Teaching With Technology

With my very last revision of my classroom activity I have created what I think in my mind to be a well rounded classroom activity for mathematics teachers everywhere. My main target group for this classroom activity are high school students. With the help of my student mentor, Catherine, I have reevaluated my project and now I feel like I have created the best assignment for my future classroom. To view the assignment in its entirety click here

My blogging Experience

Excellent features
I noticed by participating in other classmate’s blogs that things run more smoothly when all the players work together. Some of the blogs that I participated in were the same as mine. The blogs kept me up to date on the assignments that other classmates completed. As a future teacher it’s important to interact with other teachers in everyday life. Commenting on other students blogs allowed more of a connection with my classmates.
Revisions and changes
I would like to see more responsibility on the part of students in my own blog. I know first hand that when other people do not participate it is hard to complete required aspects of assignments. I think that if the time allotted of commenting was stricter it wouldn’t be so hard to comment on time. Commenting on other’s blogs on time is a time management skill that we students need to adjust for ourselves. I would like to see a change in responding to comments. When a person comments on another person’s blog they do not respond to the comments that you may leave.
Belonging and blogs
I believe that a blog is a forum that is open for any type of discussion and/or posting. For this blog I think that since it is created for a teaching and technology class there should be some restrictions. The postings and comments should be related to educational type discussions. Besides the third post which calls for personal experiences I think that our blogs should pertain to integrating technology into education.
Enhanced
Although I think that the blogs are good for their targeted content there are a few things that can enhance the quality of the blogs. One thing that could be added are customized templates. The limited options of templates will cause no originality. I think that if people were able to customize the way their blog looked it may be a bit more appealing to others who view the blogs. Another thing that could be added are pictures. Pictures draw attention to blogs, when I see a picture I am more likely to view the content of a blog than a blog without any graphics.

Group Work

This past week in Dr. Baylen's class we students worked on a group project. The project covered different assignments that each person in the group had to accomplish. One of the jobs required that a group member create a board game that covered the topic of Southeast Florida. That part of the project was my responsibility. After the assignment was done Dr. Baylen has us write a reflection on the experience.


Introduction
This past week we students turned in a group assignment. The assignment was to create a webquest internet site in real life. The topics that we had to select from were areas in the state of Florida. The people in my group received the Miami and Key West area. Since we had five people in our group every category was filled. Other groups that had only four members to their groups did not have to complete a section in the assignment.
My WebQuest Job
The part of the project that I had to complete was the game board. My job was to create a game that focused on southeast Florida. I made the game out of an old board game so that it would actually look as if it were a game. I made up a set of rules for the game. With the rules I also created questions that reflected on knowledge of the southeastern part of Florida. This part of the project allowed me to be creative. I didn’t have any restrictions on how to create my game. There were no challenges other than completing the entire board game on time.

To read the rest of the paper click here

Coming A Long Way!

Wow! My classroom activity looks as though it is turning into an assignment fit for any mathematics class. When I first started my project I only thought about the bare minimums. The one thing that I figured to be enough was establishing that I had an activity that students taking a math class in high school could do. My first blog about my activity stated that I wanted to be a math teacher and I wanted my students to take a placement test. After posting my first classroom activity Catherine, my student mentor, asked me to "consider how technology can assist you in reaching your objectives." Upon that thought provoking statement I began to dig a little deeper in my creation of a classroom activity. After determining that I wanted to create a placement test I though of how I could incorporate technology. To my luck Dr. Baylen showed us students how to create a test or game by hyperlinking a PowerPoint presentation. In the next week of blogging I included the PowerPoint presentation as a source of technology. Along with a PowerPoint test I added a blog that the students could go on and discuss any feelings about the class, test, or anything that they did not understand. Just when I though I had done a good job with revising my activity Catherine pointed out to me that not all people know how to create a PowerPoint test by hyperlinking slides. With that comment I began to create a step by step procedure showing other teachers how to make their very own presentation through hyperlinks.
During week five of our blogging experience we were supposed to create a sheet that stated what the assignment was, the objective, how we as teachers were planning on evaluating our students, what feedback we teachers were planning on giving back to our students, etc. My student mentor, Catherine, thought that I had done a good job in explaining exactly what was going on with my classroom activity. Catherine stated that with that post it was a lot easier to understand what my students would be doing. In my last posting of the classroom activity my student mentor said, "In your explanation, I can see that all components of this assignment tie in nicely." so far throughout this blogging experience I feel as though my planning as a prospective teacher has enhanced.

My Life as an Undergrad Student

So, this past week I have finally affirmed what I will do for the rest of my college career. On Friday I went down to my academic advisor. Until then my major was undecided. In my meeting on Friday I moved my major out of the undecided region to the area of athletic training. Because I am an undergraduate I am only in the pre-athletic training part of the program. When I become a junior I will be eligible to apply for the actual athletic training program.
with all of that said one might wonder what I am doing taking an education class. Well, in the beginning of this semester I was not sure what I really wanted to do with my major. My mind was split between Athletic Training and Education. I think that this class has been an experience to say the least. My advisor told me that I could also do one thing along with my major in athletic training. That one thing is minor in education. So that is the reason that I chose to stay in this class. This week has been one crazy time with class scheduling and spring classes. Hopefully all of the classes for next year go as planned!