My Semester Reflection

Wow! This semester has zoomed by but at the same time has seemed like it is lasting forever. When I first came into this class I thought that I already had all of the resources that I would use in the classroom but I was completely wrong. I truly enjoyed this class because of how patient my instructor was with us. I felt comfortable enough to come out of my zone and be creative with all of my projects. I found resources that I have never used before and that I know I can use later on in my classroom. I cannot wait to use these resources and influence my students like my instructor did me. I sure hope that I have the patience and knowledge. I am working on it now but I know that all of that comes with time. My favorite assignment that we did this semester was the webpage. I loved being able to research the items that I wanted on my page. I got to put things on there that I knew would not only benefit my students but their parents as well. I also loved the rubric assignment because you cannot always use the standards rubrics for every single assignment. With this resource, you can manipulate it to grade exactly what you want it to do. This is neat tool that teachers can use to show the students exactly how they are grading. Students will appreciate knowing just exactly what they are being graded on. Throughout this semester, I have not always understood every assignment but I have figured each one of them out. I loved being challenged by my teacher and feeling a sense of accomplishment as I am typing this last and final blog. I feel totally prepared to use my new findings in future college classes as well as the classrooms that I will be teaching one day. I think that all your classes should be like this one and you should be comfortable enough to ask questions and actually learn what the teacher teaches you. Learning should be a fun experience and one that you as the student will remember forever. Last but not least, the concept map software can be used for all sorts of things starting with the business world all the way to the regular normal day life. Like I said, I cannot wait to use all of the stuff that I have learned!

Final Course Reflection

Blogfolio

This assignment was by far my favorite assignment this semester. I loved being able to see how much I had actually accomplished.  This tool can be used just about anywhere and can be adapted for multiple things.  I liked it especially because you can have something to show potential employers and they can see things that you are capable of.  This really helps because not only do you speak of what you can do but you have a visual aid.  It also helps you to reflect on what works in the classroom and what does not.  Some things that we learned will be harder for students to do and they will need assistance from the teacher.  This blog folio incorporates resources that the teacher and student can use.  These are vital tools that can help them succeed in learning.   I had trouble getting a few of the assignments to upload online but finally figured out how to upload them.  This assignment is something that I can keep with me and adapt throughout my career.  I will definitely keep this blog folio to be able to use these resources in the future.  Other teachers may even be able to use these in their own classrooms.  This particular assignment met all of the NET standards because students explored technology and adapted it to something useful and beneficial!

Assistive Technology Assignment

This assignment not only gave me tools and resources to use as a teacher but it also gave me real life experiences to relate to. We got to see what teachers do in the real classroom setting but then also decide what we would do ourselves. I think this will be incredibly beneficial because as we go through the education program, we will learn what is ideally perfect for each specific situation. This helped me to think and get out of the box, but as I learn my opinions and ideas will change. This should be used with all education majors because they need to know how to handle each and every situation that they may come across. There were also some tools used in this lesson that I was not familiar with and I know that I will use these in the future. Now I can experiment with these and begin to find the ones that are most resourceful for me. The lesson also gave opinions of teachers and made it more realistic and something that is common in every classroom. While working on this assignment, I also talked with other students to get their opinions on the issues. They had a lot of the same ideas but it also helped me to think more like a teacher. I adapted my opinions to fit the students and what was best for them. The standards that were used in this assignment were: 1. Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

To see my assignment click here 

TurnItIn Assignment

This assignment was particularly interesting because students get to use a vital tool that will help them in all of their classes. Students can type papers and get results back stating whether or not it is plagiarized or not. It is incredibly important for students to know what plagiarism is and how to properly avoid it. This site is an important resource that will help students to be able to determine what is and is not copied. Students can use this website for any class that they take whether it is in high school or college. This is a great resource to keep and continue using. Not only does this help students but it also helps teachers and helps them to recheck their students. They then know without a doubt that their student’s assignments are completely original. Students can also submit the assignment multiple times and properly quote sources to give proper credit to those people. This tool could be very useful in teaching nontraditional students how to write papers. A lot of them have been out of school for quite some time and need a little extra help as far as making it their own. Papers are not like they used to be nor is the education field. The standard used in this assignment is 1c. which states: promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes. This tool encourages students to write papers without worrying about possibly plagiarizing a source.

To see my assignment click here

Web Page

This assignment was probably the hardest of all our assignments. I had a lot of trouble with getting images to copy and paste. A lot of them had guards on them and you had to save them to your flash drive. Also another issue that I had with the assignment was getting my classroom rules video to upload from the website “YouTube.” It took many tries but I finally figured out how to get the video uploaded properly. I did have fun making the webpage because it gave me ideas on what I would actually want to do if I did have a real class. I am so excited to become a teacher and personalize my webpage for my individual classroom. While doing this project, I researched and viewed other websites to determine exactly what I wanted on my webpage. I found some interesting things on websites such as a phone tree, directions to school, calendars, and other various materials. I liked adding in my personal information and pictures so that the children can learn more about me and see me in another role other than just their teacher. Also I liked the fact of including website resources for the parents to use to help their children out. By giving them these resources, they can better help their children and understand what the teacher is asking of the student. The standard that we used in this assignment was 3c: communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats.

To see my webpage click here

Movie Maker

This project was a lot of fun to work on it the class because there are so many things that you can document in education. As I was making this video, I thought about all of the ways I can use this resource in my classroom. You can document so much learning through pictures and what could be better than doing that for each individual child. Parents can see what their children do on a daily basis and what experiences they undergo on a daily basis. Teachers can also make videos to show their classes that they know will be appropriate. By using this tool, they will not have to worry what may pop up on the screen or what will not. They can put exactly what they want and also give the children something educational to watch. This will help keep their attention in the classroom instead of them just having to stare at books all day. Also the teacher can have the students make movies of their families, pets, or anything they enjoy. The movie maker software is not that hard to use and with assistance from the teacher, students can make their own. I think that this is something that can be used for just about anything especially if you want to teach the class a specific topic. The standards that could be used in this lesson would be: #2 Communication and Collaboration- Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.


Here is my movie

Concept Maps

This activity was by far my favorite assignment to do because it is something that we can use as teachers. I had a really good time working on this project and being able to add my own personal touches to the project. At first, I did not understand anything but once I started playing around with it, I understood it more. This is something that teachers as well as students can do in the classroom to improve various skills such as comprehension, technology skills, and creativity. Students can use this to go more into depth on explaining topics that are crucial in learning. Teachers can use these to give better examples of what they expect out of the student. There is so much that you can do with this software. I especially loved the part where you can add text notes to the bubbles. By doing this you can add little notes here and there to give more information on the specific topic. You can also connect the bubbles to relate to what you would like them to. The software has a wide variety of pictures that you can use on the map but you can also add pictures from the internet or a flash drive. I found all the pictures that I needed for my map on the software but you could really take the assignment a lot further if you wanted to. This assignment was the most beneficial to teachers in the classroom because it is affordable, and is compatible to most computers.The standards that were used in this assignment are 2a: design or adapt relevant learning learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.

To see my concept map click here

Google Groups

This particular assignment was on creating a group in which students can discuss and post information. I thought it was quite neat because you could choose who you wanted to allow into your group and who you did not. Also, you can moderate the chats and limit basically whatever you would like. The people that were in the groups had to post five websites that would be helpful to teachers. I think that this is a great idea because you can always add or take away various opinions, websites, or materials. Also when we get into the teaching field, we can go back and look at these websites to help us with teaching. Since each person added five websites, there are numerous ones to choose from to use in the classroom. Also we had to post a question for the other students to answer and that helped inform me of all the topics throughout the chapter. Once you finished posting the answers to the other students’ questions, we had a better overall understanding. I think that the Google groups can be a very successful tool in the work place if used correctly. You can communicate with others effectively and conduct meetings, conferences, etc. People from different areas can log on and share information with each other. The NETS that best follows this lesson is standard number two, which is communication and collaboration. It fits this standard because as future teachers we are working together to promote better classroom planning. We are giving information that helps make subject material easier for the students to understand.

To see my group click here

Web Tools I.e. Rubrics, Tests, and Websites

During the process of the assignment, I learned a great deal about rubrics. I always remembered receiving them in school but never was quite sure why we got them. It really cleared up many questions as to why we do things. The website that we used in class to make the rubric was extremely helpful and easy to use. I have already recommended it to many fellow teachers to use when making their lesson plans. The website that we used to make the tests was my favorite! You can make various types of tests for students such as true/false, multiple choice, etc. I liked this option because it puts the tests into many different kinds of formats that can be incredibly resourceful for teachers. I know that I will definitely use it when I start teaching and begin giving tests to my students. The last part of the project was “track star” and this was used to give students resources (websites) to do projects with and teacher approved. The teacher can assign work using this tool and feel completely comfortable in knowing that the websites are appropriate. Parents are also reassured because they can access the websites as well and know what their children are viewing. The standard that the web tools assigned went along with the most was standard 3 which states “Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society”. It goes with this standard the best because it is enhancing the teachers’ skills in our digital society.

To see my rubric click here
To see my tests click here
To see my Websites click here

Intro to My Life

Hi There!
My name is Kaycee King and I am a student at the University of Southern Mississippi. In May 2010, I transferred from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College where I received my associates degree. I am enrolled in the Elementary Education program and plan on teaching anywhere from K-6th grade. I am very excited to be in education classes and learning more about becoming a teacher. I am at that half way point and now I am basically reading to be a teacher. I just need that extra training, which is why you have to go to school for so long. I have had very little experience in the classroom but at the same time very excited to get to that point. I have tried to put myself in various school settings to familiarize myself with what to expect in the classroom. I have worked in a school for three years and that is where I decided that teaching is what I want to do. I have also interned for an organization called TeachUp! where I was trained to help incorporate technology into the classroom. I have also taught numerous classes at my church with children of all ages. So, like I said, I have had some experiences as far as teaching goes but still have a long way to go. As I learn more about teaching, I will post it throughout this blog. I hope to learn as much as possible, in hopes that I will be a successful teacher and make an impact on my students, no matter how big or small. An impact is still an impact and students never forget those teachers who make the difference!