Distance Education Reflection

Pros –
1. It allows an alternative for students who are not well served in a traditional setting.
2. Students get to work one on one with a teacher through these online learning sites, which allows for more time directed at one student.
3. Teachers are all said to be trained and certified professional s that are masters in their field.
4. Seems to be more support for learning considering these programs are more individualized.
5. Many students who partake in these programs are advanced and need an accelerated approach to learning, which these seem to provide.

Cons –
1. Does not allow for students to interact socially among their peers.
2. On-line teachers can never actually tell if a student did the work themselves, as they may have someone else do it for them.
3. There is never any face to face interaction among the students and teachers, which I feel is very important in building a base for accountability and motivation.
4. Teachers may not realize what learning style works best for the student.
5. Many of the sites do not require Physical Education, which can lead to huge problems such as obesity later in life.

If the student displays that they are especially advanced at the secondary level and need a more rigorous learning track, then I feel that they should have the option. However, the student must be accountable and greatly self-motivated. Another way to determine the readiness would be if the student was struggling at the secondary level, and could not function around their peers. In this case, they would fit the criteria for starting out in these specially designed programs to fit their needs. Although these students must be provided the proper technological equipment to ensure that they can participate in the program.

To teach in a virtual school I would obviously have to be a certified public teacher, and know my subject very well. I would also need over 3 years of experience teaching as a basic requirement. Must have a flexible schedule and be able to travel throughout the state. I would also need to have a lot of experience working with all the Microsoft programs and the internet.

Mini-Tech Project Reflection

I felt that the Bad @$$ Bloggers did an awseome job of showing how to set up and then use a blog within your classroom. Their site was very colorful and had a lot of different uses for blogs. They also explained how blogs can benefit the student-teacher relationship, which I feel is ever so important.
I learned a lot from the PodTeacher page that I did not think of before hand. Using audio feedback from devices such as IPods is a great and innovative to teach students these days. Although it seems to be more geared to a music classroom, I feel that any kind of class could implement the use of a Pod device.
Overall, I enjoyed hearing the presentations and feel that I gained some valuable knowledge about different ways to use technology in the classroom.

Teacher Web Reflections

I see myself using a teacher web for many different reasons. One reason would be to keep kids up to date with what is going on in the classroom, especially if they have been absent due to an illness or if they have just forgotten what the details were to an assignment. I feel that it is also important to let the students know a little bit about myself outside of the classroom. This way they do not feel so intimidated by me at times. I feel that a class web site can also be a very informative tool by providing links for students to websites related to my subject. This allows the students to easily get ahold of valuable resources that they can use to further their knowledge in the subject or special topic.


One of the top ways that a class website can enhance student learning is by providing links to Web 2.0 sites. This provides the students with an interesting and interactive opportunity to work with the subject matter. The other top way in which I feel that a class website can be used to enhance student learning is by having links to other important websites related to your topic. This is important in allowing students the opportunity to explore other website related to the topic at hand.

I felt that the white board was a very cool feature within the teacher web system, as it allows students to write back ad forth to each other. This could be a very useful tool in letting students discuss topics from class or certain assignments that they may be confused on. Although it must be monitored very closely to ensure that all conversations are about subject related topics. Another great feature was the review quiz page, as it gives the students an opportunity to look at questions that may be on the test. It gives them a great opportunity to practice and hopefully learn the material a little better.

Chronic Disease Concept Map

Engaging Students with Concept Mapping Techniques

Concept mapping can impact student learning by allowing students to see how different things are connected within the cirriculum. That way they understand the importance of learning one thing before moving onto another. It also engages the students who are visual learners, as it enables them to see how things are connected with pictures. This will help make the connections for them, as they will have something to visualize when trying to remember a concept.

Concept mapping seems as though it would be a pretty simple task to understand. Therefore, I feel that I could make use of it in my classroom. There are many units within the health field that would work for concept mapping, and would definitely be worth the time.

Blogs and Wikis in Education

Through a bit of searching around the web, I found a ton of blogs and wikis that were very innovative and interesting being used in classrooms around the nation. The first one that caught my eye, was a blog site by Kathy Schrock that included links to other educational blogs. This site lead me to find a large number of slide shows and power point presentations that could be used by teachers and students to learn new information ranging from all across the curriculum. The next site I found innovative was a wiki site called Welkers Wikinomics. This wiki provided information about understanding the different levels of economics, and had different semester plans for teaching them. I felt that this site could be used as a valuable study tool for students learning about economics, and also teachers wanting to learn new ways to teach it. The third and final site I found very intriguing was from Lewis Elementary School. This site allows students, teachers, and parents to all have one place to come to for information. It provided dates for upcoming events such as PTA meetings and school pictures, while also giving teachers a place to post their notes for students.

After researching RSS readers/aggregators, I felt that they could be very beneficial in any classroom setting. Particularly for my future health classes, I feel that I could set up an aggregator to pull in information about certain news articles related to alcohol abuse. The students could then read some of articles and write a report about how alcohol abuse can affect certain people. This could also be used for different topics such as drug abuse, or STI's such as AIDS.

Blogs and Wiki's can have a positive impact on learning in many ways. One of the most important factors is that is allows for so many new opportunities to learn from others. Especially considering that the Internet has a ton options. Another positive factor is that they can include more people within the learning, but still have the students be the center of learning.
Although they can be positive if used right, there is the idea that some of the information provided may not be accurate. Therefore, teachers must ensure that they provide a list of certain sites that are acceptable and credible. Another downside of blogs and wikis is that they force the students to spend even more time sitting at a computer, which is sometimes not necessary in today's sedentary society.

Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom

Through a multiple intelligence test on surfarquarium.com I have found that I am strongest with musical (rhythmic), visual, intrapersonal, logical, and kinesthetic intelligence. All of which I scored at or above a 70% on the test. The highest was musical intelligence though, which I beleive describes me very well. One of the core characteristics that describes me well in musical intelligence is aural orientation, or heightened listening ability. Another characteristic from musical is patterning, where one always seeks patterns in every problem.
Students who have a high musical intelligence are most likely to play an instrument, and enjoy moving to rhythms. They are also drawn to sound and are likely to find and seek out patterns in everyday life. Within classroom settings these studnets are most likely to use patterning to both internalize and recall skills, ideas, and concepts.
I will support this kind of intelligence in my classroom by using music to help students in physical education remember a certain dance or fitness routine. When teaching certain sports, I can also find patterns in plays to help this kind of students understand what they are supposed to do.
Some of the technologies which support this intelligence include; puzzles, musical instuments, headphones, tape players/recorders, and online pattern games. All of which could be included in a classroom setting to help students better understand the learning process.
Understanding multiple intelligences will help me relate to all of my students. If I go through the process of finding out what intelligence they are, then I can try to incorporate them into the lesson plans. By knowing how students learn, it allows the teacher to make for a more equal and better learning environment. Therefore, I believe it is essential to find out how your students learn.