Final Reflection

What?
In Instructional Media I have learned how to use a variety of different technology to create class website, using blogs, sharing documents with students and or colleagues, using Google tools and applications, creating WebQuests and Digital Stories, as well and tons of other technology. This class is about knowing and keeping up on the technology in the world we live in. Our students will be technological savvy and we must too. This class gave countless ways to teach our students using technology that can give them a better education.

• The first thing that I have taken with me through this class is technology in the class is essential. If I don't learn about technology and the benefits there in or it will pass me up and so will my students. Our students understand technology. They live in a technology era where they function cell phones, iPods, computers, the Internet, multiple game sets like the PlayStation and Wii, and a variety of other things. They understand technology and therefore will be able to learn well from this perspective.


• The second thing I've learned that even though such greatness can come from technology there are many dangers that our students need to be aware of. Things like finding valid documents that can enhance their learning rather than take away from their learning. Also dangerous things that the Internet provides; cyberspace, chat lines, pornography, and countless others that can harm our students. As a teacher it is my responsibility to teach my students the proper way to use the Internet. Parents also need to aware of the dangers to provide guidance and help for their children.


• The third thing I've learned is the countless ways to stay organized and teach my students. Through google I can have class websites, documents, calendars, and opportunities to guide my students when they need help with activities and assignments. I can keep in contact with parents. Google is a great way were students can submit assignments and find announcements for the class. If a student misses class they can find simple ways to keep up through these sites. Technology can give endless learning if we use it correctly.

So What?
This course has been great because it has caught me up in the technology world so I can use it as an aid to teach my students. I have learned a variety of useful strategies and tactics to find and use useful information to teach my students. There is such a vast area of technology that can benefit the classroom. I feel I will be better at connecting with my student which will make me a more influential teacher. I am far more prepared to help teach my students through the use of technology. This class has opened my eyes and has given a wide variety of strategies to teach my students. This class has also helped me to be ready to teach to a deeper level the NET standards. It has helped me to develop qualities through technology and ways to teach my students that will better qualify be in the NET standards of what to teach. I have been prepared to be able to teach in this technological world, but also helping the students stay safe through the Internet. Through this class it has helped me step closer to meeting my goals as a teacher in the class room, which is providing the best learning environment for my students.

Now What?
I will definitely be using the use of technology for my classroom. One area I will have have is a class website available to my students and for their parents to frequently look at and learn from. This topic is one that I enjoyed the most because it taught me to be more organized. A class website is a great tactic to have good communication with students and parents. Here I will also have assignments, calendars, and announcements that will help my student succeed. I plan on also incorporating WebQuest into my classroom. i think it can be a fun way to learn topics in a PE class. I plan on having group projects done through WebQuest. I probably won't incorporate the digital story however because I feel my students will learn better through other tactics of teaching. I want my students to really enjoy PE and apply it into their lives and through this class I feel I have found a wide range of things to help me obtain these goals. I also believe for my students to apply and internalize PE criteria they must enjoy what they are doing and with the use of technology it can help me keep the activities fun and memorable. Now I have ways to keep my lesson intriguing instead of just throwing a ball out for them to play with. Now that I have taken this course I have two main goals with what I've learned:
1. Create a website that will improve my students success and give me an opportunity to stay in touch with their parent.
2. Incorporate teaching tactics of WebQuest into my lesson plans throughout the year.

This class been great and has taught me more than I ever would have imagined.....

Digital Story

What?
My Digital Story experience taught me a lot and opened my eyes to a new way to teaching or prepping my class for a unit that we will be covering. I was amazed at how much impact a 2-3 minute video could really do. While making my digital story I noticed how simple and plain mine seemed to be until I added music. With the music it made the whole feeling of the video different. The words that I used help to set the mood and atmosphere of the movie I wanted but the overall impact came from the music. It taught me the importance that music and auditory can have in a lesson. Finding ways to create my movie without describing every picture was a difficult task. I found myself wanting to explain the pictures so the audience knew what I was talking about, but once i put it all together I could see that the pictures seemed to explain themselves. That is what I really liked about this assignment because the pictures and music could tell so much without me saying a word.

I believe that this would be best used for prepping your class or having a summary or conclusion about what you have taught in a lesson or unit. I would probably use it most in prepping my class to start the thinking process. Being able to do this makes the students start thinking for themselves about the concepts and ideas that will be covered. I may use this in my class every once in awhile but in a physical education class you have more of hands on experiences that you can discover and learn ideas for yourself. In PE skills are best learned through practice. I've always found that students learn better if they are able to get out and try for themselves. I think that in class instruction and demonstration of what we will be learning will have a better impact on the students learning than would a digital story.

So What?
This assignment gave me great ideas about being able to start my students thinking process by showing them a digital story. As a teacher providing a digital video provides an image of having an open mind and diligence in providing the best ways for my students to learn. I believe it has made me as a teacher develop qualities that can help the growth of my students. As a teacher it shows a true desire for giving my students the best education possible. It gives me another way to teach my students that will benefit them. A digital story creates another outlet and understanding for my students to comprehend the skills and strategies taught to them in my class. I believe that through a digital story it can provide a way to supply discovery learning for my students. By showing a digital story it can open their minds and think critically on a topic without me telling them exactly what I want them to discover. With each assignment and new discovery with how to teach my students it definitely develops my progress with the INTASC and NETS standards. It seems with each standard I get a better knowledge and understanding to the importance of these standards. I have developed professionalism that helps me continue to develop and learn the extent of the standards instead of the simple surface and meaning to each one. With the standards it teaches me a new way to obtain the variety of objectives that come with the content and standards. I believe I put my full effort into this assignment. I spend countless hours to find the the songs I felt would enhance the video. I also corrected several times and had others correct my grammar and what I would be saying throughout the video. I enjoyed this assignment especially being able to see the outcome that I produced was fun and insightful.


Now What?
One goal of mine always is to find the best ways to teach my students. Even though I enjoyed this assignment I don't feel that in my Physical Education classes this probably won't be one of the best ways to teach them. I might however, have a video like this in the beginning of the year to introduce myself and have my students get a feel for my classroom. Another goal of mine is to have my students really internalize and love being active. I believe to achieve this goal the students need to have positive hands-on experience after positive hands-on experience. I don't believe that having video like these in my class can achieve this internalization of activity. One final thing that I feel the digital movies fails to achieve is the idea of students learning through practice. With the variety of skills taught in a physical education class you rarely find yourself being able to be successful the first time when just learning. Being able to learn through your failure is one of the best ways to really learn and internalize what you are trying to accomplish. Therefore to meet these goals that I aspire to I will create lesson plans and instructions that provide the most opportunities for my students to learn for themselves through practice.

WebQuest

What?
WebQuest was a fun way to learn how to create an activity or project for my students. When creating my WebQuest I learned that keeping instructions simple make the project easier. At first I tried to make full in depth instructions for the students to learn from but then realized minimizing this made it easier to follow and achieve. This is the same thing I learned with the different processes that I did. I kept the assignements and what I wanted them to learn but by providing ways for the students to learn the information like worksheets or outlines made the assignment for beneficial and memorable. WebQuests to me would be be used for a big project or assignment that the students can work together on. Since I created the WebQuest I think it is great to pinpoint what you want the students to be looking at and what you want them to learn. I would like to use this in my class to do assignments before a unit we do in class.. Providing information for them to discover that will prep their minds for what we will be doing in class for the next few weeks will benefit the students growth and learning in that topic. I want to do this because it will give different ways of learning for my students so I can have a better chance for all my students to grasp the concepts.
So What?
This was an assignment where I really had to come out of the box and learn a new way to teach the students. This provides an image of having an open mind and diligence in providing the best ways for my students to learn. I believe it has made me as a teacher develop qualities that can help the growth of my students. As a teacher it shows a true desire for giving my students the best education possible. When people think of a PE class they think of a teacher throwing a ball out for the students to play, but creating assignments like this will open the horizon of what PE teachers can really do to teach their students. With each assignment and new discovery with how to teach my students definitely develops my progress with the INTASC and NETS standards. It seems with each standard I get a better knowledge and understanding to the importance of these standards. I have developed professionalism that helps me continue to develop and learn the extent of the standards instead of the simple surface and meaning to each one.
This project to me was one of the most exciting to learn. I required me to really search and figure out the ways to teach my students using different ways of learning. I believe I did a good job with this WebQuest. The sites and tasks I had the students complete identified the different objectives and gave them quality information to really build upon the foundation they already had with fitness. I worked really hard to find the best quality information and to find tasks that would really develop the students minds. I worked alone on this project which made the task more meaningful to me. I was able to focus on each area and learn through experience what helps me the most. Also working individually put me in a real life experience because when I'm a teacher this is something I will probably be doing on my own. This project was one that I really put myself into and tried to learn all I could about teaching my class with a WebQuest.

Now What?
I want to create different WebQuests that will pinpoint the objectives for each unit that I will be covering throughout the year by following each curriculum and standards to help the students learn them. Another thing I would like to incorporate is completing assignments with other classes. For example having me and another teacher who teaches the same things combine together to incorporate the learning strategies and concepts. Both of these goal came about through WebQuest. WebQuest has helped me to see how effective this could be and the variety of things that the students can do. I notice through this WebQuest that you are teaching the students more than just the topic. They learn how to function the computer and work together to find the correct answers and meanings to the information. The first step I will take to complete these goals it map out the curriculum and the specific objectives. Then I will create several ideas that can obtain the objectives set. Having a variety of ideas will help me to develop my WebQuest and what I want to students to be taking from the assignment. After I have made complete outlines I will begin by create individual WebQuest and having other teachers evaluate the assignments I have created and there validity.

Microsoft PowerPoint

What?
This week we learned about using PowerPoint in our classrooms. I've used PowerPoint countless times in my classes, but I've also been on the other end receiving a PowerPoint from a professor. I've found some to be really insightful and others to be pretty boring. Having these different experiences I often wondered if it was the teacher or the actual PowerPoint that made it good or bad. Now learning some techniques and strategies with PowerPoint I believe it was probably a little of both. Creating PowerPoint's can be rather easy, but creating one that is exciting and insightful for the students can be a difficult task. Keeping a page short but informational is a technique we learned this week. You want the students to stay engaged with the topic and not lose focus because it is too long or wordy. Another factor that could lose the students attention is the size of the font. You want to make sure the whole class can read what you are presenting, even the students on the back row. Another good strategy for keeping your students interested is making your pages fun with animation. But you must be careful here also, because you don't want to overdo the animation and lose the focus of the students from the topic. If you have too many animations and characters the students will begin to focus on these areas, being concerned with what comes next, instead of your information and focus. To create a PowerPoint that has life to it is knowing the tools. Some tools that can help you are the entrance and exit of your information on the page. You can also include sounds and speed of the entrance. A great thing I learned this week was being able to put a video or slide show in your PowerPoint. There are many basics like font style and size that can help to create your PowerPoint the way you want it to look. Then hopefully through these you will obtain your purpose with your PowerPoint presentation.
So What?
As a teacher we have a variety of purposes depending on the day and the topic. With PowerPoint it can help you to obtain your purpose. With the different tools provided on PowerPoint you can use images and different phrases or words to help build knowledge in your students. PowerPoint provides great visual learning. Here the students not only hear what the teacher is saying but also can see what is being taught. By providing two ways of presenting this can help you get across the information better to your whole class instead of a few. PowerPoint and you lecture will bring different areas of learning into the equation. Also with PowerPoint you can pinpoint the focus by what you put on your slides whether it is a picture, phrase, or sounds.
As a PE teacher PowerPoint can be helpful. Even though we are being physically active most the time a PowerPoint presentation can provide visual learning and help the growth of understanding for students. Sometimes is hard to see how your body really should be moving while performing a skill. With PowerPoint I can now provide a different avenue of learning. Before it was just put a ball out and let them play and learn on their own. Now we can give them step by step. I can provide images of phases of skills or actual videos in slow motion to help them gain the idea I am looking for.
Now What?
Because of my experience with PowerPoint I believe I know it pretty well, but I think there is still room to grow. One area I really need to focus on is how to present it well for my students. Understanding how it will be taken and what will keep them involved is some tactics I need to practice and learn. Practice for me is the key to success. I learn best from experience and plan on preparing slides for my class a giving them to my peers and friends to get their input. PowerPoint can be a good avenue for PE but there are others like Dartfish that focus primarily on the steps and whole skill in different segments for the students to learn from. Dartfish is more complex and probably more at a team level, where PowerPoint would be better understood in the classroom. I think PowerPoint can also be a good change from the regular PE class day and can help the students to stay excited about sports and games. With PE I think that PowerPoint activities can be used for the student's presentations and reports. They can be fun, imaginative, and informational in a Physical Education class.