Computers..........

Ok so I went home for spring break and I was talking to my cousins about school. My little cousin was telling me about how she loves to beat this litle boy on the computer by playing a math game. She was telling me that she had to enter a password to compete against the other boy, but he wouldn't let anybody tell her the password because she was the only one that could come close to beating him.I thought that was so cute. Then I went on to ask her if the computers were in the back of the room, but she gave me this smart alaic "no". She told me they all had laptops at their desks. I was in utter shock. Then she came came back to say that they had to share them sometimes. I was like OMG. When I was in grade school I had computers, but they were so old and there was only one or two in a classroom. I guess its a new generation. I have to get up with the reality of technology in classrooms lol. The other fact that I was shocked at was that she is only in 3rd grade, so I could only imagine the technological tools they have in the high school! I feel like that if I had more training in elementary school, I would be more prepared for this technology boom lol.

Websites

I loved that we had to make a website for class but I had a hard time finding a site that was easy for me to use. I first tried weebly and that was so bad.Then I tried bravenet and that was even worse. They both had templates for websites but I couldn't figure out how to use them or even change anything in them. I was like thank God when I found freewebs. That site was so easy and fun to use. When I was making my website for class, I just wanted to make a website about so many things. They had such great templates to choose from that were so cute. When making this website I felt like I actually knew what I was doing on the computer and doesn't happen very often haha. I feel like I am getting better at this whole technology thing.
In class today I loved the clickers. When we were using them, all I could think about was that I wanted to use them in one of my lessons for a methods class. I feel that not a lot of students used them before and it would be a great way to assess the students before a test. I could even make it into a game for the students. I feel that they would love it because it is something new and they don't have to be afraid to answer in class anymore because nobody knows who answered what. I am just so excited to use them in the classroom.

Excel

I was always afraid of Excel. I would go open and then shut it really fast. It just looked so complicated to me. Last semester I had to take a Physics lab and we had to use Excel. We were in lab groups, so there was always someone that knew how to use it so I was safe. In high school I never had a computer class so therefore never knew how to use it. One would think that I would have to use it in Chemistry, but nope never used it there either. When I was a senior in high school I took Physics. In the begining of the year I thought I would need to use the computer in someway or another, but it was the first year teaching physics for my teacher so there was no way she would have ventured onto the computer for experiments. I feel that if I was taught Excel or if I had the courage to struggle through it, it would have been very benefical to me in college.
Being introduced to Excel was great. Once someone walked me through it it wasn't that bad. I just wish I learned it earlier, so I didn't feel like I was missing something in my classes. I would have never thought to use Excel for anything other then charts or graphs, until we did those Excel worksheets. I am a person that loves numbers and I live by them. Everything in my life deals with numbers. I know that might be a little weird but I am a math major what do you expect haha. The magic square was a great application of Excel. I will use that in my class room, I know it. There are just so many different things you can do in Excel and I am happy that I am not afraid!!!

SmartBoard

I never knew what a Smartboard was until I came to Albright. I first heard about it in my Communication Skills class last year. Some one in my class gave a speech on how to use the Smartboard. I was so interested because it was so different. It was a great tool to use in the classroom. There is so many things you could do that would keep the students interested in the lesson. The next time I heard about it was in my Math and Methods course. We were briefly shown how to use it, and it was a learning experience for me. Two students in my class did lessons on the Smartboard and the lessons were great. The one lesson was on fractions and I loved it. The student was using pictures and so many other visuals. The students in the class even got to come up to the Smartboard and use it. I am 20 and I loved going to use it. Since that lessson I began to love the Smartboard. Being a student sitting in a math classroom is boring and the Smartboard can make it fun and interesting. If students are taught on a Smartboard they are more likely to retain the information. Who ever came up with the idea of a interactive white board is amazing. I know that if we had interactive white boards in my elementary school it would have been great.
Being a math teacher is not going to be easy. I know that math is hated by many and can come off as boring. I need as many different learning tactics as I can get. The Smartboard is going to be a great tool for me to use in a classroom and if the school doesn't have one, I will request one haha. I might not get it at first but sonner or later I might. It is a great to use in all areas of teaching, not just math. The sky is the limit with an interactive white board.

PDA

So I never thought you could use a PDA in the classroom. I thought a PDA was just a phone and a calendar. I guess I am not up on the lingo of technology. Now that I know what a PDA I am very interested in how students in the classroom can use it. Well Libby's article was talking about how they use it in reading and taking notes and everything, but to me that can be a little confusing to some students. I know that most schools won't just give the students the PDA's and tell them to use it, they will give them a crash course on how to use it. The thing that has me wondering is when the students are taking notes, doesn't it take them a longer time to do that. I mean what if the students are not that good with typing or writing on the screen, don't they tend not to be able to keep up with the notes. I think it is great that schools are introducing all different types of technology into the class room but with the PDA's I feel that the students have to become very familiar with the PDA's before they use it in a classroom setting. Now I don't know if all the school's are making sure that all the students know how to use a PDA effectively before using it to help students in the classroom, but there are schools that are. I am not against the PDA, but when I use it in the class I am going to make sure that every student knows how to use it effectively, because I know I would be the kid that wouldn't tell the teacher that I didn't know how to use it just because I would feel embarrassed.

O technology

I didn't have publisher on my computer and I needed to do the productivity lab, so I had to find someone that did. It turned out that my roommate had it, but she had the 2007 version. I was like, I will be fine, it won't be that much different. Well to my surprise it was, well at least to me it was. I was so confused. But once I sat there for a little while and played around with it, it wasn't that bad. I got curious, so I went on to the Word Version 07. The word version was so much different. They had all the tool bars at the top of the page, and you could switch them if you wanted to. I had such a hard time when it came to saving my paper on a usb drive and when I had to print my paper. I had to go to help tool and search for a while to see how to print and save. It is the same program but you just have to adjust to its changes. I guess that is how it is with every program though. When they come out with a new version, they are just trying to make the program better and more useful for the users. Once I get used to it it I will probably feel that it is much better, but for now it is still a little tricky.

WORD

I thought I knew all there was to know on Microsoft Word and all the other Microsoft programs, but I don't haha. This past week we learned about Word and I learned so much. I just wish I took this class at the beginning of college. There were so many things we covered that would have helped me. We learned to make two coloums and how to add a picture with the words wrapping around them. I thought that those two concepts are really good to know. Being an Education major, knowing how to use word and publisher are so important. I now feel that I can make some of my projects look so much better. Before all my projects looked boring, but now I can go back and change a lot. I never knew that word could be so complex. It probably shows you how to use all the features that we learned this week in the manual, but honestly who reads the manual (its just to long and boring lol).