Epic Battle

Just thought I should lighten the mood from all the studious posts with this odd YouTube video... odd... Enjoy.

Exit Post

Well, I have to admit, I'm glad that yet another class is down, and it's time to enjoy a break until the Fall 2010 Semester Starts up in August. Although this class has been quite extraordinary, I may never have another class quite like this, and I'm glad for the experience. It was good getting to try to learn and teach at the same time. It's something that will probably be a continual event in my career as a Computer Science educator. I will admit that it's not been easy, but it wasn't impossible either, and I appreciate being pushed past the point where most classrooms subsist. And to tell the truth, I probably learned a whole lot more this way. The biggest thing that I learned in this class is that not all classes are the same, and because learning is not black and white, they shouldn't be. It really is something I'm going to take with me in my lesson planning, and how I want to organize the environment of my classroom, to allow my students to engage in learning, creating, inventing, and problem-solving in a manner that can allow students to be independent and follow their own interests to increase their desire and effectiveness of learning. While I think that this class should provide more than 3 credit hours upon completion, it's been a good experience altogether. Plus, I learned a lot about what current digital tools are available that I have missed out on since I had children. My future as a student and an educator has been greatly shaped by the experiences in this class. Thank you, Dr. Peirce.

My final quote for thought:

"Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him." ~Aldous Leonard Huxley, Texts and Pretexts, 1932

TPACK

Technolgical, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge. I had no idea what TPACK was for, so I am including it in my blog for future reference. Since I am beginning the education courses part of my degree, i haven't really done anything with pedagogy, and this was a good introduction because it emphasized the importance of integrating it with technology and content knowledge. I feel TPACK is not only important to my degree, I think it is everything to my degree: Computer Science Education.

Here is the link to my paper I created using Google Docs, answering eight important questions relating Computer Science Education to TPACK.


"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives." ~Clay P. Bedford

Google Forms

I created this survey using "Google Forms", part of Google Docs. I created an end of semester course evaluation that can be very useful to numerous personnel involved in education. Many colleges and universities use something like this already, but not too many high schools, and I think they can reap the benefits just as easily. And I'm pretty sure that the colleges and universities aren't sharing their results with the teachers, and I think that every teacher deserves to know how they're doing.

Here is the link to my survey.

I used this website from survey monkey to help me come up with some of my ideas for my questions.


My quote for thought:
"If you don't control your mind, someone else will." ~John Allston

Jeopardy

Easy and simple to use, JeopardyLabs has given us teachers an effective and fast way to implement technology and games into our classrooms.
Create your own game, or play my game.



My quote for thought:
"Children, don't speak so coarsely," said Mr. Webster, who had a vague notion that some supervision should be exercised over his daughters' speech, and that a line should be drawn, but never knew quite when to draw it. He had allowed his daughters to use his library without restraint, and nothing is more fatal to maidenly delicacy of speech than the run of a good library. ~Robertson Davies, Tempest Tost

PhotoStory PSA

Oops! My video ran a little long. My first run through was 18 minutes! But, since then I have managed to chop it down to seven. I learned a lot about cyber-bullying that I hadn't realized was as big of an issue as what it is. I am glad that we got to put our own opinions about what can or should be done about it into a public service announcement. Even though this assignment was quite lengthy- it took me 22 hours from start to finish for a 7 minute video- I can appreciate the experience.
As far as Microsoft PhotoStory goes, I am probly not in favor of the program. While there are both pros and cons I feel the cons and the other available programs outweigh the pros of PhotoStory. What I did like was being able to see the movie unfold piece by piece, but it reminded me too much of PowerPoint. I think PowerPoint is probably more practical because you can create each new slide from scratch and import whatever content you want, whereas in PhotoStory, all of the content has to be imported.
All that being said, here is the link to my PhotoStory- Click Here!
Or watch the embedded version of my video below.

Click here to check out YouTUBE or here to get Microsoft PhotoStory for yourself.

My quote for thought:

"We expect teachers to handle teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, and the failings of the family. Then we expect them to educate our children." ~John Sculley

Motion Path

I LOVED doing the motion path. There was so much to PowerPoint that I didn't even know was there! And the stuff I had seen before I had never thought of anyway that it could be used. I am realy starting to appriciate this class more every day. I made a semi-comical totally unscientific show I called "Evolution Animation". I could use the motion path I just created in my classroom to show my students more of what PowerPoint can really do. It's really pretty neat.
So, anyway, go ahead and click the following link to check it out. Enjoy.
Evolution Animation by Trixie Devine

My quote for thought:
"Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships." ~Charles Simic