Blog Post #6

I viewed a fifth grade science website for my assignment. Mrs. Smith is a fifth grade science teacher from Raleigh, NC and created her website with Weebly. She works at Harris Creek Elementary School. Much of her website was public. Her home page contained information that was pertinent to the lesson recently taught (I assume). This included links and embedded videos that related to nutrition. She had six other tabs on her website as well: homework videos, quizlets, websites, videos, study guides, and about me. She added an email link to the bottom of her website. All of her videos were embedded in to the site and all of her links were hyperlinked. I feel that this sets an example of ELA skills that children need to be successful. Her public information contained no information on her students, which I feel is good because it promotes internet safety. 



As a teacher I am planning on using technology to help me complete my professional responsibilities. The most important tool that I imagine I will use is classroom management software. Taking attendance and keeping track of grades digitally is easier and more reliable than doing it on paper. I also plan on using the classroom management software ClassDojo. This website keeps track of the good and bad things that a student has done in class and allows for easy communication with parents. Another technology that I will use as a teacher is presentation software. I believe that presentation software will be important to accomplish my professional goals because it will make lesson presentation easier. Creating a PowerPoint is very simple and effective. Presentation software is incredibly useful in order to save time on creating lessons. The third piece of software that I plan on using often is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) website creators. WYSIWYG displays allow for users to see what their website looks like as they create it. Teachers are not web developers and because of this easy design software is important for them to create websites. This tool will be useful in my professional career because I will be able to create my class website with ease. 

Visiting the Tech Sandbox last week was incredibly interesting. I was most captivated with the virtual reality that we demoed. Virtual reality is an emerging technology, but has the potential to change school forever. I am majoring in social science education and am very excited for this field to develop. I have thought of several uses for this technology in history and government classrooms. Imagine being able to cross the Delaware River with George Washington, invade China with Genghis Khan, or pillage the Roman Empire with Atilla the Hun. All of these scenarios are possible with virtual reality. This would engage students that do not learn in traditional ways and make students excited to go to school again. Virtual reality could also allow for students to sit in on Congressional or Parliamentary hearings and get first hand experience seeing how a government functions. Virtual reality has untold promise for the future of education. 




















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