Blog Journal 6

I searched "Leon County High School Teacher Pages" on Google to find teacher sites that I could access. I found Swift Creek Middle School and looked at several teacher pages from their homepage. The page that I found in particular with the most information on their site was a 6th grade band teacher. Other teacher pages did not have any information on it, or had links to other sites that directed the viewer elsewhere. This band teachers page has the most information out of all the educators at Swift Creek Middle School. I see four bolded titles of upcoming events happening such as "Band Parent Meeting" and "Jazz Band/Symphonic Band Auditions". Underneath these headings are a brief explanation of when they will be occurring and what students/parents should be prepared with. There is a link to a form for an audition that needs to be filled out before auditioning, and also a link to the Band Calendar for the month. Underneath all of the headings there is a graphic that says "Be in Band!" and lists reasons why students should join the band. This graphic is visually appealing to the viewers and matches the text. The overall format of this teacher page is aesthetically pleasing and shows contrasting colors. This band page is for 6th grade students and Ms. Emma Haley is the teacher responsible for the page.

Band Teacher Webpage 

I envision myself using technology to accomplish my professional responsibilities more efficiently and effectively in my classroom by using technology that is useful to my grade level and specialty. I would like to use Kahoot to create fun games for my students so they could interact with me, as well as better understand the information I am teaching them. Kahoot is great for creating quizzes, polls, short answer questions and other types of games. Other websites I would like to use in my classroom would be Diigo because I have enjoyed it so much when I have used it in the classroom here are FSU. This tool would be geared more towards older aged students since it requires some computer competence and the ability to browse the Internet for related search criteria. Students in my classroom could find articles pertaining to the information we are discussing and highlight/comment on them to interact with the material and with their peers. Depending on the grade level I am teaching I would use differing technology to accommodate information to my students. 

Last week I visited the Tech Sandbox in the Department of Education Building and it was very interesting! My favorite pieces of technology that the guides showed us were the 3D printers and the ClearTouch board. The 3D printer could be used in the classroom to create models of complicated topics that students are trying to grasp and need a visual representation of. This could range from molecules in science class to triangles and shapes for mathematic calculations. The ClearTouch board could also be used in the classroom and would be my favorite piece of technology to use! This board could be divided into sections so multiple students could use it at one time which was my favorite feature. The ClearTouch has many functions like playing a piano, conducting science experiments or searching content on the Internet. Many applications can be opened at once on this touch-screen board so that possibilities are endless. In my classroom I would encourage my students to explore their interests on the ClearTouch by searching for educational applications like learning how to play the piano or  tutoring for a certain subject. Overall, the Tech Sandbox had many pieces of technology that would be great to use in the classroom to enhance students learning experience.