Splicing Video into the Writing Process

This article/lesson plan was very interesting. I liked how the authors went through each step they took and told how they guided their students through the process without getting in the way of the students imaginations and ideas for their projects. I think it is important for kids to keep their ideas open and the more that a teacher refrains from voicing ideas and opinions on how to do something, the more creative children will be. The more freedom a child has to imagine, helps in brain development. I think it was neat how formal the kids had to be while filming. They donned fake mustaches and blazers to fit the part of real newscasters. By doing this, the kids were able to get excited about the project more. The more a teacher can involve different learning styles and equipment in lessons, the better for the children. I think it was also cool that they had a movie night where all of the parents came and watched their children's movies. Kids love when they can show something off to there parents and what better way to show off their creativity and also what they had learned about in school.  The writing aspect of this project is really helpful too. Its almost like tricking the students into doing a writing assignment. They are writing up things to say in the video but also it's reinforcing what they have learned in the class. It's a writing assignment but in a fun way. I think I will definitely use video production as a learning tool in my future classes.

Movie Making

I thought the movie making process was a lot of fun. I took a Video Film class back in high school and I really enjoyed it. I found myself remembering different techniques we had learned in that class and I felt like I could have made our shots really artsy. Amanda kind of took over the reins of the filming because she had told us that she had previous experience in the filming department, working on different skate boarding promotional videos and such. I felt like our group kind of just wanted to get the filming over with and go home so I was a little disappointed in what footage that we did get. It definitely could have been better, but for the sake of our project, I think that it will be sufficient. I hope that there will be enough footage for me to edit a good clip. After filming our commercial though, it made me realize how much I like working with the camera. I really was thinking about each shot and how we could have tweaked it to make it better. I think that I am going to sign up for a film making class or maybe just start doing it on my own, pending on how well I can navigate iMovie, since that is the only video editing software that I own. I also declared my Depth of Study as Arts and Technology so I know that I will be taking some kind of film class through my depth enphasis. I am greatly looking forward to learning about iMovie and to see what it is we will be able to do on the program.

3 Articles on Video Production

http://kidsvid.altec.org/nav_pages/teaching.html

This website is really great. It actually has lesson plans on there about how to teach kids how to use video production as a tool. This site has links to tips they have in which they further explain how to teach kids the video production process.

http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/activities/multimedia/video.asp

This website is a lesson plan on  the subject of video production for kids. I liked this site because the lesson plan is very detailed. I throughly enjoy when something is in depth and clear cut for me to understand so this lesson plan would be the one that i would choose to use. It gives a new little activity for each technique used in video production. I think that is cool because kids will need to know how to do each step separately so that they can be safe with the equipment. 

 http://www.teachertube.com/

I think this website is awesome. It is just like YouTube but for teachers and students. You could post videos, documents, pictures, or audio to the website and the best part about it is that a parent or teacher does not have to worry about the children stumbling onto a video or picture that is in any way graphic. I think, since the website is restrictive like that, this website would be a good resource to use in the classroom for students. If a teacher had the students make a video, this website would be a good one for them to post the video on. 

Evalutech

I loved this website. I thought this site was so helpful and will be helpful in the future when I sit down to figure out what to include in my teaching plans. There was all sorts of resources for math, language arts, social studies, and science enrichment. I liked the fact that each site that was recommended had a little summary added next to the link so the reader could figure out if that website would be worth it for them to visit. Also the fact that someone has done all of the digging and searching for you and all of the best websites are up on this page for a teacher to look through is amazing. I liked the search that they included on the site. That engine would be very useful if you needed to find a review for a certain subject. The search engine had a bunch of different criteria that you could choose from when searching, such as: keywords, subject, format, grade levels, and teachers name. Since there are so many options to narrow the search down to, you can get pretty specific when finding a review.  I noticed that SREB stands for "Southern Regional Education Board." I wonder if the information is specific solely to the Southern Regional Education Board or if there is another place for information specific to the Western states. The SREB looks like it belongs around the area of Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and east a ways. I wonder if there is something like this but for the west coast states and if it would be any different than this website. 

Copyright Laws

I know for a fact that the copyright law is broken all the time, and most of the time when people are unaware that they are breaking a law. Music, pictures, quotes, etc. are all used without correct permission all the time. This law will definitely affect my classroom teaching. I know that I will come across something amazing that I will want to use in my classroom, but I might not necessarily get to use it because of copyright laws. Worksheets will all have to be made by me, from a website that allows copies, or they will have to be from a book that allows copies made from it. Hopefully I will not run into a situation like that too often where I can't use an educational tool because it is copyrighted. I feel like when I was growing up, my teachers that I had were not worried about this at all. I'm not sure if the laws were less strict at the time or if it was something else, but I can remember getting many worksheets with direct text from books from my teachers. As far as software goes, I think there are enough grants out there and free legal downloadable software available to get me by in that department. I am not worried about not having software for my students to use. I liked how, on one of the articles about copyrights, they gave an example of a request for usage to the copyright holder. I think that will come in handy for me and for my student's use. 

Wikis

I thought editing wikis was super cool. I kind of felt smart after I posted it :) even though it wasn't anything very profound. I think because there is such a wealth of knowledge that can be found in wikis, because I had something to add to that wealth made me feel special. hehe. I can see how it would get unreliable. If anyone could put information online like that, it is not a very trustworthy source. I could have written something totally bogus and it would still be on the wiki that I posted on. I made sure to add a link to the information that I added and it was all relevant. I thought it was interesting when I went to post on Wikipedia, because I didn't have an account, they notified me that if I chose to post information without an account, then my IP address would be given out to anyone who wanted to know where that specific information I put down was. I didn't really know what an IP address was but I assumed that it gave a location to where my computer is at the time. I thought this was kind of strange. It scared me a little bit. I wouldn't really want everyone to know where I am at a certain time during the day. I kind of figured that the government could do such a thing at looking up someone's IP address, but not any random person. It seems like an invasion of privacy a little bit. So I made an account so that nobody can look me up. I am glad that joining Wikipedia was free. It made it even cooler to be on there editing things. 

Bridging the Digital Divide

I found this article to be a bit redundant of things we have talked about in class and maybe in another article we have read. In response to the location of the computers, I don't necessarily agree that a computer lab is not a good spot to place computers. I grew up with a computer lab in my school and it was in what we called "the Pod." About 6 or 7 classrooms surrounded the Pod so each classroom shared all of the computers in their specific Pod. The teachers would have to reserve time slots when their students were allowed to used the computers but when no class was using them, any student was allowed to use them freely. Swain and Pearson say that computer labs, "reinforce the idea that computers are simply “extra” or “special” instead of an integral part of the learning process." The way that we set up our lab made it feel like it was part of every class so it really was part of our learning process. Another point in the article that I didn't quite understand the benefit of was  when the authors were saying that it benefits the students when the computers that are in the classroom are located close to each other so that the students can share ideas. For me, this would just be a distraction. Also, if there are only 3 to 5 computers in the classroom, the children who are unable to use the computers would be extremely distracted. I think that I like the idea of a computer lab. It seems more economic for the school and also less distracting for the students. 

Web Pages

I think that using websites in the classroom setting is a great idea. It is incorporating technology into the childs' learning process and theses days, children appreciate technology more than ever. By creating a class website, a teacher is able to update parents that wouldn't normally come into the classroom to ask, on what is happening in their son or daughters class on a day to day basis. It's cool because you can link to other websites the teacher might think the parents should see or a teacher could post worksheets just in case a student was not there one day and missed an assignment. Now with access to computers and the internet children wont have any more excuses for not getting school work done if they stay home sick. I am sure I will make a class website once I become a teacher. I see nothing but positives from this. 

As for the reading, I wish that my teachers in high school and in college would have done this for me! I think by writing comments on the paper in Word itself is so much easier than hand writing comments, that I can't even read half of the time anyways! By doing this we would be saving paper and also saving time. I think it is a great idea and I really want more teachers to start doing this. I think I would have been a much better writer if I were to be able to send my paper over the internet to, anybody around the world for that matter, and they were to be able to send a response  back with comments in the paper. I would have written much better papers if I were to have had access to a resource like that. 

Websites

I found these site: Dr. Mike's Math Games

I thought this site was pretty cool because it gave a whole bunch of math games for kids. I think math is very important for children to learn. I do think that America is putting too much pressure on its kids to learn math and therefore teachers are resorting to teaching math in a boring way just to get through it. But I think if children were taught math in a fun and engaging way then they would understand it better and it wouldn't be a subject that so many children dread. By making math into a game, kids will be more apt to do problems, and they might not even realize they are doing math!

Teachers.net

This web site was really cool because it is run by teachers. You can look up teachers lesson plans, communicate with other teachers through chat-boards or chat-rooms, and learn how to teach for different learning styles. There is all sorts of information on this site for teachers and the coolest part is that it is from other teachers! Direct from the source. 

Laura Candler's Teacher Resources

This site is cool because all of the resources on this teachers website are all free. She created this website in order to help other teachers succeed in the classroom with their students and she felt like she had some resources for teachers to use and she was right! There are some great ideas and links on her page. 

Bloom's Taxonomy

I thought these articles were very, very interesting. I liked the last article the best because it talked about how to apply it to an actual lesson to the class and it also talked about what questions to ask for each level of understanding. I liked the levels that he did separate them into: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis. Each one is very different from that before it, but they can coexist next to each other as to not interrupt the flow of learning. Knowledge is different than comprehension. Comprehension is different than application, so on and so fourth. Once a child is in a certain level of the grid, they are able to work towards understanding the information enough to make it to the next level. I really think this will be a useful tool because with Bloom's Taxonomy, I am able to understand what I, as a teacher, will need to ask the children to be able to get the students to progress their learning comprehension further. One of the articles says how hard it is to get the students to get pas the knowledge and comprehension stage, but by asking questions outside of the normal questions, the children are forced to think about the information a different way and that stimulates the brain which makes the kids learn it! I really enjoyed reading these articles about this subject and plan to remember this theory while I am teaching in the future. 

Powerpoint

I thought the powerpoint lesson was very helpful this week. I felt, going into the class, that I was could get by pretty well on the program, but I definitely learned some new things about making a powerpoint presentation. I think that this tool will be very helpful in the teaching world because of the fact that you can grab different kinds of learner's attention on one single powerpoint presentation. You can cater to those that are mathematical or that are logical learners, or you can cater to those who are linguistic learners. There are also musical learners, spacial learners, and kinesthetic learners. For logical learners one might want to lay out the presentation in a non-cluttered logical clean-cut way so that they can wrap their heads around the concept. For the musical learners, a teacher could play music in the presentation or make up a song about the presentation after it was over so that the children can remember the information they were taught and then hopefully it will retain better through the rhythm of song. Linguistic learners preferably like to read and use letters to learn, so by writing down the information on the powerpoint presentation, the linguistic learner is able to get the information better than just listening to it. I think that teachers should use this tool at least everyday during their lectures. Powerpoint could jazz up the lectures so much and in return, the children get more out of the lesson than without it. 

Reading Assignment

I thought the article on mapping was interesting. The figures were cool to see because they were actual results from the creek water and when you are able to look at results like that in something such as a causal map, it makes more sense and it becomes more relevant. Using causal mapping would be a great idea to relate cause-and-effect data. Also, because the students did all of the work, it is making them learn the material more than if the teacher went and made the map for them. by doing the work and seeing the map progress through time, it made more sense than if the students were to just look at the finished map. I also think that it was a great idea for the students to go on a field trip as well. Any time an opportunity comes to go on a field trip, especially outside to the wilderness, take it. I think students will learn better with a break once in a while and also with some fresh oxygen in their bodies. Its so important to break up the routine of everyday schooling. When school become boring and repetitive, students will not learn. When a student experiences something new and exciting, such as a field trip to the creek, the kids are more attentive and interested. Its a win win situation and I think this article was a perfect example of how to design a science experiment. It was fun and engaging and it mapped the students' minds!!

So I've been sick...

Well I haven't gone online in about a week. I have been super sick with strep throat and I have been sleeping up a storm. Good thing it has been raining because I would hate to be missing out on warm weather while I am feeling like this. Some technology that I learned about this week would be my computer. I have a macbook and I am still trying to get used to it. I have been trying to play around with the iPhoto and also scanning pictures into my iPhoto. Its a daunting task but also rewarding as well. As for the classwork, I am pretty lost with the Inspiration and the mind map thing. I guess I had to be in class to understand it. Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up pretty quickly. I hate being sick.... Im really confused with Taskstream also. I didn't know where to upload the Newsletter so I kind of just guessed. I think I got it right thought because I did see the button that said request feedback, but it would not let me click on it because it said that I had to have someone assigned to me before I could request something like that. So that was a little confusing for me. I had fun doing the Newsletter and I could totally see myself  writing Newsletter all the time for the parents. It just seems like such a good way to stay in touch with the parents and to let them know how I work and what we will be doing for the week or month.  

Well hopefully I will start feeling better this week!

Week 2 Reading Response

This week's reading was interesting enough, but it was kind of repetitive. I had a hard time reading this article. I do agree with the author in that technology with only improve teaching methods and it will help reach students better. I like the three topics that he brought up in the article: Preconceptions influence all learning, understanding comes from knowing facts and principles, and metacognition is essential for understanding. These points are dead-on. One of the reasons that I want to teach, is so that I can help the students understand the material, not just recall the information. With technology on my side I think that I will be able to accomplish this goal quite well! There are so many programs out there that can help assist teachers as well as students. The article states that, "one of the appeals of technologies is to entice learners to think differently and more expansively." I think that this is very true. I believe that students today have more opportunities to learn better than they did 30 years ago because of the current technology available to them. 

Netiquette

I found that this site would be very helpful for someone brand new to the internet. I have been using the internet for some time now, so many of the topics discussed were areas that I was already familiar with, but for someone like my Grandma, or possibly a child, new to the World Wide Web, these rules would be of help. I thought one of the most important topics was "Rule 5: Make yourself look good online." This is important to me because I can see how easy it would be for a new internet user to make themselves look bad but writing out something wrong. Since our tones of voices cannot come across in writing most times, something that was supposed to be sarcastic sounding could be read as being mean or rude. It is a problem and I have seen first hand what can happen. This kind of ties into "Rule 1: Remember the human," in that it is easy to forget who you are talking to because they are not right there talking back. When writing something online, nobody is directly speaking to you in front of your face. I think this is kind of a way for people to express another side of themselves that they normally wouldn't express in public. I like how in this section they warn the readers about the dangers of having something bad written down. That is so important for people to understand. If you don't want the world to know about it, then its best for it to not be written about. The last topic that I read about was "Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy." I believe that this is one of the most important rules. These days, it seems like nobody really wants to be private when they are displaying their lives on their Myspace and Facebook's, but snooping around is just rude and inconsiderate. I think in some cases, it could be illegal, depending on the means in which a person snooped. 

Tools learned this week...

This week I learned how to use screen shots. I was never aware that this could be possible! It's so simple yet so brilliant! This could be very useful if you wanted to show someone something off of a website but couldn't copy the picture. I think it is also cool that you could crop the screen shot so that you could only use a certain portion of that screen shot. 

I didn't know that there were so many search engines available out there. I only thought there was Google, Yahoo, and Ask. It was really interesting to explore some of the other sites and see what each one had to offer. I like that there were specific search engines for children. This is very important so that they aren't exposed to something that could be offensive. That is something that I would definitely use in my classroom. 

I absolutely love Yahoo Bookmarks. They made it really easy too, because when I signed up, it allowed me to transfer all of my bookmarks on my computer directly into Yahoo bookmarks. This helped out a lot and saved me from having to bookmark each site individually! Amazing! I have been telling everyone I know about the bookmarks site because its just so useful! 

Week 1 Reading Response

I found this website to be very informational. Some of the links were out-dated and did not work right and that was a little frustrating at times. The first link that I was actually able to go to was "How to copy data files to a diskette". This site was very informational and had very precise step by step instructions. I liked how they wrote in bold the important steps to take and then elaborated a little on those steps. I would find this useful if i ever needed to save information the old fashioned way on a disk instead of a CD. 

The next site that I visited was "Spreadsheet Resources from Educational Technology Training Resources" and I found this site to be very useful. I am not very proficient with Excel and this site had several tutorials on how to use the software. There was also lesson plans for teachers when using Excel which I thought was really neat. 

After this site I went to "Creating Web Pages using Netscape, by Babson College". This site will probably be extremely useful to me in the future. I will definitely need to create my own teachers website and this had step by step instructions on how to do that. I liked how they had each step clearly labeled and then they also had ways to customize a website. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the next site I visited. I clicked on the link labeled "ITMA Studio Tutorials" and found a whole bunch of tutorials, not just ones for digital cameras. This site will be very useful because it has so many different tutorials to view. There are ones on email, web design, file transferring, and image editing, which I am really interested in. This site was and will be very helpful. 

The last site I visited was "PowerPoint tutorials by ClassZone". This site was helpful because, again, it had many other tutorials to view, not just for PowerPoint. There were ones for the internet and Microsoft Office. I feel like I am pretty good at PowerPoint but there are definitely things that I can learn about it as well so this tutorial was good for me to view.  

Week 1: What I have learned...

This week has been absolutely  wonderful and absolutely stressful. I have learned so much about my new classes and my new peers. This is my first semester at San Marcos and I am so excited to finally be at a big girl school!! :) After several years at Mira Costa I finally transfered and I am loving it here. The one significant thing I learned this week was probably that I have a lot of work cut out for me in the next 3 years. I am in the ICP program for Liberal Studies and at our meeting on Monday, I think I just about yanked half my head of hair out because I got so stressed out. I know that the way the advisors have set up our program is going to help me out tremendously in the long run, but they just gave us so many deadlines at the meeting and those deadlines on top of all of the work from my classes this semester stressed me out just a tad. So this past week I have learned that I am going to need to rethink and reorganize my entire life. I am going to need to be on top of things, be aware of deadlines, do homework assignments the day they are assigned, color-coordinate my agenda so I know when to do what, and most importantly, enjoy every second that I am in school. I am so grateful to be entering the Credential Program and I cannot wait to become a teacher. I look forward to learning many new things in this EDUC 422 class and in all of my other classes as well.