Final Class Overview

Overall this class has been very enlightening. It has shown me that their is still a lot about technology that I have not grasped yet. This has caused me a little bit of frustration at times but I am sure that it will all make me a better teacher in the end. The fact that it has never been hard to get extra help has made things much less overwhelming. I feel that this class is extremely important and that all future teachers should take it. Whether we like it or not, technology is becoming more and more apart of our lives everyday. Future generations of students will be much more adapted to a technology driven world and technology in the classroom will be the most effective way for them to learn.

Website Project

The website project will become very useful as I begin my teaching career. Creating a website such as this one will be a very useful tool for my students to use. It can be used for classroom announcements, a teacher bio, and other tools that parents can use to monitor their student's progress. I have already seen the websites of current teachers that know. They have been very useful for them.

Movie

Movie Maker Assignment

The movie maker assignment was very interesting. I think this will be very useful in helping students to understand various concepts because it provides them with visual examples. This is important because with every passing generation students are becoming more and more visually and digitally based. As teachers, it will be up to us to adapt to the needs of the students of future generations and put the material into formats that will be the most effective in helping them learn.

Lesson Plan

The topic I chose for my lesson plan is understanding the concept of federalism. I incorporated the inquiry based learning activity from earlier in the course. This will require use of the school's computer lab. The concepts that I want students to grasp include how the Constitution divides power between the federal government and the state governments, what some of these specific powers are, and that the Constitution denies power to one level of government or all of them. This lesson will require independent study which will lead to greater understanding.

Spreadsheets

I think that spreadsheets are a very useful tool for classrooms of all subject areas. Many people believe that they are only useful for math but they are useful in both social studies and science as well. Examples of how they can be used in social studies include having students name state capitals, the positions of political parties, or the locations of certain historical events. Spreadsheets allow students to practice and affirm their own understanding of the material. If the spreadsheet is web based, the students can test their understanding anytime they have access to the internet.