UEN Reflection

I am amazed at how much you can find on uen.org. It is great to have free resources that can only be used by teachers or people with an education email! All of the different sights within the UEN site have so much to offer. I like the personal page on the UEN website with its calendar, curriculum resources, dictionary (which I use a lot), and all of the services and tools.

The interactive section of the website is amazing. I love the little games that the kids can play. I don't know if high school kids will be too “cool” for the interactives, but now that I am a little older I can appreciate them. I think that I will use the interactives if I am teaching 9th graders, and possibly older, depending on what unit I am teaching.

I was really impressed with the pioneer library. It has so many different sites in it to find information on just about anything you want. I will use this resource to have my students find articles in magazines or the newspaper that have to do with physical fitness. I will also use this to find the latest research on training techniques.

I like that you can find not only the core curriculum on this site, but also lesson plans for the different standards. Having the core so accessible will help me to stay in line with what I need to be teaching. I can use the lesson plans to give me ideas of what I can do with my classes. They are a great resource for new and old teachers alike.

I love the SIRS Discover site. In the sports icon there are articles on everything from salaries of athletes to presidents who played sports. There is also one called “You Got Cut, Now What?” I like that there are things for kids in every situation.

I think that what I like the best about the UEN website is that you can find all of these things and a whole lot more in one place. Instead of having to remember many different sites, all you need to remember is uen.org and everything is at your fingertips.

Who's Website? My Website

In my last post I mentioned using a blog or a website to help me in my classroom. At that point I knew I could make a blog, but I didn't really know what making a website would entail. I always assumed that only people who could build their own computer could figure out how to make something complicated like a website. Now after having learned about them, I think I could have even figured it out on my own, if someone pointed me in the right direction. I'm glad I was given a little more instruction than that! I never imagined that making a website could be so easy.

As a teacher having a website that is easy to understand and navigate will definitely help me communicate with my students. Having a website with all of the information they need in one spot will make the students more accountable for their work. They won't be able to use the excuse "Well I didn't know". My website will have all upcoming events, homework assignments, test dates, and my contact information in case they need clarification on anything. When I was in high school none of my teachers had a website, not that I had a computer back then, so if you didn't know about an assignment or had a question, your only option was to hope their number was in the phone book or find out about it when it was already late. You can access a website from anywhere, so you can always know whats going on.

Engrade is a great tool as well. I like that you can see all of your assignments and what score you got on them. It takes the guess work out of knowing where you stand in a class. Engrade gives you quick and easy feedback. I have had classes that I thought I was doing great in, only to find out at the end of the semester that I was doing the assignments wrong, I was getting low scores on something that could have been easily fixed if someone had let me know they were wrong.

Using both of these tools, a website and Engrade, will help me keep students' parents involved in their kids education. Parents will have access to my website so they also know what and when things are due. I'm not sure how I feel about giving all parents access to Engrade, it might be something I only do if a child is having trouble in my class. I like having the option.

In school I think it is important to know what other teachers are teaching as well. I want my students to be able to transfer their new knowledge to other things they are doing. If all teachers have websites they can see what topics others are covering or see when they have major tests or projects due so that schedules can be arranged around them and make learning as effective for students as possible.

I liked the topic of this weeks video. There are so many resources available to teenagers these days. Why not use them. Kids know how to do so much more now than a lot of older people. I don't know why teachers insist on making them learn the old way, when a new way could be much more affective.

As a teacher I will use both a website and Engrade to help my students understand my class. I will try to incorporate new technologies into my lessons as well, which means I need to keep learning!

The Wonderful World of Google

As I learn about becoming a teacher, I am pleasantly surprised by all of the resources that are available for me to use. I am a relative newcomer to the computer, well anything past email, and am so excited about the programs I get to use that teachers just a few years ago didn't have access to. All of these programs and tools will help me not only stay organized and on the right track, but also help me keep students and parents informed about classroom rules and schedule and help me connect with colleagues.

The Google Calender will be a big part of my life as a teacher. Because it is important to be organized, it will be helpful to have one calender with all of my responsibilities on it. I will be teaching, coaching, and hopefully having a personal life, so I like that the calender is color coded for easy reading and can be as specific or general as I want it. I also like that calenders can be public or private on Google so that I can have one for me to look at, and also one available for my students to view.

As a PE teacher I will not use the computer much IN the classroom, however I can see the usefulness of having a class website or a class blog, probably both. They will be a place where the kids and parents can look to see what will be happening in the upcoming classes and also see what they have missed. I know that kids aren't always the best at telling their parents how they are doing in school, so having a website with student scores and participation will keep the parents involved and up to date on their child's performance. I hope this will also be helpful in keeping misunderstandings about student grades to a minimum.

I want my class to be a place for students to improve themselves and I believe that it is important for them to be held accountable for their actions. I think it would be great to have them set up their own workout or nutrition blog where I can check on their progress and dedication to the goals they set. I am also now a big fan of gmail. It is a great way for students to ask questions that they don't want to ask in a classroom setting. This is also a great way to communicate with parents.

I think that I will use Google docs with my colleagues. It will be convenient to be able to work with teachers teaching the same subject to make handouts or presentations together without having to be together. It will also be a way to have someone look over a lesson plan and give feedback on it. I will definitely try to learn from teachers that have been teaching longer than I have.

Video presentations are great to have in class. They can be serious and instructional or funny depending on what you are going for. I loved the fraction division video. I just keep thinking "take the top number, divide it by the bottom number". It is so corny, but I don't think I will ever forget it! Its like when I was a second grade and learned 'Fifty Nifty' to learn the fifty states. I can still recite them in order and I can do it faster if I am singing. Video presentations are a good way to introduce a subject or break up the day. I would like to use them as a teacher to show different sports or exercises.

I am excited to become a teacher in this time period because there are so many tools and resources available to help make me a great teacher.

My Ideal Classroom

My ideal classroom is a little different than a regular classroom. Since I'm going to be a P.E. teacher my classroom will be a gym and when the weather is good, the great outdoors. So to make my ideal classroom it involves more the feel than the set up. I want to have a class where all of my students feel safe no matter what their fitness level, athletic ability, or social situation in the class. I want to teach P.E. in a way that will help the students become the healthiest version of themselves. I want to be the kind of teacher that teaches by example. I want to be able and willing to do all that I ask of my students. I don't want my class to be something that the students have to endure because it is required, but something that will help them accomplish their goals.