Today I visited the sfmuseum.org website. It is a virtual museum of the City of San Francisco. I really like to use this website to have the students go on a scavenger hunt to learn some history in a different part of the United States especially during the westward expansion. Besides the gold rush era it also provides some of the history of the earthquake disasters and I can compare Texas disasters with California disasters. I enjoyed the photo gallery they provided with a synopsis of the history that went with that particular picture. The flyers that were passed around during the gold rush era. It has alot of history that you can learn from if you are teaching students that part of our United States. Great site really enjoyed it...

Today I visited the adobe.com/training website. I was not able to visit the professional development link because it was not avaliable and it would be one of the things I would like to learn more about. But I did learn the different ways that you can use the different software with students in the classroom if only they would purchase the software for us. I read some of the stories from the teachers post about how they would use the adobe software in their classroom with their students and I really liked the photoshop and digital publishing suite. The digital publishing suite I would use it for projects or performance assesments for example research papers of historical events or figures. The photoshop to have them create a collage of pictures and text explaining a historical event or historical figure in Texas History. I also learn that you can become a certified trainer in adobe software and even have your own business I wonder how much they would pay a certified trainer....Thats all for now but interesting and great website...

On the web site salt.org I learned that they provide conferences and the conference topics that they provide are very interesting I wish I could attend these conferences. They have topics like gaming and simulation, instructional systems design, knowledge management, mobile computing and new technology in the market place. They also show pictures of the different technology companies that will have exhibits during the conference that I never knew exsisted. The organization also publishes the latest news from industry, government and academia that relate to technology. It also list some journals that they publish but you have to be a member to access them. But they provide an abstract so that you can decide whether you want to read them and become a member. I also liked how they provided statistics on the people that visit the web site. Something new I would like to learn from this web site is what resources do they provide for free....

On the teacherscholastic.com I liked the history videos that they have. I watched one about the pilgrims from New England during the winter and how what the pilgrims went through when they came to the New World during the winter season. The videos are interactive whiteboard ready. The videos give you a real person explaining the history. And then it backs it up with some slides of informational facts that go with what the person is telling. This is another great site with alot of teacher resources. What I would of liked to see were study guides that went with the videos. To provide the students and engage them in the video clips. Also if the videos started with a question to activate students prior knowledge would of also been great. But I could always come up with that question and study guide before I would show the students the video.

On the iste.org web site I learned that there are standards for evaluating the skills and knowlege used for the digital teaching society or age. I also learned that in order to be an effective teacher in this digital society you must model and apply the NETS.S standards. That teachers need to design, implement, and assess learning experiences to engage students in everyday learning and therefore improve student learning. The NETS.S standards state that all teachers should 1. Facilitate and Inspire Student learning and creativity. 2. Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. 3. Model Digital Age Work and Learning. 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibilty. 5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership. It is funny and sad at the same time to say that it was my first year teaching this past year and never did I hear that there was such standards. I'm absolutely glad that I took this class learned about these standards. Most of these standards I already implemented because and effective teacher who has common sense would do apply and model these standards with any type of instruction and learning in the classroom. I would like to learn more about where I can get additional training and is it provided for free. I also wonder why my alternative certification program did not train me in these standards either....

Educational Technology in Florida Schools

On PBS.org a survey was done with some Florida teachers about access to computers in the classrooms and 2/3 of the teachers stated that budgets were the biggest barriers to accessing technology in their classrooms. That low income communities still face an even greater need in technologies because they do not get much support from parents or the community, like their local school board. Teachers in the survey did believe that newer technology would help enrich classroom education. The top three reasons teachers gave to want to use more technology in the classroom is to increase student motivation, reinforcing and expanding on content being taught, and responding to a variety of learning styles. It sounds like teachers in Florida want to use technology for all the right reasons, but it is sad that they do not get the support for it. Here in Texas I don't think we have it that bad because there is always grants to get the newest technology and we get all kinds of support to get it. On another note I think PBS.org is a great resources for teachers and it has been a great resource for teachers since it was projected on TV in the classroom only that teachers back then would not take advantage or some administrators would not support it even though a lot of money was spent to have those dinosaur TV's installed in the classroom. In my classroom I still have one of those TV's mounted on the wall....I would like to navigate more of the site to see what I can access about history for my students....

From Ho-Hum History Lesson to Engaging Investigation

In this article "From Ho-Hum History Lesson to Engaging Investigation on Education-World.com" I learned that because the Internet has a lot of resources a student can access in reference to an investigation you might ask them to do. It is wise as a teacher to limit the sources students are to use to help students focus to only equal and interesting sources so as to not confuse the students. To get them engage the article states that we should set the tone of a lesson with music that tells about that era in History. Using images of the event in History draws students into the event and helps them understand the time. It also helps to pose questions when analyzing material such as images, letters, newspaper articles, political cartoons. I would of liked to be able to open the links provided by the article but it would not let me and it does not show a web address that I could go to. :-(

Neuroscience Brain Research on Social/Emotional Learning

We all know that a child's brain is being shaped by the experiences that he/she comes across with. Therefore, as educators we need to promote positive learning experiences. We can do this by training the mind on how to react when a child is faced with either a negative or positive experience. This is called social/emotional learning. When children come to school they are anxious and the more anxiety we put them in the less working memory they will have. Research states as mentioned in edutopia.org; that if we promote social/emotional learning we lower the anxiety of the child therefore, we improve cognition and we get better academic performance. Research also states that social/emotional learning improves skills of emotion regulation and social adaptation. Furthermore, social emotional learning produces beneficial brain changes. Social/Emotional learning qualities are patience, calmness, cooperation and kindness are skills that can be trained. In conclusion, research further indicates that education shapes the child's brain and produces alterations that lay the foundation in all future learning. As educators we should promote social/emotional learning. I would like to provide more social/emotional learning activities in my classroom especially with my middle school students because they are adolescents and at this age the brain shows more changes during social/emotional experiences.