Computer Bootcamp

I spent 9 hours in the schools doing volunteer work. Three at Fox Hollow and six at Lindon Elementary.

I learned that most of the students outpaced the basic skills by a good bit, but when it came to the HTML at Lindon, they were a little further behind.

Motivation wise, they were more interested in playing flash based games on the internet than in completing the various projects they had. If someone wasn't there to make sure that they had stayed on task (in the moving pictures class) then they were playing games instead. But in the HTML class, the students would get up and help each other with the assignment if we were all occupied in order to help get them all to the same level.

I learned that I can learn HTML, but that I really don't know much about it. Just open and close tags pretty much.

I plan to play some more video games since I don't have classes for two months, I guess that could be a tech related goal? Besides that, I'll keep researching new education blogs and try to keep up one of my own, which I haven't updated in almost a year now.

Internet Safety Reflection

It's important for any adult authority figure to model correct, lawful behavior around students. That includes practicing good cyber ethics and safety.

Anytime my students are to use a computer a for my class, I'll be sure to remind them of the pitfalls that social media and the internet contain. I could also address it as part of unit on crime and the justice system in a government/civics class. History and the social studies generally require a lot of research type papers, so a lesson how to do proper research would easily fit a section on proper use of intellectual properties and internet safety.

The fliers, brochures and what not that we've created could easily be included in geography classes for part of a country report, in history as a mini biography or in government for election campaigns. The possibilities are near endless!

UEN in the Future

UEN has a good number of useful features that easily translate into classroom application. The first one is the most important for all of us and that is the core curriculum. As teachers there are things we have to teach to our students. These are the standards that have been set for each student in the state to know. If we are doing our jobs properly, then they will know each and every thing in the core curriculum when they leave our classrooms. Ideally.

The lesson plans on the UEN site are great. I've used them for lesson plans and unit plans in other classes and they've come in great for getting ideas when I'm stuck for how to teach a particular subject. Granted, they don't all use the models of instruction that we learn here in the classroom, but not all of the lesson plans we use in the future will work with those. Sometime we just have to make our own model of instruction!

Next up would be the interactives and Pioneer Library. These two items allow you to assign exploratory work to students. Allowing them to discover while they learn. These can be done at home or in class and will generally be much more enjoyable than the usual kind of reading assignments that are assigned in a social studies class. They will also help the student and me know what the student doesn't know so that we can focus on those things and get those gaps filled.

Among the other things I found interesting on the UEN site was the ability to find about teacher workshops and improvement opportunities all over the state. I also found the UEN-TV option to be interesting and when I actually have spare time again, may actually take a bit to take a closer look at it.

Google Tools Reflection

Google Images, Google Video, YouTube

These tools can easily be used to find historical primary source images or news

reel footage that we can analyze in class or individually. There are also a lot of

documentary and movie things that can be found through YouTube and Google Videos.

Google Maps and Google Earth

In a history classroom tools like Google Earth and Google Maps help to bring

perspective to where things happened. How long or far apart things are and a number of other important spatial features in history.

Google News

Using Google News we can look up current events that relate to the historical events that we are studying. This will help students to make connections between history and current events. It can also be used to for looking through old news as well. Which may come in handy for students studying history.

Google Translate

In the history content area, Google Translate can be used for taking a look at maybe different meanings for words in non-English source materials. It could also be used (with a note to it not being perfectly accurate) for translating classroom readings for ELL students.

Google Books and Google Scholar

In the history content area the tools in books and scholar would best be put to use for doing things like reading literature from the time period, in the case of Google Books and for looking up scholarly research (journals, articles and the like), most likely for projects and additional reading in the case of Google Scholar.

Google Blogs, Blogger and Reader

Blogger can be used for having students to exit slips from home, keeping a reading journal or any kind of classroom journal, basically anything that requires a small amount of writing and is more for just proof than for real work. The RSS feed in the reader can be used to keep track of posts regarding class updates on a class blog.

Google Calendar

Google calendar can be used to keep track of classroom schedules including lessons and homework in a public calendar that parents and students can both look at to increase accountability. With such an accessible and not-losable way of keeping track of assignments students won't have any excuse for not knowing things were due.

Google Documents

With Google Docs students can share the documents with me and with each other in order to peer edits and have me take a look and suggest edits as well, without having to print out copy after copy to bring in to class for multiple edits.

Google Groups

Using Google Groups, I can set up discussion groups and mailing lists with my classes as yet one more way of communicating with my students about changes to assignments, reminders about upcoming due dates and events and just about anything else that I feel that they may need to know.

Picasa Slide Show

An Introduction

My name is Jeremy Hansen. I've been a student here at UVU since fall of 2009. Before that I did a year at LDS Business College in Salt Lake City and before that attended two different Junior Colleges in California. I've been in school a very long time.

I'm from California; lived there from the time that I was 3, all in the same place. I Moved out to Utah because I figured a change of venue would be good for me.

I'm studying History (education obviously) because I've wanted to be a teacher for the last 8 years or so. I decided on history because I love it. If I'm going to teach something, it had better

be something that I enjoy. I'm finally at the point that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. So long as I can get B's this summer and next semester then I'll be doing my student teaching next spring and then it's off to the real world to look for a job!

I've already made a deal with myself that if I haven't found work after a year then I'm going to attempt law school. So I have a back up plan, but teaching is my first string choice.