Friday, April 30, 2010

Using Technology to Teach Project 8



If I had students who had internet access at home I could use this technique to show simple math steps among other things!

April 25th Assignment Two Questions/7th Grader

On the first video-A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment, I was extremely impressed. That student could definitely teach me a few things, OK, probably alot of things. Her ease at moving around the Internet was great. I believe this student was very comfortable and confident in using blogs and doing research. Hopefully, if these tools were not available she would still be as at ease completing assignments. I am sure that her writing skills only improved with the research she was doing and her motivation. I think that the independence and the amount of responsibility was a great confidence booster. I believe she could definitely maintain her A if she were in EDM310.

I do often ask myself the question "Was I better today than yesterday?" I will see what works in my classroom and make note to use these strategies again. It not only helps me motivate the students but gives them consistency in their daily academic life. Changes are hard for them but exciting activities bring out their best, as well as mine. Now for the hard part, what's my sentence? I read Dr Strange's sentence and immediately thought of "mission statement". So I have been thinking about it in that direction. So here it is:

I strive daily to give my students stability and motivation to better themselves in positive ways through academics, teaching/reinforcing appropriate behavior, and consideration of others.
Written 4/30/2010.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Wordle

Click on the following link and see my wonderful WORDLE! THANK You!


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alt="Wordle: Softball"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

My PLN Post #2

My PLN will continue to grow as I learn new techniques and applications. Since my last post I have Skyped, completed numerous Blog entries and used Google Earth, which was a challenge. Timetoast was a great application that I can really see using in my classroom. My network will include teachers and contacts that meet during conferences and workshops. I recently toured Hope Academy which is located in Talledega, AL. It is a school/residential facility very similar to where I work. The main difference being they have a private school license. Their website is www.phfc.org.

I know now that there are sites available to me for new ideas in the area of technology. I can access these sites to keepmy students engaged and challenged. This is going to help all of my students when they do transistion back to the public school setting and attend the schools that are equipped with the latest technology and applictions.

Goodbye to ALL


I would like to say goodbye to my classmates and instructors in EDM 310. It has been an experience to take this class and I enjoyed getting to know my classmates and working with them. I wish you all the best luck in finding a position in the school of your choice. Teaching has its rewards and it is worth all you go through to get there. Thank you Jennifer for your help in class.

PS--LOOK! I added a picture! Yeehaw!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Final Blog Assignment

Question #1. Of all of the things we have covered in class, I feel that this would be the order, from most useful to not so useful, and the pros/cons I see in each:

1. Skype-I think I will utilize this in both my professional and everyday life. My students can hopefully talk to others and learn how other similar students perform academically.
1A. Timetoast-I really think my students would like to use timetoast and would benefit from using this site.
2. Picasa-I actually used Picasa before taking the EDM310 class. I think it is very easy to use and my students have created small projects with Picasa. It is very user friendly.
3. Google Docs/Forms/Presentations-Using Google is very useful and user friendly. I think it would be very useful for most communications between administrators, teachers, and students if they did not a mailing system in place. I think if properly used, Google is great.
4. YouTube-This is a great way to get speeches out around any given community. I feel that I can show quite a bit of knowledge to my students about any given subject. They can do searches with the proper supervision. For students that are absent, a well planned lesson could be recorded and made available to students. As long as it is not too long.
5. Podcasts-if the quality of the recording is good, then I think Podcasts would be beneficial. I believe the listener would have to have an interest in listening to a Podcast. I know that some we listened to were go very boring and were hard to follow.
6. PLN's-I believe that a properly built and maintained PLN is important to any teacher who is willing to build and search out new and exciting ways to teach. The information would have to concise and easy to ready but filled with information. I hope to work on mine after completion of class.
7. BLOGS-Blogs are varied in their uses and values. I can see a blog as being both personally and professionally useful, if maintained properly. Keeping in touch with family and friends, ex classmates, coworkers, building businesses, and many other areas could be utilized. I have mixed feelings about using blogs but I do know my way around them now.
8. Comments for Classmates, Kids, and Teachers-I think the most useful of the three would be the comments for teachers. You can get new ideas and thoughts on how to do many different web assignments and be even more creative as time goes by. Comments for Kids gave me some ideas on how to start kids out with technology or utilize what you have already in place. I don't believe having the Comments for Classmates was very helpful unless I wanted to see how someone else did an assignment but I did know theirs was in place if I needed to look. But I feel bad for whoever was assigned my blog because I did them on Sundays usually.
9. iTunes/iTunes U-I went through downloading and using these sites very few times. And I use the plural because each time I tried to use iTunes U, I had to reload everything. It was very frustrating and if I had more troubleshooting knowledge I may have been more successful. These are not sites I will use in the future if I can help it.
10. ALEX/ACCESS-I am still researching these sites for my current job. We will most likely utilize ALEX the most and my research will be continuing during my Professional Development days.
11. On that note I will address accessibility issues and the future of schools in regards of technology. in my opinion, as long as there are funding issues in our schools, technology will suffer. Teachers will be left on their own to get training and and at best have outdated devices to use. I know in the area of special education, we were always the last to receive new technology. And since inclusion is how things are being handled, you are lucky to have your own space in a school setting. Now with my situation being different, I am lucky that I have my own computer and access to five student computers. We have one that has not worked since I began in my current position and four others that are sketchy at best. Our programs are loaded, STAR Reading and Orchard Math, but for some unknown reason one will work one day but not the next. We have a tech company that supports our computers. The reason these computers are messing up is because the kids play games on them. Games such as www.freerice.com, www.funbrain.com, www.scrabble.com, and other "fun" games. But the students take what they can get, so Scrabble it is. I can't take away an incentive such as computer use. They do love to research and create on the computer and we do that, but they as well as I, get very frustrated when the computer shuts down in the middle of an assignment. Whoosh! All gone. So, unless schools can fund technology and the accessibility of technology, the future is looking dim. On a more positive note, you do have schools that have teachers who will seek out that extra training or have great systems at home and know the ins and outs of technology and are lucky to have a computer teacher/IT person at their school. I was fortunate enough to have taught for a short interim in one such as that. Smart Boards were used and used well.
12. Presentations-how to create the presentations were beneficial but for me personally, presenting in front of our class seemed to be a waste of time and boring. If we spent so much time on the presentations and loaded them to our blogs, why not assign the viewing of those for out of class. But that is just my honest appraisal.
13. Who I am as a professional-I am fortunate to work in a casual classroom/school setting. I have to conduct meetings with Department of Human Resource workers, foster parent's, counselors, therapists, and other behavior/health related individuals. I create my documents on the various websites we use and are required to use. Professionally, I want to engage my students more and think technology is a way reach those who will not open up in class and those who I may overlook "as long as they are being good".
14. I learned a great quantity of material in this class. Will I be able to recreate some of the activities in the future, I doubt it. For me personally, it takes more than a video and/or a podcast to learn something. Again, personally I require a more hands on approach. That may be because of my learning style or it could be because I was just overwhelmed by the fact that I was not a technologically literate person. If I see someone do it, great, if I can follow along and do it with them, even better. But watching a video then trying to duplicate is not very helpful for me personally.

Question #2 There is not anything in particular that I know of that I would have liked to have learned that was not mentioned in class. Possible some hands on assistance while in lab or some more lab instruction.

Question #3 I don't think that Twittering will be something that I ever want to do again. I believe there are several other applications to use and I in my opinion I would not utilize this at all.

Question #4 No, nothing excited me about this class.

Question #5 No, I did not find anything particularly "intellectually challenging". I found several thing to be interesting to reply to. Such as the Shift Happens video. I found out some interesting facts. I was much more "technically challenged" in this course this anything else. If I could get my laptop and Internet connections to cooperate then I would not have as many stressful, technically challenged moments.

Question #6 I was never bored in the class. I found some of the assignments to be "busy work". While I enjoyed the comments for classmates the first few times, I thought my time could be better spent working on the more difficult assignments.

Question #7 I would change this course by not having assignments so hard to find and by not changing them so much. The spreadsheets are nice and all but the "go down 5 spaces and to the right so many" directions are hard to follow. Perhaps in lab that could have been reviewed. Also, I believe we should have grades on our assignments as we go. I don't want to have to guess if I have kept my A. Feedback with points or grades would have been helpful. And I won't try to make an argument about the workload, but I will say it was too much to have to do outside of lab. If you want my HONEST opinion. I believe if an honest opinion is asked for, I should feel comfortable giving it. I mean that only in reference to the last part of question seven.

Question #8 At this time I think my technical level is medium. I have learned quite a bit and can get around to where I need to be eventually, it just may take me longer than others. I do feel that I am more literate than I was before.

Question #9 I will maintain my technological literacy by attending professional development classes whenever possible that deal with technology. I will continue with my PLN and talk with other teachers about new technology trends.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Shift Happens Podcasts Project 13

This is our podcast about Shift Happens Video Version 3.0-A Discussion by Pam Overstreet, Chris Ellis, and Allison Rogers. Please sit back and enjoy.

Listen here


to the class podcast

Substantive Presentation



We, Pam Overstreet, Heather Ludwig, adn Lauren Reeves, have worked together and created a collaborative project entitled "To Blog or Not to Blog" Please enjoy.

Project 12 To Blog or Not to Blog!

I feel that I have gotten the hang of blogging and do at times enjoy it. Though it is time consuming and seems like busy work. I have been quite overwhelmed with everything that has been required this quarter. I did enjoy working with the other students on this project. They were very helpful in the class and would not have gotten as much done without their assistance.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Vocaroo Post

I used Vocaroo today. It was easy to install and easy to use. It should be a tool I can use in my classroom since all teenagers love to hear themselves talk. It will be a great adventure to use this. I believe the students would don't like to speak in front of others or who don't write very well will also utilize this tool.



Thursday, April 15, 2010

My Experience with Skype

A few weeks ago I set up my Skype account. I have gotten to talk to my sister in California. We haven't seen each other in a few years so that was nice. I think now I would utilize this with mostly family and friends until I can get enough experience and equipment to teach the children how to use the program. I think it is a great tool and will be used in all aspects of my life, both personally and professionaly.

Comments 4 Teachers Weeks 13 and 14

I was assigned Paul McMahon for my Comments for Teachers, Weeks 13-14. McMahon is an employee for Mathletics. He mentions in his blog that mathmatic teachers use technology quite a bit and can find online support easily. How math teachers can enhance classroom experiences and engage students with technology. He talks about challenging students on appropriate levels and enjoying when students have "aha" moments when something just clicks.

In a 2009 blog entry, Mr. McMahon gives several Internet sites for getting students involved and engaged. Where to set up a class blog, www.blogger.com, this is a site I would use for my current students. I did like the www.wordle.net site where he suggests creating Christmas word clouds. Wordle is an interesting way to create a cluster of words for any given subject.

In an August 4, 2009 entry, Paul McMahon talks about his technological journey to support 21st Century Learning in Hong Kong. He says it was "immensely rewarding but often frustrating". It must have been very exciting for him to have a career where he could share his excitement and bring something new and fresh to a region that was "predominantly textbook and examination driven".

Comments for Kids Week 14

I read the blog by Carson for the Comments4Kids assignment. He was too cute talking about his hospital visit. If other kids read it they may not be scared to go to the doctor. Great post and very, very cute. I think it will help others have ideas about writing and blogging.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

April 18th Topic Entry


One of my favorite topics for EDM 310 was actually the blogging. At first I did not enjoy it and thought it would be a bother each week. And while I don't particularly enjoy all of the comments for kids and classmates, I do enjoy the one for teachers. I find that I can learn alot by going to the different websites and viewing the various styles and ways of other teachers. I hate to keep going back to this, but, with my current students I can't do alot of web activities. I believe I can use blogging this summer. I plan on setting up the students and controlling their passwords and letting them post that way. With close supervision they will be able to create blogs and be successful in writing.



I have learned several things in the class and have met some wonderful future teachers. I believe everyone has to become technologically literate or they won't even be able to bank in the future. Or work new cell phone. So this class has helped prepare me to be a better teacher and survive in a technologically advanced world.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Timetoast Assignment-New Orleans Saints Through the Decades

I did my Timetoast on the New Orleans Saints:Through the Decades. I listed on the timeline the various records of the Saints and how showed how they improved through the years. This time line tool could be used in my class and probably will be something I could use. I believe the students would enjoy doing this and stay interested. I didn't realize it would be so user friendly.

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/48321

Monday, April 5, 2010

Google Forms






I had seven responses to my survey and the charts reflect the results. I may have gotten this survey out a bit late and that resulted in fewer responses. Thank you to all that responded.

Dr Seuss Rocks

I believe it is important for students to post their blogs so that they can get extra exposure to technology and get comfortable with communicatiing with others online. They can get an early start with technololgy and all that it includes. I think that to reach more people throughout the world you have to be technologically literate. If you aren't you will be left out in work and play. You won't know what anyone is talking about. As shown in Dear Kaia, http://is.gd/3WSzD, start early and learn as much as you can. It helps when you have parents that help and become involved in a students academic life.

As for a teacher being literate in technology, I thought that the Dr Seuss video was great. And so correct.
(Wrote this a week ago and forgot I had it in draft, so here it is. Sorry it's late. Thank you Heather for the notice.)

Comments for Kids Wk 13

I was assigned Do the Right Thing by Room 14 at the PT England School. Site is http://pesking.blogspot. The video was 37 seconds long. It has music and is very clearly filmed. It was a short but clear video that they should be proud of. A very good post for students to see if they are just starting out.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Dear Kaia

The story of Kaia and her father is just another example of how technology can connect people and teach each other something new. The story of Kaia and her father show that you can't start too early with technology and education. She is a lucky child to have a parent that is involved with her and helps her understand things. She will have a head start and only benefit from his help. By reading the comments and responses I see that the Internet can connect so many people and put new ideas and insights on things you may not of thought of yourself. Doing a picture essay with a three year old is a wonderful way to introduce technology. And then sharing it with so many others is another way to get ideas out and get technology expanded. The Intrepid Teacher: Singing Hearts http://is.gd/3WSzD was insightful and inspiring. It was great to see Mr. C's class Voicethread http://is.gd/3Ws1N. This is a great idea and I will use it in my classroom. The whole experience has been interesting and thought provoking.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Comments 4 Teachers Week 12

I was assigned Paula White/Reflections of the TZSTeacher for my Comments 4 Teacher Blog. In her March 27th Blog, Passionate Learning, she discusses one of her students in the 5th grade who had some technology questions. Instead of just finding the answer or even blowing the student off, she TOOK him to the answer. Her 5th grader is an atypical student in that he doesn't want to just "play school", he wants to learn his way. She arranged a field trip for the student to meet up with a former student who was very similar. The former student attended a school known as the Murray High School, a school for students to learn what they wanted to learn without repetitive worksheets. He could be successful and still get the knowledge he craved.
The former student, who had become the Systems Manager for the school system, gave the 5th grader a tour of the facility. He answered questions and explained the workings of the system. The 5th grader, who already is a whiz at gaming, Wiki, and other applications was thrilled. This was a learning experience that could not have been taught in the classroom. It was an alternative way to get to a student and show them how his knowledge would be useful in real life. Paula White did a great job doing this and reaching her student.

In Paula's March 19th Blog, she talk about one of her educational heroes, Carol Tomilnson. Paula says that Mrs. Tomlinson is an advocate of differentiating in the classroom. They agree in this area and so do I. Students all learn differently and at different paces. You have to know how to reach them to teach them. You have to prepare your lessons in advance and bring new things to the classroom to get to them all. One lesson may work for one group but not the other. So find that other and teach them all. Paula White uses suggestions from her educational hero and does so in the classroom.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Comments for Kids Week 12

Ariana Likes to Swim

I was assigned post #18 from Room 8 at PT England School. The post is titled Ariana Likes to Swim and it has a drawing by the student of kids swimming. And after that a couple of sentences. It was a nice post and very colorful. I commented to the student and left positive feedback.