Goodbye TPTE 486...

I am very sad to say that today was the last day of TPTE 486. I have really enjoyed this class this semester and unlike my other classes I looked forward to going to class. I think that I have learned so many great things that I will be able to use in my classroom one day. I have learned how to use many of Web 2.0 tools such as: Wordle, Animoto, VoiceThread, Blogger, Smilebox, and Wikis. I think that the best thing about this class was learning how to write a lesson plan, making the website and learning how to use some of the Web 2.0 tools. I do not think that I will use all of the tools but a lot of the tools I found very useful and easy to use. I know that the faculty is talking about getting rid of the lesson plan part of the curriculum but I think that this was a very important part of the class. It was my first experience writing  lesson plan so I thought it was good, but I know there were some in the class that have written many lesson plans so they did not find it very helpful. I also liked the fact we got to teach each other how to use the Web 2.0 tools. I found the presentations to be very helpful, but I also think that they took up a lot of class time sometimes as well. Some of the tools were much easier to explain to the class than others. The ones that were more advanced like Animoto and Prezi, it was very difficult to create one with the class and still have time to do our other classwork. Also, I know it was frustrating for some people who were prepared to do their project on a certain day but then their presentation day got pushed back. If we did multiple presentations in a day it was hard to finish what we needed to finish in class. There was also a lot of information given in class and we were not always sure what we needed to have done before the next class. When Dr. B created the blog about what we needed to do for each class it made it much easier to follow along. I also do not think that there really needs to be a day by day syllabus for this class because it was not always the right assignment on the right day. Overall, I really enjoyed this class and I thought that it was very useful and I learned a lot of very interesting tools that can be used in the classroom.

My Classroom Website

Developing the website has probably been one of my favorite things about this class. I had a lot of fun while making it and I know that I will continue to use it throughout my professional career. I learned how to create web-pages in this assignment and that is something that can be used not only in the classroom but also outside as well. I think that mostly everything with this assignment went well. It was very helpful that it was through Google and that we could update the page when and wherever we were. I must admit that it did distract me in a few of my other classes because I would much rather have been working on my website than paying attention to the lecture that day. Some things that I had a hard time with were trying to upload all of my projects from TPTE. All of the assignments that were done through Google, I had no problem with, but the other projects like with Inspiration were a little bit more challenging to put on. It was also a little difficult because you never knew which layouts had the breadcrumbs already in the template or not. Overall, I think that the website was a great activity and I will be using it throughout the rest of my college career as well as into my professional internship year. Hopefully when I get my own classroom I will also use it to interact with my students and parents.

Making Movies

Using iMovie we were to create a digital story that we could use in our classroom. My digital story is about World War II. The story is a journey through World War II from how the war started up until the time the war ends. I think that overall this project went well but it was also very frustrating. The main thing I was frustrated with was the fact that we could not work on the project at home. We were only able to use iMovie in the classroom. I had also never worked with iMovie so I did not exactly know how to use the program. I also had some frustration with my pictures not showing up the first time I created the movie. I did not pick the best topic to take my own pictures so I had to get all of the pictures from the Internet. Most pictures on the Internet are small and very blurry so I was not able to use those pictures and if I did the were not very clear in my movie. I think that the end product was well worth the time that was put into making the movie. I think that this is a program that I will use again in the classroom to help explain certain topics discussed in class. I think that the next time I use this program I will start the project on my computer and finish it on my computer so that I am able to work on it at home. I learned a lot while working on this project. I had never made a digital story before so by using iMovie I learned how to create this story and I also learned how to use all of the tools that are on iMovie. Overall, I think that I will use this program again, maybe not very often but it is definitely something I will use in my professional career.

Animoto

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Using the Web 2.0 tool was fun but a little frustrating at the same time. I cannot say that it is one of my favorite Web 2.0 tools. I think there are many different ways to use Animoto in the classroom but you have to be willing to put a lot of time and some money into it. The basic version of Animoto can be good for little presentations that will serve as an introduction to a topic. With the basic version you are very limited in what you can put in your video and the video itself can only be 30 seconds. Animoto is not an extremely hard tool to use so that made it easy to figure out how to use. The website basically gives you a step by step when you are creating a video so that is a very good thing, if you are trying to explain how to use the tool to the class. I do not think that some of the selections that they give you are very classroom related especially when it comes to the song choice. If you are wanting a song in your video there is a very limited selection of songs, and it does not allow you to pick which section of the song you would like to use. Throughout my experience with Animoto I learned how to use the tool and the different ways that it can possibly be used in the classroom. I think that next time I use this tool I will have my own pictures ready to use and try to find my own music as well. One way that I would like to use this tool in the classroom would be to make an introduction video about myself and about what to expect in the class. Overall, Animoto is not one of my favorite tools but I know I will find a way to incorporate it in my classroom.

learning new ways to EXCEL in the classroom

This past week we learned how to use Excel to make interactive spreadsheets to use in the classroom. This is a great tool that can be used in the classroom in order to give class quizzes or other informal questionnaires to your students. I thought that this activity went pretty well and I did not have many problems when creating the spreadsheet. The two things that you must be careful about are making sure you type in the right logic statement and making sure you unlock the cells the students will be asked the write in. If you do not unlock the cells then your students will not be able to write their answers, ultimately not being able to complete the quiz. The only thing I would change is that I probably should have completed the whole activity on the computer in the classroom. Going back and forth between older and newer versions can be a little difficult because they do not always have the same features in the same places. Overall, this activity went very well and I think that all teachers should learn how to make these spreadsheets. If you have access to computers in your classroom this is an easy way to give a quiz grade and get the responses and grade very quickly.

Parts of a Plant Cell

Creating digital diagrams through Inspiration has probably been one of my favorite things that we have learned so far. I think that there are many different uses for the classroom and they are very beneficial for the students as well as the teacher. Overall I think that the whole project went very well and I had a lot of fun creating the diagram. One thing that I had problems with is the connecting lines. They did not always go exactly where I wanted them and sometimes they looked like they were clustered together and not going to one exact point. I learned many things throughout this project. I learned how to use Inspiration and learned many different ways to use diagrams in the classroom. They can be used to teach a lesson, explain who you are, the rules of the class and can also be used for step by step instruction of a project or assignment. Up to this point in 486, Inspiration is my favorite tool to work with and I think I will find many uses for it in the future.