Classroom+Life

Classroom Life Classroom life refers to the environment the teacher creates in his/her classroom to help the day run smoothly. This encompasses various aspects that greatly influence the student's learning. Classroom life involves classroom manangement, transitional times, classroom organization as well as the general feel of the classroom. The classroom environment is established first, before content areas can be explored. Every teacher establishes a different classroom life that is comfortable to them that the students grow accustomed to throughout the year.

Technology is incorporated into classroom life for several reasons. First of all, technology can help a classroom run more smoothly. iClickers and Smart Boards can be used to quickly determine student's lunch choices, etc. Secondly, technology makes the classroom more interactive and exciting for students. There is nothing students love more than playing with a new technology. It quickly engages them into the lesson and lastly, using technology is classroom life allows your students to become more technologically literate. Even the students who do not have access to technology at home can quickly learn how to use it just by having access to it in the classroom and by watching the teacher demonstrate. Technology is full of excellent reasources that are helpful to classroom life and overall, a lot of fun for the teacher and students.

Technology and Classroom Life

@http://www.skype.com/ Skype is an online resource that allows you to instant message with others who have skype as well as computer to computer calling for free, computer to land line or cell phone calling and live video feed! The application is free unless you choose to call an actual phone from the computer. As a class you could implement a pen-pal type relationship with another class that also has skype in a different part of the world.

//October 2, 2009//

www.prezi.com

Prezi is an excellent alternative to using the usual PowerPoint presentation approach to lecture. It can be used in the classroom for lecture notes, a series of photos or to organize a class calender. Its simplest version is free and comes with helpful tutorials to get you started. After creating a Prezi presentation, the presentation can be downloaded to the computer so that internet access is not necessary.

//October 2, 2009//

www.jottit.com

Jottit is an excellent introduction for students to making a website, blogging or creating a wiki. The beauty of jottit is that it does not require an email address by your students. They can create their own page, write their own wikis, access it using their password, but record a non-existing email address. This both protects students from the dangers of unwanted emails and gives students that do not have email access at home a chance to succeed. This could be used in the classroom for students to respond a question, create a discussion or start their first blog.

//-October 2, 2009//
www.renweb.com

Renweb is a website similar to BlackBoard that allows communication between faculty, teachers, students and parents within a school system. Students can access their homework, teacher anouncements, schedules and school newsletters through this site. If a teacher has a behavior problem or missing homework from a student they can send out a notification to parents via email immediately. This online resource can be an excellent tool to get students using the internet and for good communication between school and home.

//-October 2, 2009//



-//Kate Becknell, October 2, 2009//
This is a great resource if your classroom is provided with a promethean board. There are other forms if your classroom contains a smart board, but this ActiVote is an awesome way to incorporate participation into classroom life. It can easily be able to be incorporated into content areas, but it also can be used in daily routines. For example, every student receives a “voter”, you post a question on the board and then they vote. There is a A-F voting capability, and this can be used to get a good sense of how student feel about a topic. This can be used if you want the class to elect a classmate for something, and it can keep it strictly anonymous. There are many questions you can ask with this program that will make the classroom environment less stressful because the students know that no one else knows there answer.




 * Moodle**- @http://moodle.org/about/

==== Moodle is a Course Management System, also known as a Learning Management System or a Virtual Learning Environment. It is a free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites. This can be used in large or small groups of student communities; it is used for collaboration and communication. Also, moodle.org is used in 200 different countries and offers 80 different languages. It would be useful to a class because they could access documents, communicate with one another, and have all types of access to their course. It resembles Blackboard in a way, because of the login, courses listed, and everything that is posted for that course is accessible. ====



//-Kate Becknell, October 15, 2009//

Google Docs is a wonderful resource for elementary school teachers. It has a very user friendly grade sheet for teachers to use. Once you include the formulas and weights you want for each assignment it then is becomes very fast and convenient to use throughout the year. This is a much better tool than the old fashioned method of writing the students grades in a spiral notebook grade book. Google Docs calculates the grades for you so once you enter in each student’s grade your job is done. It also is a useful tool because you can organize the grade sheet the way you want and you can color code each line so it is easy to glance down the list of students and follow across the line to see that individual student’s grades. I think this resource will make the grading process much easier for teachers and save them time in the long run.

www.microvision.com

Microvision is a company that has recently come out with a new display and imaging system called Pico Projector Displays. This small, pocket-sized device can be used to project images in and outside the classroom. It can be hooked up to any mobile device with a video-output such as an ipod, digital media planer, smartphone, digital camera and so much more. This small device could change the way classes go on field trips. It gives the teacher the opportunity to use technology even when they are out in nature and allows the teacher to display information wherever they are. Unfortunately, the product is $500 each so it would most likely have to be agreed upon by the school to purchase as a whole.

//-Stephanie Logan, October 15, 2009//



//-Kate Becknell, October 22, 2009//
ZOHO in general is a wonderful site to visit and there are many applications teachers can utilize in their classroom. ZOHO is compared to Google Docs and does a lot of the same processes, but ZOHO has added to and improved upon the options found on Google Docs. One application that I found very interesting and useful was ZOHO Show. This allows teachers and other professionals to make impactful presentations. This can be used in the content areas, but many times in classroom life, teachers have class meetings. I think this Show application would really enhance a meeting and provide wonderful visuals for the students to enjoy. This will add to the classroom all around and it is really user friendly so it won’t be time consuming for teaching to plan. ZOHO is absolutely free and I recommend everyone check all the applications ZOHO has to offer.


 * Survey Monkey.com-@http://www.surveymonkey.com/**

=== //-Grace Hagins, October 22, 2009 SurveyMonkey //.com is a great website to use in a classroom setting to create surveys that are quick and easy for any topic. This can be useful for voting with classroom issues, field trip preferences, have student opinions about the class, and so much more. This can also be used with parent communication, such as meeting time, conference times, and so on. This resource has many options such as how to pick the collection method, the website can send your survey out using your own personal list serve, and you are able to analyze the results. Luckily, it has a free option that allows 100 responses allowed per survey, and 10 questions each. I highly recommend this resource and think it is worth looking into. ===


 * Discovery Education-http://www.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm**

=== //-Grace Hagins, October 22, 2009// Discovery Education is an interesting website with numerous resources covering all subjects, games, lesson plans, video, audio, and so on. This resource will help enhance the classroom in ways that make lessons more interesting, have students involved, and makes learning fun. Although there is a user name and password needed for the Discovery PLUS version, most teachers (schools) have a code that allows them access to this useful site. The version Discovery basic package still includes image and audio libraries, interactive atlas, and encyclopedia. There is so much to find out and learn about on this site that would especially benefit students in a positive way. ===

www.gis.com

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have proven to be more than just a set of maps to be used in a social studies classroom. GIS is a program that can be used to view extensive maps of cities or landscape or even density of certain types of population. Students can use this program to locate their house and discuss different safety options depending on where they live. This program can also be used to model simulations, to graph and analyze data, to view reports or to create concept maps of different areas. The options seem endless in this developing technology.

-//Stephanie Logan, October 23, 2009//



Digital Camera -[]
====//Kate Becknell- October 30, 2009// Digital cameras can really add to the overall environment in the classroom. A large part of classroom life involves how the students feel and how well the teachers involve everyone and make them feel valued. I think that digital cameras are a great way to keep students excited and feel a connection to their classroom. Documenting their experiencing and decorating the room with those memories adds to moral and leads to a more positive outlook on school for the students. By adding to the classroom, the students identify with the room and it becomes their classroom, not just the teachers. This is an easy way to greatly add to classroom life because most everyone already owns a digital camera for personal use, so it would not be difficult to use this technology in the classroom. ====



iclicker- www.iclicker.com
====The iclicker is an excellent tool that students can use to select the answers to multiple choice questions quickly during class. The students simply point their iclicker towards the screen, press A B C D or E and the class answers anonymously appear. For the teacher this is an efficient means to gather a quick response without taking the time to gather 28 pieces of paper and assess them. This makes classroom life more run more efficiently no matter the subject area. The students can also use their iclickers to check in for attendance and make their lunch choices. With this piece of technology students do not even need to get up out of their seats which will greatly reduce complications in classroom management. The iclicker is so quick, easy, efficient and fun to use that there is no reason a teacher should not want a set for the entire class.====

//-Stephanie Logan, November 6, 2009//



123Radios.com-www.123RADIOS.COM
//-Grace Hagins, November 6, 2009//

// Radios and walkie talkies are used widely in schools systems today. Even though they are not the newest of technology, they are still essential in classroom and school life. Radios are used to communicate among administration and staff for emergencies, car and bus dismissal, and used to contact janitors in times needed to clean up a mess to help protect student safety. //Without radios, classes and the entire school would be less organized and have a lack of communication. The website resource I found is called 123radios.com, this site has been serving individuals, government, businesses, and schools since 1999. Even though these radios are not the newest resources, they are still used and valued widely in schools today. The use of this product will probably go on until a new and improved radio walkie talkie comes along.

**Microsoft Office Online-** @http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC010181881033.aspx

//-Grace Hagins, November 12, 2009//

// Microsoft Office Online is a great resource for classroom teachers. Using Microsoft Office online, it gives you templates to create classroom newsletters. Creating classroom newsletters helps add a personal touch and source of communication to your students as well as their parents. This resource is easy to create, learn how to operate, and also free! You have the opportunity to pick a template that works for you, and what looks best for your classroom. You also can email these newsletters, or simply print them out to send home weekly. Having observed classrooms that have a grade level newsletter, it often gets overlooked or not read, having a personalized newsletter allows students to feel connected to the class. I highly recommend creating a personal newsletter for your classroom using this resource. //



Kate Becknell, November 12, 2009
I strongly feel that effective use of your desktop screensaver can be a great tool to improve classroom life. I have observed in my field placement that my cooperating teacher has a slide show of pictures of the students in the class on her desktop. This is extremely convenient because there is no need to print out the photos because they simply appear right in the computer screen, which will save money. This can be used on the teacher's desktop only, which I think really shows the students that the teacher truely cares. Or the photos can be displayed on all of the idol computers in the classrooms. The photos chosen for the slide show on the screensaver can be easily changed and renewed throughout the year. A great aspect to this resource is the fact that there is no additional money, you simply need to have access to the properties menu on your desktop. I think that by adding a simply screen savor that involves the students will improve the classroom life and increase students' positive attitudes toward the classroom in general. I feel that they will be proud of their learning environment and hopefully by having a positive classroom life, the students will be motivated to work hard and learn.