Blog Post #6: Copyright

"How can fair-use benefit you as a teacher?"

Fair-Use is such an important principle when it comes to teaching. It means that I can use parts of copywrited videos and texts for educational purposes in my classroom. If fair-use did not exist, I would have to come up with all of my own original materials and videos to go beyond the scope of the textbook to teach my students. Being able to use outside resources without the fear of being sued or having to pay a lot of money is a great tool for education. There are so many great resources out there that are great for teaching our students and fair-use expands our possibilities greatly! I still wouldn't be able to use large amounts of copyrighted material and it would depend upon the source and the value of the source. Also the fact that I would be using it for non-profit educational purposes means that I would most likely be protected under the law.

Blog Post #5: Making Movies

I have always been a fan of using movies in the classroom. Movies have the ability to capture the attention of students and get messages across in way that a teacher could never do without this technology. Movies can incorporate many different learning styles into one lesson. Personally, movies affect me far more than words alone. Just last week we watched a video on the effects of drunk driving and it really impacted me. The combination of music and visual images along with the statistics was very powerful.
I think that incorporating videos into the classroom is a great tool for teachers. It can be both a great teaching and great learning tool. Movies are attention getters and that is great for teaching in middle and high school settings. Movies have the ability to make the students care more.
I had to make a couple of videos for my college english class my senior year of highschool. I remember it being a lot of complicated and confusing work but it was very satisfying when the end project turned out well. I still have those videos today and have to laugh when I watch them. It was me and my three best friends making a movie about gender roles and the stereotyping of women. Haha, it was good times :) I just hope I find movie making a little easier this go around!

Project #1 I FINISHED MY WEBSITE!!!

I finally finished my website and I think it looks pretty good! Hooray! I think I included everything that is required so hopefully I didn't miss something. This was a very good skill to learn!


http://sites.google.com/site/mrsdayshealthclass/home

Blog Post #4: Personal Learning Networks

Personal Learning Networks are a great way to stay informed, involved, and to stay active in life-long learning. I explored the websites freetech4teachers, another sight that lists content for K-12 teachers, and the ItunesU applications. All of them seem like they will be great tools in my personal learning network. The great thing about the first two sights I explored was that they are incredibly applicable to my future career as a teacer. Both allow me to connect with others to share content ideas and to use new technological ideas in my classroom. I like how freetech4teachers keeps me up to date with the newest technologies being used in the classrooms. ItunesU is a great way to stay connected with latest event in the world through a variety of podcasts.

I added the sights for freetech4teachers and the K12 Content one to my blog through the use of a new gadget. This new gadget is called Websites I Like and allows me to put links to my favorite websites directly on my blog. Should be pretty handy dandy!