The End of the Beginning

This blog had been interesting, I just can't help wondering whether I'll ever use it again. I want to, it's a place that allows me to write funny little things about my classroom and what I've been doing. But what happens after I'm done with this class? I always have good intentions, I never set out to do badly on a test, or forget a homework assignment but I feel like my life is so full sometimes that I can't help but forget things. I really enjoyed this whole class though, I'm especially pround of my webquest and once I work at a school I hope to find a way to put it on the web and have people and my class use it. I'm going to miss having all this help when this class is over, which isn't true I guess because this is what the blogging and Tapped In is for to gain help after I leave my class and enter my classroom to teach. I just want to say that I hope that I will continue to work with all this technology so that I can continue to grow and find ways to stretch my brain.

Tech enhanced learning mentorship

Tapped In was an interesting project for me this semester, when we first learned how to do it was nervous about posting so I didn't. That's where most of my problems with technology comes from, being nervous about it and so I don't do it, so I won't be disappointed in my final results. Well, I eventually had to post, getting reminders from Sheryl that I was behind and so I started typing. It was interesting, because I really didn't think that people would respond so fast. One minute I had a response to someone's and the next someone had a response to my post, it was really cool to see. I also saw that when someone did need help with a problem that was happening they had a bunch of answers a couple hours later. I also saw that people really enjoyed it once they started posting and reading what people replied wit, so I started posting and low and behold I liked it. I wish I hadn't waited so long because I had to post a BUNCH all at one time, but I'm just glad that I got to experience it. Hopefully next time I'll just do it instead of hesitating.
Though I was a little hesitant I'm glad that I got to experience Tapped In, because I'm sure somewhere in my future their will be things that I don't want to try (because of nerves) but this has shown me that new things can be fun, helpful, and interesting to learn about. So thank you everyone (if you read this, especially Sheryl) for showing me that I don't need to be an expert at something to just try.

So I used Technology...a little bit

I had this wonderful lesson plan all ready and created to use to integrate technology within my classroom, but as soon as I had it done my class was done learning about that subject. So I switched really quickly into integrated technology into the science circus that I taught with Angel. We created this really fun science circus for the kids, it consisted of 6 different stations and all involved simple machines. The first three activities the kids created a simple machine, 1 - a helicopter that represented a screw, 2- a flag raiser that represented a pulley, and 3- a pinwheel that represented a wheel and axle. The children LOVED these activities, I even had one child tell me that they couldn't wait to go home and show her mom what she made and what they were. In the three other activities the kids were more mentally involved with simple machines. In activity 5- they picked simple machines out of a big pile of stuff and labeled what they were, and then in activity 6- they put together a puzzle that had hidden simple machines in them and after the kids put the puzzle together they found the simple machines and told the activity leader what they were. Now for activity 4 is where we integrated technology. We had the kids do a little webquest on the laptops. The went to the school's website and into their teacher's page http://williamsburg.va.schoolwebpages.com/education/components/links/links.php?sectiondetailid=2860&sc_id=1177517179. On this page we had a link to a great interactive website about simple machines, http://www.edheads.org/activities/simple-machines/index.htm. The children had used this website in a previous class and were very proficient at getting to it and starting to find all the things that they could on compound machines (in the previous class they had searched for simple machines). After going through the toolshed activity (what the compound machine activity was called) and answering all the questions on the game the kids then would go through the questions we had for the science circus and answer those too, if they couldn't answer them we would help them go through the computer game again and point out specific things until they knew the answer. The kids always love to use the computers and as I have seen it, the kids actually use the laptops a fair amount. I know that my teacher uses them for different math and science activites and I have seen the laptop cart almost everyday rolling around the 3rd grade hallway. I believe that the kids enjoyed using the laptops in the way that we had them use them, I also think that they are familar with using them that way in an activity sort of way. So everything went fine and I hope to continue, as I get more comforterable and have more time, to use the laptops and find a more creative way to use them.

A simple machine SONG haha

If anyone wants a fun song about simple machines I found this one online while trying to find some activities.
SO CUTE!
Title - Song about Simple Machines
By - Lisa Keeter
Primary Subject - Science
Secondary Subjects - Music
Grade Level - 3rd grade
Sung to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"
CHORUS:Work, work, I love work...
Making something move.
Simple Machines can help us work...
Get into the groove.
1. Down, down, pulling down...
works with gravity.
Pull down on the rope, the flag goes up...
it's called a PULLEY!
2. SCREWS, screws, screws help
usin getting our work done,
an inclined plane around a bar,
climbing them is fun.
3. A WEDGE is good to use,
holds open a door.
Makes an angle that's acute,
one side on the floor!
4. An AXLE turns a WHEEL,
sharpens pencils for me.
Bicycle, car, and train tires,
help us move quickly!
5. A LEVER is lots of fun,
just like a see- saw.
LEVERS can move up and down,
careful now, don't fall

It seems that I have no clue what I'm doing

I just want to say that I did do the posts on time, but for some reason decided to do them in bloglines. So I've had my posts up and kept wondering why no one could see them until I started looking through everyone else's and realized that we were using blogger to write up everything. HA HA I'm am definitely extremely confused about everything we're doing but even when reading and listening to what we're supposed to do I just go on with the wrong thing. So I'm sorry it took me so long to figure the blogging out, but here are the blogs I posted on bloglines now posted on Blogger :)

After School Programs

The article that I read was called "A New Learning Day" and it was about after school programs and the new ways that they are being used.
After school programs to me were places that you could either one, do your homework or two, play with your friends while waiting for your parents to pick you up. But in this article it shows me the extinsive work being done to make the after school program one where you can almost extend the school day, where children can continue to learn. Most of the article is about budgets and designs for future programs, but altogether the article was a fun one to read.
I liked this article alot, because hopefully by the time I start teaching programs like the ones disscussed will be widespread and active in whatever school I'm in. I think the program will help children to find things that they enjoy in time that they would otherwise be spending doing something that might be less worthy or getting into trouble. The time after school doesn't need to be school, but the activities can still be educational and inspire the kids to extend their creativity. Hopefully there will continue to be good news about this program that I can read later on.

I thought I knew how to use technology...but found out that I really can't

I've been aroung technology since I was little, working with reader rabbit and other types of compter games to help me learn and have fun. After that using the computer involved research on the internet for school and AIM with friends. Since high school I've become a little more competent with the internet and the certain things you can do with it. Anything harder than blackboard, aim, searching the internet, and facebook I can't really figure out and after I do it still takes me awhile to get things to work correctly. I've never really used computers in school and if we did it was for research and that was it. Whatever I learned about computer I learned from my friends or my older brothers who learned from their friends. I wish I could use technology in whatever classroom I'm in, in the future, but I'm scared that even though I'll learn the important things now and forget how to use them in a classroom later in life. So I'm hoping that once I have learned all this new information it'll stick and I'll be able to pass it down to my classroom and fellow teachers that might not know these things