IEP

Our class created individualized education plans (IEP) on a piece of technology to be explored by our students in the classroom.  I chose to do my IEP project on Google Earth, a program about which I had heard a lot but knew very little.  A gentleman by the name of Clay delivered a presentation on the program to our class a couple of months ago, which I found more or less fascinating.  Google Earth can really do anything.

Weirdly, when I was brainstorming ideas about what to do for the project and came across Google Earth, I wasn't sure the program would be a good fit for a math class.  I could not have been more wrong.  I came up with six lesson plans on the program ranging from basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to multivariable calculus.  In light of how utterly amazing and awesome Google Earth is, I can only assume that the program will play an increasingly large role in education.

I learned how to use Google Earth through Clay, online tutorials and exploring it myself.  The six lesson plans for my IEP are located here.

Online Teacher Blog

I joined the online teacher-blog community teacherlingo.com, which contains a wide breadth and deep breadth of education-related blogs written by all manner of teachers.

I think that a rookie teacher could benefit greatly from this education-related community.  It is a place for asking questions and receiving answers.  It is a place for receiving questions and giving answers.  It is a place for reading and writing.  It is a source of stability, support and wisdom.  I'm Andrew and I approve this blog.

Article Assessment #4

For my fourth article assessment I read "Assistive Technologies for Reading" by Ted S. Hasselbring and Margaret E. Bausch, which was about the beneficial role played on education by assistive technology- defined as essentially anything that helps a person with a disability function.

As a student-teacher now for eight months, I am well aware of the adverse effects a learning disability can have on a student's academic performance.  Although assistive technology is here to help, most schools have failed to (sufficiently) adopt it- a major reason for which is lack of room in the budget.  The government could- and should- remedy this by raising taxes and/or cutting spending on other things.  I strongly believe that every learning-disabled student in this country should enjoy the benefits of assistive technology.

One piece of assistive technology that I believe has enormous potential for benefitting all students- disabled or not- is the text-reading device.  Sadly but truly, many students don't read because they aren't good at it and/or because they hate its proactive nature.  I believe that using text-reading devices can result in better and more reading for two big reasons: they can make text more clear and, for better or worse, can make reading a more passive- and thus for many a more enjoyable and frequent- experience.

Assistive technologies can facilitate learning.  Thus, more schools and students should use them.

Educational Websites

Four educational websites I enjoy:

*A virtual news source

*A virtual encyclopedia

*A virtual vocabulary game

*Virtual math games

*A virtual list of books you have read, are reading and/or will read

*The virtual news source above is The New York Times, considered one of the finest publications in the world.  Unfortunately, many K-12 students are not interested in current events and lack the vocabulary and attention span to read the source's long, "big-words" articles.

*The virtual encyclopedia above is Wikipedia, one of the most widely-read encyclopedias in the world.  One of the greatest aspects of the source is its all-encompassing nature- everything and its mother is covered.  However, because almost anyone can contribute to almost any of the articles, its factual reliability is not exactly exemplary.  Also, that every article teems with tantalizing links is, to say the least, distracting.

*The virtual vocabulary game above is good for a vocabulary game (it's fun, charitable and has various levels of difficulty), however I am wary of vocabulary games- according to my experience with them, they tend to be ineffective and inefficient (reading (with a dictionary) is the best way to improve one's vocabulary).

*The virtual math games above are educational and fun- an ideal combination for students and teachers alike.

*The virtual list of books above is a great way for people to keep track of books they've read.  It allows people to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate books.  Also, people can share their lists with one another.

Digital Story

In class we made digital stories of something concerning our fields of study.  Mine, on math, is located here.

I enjoyed writing the text of my story immensely.  Narrating and fitting pictures to it on iMovie was a lot of fun as well.  My superior (perhaps supreme) iMovie skills are apparent approximately halfway through the movie when a picture of a cucumber pops up when I say the word "cucumber" and a picture of a potato pops up when I say the word "potato."  Overall, the project was great.

The map for my project is located here and the rubric is here.