Wednesday, May 27, 2009

HSA Recap...

May 27, 2009

It has been a week since my LSN students took the Government HSA. Since the exam, I have had students write reflections about what was hard/easy about the exam. Students also had to write about whether the wiki helped them prepare for the HSA. Students responded that the technology resources were a great help to them—one student wanted his other teachers to up their review materials on a wiki too.

One of my favorite comments came from a girl who said that while she was taking the HSA, she could hear my voice explaining items to her. I laughed when she said this, but it is great that the voicethreads were able to help my students retain information.

This summer, I plan to record my AP PowerPoints into a Voicethread format. With the downtime this summer, I will try to get a head start for next year. Many of my AP students saw how my LSN students were preparing and they were jealous.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

HSA Prep Update

May 7, 2009

The last three days have gone by very quickly. I have been having my LSN students use my Government HSA Review wiki to prepare for their HSA exam on May 19th. So far, the students have responded very well to the different resources on the wiki. They particularly get a kick out hearing me explain the PowerPoint slides—some of them giggle when they hear me talk because I tried to use a variety of voices to keep the explanations from becoming mundane. This learning experience is a great example of individualized learning since each student can go at their own pace. Even some of my ‘toughest’ students are responding well to the different activities.

With anything new, I have come across some minor errors, though I am fixing them as I go. There have only been minor technical problems, though our mobile laptops can be very slow when they turn on—keeping the students focused during this period has been challenging, but we have been doing practice multiple-choice questions during this wait time.

I am looking forward to see how the students respond to the HSA after spending the next few weeks using this wiki.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Update...

May 4, 2009

I have not written in a while because I have not had anything new to say. Today I begin using my wiki to help my students review for the Government HSA. I am eager to see how all of the students respond to the different resources.

I have been having trouble with www.voicethread.com recently. When I attempt to record audio, the site often is inconsistent with picking up my speech. I have uploaded some commentaries using Audacity, though I am unable to use the scribbling application when I do this. I know it is not just my computer, rather I have tried Voicethread.com with a few different computers and it is definitely a problem with their site.

This morning I applied for this Dream Classroom contest. Carol Fraser sent out an email notifying us about it, and I spent some time last night working on the essay. It was hard keeping the essay under 200 words, but I am pleased with my final product. It would be great to win all a smartboard and other great tech tools.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

IPOD Touch

I found it very interesting that the IPOD Touch has the capability of being used in the classroom. The MICCA conference was very beneficial in opening my eyes to the many possibilities and opportunities that we have with integrating technology in the classroom. Since I have an IPOD Touch, I will spend my summer transforming my mind to become a Tech Savvy teacher. My students have IPODs that they attempt to listen to with or without permission in my class. I think it would be great to allow my students the opportunity to use these devices in an educational way.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Paperless Classroom

After attending MICCA 2009, I have sooo many ideas on how to create a paperless classroom.

My hope is that the county will use Moodle.com as a means to grade papers electronically.

Wiki's will be way for me to create an online classroom that is accessible to both students and their parents.

Blogging with be a way for students to demonstrate what they have learned through creative writing.

Podcasting will be a means of teaching my class without standing in front of the whiteboard.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Smartboards in PG

One of the things that I liked about the MICCA Conference were the free demonstrations of the SMART / Promethean Boards. This is high tech, state-of-the-art technology that we really need to be using in the 21st century.

How can schools get SMART/Promethean Boards in their school? Howard, Montgomery, and Anne Arundel County Public Schools are already using these invaluable tools! There should be one in every classroom!

Cybersecurity, Cyberethics, and Cybersafety Seminar

I learned a lot of valuable information that aspiring administrators need to know about Cybersecurity, Cyberethics, and Cybersafety. I learned how to test all of my passwords for free, and how to turn on Microsoft's free firewall to my personal home computer for extra virus and spyware protection too.

I have a lot more to say, but I'll end it here for now.

MICCA Conference

I had soooooooo much fun at MICCA last week. I appreciate everything the STEP Training team did to make this happen for us. I won Inspiration software, 2 free Orioles tickes and a parking pass, and requested desk copies of books!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

MICCA 2009

MICCA 2009 was one of the very best conferences I have attended. The information I have been learning in the STEP cohort was reinforced at the conference. I am very excited to continue to implement what I have been learning. I am even more excited to perfect my craft of engaging my students throught the use of technology next school year. It was nice to learn face to face how teachers are and have been using technology in their classes beginning in primary school. I can honestly say that I have walked away with many ideas on how to integrate technology to make my life as an educator more effective and fun.

Moving into technology as a primary force in your classroom is a mindstate. I am rapidly changing the way I look at technology and quickly thinking of new and exciting ways of implementing this new way of thinking in my class.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Banners

I learned how to integrate Banners into my wiki. I had a good time choosing banners. Technology has sooooo much to offer. I hope to keep up with the demand and the new technology that is being created on a daily basis.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Check out: http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/

April 14, 2009

I have been working on a few items over the last couple of weeks. First, I have been updating my wiki to meet the entire STEP I requirements. I added titles, technology standards, reflections, and summaries where it was needed. In the next few weeks, I plan to go through the wiki with a fine-tooth comb and add more creative objects—including adding more items to “My Favorite Hyperlinks” page.

The Government HSA is going really well. I am having my ESOL students taking LSN Government utilize the site for their end of the year review—they will be taking the HSA next week. They were given an assignment many weeks ago to use the wiki to answer questions and review for the Government HSA. The latest tool I have found is http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/. This site allows you to make quizzes/assessments and embed them into wikis. I put quizzes for each Government unit to help my students. I would like to incorporate this site into my teaching next year on a regular basis.

Using ELMO in class

The ELMO document camera has become an indispensible teaching tool in my room. Image quality is spectacular, even when showing student algebraic solutions lightly written in pencil.



I also use a pen tablet whenever I'm using the document camera. I'll often have students hand me their classwork then go up to the board and talk through their solutions to the rest of the class. I then add supportive colored coded commentary and illustrations to an electronic overlay of that students classwork during their presentation.



Combining the document camera with the pen tablet facilitates rapid turnaround of sample student work illustrating both correct solutions, and the often more helpful, incorrect solutions that the class then identifies and indicates the necessary revisions.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Voicethread is the bomb!

I agree with everything that has been said about voicethreading. I am going to do an administrator project using voicethreading to have everyone on my team to evaluate the STEP Program. I'm soooo excited.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Was is a voicethread?

Hi Billy!

What is a voice thread?What does it accomplish if I may ask?

Friday, March 27, 2009

Voicethread is so cool!

This past Tuesday we learned how to incorporate www.voicethread.com into our teaching. As soon as we were introduced to this tool, my mind began brainstorming all sorts of ideas. I have already begun creating Voicethread presentations to help students review for the Government HSA. This wiki is an idea I have to help students review concepts, vocabulary, quiz questions and other skills to get ready for the April and May HSA’s. As of today, Units 1, 2, 3, and 4 all have a Voicethread presentation that explains different items students need to know for the Government HSA. For each of these units, I have also included a link for students to practice reviewing electronic flashcards via www.iqfuse.com.

Additionally, my student intern has been thrilled with this new tool. He has volunteered to create Voicethread presentations for Units 5, 6, 7. Thus far, he has been impressed with the new tool and hopes to create new ways to use the resource.

The Voicethread features are so cool. I love the fact that I can type comments/questions for students, record my voice explaining concepts, and use the doodling function to emphasize images/words. The more practice I have, the better I am getting at using these functions.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

STEP Blog since January 30, 2009

January 30, 2009:

Note: A few weeks back, I spent a solid thirty minutes writing my blog only to have the whole thing erased when I saved/submitted it. Nevertheless, I was highly frustrated.

I love my ELMO! Ever since I received my document camera, I have been using nearly every day with every class. Currently, I have a student intern with me from the University of Maryland. My intern loves using the document camera too. After spending 10 minutes showing him how to set it up and use it, he has become a pro.

Because I am a visual learner and a visual teacher, I love the ability to easily explain an assignment not only through verbal directions, but also by showing the assignment to the whole class via the document camera. I teach three sections of ESOL LSN government, thus the ability to visually explain directions is crucial to my students. We spent a few classes writing letters to local legislators. I broke the assignment into three separate parts/classes. To begin each class, I helped the students’ complete different tasks by filling out the worksheet as if I was a student. The document camera allowed me to specifically explain how to answer each question.

Along with my ESOL students, I have enjoyed using the document camera in my AP Government and Politics course. Students often make presentations—the document camera allows students to visualize to the entire class answers to questions, thus allowing students to teach the class about different topics. The document camera is great at projecting current event articles. Because it takes up so much paper to make photocopies, the document camera allows me to project an article to the entire class while we discuss it’s contents.

Overall, I am thrilled to be using the document camera and I cannot imagine teaching without it!


February 9, 2009:

Over the last month, my student intern has been teaching full time. At first he wasn’t sure if he would want to use the document camera—I think he was nervous, but he loves the device as much as I do. Like me, he enjoys using the ELMO to explain directions and go over activities with our ESOL students.

Before our students took an LSN exam, he had students teach the class different parts of the review packet using the document camera. Instead of wasting large amounts of time having students make posters of information they already wrote down, he was able to have groups of students teach their classmates different aspects of the unit using their review packets. Students did a great job presenting and teaching the class. Additionally, students enjoyed helping each other review while using the ELMO.

I am looking forward to our next STEP meeting because we are receiving a digital camera. I am not sure how I will be able to incorporate the camera, though I am sure we will go over different teaching strategies.

Overall, I am very pleased I decided to be a STEP participant. Using new technology has rejuvenated me as a teacher because new tools make teaching more fun. When the teacher is having more fun, the students often feed on that enthusiasm.








February 23, 2009:

Since receiving my digital camera, I have been busy using it more as a video camera, rather than taking still photographs. In my experiences, students are enamored by the idea of performing a skit and watching themselves and their classmates perform these skits.

Therefore, to help students remember their “due process” rights, I put students into groups and they had to make skits that showed the police/FBI/ICE not providing “due process” rights to a group of people. At the end of the skits, students had to summarize which “due process” rights were being ignored by the government. In the end this assignment was much fun for the students and myself. Sometimes the laughter was so loud, I had to “shhhs” the crowd, but it was all in good fun. The recording of these skits and then showing them to students will help all students remember their “due process” rights, thus helping students be successful on their unit test.

My first class (2a) was my test class. I recorded the first videos in a high-resolution format, making each video a really large file (over 100 mb per video). During my planning period, I discovered how to change the resolution to a lower number, making it much easier to transfer the videos. This change also provided me more video space on my 2 gb memory card.

This was a great assignment. I look forward to using the video recording function more often in my classroom—it was super easy and the students had a great time, while learning a lot.

March 5, 2009:

Today, my student intern is in the midst of video taping students acting out a skit that shows the inner workings of the Marbury v. Madison Supreme Court case. After he video tapes all of the classes, he is going to use Windows Movie Maker to create one video that incorporates all of the classes. Because we teach three LSN classes and the skit has three parts, we are going to use one video from each class to make this video. Thus far, students have been enjoying being video taped. However, students get the most joy when they watch themselves in the videos.

By the end of the next week, I will have put together a large Photo Story project for my AP US Government and Politics class. Each student is responsible for a few Supreme Court cases—for each case, the student must state the significance of the case and they must create a simple drawing to help students remember the case on a piece of paper. I plan to use the document camera to take a photo of each court case—this will equal 40 sheets of paper since there are 40 Supreme Court cases. This Photo Story will provide students with a great study tool for their upcoming quiz on these cases and it will help students review for the AP exam on May 4th. I would like to incorporate an audio narration of each case, though this will depend on the amount of extra free time I have at my disposal.

March 16, 2009:

Last week, I had an epiphany—how about creating a wiki to help students, parents, and teachers prepare for the HSA? There are so many resources available via MSDE, PGCPS, and other school systems; however, none of this information/resources are centralized. I am in the process of putting all of this information together. Thus far, I have put many resources in the LSN Government section (my specialty) and in the “HSA Links” section. Check it out for yourself: http://nhs-hsa-review.wikispaces.com/

Today, I sent an email to a small group of colleagues gauging their interest in making this wiki a reality. So far, a biology teacher and English teacher have stated they would be interested in participating. I am awaiting word from other folks. One of my fears is that people might see the word ‘wiki’ and get scared since it might be new to them. I know that I was a bit fearful at first with wiki’s since I had never worked with them before, however, I am much more comfortable working with them after my experience in STEP.

One of the motivations for making this wiki is my experience learning about www.slideshare.net at our latest STEP meeting last week. The ability to turn PowerPoint presentations into widgets makes it possible for students/parents without access to PowerPoint software to utilize these multimedia resources.

Time ...



TIME
is made up of
"I"
and
"me"
so it should suit you to a
"T"
... how do you think blogging
can enhance your instruction?

Podcasting

Podcasting sounds like a wonderful thing. I am sooo excited about podcasting with my students. I am thinking this will be a good tool to use when I am out of my classroom and my students have a substitute. I think this will be a wonderful resource for teachers to use to keep in touch with one another. Let's see how this podcasting goes in the classroom.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Let's Blog!

Hello All! The participants invited to this blog are Year 1 Steppers from Northwestern HS. We hope this online blogging community will be an effective tool to share/journal your thoughts and ideas about implementing this year's STEP technology! ~Patrick & Linda

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

What is STEP?

Today I have completed my orientation in Sharing Technology with Educators Program (STEP). I am very excited about learning how to effectively integrate technology within my classroom. I think this program is wonderful because it helps to put teachers in the mindstate of using what our students use on a daily basis (which is technology), yet increasing their understanding of how the technology they use has an array of uses.

Technology has many uses. It can be used to educate, entertain, train or assist people in everyday life situations. Many of our students are only aware or may use technology for entertainment. As a member of this program, my goal is to widen the ideas of how technology is used and create opportunities where students are using what they already have and building upon that in order to open doors that maybe 5 or 10 years ago were not created.

I thought it was interesteing to learn that the state of Maryland has created Maryland Technology Standards for students, teachers and administrators. My biggest question is how soon will our students be tested on these standards?

Monday, February 23, 2009

Using Technology

I have been researching various ways I will begin to implement the use of technology in my classroom. I think my biggest challenge is taking the time to read, research and do. There are sooooo many tools and ways to incorporate technology. My hope is that I will become a little more techno savvy and at least have a moderate knowledge of the various types of technology available and it's uses.

I have always believed that students should listen to music while doing classwork. I believe it calms them down and places them in a state of ambience. Unfortunately, education has become so political where majority of the focus on testing and taking away the things are students like opposed to opening the doors and seeing how they can be used in the classroom to capture and engage our students in learning.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Work Session

Work, work and now it's time to play. The STEP team is working together to become 21st century educators. My hope is that I will become a technology users both professionally and personally. Today we are working on using what we have learned thus far. I want to get to the point where integrating technology is play during my work.

Friday, January 23, 2009

STEPn It Up

This program has been very helpful in introducing me to the world of technology and its many uses. I have been very eager to use what I am learning and will learn in the classroom. However, I think it takes creativity and time to switch your normal teacher routine to one that integrates technology as a normal part of instruction. However, I think the rewards are worth the effort. I also think it is very important that teachers work in teams to create the movement and shift the change. My students are very receptive of my trial and error of integrating technology. For many, this provides them an opportunity to show me what to do and teach me what they know. I love the rewards that technology has to offer and look forward to STEPn it UP in my classroom.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Document Camera

The students are having a blast using the document camera. They can't believe how real the images are when they wave their hands under the screen. They find it even more fascinating to watch themselves walk by as they enter the class.

As a teacher, I have been using the document camera as a means to become more of a facilitator in the class. My students are using the Elmo to teach lessons. We project to the wall and they either go to the wall or the camera and teach. The Elmo is bringing the lessons to life.

It is even more fascinating to know that eventually my classroom will become paperless (in the near future). This camera has significantly decreased my paper usage. It is extremely helpful to those that are visual learners and tactile learners because they can see themselves recreate problems.