Jing

Jing is actually probably my favorite tool we learned this week. I love that you can do screen tutorials. I have made a quick tutorial and I'm going to attempt to embed it several places in several different ways.

Tech plans for next year

So I plan to have a teacher website. I've been building it slowly. So far I have some skeleton pages on there. I won't be able to fill it up until I find out exactly what and whom I'll be teaching. But I know that I want to do a project on scale models with my fourth graders. So I am also building a webquest for them. I also want to incorporate some of the video making tools we've learned to help kids with reading comprehension and story recall and retell. I have a lot to think about. I hope that I can remember all that we've learned. It's frustrating to learn a lot of new stuff all at once, and then not be able to try it out immediately. It was great for me to be able to re-use my Google skills in this class, as I was forgetting and then remembering how to do things.

Edge-ucators

I guess I would consider myself an edge-ucator in that I am very fluid in my course designs. I have a basic framework of where I want to go, what topics I want to teach. But sometimes I throw it all out the window to focus on other things. For example, this year I decided to focus more on teaching Vermont geography, and spent a long time on that. I used lots of web resources, Google Apps, Google Maps, videos, websites to help me teach. I gave students projects, but I focused the projects so that their research was meaningful and not just haphazard. I tried to teach them about good web etiquette and reliable sources.

Website and Webquest

It is very frustrating to still not know where I will be assigned for next year. I really do want to start think about the summer projects. For a website I'd like to build a brief all-encompassing site to introduce myself to parents (and students!) and give an overview of each "class" or subject I will be teaching. I'd like it to be a central place that all my students can go to get basic information, and then links to explore further to other websites (eventually).

For my Webquest, I have vague ideas kicking around. But for me I think it will depend on where I am assigned. If all else fails, I can make a Webquest for a course I am currently teaching. However, I'd really like to make something useful for me for next year. All will be revealed on Friday.

Webquests and Essential Questions

I still can't seem to get past assigning those "go find out" types of assignments. In my experiences, my students are best at those specific tasks. I've given assignments where student have to find specific information about a topic. But rarely do these projects require synthesis. I have tried to include a synthesizing conclusion paragraph to an essay. But I don't get many great products. Sometimes I get something like "I think it's good/bad..."

I definitely see the value in essential questions. All my formal educations schooling has been around essential questions. But I feel like many of my students lack basic knowledge or find it hard to think about bigger ideas and then break it down. It's hard to get at an essential question when lots of minor building block facts are forgotten regularly.

I find myself teaching and reteaching basic facts. So the essential questions often get lost. I want to make an effort to reclaim essential questions, and weave them into my coursework, even while spiraling back to basic facts.

Flipping the classroom

O.M.G. Oh My God! That's what I first thought about when I heard about flipping the classroom. What a wonderful idea, to have the students do the lecture at home and the problems/applications in school. Would the students do it because it smacked of technology? Would they do it because it was someone else besides their teacher giving lecture? Would they do it at all? Or would it quickly, in the first few minutes, loose it's appeal and novelty and fall by the wayside like traditional homework does? What about those who don't have internet access at home? What about lower level learners? Would the content apply to them? I teach Special Ed, so would my students be able to watch and understand? They are certainly getting more out of videos I show in class than hearing me lecture. Would a lecture video be the merging of the two?

After viewing some of Khan's history videos, I would have to say that I couldn't use these videos as the sole lectures for class. They don't give out enough background information or vocabulary knowledge for my students to be able to understand them. I constantly have to define words that we read in the text book, or are even in questions from the text. He doesn't do enough of that, and I find myself thinking about this as he's speaking, saying, "but you have to define monarchy," or "you have to tell them where that is."

In theory I can't wait to try flipping! I can't wait to see what kind of classroom I end up with next year. I think that if I am with a higher grade (maybe 3rd-5th) I will try it. One of the best ways to try it would probably be with math as Khan seems to have a lot of videos on math. The video on basic addition really teaches step by step with counting objects as well as the number line. So in reality I don't know how I'll be able to "flip" next year. If I were to continue in my current assignment teaching Sped Social Studies (US History & Geography) at MAUHS I would probably use videos as a teaching tool just like I do now. I don't think I can rely on them to get my kids to mastery. But I can surely supplement the topics that we discuss in class. I don't think I can assign them for "homework" as I will have students who don't have internet access. That is an essential problem with assigning technology based work not done in class. It SOUNDS like a good idea, but not everyone has this access.

Copyright

After listening to the copyright lawyer talk about infringing on copyright and the internet I realize that I probably infringe on copyright all the time! Even if I make a copy of a movie that I've bought, that is breaking copyright law. I remember when I was a kid we had lots of copied VHS tapes, and I would always see the FBI message and was always worried that the FBI would really come knock on our door!

Sometimes I don't do it intentionally, for example I print out worksheets for my students all the time. My essential question is, if these worksheets are free online, then am I infringing on copyright by downloading, printing, and copying them?

I try to cite my sources even on my cooking blog. If I take a recipe from somewhere, which I usually do, then I link to wherever I took it from. If that cite takes the recipe from somewhere ELSE, I can't guarantee that they cite their sources properly.

Collette talks about how she doesn't necessarily think that file sharing is bad. I tend to agree, because we can learn so much and get so much information from sharing files with other users, and with creators. She also starts to talk about transforming content, and therefore not breaking copyright. So to build on my citing sources in my blog, even though I'm using someone else's content, I am commenting and building upon it, so I am reproducing and distributing it, but I am also transforming it into something else, so therefore I am not breaking copyright.

It's all very confusing and you do have to be careful of what you download, distribute (even to friends). I learned in a previous class that images that appear on internet image searches have copyrights, and you can't just willy-nilly take an image to use in your work! Who knew? Well someone did, but that's beside the point, I didn't know.

Introductory Post

This is my third active blog. I've blogged before, obviously. But it hasn't always been successful, and my blogs don't have many readers. I have used Blogger in the past, so I'm sticking to it here too. My other blogs are Storybook Projects and City Mouse Country Mouse.

In the past I have used Livejournal, which I would consider to be a blog community. I've had many "friends" and readers on that site who were tuned into my posts.

I haven't used blogs with my students yet. I do, however, note their advantages and difficulties. I haven't thought of a useful platform for them as of yet. But it is in the back of my mind!

I read blogs pretty avidly. I like to read mommy blogs, and cooking blogs mostly. My current favorite mommy blog is Offbeat Mama. I also love two cooking blogs: Weelicious, which is a kid-pleasing recipe site, and Challa-peno, which fuses Mexican and Jewish cooking.

I also read some blogs once or twice, it other's share their opinions or whatnot.