Plagiarism is away of stealing words that other have written or said. How can you steal words from someone? But words are meant to be said or written. This is a very good argument that students use to defend themselves from plagiarize. Most students plagiarize their work because they don’t now that is wrong. All their lives they have copied words from different sources like encyclopedias, books, and know the Internet and they never have told that they can use the words. It is very difficult understand that why the can use the words

AS educators we have to educate us first about what is really plagiarism and explain it to the students in ways that make sense to them. I didn’t know the different ways that you can plagiarize someone’s work until I had to write Graduate school’s papers. I did not know that using someone’s words with out acknowledge them was wrong. When I went to school long time ago, the word plagiarism was not used even though we had included a bibliography in our projects. I think we have to start teaching students what is plagiarism at early ages to avoid further confusions.

The use of blogs in the classroom is a form of enhancing writing in the classroom. Students can choose a topic to write a theme of their interest. And friends and other students are going to be able to read their blogs and to write any comments on them. But I wonder if the blogs are going to be effective for many students that English is their second language that struggle to even write a word.  In personal experience I feel very intimidated every time that I have to write a blog to an audience, Even though my classmates are the audience sometimes I feel very intimidated.  It takes me hours to think about what I have to write. I believe that blogging is a wonderful idea that  will enhance the performance of some writes but what about of those students that have trouble writing?

The use of blogs in the classroom is a form of enhancing writing in the classroom. Students can choose a topic to write a theme of their interest. And friends and other students are going to be able to read their blogs and to write any comments on them. But I wonder if the blogs are going to be effective for many students that English is their second language that struggle to even write a word.  In personal experience I feel very intimidated every time that I have to write a blog to an audience, Even though my classmates are the audience sometimes I feel very intimidated.  It takes me hours to think about what I have to write. I believe that blogging is a wonderful idea that  will enhance the performance of some writes but what about of those students that have trouble writing?

Smart boards seem to be a successful tool in the classroom. The visual images and the animations make instruction more appealing. Nowadays education has been innovated in many new forms, instruction has a new meaning. Today students have the advantage or privilege that forty or thirty years ago we did not have. In the past a regular classroom was a square or rectangular room with desks, backboards, chalk, or perhaps a typewriter. In present times education has taken a new lead. Classrooms are equipped with a diversity of technological apparatus. Today, a less fortunate classroom or a school in an urban area contains at least a computer and a LCD projector.

In my research I had the opportunity to observe various classrooms where smart boards are use in every day lessons. I observed three different classrooms. The classes that I observed were a bilingual math tenth grade, a seventh and eight-grade math, and ESOL class. 

The ESOL Teacher used the Smart Board in reviewing vocabulary and content area in Social Studies. She developed a jeopardy game in which a student was the moderator. The class as a whole participated in the activity. The students were engaged, excited, and did not want the class to end. The purpose of the activity was to ensure that the students would acquire the enduring understanding. At the end I had the opportunity to converse with the teacher and ask her some questions. As part of her answers she definitely acknowledges the wonderful gift of the Smart Board. The interactive tools make her class exciting and fun for English language learners. The innovative technology has the students at edge willing to participate

Among the cons, she finds that the Smart board is a very expensive piece of equipment and she is over jealous with it. At times she worries that the students will damaged the equipment. She never took any training and has been learning by doing.

In my opinion the use of the Smart Boards are very beneficial to the students of these classes. However I strongly believe that the students and teachers of classrooms that do not have the Smart Boards are at a disadvantage compared to the ones that do. I conclude that with the Smart Boards teachers are able to make students appreciated lessons in an interactive way. If more teachers were given the chance to teach with a Smart Board they would find more students interested in the lesson plan and school in general.

What is the idea behind the post cast? Pod cast is a piece of technology that can be used for anybody. Especially in the busy word that we living in. The beauty of the Pod cast is that people can listen to it during their time own time because it is archived in software. Some schools are piloting the use of Pod cast in school buses to maintain kids occupied during long trips back home. Kids don’t have to be bored wait to get home. With this piece of technology students have access to lesson’s notes recorded by teachers. I think that the integration of Pod cast in the curriculum with enhanced to students performance because they can create their own classroom presentation topics. Pod cast have unique features that allow students to record their own voices, select the music that identify them, and measure the tone of their voices that make the presentation meaningful to them.

During this semester I have learned a lot of topics in regards of Technology. My technology’s knowledge capacity was very limited, however I have improved with knew knowledge. Before the class started, I knew that technology was important in student’s education but I did not know how important it was.

In class, we studied diverse topics that were relevant to the student’s interest and their well beings. Technology has many features that can make lessons easier and attractive to students and teachers. If we want to teach this student’s generation, we have to innovate are technology skills.

One of my favorite’s topics was the Podcast Episodes. When I was creating my podcast I thought that it was a difficult task, however it was fun experience creating it. I just imaging my students creative their own podcast. Recording their notes for the class or presenting class topics recording their voices, selecting their own pictures and creating their experience in an interactive way.

Pod-casting , what a great idea . I can record my own video or sound track. It seems fun but at the same time you have to find the time to record it. It would be a good idea that students have access to create their own pod-cast about a project or a lesson.  I believe that  would be a manner to keep them engage in a lesson, especially because most students love computers and the idea of creating a piece of material with their own voice recorded and the music that they love ,It is priceless.

In our class we were talking about ciberbullying and the case of  eight   teenagers that lurked another teen and beat her up. I believe that these teens went to far. The perpetrators alleged that the victim made comments on them on My Space page. As  retaliation they kidnapped her and assaulted her. I did not think that they  measured the serious implications that they are facing. I’m glad the court intervened in this case, but I wonder if the video would be off the you tube page. This might cause further repercussions on both parties . The psychological  damage not just for the victim but also for the perpetrators. I wonder if any of the  perpetrators have any remorse for  what they have done?How society isgoing to see them ? Are they going to be glorified for their audacity or are they going to to be rejected?

Power point presentations are used in the classsrooms by many teachers. Some teachers use them as a tool for keep students quiet in the classroom. I have observed this particular inclusive Science class where the teacher  presents the lesson on a power point presentation.  I went in the classroom and I  noticed that the kids were very quietly copying the  notes written on the  powerpoint presentation. I said , this is a way of keeping kids engaged. But after the minutes passed some students gave up copying the notes because they could not keep up with the teacher. I guess she was reading and passing the slides to fast. Some kids were writing the notes but could not pay attention to the teacher because they wanted to copy the notes and pay attention to her at the same time. They were telling her to wait for them until they finish copying . I wondered, is that a good teaching strategy to teaching students with special needs.As we disscused in our last class I think it has to be a balance between the amount of writing in the powerpoint presention  and the teacher’s knowledge of content.

 Using Rubrics in the classroom  is another method of evaluating student’s performance. It is a scoring scale point system that allows  students and teachers  to focus on certain aspects of the task. Teachers decide in which areas he or she  wants to allocate the  points instead of using a percentage scale .Also  teachers have the alternative to assess students under a certain criteria selected. 

Rubrics allow  teachers to be more specific on how to assign points to required work. It is  important to discuss the rubric of the assignment with student before they start to work on a project. It helps them keep focus and  gives them the opportunity  to  emphasize certain aspects of  the product to have a good score.