Blog Journal 10

   In my future career as a teacher, I plan on utilizing excel because it will help with keeping track of grades. It has all the data points listed and organized with its own column and row. I think it is a vital tool for teachers to track their students progress because it also allows for formula calculations, that can give a teacher a better understanding of their students level of understanding. I would primarily use excel for grade books and for calculating averages. Depending on the subject matter i will be teaching, I could also use excel to create surveys and use them as examples in the classroom to teach my students how to use excel. Thinking about it, I believe I will teach my students how to use excel regardless of what subject I teach. Of course if they are in elementary school I will not expose them to it then but still use excel for grades.

   After viewing my classmates blogs I was happy to see how everyone thinks and what is important to them. I saw some great ideas like way from the beginning where someone suggested using podcasts as a way to teach. I thought that was pretty cool because I listen to podcasts for entertainment purposes, and it never occurred to me to use it in that way. Another thing I found interesting was that one of our classmates created an interactive PowerPoint on figurative language. It was cool to see everyone's creative ideas for their subject areas. It was something I never thought of before, especially with an interactive PowerPoint, because it usually is a dry topic, but very cool.

   Although this class was very instrumental in providing me with new knowledge of a variety of educational technologies. There are so many other ones I would like to learn about. I would like to be better skilled in my writing, and I mean this in regards to not only essays, but professional emails, letters or announcements. Being a teacher there will be many instances where you are addressing the parents, faculty or staff and it is important to understand how to structure those messages with the appropriate language. This class taught me how to use the tools, but now I want to know how to develop the proper content for these tools based on the audience. I think the next step would be to take a professional development class or even use lynda.com as a way for me to take a professional development class online. I want to know more about how to speak effectively through these mediums.

ILP #2 Participation- Lynda.com

For my ILP #2 I took a course on Lynda.com, it was about the basic skills everyone should know about in the work field. I enjoyed it because it was very useful and provided me with some great tips for my future career.

Lynda.com-Job Skills: Learning the Basics

Qualtrics Survey

Harley's Survey

Blog Journal 9

    A flipped classroom is when the students have to take initiative to learn the instructional material on their own and then come to the class with any questions and to practice. It is different in a sense that the students become the teachers fro themselves and it is more guided by the teacher. I think this method can be beneficial in a sense because the student can learn in a style that is more catered to their learning style or needs. It can allow them to learn the material in an environment that helps them concentrate as well. But the down side would be that this method relies heavily on the student being responsible enough to take action and learn the material. It also allows room for more error, the students may be teaching themselves the wrong way and completely miss the goals intended.
   In my opinion, flipped classrooms are not the best idea, I think if teachers can teach and then provide time for students to practice in class then it will allow for a more efficient way to teach.

  An open educational resource (OER) is any resource easily accessible that is open for public use. OERs allow for the user to use the resource or tool however they please, as long as they give respects to the original work. An example of this would be Pearson online text and resources. Pearson is an online data source that provides online access to textbooks and many practice tools for students to use. It can be used as just practice or for the teacher to take as a grade. It can be used in anyway the user wants but with respects to still being on the Pearson website. There are many more OERs out there that allow for users to utilize the resource in the way that benefits them best.

   From working with PowerPoint I have learned so many things and these are things I will actually apply in the future to other assignments or tasks. I thought I truly was using PowerPoint the right way but after this class I realized I wasn't even close. For assignment 4 I enjoyed creating a powerpoint show, I never knew the difference between the two. I like how the show just opens up and gets right to it, as well as having the voice over.

However, for assignment 5 I do not really like the button navigation. I feel like it causes more steps than needed. It can be annoying to set up especially when the buttons do not go to the correct slide. I can see how it can be beneficial for other programs and activities that teachers may wanna do but I do not like making one. A cool source but not for me. Next time I would probably make something more fun or use powerpoint in a more creative way and since I have the knowledge to do so I think it will be more well thought out. Also because I was not comfortable using PowerPoint it made it more annoying to go through the steps trying to fulfill the assignment requirements.