Leah Hunt 3650 Morningstar Dr. Las Cruces, NM Elementary Education

Week 1: Jan. 23 – Jan. 27 Personal Goals * To graduate in 2 ½ years. * To attain a good job as a 1 st or 2 nd grade teacher in a good school. * To spend more time with * To spend more time my family. thinking of and serving others rather than myself.

What I believe I will learn from this class: How to use various programs such as Excel, PowerPoint, and Access more sufficiently. How to incorporate these programs into classroom instruction and personal organization. The benefits and means of integrating technology into education.

Week 2: Jan. 30 – Feb. 3 Technology Badge

Week 3 Feb What I learned: *To develop a good lesson plan, you must create an Essential Question. *After creating an Essential Question, you can then develop several unit questions. *Going through this process will help to keep you organized and provides for several weeks of academic instruction.

Week 4 Feb What I learned: * On Thursday, the class had a substitute teacher. We were paired with another student in the class and together we discussed our different learning strategies. As a class, we collectively revealed what learning styles and environments work best for us. It allowed us to recognize that every student in the classroom has a unique way of learning and as future teachers, we should be aware of this diversity and alter our teaching methods to accommodate our students. * Keeping the same partners, we chose a topic from a list of learning styles and researched it on the Internet. My partner and I chose multiple intelligence. I learned that there are 7 types of learning styles according to Howard Gardner. He labels each style as a distinct intelligence, and advocates instructional methods that appeal to all the intelligences.

Week 5 Feb What I learned: * This week, we did not attend class. Rather, we took the time to visit a school of our choice with our partner from class. *My partner, Jasmine, and I sat in on Ms. Holguin’s 7 th grade, bilingual, Algebra I math class at Zia Middle School. *Ms. Holguin’s teaching style was excellent. She maintained control over her classroom, while keeping personal relationships with her students. She took an interest in their lives so that they might have a greater desire to learn from her. *Ms. Holguin offered her assistance to the students when needed, but made it clear that she would not just give them the answer. She desired to confirm that her class was actually learning what she was teaching.

Week 6 Feb. 27-Mar. 3 What I learned: This week, I learned how to create an informative newsletter for the parents of the students in my classroom. I was shown how to create one using either Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher. I made mine using a template from Microsoft Publisher. The outline is already established for you. All you have to do is enter your own information and add the finishing touches, such as pictures and/or clip art. I learned that the templates Microsoft Publisher offers are a quick and effective way to create a newsletter so that the parents remained informed of what their child is doing in school.

Week 7 Mar What I learned: * This week, I learned how to create a lesson plan based on the essential question I developed a few weeks ago. It was a great way to learn how to be organized as a teacher. It allows you to plan ahead and know what you’re going to do in your classroom, when you’re going to do it, and how you’re going to do it. It also allows you to plan several activities that coincide with the lesson and to make sure that what you’re teaching meets New Mexico’s Standards and Benchmarks. By creating a detailed outline for your lesson plan, you can also determine in your mind what you expect your students to learn, not just academically but knowledgeably.

Week 8 Mar What I learned: This week, I learned how to create and manage a grade book using Microsoft Excel. You can record student information, their grades, and can calculate their averages using the program’s specific formula. I also learned how to create a graph to represent how well your class is doing academically. I also learned how to create a report using Microsoft Access.

Teens at risk on social Web sites Websites such as the most popular, myspace.com, isn’t exactly just a place for friends as its motto claims. CNN.com reports of a rapid increase in the horror stories of teens being abducted, raped, and even killed because they post an online profile of personal information: where they live, what they look like, how old they are. Parents should not be the only ones worried about kids engaging in this popular Internet attraction. There are so many disgusting beasts out there waiting to devour these kids and it is part of our responsibility, as teachers, to protect them from the cruel and deceiving world. A list of preventive measures to protect your students from online predators: *Have a class discussion about all the possible dangers. *Encourage students to be honest with their parents. *Encourage parents to be extremely involved in their child’s social Internet life. *Explain that people may not be who they claim to be. It’s very easy to lie over the Internet. *Present many “horror stories” to your students, so they will be aware and take measures to be more careful online.

Week 9 Mar What I learned: This week we experimented with using Netscape Composer in preparation for creating our personal homepage. I also learned how to use Watermark from Microsoft Word to enhance the creative appearance of your text. This week we began creating the main page of our homepage using Netscape Composer.

Week 10 Apr Teaching with Technology Experience My partner Yazmin and I returned to Ms. Holguin’s 7 th grade math class and taught a lesson on probability. Integrating technology, we used her computer, connected it to a projector, and taught the class through a PowerPoint presentation. The class was very intrigued because the only technology they experience in class is the overhead. Combining technology with hands-on examples helped the students to learn and they were actually excited and participating.

Week 11 Apr What I learned: This week I learned how to create a web portfolio title page that included a resume, volunteer work, campus activities, letter of philosophy, NMTA score, experience with cultural diversity, and experience with persons with disabilities. I also learned how to create a link for my Webquest. In it, I learned how to link all of my lesson plans to one page, and then how to link that back to my homepage.

Week 12 Apr What I learned: This week I learned how to insert anchors and links for our webpage. I also learned how to create a Favorite Links page that can link back to my main homepage. I now understand the importance of links and anchors. It makes it convenient and more likeable for the people viewing your homepage. It provides access to all areas of your homepage in a timely manner.

Week 13 Apr What I learned: This week we worked on completing our homepage in preparation for placing it on the main server next week. The final group presented their outline for Chapters 5 & 6: Revising, Editing, and Publishing Your Web Portfolio. From their presentation I learned that you can publish your web portfolio on a web server or on a disk. Placing it on a disk gives you the advantage of enhanced speed and security.

Week 14 May What I learned: This week I learned how to upload my homepage to the Internet. By creating my own homepage, I have learned so much about the many abilities of technology. The process incorporated so many different programs and I feel that it was beneficial because it tied in everything that we worked on in class this semester. The Digital Teaching Portfolio book was a guide in aiding to complete our homepage. The group presentations of all the chapters were also helpful.

Technology Badge