Blog # 8 (Video Post) For Educators

Are your students learning? How is your teaching?? Things for old, new, or current teachers to think about! :o)

Blog #7 How things are going??

I think that things have been going ok so far. I feel really overwelmed with the amount of projects we have in this class, but I think some of the information that we have learned will be somewhat beneficial in an elementary school setting depending on the school district in which I am teaching. I think that just having basic knowledge of the computer and internet are great assets to have in our culture because it is so predominant. I think though that when I do have a classroom of my own that computer usage in the classroom would be very limited, just because I am a firm believer that you do not necessarily need technology in your classroom to be able to engage the children and adapt lesson plans for different learning styles. However, much of what I have learned has been interesting and if anything will help myself when it comes to teaching in the future. Basically the most important lesson I have learned so far is to just let the children explore and practice using technology when they can, and let them see what works and what doesn't while assisting them on the way. But anyway good so far :o)

Blog #6 Internet use in elementary classroom

I think there are many pros and cons to using internet in an elementary school classroom. A few pros I can think of are that the internet is so broad and has such a variety of information that you could always find information, pictures, videos, songs, or anything else to relate it to a topic you are teaching to better relate the topic to the children as well as give them different ways of absorbing the material you are teaching. It would be good to have when you are working on multiple subjects as well, because there are so many good educational sites for children, and for that of young children that assist them with the basics of numbers and letters, but of also things such as math and science to.
However, I think that the cons that would come into play concerning the use of internet in an elementary school setting would be things such as make sure the sites are appropriate for the children, that there is no chance of them finding inappropriate material while looking up things for a topic, and I think the biggest one would be the fact that there are still quite a lot of school districts that can not afford to have computer or the internet becasue of funding. I think that the lack of funding for the school or the assumption that all students know how to use technology could be a problem as some students may not have computers at home or may not be familiar with how to use the internet. I feel that it would be a good asset to have in a the classroom, but that it would not be necessay to use in a classroom. I know that technology is a huge part of our culture, but I feel that there are other ways to teach material to the children while they are in the classroom, instead of doing the easy way of letting them find information online. Besides that I feel that school districts already have trouble with funding and I don't really see elementary schools using computers as often as older grades.
However, I think that my favorite educational website to date that I have liked would be the one that is called the new Britanica Learning zone for elementary school children (http://school.eb.com/learningzone). I like how animated it is and is a great learning tool for children for any subject! It really has a great variety for the children and is a great interactive website that is greatly educational for the children.

3 links for ERIC project

here are the three links for my groups ERIC project that I found.

1. http://0-vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.maurice.bgsu.edu:80/hww/shared/shared_main.jhtml?_requestid=65832
2. http://0-web.ebscohost.com.maurice.bgsu.edu:80/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=102&sid=7512efb0-1c60-4066-9732-4829c50abd82%40sessionmgr108
3. http://0-web.ebscohost.com.maurice.bgsu.edu:80/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=102&sid=7512efb0-1c60-4066-9732-4829c50abd82%40sessionmgr108

Blog #5 What Kindergarteners Should Know...

After reading the article about what kindergarteners should know and the standards that were set for them, I was a little shocked that it had not been not earlier. I still think there is so much curriculum thrown at children today, and it is getting much harder on the teachers as well as the students to keep up. I feel that when they are worrying so much about the content standards in the classrooms, that majority of educators lose sight of the fact that learning should be fun for children and should be enjoyable. I think that in our society today so much pressure is put on kids to do all the standardized testing and so forth. However, the fact that they have a teachers guide is great, because it allows teachers a variety of ways to teach all the material that they must for a student to continue on to the first grade. Overall though, I always wondering how much is too much for kindergarteners to know?