Video Reaction: Week #6

This week's video was called "Top Ten Things You Do Not Learn About Teaching in College".
This video was entertaining, but at the same time, some of the things I didn't get. I guess that is because I haven't ever taught school before! ...Maybe in a year or so, I will better understand why some of these things are funny.
I believe that the majority of this video is directed towards an elementary school teacher, rather than a secondary education teacher. This is because many of the things mentioned are associated with elementary school age students.
I thought that the teachers that made this film were quite clever. It is good to see teachers with a good sense of humor about the, perhaps more irritating, aspects of their jobs.
I hope that I can be able to look at the funny side of some of the difficult situations that I eventually find myself in while teaching. These teachers are a good example of finding the bright side of a bad situation.

Technology Article #2

I intend to use the Health Check tools found on Medline Plus. It is a government supported site, and so I know that it is a trusted resource. The URL for their Health Check Tools is:

w.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/interactivetools/index.html

The Health Check tools found on this site are very informative and useful in a Health Education setting. For example, the Alcohol-Use Quiz found in the Health Check tools can give students a realistic perspective on the costs of drinking really are - both health and monetary.
These Health Check tools cover an extremely broad range of subjects, making it a wonderful resource for students to become familiar with. If they become comfortable and familiar with this resource, it is one they can continue to use throughout their maturation process and into adulthood.
Many adolescents have questions about their own bodies that they may be embarrassed to ask a parent, adult or physician. This website gives them a place to investigate their concerns further, while knowing that they are going to be receiving accurate and trusted information.
Because these tools are interactive, they are extremely user friendly. They are easily listed under the part of the body affected, and then sub-listed by their symptoms so that students can easily locate on the site their area of concern or study.
I find this tool to be extremely useful, and I look forward to implementing its use in my classroom in the future.

Technology Article #1

One tool that I will use in my classroom is a body fat measurement hand-held device. This tool is an easy tool that students may use, if they wish, to measure their body fat percentage. This is a valuable tool for students to use because it gives an accurate look at personal health.
Many people firmly believe in using the Body Mass Index chart (BMI). It has been around for a very long time. I personally believe that Body Mass Index calculations do not always properly reflect health because of certain extremes in height or muscle mass. An individual may be above average in height and muscle mass, but be extremely active and athletic. This individual could appear to be in the overweight, or even obese categories on the Body Mass Index chart.
Using a body fat measurement tool along side a BMI chart can show a comparison between the two. Doing this will show if the BMI is accurate. It allows the student to accurately see if they are considered in a healthy range of body fat versus muscle mass, even if the BMI chart says they are overweight or unhealthy.
I believe using this tool will give students a realistic look at where they are with their health. It is very important to provide students with accurate information, especially when it comes to their own bodies. Adolescent kids already have such discomfort with their own bodies, and making them unnecessarily anxious when it isn't accurate can cause damage.
I look forward to providing my students with the most accurate information possible, using whatever tools I can realistically provide for them.

Reflection: Using the Internet in Education

The internet can be a very useful tool if we use it correctly. There are many wonderful resources that can be found online, and I believe we should utilize them. It is an important part of our job as educators in this day and age, that we be able to demonstrate to our students how to safely navigate the internet. Teaching our students to fear or avoid the internet is hindering them in their future success. To me, it is like telling a woodworker not to use a saw because he could cut himself. A saw is a useful tool, and if used correctly is safe. The internet is the same way. It is possible to teach students good judgment about internet safety.
As teachers, it is very important to evaluate the sites that we refer our students to for information. We must evaluate them in order to protect them from not only dangerous information, but also incorrect information. If we do not first evaluate them and make sure they are coming from a reputable source, our students could be misinformed. We also must first evaluate websites in order for the parents of our students to trust us and the information we provide. If we refer students to information that is dangerous to them, their parents will not be happy about it.

I would ask myself the following questions when evaluating a website:

1.Is this information appropriate for my students?
2.Is this information relevant to what my students are learning?
3.Does this website contain current and valid information?
4.Is this website published on a trusted and reputable domain?
5.Is this page the best source of information, or is there something better?
6.Does this website provide the author's contact information or biography?

Some ways to keep students safe while surfing is to use a content blocker. Schools are (or should be) equipped with content blockers to block inappropriate content. However, we must always preview any website we direct our students to visit in order to make sure they are getting the highest quality information. Teaching our students to also surf wisely and keep away from anything that appears to be inappropriate content will help them build their own net safety skills.

UEN Reflection

I found the UEN network to be a very useful tool for my future classroom.
The Pioneer Library was a great place to find information. I would have my future students use it to look up information for projects in my health, biology and anatomy classes. It is a good, relevant source of information that students can turn to without having to sort through non-scholarly articles on sites like Google.com.
The interactives are really cool. I would especially like to use it for my biology students, because it provides somewhat of a 'lab' experience with a little more flexibility. Students are able to see results from their experiments more rapidly than with regular experiments. It also allows them to do an experiment under ideal conditions, without such a large margin of error.
The lesson plan tools were FANTASTIC. I definitely plan on using them. Their nutrition unit that I looked up for my health students was really great. It gave a lot of creative ideas that I might not have thought of on my own. I definitely want to use them in my future teaching experiences.
The core curriculum was also useful. It outlined exactly what the state expects you to teach in your courses, in an easy accessible place to find it. I really enjoyed looking through the core curriculum for all of my classes I eventually will teach.
Another thing that I really liked were the inner components of Pioneer Library. The world articles were great to learn about other countries. In my biology classes I might be able to eventually integrate that if we are studying different environments for organisms around the world.
This was a time consuming, but very informative project. I felt that it was such a great resource that is probably under-utilized. I do plan on using it in my classroom and teaching experiences.