Wednesday, January 28, 2009

How I can use UEN resources in my classroom and for my first lesson plan

I think UEN will be a great resource to use in my classroom and for my first lesson plan. For my lesson plan, it's so convenient that the structure and the format of the lesson plan are already built into UEN. I love that you just have to fill it in as you go, and just create a lesson about a topic. I love technology for this exact reason, because it makes things we have to do as teachers so much easier.

I'm really excited to use Pioneer Library. I love that there are so many resources to use right there all together. I think the news websites and Preschool Pioneer will be the resources I will definitely use the most. I'm doing a duel major-Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education-so I know I will use the preschool resource. I really haven't had to develop a lot of in depth lesson plans, so I think this will help me so much while I'm learning how to create lesson plans.

I will use these same resources once I am a teacher and needing to find information in my classroom. I think it'll be so cool to continue to develop lesson plans. I think it'll motivate me to develop new, exciting lesson plans instead of always using the lessons plans that I've used the year before. I will also definitely use the Wimba classroom management chat feature. I always loved when we would have guest speakers in class. It just made the day more interesting and it broke up the monotony of the normal school day. Now, it's not even essential that the guest speaker is in the classroom, they can be anywhere in the world. I think this is so neat, and a very, very cool way to show children how advanced and global technology really is.

Friday, January 16, 2009

How I would use blogging in my classroom

I'm taking an Instructional Technology class for Elementary School teachers and one of our assignments was to create a blog and write weekly posts on it. I've never had a blog, or a Facebook account for that matter, so this could be interesting and definitely a learning process!
Our first assignment was how we might use blogging in our classroom. I think blogging could be a very effective tool that a teacher could use for a classroom. I would use a blog in my classroom to allow students to get feedback on their work, or post an assignment or project that they are especially proud of. Most elementary school students are very technological savvy, so why not teach them technology in school and help them become better at using it so they can use it for the rest of their life? I think that something like this would be so fun for children. They LOVE getting on the computer and playing around and learning new things. They love the idea that they get to play and use something that adults use, or that they've seen their older siblings use.
I also think a blog would be a good motivation for students to get their assignments and projects done. Instead of having "paper homework" like normal, they get to use the computer and do something different.
I think this would work to do a blog in a classroom, but the teacher would have to be very cautious about how they go about using it and how they teach the students to use it. Children don't think about safety, and that there might be people out there that want to hurt them. There would have to be a lot of instruction on keeping kids safe, and how they can post things about themselves and their school projects without really telling people too much about themselves or their family.