Delicious Professional Development

Plagiarism, Copyright Reflection

I found that learning about these two things was very rewarding. I always knew that plagiarism was bad and things have to be properly cited. Once I become a teacher I think it is imperative that I am able to uncover those individuals that are choosing to copy and paste their assignments. I will only be helping them, because later on in life it is going to come back to haunt them. Making sure that my students are well informed about plagiarism not only deters them from using it because they know I know about it, but they can gain ways to avoid using it so they wont have to.

The copyright information was probably the most interesting thing I learned in this section. I never knew that you could not be allowed to watch a video which is not for an educational purpose. No more reward days for my future classes! I also found it crazy to believe that when showing a video in the classroom you are restricted to only using ten percent otherwise you will be infringing on the copyright. I have been apart of movies and clips which are much more than ten percent.

I believe that by teaching my class about the dangers of these two acts they will be better informed, which will result in less usage of either. They will know the consequences and know that I know them, so they will be less likely to dare to copy and paste in my classroom! This will inspire them to create much more creative works, and lead to better learning overall.

Excel Lesson Plan Reflection

Before the creation of this lesson plan I have only used Excel spreadsheets in regards to budgets and graphs. Now I am able to see that those are not the only things which are useful when it comes to spreadsheets. I was able to utilize the application in order to create a timeline which was much easier to design in Excel than it would have been in a Word document. The ability to merge cells and wrap the text is much easier than hassling with a text box. This ability to use Excel in new ways opens many doors when it comes to assignments for students.

The interactive spreadsheets were also interesting to learn about. I knew formula could be used in order to perform mathematics equations, but never had any idea they could be altered to show if answers were correct or not. This is a very useful tool when one is trying to integrate technology in the class room. It not only allows the students to become more familiar with Excel, but it also teaches them not to be afraid of it.

I know in many of my classes in high school the teachers seemed to be afraid of Excel, expect for the use of their gradebooks. I think with the teachers becoming more enlightened with its uses and abilities it will only cause increasing interest in the program. It is a very useful tool which will become part of my lesson plans in the future, not only for graphs but for it's interactive purposes as well.

PowerPoint Lesson Plan Reflection

In high school you are expected to be a proficient user of Power Point, however you are never specifically taught how to use it. In this class I have been able to utilize aspects of Power Point I never knew were possible. In learning these new skills I will then be more equipped to teach my students the things I know. This will allow them to produce better Power Points and help them in any future endeavours.

Not only does knowing how to navigate Power Point more efficiently help, seeing different ways students are able to use them for a project allows for more creativity. By choosing to utilize Power Point in the class room I am giving my students the ability to express their creativity through technology. They may choose to produce a linear Power Point or have one which is rifled with hyperlinks, either way students are able to create presentations while using technology.

I have also learned that presentations are an important part in the classroom. Most students want to show off their work, by creating Power Points this allows them to do so. I feel that if students know their work is going to have to be presented they are more likely to create better work. Peer pressure in some situations can cause those children who otherwise would slack off to actually show their true potential. Making children show their work allows me to better gauge what they are capable of, because I know they gave it their best attempt hopefully in order to not look foolish in front of their peers.