Blog Post 7

How Do We All Become Learners? 

List your strengths and weaknesses What do you have to do in the next year and a half (or the time before you graduate) to get ready to be a teacher using project based approaches to learning in situations where students have have the tools they need to participate effectively in such instruction? 

My Strengths: Great with Microsoft Office, Familiar with PC, patience with children, classroom adaptations
My Weaknesses: becoming more technological savvy, using PBL, adapting to new student learning, using educational applications for tablets and iPads

I have a year and a half to mentally prepare myself for becoming a teacher in a world that is on the track to becoming technologically advanced.  I don't think there is a way to really prepare yourself but to actually get out and start getting the experience you need as a teacher. I have strengths but I also have weaknesses as do all upcoming teachers. I believe that if I try hard to make learning a fun experience for my students and balance the right amount of technology and lecture into my lessons I can become a successful teacher.

We All Become Learners 
This video was very interesting to watch! Every time I watch these videos that inquire some insight into Project Based Learning, I gain not only a new likeness, but also a new sense of respect for it as well. I found it very interesting when Michele made the point about the student in Kindergarten teaching her how to use an app! It is amazing what children are learning and actually teaching adults these days and technology is making that happen. Technology is allowing students minds to grow in so many ways. Integrating technology in the classroom not only allows children to become more educated in using the actual technology but to use the technology to become more educated in what they are required to learn in school. We are already seeing children who are teaching the teachers how to do things they aren't familiar with, so I cannot wait to see what the students can conquer and achieve in the upcoming future.

iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten Classroom
Watching this video was so encouraging! I love to see children especially at the Kindergarten age, so eager to research and learn new things. I have heard about the Alabama Virtual Library through school and was pleased to know that Alabama offers such interesting resources for students to use! I find it very interesting that students are wanting to do research and learn new things all on their own! Once they learn things and grasp that knowledge they should have the resources to learn more and more and research what they want to know, and the Alabama Virtual Library encourages and allows that to happen! I think it is amazing to see research start at such a young age and would welcome any student that would like to show me how to correctly use any technology in the classroom! ha!

iPads in the Classroom
I have always been skeptical of having technology in my classroom when I become a teacher because I was not necessarily raised on technology but this video was really important to watch for me because it helped to ease my mind about technology in the classroom. After watching this video, the more I learn about iPads in the classroom and how they can help to broaden a students learning, the more I am in favor of them. It is very important that I learn as much as possible about technology in the classroom because in just a few short years students will begin to know more about technology than teachers will so its very important that we as teachers learn to adapt with our students. iPads and other uses of technology allow both teachers and students to go beyond what a textbook and lecture can teach and if these technologies help students learn more efficiently and can broaden their learning, I'm all for it!

10 Reasons to Use Technology in the Classroom.
This was another great video for skeptics to watch. This video could really end up eventually changing the minds of skeptics about technology in the classroom. I found the system AmpliVox to be very interesting because I've never heard of it and it seems like a very helpful tool to have in the classroom. When I was observing in the classroom last semester, some of the teachers were complaining about losing their voices on and off throughout the semester because of having to speak loudly. AmpliVox could really come in handy for them because it could help broadcast their voice without having the straining effect on the voice. I would definitely be interested in having this tool in my classroom! The main point though of this video is that technology is not only an awesome source for student learning but it can also eventually save money. Technology can cut paper, notebooks, binders, and calculators expenses by a lot and I think once people start realizing this, they will too be on board with technology in the classroom.