Week 3 Summary

EDOL 533

This has been a busy, final week at school. Working full time and taking online classes has proven to be a tad bit difficult. I am so ready to actually have a license, but until then, I truck on. This week I learned some valuable information on how to better my classes and keep my students involved in their education and updated in the field of technology. I am excited to say that many of the things I have learned so far have inspired me to "technologically update" the way I had out information in my class. Visual Representation is very important to students. It catches their attention, sparks their interest and creativity, and helps them to remember the information down the road. A great way to do this in the classroom would be with the DTP program. I hope to involve my students by letting them make powerpoint presentations over the vocabulary that they are learning, and show it to other classes. I continue to read and visit resources that say how positive it can be to have students learn from their peers.

As a Spanish teacher, I do not give grades. Therefore I do not send home papers or newsletters with my students. Nor do the students get worksheets for homework that they take home. We do everything in the classroom, and this mostly includes games, songs, and fun activities. On the days that I present the information, I usually have the students write down the vocabulary words and their meanings. Sometimes we draw pictures to go along with them. In the future, i would like to use the power point presentations, videos and blogs that I have seen from some of the resources that we have been researching. However, I would need to ensure that the presentation are not too busy, and would not take away from the material inside, which is most important.

In recent documents that I have translated for the school, I have not done much visual editing. However I think that just because we have to translate something for the hispanic society, does not mean that they should not be just as interesting and fun to read as the English version. One document was to be sent out at the end of the year, concerning the upcoming Kindergarteners in the community. The school will be hosting a 3 day lecture/workshop for the children to come in, see the school system, meet their new friends/classmates to be, and the new teachers. There is also time to sign them up, get all of their medical requirements met, and take a introductory MAP test. Though the original document is very plain and boring compared to the other document that was written in English, I think that I could add some color and different font to it to make it more interesting to the students and parents reading it. I have attached an updated version, that I hope makes the visual effects more interesting to the reader.

Another interesting research that was added to my list of "to-do's" in the classroom came from the technology explorations. There were several sites that hit directly home for me. I love when I can find sites that work in all kinds of languages, specifically Spanish. One great find was Rubistar, which allowed you to make the rubrics for different subjects, grade levels, and classes. I enjoyed this site because I could do all of the same things in Spanish. Though my class does not officially give grades, I still have to mentally document after each lesson, who is understanding he material. I do this so that I can come up with other ways to present the material if there are students who are not quite understanding the material. I never move on from a subject until I have at least 2/3 of the class at an even knowledge of the subject. If this has not been accomplished after a long amount of time, I usually try to change the lesson, and move on, leaving that group of learning assignments for another time.

Another cool site was that in which you could rearrange your classroom setting and architecture online. This was very neat, especially after just learning about how important it is to keep the children's attention, using the format of your classroom. By being able to rearrange desks and chairs online, it saves the hassle of having to move everything hundreds of times before finding something that fits your teaching needs, and the learning needs of your students. However I have found that sometimes the way you set your classroom up at the beginning of the year may change after you meet your new set of students. It depends on the character of your class, as to how to figure out the best way to arrange the class.

Tacklebox was my absolute favorite Tech Exploration for this week. As I have said before, it is hard to find online sites that use the Spanish language in forms of games, and other fun interactive learning environments. This site had plenty of things that I could use in my classroom. I like the fact that it could be used with the Smartboard, which is another step toward suing more technology in my classroom. It was also something that I would feel very comfortable telling other teachers about. It could be used for any subject, and any language. Students can over use some websites sometimes, so we should always be on the look out for new sites that still keep them involved.

Summer%20Registration-%20JRES%20%28spanish%29.doc

Technology Exploration Assignment

7. Assistive Technologies – www.gpat.org

	1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response - By looking through this resource, I found a lot of information about assisted technology, and what its uses entail. I have seen low assistive technology in some kindergarten classrooms before. These include the special pencil holders and scissor holders. I had not heard or seen of the devices that can read things to the students, or translate for them once spoken in to. Though there is not an immediate need for these in my school system, I think it would be great for specific case.
	2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. _ These devices are particularly directed towards school systems, so their use is prominent. I think that they would be great for students with disabilities who need the extra help to understand in their learning environment, or work as easily as other students can with pencils/scissors.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?- I would definitely recommend this to other educators. Some teachers see the need for these tools without knowing about them, or how to be qualified to use them in their classroom. This site did a great job of explaining the uses, and the process of how to legally be approved to use them in the classroom. It is important to use them the correct way, and have the correct documentation for them so that they will continue to be of help in the future.

Zoho http://www.zoho.com

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. - This website seemed to have absolutely everything that you could possibly need in one place. Everything that could be used to work on a project, lesson plan etc has an app that was on one website to access. Although I do not do many large, complex activities, I could see how useful this site could be.

2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.- The possibilities are endless. The productivity apps had the best variety of things to use in a classroom setting. I also like that you could track progress on some of the apps, watching how children's grades change back and forth. Many of the apps were more business related, but for some people who are involved in PTO and other school groups, this site could be useful to them as well.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - I am not quite sure if I would recommend this site to other educators or not. Though there are so many options to use on there, I am not sure if it was set up easily enough to access everything that pertained to the educational field. There were more business apps on there than anything, and I think some of the other sites that I have seen would be a better fit for teachers. This site might be better for businesses, or home life uses.

8. Online Tools for Teachers (select at least 3 from the 4teachers website) - http://www.4teachers.org/tools/

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response - This site was so exciting! I love to find sites that are bilingual. The more sites that incorporate Spanish, the better. This site was a great way to use rubrics in Spanish and English. I would love to be able to send out rubrics to the parents so that they understood what was going on in the classroom, but in Spanish as well for the Hispanic families, and because it is a Spanish class, of course.

How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. I could immediately use this in my classroom. The more papers and lessons that are completely in Spanish, the more the students will have to rely on the Spanish skills I am teaching them. Even better, schools that are completely bilingual could use these in all subjects, for the children to collaborate the two different languages in areas other than just Spanish class.

Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - I would recommend this to other teachers with the hope that they would use it in English and Spanish. I dream big, yes I know. The only problem that I had with the site, was the login in process. It was a bit complicated for my taste, and I hate filling all of that stuff out every time, making a new password, etc. I would be much better if you could log in with your Yahoo ID or something of that nature.

http://classroom.4teachers.org/
1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.- What a neat site! I had never even heard of such a thing. Though I do not have my own classroom, I loved being able to play with this site, and make my own layouts. I just had a class that emphasized on the importance of setting up your classroom in a manner that is best suited for the students learning. I can see how useful this site could be to classroom teachers.

2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. _ This site is completely directed towards classroom use. However, I am sure that you could hack it in a way that would let you rearrange any room in your house, ha ha! When you move in to a new classroom, sometimes it can be overwhelming to know how to et up all of the tables and chairs so that the students can focus on the learning at hand.

3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - This would be a great site for all teachers. I love the fact that there is no login necessary, and you can start using it as soon as you find the site. There are all types of different options for the classroom layout, so you do not have to worry about guessing, or estimating if something will really fit or not.

http://tacklebox.4teachers.org/index.jsp?subject=5&theme=5413&a...

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. - Another site that I can use in my Spanish class. HOORAY! This site had tons of information that could be used to help the students become more active in the technology world of Spanish. They use technology for so many things now, it is inevitable that they will have to use it sometime in their life. The more accustomed they can become at an early age, the better. This site was not only geared towards older students, but could be used with younger age groups as well. It has hundreds of links that will take you to informative and cultural sites that can be helpful when learning another language.
	2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. - Students could use this site during their computer lab time, or even in the classroom with the smart board. By looking at the different sites, they can explore the new language on their own, choosing sites and topics that interest them. Not only would it be a great resource to use in my Spanish class, but other classes as well. The site has access to more information about several main subjects that are taught in school.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?- I would tell other educators about this site. It was very helpful to me, almost immediately. Therefore I would feel confident that it could do the same for other teachers. I liked the fact that you did not have to create a login to access any of the information, but to make things easier on you, the option was still there. It was easier to use and I could access what I wanted without getting too confused or having to click too many buttons.

Dimio http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/

	1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response. _ This site had a lot of information that pertained to recorded voices reading different prompts. The website in general was very interesting, and reminded me of the option on Iphone 5's that let you say something you would like to send as a text. I have used that a couple of times, but it never really works out exactly as it should. This makes me leery of this site as well. It would almost be too good to be true.
	2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. - You could use this resource in a World language class, helping the student to hear an actual native's voice, which is usually only available to students if they were to study abroad. I like this idea because if students hear another person's voice speaking the language before they start to read and write, they will imitate the voice instead of trying to read it as if it were in their original language. It could also be used for students with disabilities.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - I don't think that I would recommend this site to others unless I saw an immediate need. I could not navigate it easily, nor did I see a great use for its resources. I think that it could have had a better layout, and have more information about the site, and how it came about, and some comments of those who have used it. It always helps more to be able to read comments from those who have used the resource, it gives the site more stability.

9. FullMeasure http://fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk/

	1.Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response. - This site gave presenters the option of having their power point presentation being read by the computer, instead of doing it themselves. I think the idea is neat, however quite un-useful. It seems that we are getting lazy with a lot of the regular jobs that we do on a normal basis. Something as trivial as reading aloud a presentation should not be replaced by a machine.
	2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. Though I can see how teachers could use this so that they could work on other things during the presentation, I think it is taking the teaching out of the classroom. I do think that it could be used for students with speech disabilities, so that they could participate and present material with the help of this device.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - I believe that I would only recommend this site to special education teachers, for the use of their students. I did not like the websites layout. I think that it would have been better organized to have tabs at the top, so you could click on what you wanted to know, instead of having to scroll down through the whole site. This makes it confusing, and hard to find exactly what you want to know about the site and its potential uses.

10. WebQuest –http://www.webquest.org

	1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.- Web quest is a site that holds a lot of information pertaining to teachers over several different subjects. There are several different ways to search the site, and the case studies are easy to find. Another great feature allows those who enjoy and use the site often to recommend other case studies, and books that help them in the classroom.
	2.How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. - Teachers could definitely use this to help them in the classroom. This is a great resource to perform studies and have the students take note of what happened. More than anything, I think that it would be a great resource for the teachers, to use the information from the case studies in their own classroom.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - I would recommend this site to other educators. It is a free educational site that has a lot of information from other educators that can be useful in the classroom. I never had looked at case studies, but have found that they can have some great stats and ideas to improve any problems that you may be having in the classroom. The site was easier to use, and all of the information was accessible.

ReadtheWords http://readthewords.com

Technology Exploration Resource Explored (be sure to differentiate which resource is which for each of the three items:

	1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.- Now this is a site that actual tells its readers what it is being used for. The tutorials were great on giving viewers the information that they needed to know if the site was good enough for them to use, and what services it provided. At first, I was not sure of the uses of having something read to the students. After looking at the "about us" section, I appreciate this resource much more. I learned how many different languages can be used on the site, and the statistics of how many children it has helped. This is a great resource for those with special needs.
	2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings. This could be used in any special education classroom for those students who have auditory or speech problems. Now that I understand its main uses, I feel much more comfortable knowing how to apply it to classrooms. This would be a great resource for students who need more confidence in their reading skills. It would especially help for those ESL, or world language learners.
	3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not? - I would recommend this resource to other educators, as well as parents of those with disabilities that would pertain to this website. I think it would be a great site to help parents at home, when they struggle, helping their child to continue their education. The more a child reads, or listens to someone else reading to them, they can only keep improving. I think that it is easy to get around on the site, it gives some great comments from educators and parents who have seen it work with students of their own.