Interactive Maps

In my TE 402 class we had to complete a project that involved teaching about a different type of literacy in a new literacy format. The different types of literacy we could chose from were emotional, social, visual, cultural, environmental, and political literacy. We had to research these types of literacies to learn more about them. I was very interested in environmental literacy because i love geography (one of my teaching minors) and learning about why there are features and buildings where they are. I decided to explore interactive maps because I had seen from previous examples that one can take a Google map and personalize it to make the map their own. It took me some time to figure out how to make the map look the way I wanted, but after I figured out the little details the map was very easy to make! I could see myself using an interactive map in my classroom across many subjects! Students can create a map of the different stops travelers made along the Oregon trail to find land or students could locate different streets or places a character went in a book they are reading so they understand how far the character had to travel to get from one area to another! The map that I chose to do was looking at the locations of some coal-fired power plants and their distances away from state parks. I wanted to see if people thought about the locations of state parks before planting a coal-fired power plant that emits a lot of air pollution, which could end up killing off some plants and forcing animals to leave because of unhealthy conditions. Below is the link to the map I created. I encourage teachers to explore different types of formats to display information, especially through technology since it is becoming such an important feature in our classrooms.

Map!

Signing Music

Check out this video!

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/23928119

It's a second grade teacher that expresses music through sign language to deaf students. It first began with one of her friends being deaf and she wanted her to understand the feelings and emotions one can get from music and now she is using it in her classroom that is mostly deaf students. To me this is awesome and inspiring that you can do anything if you set your mind to it and that you can give your students some wonderful experiences no matter who they are. This teacher is seeing her students as assets to her classroom and is really using their skills and attributes to the fullest.

What I have learned...

This is my last required blog for my CEP class, but it defiantly will not be my last blog I will write. I have taken so much away from this class and can't wait to continue to explore what other types of technology are out there! An important thing I have learned from this class is that there are endless possibilities to use technology in the classroom. Before taking this class I thought using technology in the classroom meant using computers, projectors, ELMO's and SmartBoards, but nothing beyond that. Technology is more than the equipment that could be found in your classroom. It's more about the different programs and ways of communicating between people. This semester we were able to explore a different type of technology every week and from reading other people's blogs and doing some exploring on the Internet that there are thousands of ways to bring technology into the classroom. But it's not just knowing about these technologies that's important, you need to implement them! Bringing technology into the classroom will make lessons and what I'm teaching more engaging for my students. Technology is the future of schools and classrooms and that is something that we as teachers need to embrace and use in the classroom since students are going to be using technology in many aspects of their life. I want to learn even more about how I can integrate technology into my classroom and how to show other educators and administrators how important it is to use technology in the classroom. I plan on continuing to keep up with my blogging, expanding my portfolio and keeping up with other teachers and colleagues blogs. It's important to keep up with technology that is being invented every day because it is really going to influence how we teach in the classroom.