Sandra

Sandra Aslakson

Day 1 Questions
1. List the name of your favorite Web 2.0 tool from today's class. Describe why you liked the tool and how you would use it in your class. I loved all of the Google Options, but what I am most excited to set up and use with my my Spanish students is Todays Meet. I think it is a great way to assess student participation as well as making sure that they are al actively participating. I could either pose a question in Spanish about the homework, reading, or lesson and then have them respond or play a review game and with multiple questions and see who can answer them and who can even answer the fastest. I'm glad you liked this one. I think TodaysMeet has loads of possibilities. Good luck as you implement it in your classes!

2. Regarding technology in your classroom, school and/or district, do you feel like you are keeping up?Is it important?What do you think your students are thinking about technology at home/at school? What are your thoughts? In regards to Elmbrook's technology, I know that the district is keeping up. With that being said, it has not been communicated with us all of the accessible tools that we have. Taking these summer courses are the only ways that I can learn about what we have. I do not teach myself technology very well and need lots of help. I feel that all the technology is there, I just need to put in my own time to learn and figure out how to use it well. I do know I use some technology more than others, but I want to use it all the time and be an expert at it. I agree. Time to work with each tool is the key.

As far as my students go, I know for a fact that they have access to all of the same technology and sadly they know how to use it much better than I do. Whenever I do use activities from my SmartNotebook and You Tube or even just the internet, the students LOVE it and become so much more actively engaged in the class.

3. Do you have any questions about anything we did today? Please list them and/or bring them up in class.What do you want to be sure to learn during the rest of the course? I would really like to learn how to video myself on ScreenCastOmatic and upload it to my Google Drive. I would also like to know how to make a YouTube video and have easy access to it. Please, I would also like to play more with all of the Google tools that we have to find out more about what I can do with my classes. Hopefully, you will create all kinds of videos, tutorials, etc. with Screencast-o-matic and have them available 24/7 for your students. I think you will find this so very valuable.

 After taking this class, please reflect on what you, as the teacher, need to do to make sure that you and your students can successfully use the tools that you have chosen to incorporate into your class. Think about hardware, software, network, student skill set, teacher skill set, time, etc.
 * Day 2 Questions**

Wow. I have learned so much this past week, I don't really know where to start. I am going to need to spend a lot more time looking at each individual tool and learn it much better at this point because I feel like an absolute amateur. I am worried that with all of our other expectations with Common Core and Evaluations, I don't know exactly when I will have enough time to actually learn and implement these cool programs. We do have some hardware issues at our school. I know that we have the Google tools, however the computers that we are provided in our language labs are sometimes so slow that by the time the kids get the software to work, they are so frustrated, they give up or it is time for us to leave the lab because another class is coming in. We as a foreign language department wrote a grant for Ipads last year to use in our classrooms and were turned down. Learning just how much we could really use Ipads in our classrooms makes me very sad and wish just that much more that we would've gotten the Ipads. I am very open to change so am looking forward to letting my students continue teaching me more. They actually showed me this year how to use Prezi.com and Audacity. I look forward to making progress on learning more and more of these web based tools. I know again that they will just enhance my student's motivation to learn as well as mine :). Good luck! I know you will do a great job learning and integrating some of these tools this year! Remember: start with one or two of the tools and go from there! Chris