Final Reflection

Reflecting back on this class, I think that I learned things about the way I teach and the way I learn. Teaching for me incorporates finding a way to reach as many learners as possible. In reading our online articles and textbooks, I think that adding technology into the classroom can definitely be a tool for reaching all learners. Will it work for everyone? No. But if it can work for some, it is worth it. I do not think that online learning and technology are the only way to differentiate education though. It is all about knowing what your students need and how they learn best. I think our program question asks about how children learn best and what we as educators can do to meet their needs. This class has given me more tools for my toolbox that I can use to assist students in many areas to enhance their educational experience and success rate.
As a learner, I realized that although I rely on my computer and the internet for so many things, I did not prefer the online course. The amount of time consumed by reading and typing was overwhelming at times. I would much rather converse with my colleagues face-to-face. I think that conversations are more natural this way. With online learning, I could post something, but have to wait over 24 hours for a response. However, I must admit that the freedom of having Wednesday night available without the rush of getting to class and the freedom to work at my pace was a nice break from what we were used to.
Finally, I think that my writing skills were enhanced because I was constantly writing and rewriting my posts and comments to be sure I had my idea stated just the way I wanted it. Online learning forces you to write, which can be a difficult skill to master. Overall, this course had benefits and drawbacks for me that I can reflect on, learn from, and use to make changes to the way I learn and teach.
In the next few days, I plan to finalize my paper and finish my presentation. I also need to read the thread posts that have been made and make comments on what others have written. See you all on Wednesday for our presentations!

Final Project Progress

I have decided to use video conferencing for my final project with an emphasis on the program, Skype. I know that many of you have already used this program before, so I apologize in advance for my beginner's outlook on it. Today I spent time looking for articles written about the pros and cons of video conferencing in association with education. It was hard to know which articles to read because there was so much information out there. It was nice to have so many of the articles be so recent. Some of the research I have done in this program has led me to outdated information. Therefore, sorting through all the current articles took me awhile. I did find a few that I was very intrigued by and will incorporate into my final paper. I want to be sure that my paper is to the point and not full of excess information that is not relevant. Therefore, it looks like I have some narrowing down to do. I am off to read!

Voki

Alright, so I had to try it too. I was not sure what to say, but at least I know it worked!


Get a Voki now!

Week 5 Reflection

This week was a little different for me. Because I had already responded to the threads on the Ning website, I did not spend nearly the amount of time I had the past weeks on there. I did continue to read what others had written, but since many of us share the same thoughts on many of the topics, I did not post commments to everyone. What I did spend time on this week was read Disrupting Class and trying to figure out what to do my final project on. As for the book, I have to say that it was just an ok read for me. Maybe it is because I feel that we have read so much during this program that I have sort of developed a just read and get it over with attitude. I did like the models presented in the book and felt more comfortable with what they actually meant after Patrick talked about them in class. I also liked how Christensen addressed all the comments that are often made about why students have difficulties or why technology is not the answer. He they rebuted the comments with evidence that seemed relevant. The style in which he writes is very easy for me to read so sometimes I think I get reading and then have to go back because even though I read the words, I did not get meaning out of them. One page that really stuck out to me was 111. Christensen talks about the effectiveness of student-centric online technology when it comes to grading and feedback. Sometimes a student can turn in an assignment or test and not get feedback about it for awhile because teachers need the time to get it corrected and make all the appropriate comments. By this time, the student may just take the assignment and not gain any insight as to what was done correctly/incorrectly because of the lapse in time. Online technology would allow for instant feedback in some cases because the time for grading would be eliminated. However, this would limit your assessments to basic true/false, multiple choice, or fill in the blank. The constructed response that requires actual writing would still need to be looked over by a teacher. I can say I definitely relate to this topic right now because I am grading state reports. I have 65 reports to get through and it so so time consuming. The students turned them in last week and I have about 20 left to go. I always hope they look over and read all of my comments after I take the time to check them all. But yet, I am sure some don't due to the time issue.
This week I am going to research video conferencing since it is my topic for my final project. I am going to zone in on skype, but yet look at video conferencing in general. I also want to create a Voki and finish Disrupting Class.

Video

This video is very much like others we have seen in this class, but I thought I would share anyway. Be sure to pause the music player or it will play along with the music from the video.

Articles

I have been trying to do some research into video conferencing through the use of Skype. I already encountered that I may have a problem getting this set up because I only have a cell phone, not a landline. It can be done, but it costs a fee. It seems like it could be a very manageable tool once everything is set up. Once I find a landline to use, I plan to attempt to skpye. For now, here is an article I read about it that was helpful.


http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial107.shtml

Out of the Loop

I am currently in Green Bay spending Easter with my family. I had not checked any of my sites since yesterday after school and I was amazed how disconnected I felt from all of this. Everyone else is asleep right now and I am trying to play catch up. I looked at all the blogs and love the Vokis! Do you have to have some kind of microphone to do this? I have not explored the website yet, so maybe that will answer my question. I am continuing to plug away reading the Disruptive book and am finding it to be an ok read. I just stop myself sometimes thinking how much there is out there for technology and how much I truly don't understand about it all. How can anyone keep up with how quickly everything changes? I will attempt to check everything again tomorrow and then Sunday when we get back to Minnesota. Any word on whether or not we are meeting for class. Happy Easter!

Funology

Another topic I want to incorporate more of in my classroom is humor. I wish I had more ways to effectively reach my students through the incorporation of humor. In my searching, I found this website that seemed very user-friendly for students. Be prepared to play! www.funology.com

Final Project

I am thinking of using skype for my final project. Ok, I have a possible topic. Now what?

Tweet Tweet

I made my first post on Twitter today! I had to blog about it because it was a big step for me. After reading so much about it, I wasn't sure I wanted to try this, but I was brave and gave in. I think I was apprehensive because I didn't know how it could benefit my profession. Since I already have so many sites to check, I wanted to save myself the time of adding another one. But, I found this article on classroom2.o and it helped to change my mind. It is called " Nine Great Reasons Why Teachers Should Use Twitter." Check it out: http://mrslwalker.com/?p=79620905

Discipline

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by trying to figure out appropriate forms of discipline for my classroom. Therefore, tonight I decided to see what I could find on this topic. I found the website called Discipline Help: You Can Handle Them All. This intrigued me because at times I wonder about this. Recently, there have been some issues in my classroom where a student has been pushing the limits. When I looked at this website, I found a description that completely described my student. I found the information to be useful. Maybe you can find a behavior that sounds familiar to some of your students and gain some insights on to how to handle it.

http://www.disciplinehelp.com/teacher/list.cfm?cause=All

Life Post

Today I went to a wake for a 47-year-old mother of three who passed away from cancer. 47. As I watched the people pour into the funeral home, it was a deja vu moment for me. This week marks the 8 year anniversary of my own mother's death. She passed away at the age of 52 from cancer when I was just 19. When we got home, I was shaken by all of this and took some time to reflect on life. I have been stressing about many things lately including this class. I guess I was reminded that life is short and stressing only makes it shorter. Therefore, I am going to attempt to tell myself that what I am doing thus far is enough because I am doing my best and trying to better myself as an educator. I have to learn to be able to turn the computer off and not worry about it afterward. So upon completing this post, I plan to take my own advice. Just think, we are almost finished with this program! Where have the two years gone? Be proud of all you have accomplished and all you have learned. We should all be very proud of our efforts.

Twitter Account

I signed up for a twitter account, but cannot find anyone else from this class on it. Has anyone else created an account?

Week 4 Reflection

(Posting early in anticipation of a crazy week with Easter break coming up and preparing to travel at the end of the week. Being proactive!) This week, I created an online scrapbook through smilebox.com. Since this is something that I have really wanted to do for awhile, I was very motivated to try this out. I was really happy with the outcome and plan to use this site again. How can I integrate this into my classroom? There are templates I can insert pictures into that could show the progress of our class through photos. For example, the students are workig on their state reports right now. We could do before and after pictures of their state boards and how they developed them. I could then link the scrapbook to my school website. I assume the legality of using student photos would be covered just through the permission forms that are sent out at the beginning of the school year. I could even just take pictures of the state boards without any students in them. In a few weeks we are hosting a fourth grade spring showcase. I could try to find a way to display the scrapbook for parents to see at that as well. Furthermore, I used pandora at school this week. We read a story about Gloria Estefan in reading and my students wanted to hear her music. I put her name in as the search and we were able to listen to "Conga." Oh, and of course we had a little dance party as we listened :) As for reading, I liked the articles we read for thread 4 this week because they seemed applicable and relevant. I have found that through this entire master's program, I have come to appreciate text that I can relate to and find I can actually use in my profession. I am still trying to plug through reading Hendron. I think this book will be a great reference in the future as I continue to expand my technology knowledge even when this class is over. I still sometimes get overwhelmed with the online reading and workload, and the textbook reading. It is all about balance. I am trying to take Patrick's advice and set aside a chunk of time on a regular basis that is master's time. I am only allowed to work during this time. This way, I force myself to be productive, and still try to find a balance between school, home life, and master's work. I guess I will know if it is working by keeping track if I am keeping up in the class. My goals for the upcoming week are to finish Hendron, begin reading our other book, look into Skype and try to find an opportunity to use through Classroom 2.0, and to sign up for a Twitter account.

Smilebox

I mentioned earlier that I was going to try an online scrapbook tool for personal use. I had originally planned to use picasa.google, but did not find it the most user-friendly. However, I found the website smilebox.com and it worked great! Here is the scrapbook I made of my daughter, Kelsey. (You will need to pause the music on the left as the scrapbook plays its own music.)

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Week 3 Reflection

I am writing my formal week 3 reflection a few days before the class week is officially over because I am attempting to use my time wisely. This week has been very busy for me. With my husband gone to Florida and my hurt back and strep throat, not to mention a sick baby, I was left feeling very overwhelmed by this class. I am the kind of person who likes to be organized and have a plan. It made things very difficult when I had so much to do and was not able to do it due to certain circumstances. Therefore, I believe the skill I worked on the most this week was time management. I wanted to make the best use of my time and be productive. I attempted to document my time for this class and was amazed at how many hours were spent reading and using the online tools. Now this does include checking my facebook, which often times takes awhile to get caught up from day to day. However, I also explored new websites and just tried to read and play to see what is all out there that I don't even know about. I commented earlier on using plinky and pandora in previous blogs. I am still feeling as though I am behind and trying to catch up. In a traditional classroom setting, all the students are in one place sharing ideas and receiving the information. In OL learning, it is very much the opposite. When I get the emails about all the posts to the website, I feel as though I need to respond immediately to stay in the loop and caught up. However, with all the posts being made, this is tough to do. Building on my time management skills, I found the Hendron book to be a wise use of my time. I feel as though I can understand the writing and it is an easy read. Sometimes I do not understand the terminology he is using, yet the flow of the writing makes it easy for me to reread or find the answer I am looking for by reading on. I also respect the fact that this author has been in the classroom and can look at technology from a teacher's point of view. On a final note, I am still completely stumped about what I am going to do for my final project. Any suggestions? I am all ears!

Plinky

As you may have been able to tell from my excessive amount of posting today, I am laying on the couch annoyed that I am sick and trying to be productive at the same time. I found the website called Plinky. www.plinky.com It will email you a daily prompt so you have interesting things to blog about. They call it a way to fix blogging block. For older students, you could have them set up a blog and use it as their daily journal. Then, they could sign up for plinky and receive daily prompts to write about. Of course you need to have daily access to the internet, which we have already said gets to be tricky especially during "testing season." But I thought this might be beneficial for some.

Pandora

I just checked out the website www.pandora.com and love it. You type in what kind of music you want to listen to by putting in an artist, song or genre and it creates a playlist for you. Sometimes at school, I struggle to find appropriate music to play for my students. Although they think listening to rap would be the best, obviously the lyrics make that impossible. But I feel it is getting harder and harder to choose appropriate music that is not considered "babyish." So many of the lyrics have inuendos that just cannot be played at school. I don't think they even know what some of the songs are suggesting. (At least I hope they don't know!)I thought the website was nice because it suggests songs you might not have heard before which adds some variety. You would need to preview the song list before playing it, but it is a free online tool that could made kid-friendly with a little work.

Facebook

I have not checked my facebook account for a few days because I have been sick. I just went on this morning and was amazed at how much stuff accumulates in such a short amount of time. I finally just had to tell myself that I could not possibly read all the status updates and look at all the pictures posted. It is so easy to get wrapped up in "playing" on websites like facebook when there are probably more productive things for me to be doing. By just as the other million people with facebook, I too am curious about what others are doing and find myself engulfed with it.

Delicious

I used delicious.com at school on Friday. My students are working on their state reports and often have a very hard time when we are in the lab trying to find information. The search engines are just too big for them because there is so much out there. So I pulled a few students who I knew were struggling and we looked up information through delicious. We were directed to some very user-friendly sites. I also used delicious for personal use. I want to find a way to create a photo collage to post online. I typed this in the search line and again was directed to some great sites. I like the way the website shows you how many visits the site receives to help narrow down your choices as well. The website I found that I plan to try is www.picasa.google.com. If I am able to make the collage, I will try to post it.

Sick

For the first time during our master's program I felt like I couldn't keep up. As you all saw in class on Wednesday, I hurt my back earlier in the week. My husband has been gone to Florida all week with the baseball team, so lifting our 8 month old daughter was a bit of a challenge. However, as my back got better in the latter part of the week, I noticed my throat was really scratchy. By yesterday morning, it was so swollen that I could not talk. I was running a fever and felt awful. I went to the doctor and found out I have strep throat. UGH! Plus, my daughter is coming down with something as well because she has a runny nose, nasty cough and fever. So I have spent the past 24 hours trying to feel better. I couldn't help but keep thinking about the master's work I was not getting done. I forced myself to go online this morning to try to keep up. Hopefully my posts make sense since I am still feeling pretty out of it. I guess the nice thing about online learning is that I am able to type this while sitting in my jammies and dealing with strep throat. Sitting in a classroom setting would probably be quite unbearable at this point. This has also given me a different perspective on single parents. The past week was a blur because I felt all I was doing was running from daycare to school to daycare while trying to get housework done at night and care for my daughter. My husband will definitely be getting the "I appreciate you SO much" speech when he gets back today! Just thought I would share my frustrations as it was a new experience for me to feel like I was truly falling behind.

Week 1-2 Reflection

After two weeks of this course, I am feeling like I have developed a routine. In the first few days after our first class, I completed all of our required readings. From there, I was able to post on the thread for Hendron and Da Vinci. I also created a blog and was able to make postings every few days on there as well. I check both my blog and the Ning website daily so I can read the comments made my classmates so I can respond to them. I also find myself surfing the internet and trying to find applicable websites, lessons, and online resources that I can use in my personal and professional life. In addition, I check my facebook account too. Classroom 2.0 has been helpful and I think it is a website I will continue to use after this course is completed. Since I am teaching first grade next year, I think it will be a very useful resource I can utilize to find helpful teaching tools. In the weeks to come, I am looking forward to more "playing" and exploring new ways to incorporate technology into my personal and professional life.

More Tweets

Ok, so by now you can tell I have sort of become obsessed with the Twitter phenomenon. I just find it so interesting that people are documenting every part of their day and sharing it with the world. I mean, does anyone really care if I am on the way to the grocery store or biting my nails? I have definitely been sucked in to keeping a status on my facebook page, which I guess is kind of the same thing. But with Twitter, that is the main focus. I have even read articles about President Obama using Twitter! Since this is so intriguing to me, I decided I need to make a connection to education. I found this on Classroom 2.0 about Twittering. I promise I will try to find something else to obsess about and stop posting about the same topic!

http://web20teach.blogspot.com/2007/08/twitter-tweets-for-higher-education.html

Shaq Tweets

I just posted on the Ning Concordia Website about a radio show I heard that talked about professional sports players "tweeting" during games. Here is the link to a newspaper article that talks more about it. Before this class, I had never heard of twitter. Now it is like it is everywhere!
http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/606347

I figured it out!

I finally figured out how to add a video without having to navigate away from my blog to view it! Be sure to pause the music player to hear the video.

WCCO Reports on Facebook

I saw this on the news the other night and found it relevant to what we are learning about in class. Again, I don't know how to actually post the video so you don't have to naviagte away from my blog page. I have posted videos I have saved to my computer before, but never any random ones from the internet. If anyone has tips on this, I am all ears! Thanks!

http://wcco.com/specialreports/amelia.joins.facebook.2.955943.html

Classroom Blog

After reading the Hendron pages, I was very intrigued about creating a classroom blog. I currently have a classroom website that is supported through the Medford School website. However, I will admit that I do not use it on a regular basis. I have general information on it fourth grade, but nothing that shows what we are doing in my classroom on a daily basis. I really think this could be a useful tool for me, especially when I start teaching first grade next year. I can make it more of a daily/weekly reflection about what is happening in our classroom. Although I do create a weekly newsletter for my parents, this would be a more interactive way for them to stay updated. Not to mention, it would always be available for parents to view. When we clean our desks, I often find many newsletters shoved in folders that have never even been taken home. Thus, the entire point of the newsletter is lost. I think I will plan to create the layout for my first grade blog this year so it is one less thing I have on my plate when school starts in the fall. Here is my idea list thus far. Feel free to leave comments on what else I can add!
Pictures
Spelling lists
Upcoming dates
Daily/Weekly Reflections (Still to be decided)
Links to helpful websites
Book recommendations
Upcoming community programs
Links to our online curriculum

Classroom 2.0 website

As I told you at class on Wednesday, I am going to be teaching first grade next year. This is both a very exciting and scary thing for me. I do not have any experience in this grade level, so I am feeling a little bit overwhelmed with all that it will entail. However, I am up for the challenge and ready to learn all I can before the fall. In surfing the recommended websites, I found classroom 2.0 to be very teacher friendly. I read an article tonight about what technology I can use with my first graders next year. I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg, but it was neat to see all the resources that are available at my fingertips.

Do you believe?

I am adding a link to a video I saw at a workshop. I don't think we have seen this in our master's program yet. I am not sure how to add this video on the actual blog so you don't have to navigate away from my page. I guess that is something I am going to have to learn! Any advice from anyone? (You will want to click pause on the music player to listen to the video.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAMLOnSNwzA

First Class

After our first class tonight, I am feeling a little overwhelmed with all the freedom we are given with this class. I am very structured person who needs to be given a set task to accomplish each week. Tell me what to do and I can do. I am definitely not a decision maker, and being given too much freedom honestly makes me nervous. I am the same way with my classroom. My first year was very stressful because I was creating everything from scratch. Now I have a routine and I am able to follow my set pattern. Granted I do adjust my lessons as I deem appropriate. I think this class will be good to help me "ease up" a little and try to go with the flow more. We'll see how it goes!