Week 7 iPad/iPod

           Today was informational. I don't really have experience with any of the apple technology. In fact, I just bought an iPod from a to help them out with rent money and I'm still learning to use it. I'm curious about all the apps that are out there. I imagine that a good way to search them would be the same way that we searched for podcasts- the apple store. It would be interesting to search further.

           I was very tired today. So it was extremely hard to focus on the smart board presentation, but I have had a chance to work on the smartboard recently in my middle school placement. I actually taught a lesson using the smartboard yesterday. The program was just a powerpoint, which is probably what I'll do if I ever have one in my class. The program seemed confusing when you presented it earlier, one of the sidebar options was missing- or something like that. And I just know that I'm familiar and comfortable with powerpoint. But I didn't know that you had to make the projector communicate with the screen. That was interesting.

Week 6 Garage Band

       This class was about podcasts and garage band. I had never even heard of a podcast before this class. It was cool learning about them, and searching the apple store. I hadn't really realized that there were so many free resources on the internet. And, as I've seen in other classes (iMovie, iPad, iPod, Garageband, etc), apple is a super useful tool- in general! I was wondering if maybe apple has given the ed program a grant or something. I'm curious as of to why we're learning so much about Mac programs and less on PCs.

        I'm still working on Garage band.

Week 5- Internet Literacy

           Week 5's activity was developing literacy using the Internet. From what I gather of what's listed on your website, the class just visited the websites listed on your page and decided/discussed whether the information being portrayed is a hoax or credible information. So, what I'm going to do is list whether I thought each site was a hoax or credible information.

1. HOAX!
2. Authentic--Ok... not authentic. HOAX
3. Ummm... hoax.
4. Hoax? I don't understand what the point would be, if this was an authentic website
5. Ruritania? Hoax.
6. The layout seems legit, but the info? Hoax
7. Well, it has a copyright. I'm going to go with Authentic on this one.-- Nope. Hoax
8. This one screams Hoax.

Alright so thank you for helping me with this too. All of these sites were hoaxes. The MLK one was the most shocking of ALL! The main point of this lesson was key things to look for and just good examples for your students on uncredited websites. What to look for when checking the credibility of a website. Also... the most notable thing that was pointed out was that just because a website ends in "edu" doesn't mean that the information is censored. Also- the Tilda is a good indication that the information is changeable by that person at any time. We will get to make one next week.

Week 4 Mapping

            Week 4 was mapping with google maps. I was not here that day. I missed 2 weeks, week four and week five, because of a family illness. It sounds weird to say... as people do not usually think of mental illnesses as what they are; illnesses. My mom has bipolar disorder that she refuses to get treatment for. It's something that I've grown up with and it is something that I used to think that I could handle. It's something that I have handled for my entire life. Every couple of years she gets super manic and does something crazy. In 1999, my 3rd or 4th grade year, it was running down the street naked, in 2005 it was stuffing two cats, a dog, a freakin palm tree, my four younger siblings, and I into a old beat up four door mud brown Honda Civic. In 2007 it was stealing my siblings form my dad and stashing them in some abandoned house. In 2010 she had a mini episode during my finals week of summer term, and her episodes have been becoming more frequent but less severe as time has gone on. 

            Wednesday of week 3 she called me crying. She hadn't slept or eaten in a couple of days, and she was starting again. What set her off this time was that she broke up with her abusive boyfriend again. I can't help it. No matter what she does, if she calls me crying, I run to the rescue. I think it might have something to do with being the child who held her while she cried while I was growing up. My sister calls it codependency. I don't know. Anyways, she was slipping again, so I went to pick her up. 

            She was different this time. She was weak and crying one minute and then angry and hostile the next. And I really just wasn't equipped to handle it. But she's homeless, and has been since the summer after my junior year in high school. Our house is the only safe place she has to stay. 

            Anyway, I know you don't want to read a novel, and I really don't want to go into great detail about the state of mind that she was in, but sleep has been nearly nonexistent in my life for the past 4 weeks; not just sleep- but rest. I hardly call 3 intermittent hours of sleep rest. I don't know how I'm still standing. My Tuesday and Friday classes have suffered the most because they are from 8-4 (the time of day when my younger siblings are at school and my dad is working). Luckily my Monday/Wednesday math class is from 5-7 at night and I have been able to attend that class. 

           On top of all that craziness, my school placement wasn't secured until Thursday of week 5- literally half way through the term. This doesn't necessarily apply to your class, because observations are not necessary, but my other classes are suffering significantly. I'm frustrated. And focusing on the content being taught this term has been difficult.

           I finished the google maps activity last week and found it fairly simple. I've never used google maps before, and I found it easy to access. Your online directions were very helpful and I was also able to come in before class last week and get your assistance. The most difficult part, for me, was creating a tour that flowed well. I don't feel like I did very well with that aspect at all.

           I appreciate that I have the opportunity to turn these blogs in late, and that assignments are due 2 weeks after they have been assigned because this has allowed me to finish the assignments that are due without the stress of impossible deadlines. It has also allowed me the time to exert a fair amount of effort. Again, I really appreciate being able to do this so late.

iMovie Reflection

I enjoyed working in a group videotaping. It was wonderful! I feel like my group really had fun with the project. I movie was far easier to operate than I found Photoshop to be. It was interesting to see how many different options there were for transitions and Title slides. We used about 3 different types of transitions in our movie. One problem that we encountered was saving. iMovie is supposed to automatically save as we go, and then we were supposed to move the file to another place. I think we misunderstood the directions because our movie disappeared. We were able to re-do our editing, but we lost about an hours time in that little slip-up. If I were to teach this class, or this program in a future classroom of mine, I would be sure to spend some extra time emphasizing the importance of exactly how to save. I think the problem for us, was that we are used to Microsoft Word where you just click "save" and you know that it is instantly saved exactly where you saved it. Definitely a learning experience!

Photoshop Reflection

I have very little experience with Mac computers, and have never used Photoshop before this class. I found Photoshop to be quite fascinating! And I love the idea of transforming photos. In fact, taking pictures is one of my most favorite pastimes; although, my camera broke this past weekend. I have worked with the program off and on for the past week and I still don't feel like I have a handle on the program at all, but I think that my greatest struggle is trying to master a program that's new to me on a computer system that is also new to me. I hope to become more comfortable with the Mac as the term progresses, and hopefully become confident by the end of the term.

Overall, great class! I especially liked that we got our "photos" from three different places (picture that we took, picture from the web, and a scanned picture). I feel like that prepared me for any future unexpected complications as a teacher.

Blog 2.0 Class Reflection

I plan to teach middle school math (grades 6-8).

Game Classroom- Is an app that offers a variety of resources for teachers of multiple subjects grade K-6. As far as my teaching is concerned, I could use this app for sixth grade math instruction. In the sixth grade math section alone, there are sample lessons and activities for 8 different topics taught in sixth grade math including geometry, statistics, probability, and algebra- to name a few. And, within each topic are subjects for individual lessons. There are even math games accompanying many of these topics and subjects.
The site is free and as a bonus, it is colorful and appealing for students; not to mention it is easy to navigate- all in all, a wonderful classroom resource.

HotChalk- This site is AWESOME! It's a place to create an online class or a portion of your class in which students and their parents can access at home. It is a great organizational tool for ANY subject... even if you don't have your students access the site at home. There's a pre-formatted gradebook, places to post assignments and lessons, and there are also many tutorials for how to use different aspects of the site. The site is free, and fairly easy to navigate. I registered and plan on using it for online grade posts for parents to access, for sure! I plan to explore the site a little more and will be sure to update y'all on how it goes.

Last class was very informative, and I enjoyed the exposure to all these different apps/sites. I learned that although some prove to be a great resource for the classroom, we still need to critically analyze them individually to decide whether or not they are worth the effort- or if the same thing can be done just as well or even better, for free, and with minimal effort in a resource that we currently have at our disposal without the app/site.