The long awaited final project!

Hello everyone, and thank you for following along in my journey to create my curriculum page.  I hope you enjoy the final product available at this link: http://eme5050-curriculum-page.wikispaces.com/ 

I look forward from hearing from all of you regarding it's content and how well you think it would work in a classroom.

Thanks,

Alex

Rubric, the all in one tool!

AR 7

I LOVE RUBRICS!  I hope that was clear for everyone.  :)

I suppose I have to substantiate the reason that I love rubrics, and that is something I am happy to do.

The first reason I love rubrics is that they give you an objective way to grade and assess student’s work.  This does not just include presentation projects, but also ‘regular’ graded projects (essays, book reports, etc.).  The rubric gives you as a teacher a way to go through each project and check off each of the important pieces of the presentation and make sure that they meet the specified standard.

The second reason I love a good rubric is that it takes the element of ‘surprise’ out of grading for everyone involved.  The teacher knows what is expected, the student knows what is expected and the students’ parents can see ahead of time what it is their student needs to do to achieve a good grade on their class work.  There is none of that “will my teacher like this” or “I wonder what my teacher meant when she/he said to do …” or my favorite “Why did my child get this grade?”  It is all there in black and white ahead of time!

Now, the key to making sure these two steps are really that effective is to go over the rubric when you first assign the project with your students.  Then show the students an example of a good presentation and a bad presentation (if possible from previous students).  This way everyone in the class can see what each element is meant to look like.  At that point the teacher can address any questions the students might have regarding the project or the clarity of the rubric.

Rubrics are a two-in-one solution.  They are instructions and a grading scale all in one.  To this end my presentation example has been added to my Curriculum page as well as my rubric (see below to view).

I’ll be honest, I used a teacher tool to create mine (I mentioned it in a different blog).  It is by far my favorite rubric site (I’ve used a few and this one I like the best).  The site is called RubiStar, and it gives you the opportunity to choose a grade level, a subject matter, and even different ‘typical’ assignments within each subject matter.  Surprisingly to me a digital story was one of the available options.

Once you pick all from all the categories you end up with a blank rubric.  On the left there are a number of cells and you can pick from the suggested list of categories (that already have pre-written descriptions) or you can choose to name something on your own.  The other really neat tool is that even if you pick a pre-designed category you can still change what each description says to match your curriculum needs.

You can also choose the weight point each category will get (on the top of each column).  I feel this tool is so customizable that it’s virtually adjustable to any project.  And the fact that there are different pre designed categories give you (as an educator) a hint on what types of questions/categories you want your students to achieve in this project.  I know for me it gave me two ideas that I had wanted to represent but I wasn’t sure how to grade within the project (flow and purpose).

Saving the final rubric into a word document is not too hard (you first save it as an excel sheet and then transfer it over to word document).  After that it was just a matter of uploading it to my wiki page as a file for students to view and download for their final project!

So please, read, review, and comment.  Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.  Keep in mind; this is a project for the first week of a Spanish class in high school.  The editting is a bit funky, for that I apollogize. 

Digital Storytelling: ¿Quién soy yo?
Teacher Name: Mrs. Stewart
Student Name:     ________________________________________
CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Point of View - Purpose	Establishes a purpose early on and maintains a clear focus throughout.	Establishes a purpose early on and maintains focus for most of the presentation.	There are a few lapses in focus, but the purpose is fairly clear.	It is difficult to figure out the purpose of the presentation.
Images	Images create a distinct atmosphere or tone that matches different parts of the story. The images may communicate symbolism and/or metaphors.	Images create an atmosphere or tone that matches some parts of the story. The images may communicate symbolism and/or metaphors.	An attempt was made to use images to create an atmosphere/tone but it needed more work. Image choice is logical.	Little or no attempt to use images to create an appropriate atmosphere/tone.
Duration of Presentation	Length of presentation was 3 minutes.	Length of presentation was 2-3 minutes.	Length of presentation was 2 minutes.	Presentation was less than 2 minutes long OR more than 5 minutes.
Grammar	Grammar and usage were correct (for Spanish) and contributed to clarity, style and character development.	Grammar and usage were typically correct (for Spanish) and errors did not detract from the story.	Grammar and usage were typically correct for Spanish but errors detracted from story.	Repeated errors in grammar and usage distracted greatly from the story.
Spanish Words	There were at least 3 Spanish words per slide/image that helps in the description and story flow.	There are 2 Spanish words per slide/image that help in the description and flow of the digital story.	There is 1 Spanish word per slide/image that helps in the description and flow of the digital story.	There are no Spanish words in the presentation. OR the words used are not related to the slide/image they are associated with.
Economy	The story is told with exactly the right amount of detail throughout. It does not seem too short nor does it seem too long.	The story composition is typically good, though it seems to drag somewhat OR need slightly more detail in one or two sections.	The story seems to need more editing. It is noticeably too long or too short in more than one section.	The story needs extensive editing. It is too long or too short to be interesting or clear.
Use of approved technology	The presentation was presented to the class using a previously approved medium.			The presentation was presented to the class using a non-approved medium.

Mi ejemplo (my example)

AR 6

My example

I found this week’s activity to be very similar to the one we did a few weeks ago, where we used a Prezi to make a presentation.  And to be honest, that was what I thought I would use for this example… then I ran into a problem.  The Prezi still would not play sound, and it did not like half the pictures I wanted to use for some reason (formatting issues).  Plus, I was still having a very hard time having it only zoom on what I wanted to.  It turns out that when you have pictures and text at the same time it tends to want to focus on only part of the picture, no matter how small I made the picture or grouped the information.

I got frustrated and started to do the digital storytelling example on PowerPoint, thinking that a different (easier) perspective on the project might help me organize my ideas a bit better.  I wanted the darn thing to be of a reasonable length, and I could have done that easily, but I realized it’s an example, so I limited it to a small number of slides.   They have lots of visual references so that my English speaking students wouldn’t be completely lost with all the Spanish text.  This would also show the students a good way of making the presentation eye catching; so that I didn’t have all pictures or all text when the time came to evaluate the project.

After I was done with the PowerPoint, I still wanted to use a digital share site, so I took the advice that Kelvin had given us a few weeks ago and I played around with a few other sites that were given to us as an option to originally create our digital storytelling presentation.  I ended up using Empress.  Empress is a free program to use like Prezi, and it has a lot of cool features (including easy to add sound), and it uploads existing PowerPoint presentations without much hassle (my last slide wouldn’t upload due to the size of the JPG – so the class doesn’t get to see my son).  But most importantly, Empress makes it easy to share my presentation with my blog and with my wiki!

And so without further delay, here is my Empress example that is also available on my Wiki page.

PS: In case you are interested, the son is "Dejame Entrar" (Let me in) by Carlos Vives.  He's a Colombian artist that was born and raised near where I was... plus, I just love that song! 

AR 5: Introduciendo a ____. (Introducing you)!

AR 5

Creating a Curriculum Page

I will admit this freely, I have no earthly clue what I was doing when I finished reading the weekly assignment module.  I actually waited until now to see examples of others first before I dove into creating my own page.  I’m still not 100% sure that I’ve got it all done (but I figure I can tweak it and not get into too much trouble between now and the end of the semester).  And yet, I am now the proud owner of a Wiki Curriculum page… YAY for me!

It’s in Spanglish if you must know, but I’ve translated the important parts to English for my future students (the EME class is pretending to be them… correct?).  I’ve got graphics, text, and web links!  I’m so proud of myself; it’s hard to believe it only took me about 3 hours in the dead of the night to get it done. 

But I digress.  This activity reflection is regarding how my experience went… so here we go.  (Just so everyone is clear, I’m using Wikispaces.com)

It was awful!  I apparently did NOT follow directions well, and did half the page wrong the first time.  Turns out I was not creating new pages, but renaming my pages to different titles.  So if you clicked on HOME you got my page on lesson plans, or if you clicked introduction you got my reference page.  It was terrible.  I then tried to use the help feature to fix it.  It was useless!  I couldn’t make heads or tails of what I had done, so fixing it was out of the question.  After about 30 min. of this frustrating experience I decided it wasn’t worth it, and chucked my whole page worth of work and started a new one. 

This was MUCH better.  I already knew what I wanted to write, and how I wanted to format each page.  And I had already uploaded my pictures/clip art to the wiki platform (which so nicely keeps this handy for you).  To be honest the hardest part of the uploading process was getting my Wordle (wordle.com) page to be saved as a .JIF (you have to do a screen shot, and fix it with paint, save it, finally upload it).  The rest of the images I found using Iclip and Google’s free clip art search.  [I would like it noted I’m integrating tons of stuff here.] 

I did go ahead and fill in some of the pages that I created, since I had either a) already done the work for it, or b) found it really easy to fill in.  Therefore you can clearly see completed the following pages: home, introduction, digital resources, and my rubric (I have a rubric tool, it’s amazing and it’s at: rubistar.4teachers.org - use it well).  This still leaves the lesson plan/standards page, and my example to do.  But this gives me time to spell check (accents won’t show on the wiki and I’m sure I’ve made mistakes), and tweak portions of the Curriculum page as I see fit. 

So after another hour or so of this, I feel like I’ve accomplished what I needed to do for this week’s work.  So, without further a due, I give you my Curriculum Page … please review!!

A not so boring first week of school

Reading Reaction #5

The routine of the first week of school is pretty much drab.  You go to your classes; you get assigned a book or books, maybe a seat too.  You get a packet of rules and a list of stuff you have to buy for next week.  You get your affairs in order, get a locker, maybe change up your schedule, and you are at some point forced to go around the class and say something about yourself.

In my dream…

I finally have my own classroom in High School, and I eagerly expect the arrival of my Spanish 1 kids (9-12 grades).  We go through the basic attendance routine and then we come to the boring part of the day, or so they think!  For instead of standing in front of the class and letting them listen to me talk about myself and what I expect from them I have a surprise.  I’ve been working all summer on a cute 3-5 min. Prezi that encompasses my background and what I expect of my students this year.  This presentation along with my PowerPoint of classroom rules should definitely be different than what they are use to. 

After I do my little presentation I turn the lights back on, and I ask the class “How many noticed that was all in Spanish?” (Clearly imagining results here) The class mostly answers that they didn’t notice, because they thought the video was full of interesting tid bits. 

And this is where the fun really begins.  While I do ask my students to tell me their name and grade level, I also want to dive in right away in showing them that this Spanish class is going to be fun and different.   Therefore I break the cardinal rule of the first day of school, and have an assignment for them.  I want them to create a little digital story of who they are, and have it ready for class on Monday.  It needs to have text in Spanish, and I have a rubric for them to follow.  The rest of the week we’ll do fun stuff in class to get them to have ideas for their project, and they can bring in questions by Thursday to me so that they can be on track for turning in their assignment after the weekend.  They can even share what they’ve done so far with friends on Friday so that they can peer edit the information.

A very detailed rubric would be essential to my students in guiding the creation of their digital storytelling project.  Giving students and example and a brief synopsis leaves a Great Wall’s worth of ideas and directions that students could still take.  Without a detailed rubric I’d be afraid of my students lacking content, using inappropriate content, lacking focus, using too much of one media and not enough of the others, or even missing the mark all together.  I feel that it’s important for students know what is fully expected of them, and a rubric is a great way to do this.  Plus, if I’m upfront with what I want to see and why this can be useful outside of the Spanish classroom, it is my hope they would see the usefulness in the project and maybe use it in their other courses. 

I would recommend to my students to use Prezi, PowerPoint, or any other digital media to produce their storytelling projects.  I would require students to pick a digital software tool by Wednesday so that I could review any sites I was unfamiliar with for their application in the class.  I would require text in the target language (Spanish), as well as pictures and/or video, lastly I would give my students the opportunity for sound –although it would not be required.  This presentation would have to be available either through removable media or the internet for the class to view, and be less than 5 minutes long. 

For the storytelling project to be successful, I feel that there would be two kinds of resources my students would need to complete their projects.  One resource would be language oriented and the other would be technology oriented.

For the language I would have my students use any of the following sites to translate or research the words/phrases they would want to use for their project presentation.  (After all this is the first week of school, I don’t expect them to have any significant Spanish vocabulary!)  These sites contain a wealth of information and in one case how to pronounce the words/sentences too!

Spanish Dictionary (http://www.spanishdict.com) – This site has single word and whole phrase translation, video tutorials on grammar and syntax, pronunciation aids, as well as fun ‘games’ to help you retain the vocabulary further.

I would also highly recommend the web site for whichever book the class was using, as they normally have resources on vocabulary, conjugation, verb usage, etc.

The class would also have available to them –through me- the use of my vocabulary dictionary.  This book (Mastering Spanish Vocabulary: A thematic approach by Navarro and Navarro-Ramil) breaks Spanish vocabulary into thematic units and places all the necessary words together so as to aid complete a project with relative ease.  If necessary I could make copies of the particular theme unit available to all my students. 

For technical help, my students would first have to choose which software application they would be using to present their digital storytelling projects to the class.  The following are a few sites that have the available resources for a good story telling project that are also free to use for everyone.

Prezi.com –This site has tutorials, educational resources, and a slew of other tools to help students create a fun digital storytelling project.

How to use PowerPoint (http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpoint101/PowerPoint_101_How_to_Use_PowerPoint.htm)  - This site helps students work through different aspects of PowerPoint with easy step by step directions and illustrations depending on their PowerPoint version. 

Empress (http://www.empressr.com) - This site looks like a ton of fun, and it has the option to embed your presentation in a multitude of social media and blog programs (perfect for your interactive students)! 

… back to reality.

This assignment is on the one hand tons of fun for me, and on the other hand very difficult for me.  I have a million ideas on what to do the first week of school.  I want to engage my students; I want them to understand that in my classroom they will be active participants in their education and that I am there to facilitate the expansion of their horizons through a new language.  Very idealistic, I know… but it is who I am as a person.  In my previous career I was one of the most open and willing to help supervisors the company had, and for that reason I feel my staff flourished (the nice awards we racked up helped to back up my theory).  I want my students to feel that they can flourish in my classroom too! 

An effective way to accomplish this goal for me is to use digital media to the fullest extent in my class.  I want to provide my students with authentic learning opportunities, and connect them to a world of learning outside the classroom.  I cannot imagine we would ever have the budge to take a trip to a Spanish speaking country to immerse them in the culture and have them see how it’s not so different.  But through digital media I can do that in the classroom.  Students can find sites related to their interest in Spanish, they can take virtual tours with me of towns, cities, museums, etc. all in Spanish.  They can explore the world the 2-D book introduces them to.  And they can make friends online with kids their own age who live in Spanish speaking countries. 

The chapter we read in our book this week reminds us of how important a resource technology can be in a classroom.  We as educators can use a myriad of resources to help bring our point across to our students in a multitude of ways so as to aid them connect the dots easier.  Our students are immersed in technology from the moment they wake up, and I feel it would make it an easier transition for the day if their school day had the same interwoven goal to learning.  The resources are out there, we just have to be brave enough to go find them!

This is a different kind of story...

AR 4

This is different than a slide show

This week’s assignment was different for me.  I’ve done Power Point presentations in the past.  I’m not fantastic at it, but I’ve done enough that I figured I’d try one of the new options.  The first option (Slideshare) seemed pretty neat.  The idea that you can tweak away on your computer and then take the ‘clicking’ away from the slide show and make it into something cool was interesting to me.  But I wasn’t sure how I could make it work… or if I wanted to do the Power Point first.  Then there were the few problems with uploading that my classmates seemed to have with it.  Honestly, that turned me off.

So I moved onto Prezi.  I’ve seen it in action before (in this class and in others).  So, I looked on the site, and I chose the free educator’s version.  You get an upgrade on the MB storage and a couple of extra features.  And since all you need is an .edu email, why not?  Lucky for me/us the knights email we have to have anyways counts.  Whala! Free Prezi account.

The creation process was fun.  For me it flowed a lot like a mind web I often use when planning out projects.  It was also a bit chaotic due to being able to move all the pieces so much.  I wanted to make sure that I sort of organized the information so that when the screened flew around the audience didn’t get lost.  Also, there was the problem that the images and the text weren’t automatically linked… but that can be worked around.

I knew what I wanted to do.  I wanted to show a few little phrases that told you (the audience) why digital story telling is engaging and fun, and really the way to go to keep students interest.  Then I wanted to have a cute little example of how Prezi can put on a rudimentary presentation.  I picked something easy; reviewing the colors of the rainbow in Spanish.  The mini-lesson also includes the names of the shapes the colors are in as a review (brining in that previous knowledge to keep it active).

The Prezi has lots of visuals for my visual learners.  And then I ran into a problem.  I want sound.  Turns out the instructions for sound gave me a head ache!  Seems there is some sort of issue with it and the formatting you need is a bit tricky.  I’m sure this is just a case of me needing more experience with Prezi.  To me it seems that there are a few ‘tricks’ with this program that are for a more advance user.  No worries, I’ll become said advance user before week 11.  I promise sound by then!

I’m actually going to use this program to do a project in another class this semester.  It’s an option available that I had originally dismissed, and due to this project I’m intrigued enough to want to use it.  The description was apt; this does ‘blow your mind.’  And I know it’s a different presentation tool for the students who are so use to seeing their teachers show them Power Point slides.  That right there is enough for me to give this tool a few more tries.  I have to figure a few more things out, but so far, I’m happy with how this works.

Therefore, I ask you to watch my presentation…  (Bring on the comments!  I want to know if anyone remembers their Spanish colors)

Imaginary classrooms in Z school

Reading Reaction Z - Week 7

My computer background:

After reading chapter 4 in our book, I found it to be helpful in reminding me of some options for the peripheral hardware and the upgrades in USB technology/capacity; but overall I’m pretty familiar with the inner workings of a computer.  I’ve built or rebuilt several desktops over the years; either due to a need to upgrade or to save some money.  I also seem to be beyond the basic level of help offered by the ‘help line’ of the computer assistance… the last few times I’ve called they’ve had to transfer me to a specialist in California (so there is the bonus of no strong accents to decipher).  Even then it was a waste of time and I had to just crash and re-install the OS on the desktop (luckily we have two external backup drives at home so nothing was lost).  I have been known to upgrade the RAM, add a TV card, upgrade the modem (forever ago when you used one), and a fan; but I’ve never messed with the processor.

 I also set up the wireless network in our home to include the two laptops, the desk top, and the Wii having internet access and networked all 3 computers so that I can access data from any of the PCs on the one I’m currently on.  This is very convenient when I’m uploading pictures and they are still on the desktop or they are on one of the backup drives.  My husband also finds this a very convenient option when he wants to upgrade the fuel ratios on his car (the second laptop) and wants to save the run results on the desktop for further analysis.  I am by no means an expert on hardware and software, but I’ve mastered the basics and when I do run into a wall it’s usually something major that requires a lot of help – or a new computer! 

The cool imaginary classroom:

This is what my classroom computer has.  It’s a Dell laptop, it was purchased not too long ago to help facilitate my moving from room to room inside the school.  As a Spanish teacher, and the newest member of the staff I don’t have my own classroom yet.  But the school was great at providing me with a good mobile ‘desk’.    

Operating System:  Windows Vista, Home Premium. Processing Speed: Pentium-R, Dual CPU, T4200 @2.00 GHz.  Memory (RAM): 2 GB. Screen Resolution: 1366 x 768, 32 bits of color. Video Card: Generic PnP Monitor on Mobile Intel ® 4 Series Express Chipset Family. Removable Media Options:  1 network cable port, 1 monitor/peripheral port, 3 USB ports, 1 DVD/DVRW, 1 SD card reader slot, microphone and head phone jacks. 

As far as the software acquisition for my classroom, my principal has given me the funds and I have decided to purchase: Kids Spanish, published by Promotions.  The program is available at a reasonable price with all the options from www.k12software.com.  This program is a great way to introduce concepts to my students and has many interactive tools to keep my students engaged in their learning.  The program has the following requirements according to the web site:

Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista; 486 or better processor; 16 MB RAM; 10 MB free hard disk space; 640x480 monitor, 256 colors; 16-bit sound card & speakers; Microphone (not included); CD-ROM drive. 

My computer has the right Operating System and processor.  I have plenty of RAM and hard disk space, I can adjust the monitor settings and the sound card is up to speed.  I have a microphone from my mobile class cart, and the CD-ROM is ready to roll.  Installation was relatively easy.  

My first real concern was my microphone not being up to date, but the USB worked just fine on the backwards compatible USB 2.0 on my computer (as mentioned in Ch. 4 of our book).  This allowed my students to be able to pronounce and practice along with the software (one of its best features) and pass the microphone around so that everyone could have an equal opportunity to participate. 

I was also able to use a USB cable to hook-up my computer to the classroom projector.  That way I was able to project the image from my screen onto the whiteboard in the classroom.  My only real problem was adjusting the screen resolution, my highest available setting (where it normally resides) made the screen too small, and I had to adjust it so as to make it viewable to the students from their seats easily.  This took a bit of time and tweaking, but I was finally able to get it to fit the whiteboard and be viewable for everyone. 

I am very excited about the possibilities this program gives to my students for introduction of new material, as well as review of material before their unit tests.  Plus, the voice practice options available with the microphone are a great way to do practical tests on their pronunciation and sentence construction in a low anxiety environment. 

Here I am hidding behind the trash can!

AR #3

Online persona

I was a teenage girl once.  I don’t say this to point out the obvious; I say this because it’s very relevant to our discussion.  As a teenage girl I attended middle school, and I am not ashamed to say I was a geek… not a particularly liked geek either.  And as any teenage middle school girl will tell you, other teenage middle school girls can be mean!  Their favorite weapon, humiliation.  Easiest way to achieve said humiliation is a rumor based on a blatant, yet believable lie.  These lies can cause all sorts of trouble, spread quickly and can follow you for years, even when proven to be wrong.  After all, what is easier to remember… the boring truth or the juicy lie? 

Whether we know it or not, this humiliation at the hand or our ‘friends’ is probably the first encounter any of us have in our reputation being ruined/injured within our community.  You can think of a middle school as a medium size village; you kind of know everyone by face, but you don’t really know everyone well enough to know what can be or cannot be true.  In other words these girls have figured out what Solove was warning us about regarding our reputations and how fragile said reputation can be.  The injury to your reputation can be relatively easy to fix, or seemingly impossible to repair until you move onto a bigger pool… high school. 

The internet can be a mean middle school teenage girl.  Luckily I am now old enough to see most of it coming.  That is why I am rather paranoid about the online portion of my life.  I’m a fan of virus protection; I regularly monitor my wireless internet to make sure it is secure.  Because, I live in different spheres, compartmentalizing my private life from what I want the public to know of me.  Working at a bank for years and actively participating in identity theft investigations makes you paranoid too!

Social networking features (blogs, wikis, tweets, etc.) are now a day’s easy to set up (as mentioned in our chapter reading), and almost instrumental in our societal contact with our friends, family, colleagues, etc.  How does it apply to me?  After all, I’ll be a public school teacher (positive thinking starts early!).  Brevard County gives teachers space on the individual’s schools web sites for teachers to set up their own classroom site… something I plan on using extensively to communicate with my students and their parents. 

I plan on linking my Google profile(click here ),  and my blogs to my future teacher web page, so that I might give my students further insight into who is teaching them, Spanish as a language and how it applies to their lives outside school.  [The profile would obviously have to be updated before this.]  Blogs can and should be public; otherwise, why are you writing a blog?  My Facebook page is a bit different.  Mine is very private (security measures to the max and I check for upgrades frequently).  Why you ask… it is a social networking site after all.  Yes it is, but I use it for my family social networking.  I have lots of cousins in various countries all over the world; Facebook is just easier than 19 emails about the same information.  My sister works with individuals who have a mental illness and a drug problem; she set up both our security systems on it so that we can’t be found easily. *grin*   I’ve yet to get a wiki or a Tweeter account, so I can’t comment on those mediums. 

So, I straddle the fence.  I am willing to allow some of my information out there.  Allowing my students and their parents (and anyone browsing the web for an older Canadian actress with my name according to Google) to get to know me a bit better.  But I’ve drawn the line at my family pictures and names.  And in my opinion, that’s ok.  There should be some sort of buffer between who the world at large sees and who I get to be at home and/or with my family and friends.  After all, we are all entitled to some place where we can let our hair down and relax just a little bit.  I know that sounds silly since all these places I describe are online, but think about it… nowhere is now offline, a phone can take your picture picking your nose at a stop light just as easily as someone can Google a bad email you sent to the wrong person 10 years ago… no one’s reputation is 100% safe.

 

Oh Excel we meet again...

Activity Reflection #2

I approached this week like I do all others… I read the module first (gives you a good overview and resources), I then read the chapter assigned to us in our textbook (again, informative, but not too much info. I didn’t know before), then I opened the PDF for the activity.  I then swallowed a cry, my nemesis has reared its head again… that’s right people, I do not get along with Excel!  You might say we have a hate – hate relationship, permanently.  The darn formulas never work right for me, even with all the helpful tutorials…

Ok, deep breath; I figure I should at least read the instructions before I go into full panic mode and have to sequester myself in a room and cry before I can do my homework. 

Ok, I can do step 1, I’m comfortable editing the context on just about any document format.  Step 2, no problem, I can insert columns, rows, cells… shoot I could have done a dancing dragon insert, that’s not my problem.  Ah… steps 3, 4, and 5 is where I have a small heart attack.  As I mentioned I can create a column and name it whatever you want it, but the formulas and I are so NOT on the same page.  So I asked the ‘help’ feature for help… didn’t like it.  I looked at the neat resources on our module, helpful, but again, not quite making sense to my non-Excel friendly brain. 

So what is one to do?  Easy, do it the hard way.  Therefore the first cell of each column had the ‘average’ function placed into it and after making sure the correct cells were selected and the end result (the product for the math teachers out there) was confirmed to be correct by my trusty cell phone calculator, I copy and special pasted the formula only onto the remaining 30 cells for that column.  Repeat process for the next two rows (obviously changing which values were to be averaged).  Grand total 30 minutes of messing with the Excel spreadsheet. 

Steps 6-8 were easy enough to do (I can sort no problem, I can highlight and bold and I can sure as hell copy and paste my way out of any pesky issues like names!).  Was this the most effective way to do our homework?  Probably not.  Was it the most effective way for me? YES!  What happened to step 9?  Answer: step 9 is the reason I don’t have an accounting degree, even with the hint it have me a head ache.

I know what Kelvin will most likely say.  Mrs. Stewart, you need to know how to use these tools to be able to effectively judge your students and to have numerical data to back up your results (the parents/principals like that sort of concrete data).  I know this, I need to play with Excel some more.  I admit, due to my lack of success with all previous attempts at it, I have not been a fan and therefore avoid it like the plague.  But I know what challenges are ahead and how important Excel type programs are in education.  I’ll have to sit through a few more tutorials and play with it some more.  Although I will say that Brevard County uses a similarish program but it’s not Excel (you can add columns and stuff on it too), so I can’t run away from it.  Maybe next semester when I see it every day during my internship I’ll feel better about it.  Until then I cringe at the thought of Excel formulas in my future.

So what did I learn regarding this week’s homework?  I learned that if need be I can actually do an Excel assignment without a mental break down.  I learned that I can’t run away from something just because I don’t like it (this lesson keeps coming around more and more as a grown up, irritating really).  I learned there are good resources out there, I might just have to be more patient with them (bookmarked said resources will go back to them later on to play with Excel).  I also learned that the students in the spreadsheet while not superb where doing ok (as per the graph chart I later made out of the results). And hopefully from your comments I will learn that I am not alone in my fear of Excel. 

Let me dock!

Ah the internet… like a persimmon tree it has a multitude of branches we can peruse at our leisure, it can provide us with the fruit of the gods or the fruit of temptation.  We navigate through it sometimes with a purpose, other times out of boredom.  But we are allowed to navigate… that is, until we get to school.  Then the ports of interested are (sometimes) closed.   Frustration ensues as one finds themselves knowing where the desired information is, but finding a firewall or nanny program keeping us away.                          

Now, you might believe this attitude means I support everyone having access to everything at all times.  That is not the case.  There are a) limits and b) circumstances we have to keep vigilant of.  Not only do we live in a highly litigious society, but as educators we have a responsibility to our students and to our community to not harm our students with information available to us by web-based resources (kind of like doctors but without the paycheck).  Our chapter reading was very clear on what our responsibilities are and how we should go about attaining the appropriate results.  And like most textbooks it is erring on the side of caution. 

It is at this cautious intersection that I find the wisdom of Dr. Poole on the subject a bit of a calming reference.  Dr. Poole’s article “Risks involved in integrating the internet into the K-12 curriculum” (2009), points to 8 risks and good, usable, school friendly solutions to these potential risks.   The list includes inappropriate material, cyber bullying, and inaccurate information.  It also touches on a topic that I found interesting… wasted time due to teacher inefficiency with resources… a topic I feel is the reason for this entire course.

And while I can see both sides of the coin, my gut tells me it is ethically inappropriate to cage our educators into a corner and expect them to perform their jobs while not allowed the tools and resources that are available for FREE to aid them in their quest to further the knowledge of their students!  (For those of you who have taken Ethics at UCF, I’m using Dr. Nash 3^rd language for this statement)

A good solution for me would be what my old job did for the staff.  Everyone had limited internet and intranet access, so that they could assist customers with basic questions and they could take required tests/courses online.  The supervisors were given a higher level of flexibility with in the network and were allowed access to quite a few popular web sites (YouTube, Facebook, and most emails were still off limits), and then the directors were given open access to the internet.  We all had sign ins and if you were found to have broken the internet usage protocol there were a series of steps to be taken for reprimand (first an email and a meeting, then something in writing, then a downgrade in access, etc.).  Why can’t we do that for teachers?  Continue to keep restrictions available for students and follow Federal regulations (the funding for all public libraries including schools are tied and require there be a filter program), but allowing teachers to access the information they need without hindrance and just punish those who aren’t adult enough to follow the rules! 

Plus, we are educators; we should educate our students on how to navigate the internet (Drexler’s video mentioned this, so does the PEW Institute’s research on internet usage in the 21^st century, as well as the national standards for internet usage that our textbook uses as a focus).  Scaffold it, it’s not an all access pass all at once – for some reason in education there seems to be an all or nothing mentality that applies to technology usage; the reality of slow and steady progression depending on age and maturity level seems to be lost once you are out of the ‘school’ level.  We don’t set our kids on their feet at 6 months and expect them to walk!  They crawl, they pull, they toddle, and THEN they walk… why is it so different with the internet access at school?

In the mean time, we need to make sure that we allow accessed teachers at the very least, and allow them to decide what is appropriate for their class of students.  It’s frustrating when you can’t access your homework at school because your blog is blocked!  If your instructor is setting it up, it needs to be available to the students… some sort of network/password protection issue maybe? Let progression come at its own pace, if we are good parents and good educators we can model good behavior for our kids and thus allow them to learn to use the internet in a productive and progressive way. 

 

PS: I know at times this whole thing seemed a bit disjointed, but I greatly dislike the fact that as adults we are given fewer freedoms than our students.  After all, they can hack the system in 5 minutes flat; we need to call IT and Congress before we can get something to work on the classroom computer!  I am not condoning hacking either; I’m just not naïve enough to believe it happens ‘rarely if ever’… ha!

References:                                                                                                                                                                                      

Nash, R. J. (2002) “Real World” Ethics.  Teachers College Press, New York, NY. 

Poole, B. (2009) Risks involved in integrating the internet into the K-12 curriculum.  Retrieved on September 20, 2010.   http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/poole/poole018.shtml

We network in our sleep (Week 3)

Reading Reflection #2

I wake up in the morning, I check on my son (he sleeps in, I’m lucky), I make sure there is water in the dog bowl and that Seth goes outside.  While he’s protecting our backyard from wayward squirrels that dare invade his territory I turn on my laptop.  Within minutes Seth is back in and I’m in front of my laptop looking at my homepage (CNN international news).  I then check my two emails (personal and school), then I check on my Facebook page to make sure nothing fun and excited happened while I was sleeping.  My next stop is usually the portal for my web classes where I check to see if anything is due, or was graded and what my classmates are doing.  At this point I set to work on whatever is first on my priority list and do as much as I can before the call for breakfast interrupts me. 

As we are all taking at least one web class, I’m going to go out on a limb and say we all have some variant of this routine for ourselves.  We do these things automatically, like pouring out the cereal into a bowl or turning on the stereo in the car… most times we never give it a second thought. 

But after reading the second chapter in our book I can tell you that I (and you with your routine) just interacted with at least 5 if not more Internet functions.  I turn on my computer and it automatically searches and finds the Wi-Fi in my home, it uses that to connect to the internet via a cable modem.  I in turn use my ‘home page’ to read the news and view videos of stories I find interesting.  I then check my email, and then connect with family and friends via a social networking site.  Lastly I enter a different kind of social networking site which is a cross between several different internet services (blogging, video/audio, cooperative learning environment, test module, poll center, etc.) to see what my classmates are doing. 

It is within this interactive classroom environment that I feel that the “Networked Student” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA) by Wendy Drexler has the most impact on my life.  Like the student in her video, I have a class with no textbook (not this one), and I do all my research for it online.  Viewing blogs, journal web sites, educational web sites and pick my friends brains to do my research and my projects.  And I’m a technology immigrant!  (Or so our book would like me to believe)  I keep track of all this information (as I mentioned in my previous blog) with my *favorites* option on my web navigation window – aka. Internet Explorer (that is my one divergence from the video; I don’t like the web sites that can do this for you). 

And this is also where I agree with the soon to be Dr. Drexler, this interconnectivity within the community of the web is the future, not only for our students, but for ourselves.  Whether we know it or not we are all slowly coming into it … what do you think Facebook is?  We share, we collect, and we look for the things we are interested for on the web; join communities of like minded individuals without discriminating on gender, race, or world location.  We don’t even ask this stuff most of the time!  This is just the example of an adult with a bit of web savvy and who has an interest (isn’t that practically all of us?).  

Now think about our students, and their innate ability to do what we consider work in a heartbeat, with no effort and with every benefit imaginable.  They were practically born into doing what we just spent a chapter reading and a 5 minute video learning about without trying.  They do this whether it’s for math class or for finding out what the coolest cell phone cover.  Our students live in a world where connectivity is the norm and anything else is an oddity.  That is why some of them find school so hard, there is no connectivity, they don’t see how today’s lecture in science relates to tomorrows lecture in history.  We have to make these connections more obvious for them, help them to see that it all does really matter and that it will eventually help to remember who Einstein is and what he did.  But in doing so we have to also help our students learn how to find this information within a reliable accredited source, not just what ‘Becky’ posted on her Tweet last night. 

 I believe Drexler has the right idea.  We (as educators) are the ones who teach our students how to learn, what is appropriate and inappropriate on the internet.  We should teach our students how looking for information outside of the ‘traditional’ classroom is fun and does not need to stop just because the year is over.  If you are interested in something there is no reason you shouldn’t be able to keep up with it throughout your life.  And after all, that is all we want students to do, learn to love to learn.  Even if all they want to learn about is how to beat their new computer game. 

So many sites, so little space in my blog (week 2)

At first glance I was confused about this activity reflection… How concise was I supposed to be?  I’m a verbose person by nature; this is going to be hard. 

While doing the textbook reading I noticed there are some pretty extensive lists of sites between the Ch. 2 special feature and the later Appendix B pages.  I happily dove in to investigating the web through both my trusty Google search engine (I’m a big Google fan, I figured out how to work it long ago and it gives me what I want and tells me how fast it did it in!), and through the directory search feature of the web sites I was already in (another feature I love, because some web sites are so convoluted I need the site map to get to what I want).

I started with the Florida Department of Education (www.fldoe.org).  I wanted to see if they had uploaded the latest World language SSS… nope, still pending.  I got to see a rough draft thanks to the nice people at FFLA (Florida Foreign Language Association – www.ffla.us/).  They sent us (their members) a review link to ALL the Florida Standards that are being updated and that YOU as an individual can review (link to it is here… take a go at them http://etc.usf.edu/flstandards/index.html )... I’ll let my sarcastic tone speak for how I feel about some of the ‘revisions’… 

The FL DOE site also had a really nice ‘student’ section and a good search feature.  I’ve spent a lot of time on this site over the last few months (my summer classes might as well have listed it as a required text!), and therefore felt pretty comfortable navigating the site.  And my overall feeling is that it is very easy to use.

Surprisingly the DOE site is much easier to navigate than the Brevard County site (http://www.brevard.k12.fl.us/); which while trying to be user friendly has put so many links on its site I find it distracting.  I, again, spend a lot of time on this site; as it is my county and I was trying to find a job this summer.  I do admit that once you get use to it it’s not bad to navigate around… but until then you might click on 30 things before you find what you want.  And the search feature is not very refined so it might not lead you to anything of use. 

I found the Department of Education (www.doe.gov) site to be very useful, and it had a ton of resources for everyone (educators, parents, kids), with links that I felt were pretty well organized and easy to follow to other fun sites.  That was my biggest problem… I could follow links for days!  That’s how I ended up in the Smithsonian’s web site, so many cool lesson plans, and a pretty virtual tour you could take your class through.  It has already been added to my favorites list! 

I then went onto the sites the AR instructions recommended we see and decided to review the following sites:

A to Z Teacher Stuff – atozteacherstuff.com

First, I liked the name of this web site, seemed pretty comprehensive and catchy.  I was not disappointed in the sense that the structure of the web site was easy to follow.  The search feature even had several different options for how and what you wanted to search for (including a Google link).  I was disappointed that yet again this is a site for the ‘core’ subjects and some electives are left out.  It would be nice to have the foreign languages included in a site like this.   

Kid’s Search Tools – www.rcls.org/ksearch.htm

I thought this was a fantastic site!   As a parent you don’t have to worry that the magical web suddenly bring up a picture or a site your child should not see, and as an educator you can feel safe in the knowledge that you’ve directed your students to a safe site.  The only down side is that this site can be seen as pretty child like for more experienced users (and that can be your average 8 year old), so the appeal may not be there for the older students.  But in a classroom, where you need to search for something in front of your students and don’t want any surprises this would be a great tool.  (This would never actually happen as we have all read our text book and the Online users guide for educators and know that we should preview ALL sites before we let the students see it… but just in case…)  I also like the fact that the site has specific division and you can type in your search depending on the type of information you need to find. 

The Gateway to Education Materials (GEM) – www.thegateway.org

At first, I thought I wasn’t going to like this site.  There was the issue that one link seemed to link to about 50 others and I couldn’t figure out how to actually SEE the activity or lesson plan each link seemed to be attached to.  Then… then I discovered this site’s search page, and everything changed.  This site has something lovely and rare in the internet world…. Instructions!  Granted it took me 3 minutes to find the instructions, but the good ones are always hard to find. J 

The instructions let you know that you can either use a subject directory for this site, and click your way to where you want to go (a rabbit hole if I ever saw one); OR you could use their handy dandy search engine feature and get a more refined list! [So nice to have the option…and to have the special feature at the end of Ch. 2 in our book (Teachers Discovery Computers by Shelly, Gunter & Gunter) to clearly define the difference between the two options.]  Once I got the hang of it really cool lesson plans, tools, and widgets just magically appeared even in my hard to find subject of Spanish!!  And the best part, you can always go back to the main page and click on *find standards*, a couple of clicks and you are all good to go.  This is one that is going on my ‘school web sites’ list. 

Talking about that, I’ve decided I will stick with my old trusty *favorites* button and the folders I’ve created within it to save any useful web site.  Not only is this feature easy for me to use on either one of the computers in my home, but I felt it was better organized that what Diigo was trying to do to my selections.  No offence, but way too much work for something that right now takes 2 clicks for me.  I’m sure I’ll get some response totting the greatness of this site and how you can access the list from anywhere, etc.  But I just did not like it.    

I feel I should wrap this up, it’s pretty long, but there was just a lot out there. 

Overall I found that the sites I did visit (when not too busy to navigate through) were very helpful to the public they were intended to use them.  The parent/children sites were often very ‘child like’ but full of substantive materials that if available to every student would be of great help to all.  Now if we could only get all students a computer with internet access and someone to help them. 

To tweet or not to tweet... it's not the question!!

The Did You Know video was not that surprising to me.  Not only am I very aware of how technology has changed drastically in the last few years, I have seen it in my own return to the classroom (there were no online classes during my undergraduate degree).  Last year my best friend’s classroom got a smart board.  When she finished the two day mandatory training she had a co-workers son play with it for 20 minutes to see how hard it was going to be to relate the technology to her students… he figured out all the features in 10 minutes, and was asking her if he could hook-up his iPod to it to show her a funny video on a bigger screen!

We as educators have to realize that as easy as it is to just plop the students in front of technology that they find entertaining (like we use to do in front of the TV), it does not mean we are helping them!  There is a happy medium out there; I am that person in constant search for it!  That happy medium requires not only a certain degree of technology but also for the teacher to help students learn how to use that technology constructively.  It is no use to know how to text and twitter and update your Facebook page if they don’t understand the moral, ethical and legal implications of sexting and cyber-bullying. 

Sometimes technology is just what is more convenient and easiest, so we dump on it and allow our curriculum to be set by it.  The hardest part is not deciding between teaching with or without technology; it is getting our students to understand why learning is important.  We as educators need to instill in our students how using current and future technology to acquire knowledge that is accurate and useful to what one needs to complete a task is going to be essential for when they ‘grow up’ and join the work force.  I worked in a business for years, and I trained many a bright young person straight out of school that complained about the computers and the networks being slow; but could not think their way out of a problem.  Those skills are just as important as being able to keep students entertained in the classroom with a fancy new web page or a twitter account. 

So I think we are doing the right thing by sometimes being cautious with the technology we introduce in our classroom, and I think we are doing the wrong thing by limiting (financially) what students see in the classroom.  That happy medium of mine requires both.  Today’s students need to understand our thought pattern regarding technology and its application in a real world scenario so that they can understand its importance in their future.