Last Day!

Integrating Tech, Project Based Learning, NYC

Alright, we made it!! Okay, this class was a lot, but I learned a lot that I will definitely use in my classroom this coming up school year. I have always know that it was important to integrate technology into my classroom; however, I never did it because I didn't come up with an appropriate project. Learning how to create a digital story and a website has been very beneficial. I will definitely require my students to create a digital story, and also create a culture quest -maybe in the form of a website. I will also do a couple of lessons on Power Point. I think my students will be much more interested in my projects when they will be allowed to use the Internet. My school does have a mobile computer lab, but there are often problems that come with them. A lot of the computers' batteries don't work, or the wireless doesn't work. So a lot of the time I spend a good 10 minutes of the class making sure that everyone's computers are working properly. I guess there is nothing I can do about this obstacle, but I will do online computer technological projects. As far as the NYC culture quilt went, I really enjoyed reading other peoples' websites. People really did a nice job, and I think I will show it to my parents for the next time they come to NYC. I think there is some really helpful information. I need to remember to get the link so I can go back. Have a nice summer, and hopefully I'll be back to do more entries in the future. Okay bye

That's It

I hope you enjoyed my blogs, and I hope to continue writing in here. Okay bye

Article #4: Smartboard in the classroom opens a world of promise

This was an interesting article about using smartboards. My school has two smartboards, although I've never used them because of the fact that I taught on multiple floors. I believe I will be on one floor this year, so I hope to use the smartboard more often. The article talks about many of the benefits that come with the smartboard, but possibly the most beneficial is the fact that you can guide students through different programs on the computer. The smartboard projects what is on the teacher's laptop, and therefore the students can see exactly what they need to do. I've noticed this year that many students do not even know how to attach a document to an email. This would be one of the first things I would do with my students. I would be able to show them exactly what needs to be done. I think this would save me many minutes, and make my lessons much more productive. In addition, the article also talks about how the smartboard makes the lessons more student based and more interactive. It allows students to come up to the board and touch the screen just like clicking a mouse pad. This would be great for the more hands on and visual learners. I will definitely come back to this article as I hope to use the smartboard in my classroom.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/05/1081017089222.html

Article #3: Nothing But Net: Creating Slam Dunk Lesson Plans

This article was pretty interesting. I definitely can identify with the teachers that this article talks about. I rarely incorporate technology based lessons and this article gives some very helpful tips to doing so. The article gives five benefits that come with the Slam Dunk Lessons. One that I would really find beneficial would be that because all of the lessons are done on-line, the lessons are stored and can be done repeatedly. Also, the SDL lessons have great assessments for the students at the end of the lesson. This is definitely another area in which I need to grow. I always have a tough time gaging whether the more quiet students are grasping the lesson. This seems like a more effective way to do this.

http://www.fno.org/sum06/slamdunk.html

URL for #1

http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=12803449

URL for #2

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/timesaver0501

Article 2 - Blogging: an introduction

Well, I don't know that this article really taught me anything, but it did give me a couple of ideas to the upcoming school year. The title says it all. Blogging: an introduction. The purpose of the article was pretty much to inform people about blogs, and the different ways blogging can be used. The blogging that we've done for this class is actuallly the first blogging that I've ever done. I've known about it, but I guess I have never really liked the idea of putting my writing out there for anyone to read. Anyway, the article did talk about using blogging in the classroom, and I think this is something I might do. Right now I have my students journaling. They have to complete three journal entries a week. I have them doing this in a composition notebook. I do like the idea of having them do an online blog, because I think it could help develop their typing skills, and I think it might be more appealing to some of them. I think I will definitely give them the option. I also like how the blogs are dated. Even though my students have to complete three journal entries a week, I usually only collect them once or twice a month. Because of this, many students complete multiple journals in one day. I think they would spread them out more if they knew that I would know

One More Day!!

More problems with the Digital Story!!!! I can't believe how much time I've put into this. You would think that I am producing a blockbuster hit. Nope - just a digital story. Anyway, I think I know what I need to do to complete it. This sounds familiar though, doesn't it? I'm done worrying about though, so that's nice. I guess I don't know much else. I was kind of disappointed in myself for not volunteering to go first with my culture quilt, because I feel like the bar was set pretty high, and my website is pretty weak. Oh well. Maybe I'll spend a couple of minutes on it over the weekend. I think I've already spent too much time on it though. We'll see. Well, it's been real. I guess I still have to submit my article responses, so I'll be back soon. Okay bye

Hola Bola

Well, I just published my culture quilt! So, that's pretty exciting. Today was a pretty good day, but really frustrating. I've put a lot of time into my Digital Story, but I'm having a tough time with the programs available. I'm trying to play a song as my narration; however, power point has breaks in between slides. So, it wont work. I tried downloading photo story, but for some reason my computer wont let me. Then I tried movie maker. Hopefully this will work. I haven't messed around with it for too long, but I have all of my pictures in. I just need to get the music in. I have to do this tonight! See you tomorrow. Only two more days!!

One more week

Today was just what I needed. I am almost caught up with everything! Pretty amazing, right? I learned a valuable tool today. I learned how to use Microsoft Excel as a grade book. It seemed quite confusing though. There was a lot to remember. I actually use Teacher's Toolbox, which I'm assuming is pretty much the same thing, although I think a little more user friendly. We'll see what happens. I'm pretty excited about my digital story. I think it should go over well. I'm going to try to finish it tonight at my apartment. I used power point originally; however, I'm playing a song and power point has breaks in between slides. So tonight I'm going to try to download photo story and see what happens.

Very Nice

Today is what I needed. I got to complete my Culture Quilt, and get a decent dent in my Webquest. I think my Culture Quilt looks pretty good. I had kind of a tough time determining exactly what to put in to it. Central Park has so much information and history behind it. It was very hard condensing all of that information into one page. So the approach I took was that I gave a bit of history about why and how it was created, and then I created kind of an entertainment page that would target the tourist population. So the site kind of gives a tourist some ideas on what to do for one or two days in the park. I found some good pictures, and some good links, and I guess we'll see how it goes.

As for the webquest, I guess I still have quite a bit to do. I think I'm done with the task and the process, so I guess I don't have too much more left. I plan on finishing the Digital Story this weekend at my apartment. We'll see.

Have a nice weekend and I'll see you on Tuesday.

Okay

Well today we did a couple of cool exercises that I hope to do with my students. The one in particular that I really enjoyed was the one about staying on task with the basketball and the monkey. I this would be a fun activity. I also like the idea of showing my students a picture and having them all write a poem based on the picture. I will definitely do this.

I watched a few power point presentations. I now want to go back and switch mine around a little bit. Seeing other people present is giving me ideas for my presentation, so that is nice.

The culture quilt is coming along nicely, but pages.google is giving me lots of problems, and I'm getting pretty sick of it. I'm almost done though.

See you tomorrow.

Culture Quilt

Hola, today was a pretty good day. I got quite a bit done with my culture quilt, so that's nice. This was the one project with which I was feeling the most pressure, and now I'm feeling a lot better. I was glad professor Gersh gave us time in class to work on one of the many projects we are working on. I had a lot of questions for her, and she was quite helpful. I also figured out my task for my webquest. I guess things are rolling a little better now than they were this time last week. Anyway, have a nice day and I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Another day of a lot of information

Well, I thought I was overwhelmed yesterday, but it doesn't even compare to today. Today we learned how to create a digital story. Don't get me wrong. All of the information I'm learning seems very practical and I hope to use it all in the classroom. My problem is that I feel like I am learning things so quickly that I wont remember what to do when I come back to it. Hopefully creating these different activities will help me to remember what to do later on down the road.

Last night I created this narrative about my morning routine during the school year. I really enjoyed writing it; however, I figured out today that the narrative will probably not work for my digital story. We watched a few sample digital stories about the countries that former students are from. Originally I wanted to create a culture quest about Minnesota. I was told I couldn't do this. After seeing the digital stories about the different countries, I have decided to create a digital story on Minnesota. I just started the opening paragraph, and I am pretty excited about this. Most of my students (actually most New Yorkers) know nothing about Minnesota. So, I am going to educate them on some of the aspects of Minnesota that they might find interesting. See you tomorrow.

A lot going on

Today we started our culture quilt. I am kind of overwhelmed right now. I am focusing strictly on things to do in Central Park and the history of Central Park. I'm definitely not having a tough time finding information. The problem is that there is almost too much information. So, it is going to be kind of difficult to figure out what I should add to our website and what I should omit. In addition to this, I learned how to use a couple of different programs on Google. I was having a tough time following what Prof. Gersh was saying about it, but hopefully I can figure it out on my own. Power Point, webquest, narratives, culture quilts...lots of things to work on. It is hard keeping up with it all.

Isn't this lovely? So today we have gone to some helpful places for creating graphic organizers. I wonder if my school has "Inspiration." I could definitely see my students getting into it. I don't think I use enough graphic organizers, but I hope to start using more now that I know how easy it is to create them.

Another helpful activity we did was with the story book and making predictions. At first I thought the lesson was kind of boring, but after making the prediction I found myself pretty excited when I discovered that my predictions were correct. If I can get excited over something like that, I know my students will. Making predictions is something that I have my students do, but I think I need to do more of it. It really does help the student stay engaged through the reading. Well, until tomorrow...

Article 1: A Checklist for Evaluating WebQuests

I found this article to be pretty interesting. The article gives some very helpful ideas to take into consideration when using a webquest in my classroom. I actually wish I would have read this before submitting my "task" to Prof. Gersh. While reading the list of recommended criteria for the webquest I thought of many different aspects that I would like to incorporate in my webquest. One tough part about the list is that I need to be careful with incorporating too many of the suggested tips. I like the idea of turning my students into "investigators." I don't know if this will work with my project; however, if reasonable, I might try this technique. I might change my webquest by telling my students that they are members of the UN council, and their job is to determine whether the situation in Darfur is, by definition, a genocide. I will definitely revisit this website.

power point day

Today was pretty helpful and practical. I learned how to organize my “hotlist” and create a decent looking power point presentation. I have worked with power point in the past, but I never really knew what I was doing. A couple of years ago I created a power point presentation for a lesson I was teaching. After class one of my students approached me to tell me that I need help with my power point skills. You can always count on students to be honest with you. That was the last presentation I ever created. Hopefully now that I know a little bit more about it I will use it more. I definitely think it will be a useful tool in the classroom to help me with my lessons. I also plan to teach my students a similar lesson to the one that I was taught today. From there I will have students do projects where they are required to create a power point presentation to be presented to the class.

Okay, this is the second time I am going to write this. Somehow I deleted my last post, which probably tells you how much I need this class. Anyway...

Today is day one for me and day two for everyone else. Due to a cancelled flight out of Minneapolis on Sunday, today is my first day. I have an enormous inbox in my email account that is filled with emails from me containing links to various sites that I hope to visit next year when creating lesson plans. Unfortunately, I don't think this will ever happen because they are very hard to find, and it is all very unorganized. Now that I have my webliography I hope to stay much more organized, which will hopefully bring more interesting material to my classroom.