CED530 Week 4

Last week, I really enjoyed doing the 30 second Animoto. (I'm waiting for my educator account still) Even though I only made a 30 second one, I thought it was really cool!!! Out of all the things we have done in this program so far, I loved this site. I had so many ideas going through my head. We have a science/social studies fair coming up in March, so I'm going to use the Animoto for the presentations. I'm also going to use it for my personal photos as well.
Thoughts for this week......
I think Prezi looks cool. I have an account I just haven't had time to explore yet. I'm just excited to get to the actual presentations. Sorry Louis, but I'm not a fan of papers and citing sources in APA. That's why I didn't want to be an English teacher. hahaha No offense if you read this
Overall, these past two weeks have gotten me excited about presentations. But......I'm still unsure how the Pecha Kucha is going to go. That should be interesting. I'm sure I can do it, but I really like to talk! My students wish I wouldn't talk as much as I do.
I really liked the book Presentaion Zen and I will definitely refer back to it in the future.

CED530 Week 3

I'm still not sure if I like the whole idea of voicethread. I don't like the way my voice sounds when I play it back. I would rather just talk through my presentation. I do like the whole idea of zen with presentations, but I'm not buying into voicethread. I would rather create a zen presentation and talk my way through it.
I can't believe how bad my power points are!! I really realized this week how much they parallel all the things you shouldn't do. WOW!!! Oh well, that is why I'm in this program. I love the stories that we have been watching. I feel that every class and every new concept I learn have been great. I'm excited to use these teaching tools in my lessons. I'm kind of worried about the Pecha Kucha though. I like to talk and I don't know if I can contain myself to small amounts of time per slide. I guess we will wait and see. I don't really have a choice I guess. haha

CED530 Week 2

The voice threads and digital story telling are going to be interesting. The voice threads are cool because they can be used for so many different ways in the classroom. One of the thoughts that popped in my mind about voice threads, is the ability to give directions on them. If I have a project that I have done for years with my students, I can make a voice thread for it. This way the students can see and hear the directions on the Smartboard. They can see what the outcome is going to be as well. I like the idea of allowing them to hit a button on the board to hear the directions again. I wont have to repeat myself a thousand times.......maybe. haha
I think there are so many options with voice threads and I'm excited to get started. Although, don't like the sound of my voice when I hear it on a recording!!!! I don't know if I'm going to like that part.

CED530 Week 1

I'm really excited about this class. I think it's going to be fun creating work for digital story telling. HOW COOL! This is so funny-----I thought I was the queen of presentations for my classes. I thought they were so ........... cool, engaging, fun, interactive........but after doing some of the homework and readings we were assigned, I now realize that I was wrong. HA HA
I admit to using PowerPoint presentation in my classroom. I thought it was a great tool and the kids seem to enjoy it. I make sure I add games, links, movie clips and pictures to my presentations. One thing I found very interesting and my mind keeps going back to it, is that the left side of the brain is emotional, musical, and moody and the left side is dexterity, facts and hard data. Thus, you can wreck the communication process if your not using logical information. Makes sense, but I never really gave it that deep of thought.

CED525 Week 5 Strategies

Generating and Testing Hypothesis
When people see these words they think of science class. This strategy should be used in every classroom and not just in the science rooms. This strategy makes students think deeper about the concept, or lesson that is going to be taught. The book gave the example of historical investigation for social studies. Students construct hypothesis about historical events for which there is no agreed-upon resolution. I love this activity because my students can discuss their thoughts, listen to other students thoughts and build a great discussion. Sometimes this can even lead into a debate. My students love doing debates, so this strategy always seems to bring an exciting class period. Overall, this is a great strategy for seeing what your students already know and what they need to learn from you.

CED525 Class 4 Homework & Practice

I was very interested in chapter 10, homework & practice. I think too many teachers assign homework for the wrong reasons. The book stated that "homework should provide opportunities for students to deepen their understanding of the content and gain proficiency with their skills". I see teachers giving homework, just to give it. It's busy work that doesn't have a great deal of relevance. Teachers who give crossword puzzles drive me crazy! Why? What is the true assessment? I personally think it's simply busy work. I'd hope that most teachers in the profession have moved past this type of homework. It needs reinforce and deepen the understanding of the content presented. Students need a reason to do homework and they should feel like their learning from it. Design homework that clearly tells the purpose and outcome. I think the students have a right to know why their doing it. I believe that students should be able to see the learning objectives and overall outcome of the unit, or lesson being studied. This gives them an idea of where they are starting and where they need to go. Mastering a skill takes time and a large amount of practice. Not just any type of practice, or review, but meaningful practice. This chapter was full of great ideas and ways to enhance assessment while using technology. The last point I wanted to make was on the amount of homework children get. I always feel bad hearing parents tell "horror" stories about homework. Most of the time the teacher could have prevented such situations. Busy work not only burdens and hinders a childs learning, or want to learn, but it puts a strain on parents. I hear stories time and time again of parents sitting at the kitchen table for hours with their crying child. They talk about their child "shutting down" and not being able to finish the homework. Well, I would shut down as well if I had to do 50 math problems that were ALL the same. I agree with drill and practice, but where do we draw the line for our children? I don't mean to pick on math teachers, but that was a common example of this problem. The bottom line is that we need to make our objectives clear to our students. Make sure they know the purpose of the work. I wouldn't want to do a bunch of work for no reason, so why should they.

CED525 Week 3 (strategies)

Since I'm a Social Studies teacher, I was really interested in chapter 6; Summarizing and Note Taking. Note taking is a skill and there is nothing more frustrating than middle school children who don't know the first thing about taking notes. I don't blame the students, but the teachers need to guide them through this process early on. I remember writing as fast as I could when I was in school. I didn't want to miss a thing my teacher said. My hand would hurt and I feel like I missed a great deal of the material. Looking at all the different ways for students to take notes, I don't think any student should have a sore hand. Organizing information and summarizing the main ideas is what is important. I love using KWL charts because they tell me what my students know, want to know and last what they learned. It's simple, but effective. I was excited to see all the different, but effective and engaging sites that were listed in this chapter. I find that my students get bored with the KWL charts. The charts work in favor, but can also hinder my lesson. Students seem to shut down at times when they see me handing them out. On the other hand, they also know the expectation of the sheet and that is a plus. I will definately be trying some new sites that we talked about in class, as well as the ones listed in the book. Another strategy that we talked about was cooperative learning. I could go on and on about cooperative learning. I love it! I think it's the best tool for a teacher to take advantage of. I do a project every year about mummies, tombs, and ancient Egyptians. I choose groups for my students to work in and complete a large project. I like to mix my groups with children with all different talents. I strongly believe in the multiple intelligences, so I base my lessons and groups off of that theory. Some students love the research paper and writing, where as others enjoy putting together a slide show presentation. The artistic students love the part of the project where they use cardboard and tin foil to re-create the cover of a tomb. Last, you always have that student in the group who organizes the flow of everything. It works great and there are many smiles on their faces when I walk around the room. When I let them pick their own groups it's a mess. There is a lot of goofing around and social hour. I'm loving these new tools and hearing what other people do in their classroom.