Doing Something about Internet Safety

For the "doing" part of the internet safety assignment I talked to my mom about Internet Safety. 

Here are her thoughts about the Internet and how to use it safely:

What do you think of when I say internet safety:
• Identity Theft
o It is horrible.
 o Personal experience, when purse was stolen, had remember last check I had written. Was able to stop it. Police found purse.
o When they steal Social Security Number, hard to defend it.
o Don’t understand all the ways you can steal someone’s Identity. But it is bad.
o Credit can be affected, can run lives.

• Chat rooms: Go outside and meet a real person.

• SPAM: Hate it, get it all the time. Don’t know how I got on the list.  (I then explained that sometimes if you reply to spam, and "unsubscribe", that they  can sometimes get your

• Myspace: I think it is useful tool that can be misused by unsuspecting teens.
• Kids being stupid on Myspace, and giving away too much information and so forth.
o Don’t really know a lot about it.

• Facebook: It is awesome.

  o Great social networking tool, without being stuck face to face.  

• Cyber bullying: Think about the lady who impersonated a child, and said mean things          about a teenager on myspace, that the teenager committed suicide.

• What prophets and apostles have said about it:
o Can be used for good or bad, Need to get rid of addictions.

• Do you feel the internet is addictive?
o Yes, have a hard time going to bed, well, I’ll just check my e-mail. Or playing s

spider solitaire.

• What did you do before the internet?
o I wrote letters, I called the operator, I used phonebooks, I had encyclopedias.
       o Has society become lazier as a result of technological advances?

• Used to take children to library..research, now it’s all just clickty, click.
• I sure would hate to give it up.
• Text messaging:
o Think it is horrible and good at the same time.

• At schools, people used to talk to each other in the hallways, now it seems like everybody   is buried in their phones, miss scenery.

Lack of Human interaction.
• Good way to send message quickly, and not interrupt people.
• Less intrusive someways.

• Twitter:
o Don’t understand the whole thing.
o Seems more inane, who cares?
o Facebook is more personal.
o Time waster. Not interacting with people.

• Overall, has technology has made our lives better?
o Yes.

• Do you think it has separated our families physically, mentally, emotionally?
o Not personally, but I can see how it might.
o Mentally: Socially Isolating. Spend hours online.

• Do you think that the popularity of video games has decreased with the expansion of the    internet. (versus online gaming increasing)
o Yes, games are free online, you have to buy a gaming system…etc.

• Passwords: Do you know how to keep them safe?
• Not really (I then gave her some tips on how to make her password safe, like capitalizing, using numbers, and maybe using symbols.)

What I Learned After Class Presentations

One of the technologies that I learned about was the use of the SmartBoard. I wasn't really sure what it, was, but now I know what it is. It seems like it is more than just an interactive whiteboard, but a valuable learning tool. The presentation that I saw helped the students learn about dipthongs, and paired pictures with the words they were working with. This could possibly help English Language Learners, and many other students. I hope that the schools that I work with are equipped with a SmartBoard.

I also learned about the value of finding quizzes and other things online and using them in the classroom. The presentation that I saw emphasized the value of finding valuable resources on the internet and implementing them in various lessons. There are so many good resources on the internet that can help enhance lessons and help teachers stay in touch with the ever advacing technological age.

Slideshare Reactions

After watching the different slideshare presentations I feel inspired to used technology more in the classroom. I felt like while I was in the practicum, I HAD to use technology in order to fulfill a technology quota. However, I found that as I used technology in the lesson, it made the lesson easier. The students really liked using the Promethean Board, and actually wanted to learn more, and learned more efficiently because they were actively participating. I hope that I will be able to be as creative as some of the slideshare presentations I saw, and that I will be able to use technology in the classroom. I also hope that I will be at a school that has a lot of technology that I can use in my classroom. 

Internet Safety Reading

What article did you choose to read for your fourth article? Fighting Internet Filth by Mario Hipol

What were the most important things you learned from the readings? I learned that I should not be afraid of letting my students use the internet. If I am well informed, and can inform my students about being safe, then they will be. 

How will what you have read influence your actions as a parent and/or teacher of children and youth? I will use the suggestions given in the article to educate myself, and my students about being safe. There are a lot of really good suggestions for what to do when teaching children what to do about internet safety. 

How can you use what you have learned from the reading to have a positive influence on family and friends? This article gave real life tips that can be used to help protect the family from the bad things that can be found on the internet. Although the article is mainly for parents, it can be applied to teachers as well. By having an open dialogue between parents/teachers and children/students about the safe things one can do while on the internet, a positive environment can be created. 

Some of the tips from the article are: 

Monitor what sites have been visited on your computer.

Use an Internet filtering tool

Teach your children to use favorites or bookmarks.

Teach your children to use credible search engines.

Use a pop-up blocker on the Internet.

Teach your children to be cautious in downloading free software from the Internet

Teach your children not to use free peer-to-peer or chat-based programs to download material.

Teach your children not to open spam e-mail.

Discourage your children from visiting chat rooms.

There is even a glossary in the article with certain terms that a parent, or even some teachers might not know

Glossary:

Browser: A program that allows users to navigate and view pages on the World Wide Web. Two common browsers are Explorer and Netscape, but there are many others.

Chat room: An online forum where users can communicate with each other in real time.

Instant messaging: Exchanging messages in real time between two or more computer users.

Internet service provider (ISP): The service you subscribe to for Internet access.

Search engine: An online service that enables you to find information in Web pages on the Internet by searching for specific words or phrases.

URL: Uniform resource locator, or the address of a Web page.

Virus: A program designed for malicious purposes to “infect” and disrupt the normal functioning of a computer.

I thought that this article was very informative and I feel a little bit more computer savvy after reading the article.  I feel like I will be a more effective teacher, and parent. 

To read the entire article, please visit this link.

Pizza Fraction Math

Pizza Fraction Math

View more presentations from amineer.

Technology Used in a Lesson...

I used the promethean board to teach the students about contractions. First I modeled how to change two words into a contraction, and explained the rules of contractions.  

Then I had some sample sentences up on the board with words that needed to be turned into contractions like: are not, did not, should not, does not. A student would come up to the promethean board and underline the words that need to be turned into a contraction. 

Underneath the sentences there was a correct and incorrect version of what the contraction should look like. I covered up the contractions and then when it was time to choose the contractions, the students uncovered them. The apostrophe was in the correct place in one example, an in the incorrect place in the other. The student chose which one they thought was correct. Some of the choices were: are'nt and aren't,  doesn't and does'nt, should'nt and shouldn't. 

Then I gave the students a packet with different exercises to test their knowledge of contractions. 

Lesson teaching contractions, while using technology...

To introduce this lesson, I used a promethean board. I had sentences with words that needed to be turned into a contractions. After a student came up to the board, we figured out which words needed to be turned into a contraction. Then there were two different options for how the word should be written (An example of this is are'nt and aren't).  The student then would choose which one they thought is the correct answer. 

After the students understand what a contraction is, and where the apostrophe goes, they are given a packet to practice on their own. However, before they start to work on the packet, we will go over the directions, and also do the first problem together. Then the students will work on the packet until they are done.  

Technology in my classroom...

When I first arrived at Spring Creek Elementary school, I was not quite sure what to expect, technology wise. However, I was quite surprised by the amount of technology that was in the classroom. The teacher has a microphone that hangs around her neck and amplifies her voice, so she doesn't have to  yell to get the attention of the students. There are also 6 computers that the students use during the different centers, or if they get their work done early. 

My favorite thing in the class is the promethean board. It is like an interactive whiteboard, that allows the teacher to have lesson pre-prepared, and not have worry about management problems when your back is turned and you are writing on the white board. You can prepare your worksheets, and other things for you lesson. You do not have to worry about using an overhead projector and overhead sheets, because everything is organized on the computer! It is amazing. 

I had the chance to use the promethean board while reviewing vocabulary, for me it was more fun than just handing out a worksheet while the students worked on vocabulary at their desks. This allowed me to be more interactive with all of the students at once, and not have them yelling out, asking questions. It was magnificent!

Link to Virtual Tour

Here is the link to the America's Expansion Virtual Tour I created on GoogleEarth.

TPACK for Virtual Tour

What is the content you’ll be using in your lesson?
The content I will be using is:
Standard 4
Students will understand that the 19th century was a time of incredible change for the United States, including geographic expansion, constitutional crisis, and economic growth.

Objective 1
Investigate the significant events during America's expansion and the roles people played.

What is the pedagogy you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content?
I will be teaching the students about significant evens during the expansion of America, including the expansion of the railroad, and key places along the path in America's expansion.

What is the technology you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy?
I will be using GoogleEarth and other various websites in order for the students to complete this assignment. 

Virtual Tour Plan

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1. Manifest Destiny	The students will go to the designated website and learn  about the manifest destiny by completing a fantastic worksheet.	The students will use the GoogleEarth tool that lets them measure the distance from coast to coast. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_Destiny
2. Lousiana Purchase	The students will learn about this significant  land purchase that  increased the size of the United States.	The students will look United States and how the Louisiana Purchase increased the size of the U.S. and how it compares to what the U.S. looks like today.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase
3. First Transcontinental Railroad	The students will look at the designated website    and complete the  questions on the website.	The students will measure the distance between  Omaha and Sacramento, where the railroad is, on GoogleMaps.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcontinental_railroad
4. Promontory Point	The students will look at a website and look at the important role that promontory point plays in the transcontinental railroad, while completing a worksheet.	The students will use GoogleMaps to locate promontory point, and learn more about the Golden Spike. http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/rail.html
Details of image overlay / path / polygon: The students will use Google maps to identify different historical points on the map.

Kenn Nesbitt I Wrote Myself A Letter

TPACK for Storyboard

What is the content you’ll be using in your lesson?
For this lesson, we will be using the third grade language arts Standard 1, which is:

Standard 1
Oral Language-Students develop language for the purpose of effectively communicating through listening, speaking, viewing, and presenting.

Objective 1
Develop language through listening and speaking.

Objective 2
Develop language through viewing media and presenting.

What is the pedagogy you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content?

The pedagogy will be interwoven with the technology as we illustate poems and stories. They will narrate their own stories in their movie. They will have an opportunity to to merge english, art, and technology in this lesson.

What is the technology you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy?

 The children will choose a poem that they want to illustrate and make into a movie. They will be creating a storyboard with paper and pencil, from the poem or story that they chose to illustrate. Then they will be illustrating their stories using power point, or if they want to, they can use art supplies to illustrate their stories (and scan in their illustrations). Once the story is illustrated they will then create a movie, using either powerpoint or iMovie. 

Storyboard for I Wrote Myself a Letter By Kenn Nesbitt

Here is storyboard we created for Kenn Nesbitt's poem, I Wrote Myself a Letter.

Page 1:

Page 2:

Page 3:

TPCK Application

What is the content you are focusing on in your science lesson?

In our science lesson, we focused on Standard 3, Objective 1 which is about rocks and minerals. 

What is the pedagogy you are using and why is it a good fit with the content?

In this lesson we are focusing on critical thinking skills about how the salt and sugar mix with water. It is important for the students to be able to think about what they are learning, and why they get the results that they do. 

What is the technology you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy?

In this lesson, we used the electronic microscope to view the sugar and salt crystals and capture video of the water being dropped onto the salt and sugar. 

The Tech Savy Teacher

I can remember a time in school when it was time to use a microscope. Our groups would have  to crowd around the microscope just to see what was on the slides. It was a long and arduous task.  In this class, we had the opportunity to use technology for a science class. 

The digital microscope is a great tool to use in the 

classroom. It allows the teacher to capture video 

or pictures of an object as it is being observed.  The microscope is connected to a computer, and the image is then shown on the screen for multiple people to see.  

This is an example of an experiment that was done using the digital microscope.

This experiment is designed for the 4th grade science 

class using Standard 3, Objective 1.

We predicted what we thought the salt would look like under the microscope.
We predicted what the sugar would look like under the microscope.
We predicted whether the salt or the sugar would dissolve first when mixed with water.
We observed salt under the microscope.We observed sugar under the microscope.
We noted the difference between the sugar and salt crystals
We added warm water to the salt and observed it dissolving.

We added warm water to the sugar and observed it dissolving.

We compared the difference in how fast the salt dissolved and how fast the sugar dissolved.

We looked at our predictions and compared it to our observations.

These are pictures of some salt crystals we observed:

We used salt from this packet for this particular experiment:

This is a view of the crystals at 60 times the magnification:

 

These are the salt crystals at 100 times the magnification:

This is a picture at 60 times magnification of water dropped on the salt:

Here is an amazing video of water being dropped onto some salt:

We used the sugar from the Sour Patch kids bag for this particular experiment:

This is a view of the sugar at 60 times magnification:

This is a view of the sugar at 100 times magnification:

This is a view of the water and the sugar at 60 times magnification:

Here is an awesome video of water being dropped onto sugar:

All in all, this was an excellent experiment that I think students will enjoy!

Kidsperation....truly inspirational!

Kidsperation is an excellent interactive tool for children to use. It allows students to learn about different subjects with a hands-on approach. 

Logger Pro is the way to go!

I really enjoyed using Logger Pro in class today to measure the temperature of the water. 

(Yes, I was fascinated by measuring the temperature of a cup of water).  I never would have thought to challenge the class to make a W, M, or even an O in the Logger Pro program. It really got everybody in the class to think about what they were doing and how to make the different shapes. As the class was learning while using these "hands-on" methods it made learning more fun.

TPACK is right on track...

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge is a very interesting way to approach education. I think that it is an excellent idea to integrate specific things you know (content), how you teach what you know (pedagogy), and technology together. As TPACK is used in the classroom, the students will be immersed in what they are learning, and in return will understand what they are learning even more. 

RSS Feed and Web 2.0

This week in class I learned about RSS feeds and Web 2.0.

After watching same informational videos in class I learned that Web 2.0 is a new kind of internet. It allows users to interact with the internet by being able to manipulate different web pages by editing them (wikipedia) and adding pictures (blogs). 

At first I didn't really know what RSS was. Then after learning that it means Really Simple Syndication, I learned how to link other web pages to a certain web page (like a blog). I also learned how to go to a website and see if it has an RSS feed, subscribe to that feed and then add the RSS feed to a blog.  

I think that using blogs and even a wiki in the classroom is a wonderful way to keep parents and students informed about happenings in the classroom. I think I could also use an RSS feed to link a blog to other educational websites that my students could use.  

My Memories of Technology...

Technology...oh how you have changed me over the years. I have always grown up using computers in school and at home. 

As a youngster, I loved playing Oregon Trail, Math Blaster and other educational computer games. 

As I have grown up, I have used technology to write papers, create power points, and for a year and a half, I used technology to make and edit hilarious movies, as a film student. 

Now, as a future teacher, I have the opportunity to be a better teacher by knowing how to understand and implement technology in the classroom.