End of Course/ Final Blog for class

I have learned alot during this course and am looking forward to trying new things out this year. I do think the week with the screencasts, voicethreads, and powerpoints may have really been 2 weeks worth of work; there was a lot to absorb for me that week.

I think that is important for teachers to continually be students as a way to ensure they have empathy for those they teach. I took 2 grad classes and 3 district training this summer; in some things I felt like the smart kid in class and in others I definately was the slow kid. In this class I was definately the slow kid but I learned a lot from my peers and was so impressed by so much of what everyone did. There was so much that was new to me it will take time to really absorb it all and find places to use all this new info in my class. I think that the three things I chose are modest goals but good starts.

I did start a wiki, and have a place where I can list wikis I want to keep up with, so some of you may see me spying on you. I hope you don't mind, I am just interested in seeing how the projects grow in your classes.

Thank you all for a great learning experience.

Updated Guiding Principals for Technology Use

Technology is not something to be used merely as a device to grab attention and interest, though it may do that. Technology has the power to give students opportunities to explore topics in depth in interactive ways, to enhance learning through imagery and visualization, and to promote student-centered, inquiry based learning.

Another aspect of technology that I did not fully understand before this class was the way in which technology can turn students from consumers of knowledge into active collaborators and creators. Anything that encourages students to be more active in the pursuit of their own education is worthwhile.

With these ideas in mind, I will consider the following as I introduce new technology into my classes;

1) Is the technology enhancing student learning?
2) Does the technology help students achieve greater understanding of the material?
3) Does the technology lend itself to inquiry learning?
4) Does the technology encourage students to be more than consumers of knowledge and promote higher level thinking?

If the technology I am considering does not do any of this, I may reconsider whether the tool would be worth introducing.

My Projects

I have learned so much during this course and am certain to incorporate many things into my work throughout the school year. Some things I will not be able to implement right away, like using Google Earth for a class activity, because I will have to check out what resources will be available to me this year. Additionally, knowing that about 25% of my students do not have computer access limits how much I can ask them to do. With that in mind here are a few things that I will be able to do at the start of this year;

1) I took a webinar on setting up a class wiki and began one through wikispaces for an AVID class I will be teaching. AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a class that prepares students for college. I am hoping this wiki will be a place where they can share ideas about colleges, the application process, and work on projects together.

It is in a very rough form right now because it will be a few weeks before I return to school and access the curriculum for this class, but feel free to take a look and offer any ideas for OsmansClass wiki

2) I also attended curriculum training this summer and have been asked to help explain how to navigate the new district curriculum site. I used Jing to create one screencast for this so far and intend to create at least one more. I will try to work with the editing tools to improve the one I created and plan to share them at the district inservice in August. My Screencast

3) Last spring I started an account with Teacherweb but did not really use it very much. I decided that I would incorporate what I learned to maximize the use of this site.

I started by having a blog page be my first page so that I could blog about what is happening in class in an effort to get parents involved and serve as a way of letting kids who were absent know what they missed. I also embedded a video to share at the beginning of the year.

I also updated the calendar for the year and included many relevant links for the kids.

Take a look at my Teacherweb

My Webinar Experience

I was starting to panic because I had not found a webinar t oattend yet. Then there was one posted on the NSTA site today that I attended called GuidedWikiWalk

It is a two part course that helps you navigate wikispaces. So, I decided that this would be great because one of my ideas is to start a wiki with (at least) one class this year to see how it works.

It was done through Eluminate. WOW! It was like having everything at once! The intructor was on video at the beginning, people were able to speak on the mics, discussion was on-going through a chat box, and there was a powerpoint as she talked. She was also able to show us different screens as she was talking. You could also raise your hand, and vote on things. It was so cool.

Are all webinars this interactive?

end of week 6 reflection

This was by far the most difficut week for me. Power Points, Screencasts, and Voicethreads!

I always felt a little behind the times because I did not know how to do a power point, but I really had no need to before. My school really doesn't have much in the way of technology and I had no way of showing them, so I never invested time learningTHis year, we are all supposed to have ELMO's and projectors, so I am considering buying a new laptop (which after the past week, I need) so I can incorporate more media into my presentations this year.

Screencasts were also fun. I will be using that skill at a coming inservice and can see using it for students as well.

Voicethread- wow. It's like an interactive powerpoint. I would like to use this but am not sure if it will really be possible since not all of my students have internet access. Definately something I am going to keep in mind and try to think of a way to use it.

Hopefully, this is my voicethread embedded...

Week 6 Part 2-screencast

I made a screencast showing how to move around on the LearningFocus website. This is a curriculum mapping program that my school adopted and I was trained in last week. I will be presenting information to my peers and thought a screencast could be helpful.
I tried embedding the video but it does not show the whole screen, so I am including a link instead.

ScreenCast for LearningFocus

It was very difficult to say just what I wanted. I must have done 30 "takes."

end of week 6 (pt 1)

This week has been a little trying due to some computer problems. I managed to get a powerpoint together but am having trouble loading it to the wiki and can not open slideshare at all without problems. Hopefully, everything else will be done in a few hours. This is my first ever attempt at a power point. I am meaning it to be used as an introduction to the first lab that I do this year, A Penny for Your Thoughts. The lab is from the Living By Alchemy book.

Slideshow

Intro To Alchemy

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Week 6: Wednesday Post

This is another crazy week as far as work.

In my real-life PLN, I am working on prioritizing the state curriculum using LearningFocus.com. This is a tool to create a curriculum based on the standards but since we have a curriculum already we are sort of working backwards and it is a little difficult. The advantage is that I am really looking over the curriculum and planning out my year now.

On line I am struggling through this weeks assignment because I have never even created a power point before. I have been doing a few practice things just for fun to see how it works but still havet o pull together something for class. I am thinking of using it for things that could be ani ntroduction or even posted on-line for when kids miss a day.

I did find a site I thought was interesting. It is part of creative commons; I think that is what it said, if not they are linked to them in some way. But it has lots of free sound effects. I just hope I don't overdo it, I am having too much fun playing around.

The site is SoundBible.com

End of Week 5

When I first saw the heading real-world data I was nervous that it would be hard to incorporate. As I read through the text, I realized that I had used real data several times. I get real-time tidal data when discussing tides and the moon and graph the data, drawing moon phase data above the line graph. I have also used water quality data, air quality data, and even groundhog day data.

MOst of the sites I have gone to for data have been state or government agencies, so I did not post that to the board. I posted the groundhog data because I think it is fun sometimes to talk about lore and get kids thinking about how to find out if these weather myths are true. YOu can also do the temperature determination by cricket chirp activity here and then discuss why that is true.

THe problem I had this week was trying to find data that could be incorporated into my new curriculum because there are a number of activities and labs we are required to do that leave very little time for craeativity. However, we do an activity about conductivity and I found data listing material conductivity.

I just found out what my schedule will be for the coming school year, so am hoping that now I will be able to focus more on getting information and designing things that I will be able to utilize.

As for the on-line science inquiry, I am still not real comfortable with how I would incorporate that into the curriculum I will be teaching this year. There is an activity built into the physics portion of the year which deals with alternative energy which I think might be a good place to do something. The downside is that the physics section is so large that this portion often gets cut.

PLN week 5

This week has been a bit difficult for me with regards to on-line things since my laptop broke over the weekend and I am involved in curriculum training this week. So, while I feel I have not been expanding my PLN on-line this week, I have been making good real connections with people from across the state.

I will be piloting a state written bio-chem unit this year, unless they alter my schedule, and have been attending a state wide training with 18 other teachers from across the state. Most districts are represented and I get to interact with the head of science in my district and at the state.

It is times like this I am glad that DE is so small. Most of us travel no more than 1 hour to get to the DOE building and we get to actually talk and contribute to what happens across the whole state. When I worked in MD I never had apportunities like this because i was so far away from the state dept of education and each district was more of an independent entitiy- and even then the districts were so large that i did not get to contribute nearly as much as I do here.

Week 4 Review

Every week i am more and more amazed at what you can do.

Google Earth. very cool and very creepy. When Eric asked if we could see him waving I thought he was kidding, I could not see him. BUT when I went to my house and neighborhood, I did see my neighbor! Plug in 3042 McDaniel Lane, Newark, DE. He is getting his mail I think. And though the overhead map must be at least 3 years off, the pictures (when you clilck on the cameras on the street) are only about 1 year old. It just weirds me out that someone was driving down the street taking pictures of all the houses, especially when there was a robbery during the day nextdoor 2 weeks ago. Itis also creepy that there could potentially be pictures of me in PJ's getting my mail that I do not know about at some time in the future.

Loved all the simulations I tried. So much potential there. I am really thinking that they may be good follow ups/homework either just after or just before labs. I would like to think that i could use them in school but time-wise that may not be feasible and I think that it is important to not substitute these for the hands on labs we do (as stated in the text this week)

Getting more compfortable with twitter, but don't always get responses to things I ask...again another problem with on-line classes and communication. being ignored. sometimes virtual reality can be lonely :)

My Growing PLN

Following 31 on Twitter
Friends with 14 people on Facebook
1 co-worker (the only other teaching the same grade as me) completely on-board with technology.

Okay, I know the numbers seem pathetic, especially the Facebook (took me almost 2 years to get up to 14), but it is about quality not quantity, right?

I still feel like I am more of an observer at this point, particularly on Twitter but I am starting to see how valuable it has the potential to be. This may be a bit redundant but I think it will be more valuable during the school year when I actually come up with some real questions.

The co-worker I am mentioning is much more tech savvy then me and i just found out that we are both taking courses on using the internet in the classroom, just through different universities. So, it is great hearing about what he is learning and comparing it to what we are discussing here. As we are the only two in the same grade at my school, and will have to do some sort of collaborative project, I am hoping that we will be able to do something based on what we are learning in our classes.

It is great having perspectives and ideas from people all over the place but it is also nice when you have people in your building who are on board with new ideas as well. That is the only way to really bring about change within a whole building/dept.

week 3 in review

I have always liked to try to get visual images in my class. Typically, I would download an image at home (often from wikicommons, part of wikipedia)and make an overhead to share. Now with all these new sites, I have access to so much more. And hopefully, next year I will be able to have an ELMO and show even more things from the internet--thanks for Kick you tube.

I have also never gone to Flickr, or creative commons, or picnick etc. before this week. There is so much there to play with! I liked being able to alter images and make collages.

This will be very useful in showing images of things we discuss in class, as well as embedding videos in blogs for studenst to access as homework.

PLN update

I am learning a lot and finding great links from everyone in class. Twitter, not so much. I think part of the problem is that it is summer. I find it hard to come up with questions that I need help with right now, seems most other people are probably in the same boat since a lot of posts there are more related to what people are doing travel-wise.

I am getting a lot of sites marked to favorites and trying to figure out how i will use things but even that is hard because I am not even certain of what i will be teaching until sometime in August. I feel right now I am just stockpiling morsels for the fall.

Micrographia Link

Here is a link that takes you to the National Medical Library and Hooke's Book Micrographia. This is the guy who coined the term cell while looking at cork. Great way to talk about how technology influences science.

Hooke's Book

edited photo

On my iGoogle page, I have an Artwork of the Day box, todays artwork was by Vermeer, Portrait of a Young Woman. During a unit in biology we talk about chromosomal abnormalities like Down's syndrome. when i saw this painting it looked to me like that is what the girl has. So, I made a collage with an image from creaive commons and thought it could be useful in class. Ties art to science and just could start conversations about how different conditions were viewed through history.

Fun Book

I did not really look closely at this, but I love the 1960's images in it. Found it on a link (somehow) on creative commons.
the golden book of chemistry experiments -robert brent

Not really science

PBS kids plays this song on the commercials and I just found out who sings it so thought I'd post

Week 2 Summary

End of week two, here is what I learned;

Aggregators- Nice way to see what is new.

PLN- Still have a way to go to establish one. I would like to also get member from my school, district,and state involved with this. I know that it was mentioned (Eric?) that they are beneficial for getting ideas from other places/states but i think that I really need local input this year. Our curriculum is basically canned and mandated by the state. This is the first year all ) teachers (in our district will be trained and implementing it. I think it will be good to exchange with others teaching this new curriculum ideas about what is going well and what the shortcomings are. People in other states may not be able to do that since they are not required to do the same activities we are.

Classroom 2.0- joined and am waiting approval. A little nervous about the PD on-line. Though I am not sure at this point how it will be very different from on-line chats and discussions in other on-line classes I have taken through MSU.

Other- Like the iGoogle (thanks TMoran). While I feel not quite as overwhelmed this week I just don't feel completely organized. Google gets me to blogger and blogger gets me to twitter, but I am also checking my school e-mail, personal e-mail, facebook, MSU (other class). Everytime I sit down there are at least 4 places I need to go. I wish there was a way that I could see all of these things in one,or even 2,places. Google reader doesn't allow me to connect everything...unless I am missing something.

The NSTA Learning Center

I found this and thought it would be good for PD. Unfortunately they do not seem to have anything posted up for this summer.

The NSTA Learning Center

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Inviting Co-workers

I know that the blogs here are predominantly for this class, but since the goal is to be able to USE what we are learning I have invited my colleagues to view my blog and twitter accounts. i am hoping if more of them can start playing around that when school starts again I can have a group of people from my district that are more connected.

I like the idea of national learning communities, but feel that for some things i need support and help more locally. Also, I was really inspired by some of the school run blogs viewed this week...sorry but I can not remember where i saw them- it is all a blur, maybe assigned reading/links, maybe someone elses blog, or maybe my own searches.

iGoogle!!!

After reading about iGoogle on Marta's blog , I decided to try it out. I really like this, you can add so much cool stuff. Though once again I spent/wasted 1 hour playing with the settings and finding things to add.

There is so much to explore with all the new things we are learning about that I am spending way too much time inside at the computer, but I guess that the investment in time I make now will help when school starts...right? It can't feel this overwhelming FOREVER, can it?

Twitter

Okay, I am really not liking twitter at this point, just seems very time consuming. There is already a glut of information out there- not sure how following 25+ peoples random comments may be useful- but will keep at it.

Anyone who does this regularly- how do you have a life off-line if you are following 100+ people?

Personal learning networks.

It is difficult to write about what I am learning from personal learning networks when I am really just establishing them this week. Through that process I am learning that it is time consuming to set up things.

However, if you consider the entire PLN that I have which includes people I regularly e-mail or meet with at school then I would have to say I learn quite a lot. During the school year we meet as a Professional Learning Community (PLC) every other day. I find this valuable because it gives us time to coordinate lessons and write common activities and assessments. Also, when I am unsure about a topic or how to approach a lesson we have brain storminng sessions.

I am unsure how this is going to work on-line with people I do not know or may not have the same classes/curriculum.

Week 1 completed?

Not sure how everyone else is doing. I noticed the week 2 work is posted, so figured I needed to make sure I was done the week 1 stuff. I THINK I am up to date though I know that this week the blogs are not in the order requested (I do not think that the ebedded vid is #3);
1- GUiding Principles; not great, more of just a thought at this point, definately haveto reflect a little more.

2-Websearch for classroom blogs/wikis...there are so many!! Some support student learning- I really like the one called missbakers blog that I saw on someone elses site. And I found a couple sites that list lots of blogs and wikis that could be used in class;

http://blogging4biology.edublogs.org/
http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers

3-embed video; this was actually much easier than I thought.

4- comment on three blogs- I did this as well.

This week seemed a little disjointed- had some struggles moving through everything. Hoping week 2 feels more comfortable:)

Trying to embed youtube vid.

If anyone teaches biochem or genetics, here is a great site. I have the link to the "mouse party" activity, which shows what different drugs do to you. they also have a mouse cloning and virtual DNA extraction.

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/drugs/mouse.html

overwhelmed!!

I find searching around the web for things completely overwhelming and time consuming. I can spend hours and feel I have not really gotten what i was looking for.

However, I think that this is a good experience because it helps me realize what my students go through. In one of the articles (I read so much I really do not remember which one) it mentioned how we (teachers) are still needed as guides to the students because even though they may be more tech savvy, they do not necessarily possess the ability to effectively filter the information. I think I am developing empathy with them and hope that by the end of this course I am also better and filtering all the info.

Guiding Principals

I believe technology should be used to enhance learning, not just because it is available. That said, technology is not readily available at my school.

I know that I need to become more computer savvy and I am hoping that technology use, particularly internet use, can help supplement what students are learning in my class. We have had a change in curriculum and at the same time have eliminated the purchasing of textboooks. Which is probably okay, since most students do not do homework from the textbooks when they were available. I guess I am hoping to begin by learning to do old things in new ways by using the internet as a way to get students more involved at home.