I would get so excited after I left class each week with everything that I had learned that I would be brainstorming in the car on the drive home and trying to prioritize about what I could do in my classroom. It sounds really kind of silly, but I am telling the truth! It is not very often as a teacher that I would get a whole class or continous sessions of Professional Development over something that I could use so readily in my classroom.
So the first mess up I did was my sudden anxiety strucken sickness when I realized that I had not put my digital story on a dvd/cd. I really did about get sick. I had worked so hard to make sure it was on my flashdrive and ready to go. The next time I realized I really messed up was when I showed up to class last week and realized that I had not downloaded to the Wiki spaces my 2.0 web tool. I am still working on getting that done between now and Wednesday. We just got one of our computers back late yesterday afternoon so that has been somewhat helpful. The final came when Dr. Schmidt last week told us don't forget the two research articles for the blog and the innovative way to use blogging in the classroom. I knew all of that, but had totally let it slip my mind. I really need to use the computer and calendar/alarm so I can mark asignments and when they are due. I will continue to learn more applications and work to make the best of what I have learned. I have really enjoyed being able to share with each of you in our weekly blogs.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Blogging in my classroom. An innovative approach
This class has allowed me plenty of thinking of opportunities to be creative in thinking on how I could use blogging in my classroom. After one class I came straight back to the district and told them I was ready to activate the Blog to my classroom. We all have a link to blog from our classroom. I opened up the site and was disappointed when it was nothing like Blog spot. So I am working on the site to develop the creativeness that can go with it. The students take turns helping me and then on Fridays beginning this week we are using the last 20 minutes of the day and our Quomo (projector) system in our classroom and interactively designing the page by working on my computer. Since it is projected to the front we all work together and add to and take away. So our goal as a class is to have the blog ready to go January 4th when we come back after break. We are making postcards with information and letting the parents know that premiering will be the Blog. We will include on the Blog: bi-weekly newsletter (4 students will work on this every two weeks), STAR writings (I pick people who have written above and beyond what was asked), Special recognition, and daily/weekly announcements. The art teacher and I are working on sharing art projects on the site too.
The other way I am considering using blogging is to connect to the education department at Simpson College and have pen pals for writing and book blogging next year. We would have an introduction, write and exchange and reflect throughout and then at the end of the year we can meet and do a picnic in the park. The students from my class can use the students to critique, edit and share their work with. I love how you let us interact with some of your friends classrooms and share.
I am very excited to get this project all planned out. If you have any thoughts or ideas feel free to share.
The other way I am considering using blogging is to connect to the education department at Simpson College and have pen pals for writing and book blogging next year. We would have an introduction, write and exchange and reflect throughout and then at the end of the year we can meet and do a picnic in the park. The students from my class can use the students to critique, edit and share their work with. I love how you let us interact with some of your friends classrooms and share.
I am very excited to get this project all planned out. If you have any thoughts or ideas feel free to share.
My 2nd Article for Blogging. (WIKI)
This resarch was very interesting to me. This was narrowed down to writing poetry on the Wiki Pages. The Wiki site was developed to share knowledge about poetry among a group of pre-service English teachers.
This study was set up to get teachers to write, because if teachers can not model expectations for students and have poems, papers and etc. that need edited and edited again then students don't see that it is Ok for them to have to do and redo. Then comes the problem of students/adults don't just write unless they have the perfect paper.
The study helped teachers to introduce poetry to their students. The creativeness, options of what to write on, how to share it, but most of all take constructive feedback and use it.
the Wiki was great because this was set up to be a collaborative effort and a place where people could openly share and have projects edited and commented on.
It was important that later it was mentioned that digitally is not the only way to go with teaching, but it is becoming more widely used. The study went on for an academic year. There were 56 pre-service English teachers and Language arts. These people were based at Higher Education Institutions in the UK and Canada and preparing to the enter the teaching profession. Only four of these people had any experience with Wiki. Some had never even heard of Wiki. I started to really be able to relate to this study when I rememebered how I felt the first night when I walked into 556 and had no idea of anything. Some of the things they thought the Wiki would offer would be reflections of others, their own tastes in poetry, first experiences of teaching poetry, teaching resources, and drafts and edits of each others' poetry writing on-line.
They started out by having the participants define poetry and already there were red flags everywhere because they were quite anxious with what was being asked to do.
Wiki was very supportive to the creativeness that was shared by the pre-service teachers using Wiki. It was amazing how much better writers they became with poetry. What was really amazing was they were using technology that was digitally accessible. They loved the part of the Wiki poetry that allowed them to be creative, but most of all share and work collaboratively.
When it was considered little or no experience on the Wiki pages when the study started and now the use was booming the positive experiences far outweigh lack of use or negative.
This article as I stated earlier really hits home with me because of where I was the first night of class and where I am now. I feel if nothing else I can explore and use options with technology with my class. That is definitely not where I would have been today without this class. Am I the technology wizard of the century? No, but I am further along today because of the class and all of the activities that are and have been presented. This would be a great study to do with a group of teachers in a district strictly on the use of technology products and or programs.
Dymoke, S., Hughes, J., (2009). Using a poetry wiki. English Teaching :Practice and Critique December, Volume 8, Number 3, 91-106.
http://education.kaiato.ac.nz/research/files/etpc/files/2009v8n3art6.pdf
This study was set up to get teachers to write, because if teachers can not model expectations for students and have poems, papers and etc. that need edited and edited again then students don't see that it is Ok for them to have to do and redo. Then comes the problem of students/adults don't just write unless they have the perfect paper.
The study helped teachers to introduce poetry to their students. The creativeness, options of what to write on, how to share it, but most of all take constructive feedback and use it.
the Wiki was great because this was set up to be a collaborative effort and a place where people could openly share and have projects edited and commented on.
It was important that later it was mentioned that digitally is not the only way to go with teaching, but it is becoming more widely used. The study went on for an academic year. There were 56 pre-service English teachers and Language arts. These people were based at Higher Education Institutions in the UK and Canada and preparing to the enter the teaching profession. Only four of these people had any experience with Wiki. Some had never even heard of Wiki. I started to really be able to relate to this study when I rememebered how I felt the first night when I walked into 556 and had no idea of anything. Some of the things they thought the Wiki would offer would be reflections of others, their own tastes in poetry, first experiences of teaching poetry, teaching resources, and drafts and edits of each others' poetry writing on-line.
They started out by having the participants define poetry and already there were red flags everywhere because they were quite anxious with what was being asked to do.
Wiki was very supportive to the creativeness that was shared by the pre-service teachers using Wiki. It was amazing how much better writers they became with poetry. What was really amazing was they were using technology that was digitally accessible. They loved the part of the Wiki poetry that allowed them to be creative, but most of all share and work collaboratively.
When it was considered little or no experience on the Wiki pages when the study started and now the use was booming the positive experiences far outweigh lack of use or negative.
This article as I stated earlier really hits home with me because of where I was the first night of class and where I am now. I feel if nothing else I can explore and use options with technology with my class. That is definitely not where I would have been today without this class. Am I the technology wizard of the century? No, but I am further along today because of the class and all of the activities that are and have been presented. This would be a great study to do with a group of teachers in a district strictly on the use of technology products and or programs.
Dymoke, S., Hughes, J., (2009). Using a poetry wiki. English Teaching :Practice and Critique December, Volume 8, Number 3, 91-106.
http://education.kaiato.ac.nz/research/files/etpc/files/2009v8n3art6.pdf
Blogging Article #1 Motivating Third Grade Students
This particular research project took place in Quakertown, PA. Not only did this particular research use Blog, it also incorporated Wiki pages. They wanted the third grade students to be able to respond meaningfully to guided reading texts.
First they had students write responses on index cards and respond to guided reading texts for one month. The responses were scored based on a rubric. While doing this students rated their motivation on a Likert Scale. Then after the first part was collected they began introducing blogging from a Wiki page. The students then began posting their responses as blogs and being able to respond to other peers posts. Then after 6 weeks of doing this they again rated their motivation on The Likert Scale.
It was very interesting to me that the students were somewhat reluctant with their responses using the Blog because they were unsure of exactly who would be reading them. However once they started getting responses and doing some of their own the excitement started to show some.
Wikis and Blogs are a great interactive source in allowing children to share their thoughts, responses and writing ideas publically. It was really interesting to see that the more this was used the more the creative and fun it began to be for the students. Wiki and Blogs also are very good at promoting social inteactions.
My favorite part of the Blog is that students seem to be more aware of their writing, word choice, creativeness, and efforts that go into making a paper great! Motivation scores went up while choosing to use Blogs and Wiki. As I stated before the children seemed to really work harder and were more aware of what they were doing when they knew it would be posted.
The point of typing/keyboarding was brought up in this article and it really didn't seem to be any big deal at all. The students worked at their own pace and did what they needed however they needed to. I have noticed with a class that uses keyboarding often for projects this is really not an issue what so ever.
I thought a while after reading this research and thought about how useful this could really be to my classroom and myself. I wish I could be more creative with the use of I-Pods, or game systems because as I am typing this summary I just had two students who had their games systems taken away here at school. I will continue to think and work on incorporating ALL Kinds of technology into my classroom.
References:
Legutko, R.S., Swanson, K.N., (2008). The Effect of Book Bloggingon the Motivation of 3rd Grade Students.
First they had students write responses on index cards and respond to guided reading texts for one month. The responses were scored based on a rubric. While doing this students rated their motivation on a Likert Scale. Then after the first part was collected they began introducing blogging from a Wiki page. The students then began posting their responses as blogs and being able to respond to other peers posts. Then after 6 weeks of doing this they again rated their motivation on The Likert Scale.
It was very interesting to me that the students were somewhat reluctant with their responses using the Blog because they were unsure of exactly who would be reading them. However once they started getting responses and doing some of their own the excitement started to show some.
Wikis and Blogs are a great interactive source in allowing children to share their thoughts, responses and writing ideas publically. It was really interesting to see that the more this was used the more the creative and fun it began to be for the students. Wiki and Blogs also are very good at promoting social inteactions.
My favorite part of the Blog is that students seem to be more aware of their writing, word choice, creativeness, and efforts that go into making a paper great! Motivation scores went up while choosing to use Blogs and Wiki. As I stated before the children seemed to really work harder and were more aware of what they were doing when they knew it would be posted.
The point of typing/keyboarding was brought up in this article and it really didn't seem to be any big deal at all. The students worked at their own pace and did what they needed however they needed to. I have noticed with a class that uses keyboarding often for projects this is really not an issue what so ever.
I thought a while after reading this research and thought about how useful this could really be to my classroom and myself. I wish I could be more creative with the use of I-Pods, or game systems because as I am typing this summary I just had two students who had their games systems taken away here at school. I will continue to think and work on incorporating ALL Kinds of technology into my classroom.
References:
Legutko, R.S., Swanson, K.N., (2008). The Effect of Book Bloggingon the Motivation of 3rd Grade Students.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Where does the time go?
While I have been working on the lesson plan assignment for the class I have been thinking about all that I have learned and not only have I had the benefit from taking this class, but how useful and fun it has been for my class to get to try different things. I will say that my student teacher is great with technology ideas and usage so he has provided many opportunities for the class as well as myself and we all appreciate that too.
The most amazing part to me is with one piece of equipment and about 45 minutes a story can be developed. I look back to the book each group created about ISU and the creativeness that went on in a very small amount of time. Then I start to compare it to projects students get to do at school and how well the time would be used if we were able to put in the technology piece more often and not back away because of being so unsure. I let my class make an advertisement/example of PBIS for the school and they only had about 20 minutes to do so because something happened and the adults could not finish the video. My class in 20 minutes made the adult part that we spent a day on look so amateur. It was amazing for me to see how natural this kind of stuff comes to children and how skiddish the adults are.
As I have stated before I know that my class will have use to at least one Flip Video Camera after the holidays and hopefully two. I am so excited to allow them to create and share at least every other week!
I just know that I will be the one who continues to grow and learn from their experiences and us being able to share them.
The best part is not only am I asking for the Flip Video, but I think that an I-Pad is in my future too!
It really is just like Christmas.
The most amazing part to me is with one piece of equipment and about 45 minutes a story can be developed. I look back to the book each group created about ISU and the creativeness that went on in a very small amount of time. Then I start to compare it to projects students get to do at school and how well the time would be used if we were able to put in the technology piece more often and not back away because of being so unsure. I let my class make an advertisement/example of PBIS for the school and they only had about 20 minutes to do so because something happened and the adults could not finish the video. My class in 20 minutes made the adult part that we spent a day on look so amateur. It was amazing for me to see how natural this kind of stuff comes to children and how skiddish the adults are.
As I have stated before I know that my class will have use to at least one Flip Video Camera after the holidays and hopefully two. I am so excited to allow them to create and share at least every other week!
I just know that I will be the one who continues to grow and learn from their experiences and us being able to share them.
The best part is not only am I asking for the Flip Video, but I think that an I-Pad is in my future too!
It really is just like Christmas.
I FORGOT! November 22nd for the week of November 15th.
I was so caught up in the excitement of getting the Digital Story finished that I totally forgot with NO class last week to BLOG! Sorry.
I will have to say that my computer usage became limited when my laptop was in for repairs and now seems it can't be repaired. So that was the start to my break. Then last week we had to take our PC to the place to have it fixed, so Thank God for my job and now I am back from break and I will BLOG for the upcoming week too.
My class is so excited because they know I have been taking the class at ISU and that is working with technology ideas so they are constantly searching for ideas we can try now. Last week they performed a readers theater for Thanksgiving and then they were deciding what else they could do and all on their own they came around basically to the idea of a digital story. Our goal is that we will do this for the Winter Season.
My hope is that at the Holiday time I will get a Flip Video Camera. We'll see.
I hop you had a Great Holiday!
I will have to say that my computer usage became limited when my laptop was in for repairs and now seems it can't be repaired. So that was the start to my break. Then last week we had to take our PC to the place to have it fixed, so Thank God for my job and now I am back from break and I will BLOG for the upcoming week too.
My class is so excited because they know I have been taking the class at ISU and that is working with technology ideas so they are constantly searching for ideas we can try now. Last week they performed a readers theater for Thanksgiving and then they were deciding what else they could do and all on their own they came around basically to the idea of a digital story. Our goal is that we will do this for the Winter Season.
My hope is that at the Holiday time I will get a Flip Video Camera. We'll see.
I hop you had a Great Holiday!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Amazing When Something is Not Second Nature
Wow, this week I have been on technology overload. I had my story all recorded and now I have been editing and doing the final touches. This just helps me realize how not technology minded I am. Sometimes I have the challenge being that I serve on ten committees and am gone at least once every three weeks to training or a meeting, trying to keep caught up in my classroom and make sure I am where I should be for this class in Ames. I think I have worked through my digital story and learned by writing a description for how I would use a digital project in my classroom. I can't wait to do the project with my class next year! Out of this whole class I have decided I think I'm going to have to invest in a Flip Video Camera and I keep telling my family that an I-Pad would be great for Christmas. I can tell you right now my husband is thrilled I took this class because at least now I will go to Best Buy and the Apple Store with him. I am doing a pilot on a new reading series and the technology piece is unbelievable. With our great projector systems in our classroom it will make our reading time Heavenly and fitting for all students! Then of course I challenged myself to go above and beyond what is given to us technolgy wise and think from what I have learned from this class and how I could use them with the new reading/language arts series.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
November 9th, What do I BLOG about?
I was really having a hard time coming up with something to write about this week. Then I realized how truly reliable our society is on technology. We have friends that come to our house every Sunday after our evening church services. We always kind of assume that their coming. It was a couple of Sundays ago and we assumed they were coming. I spent Sunday afternoon preparing for them and then when they got to church Sunday night they asked me if I had gotten their e-mail the day before that they weren't able to make it. I reminded them that I did not check my e-mail daily on the weekend. I thought for a minute you could have picked up a phone and called. WoW, it dawned on me what a technology reliable society we are!
I left last Wednesday night appreciating the work we had gotten to do on making a video of a book for a book review. It is amazing to me how differently creative we all can be when given thirty minutes, flip video camera, and the Iowa State Campus to use to review a book. It made me stop and think about how I could really use this in my classroom. I have what I call Coffee Talk on Fridays in my classroom and I decided that at least once a month we would use the video and watch recordings on one Friday out of the month and learn about new books.
I left last Wednesday night appreciating the work we had gotten to do on making a video of a book for a book review. It is amazing to me how differently creative we all can be when given thirty minutes, flip video camera, and the Iowa State Campus to use to review a book. It made me stop and think about how I could really use this in my classroom. I have what I call Coffee Talk on Fridays in my classroom and I decided that at least once a month we would use the video and watch recordings on one Friday out of the month and learn about new books.
Monday, November 1, 2010
New Ideas All Around! November 1st, 2010
I had a training session to go to last Friday and all I could think of was I had conferences this week and when was I going to get everything done. It was 2:00 pm and they were bringing out a new speaker. My attitude was less than perfect, but he was introduced and started speaking about comprehension and how/what could help.
He let us know he was going to walk us through a vocabulary lesson. It was on the computer as a power point and it was excellent! At 2:15 I was wide awake and ready to listen to every word he was speaking.
He put the word up, then had the definition, then the suffix, and held much discussion about each piece. I do have to say the best was when he used two different pictures fitting to the words and it gave a view to what he was talking about. His presentation addressed the multiple intelligence theory well.
There were many lessons I left with. One being that at 2:00 pm on Friday I should be ready to give that person a chance to present. You never know what more you could learn. Plus, I do always try to keep in mind of what I would feel like if I was the one having to present at 2:00 pm on a Friday afternoon. I'm not sure there could be a whole lot worse when your audience is adults. On the way out we did think about what children must feel like on Fridays at 2:00 also.
Technology is all around us and I notice it more now then ever.
He let us know he was going to walk us through a vocabulary lesson. It was on the computer as a power point and it was excellent! At 2:15 I was wide awake and ready to listen to every word he was speaking.
He put the word up, then had the definition, then the suffix, and held much discussion about each piece. I do have to say the best was when he used two different pictures fitting to the words and it gave a view to what he was talking about. His presentation addressed the multiple intelligence theory well.
There were many lessons I left with. One being that at 2:00 pm on Friday I should be ready to give that person a chance to present. You never know what more you could learn. Plus, I do always try to keep in mind of what I would feel like if I was the one having to present at 2:00 pm on a Friday afternoon. I'm not sure there could be a whole lot worse when your audience is adults. On the way out we did think about what children must feel like on Fridays at 2:00 also.
Technology is all around us and I notice it more now then ever.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Practice What I TEACH!
We have a student information system and it is all computerized. Yes, anyone that knows me and knows my true lack of technology skills can probably already start piecing this post together.
I have been working on putting all of the grades in the systen the last three weeks because Wednesday October 27 th our report cards are going to be printed. So on Friday October 22nd I decided I had better make sure that all of the grades were posted and were correct. First two classes YEAH! Perfect! Last class? Every grade had disappeared. Panic set in immediately. I kept reminding myself if this was a student in the class I would be telling them tomorrow is a NEW DAY and it' going to be OK. I really hate it when I have to live by what I teach because I was thinking for a little while about how ok this was not or was it going to be. The bright side of this I am ahead of the deadline and I have plenty of time to re enter all of the grades! "Tomorrow is a new day."
I have a student teacher and he is a pro on the computer and for me this makes it all the more embarrassing. He, I'm sure quietly was thinking, "wow if you had just hit the save button you would have had all of the grades and been ready to print. "
I decided tomorrow is not only a new day but it is Saturday and I would have time to work on these Monday. The best is I still have plenty of time before Wednesday. Technology MY FAVORITE!!!
I have been working on putting all of the grades in the systen the last three weeks because Wednesday October 27 th our report cards are going to be printed. So on Friday October 22nd I decided I had better make sure that all of the grades were posted and were correct. First two classes YEAH! Perfect! Last class? Every grade had disappeared. Panic set in immediately. I kept reminding myself if this was a student in the class I would be telling them tomorrow is a NEW DAY and it' going to be OK. I really hate it when I have to live by what I teach because I was thinking for a little while about how ok this was not or was it going to be. The bright side of this I am ahead of the deadline and I have plenty of time to re enter all of the grades! "Tomorrow is a new day."
I have a student teacher and he is a pro on the computer and for me this makes it all the more embarrassing. He, I'm sure quietly was thinking, "wow if you had just hit the save button you would have had all of the grades and been ready to print. "
I decided tomorrow is not only a new day but it is Saturday and I would have time to work on these Monday. The best is I still have plenty of time before Wednesday. Technology MY FAVORITE!!!
Monday, October 18, 2010
SOCIAL NETWORKING Topic of Discussion at a Family Dinner (Oct.18th)
Sunday we had all gotten together to eat lunch at my mom's house. All meaning there is about twenty of us. We were sitting around my mom's computer looking at a friend of ours obituary. He passed away from Cancer last Wednesday night. He and his family lived in Arizona so we were online reading about him from the tribute his daughter had written two hours before he passed away.
My thirty-seven (youngest) year old sister says these social networking sites need to be gotten rid of! Then of course my sister-in-law and a friend chimed in, "yes I agree." Then they all got into discussing about how you can say whatever you want to whom ever you want and there is never face to face conversations and people can and do get mad over what is written. I listened to them for what seemed like hours, but it was only ten minutes. I kind of let them wind down and then I threw in the statement of I believe certain social networking sites will come and go, but instead of removing everything maybe we should just take the time and teach people how and why to use them. They all kind of looked at me. LIKE REALLY? I told them you all just spent ten minutes complaining about the exact kind of benefit you had five minutes before that in going to the Caringbridge Site to read about our friend. I reminded them that too is a form of social networking. It is just like when you have a one year old and the kind of thinking that goes with child proofing the house. My husband and I chose not to child proof our home we taught our children at very young age what was touchable and what was pretty, what could be played with and what should be left alone. My husband was in the Navy and we traveled to other houses a lot we never worried about our children breaking anything because they had been taught. Also nobody had to worry that we were coming and their home wasn't childproof because our children ALMOST all of the time knew how to act. Believe me they were and are not perfect, but we could take them anywhere. I did childcare for ten years and in ten years I only had one candle broke. The children were taught what they could play with and what was to be left alone. It is the same philosophy just as Denise stated last Wednesday night in class. We have to teach the social networking and model it so children and others know how to use it. Is there still going to be some problems? Of course there is, but if we always sit back and observe and never bother to teach explain then we're always going to get what we've always gotten. They all looked at me still, like you are not really serious are you? I told them I have not personally researched it but I would guess if you put lessons and assignments on i-pods just in the high school setting you would have a better success rate at them being looked at and used to benefit them as students. I told them if you teach it and are involved in what they are doing they tend to choose different wordage. Is the garbage still going to go on, of course because we are all human. After all there was still stuff being said that shouldn't have when there were party lines on phones years ago. Really showing how old I am!!! Teach social networking and use it often and children will see a whole different side then just being able to get on and start saying whatever they want how they want.
Have a good week!
My thirty-seven (youngest) year old sister says these social networking sites need to be gotten rid of! Then of course my sister-in-law and a friend chimed in, "yes I agree." Then they all got into discussing about how you can say whatever you want to whom ever you want and there is never face to face conversations and people can and do get mad over what is written. I listened to them for what seemed like hours, but it was only ten minutes. I kind of let them wind down and then I threw in the statement of I believe certain social networking sites will come and go, but instead of removing everything maybe we should just take the time and teach people how and why to use them. They all kind of looked at me. LIKE REALLY? I told them you all just spent ten minutes complaining about the exact kind of benefit you had five minutes before that in going to the Caringbridge Site to read about our friend. I reminded them that too is a form of social networking. It is just like when you have a one year old and the kind of thinking that goes with child proofing the house. My husband and I chose not to child proof our home we taught our children at very young age what was touchable and what was pretty, what could be played with and what should be left alone. My husband was in the Navy and we traveled to other houses a lot we never worried about our children breaking anything because they had been taught. Also nobody had to worry that we were coming and their home wasn't childproof because our children ALMOST all of the time knew how to act. Believe me they were and are not perfect, but we could take them anywhere. I did childcare for ten years and in ten years I only had one candle broke. The children were taught what they could play with and what was to be left alone. It is the same philosophy just as Denise stated last Wednesday night in class. We have to teach the social networking and model it so children and others know how to use it. Is there still going to be some problems? Of course there is, but if we always sit back and observe and never bother to teach explain then we're always going to get what we've always gotten. They all looked at me still, like you are not really serious are you? I told them I have not personally researched it but I would guess if you put lessons and assignments on i-pods just in the high school setting you would have a better success rate at them being looked at and used to benefit them as students. I told them if you teach it and are involved in what they are doing they tend to choose different wordage. Is the garbage still going to go on, of course because we are all human. After all there was still stuff being said that shouldn't have when there were party lines on phones years ago. Really showing how old I am!!! Teach social networking and use it often and children will see a whole different side then just being able to get on and start saying whatever they want how they want.
Have a good week!
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Interesting Links discussed/presented in Class
The links that we got on Wednesday night were a great display of how children can do more with modeling and guidance if we expect more. I was glad that I brought up using the invertebrates project at school because when we were able to discuss it I got a lot of new and different ideas to use for the next time. We often talk at our grade level meetings about if you expect it, model it, nurture it then you will probably get it. The projects we looked at about the Bermuda Triangle etc. were a great example of challenge the students and they will do the work.
I also appreciated the different literature circle ideas that were shared for different books that we often use with our fifth grade classes. I do try to change up literature circles because I do not want it to become monotonous and boring.
I did feel rather challenged myself because I had e-mailed both of my projects to Dr. Schmidt and she had not received any of them. Since then she has received one but not the other. I am never quite sure what I am doing wrong, but I will get it figured out. Also I was very much challenged when drawing Willie who I called Thompson for some reason. I thought I had to have a program that perfected Willie and the drawing so after spending about four hours and just becoming more and more frustrated I decided I would make Willie on a power point and compare him to a semi and the Empire State Building. I decided I wasn't perfecting Willie without buying a program. Do remember though I couldn't even get his name right. It was Thompson as far as I was concerned. Who knew where I came up with that except by Wednesday night at 7:30 my brain is pretty tired. Have a good week!
I also appreciated the different literature circle ideas that were shared for different books that we often use with our fifth grade classes. I do try to change up literature circles because I do not want it to become monotonous and boring.
I did feel rather challenged myself because I had e-mailed both of my projects to Dr. Schmidt and she had not received any of them. Since then she has received one but not the other. I am never quite sure what I am doing wrong, but I will get it figured out. Also I was very much challenged when drawing Willie who I called Thompson for some reason. I thought I had to have a program that perfected Willie and the drawing so after spending about four hours and just becoming more and more frustrated I decided I would make Willie on a power point and compare him to a semi and the Empire State Building. I decided I wasn't perfecting Willie without buying a program. Do remember though I couldn't even get his name right. It was Thompson as far as I was concerned. Who knew where I came up with that except by Wednesday night at 7:30 my brain is pretty tired. Have a good week!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Technology Ideas by My Students October 6th, 2010
Last week my class and I decided to brainstorm ways and technology we could use everyday. These ideas did not have to be for just the area of school. We came up with a list of about ten to twelve items we could use for technology. Then we got to talking about how and where we could use these items. Several students suggested that you can plan menus and then download and then the grocery list is already done for you. I could take an i-pod to the gym and listen to it. They really laughed when they found I still carry a little walkman. My family has offered many times to buy me an i-pod I told them I really just like the radio.
The class challenged me to make a weeks worth of menus, grocery list and look at the coupons/bargains.
So I told them I would try. I also told them there was one thing to remember and that was that my husband likes to cook and usually does the shopping.
Saturday I sat down for one hour and planned my menu, grocery list and the coupon/bargains. I started out with the grocery store with the most coupons and it is also one that I don't believe I have ever shopped at for my actual groceries. Keep in mind it was Saturday at 10:30 and I don't usually shop for the groceries. Quite the eye opening experience for ME! The sales were so good that the store was selling certain things as fast as they could put them on the shelf. Everything looks better if it is on sale!!! SO you have already probably guessed I bought it because it was a bargain. Needless to say two hours later I was leaving the store, frustrated and spent at least $50 more than had I just went to the other store. BUT, I wasn't done yet I still had items that I knew I was going to have to go to the other store for. BUSY! DON'T GO ON SATURDAYS at LUNCH TIME and know what you are buying. My simple challenge turned out to be exhausting when I arrived home three hours later, but we did have a great lunch on Sunday!!!
I shared my experience in a reflection on Tuesday. (we didn't have students on Monday) They of course thought it was funny. They also thought I probably needed to let my husband continue shopping. I had to agree with them!
I just thought I would share a little different approach to technology in my blog this week.
I did however remind my class that it is a good thing I am taking a technology class at ISU. They agreed but felt sorry for the professor and other students.
Have a good week!
Jo Mort
The class challenged me to make a weeks worth of menus, grocery list and look at the coupons/bargains.
So I told them I would try. I also told them there was one thing to remember and that was that my husband likes to cook and usually does the shopping.
Saturday I sat down for one hour and planned my menu, grocery list and the coupon/bargains. I started out with the grocery store with the most coupons and it is also one that I don't believe I have ever shopped at for my actual groceries. Keep in mind it was Saturday at 10:30 and I don't usually shop for the groceries. Quite the eye opening experience for ME! The sales were so good that the store was selling certain things as fast as they could put them on the shelf. Everything looks better if it is on sale!!! SO you have already probably guessed I bought it because it was a bargain. Needless to say two hours later I was leaving the store, frustrated and spent at least $50 more than had I just went to the other store. BUT, I wasn't done yet I still had items that I knew I was going to have to go to the other store for. BUSY! DON'T GO ON SATURDAYS at LUNCH TIME and know what you are buying. My simple challenge turned out to be exhausting when I arrived home three hours later, but we did have a great lunch on Sunday!!!
I shared my experience in a reflection on Tuesday. (we didn't have students on Monday) They of course thought it was funny. They also thought I probably needed to let my husband continue shopping. I had to agree with them!
I just thought I would share a little different approach to technology in my blog this week.
I did however remind my class that it is a good thing I am taking a technology class at ISU. They agreed but felt sorry for the professor and other students.
Have a good week!
Jo Mort
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Power Point and Learning Wednesday September 29th, 2010
This has been the most interesting two weeks of my teaching career. The students in my class are working on a science project. The project required written notes and then taking the notes and making them into a power point. It has been truly amazing how students have no idea how to make the written part become the power point.
They have made this project that started out to be fairly reasonable and easy become hard and impossible. The first thing that was easy for me to see is they have trouble taking the written notes and when we started this project in Science we were learning about QAR (Questioning) in reading. We thought that it should go together very well. WRONG! The good part of the project is that most of the students get right to work on the power point portion of the project. They are doing nice work and I can't wait until Friday when we are able to look at finished projects. I will say though that this has by far been the most confusing and time consuming project so far this year.
You have probably guessed by now that I will be looking into the written part of it and changing some to better fit the needs of the technology students that we have and will be having in our classes.
Have a good week. I'm sure next week I will fill you in on some of the finished projects.
Jo
They have made this project that started out to be fairly reasonable and easy become hard and impossible. The first thing that was easy for me to see is they have trouble taking the written notes and when we started this project in Science we were learning about QAR (Questioning) in reading. We thought that it should go together very well. WRONG! The good part of the project is that most of the students get right to work on the power point portion of the project. They are doing nice work and I can't wait until Friday when we are able to look at finished projects. I will say though that this has by far been the most confusing and time consuming project so far this year.
You have probably guessed by now that I will be looking into the written part of it and changing some to better fit the needs of the technology students that we have and will be having in our classes.
Have a good week. I'm sure next week I will fill you in on some of the finished projects.
Jo
Monday, September 20, 2010
Monday September 20th, 2010 Fun with Homophones
My fifth grade class had the assignment to use whatever they wanted to teach the rest of the class about homophones. I gave them examples of songs, posters, dance, poems and etc. In the presentation they were supposed to redine homophones and give us an example. We had some outstanding performances! By the end of the 12 performances everyone was clear on what a homophone is and they also could give many examples. I have a student teacher right now who will be with my class and I until December and he loves technology. (Thank Goodness) Each student in my classroom has a flash drive so we did a video of the presentations using a flip camera and then eventually downloaded that to each flash drive. For me this is very exciting to really start using technology a little more at a time in the classroom.
I really hated that I had to miss class last Wednesday night, because it is always fun to learn something new every week. I really am glad that I teach and can right back into my classroom the next day and try something new out. I was really glad that this was more technocentric than I had been in the past and it came together quite well. I really am thinking about doing a Blog for my classroom so that I could include things we do like the homophone presentations. Every week it is more of I Think I CAN!
I really hated that I had to miss class last Wednesday night, because it is always fun to learn something new every week. I really am glad that I teach and can right back into my classroom the next day and try something new out. I was really glad that this was more technocentric than I had been in the past and it came together quite well. I really am thinking about doing a Blog for my classroom so that I could include things we do like the homophone presentations. Every week it is more of I Think I CAN!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
TPACK and Technocentric September 14th, 2010
It did not take me long to figure out which way I was trying to educate children with Technology. I was probably one of the most polished technocentric educators you would ever meet. If I was going to use technology my whole lesson was planned around that first. Last Wednesday night's class was another eye opening experience for me as a teacher. Another thing I noticed though is my technocentric thinking comes from the top down in my school district. We purchase tech items and then plan what we can do with them and how they can be beneficial. Instead of planning and then deciding what tech products we'll use and where.
My class can hardly stand waiting until Friday of this week because we are writing our hero qualification stories and then putting them in the WORDLE program. Excitement is the understatement of the week.
It was rewarding and so much fun being able to respond to a class and their blogs.
I use postcards in my classroom regularly to send my newsletter via the student. The student will write what we have done and we talk about all kinds of possibilities. Some children spend a lot of time and others just get theirs done. It is kind of up to them.
I hope you have a great week!!!
My class can hardly stand waiting until Friday of this week because we are writing our hero qualification stories and then putting them in the WORDLE program. Excitement is the understatement of the week.
It was rewarding and so much fun being able to respond to a class and their blogs.
I use postcards in my classroom regularly to send my newsletter via the student. The student will write what we have done and we talk about all kinds of possibilities. Some children spend a lot of time and others just get theirs done. It is kind of up to them.
I hope you have a great week!!!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Blogging and the Art of Writing (cursive)
I appreciated class on Sept. 1st when we discussed blogging and keeping a journal. Imagine how much easier it would have been for my grandma to log in and type away. Somehow maybe not as personal.
I was going to comment on the art of handwriting. (Cursive) Our school district has looked at that particular argument off and on. We called companies to see how much they used it in their place of employment. It was found very few places use it except for people to sign their names. I personally believe it is an art. I also believe students should not have to do it all of the time, but when ours are taught in third grade to do it I feel it does need to be reinforced a little further down the road. Otherwise maybe it is time to teach keyboarding instead of cursive writing. To me this is when there can be such a tug-of-war over what to do, how often, when and if at all. I can imagine the handwriting issue will be around for quite a while.
Blogging allows freedom and creativity if the person so chooses. It was interesting the comparisons and what different people thought.
I was going to comment on the art of handwriting. (Cursive) Our school district has looked at that particular argument off and on. We called companies to see how much they used it in their place of employment. It was found very few places use it except for people to sign their names. I personally believe it is an art. I also believe students should not have to do it all of the time, but when ours are taught in third grade to do it I feel it does need to be reinforced a little further down the road. Otherwise maybe it is time to teach keyboarding instead of cursive writing. To me this is when there can be such a tug-of-war over what to do, how often, when and if at all. I can imagine the handwriting issue will be around for quite a while.
Blogging allows freedom and creativity if the person so chooses. It was interesting the comparisons and what different people thought.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Wordle what a wonder in my classroom!
I am currently teaching and they are very enthusiastic about our class trying new things! When I shared with them my story of the first day of college they listened as if I was going to give the one that listened the best a million dollars. You seriously could have heard a pin drop! It was clear that when I stated I now remember what it is like to come to the first day of school they were very relieved that I too had felt the way they did.
I went on to introduce WORDLE (Great Program to use for writing that you would really like illustrated). They were as in AWE, as I was when it was presented to me in class. We did one as a class and of course we had to vote on everything so it was fair. They were so intrigued that we decided at least once a month we would be using this to help us learn our vocabulary words. In the near future I told them we would be going to the computer lab to type our own wordle. The students wrote down one famous/special person to them. Next they were to write five qualities this person possesses. From this writing we will be doing a wordle next week. I am very excited to see the finished product. A lot of the children are doing them on a family member. I was very excited when I realized what a neat gift this would be for that special someone. I don't know who is more excited for me to go to class and learn something new, me? or them?.
I went on to introduce WORDLE (Great Program to use for writing that you would really like illustrated). They were as in AWE, as I was when it was presented to me in class. We did one as a class and of course we had to vote on everything so it was fair. They were so intrigued that we decided at least once a month we would be using this to help us learn our vocabulary words. In the near future I told them we would be going to the computer lab to type our own wordle. The students wrote down one famous/special person to them. Next they were to write five qualities this person possesses. From this writing we will be doing a wordle next week. I am very excited to see the finished product. A lot of the children are doing them on a family member. I was very excited when I realized what a neat gift this would be for that special someone. I don't know who is more excited for me to go to class and learn something new, me? or them?.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
"I Think I Can"
It was 4:05 pm as I am rushing away from my full time job. Knowing I am leaving town and praying for no accidents or traffic blocks. I knew I was going to fly into Ames with about 8 minutes to spare. I got to ISU campus and could NOT find a parking place. So I began to explore lots and finally found a space to park in. I left the trusting minivan (or in our house referred to as the granny van) and headed to Lagomarcino. I had been there plenty of times and feeling really confident that I knew where I was headed and I got in there soon to find out WRONG again. I had NO idea of where I was going! I finally found a nice lady that pointed me in the right direction. I looked at the clock and realized it was 5:15 pm. LATE! To top it off I walked into a computer lab of ALL places and looked around the room and realized once again that I was old enough to be the mother of almost everyone in there and the computers were MAC'S. I had not touched a Mac/Apple since 1985. Fear and anxiety really began to set in. At that point it hit me what it really must be like for a student on the first day of school. Turn on the computer. I didn't even know if I could find the on button, let alone work the mouse. I was lucky that Brooke was on one side of me and Maria was on the other and they were nice enough to guide me through the night with MAC computers. Thanks girls. I made it through the in class assignments and then BLOG! I was going to have to BLOG because I was taking it for graduate credit. WHY me LORD? I stayed after class and tried to set up my blog, but of course with all of my knowledge (NOT) I did not have what I needed with me to make it work. Dr. Schmidt told me I could work on it before next week. So here I am this morning and I at least have somewhere to write. AMAZING! I just know after one night of class my new saying before during and after will be "I think I can", I think I can" I think I can". I appreciate the patience of Dr. Schmidt and soon to be the whole class.
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