Final Refelction

I think that I have met the goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the semester. I have become more familiar with different types of technology. I have discovered ways to use that technology in the classroom.  I hope that I am able to use technology in my future classroom to engage students. 

My favorite projects in this class were

1. Imovie

2. the website

3. smartboard

One project that I don't see myself using as much as the others is the inspiration project. I feel like I do like graphic organizers, but I think I like to make them by hand better. 

This class really opened up my eyes to the different ways that I can use technology in my classroom to interact with students, to motivate students, and to provide students with endless amounts of resources. 

Blogging in the Classroom

I will definitely use some sort of internet tool to communicate with parents and students when I am a teacher. I love looking at art teacher blogs to get ideas for lesson plans. Hopefully I can make a blog that has lots of great images of the student work to share with the world wide web. Students will love seeing their work online and parents will love finding out what is going on in the classroom. Keeping a blog could also help me with keeping up with ideas for lesson planning.
Hopefully by having an online avenue for parent/teacher communication, I can get some more involvement form parents that may be too busy to come in from conferences. Some parents may feel more inclined to reach out if they are kept in the loop on the blog.
I would also like for my blog to be a place where I can show students different artists that I would like them to learn about. I can post paintings and information about the artists and students can comment their opinions on the paintings.
Blogging is a great tool for teachers/parents/students to share information and ideas with one another and I will definitely be using it in my future classroom.

Safety Minutes

I really enjoyed hearing the safety minutes each weak.  The most powerful safety minute was the one where we watched the video about texting and driving. I know that I am guilty of being distracted while driving on occasion. After I saw this video, I have made a conscious effort to be focused on the road. I don't know how I would go on if I hurt or killed someone because of making a choice to be distracted while driving.
I think that you should continue doing the safety minutes with your future classes.

I Movie

I movie was a some what tricky tool to use. Trying to get the music to play the whole time and fade out was something that perplexed me for a while. I finally figured it out, but I couldn't tell you how I did it. I really would like to learn how to use I movie because it would be a great tool to teach a high school art class how to use.  I feel like i movie is the kind of tool you have to just play around with and become better at it.

Digital Diagram

Digital diagrams are a great way to make information visual. I am a visual learner so that I think this would be a good tool for me to even use not only in the classroom for studying or making lists. The tool was a little complicated to use.  I think that they could have made it more intuitive to use.  Hopefully they come out with some new additions that streamline some parts of it.

Flip Chart

Flip charts are so cool! They are basically a more awesome version of powerpoint. Kids can get up out of their seats and interact with your presentation. This will keep them engaged and interested in your lesson.  I had a good time making my flip chart but I feel like there are tons of things that I need to learn about making them.   There are so many different features that teachers can add to flip charts and I feel like I could use my whole teaching career making new things.  I definitely  see myself using this tool in my future classroom.                                                                                  

Mid Term Reflection

It's crazy to think that the semester is almost over. I think the thing that I am most proud of that I have accomplished this semester so far is creating the website. It was not too difficult to do and I can see myself playing around with it and using it in the classroom to communicate with parents and students.  Right now I am working on a Promethean board project about Australian Aboriginal Art.  I think that this would be a fun topic to present to a class. I'm excited to get to work on it during class.