Blog Post Number 3

Lesson plans using technology are something with which teachers of this up and coming generation have been blessed. Teachers of the past struggled to create lesson plans by hand, using whatever paper and classic resources such as research by-hand in libraries with dusty old volumes and such. Teachers of this generation have so much more available at hand with not only computers, but all the other technology that is useful in today's world. An example of a lesson plan utilizing technology that I could create as a middle school English teacher is a project using blogs. If I was teaching a novel, let's use Romeo and Juliet as an example, I could have my students create a type of blog project where they portray what either Romeo and/or Juliet would have written in their personal blogs at the time. The students could create several blog posts showing knowledge of the storyline, as well as character development, but in a modern setting.

The website that I chose to review is a website for young students filled with educational games and resources for math and reading. The website is called FunBrain.com and the section of the website with the games is known as the “Kids Center.” The first rule presented in Chapter 6 is the “general design principle” and the site seems to meet these requirements considering multimedia, spatial contiguity, temporal contiguity, coherence, modality, redundancy, and individual differences. Otherwise, the rest of the rules are very well represented on the website. The website’s greatest strength rule-wise is perhaps knowing it’s audience as all of the colors, styles, and navigation seem extremely well-suited to the age group the site is clearly geared toward. Lists are utilized extremely well, and size, placement and emphasis are always clear-cut and well-organized.

Most teachers that I have had in the past have not seemed to have much trouble with copyright issues, and I have even noticed several breaking expressly stated copyright rules by making copies, such as copies of pages of books in order to pass them out to the class. However, I have not once heard of a teacher getting in any serious trouble for this type of offense. As a teacher, I will try to avoid this issue at all costs. Most books can be either shared between students, or enough copies can be purchased in order for each student to have his or her own copy. Otherwise, as for videos and DVDs, showing them in a classroom setting is usually considered acceptable as it is considered an educational or "home viewing" environment in which no profit is being garnered and it is simply for entertainment and/or educational purposes. Furthermore, teachers can, as stated, get creative so that they do not need to violate copyright by creating their own handouts, tests and other teaching materials. As for students violating copyright rules, I plan to educate my students on the issue and constitute a strict policy as for something such as plagiarism.

Blog Post Number 2

As a student, I don't think there is any single program that has proven more useful and resourceful than Microsoft Word. The first time I really remember Word becoming important to me was in middle school because I would suppose this is when we started using word processing to produce documents for our classes. We began to type up weekly assignments for my Language Arts class in seventh and eighth grade, and I became infinitely better at typing that year. I clearly remember that my best friend had Word Perfect and I was jealous because I thought it was cooler than plain old Word and I pressured my mom to purchase it. We did not purchase it, but needless to say, Word has been more than enough to get me through my years as a students. The high school years were where Word definitely was the biggest asset to me, with all of the research papers and projects that I compiled over those four years. When I began to learn MLA style to write research papers in my Dual Enrollment classes, I do believe Word was the most accessed program on my computer for a while.
I have seen my teachers use Word in the past, as well. I have clear memories of teachers having newsletters and hand-outs throughout my years, even starting in elementary school, that no doubt were produced using Word. In high school, when the technology in the classrooms began to expand and SmartBoards were installed in the classrooms, Word became a template for teachers to type up bullet points for their lectures, or important notes for the class to copy. When I am a teacher, I am sure I will use Word for these purposes and beyond. I plan to take after my middle school Language Arts teacher in a lot of my teaching style as this is the same subject I will be teaching, so I hope to teach my students a lot about Word and what this dynamic program can do to improve their study skills and make their lives easier when they enter high school.
I have encountered countless new skills already in this class that I believe will assist me in my teaching career. CutePDF was a program of which I had never heard, and I believe will be a crucial resource for me as a teacher when I am surfing the web to research for my class. I learned about zipping a folder, about which I knew, but never fully understood the concept. But I believe the area in which I have learned the most is Microsoft Word itself. I had no idea how to utilize the very many options that you have including columns, shading and especially mail merge! I believe mail merge will probably prove to be the most useful thing that I have encountered as of now in this class. Considering this is only the third week of class, I know that I will continue to learn!