Final Project

Please view my video via this link.

Sharol Caw

Target audience: 7^th grade Texas History Students ages 11-13

Materials: Computer, steady Internet connection, wikispaces account, some prior knowledge of Texas/ U.S. History

Objective: For pre-ap students to be paired with non pre-ap students to assist each other in reviewing for summative formative and end of year final.This would assist students to take their learning from an understanding and knowledge level to the analysis & synthesis levels because they will be creating, answering, & assessing each others questions & thought processes.

Procedure:     1. Rosters from pre-ap & non pre-ap classes will be divided up.

                        2. Students will choose partners at random.

3. Students will create a wikispaces account that will be monitored by teacher.

4. Pre-ap students will pose questions via their teacher’s blog that non pre-ap students will answer & vice versa. These questions will be discussed in class to assist in the review process. Students will also create an Internet scavenger hunt in order to help each other learn, re teach, or review needed items for the approaching tests.

Web 2.0 Tool: Wikispaces : This is an online 2.0 web tool that allows users to create products that can be shared with anyone who accesses their site. Also those who are on the site can make changes to the products that have been produced.

Social Participation/ Social Learning: Students get to interact with students that they would not otherwise be paired with due to their different schedules. This would allow students dictate their level of learning. Their interaction would be via Wikispaces. It would not be a face to face encounter more of an online tutorial in a safe place where they can pose questions & receive answers to prepare for upcoming tests.

Making connections: Students would be able to fill in gaps in learning for each other by going back and touching base with items already covered in class and connecting them to items they will need in 8^th grade history. This action would be done via wikispaces on the blog provided there for students.

Create/ produce: End of year review

Assessment: Students have previously taken several common and formative assessments. Upon completing the interactive review I will assess them 1^st with a verbal questioning session and secondly with the district summative assessment and our year end final test.

Reflection: Students are in control of their individual learning while helping other students become successful in their learning and retention. Through journal entries students will reflect on their learning in my classroom and comment on the various methods used.

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PE5_WIKISPACES

So now that I am up and running with my Wikispaces account I have to create some posts. Nothing is worst than saying" Hey I'm going to go green & use the internet in my classroom!" But actually never do it. For many educators this seems to be something that annoys us. Large scaled plans are announced but with very little follow through. Well I am trying to take a step in the right direction. Below is my first post for my students:

Hopefully my students will enjoy this and it will create a sense of ownership for them in the classroom.  I'll keep you updated!

PE4_Wikispaces

Hello friends! Im back again this time with my new wiki. To get to my wiki follow this link.  When I signed into wikispaces and created it this was the first screen I ran into.

Now guess what? I'm up and running now my students and I have an interactive online environment for them to learn. I'm excited let's see how this goes.

BP7_COMMERICAL

Please follow this link to watch video.

BP6_Catherine Brooks

Please follow this link to see my comments on Catherine's blog!

BP5_Alonzo Moses

Hey follow this link to see my comments on Alonzo's blog!

BP4_Wikispaces

            Educators today have many issues plaguing them. At our campus this has been the year of the “click”. Click by definition: when 1 copy is made on the copier that equals 1 click. So for instance if a teacher would like to make a double sided worksheet for 155 students, she would use 310 clicks. In August each teacher is given a specific amount of clicks, I received 30,100 for the year. At first glance that sounds like it would be a substancial amount to last the 36 instructional weeks of our calendar year. WRONG! As of Friday, March 11^th I am down to 2,500 clicks that must last until June 3^rd. So what am I to do? I must find an alternative to paper for my classroom. Some options I have: increase note taking, more pencil paper, and bookwork, or turn to technology. “I’ll take option #3, Alex.”

            How am I going to use technology to replace the norm? Wikispaces.com- this site allows educators or individuals who are going to use it for education to create a sight for free. I would be able to create assignments for students to complete in groups or solo, paperless. Of course the question with anything that is Internet based- security. On wikispaces.com the wikis are ad-free, and I can make them private for extra security for my students. Also they can be created without student email addresses. This will allow me to create assignment posts for posing questions or to assign projects so that students can collaborate better and learn to take responsibility for their own learning. I will save clicks and my sanity!

   So in order for you to get started go to www.wikispaces.com and then scroll until you see this image:

Click on create wiki for K-12 education. You will then be led to a screen to register and create your wiki like this:

After you have registered your wiki you are ready to go. Good luck and just think you've taken a step in the direction of going green!

PE3_iMovie

Please view the video below to hear & watch what I learned from Lynda.com on iMovie.

PE_2 iMovie

  Within this blog post I will cover the items I learned from chapters 6-10 of Lynda.com's iMovie tutorial. The more and more I watch the more excited I would become at the new knowledge I was acquiring. I learned by double clicking the clip would bring up a box called "inspector" and this would allow you to make adjustments.

 Also you can choose normalizing which will adjust the volume across your whole video to the same level. Sometimes this could be a blessing other times its a curse. Also in the inspector box is a speed dial which by double clicking on clips you can increase or slow them down.  I also learned that a 'Ken Burns' effect is added to all photos used in iMovie by default. This adds zoom & pan movements. If you double click in the upper left hand corner you can customize the effect. Precision editing allows you to precisely edit clips. This tool also allows audio to be manipulated which will allow clips with different audio to have the same sound. And transitions can be made as well. M is the music playback shortcut and you can delete a marker by dragging it out of the editor.

Lastly, I learned that sometimes files need to be stablized in order to have optimal viewing. This can be done by accessing the file-> analyze for stabilization. This will smooth out shaky footage. Now there are 3 colors that may appear after stabilization has occurred. Black, orange, or red. Black means that mild smoothing was required, orange means that moderate smoothing was required, and red means that extreme smoothing had to take place. But there are even some cases where the video could not be stabilized and then a slash would appear. In case you may want to freeze the frame you can press ctrl + click this freezes the frame in your video! But as if this wasnt enough you can even do a picture in picture addition to your film.

This is what I learned! Now I'm ready to put it to use....stay tuned.

PE1_iMovie

 There is a lot that could be said of iMovie. When I first received my Mac book I honestly was afraid of it. But I see now how much easier it makes everything. For this blog post I will review what I learned in Lynda.com tutorials covering chapters 1-5 and the introduction. With any program there is always new information that one could learn. I learned that if I press E I can add new clips to a project.

Also that all media that is imported stays in the event library. There are 3 sections to iMovie: the project library, viewer, & event library. There are two sliders one determines the length of clips & the other their size.

Through these I can adjust the time & size of my clips. Also I learned a neat feature called "Drag & drop" where you literally find clip you don't like & you find a clip to replace it & you drop the new one on it.

Something kind of cool to me. Another interesting tidbit in the tutorial was that a rookie mistake that some may be unaware of is adding too many transitions. There is more information to come. So stay tuned as I travel on this Lynda journey.

BP2_RemindThis

RemindThis is an alternative to bookmarking. Through this service, you will be able to have notifications put your way, reminding you to visit a site that you saw just once.

You may ask how would this site help a teacher? Easy! Imagine doing lesson plans and you are trying to revamp what you’ve already done. Our district would like us to incorporate more technology into our lessons. A quick and easy way to accomplish that is of course through the Internet. One issue I’ve always had is finding sites that I went to once but then I never find them again. But now thanks to RemindThis no longer will I wonder where that awesome site went?  Using this tool will allow me to increase student retention and make lessons more interesting for my audience. A site like YouTube and Facebook can now be quick links without permanently bookmarking them to your computer memory.

Teachers have a lot that we have to keep up with this will allow us to plan efficiently and effectively and also will serve as a reference point for future lessons.

1)   Click on following link: http://www.remindthis.com/

2)   Click on following image 

3)   The widget is now installed on your computer. Begin to surf.

This program was originally created for website or business owners to increase traffic to their sites but for a teacher its pure bliss. So if you would like to keep track of where you’ve been so you can you can have great lesson plans! Good luck and happy surfing!

BP3 Google Screen Shots

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BP_1 Welcome to my blog

  Hello world! Welcome to the first post of my personal blog. This will be an interesting journey but I hope that it will be an intellectually stimulating one. So far Fullsail has enabled me to test my own strengths & weaknesses but I am enjoying this. This week has been a crazy one, I started a new course & administered a state test on the same day! Whew...this 'ol girl is tired. Well with that said "Good Night!"