Rising Star

To celebrate a friend's birthday a few of us went to Universal's City Walk to consume some adult beverages and have a good time. While there, we decided to see what Rising Star was all about. If you don't know, Rising Star is a karaoke joint that has a full band playing a slew of songs for the attendants to attempt to sing. We all thought it would be a great idea to write down the two songs we would like to sing - there was a list of 100+ songs to choose from. One of the songs we thought about choosing was by the Backstreet Boys, but only two people were allowed on stage at a time. That was a bummer. Anyways, we all wrote down the two songs we would want to sing. Luckily, my name was never drawn because I simply cannot sing well. Birthday boy's name was drawn though. He got up and sang some country song; I don't even know the name because country music just isn't my thing. It was pretty bad; at the same time it was hilarious. Needless to say, if you and some friends want to have a fun time I recommend Rising Star. It's cheap and will provide for an evening of laughter, I'm sure.

Tech Exploration

1. I consider myself a digital resident. It wasn’t until sophomore year of high school I joined a social media site, and to this day I don’t participate too much with social media. I do find myself to be well versed in the digital world because I have been literate with computers and tech since middle school. There is still so much that I can learn in terms of the digital world, which is why I don’t consider myself a native.

2. VoiceThread is a device I once used in another class. It didn’t tickle my fancy, but I do think it is a good device. Personally, I prefer other technological threads to use.

3. I have used GoodReads for a while now and I think it is great. Usually I don’t get sucked into websites like this, but GoodReads is a website that I have continued using after creating an account for it a few semesters ago in another class. Prezi is a cool presentation device. I don’t have a great deal of experience with it, as I have only used it a total of 2 or  3 times, but I have seen some outstanding Prezi creations.

4. I’m not completely surprised by the top tools for teachers, since most of what is being used in my internship includes half of the top 10. Google is fairly large at my school. Everything is done in a Google Doc or Google Slides etc.. and rather than Edmodo, which some teachers still us, most of the school uses the Google Classroom.

5. Technology is always advancing. At times, it feels like I grasp how to use one device and all-of-a-sudden there is an updated version of it, or some new device that is even better than the original. It can be difficult to keep up with as a teacher and student. The main idea to understand is if it takes me a while to understand how to use a device, it may take students even longer. This means student comprehension of how the device works is important.

6. I have used YouTube, Google Docs and Slides in my teaching so far. There are still so many devices that I can incorporate in my class and lessons that it is hard to choose just one. I like that schools are becoming digital for a few reasons, but one is, I feel, it makes life more organized and simplified. I know there are so many things that can go wrong with technology, but those negatives aside, I like it.