California
August 11, 2009
Like I mentioned in early posts that my family and I were planning a summer vacation to California this summer. Well it was a success.
We left at 6 am on July 28th and arrived back home late August 5t. It was a blast! Hot every day…most days where i could barely survive past noon. The last day we were there it was 36 C or about 96 F. IT was 
ridiculous hot we couldn’t even go to Disney so we stayed by the pool till supper time then went that night. Staying by the pool kept us cool to later on when I realized I was burnt to a crisp.
I did lots of shopping and walking. We also had the chance to go to an Anaheim Angels baseball game! It was very cool, had never done anything like it before. It was a great experience. On top of that we walked through the gates and everyone got a free angels t-shirt. Later found out that every couple games they give away something! So now we had angels clothing to wear to the game 
So the weather was good! (until we got home where it rained for the next 3 days.) Disney was fun like always! The shopping was good in my opinion (bought way to much) overall had an awesome trip and wish I could do it all over again tomorrow (except for the excessive walking and sore feet).
summer!
July 14, 2009
Well the so called summer is here. Which has not been the nicest so far, kind of disappointed. I have not posted a blog forever and thought I should continue to blogover the summer and so on. However, I have been very busy! I have been working 3-4 days a week even though its not full time it feels like alot. I have been in the process of looking for another part time job so i could get some more hours but haven’t really got any where with that. So on my time off I have been spending time with my family and friends.
In the past I have not been a big reader, but this summer something changed. I started a book and finished it in 4 days which I would say is a record for me! Last summer I started 2 books and got maybe 20 pages in and that was it. So far I have now read 2 WHOLE books and started my 3rd. The one i really enjoyed was called Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson it was a very good book but kind of weird at the same time, I would recommend it though.
This past weekend I spent at Craven! It was a blast, was really excited for the concerts this year and was kind of disappointed by Taylor Swift’s performance, she was very quiet and I had difficulties hearing her. George Strait on the other hand was AMAZING! It was way better this year, not so muddy, there were a few muddy spots but you could avoid them. And the news of Kenny Chesney coming was even more exciting so I can’t wait for next year.
Now I wait for hot summer weather to arrive and stay! And soon get to start getting ready for my California trip which is getting closer and closer and I can hardly wait.
Hope everyone else’s summer is going well!
ECMP comes to an end…
June 18, 2009
I’m sad to say that this class is done! It went by sooooo fast! It was alot of fun, learning so many new and exciting ways to use technolgy in and outside the classroom. I am sad that it has to the end, but this class was very fast and at times stressful and busy. That part I will not miss.
Last nights class was awesome, we all got to share our good and bad points of the class. We finally could figure out who was who, which was fun. At times you felt like you knew so much about a person, but couldn’t put a face to them. So last night was great to figure that all out.
But reading everyones blogs, if it were a tech task or a random post they were always fun to read! And having the freedom to comment a question or your opinion was great. Meeting every couple of classes face to face was fun too! This is what i’m going to miss. But its over time to say good bye so…
Good Bye ECMP 355!! And everyone HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!!!
Social Learning
June 18, 2009
Where to begin…
Well at the start of the class the whole blogging thing was very new to me! I wasn’t really sure what to write about or how to write them. But over time I found out that I could write about anything I wanted which was kind of cool! I enjoyed coming home from school or work and sitting down and going on to google reader (which is the handiest tool ever!!!) and just read blog after blog. They were so enjoyable to just read and I was always pondering them later that night. I didn’t always have the urge to comment but I did comment if it really triggered something. I just really enjoyed the reading and reflecting part.
However, I also liked to read comments people left me! It made me feel like someone was reading my stuff once in a while which was nice. There were a few people who always commented on my posts and I really enjoyed replying to answer questions or just to say THANK YOU! So these are the people I want to thank for always making me feel like my posts were not so bad after all. Thank you…Tammy, Lyndsay, Karie, and Jasmine! And Karie thanks so much for that poetry information it will stick with me for years to come.
Thank You to anyone who just read my posts! Thanks Janna for being a great final project partner! and Dean Shareski
for being a great Teacher!
Biology Power point
June 15, 2009
Dean asked if I would post my Power Point up on my blog using slide share. So this is my Health issue power point for my biology 140 class. I think I used Dean’s tips for creating a good/ non-boring presentation, well I hope so. Hope it goes well!
you can check it out here!
Media Literacy
June 15, 2009
Tonight’s class was on Media Literacy by Alec. The presentation was really interesting.
Something I found very interesting is that there are way more offensive content available. Which is very true, You tube for instance you can find so many offensive video’s that young children shouldn’t be watching. He showed us a website called dogpile, which shows what people are looking up at that moment. This is interesting how inappropriate so many of the searches are.
On the reverse side, there are many awesome video’s that teachers have done with there students. An example is of group of students singing Landslide by Fleet wood Mac. I found it amazing! The students are very passionate about it and look like want to be there.
We then broke down into four groups and my group was talking about How can schools deal with offensive content? We came up with some great idea. Most of all blocking doesn’t work! It makes students curious about it and or blocks educational stuff as well. That teachers need to let the students be free and be responsible and learn the good and bad of different sites.
It was an awesome presentation!
*Final Project a Success!*
June 15, 2009
Janna and I were able to successfully finish our final project yesterday evening!
We spent the first bit completing our video portion of our how-to video. We then spent some time editing our video and making it creative. We also added some text in, so it was suitable for people who may be seeing impaired. We then did our audio portion of our video. Which I must say took us a very long time, due to humorous moments that we both just kept laughing and screwing up, so we did many part 3-4 times before we were able to say it properly and clearly! It was the funnest part of the project too!
Overall I think it went well and turned out well! We were able to post it onto Janna’s YouTube account!
So you can check out our How-To video out below!
My Future Classroom
June 15, 2009
After the presentation from our guest speakers, I think I have an idea of what my future classroom will look like!
It will have many posters that the students can use for there daily work. I will not have just plain boring walls, there will be art hanging up everywhere! Most of all I have learned many new and awesome ways to teach and bring technology into the classroom.
A few things that I have learned about in this class that I will definitely use in my future are:
1) A classroom blog- I think this is a great way to get the students interating online, with supervision. It gives the students a chance to learn about the blogging world and comment freely on other students work. It can also be a place to see whats new or check on due dates and assignments for the class!
2) Skype- Now that I officially have it myself I hope to bring it into my future classrooms as a tool for online discussions and Guest speakers. I believe its a great tool to bring people closer to the classroom from any where in the world and be able to learn something new!
3) Presentations- in general I hope that I can make good presentations that will be interactive for the students and not boring. The use of images rather than text!
4) The alphabet video- I loved Kathy’s Alphabet Antics. If my future classroom is a young enough grade I plan on using this idea for helping them learn and remember the ABC’s!
These are my favorite top four ideas for My future classroom!
I would like to make sure my future students understand technolgy is amazing and see how want differnt ways teaching can be used in the classroom and the numerous of teaching methods there are. I would like to see that my students feel comfortable with technolgy and use blogging or a classroom wiki as a way of interacting with other students.
Presentations
June 14, 2009
After learning about how to make good Power Point presentations, I found it much easier to use the knowledge and create my PowerPoint for my biology class. We were told we had to make a PowerPoint on a health issue. When my prof was explaining to us what to do, some people in my class had never even created power points.
Over the last two weeks in my bio class one to two people or groups have presented. In a way I have been critiquing each one. The most common thing I have seen is that many people just put way to many words on the screen and I am too busy trying to read whats on the screen and taking notes to even be aware of what they are saying. Most people used pictures, but not as many as they could. Another thing I noticed is that many of the presenters just read there information directly off the screen, which to me I found somewhat boring, cause I had already attempted to read it off the screen. As well the text is so small you can barely even read it.
My presentation is not till Wednesday. I have been working very hard to make it a exciting and not another boring presentation. I have included lots of pictures, the least text as possible and more detailed information which I will just be saying. My text I have made very large, so that people can read it from the back of the class. My pictures are visible and all my slides are the same colour.
Having that lesson on making non boring power point presentations made it easier to create my own. But at the same time made me more aware of the things to do and be able to point the what NOT to do’s out easier. Well Hopefully my presentation will not be boring and goes over well!
Project: status
June 11, 2009
Wednesday night not having class was kind of a bonus! Janna and I were able to get on with our project. We are both fairly busy people so it has been tough to meet. Last night not having class was Great! I headed over to Janna’s and we got to work on our final project.
Our final project is a How-to video. The video is on an art project. The art project involves tissue paper, glue, etc. We did some research and found that this project is well suited for just about any grade k-8. By us creating this video we hope that many teachers and students can learn from it and share it with others. One reason we choose this particular art project is because funny enough we both did this project in our elementary years.
I think a How-to video like the one we are making will be great for anyone who wants to learn how to make it, Including teachers who can share it with thier students and fellow teachers. I hope to see this video work well in classes everywhere and that I can share it with my students one day!
Last night we were able to start recording and slowly creating the art project in the process. I would say we are over half way done. We have plans to meet this weekend and complete the recording and editing!
As Janna also wrote in her post you will have to stay tuned to see our finished product and hopefully some of you will be able to use it in your future classrooms too!
