Public Knowledge

My portfolio is something that I had though I fixed several months ago and made public for all of you to make fun of.... check out, I mean. I just received another message saying that all of you could not access my projects and products.... At long last, I have added all of you and not you can share the glory and satisfaction of rifling through all of my work. I hope that you gain a little bit of knowledge from its content and enjoy yourself!

Pinnacle

Pinnacle Movie Maker is my most recent venture. For my final project for this class Teri and I decied to work together to make a short video. We created the video by taking a lot of pictures and compiling them all together to create a time lapse type video.
Pinnacle Movie Maker was pretty easy and could be very useful in the classroom. I can see myself using this frequetly uf I had a camera with a remote. It would be fun to put up posts like this on my website of lesson that we completed during a week or even in a day.

Flip Video

I am excited to say the least. I never thought that I would have the opportunity to working with a flip video camera! I am a little bit nervous but looking forward to the challenge and the opportunities that it will offer. I am going to play with the tool and use it in a practical and academic setting.
I will update everyone as soon as I have something interesting to talk about...

Zoomerangers

As I sit in class I cannot help to overhear my colleagues talk about their surveys and a cute little website called zoomerang. If you have the right mind set and have a set of questions that you would like a target population that you need to obtain information from then a survey is a great way to collect data.
I would like to set up my class with a survey reflect something in the near future. I am not sure what I would like to collect data on but I am looking forward to trying it out.

Fun vs. Hard Work

My students equate fun with using laptop, playing games, and participating in center. They look at hard work as being a teacher-centered class with tests, worksheets, and quizzes.
I have fooled all of my students... I am so proud!
Through a plethora of websites, games, question, and a check list I have fooled the students into thinking that they were just having fun, but they were actually completing assignments, providing data that reflect their personal knowledge and the knowledge of a group.
A great example of this is the use of Study Island. The children are asked to complete and obtain a ribbon on a specific topic. Then they are asked to individually answer questions on a worksheet that reflect what they worked on and they level of completion. I, as a teacher, am able to check each students progress and understanding of a topic as well as an entire class' am able to reinforce topics that may not be understood. I also collect the check list and provided feedback to each individual.

NJ ASK

I am not a big fan of standardized testing. It has thrown a huge monkey wrench in my teaching, enthusiasm, and my students' excitement. Trying to juggle a masters, end of the year assessments, field trips, surfing, school unity day, and all of the other day-to-day activities is difficult enough and then to have this ASK test makes life no fun!
Now that the ASK is over the children are DONE! They are treating every day as if it were the last day of school and not putting much thought or emotion into what they would normally do in school. The days are getting longer...
I am not a fan of the ASK...

I know that~!

I have found a site.... iknowthat.com and it is great! I put it up on my favorite list and the children are really benefiting from the tutorials that are offered as well as the games. I love that the children are getting excited about learning. This is a good way to grab their attention and get them interested in what we are learning in class. It is also a bargaining child... if they are behaved then they get the opportunity to work on I know that.
This has helped and given support and enrichment for my class!

Turning Over New Stones

The women that I work with here in my MAIT cohort are in another world... and I mean that in the best, most dignified way! I come into class thinking that I am up-to-date with some of the latest techie tools, gadgets, and gizmosbut am rudely awakened when I hear about some of the things that they are taking about.
Today a fun little site was brought to my attention, animoto.com. Here is a site that you can upload photos and the program sets the pictures to music and creates a great little slide show... I am defiantly going to use it.

Alice

Alice is a new program that is offered by Carnegie Mellon University to be down loaded for free. The program is manageable for students to navigate through and can be an alternate avenue for students to give a visual example of a story that they have written or read. This program is a spin off of Sims but is a little bit more low tech and not as developed.
I have had the opportunity to work with a student on this program and it is very interesting and fun. It does take a long time to produce a product that can explain a story or give a visual representation of a writing piece.
I do not think that I will use this program due to the individual attention that I would need to give each one of the praticiapating students.
If you have any suggestions of sites that would be more comprehensive to my class and my personal need please let me know!

Sorry I missed class.... Sad Face:(

I heard that there was some pretty rad stuff going on in class last week and if it is half as crazy as your wimba then it would have had me sitting on the edge of my seat.
I was very impressed with all of the wimba lessons that have been saved. As I was looking over them I realized how much time, effort and emotion all of you put into this class. I am really proud that I get the chance to work with all of you week after week and am going to be sad when the summer comes and I have to spend several weeks without the women in my life.
Although I am really looking forward to the culmination of the class I think it really helped to bond us together and reassured me that we are all in this together.
Thank you...

In an Epic Battle with Synectics

I feel like all that I have been doing over the past 2 weeks is trying to think of something to submit for my Synectics discussion quiz. I thought about presenting a "kick flip" but I cannot find the creativity to spark an appropriate visual representation to make this action more firmilliar for the learner. I can demonstrate it via video, but I think that defetes the point?
When I left class two Tuesdays ago I was frothing, bubbling with idea but I found myslef mentally exausted. When I reapproached the topic feeling revitalized but all of my ideals has lost thier valitity. Is there a balance to be found or is it too late?
I leave asking... when is the tide going to change?

It is all about the Motivation

Sometimes you feel like a consumer, like all you do is take and take some more... Then, something springs you into action, it could be a girl, or a teacher, or maybe realizing that you have no clean dishes to eat off of.
In doing my research for teaching "Adult Learning" to you I found that motivation brings life to learning. You only learn when you are motivated to learn. The days have passed when teacher directed/centered/lectures classes actually help us to learn, expand our knowledge, and motivate us to be interested in content. Now, as adults we have learned not to wait for stones to be turned ovre for us, but to turn them over for oursleves. We have learned ourselves well enough to understand what it takes to learn and understand something. For some it takes reading the words from a book, others watching someone do it, and still other they need to hear it for themselves.
Get ready for an interesting lesson... and bring your game faces, we are going trolling for chicks... or in your cases... for some dudes!

The project

As the end of our course nears I am finding myself looking back and thinking.... "that wasn't so bad," but as I look ahead at the mountain that I still have to climb I a begin to shake in my boots. Lately life has taken a turn down a road that I am not firmillar with, a road that I would rather not travel down. It has been a lonely overwhelming road that has found me lost and confused. It has occupied most of my life, time, energy, and emotion.
I feel as though my work is suffering due to my inability to rise above all the issues that consume me.
This is why blogging can be a double edged sord, a blessing and a curse. It is great to have a sounding board but there is no need for anyone to let the whole world in on all of the trials and tripulations that comsume my life. This is why there should be a criteria for bloggers and blogging.

Constipated?

Today class was very interesting… Before coming into class Synectics was a practice that I had only read about in very recent history (this past weekend). After reading I was still completely engrossed in confusion and frustration. Teri’s presentation opened my eyes and helped me to view this strategy as a free thinking teaching and learning style. It helps teachers and students create an environment in the classroom where students can feel comfortable and able to express themselves.
The class was so much fun and the references kept my attention. I thoroughly enjoyed the angle the Teri took to interpret and convey the lengthy/complex information of the Synectics strategy.

Marc vs. The LIBRARY

The “LIBRARY” and I have not been on good terms since our falling out my senior of college. I spent so much time with the LIBRARY that my girlfriend became severely jealous and left me for a more suitable companion (I think he was a COMPUTER LAB guy). All of that time spent in the stacks searching, reading, scanning, and copying. I spent many hours wasting time on useless text. Once I discovered EBSCO Host my life was made a little bit easier but it still did not mend the wounds caused by the LIBRARY.

Cognitive Theory

Class last week was great! It was interactive, stimulating and informative. I enjoyed the creativity and interactive nature of the lesson. Offering visuals to support what is being taught is a practice that I often apply to my classroom. Some lessons lend themselves more to this practice then others but I feel that visuals are very effective.
The cognitive theory is something that I learned early in my college career and I have tried to base my lesson plans and teaching style around it. I love building on prior knowledge and referring back to previously learned information to help learners make more connections. This past class reminded me of the importance of each step in creating a lesson plan.

Life in the Internet Lane

I really did enjoy the class last Tuesday and its convenience although it was difficult and at some points confusing. I think that it was fun and can serve a purpose if used in the correct way.

It was very interesting how Karen took advantage of the opportunity that was given (present via the internet/wimba) and make the best of it. I did obtain a lot of information from our class session and have been actively looking for the "behaviorisms" in the way that I teach.

Behaviorism is a basic and simple form of teaching that is very ridged and strict. Karen, with her performance on Tuesday, changed my mind! She used creative skill building exercises (online games and Power Point slides) to explain the game of craps. Even though the lesson was based around probability she found a creative way to gain a learners attention and keep it!

No Excuses

There is no excuse for missing class ever again! I can remember those days when I was a young child and faked being sick so that I could take a day to myself. It gave me a chance to catch my breath and slow my life down. With the new found application of Wimba there is no reason why you would have to miss class. I really do like the opportunity that Wimba offers and I am already trying to think of ways that I can apply it to my classroom. I am going to put a webcam in my classroom and watch my class while I am not in the room (maybe on a sick day).
During class we reviewed Wimba and many of the opportunities that it offers. The option that put websites, pictures and other visual things up for everyone to see was my favorite part of the class. I am looking forward to being able to gain a new perspective for teaching and learning through all of the applications that this program has to offer.

First Day of School...

On our first day of class I felt like one of my students on the first day of school; nervous, scared, excited, and eager. After our opening exercise part of the anxiety that I was feeling left. I enjoyed getting to know each of my classmates on a level that I had not discovered yet.
I am still a little bit overwhelmed and anxious about our class, most of all about the APA formatting. I have only had to do this on several select occasions and still do not feel very competent.
Other than they anxiety I am excited about the class and eager to ascertain new information about topics I studied during my undergraduate education.