Final Post

I very much enjoyed TPTE 486! It was a great class and I think that a lot of the knowledge I gained through this class, I will use in my classroom. I know that I will want to create a website for my classroom and have a blog for communication between myself and the parents. I also think that I will want to implement a webquest into my curriculum and possibly an interactive spreadsheet. I think that giving my students a chance to create a digital story using possibly iMovie would be a great experience for them as well. I think that merging the internet and the education system is very effective and will help students become more acquainted with the technology!

Websites in the Classroom

Creating the website for classroom use was a fun experience. It is fun to be able to change any part of the website and add pictures and different pages that visitors of the website can navigate to. There was not much difficulty in creating the website other than trying to make sure the pictures were sized correctly in order to be shown on the website. I enjoyed finding websites to add to my resources page and creating a bio about myself with links to other websites. I would like to implement this in my classroom with the students daily homework assignments, a calendar with when their quizzes, tests, and assignments are and with pictures from classroom activities. This way the parents can be informed about the information that I am presenting in class, keep up with their child's assignments, and also view what their children are doing in the classroom. This is also a way for the child to become more independent and check on their assignments from home. I think it would also be neat to have an interactive spreadsheet on the website or even a webquest that the students could participate in for a grade. They could even submit their work by e-mail and then I could grade them and give them back. The website seems to have endless options and I am excited to use it in the classroom!
Here is my classroom website: https://sites.google.com/site/missulreysclasssite/

iMovie: History of Basketball

I felt like I was very successful with the iMovie project. It was a lot of fun and I picked the topic based on my personal experiences growing up. Basketball was a sport that I thoroughly enjoyed and I think that any grade level would enjoy viewing my movie. Making the movie was not very difficult, but it took me awhile to figure out how to add music to my movie. I had to make sure I knew where the downloads were and some websites for free music were more helpful than others. The website I enjoyed most was freeplaymusic.com. This website gave you the option to download a song's full version, 30 seconds of the song or 60 seconds. Once I figured out how to save them to my desktop it was easy to click and drag to add the song to my movie. In the classroom I would definitely give the students a chance to create an iMovie. I would make it an option because I know that all students will probably not have access to a Mac computer. The movie could be used in any subject. For example in language arts it could be used to create a book trailer or in history it could be used to explain a time period in history. This would be a fun and interactive way to integrate technology in my classroom!

Interactive Spreadsheet

The interactive spreadsheet was not very simple, but did not take much time once you get the hang of it. It would be a great way to save paper and introduce the technology to the students. In the classroom you could use the spreadsheet for all subjects including math, history, different languages such as Spanish, or even art. It can be used for quizzes, tests, or just simple worksheets that you want your students to complete to make sure they are comprehending the material. You can add different graphics to enhance your spreadsheet and use different formulas and create a very interactive and educational document.

Inspiration Project!

This project was very interesting and I also thought it was kind of difficult. Once you got the hang of doing it, it was easy, but it took me the entire class period to finish. I think one of the problems was the topic I chose was very intricate, but I liked the idea so I just went with it. Inspiration was not very hard to navigate it was just difficult because when you were making the web and you moved one thing you had to move everything along with it. It was kind of hard to also keep it on one page in order to take a screen shot. It would be great to use in the classroom to draw connections to pretty much any subject and any curriculum the students are studying.

Google Presentation

Digital Images: UT!

This project showed me different ways to collect images from the internet, scanning, and how to take a screen shot. The screen shot is a great tool and is very easy to use. A scanner seems like a valuable tool, especially if someone wanted to share old print pictures on the internet or possibly printed material. Picasa was easy to use and a great way to create a slideshow and a web album to share with others. The navigation was simple and being able to embed it in a blog or a website is very useful as well. I really enjoyed this project!

Scavenger Hunt: World Languages

The scavenger hunt was a really fun project and allowed us to broaden our minds. We were able to go on campus and take pictures of various people and things. Our group had a good time exploring UT and finding the best ways to be creative. We used people and ourselves on camera to portray verbs such as to bike or to hug. Many people volunteered to help us and once we uploaded the images, making a presentation on Google was very easy. It was pretty much just like a power point. I had some difficulty embedded it on the blog, but eventually figured it out with the help of my classmates.

Webquests

Webquests seem like a great way to integrate technology in the classroom.  Many of the students that I will have in class will probably have access to a computer at home and if not they will hopefully have access to a computer in our school.  If some students are not good with the internet than I could have them work in partners so they are all successful in the webquest.  Many of the webquests I viewed were very creative and very informative.  Some of the webquets, however, were not interactive and did not have any links.  These webquests should just have been printed out and given to the students as pen and paper.  In the future, I must make sure that my webquests are interactive and the entire webquest is functional.  This will ensure that they are using the internet and integrating this technology in their lesson.  I look forward to creating a webquest and sharing it with my students.

Digital Images

This project taught me all the interesting things you can do with pictures and how you can get pictures from many different sources.  The screenshot is a wonderful tool that you can use to collect any part of a page on the computer that you want to.  It is very simple and it easily saves itself to the desktop, which gives you the ability to save it anywhere else you need to save it.  A scanner is a great piece of equipment to have because if you want to scan in worksheets or other paper materials that you find valuable, the scanner gives you the ability to do that.  Picasa is a great tool and was very easy for me to figure out. I had some trouble embedded the slideshow into my blog, but other than that uploading the pictures and editing them was very simple.  It was cool how when you edit the pictures Picasa takes you to Picknik in order to edit your photos. I enjoyed putting the digital images together in a slideshow and sharing it on my blog!

Wikis!

I really enjoyed using the wiki as a website for my major.  It was very interesting and is a very helpful tool for anyone to use for any sort of information that they want to have the option of changing.  I enjoyed this project because it was a way to share information that I know with other people in my major and to also view their information as well.  It was fun to go in and change certain aspects of the website and enhance it as well with pictures and other information.  At first it seemed hard to manage the website and learn what all the buttons meant, but it is really based on trial and error.  Once I tried something, if it did not work out at first, I could go back delete it and try it again.  The EDIT and SAVE buttons were my true friends in my experience with the wiki.  I think that this can be used in the classroom and can be a great way for children to learn more about the internet and how a "research paper" can be fun, instead of dreadful.  I could also share this information with my future fellow teachers and encourage them to join the technology in the classroom train.

Evaluating A Website

http://www.lifeprint.com/
This website is about learning American Sign Language (ASL).  It has different features such as a video dictionary, quizzes, and other fun ASL features. When I evaluated the website I checked for different features and made sure each feature was easy to access.  A beginner to the computer or the internet would be able to navigate the website.  The process of evaluating was interesting and the worksheet was helpful in knowing what to look for.  I knew the website was legitamate because the I am very knowledgable about the author and all of his work.  I learned that you must make sure the website is always updated and now out of date.  In the classroom, I would make sure to use functional, easy, and updated websites.  This way my students will get the best out of the internet!

Introduction

Hey!  My name is Brooke Ulrey, I was born and raised in Roanoke, VA, and I will be a senior at UT next year. My major is educational interpreting which is interpreting for deaf people in an educational setting.   I will intern in the fall of this year for educational interpreting and next year for deaf education. I am hoping to receive my Master’s Degree in deaf education.  My reason for wanting to become a teacher is to become a role model for students.  I also would like to change how some curriculum is taught and make a difference at which ever school I end up working at. I have had a many experiences working with the youth, but my favorite experience was volunteering at Tennessee School for the Deaf.  I worked with special needs high school students in Special Olympic basketball.  Some of my hobbies include working out, running, playing sports such as tennis and basketball and just going out with friends.  I have made some great friends at UT, coming from Roanoke VA, where I knew no one freshman year.  College has been a very positive experience for me and I am happy that I chose to attend UT.