Blog #8

American School Counselor Association
http://www.schoolcounselor.org

The site that I visited was a site especially for school counselors. I found this site interesting because after I receive my bachelors degree, I would like to pursue my masters degree in counseling. It's good to know that counselors have a website that is especially for them so that they can seek support and other important information when they need it. Being a counselor isn't easy, they have a huge impact on people's lives, especially the children in the school they work at. This site even has a job search link where the counselors can look for schools that are hiring. The site even has a magazine available for its members with different articles and topics that pertain to the duties of a counselor.
I would like to know if the members of this organization go to seminars to meet different counselors form other parts of the world. This would be good because they can all share their ideas and learn from each other to bring new things into the schools.

Blog #7

Association for Educational Communications and Technology

http://www.aect.org

The online organization that I visited was the aect.org which stands for Association for educational communications and technology. I read that this is an organization of educators plus others whom are striving to make instruction better through technology. There are members all over the country and around the world. I found this website to be very interesting because it shows just how there are educators out there that truly care about the education that children receive and that want to make a difference. I like the fact that this organization has events through Second Life. I also like what they stand for very much, for example, I like what they state in their Mission statement and I like the goals that they have set for themselves.
AECT Mission Statement:
The mission of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology is to provide international leadership by promoting scholarship and best practices in the creation, use, and management of technologies for effective teaching and learning in a wide range of settings
Goals:
• Define the disciplines and professional activities that comprise the field of educational communications and technology.
• Serve and represent professionals in the field and support professional growth.
• Advance scholarship and practice that contribute to and enlarge the knowledge base of the field.
• Promote policies that ensure the humane and ethical use of educational communications and technology at all levels, from the personal through the international.

Blog #6

Giving Visibility to Students with Emotional-Behavior Challenges

By Maurice Elias

10/14/09
http://www.edutopia.org/students-behavior-emotional-challenges-visibility

This article was about letting children be a part of the school society. Some children feel left out and they feel lost when they are in school. Some children feel as if the school doesn't care about them, that the school only cares about the grades that the children score on standardized tests. This goes especially with the students that have emotional-behavior disorder, but also for the students that don't have this disorder. Mentioned are some tips that teachers can do to eliminate this sense of feeling for the students. For example, the school can organize a problem solving team, when something goes wrong in the school, the students can discuss what the problem was and then find ways to fix the problem. the school can create a survey asking the students what the reasons are that they have good behavior and bad behavior. This will help improve the discipline in the school. The students can be tour guides to new visitors to the school, for example, a new student and his/her parents. The school can create idea/suggestion boxes so that the students can share their concerns and ideas about the school. And, allow the students to share their comments on the way their teacher teaches. And last, but not least, if the students were given a survey, like the one we at UTPA fill out at the end of the semester, the children would probably feel important and part of the school.
I think that allowing these tips into the school environment, the children, not only the ones that suffer emotionally, but all of the students would feel like they are a part of the school, not just any student and the school environment would probably improve. I wonder if this or part of this is done in any school here locally?

Blog #5

How to Address Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom: Tips and resources for putting MI theory into practice.

by Sara Bernard

http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-immersion-enota-how-to

The article that I read is about meeting the different intelligent needs of children in a classroom. Having a classroom that serves the needs, interests, and strengths of each child in that classroom is highly effective. Some of the tips that are offered in the article are reading a book. The article mentions that learning more about multiple intelligences is a good thing to do because it will tell you the different kinds of intelligences there are and what you as a teacher can do. Teachers can also use online resources to learn more about multiple intelligences. It will also help the teacher with ideas on what kinds of projects to do and so forth. The teacher can also assess students intelligences by serving up a set of multiple assignments and paying close attention to the way each child does the assignment. The teacher can also visit another school that is doing the same thing. this will bring more ideas to the table. The teacher can come up with learning contracts for the students. These contracts are done for the students' assignments. the article mentions that the students sometimes have a choice of which assignment they want to do, and sometimes the students have to do all of the assignments. And finally, the article mentions that having a team of teachers doing the same things would be very helpful because as it is, coming up with a curriculum with regular lessons is hard, now having a curriculum with multiple intelligences would be harder. And as always when starting something new, take baby steps. There are some things that might work and there are some things that will just not work.
Having a curriculum with many intelligences sounds like a very advanced GT class. I would like to know if any form of technology is used for a classroom with multiple intelligences.

Blog #4

21st Century Teaching

Which Came First - The Technology or the Pedagogy?

By Dian Schaffhauser

09/09/09

http://thejournal.com/articles/2009/09/09/21st-century-teaching.aspx

This article is about the teachers that are barely beginning their teaching careers and the lack of knowledge on how to include technology in their lessons. The school districts are complaining that the teachers are not knowledgeable in using technology and they are blaming the universities and colleges and the universities and colleges are saying that they do teach the teachers how to include the use of technology, but its the schools that don't have the right equipment or the new teachers see that the other teachers are not using technology, so they don't use it either. The article goes on to say that in order to be an effective teacher, you have to know the content well, you need to know the kinds of strategies that go together with the content, and you need to know what kind of technology equipment you can use with the content area that is being taught. The article also mentions that when student-teachers are out in the field observing their mentor teacher, that the student-teachers don't always get taught or a look at everything that there is to know. When the students finally graduate and begin their career, they have a lot to learn because each school district is different.

As a student intern, I would like to see more of technology uses in the classroom because I believe that the students (depending on the grade level) can benefit a lot from the use of technology equipment.

Blog #3

Digital Media

Study: Games, Video Improve Preschooler Literacy

By David Nagel

10/14/09

http://thejournal.com/articles/2009/10/14/study-games-video-improve-preschooler-literacy.aspx

The article that I read is about integrating games and video into preschool classrooms and how it could be good for their learning. There are people that think that games on computers and videos harm children, but they are actually a good way of learning for them. There was a study done and it showed that there were some teachers that included videos and games in the lesson and the students were more prepared in literacy skills when entering kindergarten than the students that didn't have videos and games included in their lessons. the children that were included in this study were from low income families. Some of the sections that the students improved on were names of letters, the sounds of letters, the knowledge of letters in names, and story and print concepts.
I would agree with having videos and games included in the lessons because it would get a hold of the students attention. I would also like to learn what kinds of videos and games could be included in the lessons and how long the videos and games should be.

Blog #2

Best practices in teaching K-12 online:

Journal of Interactive Online Learning

www.ncolr.org/jiol
Volume 7, Number 1, Spring 2008

This journal article is about the best ways of being able to teach grade levels Kinder through 12th grade through online courses (virtually). Some would have disagreements about this way of teaching, and others would say that children can be taught virtually. A study is conducted on 16 teachers that teach virtual classes in the Michigan (Michigan Virtual School) to see which ways are the best ways of teaching children in these grade levels. There has been a huge growth for virtual schools and some states even require the students to take a class virtually before being able to graduate. The article begins by mentioning that the virtual teachers need to use "pedagogical"procedures like the ones the teachers use that teacher face to face. This would have to true for all teachers. The virtual school teacher also has to think of strategies to be able to interact and communicate well with her/his students. The study is done in Michigan because it is one of the states that requires the high school students to take a virtual class before graduating. The school offers classes in Math, Science, Social Studies, and English and even foreign languages are offered. Overall, the little research that was done shows that if the teacher teaching virtual classes really has the "will" and the "want" to make her class successful, the students will learn and the class will be successful. It's kind of like taking an online course at the university level, but with these classes you actually get to see the teacher and these classes are for children anywhere from Kinder through 12th grade. As a future teacher, I feel kind of "iffy" about this virtual schooling stuff, I would rather want to teach face to face, especially the younger children.
I would like to know why it is required for the students to take part in a virtual class, I would think that it would be difficult for some studies because not all of the students learn alike.

Blog #1

Open Book Testing in Online Learning Environments

Journal of Interactive Online Learning
www.ncolr.org/jiol
Volume 7, Number 1, Spring 2008

The journal article that I read was about the tests that are given in online courses. The tests that are given are taken by the students, but they have their books and/or notes out in front of them while taking the test, and professors are worried that the students are not learning as they should. It is mentioned in the article that there was a study done between students that took the test in person and students that took the test online without any professor watching over them. The students that took the test online did a lot better than those that took the test in person. It is argued though, that having open book tests are good because it allows the student to look for the information instead of having to memorize for the test. The students only memorize the information for the test and then they tend to forget it. That is certainly not a way of learning.
I would like to learn more on teaching children through technology, the use of computers and other technology sources.