Link to Electronic Portfolio

http://www.wix.com/canuso2515/tom-canuso

Final Blog Post

I believe that it is very important to incorporate technology into the classroom because of the experience that the students today have with technology. All of the students today are growing up in an age where technology is being used everyday, so we need to show them that this technology is a tool that they can use to help further themselves in their education and life. Teachers have thousands of benefits from the use of technology. They can find more lesson plans, connect with other teachers from across the world, and simply make the classroom learning experience fun with the help of technology. The students experience different forms of technology everyday so we should try our best to use these different forms to help them learn. For example the students can use their phones in class to vote or answer questions that can be uploaded to the Internet and show to the entire class.  I feel a major challenge of technology is the use. Many people use technology in their classroom but they do not know when it is the wrong time to use it or are ignoring regulations set by school districts. I will definitely use the electronic portfolio because I feel that this could help me show the employers that I know and understand technology and see it as an advantage instead of some teachers who are ignorant and try to keep to the old way of teaching. I have already used my lesson plan format template for my language arts class and it has been a huge time saver.

Electronic Portfolios Examples

http://durak.org/kathy/portfolio/teaching.html   -- I thought this electronic portfolio was a pretty good example. I like how she gave pictures of her students and gave examples of pretty much all of her sub-sections. I think if she explained a little better in some areas she would definitely have a great portfolio. She has a great resume.

http://www.cesa8.k12.wi.us/teares/math/it/samplePort/JAMES/Jim's%20Index.htm ---- I felt that this link was very plain! Very dull and not exciting at all. I wish he also developed some of his information better. Also, I did not like how most of his links led to documents that you have to download to view. I feel like this defeats the purpose of a electronic portfolio (quick and easy).

Incorporating Digital Videos

Name: Tom Canuso

Subject: Language Arts

Project: Creating a Persuasive TV Ad

Grade Level: 6th

Preparations: -Introduce Persuasive thinking to the students and how they are to map out their persuasive thinking -Provide Examples of Persuasive Ads on TV, Radio, Newspapers and Online. -Introduce children to the technology of Windows Movie maker -Introduce the Audacity in case they wish to include sound to their TV ad. - Need Cameras, blank tapes, computers to upload videos and work on. -I will need about 3 or 4 class periods to show the children all of the technology. -They will need another class to film and 1 class to introduce the students to persuasive ads.

Challenges: -Students may have a tough time coming up with ideas, so you may allow them to reuse a Ad that you have showed them but they must change things so that it is not completely the same. -Make sure to check all of the Ads so that students do not do anything inappropriate. - May have a tough time coming across the technology. -May have to use your own camera or any kind of filming device because school district may not have any video cameras. - The students may have a tough time getting to fit all of this work into the assigned class periods, especially if they have testing and early dismissals.

Into: Introduce the students to persuasive ads. -Tell them that they will be creating and filming their own ad that must be at least 30secs long. -Show them multiple persuasive ads. -give them their blank story boards and explain to them how they will fill them out and base their filming off their storyboards.

Through: The students will learn about audacity, windows movie maker, and how to use the camera through the next three classes. -The students will have an entire class to film their projects. -Then they will upload them to movie maker and over the next class or two they will edit their work.

Beyond : The students will upload their work to youtube and we will view them all during the last day of the unit. They will be graded on how persuasive their ad is and how well they used the technology.

Video Project

I had a great time filming my video project. I have never done anything like that at all and it was fun learning something completely new. I think Mariam and I did a great job actually shooting our scenes. We had a great storyboard set up that we were able to follow pretty easily. I think we could have improved the look of our actor. I wish I thought about shaving before filming. Also, while shooting I wish I could change my movements. I kept itching my head trying to look confused, but I feel like I looked like I had lice. Next time, I think I may add some speaking into the film and may cut down on some scenes so that I could add more time with the librarian at the end. There are a couple of things that I can take away from this project: 1) I now know how to cut and edit film 2) I know now I am ready for larger productions (TV and Movies ) ! 3) Also adding sound and being able to load my video up onto youtube was something interesting that I learned.

Interactive Whiteboards

I feel that Interactive Whiteboards have a major impact on teaching. They not only change from the old basic chalkboard but they make the class more interactive. Now you do not need to just hand out worksheets to keep the children busy at their seats. You can have them come up to the board and play while you teach. The best way for children to learn is if they are comfortable and having fun, and that is exactly what an interactive whiteboard does. I did not think the technology was hard to use, but I do feel that a big "con" is that teachers may try and use the Interactive Whiteboard to much. I know it sounds crazy because I support the I.W. so much, but some teachers may just try and use the board for everything and that may delay class and suck up the teachers planning time. I think back to writing all of my science methods lesson plans and try to think how I could incorporate the solar system into my lessons. I really did enjoy one presentation in class about the solar system (I can't remember her name at this moment Sorry!!) that was wonderful. She did a great job with all the technology and I know I had a fun time relearning the solar system.

Product Software

The last project that in which we created the transparencies and different forms of teacher related projects was very helpful. I honestly never knew how to create transparencies and this project has finally opened my eyes to the way I have been taught for many years. I also found it very helpful to create a newsletter and flyer because these are definitely projects that, as an elementary teacher, I will be creating to share information with my students. I learned especially how to use publisher during this project and that is extremely helpful because of the many different projects that you can create from that simple software. I am not the most creative person in the world and the templates that have in publisher make if very easy for someone like me to use.

Inspiration and Web Resources

Inspiration is definitely something that I would invest in for my classroom. Incorporating Inspiration: 1. Unit concept maps 2. Study guides for students 3. Quizzes (for early elementary- put the picture and make them write the word) 4. Venn Diagrams 5. Lab Reports 6. Book Reports 7. Lesson plans (for teachers) 8. Science- Identify the six kingdoms of biology 9. Textbook notetaking 10. Family Tree project

One of my favorite web resources so far has been rubistar. This website is very key for teachers. I have used it hundreds of times and I am not even in student teaching yet. I think this website makes it very easy for teachers to find an assessment that is very easy to create and use.
United Streaming is another web resource that I have found very interesting. This website cuts the movies into segments which is very important for elementary classrooms, because we all know that students can not sit there for long periods of time and watch a boring movie. This way teachers can stop after the first segment and assess the children and then move onto the next segment.

Social Bookmarking

I do believe that social bookmarking is very useful for the classroom, and at any level. Imagine you are in an elementary classroom and you keep having trouble with students going on to websites their not supposed to, or going to the wrong sites to gather information. This website, if applied as the homepage, could show the students the websites that they should start looking at and guide them to successfully finding the correct information. In high school the idea of social bookmarking could be even more important. As with elementary schools the list of websites and resources could be a guide to the student who is unsure of where to search, and just tries to use Wikipedia. Some students today do not know how to successfully search for information on a certain topic and social bookmarking is one way to guide students to the information. The idea of social bookmarking could be compared to the idea of a scaffold. Social bookmarking guides the students with direction from the teacher, but once they are acquainted and understand the teacher can slowly began to lessen the importance of social bookmarking and allow the students to go out on their own. As of right now as a student, social bookmarking is helping me find new websites and save them to a location that I can access them at a later time. I just developed my social bookmarking site on diigo the other day and I can not stop finding new websites to add to my library. I feel like every site that I go onto I find myself trying to add it to my library, even if it has no relation to my assessment for our social bookmarking project. One tool I find useful are the sticky notes that are added to the webpage that you are on. They show specific notes that other people may have added about that website or the information on it.

Google Apps in the Classroom

There are many advantages to using google apps in the classroom. One major advantage is the fact that students will be able to work on a project together at once online. Growing up I was always frustrated with everyone sending me their information and then having to add all the information onto a powerpoint or into a paper. The google app, called google docs, allows the students to work online together so that they can all add their own information to the project. In the google docs app, students can create spreadsheets, powerpoints and regular word documents. I find these apps especially useful for students in high school and college. They will be able to use these apps the more productive than elementary school children. I feel that elementary school children need extra help learning how to use the technology, but once they do learn how to use it they may find it so helpful and fun that they may want to use it from then on.

Blogs in the Classroom

I believe that blogs can be very effective in the classroom at any level of teaching. I feel that blogs may be more useful for students in high school, but elementary students still may be able to use the blog effectively. In high school, teachers could really cut down on the paper use by having the students answer blogs as their homework. This will allow the teacher to simple go online and look at all of the responses instead of having to worry about carrying around all of the written responses. The responses in blogs would also make it easy for the teacher to share with the class. The teacher could put the blogs up on the smartboard and discuss the blogs with the whole class. In elementary school the teacher could use blogs in the same since as high school students but the teacher needs to guide their children a little more because they may not be as technologically inclined as high school students. The teacher in elementary school could use blogs to respond and have discussions on readings they had during the day, or have the students perform a search on someone and share their findings in the blog. There are so many possibilities of lessons that teachers could perform with the help of blogs. The only disadvantage that I see is the fact that you are taking away from the discussion in the class. Students do not learn how to share their thoughts orally and may not learn how to take criticism on their work. Other than that blogs can be very helpfully for classrooms.