EME2040 Blog

     In my future career as a teacher, I can see myself using excel to help me in my classroom. I feel like I will mainly use the tool for keeping tracks of grades, but that alone will be a big help. It will compute and record the grades for me, while allowing me to save it all in one location. I can see myself using surveys to find out more about my students and how to improve my teaching. By improving my teaching, it will hopefully improve their experience in my classroom.       Through reviewing the blogs of my classmates, I really liked finding out about how everyone will apply tools differently in the classroom. I loved how people shared their ideas of using things such as Pinterest to benefit their classroom one day. By getting to see all the different ideas and opinions, I think it has broadened my view on the accessible tools I already have to help in the classroom. I've enjoyed being able to recognize new possible techniques and learn f...

    A flipped classroom is a newer trend in the educational world. This is where the typical idea of learning in the classroom and doing activities for homework is reversed. In a flipped classroom, students would learn the lesson at home through things such as podcasts, online videos, etc. Then when they come to school they will do activities and assignments related to what they have learned. This allows the more hands on activities and where you practice what you learned while the teacher is present. Here is a link to an article that discusses a flipped classroom more in depth: http://educationnext.org/the-flipped-classroom/      In the podcast we heard the terms open education, open content, and open source. Open education overall is making education easier to access for all. There are often a lot of limitations put on education and how to receive it. The goal of open education is to make getting it more achievable for everybody. Open content is w...

     There are a lot of PLN tools available for teachers to use. One PLN that I feel would be extremely useful is Pinterest. Pinterest would allow teachers to constantly gather new ideas about different things such as decorating classrooms to creating assignments. Pinterest will also aid in being creative because teachers are able to get inspiration from the things other teachers have done in their classrooms or are thinking about doing. The link to Pinterest is: https://www.pinterest.com/.      Another PLN that I believe is helpful to teachers is Facebook. Facebook allows you to join groups and see other people's posts. By joining a certain group you can communicate with people on certain topics and share ideas. Also, some things they might share may help in your classroom and advice you can give may help them in theirs. It is a tool that will help teachers keep open minds and be familiarized with different approaches they can take towards speci...

  Adaptive technology is used in various ways to help support learners. The usage of these technologies can range from reading things aloud, writing things through voice control, and many other helpful tools. A lot of tools such as tablets, Smart Boards, and computers now have these tools built in so that learning can be easier for students who may struggle with certain things. I personally do not have any experience with someone using an adaptive technology, but I do know of people who have said translation websites/ tools have been beneficial in their education.      While there are a lot of benefits to using adaptive technologies in classrooms, there are some struggles with using them as well. One main issue is accessibility. These tools can often be expensive and many schools do not have the funds to provide them. Also, you have to make sure that you provide these technologies for students in a fair way. If one student has access, other students that need ...

     My experience with using Twitter so far has been a pleasant one. Using the Twitter account, I created for this class is the first time I have actively used the site. I think Twitter can be a very positive thing and is a way to share ideas. You can get involved with a large variety of sites/people and it can really help expand your viewpoint on things. On the site you have the ability to learn the opinions of others, while being able to share yours at the same time. So far, I have not experienced anything negative while using Twitter.      I have acquired some new skills doing the web design assignment. To begin with, I can now create and design my own website. I feel this will be very helpful for me in my future career as a teacher. Not only do I now know how to create a website, I know skills that will help me make any website I create visually appealing and interactive. I like being able to have control over what the users of my webs...

    For my ILP, I decided to complete an interview with a teacher who has used technology in her classroom. This teacher's name is Nicole Lawhon and she is my aunt. The interview took place over the phone. While she is currently not teaching, she was an EBD teacher at Riversink Elementary. Her students varied in grades each year and she used technology a lot in her classroom.        One technological tool that was useful for Miss. Lawhon was using ClassDojo. This is similar to an app and it's where she could track her students individually or as a group. It records their behavior and is a point based system that the teacher controls. Not only was this program easy for her to use, ClassDojo also lets the parents see how their kids are doing. After discussing the program, I asked Miss. Lawhon if she would suggest using this program in my future classroom and she highly recommends it for all educators. After she began using it, she ended up being her s...