Exit Slip 11/18

We did a jigsaw discussion in class today and I thought it was a great way to communicate. I learned that it is good to say the name of the learning strategy you are using because it gives students a base of what is going on (people have the frame of reference for the strategy). It was realized that it is very important to coordinate a lesson before hand and have detailed directions. It is important as a teacher to think far in advance about the changing world and education. Internships in practical learning are important to students finding their future career path; the future is full of service jobs and creative jobs. There will be many new jobs sprouting up that our students will have to adapt to. Something that I didn't think about was how interactive white boards are becoming a dated technology and does not improve you teaching if you are using it the same way as a dry erase board or chalk board.

PSA

I did my PSA in a group of 4; it is about online safety for elementary students. The video reminds kids that the internet is useful and fun but it can be dangerous. It also presents tips to make sure a website is safe to use. This project was made much easier because it was done in a group. I would have had no idea how to edit the video. I know how to create videos on a variety of cameras but I have never made changes to them. My friend let our group borrow his Mac, so we could edit the video using iMovie. After working will it video editing seems a lot less scary.
My group enjoyed working on and put time into this project. I was glad there was so many brains in the room because it made creating a script faster and easier due to many thoughts and points of view. This PSA will be beneficial for my future teaching. I will be able to create videos to share with my class and I will be able to help my students create their own. I will use video in my classroom for announcements, projects, and lessons.

iRLO

I decided to make my iRLO about spelling for kindergartners and first graders.  My learning object asks the students to spell certain words by moving letters into the correct boxes to form words. When I first started this I had no clue what I was doing. I had missed the lecture on how to use Scratch so I was pretty confused. In order to figure out what to do I talked to my peers and watched the instructional videos on scratch.com. Before I started it I chose my subject and that I wanted the students to spell out three letter words. When I first started working on my project I was at home and introduced it to my little brother and my dad. My dad is a computer programmer and thought the software was a great idea and my brother sat and played with it for a while. This encouraged me to want to work with it more. I spent a lot of time setting up the project, choosing details, selecting words, and polishing it. I had to go into office hours several time to add on levels and work out some glitches I found.  Overall I think I put in a lot of effort into this assignment and enjoyed it.

I think this project was a great experience and I will use it for my future classroom. I’m glad I did it because now it will be easier for me make to make my own projects. This is a resource that I can use forever and pass on to others. Also, I can get ideas and games for my classroom off the website. I can make games for every subject and for fun. I plan to use this in my future classroom and I am already giving this one to my mom for her k-1 class.

IWB Reflection

I did my interactive whiteboard lesson on geometry for first graders. My lesson involved the many properties of shapes, practicing the names, and association with real life objects. I worked with the standard "reason with shapes and their attributes" and focused on the first part of the standard, which was having students distinguish between defining attributes versus non-defining attributes of a shape.

I think this lesson impacted my future in a positive manner. If I wasn't expose to it I would probably be a little hesitant when bringing it into my classroom. Now I would love to use a smartboard for my lessons. It provides addresses a variety of learners and can be used for every subject and in many different ways. I have learned a lot from this project. I got a refresher and was able to use my knowledge on shapes. Also, I was able play with the software and make my own lessons with it. I think I put a lot of effort into this assignment. At first I had no clue what I was doing then eventually I got a hang of it. I spend a while coming up with ideas and planning my lesson. Then I spend a while changes in to my likes and revising it off of comments.

Exit Slip 11/11/2010

I liked the quote that was presented at the beginning of the discussion group and the idea of using scriblink, but it was sad it didn't work. The quote presented the big question is that are you going to be an innovative teacher or a teacher that fits the current mold. I think it was emphasized how important to have a plan b. We discussed how scriblink and other tools like it are a good tool to limit a dominate voice, saves time, reduces off-task behaviors, it addresses different types of learners, and a way to quickly share responses.  I learned that it is a good idea as a teacher to limit responses to the most important things.

Contemporary issues podcast

When this project was assigned I decided that I was going to be brave and try using a Mac because garageband sound like a very neat too. My problem is I am not comfortable with Macs at all, I rarely use them and don’t know most of the basics. So I spent a lot of time learning how to copy and paste, save things, and open projects. This means that this assignment caused me to learn more than just how to use garageband. I spent a lot of time playing around on garageband and had some friends show me how to edit, record, and insert sounds. I took at least an hour writing the script for the podcast and analyzing and summarizing the article. Then I probably took ten takes on recording the podcast and then went through and edited what I didn’t like. I admit at one point I was pretty frustrated and wanted to stop because I couldn’t figure out how to edit, I lost a recording, and kept recording over things I wasn’t suppose to record over. This assignment influenced my future teaching because it taught me a skill I never had before. If I had never had done this for class I would probably would have never done it. Now I feel comfortable with it and will use it for learning in the classroom. I can have students make one about their learning, I can make one about a subject for my students, and create one to tell students parent about activities in the classroom. In the end I may have had difficulties with assignment but it was completely worth it and now I want to work with it more.

Article:  http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/11/08/age.verification/index.html

Cool Tools Screencast

                Once I was done with the screencast I was very happy about it and felt successful. I have to admit when I was working on it I became frustrated with it, but it wasn’t because it was difficult. When making it I had a script but for some reason I was nervous about messing up my word, which I did and this caused me to have to rewrite the screencast about 10 times.  The good thing was the more I did the more comfortable I got and I was able to figure out ways of wording and doing things to make the screencast easier. I am glad I did this because before I had no idea what it was and now I have the skills and tools to make one. Also, I now know about drawanywhere.com because it is a tool that I can use in my classroom. It is a good tool for diagrams and mind maps. I will definitely use it in my future classroom because I think it is a great way for student to express their thoughts and this tool allows them to draw it out.  I think I put a large amount of effort into the assignment . I spend a lot of time playing and learning about my cool tool, learning to use jing, writing a script, and recording my screencast. This assignment impacts my future teaching because I gave me knowledge of a tool a lot of people don’t know about. Doing this also makes the tool way less intimidating and now I am way more comfortable with it. Now if I have something to show my student online I can create a screencast ahead of time and show it in class.

http://www.screencast.com/users/astro251/folders/Default/media/d3814605-e922-4ee0-b8a8-9df72c327488 

exit post 11/4/10

I really liked the article that we were given to look at after the discussion, I think it was intriguing and a great add on to the chapter.  We learned about a online tool called scriblink, where you can invite people to work with you online. We went over tips and tricks for our scratch projects. Key questions we should think about for our irlo are: Is it reusable? Is it interactive? Is it clear? (directions) Does it give feed back?  Next, we were given the yes test for our inquiry annotated bibliography. I didn't realize some of the things about my bibliography, so I am going to have to spend time working on it.