7th Science-Commerce ISD

Spontaneous Generation

I signed up for twitter today. Evidently, I am not up to speed on technology communication! Maybe this will help.


Follow me.... KoreyLPerry


Gig'Em!

For all you teachers out there who are already planning for next year. Check out this link for a new information gadget. It is a QR Code that you can hang outside your classrooms on information night. The parents use their phones to scan the bar code and they automatically have your website or email address.  This creates a two way communication link.


Enjoy!

GLOGSTER TRIAL

Working with Glogster in class this week. Students are creating glogs over plant and animal cells. Here is a cheesy one that I created for them to reference.


This is a Glog that one of my students created from the assignment. It was perfect!

ETEC 524 Final Blog-Aha!

What has made the biggest impact on me throughout ETEC 524? I would have to say, the realization of how the students of today's classroom learn. I am going above and beyond to incorporate different technology strategies into my lessons, yet it still seems as if the Digital Natives are behind, or possibly even ahead with the technologies I'm implementing. So how do we keep up? Do we truly need to keep up?  Most public school systems are falling behind and as teachers we are falling behind too, because we are trying to implement so many facets of technology on a daily basis. How will I change? I will incorporate technology into my daily routine! Whether the students are reading for pleasure on their Kindle or we are building the rock cycle on our class Wiki, as long as the students are in front of technology, they will be in front of higher education and in front of future careers. 

I truly had some Aha moments while preparing weekly for the class assignments. I have always been the type of person to 'teach myself' new software; however, even though I am enjoying learning new technologies, I am almost certain I haven't taken my eyes away from the computer in a solid eight weeks. This class has taught me to open my mind and think about what my true beliefs are and how I want to implement them into my career.

I love having a view point! I love becoming an expert!

Finally, will I utilize my blog in the future?  Yes, I still have a long road ahead before completing my master level course work and I truly enjoy the free ability to notate my thoughts, and read other standpoints from my fellow classmates. 

ETEC 524 iGoogle

Do you iGoogle?

I enjoyed the presentation over iGoogle and I have already set my homepage and added new gadgets to my page including the ToDo list. I love it! After going over all of the unique applications provided by Google, I still decided to complete this project using a Wiki.  Instead of creating a Wiki through Google, I ended up creating a project in the Classroom Wiki I already completed previous in this course.  I still feel that Google has so many great gadgets to offer a classroom and I hope to utilize them as I can in my lessons.


Lesson Plan:
For the technology lesson plan in this weeks assignment, I decided to create a lesson based on a unit that I previously covered this year over the structural layers of Earth.  The video below is a brief instructional piece shown to the students to get them started with incorporating technology into this lesson.  I developed the Jing presentation to guide the students into the class Wiki and to the project Wiki pages.  The students will utilize the Wiki to develop their group ideas and create a model of the structural layers of Earth.  I chose to develop the assignment using the Wiki tool, mainly for the reasons of keeping it simple.  Teaching sixth graders can be challenging enough, so this is ideal. I hope you enjoy.





Video Response:
I am not sure how everyone else felt after watching the two informative videos from our class blog, but I sort of felt like I was being slapped in the face so to speak. As a teacher, in the public education system, I am seriously doing my students an injustice when it comes to preparing them for higher education and future careers in regards to technology.  So what can I do to change? I feel that if I keep doing my best to incorporate technology into my lessons the students will remain engaged and eventually relate the curriculum into their daily routines. As teachers, it is necessary to remain up to speed with technology integration in order to prepare our K-12 students of tomorrow.  In science, I am capable of leaving the learning up to the students and technology is the most effective way to 'put the lesson in the student's hands'.  The students of today learn by doing or having hands on experience. I can only hope to allow this hands on experience to flow throughout my classroom daily in hopes of meeting the vision of our future learners.