Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

I can't believe this class is over! I think the combination of an intense four week class, and the first trimester of pregnancy made it all go by so quickly! I kept thinking I had more time to do things like catch up on my poor dear neglected blog, but alas - this is the last night I can!! Yikes!!
I feel so grateful to have been able to work with such an awesome group of people this semester. I was paired with five really great, hardworking, intelligent, and personable people. Working with this group made every week that much easier. Together we created some really great and well developed projects.Yay Lit Tech Sextet!
I'm an honest person, and beat myself up pretty badly when I don't put all of myself into everything that I do. I'd have to say I feel mediocre about my performance this semester. After over a year of trying for another baby, it figures this little blessing would makes it appearance the week before a four week graduate course would begin. I would never change anything about the last month, everything happens for a reason, but, I do feel like I didn't put my whole self into this class. However, in the same hand I feel like I couldn't put any more of myself in - does that even make any sense? :)
Well, a month off, and then back at it again! I am really looking forward to the fall semester and me feeling better! I love school and take pride in the work I put forward. I can't wait to see what's ahead for September :)

WoW WoW WebEx!!!

This final week of my summer course was crazy! I had sooo much to do, and of course there never seems like there's enough time for it all. I was compiling all of my notes for my "Wonder of the Webs" project - my report was on using digital avatars in the classroom. I had used web 2.0 tools like Voki before, but had never given much thought to using them to actually teach a lesson. I knew that they could do a great job at introducing a new lesson, but wasn't sure how to make them do more than that.
After researching the topic quite a bit, I learned a lot! It turns out that Voki can be a great tool for shy students, audio/visual learners and for teaching a foreign language. I also explored new sites like Gravatar and BeFunky. Gravatar allows a person to set up their avatar to follow them from site to site, and BeFunky allows the user to manipulate a photo to look like a cartoon, water color, pop art portrait, etc.
When it came down to the actual presentation for our projects, it was done in a way I was definitely not used. The whole class was asked to meet in our WebEx classroom on one night to "present" our projects. I was nervous, but very interested, to try this type of presentation for the first time. It actually reminded me of my projects theme - I was going to use a digital portal to present, which allowed me (someone who is so shy to present in front of a crowd) to "hide" behind the computer.
However, I didn't get a turn to present due to time constraints. Every one's presentations were absolutely wonderful, and filled to the brim with loads of useful information. It was a really neat experience watching the presentations take place without necessarily seeing the presenter a few feet in front of me.
In order to "present" my project to my peers I used Screen Toaster. This tool was SO neat! It definitely took me a few tries to master it, but I am really happy with my final project! The program basically records your navigation via your desktop, and your voice. I was able to maneuver through my power point presentation and describe the contents of the slides as I did. I could see this being a really great tool to use in the classroom (digital story telling, presentations for projects, etc.).
Cheers to a great new way to present information! Boo to the boring old ways I was used to :)

Engrade!

This week our assignment was to check out the site Engrade. It is a free site available for teachers to keep track of their student's grades and attendance. It also allows for a teacher to plan with a great and easy to use calendar. Parents can also use this site to keep track of their child's progress, and to see what assignments are in the future.
I think this is an awesome tool. I made up a small make believe class, created a couple of graded assignments, attendance issues, and upcoming events. Engrade is awesome! I really do love the layout, the tools, the accessibility for the parents, and the organization. So often parents go by completely unaware of how their child is performing in class until it is too late. If their child's teacher included this link in a welcoming newsletter, the parent might be more inclined to keep track of their child's current grades. With parents working more and more, and the world going digital - parents could be checking their child's progress on the blackberry while sitting in traffic on their way home at night.
I could really picture myself using this website on a daily basis as a teacher. I could access it from any computer, laptop, personal, school, etc. and constantly be updating the information. It wouldn't take any longer to enter grades or attendance on the computer v.s. the old paper method. Not only is it easy to access, it saves on clutter! Sooo many teachers have way too much clutter in their classroom. Grades are difficult to find when needed, assignments gets misplaces - things are messy and disorganized. Engrade allows the teacher to stay organized and cuts down on messy paper trails. I also love the fact that you can merge your information into excel for nice spreadsheets - what an impressive report to give to your principal or parents! :)
I have to say I really love this site. The only thing that I would like changed about it is the home page layout. A more visually pleasing welcome page might be nice for the parents to see when they access your Engrade. Other than that, I think it's a really great tool and hope that I have the opportunity to use it someday soon!

This past week was crazy! Lots of stuff going on at home - sick toddler, sick me, some other not so fun stuff - and tons to do for school too! I was definitely feeling the tension of a four week summer course catching up with me.

My group continues to do well. I think we all work really well together, and every one's always there to help each other out. This week we were lead by Kayleigh and we created an awesome PPT on constructivism.

There was a lot to read/watch this week. I really enjoyed Steve Downe's video on PLE's. A person's Personal Learning Environment is kind of like their own personal toolkit for the web. They can keep important items (blogs, sites, documents) at hand and share them with others. By sharing what we feel is the most important to us with others, we all benefit by learning through each other. By becoming experts on what 2.0 tools are available to us we can help out future students develop PLE's of their own - this will keep the great "circle of learning" alive and pushing forward! Without even realizing it - I have created my PLE on my dashboard. I love Windows 7 and my new laptop. I have really taken advantage of the dash and having all of the items I need for my PLE right at my finger tips! :)

We also read about the different teaching models: Behavioral, Information Processing, Social-Interactive, and Personal. This was a review for me from last semester - a welcome one! Good teaching will incorporate all of these models. The student should learn the basics, understand them entirely, interact with their peers to expand their knowledge, and then reflect on what they've learned metacognitively. Bloom's taxonomy has a no fail method for teaching your students this way so that they will really gain an understanding of what you have taught them.



Our personal assignment this week was definitely a fun one for me:) I love creating, and this week we were asked to create a poster for an event. Last semester I learned how to create a review/quiz on Power Point. I thought it might be fun to have night where teachers could come together and learn how to create these for their students. I have created some for the class' I have observed and the kids really love them. It makes reviewing SO much more fun and memorable!

Big week behind us, but and even bigger one ahead I think :) I can't believe this class is almost over already - it went SO quickly!

These are a few of my favorite (new) things!

This week was all about exploring new technology for me! Along with learning about all of the great tools Google has to offer, I also created a slide show with Picasion, started a new Wiki with my group, and finally bit the the bullet and registered for Twitter.
I really love creating the slideshow of all of my "digital firsts." It's funny to think that about 6 months ago I had no clue about what most of those things were. When I sat in Dr. Smirnova's class last semester it all seemed like a foriegn language, and now I was the one facilitating my group's project and teaching them how to create a wiki - pretty neat!
I'm a pretty private person so the idea of twittering and blogging never interested in the least bit, but now I can see the advantages they hold in the field of education. I would love to carry a current blog for my class as a teacher. As a parent, I know I would love to be able to log on and read my daughter's teachers' blog about what had been going on in their class that week/day/month.
To sum it all up - I had a good week! My group is working together fabulously, meeting went great (minus some connection problems on my part), and our first major project looks really awesome!
Hope you enjoy my own Picasion creation!! :)


Create avatar

Computer literacy is the knowledge and understanding of computers and their issues.
Information literacy is knowing how to find, analyze and use information; being able to gather information from many sources, decide what is relevant and then being able to organize it in a way to help the reader male decisions/take action.
Integration literacy is the ability to use computers/other technologies combined with a variety of learning strategies to enhance students’ learning; matching appropriate technologies for the students’ learning objectives.
All three are different forms of literacy for the 21st century learner. Computer literacy is the basics of it all, the backbone. Information literacy can be seen as the student’s role/responsibility, while the teacher must provide the Integration literacy. As the teacher, we must guide the students to meet our objectives with the appropriate technology and teach them proper information literacy in order to succeed in the 21st century.
With the help of Professors like Dr. Smirnova I hope that I know that I will be able to transition from information literacy to integration, and provide my future students with the best 21st century learning environment!

You Google? iGoogle!

So, I thought I knew a lot about Google and all it had to offer – boy was I wrong! I’ve used Google to search the web, pictures, scholarly articles, and have used G-mail, Google docs and G-chat. All of these tools have been extremely useful to me in past classes and in everyday life. After taking the Google tutorial I learned that there was a lot more Google had to offer.
I immediately downloaded Google Chrome, Side wiki and set up my iGoogle home page. It’s definitely a lot to take in and get used to, especially during a crazy week at work. I love my iGoogle – my little frogs play during the day and roast marshmallows by the fire at night :). It’s awesome to open my internet explorer and have all of the tops things I normally sort through to be right on one page. It saves me time, which is a HUGE thing and it’s fun to look at.
I’m planning to explore Google Picasa a bit more, along with a lot of the other tools. Picasa seems like its right up my alley – I have hundreds of digital pictures and definitely need a better way to organize and order prints. I've learned a lot about Google this week - but I'm not done yet!! :)

I'm back in the saddle again.... I'm back!

Don't mind the title - I love Aerosmith:)
But, I am back on the saddle - the Grad school one that is! After a nice month off, my first ever summer course and online course at MSMC has begun. It's nice that it's with Dr. Smirnova because I know the kind of quality work she expects, and she has already taught me to be familiar and comfortable with Moodle.
This class should be fun - it's called Literacy and Technology. I'm really interested to learn about more ways to incorporate technology into the classroom on a daily basis.
In the first week we were broken into groups and asked to create a card representing our group. Our group started with four people, then went to five, and then six at the very last minute! Everyone seems really cool and like they'll be willing to work together for the best possible outcome. We came up with a really nice finished product for our first weeks project. We named ourselves the "Lit Tech Sextet," and our motto is "Teaching tomorrow's professionals." We had a nice little meeting via Gtalk before our first WebEx experience on July 1st. I think I'm really going to like WebEx, but for the moment I'm still a little partial to Illuminate.
WebEx was confusing in that the slides Dr. Smirnvoa was showing weren't going along with her lecture. Everyone was also a little confused about how/where to post their group's card, and a lot of people were having microphone troubles. I like the visual aspect of WebEx, and I'm sure that with time it will group on me, and we will all become a little more comfortable with the program.

Plan for next week : Get in touch with my group ASAP, figure out a good time for everyone to meet and discuss the work ahead, try to get google docs going with everyone and read read read!