Jamie’s Blog

Hi Chelsea! Nice job on your presentation. I also used Jing for mine as I feel it’s the easiest to use. The only negative thing I have to say about your screencast is that the first part of your screencast is cut off though and your voice is a little muffle sounding. Other than that it’s amazing!  Google Sites is also what I used to create my website. I love it!!! With you graduating this month, do you think you could use this site as part of your portfolio on interviews? I remember when I gratuated with my teaching degree 8 years ago I had to create a binder type portfolio. It was such a pain! I am hoping that these days a web based portfolio is acceptable.  I enjoyed reading through your lesson plans and LOVE that you use Prezi to present the first lesson. I just learned about Prezi and am hoping that through a little practive I will learn how to seamlessly use it  with my students by next school year! Good luck to you after graduation Chelsea! Do you have any jobs lined up?

Hi Molly! It was so nice listening to your Highlights Video about your website. I feel like I got to know a little bit more about you. You were very well spoken and did a really nice job on your presentation. Your website is well organized. You are one step ahead of me with using Weebly. Believe it or not, this is a site that I have yet to use or try to use. I guess I am just use to Google Sites and am afraid of change…lol. I do however like the layout of your website better than mine as it looks more professional. Reading over your resume, I just moved from the Dearborn area where you have worked. Talk about a small world. I also see that you are graduating next month, congratulations to you . Overall, you did an excellent job on everything and the main thing that I notice with regards to your work is the professionalism it contains. Kudos to you and good luck with everything!

Teaching my students to do Power Point Presentations has gotten SO boring to me! I have been looking for a new way for my students to present material and last weekend I found it… Prezi!!!! This is a free web based application that allows you to present material in some of the coolest ways!  I HIGHLY recommend watching a few tutorials and view a few examples before actually using it because it is a bit confusing at first. You will catch on quickly though AND you will be able to impress the socks off of your friends, students, family, and/or co-workers!!!!

I am SO not a math person and have only had the opportunity to teach it once, but earlier this week I ran across a website that looks pretty cool and educational called Geometry Baseball. My students love it and I feel as if they are actually learning something. Geometry Baseball teaches student’s about lines and angels and then reinforces what was taught by asking the students questions that pertain to measuring, labeling, and identifying lines and angels. When a student answers the question(s) correctly they earn balls to play a game of baseball and when they answer the question(s) wrong they strike out. Listen to the voice in the game too… it’s pretty silly and you will have a good chuckle ;0)

This is the first time I have really used a wiki. The use of a wiki is different from a website because you are able to allow others to edit your wiki. It’s a great collaboration tool to use in your classroom. The uses for a wiki in the classroom are endless! Students are able to use a wiki to take notes, peer edit other student’s papers, complete assignments, work on group research projects, etc. I found a great website that gives 50 ways to use a wiki in the classroom. Now that I really know how easy it is to create and use a wiki, I plan on utilizing it with my students during 4^th quarter to conduct a research project on an Assistive Technology and/or a Web 2.0 tool with other students from my friend’s classroom (who teaches in Diamond, Ohio). The only question that I have is within Wikispaces, how can I go about making my Navigation Bar look neater and how am I able to organize it? I have played with it and am unable to figure it out.

I absolutely love using Google Docs! I am not as proficient as I would like to be with regards to using it, but I am getting there! Google Docs can be used for so many different things in the classroom. I introduce it early on to my students so that they can use it in place of the Mircosoft Office applications. The best part of Google Docs is that it’s web based and student’s are able to access their work from any computer that has internet access. My 8th graders are taught how to create a web site in Google Sites and using Google Docs to upload and edit information that they put on a specific web page. It’s so nice to be able to edit things in Google Docs and have it automatically update whatevers on the web page. Most recently I have used Google Docs to collaborate with a teacher whom I met at a conference in Diamond Ohio. The students in his class and in my class collaboratively work on research projects together. Our class schedules do not match up and using Google Docs makes it so easy for each student to share and edit one anothers document or presentation. Google Docs is also a great resourse for making rubrics. I have used it a few times and still have yet to fully master that skill, but it’s coming

I went to MACUL last week and learned about SO many amazing (and free) things!!! I have bookmarked most of what I learned about on my Delicious site. Feel free to explore away http://www.delicious.com/jamiegirl143/MACUL I tend to get a little crazy when it comes to technology ;0)

One of the sites that I was introcuced to was Wall Wisher. I decided to explore Wall Wisher a bit more for this activity. Wall Wisher is a site in which you are able to take notes, make announcements, & collaborate and communicate with others. The best part about this site is that you don’t need to create an account to use it.

Wall Wisher could be used with any age and grade level and the ideas for using it in your classroom are endless! The first thing I thought of (because I teach computers) is giving my students 10 minutes to research a Web 2.0 tool online. I would then create a new wall titled Web 2.0. Students would then go to my Web 2.0 page when they are done, double click on my wall,  and then post everything they learned about that tool on my wall.

I then thought… what a GREAT tool to use to help student’s to brainstorm ideas and/or to relay ideas to you so I created a wall titled Iconic Story. My 6th graders are in the process of creating an Iconic Story Multiedia Project so I typed out a question for my student’s to answer about the topic they will be writing about (see below).

The main disadvantages that I discovered about Wall Wisher was that when you have multiple computers trying to access this site, it runs so slow and sometimes even errors out. I also wish that you could change up the boxes so they could be individualized. Spell Check would be nice too ;0)

The advantages are endless!

• No log in necessary
• Teachers can monitor student responses before they post to the wall.
• Encourages collaboration.
• Can be used with all grade levels.
• Connects to your Google account.
• Students can use it to collaborate on projects, take notes, respond to posed questions, take quizzes and surveys, etc.

I have racked my brain as to what I am most interested in with regards to education and my mind and heart always sway toward anything that has to do with Technology. The  main problem that I run into with regards to technology is the funding to be trained on any new technology and/or the funding to obtain the technology for the classroom. Because of this, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to learn how to write grants and where I would be able to get and apply for various grants. This is one topic I would love additional training on and something I would really like to further explore. By becoming educated on this topic, I would be able to then educate my colleagues on grant writing. If we all learn how to write grants on various things for the classroom I feel that our students could really benefit from the results (especially with all of the cuts that are being tossed around in Lansing).

I know that we are required to use Delicious in our current class and over the past couple of years I have come to rely on my Delicious account. I decided this year to make it a requirement for my 8th grade students to have a Delicious account. Each week I give them websites that they are required to bookmark and we take a look at each site briefly. Students the tag these sites as “school.” I guess I am thinking that they are creating a collection of useful sites that they will be able to use throughout high school and beyond. I am not sure they will in fact utilize their Delicious Accounts, but even if one student does it will be worth it to me. So far I am having them bookmark their electronic portfolio (yes, part of my class is having students create a Google Site), my website, Glogster, Wordle, Voice Thread, Citation Machine, PicNik, Google Doc, and Easy Bib. I am looking for other suggestions. Do you have any?

I was just introduced to the website Ed Heads I was a little leary about this site, but it turned out to be super cool and my students LOVE it!!!!! It’s a virtual surgery site in which you are taught medical terms and actually get to operate on a hip, knee, etc. It’s very kid friendly and appropriate.