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.