PowerPoint (Terrific)

     In my technology for teachers class, we were assigned to make a lesson plan using a PowerPoint. This PowerPoint was not supposed to be the traditional PowerPoints that so many of my peers and I have had in high school and in college courses. Instead of making slides with notes, we were to create a fun, interesting and interactive presentation that was used as a tool in the lesson, rather than using the PowerPoint as the lesson itself.
     
My PowerPoint:
My lesson plan was geared towards third graders and was supposed to be the opener to "spanish culture week". Because third graders know their colors and numbers by now, I thought this would serve as a good reinforcement for those things as well as an enrichment activity to teach my students about another culture. 
    
 We needed to include:

• An Anticipatory set: letting the students know what we would be working on/review of old and relevant materials
• Guided practice: interactive teaching/ practicing the material with the students
• Independant Practice: students work through the materials on their own
• Closure (exit slip): a summary of what we learned in the lesson

     The anticipatory set was a review of colors in numbers in English  This is simple and quick because the students have already mastered this. I used a PowerPoint that would be demonstrated at the front of the class in the guided practice to teach the students the names associated with colors and numbers in Spanish.

      I also made a separate PowerPoint that students would go through using computers at their desks. This PowerPoint included slides with colors and numbers, and audio that could be heard when the kids clicked on the pictures associated. This was my independent practice. 

    For the close of the lesson, the end of the teacher PowerPoint included slides that asked "what is rojo(or any other spanish color)". The children would volunteer to come to the smartboard and click on the color they thought was correct. I included hyperlinks to correct and incorrect slides. 

My opinion of this project:

   

     Although this project took a VERY long time and was difficulty to make, I thought it was an important lesson to have as future teachers. When I heard that we were going to have to do a PowerPoint, I groaned a little because of my previous experience with this program. I found them incredibly boring in high school and was not excited to make a boring lesson plan (especially since I will have to keep the attention of second or third graders some day.) But I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there are many cool things that can be done with a PowerPoint that are not so boring. My professor, Mr.Smith, provided us with an article that explains the right and wrong things to do when using PowerPoint as a teaching tool. His other resource also helped me in writing my objective for the lesson and to decide what I wanted the lesson to teach. 

    I believe that any PowerPoint used in the classroom (no matter what age group) should never be just narrative. It should be interactive, engaging, informative. The instructor or outside resources should be giving most of the information to the students, not the words on the slides. 

    

Two More for The Roll

I’ve found two more interesting blogs  to follow, both dealing with technology in the classroom.

The first one is through edweek.org This blog is titled Digital Education. It is written by two of the staff writers for Education Week (Katie Ash and Ian Quillen). The most recent post is about a survey. The survey asks parents and teachers if they think that technology will be important in the classroom over the next 10 years. The other posts also deal with technology in the classroom news and issues. The posts are all well written and easy to read. The only thing that I don’t really care for is that the blog is within the edweek website itself so the layout is kind of boring. If you are looking for strictly information however, this blog might be for you.

The second blog pertains to students and teachers a little bit more directly, as the author is the teacher of a technology for teaching class. Technology for Teachersis more of a personal blog than the first one I talked about. One of the posts is an explanation and description of smartboards, another is about google tools (I personally LOVE google, and all the amazing tools that it offers). The most recent post is an online book club this teacher provides for his students. The posts are filled with lots of links and outside resources to add extra information.

My Beliefs about Technology and Learning

I believe that technology can be a tremendous aid in teaching. Power points have become a regular method in many schools for giving information and notes. Prezi presentations are a more creative way for students to present a project. Smart boards provide many opportunities and are very versatile.  

A teacher can utilize technology in the classroom to make lessons more interesting, and engage students. What does not engage students, is a teacher who fumbles with their power point notes because they don't know how to open the file, or a professor who tries to give notes with a smartboard but doesn't know how to use one. 

Pauses during the lesson to fix the technology that can sometimes be full of glitches can distract students and break their focus during the class. That is why I believe it is very important that an instructor become very comfortable with the programs they are using in the classroom. This is especially relevant to me as an early childhood major. I won't be able to afford a 10 minute break to fix the computer, leaving all the students in the class without my full attention. Young children need to constantly be engaged and need to see the lesson as fun and interesting in order to keep their attention. 

Important to Me

Important to Me:

What is important to me?

I believe that the right teacher, can make any student successful, but how does a teacher change the way a student thinks about a subject (or perhaps their attitude about school all together)? The right teacher can help a struggling student do better. The right teacher can make a student who hated a subject, still do well in the class.

Through my own personal experience I know that this is possible. Growing up, I always hated math. I never understood it and my grades were always terrible. In my sophomore year, I braced myself for my Geometry class. I excepted to hate this class, as it was a math class. The teacher was Mr. Sanford. He taught the class in a way that made sense to me. He did the notes in a way that was organized differently from the other math teachers that I had. That class actually made sense to me. It also taught me something more important, and that was how I learn math best. The ways in which I can take a math class, and help myself learn. This is also the case in my Spanish classes throughout high school. The first Spanish class I took in ninth grade, I hated. I got by with a low C. I was forced (by the high schools requirements) to take another Spanish class. This class, I loved. I received an A in the class and it occurred to me that the reason I loved that class so much, was the teacher. Her notes, and her teaching methods made sense to me. I ended up taking four more years of Spanish and love it now. The point is, that because of the different style of teaching by this two teachers, I now have the tools I need to pass a math, or a Spanish class with just about any teacher. I know what works best for me and that is very important.

A good teacher is a teacher who can teach a lesson so that every child in the class will understand.

I can't learn math the same way the person sitting next to me can. I hope that when I am a teacher some day, I remember this. Things need to be explained several times, and in several different ways.

One of the most important things my high school did, was make me take several different Multiple Intelligences tests. These tests helped me to find out what ways of learning work best for me. They still help me today to study and take notes.

If you are a student and have not done this yet, I suggest taking a multiple intelligence test. It can help with studying and even taking notes in class. There are tons of free sites online that you can find to take them Here is one:

http://www.ldrc.ca/projects/miinventory/miinventory.php