Today's class

I had never heard about the Google Cultural Institute and am really thankful that I can now add this to my list of resources. It's a great tool for both under-resourced schools, as well as, schools at the other end of the spectrum, who have lots of resources and tend to be overbooked with activities. This resources is a great time saver, which provides the students with a rich experience and access to art, travel and history. It's the next best thing to actually visiting a museum or any other field trip. After I have had more time to peruse this site, I hope that I can include it as a resource in my WebQuest. My take-away from tonight is that I am really enjoying this class. It's helping me hone my tech skills, which will be very helpful in the classroom.

Reflection 10/8/14

I was really impressed with all of the presentations this evening. I think our future students are very fortunate to have teachers who will have taken this class so that they can effectively integrate technology into their lesson planning. Given my technical limitations (i.e. working with an old Mac), it really made me realize that you really need the most up to date technology in order to make a high quality product.

Keeping Myself Organized & Accountable

I was really excited and relieved after I finished this week’s reading. While I have many strengths and skills, “organized” is not in my top five. I know organizational skills are critical for success in the classroom, so this is something that I know I have to work on before I enter a classroom. I taught social studies this past summer to kindergarteners and first graders at an enrichment camp and I quickly learned how things can quickly get out of hand, when you lack organizational skills. Where are my handouts? What was the address for that website I wanted to show the class today? Where’s my seating chart? Attendance sheet? Where’s my lesson plan for today? These were just some of the questions I was asking myself during my first week of teaching. Although I had made a “plan” the night before, for some reason when I would get to class things would just fall apart. However, after reading chapter 4, I was thrilled to learn about some of the apps, which can help me get organized and stay accountable in the classroom. I was aware of some of the web-based resources available for enhancing teaching but was less familiar with the ones for lesson planning and assessment. I did some desk research and found additional sites, which offer lesson plans, templates for lesson plans and lesson plan trackers. For example, Planbookedu.com is a free online lesson planbook software for teachers. Per the website: Never struggle with lesson planning again. Your plans are available anywhere and are simple to create. I also found ThinkWave, a free online gradebook with student and parent access. It automates grading calculations and generates detailed reports and it’s all saved in the cloud. I like the idea of any tool, which can help me get organized. It’s important because at any moment an administrator can walk into my classroom and ask how my lesson plan meets common core standards or the progress of a particular child or how it fits into the unit. I also appreciate the tools, which provide access to the parents. This way parents can view the progress of his or her child in real time; no surprises during parent-teacher conferences or on the report card. I also came across a lot of resources for homeschools. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in 2013, the number of homeschool students has grown by almost 300,000 since the last report in 2007 where 1.5 million students were homeschooled. I wonder if the growth of homeschools drove the need for more web-based lesson planning and tracking systems that are widely available today. Were you homeschooled? Do you know anyone who was or is currently being homeschooled? If so, what types of web-based resources and other technologies do they use for lesson planning and staying on track?