some classes due to texting and distractions, they are now being used to help engage the student in the material. After all of my research and experiences with technology in the class room I think using smart phones in the classroom is a great idea. Students can research material and use their phones to help them engage in the lesson. Students will be researching their own topics and finding information on their own. They love being on their phones as is so if there was an App that enhanced their learning they would be so engaged in it. Students love to use the new technology especially the IPads. I am in a Kindergarten class room now and the students love when they are doing reading and writing centers and they get to move to the IPad station or the Smart board station. They are enjoying themselves while learning the material in a more fun and interactive way.