Last Post

Wow, that went fast! I cant believe the semester is over! I want to thank Prof. Schmidt for all her hard work and everyone in the class for sharing such wonderful ideas.  Hope everyone has a great end to the school and a great summer.

WebQuest

Here is the link to my WebQuest.  This was a lot of work since I wanted specific links included. 

 http://questgarden.com/126/45/5/110513053457/

Power Point

<div style="width:425px" id="__ss_7864632"><strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jasonschlereth/technology-in-the-classroom-7864632" title="Technology in the classroom">Technology in the classroom</a></strong><object id="__sse7864632" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=technologyintheclassroom-110506120029-phpapp01&stripped_title=technology-in-the-classroom-7864632&userName=jasonschlereth" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed name="__sse7864632" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=technologyintheclassroom-110506120029-phpapp01&stripped_title=technology-in-the-classroom-7864632&userName=jasonschlereth" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="padding:5px 0 12px">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/%22%3Epresentations%3C/a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jasonschlereth%22%3Ejasonschlereth%3C/a%3E.%3C/div%3E%3C/div>

Technology Blog

To be honest, I never realized just how much you can integrate technology on a daily basis into your classroom.  I am not teaching currently, but the class chatter program is one thing that really interested me.  I have shared it with several colleagues who are teaching and they are integrating it into their class.  It really allows students to interact with each other and carry on class discussions after the school day.  I was also thinking you could use it on snow days as an effective tool to engage students.  From discussions with other teachers, we all agreed that some students would be much more likely to post something on a discussion board than participate in class. 
As far as this online experience, after some initial difficulty, it has been great.  I am learning a lot about the various ways that people use technology in their classrooms.  I enjoy sharing ideas and talking to other educators about strategies and techniques that they have had success (or a lack of) with much more than just reading about them in books.  The weekly blogs and responses have allowed that discussion to take place. 

Class Website

Here is a link to my class website

http://homepage.scholastic.com/CHBuilderWeb/jsp/StudentParentLogin.jsp

username: MrSchlereth
password: lovelearning

I have to say that not teaching currently was a challenge in setting up this website.  It was tough to decide which books and software to include.  I chose some books that I remember using in my class and I checked out the software and picked the ones that I thought were the most engaging for students.  Also, I originally started making my site with the google version, but, in my opinion, the Scholastic one is much more appropriate and user friendly for elementary teachers and students.  When I was teaching, I used a website to post assignments, tests, projects, etc and keep parents informed about exciting things that were happening in our class and school.

Web 2.0

I have always heard the term 2.0, but never really knew what it meant. Turns out, we use 2.0 sites in our daily lives.  Since I am not currently teaching, its difficult to know whether a site will be good for me and my school.  So, I visited a bunch of the ones that Prf. Schmidt put up, and the class chatter one is really awesome! I am thinking that students at home can almost feel like a part of trip.  One way I thought that this site could be useful was if you had two classes taking the same trip on different days.  The class that goes first could blog about it telling the other class the best parts of the trip.   After the second class went, they could blog about their thoughts. You could then use the site to have the students compare and contrast their experiences.

Apple v. PC

My school is currently debating switching from a PC platform to a MAC platform. Currently, every student purchaes an IBM laptop that they keep for 4 years.  We are considering going to a program where the students would purchase a MAC for two years and then another MAC for the next two years.  I havent seen the final numbers, but the preliminary figures made it look like the price would be the same for the one IBM or the two MAC's.  I was wondering if anyone has gone through this process before and what decision was made?  Personally, I dont know enough about the MAC's (although I am taking home a demo MacBook Air next week) to make a decision.  I would love to hear some people's thoughts.