Making Paradise Cafe Cookies

So I am a big fan of pinterest.  I have seen there is a imitation recipe of paradise cafe chocolate chip cookies.  So I decided I wanted to make these with my little sister.  Before we made the cookies I got all the ingredients that the recipe called for.  Finally it was time to attempt to make these cookies.  I was nervous, because honestly I am not the best baker out there.  I figured what would it hurt to give it a shot.  So my little sister and I went through the motions of making the cookies and than loaded them into the oven.  When I went to check on the cookies that is when I knew something had gone wrong.  The cookies looked horrible and not to mention they were all running into each other.  I quickly took them out before they set off the fire alarm.  I decided to try to bake a few more cookies to see if just maybe it would work this time.  Second time was not the charm.  They turned out disgusting.  I do not know went wrong.  I followed every direction to the tee.  What I learned from this, is that pinterest does not have all the answers.  It's best to consult with a mom before attempting a new cookie recipe!

Assessment Through the Student's Eyes

I really enjoyed reading this article.  It had some great points that I never really thought of.  So many students really get "beaten down" with the constant assessments.  Some students are constantly being told they aren't good enough.  So in this article it talks about some great ways to change the culture of assessments.  Assessments don't have to be a bad thing, there is a lot of great things that can come from them.  I especially like the math example in this article.  I thought it was really clever how the teacher had a post assessment for the kids to fill out after they took their tests.  The little girl who had gotten a 60, realized that she did know some of the content and some of the mistakes she made were because she wasn't careful.  We just have to find a way to lift students up.  We want them to always feel like they can do anything they put their minds too.  Some students though who constantly fail at things have a hard time thinking they can do anything right after awhile.  As future teachers we need to learn how to use assessments to empower our kids.  That will be a hard thing to do.  Because right now our school systems are full of assessments after assessments.  But there not necessarily the right type of assessments.  I think with some culture change we can bring a new air to the word assessment 

Using Technology Effectively in the Classroom

This article was really interesting to read.  In schools right now there is such a big push to get laptops, ipads and other electronic devices.  Schools that don't have these are considered to be behind.  However these schools without technology may not be any more behind than some schools who have all sorts of technology.  It all depends on the teachers.  In schools that have laptops for most of their students there has been many studies done on the effectiveness.   Most schools with laptops saw there scores on tests increase.  But some schools didn't seem to make any gains.  It would of never occurred to me that the reason behind this was the teachers.  It makes sense now that I think about it.  If you have a teacher who does not know how to use laptops or just plain doesn't want to use laptops the students won't be able to either.  If a teacher doesn't incorporate the use of laptops in their lessons, students aren't really going to have a chance to use laptops to help further learning.  So the big thing is we need to train teachers on how to use laptops(technology) and show them the benefits of it.  Many schools districts don't want to take time to teach teachers how to use this technology, but if they would, students would be the ones benefiting in the long run.  I think back to my high school and how some teachers were anti technology.  The problem was that most of them just didn't know how to use this technology.  So they automatically had a negative attitude towards it.  So for school districts that are just getting into the technology phase they need to makes sure they have plans in place to teach the teachers about this new technology.  Technology can equal better tests outcomes for students!

Digital Textbooks

After looking at many articles I settled on the article Getting to Know a Digital Textbook by Terence W. Cavanaugh.  This article focuses on how using digital textbooks can revolutionize our schools.  First of all to use a digital textbooks the kids must have some sort of electronic device such as a laptop, e-reader, or a ipad.  While this may stop some people from using a digital textbook right now in the future as more electronics are readily available it will be easier.  The nice thing about digital textbooks is first of all you don't have to carry around all those heavy books.  It could really help save some kids backs by using digital textbook.  Another feature of digital textbooks is being able to highlight them and looks up words easily.  They can also easily have the textbook read to them (auto) or increase the size of the text.  For special ed learners this would be really helpful.  Also in a lot of digital textbooks kids can click on links in the textbook and it will take them to a internet site.  They may be able to learn more in depth about the subject this way.  Now the question is how does this relate to the campfire learning styles.  Well this could be really useful for the alone time in the cave.  Kids can go in their own little word and read their textbook.  Or maybe have the textbook read to them, and take notes while listening to it.  This could also contribute to the campfire where everyone shares their ideas.  They can pull out their textbooks and talk about different things they may have highlighted.  To back up their points they can show links from the internet.  The nice thing about digital textbooks is that they can be taken anywhere and that is very convenient.  Plus everyone almost always has some sort of digital device on them so they could pull up the digital textbook whenever. Digital textbooks hopefully will be started to be embraced more and more by people. 

Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?

The article I chose to write about was found on the site eutopia.  The article talks about integrating technology into curriculum.  Throughout this article there was some really great points made.  First of all when we think of technology in  classroom it is more than learning how to type or use a power point.  Technology in the classroom is so much more these days.  It involves using technology in a new way never used before.  The article talks about four key components of learning with technology.  They are active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback.  Theses are all really important.  With technology we can find a way to get kids who before the use of technology never really got engaged with the lesson.  Now with technology we can get to more kids.  Another reason that technology is important in the classroom is because it gives a modern snapshot of what the work office looks like today.  I really found this to be a great point, because technology is not going anywhere.  The best way to prepare are students for the future is to teach them tools they will actually use in the workplace.  If we ignore that technology is becoming a big part of life, we are giving a disservice to our students.  As much as some people may not like the use of technology in classrooms, its a reality that they must get used to it.  The last point I really liked in the article was when it talked about how if technology is used right it can turn teachers into more of an adviser or a coach.  Technology can allow students to come to more conclusions and answers on their own.  While technology can and never should replace teachers.  I think we can use it a really great tool to help our students.  

The Future of Technology in the Classroom

This article about technologies in education was very insightful.  First of all one of the technologies I see myself using in the future would be adaptive learning.  Since I want to be a special education teacher I will be constantly looking at other way to help my students learn.  Since they can't learn the traditional ways always, using something like adaptive learning may be very helpful.  With adaptive learning quizzes and tests are given based off the students knowledge and skills.  I really think that could be beneficial for my students.  Another technology I see becoming very helpful would be gaming.  Gaming could be a really awesome way to get students and special education students more interested in what they are learning.  I also know that sometimes it helps when sped students are doing more interactive things.  So educational games done the right way may really help my students practice skills such as math facts or verbs.  I do realize now all students would be able to use this, but a vast majority could.  There are just so many different technologies coming out and I can only imagine what will be out when I actually start teaching!

After I read the article I went and read all of the different comments.  A vast majority of people thought the article was great and were very positive about technology in education.  But, there also was a few people who saw technology as not such a great tool.  I can see were the people who are more against it are coming from.  However, I also wonder how many of them are actual educators.  For all we know they may be accountants or doctors.  I personally believe that technology can be used to help the kids that without technology are hard to connect with.  I do think we need to watch how much technology is used, but if done right it can be an asset. 

Student Friendly Objectives Using Technology

In the article Bill Ferriter talks about writing student friendly objectives.  One of the main points he touched on was that so many times students don't actually understand the objectives.  When you look at state standards objectives it is even hard for teachers to understand them sometiems  So Ferriter went on a mission to figure out  how to write student friendly objectives.  Now the question is can we incorporate technology when writing a student friendly objective? Well I think we absolutely can.  First of all, we must use all the resources to find ways to make things simpler.  There are many sites on the web that can help us do this.  Such as how we read Ferriter blogs on student friendly objectives.  Next I think it is important that the parents know what the objectives are in the classroom.  So maybe by sending out emails to parents or papers home on the objectives we can help parents understand.  If the parents understand they may be able to help their child understand.  We than need to post the objectives in the classroom daily.  As a teacher it is important we go over it with our students to make sure they understand. To make sure they understand the objective we can ask them questions.  At the end of the day it is important to go back over the objectives with the students so they know that they conquered the objectives of the days.  We can also use sites like Edmodo to post objectives.  There are many ways of using technology to help our students with objectives, we just have to make sure we actually use them!