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.