Well, it seems that I have finished all the work for my ECOMP 6008 and ECOMP 5100 summer classes. I’m proud of myself for finishing both of these classes with my brain still in tact! Now the countdown to school begins! I start next Wednesday and Thursday with teacher workshops, and then I have 4 days off before kids come on Sept 2nd. It’s almos there! EEK!
Winding Down August 21, 2008
I am so glad I took this class! Not only did I learn a lot, I learned how to organize what I already believed about technology in education into logical, well thought out reasons as to why we need to change our teaching practices. Sometimes, you just know something, but don’t have the time or resources to put what you know into arguments (is arguments the right word?) that will convince other people, too. I’m so excited to continue on this journey of achieving my masters degree in technology in education. I hope that I can be part of the pioneers who change the face of education for the future!
School is getting closer… August 12, 2008
I haven’t set foot in my classroom since school ended in June! I haven’t opened up any of the boxes of stuff that I ordered at the end of last year, and I can’t even remember WHAT I ordered! There are two days of teacher workshops at the end of August, but the kids don’t come back until after Labor Day. Everyone was telling me, well warning me rather, about the nightmare that this next group of kids is. I don’t know…I’m going to try to hold off judgement until I actually have them in my classroom! Kids change a lot in the summer before 5th grade, anyway. Maybe they’ll grow up! And maybe I can be the one to help them get “on track.”
Easier Than I Thought! August 11, 2008
I just finished the HTML assignment, and man, it was a lot easier than I though! It’s more tedious than anything else, and very easy to make a mistake. It’s easy to leave out a code, or even a piece of a code. My page had one element that didn’t work, and it took me about 15 minutes to figure out that I had left out one “>” character! But once I figured that out, it worked like a charm. I’m glad I learned how to do this type of web design, but I think I’ll stick with WYSIWYG editors in the future! HTML is tedious!
Oh, here’s a link to my page!
Writing HTML August 9, 2008
Hmmm….I sort of considered myself an “advanced” student, or at least a student who could easily do all the assignments. But this HTML assignment is tough! I’ve created webpages before. In fact, last year one of the assignments in my class was that students were to pair up, research a given topic in the Middle Ages, and create a website about their topic! But, we used FirstClass to create the webpages. I’ve used different online software like Tripod to create webpages, but I’ve never had to use html. I’ll figure it out, though! Nothin’ like learning something new.
Back From Vacation July 30, 2008
Wes and I just got back from our vacation to visit friends in Ohio. Man, that’s a long drive. 15 hours one-way. I just finished up the wiki assignment, and a couple other things for one of my other classes. Good to be home!
On a technology related note, I have to say how much I ABSOLUTELY LOVE my Mac. Our friends in Ohio are techie-types, and several of them own PCs, and there was lots of frustration and even some swearing about issues with their computers. But those of us who are Mac owners simply opened up our laptops, atutomatically detected and connected to the network and were off with no problems! It was wonderful!
Ludcke Library July 14, 2008
The Ludcke Library at Lesley has so many resources! I wish I’d known it existed years ago. I love the Education Subject Guide, as it has links to a lot of useful pages to help me with my teaching. I wish that I had known about the “AskA +” website when I first started teaching…it could have saved a lot of frustration and hair pulling!
A Difference of Opinion June 30, 2008
I was in a writing workshop today. We are learning to implement the Lucy Calkins writing program. We got talking about different technology options with writing, and people started complaining about how they can’t compete with the kids’ iPods and such. I spoke right up and told them that we need to stop COMPETING and start USING the technology that the kids are using! I tried to explain what we read about digital immigrants vs. digital natives, and that their brains process information differently than ours. I explained that their brains now process information in a random-fire sort of fashion, and that we need to change the way we present information. An older teacher spoke up and said, “This is exactly the problem! We need to teach them how to USE text books! This is why they make indexes in books…so that kids can look up the information they need!” WOW. I guess that teacher isn’t a digial native…or immigrant for that matter.
Thoughts about Web reliability June 30, 2008
I have always taught kids to be aware that not everything they read on the internet is truth. But after reading the article about Zack and Dr. Butz’s website, I know now that I must go further with this teacher. I can’t just TELL them, I have to show them! It’s important for kids to know how to decipher the components of a web address. It’s important for them to know why links pointing TO a website can help you determine the validity. I can’t wait to teach these skills next year! I only wish I had more time to teach technology…
Blogs, blogs, blogs! June 23, 2008
We have been talking a lot about blog use in class. It seems that blogging is taking over the world! Really though, I feel a little ahead of the curve (FIRST TIME EVER!) at least with the blogging discussion. I’ve had a personal blog since 2005, and I’ve had a classroom blog for a year now. Attached to my class blog is also a homework blog that I update everyday (well, ok….that I SHOULD update everyday!) and it was a great replacement for a classroom newsletter. It really helps with time AND materials, being able to save on copy paper. I also liked getting feedback from parents by way of commenting on blog entries. I think the next step for me is to teach the kids how to use blogging to benefit their writing. I will work on that for next year.
