Reflection week 2

What?
In class we learned how to use many new technologies that we have because of our gmail accounts. We learned how to use iGoogle, Google docs, Google presentations, and Google calendar. We were given group assignments and we made a welcome letter in a google doc and a google presentation of our ten classroom rules.

So What?

As a student, knowing these technologies is going to be very beneficial this semester. We have to do many group projects with all my education classes and now it will be so much easier to do them. Before it was very hard to get everyone together because of our many different schedules, however now with the google docs, and google presentation we can just be at all our homes working on it all together. Its going to be so awesome for all of my classes! I wish I would have had it last semester. As a teacher, it is going to make me so much better. I am going to be so much more organized thanks to google calendar. I have a planner, but having an electronic one will never get lost. I had an old one and it was great, until I lost it. Google docs and google presentations will be so great for my classroom presentations and also to be able to communicate with my other health colleagues. We will all be able to help put presentations together instead of only one person doing it. Its going to be so so so AWESOME!

Having these many new learned options is only going to make my class so much better! This technology is a great tool to keep organized and to contribute with docs and presentations so much better. This generation is so much faster with doing everything and as teachers we need to be that way too. I really could have used this technology last semester. I would end up doing powerpoint presentations by myself when it was a group project and then my group would never see it until the day of the presentation. However, now they can actually see it and even fix it! Its going to help out so much in the rest of my classes! I am so so excited!

Now what?

The technology is going to be great for my future students. I believe that google calendar is going to help me so much if students make appointments with me because I will put it in my google calendar and it will remind me with a text message! How cool is that! I will never miss any appointments with any students! Google docs and presentations are going to be very helpful for students who missed class because I can just give them a url and they will be able to go online and see that class notes for the day. That will be so easy instead of getting their email and sending it. Its just making everything so much faster! Its so funny to because it has really changed my personal schema. I have never been a technology person at all, however now I want to learn more and more about it. I even want to show my students how to use it when I assign them group presentations. It might be a little bit advanced, but I dont' think so. Each generations technology is getting more fascinating by the second. Why not teach my students how to do it when they are young because I could have used it all four years of college and not just my last semester! I will probably give them an assignment to do it on how to do a google doc and a google calendar to force them to get to know the technology and use it. Students should learn how to prioritize as well and google calendar is a huge help with that. Plus, now a days everyone almost has a cell phone so students could even set it up so the events they put into google calendar will go to their cell phones! How cool would it be for them to be able to take that technology into the rest of high school and college! I think they would love every second of it! I am going to be such a better teacher with the many faster options I will have now.

This technology will help me be such a better colleague because I will be able to fix another teachers stuff or even have them fix my presentations just over the internet! I am thrilled to be able to implement this new technology into my classroom! I feel like I am finally getting out of the old school routine! I have such a strong passion for it and its going to make it easier as a student as well! Plus, I noticed with the education department teaching us all this we are saving so many more trees! I think that is so fabulous because being a Health Education teacher, environmental health is very important to me! This technology has so many benefits! I can't wait to use it more!


Video

This weeks video was very different from last weeks. It was actually the 2009 Winner of the "I am what I learn" contest. This boy comes from a rough family life. His father is in jail for physically abusing his mother and it looked as if they didn't have that much money, but the boy really emphasized how to make the best out of every situation. I really enjoyed seeing that a student is finally taking their own responsibility in their learning. That is something very rare in a classroom. However, I don't think that they need to be solely responsible. I think that as a teacher, I can be more responsible for those children in my classroom. I need to be able to recognize if they have a rough home life and reach out to those kids that need me. This child who won did a fantastic job of being motivating for kids to make the best out of every situation, but if teachers are looking for those struggling kids then they can motivate them too. Not many people learn to make the best out of situations until they are later on in life. This child is very motivating, but I still think that as teachers we can do all we can to help motivate those students as well. I want to be one of those teachers that reaches out to many kids! I want to motivate them that they can have a better lifestyle if they choose. Those kids need to be a little bit of a push to get them started and I can do that!