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

View more presentations from hssciteacher.

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.