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!