At the beginning of this course I was unsure if teaching is for me.  I have always wondered about teaching but I never knew as much about it as I would like to.  After taking this course and seeing what teachers do, I decided to substitute teach.  After that it is confirmed that I do want to teach.  I look forward to integrating technology to make new things and make old things better.

Each individual school has its own culture.  According to this "mini-culture", technology is either greeted with open arms or confronted with a fear of the unknown.  As time goes on I believe this culture will be changes and technology accepted. All of the money in the world is of no use if the products purchased with it sit on the shelf.

http://www.hpol.org/  This is an awsome website with many historical speech with many historical speeches by famous people.  There are a lot of lesser known speeches also. 

http://tosa.pausd.org/techtosa/highlinks.html  I don't ever plan on teaching in Palo Alto but they have a great website for history teachers.  They must have a great History department as we..

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/  This seems like a well designed website with many resources for teachers.

http://www.historyteacher.net/  Geared toward high school history teachers this site offers a lot of tools.  Many things are made easier and take the leg work out of trying to find resources on an individual basis.

http://www.ccisd.net/teaching/courses/socialstudies/  This is the homepage of the school district's social studies website that I plan to teach at upon graduation.  I like to check it from time to time.

http://www.besthistorysites.net/  This is easily my favorite history website.

http://www.history.com/classroom/  Possibly a history teacher's best kept secret.  Numerous classroom ideas are the focus.  There is even a classroom calendar to help one stay organized.

http://www.neh.gov/projects/landmarks-school.html  This site provides grants for in depth studies in the classroom.

http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/student8.html  Teacher of the year award in history.  I think it is always the best to strive to be the best.

http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/student8.html  A professor in California has gathered all of the best social studies lesson plans from the internet.  Great way to at least get an idea for a lesson plan!

                                                               Article Reviews

National Education Technology Plan:  I am a big fan of No Child Left Behind.  The National Education Technology Plan looks like it takes it a step further.  A lot of people are changing their careers to teaching because of No Child Left Behind and I like the way that NETP takes it a step further with increased mentoring and teacher training.  I never heard of this plan but I like it.  Hopefully it will continue to grow with popularity.

NETS: National Education Technology Standards: for Students, for Teachers and for Administrators:  I like the premise of this project which is to create "technology literate students".  There are so many different focuses on the classroom and students, not very much focus is geared specifically toward technology.  As time goes by and teachers retire, their younger predecessors will have the tools they need with the National Education Technology Plan.

Adopt and Adapt:  This article helped me understand the difference between teaching the same old thing a new way and doing new things new ways.  During a lot of our assignments that involve using applications I visualized doing old things with these programs which are new things.  Make sense?  I enjoyed the section of the article discussing simulations.  I have always thought that video games like Sid Meir's Civilization are awsome educational tools because they incorporate fact, i.e. a river makes a city grow, and reasoning skills, i.e. build a railroad to transport resources.  I think that the tech barrier "one to one" is the most relevant because I have seen it first hand.  There was a program in my high school called CAT(Center for Advanced Technology).  This program allowed students to use a laptop for an entire semester.  The results were very positive as it promoted discussion among students regarding the use of their laptops.

High School.com:  I did not realize high school students take online classes until after reading this article.  The point I found most interesting is that students who attend schools that do not have the resources to provide certain classes do not get "short changed" so to speak.  I do find it true that it is easier to be vocal and communicate with one's instructor and classmates in an online environment.  As mentioned in the article, I see finding qualified/motivated teachers being a challenge.  It seems like it can be easy for an instructor to give reading assignments followed with a multiple choice quiz and be done with it at the expense of little to no classroom interaction.  A challenge virtual educe ation phases is a negative stigma from the "degree mills".  It seems like virtual education is gaining a better image for the most part though.


Apple Learning Interchange:  I loved this website.  I can see myself using it to help me with next semester courses lol.  The interfase is very simple, reminded me of youtube.  For myself when I am learning how to teach, some of these videos will help me with presentation.  I had trouble finding a teacher at the time of writing this, my fault.  I showed it to a co-worker that works for the state and is a retired teacher.  He told me that it is pretty neat but it would take a lot of time and be easier to do it himself.  I guess he meant make lesson plans?  I think he was in a bad mood.

                                                 Altec

RubiStar:  I never knew what a rubric was until my professor last semester in my Technology in Society class based our final paper on one.  After that I grew  fond of them as they provide a student with a firm grasp of what is expected of them for.  I wondered what program I could use to make one, and now I know.  I can see myself using RubiStar.


NoteStar:  I like this site a lot.  It seems like a powerful tool for research papers.  It helps students visualize an outline they way it should be.  Once a students gets the basics down as far as making a thesis and supporting it, they will be more effective writers.  The research data is a valuable tool in a simple format.  Great site all around.

 4Teachers.org:  This looks like a good website for a teacher to have as a classrom computer homepage.  A good list of useful tools and information are all on one page.