Show and Tell

 Technologies I thought about how to incorporate:

Using Facebook as a way for parents and Students to reach out to you:
I found that the book did NOT recommend using Facebook as a learning management system, but it did advocate the use of Facebook to communicate more effectively with parents as well as students. Wes Fryer thinks that parents are more likely to visit the teacher's Facebook then navigate the school website, and students are more likely to ask what the homework is on your Facebook page then they are to email you. I found this teacher's Facebook page that is very active and the students seem to enjoy the availability that it gives them to ask questions. I may think about making one, honestly (and I am usually very against Facebook in the classroom)!

Tumblr:
If Tumblr is not blocked at the school, it can be used as a blog just as blogger can. Students may be more familiar with Tumblr because they may have personal blogs of their own. Tumblr is also unique because it allows you to post things on your blog made by other content creators with one click of a button. This reblogging feature is also valuable so others can share the content you have created. This is a link to the tumblr blog I made for last year's UMF symposium day.

Glogster:
Glogster is a online poster making site where students can make digital multimedia poster presentations. Glogsters can include links, videos, audio, images, graphics, gifs, text, pretty much anything you want to include. There are plenty of glogsters on almost every topic you can think of, made by students, for students. Here is an example of one that is similar to what I would have my students create. I experienced glogster first hand this semester when I made a student sample for my unit using glogster.

Final Fires Reflection

Fires in the Bathroom by Kathleen Cushman was the most interesting book I have read about education. This book just shows that a lot can be learned from student opinion. The students are the ones who are supposed to be benefiting from what you are teaching them, so hearing the opinions of students on everything from when to give to tests to what to do on the first day is an invaluable resource. I was planning on selling most of my textbooks at the end of the semester, but I might not with this book because I really enjoyed the way it was written and I can reread it and use it if I have questions in the future.

After rereading my blog entries for this book, I realized that for the first half of my blog entries, I wasn't thinking like a teacher, I was still thinking like a student and thinking about how my teachers used to treat me and how they used to teach me. I was saying things like "I felt like my teachers didn't understand or didn't care that I was very busy," or "there were times when I felt very brain fried or my brain felt overloaded, or I physically or mentally didn't feel okay, so I would rather have put my work down and came back to it later when I was at home in my own space." While it might have felt nice to vent to this blog and focus on what it was like when I was in highschool, I know now that I need to be focused on how I am going to be treating my students, what I am going to do for them, and how I am going to teach them. In my later blog posts I said things like "This part of the chapter stood out to me because it encouraged me because I love to play games in class and with my students. I feel that students will learn better when they are having fun because they are involved and motivated to participate, " and I would try to have some kind of peer or adult translator to sit in with the student during class and work one on one with them, or I would ask the student what kind of test they would like to take because maybe saying the answers orally would be easier for them." It is valuable to relate to your students by remembering your high school experience, but you are in a different position now, and you need to think about making the experience your students have better than your former one. After reading Fires in the Bathroom, I am more confident in the area of classroom management because I know how my students will react to what I do, and how to respond in a way that is best for them.

Images

Both of the links I explored for this chapter are from flickr.com. I have never used Flickr before so I was very surprised and happy with the features I found. I learned that you can browse Flickr photos without an account, you only need to make an account to if you want to upload photos. I also learned that Flickr allows you to store 1 terabyte of images on their site! That is so much! Lastly, I learned that you can search images for what they are tagged by. This is the tag that I found for pictures about Biology.
The second link I looked at was also on Flickr, but it was exploring their creative commons sections. Their creative commons section has over 258 Million images! They also have them under different licenses: Attribution, Noncommerical, No Derivative Works, and Share Alike Licenses, as well as combinations of each. It is also really useful that Flickr has the definitions of these licenses on the side of the page, so every user can use the licenses consistently without getting confused on the technicalities.

Digital Text

The blogging process for Practicum could be improved if we only had one blog for all of practicum. It became very confusing with multiple blogs, and it would be much easier if we had to post everything to the same place. We could just have separate tags for Technology Integration, CIA, and in the schools (if we posted anything for that). Additionally, I believe it would be better to post our TK20 things to the blogs instead of using TK20, since we asked each of you and none of the teachers for practicum seem to like TK20. Lastly, I would use the blogs and the wikis for more assignments so we wouldn't have to be wasting so much paper.
The first website I visited was the New York Times Website. I looked at the archive like it talked about in the chapter, and I was underwhelmed. Most of the articles were behind a paywall, so that was inconvenient. However, I was surprised  and i did like that the article archive did go back over 150 years ago to 1851. The second site I went to was Wes Fryers wiki. It was interesting to see his actual wiki. I however did not find it very easy to navigate and I didn't really understand what materials were supposed to be available, but I think that with more time I would like it as a supplement to his ebook. The last site I looked at was Moodle. Moodle is a Learning Management system that can be used as a collaborative class blog, but I believe that a wiki would be easier for both the teacher and the students to use and understand, but I like that I know know of an alternative to wikis in case the site goes down or something goes wrong.

Ch. 10: Going Beyond the Classroom

" Steer us toward summer and enrichment programs. Anything a teacher can do to keep us learning outside the school calendar pays off. What would you want your own kids to be doing when they weren't in school? Suggest it to us, too, and help us find ways to make it happen.

'It helps to go away to camps, and school is a place where you can hook up with that kind of program, like leadership camp. You learn communication skills and you can be on your own.' - Mahogany"


This section stood out to me because when I was in high school my teachers nominated me to attend the Rotary Youth Leadership Award conference which is a leadership summer camp that is sponsored by the local town Rotary. My teachers only nominated students who they feel had strong leadership skills and potential, so it was a really big honor to be noticed by my teachers. I attended the camp, and it was such a valuable experience from which I learned many skills I still use today. I also am grateful for that opportunity because it helped me win a large scholarship my senior year of high school. I have obviously seen firsthand the value of summer enrichment opportunities and will suggest them to my students in the future.

Ch. 9: When Things Go Wrong

 "'My first-year teacher, the whole first semester we busted his chops, but then by second semester we let up on him, because we saw he was doing things right. Another teacher, we kept going on her because she was still scared. And kids go to the bathroom at times they're not supposed to, and then they set fires in the bathroom, while she was trying to be so friendly.' - Lauraliz"

This is the quote that spawned the title of the book. I have mixed feelings about this passage because I want to be the male teacher in the beginning who earned his footing and they no longer gave him trouble, but I am worried I may act like the other teacher. She is being so nice, which is important, and I want to be nice, but I don't want them to take that as a license to misbehave. I think I have to be nice, but firm, and focus on teaching the students, and maybe that will the students ease up? Maybe I am just nervous.

Ch 8: Teaching Teenagers Who Are Still Learning English

" My first year in science class, the teacher gave me a test and he said, 'I think you can't do this test because you don't speak English, but anyway I will give you a B if you come every day.' I started to cry- he assume that I couldn't do it, and I felt really bad. Because I feel comfortable when I study and take a good grade and say. 'I did this.' -Elaine"

This part of the chapter made me very sad for this student. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have a teacher give up on me so easily, and to just say he would give me a B. I would be very upset because I wouldn't have learned anything. This is the reason that this teacher disgusts me. I would try to have some kind of peer or adult translator to sit in with the student during class and work one on one with them, or I would ask the student what kind of test they would like to take because maybe saying the answers orally would be easier for them.

Ch. 7: Teaching DIfficult Academic Material

"Use a lot of concrete examples...
'It doesn't work when we just sit and take notes on different terms. It has to be more real than that. Science and math are so conceptual that at times it's hard to comprehend, so students need concrete analogies or examples.' -Latia"

"Don't rely too much on the textbook.
'When things in the textbook seem really boring, do activities that force us to get involved and make connections. IN my ninth grade science class, we read about how resources we divided among the world, and he had students act as countries and divide up popcorn in amounts that represented their country's share of the resources. We had to organize to get enough popcorn for our countries.' - Daryl"


Science, particularly Biology,  is an incredibly difficult subject when it is not taught in a way that students understand easily, so I believe that using concrete examples that students have experience with and relate to is crucial. Also, I think that I would have done MUCH better in my high school biology class if my teacher hadn't stuck to the textbook for every single powerpoint, reading, homework, activity, quiz, and test. I don't like reading from textbooks, I avoid it whenever I can, and whenever I do I have to read it out loud in some kind of accent so I don't give up and do something else, I just don't learn well that way. Textbooks are good resources, but in my opinion they should be resources, and not the majority of the curriculum.

Ch 6: Motivation and Boredom

"Make learning a social thing.
'My best teacher always has us up and doing experiments to make it fun, working in groups, playing in games. That's how he gets us to learn. ' - Porsche

'It can be fun to do activities and group work, because you get to talk but also learn with your friends. Some people's attention span is very short, so listening to the teacher is stressful and they get distracted. - Diana' "

This part of the chapter stood out to me because it encouraged me because I love to play games in class and with my students. I feel that students will learn better when they are having fun because they are involved and motivated to participate. I have always loved games because they are typically hands on and they usually have competition involved, which I also love. I was very encouraged because Porsche said that the teacher that plays games with his class was her BEST teacher.

Ch 5: Teaching to the Individual, Working with the Group

"The eye roller. Once angered or embarrassed by something, students like us stay that way throughout the course.  We deliberately tune out, to make sure you get the message that we don't care.

The wallflower. Students like us may know the answer or have something to say, but we have a high level of anxiety about our ability to perform. We don't raise our hands, because we don't want to be noticed.

The hand-waver. Students like us need to prove to the teacher that we're knowledgeable or smart. Grades matter more than anything to us.

The dreamer. Students like us know plenty, but we don't have a drive to prove ourselves to teachers. We prefer to inhabit our own private world, which is usually more comfortable than the classroom.

The con artist. Students like us are always developing strategies to fool the teacher into thinking we know something. We're not necessarily cheaters, but we know how to play the game and win.

The goof-off. Students like us may be very smart, but to impress our peers we spend most of our time joking around and causing disruptions.

The workhorse. Students like us always come to class, do the homework, and answer the questions. We might not excel, but the teacher can depend on us."

I found these categories of students very interesting, but once I tried to place myself in one of these categories I found out that some students may be different pieces of each and may not fit into any of these boxes. In high school, I was a dreamer because I used to doodle and daydream often, I was a con artist because I used to know how to ask the teacher for the answer in a way that would give me additional information that I didn't know, and I was a goof-off because I knew a lot, but I would sit with my friends and would pass notes and get distracted. As a student in college, in lectures I have become a bit of a wallflower, because the size of the class will intimidate me, and I am also still a dreamer because I doodle. However, I have realized that as a teacher, I can't be any of these things, I have to leave those habits behind and step up to the plate for my students. 

Ch 4: Creating a Culture of Success

"Direct and specific feedback from the teacher helps kids much more than grades.

'If instead of grades we just had a paper from the teacher telling us how we are doing, we would want more to go back and do it better. -Porsche'

'You don't need to have grades to want to work harder. If my teachers told me how I was doing without my grades, I would pay attention to it...' -Veronica"

I know that realistically this may not work, but I would rather have parent teacher conferences and only evaluations at the middle and end of a semester. I have seen this work because where I worked over the summer it was how they did things. Gifted and Talented students who were going into 6th and 7th grade were taking college level classes during their summer break with Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth. The students (who were normally very focused on grades during the school year), got to participate, explore, and experience the content without all the pressure. As long as the students behaved, participated, and understood the material at the end, they would have successfully completed the course, and I wish that system could be applied to a regular school setting.

Chapter 3: Classroom Behavior

"My teacher would touch me on the shoulder and ask, 'Are you okay?' If I am, she would say, 'I can;t have you sleep in my class, so please step outside, rinse your face with cold water, the come back when you're okay.' -Lauraliz

Usually the sleepiness goes around in the morning classes, when the heater's on, or when the lights are off. My teacher always taps us on the shoulder when we fall asleep. - Andres"


This part of the chapter stood out to me personally because I tend to fall asleep in class very often, even when I am trying very hard not to. My doctors think I may have some kind of sleep disorder or sleep apnea or some other condition. I have gotten in trouble before with teachers because they think I'm sleeping or purpose because it's boring or because I'm lazy, but I'm not. I really appreciate what the teacher did in the first quote because she did not get angry at the student she just told the student to leave the room for a few minutes until they are more awake and doing better. I believe this is a very respectful way to handle the situation.

Inspiration

Inspiration would be a really way to make a food web, a diagram about the functions of a cell, an evolutionary tree, or a way to diagram population size challenges. When I try to relate inspiration to my content is when I realize that inspiration would be really useful for science.

The food web idea I got was from this: http://www.inspiration.com/lessonplans/inspiration#science-lesson-plans

The original idea was to make a food web using inspiration, which I think would be a great idea because it is easy to keep it neat and organized. Food webs are useful to look at the transfer of energy between organisms in an ecosystem. If I had this technology, I would use it in my classroom. However, this use of this technology is only a substitution on the SAMR scale because it is replacing doing this on pen and paper.

The second idea that I like would be using Inspiration to make an evolutionary tree. This was an original idea that was inspired by the idea from the link above. Evolutionary trees are useful to show common ancestors of the species we have today, they are even helpful for looking at our evolutionary history.With the arrange button on inspiration, it is easy to make it look like an evolutionary tree branching from a single origin.If I had this technology, I would use it in my classroom. Again, use of this technology is only a substitution on the SAMR scale because it is only replacing pen and paper.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

"QUESTIONS WE WISH A TEACHER WOULD ASK:

Would you like extra credit?
Will you be able to do homework over the weekend?
How would you like to make up your homework/projects?
How are you feeling - do you want to do your work right now, or for homework?
Do you need a ride to and from school?
Do you have lunch money?
What could I be doing so you guys learn better?"

This jumped out at me because during my reading of this, besides the ride to school and the lunch money questions, are questions that I wish my teachers would have asked me. I never got asked any of those things when I was in school, and I wish that I would have because sometimes it was hard for me to reach out and ask the teachers for those things myself. Also, there were times when I felt very brain fried or my brain felt overloaded, or I physically or mentally didn't feel okay, so I would rather have put my work down and came back to it later when I was at home in my own space.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

"Ask students about their schedules.... Here is one such list from Porsche, an Oakland student:
6:30 AM Wake up
7:00 AM Wash up and get dressed
8:00 AM Walk my sisters(ages 6 and 7) to school
8:25 AM-3:25PM Go to school
3:25-3:30 PM Catch the bus to Practice
4:00 - 6:00 PM Badminton Practice
6:00 - 7:30 PM Go to Merritt College to run on the track for the school team
7:30 - 8:00 PM Catch the bus home
8:00 - 8:30 PM Do the chores, clean the kitchen, help my little brother and two sisters do their homework
8:30 - 9:30 PM Do my homework
9:30 - 10:45 PM Watch TV
10:45 - 11:59 PM Talk on the telephone
12:00 AM - 6:30 AM Take my medicine and go to sleep." - page 12

This part of the chapter jumped out at me because I have had a very busy schedule since I could remember. I have also had to take care of ill members of my family when I came home from school, and I had a lot of responsibilities besides schoolwork. I felt like my teachers didn't understand or didn't care that I was very busy, and they didn't understand that I had other classes besides theirs, so they gave me a lot of schoolwork. I still feel like that sometimes, even in college.

Chapter 6: Video

Audio

Before reading this chapter, I was confused about how to use audio in my classroom. I felt that everything that audio assessments and activities could accomplish could  be done using visuals and videos.  I learned that audio interviews are less intimidating for students because it is easier to forget about the tape recorder on the table than the video camera that is staring them in the face. I also learned that audio recording files are of a much smaller size than video files, and they are easier to send over the internet through things like email. They are also easier to edit, because you are just focusing on the sound and not also showing what is happening in the scene. I can  use this information in my classroom by keeping in mind audio when I am looking for activities, projects, and assessments.

The first link I explored in this chapter was a site called Audioboo. Every post on this site is a mini-podcast, and when you explore you will find some on almost every topic. I liked it was in the format of mini podcasts, so it would be easy for students to post a audio post containing a reflection on the content.  The second link from the chapter I found interesting was StoryCorps. I liked this site because they have a whole section for teachers, where people post their "stories" about students they had to work with or students that had challenges to overcome.  The third link I liked in the chapter was the the facebook page for this book, Playing with Media, Ideas for Powerful Sharing. I liked and thought it was really cool how the textbook that we were using in class had a facebook page, that thought had never occurred to me before.

Humor in the classroom

Without looking them up, how do you define the following?

Irony: The opposite of what you expect to happen

Sarcasm: Meaning the opposite of what you say

Facetiousness: Using sarcasm

Teasing: Poking fun at someone

Kidding: Saying something and saying that you didn't mean it

Wes Fryer on Copyright and Fair Use

I learned from this chapter that you have options other than fair use. I thought that your only option as an educator was to find something in the public domain or make sure that it is under fair use. I know now that you have four options, homegrown, public domain, creative commons, and fair use, Harry Potter can fly! If you create it, it is in the public domain (such as NASA images), if media is shared up-front under creative commons, or if something is used for educational purposes under fair use, then you are protected from violating copyright. This is important to my future classroom because I do not want me, my students, or the school I am representing to be sued.

I hope to handle the protection of intellectual property in my future classroom by requiring that students include a bibliography that is thorough and complete for the information that they researched, as well as having them in text citations for specific information they include in their papers that they found in their research. I will also protect anything they create that they upload to the internet by having them put "all rights reserved," or "usable with permission" on their original work. I know my students will put a lot of hard work into what they do, and they should be given credit for it if another person wishes to share it.

Copyright and Fair Use

I am in practicum and I am learning about copyright laws for teachers and fair use practices. To help me research  this, I read this document talking about fair use and quizzed myself: http://umfresources.wikispaces.com/file/view/copy_guide.pdf/254864262/copy_guide.pdf

Here are some of the answers I got wrong and my response to each of them:

A technology coordinator installs the one copy of Photoshop the school owns on a
central server so students are able to access it from their classroom workstations.
This is a violation of copyright law.
False. As long as one copy is not being used simultaneously, it's OK to distribute the
software via the server. However, when districts or schools fail to monitor and
enforce simultaneous use, they get in trouble. (On a network, it's easy to track if a
program is being used in more than one location.)
I said True because I thought it would be a violation if you only bought one copy, I didn't know that it would be okay via the server.

A geography teacher has more students and computers than software. He uses a CD
burner to make several copies of a copyright interactive CD-ROM so each student
can use an individual copy in class. This is fair use.
False. Just as with a print encyclopedia, one student at a time has access to a piece of
software. The number of students who can use a software program simultaneously is
restricted to the number of copies the school owns (but be sure to check out #2
above).
I said True because he paid for one copy. I don't understand why this instance is different from the last one about photoshop.

A technology coordinator downloads audio clips from MP3.com to integrate into a
curriculum project. This is fair use.
True. MP3.com pays for its archives, so the material there is legitimately acquired.

Be wary of some of the other peer-to-peer sites, however (see #8).
I said False because I wasn't sure if MP3 was a legitimate site or a piracy site.

A teacher videotapes a rerun of Frontier House, the PBS reality show that profiles
three modern families living as homesteaders from the 1880s did. In class, students
edit themselves "into" the frontier and make fun of the spoiled family from
California. This is fair use.
True. Video can be pulled into multimedia projects. I live in California, too, so I

share their pain.
I thought this was false because it was taping a PBS show and I thought they would be using it without permission, but I didn't know it was under fair use.

On Back-to-School night, an elementary school offers child care for students'
younger siblings. They put the kids in the library and show them Disney VHS tapes
bought by the PTA. This is permissible.
False. Video (like everything else) is not covered under fair use for entertainment or
reward. The use described is entertainment, pure and simple. However, Disney will
sell you a one-time license for $25 that makes this legal use. Call Disney at (818)

560-1000; ask for "Rights;" and prepare to trade faxes.
I thought it was true because they aren't making money off of it, and the copy was already owned by one of the parents, but I guess you still have to buy a license.

At a local electronics show, a teacher buys a machine that defeats the copy protection
on DVDs, CD-ROMs, and just about everything else. She lets her students use it so
they can incorporate clips from rented DVDs into their film genre projects. This is
fair use.
True. Manufacturing these machines is now prohibited (it previously wasn't). But
teachers have the right to use material that is technologically blocked. Personally, as
a teacher, I would absolutely use it to unlock content for students, but I would

absolutely not use it to make copies at home.
I thought it would be false because it is bypassing the copy protection, and it would be considered piracy, but I guess this question was referring to a machine that was made before this became law.

It is important for  me as a teacher to understand fair use policies in case I choose to use copyrighted material in my classroom. Without sticking to the fair use laws, I could be the school or I could be fined a lot of money, or I could even lose my job.

Web 2.0 Educator

I explored Richard Byrne's blog entitled Free Technology For Teachers because I was interested in seeing what his blog was about because he was from Maine. He has been running this blog since 2007, and he makes new posts multiple times a day. He has won many awards for his content and dedication, and has won the EduBlogs award for ""Best Resource Sharing Blog" for 4 years straight. Each of his postings has an available  and helpful resources for teachers to use, and he only presents the ones that are free and not behind a pay-wall. He also shows how to install/activate them for ones that might be complicated. I really liked his blog, and found a lot of resources for other content areas. I had to dig a little to find things I could use, but I found that this Interactive Map of the Rising Sea Levels to be very interesting and it was an effective visual, especially when the city locations was enabled. I was VERY EXCITED to see my favorite educational YouTube channel, Scishow, as a resource on the blog. Scishow has many subjects of science, at many different comprehension levels, and each one is engaging and super interesting. This video about why we have body hair, a video for health classes, is a good example of Scishow format.

SAMR

TPACK - Is the educational model of the combination between technological knowledge, content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. It is adding technology to teach your content, and understanding how to teach to the students you have. You can combine any of pairs, but when you hit the middle sweet spot are your students really going to benefit.

SAMR - Is a model of technology integration that has 4 levels of integration. The first level is substitution, where you substitute technology you already have for electronic technology, but it is not necessary and doesn't really make things easier. The second level is augmentation, where technology is added to common tasks to help make them easier and/or quicker. The third level is modification, in which there is significant change in the classroom or assignment because of the technology, and a large part of the project is the technology part. The last and highest level of the SAMR model is redefinition. This is when technology is used as a primary carrier for learning.

1. Using a Smart Board in a math classroom as a whiteboard to make graphs and solve geometry problems - Augmentation
The whiteboard is already there but it is easier to make graphs with the smartboard and to present it to everyone and students can come up to the board and interact with it.

2. Writing an essay with Microsoft word - Augmentation
You could write an essay with a paper and pencil but it would be much harder and take longer and their would be no spell check.

3.  Putting in text boxes in an image to fill in a form - Substitution
It would be much easier and less frustrating to print it off and fill it out by hand.

4. Using a graphing program to make a picture using algebra two equations - Redefinition
Desmos.com is a equation graphing program where you can make pictures out of the shapes you make, we did that in Algebra 2. This would not be possible (or as possible) without a

5. Using Garageband to make a jingle for a character in Great Gatsby - Modification
Making the song and adding the affects in garageband is a large part, but you still have to do research, analyze the chapters, and write the lyrics.

Puentedura, Ruben. "TPCK and SAMR: Models for Enhancing Technology Integration." Podcast. As We May Teach. Maine Department of Education, 22 Dec. 2008. Web. 17 Sept. 2013.

My MEL Experiences

• Hands On: In my high school chemistry class, our teacher has us use plastic models of molecules so we could fit them together and visualize how molecules go together in  a compound. It was easier to imagine it when working with our hands and physically putting them together than to try to visualize a foreign concept in our heads. -
• Helping Students Succeed: My high school Spanish teacher knew that her class was hard, and kept it hard so the students who didn't actually want to be there or learn would have to drop it. She very high expectations of what she wanted us to know, but once she was down to the students who wanted to be there, she really supported us and pushed us every time we struggled.
• Student/teacher Relationship: My high school honors geometry teacher was the funniest, kindest, and most amazing teacher that you would ever meet. For students who were done early or who learned best working with their hands, she gave them rubics cubes and other things like that to help them focus. She was always laughing, joking around, and made everyone feel comfortable and respected in her classroom.
• Learning Styles: In my high school American studies classes, we had four units and each until had a variety of projects the corresponded to the different learning styles. I never realized that until now. For example, he made us make a jingle describing the character traits of one of the characters in The Great Gatsby. He made us do movies to go along with The Scarlet Letter, and I did a sculpture project to show what I learned about the industrial revolution. These projects address different multiple intelligences.
• Autonomy: In my high school chorus classroom, instead of memorizing a piece and singing it for our final exam, we got to get into groups and choose a musical of our choice and memorize, act out, and sing at least 3 songs from that musical. Our group picked the musical Cinderella, and I got to be the fairy-godmother and sing bippidy boppidy boo. It was easier for us to choose what we wanted to sing instead of being forced to sing something in Italian that couldn't relate to our lives.

Playing with Comic Life!

I'm just going to leave this here.

Learning Style Inventory Results

Learning Styles Inventory - Results Page For User: Kelci O'Neill This page displays the results of your learning styles inventory. You can also select options below to compare your styles with anybody who has shared their results with you. Your results The scores are out of 20 for each style. A score of 20 indicates the style is used often. Style Scores Visual 16 Social 20 Physical 12 Aural 17 Verbal 15 Solitary 4 Logical 13 I agree with the results that I got. I am a very social and extroverted person, and so the 20/20 in that category did not surprise me. This survey did not have a naturalistic intelligence/learning style, so I am curious on if that would have been my second highest instead of aural. In Dr. Grace's class, I was naturalist as a secondary. I love to sing and I often have songs in my head, so I am excited to see that reflected in my results.. I knew that my visual would be high, in my spare time and when I can't sleep, I doodle and draw blueprints. I love word games, riddles, and puns. I like logic problems and puzzles. I like competitive sports and swimming, but not exercising just for stress relief.I don't like being by myself and I get lonely very easily. To work out problems, I have to talk it through with another person. I think that these results are very accurate to  me personally. This comes from: http://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory/results.php

Google Earth

What you learned about Google Earth and how you learned it:
On Google Earth I looked at my house in Freeport, and I looked at my residence hall in Farmington. I though it was really cool using streetview to navigate around campus. When I looked at the Effiel Tower in Paris France, I thought it was so cool that the Effiel Tower was 3D out of the map. I went down to streetview and explored around the base of the Effiel tower, I never knew that there was a ticket line to view it, and that there are vendors all around it. I saw that graduation was happening in the computer center parking lot, and it was also really blurry when I went pack in time to look at the education center, so I don't know what it used to be before the Ed. Center. I mostly learned all of these things by trying it out and playing around with the program.

How you might use Google Earth in your class:

I know I am not being creative, but I really liked the video's idea of using Google Earth to teach biomes of different ecosystems around the world. I could have them look at things like a desert, a tropical forest, a wetland, a savannah, a tundra, and a temperate forests, and compare and contrast the differences in their appearances and try to predict what kind of species live there.I could also have students use google earth to track migration habits of mammals like whales, reptiles like sea turtles,birds such as robins, and insects such as monarch butterflies.

Maine Memory Network

What you explored:

I explored by searching lots of terms. I first explored the site by typing my hometown  of Freeport, ME.  I found my high school, Freeport High School, circa 1925! I also found a map of the town of Freeport, circa 1740, and a photograph of Pettengill Farm, a famous farm in Freeport, from 1920. I never new that my town had a website for our historical society! There was also a whole online exhibit for L.L. Bean's corporate archives.  I also looked up some other things, like biology, science, and microscope, but I didn't get many results that I felt were relevant.
Freeport High School, circa 1925:

How could you use it in your class:

I believe that history does belong in science, but I was unable to find anything on the Maine Memory Network that I could add to my curriculum. Maybe I could talk about population decline in the early 1900's due to trappers and show pictures of them. I would really rather talk about historical figures in science, like Darwin, or  Greg Mendel, or Marie Curie. Maybe I could look up the town in which I end up teaching in and look up some local ecology or local species and find pictures of those.

Wes Fryer Chapter 1

In this chapter I mostly disagreed with the section about cell phones. I don't really agree with the part about how cell phone technologies can be used in the classroom. Most of the things they were talking about that they can be used for, what the ipads can accomplish. The difference of why I support iPads instead of cell phones is that iPads can not make calls. I also disagree that not everyone has a smartphone, so that you cannot count on that as a technology that everyone will have. Phones also cause distractions, like Facebook or texting other students. The last thing I disagree with is that cell phones are cheaper. To require that all the students have cell phones for class is unreasonable of the parents. That is why I believe in the MLTI program we have in Maine. It gives every student access to technology so they can develop their skills and have access to research and resources at their fingertips, without any cost to the student.

iPad Personalization

I tried a lot of things using the new iPad I was provided. I personalized it, downloaded my favorite apps, logged into my social networks, set up my email, set a passcode, and set a desktop picture. I even named my device “Jensen,” after my favorite actor, Jensen Ackles. I spent a couple hours playing around with it. I was using it for so long that when I got a text on my iPhone 4, I pulled it out and was shocked by how small my 3” screen looked after spending an extended amount of time looking at my huge iPad! I kind of want to buy one after interacting with it, but it if very heavy and bulky, so I might prefer an iPad Mini instead of the regular one. One useful trick I found was to exit to the home screen by putting all 5 fingers on the screen, and then pulling them towards the center into a point. With the right apps, I am sure that the iPad would be a useful resource in the classroom, but for now I don’t understand how it is/should be integrated in the classroom. Personally, I find it very easy to get off task and distracted, and I am worried that that would be an issue with the students as well. I am excited to find apps and programs in my content area that could be a valuable resource for me in my future classroom.

By the way, this is my iPad background: 

Jensen Ackles!!!!

Apps for a Personal Passion

Kelci O’Neill

9/8/13

Practicum

Apps for a Personal Passion

For this practicum assignment, we were to pick 5 apps to try out from the app store that aligned with a topic of interest of ours. My favorite animals are turtles, and I have loved them and had an obsession for them ever since I was a little girl. Because of this, found 5 apps about turtles and tested them out.  The apps I found were:  Turtle Run, TortForum, The Really Groovy  Story of the Tortoise & Hare, Turtle Isle HD, and Tap Turtle. I tried to get a variety of different types of apps, but because most of them were not free, 3 out of the 5 apps I found were games. I am going to rank the apps from best to worst. The rating they receive is will be based on graphics, the music/sound effects, how intuitive it is to use, how popular it is, and how useful it is.

Best: Turtle Run

I rated this app this way for several reasons. It would have been rated higher, however the graphics on the iPad were not very sharp and sort of fuzzy.  The music was very fun, and fit the game nicely.  It was very easy and intuitive to use, all I had to do was tilt the iPad from side to side as the screen automatically scrolled forward. This app is very already very popular, and it is the most popular on this list, at 2,480 ratings on the iTunes app store. This app is recreational, and serves no useful purpose other than entertainment. This app was the only app on the list to get downloaded to my personal iPhone and saved to play later. It is very fun!  4.5 «’s out of 5

Second-to best: TortForum

This app is a useful forum app on pet turtles and their care. The forum has lots of members, and it is organized well. It is also rated well because it has species specific topics on the forum, and they are also categorized by continents, so it is easier to find the species you are looking for.  The graphics are minimal, but the ones I see are done well. The app has no music or sound effects. It is not exactly intuitive, and I struggled at first when looking through, but I eventually figured it out.  The app only has 20 ratings on the iTunes app store, but it averages 5 star ratings. This app is very useful, so that bumped up my rating a little. 4«’s out of 5

Average: Turtle Isle HD

This app is a game where turtles enter the gameplay screen and you have to turn the starfish to change the directions of the turtles and if two of them walk into each other facing each other they disappear and an egg appears in their place which you have to collect. There were no instructions for this game and it is unclear when you will get an egg when they run into each other and when you will get them just colliding into each other and bumping shells. The graphics are not bad and the music is not bad, however it is not easy or intuitive to play. It has 200 ratings on the iTunes app store, but it is rated much higher on there, at 4.5 stars. This is a technically a recreational app, but I would not classify it as that.  2.5 «’s out of 5

Second-to worst: The Really Groovy Story of the Tortoise & Hare

This app is the book The Tortoise and the Hare, in app form. It can be read by you or be read aloud through the app as an audiobook. It also has some animations to go with the illustrations that are mildly amusing. The story is not very well written, and it is not as enjoyable as the classic tale should be. The graphics are okay, the sound effects are annoying, and the words scroll out of frame quicker than you can even read them, and it is not easy or intuitive on how to get them back. It has no ratings on the app store, and it should only have bad ones. This app is not at all useful, and also not at all groovy.  2 «’s out 5

Worst: Tap Turtle

This app is complete garbage. There are two turtles on the screen, and you have to tap them so that the ripples hit the frog at the same time and knock him off the lily pad. This would be fine, IF THE INSTRUCTIONS HADN'T SAID TO TAP THE TWO TURTLES AT THE SAME TIME, WHICH ACTUALLY DOES NOTHING. The graphics are terrible, the music and sound makes no sense in the context of the game, and the instructions are extremely misleading, as I have stated.  It has 26 ratings on the iTunes app store, however in my opinion, it has no business even being in the app store with all the bugs it has. This app is not even useful as a recreational game, so I will not call it that.  1 « out of 5 

Welcome!

This is my blog for my Fall 2013 Practicum Class! I will be sharing my practicum experience and my journey as a pre-service teacher!

Check back often!