The Tech Savvy Teacher

We, as teachers, have to constantly struggle to find a balance between teaching core standards and engaging the students in in-depth, meaningful learning activities. With all the pressure that we receive from standardized testing requirements to district expectations, it's hard to really find ways to just delve into a topic and create meaningful experience from it because we're always rushing on to the next core topic. But if we are truly interested in our students' learning, growth, and development, we have to take a time out and find ways to engage our students in interesting and informational learning activities.

In an attempt to take a Utah State core standard and have an exploratory experience with it, I designed a lesson activity using Stellarium. For third grade science core, standard 1, objective 2, the students are supposed to be able to describe the movement of Earth and the moon and the apparent movement of other bodies through the sky. Instead of just holding up a flashlight sun and spinning a globe, I decided that it would be better to use Stellarium. Not only is this resource fun and engaging for the students, it actually shows them the apparent movement of the sun, moon, stars, and other bodies through the sky. To start out, have the students pick their hometown or another place that they'd like to be. I'm from Frisco, Texas so that was my starting point.

Next, have the students start at the current time of day. Make sure that the constellation application is on so you can see the stars that make up each constellations.

Have them hit the hour button up slowly. After each increase in hour, have them observe the sky, how the constellations seem to change, how the amount of light seems to change, etc. I would definitely recommend having the students either draw pictures or write in their science journals.

Of course, constellations show up the best at night so this is where students may be interested in spending most of the time of this activity. Here's what Frisco, Texas looks like at 11:53 p.m.

My favorite applications is being able to look at which stars make up each constellation, but then to add the artwork behind it to truly see where the names of each constellation came from. Whoever chose the names for the stars had an excellent imagination.

Some students may want to see how the sky changes for different parts of the earth. Allow them to check out other countries, cities, states, etc. Here's what the sky looks like at night in Antarctica.


The technology worked well in this lesson because it actually showed the students something tangible and observable that they wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. Which one of us has the resources to go to Antarctica at night with our classes? What about students who are interested in Africa or Australia? We can take the students natural curiosity and desire to explore the world around them, and capitalize on it as we teach them core curriculum standards. This way, not only do they have the knowledge to pass their standardized test, but they have actually learned something meaningful and interesting that they can retain.

Digital Storytelling

Here's my digital story! I hope you enjoy it!

Doing Internet Safety

I chose to interview my mother, a 47 year old mother of 7 children, for the "doing" section of Internet Safety. I figured that because I have three younger brothers from the ages of 17 to 22 as well as two younger sisters, aged 10 and 15, that I wanted to make sure my mom was well prepared to safeguard my siblings. I also have a 24 year old sister but she lives with me and is a big girl.

I started out by just asking my mom what she knew about MySpace, Facebook, chatrooms, etc. I was actually quite surprised at all the knowledge my mom already had about these social networks. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since she does have a Facebook account and has been in the Young Women Presidency for years, not to mention the fact that she has 7 children. But my mom is so technically challenged as far as running software and properly getting applications to work, etc. So I guess I just see her as lacking in computer skills and knowledge even though I know her to be a very intelligent, very aware and knowledgeable mother. My 15 year old sister has both a MySpace and a Facebook account but my mom has already made sure that her profile is set to private, that she knows not to give out personal information such as her school or address, and that she only accepts friend requests from people she knows. My mom also checks my sister's profiles occassionally to ensure there is nothing inappropriate on her webpage. My parents have two computers in the home. One is in their bedroom and the other is in the playroom upstairs. Both rooms are heavy traffic areas in our home and they both have TVs in them so you know anyone can come at any moment and see what you are doing on the computer.

I asked my mom if she is worried about pornography with my brothers and what she does to prevent problems with that. My parents have a filter on both computers. They keep the computers in high traffic areas of the house and they try (operative word, try) to minimize the amount of screen time that the children have.

I guess as I talked about these issues with my mother, I just realized what a great resource the prophets and leaders of the Church are. Again, my mom is by far the most technologically challenged person in the family. Easily. But she was still very savvy and knowledgeable when it came to Internet Safety. She listens to the prophet, she listens to the leaders of the Church, she listens to the bishopric, and she listens to the council from her Stake leaders and it has truly been a blessing in keeping our family safe. I'm glad I had this opportunity to talk to her because I never really thought about or realized this.

Internet Safety

1. I chose to read "An Ensign to the Nations, a Light to the World" by, Gordon B. Hinckley from the November 2003 Ensign.
2. I really liked that after talking about the enticing and alluring nature of popular media, President Hinckley said, "If we are to hold up this Church as an ensign to the nations and a light to the world, we must take on more of the luster of the life of Christ individually and in our own personal circumstances. In standing for the right, we must not be fearful of the consequences. We must never be afraid." It can be very frustrating when all your friends are talking about a certain movie or a certain TV show and you cannot contribute to the conversation because you do not watch it, but it's definitely worth it. Many of the most popular programs and movies are filled with sex, violence, bad language, etc. Just because they are attractive and popular, doesn't mean the good overcomes the bad messages it conveys. It is hard to stand alone sometimes, but that's what is required if we are to be "an ensign to the nations and a light to the world."
3. I think the most important thing we can do as adults is to set a good example. Children, whether our own or our students, will not buy into what we teach them if we do not live those same standards ourselves. We're just proving how unimportant the rule is if we do not follow it. Also, I think it's just very important to be aware. Realize what kind of media is being used in your classroom and in your home and monitor it. If something inappropriate comes into your home or classroom, teach the principles with love and respect and don't take a "because I said so" kind of attitude.
4. Again, being a good example is the best way have a positive influence on others in my opinion. Especially when dealing with peers like friends and family, we don't need to be judgmental or have an attitude of "I'm right and you're wrong". But I'm a big believer in teaching correct principles, letting others govern themselves, and just reinforcing your beliefs with a quiet, loving, and accepting example.

Learning from my Peers

Watching everyone's PowerPoints was very interesting this week. I like how we all had very similar information, but how we all had an individual spin on it. It just shows that different things stand out to different people and how learning is truly an individual experience. I really liked the quotes in Brittany's PowerPoint, especially the one from Marie Clay, "If a child can't learn the way I teach, then I must learn to teach the way he can learn." And the one from Finegan and Austin about the manner in which technology is used being more important than whether or not it should be used. I liked these quotes because I feel that throughout the semester, we have been given the opportunity to learn about the different technology available and how we can use it to enrich our classroom. And I like that the tools we have used are truly meant to enrich and develop the curriculum, not just to have technology for technology's sake. With the technology inventory, I was able to see how technology can be used but in an ineffective way, one that doesn't encourage or promote TPACK. I feel that the point of this course was to learn how to truly implement TPACK in a beneficial and natural way. To truly take our individual students and find the best ways to teach them with the technological tools we have been given throughout the semester. That is truly the way we want to teach.

Technology And The Early Childhood Classroom

View more presentations from tara.vogelsberg.

Teaching Literacy and Mathematics with Technology

Okay so I really loved all the literacy websites that I explored. They were all engaging, meaningful, and directly tied to core. I can't wait to use them in my class. One that I focused on in particular was the Word Blender from the Phonics section of Internet4Classrooms.

Content: Kindergarten, Standard 3, Objective 4: Orally segment words into word parts, specifically indicator b: segment words into onset and rime

Pedagogy: Phonological and phonemic awareness are critical to students future reading success. Part of phonics is the ability to break down words into their individual sounds (phonemes), into word families, into onsets and rimes, etc. If we want to successfully teach children how to read and write, they have to master phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics. If we are able to do this in meaningful and engaging ways, the children will naturally learn, see the relevance of it to their lives, and progress in the literacy development.

Technology: There is a great website called the word blender. On the left side are three onsets (in the one I used, the were sp-, t-, and ch-) and on the right side are three rimes (-in, -ill, and -eck). The word blender would ask you tell you a word (spill), and then ask you, "What does it start with?" This helps the student think about segmenting the word to determine its beginning sound. After clicking the sp-, the blender asked me what it ends with. Again, the child reflects on the rime and clicks on -ill. Then the blender very enthusiastically syas, "It's b-b-b-blending time!" It makes funny faces and noises and it blends the word and then shows you the complete word: SPILL. Then it moves onto the next word.


I think this website it great because not only is it fun and exciting, but it directly links back to the core content and the pedagogy goals. I also like how all the onsets can go with all the rimes so children will have an easier time grouping the words into word families, seeing rhyming words, seeing alliteration, etc.

Unfortunately, I was not so lucky with math. I honestly tried pulling up different virtual manipulatives from the three different websites for over an hour but my computer kept freezing over and over so I was unable to complete it. However, I would have chosen to focus on Kindergarten Standard 3, Objective 3: Collect and organize simple data. I would have used the bar chart from the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives to have the students graph their findings after conducting some sort of survey.

For example, the students could ask a question related to project work we are completing in class or anything else they are interested in. Say we ask people what kind of pets they own. The students can collect the answers of different people, count how many people own each kind of pet, and then use the bar chart to organize their data.

There is also a pie chart that we can use to organize the data. Unfortunately, I don't have screen shots for either of these because my computer kept freezing. I don't know what else to do to fix that little problem.

I think this would be a good activity because anything that naturally contects the content, pedagogy, and technology seems pretty effective to me. And there is that natural connection. Also, I think that project work and other surveys that the children are interested in draw students into the activity, keep them interested and engaged, and make the learning experience more meaningful. And I think they'd really enjoy seeing their results all graphed out for them...it makes it more tangible to them and it's knowledge that they can share with others.