Looking at my Journey....

Well it is the end of the semester and Christmas is right around the corner.  This semester has been a tough one for me; however, I know that the knowledge I have gained in Tech Ed, as well as all of my other courses, will prove to be very beneficial in the long run that is my teaching career.

Technology in the classroom, I had thought, was basically just the utilization of PowerPoint, the SmartBoard, and basic things like that.  However, as the semester has unfolded, I learned differently.  From Inquiry-Based Activities to Animoto to Inspiration Flip Charts, the capabilities of a technologically advanced classroom are limitless.  I know that I can get students informed while keeping them interested by using any of these tools and formats.  I know that I have a giant leg up when it comes to furthering my students' knowledge.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in TPTE.  I will be able to reference each of the resources from TPTE  with ease and all will certainly prove helpful.

I bid thee farewell, Technology in the Classroom....

Web Authoring

Well, our work this semester is starting to come to fruition.  I have finished all of my Web 2.0 Artifacts, and I must say that I am proud of myself.  I think they look great and would help in my classroom.  I thoroughly enjoyed doing them. I thought the reason for doing them was well-deserved, and actually working with the tools was quite fun.

Also, I have completed my work on my website! I love, love, love my site.  I think it would/will be a great way to communicate with my future students and their parents.  I believe it can easily accommodate any new requirements and those new additions would fit seamlessly.

Visit my Website and see my handiwork for yourself!

Only one week left of school!!!

Digital Storytelling & iMovie

Well, my Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful!!  I was able to spend a lot of time with my family and I was able to be in my best friend's wedding.  The weekend was such a blessing.

Even with all of that going on this past weekend, I was still able to create and finish my digital story.  Being a baseball coach and fanatic, I wanted to use baseball as a platform for students to see how math is prevalent in the real world.

I used iMovie for this project, which is preloaded to the macs in our class and on my own personal MacBook.  iMovie allows for photos and videos to be put together as a movie.  The movie can have music played over and text can be added as well.  iMovie default saves as its own file. However, you can also directly post the movie to youtube, Facebook, CNN iReport, or you can save the movie as a QuikTime file.  So the program certainly has the capabilities to post to whatever platform you would like.

Within my video, I wanted to show math in baseball, specifically geometry.  I used photos that I personally took of Patriot Field at Jefferson County High School.  I also used photos of the Patriots that were taken by Linnie Brown.  She was kind enough to allow me to use them.  I spoke with her via email and she granted permission (and even was delighted by it).  The photos used had, in some way, a shape or geometric concept within it.  I zoomed in on those shapes and concepts.

I think the movie may give incentive or spark interest in students as many love baseball.  And with that, my goal of showing that math is prevalent everywhere would be accomplished.  This assignment certainly was enjoyable and certainly will be helpful in my profession.




Above is the final product.  Enjoy!!

The Website, Animoto, and Finishing the Digital Diagram

This week was full of just chugging away on assignments.  I corrected my flip chart, worked on and completed my digital diagram, created my Animoto artifact, and designed my website.  Plowing ahead on the assignments was a lot of work, but I expect (and already do) see the fruits of my labor.

As previously stated, I completed my digital diagram!  I like the way this project turned out.  I think the format of this project bodes well for learning multiple facts about a topic.  The diagramming allows the topic to go in multiple directions.  For example, my topic was 3-Dimensional Figures.  The figures pyramids and spheres are similar only in the amount of dimensions they have.  The diagram encourages that, though.  The diagram branches out and shows how versatile a topic is.

Here is a screenshot of my completed diagram.

3-Dimensional Figures Digital Diagram

I was also able to do an Animoto artifact. Though it is just an extension of photo slideshows, I thought the project was different enough and useful enough to warrant an artifact.  I like how the pictures don't just fade into other pictures.  The movement between pictures was a great buffer between each image.  I also really liked the music aspect.  I was able to throw in some flavor to the "slideshow" by adding some guitar and fiddle music.  That song made the Animoto much more upbeat.

Domes of Yesterday & Today Animoto

The website is a work in progress.  And I am liking that progress.  You can visit my site and see for yourself by clicking here.

A much needed break is coming up with Thanksgiving.  I will most certainly be thankful for a couple days to myself and the long overdue family time.  They are wonderful and I miss them so.

Blessed to have them. Very Blessed.

IWB and Digital Diagrams

This week we started putting on the finishing touches on our Interactive White Boards.  I have completed mine and you can look at it by going to my personal website under the "Multiplying Binomials" tab. Or by clicking here.

Again, I have thoroughly enjoyed developing my flipchart.  I believe this would be an incredibly helpful tool in the classroom.  The students would certainly be intrigued by the format (i.e. using the Promethean Board).  The flipchart would also be very informational.

Also, this week, I created my Storybird.  Unfortunately, I did not create it with respect to mathematics.  But creating one was fun, nonetheless.  Storybird is an online tool that allows you to create story books using illustrations already on the website, which is the only drawback in my opinion.  Below is the embedded version of my book, One Adventurous Night.

One Adventurous Night on Storybird

We also began working on our Digital Diagrams.  The digital diagrams use Inspiration to be created and are very clean and simple to use.  You can create outlines, maps, and web charts.  The formats allow for a teacher to put things into categories and separate information by category.  Also, you can input notes into each bubble.  The notes would certainly be a great way to add great information that otherwise would not fit on the page.  You can also add links to direct students to more information.  Overall, I think this tool would be a great addition to the classroom.

I have completed my rough draft sketch and it is below.

Google Forms Presentation

This past week, Aaron and I presented our Web 2.0 Tool, Google Forms.  I believe we were successful in conveying our knowledge of the tool to our fellow classmates.  I believe our choice to walk them through making a form was a good one.  That way, they were able to see exactly how to utilize this tool when they become the educator.  I also think we were intelligent to use their answers to a Google forms quiz to show how the results can be presented.  Doing so allowed them to see how each question form leads to a different view of data.  They were also able to see how easily to manipulate the page was.

Overall, again, I think Aaron and I did a great job!

Also, this week I have started adding my artifacts to my class webpage, and the page is starting to take shape!

Wordle and the Beginnings of our Flipchart

This week, we concluded our Scavenger Hunt and our slideshow practices. Using Picasa Web Albums was, as a whole, much easier than the Google Presentation. However, I think that is the case because Google Presentation is designed to be for power point style presentations rather than picture slideshows; whereas Picasa is designed specifically for photo sharing.

The second day of our class week was devoted to learning how to use the Prometheus board and designing our own Flipchart. I had no idea that the Promethean Board would be such a huge asset in the classroom! You can do anything with it and it seems like something the students would love to be able to use (create interest, even if it's for something other than the lesson itself).

So I am looking forward to working on this project. I even have a topic selected!!

This week, I was able to complete my second artifact of presented Web 2.0 Tools. Wordle is a tool that creates "word clouds". These word clouds can be of anything, whether it be vocabulary words or Dr. King's "I Have A Dream Speech" (the example from the presentation). It is very easy to use and is fun designing the cloud itself.

My Wordle Artifact - Triangle Congruence Theorems

In my artifact, I chose triangle congruence theorems as the words for my cloud. I just typed in the definitions that the McGraw-Hill Geometry book had for each theorem then added duplicates of important words (triangle, angle, side, et al.) to make those words bigger than others.

And as I said earlier, I am somewhat looking forward to our next assignment.

Scavenger Hunt

This past Tuesday was probably my favorite class of the semester thus far.  First we learned about Pixlr and how we could use it in the classroom.  I thoroughly enjoyed making my own artifact through Pixlr, and I think it could be very useful in my classroom.

my artifact using Pixlr

However, what pushed this week over the top was our Scavenger Hunt.  I would have enjoyed the assignment had Aaron and I just walked around campus.  I would have njoyed taking pictures of shapes on Pedestrian Walkway.  But we weren't satisfied with just that.

Aaron and I decided we'd take this assignment over the top and take pictures inside Neyland! (No we didn't jump fences or break laws, the gates were open.)  Just being in the  massive structure was impressive, but the shapes we needed to photograph were everywhere! Triangles here, right angles there.  We were blown away with how something so huge and complex was comprised of the most simple shapes.  It was really a wonderful experience.

Here is our slideshow using Picasa Web Albums

Here is my Math Instruments Slideshow using Google Presentation

Digital Imaging and Copyright Laws

This week was shortened by Fall Break (and a much needed break at that).  So on the day we were in class, we learned about digital imaging and copyright laws.  I will begin with the former.

Our Digital Imaging lesson was somewhat basic, as I have worked with photoshop and numerous other photo editing programs; however, the information was highly useful.  I did learn that 72 pixels equates to an inch, so the day certainly wasn't a wash.

We saw how resizing images changes the image itself and the size of the file.  If you try and make an image bigger than it already is, the new image will be fuzzy.  You certainly don't want that.  

The other half of our class session was given to copyright laws.  We watched a video comprised of Disney movie clips to educate us on the laws.  The video certainly fulfilled its purpose and I now know how the laws affect me.  And I can still hear Buzz Lightyear yelling "COPY!!", as it happened every ten seconds in the video. :)

Web 2.0 Tools - Google Forms

This week, we have started learning about and critiquing web 2.0 Tools.  Aaron and I were assigned Google Forms to look at and determine its uses in the classroom, its strengths and weaknesses, and how to use it.

The Google Forms Homepage

In Google Forms,  an educator can do many things to benefit his or her classroom.  Quizzes and "Ticket out the Door" possibilities are endless.  And since the forms are so easy to create and complete, these types of assessments can be used very frequently.  Educators can also organize parties, volunteer opportunities, and take polls with ease.  And as Dr. O'Bannon has showed all semester, Google Forms would also be a great way to provide feedback (as a student or teacher).

What I really like about Google Forms (other than how easy to use this tool is) is the fact that the results are very clear.  One can view the results in spreadsheet form, charts, graphs, and in multiple other mediums.

The responses displayed in spreadsheet form

The multiple forms of data

As you can see, there is a pie chart along with the names of the students who have taken the form.  Also, there is a chart that details the answers.  All of these forms, as I had stated, are easily understood and very effective in giving feedback.

All in all, I can see myself using Google Forms for multiple aspects of my classroom.  The tool's versatility allows for many various uses.  But no matter how I use it, I am sure it will be effective.

Inquiry Based Learning Lessons

This week in class, we have created on our own Inquiry Based Learning Lesson.  This kind of lesson has multiple purposes.  A class can benefit from IBL lessons because students have to do their own research on a topic, and they must be able to utilize multiple informational platforms (website, book, et al) in order to complete the assignment.  These assignments can also contain collaborative aspects and critical thinking exercises.  So, overall, this activity can combine many, many ways of learning and assessment in a fun, effective way of learning.

The only problem I envision with this type of lesson deals with math teachers.  How can you use this lesson to teach multiple steps in mathematical objectives? There are ways one could do so; however, I believe the best way to utilize this lesson in mathematics is to garner interest in the topic.  That is what my fictional lesson did.  I did a lesson on Pythagoras and the theorem in his namesake.  I had the students research his life and Greece in the time period in which he lived.  I figured that if they saw how he worked and why he researched mathematics, they may be more interested in the subject.  Though that was my main objective, I also put a critical thinking question in the assignment in order to make the students combine prior knowledge with the material they were to be researching.

Overall, I believe this assignment could be very beneficial to students.  They may be able to learn quite a bit while researching and they could become interested in the topic.

WebQuests

During the last few class sessions, we have discussed WebQuests.  WebQuests are inquiry learning lessons that are utilized on the internet.  They are broken down into multiple components:  the introduction, the task, the process, resources, evaluation, the conclusion, and the teacher's page.  Each component has a page full of specific instructions and/or useful information on the topic.

We were able to go in and look at multiple WebQuests and compare them.  In our activity last Thursday and this past Tuesday, we looked at four high school humanities WebQuests.  Our group came up with reasons why we thought the best and the worst were just that.  The best, as chosen by our group, was the "World of Shakespeare" WebQuest, while the worst was the "Intolerance" WebQuest.

WebQuests are very useful in mathematics as well.  I envision using one to research a particular formula, such as the quadratic equation.  You could do something with researching its uses, who founded the notion, among other things.

I don't know if I would use WebQuests THAT often, but I can certainly keep them in the playbook.  You never know when they could be perfect for a class.

Website Evaluation

For our class this past Tuesday, we learned how to properly evaluate websites and gauge how useful they could be to educators.  I decided to see how useful BrainPop could be.

I had used BrainPop in a previous class and neither visit has disappointed.  The site is full of gadgets, videos, games, and much more.  Each of those things come with standards and lesson plans so teachers can easily access and utilize them.  Though the site is slower to load (due to the amount of interactivity), it is very easy to navigate and would certainly be able to snag and keep a class's attention from the get-go.

The process of evaluating sites was helpful as well.  I received loads of useful information detailing the aspects of a site that need to be examined, such as:  the author and his/her credentials, the purpose of the site, a site's accuracy, and how easy the site is to use.  All of which are vital in finding good resources to use in our classrooms.  The activity has certainly furthered my understanding of how beneficial websites can be to a classroom.

My Expectations for TPTE 486

I expect this class to give me a firm basis of utilizing the ever-growing aspect of technology in our schools. I expect to be able to use each tool efficiently and effectively.

Students often become bored with a monotonous lecture over the material.  Being able to utilize technology effectively can spice up the lectures! Adding videos and other clips may pique their interest in the class and keep them from falling into boredom.  Keeping up a classroom website may also interest them and will certainly keep the students informed of the happenings within the classroom.

All the types of technology that I believe we will learn about in this course will certainly make my class more livelier.  I hope to get the knowledge to perfect the use of the types.