Electronic Portfolio Address

The link to my electronic portfolio is the following:

www.brendankeats.webnode.com

Hope you enjoy it!

The End of Technology...(Class)

Seems like I just published my first blog yesterday..and now I am writing my final one. This semester has been a great one. I learned how to blog, how to use a MAC, how to create and edit videos, tag videos to Youtube, play with Excel, create Smartboard projects, publish links to Delicious, read articles on Diigo, create a PowerPoint, make an Electronic Portfolio and become more comfortable and familiar with technology and the uses inside of the classroom.

Walking into my first Graduate class, I didn't know what to expect. Quickly I became comfortable. With great instruction from my Professor, a little help from the guy sitting next to me, and many jokes later, I felt right at place. I had a great time learning about the applications of technology in the classroom. Each night after class, I called my mom and told her the new things that I learned that night. Although my mom was a teacher for 35 years, she never really used technology in her classroom but could tell that the information I was being taught would absolutely be helpful in my career as a teacher. I told her about the websites that we played around with. She even sent out a school wide email to the teachers in her school telling them about a few websites we used in class (websites with Rubic's and fun games for the students).

I really did enjoy everything I learned in class. I enjoyed the company, the professors guidance and friendship and the material we covered. There was never a dull moment, the pace of the class went quickly which kept things energetic for a night class and interactive. Although I decided to move onto another Grad Program, I definitely intend to take the material that I learned in class with me and absolutely intend to use it! I appreciate you as a teacher and your fun methods of teaching and how the class was run. Thanks for a great semester!

Copyright

Worrying about being a good teacher, preparing your students for tests, grading homework, meeting the PA standards and keeping up with the curriculum, and on top of it all, teachers need to worry if they will be fined or jailed for breaking copyright laws! Ridiculous in my opinion.

-Don't tape programs that you find interesting and show them to your students unless copyright laws allow it
-Don't make copies of software that you own and bring it in to share with your students
-Don't copy cartoon characters and post them on your bulletin board to brighten up your classroom
-Don't give your students handouts with proper copyright laws being observed

Being a good teacher and teaching great lesson plans and worrying about breaking federal laws shouldn't be a concern that teachers have to deal with.

I understand that writers don't appreciate people stealing their work. When they work hard to get their books and essays published, and in turn have students take their work and pass it off as their own, it is upsetting...and I think that those students should be punished. However, having the copyright police teachers who are just trying to create a meaningful lesson to help their students is absurd. Teachers who have to worry about breaking federal law to be a good teacher by providing resources needed to present a memorable lesson plan shouldn't be prosecuted. In my classroom, I will try to observe and adhere to all the federal copyright laws, however I will continue to provide resources to my students without having to look over my shoulder each time I make a copy. Students deserve a good education and to worry and sometimes breaking some rules is what it takes to achieve it.

Video Project

Working with Justin on our group video project was a very exciting, intriguing, and innovative experience. From brainstorming ideas, to doodling the scenes, to shooting our video, the entire experience was very fun. As a student and a future teacher, I can absolutely see the impact of using video in the classroom. It is creative and fun! I had a blast coming up with the ideas of how we were going to shoot our scenes and editing our video. And although it was tedious at times, the editing was creative. From fading scenes, to adding music in the background, I found the project to be an enjoyable experience. I look forward to applying the same experience in my own classroom. I am sure my students will enjoy it as well.

The Importance of Video

Sports Update:
Giants Lost :( Can't stay undefeated forever
Yankees are up 2 games to 0 against the Angels. They are playing and winning right now. Hopefully by the end of this post, they will be 3-0.

Educational entertainment has taken over. Michael Moore pokes fun at politics, the economy, and big businesses all while keeping his audience entertained and educated at the same time. Youtube has become addictive. Whether I need a tutorial video to help with downloading app's on my iphone, or a quick laugh watching the best man stumble giving the groom the ring and knocking the bride and the priest off the alter and into the pool, Youtube is helpful, humorous and a hell of a good pastime.

In my classroom, I intend to use videos found online to help my students learn the material better while keeping them both entertained and involved. I can teach the kids about dinosaurs and show them a video about the hunting habits of the most successful dinosaurs. I can view videos that other teachers have bookmarked and found to be beneficial in their classrooms. I can watch a video of a teacher teaching a lesson to his/her class and use tips to incorporate in my own classroom. I can educate myself about the material I am teaching by watching video tutorials and documentaries before I start my lesson.

Videos could have helped me while I was an undergrad as well. Incorporating links to videos that pertain to the information I was presenting a project on would have kept my presentation a bit more interesting while keeping a few seniors awake. Presenting my senior project on Serial Killers to my entire Criminology class might have earned me a higher grade. Finding interviews, news coverage and crime scene video of Ted Bundy's mas acres would have been pretty cool. As I type into Google: Video, Serial Killers this pops right up..."Whether or not your looking for a 20 second video on Charles Manson, or a 1 hour video on Richard Ramirez, YouTube.com has exactly what you want". ...
I wish I knew that before I presented my project. Could have turned that B+ to an A-.

Well the Yankees and Angels are tied 3-3 right now in the bottom of the 7th. You'll hopefully understand that I have to end this blog and get back to watching this game before I miss something that I will have to later find of Youtube.

Chapter 8 & Success in the Net Gen

Well..by now you may know that the NY Giants are 4-0, and the NY Yankees won the AL East. I'll keep the updates coming...

Chapter 8: When I graduated in 2007 (only a little over 2 years ago) I never took an online course. I never blogged. I never read an online text. I never communicated with my professors via email. Today, I am blogging, reading, reacting, and emailing daily. Education through the Internet has grown incredibly. The active learning that can be accomplished is remarkable. Online live lectures and webinars have replaced uninteresting and tedious monotoned in class sermons. Blogs have replaced classroom journals. Online text books have replaced the over priced real things. And although we can never fully replace traditional forms of educational resources, we can continue to learn and explore the Internet and the educational materials that it has to offer.

To be successful in the Net Generation, I must continue to update myself with information. Continue to use online resources like social bookmarking and blogging. I must attend all that is out there. Webinars, seminars, lectures, and conventions. Communicate with teachers all over the world to gain new ideas for the classroom. I must integrate what I learn from the Internet and share it with my students in the classroom. I must listen to my students because eventually they will know more about the Internet and technology than I will. Communicate, Listen, Share and Explore are vital to be successful in the Net Gen.

Social Booking-HW for Week #5

While watching the Eagles game (unfortuantly, because PA doesn't show NY Giants games!) I just created my Diigo page. With 20 bookmarks, 40 tags, and 0 friends, I think that diggo will be a very helpful resource as a student and eventually as a teacher. Whether I am looking for ideas for lesson plans, fun activities for the students, busy work or creative projects, I can view other peoples bookmarks and explore some practical ideas.

Excel in the Classroom:
1. Candy Games/Statistics: Give each student a bag of M&Ms and have them make a spreadsheet in excel marking down the percentages of the different colors in each bag. Make a graph of the most popular color, least popular color etc. Make it into a fun, creative way to learn about percentages, graphing, and statistics.

2. Sports: Students track their favorite sports teams by making an excel spreadsheet of wins/losses/players stats/total points per game/averages etc. This would be a fun project for the students to do. It is a long term project that will help them improve their mathmatical skills, graphing skills, averages, percentages etc. (ex. March Madness)

3. Create a boardgame: I did this activity in 4th grade and I remember it was a blast. Have the student work in groups and create their own board game involving a lesson/subject that you have taught to them. Have the students play their games in their groups and also play other groups games as well.

4. Heads or Tails: Have the students break into groups. Have them flip a coin and record how many times heads comes up and tails comes up. Transfer their findings into percentages and share their findings with the class.

5. Who cost more: Break the class into boys vs. girls. Have each student record how much money they spend each week (on clothes, food, snacks, etc). At the completion of each week, each student enters their recordings into excel and the boys add their costs up as do the girls. At the end of the semester see which gender spent more and on what kinds of things. Could be fun?

Just got an update that the Giants are winning!

Google Apps-Class # 4 HW

Besides being one of the most dull, boring, monotoned videos I have ever seen, the google apps videos and content gave me an insight into how google apps works. As a "soon to be/not soon enough" teacher, I can absolutly see how google apps can be helpful and practicle in the classroom. This resource allows teachers to chat, IM, and email each other from all across the world. You can create a calander to organize your lesson plans, events and assignments in the classroom. You can explore sites that other teachers have found useful and also share your sites and documents with other teachers. You can find website creation tools that allow you to create websites about your expereinces in the classroom. The interaction between the teaching community across the world and you allow for you to connect with other educators and discuss their findings. Not only does this create a helpful tool for you (the teacher) but gives your students resources that they may have never heard of before.

Lesson Plan #1: Erosion
Disucuss Erosion; What is it? Where do you find it? Why does it happen? How does it occur? Ect. Have the students create a project dealing with their findings with erosion. Create an online presentation consisting of pictures that they found online of evidence of erosion, places, monuments, buildings where erosion is present, facts that they have learned about erosion, investigative findings that they have done regarding erosion.

Historical Novel: "My Brother Sam is Dead". A novel about the American Revolution. This lesson can be applied to both Reading and History. This google app allows the students to discuss what they have read in a blog form, use the helpful activities online about the book in better understanding the American Revolution, sharing their discussions with other students in google apps, write journal entries that can be shared with their peers and students across the world, post reflections and disucussions, work with "writing partners" which are collaborators in DOCS, and allows the teacher to evaluate their writings, thoughts, discussions on google apps.

Student Perspectives/R/W

As I write my blog, I am listening to music on i-tunes, I have MTV Cribs playing in the background, I am messaging friends on facebook, and I am doing laundry. My parents would be so ashamed! Every day after school I would come home, sit at the kitchen table, do my homework without ANY distractions, have my parents review the work I had completed and then I could go play. Now..I couldn't imagine focusing on only one thing. Multi-tasking has become a way of life. Trying to keep my grades up in high school all while volunteering in the afternoons and interning on weekends, I learned early on that accomplishing multiple tasks at once beats out focus and concentration any day. Sad..but..true.

I enjoyed reading a "Student's Perspective". The writer reminded me of myself. Piling on internships mixed with volunteering, choosing to read articles online rather than in newspapers, reading quickly just to get through the miserable book. Being a student is the only thing I have ever known. And although I look forward to becoming a teacher, I will continue to be a student as well. I learn new things everyday. Websites that help me with my homework, Podcasts that keep me updated with current events, online discussion boards that give me insight into other peoples perspectives. With a debit card in hand, an i-phone in pocket, and a laptop in tow, I continue to learn precisely how to be a successful student.

Read/Write Tools: Blogging is definitely new to me. I have read other peoples blogs before on ESPN.com and CNN.com but now that I am the one doing the writing, I like the freedom and the creativity blogging presents.

RSS: Something I will definitely set up on my computer in the coming days. Rather than having to visit numerous amounts of websites, only going to one place to read the blogs makes it a lot more convenient.

Podcasts: I have used podcasts before. My father listens to the NPR Podcast on a daily basis, and though his Digital Immigrant knowledge prevents him from doing certain things on the Internet, he has turned me on to podcasts.

Streaming Video: This seems like a neat tool to present to any classroom or as an assignment from homework. Interactive, creative, and fun.

www.google.com/educators/p_docs.com/html
Google docs is a great resource. I will definitely apply this to my classroom as well as using it myself.

Digital Natives vs. Net Gen

I am a 24 year old graduate student. My iPhone accompanies me wherever I go, I am addicted to facebook, I organize my schedule for the day by whats on TV, and my day is ruined when the server is down. I would say I am a product of the Net. Gen. My parents however still own flip phones, watch PBS, and read the New York Times at the kitchen table every morning. They would be considered Digital Immigrants. My father has helped edit my papers since my freshman year. I sit in my college dorm room, write a term paper in Microsoft Office, send him the finished draft in an email (not as a link, instead I copy and paste the entire Word document in the email because he does not understand how to download the pdf format) and he prints the paper out and edits it while sitting at his desk; typical Digital Immigrant. He then makes his corrections on the paper, goes back to his computer and makes the corrections on the computer screen, then sends it back to me to read, print and turn in. Its a great father/son, writer/editor, Net. Gen/Digital Immigrant relationship.


The concepts stated in the article make complete sense. I like to work in groups, learning is defenitly more fun when it is interactive, and I am a better student when my professor shares the same passion for technology as I do. It's cool to see my professor engaged in a conversation on their blackberry! Its even cooler when I can friend them on facebook! Digital natives at times cannot relate to their professors. Where we use LOL, JK, and FML, they use facetious, pull a leg, and I Am Distressed. The language may have changed through technology, but the messages remain the same. The attack on Pearl Harbor caused America to enter WWII, A+B=C, and water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. The objective is never-ending. Continue to find new methods to teach by while incorporating the same concepts that we have been taught for years. Create an App that allows us to disect a frog, have the entire class blog their journal entries, and text the teacher with the answers to the quiz. By creating new technological ways to interact with students, the Net. Gen, Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants can all finally get on the same homepage.

First Graduate Class

Almost done with my first graduate class. It was a fun time. Should be a good semester...