26 January - Google 2

What?

This assignment had us create a class website to use for our classrooms. We were to make every page and add things that would be useful to our classroom.

So What?

This is an important tool to learn so that as a teacher, I can make my classroom and what I expect from the students readily available for parents. This is also a great tool to learn to help myself stay organized. Teaching requires a lot of work and acquiring many different resources. With several of these resources stored in this website, when I need to refer to them for a class project for me as a student they are ready to go and organized. All I would need to do is to adapt things to fit the class my assignments are for.

Now What?
This is a tool that I will most definitely use in my classroom. I just love the idea of having a central place that my students and their parents know where to look for assignments and updates and upcoming events. I would like to have a discussions tool on this like we have on blackboard. I think I would like to have online discussions as well. I also feel that this would be a good place to share ideas with other teachers. I think it's important that teachers that are teaching the same subject should be on somewhat of the same page in their lessons and what they expect from the students. I think that this tool would help me become a better teacher because I would be more organized, which is an important skill for a teacher.

19 January - Everything Google

What:

In this assignment we learn all about Google. Such as gmail, Google docs, Google calendar, and other Google tools.

So What:

This is an excellent tool that can be applied to all of my other classes. Both my education classes and my history classes. This gives me the opportunity to email professors when I am going to miss class or if I need to turn an assignment in after class hours. The calendar gives me the ability to schedule out my days and store them electronically and and take it with me with having caring a scheduling book with me. Several of the other applications that are available help me stay connected and up to date with important news. Technology like this is important to learn about because, I for one was not taught this information in high school so when I did decide to come back to college there were new technology that I knew nothing about but that I was expected to use. This new technology that keeps coming forward makes communication in general much easier.

Now What:

This new technology will make make it so much easier for my students to communicate. With not only me, as the teacher, but other students. I am a big fan of group work and I think that being able to use Google docs my students will be able to work on projects ans papers together. Being able to use this technology in my classroom I will be able to add more group work into my lesson plans. This will also make it easier to comment and critique their work and help them improve easier. This new technology will also be able to help my student have a better idea of knowing when an assignment is due. As far as working with my colleagues, being email each will not only allow us to share ideas that work in the classrooms and but to be able discuss students that are doing well and those that are having problems. This in turn will not only help the student succeed but help the teacher to be able to better help the students progress.

12 January - Educational Philosophy

Purpose of Education:
I believe that it is through education that the students will learn not only facts and figures but they will learn about themselves as well. Providing students with proper education will teach students how to think critically and form their own opinions. This will then in turn help students discover themselves in the process. Most importantly students will gain a wider knowledge bas which will be a good building foundation for further education.

Public Education Role:
I feel that the main role of public education is to give students the knowledge they will need for the future in a safe and educational diverse environment. Public education is a place for many students to congregate together with the same goal and purpose in mind. In a country as diverse as America really is, public education gives students an opportunity to, not only learn from the teachers but to learn from each other as well.

Views On Equal Opportunity:
The United States of America was fonded on the principals of freedom and liberty for all. With that comes the fact that all students regardless of race, color or creed are promised excellent and fulfilling education. Each public school has a responsibility and duty to provide the best education possible and to make any and all accommodations when needed.

Implications For The Future:
The future of education is so subjective. Look how far we have come in the last 100 years of education. It is my hope that we, as a society continue to learn and grow from our mistakes as well as our successes when it comes to educating our children. I have high hopes that we will be able to incorporate the constant involvement of new technologies and apply that to our teaching techniques.

Implications For Me As A Teacher:
My classroom will be one where the students are not singled out for being different, but are taught to embrace that difference and learn from it and embrace it. I plan to do my very best to include all types of cultures. Since I will be teaching history, I plan to include the different cultures in my lessons as much as possible. This will give the students an opportunity to learn from other student's cultures and backgrounds. The fact is is that student's do not all learn the same, so I think that it is important to involve different instruction methods to accommodate these different learners. In doing this it will also broaden the minds of the students in my class. This will stimulate their minds rather then doing the same thing in the same way. In turn making history come alive. Each student deserves a chance to learn the very most they can in an environment where they feel safe and are inspires to succeed, this is what I plan to create in my classroom.