Thursday, July 31, 2008

Journal 1

Journal 1:
Shefflet, R, & Toledo, C (2008). Extreme makeover: updating class activities for the 21st century. Learning and leading with technology, retrieved July 31, 2008,
Since technology became a big part of people’s lives, this article gives you ideas about how to apply technology in education. Nowadays, Web-based applications are social in nature allowing users to collaborate and publish their own creations. Teachers, who see the value of social networking tools, can use free applications that students are already using outside of schools. The features of Web-based applications make them appealing because they allow teachers to create rich and authentic activities that catch and keep students’ attention. For example, Zoho Writer is a helpful Web that permits students and teachers to create documents and save it without losing it by mistake. The final product can be published to a Web or posted directly to a blog. Google Docs, spreadsheets, and writeboard provide similar functions. Districts that struggle to provide licenses for concept mapping programs can use Gliffy. LetterPop provide newsletter templates and publishes the finished product to the Web. Further, educational blogs offer a forum for students to write for other audiences besides peers and teachers, encouraging them to be more conscious about their writing. Social Bookmarking is an easy way to store and tag all your bookmarks online with keywords and categories. Photosharing members can share their picture and create stories about it. Wikis are powerful collaboration tools. In conclusion, these Web-based applications are great tools to help teachers to promote technology in classrooms.
Question: If I want to create a valuable resource for all my student what should I do? The best way to share resources with your students is creating a Bookmarking. You can tag websites related with your subject area and share with them. Further, students after you explain to them how Bookmarking works, they will be able to tag their own websites and share with the teacher and peers.

Mader, Author's first name initial J, & Smith, B (2008). Blogging right along. Learning and leading with technology. 36.
Blogging allows students to communicate their understand of concepts and share information with others. It helps teachers to identify if students met at a cursory glance of the blog content. Serves as an excellent time line of the classrooms events.

Question: How a classroom’s blog can help students?
Students can daily access their classroom’s blog and check what they are suppose to do. Also, students can share their points of view with the rest of the class and answer questions that the teacher daily ask them to do. Besides, using blogs in educational environment students can use it to socialize and share their hobbies with their peers.

Journal 3

Journal 3: 10th Annual San Diego Summer Leadership Institute.
“Restructuring for caring and effective education: The possible future of education” Richard A. Villa (President, Bayridge Consortium Inc, San Diego)
This fun and engaging speaker, Richard Villa opened his presentation asking for us as future teachers: “What is our destination in education”. According to Villa, the ability of combining generosity, belonging, mastery, and independence, we as educators, can create a learning environment that includes every student. Also, he uses the word “equalence” (is neither excellent nor equity alone) to specify what we as teachers should strive. He gave as example of “how changing the rules” of the game can make every student to play it and win it.
Question 1: What we as a future teachers should do in order to engage every student in the classroom?
As conscious teachers, we should respect all students regardless their background. We can not forget that every student should be valued as a unique individual.
Question 2: What Villa tried to show with the “game chairs”?
His intention was to show us, how a teacher can make every students feel like a winner! It also, increase self-esteem

Journal 2

Journal 2: The Laptops Are Coming! The Laptops Are Coming!
Rethinking schools online, volume 22 no 4. Summer 2008. The laptops are coming! The laptops are coming! By Sarah Heller McFarlane. http:/www.rethinkschools.org/archive/22_04/lap224.shtml

This article was written by Sarah Heller McFarlane, a social studies teacher at Shorewood High School in Shoreline, Wash. Sarah explains her excitement when her district decided to bring laptops to the schools. “It was a dream coming true”, she said. But, by the end of the school year, she changed her point of view about full immersion technology in her classroom. She realized that she had to spend more and more time in front of her computer and her students became more and more distracted by the laptops and less social disconnected from each other. In spite of this, Sarah believes that teachers can be prepared and trained in a way they will be able to incorporate technology without losing the interpersonal social aspect of the class. Further, the author uses the Chicago Digital Youth network as a good example in how to use technology in the classroom maintaining the critical thinking and creativity among students.
Question 1: How I would incorporate technology in my classroom setting?
I would incorporate the use of computer in a way that still students will be able to connect and talk to each other. Google Docs is a good way to share your own work with your peers, because you have to communicate with your group in order to create and complete the assignment.
Question 2: Why Sarah after a year of laptop in her classroom became frustrated?
She was expecting to have only the positive side of the use of computer. When she realized that computers are great but impersonal, she started asking herself how to incorporate the use of computer in a way that still would promote social interaction and creativity among students.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

into letter


Hi! My name is Eliane Gotto. I was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I complete my k-12 education in a Catholic private school. I went to FEFISA. which is a Physical Education University in Sao Paulo. Also, I have a degree in classsical ballet. From the time that I was a little girl, I loved dancing. This passion lead me to travel to Japan and Italy. While I was living in Italy I decided that I was ready to embrace a new adventure and I decided to move to United States. My first desire was coming here to learn English and to learn a new culture. I have been living here for the past nine years. Currently, I teach fitness for the Community College

Three years ago, I had a rich experience of teaching ballet for children at University Hight Elementary School in San Diego. I loved the experience! On the top, at that time the vice-principal was a man from Brazil who encourage me to go back to school and get my Credential to start teaching, so I did. While I was working on my BA I had a computer class, but my experience with computer is not big. Mainly I use my computer to check e-mails, do research and type my essays for school. In this class I learn how to work with microsoft Excel, Power Point, and Office. Although, I have a PC I have worked a little bit with Mac.

The San Marcos college of education's mission statement kept my attention because it mentioned the word diversity. Since, I come from another country, it is encouraging to go to a place where diversity is welcome. When I first contact the College of Education, I had a great impression about them. The person who answered the phone was very helpful. Then, when I came to campus for the first time I really felt that I was at the right college to pursue my Credential.