Meagan+Boomgarden

EDU 240 Meagan's FINAL ** 1.    As **//COGNITIVE MEDIATOR//**, the educator helps students to become independent learners who construct meaning by combining new information with their own background knowledge.
 * TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION
 * Discuss two assignments that you completed using a South Dakota State Standards topic in your major area of study. Describe each program and then tell how you could use that program with your students to enhance their technology skills when you start teaching.

A.I think Micrsoft Word has mad emany updates that make it great for the classroom. Not only is it fabulous for automatically editing essays, but there are so many activites now available to do. I can have the students make brochures and newsletters over certain topics as reveiw or create a clickable worksheets or scavenger hunts to keep kids active in their learning. The possibilites are endless and once you are familiar with the program, it is very easy to use!

B.Another program that I thought was very useful was the inspiration programs. This is a great way to give students a visual outline of the material and a great hands-on activity that can be used for review or material. It is super easy to use which makes it a great program for all ages. As we saw inthe vidoe during class, when paired with a SmartBoard, it becomes fabulous for a classroom activity and makes learning fun, which is the most important aspect of teaching. **    2.     As **//RESEARCHER//**, the educator seeks to improve educational practices within the school setting, using an inquiry approach to serve students more effectively. --All of the research I have done in this class has dedinately made me a better candidte for a teaching position. By reading the textbook, i have become familiar wiht many technology tools like Blogger, Wiki, and RSS feeds that i had never been exposed to before. These tools are very benificial to the classroom and will enjoy becoming more familiar with them. researching all of the internet sites has allowed me to find some excellent activities for the classroom, for me and for my future students. I now have a better understanding of the variety of educational sites available online in this generation.
 * How has completing research in this class (reading the textbook, researching sites on the Internet, creating a presentation for class) helped you to become a better teacher candidate?

** **//3.COMMUNICATOR//**, the educator is skilled in modes of communication that will enable effective communication and collaboration with other educators, parents, and families.
 * Discuss one Internet site and one technology program that will help you to communicate to your students and their parents when you become a teacher? Describe how you could use each one to communicate to either students or parents when you are teaching.

A. An internet site that i think will be very useful in communicating to both my students and their parents is google sites. It is so easy to make a webpage and i will be able to many sites to it so students can find them quickly and easily at home. Google sites also makes it very easy to edit so i will be able to update my page each week with the activities and important dates each week. Parents can go onto the webpage and know exactly what is going on in the classroom and at the school.

B. A technology program that can be used to communicate is Microsoft Publisher. I can make a weekly brochure that will have a schedule of each day and what the students will be learning as well as homework assignments. this will be benificial to the student because they will know what to expect and also have no excuse for late assignments. It would also be very easy to upload to my website so parents could look at it as well and stay informed. **  4.     As **//EVALUATOR//**, the educator maximizes students’ learning by using a full range of formal and informal information-gathering processes in order to respond appropriately to student individual differences.
 * Discuss one web site and one technology program that you used and evaluated this semester? Why did you find each one useful and how might you use them in the classroom when you start teaching?

A. A technology program that i found very useful was Microsoft Powerpoint. I think it is a great way for students to reinforce their learning through projects and presentaions. This is a good tool to incorporate in the classroom because the students have to do some research before they can put together their project. It is also a great way to review before a test with the jeopordy game we made in class. I think that is a fun and exciting way to keep kids learning but still enjoying school

B. A website that i evaluated was youtube and teachertube. i think both of these are great because there is an endless amount of educational videos/tutorials available online. These videos can be used as an introduction to a unit or a fun way to help to students remember what they have learned. I really enjoyed searching these sites to find useful videos and many of them were fabulous. **