What I learned from other articles

I really liked looking at other people's articles. All of them were so different. They each did their articles in their own unique way. I was really impressed as to how each person went about doing their activities and taking pictures. I learned how to do different activities to teach a variety of subjects to children in a fun way. I also learned that as teachers we need to take advantage of the technology that is available to us. I also learned that there is not just one way of teaching a subject, or a lesson. In fact, there are so many ways to teach something that I think I will find it hard to choose just one, or to decide on how I want to teach. I am really glad that I was able to do this assignment and also look at what other people did, and now know about the many different ways that I can teach my students.

The Tech Savvy Teacher

Many teacher are looking for new creative ways to teach their students. They want to make the teaching of any subject fun and effective so they can reach all of their students in class. In this article I will discuss how technology can provide teachers with at least one new creative way of teaching students. For this activity I relied on the first grade Core Standard 3, Objective 1 of the Utah Core Curriculum. The purpose of this activity was to "investigate plants and plant growth".

We observed different types of plants outside and described some characteristics about each plant (color, shape, etc.) As we observed different types of plants we collected leaves from some of them and took them to the classroom. In the classroom we used a Microscope to look at each sample in more detail. Again, we looked at each leave and described different characteristics about each one. Now we were describing what we saw through the microscope (line direction, different colors that made up the leave, texture, etc.)

We discussed the way that plants grow from seeds and the process of growth that they use. We also discussed the different ways that plants help people, and what they do for us. For example, fruits grow on plants. Trees give shade to people. Trees also provide oxygen for us to breath.


The Microscope was and is an excellent tool of technology that can be used in the classroom easily. It will provide the students a new way of learning about many different things. By using the Microscope the students were able to observe and collect more detailed data about each leave. They were able to analyze how each leave is made, and that all leaves and therefore plants are different and unique.

TPCK and Fair Use

What I understood about TPCK is that, it is a way of including technology use in the way teachers teach. It is combining this along with what teachers know already. In a way I think it is a complement to what teachers do already. TPCK combines three types of knowledge: pedagogy, content, and technology knowledge. By combining these three types of knowledge, the degree in which teacher can teach is much more complete and balanced. This in return will benefit the students we teach more because they are getting a more complete educational experience. About fair use for teachers, it is ok to use work of others as along as it is for educational purposes and as long as is not profitable. The work as a whole cannot be copied, only parts of it; give credit to the author of the work. One of the links in my blog directs you to a webpage where children can learn about copyright as well.

Web 2.0- Week 2

I am so happy to have learned about the Web 2.0 tools. I am really amazed at how many things I will be able to do over the internet to make my teaching experience a lot more enjoyble. Having the RSS tools will most definitely help me keep up with educational news. I think that it will help me be more prepared as a teacher if I know what things are being expected of me. The goodreads will come in handy when I need to search for a book. It will also help me organize the books that I might want my students to read in class and give them a good idea of what the book is about and how I thought it could help them. I think that if I can teach this to my students, it will benefit them even more. For example, the students can decide to get a goodreads account and share their comments on books with their classmates. I think that this will help each child to not only get familiar with different tools in the internet, but also to start the habit of reading and keeping tract of what they read. With RSS, students can keep up with news about their interests. It will help them in a way get ahead as they learn more about what they like.