Tech Savvy Teacher

Tech Savvy Teacher

An effective teacher knows how to use the resources surrounding him or her. Technology is one of the greatest tools a teacher can use as it is constantly growing providing new opportunities. It is a way to reach all students in new and creative ways and provides hands on experiences to help master the subject. An example of this technology is using Kidspiration. We chose 4th grade standard 5 objective 2: Describe the common plants and animals found in Utah environments and how these organisms have adapted to the environment in which they live.
Our first step in this process was to identify common plants and animals found in different habitats in Utah. These habitats were wetlands, forests, and deserts. We use an activity on Kidspiration where students selected animals and plants and had to put them in the correlating habitat. This allowed them to brainstorm different possible environments familiar animals live in. Then next task was to create their own web of plants and animals found in the three habitatsin Utah.

After completing the brainstorm activity of the different characteristics. The teacher does a mini lesson where she or he talks about the different habitats and what lives in each. To assess the students learning we have them go back to the Kidspiration and have them write specific animals characteristics that allow particular plants and animals to live in specific environments.This technology helped students predict and classify different plants and animals into specific environments found in Utah. Kidspiration allowed students to participate using their hands and acts as a visual representation of what they are studying.

Angie Jack, Christina Murray, and Alesha Abrahamson

This is a picture of the habitat where children added different plants to each habitat.

This is the picture of children adding different animals to each habitat.

Students then create a bubble chart with the different habitats found in Utah.

Then the children put different animals, plants, and types of weather that go with each habitat.  They find pictures of each to put with the different habitats.

The assessment for this activity is having the children write why certain animals belong in specific habitats.  For example a duck can live in the wet lands because they have webbed feet.

Technology I Explored

One technology I explored in class today was using a digital microscope that can plug into the computer. By plugging it into the computer the image on the microscope now appears on the computer. Once the image was on the screen you could use the computer to take pictures of it and record video footage of it.

TPACK

TPACK stands for technological pedagogical and content knowledge. It is basically using technology to use and help support content in specific areas using pedagogical methods and strategies to teach it. Teachers can teach with just certain parts of like technological and content or with just content. It is best for a teacher to use TPACK when teaching though. It is important for teachers to have this knowledge because teachers can then analyze how they teach and use this knowledge to help fix and adjust their teaching styles. For teachers it is important to be able to have content knowledge on what they are teaching and they also need to have pedagogical knowledge of how to best teach to their students. Finally if a teacher can use technology to help support these other two types of knowledges then the children might become more interested in what they are learning and most technologys will help make teaching easi

IPandT 301 Quiz 2 Questions

1. The ability to apply culturally approved problem solving methods is?
A. Fulid Intelligence
B. Emotional Intelliegence
C. Crystalized Intelligence
D. Automaticity

2. What type of knowledge is more likely to be learned during everyday life than through formal schooling?
A. Practical Knowledge
B. Tactic Knowledge
C. Learned Knowledge
D. Insight

3. What are behavioral objectives?
A. Intended learning outcomes.
B. Objectives ought to describe what students will be doing when demonstrating their achievement ahd how teachers will know they are doing it.
C. Instructional objectives stated in terms of higher-level thinking operations
D. As a group, teachers develop, test, improve, and retest lessons until they are satisfied with the final version.

Answers: 1:C 2:B 3:B

IP and T 301 First Reflection

Learning to Make Calzones
For my task I chose to make Calzones. A calzone is basically a stuffed pizza, but the toppings are in the inside and the pizza dough or crust is on the outside. I was trying to learn to make Calzones from scratch. This included making my own pizza crust dough, my own sauce, and then preparing and cutting the toppings I was going to put in it.
In my family we all love eating Calzones. I had never made them before, but saw my mom make them. Since I loved them so much I decided it was time I learned. I first called my mom and got the recipe from her. She explained it to me in detail and gave me some tips on how to roll out the dough and how the sauce should be made more to my individual taste than following the recipe. I then went shopping for all the ingredients I would need. I decided to make my first calzones Sunday for myself and a few friends. I thought I would be able to make them from following the recipe and then calling my mom if I needed additional help.
I spent most of Sunday afternoon making the dough and letting it rise. Once the dough had risen enough, I made the sauce and started cooking it. I then prepared the pineapple, ham, sausage, cheese, and olives that would go inside the calzone. Now I started rolling out the dough. I called my mom to get advice on this and she said this would be the tricky part. You didn’t want to use too much flour, and you had to roll the dough pretty thin, but not to thin that it would rip when you folded them. I struggled with rolling out the dough and had to practice it a few times before I got a calzone that I thought would work.
Basically my first attempt at making calzones failed. I didn’t make the dough right or didn’t roll it out enough because the calzones were really puffy and were not able to cook fully. Since there was so much dough, the tops and bottoms were burnt, but the insides were still doughy. My friends said the sauce and ingredients inside tasted well. I needed to work on the dough though. I was glad that the sauce turned out well, but very disappointed that the dough or crust hadn’t turned out. Since the crust wasn’t good it kind of ruined the whole calzone. I felt like I had wasted my time and money on this dinner because it was ruined in the end. I was about to give up here when I decided to try making them one more time.
After one failed attempt, I called my great aunt who lives nearby and asked her to show me how to make them. She is the one who taught my mom to make them. I knew that I needed someone to walk me through how to make them if I was going to learn to make them successfully. On Tuesday night she came over to my apartment and helped me make the dough this time and roll out the dough. This time the calzones turned out really well. Not only did I learn that I was using too much flour and I needed to roll my dough thinner, but that my oven cooks things to fast and needed to be turned down.
I discovered that I learn best when I have someone there to show me first and then I can practice with them before doing it on my own. I was so confident at first that I could make them from simply reading the recipe and then was proven wrong. I think I had become to overconfident in myself and that I wouldn’t need help. Finally when I realized that I have always learned best by being shown first, I called my aunt to show me how to make them. Once I was shown how to do it, I was able to do it on my own.
I think it would have been most helpful to my style of learning to have had someone demonstrate first and then let me try. I should have at least had someone there to help me in case I did mess up or make sure I was doing it correctly.

Web 2.0 and RSS

I learned that RSS is a tool is a family of web feed formats that are used to update you on certain sites about what is happening on that site and the newest news or updates on that cite. As a future teacher I can use RSS to give me update on educational websites like NASA or even my GoodReads account. I learned that their are many different kinds of Web 2.0 tools out there that can be used. The ones we learned to use in class are delicious and goodreads. Web 2.0 tools can save a future teacher a lot of time and energy. I can have all websites that I find important in my delicious account and can access them all easily from there.

My Technology Background

I do not have a lot of technology background.  I guess I have the basic background that you are taught in high school and college.  I know how to use the internet and many features of Web 2.0, many features of Microsoft like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, I also know how to use adobe, and many other basic features of a computer like itunes, watching movies on the computer, and editing and adding photos to my computer.  I am hoping I will be able to learn more about computer technology in this class.