Assignment # 4

Mckenzie's Education Site is a site I created to be useful to me (when I become a teacher) as well as to my students. Through this class, as well as other education courses I've taken this semester, I've learned the importance of incorporating technology into the classroom for a variety of different reasons. One highly beneficial way to use technology as a teacher is to create a website for your class to better communicate with your students as well as with their parents. In learning about this effective means of communication, I decided to create a website for myself that could be assessible by my future students as well as by their parents. This website has a variety of cool activities to help ESL students engage with the English language through some creative and fun activities. The features of technology that I learned through creating this weebly site are: first and foremost how to create a website of my own. I also was able to learn more about and get better acquainted with the flip video and how to upload it to my website. Other features I was able to use and learn more about were different SmartBoard activities to provide on my site, as well as how to use to the actual Smartbaord in the classroom. Other technology features I used on my website were that of a blog and different pages containing links to articles, more lessons, etc... Through this project, I also stumbled upon a website called Piclits.com which is a creative writing site that provides hundreds of pictures for users to choose from and then creatively describe/ write about the picture. This technology website is great for getting ESL students to have fun with writing.
Some of the issues of I incounterd in doing this project were: intially I was really nervous about what I was going to do for the project. For some reason, the assignment really intimidated me. But, once I started messing around with the weebly website, I began to have fun with it. I did have issues with uploading the links, but after simply playing around with the website for a while, I was able to figure out what I was doing wrong.
This project turned out to be a really great learning experience as well as a great way to get me mroe comfortable with playing with new technology. I tend to have a fear about the unknown, which was the case with this project, but after learning new and fun ways to use technology and incorporate it into my teaching, I've gained an appreciation for its usefulness and uniqueness. The site that I created is something that I will continue to add to and possibly draw from when I am a teacher. Like I said before, I now know how to create a professional website for myself that I can use as a form of communication between my students and their parents. I can put homework, future assignments, callenders, practice activities, etc.. to help the students out with their language learning experience. All in all this project broke me into really enjoying using new technology and applying it to my classroom.
The NETS standards for students that are covered by my project are the following: Creativity and Innovation (students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology). This standard is met with the PicLit activities which require students to choose a picture and then creatively write about the picture. Another Standard met is Communication and Collaboration (students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. This standard is met by the online learning website I posted on my page which I would encourage my students to create an account with. Through this website, ESL students are able to communicate with other ESL students attempting to learn English. They are able to practice chatting with eachother (in English), which is very beneficial to the language learning process. Another standard that my project met for the students is that of critical thinking. I included various activities and games which require the students to think in English and solve a problem (via spell words, correct grammar, and so on...)
The NETS standards for Teachers that I covered in my project are the following: facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. I did this by providing various activities which I found fun, and thought would be fun for my future students. Another standard that I attempted to meed was modeling digital-age work and technology. I met this standard by the very fact that I created a website in which the students can go to find activities which will coincide with their current lessons and learning, a place where they can read different blogs that I've written, as well as respond to me (their teacher) about anything and everything.