Bloom's Taxonomy

I thought these articles were very, very interesting. I liked the last article the best because it talked about how to apply it to an actual lesson to the class and it also talked about what questions to ask for each level of understanding. I liked the levels that he did separate them into: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis. Each one is very different from that before it, but they can coexist next to each other as to not interrupt the flow of learning. Knowledge is different than comprehension. Comprehension is different than application, so on and so fourth. Once a child is in a certain level of the grid, they are able to work towards understanding the information enough to make it to the next level. I really think this will be a useful tool because with Bloom's Taxonomy, I am able to understand what I, as a teacher, will need to ask the children to be able to get the students to progress their learning comprehension further. One of the articles says how hard it is to get the students to get pas the knowledge and comprehension stage, but by asking questions outside of the normal questions, the children are forced to think about the information a different way and that stimulates the brain which makes the kids learn it! I really enjoyed reading these articles about this subject and plan to remember this theory while I am teaching in the future. 

Powerpoint

I thought the powerpoint lesson was very helpful this week. I felt, going into the class, that I was could get by pretty well on the program, but I definitely learned some new things about making a powerpoint presentation. I think that this tool will be very helpful in the teaching world because of the fact that you can grab different kinds of learner's attention on one single powerpoint presentation. You can cater to those that are mathematical or that are logical learners, or you can cater to those who are linguistic learners. There are also musical learners, spacial learners, and kinesthetic learners. For logical learners one might want to lay out the presentation in a non-cluttered logical clean-cut way so that they can wrap their heads around the concept. For the musical learners, a teacher could play music in the presentation or make up a song about the presentation after it was over so that the children can remember the information they were taught and then hopefully it will retain better through the rhythm of song. Linguistic learners preferably like to read and use letters to learn, so by writing down the information on the powerpoint presentation, the linguistic learner is able to get the information better than just listening to it. I think that teachers should use this tool at least everyday during their lectures. Powerpoint could jazz up the lectures so much and in return, the children get more out of the lesson than without it. 

Reading Assignment

I thought the article on mapping was interesting. The figures were cool to see because they were actual results from the creek water and when you are able to look at results like that in something such as a causal map, it makes more sense and it becomes more relevant. Using causal mapping would be a great idea to relate cause-and-effect data. Also, because the students did all of the work, it is making them learn the material more than if the teacher went and made the map for them. by doing the work and seeing the map progress through time, it made more sense than if the students were to just look at the finished map. I also think that it was a great idea for the students to go on a field trip as well. Any time an opportunity comes to go on a field trip, especially outside to the wilderness, take it. I think students will learn better with a break once in a while and also with some fresh oxygen in their bodies. Its so important to break up the routine of everyday schooling. When school become boring and repetitive, students will not learn. When a student experiences something new and exciting, such as a field trip to the creek, the kids are more attentive and interested. Its a win win situation and I think this article was a perfect example of how to design a science experiment. It was fun and engaging and it mapped the students' minds!!

So I've been sick...

Well I haven't gone online in about a week. I have been super sick with strep throat and I have been sleeping up a storm. Good thing it has been raining because I would hate to be missing out on warm weather while I am feeling like this. Some technology that I learned about this week would be my computer. I have a macbook and I am still trying to get used to it. I have been trying to play around with the iPhoto and also scanning pictures into my iPhoto. Its a daunting task but also rewarding as well. As for the classwork, I am pretty lost with the Inspiration and the mind map thing. I guess I had to be in class to understand it. Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up pretty quickly. I hate being sick.... Im really confused with Taskstream also. I didn't know where to upload the Newsletter so I kind of just guessed. I think I got it right thought because I did see the button that said request feedback, but it would not let me click on it because it said that I had to have someone assigned to me before I could request something like that. So that was a little confusing for me. I had fun doing the Newsletter and I could totally see myself  writing Newsletter all the time for the parents. It just seems like such a good way to stay in touch with the parents and to let them know how I work and what we will be doing for the week or month.  

Well hopefully I will start feeling better this week!

Week 2 Reading Response

This week's reading was interesting enough, but it was kind of repetitive. I had a hard time reading this article. I do agree with the author in that technology with only improve teaching methods and it will help reach students better. I like the three topics that he brought up in the article: Preconceptions influence all learning, understanding comes from knowing facts and principles, and metacognition is essential for understanding. These points are dead-on. One of the reasons that I want to teach, is so that I can help the students understand the material, not just recall the information. With technology on my side I think that I will be able to accomplish this goal quite well! There are so many programs out there that can help assist teachers as well as students. The article states that, "one of the appeals of technologies is to entice learners to think differently and more expansively." I think that this is very true. I believe that students today have more opportunities to learn better than they did 30 years ago because of the current technology available to them. 

Netiquette

I found that this site would be very helpful for someone brand new to the internet. I have been using the internet for some time now, so many of the topics discussed were areas that I was already familiar with, but for someone like my Grandma, or possibly a child, new to the World Wide Web, these rules would be of help. I thought one of the most important topics was "Rule 5: Make yourself look good online." This is important to me because I can see how easy it would be for a new internet user to make themselves look bad but writing out something wrong. Since our tones of voices cannot come across in writing most times, something that was supposed to be sarcastic sounding could be read as being mean or rude. It is a problem and I have seen first hand what can happen. This kind of ties into "Rule 1: Remember the human," in that it is easy to forget who you are talking to because they are not right there talking back. When writing something online, nobody is directly speaking to you in front of your face. I think this is kind of a way for people to express another side of themselves that they normally wouldn't express in public. I like how in this section they warn the readers about the dangers of having something bad written down. That is so important for people to understand. If you don't want the world to know about it, then its best for it to not be written about. The last topic that I read about was "Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy." I believe that this is one of the most important rules. These days, it seems like nobody really wants to be private when they are displaying their lives on their Myspace and Facebook's, but snooping around is just rude and inconsiderate. I think in some cases, it could be illegal, depending on the means in which a person snooped. 

Tools learned this week...

This week I learned how to use screen shots. I was never aware that this could be possible! It's so simple yet so brilliant! This could be very useful if you wanted to show someone something off of a website but couldn't copy the picture. I think it is also cool that you could crop the screen shot so that you could only use a certain portion of that screen shot. 

I didn't know that there were so many search engines available out there. I only thought there was Google, Yahoo, and Ask. It was really interesting to explore some of the other sites and see what each one had to offer. I like that there were specific search engines for children. This is very important so that they aren't exposed to something that could be offensive. That is something that I would definitely use in my classroom. 

I absolutely love Yahoo Bookmarks. They made it really easy too, because when I signed up, it allowed me to transfer all of my bookmarks on my computer directly into Yahoo bookmarks. This helped out a lot and saved me from having to bookmark each site individually! Amazing! I have been telling everyone I know about the bookmarks site because its just so useful!