Blog Journal #10
Hello everyone!
I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! This week I will be discussing the uses of Microsoft Excel and surveys as a teacher as well as topics I found interesting throughout the semester from my classmates' blogs and the technology skills I would like to learn next.
Recently, I have began using surveys and excel and have found that they are very beneficial as a teacher for calculating grades and class averages to see how students are doing in the class. Applying these to a second grade math class, surveys can be used in the classroom in the beginning of the year to learn a little bit more about your students. In my classes in junior high and elementary school, it was common for teachers to ask icebreaker questions and have us write them on post-it notes for them so they could begin to get to know us. Surveys could be an easier more convenient way for educators to obtain this information. Another usage could be to ask students how they are doing, how they learn best, what teaching methods may help them learn better. This would be a great way for teachers to improve their teaching style to suit the needs of their students. Furthermore, the use of excel can be a wonderful tool to have in the grading process. Math is a tough subject especially for student who are just beginning in the subject. By using excel to see how students are doing, it makes it possible for educators to figure out if they need to improve their lessons or go back over the information. For example, to find the average, minimum, and maximum grades on a test or to find out the averages for homework assignments to see how well students are learning the information.
After using Blogger over the course of the semester and viewing my classmate's blogs, the topics that I found the most interesting to read about was the website we all had to create as teachers, the Technology Sandbox, and their opinions on using Twitter. The process of creating the website was a tedious one and definitely took some time to become familiar with the sites, however, the end result was amazing. While we all had the same assignment we each created such different sites and it was cool to see everyone's creativity and read about their process in their blog. Each person chose different grade levels and subjects and presented different content, it was overall a great learning experience. Also, our visit to the Technology Sandbox presented me with so much new technology that I was previously unaware of. Watching my peers learn about it and hearing their opinions on the tools helped me to see them differently and to see ways that they could be used that I had not previously thought of. Last but not least, Twitter was a personal learning network we used throughout the semester to collaborate. I know that each person had varying views on the usefulness of this PLN. Some people had been using Twitter before we began accessing it for class use but had the chance to use it for learning purposes and understand the benefits of using it for education. I, on the other hand, had only used it for my classes and collaborating outside of them and had a completely different view of this application, unlike some of my classmates. It was really beneficial to read other people's blogs and gain an understanding of topics from other view points.
The next technology skill I would like to learn is Adobe Indesign because it is a popular software used in the publishing and journaling industry. The software itself is slightly more complex but leaves the author with more creativity and allows for people to be able to work without a template. I am currently working on a project for one of my classes creating a magazine cover and I think this would be good practice for working with this software. After this project, I will likely begin working with the software on my own time, replicating other covers until I am skilled enough with the software to create my own. I also have attended a workshop recently in order to learn some of the basic skills to get me started. I think this would be beneficial for me to demonstrate my capabilities to future employers. Due to this being industry standard it is important that I learn this skill.
Thank you for coming back to read my blogs week after week! I am thankful for you all, happy holidays!
Until next time,
Taylor
I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! This week I will be discussing the uses of Microsoft Excel and surveys as a teacher as well as topics I found interesting throughout the semester from my classmates' blogs and the technology skills I would like to learn next.
Recently, I have began using surveys and excel and have found that they are very beneficial as a teacher for calculating grades and class averages to see how students are doing in the class. Applying these to a second grade math class, surveys can be used in the classroom in the beginning of the year to learn a little bit more about your students. In my classes in junior high and elementary school, it was common for teachers to ask icebreaker questions and have us write them on post-it notes for them so they could begin to get to know us. Surveys could be an easier more convenient way for educators to obtain this information. Another usage could be to ask students how they are doing, how they learn best, what teaching methods may help them learn better. This would be a great way for teachers to improve their teaching style to suit the needs of their students. Furthermore, the use of excel can be a wonderful tool to have in the grading process. Math is a tough subject especially for student who are just beginning in the subject. By using excel to see how students are doing, it makes it possible for educators to figure out if they need to improve their lessons or go back over the information. For example, to find the average, minimum, and maximum grades on a test or to find out the averages for homework assignments to see how well students are learning the information.
After using Blogger over the course of the semester and viewing my classmate's blogs, the topics that I found the most interesting to read about was the website we all had to create as teachers, the Technology Sandbox, and their opinions on using Twitter. The process of creating the website was a tedious one and definitely took some time to become familiar with the sites, however, the end result was amazing. While we all had the same assignment we each created such different sites and it was cool to see everyone's creativity and read about their process in their blog. Each person chose different grade levels and subjects and presented different content, it was overall a great learning experience. Also, our visit to the Technology Sandbox presented me with so much new technology that I was previously unaware of. Watching my peers learn about it and hearing their opinions on the tools helped me to see them differently and to see ways that they could be used that I had not previously thought of. Last but not least, Twitter was a personal learning network we used throughout the semester to collaborate. I know that each person had varying views on the usefulness of this PLN. Some people had been using Twitter before we began accessing it for class use but had the chance to use it for learning purposes and understand the benefits of using it for education. I, on the other hand, had only used it for my classes and collaborating outside of them and had a completely different view of this application, unlike some of my classmates. It was really beneficial to read other people's blogs and gain an understanding of topics from other view points.
The next technology skill I would like to learn is Adobe Indesign because it is a popular software used in the publishing and journaling industry. The software itself is slightly more complex but leaves the author with more creativity and allows for people to be able to work without a template. I am currently working on a project for one of my classes creating a magazine cover and I think this would be good practice for working with this software. After this project, I will likely begin working with the software on my own time, replicating other covers until I am skilled enough with the software to create my own. I also have attended a workshop recently in order to learn some of the basic skills to get me started. I think this would be beneficial for me to demonstrate my capabilities to future employers. Due to this being industry standard it is important that I learn this skill.
Thank you for coming back to read my blogs week after week! I am thankful for you all, happy holidays!
Until next time,
Taylor
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