Week 13

Teachers are some of the best designers there is! We are always thinking and using creativity in ways to further our students learning and knowledge. 
After reading chapter 8 I think Scratch is a really cool program for a theatre classroom.  It allows the students to use and manipulate audio tracks and music as well as video.  I would use this in the rehearsal process. 
I would also like to use the DigitalStorybook.  I would use it to see what the students are learning about the script or play we are studying.
Math was always a hard subject for me. The visual Aid that helped me the most in math was simple graghs and charts.

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R. M., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Week 11 Blog post

I believe the three most important principles for education are 1) Multimodal Principle- Meaning and knowledge are built through various modlities, for example, images, texts, symbols, interactions, abstract design, and sound. I think I can relate this to theatre since we have to design and create what is a make believe world to us but reality to the audience. 2) Active, Critical Learning Principle- All aspects of the learning enviornment (including the ways in which the domain is designed and presented) are set up to encourage active and critical, not passive, learning.  I think this is important because the learning enviornment plays a huge role in the students interest and concentration. 3) Committed Learning Principle- Learners participate in an extended engagement (lots of effort and practice) as extensions of their real-world identities in relation to a virtual identity to which they feel some commitment and a virtual world that they find compelling.
I would use Urban Simulations in my theatre class. I would use this because once character roles are given out it is extremely important that the student "becomes" the character. The students could create their character in the simulations and interact as that character would. Character building is a huge part of the process of putting a show on stage. 
I would conclude that Gee's Principles are very good guidelines to use for education.

Jonasse D., Howland J., Marra R. M., & Crismond D. (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Week 7 Assignment

After reading chapter four I feel that I would most likely use concept maps in my classroom to help students organize their thoughts when analyzing a script or play.  Concept maps can be used to breakdown a character's profile as well.  Teaching theatre, I will most likely not be in a regular classroom but instead a theatre so the use of computers will be minimal; however for homework assignments, the computer concept maps will be great. 
PowerPoints can be very helpful in the classroom but they can be a distraction as well.  I think that if you watch how many sound effects you use as well as what type of slide transitions, fonts, colors, and the amount of information on each slide you should be fine.  Students get interested in the " bells and whistles" of your presentation and forget that they need to be paying attention.  Streamlining your PowerPoint to being interesting but direct and not overly long will allow more students to stay interested in the presentation material instead of the fancy details.
To conclude chapter four I am excited to incorporate concept maps into my lessons as a study tool and organizing instrument for the students.  I also now know to be careful when creating PowerPoints so that I do not lose the interest of my students. 


Elizabeth Linkous

Week Six Assignment

Personal Digital Assistants are sometimes called handheld computers.  Students can use them in the classroom to graph data, work math problems, as well as keep multiple files at hand full of information that might be useful to the student.

We use online survey tools to assess knowledge and gather data.  The online survey tools help in the classroom by showing teachers if their students retained the information they taught them.  Teachers can test their teaching methods by using these surveys.  By reading the results a teacher can tell if students responded well or poorly to a certain lesson or method.  I think that two good rules for writing good surveys are, number one, make the questions clear.  In making sure that the question is clear there is little room for a student to not understand a question which could potentially mess up the results.  The second rule in making good surveys in my opinion is to make sure that the questions cover exactly the material you want tested and only that information.  If there are more than one topic in a survey and the results showed that students had trouble, you would not know with which topic they had trouble with.

In conclusion I think that online surveys tools are very helpful to the teacher and have many uses.  I also believe that we will be seeing more and more schools using Personal Digital Assistants in the classroom, which will help the students with assignments and classwork.

Spreadsheet Assignment

I believe there are somethings that spreadsheet is useful for but I dont think I will use it much in my classroom.  I suppose because you only have to enter in the formula one time and it will do the work for you it is better than a calculator because when using a calculator you have to press in the formula every time.  I have a hard time letting technology take control, personally, so I would rather have to manually figure out the answer every time. Teachers use spreadsheets to record data, create assignments and take attendance.  I like the idea of using speadsheets to take attendance and record data but I am not so sure about creating assignments.  I think maybe I am just not comfortable with the technology enough yet to create assignments with it.  I am excited to learn more about it though! Hopefully I can use it in my classroom at some point.

Inspiration Assignment for Etec 424

     After viewing the website I found that the Inspiration software has multiple tools that could help me in the classroom.  As a theatre teacher, I am always looking for fun ways for the students to learn and process the information of a lesson.  In theatre we take a play and basically break it down completely and to have an organized chart or diagram would be ideal.  There is so much information to process when going through a play that these diagrams will help the students organize their thoughts and study material.
     After reading chapters four and five in the textbook I am excited to use writing, oral presentations , and research in my classroom.  I think these options are the best for a theatre classroom. The students can read a play and write about the message they got out of it or what it means to them.  Oral presentations are an obvious choice for a theatre classroom, given that speaking in front of others is a huge part of theatre.  Research can be used as a helpful tool when students are needing to find information on characters and time periods and things of that nature.  Having the students help each other on assignments is really important in a theatre classroom because theatre is such a group effort.  A play can not be put on by one person only. Having students help eachother brainstorm and help put thoughts together will be a successful tool in the classroom.  I remember when I taught my first theatre lesson, I went into it thinking I knew exactly how it would go but by the end I had completely changed my thoughts on how to teach it.  Afterwards I don't think I knew more about the subject as much as I knew more about how the students would react to the subject.
     In conclusion, the website and textbook helped motivate me to think about different ways to help my students process the information I will be teaching them.  I am excited to use these tools in teh classroom!

Classroom assignment for ETEC 424

What do you think about using blogs? What and how do you think blogs would be useful for education? Some people think using blogs in classrooms is a waste of students’ time. How would you respond?

 I think blogs are fine to use.  I don't know that I would use them in my classroom but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be used.  If I were to use blogs in my classroom I would use it as a way for the students to express their options freely.  I wouldn't say that blogs are a waste of students' time.  I think I would consider blogs something students do in their free time, to discuss and share with others about what happened in school that day or a topic that made them start thinking.  Blogs are not what I am used to in the classroom though, as an assignment.

 What are some ways that you could use he technology ideas in Chapter 6 to support your curriculum and student learners?

   I honestly don't know enough about the technology ideas in Chapter 6 to use them in my classroom. For me to use it in my classroom I would have to be 100% confident with the technology.  I am not confident with anything other than basic computer technologies.  I am learning and my goal is to be more familiar with other technologies so that I can use them in my classroom but right now I am far from that. 

Introduction

Hello! My name is Elizabeth Linkous! I am 22 years old and currently a Senior at Texas A&M University at Commerce. I am a Theatre major getting my Teaching Certification.  I love watching and playing sports. Volleyball is my favorite sport to play and Football is my favorite to watch! I have a wonderful family that supports me! I live with my mom and her partner and they are two of the best people I know! I grew up in Princeton WV. I am dating Chris Smith, who makes my life worth living! <3 We are in a long distance relationship right now and it is really tough but he is worth it! I work at the Greenville YMCA as the site Director for the after school program.

Elizabeth Linkous