My Educational Journey at MSU
Since I was very young I have always enjoyed being a leader and helping others. I was the typical little girl that liked playing dolls, house, and of course school. As I entered my teen years, I begin to enjoy babysitting, playing sports , and teaching others how to play sports. After high school, I was offered a full ride to our local community college on a volleyball scholarship. I quickly accepted because I didn't want to go far from home and I was 100% sure what field I wanted to earn my degree in. After two years and many trial courses, I found that education was the field I loved. I then transferred to WMU and completed my Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education with an Early Childhood Endorsement. After a few years of teaching, a marriage, and a child I found myself having to make the decision on where and what to earn my Master's degree in. After much research and discussions with colleagues I decided on MSU.
In May of 2008, my journey at MSU began. I was certain that taking online courses was the best choice for me and my family. I was working full time, had a young son at home, and planning another child in the near future. I decided that earning my Master's in Educational Technology would be the route I would take after learning that our school district would be getting a complete technology makeover in 2010 and I wanted to be ready! The first task was to get accepted into the program. In order for that to happen, I had to first earn my certificate in Educational Technology. The certificate consisted of three classes, CEP 810, CEP 811, and CEP 812.
Taking CEP 810, CEP 811, and CEP 812 provided me with excellent basic technology skills that I was going to need in order to excel in the future courses. CEP 810 really provided a nice foundation and had me set up goals for where I wanted to see myself in the end. While taking CEP 811 and CEP 812 I was really starting to feel that I was learning something I could use in my classroom. The focus of these classes was to learn how to create instructional resources that students could use independently and as a reteaching or enrichment tool. During these courses, I created a WebQuest, a Podcast and a homepage with math and science resources for my first grade students. The homepage that I created was a huge hit with my students this past year. I was unsure at first how to introduce it, but ended up just teaching them the different games two or three at a time each week while we were in the computer lab. Once they had learned how to play them all, I then showed them the special place I had the link and sent the link home to parents so that they could play at home. Lastly, during CEP 810 I recall reading an article by Brophy on effective teaching strategies and then being asked to pick out two that I felt were important. The first one was, A Supportive Classroom Climate-I think it is so important that
the students feel that each day they come to school they know that they are in a safe place with a teacher that truly cares about them. The teacher can do that easily by setting up an environment from the beginning that doesn’t allow for bullying and by listening to the students when they want to share things, not matter how silly they may seem. The second was, Curricular Alignment-Yes, the curriculum is important but as I am teaching through it I am also expanding and teaching simple life skills or including stories or doing extra activities that enhance the curriculum and make it memorable and meaningful for my students. I think one thing that is often forgotten by the administrators is that we are working with children who still need to have fun.
Creating things that I could use in my classroom encouraged me to learn new software quickly and more thoroughly because I had the drive and excitement that this was something I could really use with my students. CEP 820, Teaching K-12 Students Online, with Instructor Robin Dickson was one of these courses. During the semester, we focused on how teachers can use technology to meet various levels of educational needs. Creating a WebQuest for this class was much more enjoyable since I had had some previous experience with it during CEP 811. It was nice that this class allowed me to build on a skill that I had learned. Since it was more of a review this time I was able to spend more time finding better clip art , researching age appropriate tasks, and making sure my tasks met the benchmarks. The other main project of this course was learning to use Googlesites. Until starting these technology classes, I had heard the term RSS feeds, but I really didn’t know how they worked. In my last class, one of the assignments was to make a Netvibes page that included educational RSS feeds. At the time, I thought that it was a nice way to store and see updated information, but at the same time it was sort of a pain to have to log in to your Netvibes page separately each time I wanted to see it. I am excited that with my iGoogle homepage that I can have my updated del.icio.us links pop up each time I get on the internet since I have iGoogle set as my homepage. I am excited to use this personally this summer for things like the latest weather, movies, and news. As for using this in my classroom, I would like to but at this point I am not sure how I could incorporate it. The one way I was thinking of trying would be to have my iGoogle homepage linked to my TV. Then during our morning news time I could inform them of the weather or a piece of latest news. This class also helped me to create a PowerPoint presentation that I could use with my students and as a presentation for the parents. I was impressed with how easy it was to link my homepage and video clips. In addition to using Googlesites for PowerPoint, I also was able to experiment with other tools that it has to offer such as working together on a project as a team where everyone needs access to the same document to add and change things. We did a little of this during CEP 820 by using Mashups. I hope is to start using these Mashup pages on a daily basis. I am definitely still a beginner, but I think that once I become more comfortable and familiar with it, I will be hooked. I really love how everything becomes so easy to find and that I can access it from any computer. What a time saver! I think that this would be a great thing to set up by grade level. If you had all first grade teachers (for example) spend an hour (professional development) searching for websites that fit with curriculum you would end up with a huge amount of resources very quickly.
Another class that I took away a lot of useful technology was CEP 800, Learning in School and Other Settings, with Instructors B. Thelamour, A. Wilcken, L. Wolf. During this class I recall reading an article called Piaget, Meet Lilly: Understanding Child Development through Picture Book. As soon as I started reading this article, I realized that it was about a book that I read every year to my students, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. For example, the book Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse could be used to teach and support Piaget theory at the preoperational stage. After learning about Piaget and reading this story, students would be able to place the “theory in context of a story and relate it to the children in their lives”. The educator could also use Lilly as an example (since all of the students would have the same background knowledge about her) to help students understand and remember the theory. “Without stories to illustrate theory, it often becomes lifeless and abstract”. Another important point that is made explains that the pictures provided in these early childhood books not only enhance the story by providing a visual cue, but also “provides a cognitive boost which leads to deeper understand of the content”. Throughout this article many different examples were given on how picture books play an important role and supporting the use of them at the college level. Many professors working with ELL students use“Dr. Suess and Shel Silverstein to scaffold learning and help students bridge the gap between their levels of literacy proficiency, the meanings found in complete texts, and their lives”. The children’s book, Fish Fish, “helps student understand the meaning of Piaget’s term assimilation”, by demonstrating how the character in this story builds new knowledge based on his prior knowledge. To teach students about Piaget’s sensorimotor stage the book Birthday Presents “emphasizes the importance of touch and language to stimulate an infant’s cognitive growth”. These are only a few of the many children’s book listed that provide educators a fantastic way to teach students about educational theories in a way that helps them understand and relate them to their students.
Besides the vast about of learning I learned from that article, this class also provided me with a nice technology review of creating a podcast, but this time instead of just talking myself I had to add in interviewing two others. Once the interviews were complete I learned how to use editing tools in Audacity in order to take out background noise and any dead air. At the time, it was a little tricky and frustrating, but instructors from this course provided me with a lot of quick feedback. I am now a semi-pro with Audacity and use it on a weekly basis in my classroom. When I first heard that I would be also creating an iMovie during this class I was nervous and excited. Once again, the instructors for this class prepared me very well for creating this project. I liked that they took it step by step of creating a storyline first, adding pictures, voice and finally putting it all together. The topic I picked wasn't exactly a typical first grade skill, but I wanted to go outside the box and try working with older students and felt this was a good time to experiment. In the end, I created a list of iMovies that I want to make for classroom when I have time. Some examples that I thought would be useful to my classroom would be one to teach daily procedures, one for class rules, and for independent art projects. This class really provided me with some great tools to use in my classroom that once they are created, can be used over and over, save time, and enhance student learning.
Lastly, I have to say that this capstone class, CEP 807 has been my favorite class so far. I am not sure if I am enjoying it because of all the hard work I did to get here and now I really do have a good understanding of how to use technology for education or if seeing all my work over the years come together in one place. I love the way the instructors have set it up, using a different site instead of Angel. I feel like I have gotten to know the instructors a little bit because of the videos they have made to talk to us. It is almost like we are face to face for that minute or two. The communication with our housemates has been easy and all of my questions have been answered quickly by email. I am excited to see my finished project and will continue to update it as I finish up my final two courses.
References:
Brophy, J. (1982) Successful Teaching Strategies for the Inner-City Child Vol. 63, No. 8 (Apr., 1982), Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20386435
Hansen, C.,& Zambo, D. (1995) Piaget, Meet Lilly: Understanding Child Development through Picture Book Characters,
Early Childhood Education Journal, Volume 33, Number 1
In May of 2008, my journey at MSU began. I was certain that taking online courses was the best choice for me and my family. I was working full time, had a young son at home, and planning another child in the near future. I decided that earning my Master's in Educational Technology would be the route I would take after learning that our school district would be getting a complete technology makeover in 2010 and I wanted to be ready! The first task was to get accepted into the program. In order for that to happen, I had to first earn my certificate in Educational Technology. The certificate consisted of three classes, CEP 810, CEP 811, and CEP 812.
Taking CEP 810, CEP 811, and CEP 812 provided me with excellent basic technology skills that I was going to need in order to excel in the future courses. CEP 810 really provided a nice foundation and had me set up goals for where I wanted to see myself in the end. While taking CEP 811 and CEP 812 I was really starting to feel that I was learning something I could use in my classroom. The focus of these classes was to learn how to create instructional resources that students could use independently and as a reteaching or enrichment tool. During these courses, I created a WebQuest, a Podcast and a homepage with math and science resources for my first grade students. The homepage that I created was a huge hit with my students this past year. I was unsure at first how to introduce it, but ended up just teaching them the different games two or three at a time each week while we were in the computer lab. Once they had learned how to play them all, I then showed them the special place I had the link and sent the link home to parents so that they could play at home. Lastly, during CEP 810 I recall reading an article by Brophy on effective teaching strategies and then being asked to pick out two that I felt were important. The first one was, A Supportive Classroom Climate-I think it is so important that
the students feel that each day they come to school they know that they are in a safe place with a teacher that truly cares about them. The teacher can do that easily by setting up an environment from the beginning that doesn’t allow for bullying and by listening to the students when they want to share things, not matter how silly they may seem. The second was, Curricular Alignment-Yes, the curriculum is important but as I am teaching through it I am also expanding and teaching simple life skills or including stories or doing extra activities that enhance the curriculum and make it memorable and meaningful for my students. I think one thing that is often forgotten by the administrators is that we are working with children who still need to have fun.
Creating things that I could use in my classroom encouraged me to learn new software quickly and more thoroughly because I had the drive and excitement that this was something I could really use with my students. CEP 820, Teaching K-12 Students Online, with Instructor Robin Dickson was one of these courses. During the semester, we focused on how teachers can use technology to meet various levels of educational needs. Creating a WebQuest for this class was much more enjoyable since I had had some previous experience with it during CEP 811. It was nice that this class allowed me to build on a skill that I had learned. Since it was more of a review this time I was able to spend more time finding better clip art , researching age appropriate tasks, and making sure my tasks met the benchmarks. The other main project of this course was learning to use Googlesites. Until starting these technology classes, I had heard the term RSS feeds, but I really didn’t know how they worked. In my last class, one of the assignments was to make a Netvibes page that included educational RSS feeds. At the time, I thought that it was a nice way to store and see updated information, but at the same time it was sort of a pain to have to log in to your Netvibes page separately each time I wanted to see it. I am excited that with my iGoogle homepage that I can have my updated del.icio.us links pop up each time I get on the internet since I have iGoogle set as my homepage. I am excited to use this personally this summer for things like the latest weather, movies, and news. As for using this in my classroom, I would like to but at this point I am not sure how I could incorporate it. The one way I was thinking of trying would be to have my iGoogle homepage linked to my TV. Then during our morning news time I could inform them of the weather or a piece of latest news. This class also helped me to create a PowerPoint presentation that I could use with my students and as a presentation for the parents. I was impressed with how easy it was to link my homepage and video clips. In addition to using Googlesites for PowerPoint, I also was able to experiment with other tools that it has to offer such as working together on a project as a team where everyone needs access to the same document to add and change things. We did a little of this during CEP 820 by using Mashups. I hope is to start using these Mashup pages on a daily basis. I am definitely still a beginner, but I think that once I become more comfortable and familiar with it, I will be hooked. I really love how everything becomes so easy to find and that I can access it from any computer. What a time saver! I think that this would be a great thing to set up by grade level. If you had all first grade teachers (for example) spend an hour (professional development) searching for websites that fit with curriculum you would end up with a huge amount of resources very quickly.
Another class that I took away a lot of useful technology was CEP 800, Learning in School and Other Settings, with Instructors B. Thelamour, A. Wilcken, L. Wolf. During this class I recall reading an article called Piaget, Meet Lilly: Understanding Child Development through Picture Book. As soon as I started reading this article, I realized that it was about a book that I read every year to my students, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. For example, the book Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse could be used to teach and support Piaget theory at the preoperational stage. After learning about Piaget and reading this story, students would be able to place the “theory in context of a story and relate it to the children in their lives”. The educator could also use Lilly as an example (since all of the students would have the same background knowledge about her) to help students understand and remember the theory. “Without stories to illustrate theory, it often becomes lifeless and abstract”. Another important point that is made explains that the pictures provided in these early childhood books not only enhance the story by providing a visual cue, but also “provides a cognitive boost which leads to deeper understand of the content”. Throughout this article many different examples were given on how picture books play an important role and supporting the use of them at the college level. Many professors working with ELL students use“Dr. Suess and Shel Silverstein to scaffold learning and help students bridge the gap between their levels of literacy proficiency, the meanings found in complete texts, and their lives”. The children’s book, Fish Fish, “helps student understand the meaning of Piaget’s term assimilation”, by demonstrating how the character in this story builds new knowledge based on his prior knowledge. To teach students about Piaget’s sensorimotor stage the book Birthday Presents “emphasizes the importance of touch and language to stimulate an infant’s cognitive growth”. These are only a few of the many children’s book listed that provide educators a fantastic way to teach students about educational theories in a way that helps them understand and relate them to their students.
Besides the vast about of learning I learned from that article, this class also provided me with a nice technology review of creating a podcast, but this time instead of just talking myself I had to add in interviewing two others. Once the interviews were complete I learned how to use editing tools in Audacity in order to take out background noise and any dead air. At the time, it was a little tricky and frustrating, but instructors from this course provided me with a lot of quick feedback. I am now a semi-pro with Audacity and use it on a weekly basis in my classroom. When I first heard that I would be also creating an iMovie during this class I was nervous and excited. Once again, the instructors for this class prepared me very well for creating this project. I liked that they took it step by step of creating a storyline first, adding pictures, voice and finally putting it all together. The topic I picked wasn't exactly a typical first grade skill, but I wanted to go outside the box and try working with older students and felt this was a good time to experiment. In the end, I created a list of iMovies that I want to make for classroom when I have time. Some examples that I thought would be useful to my classroom would be one to teach daily procedures, one for class rules, and for independent art projects. This class really provided me with some great tools to use in my classroom that once they are created, can be used over and over, save time, and enhance student learning.
Lastly, I have to say that this capstone class, CEP 807 has been my favorite class so far. I am not sure if I am enjoying it because of all the hard work I did to get here and now I really do have a good understanding of how to use technology for education or if seeing all my work over the years come together in one place. I love the way the instructors have set it up, using a different site instead of Angel. I feel like I have gotten to know the instructors a little bit because of the videos they have made to talk to us. It is almost like we are face to face for that minute or two. The communication with our housemates has been easy and all of my questions have been answered quickly by email. I am excited to see my finished project and will continue to update it as I finish up my final two courses.
References:
Brophy, J. (1982) Successful Teaching Strategies for the Inner-City Child Vol. 63, No. 8 (Apr., 1982), Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20386435
Hansen, C.,& Zambo, D. (1995) Piaget, Meet Lilly: Understanding Child Development through Picture Book Characters,
Early Childhood Education Journal, Volume 33, Number 1
