Effective Instruction

I learned a lot of important information when reading the articles on effective instruction.  The QAIT model of quality, appropriateness, incentives, and time really play an important part of your classroom instruction.  When you reflect back to your teaching, are you able to provide the quality instruction that your students need to understand a new topic?  When dealing with the appropriateness of the lesson, are you teaching topics that students have a background to already or are you teaching something totally new and not providing them with the basic concepts before going on?  Students like to learn for incentives.  What are they going to get from learning?  Will they receive a grade, praise, or other incentives in order for them to keep on learning?  You have to provide a type of reward to get students to learn what they are working for.  Time is always a big thing.  Sometimes we have too much left over; other times we do not have enough.  If a concept is difficult, we need to provide more time for practice before we let them work by themselves.  Even by themselves, they may need more time.
I feel that the second article relates to the first article by building on the QAIT ideas.  Two principles that you need to follow are reflexive learning and supporting students.  With reflexive learning, you have to reflect on you instruction to determine if you are providing the appropriate amount of time in order to learn a topic, provide a suitable pace, and meet the needs of each students' learning styles.  You also need to support your students in order for them to know that you want them to succeed on their tasks.

Reflection on troubleshooting:  Effective instruction is very important these days to make sure students are learning the material that they are learning.  As I read through the Effective Instuction Troubleshooting, I thought to myself that I do so many of these concepts already but there are more that I should continue to work on.  I am a fairly new teacher anything will help build my instruction.  As a TIS, having the effective instruction qualities would help me in ways of teaching others to use technology in a way that will enhance their classroom experience not only for themselves but for the students that are teaching as well.  Helping teachers be effective in the classroom in terms of technology helps motivate students to being the best they can be.  Students love using technology these days and if a teacher is compatible with the technology they have in the classroom, they will tend to be more involved with what is being taught.  As a TIS, teachers will need the guidance from me in order to create lessons and activities that focus on student achievement.  Teaching effective instruction strategies will help build their self esteem and make them more effective in the classroom.

This week we began studying presentation design, I had no idea...

...that there were so many different things that you could download from the internet.  I always just thought you had to get extra things like font or colors through the powerpoint programs.

I make a lot of presentations for my building and use powerpoint a lot.  I don't think that many of my presentations are bad; they are for the subject of what I am talking about.  Now, I have some extra ideas to how to make my presentations better than before.

Week 10 - Video part 1

This makes me laugh every time!

Week 9 - Instant Messaging

In high school and college, my instant messager was always on.  I had Windows Messenger as well as AOL instant messenger.  While I was at Pitt for my undergrad, it was nice to be able to communicate with my friends back home or at KU and KSU (most of my friends went to those three places).  I think that instant messaging is great for a "hi, how are ya" type of thing.  I liked it when I used it.  I haven't used IM in such a long time.
I don't really have any concerns about using IM except when I left it on when I went away from the computer and either I had a lot of message from people or my older brother got on my computer and started typing random things to my friends.  We do not have IM at work...I think some of us would be typing on that a lot instead of doing our other work.

Week 8 - Cloud Computing

I've used Google Docs before but didn't really find it handy in my current school situation.  Instead, our district has equiped staff members with something like Google Docs but instead using a certain drive on our server.  We are able to upload itmes to this drive so anyone in the building is able to see it.  People are able to open up the document, make changes, and save it again for someone else to view.  It helps with having to reinvent the wheel when it comes to certain things that many staff members use.

Week 7 Microblogging

1.  I don't know if I would use a Twitter account for the purposes that it serves.  I have friends who have Twitter accounts, but I don't follow them.  I am rarely on Facebook (which I used to use for everything) and rarely update my status there so I don't think Twitter would benefit me or others.
2.  When I have looked for people online, I have had an easy time looking for the people that I search for.  I can follow the tweets that they have as well as the messages that they put across. 
3.  When Big Brother was on, I would follow the spoilers on Twitter to get the latest up to date in the house especially when it was time for competitions and such.  A couple of coteachers of mine have twitter accounts.  I have seen them, but I do not follow them.  A lot of what they post on Twitter they post the same thing on their facebook pages as well.
4.  To me, microblogging takes a lot of time and you have be able to keep up with it.  A good benefit of blogging for the classroom may be to create a classroom blog so parents can follow what is happening in the classroom and any homework assignments the students have for the evening.

Videos in the Classroom

According to Prensky, I am a digital native.  I would consider myself that because I have been around technology for as along as I can remember.  I still remember the first computer that my parents had.  It had 12 programs on it and my favorite game was Impossible Mission II.

In my classroom, I am equipped with the latest SMARTboard technology.  I have an Airliner tablet that allows me to move anywhere in my classroom and what ever I write on my tablet is projected agaist the screen.  There have even been times when I have had to cover my class and the one next door in the hallway and can still write on my tablet for my kids to follow along with me.  My math curriculum has powerpoints that allow me to teach with the interative tablet as well.  I use a voice amplifier in my classroom so I do not have to talk loudly and the students can hear me anywhere.

I'm pretty familiar wtih most terms of the "language" of technology.  In order to completely learn all of the terms, I have to learn it by using it.  Just reading it on the page is not going to help me remember.  I have to actually do something with the language term in order to fully understand it.

One of the things my district does to keep students safe from YouTube while as school is blocking them from entering the site.  Teachers have permission to use the site, but it is with strict caution that you do not look up inappropriate materials.  Another way to encourage YouTube for education but definitely a safe way would be to use the K-12 groups page that is mentioned in the article.