Assessments

• What is your philosophy on assessment? 
• What are your impressions about the 2 formative assessment technologies (PearDeck & EduCanon) Scott shared?
• What was the most striking thing you took away from Scott's presentation? How will it impact your own learning?

Assessments are essential to the classroom and is part of becoming an effective teacher. Without assessments, how can you, as a teacher, know and understand where your students are at? It can be as simple as an exit slip, or nodding your head if you understand, to  a final exam at the end of a semester. The assessments that the students take show teachers as well as the district (etc.) what they have learned and retained over the course of the day/semester/year, so on. School and teaching would almost be pointless without any type of assessment. There are so many different types of assessments, specifically formative and assessments. I learned the important difference between the two during the weekly video and many websites we had to visit to read about.

Formative Assessments	Summative Assessments
Anecdotal records	Final exams
Quizzes and essays	Statewide tests (FCAT)
Diagnostic tests	National tests
Lab reports	Entrance exams (SAT and ACT)

In my opinion, both are super critical and important, but formative assessments help out both the student and teacher a tremendous amount during the year. It's more relaxed and only shows where each student is during their learning experience. Summative assessments create more pressure, especially for students who have test anxiety or get nervous. 

Peardeck is so beneficial and useful in a classroom. After watching the weekly video, I saw firsthand how it worked and how it showed where the students were during the lesson, what they understand and what they did not know. It's easy to use, even as an early education teacher. It shows how many students understand and how many are still lost. I will definitely use Peardeck as a future educator.

 I will also use PearDeck during my lessons as well. It is a great for formative assessments. It shows how students learn and move at different paces and what I need to do as a teacher to help the students who are behind or confused. 

I was so surprised during Scott's presentation with how many different types of assessments there were, especially for formative assessments, as well as technology available for assessments. I've only ever had face-to-face, pencil and paper tests until I got to college, so it is still new to me. As a future educator, I will absolutely use the technologies available for both formative and summative assessments. 

Major Project

For my second week working on my handstand/headstand, I made some progress. Although it was not a ton, it was still made. Learning how to do a handstand takes time, practice, and patience. After watching a few VIDEOS on how to do so, I learned so much. This guy in the video gave me so many good pointers on how to get started and little tips about using my fingers and hands. After talking to my yoga instructor (in my other blog) like she said, I started using just my head for balance against the wall instead of just my legs. Using a cool tool review called PicMonkey, I created a picture of my progress, which is just using my head to balance against the wall instead of my legs. This was a little bit harder to do but after practicing for awhile, I could easily do it in a controlled manner.

Week 9 Learning Spaces

• How can space (“learning space”) encourage student engagement and learning?
• What role can Google Apps for Education (GAFE) play in the development of learning spaces?
• What assumptions should we challenge as we design learning spaces for the future? 
• How does The University of Akron's campus currently approach the design and development of informal learning spaces?
• How well do the informal learning spaces on UA campus align with your needs and expectations as a learner? 

Learning spaces, I believe, is just as important, or should be just as important as the content they are learning. A bad learning space can greatly disable a student from learning what they need to be learning. After reading this Article, I have seen just how many design elements that should be incorporated into the 21st century classroom. To begin, the furniture should be able to accommodate numerous learners as well as be repositioned for independent learners. Another thing is that not all students have their iPads or laptops ready, so make sure that the classroom is able to recharge what they need to engage classroom activity. Third, make sure the teacher has access to technology and are smart enough to lecture and teach. Lighting is also important, either dimming or enhancing it is imperative, also to accommodate students in the front of the classroom as well as the back. Another is having physical space beyond just one classroom, and lastly has fewer expansive gatherings. As a future teacher, it is important that make the bet possible classroom setting to engage my students thoroughly. This video, shows just how helpful a classroom setting is to learn. 

Google Apps tremendously help the development of learning spaces. It helps encourage differentiated instruction, especially with more students becoming engaged in online courses and technology in general. On top of that, it helps peers connect with their teachers, as well as each other. It creates more creativity and ideas and helps a classroom develop technologically. 

The biggest assumption  that should be made is that a certain classroom benefits every student. Everyone learns in a different way or setting, so making sure that the teacher knows how each student learns is important. Another assumption is that a physical classroom is the best way to learn. In today's world, especially pertaining to this class, learning is literally everywhere and can happen anywhere and anytime. 

From what I have seen and noticed, The University Of Akron's campus has been making the learning spaces more informal and diverse. No two classrooms are the same. The desks and chairs are always different, the setting is different, and the way my teacher's present their lesson is even different. Even the lounges or hang out places are different. Some have couches, some with high chairs, low chairs, chairs that lean back, etc. The library as an endless amount of learning spaces. They have dividers between desks, small rooms to meet up with groups, couches, individual desks, long and short tables, and in almost every space they have outlets to plug in devices. 

Some classes I learn better in. For example, my one class has just a long row of connected desks with soft chairs, but I have a hard time paying attention and I do not have much room to put my belongings and the desks behind me are so close. It's also hard to communicate with my classmates. The classrooms I learn best in are the ones with a few desks together, so I'm only sitting my two or three other people and I focus so much better and can collaborate with my neighbors more easily. Akron for the most part, has great informal learning spaces because of the many options and really meets my needs as a student. 

Cool Tool 5

My final cool tool is called Explain Everything Interactive Whiteboard. This app is an interactive whiteboard app that uses videos, pictures, audio, and much much more. You can record a presentation  and show everything that happens on the screen and also has a feature that uses user interface, standard or simple, so even my young first or second graders can easily use it themselves. You could instantly access files on iCloud and other streaming services and can easily be exported. Watch this if you want to see how a presentation can be made (Whiteboard example). The only downside is that it cost $3.99 in the iTunes app store, but I do believe it is well worth it. It can also be accessed free through windows microsoft https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/explain-everything-interactive-whiteboard/9nblggh5gcw8 .
This app can..

• Add new or existing photos, videos and PDF files
• Use a variety of tools to edit and annotate
• Record and playback all actions
• EExport MP4 movies, PNG images and editable .explain project files directly from your tablet / PC.
• Import files from Dropbox and OneDrive
• Export projects to Explain Everything™ Discover, a content portal for sharing, publishing, and downloading editable project files

This app is great for any age, especially my young students. They can create a project about a certain subject like planets (pictured below), or animals, etc. After creating a presentation they can show their classmates and share what they've learned. It can challenge students to use their creativity because they have an endless amount of resources due to it easily connecting to the internet. 

Major Project--Yoga Handstand

Growing up, I have always been into sports and super active, and I have always wanted to learn yoga. Last year, I went to a few classes with my brother and absolutely loved it. Although I do not do it daily, it is something I want to get better at. I started following certain accounts on Instagram, and I love watching their videos, especially the ones they are doing controlled handstands/headstands and it really motivated me to try it out myself. I started attempting headstands over Christmas break. After looking up ways to start, I decided I would try out using my arms and head and work my way up to a handstand. I went to Florida over break so I decided to try it out on the beach,

and as you can see, I struggled a bit, but eventually I got it without the help of a wall to lean against. When I got home, I finally could do it without the help of a wall and I could hold it for a while.

( I made these images on Canva)

Last week, I talked to a yoga instructor back home and she gave me some pointers. I will continue to work on my headstands and handstands over the next few weeks, and hopefully when the project is done, I can do a controlled handstand with as little help as possible from a wall. My next step is doing a handstand, without putting my arms on the ground and only using my hands and a wall.

Cool Tool #4

For this weeks Cool Tool Review, I chose Pic Maker. This is another great presentation type tool that anyone could use. It was easy to make, although it took awhile for certain pictures to load. It's simple enough for a first or second grader to use themselves. It's an app from google chrome, or you can just go to the website, which is what I did and made it myself from there. You can add text, backgrounds, pictures, borders/filters, frames, and color.  You can also create collages with it as well by adding multiple pictures to one page. It is a tool that could be used in a classroom, but I have definitely seen better presentation tools. Although, this might be a simple tool if I wanted my students to make a presentation up themselves. It would also keep their attention because there are so many different features as well. It's so easy to resize a picture or add a border in just a few short clicks. This tool would be more beneficial if I had my students make a presentation rather than make one myself, especially because there's other tools out there that better suit teachers and may be too difficult for students to use themselves. (As you can see, I had trouble with pictures loading, so I ended up having to redo one.)

eBooks

• How did/do you see the use of ebooks impacting the writing process? How will that affect students? How will it effect your teaching?
• What benefits do you see to using student created ebooks in the classroom? How do you see them fitting in your future classroom? What main considerations will you need to make to use them effectively?
• What was the most striking thing you took away from Jon's presentation? How will it impact your own learning?

After viewing Jon Smiths video about writing and eBooks, it showed me just how important writing is as well as the how affective eBooks have been in getting students to enjoy writing. I believe it will only positively impact the writing process because it helps allow students to create a book on a personal level and helps with creativity. It is already hard enough to get some students to write about certain ideas, or about things that they do not care or are interested about, so allowing them more range lets them talk about what they care about. eBooks help motivate students and allows them to use their imagination to invent a book the way they want to. As a teacher, it makes it easier to read and grade because my student's are writing about a prompt they want to be writing about and is so much more personal. It also implements technology as well as makes the classroom more exciting and interesting. 

The overall biggest benefit of eBooks is that it helps create students who actually enjoy writing and gives them motivation to do so as well. Another big benefit is that it allows the classroom to be more student lead and gives students opportunities to take charge of their learning experience. After watching his video, I will absolutely implement eBooks into my classroom in some shape or form. His video made it seem like eBooks were so beneficial and only helps students in every aspect of writing. It will allow technology to be implemented as well. First, I want to pick a topic or prompt that majority of my student's want to write about, but also give options to the other students if necessary. 

Like I said earlier, I could not believe how beneficial eBooks were and letting students write about prompts they are interested in is. It was so awesome to see a disabled student working in a normal classroom as well and it was so nice that he made friends with those students. I also never knew how easy it was to publish books to a kindle store and it is so awesome to see students lead a classroom and take charge in their own learning. It creates such a fun and exciting environment for students and it can be used for any subject imaginable. 

Fair Use & Copyrights

• What is your responsibility as a teaher to understand and use images with copyright, public domain, and creative commons licenses?
• What are our responsibilities to use (and teach students) to select images, text, video, and audio with proper citations?
• What are the ethical issues around music and movie downloading? How can this be addressed with your students?

Teachers use outside resources and ideas daily that are not their own. Teachers use images, videos, game ideas, lesson plans, worksheets, etc. almost everyday and a lot of the time, they get them from another teacher or online. It is a teachers responsibility to make sure that the content or information they use are correctly cited and sourced. There are endless amounts of sources available to teachers and educators to make sure everything is cited the way it is supposed to be. As a student myself, I have used Purdue Owl, and that is what my past and present teachers have also told me to use. I have been using that since early high school and even use it today as a college student. Because we are teaching students, it is so important that we show and model to them how to correctly cite sources when using images and media with copyrights, public domains, and creative commons licenses. After watching videos about creative commons and copyrights, I saw how daily we use other people's work and saw how they should get credit for all of the hard work they put into it.  

Downloading music and movies illegally is stealing another person's handwork and dedication. It is so ethically wrong, but so many people do it every single day. People work so hard to create movies and music and it is not fair how easy it is to illegally download it. If I worked months or even years on something and someone stole it from me, I would be pretty upset to say the least. I could address this to my students in so many ways. I could have them work on a project for a month and then at the end just take it from them and tell them that I'm taking full credit for it, so they could see first hand how wrong it is and how it feels. Also, we need to educate our students about what could happen if they get caught downloading music/movies for free. As a college student, the consequences of getting caught is enough for me to not do it. http://it.umd.edu/PlayFair/igotcaught.html

Because we are so advanced in technology and only getting more advanced, it is important to teach our students how to give credit while using others images, content, ideas, music, movies, etc. 

Cool Tool Review 3

Can Design/Weather&Seasons
For my next cool tool review, I made a little presentation about different types of weather and the four seasons using a slide show type tool, called Canva.  This tool allows you to find any picture that you want without having to Google them, and endless amount of different fonts, videos, and so on. It's so easy to use, even a first or second grader could make one up themselves. The link above is a simple presentation that I made. I could make up a fun slideshow for my students or even have them make up one themselves and share it with the class. I liked this tool, not only because of the many features, but it helps with creativity and allows you to personalize it exactly the way you want to. When you first start using it shows you step by step and even gives you different presentation examples. The only downside is that certain pictures or features cost $1. Overall, this tool was very useful and I definitely could see myself using this in the future over PowerPoint.