WebQuest

Colonial Life in America WebQuest

I enjoyed creating my WebQuest. It would be a great tool to use to teach units with students. I already had a unit (from Integrated Methods) on Colonial America, and I used this unit to create my WebQuest, which made it pretty simple. I think WebQuests would work great for units that teachers have already created. They can just add the activities students would be working on. And it would be very convenient for students to use have one site (the WebQuest) where all the information can be found as well as other website links.

The one thing I did not like about using Quest Garden is that the format is very structured. I wish I could have developed my own format completely. For example, I actually had four different activities I wanted to include, but the format allowed me to only include three processes. I had to add the first activity in the Task section. Also, I wish I could have removed some of the pages and added some. For example, I would have removed the Teacher Intro page and added an actual Standards page. Maybe there was a way to do this, but I didn't figure it out.

Overall, I enjoyed the assignment and plan to use this when I teach.

Fun With Data

Excel Spreadsheet

I kind of had fun with this assignment. I've always liked playing around with Excel, especially after I figured out how to use formulas and functions.

I tend to begin these technology assignments and then I get carried away, finishing the assignment completely before I realize that I was to do it step-by-step. That's what I did with this "Fun With Data" project. I completed the entire thing before uploading it in each part (Formatting, Manipulating, and Narrative).

With the formatting, I just used common sense I guess you could say. I know how to use paintbrush with Excel and Word but it's not for me. For some reason, I just have a really hard time with it. So to be honest, I did not use the paintbrush tool, but the format for all three years look the same.

With the manipulating data and summary, it was pretty simple for me. I knew how to do those formulas. However, I did not know I could create functions between sheets. That was really neat to be able to figure out how to do that. Actually, it's common sense if you understand how to do the other functions. Nothing to it really.

Like I said earlier, I like Excel. I use it for all kinds of things--budgeting, days that I sub, all my wedding planning. And I use formulas and functions for all of that. It makes like much simpler.

Assessment Forms

Take the Colonial America Quiz!

I thought this assignment was so cool! What a convenient way to make quizzes! This would be a great tool for teachers to use occasionally for assessment. It's great that students can take the quiz online from home or wherever there's internet. Obvioulsy, the need for computers to take the quiz would create difficulties for classroom teachers to use this feature all the time. And although Google Docs was very convenient, it lacked some other quiz/test formats that are often used, such as matching, fill in the blanks with a word bank (which I guess could be used by adding the words in the hint box), and other higher-order thinking questions that require students to draw a diagram, graph, etc. But this just goes to show that some things are better done the "old-fashioned" way.

Overall, this assignment was very beneficial to me. I plan to use it. I also think it would be good for students to use every now and then even if it's just for the sake of practice. If not already, students will be required to use computer more and more for assessments like this one, so using Google Docs to create quizzes would be a good idea for teachers.

Windows Movie Maker

[At one time I had the movie embedded on my blog, but now it won't show up. Don't know what to do about that.]

Video Link

I just love doing this stuff. I've used Windows Movie Maker before but never realized that I could insert PowerPoint slides. And this makes it much easier (in my opinion) to create a video for Teacher Tube. And I love being able to embed in on my blog.

What I really liked about this assignment was my new ability to share my projects. There have been times when I've created PowerPoint shows (mostly for classes for "make-believe" students) that are pretty good and that I've been proud of. However, most of the time nobody but my teacher ever gets to see them. I like being able to make movies out of my PowerPoint presentations and then upload them to Teacher Tube so others can possibly use them.

Overall, this was one of my favorite assignments. And it didn't take much time at all!

Rubistar Rubric

Colonial America Research Paper Rubric

Colonial America Research Paper Rubric - GOOGLE DOCS

Colonial America Research Paper Rubric - OPENS IN EXCEL

I always thought using Rubistar was completely unnecessary for creating a rubric. It's so easy to just create a table on Word. I'm big on changing the color, font, etc. But after completing this assignment, I realized that Rubistar can come in handy, especially if a teacher is going to use the templates already available. It was nice to let Rubistar fill in the boxes. Creating a rubric with a table on Word or Excel is simple, but coming up with the criteria for each section can be a little exhausting. For two of my categories, templates were available, but since the other two were not listed exactly how I wanted, I had to write the criteria myself. I liked using Rubistar, and I was able to change the color and font later. Another benefit of using Rubistar is the rubric's availability online. Parents and students would be able to view the rubric from anywhere. This can obviously be done with Google Docs as well.

Google Docs Exported PDF

This was very simple to do. It's kind of neat how these assignments build on previously learned skills. Once I created my PowerPoint presentation, uploaded it to Google Docs, and embedded it on my blog, it was easy to figure out how to export it as a PDF.

View "The Writing Process" PDF file

Embedding PowerPoints

How exciting! I'm learning so many new things! I'm glad I learned how to embed. My problem is, though, creating PowerPoint presentations that are too large to embed. I was able to embed the Jeopardy game. The adaptations presentation from the previous assignment was over 2 MB so I couldn't embed it. Instead, I embedded a presentation I had made for a school assignment a couple years ago.

Jeopardy PowerPoint

I made my jeopardy game as a review for a "Colonial America" unit. It is based on several Social Studies CSOs for fourth grade. (SS.4.5.4, SS.4.5.6, SS.4.5.8, SS.4.5.9)

Colonial America Jeopardy

I am aware that the "500" in the last column is a link that takes you to a Snuggies website. That must be something we were also supposed to correct since some other people's do the same thing. I've tried to fix it, but right now my FTP site is not working and will not let me upload the PowerPoint show again. I'll have to try again later.

These games are definitely a really neat way to review chapters or units and serve as a fun way to review for tests. There are several websites that offer a large variety of gameshows in the form of PowerPoints. The templates are available for download and the teacher, or whoever else, can just insert his or her own information.

I've also uploaded my PowerPoint presentation to Google Docs. I hope it's available for everyone to see. I guess I still don't get the whole sharing thing.

PowerPoint Show

Okay, so I've had a little difficulty with the PowerPoint. It's not too bad; it's just a lot of uploading and re-uploading and making sure I save the project with the correct extension. I thought I had my PowerPoint Show uploaded to my FTP and ready to go until I realized that the text was messed up (on the second and last slides). Because I downloaded the particular font, it changed to Arial due to the save options. I thought I had embedded the fonts, but I guess I didn't. So I've re-uploaded it to my FTP and I hope it's the correct font. I also timed the slides so that the viewer doesn't have to click. However, I wonder if there's too much time for each slide. There's quite a bit of information on the slides, so I wanted to allow enough time. If they're too slow for you, just click to the next one.

PowerPoint (When I open this link on my comptuer with Vista, it opens in the PowerPoint program. When I open it on another computer without Vista, it opens the same as the PowerPoint Show.)

PowerPoint Show

I enjoyed this assignment. I know PowerPoint is used a lot, but I believe students benefit from having it incorporated into lessons. It's still a nice change of pace in the classroom. I like to make PowerPoint presentations; I'm rather picky about them. I think PowerPoint presentations need to look professional. I've seen so many that just look plain stinky. (I will not judge any of my classmates' presentations, so don't worry.) When they are used to teach children, they especially need to be eye-catching, colorful, and appealing. I also think children have fun creating their own PowerPoint presentations, and it's something they can easily do at home as well as in the classroom.

Podcast

How can I summarize my first experience creating and publishing a Podcast? A total nightmare. I'm relunctant to say that I had a horribly difficult time with this assignment, because figuring out this technology stuff is pretty easy for me. But not this. The downloading Audacity (the second time) and making my Podcast was easy. Of course it took a couple of hours to do that--to write my script and record and re-record it over and over. The first time I did this, I had it ready to post on my blog when I realized that I had downloaded the wrong program. So I had to download Audacity again (or for the first time; I'm still not sure what happened) and start from the very beginning! I finally got it right when the real trouble began.

With no step-by-step instructions, this assignment was excruciating. Thanks to Debbie from Charlestown (THANKS SO MUCH!) I learned how to do it. But I did think that it was ridiculous the number of steps I had to go through just to post it to my blog. Luckily I had iTunes to covert it with, but it took awhile before I learned how to change those settings. But this still didn't work! Because of Debbie, I also learned that the reason I had trouble was because I have Windows VISTA. Oh my gosh! Thankfully my husband has a computer with Windows 2003 where I had to upload my song.

Before doing this assignment, I was excited about using Podcasts with my students. I will probably use others' Podcasts to teach my students, but it will be a LONG time before I create one again if I ever choose to do this again. It was a rather traumatizing experience. And to make things worse, after I had finished my Podcast, I realized, on ANOTHER link, that I was supposed to have a second speaker. But after all this mess, I'm not going back and fixing it.

By the way, this was a crappy week to do that anyway, because I have a bad cold and you can hear it in the Podcast. :(

My Podcast

My Podcast Script

DELETE

I must be an idiot. I couldn't figure out how to delete this post.

Read the above post and you'll see why I don't care.

Web Album

I created my web album with Picasa pretty much because I didn't really know where I wanted to create one and I saw that Erinn Rosier did hers on Picasa. I had never heard of it, and I like to try new things. I thought it would be fun (for me) to just upload a bunch of my wedding photos, but then I thought it would look like I was obsessed with my wedding. And no one wants to see a bunch of pictures of my friends and me, so I just put random ones in the album that were taken somewhere in West Virginia.

It was pretty simple to use Picasa, and I may just use that program to view all my pictures from now on. The program could obviously be used in the classroom. It would be really nice to make it private so that students could include pictures of what they've been doing in the classroom. Parents could then view the album and see how much fun their child is having in school! Or it could be used to show the progression of a particular project students may be working on.

My Web Album

Photoshop Express

Photoshop Express was pretty simple to use as opposed to Adobe which is what I use on my computer. (I have a LONG way to go before I learn all the tricks of the trade.) So it was relieving being able to edit my photos in Photoshop Express. I uploaded several pictures and played around with the different features. I really liked the "color pop" but I was unable to make it pop the exact colors I wanted for certain photos. So I included a picture in this post on which I applied the "sketch" feature. This "sketch" looks cartoony, and I had fun playing around with it. The picture is of me and my husband during our engagment. It was one of the many engagement photos we had taken this past summer.

My Edited Picture

My Online Album

The directions said to include a link where the picture can be viewed in my online album. I hope the link works. I was somewhat confused by it. I hope it takes you to the online album and doesn't ask you to sign in.

Online Graphics - Crappy Graphs

It was very simple to use the Crappy Graph website. It's a great way to create an appealing Venn diagram or line graph. I chose to make a Venn diagram to show similarities and differences between tall tales and fables. This would be great for elementary students when they begin learning about these different genres. It doesn't go into much detail but just gives brief descriptions of the characteristics of each genre. Students could even use this site as long as they stay on the right page where they create the graphic. Of course, they wouldn't have free reign of the website to view the other graphics created.

My Crappy Graphic

Kids' Zone Graphs

I enjoyed making these graphs, and it was so simple! I've found other graph-making websites before and have been amazed at the simplicity. I don't know why I don't remember these handy tools when I actually have to create a graph. I only think to use the graph feature in Excel, and honestly, I think it's easier to use the Kids' Zone graphs. It was so easy to just plug in the numbers and other data that was needed.

View my graph document!

Image Capture

I created an image to show students how to use and understand a website about the moon phases. The website is a great tool for students to use, but it may need to be explained how to use it. However, since the image on the website is animated, it cannot be copied and pasted. This is when the Print Screen key comes in handy. I first used the Print Screen key to capture the image of my computer screen. Then I pasted the image into Word so I could crop it accordingly. I then copied and pasted it into Paint so that I could add descriptions. Circles and lines have been added to point to special features, and I typed descriptions that explained the function of each feature.

By the way, to view the website where I obtained this image click here.

Desktop Graphic

I created my graphic to demonstrate where work for this class is created and stored. I wish I would have made this graphic the first week of class, and I should probably even print it out and hang it up. At the beginning of this class I was overwhelmed with all the different tools we use to conduct our work. I am definitely a visual person, and visual representations are good for me.

I just used Word to create my graphic. I contemplated using other programs, but I'm more experienced with Word. Besides, Word worked out perfectly for me and my graphic, and I am pleased. You can view my document by clicking the following link:

Desktop Graphic

Dale's Cone of Experience

I thought the article was somewhat interesting. I remember learning about those percentages in 5th grade. My teacher actually did a lesson on it. And since then, I've heard several teachers refer to the well-known percentages to discuss learning and retention. Therefore, I was surprised to read that this is actually not accurate at all. Read my opinion of it.

Web Publishing

I just tried the web publishing. I already had a resume (as mentioned in my last post), so I uploaded that. Because I used some crazy template, the format was messed up in Google docs. I tried to fix it so the dates went with the appropriate jobs, but I think it still looks very bad and it's not very easy to read. It was extremely difficult to use that template even in Word. Believe me, if I were to hand someone my resume, it would not look the way it does in Google docs. But how cool is that? Being able to use a word processor online. I've literally been learning something new every day in this class.

My Resume

Experiences With FTP

I was introduced to FTP in Instructional Technology over three years ago. I had been excited to discover that I could use my FTP site to save my files and they could be opened from any computer with the Internet. I began using my FTP site quite a bit to save my files. It was more convenient than carrying around a jump drive. However, I stopped using it and actually forgot it existed. I signed into my FTP site today and was surprised to see just how many files were still on it.

In Instructional Technology we also learned how to use FTP to create a website. I was able to view my old website. I hadn’t been able to view it for awhile because I had forgotten how. The site tells about my sophomore year in college, so it’s definitely out-of-date. It needs updated badly. I would like to continue using it, so I’m actually very excited about being reminded how to use FTP.

I just saved a new file on my FTP site. It’s my updated resume. The following link will take you there . . . I hope. It worked for me.

www2.fairmontstate.edu/users/kmcmillan/newresume.doc

Silly Me . . .

It's probably too late to worry about it now. I posted the link for my Photo Story video the day after I finished it. I sent an e-mail with the link as soon as it was completed but forgot to post it on my blog! This class is going to be tricky for me . . . at least in the beginning. It's hard for me to remember all the different components of it (blog, Blackboard, g-mail, course web page, Skype, etc.). Ugh!

Who Am I? Photo Story Video

I finished my video and it's on YouTube. After viewing mine and others', I wish I would have added more or used different techniques. That's what's nice about sharing work with others; I can learn new ideas (not that I would copy) and try to incorporate those with the next projects I do. Good work, classmates!

The link to my video . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuZNmHaOKZM

Goodbye for now...

Yes! I figured it out! And I love this voice narration stuff. I don't like the way my voice sounds, but who likes the sound of their own voice? Frustration is gone . . . for now.

Hello, Frustration!

It didn't take long for frustration to come knocking on my door. The other day I started playing around with Photo Story and was really excited. I started thinking of all the ways I would love to use this with my elementary students (if ever the day comes when I actually have my own students). I got my picture slideshow finished and had all the words for my narration ready in my "notes" when I was thinking, "This is easy!" How come that couldn't last long? Now I can't get my microphone to work with Photo Story. I've been trying to configure the microphone, but when I click on the little button thing, nothing happens. I guess I'll just keep playing around with it . . .

Losing My Blogging Virginity

I've read all kinds of blogs. Many of my friends have blogs. I have often wondered when I too would create a blog. I decided I would wait until I have something to blog about. But I guess taking a class that requires me to create a blog is a great way to start.

I've noticed from my friends who blog that they have a particular skill of writing and a great deal of insight. I had hoped that a blog would help me to better develop my writing skills. But as a teacher, there is so much more I can do with blogging than merely becoming a better writer. I can use it to become more relevant to my students and to make their learning more relevant to them.

I'm curious to see what I will learn from this class. I hope that I will take away many resources that can be used to better engage students. I also hope that this class will always serve as a reminder of why I should continue to stay "in tune" with new technology.