Kerpoof Web-based

I loved this site. I bought a membership so that my girls could play around with it; they love to draw as well as make stories up and act them out. I liked the make a picture section on Kerpoof. It made me think back to when I was little and I had those vinyl static pictures where you can change the dolls clothes and accessories. They looked like stickers, but they were a static.
For my unit plan I would let the students make a drawing and then add it to their weather book. They could also get on and chat with others to collaborate about the types of clouds. Kerpoof works for all learning styles and most of the NETS-S can be used. I think this website is appropriate for young kids because they have a strict etiquette and they place a heavy emphasis on safe online communication.

Discovery Education~ JumpStart Advanced Kindergarten

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/parents/reviewconer/software/jumpstartadvkindergartn
This week I reviewed software that I would like my school to adopt. JumpStart Advanced Kindergarten was one of the software’s that I reviewed and liked. I remember having this for my own girls when they were starting kindergarten, it has changed some since then, but I found it to still be a good and reliable educational tool for young children. When the student first logs on they are given a test to see what level they are at. Each student gets to choose a tutorial buddy to help them along in an area they may be struggling in. Another thing that I liked about this software is that it allows each child to work at his or her own level and learning style. As the children play and develop their skills they are awarded carrots and they can trade them in to power up. I would incorporate this title during the first week of school. I would have a computer center in my classroom along with other centers and while the students are at the computer center they could use JumpStart Advance Kindergarten. I think this software would help students who are having a hard time grasping concepts; this gives them a visual learning tool as well as audio. This software could help a child that is not fluent in English by allowing them to work at their own pace in learning English and build self-esteem.

Reflection: Mobile Computing Devices

Before taking this class I had no idea what a whiteboard (SMART board) was. After watching the video clips I asked my youngest daughter if she used a SMART board in her class, I thought she would say no, but to my surprise she was like yeah we use one all the time. I asked her if she liked using it and she said yes. I think kids today are so into all the hand held technology stuff that they love using the SMART board. I think some of the advantages of using iPods in the classrooms would be that it would help keep the students interested in the lesson; it would help with the multiple learning styles that are in the classrooms today due to the diversity of America and the increase of schools going towards inclusion classrooms. Students can use their iPod to translate a word, to record their reading, or watch a video if they are not grasping a concept. Students can take their learning anywhere. A disadvantage to the iPod could be some students may not be able to afford one. Although comparing iPod prices to a high school student’s calculator for pre-calculus, the iPod is not that expensive for the features it provides. Students could become distracted, and then there is theft, that would be my issue, as my daughter has had an iPod stolen from her purse during school time with no help from the school in getting it back. Looking at the pros and cons of iPods in the classroom I would have to say the pros outweigh the cons.
I would use iPods to enhance student learning by using the iPods to translate the different languages in my classroom, thus helping a student that is not fluent in English feel part of the class and more likely participate in class activities. I would also use it for students to hear books that we are reading as a class, not all students have the same learning style. I would use it to show a video to a student that may be struggling with a lesson. I would also use the iPod to help keep the students up to date on when assignments are due and other important school dates.

NETS-S Technology Operations and Concepts

This week I learned that although I find technology frustrating at times I do know and understand how some of the many systems that are out today work. After I finished with my assessments for this class I found that it would not let me copy, but it would let me print. Sitting at my computer and thinking for a few minutes of how was I going to get my answers onto the blackboard page I final thought hey I know how to scan. I then printed out my answers and scanned them to my computer. I was then able to submit it onto blackboard. Then a few days later I was checking the assignment page for our class and Dr. Keesee had mentioned you could do it that way along with some other ways e.g., You can print the screen and paste it into a word document and submit the word document; that I do not know how to do, but this weekend I am going to go to the link that she provided to find out how. I was able to add information to my wiki final unit plan after setting up the lesson pages. This week I worked with Dell to find out why my NEW computer is randomly shutting off on me. I am constantly saving information because I just never know when it will shut off on me. After about three hours of communicating with Dell and watching them go through all my files, I had a firm understanding that no matter what warranty I buy that one does not cover for the problem I am having, but they will be happy to let me buy the one that I need.

Delicious Bookmarks

This week we were asked to create a Delicious account and bookmark websites for our Final Unit Plan. Now at first I was scared, I am still trying to get use to all this technology stuff, I know we are in week 5 and I should be okay with it, but it still scares me. I was surprised at how easy it was to get started with the whole bookmarks and making tags. After I found my websites and put tags on them I spent the rest of the day just clicking and looking at different tags and reading information. I was hoping that maybe I could find something that would help my daughter in her pre-calculus class, back in my days we only needed three math credits so I did not have to take pre-calculus, though I am sure I would not remember it today even if I had. I think bookmarking is such a great thing for teachers, students, and others to share thoughts, and ideas. Now with delicious you don’t even have to ask someone for ideas, which sometimes can be hard because not everyone wants to share their ideas with others, I am not like that I will share any good idea I have with others, but I have met people and have family members that will not share a recipe or good idea with anyone

Reflection: TLR Wiki Group Project

For EDU 271 we were to do a collaborative project using wiki. I choose the topic of constructivism. I was thinking this would be a good topic to research and I was excited to get started. I waited to see who else was going to sign up for this topic, not that it mattered, I don’t know anyone personally, but I just did not want to be the only one doing this topic. I started to add stuff to our project not really sure what I was doing, I had never used or even heard of wiki until now and adding a YouTube video was the first for me. At first it sounded like a good idea and I started to look for videos, but my vision and my knowledge of technology just were not in sync. I wanted to add pictures of the theorist as someone in our group had mentioned and I did down load pictures of our theorist, but I could not figure out how to get them onto the wiki page, I could not get the pictures to insert. I spent hours trying to figure out how, but just could not. Finally I just gave up. I guess I should have communicated with my group, but I know others were just as confused as I was. Looking back on this group project I think we should have communicated more. I know for me there were days that I just did not know what was going on, who was doing what. I know one of our members did mention meeting and I would have loved to do that, I think that would have helped a lot, but I live about 2-2 ½ hours from Fayetteville so driving to meet was just not in the cards. I know for future projects meeting with group members would really help. I know one member did start a discussion board, but that did not seem to work out too well for some reason. Overall I think we did okay for our first group project on wiki.

Cloud Types: http:// www.theweatherprediction.com/clouds/

Student Name: Amy McRoberts Date of Evaluation: February 9, 2011
Name of the Website: Cloud Types
URL of the Website: http://www.theweatherprediction.com/clouds/
Accuracy of the Web Page Yes No Notes
1. Can you find the author of the page?
Hint: Scroll to the bottom of the page. It may be an institution. X Author Name: Jeff Haby
2. Can the author be contacted:
Hint: Look for an “About Us” or “Contact Link” X Author email: haby@genosci.msstate.edu
3. Do you think this person or institution is qualified to publish this webpage? X Why or why not? Jeff Haby is a meteorologist thus; he would know the many different types of clouds and can give an accurate definition of each.
Authority of the Web Page
1. Check the domain of the URL, particularly the extension.
Is this a commercial site? The URL can give clues to the authority. X What does the extension tell you? The URL is .com therefore it is a commercial site.
2. Are there credentials listed for the author(s)?
If not, try Googling the name of the author or the institution.
X What did you find? Mr. Haby received his bachelors of science in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. He received his masters form the University of Mississippi in geoscience and broadcast meteorology. Since 1998 Mr. Haby has been an instructor at the University of Mississippi and has taught every meteorologist distance learning course.
Purpose of the Web Page
1. Read over the information on this website carefully. Can you determine the purpose of this web page? X Why is this web page on-line? Think critically about possible opinions or bias? To help beginners and advance forecasters predict the weather.

Currency of the Web Page
1. Can you find a publishing date? X When was it published?
2. Can you find the date it was last updated? X When was it updated?
3. Are the links working and current?
Click on some of the links to check. X What do you think about the links? I liked that you could download surface maps, radar images, satellites, and computer models / analysis for classroom use.
Looking at your answers, do you think this website would be a reliable, credible source of information? X Why or Why not? Looking at Mr. Haby’s credentials and clicking into all the different links.




I think this site will be helpful to me in my Final Unit Plan because it describes the different types of clouds and it explains how they are formed. This site also has a map page where you can download surface maps, radars, satellites, and computer models/ analysis. I think showing the children how clouds move on the computer will give them an understanding of clouds and help them in the class activity e.g. going outside and observing the clouds. Through seeing how clouds move and form on the computer they may grasp a better understanding and know what to look for to predict the weather. This site is for beginners and advance forecasters so I think it will work well for elementary children that are learning about weather and clouds. Another thing that this site had that I liked was bookmarks. I just found out what bookmarks are this week through doing delicious and I really like them a lot. I think it is a great way for teachers to share information.

Content Standards

Content standards are a clear outline of skills, knowledge, and understanding that each child must master in a given area such as language, math, and science. Benchmarks are standards to help teachers and schools determine if a child is performing in the skills and knowledge for their grade level. The purposes of these standards are to make sure that all students meet or exceed academic content so that they are prepared for continuous learning.

Before developing instructions teachers should learn about each child in their classroom. Teachers should know such things as their background, culture, interests, talents, home language, strengths and weaknesses and learning style. When teachers understand each child’s characteristics they can plan a curriculum that allows each child reach their full potential.

Learning is a process that is divided into three stages, they are (1) receiving information, (2) connecting the information to prior knowledge, (3) using the information. When students are paying attention the information is entered into their brain and stored in what is called their short term memory or working memory and is stored for a short time. Teachers can help students move the information to their long term memory by organizing information into categories, repeating information, grouping information, or using key word strategies e.g. ARITHMETIC( A, Rat, In, Toms, House, May, Eat, Toms, Ice-cream). Now the information is in the student’s long-term memory and teachers will use the information in other lessons. Teachers may link information previous learned through webbing or from the students outside of the classroom interests.

Adapting instructions allows teachers to maximize student’s independence, to maximize student’s participation in all classroom activities, and teaches students to be effective peer tutors, thus allowing students to learn from each other. Adaption is necessary to meet the success of all students in the class including children with disabilities.

There are three components of a good assessment. First the assessment provides relevant evidence, second it will measure the skills knowledge or abilities the teacher holds important, and third it will match purpose with skills assessed; ex. factual test (multiple choice, match, and fill in) with conceptual understanding us essay, short answer.

The three stages of instructional cycle are; Intended in structural outcome, Planning, and Assessment. During intended in structural outcome teachers will look at the school standards and know what skills and knowledge the students must master. Once the teacher knows what skills must be mastered they will plan a lesson around meeting those skills and they will plan what type of assessment they will perform to make sure those skills are being mastered. Finally the teacher will perform an assessment to determine if the students have met the learning outcome. The assessments can be performed during and after instructions.

In order for teachers to meet the needs of all the students they must analyze the general curriculum, know what materials they need in order for the students to reach the learner outcome, and what strategies they will need to use to have those goals met. Teachers can identify lesson topics with instructions by asking challenging questions or doing a survey before the start of the lesson to get the students interested in the lesson, discuss what you as a teacher will be doing and what they as a student will be doing to reach the learner outcome, monitor the students learning during the lesson, and close the lesson with restating the goal of the learner outcome.

Help From the Blog.

Before taking this class I had never really thought about blogging. I guess because for one I am not that great with technology and second at times technology just frustrates me. For example on Monday my computer, which I have only had for four months decided to act up on me. I was taking a test in another class, one that was a timed test and my computer decided to shut down on me, not good since I hate timed test and now my test was sent unfinished. After I calmed down I e-mailed my instructor on what had happened and she was kind enough to reset it for me. I thought well nothing more could go wrong, but I was wrong, all day it kept shutting down. Finally I just decided to get off my computer and use my daughter’s mini laptop. I don’t really like using hers because the screen is very small, but it works and it is great for teenagers.
I logged into my blogger and decided to read the comments that were sent to me. I started checking on my wiki, and group project. Through my class blog I have found that many of my fellow classmates are just like me; confused and at times overwhelmed with all this new technology. Now some of my fellow classmates are good with technology and I hope to learn from them, but it is still nice to know that I am not alone. I enjoy reading my fellow classmates blogs and learning about the different technologies that will not only help me in this class, but in my career as an Early Childhood Education Teacher.