This week, I am like a duck-calm on the surface but busy busy underneath. I have add so much to do in class this week! Of course, there is the Resource Wiki that must absolutely be done by tomorrow. I've checked and double-checked my project against the rubric and it looks like everything's in good shape so far. I've edited my writing, made sure all the links worked, and checked that the font and format are consistent. The resource wiki has definitely been one of the longer projects we've had to work on, just because of the collaboration across all the different sections in the class. It was a lot of work, but the effort has been worth it. It helps to see an example of the project's end result, so that helped a lot too.
As far as our Inspiration project, I am still in the beginning phases. At first, I wanted to use Kidspiration and do a character map with James and The Giant Peach, but I have to use Inspiration, so I'm looking at the state standards for 6th or 7th grade to generate ideas for my project. At this point, I'm torn between doing a character map or an idea or concept map. I think after reading the state standards more carefully I will have a better idea of what I want to do.
I'm really learning a lot with these projects. It seems that they require a lot of my time, effort, and energy. Indeed, the tasks can become a bit tedious at times, but the overall goal is that you are equipping your students with numerous technological tools that will facilitate the learning experience. Plus, the fact that you're using technology in the classroom gives you all these different outlets, gives you more creativity. It also makes learning fun, which is a great helper in the classroom.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Mastering Digital Tools in the Classroom
This week has been a tremendous learning experience! Our class was split into groups of three to four people and we went on a scavenger hunt! My group was all elementary preservice teachers, and we were assigned opposites. Of the items we were assigned, we found objects for clean, dirty, hot, cold, wet, dry, short, tall, fat, and thin. I must say though, there really aren't enough interesting things on campus to make the scavenger hunt, well, even more interesting!
The post-scavenging process required us to make at least two different presentations of our scavenger hunt. We had to make one presentation using Picasa Web Albums and then either Google Presentation, Glogster, or Smilebox. I actually ended up doing three: Picasa, Google, and Smilebox. I will say that the most frustrating part of this whole process was editing and re-sizing all of my images. I found that the work I did in Picasa was the most tedious and time consuming out of all three presentations. However, the embedding part was relatively simple.
As far as Google and Smilebox go, they were both much easier and quicker to set up. Google was probably the more plain of the two. When I say plain, I mean that I wanted more variety in font and background. At the same time though, google is not as sophisticated as powerpoint. Still, it's pretty cool to know that google has so many tools and resources for anyone to use. Smilebox was pretty cool to use too. The thing I didn't like about Smilebox is that you have to subscribe to a membership plan. I can understand that though, because they offer so much variety, whether it be music, background, format, styles, anything! It's really incredible.
As teacher, introducing various digital tools to my students will be fun and vital to their learning experience with technology. With tools such as Google Presentations, I would help my students create slideshows or presentations for class projects, or even just with presenting in front of the class. With tools such as Picasa and Smilebox, I think it would be fun to create "All About Me" projects with my students where they could share some fun parts of their life or family. Plus, I could use all of these tools to create my own presentations for my classes.
With this project, I think that my take home lesson is that I have learned how to make various digital presentations. I think it'll be a great tool in the classroom whenever I want to present various slideshows in my lessons. Plus, it will be of great use for scavenger hunts! I think that the next time I set up a similar presentation/slideshow, I will probably re-size all of my images first. Then, I would organize them. When I'm actually setting up a presentation, I would, for the sake of my sanity, choose the easiest presentation set-up first before tackling the more challenging ones. This project was definitely stressful at times, but overall, I'm glad I did it. I learned something new and useful, and I got to play around with images.
The post-scavenging process required us to make at least two different presentations of our scavenger hunt. We had to make one presentation using Picasa Web Albums and then either Google Presentation, Glogster, or Smilebox. I actually ended up doing three: Picasa, Google, and Smilebox. I will say that the most frustrating part of this whole process was editing and re-sizing all of my images. I found that the work I did in Picasa was the most tedious and time consuming out of all three presentations. However, the embedding part was relatively simple.
As far as Google and Smilebox go, they were both much easier and quicker to set up. Google was probably the more plain of the two. When I say plain, I mean that I wanted more variety in font and background. At the same time though, google is not as sophisticated as powerpoint. Still, it's pretty cool to know that google has so many tools and resources for anyone to use. Smilebox was pretty cool to use too. The thing I didn't like about Smilebox is that you have to subscribe to a membership plan. I can understand that though, because they offer so much variety, whether it be music, background, format, styles, anything! It's really incredible.
As teacher, introducing various digital tools to my students will be fun and vital to their learning experience with technology. With tools such as Google Presentations, I would help my students create slideshows or presentations for class projects, or even just with presenting in front of the class. With tools such as Picasa and Smilebox, I think it would be fun to create "All About Me" projects with my students where they could share some fun parts of their life or family. Plus, I could use all of these tools to create my own presentations for my classes.
With this project, I think that my take home lesson is that I have learned how to make various digital presentations. I think it'll be a great tool in the classroom whenever I want to present various slideshows in my lessons. Plus, it will be of great use for scavenger hunts! I think that the next time I set up a similar presentation/slideshow, I will probably re-size all of my images first. Then, I would organize them. When I'm actually setting up a presentation, I would, for the sake of my sanity, choose the easiest presentation set-up first before tackling the more challenging ones. This project was definitely stressful at times, but overall, I'm glad I did it. I learned something new and useful, and I got to play around with images.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Resume activity
Last week, we created a resume and turned it in class on Monday. I have prior experience with resume writing, so this activity was not difficult. However, it was refreshing to see a different format used for resume writing. I liked how the header was one line instead of having all the information in a blocked structure. In my resume writing, I usually type my heading information line by line as opposed to having it all on the same line. Also, I liked how the bullet points were more diamond-shaped than regular bullets. Again, regular bullets are something I am used to having in my resumes.
One of the things that posed a problem for me was the information under the qualifications section. I found myself wanting to add more bullet points to my resume, but the way the bullets were set made it difficult for me to change the formatting. In the end, I just left the formatting alone and inserted the best qualifications I thought should belong in that section with allotted number of bullet points. Another thing I found interesting about this resume template was that the resume was two pages instead of one. I do not necessarily find the two-page format a problem. However, I have been told that if you are starting out in your professional career that you should keep your resume to one page. I have been told that it is usually better for more experienced professionals to use a two-page resume.
Even though a resume activity seems to cater more to the professional side of teaching, it can also have its uses in the classroom. As a teacher, I would definitely require my students to create a resume, even if it doesn't contain a lot of information. When I was in ninth grade, I took a computer applications class and we were required to create a type of resume. This was just basically filling out references. I think that even at ninth grade, I would expose my students to resume writing, even if it was as simple as gathering a group of references. Unfortunately, my anticipated grade levels are towards elementary, so I would have to use my resume as a form to send to potential employers. With resumes, you can pretty much customize a certain resume for a certain job position. Therefore, depending on what position I was applying to (whatever school system I would be working for) I would customize my resume based on the job requirements. I could also use it as an example to share with co-workers or other colleagues who may not be confident in preparing a good resume.
If I had to do this activity again, I would probably ask for some help with the formatting issues to customize my resume. Also, I think I would probably experiment with the different heading styles and bullet points. In general, I am glad we were able to complete this activity. I feel that even though I have already completed previous resumes, I can still learn more about writing them. For me, this is just another learning experience, and it has helped me to reach out of my comfort zone and not be afraid to experiment with different headings, styles, and writing/formatting.
One of the things that posed a problem for me was the information under the qualifications section. I found myself wanting to add more bullet points to my resume, but the way the bullets were set made it difficult for me to change the formatting. In the end, I just left the formatting alone and inserted the best qualifications I thought should belong in that section with allotted number of bullet points. Another thing I found interesting about this resume template was that the resume was two pages instead of one. I do not necessarily find the two-page format a problem. However, I have been told that if you are starting out in your professional career that you should keep your resume to one page. I have been told that it is usually better for more experienced professionals to use a two-page resume.
Even though a resume activity seems to cater more to the professional side of teaching, it can also have its uses in the classroom. As a teacher, I would definitely require my students to create a resume, even if it doesn't contain a lot of information. When I was in ninth grade, I took a computer applications class and we were required to create a type of resume. This was just basically filling out references. I think that even at ninth grade, I would expose my students to resume writing, even if it was as simple as gathering a group of references. Unfortunately, my anticipated grade levels are towards elementary, so I would have to use my resume as a form to send to potential employers. With resumes, you can pretty much customize a certain resume for a certain job position. Therefore, depending on what position I was applying to (whatever school system I would be working for) I would customize my resume based on the job requirements. I could also use it as an example to share with co-workers or other colleagues who may not be confident in preparing a good resume.
If I had to do this activity again, I would probably ask for some help with the formatting issues to customize my resume. Also, I think I would probably experiment with the different heading styles and bullet points. In general, I am glad we were able to complete this activity. I feel that even though I have already completed previous resumes, I can still learn more about writing them. For me, this is just another learning experience, and it has helped me to reach out of my comfort zone and not be afraid to experiment with different headings, styles, and writing/formatting.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
My Resource Wiki
This week, my technological skills are being pushed even further with the creation of a resource wiki. For this activity, I am placed into my licensure group, so elementary ed. For our wiki, we have to create at least five different pages, but we have six. So far, the activity has not been that difficult. I will say that the biggest challenge with this activity has been that the new room configuration makes it hard to work with the other people in my group. While I'm working on the resource wiki, I'll just have to regularly check against the rubic to make sure I'm not missing any steps. Thankfully, one of our group members has posted a reminder on the criteria needed for the wiki on each separate page.
I was editing some pages on our wiki earlier this week and I just kind of perused the other pages. I thought it was really cool to see so many different subjects that an elementary teacher has to teach. I'm sure that sometimes the thought of having to everything-math, science, social studies, and reading, can be quite overwhelming. Still, if you're invested in your students and you have that passion for them to learn and succeed, you'll find it rewarding. Also, in this exercise you're not doing everything on your own. I really like how group work is very advantageous to us in this activity. Sure, I might be able to create fifteen resources for five separate pages, but it's so much easier when there are five or six other people working with you.
In terms of classroom use, wikis are very multifaceted, but a big wiki project like this one could be even more so. With group wikis. I could see myself using them for a number of different things. One use could be if I had to assign a vocabulary worksheet assignment that were paired in groups. Each group could create their own wiki. Within each group, each group member would have to contribute to their wiki by writing in so many vocabulary words and providing definitions. For math, I could use wikis to post math problems and then allow access to my class so they could fill in the answers to the questions. Also, any type of planning my students might be doing would be good with a wiki. For instance, if my students were planning a party, they could post the needed items on a wiki. The same goes for planning a field trip. I would say that most projects that require collaboration I would use with a wiki.
One thing I'm learning is preparing your information ahead of time. I definitely agree with Ginny's comment on creating your sources in a word document and then uploading them later. I think it saves time and you're better organized. Plus, you don't run the risk of hogging up the page while you're editing. I should probably do that with the rest of my resources that I need to add. If I were to repeat this activity, I would be better organized. That is, identify the sources I have and want to include, the pages where I want to add my resources, and typing up my information ahead of time to reduce stress.
I was editing some pages on our wiki earlier this week and I just kind of perused the other pages. I thought it was really cool to see so many different subjects that an elementary teacher has to teach. I'm sure that sometimes the thought of having to everything-math, science, social studies, and reading, can be quite overwhelming. Still, if you're invested in your students and you have that passion for them to learn and succeed, you'll find it rewarding. Also, in this exercise you're not doing everything on your own. I really like how group work is very advantageous to us in this activity. Sure, I might be able to create fifteen resources for five separate pages, but it's so much easier when there are five or six other people working with you.
In terms of classroom use, wikis are very multifaceted, but a big wiki project like this one could be even more so. With group wikis. I could see myself using them for a number of different things. One use could be if I had to assign a vocabulary worksheet assignment that were paired in groups. Each group could create their own wiki. Within each group, each group member would have to contribute to their wiki by writing in so many vocabulary words and providing definitions. For math, I could use wikis to post math problems and then allow access to my class so they could fill in the answers to the questions. Also, any type of planning my students might be doing would be good with a wiki. For instance, if my students were planning a party, they could post the needed items on a wiki. The same goes for planning a field trip. I would say that most projects that require collaboration I would use with a wiki.
One thing I'm learning is preparing your information ahead of time. I definitely agree with Ginny's comment on creating your sources in a word document and then uploading them later. I think it saves time and you're better organized. Plus, you don't run the risk of hogging up the page while you're editing. I should probably do that with the rest of my resources that I need to add. If I were to repeat this activity, I would be better organized. That is, identify the sources I have and want to include, the pages where I want to add my resources, and typing up my information ahead of time to reduce stress.
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