Week Five: Personality/Wiki Questions

I think that Wikis are very useful and can help to make teachers work more efficient. I think that I will definitely use a Wiki in my classroom. I would like to use one to post handouts, that way I don't have to print them off for students, but instead they can just download them. Also, it would be good to post notes so that students could print off what we're covering that day and be a little more prepared.

I definitely believe that learning by conversing is more effective than traditional learning. Students zone out when they are told something, but when they get to interact, they learn and get involved in the topic. We can see that this is true by just observing the differences in the atmospheres of two classrooms where one teacher is traditional in instruction and the other leans toward conversation in the classroom.

Students definitely learn differently, partly due to their personalities. I think that to know if a student is an introvert or an extrovert would help tremendously in whether you can call on a student and they can handle it or not. Also, it can help you to understand why students write about the topics they do and how to handle behavioral situations with certain students.

Kayla Morgan
ETEC 424

Week 4: Excel Questions

I think that spreadsheet is useful and makes life easier when it comes to quick formatting and such things. But I don't think I would use it in my classroom for gradebook. Maybe when I'm making a material aid I could use it, but it seems like it would take more time than using something like Word.

Teachers can use spreadsheets for multiple reasons. In my class, I could use a spreadsheet to create a reading list. It would allow me to sort the list with titles in one column, authors in another, and date to read them by in the third. I could easily sort them by date, author, or alphabetically with the titles. Spreadsheets allow you to highlight cells and it calculates totals for you which eliminates the mistakes that could be made when using a calculator. I think that spreadsheets are most effective in business settings. I use them often in my accounting classes and think that they were designed for that exact purpose. Other uses can be found, but they are best in business.

Kayla Morgan
ETEC 424

Week 3: Inspiration Questions

Inspiration seems like an amazing way to form online diagrams and outlines easily and efficiently. It gives students a creative way to form a diagram. I love that they can create links to videos and make drop down notes on certain topics. The templates for everything also are great because give help, but still make students think through their subject matter. The students can use inspiration for all of their subjects. Inspiration would be great in my class because it would make breaking down literature easier on students. They could organize the notes on character summaries, plot summaries, and more in a way that would make it easy for them to understand on an individual level.

I think that journal blog entries and using the Inspiration technology for online outlines on plot summaries in literary analysis would be great. I think to have students create group assignments where each student is equally responsible for the outcome is a great way to get everyone involved. It's a little easier to observe three groups of six than to observe eighteen individuals. Students could post blog entries as journals or creative writing assignments and students could post responses to each other's entries, much like we are doing in this class.

Kayla Morgan
ETEC 424

Questions Week 2

I think using blogs can be useful in the classroom. As a future English teacher, I can see the benefits in having my students create classroom blogs to use for journal entry assignments. I would be able to monitor their work but they would have the ability to be an individual and get creative with their blog. I think that blogs could easily become a waste of time if the teacher doesn't keep a close eye on things and actually check the students' work. It all depends on the teacher. Technology is important in the classroom but it can become a hindrance. Depending on technology too much can be bad because it doesn't always work. But when it does, it is more efficient. I like the idea of using the blogs for journals and maybe even creative writing assignments and maybe even using places such as wikispaces for handouts that are sent directly to students without the necessity of printouts, etc.

Kayla Morgan
ETEC 424-02

A Little Information...

Hi, I'm Kayla D'Ann Morgan. I am 19 years old and the middle child in my family. My parents are David and Donita Morgan and I have two syblings, Haley, 20, and Cody, 16. I grew up in Sulphur Springs, Texas where I attended SSHS and played varsity volleyball. That was my entire life. Now, I am a student in the Honors College and this is my second year at TAMU-Commerce. I am an English and Secondary Education major and want to one day teach at the University level. I plan to get my Master's once I finish with my Bachelor's Degree.

Kayla Morgan
ETEC 424-02