Voicethread

My voicethread account is    settlesa95@gmail.com

Blogs in Education

I have been following two blogs that talk about incorporating technology into education. One of them is http://www.digitalchalkie.com/. This one talks about new technologies and how they are reshaping how society communicates. One post, Email is for Old People, talks about how email has served us well over the last 20 or so years, but there have been so many advances in communicative technology that it is time to try something new. The theme of this blog remains the same throughout the posts. The blogger has communicated effectively with the audience because they write on a level that people can understand. They don't try to treat you like you are stupid, but they don't try to talk over your head, either. There are comments on this blog that, for the most part, agree with the blogger. They talk about how people need to "get with the times" and switch to more modern ways of communicating rather than email. One commenter, however, disagreed with the blogger and insisted that email is still a resourceful tool in education. This made me take a second look at the blog.
The second blog I have been following can be found at http://www.techsavvyed.net/. This blog discusses the way a teacher uses blogging to teach his students. He uses different story problems and maps and things like that to get his students involved. The blogger uses the same theme on every post. The blogger has communicated effectively with the audience. They use clear language and examples. There were no comments for me to read. I will not be using blogs in my teaching. This is the first time I have used blogging in my learning, and I have found it to be a very interesting experience. It has its pros and cons, just like everything else. I just feel as though there are more effective ways to get a message across. I do not believe this to be an effective teaching tool, however, I am open to change and would like to do more research on this before I make a decision.

Twitter

As aspiring math teachers, Tommy and I wanted to use twitter as a way to get the class involved at home, but at the same time, be able to interact. We decided that it might be a cool idea to have a Twitter Problem of the Week, which would be a simple way to give the students something to work on at home, be able to discuss it over twitter, and then discuss the next day in class. For our example we posted a problem for an Algebra class:

#TPotW: y=cosx + 3. Graph within the intervals [-5,5]. Bring graph to class with at least 5 points labeled. Worth 10 pts. Good Luck! #Math


The students would just have to follow the teacher, and log onto twitter that night. For privacy reasons, the teacher would most likely not follow any of the students without prior permission. Either way, the students can "mention" the teacher or other students in a tweet if there were questions to be asked. Also, each problem would begin with the hashtag #TPotW (Twitter Problem of the Week) so that the tweet is easy to find.The students would be asked to try the problem, and bring the problem to class the next day. Whether the students get it correct or incorrect, the students would be graded on participation. After grading for participation, the teacher would then go over the problem with the class, and begin the next lesson or section.


We are not really sure if Twitter is the best venue for a concept like this, but we feel like it would be relatable and enjoyable for a class. Let us know what you think!

Twitter in Education

We decided that using twitter in the classroom could be an effective tool for getting to know students, as well as keeping in touch with former students, and getting homework assignments to students who were absent on a particular day. Teachers could either upload the assignments onto twitter, or they could tweet to their students what the assignment was. This would help students to remember to do their assignments, and it would give the teacher a way of reminding the students once they left the classroom.

School Work

I woke up this morning with a splitting headache and sore muscles. My kinesiology class is about to get the best of me and these long days of class dont do anything to improve my mood :-( I never knew how out of shape i was until i started my kinesiology class and now i wish i never wpuld have found out. If i never have to do another lunge or push up ever again, i will be just fine.
While i was working on my german homework, Noah decided that he wantes to push the delete key on my laptop and he deleted over half of the assignment. Luckily, i had an autosaved copy from earlier and i only had to redo about a quarter of it.
I have a brand new nephew as of this past Saturday :-) His name is Brodie and he is so tiny!
My grandma is still in the hospital. She has been there since before Thanksgiving. She has had more than 5 surgeries. She had open heart surgery. And then her lungs started filling up with fluid and then she couldnt breathe on her own. She has been on a ventillator for a while now because she is not strong enough to breathe on her own. She had to have a tracheostomy. And she has a feeding tube. But overall, the doctors say she is doing better every day.
Well, i have to go for now... Off to math class!

Greetings!

Well, this is officially my first post on my new blog. Not sure what I'm supposed to be writing about right now. Hopefully I find some inspiration somewhere and I will have something interesting to write about. Possibly my experiences as a single mom and a full-time college student. Happy reading!