Inspiration

Today’s tech class was inspirational (a little play on words) since the class was designed to provide us with information on how to manipulate the programs Inspiration/Kidspiration. I have to say I am becoming more and more excited to start implementing the use of not only these two programs but many others designed for the classroom. When I decided to go back to school to teach I did not realize how advanced classroom technology has become. Mandating technology based classes in Education programs is not only necessary but inspirational in itself especially for the technologically challenged such as myself. I am finding that these programs are not only fun to use but slowly helping me build self confidence in knowing I will be able to concor any fears that I may have about such computer use. I feel that if I am starting to get this excited I can not imagine the lengths I can take this inside of my classroom when I am ready to teach. It is my strong belief that unless the learning environment is not welcoming and kept motivational then students will not perceive the importance of what is being taught. Technology such as this can help provide the motivation to learn.

Today’s Blog Titled “QUESTION”

Hello Everyone,

Today I would would like to format my blog in the form of a question. More to the point I would like to poll any comments out there regarding the lesson plan I am devising for the Inspiration Design Project.

I would like to start by saying that secondary mathematics is the subject I plan to teach after exiting grad school. I love mathematics and I know that math was not on the top of everyones ‘favorite subject list’ in high school.  I would like those who are interested in helping me out to think back to Jr. High School and tell me if they remember learning about Fibonacci Sequencing. The reason I as is that I would like to center my lesson around the history of Fibonacci and use the investigation of Fibonacci’s rabbit excersise along with Dudeney’s cow excercises in my lesson. If anyone can remember what the Fibonacci sequence was can you tell me if it was a memorable lesson to you. Did you learn about how the sequence occurs in nature and was that interesting to you? If math was not your favorite subject do you think using investigation processes such as learning a bit of history combined with projects such as building a family tree makes learning math more interesting. I appreciate any comments that may come back my way. The more I learn about how people learn will be of not only a great use to me but all of us for our future as a teacher. Thanks again.

The Native Road

I have to say I found Thursdays class (2/14) to be very interesting. I have been researching the new language of “Digital Natives” and “Digital Immigrants” for the research project we have coming due for this class and found today’s lesson to be helpful to my paper. The ideology surrounding this was a question posed in one article by a Marc Prensky (2001) where he states ‘Should the Digital Native students learn old ways, or should their Digital Immigrant educators learn the new”? The lesson today on digital information literacy was a real eye opener for all educators computer savvy or not. Technology will only increase in matter and teachers of every discipline have to be aware of the effect it has on our children’s learning. As a new teacher we learn that the number 1 rule of thumb to teaching is to bring into focus during all lessons “real world application” of what we are teaching. To me the idea of digital information literacy is the same deal. We teach our children that there are good and bad influences in the real world like when we tell them never to talk to strangers etc. Well it is  as important to let them know that there are the same type of evils out there but just on a different level (cyber). The same way we teach our children about the different scenarios of how a bad person may lore them to their car is the same method we should use to teach them about how a person/s may try to convince them to believe in something that is not fact. I never really put the two together before this class and I found I have really added a new dimension to my way of thinking for today.

Moving Up The Road

Fourth week into class and the road is beginning to wind up. Today we turned the corner and detoured into the side road of Microsoft Excel. Although I have traveled this road in the past I could not believe how many scenic tours could be taken. One usually mistakes Excel to be used just for math purposes. Today we learned taht there are countless numbers of ideas that can be created by this program. Examples were timelines, battleship games, hidden word games, calanders, etc. We played an activity game using M&M’s which and created a sorting table along with wonderful graphics to please the eye when the graph was to be viewed. If adults had a fabulous time utilizing this activity, imagine how kids of all ages will feel, not even realizing they are learning in the end. I have the Excel program on my personal computer. I use it mainly for keeping logs of my checking account and for end of the year tax purposes. After Thursdays class I have decided to take a few hours this weekend and just play, create and learn as much as possible for I feel Excel will end up being my best friend during my career as a secondary math teacher. Now I can not wait to see where next weeks trip will take us to.

Yesterdays Milestone

I am beginning to feel the miles on this tech trip starting to turn to stone. Stone with the idea of its soliditity in creating a rock hard foundation in learning new things. As the road toward learning made a stop at Microsoft Word, many new avenues lead to a clearing. As the clearing widened it all started to make sense. I began to learn there was a much deeper level into its process. The general route of adding a header text and footer page was an easy ride. Bullet and numbering the signs ahead on the road were fun. Then the scenery which came ahead became very colorful as we stopped on the way to visit the gallery of ClipArt. The gallery taught me how the many creations of masters before created many wonderful works of art. The tricks of their trade became clear and soon enough I began to master the “tricks of their trade.” Watermark images began to fade with a few simple clicks of a button, unwanted parts of a picture were easy to get rid of in the same fashionable steps. Assortment of shapes began to fill my pallett and wonderful formats were created around them. The shapes were then colored in and arranged with  ease around the canvas. I then watched with excitement as my own works of art were packaged and sent along to a new address to be viewed by the experts.