Blog Post # 2

Did You Know?
In the video,Did You Know? 3.0 - A John Strange 2012 Version Dr. Strange provides us with different facts about technology and the way it has affected our society and will continue to affect us throughout the years to come. Technology plays a key role in our everyday lives and especially in education. Key facts from the video:
-"Three years ago, 93% of all 8-18 year olds in the United States had computers in their home."
-"Three years ago, 85% of high school (15-18 year olds) students had cellphones and today 58% of students (13-17 year olds) have smartphones."
-"The top jobs ten years from now do not exist yet and we’ll use technology that does not exist yet."
We are given two questions to think about at the end of the video: "What is your role in preparing your students for the jobs of 2022?" and "What is your role in preparing your students to use technologies that do not exist yet?" These are questions I can not answer. No one can be sure how to properly to prepare students for what is to come in such a rapid changing society. I hope to use the teaching skills Dr. Strange provides and what I learn about technology in this course to take into my classroom.

Mr. Winkle Wakes
In Mathew Needleman's video, Mr. Winkle Wakes , Needleman shows us that no matter how fast technology changes our society and to what extreme, in education the basics stay the same. In this short video, "Mr. Winkle" awakes from a long sleep and walks into the world only to see technology has taken over the workplace, hospitals and streets. He walks into a classroom and witnesses students at their desks with paper and pencil and the teacher at the front lecturing. Although our society is practically based on technology now, I love the fact this video represents, that the basics in school will always be important.
When I get into my classroom I hope to always remember that teaching the basics is important and use the technology to enhance the basics. Teaching my students reading, history, science, mathematics first will be my main goal. Showing them the way they use these basics with the updated technology with be next.

The Importance of Creativity
In Sir Ken Robinson makes a great point in his lectureThe Importance of Creativity "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." I must admit listening to Sir Ken Robinson speak about how important it is to keep creativity in your life because I have lost a lot of creativity myself. Robinson lectures on how crucial it is to allow students to keep their creativity and really enforce them to use it in education. He also quotes that a child is born with creativity the hard part is keeping it.
My favorite class so far at South has been Dr. Vitulli's Art in Elementary. She really embraced us to use our creativity and I hope to do the same in my classroom as Sir Ken Robinson pointed out, creativity is everything in a child's life.

Pinterest
First off let me say, I LOVE Pinterest. Before I even started this class I have been addicted to Pinterest for ideas for my personal life. However I have a board for "My Future Classroom" and I get so excited finding all these sites and ideas for classroom organization and tips from educators. After reading 4 Ways to use Pinterest in Education I agree with the entire article. The two main ways I would use Pinterest would be for sharing ideas and organization. It's convenient to be able to sort the pins out and easier to locate when you need to find it again.
Vicki Davis was the only board I got to because I spent so much time exploring her pins. The thing that caught my eye about her boards were that she has so many based on technology in the classroom. Vicki has one board that provides you with iPhone and iPad apps. Another thing that I find useful is that she has a board for each month with teaching ideas and classroom decoration. I will be in the elementary classroom and I plan to keep mine decorated accordingly. Although I only explored Vicki's board into great depth I did save this page and plan to go back and follow the other boards.
Since I now use Pinterest in my everyday life, I most definitely plan on using it in my classroom. The best way to use this network is for sharing and exploring other people's ideas. I can see myself introducing Pinterest to my students for getting ideas on projects and showing them how to organize their thoughts at an early age.