Blog # 13

I have chosen to write my blog on how I could incorporate technology into my classroom. I chose to write a blog assignment that would keep the students engaged in learning. Also keeping Interactive Smart Board presentations to go along with classroom lectures. The use of iCurio when resreaching papers the students would be required to write. iPads would also be used in the classroom to create imovies on whatever they please as long at it fits in the time frame we are studying. And lastly Google Drive Presentations would be created to go hand in hand with the project they would be doing with the blogging project. I am planning on teaching History on a high school level.

Blogging- I know that many students are not interested in History, therefore I would require them to create a weekly blog post on what is going on in their lives and also important things that had happened during this week, that is significant to history. It could be the date of an important event such as the bombing of pearl harbor, a past presidents birthday, or what is going on in the world currently. These blog posts would later be combined into a project at the end of the year, that would require the students to show the cause and effect of how History effects their lives on a daily bases. I feel that incorporating the students weekly lives and relating them to historical events would bring the students into history on a deeper level. Instead of me just talking and trying to get them to memorize dates. Bringing in students on a personal level and allowing them to connect would ultimately cause the students to relate to history and actually feel that they learned something.

Interactive Smart Board Presentations- I would use the program that would allow me to hide the answer to the question being asked and would allow the student being called on to reveal the answer to the question. Then I would provide a detailed reason as to why the answer was right instead of the others.

iCurio- Is a website that allows students to search an gather information on specific events. This would be used when creating other projects or when they have to write a paper. It allows their searches to be saved and creates less time being spent on trying to find what they were looking at previously. This would also allow the students to only find articles related to what they are searching for. When students have to write a paper I feel that it would allow the students very good online sources to match with book sources as well when researching for these papers.

iPads- iPads would be used to create imovies that incorporate the chapter main events. Creating a simple movie on something like the Nixon Kennedy debate where the student could discuss the points of why Kennedy seemed to win the debate to the people who watched the debate on television and why it seemed that Nixon won the debate to those who listened via radio broadcast. There are many reasons that I feel the students would be able to find. Whether it be in the class provided book, or what was previously talked about in the classroom. They would provide examples of the reasons on both sides and then talk about their thoughts of who they felt really won the debate.

Google Drive Slideshows- As stated in the very beginning of this blog I would have the students create a semester year long blog. At the end of the semester they would be required to create a presentation on the comparisons of what went on in their lives and how it also incorporated history. They would be required to create their projects in the Google Drive Presentations Slide Show, this would allow the students to work from home if they have access to a computer. If they do not have access to a computer at their home they will be given time during classroom meetings to go to the library and work on those computers. I think that Google Drive Slide Shows would be better to use than having students create a Power Point when they may not have access to Microsoft Word other than at the school. If it was done on Google Presentations it can be access anywhere and worked on regardless of the software their computer has.

These are the ways I could keep technology incorporated in my classroom, and hopefully keep the students engaged in learning.