The Journey is just Beginning

Even though class is over, my technology journey isn't. I can't wait to take all that I have learned during this class and apply it to my life. Even though I don't have my own classroom yet, I can use a lot of what we learned at work and in my every day routine. I am even going to try and keep up with my blog. I like keeping "journal" of my journey through gradschool. I have learned a lot from my group, my class and Dr. S. This class has given us many useful tools that we will continue to use.
Check out my final project that I used Slideboom, one of the many web 2.0 tools we acquired over the course of this semester.

http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/63733/Using-Technology-to-Assist-Language-Learning-in-any

I wish everyone the best of luck in all future endeavors and thank you all for teaching me so much.

Digital Story telling 101

1. use pictures and sounds to create a story
2. about a main character


My digital story used ICT it was informative and insturcted students and parents how to do something.

You can use what you learn in class in life!!

Today I discovered that not everything you learn in school is never used again when my boss told me she wanted a fun power point with things that flew and noises. This was made simple by the fact that we had done a power point for our midterm a few weeks ago. By having explored all that power point has to offer and learning a lot more then I had previously known during this class, I was able to make her a great presentation. It was a little too much fun for her though because she made me tone it down a little:-)

Collaboration is Key

Collaboration is a very important part of classroom learning.

This week we learned about and discussed the differences between collaborative and cooperative learning.
During our discussions and from the readings we were assigned we came to see that collaboration is more about the process. In this kind of learning, everyone is equal and everyone grows and gains knowledge. You work as a group to complete assignment. I feel that this is what we do in this class when we meet with our groups. We all work together to complete the assignments. We have acquired many tools in this class that will help us to Collaborate with others. Some of these include our wikis, blogs, and websites.
Cooperative learning on the other hand prepares students for collaboration. This is more teacher centered, because the teacher is teaching the students how to cooperate with others that way she can send them off into groups and they will have the skills and ability to work together. In this way our class meetings are cooperative because Dr. S is guiding us to work together. During these meetings we all have our roles. Each week one of us is the facilitator so we keep the rest of the group on task.

What's the answer to 1 Down???

I had a lot of fun making my crossword puzzle. I have always loved doing crossword puzzles so I really liked this project. I use excel a lot so I did not find this to be difficult, although using the puzzle making site made making the puzzle a lot easier because all you had to do was put in the clues and the answers and it made the puzzle and answer key for you. So, if I had to choose, I definitely think that I would make my puzzle with the help of the site Edhelper.com. This site also has a lot of other great puzzles you can make I absolutely love doing the soduko puzzles. I also think that being able to use excel is an important skill, because it can be used to a lot of different things. I use it constantly at work for making tables and graphs and as we saw in this assignment it can be used to create things for the classroom too.
Since I seem to be having issues posting the snapshot to my blog check out my crossword using the URL below
https://campusweb.msmc.edu/moodle190/file.php/426/moddata/assignment/1368/2795/Mammals.htm

During class we saw that technology is not always perfect. I feel like we spent way too much time during class getting everyone to figure out how to post our presentations so that everyone could see them. I think that if we just devoted like 30 min the first day of class to go over this then we would not have to spend so much time each week trying to figure it out. I still feel like I do not know how to do it. We did not even get to see half of the groups presentations. I liked hearing and seeing the different ideas that people came up with for their lessons. i feel like this is beneficial to everyone, because maybe they can pick up a good idea that they can use in their classroom.
When we met as a group we went over the websites. Danielle who teaches first grade really liked spelling city. She was planning on trying it out in her classroom the following week. The games for the students were great. I think that kids like learning better when you can turn it into a game, I know that I always did.
The We think video further showed that the internet is a big part of education today and a big way that ideas are passed along from one person to another. I think that the internet is a great way to both get and share new ideas and lessons.

How to Deal with a Bully

I made my video using Microsoft Photostory 3. This project was definitely a little frustating, finding all the pictures to fit with it took a little bit of time then trying to figure out how to add a page without a picture did not work for me. No matter how long I sat there I could not figure it out, but at this point I felt that I had put too much time and effort into the project to try out the other site. So I had to add the cover and ending pages with one of my pictures. This was something I think students would enjoy and it would be a fun way to learn about a topic, or something you could even have the students do as a project. Other then the issue with the blank pages, I found this project to be a lot of fun. I also tested out the Voicethread site and found it to be equal in simplicity to that of Photostory. I think I liked Photostory better and hope to test out some of the other suggested sites in the future.

Pop Quiz

I created quiz using ProProf.com. I found it very easy to sign up for this tool. I also found it very easy to maneuver and to create the quiz. I liked how it gave you the option about the types of questions you wanted and allowed you to use different types. I also like how it scored everything for you and allowed you to choose the method of scoring you wanted to use. This is definitely something I would use in the future for creating quizzes. I also liked how you could view other people's quizzes and could use them for guidance. The way they had them broken down by type of quiz was also helpful. You can also use the site to create other things for your class such as flash cards for help during studying. I found the SAT section to be extremely helpful and beneficial. I remember when I was taking the SATs and how nervous I was the study tips and practice questions are something that a lot of students will find useful.

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/quizshow.php?title=what-do-you-know-about-astronomy_1&quesnum=1