Course Reflection

Looking back at this past semester and specifically this course I can honestly say that taking this class was on of the most enjoyable experiences in my graduate studies thus far. Going into this this class I really did not know what to expect. I have never taken an online class and have used very a very limited amount of technology in the classroom up to this point in my career. This class opened my eyes to different ways of reaching out to the children of today. Also it made me aware of the challenges of making teachers become comfortable utilizing technology. Personally, I have become much more open to the use of technology in my classroom because of this course. As a teacher for 11 years, I believe I am somewhere in the middle of the road when it comes to technology. I am not a 20 year+ veteran teacher who refuses to use technology because I never used it and I am not a fresh out of college teacher who is a digital native going into the teacher world either. I believe at this point of my career I could go either way, become more adept with technology in the classroom or never use it at all. With this course I believe I will be much more open to further learning and trying new ideas involving technology. I have come to realize that students learn in different ways in this day and age and through technology teachers can reach them in more efficient and more effective ways. My toughest obstacle will be when I decide to leap into the realm of administration some day and need to convince that veteran teacher to be willing to change his ways. I got a great deal out of this class and I hope the rest of you did also. Thank you Dr. Luongo for all of your help and looking forward to your class in the summer!

Lesson Plans

Lesson Plans are vital to the success of a teacher and their students. However, I believe some districts and teaching colleges go overboard in the detail required in lesson plans. I have been teaching for 11 years and have used small boxes for my lesson plans in a book and have recently changed to an online format that uses a similar box set-up. In the day's box the objective, precedure, do-now, instructional strategies and assessments are listed. I agree that all teachers need to be organized and have a plan but with some formats the work can be much too time consuming! Teachers have lives outside of school and families to attend to. Some lesson plans requires hours of work just to satisfy school guidelines. Think about the poor elementary school teacher who is responsible for multiple subjects a day. Those who are required to utilized detailed lesson plans for each of their subjects will spend their entire weekend creating them! I have taught for 11 years, not to sound like an "old dog" but I have never had to do a lesson plan for school that was as detailed as the ones I had to do when I was in college doing my student teaching and I think I am very organized and prepared for every lesson I teach. Let the teachers put more effort into the actual performance of the lesson and less into meaningless paperwork that looks good in administrations eyes!

"Introducing the Book" Video

This was a very funny video! However, relates directly to a lot of people in society learning and struggling to use technology today. In school I have encountered many people who have a fear of computers and technology. I hear comments all of the time "I haven't had a computer for 30 years, why do I need it now?" I have a department member that I need to help him check his email almost daily and still doesn't know how to send an email! I also help another faculty member almost weekly put her lesson plans onto the schools L-Drive! She can't get the concept of Microsoft Word of saving the file with the proper date and opening up the correct drive to save it on! So this I can see what this video is getting at. In reality, the book was a big step forward in relation to the scroll and technology has soared to unforeseen hights. The sky is the limit with what can be done with technology. The only problem is getting everybody on board with this belief and open to the idea.

Web Site Question

I need help with something and I hope someone else out there has the answer. I am currently working on my website. It is a website devoted to my varsity baseball team at Sayreville H.S. The website has team information such as the team roster, schedule, practice times and fundraising information. However there are built in tabs that I cannot seem to change that do not pertain to my website such as homework and reading lists. Is this web page builder just specific to classroom teachers? Does anyone know if I can change these and make them more specific to my website or am I stuck with these? If anyone can be of assistance I would greatly appreciate it!

Web Site Creation

Today I started to create my website. As I began I was very excited to create my website. I was moving along pretty well, had plenty of great ideas, but stumbled as I tried to add images. Then I got bumped out of the sight and couldn't get back in. Once I got back in some of my information had disappeared! I am starting to get that same anxious feeling that I felt initially with building the webquest. Hopefully I will work out the kinks and get the hang of it. I am looking forward to building a web page for my varsity baseball team. Wish me luck and good luck to all of you creating yours!

Blogging

I am quickly becoming a fan of blogging. This class was my first experience at blogging and I am really starting to enjoy it and am starting to see the educational possibilities that can arise from blogging. Looking through the two blogging sites in Module 4, I really started to think about ways that I can possibly incorporated blogging in my health classes. The opportunities are endless! I believe that blogging can be a tremendous tool for my high school students to express themselves and apply knowledge that is being learned in class. Class participation can really extend beyond the classroom! I really believe that blogging in the near future will be a commonplace in many classrooms throughout the world.

Webquests

I have discovered that webquests can be a very valuable teaching tool. This was my first experience working with webquests and I am getting better, but still not comfortable enough to incorporate in the classroom yet. From looking at other webquests, I can see how beneficial they can be in educating the digital natives we now teach. I would love to one day feel confident enough to create lessons on webquest and utlize them in my health classes. This project hopefully will help me get one step closer.

Internet Safety

The topic of internet safety is a very important topic, one that parents and educators really need to constantly reinforce with their children and students. Growing up my parents told me not to talk to strangers and to look both ways before I crossed the road. In this day and age the internet has brought about a whole new world of issues, many good however many bad as well. Children need to be made aware of the dangers on the internet. I'm positive that kids now encounter way more strangers on the internet than the strangers that I may have encountered growing up on the street! Watch one episode of Dateline "How to Catch a Predator" with Chris Hanson if you don't believe how dangers the internet has become. Children spend countless hours on the internet, often unsupervised when parents are out at work. As students get older they need to also learn the dangers of identity theft. Billions of dollars are stolen a year due to these crimes and high school students need to be made aware of the dangers of purchasing items online, online banking,credit and debit cards etc. College students are working, getting their first credit cards and may be uneducated to these dangers as many adults are. The internet has made the world a much smaller place and we need make a strong effort to educate the youth of america on internet safety.

Technology in Classroom Observation

Yesterday I took my 3 health classes to the computer lab to do a research project on Mental Disorders. Students were put into groups and assigned a specific mental disorder to research and present to the class at a later date. During the time in the lab I sat back and observed how proficient the students were on the computers and how well they were able to accomplish the task. Out of the 102 students over the 3 classes that I took to the lab not one student asked me a question that was related to utilizing the computer. Some asked questions specific to the project but every student was proficient with utilizing the computer. Also I was amazed with how quickly the students were able to find all of the information and complete the task. Within 10 to 15 minutes students were able to define the disorder, find signs and symptoms, treatment methods and a true life story of someone with the disorder. After that they were already discussing amongst the group members what their skit was going to entail and what visual aids they were going to utilize. Within 20 minutes they were already done and watching highlights of the Super Bowl from the night before! It continually amazes me to see what the internet has done for education! The amount of information that students have at their fingertips is astounding. However, what really amazed me is that everyone was proficient in using the computer and no one needed any help! I believe that is part of the problem with educators today in their fear of technology. Teachers who are uncomfortable utilizing technology do not want to fumble in front of students who know how to use the technology much better than them! We as teachers like to stay one step ahead of our students and many teachers will not use technology because of this fear.

NJCCCS/NETS

In observing the NJCCCS and NETS I am seeing a major evolution in education that I really never paid a whole lot of attention to until now. As a P.E. and Health teacher I have not changed a whole lot in my teaching practices over my 10 years of teaching and this class is starting to open my eyes! I do believe teachers need to evolve with this movement to ensure a quality education for these digital natives. Many teachers still live in fear of technology and hide behind lectures, busy work and videos. The challenge for administrators is how to get proper training for teachers and encourage and or force teachers to utilize technology. I am pretty sure that all new hires must be throughly in tune with educational technology. That is one way to improve a school building is to hire better teachers! So many teachers lack the knowledge necessary and are dead set in their ways. I hear all of the time from veteran teachers "I've been doing this for over 20 years, I am not changing now!" I have personally become pretty adept at using the computer and am looking for more ways to incorportate technology in my classes. I do have two research projects already set up for my health classes, and am currently evaluating my lessons and looking for ways to change and better reach these 21st century learners.

Jukes article

I really found the article "DK (Digital Kids) Learning in the New Digital Landscape very interesting. I definitely consider myself a "digital immigrant", learning to survive in this new digital world. As a high school teacher, I often see the way kids act, interact with others and respond to teachers and authority figures and often wonder to myself, "What is wrong with them?" This article really made me step back and think and start to realize why! They have been brought up in a totally different world, then I did growing up in the 80's. I grew up with Atari, a controller that had a joystick and 1 button to fire! I did evolve to Nintendo but once I reached college and Playstation came about I hit my limit. The Playstation remote with 8 buttons blew my mind! I take my students to a computer lab to do a research project and in 10 minutes they have printed out more information then I would have gathered in 3 night long trips to the library when I went to college! It would have taken me more than 10 minutes to figure out how to hook up the damn microfilm just to find one article! How about cell phones? What would kids do with out them? Have you ever taken one away from a student? They are like crack babies without them! They shake and shiver and cry until they get it back. It took me long enough but I finally have learned to text message! It is a different world now and it was interesting contrast to learning styles and opened my eyes more to my students and hopefully how to get through to them better.

My First Blog

This is my first blog for my Computers in Curriculum class. I just want to send this out to make sure I know what I am doing and feel comfortable acessing this. This is my first on-line class and am trying to familiarize my self with "Blogging" as well as utilizing the "Blackboard". It should be an interesting learning experience and am eager to get started!