Using Technology in New Ways...

Today our world revolves around technology. Growing up we didn't always have technology and grew up learning how to adapt to this ever evolving tool. Now with today's youth they have never lived a life without it (an odd concept to wrap my head around). What we need as teachers is to integrate technology into our lessons whenever possible. I find this important to keep our students interested in the concepts that we are teaching, but not to over stimulate them. As educators, we need to be fluent in technology because of two reasons, one America depends on it and two soon our students will out smart us in technology therefore we could lose some credibility.  I personally thought I was proficient with PowerPoint and Word, but I was mistaken. Technology is constantly changing and with it I need to be up to date with it. I would like to learn how to design using Adobe for myself professionally and personally as well as find interactive programs that I could use on a smart board with my students. I love to create new things and technology just becomes another medium.

So far I have completed a pagecast http://www.pageflakes.com/kpyshora/. I used it once in one of  my grad classes, but I never thought I would be creating one. Now I am eager to utilize pageflakes for research projects for my middle school classes. This way it becomes a safe way for students to research, especially when it comes to art and non-credible resources. This way students can see a rubric for their projects as well as find their resource and I know that they won't "accidentally" get on Facebook.

I really enjoyed creating my newsletter/syllabus. Before, I had a syllabus that I passed out to my students that was sufficent, but this assignment required me to take the time to design one that was creative and easy to read. As a teacher I find that I am not always able to sit down and give time to be EXTRA creative with my handouts. I was always using publisher because it was easy to use but sometimes temperamental but now I like the different abilities that I have discovered in word.

I am really looking forward to learning more about the different ways to integrate technology in to the classroom. Thank you for the taking the time to read my blog. Until next time...