AR Reflective Video Week 4 TMD

Check out my reflective video.

My Comfort Zone

Wordle of my Comfort Zone

Wordle Word Play

Check out my Wordle and create your own by going to
www. Wordle.net.

TMD and the Beat Goes On....

Well it is the start of a new month, and with it, a new course. I am ready to continue learning new and wonderful things. I am little behind on updating my AR website. I will have to get on the ball with that.

Time just seems to fly by. I am into the 5th month already. The things that I have accomplished thus far, has truly amazed me, because I am seeing and producing things that one year ago, I never would have imagined possible. I am enjoying the challenging, and sometimes turbulent ride. I am eager each month to see the results of my hard work. I must say, I am pleased thus far.

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Here is the link to my comment #2 for week 3

http://coach2win.blogspot.com/2010/01/bp92010013web20tool3.html?showComment=1264475517740_AIe9_BHuDg-XKE7SMVKj3sFFamNDZMHeYnWQeIfP9sk6J0WKPA9ZaAYKIaFSl-_J4ky76U1W1bBzAQ_wsJXafDjKe72DGgcliOkF0tEH3Fv71FK2p--i7K1p8XKHrgKcmzEkDYYKENlQIpmbdYv_ruX_lSndklQf0uFNwB5ow6rRNVXpvSqdzXCF_mcMS-SbK_6pHevj1vfaGC2n6ytJ0S85Dlx7UhuqXm2U0ucfBAYfURk-fgvX2xQ#c8939799131725634105

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This is the link to my comment for Week 3

http://jhuber2pointoh.blogspot.com/2010/01/intermission-edutopia.html?showComment=1264474527657_AIe9_BHyfLOn_nm1cebF56DDzDtkVv5I5u2DmokrIe3Gb5KedS06fqnTywFcsrabbOpg_EDiK_yGqAVVrsl3HbA1sNUpAZpU35MUuFxxekF-UA42fPY2OVIcrqnASWjID7fqOa7VQDLUhuGD1tY1BsgZc895XOC0Ln_zvMcqoEfVNeSRTqoWfJjmDSgpaFjCHJHcXrmr1WTD_MrROJGt9Zz_gH7AzVUOXJvkaXoXJCULcN0YcipBdcM#c6327706933734475337

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School Notes 2.0

School Notes is a wonderful multi-facet tool to use, for teachers, students, and parents alike. From a teacher prospective, it can be used to post information that students and parent can access. Teachers can post assignments, homework, create reminder list, add flashcards, pictures, leave notes, add links that are helpful or required for their students to visit, and post instructions for assignments as well. Teachers can utilize this site for just about anything they would like to share with students and parents.

Teacher can enroll easily by filling out a form and submitting to School Notes. It is very easy to join, edit, and use. The site offers a user manual to help familiarize members with the tools it offers, which are many. It gives assistance so that anyone that accesses the site can do so, easily, and efficiently.

Members are able to customize their page to appeal to the audience they are teaching, and have freedom to build their site as they like, as long as they stay within the rules and regulations set up by School Notes.

Teachers are able to share ideas with other teachers, collaborate, share lesson plans, research material, and integrate technology, share articles, chat and so much more.

School Notes is one of the best tools a teacher could ever have. One might call it a teacher best friend. It is a site for educators to communicate effectively with all realms of the community. Parent love this site as well

A teacher may have as many as ten free pages at their disposal. It is very easy to update, on a daily basis, if necessary. What better site could one ask for? This site is well worth the time and effort, so please check it out; you will find it to be a treasure!

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Zoomerang is an online survey creator. It offers free templates, has importing capabilities from Word and any other text file. Tag Cloud, is one tool that Zoomerang offers that makes it easier to analyze open-ended questions. It is more than just a survey creator; it can populate lifestyle, demographics, occupation, geography and more through its general population panelist.

Demos, webinars and tutorials are found on the site to help create the best survey possible, in a matter of minutes. Zoomerang, offers statistical analysis to measure survey results. Consumers will save time, be networked with people profiles globally and users are assisted by qualified approved personnel.

Zoomerang can be used in just about any educational setting. An example on how I would use this as a class assignment would be to have students formulate questions they want to know about a subject, or anything that they may be interested in learning more about. Then I would have them research the area of interest, and have them formulate questions they could direct their peers to answer about the subject.

For Fashion Merchandising, I would assign 2 designers and have students pick 1 designer of their choice. They will have to research each designer and create a survey using zoomerang. The survey will consist of 5 questions for each designer to answer. Select students in the class will answer the surveys. They will then compile the results from the survey each student created, and make a spreadsheet to display the results of the statistical information, such as race, gender, age, etc... which would be an entirely different lesson.

Zoomerang is a great tool for any groups, associations, class, and more. I created a survey to use with my AR project. It can be viewed at :

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFRNa185Zm1WTFJPWUtEdWp6eWUyTkE6MA

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This is the link to my comment on Stacie's blog.

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Here is the link to my comment on Lori Irwin's web tool:

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RSS Feeds for Educators and Students

Feeds have evolved and taken off with rapid speed, within the past five years if not earlier. They have spread like wildfires, springing up all over the place. It is a sign of the times and basically, a part of Web 2.0 and 21^st Century skills. We have become connected globally by means of blogs, and other emerging technology tools. I would like to share just a few that have become important to me.

1. Free Technology for Teachers

This is a RSS feed for educators where they can explore and share ideas about resources available, and find out about upcoming technology and trends in the integration of technology in education.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/08/21-must-read-rss-feeds.html

2. Instructify

This is an interesting feed that shares many articles on a variety of educational tools such as cartoon or animated video making, . This feed offer many resources for teacher to use as well as ideas, and freebies. This is one of my favorite sites because it offers many new technology web tools that I can use with my students.

http://blogs.learnnc.org/instructify/

3. Educational Technology and Life

This is a website for teachers in technology. It offers staff development, lesson plans, and articles related to issues in education. It also offers links to other educational blogs that one may want to join.

http://mark.blogspot.com/2005/03/blogging-for-teachers-part-1-what-are.html

4. Edublogs

I really like this blog because it has many tools that I can use as well as my students. It is easy to understand and implements many interesting tools that would appeal to the students that I teach. Some of the tools are videos, podcasting and more.

http://edublogs.org/

5. Teacher Lingo

I particularly like this site because it shares many links to other great sites and houses a wealth of information for educators. Here one can find other blogs, lesson plans, new articles, message boards and you can even blog here.

http://teacherlingo.com/

All of the sites I have chosen are beneficial in many ways to my curriculum, because they are additional resources that assist me in my teaching and implementing the objectives that I have to follow for the courses I teach. As fast as technology is growing, it is alway a good thng to keep up with todays trend, believe me if I don't, my students will!

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Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

“Story Something”

After examining and researching Web 2.0 Tools, it was difficult finding one tool to use with my students, because there were so many that I found to be interesting, and many that I could use with my students. I finally picked one out of several that interests me. “Story Something“ is a website that I could use in many ways with my students, and one that I particularly thought they would enjoy, because it allows them the freedom of creating something that relates to them personally.

I teach high school Computer Applications I. My students are 9^th-12^th graders. This site could very easily be used to integrate across the curriculum. Although “Story Something” is typically for children’s stories, it could be improvised to use with just about any age group.

We begin everyday with a “bell ringer” which is a journal writing assignment posted on the board. It could be a quote, story starter, or writing prompt. Students are asked to respond and explain their explanations. I thought that introducing “Story Something” would be another way to introduce some of the technology tools that students would be excited about. This would be something they could create and be proud of.

I could also, implement this site with several objectives that I teach. Word Processing, PowerPoint, Desktop Publishing could be utilized in creating stories for children and teenagers. Inspiration flow maps, and storyboarding are activities that could be assigned as a means to get the students actively engaged.

My suggestion would be to use real live characters when creating their stories. I would however, allow their stories to be fictional in nature, should they choose to do so. This is how I would present the lesson.

Review: Relate to writing experience, or pertaining to individual life experiences

Focus: introduce storytelling; explain how to create a story using word processing, and/or other software

Teacher Input: Explain, give examples and show a PPT on the “Art of storytelling” demonstrate on the presentation station, how to plan a story by brainstorming, creating a storyboard and a flow chart.

Guided practice: Students will follow teacher’s example to create a story- board and flow chart.

Independent Practice: write a story using word processing.

Conclusion: You have learned to write a story and utilized several tools to assist you with your writing skills. You will create a blog to share your experiences.

This activity could lead to using several other Web 2.0 tools. The possibilities are endless. The opportunities are many. I think that utilizing just about any of these tools provides great educational learning experiences, because it will add to the list of skills that one possesses. It would nurture creativeness, and generate more ideas for continued learning encounters.

Here is the website:

http://www.go2web20.net/app/?a=StorySomething

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Educational Uses for Blogs

Blogging is new to me; at least that is what I thought at first. I did not realize we as educators have been blogging for years, but not through the use of technology. We have collaborated sharing ideas in educational arenas for years. Technology has bridged the gap by eliminating the constraints of distance, and has allowed us to be globally connected to educators around the world.

I have been using journal writing on the computer, with my classes for years, and that is a form of blogging in that, they date, share and exchange ideas. They have also used information gleaned from their blogs in discussion sessions to enhance writing across the curriculum.

Blogs can be a can be an avenue for students and educators, to exchange ideas, research information, and to keep abreast of current strategies, techniques, and educational practices as well as their results.

Through the use of blogging, one of my 11^th grade students was able to develop an effective web form that he was able to use to survey the student body for their interest and input in going to the prom. He was able to find out what theme was most popular and take the information back to the Prom Committee. He initiated a blog concerning the Prom and from the responses he was able to share the ideas of his class.

As an educator I have been able to participate in blog sessions developed by my school system to learn how to better serve our schools, students and community. One of the most useful sessions that I participated in was last year, when I learned strategies from another teacher, at another high school as she was sharing best practices on how to create a learning environment for children with limited attention spans. She elaborated on the value of shorter assignments, breaks between assignments and extended time to complete assignments. This information was very helpful in dealing with exceptional children in my class because of my limited experience in teaching students with these particular needs.

Educators in our school system are encouraged to participate in departmentalized and grade leveled blogs to share and learn best practices to help the students be successful in their end of course, end of grade, and vocational technological exams.

Through the use of these blogs I have been able to develop meaningful activities and lesson plans for my students.

Technology has introduced a convenient and resourceful means by which student and educators are able to access information that is relevant to today’s 21^st century educators and learners. Blogging is one of the primary means by which this can happen. What are your thoughts???

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