Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Project 14

Project 14 was a collaborative project between Daphnie Pugh, Brittany Stanchio, and Amber Warren. Below are sharable links of our Project Overview, Project Calendar, Individual Performance, and Group Project Performance Rubrics.


Project Calendar
Project Overview
Individual Performance Rubrics
Group Project Performance Rubric

Monday, July 13, 2015

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Blog Post 13 What Did I Leave Out?

Blog Post 13

Read these articles. Write about what you think will the best and the most difficult part about being an elementary education teacher. Explain why you want to be a teacher.
  


This blog post is to be done individually.

Upon completion:
Post to your blog and post the link in Sakai under assignments.

Completed Version of Assignment:
         
          After reading these articles, it really made me think about what teaching is truly about. Being a teacher is not going to be an easy job, and it is not going to be a job that you are amazing at the very first day. It takes a lot of work and sacrifice along the way to truly become a great teacher, but in the end it is a very rewarding job that most people will never get to experience. Personally, I think this is the perfect job for me because there will always be challenges for me to overcome, and I will get to help students become successful.


          There are many things that will be difficult about being a teacher. One thing that many educators found to be difficult were the parents. When a parent sees their child is not doing well in school, some are very quick to blame the teacher and not their child. This can be very stressful for the teacher, and it can result in bad situations. Another thing some educators had issues with is the focus on standardized testing. With the focus being placed on these tests, it makes it hard for teachers to really teach in the way that the students need. In my opinion, memorization is not the key to learning. You want your students to be able to learn how to think outside of the box, which is why I talk about Project Based Learning so much.  

Last but not least, I am going to talk about the best part about being a teacher. There are so many good things that come out of teaching. For instance, you get to witness that “A-Ha!” moment that students have when they finally figure something out. Most teachers find that this is the one of the greatest feelings because it makes all of the hard work that you put into teaching feel like it is worth something. Another great part about teaching is being able to interact with the students. You get to be around these students for most of the day, and teach them things that will probably stick with them for the rest of their lives. You become their role model, and you can actually help mold students into having a successful life. In my opinion, the most rewarding part of being a teacher is having the opportunity to change a student’s life for the better. 






Picture from Susana Fernandez.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Project 12 Part A

Here is my video on how to use SmartBoards!


   

Blog Post 12


There are many useful Assistive technology tools that I can use in my classroom. Every student that goes to school have different needs. Some students may not be able to hear well or see well. That’s why it is useful to know about the different Assistive technologies available for students with disabilities to use.


For instance, apple I-Pads are very useful to have while teaching a vision impaired student. Apple I-Pad has a Voice-over control that speaks before you click on an app. It also has shortcuts that are easy to remember which help vision impaired students access the I-Pad without having to look at it. There are also some great apps that you can download that are easily accessible for visually impaired people. One app that I thought would be very useful is called Ever-note. It supports Voice-over and can store voice notes and text so they can be accessed over any device. Another great app that can be used by the visually impaired is LookTel Money Reader. LookTel Money Reader allows you to take a picture of paper money, and tells you what the monetary value of that bill is. To find out some more useful apps check out this link.  http://appadvice.com/applist_ipad_client_view/apps-for-the-visually-impaired



Braille Note Takers are another useful tool for the visually impaired. Braille Note Takers can help the visually impaired student type up documents using a braille keyboard. This product can connect to your computer using a USB port. I think this is a very helpful product because visually impaired people can easily tell which letter is which, and it allows them to type up documents for school or work. Find out more about Braille Note Takers at this link. http://www.humanware.com/en-usa/products/blindness/braillenotes

Many children who wear hearing aids still have difficulty hearing and understanding a parent or teacher’s words when there is lots of background noise and over short distances. This communication challenge also applies to many normal-hearing children who suffer from concentration-related disorders. A useful tool that can be used in the classroom to help solve this problem is a personal frequency modulation system or an FM system. FM amplifier is an interesting tool that helps eliminates background noise and transmits sounds directly to the student’s hearing aid.  A personal frequency modulation system consists of a transmitter microphone that the speaker wears, and a pair of headphones that receives the information the speaker is saying. This is useful if you have a hearing impaired student, or a student who has trouble concentrating with noise in the background. The child hears the speaker’s words directly in their ears, without any distracting background noise, allowing them to enjoy and participate fully in every conversation. I think this is a great way to include every student even if they have a disability. http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/FM-Systems/








Brittany Stanchio did the PowerPoint on Assistive Technology.
Amber Warren and Daphnie Pugh did the written part of the blog post.