Excel

In the past I have worked with microsoft excel.  When I first started working with it, it was difficult for me to get used to all the tools it has.  Now that I have spent some time with it, I really like this program.  I feel that excel is a useful tool that all teachers should learn how to use.  There are so many ways to use this software that will save a great amount of time in the classroom and with grading.  I will definatley use microsoft Excel when I get a teaching job.

As a teacher we can use excel for many things, we can use it for a gradebook, and we can use it for classroom projects.  The advantage of using a spreadsheet over a calculator is thta the excel program will do all of your calculations for you.  In the book it talks about the three primary functions of excel spreadsheet.  I think all three would be very useful for a teacher.  I am not sure what else  you can use excel for but now that I know how to use it im sure i will find different ways to use this program to mine and the students advantage.

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R. M., Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning with technology. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

Assignment 3 Blog Posting

After watching the inspiration video I really liked this idea.  I would really be able to use something like that for brainstorming.  The inspiration even puts together an outline of what you are doing while you are working on your assignment.  I think I could really use this in the classroom.  When you are making a chart or table explaining something to the students the system automatically makes an outline for you.  This would help you as well as the students in understanding the material better.

I would say that this system would best be used for things like book reviews and taking notes for chapters out of your assigned readings.  I am still mainly focused on the fact that it puts an outline together for everything you do.  That has to be one of the best complements to a writing system that I have seen so far.  So not only will the student turn in their brainstorm but with it would come an outline of everything they have done.   This would make it much easier for the teacher to make corrections and for the student to fix the corrections.

All in all I think that the inspiration technology is the best writing system that has come out yet.  This is a high quality system that would help the students and the teacher.  The only thing that I could see as an issue with this is that it has to be expensive.  And the way the economy is and the rough times that everyone is facing, it is hard to get this system in the classroom.  But if this was accessable to me as a teacher I would definatley use this program.

.Inspiration Videos and Webcasts for Using Visual Learning In Your Classroom. (2010). Retrieved September 13, 2010, from Inspiration Software, Inc.: http://www.inspiration.com/videos/Inspiration

Intro

Ok so im Daniel, I am new to this whole blogging thing.  I am not a huge fan of this whole blogging thing but its not hard to do.  I can see how this blog thing can be used in the classroom.  I personally do not thing I would use this as a teacher but it does seem to be an effective way of getting things done.

DanielStantz

Personally my oppinion on blog postings is that I do not like how this works.  I don't have a real reason for not liking this, I'm just not a fan of blogging.  I feel for some kids that blogging might be useful because it is kind of a fun way to communicate with your classmates.  Also when you post a blog everyone can see what you had to say.  With this you can get more responses and feedback from other people that are not in your class.  I can see how some people think that blogging is a waste of time.  But even though I do not like the blogging thing, there is a lot of good feedback that the students may get from outside sources. 

Technology is a very big thing these days in the classroom.  Technology can be used to support your curriculum as a teacher.  As a teacher you can better communicate with your students with blogging and email.   An example of helping a teacher, for a geography class the kids can use the internet to find games and maps to look at.  English teachers can post a blog for their students to look at and correct the grammer and punctuation.  Like I said before, I am not a big blogger fan but it can help the learning process for kids, and it is a fun way to do school work.

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R. M., Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning with technology. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.