Adaptive Technologies

Adaptive Technologies
1. It is very important to keep the students learning styles in mind when planning instruction. Some students are visual learners while others learn better when they hear something. Every student has their own mind and their way of thinking. With Oscar having difficulty seeing, Marilyn could have assigned him to something that he could listen to on tape with his report. Oscar is probably stronger at listening then he is seeing something considering it being hard for him to read. Also something that could be useful for the students to learn is to find a video that relates to the topic that the teacher is discussing.
2. Marilyn wanted to incorporate some yearlong learning results so that she could evaluate each student’s progress. An idea would be to keep a copy of each story that the child wrote for that year and at the end of the year put it in a folder for them to take home and share with their parents. The teacher, parents, and even the students will be able to see the progress of their writing from the first story of the year to the last story. I loved the way that she wanted to incorporate picture books. This is also a great idea because even though some students can read it might be hard for them to comprehend what they are saying so by using picture books it helps them to see what they are actually reading.
3. Marilyn thought that it would be a great idea for the children to create their own “Eric Carle” and each child would have a “moral of the story”. I think that having a “moral of the story” is an excellent idea because it will help the students have respect for themselves and others. She read the book out loud to the students so that together they could discuss the characters, setting, problem, solution, and virtue exhibited by the characters. When the teacher does a class discussion and all of the students get a chance to answer then it gets all of the students’ minds running with ideas.
4. When I visit a website I like for the website to be very eye catching. Webquest such as CPS was not very eye catching so it was hard for me to be interested in it. I also like for a website to be user friendly and I did not find CPS to be very user friendly. I had to click on several different links just to find what I was looking for. Maybe if I had found a different Webquest to go to then I would have liked it more.
5. There were three benefits that the students gained from being included in Oscar’s small group. They learned how to map out the graphic organizer with each story that they read and Oscar’s conception was right there with the other students. The students used the whisper-reading that they were taught and found that it was useful for reading out loud, and the speech synthesis also seemed to be a great success.
6. I think by working with Juanita it helped him a greatly, but there is so much technology being used for students just like Oscar. Oscar found it very helpful by having one on one time and that does help students when the teacher takes time away from everyone else and focuses on that one student. I think that even though Oscar has a hard time seeing he will understand and grasp the concepts.
7. Marilyn shared with the class the video to help them to see and visualize. She then let the students finger paint colored papers with texture on newsprint. Finally the students resulted in iMovies of books created, written, illustrated, and read by them. By using the video it helped the visual learners. The finger paint was a great way for the students to use hands on to help them learn and by letting the students create iMovies it helped their brains to explore and to learn.

Short Story

The Moth
Once upon a time there was a gray moth. The moth was very upset because he was gray and could not understand how a butterfly could be so beautiful and colorful as he was stuck being gray. So one day he decided that he was going to find some color. He went up to a fox and started to rub on the fox thinking that it would turn him orange. So he rubbed and rubbed but nothing happened. The moth was very upset. Then he decided to some lay on the grass hoping that it would turn him green. So he rubbed and rubbed but still nothing happened. The moth started to cry. He thought to himself, “I wish I was colorful and pretty like the butterfly.” He went home to tell his mother his plan of becoming beautiful like the butterfly. She was upset because she loved him just the way he was and was upset that he wanted to change. She told him that he had a purpose in life, and that God made him special just the way he was. Even though he might not have had the most vivid color on the outside, he was beautiful on the inside and that was what counted. After their talk, he realized that he was beautiful just the way he was and never wanted to change his color again.

Cramberry.net

I found that Cramberry.net would be a great website for the teachers to use with their students. My flashcards are desgined for English classes. The students are to correct the sentences by adding commas, conjuctions, and capital letters. This would also be a great way for the teacher to cut down on the use of paper for running off study guides. It takes the student to actually get online out of their own time to study for the test. The only disadvantage of this would be for those students that do not have access to computers, but this is something that I would definatley use in my future classroom. A week or so before the test, during class, each child will be assigned to go on to cramberry.net to study for the test. This way if they do not have time to study at home or if they do not have access to computers at least they will have some study time.

Technology in Early Edcuation

I think using technology in early edcuation is a great idea. Not only for the teachers but also for the students. Computers is a great source of technology to use. At my preschool every wednesday a lady comes to show the children the keys on the keyboard and just has some fun games and activities for them to do. If three and four year olds are interested and being introduced to computers now imagaine what they will be like when they are in the second and third grade. Computers are a part of everyday life. It is very important for the children to learn how to use one. In public schools today the schools have designed a way for the parents to go online and to see what grades their children are making because the teachers will post them up online for every assignment turned in. That way the parent knows how their child is doing in school, so when the report card comes then they already know what to expect.

Reference: Issues in Digital Technology in Education/Computers in the Early Childhood Classroom. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Issues_in_Digital_Technology_in_Education/Computers_in_the_Early_Childhood_Classroom

Teacher's Website

My teacher website is based on learning games to use in the classrooms. I am a preschool teacher and as I already know from teaching and observing other classes I have found that students become easily bored so my website is designed to have fun while also learning the lesson for that day. This website is for preschool to first grade. On my first page I have different activties that you can use in your classroom. For instance, counting, a teacher can use m&ms to count. Give the students a handful of m&ms and ask them to count to see how many they have, then once they count them tell the teacher how much and then eat them =). Senses test- For it you would blind fold the child and have 3 to however many items you would like to have and then place one item in the child's hand at a time to see if they can guess what it is. Of course the teacher would have to tell the students which objects they can eat and which ones that cannot. They will use thier senses by tasting touching the objects. A teacher could help their students to learn their letters by flashcards. Having two students together to try to guess the letter the one that wins gets a prize. I have found when you use treats in a classroom everyone wants to join in and they usually get the answer right 99% of the time.

Go Green

Here is what I have so far. Our idea for the Go Green project is for USM to offer a smoking cessation program for students, faculty and staff. According to a report by the Tobacco Control Unit of the National Cancer Institute, smoking produces 10 times more air pollution than a diesel engine. (Invernizzi) The following report comes from an article for Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada and it states: “Chemical emissions from cigarettes were found to be comparable to pollutants released from industry. In fact, emissions of certain chemicals from cigarettes are higher than those from industries normally considered to be major polluters, such asthe petroleum or mining industry!” A stop smoking program offered through the university would be a big help to the environment, students, faculty, and staff. “A national survey of U.S. public universities reported that 70.0% have some type of smoking cessation program offered through student health insurance, but few offer the comprehensive services of counseling, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), and education (TTAC). In addition the consortium also states that 30% of college students are current tobacco users. To put that in cold, hard numbers, as of Spring 2009 there were 13,541 students enrolled at USM that means that of students ALONE 4,062 are smokers (Institutional Research). This does not include faculty and staff. Cost is not overly prohibitive. We found costs ranging from $2550.00 to $6000.00 and those costs were primarily for brochures, quitkits and promotional materials as well as some incentive awards. If the university were to offer a stop smoking program this would benefit all considered. We would clean up our environment by not polluting it with the poisonous toxins found in cigarette smoke and the waste caused by the cigarettes themselves and they would be helping those who do smoke kick a nasty habit and possibly help save thousands of lives.

I Phone; Good Idea or Not?

The I phone was used for several different purposes. In my opinion if they were a freshman in college this could be a very useful tool for them. I know when I first started college, especially going to a new school, it is so easy to get lost. The I phone uses a navigation system just like a GPS would be in your car except on your I phone it shows you exactly where you need to go without getting lost =). I also thought that the availability to check to coarse calendar would be very useful. Alot of times we are not by a computer to be able to check when classes are available and so forth so using a I phone allows you to access and pull up a coarse calendar at anytime. On the other hand it had some cons. Students were using the phone as a social interaction to be able to talk to their friends. We as college students get told all the time to put our phones away because it is a distraction (text messaging, phone calls etc), but an I phone is a phone so why would that be okay to use when our regular phone is not.

Week 2 News

1. Apple MacBook Air; uses wifi wireless internet, RAM, blue tooth
2. AbiWord; free
3. blue ray hold 5 times of a standard dvd standard dvd holds 5 gigabites
4. Internet explorer, FireFox, safari, opra. FireFox is faster
5. Google earth is a new technology used to show different locations on the earth. To show students where places are on the earth.

News Headlines

1. Types of energy that might power iPods in the future?
energize america, fossil fuels, meatricity
2. The current CEO of Apple is Steve Jobs. The current CEO of Microsoft is Steve Ballmer, it was previously Bill Gates.
The co-founder of Apple Computers is Steve Wozinak
3. Phoenix Lander is on Mars taking pictures and making observations but probably won't last too much longer due to the cold.
4. Nintendo; WII Fit is the game that manufacturer's are using to get players off of the couch and more fit. some studies have shown that it does make users healthy.
5. Cable companies have until 2012 to have to support analog broadcasts according to FCC. Feb 17, 2009 is when cable companies will finally switch over to digital programming.

My Life!

Hey! My name is Maegan Parker. I live in the small town of Hurley, MS. I am working on my degree to one day become an elementary teacher! I cannnot wait! Children have already become such a great part of my life! I am currently teaching preschool at Caswell Springs Daycare and i LOVE it! I am also 17 weeks pregnant! I am very excited about that. Me and my husband have been trying for 2 years now and our dreams are finally coming true!