Tools of Choice

Wow I can't believe this is our last blog. This semester has just flown by.

What?

This week was a little bit of a mess. All last weekend I kept wishing that we had had class that week so that we would have had more time to work on our final. Then we came to class this week and the computers were all down. So we talked about what a news letter, brochure and flyer were. I wasn't sure how to start any of these but when Doc. Waters asked how we could go about doing these and Jeremy said to find templates on line my fear went away and I got excited.

So What?

I new I wanted to do a flyer and a brochure but I was afraid to do the brochure. I thought it looked way to complicated but it ended up being the easiest. The first thing I did was google free brochure templates. A lot of different sites came up so I went to a few of them and played around with them but then I realized I didn't know what I wanted this brochure to be about. I thought about all the different activities my son did this year and what I wish, as a parent, I had had more info on. That's when I decided on the wax museum. My son never brought home any information on this and then one night he said " Oh mom, I need a costume tomorrow for Freddy Fender for my museum. Oh and I need to make this poster." Did I forget to mention this was at around nine o'clock at night. If he did bring home something telling me about this it must have been very plain and shuffled into the never ending pile of papers that the kids bring home. Once I decided on the theme everything else fell into place. I decided to use a template I found at office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx - I decided on this one because it was the most user friendly that I played around with and it had a template that I really liked. It is called " Old Book". I thought this was fitting since the wax museum is a history project. I didn't run into a single snag.

When it came time to do my flyer I had a little trouble. I didn't like any of the templates on the last site I used so I gave google docs a try. I found one I really liked and made my flyer. I was pleased with the way it turned out but when I saved it as a PDF it changed all the alignments. I tried everything I could think of but couldn't get it to work. I deleted the whole thing and started over. What I realized was that the template was one big box. I deleted that box then using the box with a capital T in it I was able to create many smaller boxes that I could put my text and pictures in. This time it worked. I was really exited. Then I put everything into my uen page. After that I practised getting to it from my URL instead of through UEN. I really enjoyed this assignment.

Now What?

As a teacher I know I will use these tools all the time. I will have a weekly news letter, flyers about filled trips, human development class and any other activities, and I will use the brochure I made for the wax museum. I can also use these tools for family reunions, PTA, scouts, activities and neighborhood things. The great thing is, you don't have to print them up, you can publish them and invite people to see them or you could e-mail them to everyone.

Video:

I wasn't sure if we were suppose to do the video for tools of choice, final exam intro or final exam so I will talk about them all. The video for final exam review was a day in the life of special ed. My first year as a substitute teacher I mostly did special ed. I loved it but it is not with out it's challenges. I have been slapped, spit on, scratched, head butted and bit. But the rewards for out way the challenges. At one school they were getting ready for their Christmas program. A young boy with down syndrome loved to sing. It was so fun to see his smiley face as he sang for us. another school a boy that is in a wheel chair, can't talk, has very little muscle tone and a lot of other problems would remember me and was happy to see me. Some times he would get mad at me because he loved to "dance" but I would make him use his bad hand. It would tire him out but it helped make him stronger. I had a few people try to talk me out of going back to school becoming a special ed tech. Even though I love my time with the students it was hard on me because I have a son with Aspergers. It's hard to work with special ed all day then come home and do it some more. The men and women that work in special ed. are the most amazing people I have ever met and they deserve a big round of applause.

Who doesn't like school house rock. I grew up with it. Every Saturday morning different ones were on through out the cartoons. I learn better with music and these songs really helped me. My favorites were the Preamble, Bill, and Conjunction junction. It's fun to see these on YouTube so I can share them with my kids.

Video

Wow, what a week. I am doing this blog from 36000 feet. I left freezing Utah early Thursday morning and flew to beautiful, sunny, historical Savanna Georgia. The first time my brothers and I have all been together in 11years. But know back to reality.

What: Last week we learned how to copy the URL of a YouTube or Teacher Tube video.

Now What: This weeks assignment I think was the easiest of them yet. I first went to teacher tube and found an educational presentation that really got me thinking. After that I went to You tube and found the cartoon from a song my fifth grader is always singing at home. Ones I found my videos I copied the URL and put into zamzar. After zamzar e-mailed me I down loaded my videos. That’s when I ran into problems. After I down loaded them I couldn't find them. weren't in down loads or in the first few folders that I looked in I finally had to go to start and go through all my my documents. When I finally found them then I was able to save them to a specific folder.

Now What: One of the things I learned while at my brothers wedding in Savanna is that when you down load something strait from YouTube it may not work in that format but if you use zamzar you can put it in the format that you need.

We don't know what kind of technology the schools and classrooms that we will be teaching in will have. We may find a very informative or fun video we want to share with our class. By using zamzar we can format it how ever we need to to make it work for our circumstances.

Video:

One of the interesting things about this video is I tried to watch it on YouTube and it wouldn't work, it kept buffering. So I ran it through zamzar and it worked just fine. This video was done about two years ago. Many of the things that the students mentioned for the technology of the future has recently happened. I can take my lap top and use the Internet any wear on campus. Then I can take it home and use the Internet there. If the kids get to loud I can always take my computer to the coffee shop in my town and use the wi-fi there. I can also use it on an airplane if I want to pay four dollars. My husband just got an iPod touch and can do just about anything with it. And just a few weeks ago they came out with the iPad. Soon we won't need to pay for text books and brake our backs caring them around campus. Soon all we will need is one devise and we will have everything we need; textbooks, books for leisure, computer with all the bells and whistles, credit card and things that we don't even know we need yet and can't live without. The students today will be the ones to create and invent all these amazing things.

I'm sorry if this is rambling and I'm sorry that it's not as long as usual but I am now home and the jet lag is setting in.

Podcast/Vidcast

What:

This week we learned about Podcast and Vidcast. Basically any devise that can record sound can make a Podcast and anything that can video tape can make a Vidcast. I didn't know that but I will go into that later.

Now What:

I always thought you had to have an iPod to make a podcast. I never knew that every time I record my astronomy teachers test reviews with my cell phone that I was making a podcast. The same with vidcast. Every time I use my cellphone or flip video camera and then up load the video for my family to see on line I am creating a vidcast. That's so cool. I'm ahead of the game and didn't even know it. I also didn't know how many different devise there are that can do both pod and vidcast. I already mentioned my cell phone and flip recorder but also my home computer if I have a camera on it, my lap top,my sons Zen and my husbands iPod touch ( if we were to buy the microphones) just to name a few. When I first saw what our assignment was going to be I didn't know if I would be able to do it because I don't have an iPod. But in technological world I think you would be hard pressed to find someone that doesn't have some kind of devise that would work.

So What:

I've been thinking about how I could use this new found knowledge in the classroom and more in my life. I served a mission for my church in France. My kids have always wanted to take French in school but were we live it isn't offered. The principal of our Jr. High even told me that he didn't think languages other than Spanish were important to learn. My nine year old daughter has my old french books and loves to look at them. Sometimes she will ask me how to say certain things. I could make a podcast of me saying some simple words for her to hear and practice and she could share it with her friend. When I am a teacher I could do the same thing with my ESL students to help them with English and if they have a computer at home they could share it with their other family members.

The vidcast could be a lot of fun. When I was a kid I hated missing school, especially when I knew we were going to do something interesting like a science experiment. As a teacher, when the class does an activity like a science experiment, I can tape it then upload it on my class web site so that students that are absent can still see it and know what everyone else is talking about the next day or for the students that were there, they could see it again and again and show their parents. I could also tape me showing how to do a new math concept. That way if a student is at home doing their homework and they can't remember, they could go back and watch it again. With so many working parents that can't come to assemblies and performances, I could tape those special moments and put them on the computer for the parents to see and share that moment with their child. Those are just a few ideas I came up with. I know I will think of more as I get into the field.

Video:

I found the video interesting. I have never really understood blogging. It's one thing my kids don't do. In some ways it's like a journal but anyone can read it. I do however see how it can be useful. As I have been blogging for this class I've noticed my spelling and punctuation improving some. I can see how students would like to share their ideas, thoughts, and culture with people from all over the world. I loved the movie Julie & Julia. As Julie blogged about going through Julia's cook book it was an escape for her. It helped her find her self. Children need more opportunities to express themselves and find themselves. I liked how the video showed the word empowerment. The child can feel in controle. Through blogging a student can improve their reading skills. If they are following a blog of a peer that they are really in joying then they will be more likely to ready it on a regular bases and any time we can get our kids reading is a good thing. Also they will want to respond to the blog and blog on their own. This will improve their typing skills, communication skills and writing skills. I know it has for me.

We need to try and utilize all the wonderful tools out their that we can so that our students can experience all the wonderful things this world has in it.

Power Point

What:

This week in class we learned how to save a screen shot. After that we got a new assignment. Instead of creating a power point, we are creating an assignment that our students would do using power point. The best lesson plans will be published in Doc. Waters book. I think my team has a really good idea. I hope we win.

Now What:

For this weeks assignment we are creating an assignment that are students would do using power point. My group, 5Th Element, had a great idea. We are going to create a couple of sample slides to help the students get started. It would be a slide of the solar system. Then the student that was assigned the topic of Saturn could click in my Saturn and it would show them links, that I have already approved, that they can find info and pictures for their slides. Then they would create a power point report on their topic. The first slide will be a wordle of their topic. The second slide might be a picture of Saturn, then when you click on it, it would pull up the info that the student has put in about that picture. Or if they were doing a report on Mars they could have a slide of mars. When they click on the dark spot the info about the spot would appear, then when they click on a stripe it would tell about the stripes.

I really like to use power point. One of the teachers that I sub for uses it all the time. One of the things that she does with her fifth grade class is a jeopardy game on electrical circuits.

So What:

There are so many different ideas on the Internet on ways to use power point and other technology in the classroom that I don't think I will have any problem finding a lot of different ways to use it in my classroom. My oldest son said that his favorite teacher did all of his lecturing using power point then he posted his slides on his web page. This really helped my son. He has communications disorder and it's really hard for him to take notes in class. He says he never knows what to write down and he can't write fast enough to get it all down any way. With this class he could always just go to the class web site and copy the teachers notes. This gave my son a lot more confidence in this class. I want to be that kind of teacher and take into account my students different learning styles.

Video:

I wasn't sure if we were suppose to do the video under power point or power point activities. So I watched them both and then realized that we already blogged about the one under power point activities are very first week. So "Do you believe in me" is on there twice.

This weeks video is called "I am what I learn." I loved the way the girl was able to take one topic, chickens, and connect it to so many other things that she has learned at school. Her math, social studies, language arts, science and even wood shop has helped her to develop a love and knowledge of chickens and has but her on the path to many job possibilities.

I have noticed as I have done some field work for my EDEL 1010 class that most of the teachers do a lot of connecting from one subject to the next but it's so suttle I don't think the students are realizing that's what is happening. When I teach I hope that I can find many opportunities to make connections in my lesson plans and point them out to the students. I hope I can get them to think outside the box and discover things about them selves and the world around them that they didn't already know. And most importantly I hope that I can instill in my students a life long love of learning and discovery.

Kidsperation

What:

This week we learned about kidsperation. Kidsperation is a software program that is a lot of fun for creating a number of educational things.

So What?:

We actually didn't have an assignment this week. We played around with with kidsperation in the class. It was a lot of fun. This is a program that I am seriously considering buying. In class I only checked out the picture view part of the program. I did a couple of different lessons with it. I did one on substance abuse. I put substance abuse in the middle then had a web that went out to the different substance. I gave up on that one when I couldn't find any pictures to go with it. I have since learned that you can copy pictures from the web on to your document. After that I did a lesson on healthy eating. I put" making good choice" in the middle then had a web that went out with to different pictures and their names to choose from an orange or ice cream, soda pop or water. I really liked Jeremy's idea of making a " family tree" for the Greek Gods.

I went to the kidsperation web site and watched the introductory video. I can't believe how much more there is to learn about this product. I think I will down load the free 30 day trial so I can play around with it some more and let my kids use it.

Now What?:

There are so many different ways to use kidsperation in the classroom. I Googled " Lesson plans using kidsperation and found tons of ideas and came up with a few of my own. First I was thinking that using picture view I could have the students make a replica of our solar system, labeling each of the planets and their moons. Then they could go into the writing part of the program and add more detail about the different planets. This could be a science lesson that then connects to writers workshop. I love the idea of using the math section. I have never been very strong with math but seeing it done with the blocks could help me see it visually. Back in picture view you could have a lesson were your put in a question like " Ways to make 100". Then have four different bubbles, one for adding, one for subtraction, one for multiplication and one for division ( each with an example). Then they would need to come up with their own math problems. This could also be done with roots, fractions ( with a picture of a pizza) or any other math concepts. Another fun one would be the life cycle of a plant, the water cycle, weather cycle or animal feeding cycle. There are so many ideas to explore.

Video:

We didn't have a video for this week since some of us blogged about the kidsperation video last week, but I really like to do the video section. So I went to teacher tube and looked up the most viewed videos and found one I really liked. It is called "Pay Attention". It went through Gardner's nine ways of learning and asked what ways do your students learn, then suggested that they learn in all the ways but we need to add a new way of learning, digital. The video gave a lot of statistics on how much time our students spend on computer and so why don't we use theses options to teach our students. It's true but I disagreed with a lot of what the video said. It suggested that we need to use google and a whole bunch of other sites and apps. Yes we need to use technology but we also need to be safe. Teachers don't have time to screen every signal site out there so I think I will stick to UEN. The site also said we should use cell phones and ipods in the classroom. It gave a suggestion to tell the students they had ten minutes to receive a text from some one that wasn't in the the school. That person had to answer the questions what did they eat for breakfast that morning, were where they, what was the weather like were they are and what was the last thing they purchased. The student would then get extra points if the text was from some one in another country. How would a teacher monitor this? Would that teacher then read every text at that time and what about the students that don't have cell phones, would they just get a zero for the day or would the teacher give them a different activate. And what about parent rules of not talking, texting, chatting with people they don't know? This just seems like a risky activity to me.

I do plan on using technology in my classroom but I will be smart about it. Yes students are very good at it and it is a wonderful way to learn, but what about the art of handwriting and sending a good old fashioned, hand written letter to grandma. And what about the feel of a new, crisp book in your hands, one that has never been opened and you get to be the one to feel the crack of the spine. Or even better yet the soft, possibly yellowing pages of a beloved book that has been read by many. I love technology but I also love some of " the old ways". We need to incorporate as many ways of learning as we can to keep all of our students engaged.

Web 2.0

What:

We were suppose to learn about kidsperation this week but our teacher was down with strep. There's a lot of that going around right now. So instead, Doc Waters, gave us the assignment of researching web 2.0. There is so much information about this that I finally narrowed my search to web 2.0 for teachers.

So What?:

There was a really fun application called Storyjumper. Storyjumper helps one wright their own children's book. It does cost many to actually make the hard copy of the book but I think its free to just do one on line. The web 2.0 has a ton of ways to network with people that have the same interests as you. I could find someone in another part of the country or world that is also studying to become a teacher and we could share our schooling experiences and how things are done in our different areas and also bounce ideas off of each other. A great way to do this would be by using google buz. Google buz is similar to Facebook but it isn't as popular yet. From what I can tell though, Google buz is easier to use especially when it comes to sharing photos. Also it is connected to Picasa and many other sites.

I liked what I saw for Fotobabble. I can take a picture of my kids then have them each add a vocal tag for grandma. What a great way to share photos of events in your life with family that couldn't be there. I hate scrap booking but I think I might like it doing it electronically.

Now What?:

It will take some time playing around with all the different things that web 2.0 has to offer but it will be worth it. It will make collaboration with other teachers all over the globe more easy and fun. We can share lesson plans that we can then tweak to our own state curriculum and classroom needs, we can share ideas and experiences of things that worked and things that didn't and get more ideas. It will be fun to see were the future of technology takes us.

Video:

The Connected Classroom was awsome and scary. What really hit me was China and India have more honor students than we have students. I do feel that our children are being left behind. With all the budget cuts how can we get the technology into the classrooms. At my sons high school at the beginning of the year we had to pay a book fee. It was around $100, but there aren't enough books for each of the students. My son never has home work because of the book shortage so everything has to be done at school. The teachers don't even photo copy pages for them to do because of the cost of paper and ink. How are these high school students going to be prepared for college and the amount of homework that goes along with it if they've never had to do it before? They will have no idea how to budget their time. But with technology what it is today you would think the teachers could still assign homework. They could have them do some research on a particular web site, they could scan a worksheet onto their web page for the student to do on line then submit it the same way. When I was introduced to UEN I was surprised to see how many of my children's teachers were not on there. It's disheartening. We can not let our children be left behind the rest of the world.

The one thing I really want to learn how to do is learn how to write a grant proposal for things I might need in my classroom. I've been shadowing a teacher this week at Riverview Elementary. She has six computers in her classroom. The fifth grade teacher down the hall also has several computers in her room. I just assumed that this was a school in a neighborhood that has more money than the school my kids go to but it turns out they don't. The teachers have written grant proposals or got the computers donated. Also many of the teachers have used their own personal money to buy a Document camera so they don't have to make over heads and try to schedule the over head projector for their class time. The document camera is awesome. It is one of the first things I will buy for my classroom. I can't wait to introduce my students to the wonderful world before them.

Picassa

What:

This week in my computer class we tried to learn about a program called picassa. For some strange reason the program didn't want to work for many people in my class. Lucky for my group, The 5th element, it did work on Bries computer. We had a lot of fun in class working on our group project together. I think we created a really fun lesson plan.

So What:

After class I went home and played around with picassa to see if I could get it to work. It didn't. I could only get it to down load two out of twenty six of my images. I had several other people help me with it and we could not figure it out. I was able to edit my images on photo bucket and had some fun with that. I went back to picassa and tried using it on some of my pictures that were not for my computer class. My oldest son loves to do sketch work with a number two pencil. He down loaded photos of several of his pictures on my computer that made their way into picassa. We had so much fun editing them. We changed the colors, intensity,and back grounds.

I wish I had known about this before I did my oral presentation in my Astronomy class but in two weeks I will be teaching a sixth grade class a short health lesson on the affects of tobacco use. I wanted to make a short power point. Now I know how to make it more interesting.

Now What:

I think I will use the picassa program more as I get more familiar with it. There are also lots of other programs out there that do similar things, like photo bucket. I think it's a good idea to check them all out and see which one best suits your needs at the time. This could be a really good program for making a power point slide show that would play in the background as the fifth grade students do their patriotic program. You could also take pictures of all the fifth graders dressed up in their costumes for the wax museum and burn it on a CD with music to give to parents and students as a memento. It would be fun to let the sixth grade students take several pictures of their science project and edit them into a cool slides show that could be running at their booth. I would love to take pictures of things going on in our neighborhood like the kids playing basket ball or street hockey or the women out doing their yard work and then put the pictures together and have it playing at a neighborhood party. There are so many things to do that I don't think I have even scratched the suffice. I love playing around with my computer and discovering new things that I can do.

Video:

I thought the video this week was really funny mostly because I think at one time or another we have all seen everyone of those tips of power points that were mentioned. I am completely guilty of spelling mistakes. I am dyslexic and for some reason it is harder for me to catch my mistakes on the computer, than on paper. I always need to remember to after I do spell check to print it and check again.

I have always hated listen and seeing someones oral report in a class when all they do is read what's on their slide. When I do a PowerPoint I like to put just one or two bullet points that are only a few words long. This works as note cards for me that help me remember what I want to talk more in depth about.

When it comes to color coordinating on slides, the only thing I can think is that some people are color blind. We ran into this problem while we were making our PowerPoint. We had a slide that was green and we tried to make the words gold. It was so ugly we all said no way at the same time.

I think, just like anything else in life, there is a learning curve for creating beautiful slide presentations. The more you do it the better you will get at it.

Digital Cameras

What:

This weeks class was short, sweet, and to the point. We had a brief lesson on what kind of digital cameras there are and how to pick out a good one. I was surprised at how many people didn't have a camera with them. I had my camera on my phone. It takes much better pictures than my regular digital camera. After that, Doc Waters told us that we would be working with our groups again choosing a core curriculum and taking pictures to help teach that concept.

So What:

My group, Fifth Element, decided that we would do our project on visual arts, Standard 2

(Perceiving): The student will analyze, reflect on, and apply the structures of art., Objective 1
Analyze and reflect on works of art by their elements and principles., Identify the natural aspects of distorted forms in art; e.g., a deflated tire still has the texture and color of a tire, a reflection of a tree in water still has the color and general shape of a tree. We had a lot of fun going all over campus taking pictures of different structures at different angles and seeing how different they look from those different angles. For example, I spent an entire semester in the Computer Science building and never really noticed the floor. If you just look at one or two tiles close up they just look like weird tiles but if you go to the top floor and look at the entire floor it makes the design of a computer mother board. It is really cool looking. We also decided that we would take photos on our own this weekend, if we found something interesting.

Brie offered to create a Photo Bucket account that we will use just for this class so we can share our photos. I had never heard of Photo Bucket before but I really like the idea. I think I will open an account to share pictures with family.

I can't wait to see what we will learn to do with our pictures this coming week. I know my husband likes to get on the computer and take family pictures and change them by putting horns on peoples heads or drawing a smiley face on the dog. He and the kids know how to do this but I don't. I just hope he was doing that on the originals and not on the digi-negs.

Now What:

Reading the three articles was really good for getting some ideas on how to use digital cameras in the classroom. Some of the ideas I had already thought of but there were many more that I had not thought of that I really liked. I have been a substitute teacher for two years now and without fail, every year you get a class with a couple of students that think they are smarter than the sub. and change seats. I love the idea of having the students pictures as part of their name tag on their desk. This not only helps a sub know who everyone is and stops students from changing seats but it helps the regular teacher learn the students names faster at the beginning of the year.

When I become a teacher one of the things I would like to do is create ether a memorie CD for each of my students or a memory book. I can assign a student each day or week, as one of the classroom jobs to be in charge of the camera and take pictures throughout the day, including recess. There are a lot of wonderful things that can happen in a day that the teacher never sees. Also I would like to create a Photo Bucket account that is just used for my class so that when parents come to help with class parties, activities and field trips they can add their photos to be used for the memories CD. I know when I go on my children's field trips I always get some great photos, especially on the bus ride, that I would love to share with the teachers. I would also like to get the students involved in creating this end of the year project.

The things that can be done with the digital camera in your classroom are only limited to your own imagination and then there is always other teachers to get new ideas from.

Video:

The first video : Ten Things They Don't Tell You in College About Teaching" just cracked me up because every thing in there was so true. As a sub. I carry a very heavy bag full of my " Tricks" I have a decorated "secrete box" and if they are all good they get to see what's in my box. Right now it's a snake skin. I also have several books and activities just in case the teacher didn't plan quiet enough things for us to do. I have a note book that I write in when I see something a teacher is doing that I really like and want to incorporate into my own class some day, a folder that I keep hand outs, lesson plans and worksheets that I like and the teacher says I can have and I have a ball for quite ball or to use for many other games. I laughed so hard with number 3. Differentiating instruction, I think we are now being more prepared on how to do this but it's still not easy.

The second video " mashup" was amazing. It's hard to believe that the music was not just something some one overlaid on the videos but that it was the true sound of what came from putting all those videos together in that order. I remember when I was a kid and home video cameras were just really starting to come out. My brothers and their friends loved making movies. They would use all kinds of props like hats, jackets, and fake mustaches and what ever they could find to use for special effects like fireworks ( I did not grow up in Utah, I was in Iowa were fireworks were legal). Their movies were always fun to watch but I wonder, with all the technology available today and YouTube, what their movies would be like.

How to Stay Safe While on Line

The Internet is an amazing cyber world filed with wonderful information, cool things to buy, and hours of entertainment. But just like the real world there are bad places and people that you need to watch out for.

In the real world we don’t stop answering our phone or door because we’re afraid of who might be on the other end. We also don’t stay locked up in our homes afraid to venture outside because we might get lost or end up in a bad neighborhood. Instead we follow simple rules to help keep us safe. When someone calls we check our caller ID first and if it’s someone we don’t know, we don’t answer. If we do answer and the person on the other end says something that scares us or makes us feel uncomfortable we hang up and tell an adult that we trust. When someone knocks on our door, again we fallow simple rules first. We either look through the peep hole or window to see who it is or we ask through the door who is there. If we don’t know the person we don’t answer. When we go outside we don’t talk to strangers and we only play in the neighborhoods we know. If we do venture out into new, unknown territory we only do it with an adult we trust present or our parent or guardians permission. The same holds true when we use the Internet.

One of the first steps in Internet safety is where we put our computers. The computer should be placed in a living room or family room or were ever your home gets the most traffic. If this is not possible and the computer is in a bedroom or home office your family should have an open door policy. This just helps all of us, even adults, from seeking out stuff we shouldn't. Another step for parents to follow is to install as many parental controls as they can. I had an interesting experience about two weeks ago. I was sitting in my computer class, learning how to add a photo using the URL. My teacher had us Google Harry Potter. I was using my own computer instead of the schools. When the Google search was done it pulled up some objectionable photos. After playing around with my computer this week I learned that I can control the type of content that shows up on Google Images. After you Google a topic and go to images, under the search bar it says “safe search”, from there you can have it set at strict, moderate, or off. My computer was set at moderate, the schools computers must be set on strict. My computer is now on strict.

Something else I learned this week is how to evaluate a web site by its URL. Does it have a ~ or a % in the URL or someone’s last name? Also how does the address end? Does it end in .com, .org, .gov, .edu or something else? I put this to a test and Goggled a subject. Then I viewed a number of sites. The ones that ended in .com were all selling something, those that ended in .edu or .gov were good and the ones that ended in .org for the most part were good. Also if you are purchasing something on line or banking on line the URL should say https:/ if it only says http:/ it is not a secure site even if they say they are. Knowing how to look at a URL is only the first step in evaluating a web page.

Another step we should take when evaluating a web page is to ask our self who the author is. Are they an authority on the subject? What do others say about this person or web page. How is this web page linked to other pages? Does the author use words that are more persuasive or informational? These are all questions that we can ask ourselves as we research different topics on line.

But what do we do if we run across something that makes us feel uncomfortable or scared. In my house we have always had the rule to turn off the monitor and get an adult. It could be a parent or teacher or another adult you trust. There are many bad web sites out there that make it difficult to exit out of. In a book I read entitled To Strengthen the Family, author JoAnn Hamilton tells us that there are people out there that study the most commonly made mistakes children make when they type in a URL, then the people use this information to create there bad web sites. Remember, if you come across something bad, it’s not your fault. Tell an adult immediately. They won’t be mad, they just want to keep you safe.

Has anyone ever sent you a mean e-mail? This is called cyber bullying. It happened to my daughter. One of her friends started sending her e-mails that called her mean names. My daughter started to respond to this e-mail by saying something mean back but I saw what she was doing and stopped her. I had a talk with her and her friend about this. They thought they were just being funny, but we talked about how we can really hurt someone’s feelings and that kind of behavior is not appropriate. If someone sends you a mean e-mail, don’t delete it, show an adult you trust and they will know what to do from there. Never send a mean e-mail back.

The Internet defiantly has a place in the education system. The world is getting smaller and smaller while technology is getting more advanced. With the use of computers the Internet and cameras, we could be sitting in a class in Utah and join a class in China. We have unlimited access to almost any question we can think of. As a teacher I need to use every resource available to me so that my students can receive the best education possible. As long as we follow a few simple guide lines and ask ourselves a few questions we can experience a whole new world.

Let’s review the guidelines and questions for Internet safety.

1. The computer should be in the room that gets the most traffic.

2. Parents should utilize the parent controls

3. We should never go to a site that a parent, guardian or teacher hasn’t approved

4. When evaluating a site we should ask our self these questions:

a. What is in the URL

b. Who is the author

c. What do others have to say about the author

d. When was the web site created and when was it last updated

e. Where was the information obtained

f. Why is this information important

g. What kind of language does the author use, persuasive or informational

This will help us avoid sites that are just trying to sell us something and to help us find information that is true and accurate.

5. If we come across something that is bad we turn off the monitor and tell an adult

6. If someone sends us a mean e-mail we tell an adult. We do not respond to the e-mail

If we all follow these rules we can have a lot of fun. Happy surfing.

Video:

This weeks video was six rules to follow when your on line and an extra rule for parents.

I am the mother of three wonderful children and computer usage comes up a lot in our home.

rule 1. Never give our personal information. We need to constantly remind children of the rule and review what exactly personal information is.

Rule 2. If you see something that makes you feel uncomfortable turn off the monitor and tell an adult. In my home we had the rule crash and tell, but I like this one better so that I can see for my self what happened and report it. Some times kids are in such shock they don't know what to do and they fail to tell anyone because they are embarrassed or afraid they will get in trouble. We need to reassure children that it's not their fault and they wont get in trouble.

Rule 3. Never give your user name and password to anyone. My daughters best friend created a g-mail account but she made her password to hard so she wrote it down and put it in her desk. Last weak she was at our house and asked to check her e-mail. We said yes. After she checked her e-mail she was really upset. She had an e-mail that was sent from her self. The e-mail was really mean, telling her how fat and ugly she was and calling her all kinds of names. It turned out that someone from school went through her desk and found the paper. Because it was from her self we couldn't find out who really sent it. I helped her come up with a new password that she could remember and had a talk with all the kids that the only person who should have there user name and password besides them selves is there moms or dads.

Rule 4. Cyber bullies. We need to explain to children that cyber bulling is not a joke. It's not funny and can really cause permanent damage. If you are being a cyber bully stop immediately. If you are being bullied do not respond to the e-mail, chat or text. Save it and tell an adult. In my blog I wrote about my daughter and her best friend. That was not a fun situation and it could have gotten a lot worse if I had not been checking on my daughter and what she was doing.

Rule 5. What you post on the Internet will stay on the Internet, even after you delete it. I did not know this. I thought once you deleted something it was gone. This information will make a person stop and think twice before they write anything.

Rule 6. Never meet someone in person that you met on line. This scares me to death. A few years ago my oldest son was into a online game called Wold of War Craft. Are rule is you don't chat with anyone you don't know. Only chat with your friends. One night at dinner my son was talking about a friend I was not familiar with. I asked him if this was a new friend from school. He told me no, it was a friend in California. I said " How can you have a friend in California you've never been there?" He said " I met her on line." I said " You know you are only aloud to chat with your friends when you are online." He said " I do, So and so is a friend I made on line." I then redefined the word friend as someone I, his mother, have met face to face.

The last thing the video mentioned was for parents to be aware of what their children are doing on the computer. Our computer is in the living room. I can see it from any were in the room including the front door. I can also see it from both the dinning room and the kitchen. I also check the computers history on a regular bases and we have the computer password protected. I once read a story about a mother that took the computer cable with her when ever she left the house and slept with it under her pillow.

Compared to all the other videos we watched this week for this assignment I felt that this one was a little boring. One of my favorites was Tracking Teressa. I learned that I need to change my e-mail address. For family home evening tomorrow I am going to show my family several of these videos, discuss them, then print off the Internet safety pledge and have everyone in the family sign it.

What:

This week in class we learned more about UEN and how to navigate around it. It has allot of fun info and things to do for both students and teachers.

So What:

Our homework for this week was a scavenger hunt on UEN. I really struggled with this one. It was only suppose to take us about four hours to do but I have spent three hours a day for the past three days and I'm not done yet. On the first day, after about three hours I tried to save my work on google doc. but it wouldn't save. I tried several different ways but each time I tried to exit out the computer said " There have been changes to this page that were not saved. Stay on this page or leave this page." After several tries I finally just copied and pasted it into word then I excited out. It deleted everything but I was able to copy and past it back into google doc from word, I didn't loose anything. But today I found out I have been doing the wrong scavenger hunt. On our class web site there are two places to down load the scavenger hunt. If you down loaded it from deliverables you got the old one. If you down loaded the one from resources you got the correct one. I did the wrong one so now I need to copy what I do have done into the other one.

It took me quite awhile to figure out how to do the portlets but I think I finally got it figured out, I hope. I will finish the assignment tomorrow.

Now What:

I really like the UEN web site. My son is actually using it for his English class. He has to do a research paper and the only Internet site he is allowed to use is UEN. I know I will use this allot as a teacher to help guide my students to many fun activities and web pages that are safe and pre- approved. I also like the idea of being able to find continuing education class for my self. After seeing what UEN can do, I wish more of my children's teachers would use their own personal UEN web page. It's a great way to stay connected to your students and their parents.

Video:

I agree with this 150%. From the time a child is born until they are five, they learn about the world through their senses, using their entire body,falling down and getting back up again. But when they turn five we put them in school and make them sit for hours on end using just their sense of sight and sound. In my opinion creative dance should be part of every schools curriculum. Last semester I took a wonderful class called Dance for Elementary Teachers. We learned how to use dance to teach other subjects and how to teach children problem solving skills.

I am thankful that my children have had wonderful, creative teachers that have found ways to help them learn at schools. As teachers we need to let our students know that it is OK to make mistakes, try new things and have wacky ideas. That is how we learn.

Maybe I'm idealistic, but in my classroom I plan on using dance, music rhyming and hands on practicle ways to teach my students the Utah core curriculum. We can't afford to have our children loose their God given creativity.

UEN part 1

What:

This week we learned about a few things that we could do on the UEN web. site. We created our own web.page and played around with it for awhile.

So What:

I did my six tabs, added my photo to the about me tab and changed the colors and icons several times. I also wrote a research paper using Google doc. for the paper and UEN for some of the research. After that I made a slide presentation to go with my paper, again using Google doc.

Now What:

With the new things that we learned this week I'm not sure yet how I will use them. I still have more to learn about the UEN page. I'm thinking that I might use it with future students. If I assign a paper I can direct them to UEN for research and parents can know that their child is safe. I can also post links that might be helpful to my students and class notes from the things that they learned. This week will be fun. I can't wait to see what we are going to do with our new web pages.

Video:

Whether or not you agree with President Obamas politics or not his message to Americas students is sound. We don't talk enough about are own responsibilities for our education and our circumstances. I have friends that are Professors at UVU that have told me that they have had the parents of some of their students come in and argue a grade with them. I can't even imagine have the parent of an adult try to bail them out of a bad grade. I liked had Pres. Obama said that we need to fail, we aren't going to be good at everything the first time around, but we learn and grow from are mistakes. I think some times as teachers and parents we try to make things easier for our kids. It's not easy to watch them suffer through something. But that may be exactly what they need to make them a better person. I also liked what Pres. Obama said about us each being good at something. It's easy to get down on our selves when things aren't as easy as we think they should be, but we are all blessed with different gifts and talents. I like a cartoon that says " God don't make no junk"

Power point

This has been a really hard week. On Monday my nephew killed himself, so all week we had family coming in, we were trying to get answers to why this happened and plan a funeral. When I was at school I tried to stay focused on school and when I was at home I turned all my attention to my family.

What?
This week we had fun learning about power points and spread sheets. I'm not a very fast typist and I also try to write down the direction as we go in case I can't remember when I get home, so I tend to get behind, but it all works out in the end.

So What?
Usually after class I go home and start playing around with all the new tools we have learned, even the ones that we don't have a homework assignment for. But because of the events of the week, I only had time to do my part of the power point assignment for class rules. Since Jeremy took the lead on our last project we decided that Brie would take the lead this week and I would take the lead next time. On Wednesday night I had just a few minutes to serf the net so I looked for pictures that I might want to use in my slides. I found some great clip art but didn't save the sites so when I went back the next day to actually do my project I couldn't find them. There was one picture in particular that I wanted to use for my "respect others and respect yourself" I looked for it for over an hour. Since I couldn't find it I settled on the only other picture that I even kind of liked. It was a cute picture but blurry. On the slide it was even more blurry. That picture cost us a point. I will be more careful next time.

As I was putting my slides together I noticed that behind my pictures and also all the pictures of the rest of my team it said Write text or place text or something like that. After playing around with it I learned that we were placing our pictures in the slide but not in the box so they were just overlaying each other. To fix this I clicked on the image and dragged it to the side so it would be out of the way, then I clicked on the text box and hit delete then drug the image back in place. It worked like a charm.

Now What?
I want more time to play with the spreed sheet. I need to do some kind of spreed sheet for church so this will give me the perfect opportunity to practise. I also need to ask Jeremy about that math thing he does with his kids that he talked about in class. I know this will be a must to really get under my belt and as a teacher I will use it all the time.

Next week I need to do a five minute oral presentation on a five page research paper for my astronomy class. I can't wait to blow my teacher and classmates away with my power point. My own children have always preferred the teachers that used power point when they did lectures and then had them accessible on the Internet. I will use this for certain teaching elements in the classroom. Everyone learns in a different way and as teachers we need to use every tool we can.

Video:

I love this video so much that I shared it with my kids. I have a fifteen year old, a twelve year old and a nine year old. I have tried to always instill the importance of an education and good grades but kids, teenagers especially, tend to listen to their piers more than there parents. When they see some one their own age doing something they want to do they tend to make a stronger connection to "hay I can do that". I loved seeing how this young man knows who he is and what he wants to do with his life. There is nothing better than following your dreams and turning them into a reality.

It doesn't matter if you are six, sixteen or sixty, you should never stop dreaming, never stop learning and never stop reaching for the stars.

GOOGLE

I'm really enjoying my computer class. This week we learned about some applications within GMail. I have had a GMail account for almost three years but the only thing I ever did with it was e-mail. I've always had a fear of just playing around with the computer and exploring and learning how things work because I was afraid that I might accidentally download a virus or change my husbands settings or completely crash the thing. Any time I would ask my husband to help me learn something new on the computer he would start to show me, get frustrated and tell me to just move and let him do it. I am no longer afraid. I have caught, what Doc Waters would say " the spirit of discovery". It is so much fun to sit down and play around, and familiarize my self with the new tools I've been given.

This week we learned Google calenders, Google docs and iGoogle. I love Google calenders. I have created a few different ones such as one just for my school assignments, one for the family to use for family events, and another for extended family with every ones birthdays and anniversary's. I'm still playing around with it I want to see if there is away that everyone that is invited to view the family birthday calender can add their own info if it's not already there.

Google calender will be a great asses when I start teaching. I can create a calender for my students listing all of the home work assignments for the year, up coming events such as parent teacher conferences and when money is due for book orders. I can also list field trips and school functions. If a student is absent the child and their parents can just look at the calender and be able to see what they missed. If I need parent helpers on a specific date and time, parents can see that and let me know if they are available to help. I also love the way the program will e-mail me reminders of what I have going on that day. Some times I forget to look at my paper planner but I check my e-mail any time the computer shows me that I've got mail.

Another feature I really like is Google docs. As soon as my husband got home on Wednesday night I showed him how we could upload all of our files from Word Perfect into Google docs. He was really excited and called his dad to let him know about it. It really made me feel good to show my husband something on the computer that he didn't already know about. Our first assignment was to work with our team to create a welcome letter. Right off the bat I saw how valuable this was going to be. We tried to meet together in person but not every one could but through sharing our document we could all add our own personal touches with out trying to coordinate on the phone or in person. One day I was working on my groups document and Jeremy was also working on it at the same time we could see what the other person was typing as they did it. It was so cool. I can't wait to use this with my students.

One day I was substitute teaching a fifth grade class. We went to the computer lab so they could work on publishing their story's from writers work shop. There were two boys that were working on a story together. They were both on the same computer trying to take turns typing their ideas for the story or one would dictate to the other what to write. I wish I had had this knowledge then. I would have shown them how they could both be on separate computers and still work together. This tool will also be very valuable as I work with other teachers on my team as we work together on lesson plans, parent letters and other projects. Which reminds me, with a push of a button I will be able to translate parent letters and if need be, some class work into other languages. As a substitute teacher I have seen schools with students that speak English, Spanish, French, Korean, Japanese and Chines. It will be nice to be able to communicate with the parents. A parent could send me an e-mail in their native language and then I could copy and paste it into Google docs then translate it and know what the parent is saying.

This knowledge of just a few of the applications in GMail is just the beginning, I cant wait to learn more.

This week we watched a video entitled I Am What I Learn. I love the young woman's passion to become not only any thing she wants to be but the very best at what every she wants to be. Are students are going to come from many different types of back ground. Some may be dealing with things that we can't even imagine. It is our job as teachers to reach out to everyone of our students and help them to see the beautiful, talented, intelligent person that they are and show them what they have to offer this world. We need to show them that they have the power to control and shape their future. We need to give them a voice and show them how to use it. As I watched last weeks video with the boy from Texas and this weeks video and also watch my own children develop in the things that interest them I am very thankful for wonderful, caring talented and knowledgeable teachers.