Final Course Reflection

I have really enjoyed learning about all of the free programs and tools that are available. I really loved using the Class Marker website which allowed me to create and even give tests online. Inspiration (although it is not free) is also another tool that I felt could be really beneficial in my future classroom. I learned how to create a blog and also a website this semester, which is something that I never thought that I would do. I felt like my strong points in this classroom was the actual ability to use all of the programs. I am a pretty quick learner and I love to use technology to make things easier in my life. I feel like this is a strong point for me because technology is everywhere and the use of it is increasing every day. It is something that needs to be embraced as a part of where we are as a society. It is very difficult for individuals who did not grow up using such technology and those who never learned to use it to do anything, even get a job in some instances. I felt that my weak points in all of these activities was deciding exactly what I wanted to say or do, especially on the online activities like this blog and even my website. It makes me really nervous to put personal information online, because it is so permanent. Even if I delete my blog or my web page that does not mean that it is actually cleared completely off of the Internet. I feel like this is a weak point because it takes me so much longer to use the programs that are supposed to make things easier for me. My future goals to improve my weak areas would be for me to feel more confident in what I have to say. I would also like to have more practice with the use of the security settings. I think that this would make me feel safer about putting my information on the web. I plan on integrating all of the things that I have learned into my future classroom. I would like to use the Web tools as a way to create tests, activities, and even rubrics for my students without all of the stress. I plan on using blogs, Google groups, and even my classroom website as a way to stay in contact and collaborate with my students, their parents, and even my peers. I plan on using Inspiration/Kidspiration, and Windows Movie Maker as a way to engage my students in the information being presented. I also plan on taking advantage of all of the assistive technology that is available as a way to make adaptations in my lesson for the students with disabilities.

Assistive Technology

Assistive technology is technology that is used to improve the functional ability of a person with disabilities. As a future teacher, knowing how to use this technology can be greatly beneficial when making adaptations for students in my class with disabilities. My computer calls this feature the Ease of Access Center. I created a PowerPoint presentation demonstrating a few of the features of the Ease of Access Center. First, I demonstrated what the screen looks like when the display is changed to a high contrast extra-large font scheme. I also created a slide that demonstrated the use of the magnifier feature. The ability within a PowerPoint to record your own voice reading the text or even add in sound clips is also another great assistive technology feature.  All of these features are great adaptations for a student with a mild visual impairment. I plan to utilize these features in my classroom. I also demonstrated a few ways for the computer to notify me when a specific key is pressed. This is a great adaptation for a student with a physical disability that has trouble controlling his or her movements which would cause them to accidently engage keys such as caps lock. Another great feature that I demonstrated was the Sound Sentry feature that gives the option to add a visual alert every time the computer produces a sound alert. This adaptation would be great for a students with a mild hearing impairment. I did not realize how many features such as these came on my computer. I plan on using all of these features in my classroom as a way to improve learning for my students with disabilities. The only feature that I had difficulty with was the magnifier. I found it difficult to control the mouse on the lower half of the screen while viewing the upper magnified half of the screen. I feel like increasing the overall text size of the screen is much more efficient than using the magnifier. These assistive technology features can be tied into NETS-T: 2 which is to design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments. I can do this by using these features to customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities.

Here is the link to Assistive technology presentation:
Assistive Technology Presentation

Movie Story

Windows Movie Maker is a program comes with the Windows operating system. This program allows you to create a slide show for anything that you could imagine. You can add pictures, video clips, text, and even music to personalize the slide show you are making. I created a video using Movie Maker to tell a story about two of the most important people in my life, my babies. I created my slides using pictures of my children in chronological order. I started with pictures from my sons birth, and progressed to the age he is now. I did the same thing with the pictures of my daughter. The song that I used in the background was a song that I use to sing to my son when he was a baby. This video is really special for me because it takes all of my favorites pictures of my babies and puts them in one beautiful video that I can save and view forever. The music that you add to the video can come from anything that you have saved on your computer or even downloaded from the web. I really enjoyed using this program. I think that this would be a great way to preserve memories from my future classroom. I can add pictures of my students through out the year and create this video as a gift to their parents at the end. I can also use this program as a way to creatively teach on a specific topic, instead of just creating a PowerPoint presentation. The only problem that I had with this program was trying to figure out the timing in between each slide. It took some playing around with the video timing until I got it just the way that I wanted it to be. This activity can be tied to NETS-T: 2 which is to design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments. By using this software to create a presentation on a specific learning objective, I will be designing or adapting relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
Here is the movie that I created titled My Sweet Babies!:

Web site

Google Site Creator is a free online tool that allows anyone to create and publish a Web site. It is a very quick and easy program to use. This is great for people who do not have a lot of experience with technology. I created a website for my classroom. On my home page, I was able to add a description of everything that could be found on my site, along with a link for someone to email me. Next I created a course information page. This page included a supply list, a list of classroom rules, and even a class calendar. Adding the calendar was the most difficult part for me. I kept thinking that it was not working properly because the calendar was not showing up on my edit page. However, I eventually figured out that it was showing up on my actual site. This was a little frustrating but other than that the program was great. I also added a page to my site that included information about me such as my personal biography, a list of my hobbies, and even a few pictures of my family. The last page that I created had a list of online resources that could be used by parents and students. I really enjoyed making my website. I plan on creating one of this for my future classrooms, as a way for the parents of my students to know what is going on in our classroom at all times. I think this would be a great communication tool. This ties to NETS-T: 3 which is to model digital age work and learning. By creating the classroom website, I can collaborate with the students, peers, and parents in order to support student success and innovation.
Here is the link to my website:
Mrs. Cheatham's First Grade Class

Google Groups

 

Google Groups is an online tool that allows you to share ideas, and experiences. This program can be used to as a dorm of communication between teachers and students. Google documents is a free online word processing program. You can use Google Groups as a way to share items that you have created in your Google documents with your peers. During our Google Group’s assignment, we created a story using Google Docs. We had four group members. Our group leader first created a word document. She wrote the introduction to our story which consisted of about 150 words. Next she "shared" this document to the other members of our group and the instructor using Google Groups. She changed the privacy setting so that all members of the group could edit the story. After she completed her part, then the next student was able to open and edit the same document. In the end of this, our group had created a 600+ word story. The only problem that I encountered was how easy it was for the other people in my group to “accidently” delete the work that I created. Luckily, I had saved my part into a word document because I would have had to start all over on it. I will incorporate Google Groups into my future classroom as a way for me to communicate with my students. Google presentation is a free online presentation software. I plan to use this in my future classroom for lecture notes and examples. This can be tied to NETS-T: 3 which is to model digital age work and learning. This is done by enabling teachers to collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members by using digitals and resources such as Google Groups in order to support student success and innovation.
Here is the link to my presentation and story:
Google Presentation
Story: Sheldon's First Day of Kindergarten
 

Turnitin/Plagiarism

 

 Ethics is as important when using the Web as it is in our everyday lives. This "netiquette" or etiquette in relation to the Web means to be courteous to others. Therefore, one should not write offensive things or "shout" (typing in all capital letters) at others on the Web. Along with monitoring ones social behaviors, copyright laws should also reviewed and followed. However, there are Fair use laws set in place that allow teachers to use materials for nonprofit educational purposes. Plagiarism is also an issue when using the Web. The internet has made plagiarizing easier for those individuals by offering a wide array of information in one place. Plagiarism can be defined in a few ways. One of which is turning in someone else's entire work as your own. The second is using exact words from another source without putting in quotes and citing the source. A third way is by rearranging the words in another authors work and using it as your own.  Turnitin.com is a resource that can help both students and teachers identify what exactly is considered plagiarizing. Students can submit their papers into this website and it will notify both them and the instructor exactly what percentage was taken from another source along with highlighting the information in question. I have really liked using Turnitin for papers that I have submitted because it takes the worry out of waiting to see if I messed up. I also plan on using this is my future classrooms. I did not encounter any problems using the Turnitin website.  The Turnitin website can be tied to NETS-T: 4 which is to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility. This is being done by teaching safe and legal use and respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.

 

Here is the link to my Turnitin Assignment:

Turnitin

 



 



Web Tools

Web Tools are tools that are Web-based that can be utilized by students and teachers. These tools greatly effect learning because they promote the students creativity, collaboration, and communication. These tools are free and can be used at anytime and anywhere there is internet access. I used RubiStar to create a rubric. This website was easy to use and had built in grading scales, however you are able to create your own. The only downfall is that this website does not store the rubrics for a long time. I also used ABCTeach to create a worksheet on the planets for my students. This tool offered numerous activities. Discovery School's Puzzlemaker was a really neat tool that I used to create a crossword puzzle on the different planets. It made this process very easy and I was able to personalize it to fit my needs. Of all of the tools that I used I think that ClassMarker was my favorite. I was able to create and store quizzes. I could change the format from true/false to multiple choice. These quizzes could be given online or printed out and used in class. The only problem that I encountered in this assignment was printing my quiz. I did some research online and found out that I needed to use Firefox in order to print the quiz in the correct format. I plan on using these tools in my future classroom as a great resource for worksheets and also as a way to give online quizzes to my students. These tools can be tied to NETS - T: 2 Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experience and Assessments. By designing these relevant learning experiences that incorporates the digital tools, the students learning and creativity is greatly increased. Below are websites for the sites that I have discussed here.
Here are the links to my WebTools Assignments:
Rubric 
Test 

The following are the links to the website homepages:
RubiStar - http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

ABCTeach - http://www.abcteach.com/

PuzzleMaker - http://www.discoveryeducation.com/free-puzzlemaker/?CFID=5100051&CFTOKEN=62810283

Class Marker - http://www.classmarker.com/

All About Me

My name is April Cheatham. I am twenty seven years old. I am originally from a small town in Louisiana called Norwood. I have three sisters, one brother, four brother-in laws, and three sister in laws (My husband’s side included). I also have seven nephews and four nieces. I am married to my best friend and the love of my life, Kevin. We have two beautiful children together, a son named Riley who is 7 and a daughter named Elisa who is 2. We reside in Vancleave, Ms. My husband is in the Air Force and is stationed at Keesler Air Force Base. He is also the Den Leader in my sons Cub Scout Troop.  I have been fortunate enough to get to stay home with both of my children. My son is in the second grade this year and my daughter just started preschool. We lead a very busy life between school, work, ball games, and cub scouts. I enjoy sewing, reading, and baking. I am currently a student at The University of Southern Mississippi majoring in Elementary Education. I would love to teach fifth grade. I think this is because my favorite teacher from grade school was my fifth grade teacher. I would really like to teach some where in Jackson County because that is close to my home. I love children and have always wanted a profession that allowed me to help children. I do have plans to teach for a few years and then go back to get my Master's Degree. I have a love for learning, so I do not think that I will really ever stop going to school for something. I have some prior experience using technology programs such as Google Presentation and Google Groups. I think that technology is a very important part of the education system. It allows students and teachers more opportunities to create and communicate.