The look of procrastination!!!

I haven't stayed up this late since 1993 for a final.  4 am and I'm still smiling?  Either I'm really tired or this photo is really blurry!

  Good Night!

Standard F: Developing as a Professional Educator

TPE12. Professional, Legal, and Ethical Obligations
TPE13. Professional Growth

How can technology help you develop as a professional educator?
Technology can be a pertinent resource to promoting  professional growth.  Teacher can collaborate on various websites and seek out other teachers for advice and ideas.  Classes and tutorials are available online to help teachers learn a new software or update their computer skills.  Having a blog or a webpage, a teacher can also bridge out to parents, and other professionals in the community.
 
Links:
http://www.edzone.net/~mwestern/tutorials.html this seems like a fun link for teachers who are not computer savvy
http://www.edutopia.org/ I like this one on facebook.

Standard E: Creating and Maintaining Effective Environments for Student Learning

TPE10. Instructional Time

TPE11. Social Environment

How can technology help you create and maintain an effective environment for student learning?

Behind the classroom scenes, I am downloading graphic organizers, and worksheets that will compliment and assist my students in the lesson.  In addition, I utilize technology such as the classroom computers to break up the classroom in teams, groups, and partners, then we have research projects, or stations, or have virtual field trips, this maintains the students involvement in the lesson and allow peer interaction.

Links:

http://www.lessonplansinc.com/classroom_management_collaborative_learning.php great lessons specifically for collaborative planning

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/worksheets/images/printable_student_worksheet.jpg great worksheets

  

Standard D: Planning Instruction And Designing Learning Experiences For Students

TPE8. Learning About Students
TPE9. Instructional Planning

How can technology help you plan instruction and design learning experiences for students?
I think it would be fun to create a classroom webpage that the students can interact with. As a teacher, I would have questions about themselves, what they like and what they don't, it would contain personal and educational assessments, and they could use this webpage to interact with me. This would definitely be something I would like to try in the future.

As for instructional planning, I get most of my ideas online. There are different types of lessons, lesson plans, calendars, and many other material that I've discovered on the Internet. There are also modifications, worksheets,ideas to teach the lesson, and thematic units online that I have accessed.

Here are some links:
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/Science23.htm great ideas from other teachers
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/archives/history.shtml this site will help you get organized

Standard C: Engaging And Supporting Students In Learning

TPE4. Making Content Accessible
TPE5. Student Engagement
TPE6. Developmentally Appropriate Teaching Practices (K-3, 4-8, or 9-12)
TPE7. Teaching English Learners

How can technology help you engage and support students in learning?
I find that today technology is almost the most significant contributor to engaging my students in learning.  I've found and taught vowel songs on the Internet, mini supporting lessons in video, and I just created an Internet scavenger hunt.  I could also see the value of teaching and engaging English learners because technology is adaptable in all languages.  Technology can help bridge the gap for English learners because what they don't understand they can learn visually and auditory on the computer, or a learning DVD.

Here are some links I found:
http://www.mrsjonesroom.com/songs/vowelslong.html  I also used this one daily to learn the vowel song.  My students learned it in a day and knew their vowel in less and 2 days.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/c61/ this site has ideas  for teaching English Language Learners.

Standard B: Assessing Student Learning

TPE2. Monitoring Student Learning During Learning
TPE3. Interpretation And Use Of Assessments
 

 
My first way to ever use technology for a class was for assessment.  I called it game playing.  The students loved competing with each other through Internet games.  When teaching a 3rd class, I assessed my students multiplication through an Internet multiplication game. I noticed when playing the game on a regular basis, it also helped their rote memory in memorizing their math facts.   As a class, I create Jeopardy and Tic Tac Toe PowerPoint's to assess my students on a variety of lessons.
 
Some of the sites I use are:
http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/ excellent site for math, spelling, and it even had geography
http://www.lawrence.k12.ky.us/Technology/jeopardy_powerpoints_lawrence.htm  I love the blank jeapordy file
http://www.studyisland.com/ you have to be a member, but I use this for my children.  Their school pays for each students usage.
 
 
 
 
 

A. Making Subject Matter Comprehensible To Students

TPE1. Specific Pedagogical Skills For Subject Matter Instruction

How can technology help make subject matter comprehensible to students?
Today's students are surrounded with technology.  Technology occupies a large portion of their day from computers, to mp3 players, to video games.  Why not familiarize ourselves, as teachers, with the available technology we have to appeal to today's students.  Some of the technology that I have found useful are the smart board, computers, the Internet, and the DVD player.

Technology appeals to all types of learners; kinestetic, visual, auditory, and stimulates the all the multiple intelligences all in one lesson plan.  It is significant in this day and age to consider utilizing technology when planning a lesson. 

Here are some websites that I accessed when I taught a K-1 class:
http://www.starfall.com/  I used this on a daily basis for calendar and learning the alpha bet
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/math/games/100-number-chart-one.html  I used this also on a daily basis for counting




 

Web Scavenger Hunt

Animal Adventure

Quest Garden 

Take a Virtual Field Trip to the Zoo

Pet as many animals as possible.

Find one animal to research.

Explore these websites to answer the questions below:

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/default.cfm

http://netvet.wustl.edu/zoo.htm

Questions:

Essential Question:  How is this animal similar to humans? What traits do you share with your animal? What is the main differences.

2.  What area of the world do they live?

3.  Why is this area (where they live) imporant for their survival?
4.  Describe their habitat (home)?
5.  Describe their life cycle?
6.  What do they eat/hunt?
7.  How do they reproduce?
8.  What type of animal are they? How do they fit into that classification? Ex. reptile, mammal
9.  What interested you in choosing this animal?
10.  What is the most interesting thing you found about this animal you would like your classmates to know?

Resume

Education

• Mild/Moderate and Moderate/Severe Special Education Credential -Brandman University expected 12/10
• BA Rhetoric and Communications -University of California, Davis 1993

Experience:

• 12/08 - present  Substitute Teacher, Fairfield Suisun Unified School District, Fairfield, CA
• 5/10 - 7/10  Summer Schoot Teacher K-1, David Weir Elementary, Fairfield Suisun Unified School District, Fairfield, CA

BIO POEM

Rachel

Mother, Teacher, Student, Athlete

Thoughtful, Competitive, Loving, Fun

Lover of love, people, and life

Who believed in growing!

Who wanted happiness, love, and acceptance

Who used charm, wit, and a smile

Who gave compassion, dedication, and fun

Who said “If it’s not fun, I’m so done!”

Me Just Being... me!

Just Getting Started

This is my first blog...  as a matter of fact...  I just learned what a blog is a few minutes ago.  I am currently withing days of finishing up my last class, which so happens to be a computer class, to complete all my requirements for a special education credential in both mild/moderate and moderate/severe  Then, off to student teaching...

Before I get ahead of myself, I'm finishing up a project and I need this blog to download a few documents so I could paste it in a final that I am creating.  So bare with me, while I'm finishing up my finals, then I will blog blog blog...