I am so sad that this class is over. I mean that. I truly enjoyed this class and it has been one of my favorite in my college career thus far. I learned so many things that I will actually USE in my classroom one day! I feel like I am so much more prepared to teach and use technology the ways that it needs to be used in schools.
I have learned to create a test, a rubric, a track website, my class website, work with a group online, use inspiration software to create concept maps, create a movie using Windows Movie Maker, use Turnitin to find plagiarism in essays, and most importantly, the assistive technology assignment taught me to help my special needs students be able to learn with the rest of the class.
I would have to say that the strongest point that I had in the class was the Window's Movie Maker assignment. My brother has told me a lot about the program because he has used it many times to make movies for our family and he is very familiar with it. I saw and used a lot of the things that he taught me when we made our movie. Also, I used photos that were my own of family so I did not have to search the internet to find many resources and worry about using too many that were not mine.
My weakest point in the class was the assistive technology assignment. Though I learned very much by doing this, it took the longest and took the most brain power. Using my laptop to do the work made it a bit more difficult because I have Windows 7 and a lot of the information was worded differently in the control panel. Needless to say, I figured it out and learned very much. I am glad to say that I know how to help my future special needs students and I feel more prepared by having done this assignment.
I think that the movie maker assignment was a strong point for me because most people have used or at least know about Window's Movie Maker. It is a common program and if you have not used it, it is simple to use and very user friendly. I believe that the assistive technology assignment was my weak point because I have never had to use the functions in the control panel that are used for people with special needs. Unless you or your child has special needs, the options in control panel would not be something you would use. This was the case for me, making the assignment a weak point for me in the class. I plan to work further with the options on the computer to fully prepare myself for my future students.
I plan to make technology one of the main focuses in my classroom. It furthers learning so much and I can't wait to share my love of technology with my future students. I know they will be as excited to learn about it as I was when I learned about it. We will have fun using it to learn information from the internet and play games that will teach them while they are enjoying the computer.
Thank you Dr. Hartsell for making your classroom a pleasant place and for being so helpful when it came to teaching us and making sure we understood the information. I have and will recommend you to my friends taking IT365. You are a wonderful instructor!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
TURNITIN
The TurnItIn assignment will, without a doubt, be the site that I use the most as a teacher. I know for a fact that plagiarism is utterly rampant in schools today and until this site, teachers really had no way to know for sure if students were doing this. This site allows you to post what your student turned in to you and is shows you how much of it is in their own words. After doing this assignment, I see that it is pretty much 100% accurate. I could not believe it! I have heard teachers from when I was in high school tell me about this website and threaten that they used it. I had no idea that there really was a site. I truly thought they were just trying to scare us out of copying papers.
When I did the paper on gender bias and was told to copy and paste from the internet it showed that it had 100% wording from the internet. It even showed in different colors, the three different sites from which I copied and pasted. It was so cool to see that and made me think that I don't know how anyone gets away with plagiarism anymore these days. I had a problem with the site being able to print it out and turn it in but I got it after some help from Dr. Hartsell. For some reason it was opening it up in an adobe file and would print all of the pages together. I'm not sure what was up with that. I guess it was a glitch with the site that should be fixed. Other than that, it worked perfectly.
I used NET standard 4 in this assignment. This site will really allow for a boost in student responsibility for the work they complete. It will also assist them with ethical and moral issues. They will be able to see for themselves and I will be able to see as well if any ethical issues are violated.
When I did the paper on gender bias and was told to copy and paste from the internet it showed that it had 100% wording from the internet. It even showed in different colors, the three different sites from which I copied and pasted. It was so cool to see that and made me think that I don't know how anyone gets away with plagiarism anymore these days. I had a problem with the site being able to print it out and turn it in but I got it after some help from Dr. Hartsell. For some reason it was opening it up in an adobe file and would print all of the pages together. I'm not sure what was up with that. I guess it was a glitch with the site that should be fixed. Other than that, it worked perfectly.
I used NET standard 4 in this assignment. This site will really allow for a boost in student responsibility for the work they complete. It will also assist them with ethical and moral issues. They will be able to see for themselves and I will be able to see as well if any ethical issues are violated.
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
The assistive technology assignment really touched me in a unique way. I will say that is was very difficult figuring out how to do everything but I got the hang of it after about an hour. It was so worth the time it took to learn how to use these items. Knowing so many children since I have started substitute teaching, who have disabilities really allows me to see the grave need to know how to do these things. There are so many things that you are able to do using the control panel of any computer that I had no idea was possible. There is a screen magnifier, mouse modifier, sticky keys, toggle keys, and SO much more. I had to do each of the assignment directions and do a Screen Shot, (which I didn't even know was possible) and post into a powerpoint presentation to show that I did what I was supposed to the right way. It took me a couple of times to get the hang of some of these options, but once I did it was so cool. I love that I will be able to show my students how to adapt their computer to their specific needs so that they are able to learn right along with the rest of their classmates. That thrills my soul to no end. Thank you for this assignment Dr. Hartsell!
I also implemented a couple of NET standards as I completed this rather time-consuming assignment. I believe I completed standards 3 and 4. I am now quite able to model the effective use of this tool and allow for student responsibility for their work.
I also implemented a couple of NET standards as I completed this rather time-consuming assignment. I believe I completed standards 3 and 4. I am now quite able to model the effective use of this tool and allow for student responsibility for their work.
GOOGLE SITES
I now have my very own teacher website! How very exciting is that? Check it out HERE! Okay, so It is a fake school and all, it is still something to look forward to when I am able to make one for real. I learned everything that I need to know and I feel very confident that I will have a great Class Website one day very soon!
We were given sites where we could get free images to make our site look cute and entertaining. We were also given sites where we were able to make a banner for each page. To me, this really gave the website the finishing touch to look professional. At the bottom of each page, we put a link to e-mail the webmaster (me), date of last revision, and the URL to that page of the site.
I had a problem at one point because I did not save my work and I was very upset when I realized that I had clicked off of the page and none of my work saved! :-0 Not a good thing, but it was a lesson learned the hard way. I will NOT do that again, that is for sure. If I had a child in school, it would put me at great ease to know that their homework assignments, school supply list, teacher contact information, etc. was all online for me to access anytime I needed/wanted to. This is another great thing about technology that really excites me.Upon completing this assignment I think I have met more than one of the standards in this assignment. I think I have met NET standards two, four, and five. I have been able to take something that a teacher has to do anyway and make it technologically adaptable. This also helps teachers show leadership and professionalism by, once again, using technology.
We were given sites where we could get free images to make our site look cute and entertaining. We were also given sites where we were able to make a banner for each page. To me, this really gave the website the finishing touch to look professional. At the bottom of each page, we put a link to e-mail the webmaster (me), date of last revision, and the URL to that page of the site.
I had a problem at one point because I did not save my work and I was very upset when I realized that I had clicked off of the page and none of my work saved! :-0 Not a good thing, but it was a lesson learned the hard way. I will NOT do that again, that is for sure. If I had a child in school, it would put me at great ease to know that their homework assignments, school supply list, teacher contact information, etc. was all online for me to access anytime I needed/wanted to. This is another great thing about technology that really excites me.Upon completing this assignment I think I have met more than one of the standards in this assignment. I think I have met NET standards two, four, and five. I have been able to take something that a teacher has to do anyway and make it technologically adaptable. This also helps teachers show leadership and professionalism by, once again, using technology.
GOOGLE GROUPS
Google Groups was our first and only group assignment. You can view our story HERE. I have never really enjoyed group work but this was actually quite fun and I had some great girls in my group. They all did their part, carried their load, and we finished early with a perfect score. We wrote a story called "Sally's Great Adventure" where each of us had to write the continuance of what happened to Sally in our section. The story began and got quite twisted, but very cute, by the end. I enjoyed making up a fairy tale, and of course little Sally lived happily ever after.
I thought it was very neat that when more than one of us was on the group at a time, we were able to see what changes the other person was making. Made it quite interesting, when you saw that someone did like the way you worded something. :) Using that with students would be VERY helpful, I could help them with homework assignment and such while they were at home as if they were staying after class with me.
We had to do a solo part, which was to make a powerpoint also. You can view mine HERE. It wasn't a powerpoint, but it was very similar. It was a presentation in google docs. We could use pictures, links, etc. I could use this for my students, it would be something they could view and review at their house as well as in class. The NET Standards for the Google Groups assignment is definitely number five which is to Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership.When I did this assignment I felt as though I grew in presenting items in a professional manner.
I thought it was very neat that when more than one of us was on the group at a time, we were able to see what changes the other person was making. Made it quite interesting, when you saw that someone did like the way you worded something. :) Using that with students would be VERY helpful, I could help them with homework assignment and such while they were at home as if they were staying after class with me.
We had to do a solo part, which was to make a powerpoint also. You can view mine HERE. It wasn't a powerpoint, but it was very similar. It was a presentation in google docs. We could use pictures, links, etc. I could use this for my students, it would be something they could view and review at their house as well as in class. The NET Standards for the Google Groups assignment is definitely number five which is to Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership.When I did this assignment I felt as though I grew in presenting items in a professional manner.
MOVIE STORY
THIS WAS MY FAVORITE ASSIGNMENT! We used Windows Movie Maker to make our very own movie! I've seen people do this and I always thought, "I could never do something like that." Well, I did it! :)
I decided to do Family as my main theme for my movie (Since they are the best and closest thing in the world!) I used all of my own pictures which I got off of my Facebook page. I saved them to my USB drive and inserted them into one folder that I made specifically for my movie. I also put the sounds that I got from a free sounds website.I will be able to make all kinds of movies to spark my students interest while still teaching them about out studies and what they need to know! This took a bit of time and I had some trouble making the time match up with the photos but with a little bit of practice I know I could become a semi-pro movie maker. ;)
I decided to do Family as my main theme for my movie (Since they are the best and closest thing in the world!) I used all of my own pictures which I got off of my Facebook page. I saved them to my USB drive and inserted them into one folder that I made specifically for my movie. I also put the sounds that I got from a free sounds website.I will be able to make all kinds of movies to spark my students interest while still teaching them about out studies and what they need to know! This took a bit of time and I had some trouble making the time match up with the photos but with a little bit of practice I know I could become a semi-pro movie maker. ;)
The NET Standard that I used and learned about from this assignment was number two. This standard states to Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. I think I met this NET Standard because I learned how to use and develop my knowledge of the material to the greatest extent and I am quite proud of myself, to be quite honest! :)
CONCEPT MAP
This was such a fun assignment. One of my favorite ones throughout the class! We downloaded a trial of the "Inspiration" software to do this assignment. There is no doubt that I WILL use this in my classroom! It was so fun and easy to use and it is so helpful when sharing information! We were told to pick any topic that we could expound on and I chose to do "Subjects in Elementary School." I was able to choose my own colors, font styles, and background. It was very cute when I was finished! I love how it turned out. I used different pictures to describe the subjects, such as a soccer ball for Physical Education and a beaker for Science. I also had to do sub topics under at least one of the subjects and I did it under Physical Education with the different sports/activities the students would play at P.E. I also attached links to one of the other subjects to give further activities/resources.
I would say that I implemented NET standard number one to Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity.The concept map is definitely showing much creativity and allowing students to be inspired by how it looks and the information is shows!
I would say that I implemented NET standard number one to Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity.The concept map is definitely showing much creativity and allowing students to be inspired by how it looks and the information is shows!
WEB TOOLS
I am looking forward to learning everything and seeing all the ways that technology has made teaching easier! For the web tools assignment, I met NET standard number two which was Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. We used Rubistar to make a rubric like we will use in our future classrooms. Here is a link to my RUBRIC. There were categories for how the students were to be graded that we were able to choose from and we had to change the grading scale to something other than what was already filled in for us. I had a bit of confusion with that, but my professor cleared that up! It was interesting to make a rubric which is something that has been used to grade so many of my papers throughout school. I can't wait to actually use one in my classroom!
We also used the Big Bus testmaker where I made my first (sample) test! That was so very exciting! I remember, even when I was in elementary school, I made fake tests for my brother when I was playing teacher. :) This site is SO helpful and i'm positive that I will be using it quite a bit when I begin teaching. I made my test multiple choice, which was always my favorite type of test in school. :)
Last, we used TrackStar to create a very neat site where I am able to put various websites for students to gather information for the class. Click HERE to view my track. has five websites with a description under each one. The students are able to go to the website you give them and click the links to the resource sites. This is such a great tool that I will definitely be using for student resources.
We also used the Big Bus testmaker where I made my first (sample) test! That was so very exciting! I remember, even when I was in elementary school, I made fake tests for my brother when I was playing teacher. :) This site is SO helpful and i'm positive that I will be using it quite a bit when I begin teaching. I made my test multiple choice, which was always my favorite type of test in school. :)
Last, we used TrackStar to create a very neat site where I am able to put various websites for students to gather information for the class. Click HERE to view my track. has five websites with a description under each one. The students are able to go to the website you give them and click the links to the resource sites. This is such a great tool that I will definitely be using for student resources.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Introduction
Hi :) My name is Lindsay Rushing and I am an Elementary Education Major at USM. Here you will learn about me and the NETS standards I will achieve. I just transferred from JD and will be graduating (hopefully) in 2013. I just started substitute teaching at Harper McCaughan and I absolutely love it. Being there has shown me that I definitely do want to be a teacher. It has also shown me that I do NOT want to teach middle or high school! I would like to teach 4th grade but I'm sure I would enjoy teaching 1st through 3rd grade also. I got married in October of last year and I am enjoying married life! We have a puppy named Bella that we got shortly after we got married. She is five months old and we love her to death.
I'm definitely looking forward to finishing my education, getting my degree, and becoming a teacher.
I'm definitely looking forward to finishing my education, getting my degree, and becoming a teacher.
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