Week 5 Posting

I do like Wikis for entertainment purposes. I would not take them to serious because since they are done by anyone a person must be sure that the facts are correct. I would not allow any student I would teach to use them. For starters here a A & M the history department do now allow us to use these sites because they are unrealiable and I agree with the staff. There have been several cases in the media were someone had posted wrong information on these sites.

Yes you can learn more by taking the team approach the problem is your team is only as good as its members. I have seen several cases where teams have came up with great ideas and build on their thoughts. Now the down side of teams is that everyone has to do their part if not the project will fail. I know this first hand because when I was in ETEC 224 I had a partner who did not understand or did not want to do the work so in order for me pass the assignment I ended up doing the whole project myself.

Yes I do believe that students do have different learning styles. It not only their personality that effects they way they learn but also how excited they are about a topic. I do think the test can give a person some insight about how a student learn but we must remember that in order for the test to help the student must also realized that they have those trait within themselves and accept it.

Personality Week 5

Well the test stated that my personality type was the Idealist. After reading the results several times I can see how I fit into this catagory. The article is pretty much on point when it comes to how I deal with personal relationships and the outside world. To be honest I was surprised that the test did not say that I was an evil mean spirited person but once I took the test and read the results I see how the choices I make fit into the bigger picture. I found this test to be fun as well an eye opener. Even though this was meant to be a fun activity I think I might just take some the lessons I learned from the test to heart.

Je'nee

Week 4

After this week assignments I gain a better understanding of spreadsheets. I never really liked them because I always had a hard time navagating the program. Spreadsheet are worth their weight in gold. When it comes to working with numbers and doing grade sheets I can see how they can make a teacher's work much easier. Yes, I will use spreadsheets in my classroom.

We use speadsheet to cut down on human error. It is easy for people to add the number or miss a number and spreadsheet helps us find our mistakes faster and also allow us to correct it easier. When it comes to the functions of a spreadsheet anything to make my life as an educator it a bonus in my book.

I found Inspiration to be a very useful program. Being a history major I just know that this program will be use a great deal with my future students. I am already thinking about how my students will be able organize their work into useful data. I plan on using this program mostly for research projects. That way my students will have a way to visualize what they are researching not just reading a lot of facts.
For my class I will use a combination of research papers and short essays. Just to make sure my students understand the topic. I will also use a hands on system when I can. At times I will have group assignments, other I will use a loose form of peer review. I would encourage my students to different programs to help improve theirs skill that also improve their confidence. If any students are like me I never truly felt comfortable with my writing skills and I would encourage students to take advantage of all the programs that are available. Another thing I would do which in reference to the peer review is I would ask the student to submit two copies one would have their name and the other would not. That when their peers are reviewing their paper the student would not know whose paper they are reading and might be more honest in their review. I would also use the TURN IT IN system. Like the one here at the University. This a way I can be sure that a student do not cheat on their paper.

What do I think about blogs

Question 3

I think that blogs can be very useful if they are used in the proper manner. I am not really sure about having a medium like this in the classroom but if I can have a closed blog, where only the people I choose have access, then I do not have problem with it. In my field of study blogs are very useful. It would be a great way for me to send information to my students without e-mailing everyone. I can also now that my students can see items that are useful for class without trying to make copies or using films. Blogs in the classroom is great as long as it is related to the topic. As for me I am not really sure if I want to use them with my future students but I am open to the idea.

week eight

The midterm itself was not too hard but for me it was more difficult because I have missed a lot of class due to illness. I did like the format of the exam and it allowed students to show their strong points points with the essay format. Even though most people prefer multiple choice I always believed that the essay format give students a better chance at earning higher grades simply because the student is allowed to explain why they came up with their answer.

Week 4 Assignments

What I found out about Inspriation is that this would be a very useful tool for my history students. Since students have to do a lot of writing it would be very helpful to hava a tool that can help students write more clearly and accurate. I also liked the fact it can help with research and streamline projects. This will be very important when students have large assignments to complete. I will most likely use this product in most of my lesson plans. Not only will it help simplify the assingment it will also help make the task less stressful for the students. If students know that there is a tool availiable to help ease their work load they will be more likely to use and benifit from it.

Some of the activities I would use would be time lines, graphs, outlines, power points, etc to name a few. Since I plan on being a history teacher I a wide range of opportunities to use technology in my classroom. By using some of these tools it can help students get a better understanding of the subject and help them get use to putting their thoughts on paper. By using time lines and outlines the students will be working documents with the information right there in front of them. The technology that could help students get them started just might would be the use of concepts maps. I found this to be very helpful. I myself used this in order to get my ideas started. Now when it is time for feedback peer reviews are only as good as the students are. If the student do not have a good understanding of the topic then the review would not help much, so what I would like to do is assing my future students to read their peers paper during one class period and on the next one I would like to go to the computer lab and have them look up the topic for accuracy. Once this is done then I would have them talk about each others papers, discuss what they could have done better, was it fine, what errors they found and hopefully by doing this they will get a better understanding of the subject.