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.