Did I meet my goals??

I feel that I met my goals. I have a good foundation of understanding for powerpoint and am very comfortable with going about doing more lessons on my own and even using it to teach peers and colleagues. I refreshed my memory of powerpoint from my undergrad days and learned some other pretty cool techniques as well. I did learn how to narrate a powerpoint, however it was not applicable for my project.

I re-familiarized myself with kidspiration again but I kinda feel like there is more to explore within the program. I saw on other people's blogs that they made schedules for their school days. I think I would like to explore that further. I made a good start learning the program but I feel like it has more to offer than what I chose to do.

Final Project Plans

I am struggling now with trying to decide what to do for my final project. I would really like to do something that I can and will use in my classroom for the upcoming school year. So I am leaning towards a sample lesson. I have been involved immensely with Social Studies GPS and am team- teaching Social Studies this year. I think that a powerpoint that involves map skills or highlights some of the historical figures covered in first grade would be very beneficial to me and my colleagues.

It would also be very cool to have a powerpoint running during open house that hightlights all of the topics that new students and parents need to know.

Its all swirling around in my brain and I will play and experiment with powerpoint and see what direction it leads me in. :)

Kidspiration Reflection

I loved kidspiration! It was not as much fun as photoshop, but that might be because it is kid-geared and kiddie-user friendly. Anyways, I decided to do a vocabulary mapping activity. I used one of the stories that we actually read in first grade and chose a vocab word from the book. I think this would be great for vocabualry review since that is such a big part of first grade. We have a series of read-alouds that go along with our reading series and they each have lots of vocab that we study along with the story. It would be really cool to have a slide show of sorts for each of the stories vocab words already up for the year. I think that might be something to think about and work on for the upcoming year to share with all of the other teachers.

But I liked the program overall and I think that I could utilize it for lots of things, especially since we are going to have a computer lab this year. So I could have the kids make story maps, work on the writing of story elements, and do other subjects such as Social Studies where I can hit the GPS using technology. It is alot to think about.

Question 2: Article

The term triple coding refers to the multiple intelligeces and using them in the classroom. Research shows, that if a teacher uses a minimum of three MI's to teach a lesson, odds are the information is going to stick with the students.

A good example of this is when Mind-Mapping is used in the classroom. A mind-map is when a visual record is made of some information. When students use a smorgesboard of MI's all at once to create this mind-map, they are more likely to remember and have learned the information.

My Goals for the 2nd Weekend

I have used powerpoint before, in my undergrad days, although, it has been awhile. Therefore, I am guessing that there is a lot that I am not familiar with in terms of new advances in the program. I like the thought of using more powerpoints to teach my lessons. I really would like to learn more about putting videos within my powerpoints, especially to use United Streaming. I like how some of the examples of final projects were narrated and I loved that fact that kids narrated the powerpoint!! That is great and I would like to learn more about that.

I have also used inspiration and kidspiration before, but once again, that was along time ago in my undergrad days and I need some refreshing. So I guess my goals for this two programs would be to learn how to utilize them again, especially in my classroom with my students. If I remember correctly, it is great for story mapping. :)

Overall, I am excited about broadening my horizons with all of this new technology!!

Final Thoughts for Weekend One

I have really enjoyed this weekend and I have learned far more than I ever imagined. All of my Lesley classes seem to be following this pattern as a matter of fact; the outcome far exceeds my expectations. I have learned to love Photoshop and will now beg my husband to buy it for me so I can have it for future use. I also love the fact that I now have my very own web page so to speak on blogger.com. I am very proud of all of my accomplishments. I believe that the last blog entry I wrote expressed my frustrationswith Photoshop, but fear not!! I have found my creative outlet at last!!! Hooray!!

I plan on using the blog material that I have learned so that I can create a classroom website so I can enhance the communication between my parents and myself.

Photoshop Fun

Last afternoon we began learning how to manipulate photoshop. We started out small and basic and on Sunday, we began to get down and dirty. I started out by playing with all of the tools and seeing what kind of outcome I would get. I eventually would mess it up far beyond recognition and end up deleting the whole thing. I am still in this unhappy spot. But a few things that I did like were the filters effects and I also like using the reverse color effects. At the end of the morning I did discover the backgrounds and the frames which was cool. Hopefully, I will find some creative outlet that will make all of my frustrations disappear. :)

Reflection of Article

In the article by Judy Van Scoter, she discusses how digital images can be used to enhance the young students' learning. The article begins by introducing us to a typical classroom of students who are making observations of patterns using things like blocks and stickers. As a teacher looking in, this seems typcial of a normal day. However, a new twist is involved, one that is not seem very often. These particular students are using digital cameras to record their creations.

Van Scoter states that providing students with digital images of their work is a good way to increase students engagement and enhance their skills and curiosity of the subject. Naturally students are always curious about the world around them and putting a camera in their hands lead to motivatiog and fun outcomes. It also provides children with looking at things from another persepective or even someone elses viewpoint. This is something that they do not get from simply creating a pattern with blocks that will only be knocked down before lunch, never to be seen again.

So using the images is a way to record and assess a students' learing and progress. Van Scoter suggest that creating a portfolio of a childs' work allows the teacher to visually see the progress over time. Imagine how successful the student will feel after looking at something that visually shows their growth.

It is also a great resource to use for showing parents events that are happening in the classroom. Using the digital images to display a class field trip allows the students to share with their parents which opens communication doors. Putting the cameras in the students' hands is even more powerful. It can present opportunities for students to revisit events that happened in the classroom and when students are willing to revisit something it creates new learning expericences that might not have come about at the first reflection.

My Goals for the Weekends to Come!!!

I feel semi-comfortable with technology. When I learned about this class, I got a little excited to further my knowledge of it. My technological knowlege is not something that I go looking to improve upon or even something that I want to work with on my free time, but I am realizing that in order to provide certain things for my students down the road I am in the market for some more education in the field.

One goal for me persoanlly and as a teacher, I would love to have a class website to open up more opportunity for more communication between me and my parents. We have e-chalk in Richmond County where I do have somewhat of my own class page, but I will admit that I do not keep it up at all. It might be more of a personal thing as well. I just do not like sitting at a computer for hours on end. It almost feels like a waste of precious time to me when there are so many more pressing matters to attend to. But if I can learn how to do things quickly like updating and changing and posting in a quick manner, I feel that it would be beneficial to my students and parents and probably make things easier for me as well.

I would also like to learn more about using my digital camera!!!!

Reaction to film

Last night, our first night of the technology class, we watched the movie entitled Born into Brothels. The movie was very touching and definitely pulled on some heart strings. I immediately got attached to the children of the film. I loved watching their interactions with each other and their teacher. They reminded me of my students in the way they spoke about each other and to each other. It made me realize that children are just children no matter what part of the world you are in. They played with the resources that were available to them like flying the kites on the roof tops or just stood around to converse with each other and eventually just end up making up a game or singing and dancing. Children are just children.

Another touching part of the movie that struck me deeply was how intelligent these children were. Even with barely any education and a life in ghastly conditions, these children of the brothels were so strong willed and their the intelligence, especially when looking at a photo critically, astounded me. Even me, at 25, with an abundance of privileged experiences and higher education, I do not think that my thoughts could be that advanced.

It was a great introduction into the world of photography. It helped me to understand that even the most simple of pictures could be amazing in themselves. I also learned the importance of showing real life in photographs. Taking a quote from the boy that traveled to Amsterdam because of his accomplishments, he stated that even though a photo may be heartbreaking to look at, it is still just life and life in itself if true.