Blog Post #6

I can't believe this is already the final blog post! I remember doing our first blog post like it was last week! This semester has really flown by!! I have learned so much from this course that I plan to use in my discipline when I become a teacher. There were some things in this course that would be very hard to implement into my Physical Education discipline, but almost everything would work in my Health discipline. I could incorporate vocabulary words through Health in a lot of ways! I loved that we did a lesson plan on this. Vocabulary words are very important in health, students need to know what health related words mean to get the effects drugs have on you, how the body works, etc. I loved when we had lessons on reading and comprehension. I had never thought about all the different ways you can incorporate different texts for your students to read and still be interested in. I think finding a very interesting book to read when there is time left after class is a great idea! The book I did for my book talk, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, is a book that I would most definitely read to my students. I loved the different ideas I got from this class about digital texts. I had never heard of over half the sources Amy provided for us. I did one of them for my self-selected project, glogster. I will use so many of those in my classroom! I think they all provide great sources for my students to use. It helps me to be more diverse in my teaching as well. I loved when we had class discussions on having diverse learners in your classroom. I have always thought that this is something I could struggle with as a teacher. But after hearing different ideas from everyone in our classroom, it opened my eyes to how I can in corporate some of those ideas into my teaching. It made me feel much more comfortable. Overall, I really enjoyed this class and learned much more than I ever thought I would to help me become more prepared to be a teacher.

Self -selected Project

For my self selected project I created a Glogster that I could use in my classroom or have my students use in my classroom. This would fall under a digital text. A Glogster, is a program where you can create and make your own posters of whatever you would like. You can design them with the colors you want, you can add music, video, and pictures. I have never used Glogster before, but after using it for this project, I will definitely use it again! I think that it is a GREAT tool to in corporate into my classroom as well.

For my Glogster, I made it related to my Health discipline. I made a Drug poster that I could use as an example for what I would like my students to make. When I first started making my Glog, I had trouble because I had never used it before. It took me a few tries on experimental glogs before I made my final one. I did a few experimental glogs to just mess around with the system until I was comfortable with how to work it. Installing different text boxes was where I struggled the most. It took me awhile to figure out how to edit the text once I had created the text box. After I figured that out, it was very easy to do. When teaching my students how to make a glog, I think I will have them do one experimental glog like I did, where it gives them a chance to mess around with how the system works. I would also help talk them through an orientation of the ways to do the simple things on glogster.

The website Glogster, is a very eye appelaing site that I think will always keep my students attention. I think that this would be such a fun way to have my students make Health related posters. It opens there minds to other ways to make informational posters than to just draw one. I would evaluate my students glogs by the information they provided, and their creativeness. I want them to explore the site and add colors, pictures, etc. I think students will have a blast using glogster and I recommend it for ALL subjects!

SCED 4200: Blog Post #5

In today's society you would be considered "weird" if you didn't have a I-Pod, cell phone, computer, etc. I have had to become digital literate because of our society. Over a one week period I use digital technologies every day without a doubt. Each day I use a cell phone, multiple times a day. I also use an I-Pad a couple times a day and a computer at least everyday. I use my I-Pod everytime I work out as well. I don't have interent or cable at my house, so for internet I just use my phone and for tv we just watch movies or play video games all the time. There is always some way to use technology ha ha. The online texts that I read are mainly social. I read facebook updates, I like to read about sports, and I sometimes like to read the news online. When I am teacher I think it would be a good idea to incorporate digital texts somehow into my teaching, because students are already online most of the time. I think blogs is a great way to have students communicate with each other and write their thoughts out. I think students will be more interested in writing on a blog as opposed to on paper.

SCED 4200: Blog #4

I would have to say that I do not qualify myself as a good reader at all! Ha ha. I can read at a normal pace like most people, but the reason I say that I am not a good reader is because it takes a really good book to get me to finish it. I have a hard time finishing books, or even starting books for that matter. It is really weird that I am not much of a reader, because both of my parents LOVE to read, they always some book that they are reading.

The types of reading that I do like to read are magazines, and books that are based on true stories. I had a hard time reading books that were assigned to me in high school because I had no desire on the topics of the books. If I am interested in the topic, then I will enjoy reading the book. When I am teacher, I think the best way to influence my students to reading is going to be by letting them pick the book they want to read as long as it is related to my content area. That is what I liked best growing up, is when my teachers let us students pick out our own book to read. It let me have a good attitude towards reading the book from the start if I was able to pick it out.

SCED 4200: Blog #3

I am not the world's best writer, that's for sure! My mom would always proof read my papers and say, "you write like a 6th grader." Ha ha. I would much rather express my ideas in drawings, even though I can't draw very good either, I feel I will be graded less harshly with drawing. When I was a child, I did not write very often, I think that is why I am not a very good writer today. The kind of writing that I do now, is mostly in texting, Facebook, blogs, and emails. I wish that I kept a journal, but I just never have had the discipline to do it often.

The writing assignments that I had in school that I enjoyed the most were when we had free write or did reports on historical figures. I liked those types of writing the best because that is what interested me. The types of writing that I do not like is when I have to write about a topic that I am not interested in. When I am a teacher, I will give my students a subject to write on, but I will let them use their own ideas and topics to write about so it is interesting to them and they will want to continue to write throughout my class.

SCED 4200 Blog #2

I have a lot of great experiences in my discipline area, physical education. When I was in elementary I had the opportunity to help my PE teacher with other classes during my recess time. That is what got me inspired to want to teach PE. 

I love sports. My parents always had me in some sort of sport while I was growing up; I think that is another reason why I was very interested in physical education. I think that I can use these experiences in my life to help me in my teaching career by showing my passion that I have for physical education. If the students see that in me, then they may be more excited about learning. I can use the student’s background experiences to help connect with them with the standards, by using and seeing what they are interested in and applying that into my curriculum so that they will be intrigued in class.

SCED 4200: Blog #1

Hi, My name is Lauren Hansen. I am going to be teaching in Physical Education and Health Education. I was just recently married this past summer in June. So my new last name is Clifford, but I have not got around to changing it ha ha, so for now it is still Hansen. I will change it eventually ha. I love to play sports and be outdoors. My favorite is soccer. I played for Utah State for 4 years and I am now helping Coach the team as an Undergraduate Assistant Coach.

I love Physical Education and Health, because that is what my whole has been about. I have been playing sports since I was 4 years old, and Health is a huge part of sports. I have had the greatest PE teachers growing up that have been part of my inspiration to teach in this area.

The reason I have other posts on here is because this was my blog for one of my classes last semester, so you can just ignore all of those ha. Thanks!