Assistive Technology

I really like the Magnifier option on windows. This application can be very helpful. This assistive technology allows you to magnify what ever you roll your mouse over on the screen, up to 16x. This would obviously be of great use to students with visual impairments. It is easy and simple to use, and could provide a simple solution, allowing students that may have not been able to previously, participate in work and classroom activities take part. I posted a screen shot to the left, of what the screen looks like when using magnifier, with just a 2x magnification.

I also really like Speech Recognition software that windows provides for computers. This software allows you set up the computer so that it can be controlled by voice. You are able to control all the computers functions by using only your voice, such as opening programs, clicking buttons, and dictating text into documents and emails. You can do just about everything that you can do with a keyboard, with your voice. This method of assistive technology is extraordinarily helpful and beneficial for students with physical impairments or disabilities, or poor motor skills. Students who can't use the keyboard are able to independently use the computers due to this software.

This is an example of my iGoogle page, where I have RSS feeds of several different Elementary Education websites and blogs. This is very helpful because I have compacted a wide range of information on to one homepage, where I can go, and checkout all the updates on my favorite and most informative websites!

I recently edited my Facebook privacy settings, to make it so that only certain people could see the material associated with my Facebook page and profile. I did this because, there are ways for future employers to look at your Facebook page, and it is important when trying to obtain a job to remain professional, in all aspects of you life, but especially in what you post on the Internet for the world to see.
To make my profile more private, I went into my privacy settings located at the top left hand side of your home page. There is then a "manage privacy" option. I clicked on that, and began to edit my settings. First I adjusted it so that only my friends could view my profile, and anyone who searches me is only able to see my profile picture and friends. I then made a limited profile list, I added to that list anyone that I thought should receive only a censored version of my profile and information. I then created a "limited profile", in this profile, I only included my personal information, friends, and profile picture, all other information is withheld in this version of my Facebook profile. I then created another list, labeled "People Who Can't See Pics" this list excludes only pictures tagged of me, but lets the people I put on this list view all other aspects of my profile.
I am very happy that I created these new privacy settings, I feel much more at ease knowing not just anyone can have access to my information and profile.

The chart to the left is a chart of the 413 college students' responses to the following true/false question.

We experience seasons because of the earth's changing distance to the sun - closer in summer, farther in winter.

-True

-False

Almost 2/3 of the students answered TRUE.

The correct answer is false, the Earth's seasons are due to the tilt of the Earth. It is clear that if these were the results I obtained in my own elementary classroom I would definitely have to revisit the topic, and probably reteach, so that the students obtained a better understanding.

Leap Pad

Leap Pad is a fun and engaging content exploration tool for elementary school students, just starting to learn how to read.  Using Leap Pad you can insert a variety of different books for students to learn how to read.  The student using the pad can take a pen and tap on any word that they don't know or cant pronounce, and the Leap Pad will say it out loud for them.  Also for students just learning how to read that know little to know words, they can use the pen, and follow it along the words, and the leap pad will read them aloud at what ever pace the student chooses.  This makes it very easy for students to follow along, and get a grasp on the pronunciation of words.

I plan on teaching elementary school somewhere between 1st and 4th grade, and I would definitely use this tool in my classroom.  I would also recommend it to any parent or teachers that are having trouble getting their students to engage in books, and reading.  This tool makes reading fun and interactive, and will have students eager to get started on their reading!

Fun With Letters

This site is awesome for young students just learning how to write, and form words and letters. It is a website that assists students in writing through fun games and activities. The site provides basic education such as learning how to write letters, through a tutorial taught by a spider, then as the students learn, they can begin to do more and more. The site offers things such as activities to help start writing stories and making scrapbooks.

I believe this site overall covers all three e's. It enhances learning by making it fun for students, through games and activities, this there for makes it more effective because they are having fun and engaging in the activities therefore getting much more out of it than if they were bored, and it also increases the efficiency because since it is done on the Internet, it is easily accessible and saves the teacher a lot of time.

Here' s the LINK! http://www.meddybemps.com/letterary/index.html

International Children's Digital Library

This is a website for an online children's library. It contains thousands of children's books, that are free and accessible online. I found this website to be very easy to find things on. It has an amazing array and variety of all kinds of children's book, for every reading level. There are also books available in multiple languages. Almost every book on the site provides illustrations, this is a sure shot for getting kids to have fun while reading.

This site really increases the effectiveness of teaching students how to read and also in getting students to enjoy reading. The site lets the students browse around and enter different search criteria to find a book, the suits exactly what they like or want to learn about. This is a great way to let the students have fun and because they are having fun they are more likely to retain more of what they are reading and learning.

Here's a link! http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

Discovery Lesson Plans

The Discovery Channel website that provides lesson plans for elementary school teachers, I found to be very beneficial. This website, is full of fun and interesting lesson plans to do with students in the K-6 classroom. The site is well organized and easy to navigate around in. I provides lessons plans for everything from Ancient History to the Human Body, not to mention there are several different lesson plans for each topic, so you can pick the one that fits your agenda best!

The lesson plans found on this site really increase the efficiency of learning, and enhance the experience as a whole. They are so much fun, and very creative, students are guaranteed to love these, and really gain a lot of knowledge.

I would 100% use any number of these lesson plans in my classroom, especially one of the ones on weather, it's really interesting!

Here's a link to the site...http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/k-5.html ....Check it out!

Education World

Education World (http://www.education-world.com/tools_templates/index.shtml#assessments) is an amazing website for elementary education templates. This website contains a template for almost anything you can imagine. Everything from assessments, to classroom activities, to calendars, to organizers, to flyers.

I think this website enhances education, because it provides a wide variety of different ways to provide and display information to your students. There are so many different templates, and resources, that there is bound to be something for every classroom or lesson. All the templates provided on this website are very detailed and effective if you ask me.

I would use any of these templates in my own classroom for sure!!

Brain Pop

Brain Pop is an outstanding website. It contains countless resources for teachers of all grade levels. There are templates, games, fun classroom activities, free educational movies to show to students, and much much more. Its colorful layout and east to navigate layout, will definitely have you coming back for more!

This website improves the effectiveness of learning because, there are countless fun and engaging resources for teachers and students, and when students are intrigued and engaged in what they are doing they tend to retain information much better. This website definitely contains things that will hold your students attention!

I could use brain pop in my classroom in many ways. There are lessons, and information in social studies, science, health, math, technology and English. I would definitely have my students browse this website, for information for a project, just for fun, or as a class activity.


Here's the link!...http://www.brainpop.com/