Wk 4 Wimba

After sharing my paper with my peers I was pleased to see that they thought I had done a good job. I looked at their suggestions and went back and double checked my paper. I made corrections where they suggested. It was great to have their feedback, especially since I had been staring at it all week. It was nice to have outside sources point things out that were blending together for me. I am grateful that I had such a great group to work with. 

Picture form Jonny Hughes Back2Life Blog

From Jon:
Hey Daniela!

I really liked your introduction. You gave a great description of 21st century learners and you also have excellent thoughts here about student motivation. One thing though that I felt was missing was there could have been a little bit more of a connection to the title of your article, "Blogging Into Math". In the introduction, it really doesn't mention math or blogging. This might be what you intended, but it was just a thought that I had while reading it.

Your lit review section is very thorough. I think your organization of this part of the article is very strong.

I don't know if it would be allowed or not for the publication that you are submitting this to, but a chart might add a lot to your methodology section if it is possible.

Your conclusion is solid, but maybe you could have a different final sentence referring back to your main topic that would tie everything together a bit more.

Also, I know we are all in a time crunch, but if you can find a few extra minutes today it might be good to reread your article and look for some grammar errors. I noticed there was one in your very first sentence, and I think there were just a couple others later on.

I hope some of this feedback helps! You have a very good article here. Good luck with everything!

Jon

 

 

Picture from Alicia Welch Planting Seeds Blog

 

 

 

From Alicia:
hey...
not all of the fonts are the same size and I think it might need to be in Times New Roman
the beginning paragraph is a little difficult to understand
and the methodology section should probably be rewritten in the past tense
overall..I think it looks good
thanks for sharing


 Wk 4 Publishing_Presenting_Project

Wk 4 Publishing_Presentation Project

 

As the sun sets on this chapter of my Master’s degree I am happy to say it has been a chapter worth writing about…Literally. After completing my CBR project I have learned so much through my research for my Lit Review as well and actually implementing my challenge with my students. I chose to write and submit my journey for publishing. I think this will be a great way to share with other teachers my journey and how it affected my students. I am excited to share my results and experience with other and see if I can make a change in they way they teach math!

Picture By Daniela Mitchell

PPP Document
Wk 3 Think Out Loud
Wk 2 Think Out Loud

Wk 4 Response

Heather,
I love the way that you are making connection to this book. I feel the same way about it. I too like the "we" stories, as there is not point in pointing fingers. It never solves the problem. I like that as a WE every one feels a sense of responsibility. Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Wk 4 Response

I completely agree with you, I couldn't have said it better myself. I feel like this book should be used to put the power back into each individuals hands in order for them to be successful!

Wk 4 The Art of Possibility

Microsoft Clip Art

After reading the last part of the Art of Possibility I think this is great book about being you. It starts by giving you ideas on how to be the best you can be. Including to it that you shouldn’t take yourself too seriously. Lastly leaving you with the thoughts that only you know what’s for you and that what works for other people may not be the best thing for you. While reading this book I thought about all the “kid” advice people give and how I always think….if you’re not coming over to help me do it the way you suggest and they way I do it works for me. Then I don’t care what the books say; I do what works for me! I think that this book really set the town of how you can be empowered to be the best you. You just have to be you!

Wk 3 Think Out Loud

After giving it a lot of thought and reviewing which Journal my project would best fit, I have decided to send it for publication. I have chosen to submit my project to the Learning and Leading with Technology Journal. This journal ranges from 200 to 1,000 word articles that discuss ways to implement technology into the classroom. I think this would be a perfect way to share my project with people who are willing and wanting to use and implement technology into their own classroom. My project will help prepare students for all the upcoming changes to testing procedures that involve technology.

Wk 3 Wimba

The wimba archived this week was useful in giving me more information on what is expected of me for my presentation or publishing. I am still struggling with how I want to present mine CBR project, because both make me nervous. I am glad I was able to listen in on the same concerns others from previous months have had. I think it made me decide that I want to publish my paper, and maybe look at presenting it at a later date now that I will have the steps to doing so. Thanks for the help

Wk 3 Response

Alicia,
I loved Chapter 6 too. It is so often that we are reminded what a fast pace we live and how grumpy people can be. I sometimes stop to wonder if they even realize that things are not as bad as they may seem at that moment. If only they would step back and not take it all too seriously...Not to say everything in life is this way. But like the old saying "don't sweat the small stuff!"

Wk 3 Response

Heather,
I too LOVE rule 6 too. I think that there are somethings that you just have to take a step back from and give it a good laugh. Other wise I think that we'd drive ourselves mad.
You must be a very strong person, it takes a lot to pull yourself up and overcome some obstacles. I think I have always believed that you have to take what life gives and go with it, and not use it as crutch. Good for you, for sharing your story with your students. You never know whose life you touched!

Wk 3 The Art of Possibility

Microsoft Clip Art

While reading the Art of Possibility I kept thinking the book was talking directly to me…corny I know! I have been having a difficult time reaching my new class this school year, they are unmotivated to learn and unwilling to take responsibility for their actions. I have attempted just about everything I have up my sleeve. I have had to take a step back and re-analyze my job. As I was reading the statement “how much greatness are we will to grant?” (p. 73). It is my job to inspire and bring out the best qualities these kids have, as the book said I am going to have to speak to their passions. I am going to have make connection with them. These chapters made me feel like I can still go in a make a difference. I have been feeling a little defeated and needed something to give me inspirations. I think this was it. I am looking forward to making a change!

Wk 2 Think Out Loud

When given the choice between presenting or publishing, I am torn. I love talking to people and sharing my ideas and learning form other people. However; I am not sure that my CBR project would be a great presentation, I feel like it made a huge impact in my classroom and with my kids, but maybe writing it out would be a better way to get the points across. In thinking about my CBR , I think that I did a good job of preparing my students to take test using computerized software, this is new and challenging for them. Having said that, I think that the best place to  publish my finding would be in a Technology in the Classroom type Journal such as The Journal of Interactive Learning Research (JILR) http://www.aace.org/pubs/jilr/default.htm in which I can relate to computer based assessments. To present my finding it would be appropriate at a conference like the Florida Educational Technology Conference, in which I would see many classroom teachers, or a conference like Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. I am still unsure of which way I will go, but looking into which would get my information across the best way!

WK 2 Wimba

I am glad that wimba was a review of the chapter readings. I feel that I got a little more clarity, not nearly as clear as it could be. I still have concerns about material that we use in our classroom that we don’t ever realize are infringing on copy right laws. Playing a movie to supplement the curriculum is one of those that is a big stressor.  We can only change what we are aware that we are doing wrong. Having this information will make me that much more aware and able to correct what I do as well as inform other to what the copyright laws are.

I also found it interesting that the reason Prince changed his name was to get out of a contracts. How crazy! Here people have always thought that it was part of him just being eccentric. Who knew it was to get out of a contract? Can you do that… I guess celebrities do what they want anyways.

Wk 2 Response

Alicia,
I like the way that you compared the A project to our EMDT classes. I did think of it that way, but in some ways it is. I think that we have worked hard to maintain what we have been given, but what we put in shows what we've earned. I think it would have been much different if we would have set up our own goals. Setting up our own goals would have given us greater understanding of what and why were doing something. Rather than seeing the big picture pay off in the end.

Wk 2 Response

What an eye opening experience. How empowering it most of felt to feel like you had control, or that the ball was back in your court. I also had some similar thought while reading that chapter. I hope that when I need to use it I am able to step back and analyze how to make things look brighter.

Wk 2 The Art of Possibility

The Art of Possibility has been a great book to read. I am such a big believer in that you get what you put in, and you are only as good as you think you are. Those two beliefs fall right in line with everyone getting an A. If you think you’re an A, you’ll perform like an A. How great is that!

Now I think that you can teach this to kids and they too will rise to the occasion, but I would worry about them at a young age not wanting to do anymore because they already earned an A. I know that in the book it talks about being the second violinist, but that comes with maturity.

It caught my attention to think that we live in a world of measurement. As a society everyone likes to know where he or she stacks up, or how they are ‘keeping up with the Jones’.  I love the idea that we can make our own realities by taking a step back and removing our preconceptions. By looking at the glass as half full. Not that you can create your own powerful Universe by simple thinking it can happen, but by doing things you love, and engaging people in your passion, as they state in the book.

I think this book is great read for anyone!

Wk 1 Wimba

After watching the Wimba achieves I feel more confident about he upcoming month. I was a little concerned with the workload. Now that I have a better understanding of what is expected this month I happy to say I am confident I will be able to get through it. I am excited to get my web pages finished up and put together. My Lit Review is DONE! And I am happy to make it web ready. It is amazing how fast this year has gone by and that we are this far along with the program. I enjoyed learning about the Copyright rules in the first week’s assignments as well reading everyone’s post. I look forward to the rest of this month. I am excited about the idea that we will have all our ‘paperwork’ ready and be able to publish or present when the program is all done. Can’t wait to get started!

Wk 1 Response

Response to Les Brown:

I like Heather am glad that you feel better...I am still confused. Your definition of the laws did give me a better understanding of what they mean. I like how you used the fish analogy to explain the copyright laws. It is very true and they water between the Atlantic and the Gulf are also a gray area.
I think we need to revisit these rules and make more clear definite laws that work in this time and age. 

Wk 1 Response

My Response to Heather's Blog post:

After watching the videos on Copyright and Fair use, and am more concerned about how much is NOT fair use. I never realized how small the widow is for all the media that is out there. I have been concerned about the copyright issues over the last 10m months, but was not sure about all the rules. I believe I too was under the top ten misconceptions. As do is I believe are most people. I find that these rules are most difficult to explain to our students, especially at the Elementary level.  However I am finding that we are going to need to educate them early so that they are aware of what the laws are since they are our 21^st century learners.  Which bring up the concern that if I am still confused about what the rules are exactly how do I get it across to the them? The lines are blurry when it comes to these rules.  

Wk 1 Copyright and Fair Use

After watching the videos on Copyright and Fair use, I am more concerned about how much is NOT fair use. I never realized how small the widow is for all the media that is out there. I have been concerned about the copyright issues over the last 10m months, but was not sure about all the rules. I believe I too was under the top ten misconceptions. As, I believe, are most people. I find that these rules are most difficult to explain to our students, especially at the Elementary level.  However I am finding that we are going to need to educate them early so that they are aware of what the laws are since they are our 21^st century learners.  Which brings up the concern that if I am still confused about what the rules are exactly how do I get it across to the them? These lines are blurry are hard to explain... 

Mrs. Mitchell's Podcast

Our thoughts on the Declaration of Independence

ETC_Final Project

1.    Target Audience – A small enrichment/gifted group of 4^th grade students, who work at or above grade level

2.    Materials – Computers and access to Glogster and other Internet based search engines, such as Google, Yahooligans, or Teacher Tube. Reference books.

3.    Objectives – *SS.4.A.3 Exploration and Settlement/ American History

                        Grade 4

•  They students will use Glogster to demonstrate their knowledge   of Florida’s first city of St. Augustine.

·      They will apply their knowledge from their research to find important facts.

·      They will produce a digital poster

* http://www.floridastandards.org/Standards/PublicPreviewIdea.aspx?IdeaID=764

4.    Procedure –

·      Students will be given time to gather information. They will make trips to media center to check out reference books.

·      They will be given two; one hour blocks in the computer lab to pull up pictures and videos for their project. They may also work at home with their parents to research more images, videos and facts.

·      They will bring their pictures to class, or email them to the teacher.

·      The teacher will compile a folder on the shared drive that students can access with all the pictures.

·      Students will go to the computer lab and begin to design their individual digital poster.

·      It will take about a week to complete the posters.

·      At the end of the week the students will present their findings

5.    Web 2.0 Tool – Glogster- a web 2.0 tool that makes digital posters/multi-media presentation using images, text, and videos.

6.    Social Participation/Social Learning – The students will have to discuss the important aspects of St. Augustine. In small groups they will go over the facts that they have collected. They must discuss what places should be included and why. They will take a group vote on what is the most important information they have. Lastly the groups will share with each other why they feel these places are important part of St. Augustine. Once all the important locations are chosen, groups will draw slips with these locations. They will chose the most important facts or aspect to include on their posters.

7.    Making Connections – The students have been studying Florida history including it’s explores. They have now begun studying the actual construction of the fort as well as the history of the city. Students will be able to follow up their learning when we take a class field trip to St. Augustine at the end of March.

8.    Create/Produce – They will present their individual Glogster posters to the class and give an oral presentation on what they learned. This will include images, videos and facts on the different aspects of St Augustine.

9.    Assessment –

·      The class will complete a peer review in which the students will score each presentation using a set rubric.

·      The class will revisit the posters after the trip to St. Augustine and the students will evaluate how helpful the information was.

·      They will also decide what facts or information could be added to improve posters.

10. Reflection –

o   1) After we visit and tour St. Augustine we will have a class discussion on what they learned, how the Glogster posters helped them, and what information could be added to the poster to make them better for next year students.

o   (2) This activity did not go as planned this week. As discussed before my student’s are taking the FCAT on Tuesday and so I had revamp my plans. I did introduce the idea to the class. However I was only able to implement it with two students. I followed the plan on a much smaller scale. Instead of choosing individual location they pick locations base out of some library books I checked out. They collected different facts and created very different presentations. They were very excited about the web 2.0 tool and shared it with the class, and the are now very eager to get to use it…after Tuesday! I plan to go back and attempt this again. One of my students commented that he was “so excited to have found something better than power point,” he said his mom would by “super excited about something new” to do his projects on. I look forward to my second time around. I will keep you posted!

PE5_Spelling City

 Wow! Check out all the different educational games you can play. I can fill in the blanks. Not only does this check my understanding of the word, but it reads it a loud so that I can hear what it sounds like, great for auditory learners.

 On Spelling City I have a ton of options. Check out the long list of games and activities I could choose from. The students would have a options in choosing how they will practice their spelling words.

 This was my daughters favorite game. I game of hangman, between cat and mouse. I have never seen her so motivate to study her spelling words. These games are great  motivators.

 Lastly I found that it is a great site for practicing handwriting at any level. It also allows you to print worksheets to use with your students. I love this option. I am so excited to implement this in my classroom!

PE4_Spelling City

I had heard people at other schools mention this web 2.0 tool, that they use with their students, but I hadn't had a chance to go check it out. Now that I look at it, I am thinking "boy what have I been missing?" This is amazing for spelling homework. It is meaningful, fun, and completely related to my weeks lessons. I pick the spelling words I choose the activities and I can even print out worksheets.

It was so easy, you just click on the register button, fill in your information, there is even a place to find your school so that your students can search the site base on their school. Then log in a get to work! You can start adding your spelling words and be ready to start instantly. 

 My favorite part of this site so far was it's user friendliness. It also has a great selection of tutorial videos that walk you through several steps in getting you ready to use it in your classroom. The site is free, and you have access to most of their information. There is a premium account that you can upgrade to and I found it to be reasonably priced at a little over $50/30 students for the year. I can't wait to get started!

PE3_iMovie

PE3_iMovie

Lynda.com iMovie Essential Training

I enjoyed my iMovie Essential Training, through Lynda.com. I loved the platform they offered. It was very user friendly, reminded me of the Full Sail Dashboard. The clips were well organized and extremely informative. I could follow along easily and was pleasantly surprised with “eye” icon that let me know which tutorials I had already watched.

After watching all the tutorials I feel more confident using iMovie. I have a better understanding of the tools that are available to me. Which tools I need to familiarize myself with and make sort cuts for myself, as well as which ones I would like to get better acquainted with that I won’t be using on a day-to-day basis, such as the green screen.

One of the tool I will be using more often is the mapping tool. I love the visual of placing people at the locations and watching the travel line as we reach the next destination.

I enjoyed working on Lynda.com and can’t wait to see all the other software they make tutorials for. I can see this is the start of a great “friendship” with Lynda.

PE2_iMovie

Key Word Marker

This is like the Dewey Decimal system for libraries. The keyword tool allows you to mark your video with heading that let you know who or what is in the video. You can mark them with names or themes, such as Family or Daniela, and then search the clips with those key words. 

You can pull up all the clips that have Daniela in them or eliminate the clips which are associated with that tag. It’s like a short cut reference to who and what you want in the video. Makes editing easy and allows you to make tailored or individual moves out of long events.

 This is a great idea. I especially like that you can make the tags a short cut, in which you the select a clip press the number that is correlated to that tag and the clip is marked. This tool is great for keeping track of family videos and vacations.

PE1_iMovie

iMovie: Ducking

I love Lynda.com. This site has made learning iMovie a breeze.

I am so glad they took time to introduce ducking. I have needed this several times for other projects and not known it existed. Ducking is when you have added music to your clips, but then need the music to fade back so that you can hear the person talking. iMovie has thought of everything. You choose the section you would like to use, go to your edit screen click the ducking box and viola …your video now had a seamless transition between the music and the original sound. 

BP7_Glogster One Minute Video

If you have trouble viewing click here

Glogster

BP4_Glogster

This Web 2.0 tool is amazing! GLOGSTER!!! I am always looking for a new an exciting way to get my class engaged in creating book reports. I come up with all sorts of ideas on what they can do to make it fun. We create posters, cereal boxes, power points, we even make character reports out of potatoes…but with Glogster they can create a poster that is a multi-media presentation. We were studying a non-fiction story this week about the Saguaro Cactus in the southwest United States. I created a poster to illustrate this plant. I was able to pull up pictures I had found on the internet that showed vivid pictures of this enormous cactus and the animals that inhabit them. On my poster I was able to embed a YouTube video that showed a person standing next to the spiny giant. This gave the students a better understanding of how tall this plant grows to be. I was able to add text and facts about the cactus that we could then go over in class. The students loved to see my work and were eager to know about the website.

            The best part was how simple this site was to use. It was extremely user friendly and I even let my students play with the site. They thought it was pretty cool too. Glogster is free to join all you need to do is sign up. There is “premium” package that allows you to manage your students and their accounts. This would be a great way to have your students do research and put together a presentation that is not only informative, visually engaging for the other students and great for the environment. The students could build a library of projects that they could look back at over the years instead of throwing the away once the project was sent 

home.

Here is an example of my work!

Setting up my theme and title

Adding an image

Finding a video

Adding a sticky note.

Final Product 

BP6_Link to Lori's Blog

Please follow my link to Lori's blog to learn more about Go!Animate! a neat 2.0 tool.

Dancing For Strangers: BP2_Go!Animate Web 2.0 Tool: "@font-face { font-family: 'Arial'; }@font-face { font-family: 'Cambria'; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0...."

Bp5_Link to Alicia's Blog

Please follow my link to Alicia's blog about Kideos a great web 2.0 tool...

planting seeds: BP2_Kideos: "@font-face { font-family: 'Cambria'; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: ..."

BP2_Game Classroom

I didn’t realize that there was a world of web 2.0 tools at my fingertips that could be so useful. After looking at some of the tools available online for communication, social networking and such, I decided to narrow my search to meet one simple objective, a fun way to reinforce math = MATH GAMES. In my classroom this is the area in which my students are struggling. They seem unmotivated to study and since one concept builds on the next, this makes introducing new materials much more difficult. The web 2.0 tool I found was Game Classroom; this was developed to help address the needs of parents and educators around the globe. They found that both parents and educators were frustrated with how boring learning had become for their students.  While navigating their site I found myself playing the games and having fun.  I played several math games that touched on probability, estimation, multiplication/division, and addition/subtraction. These games had higher level thinking skills and required students to focus. I could use this kind of application in my classroom to reinforce skills. I could set up a game of the week that could be part of our center rotation for students to play when they competed their class works. It would also be ideal to assign for homework, for those students that have computers at home. There is a fee to become a member of the site, however I found that you do have access to several well-designed games without signing up. Overall, I found both the math games and language arts games were educational, challenging, and more importantly for the student... FUN!

Multiplication

Grammar

Estimation

more grammar

BP3_Google Screen Shots