Hello all!
This is just a quick blog about technology on my vacation. I brought my laptop with me so I could immediately download photos from my cameras (yes, that is plural) and have instant backups. I purchased some Internet time (very expensive) and viola! Instant access to home. So far, I have been on in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Venice, and the middle of the ocean. Technology can be wonderful!
On the other hand, a beautiful gondola ride was almost spoiled by a cell phone. Venice is beautiful and I could hardly wait to tour...but our gondolier almost spoiled it with a dreaded cell phone! There is a time and a place for everything...checking voicemail in Naples on the ships balcony, OK. Talking on a cell phone during a gondola ride, not OK. I was ready to use my teacher voice when he put it away.
So here is my final thoughts folks....technology can be a good thing, but only in the correct time and place.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Username and Password
Here are just a few things to think about when creating a username and password:
Use numbers and letters when creating both a username and password.
Do not pick something that others would find easy to guess. (In my case, purple is definitely out :))
Stick with the same two or three passwords for everything. That way, it will be much easier to remember.
As far as students are concerned, we have tried very hard to keep things standardized. Unfortunately, the company sometimes generates the password which keeps the control out of our hands.
Use numbers and letters when creating both a username and password.
Do not pick something that others would find easy to guess. (In my case, purple is definitely out :))
Stick with the same two or three passwords for everything. That way, it will be much easier to remember.
As far as students are concerned, we have tried very hard to keep things standardized. Unfortunately, the company sometimes generates the password which keeps the control out of our hands.
Friday, August 14, 2009
WebQuest Class
This week was the week of my WebQuest class. For a peak at the class website, click here and then click on Class under the WebQuest heading. Clicking on Students takes you to the page where the Quests I use with students are stored.
Everytime I teach this class, I try to write a Quest along with the teachers. This class's topic was "The Underground Railroad". I also thought I would try something different and write it using a wiki. (Very Web 2.0 of me)
It was going along great, until there was a glitch and I lost all of my work on the wiki :(
Fortunately, I had most of it saved in a Word document so I could copy and past it back in. This led me to the conclusion that if I was going to use a wiki, copy and paste the information. This way, if the computer gets cranky you won't want to throw it out the window because you lost all of your work!
Another new thing for me this class was finding videos on YouTube. I was very surprised at how many there were that dealt with WebQuests! For really good tutorial videos, go to www.webquest.org and find the videos that are linked to on there.
Everytime I teach this class, I try to write a Quest along with the teachers. This class's topic was "The Underground Railroad". I also thought I would try something different and write it using a wiki. (Very Web 2.0 of me)
It was going along great, until there was a glitch and I lost all of my work on the wiki :(
Fortunately, I had most of it saved in a Word document so I could copy and past it back in. This led me to the conclusion that if I was going to use a wiki, copy and paste the information. This way, if the computer gets cranky you won't want to throw it out the window because you lost all of your work!
Another new thing for me this class was finding videos on YouTube. I was very surprised at how many there were that dealt with WebQuests! For really good tutorial videos, go to www.webquest.org and find the videos that are linked to on there.
Monday, July 13, 2009
"In the Good ole Summertime..."
"In the Good ole Summertime..."
Summertime is the time for catching up on all of the Office Work that goes by the wayside during the school year. It is also our busiest time for trainings.
Last week I sat in on a Dreamweaver class so that I could improve my website. Ya know, my brain just does not work in code, so that has been a struggle for me. I think I am understanding it now, but I would much rather work in design mode. The main part of my site will stay the same, but the WebQuest class site is much different! (Hence the flying spiders)
Friday, May 29, 2009
Do you know dinosaurs?
This week has been very busy! I am trying to fit all of the end of the year projects in for teachers.
In first grade, we have been doing activities with dinosaurs to show adaptations. We created a flipchart with all sort of dino facts as well as video clips and links to websites. Each student researched a dinosaur and then wrote a paragraph. Today we used the ActivVotes to take a quiz. At first, I don't think they quite understood to press the letter A if that was the correct answer, but after a bit of practice they figured it out!
In fourth grade, we are working on a PowerPoint about the Erie Canal. (As a little sidebar, what is it about students and Google? The links to appropriate websites were right there in front of them and what do they ask?? Can we use Google? Huh?????? ) They are having a great time creating their slides and helping each other out.
Thank you's go out to Mrs. Schrage and Mrs. Schiefen's class for all of their hard work this week!
In first grade, we have been doing activities with dinosaurs to show adaptations. We created a flipchart with all sort of dino facts as well as video clips and links to websites. Each student researched a dinosaur and then wrote a paragraph. Today we used the ActivVotes to take a quiz. At first, I don't think they quite understood to press the letter A if that was the correct answer, but after a bit of practice they figured it out!
In fourth grade, we are working on a PowerPoint about the Erie Canal. (As a little sidebar, what is it about students and Google? The links to appropriate websites were right there in front of them and what do they ask?? Can we use Google? Huh?????? ) They are having a great time creating their slides and helping each other out.
Thank you's go out to Mrs. Schrage and Mrs. Schiefen's class for all of their hard work this week!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
...I am a frog, not a toad!
As you can see by the title of this entry, frogs and toads are the most recent topics of study. I have been working in a first grade classroom helping students learn the difference between toads and frogs, as well as the life cycle of these amphibians.
I created a flipchart using ActivSoftware that the students could go through and listen to different pieces of information that I had recorded. Of course, the first question was "Is that you?". Since this room did not have a board yet, I used a projector to show the flipchart, completely forgetting about the sound files and adding speakers to a laptop") (Have I ever mentioned that I am cord challenged and am always getting them confused) I didn't remember until we reached that part of the lesson which was not a good time to try and figure it out!
Luckily, I had today to figure it out and it went very smoothly. I made a container activity where the students had to drag the correct picture to the corresponding part of the life cycle. They did great! Tomorrow, we are borrowing another teacher's board to do the end of unit quiz. The students are very excited about using the "eggs" for the first time.
I created a flipchart using ActivSoftware that the students could go through and listen to different pieces of information that I had recorded. Of course, the first question was "Is that you?". Since this room did not have a board yet, I used a projector to show the flipchart, completely forgetting about the sound files and adding speakers to a laptop") (Have I ever mentioned that I am cord challenged and am always getting them confused) I didn't remember until we reached that part of the lesson which was not a good time to try and figure it out!
Luckily, I had today to figure it out and it went very smoothly. I made a container activity where the students had to drag the correct picture to the corresponding part of the life cycle. They did great! Tomorrow, we are borrowing another teacher's board to do the end of unit quiz. The students are very excited about using the "eggs" for the first time.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Projector Bulbs
Just a quick reminder for all of you who have projectors in your room: if you need to leave the room for 15 minutes or less, put the projector on No Show. Otherwise, turn your projector OFF. This will save bulb life. Those darn things are expensive!
Monday, May 11, 2009
".... 15 miles on the Erie Canal."
The song, Erie Canal, is now running through my brain. Two classes of 4th graders used that song as part of a Windows Movie Maker project. This was my first time using this program with students, so I was a little nervous.
To help the students with the project, I created a folder with pictures and the sound file. Instead of spending their time searching for pictures (something that was not a requirement for the project), they could use the ones I had already found. I also place links to websites where they could find information about the building of the canal. The students then chose six events and six pictures to go with those events and saved them to their folder. Once the prep work had been completed, they were ready to try Movie Maker.
We took them through step by step, first importing pictures, dragging the pictures to the storyboard, creating titles, and then importing the sound and dragging it down. If you go to this page http://www.gstboces.org/iss/hancock/home/ and click on Erie Canal, you can see the final products. Some of the timings are a little off, but overall they did a great job! Thank you Mrs. Setzer for being my guinea pig!
The song, Erie Canal, is now running through my brain. Two classes of 4th graders used that song as part of a Windows Movie Maker project. This was my first time using this program with students, so I was a little nervous.
To help the students with the project, I created a folder with pictures and the sound file. Instead of spending their time searching for pictures (something that was not a requirement for the project), they could use the ones I had already found. I also place links to websites where they could find information about the building of the canal. The students then chose six events and six pictures to go with those events and saved them to their folder. Once the prep work had been completed, they were ready to try Movie Maker.
We took them through step by step, first importing pictures, dragging the pictures to the storyboard, creating titles, and then importing the sound and dragging it down. If you go to this page http://www.gstboces.org/iss/hancock/home/ and click on Erie Canal, you can see the final products. Some of the timings are a little off, but overall they did a great job! Thank you Mrs. Setzer for being my guinea pig!
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