Elocin 13

GO BLUE SPARTANS!

2008-08-08T22:44:00.002-08:00

OK so I am totally into the whole Soccer Mom role... maybe too much so! This is the first year my son has played soccer and he is on an awesome team. His team is undefeated throughout the season, tournament and playoffs!! Now its off to the show! Championship game tomorrow morning at 10:30 am.

I'll be the woman screaming, "This is Sparta!"

Where is Summer?

2008-07-20T19:34:00.002-08:00

Did I miss it? As much as my grass and water bill love the rain we have been getting, I would prefer a few more sunny days before Old Man Winter returns.

I am having an eventful summer! Kids all keeping me busy. My sons soccer team is undefeated. My middle daughter is busy with Cheerleading... her coach is mean!! OK actually, I am the coach, so she really isn't all that mean! Oldest daughter has had a smattering of odd jobs and has decided to start checking out colleges through out the US (even though she is only a sophomore). My $%th *cough cough* high school reunion is at the end of August and I plan on attending. SoE has not published the intern class schedule, and technically, classes are to begin after September 2nd, so I am hoping I won't be missing anything.

Upcoming stuff includes my hubby possibly deploying in November... if not then, he'll be gone in March. Just need a straight answer Army People!

Hope everyone is having a GREAT summer!

AYF Cheer Season is Upon Me!

2008-06-30T10:53:00.003-08:00

I offered to be the Redskins Senior Assistant Cheer Coach for this years season. The Head coach last year said she was going to do it, so I thought all was well! SO... I was a little surprised to find out that she decided not to do it. Now I am the Head Coach for these girls! I am nervous and worried as I do NOT have any cheer experience other than yelling from the stands! So far, I have five girls and they are all great! I am excited and I am looking forward to this years season!

Any of you guys out there that know me locally and can help... Please give me a call!

On another note... School is just around the corner!

A lot on my mind

2008-06-04T16:07:00.002-08:00

Nick has been on my mind a lot since I found out he took his own life last week. My Girl Scout troop had been planning a big trip to Anchorage the weekend his service was scheduled, so I wasn't able to attend. I just keep thinking over and over again about his parents and the lack of any clues he displayed in the classes we had together. As morbid as it is, I want more details; I want to know how he did it. Mostly, because as a parent, maybe knowing more will help me prevent my kids from doing the same thing. I also appreciate that even if I did know every detail, it will not bring me peace with this loss. I wasn't close to Nick at all, we barely spoke. But he was very much the kind of person, the kind of man, I felt should be in education. A role model for my own son. He will be missed.

Summer Time!

2008-05-26T17:03:00.002-08:00

Are you enjoying your summer? Honestly, I am not. I am so excited about starting my internship year that I can't seem to sit still much! I have already ordered my course books. I constantly wonder where I will be placed and who will be my mentor teacher. Will my request be taken seriously? If not, then will I be able to make adequate arrangements for my son's Out of Area Attendance school... I am anxious and stressed.. happy and excited all rolled up into one. Almost makes me wish I was taking a class for the summer.

Voice Thread

2008-04-16T17:56:00.005-08:00

This was a lot of fun! Like many of my peers, I don't like the sound of my voice! I really enjoyed making up things to say for each slide. I found myself wanting what I said to sound official and professional, which I think will have a lot of cross over in the classroom with students. Again, this is a great medium that will allow kids multiple ways to present information on content they are learning. Plus it allows flexibility to redo a slide until the information is 'perfect.'

I hope to use this program again soon.

Panraven

2008-04-15T15:53:00.003-08:00

Finally finished. For some reason, I was thinking it wasn't due until this week, so I focused on other classes. So now I hope you will view this and enjoy it, even though you all could probably narrate my vacation yourselves. Actually, I decided to focus on my family, the people we went to visit while in Arizona, instead of just the scenery... although many pictures are still included.

As far as uses in the classroom, I see many. This is a GREAT way for students to share something of interests. Creating and writing stories is key to building literacy in our children. Panraven does this by providing many templates.

Daughters surgery and new carpet

2008-04-09T15:01:00.003-08:00

April 4th! What an intense day! Intern Interviews! YIKES! Who was I going to get? What would they ask me? How should I dress? All these questions and more burned through my brain faster than fish learn to swim! (Sorry, I couldn't help but add that little Dr. Phil-erism)

But alas, Last Friday was even more worrisome for me. My daughter was scheduled for oral surgery that day as well. Because her wisdom teeth are impacted (still in the bone), it required for her to be placed under general anesthesia. Thankfully, I was able to bribe Hillary and Kelly with a box of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies to schedule my interview before my daughters surgery. The interview and the surgery went smoothly.

My daughter stayed home all weekend and both Monday and Tuesday. Today was her first day back to school. I just hate leaving my kids when they are sick or in pain. I am glad she is returning to normal.

On a positive note, my new carpet was installed yesterday. It looks AMAZING! I really love this house! We spent the entire weekend pulling out the old carpet and padding and nasty staples and woodwork (previous owners had pets with bladder issues...). It was a lot of work, but now it was all so worth it!

Sense of Place Poster

2008-03-31T16:31:00.003-08:00

I really like the idea of using Comic Life in the classroom. Students LOVE making comics, especially my own kids, and I think it can be modified and expanded limited only by students imagination. Using this software, I made a poster based on my family vacation to Arizona and California over Christmas and New Years 2007-08. This same type of format can be used to display much more serious themes; for example literature, social crisis, math concepts... anything that can be grouped together and given text to enforce an idea or thought. I love the idea of this software. Personally, I plan to use it to create a postcard to send to my family and friends announcing our new address as we just bought a new home!! All I need to do is snap a few photos, add some text, print them out and send them off!

Flickr Slider slide show

2008-03-26T14:50:00.002-08:00

I ended up adding a few more pictures than required, but I wanted to send this project to friends and family! This slide show encompasses a picture or two of everyday of our vacation; from Sedona, The Grand Canyon, Phoenix, Tucson, Disneyland, California Adventure Park, San Diego and Sea World! It was a once in a lifetime family vacation!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I can see this slide show option becoming very popular with me. I love taking pictures and sharing with my friends and family. Being a military family, we have the opportunity to see and do a lot of pretty cool stuff! This could be used for the classroom. With my Girl Scout troop, we had a website that was restricted to only the girls and parents in my troop. We used it to post upcoming events, share pictures and basically, just to share information about troop activities and badges. I would love to do something like this in my classroom.

Video Movie Assignment

2008-03-25T10:00:00.006-08:00

I called this video "The Williams Family Meets the Pacific Ocean West Coast." I really should have called it the "East Coast" as the beach in San Diego is East of the Pacific Ocean beach my family would visit while we lived in Japan. BUT... that just gets confusing! It was a beautiful day! Everyone should have a day in January at a sunny beach, especially if you're surrounded by snow!

Video Movie

2008-03-07T11:41:00.002-09:00

I have really enjoyed this project; making a movie out of my vacation pictures. I can see how this can be quite overwhelming if one undertakes a large project. I decided to focus on one day of my families vacation; the day at the beach in San Diego. At first, I thought it would be funny to use the theme from JAWS as my musical background. I have since rethought that and have narrowed it down to two selections. I am still having difficulty converting the music from iTunes to what will work on a PC. I was looking forward to coming to class on the 5th, however, I was delayed. The cable guys showed up at 2PM at my new house to completely rewire it. GRRRR... At least I have cable and internet at home now. I wanted to have my project completed by Spring Break, but looks like I will need to finish it this break.

My daughters sixth grade classroom did a video project like this at the beginning of the year. It was a great ice breaker and all the students got a chance to know each other well. I think this is a great team building activity for a new class. Someone made each student a copy of the entire classrooms videos. What a great keepsake! I believe projects like this help students with sequencing, organizing and writing by giving them a real life opportunity to create something that is to be viewed by others. My daughter scripted her project out, which uses her writing skills. This is definitely a project I would like to put in my resource book.

PowerPoint As An Instructional Tool

2008-02-24T12:35:00.002-09:00

I feel that the use of programs, such as Power point presentations can be a very useful way to highlight key points and concepts with every age group, if used well. Younger students can be wowed with the visual aspects that power point employs. I do find that some older students, including myself, get hung up on trying to copy down the slide when used as part of a lecture. This can simply be remedied by providing the students a copy of the slides. As a student, I find this enables me to recall more of the lecture, especially when I can add my own notes next to the slide.

As a teacher, I feel students can use this tool as a way to do their own presentations. It provides an easy way to speak in public with visual back up. Students can do reports in all subjects, particularly language arts and history. The program allows for voice animation which can help very reluctant speakers present as well. The ability to sort the slides, also allows students to arrange and organize their thoughts in a logical manner. Providing copies of their slides to classmates enforces the literacy development goals of students seeing themselves as writers.

Personally, I learned a lot about Power Point with this assignment. My husband and I have both used it to help our older daughters with presentations, but other than one report, I have not used it myself. I like being able to use media to make my point. Using Powerpoint enables me to do so. And as long as the slides are not too wordy, it can be a valuable tool in the classroom. One other point I'd like to make about it. Once a lesson is created, it can be saved and reused often. It also allows for an absent student to view material once they return to class, or it can be emailed if the student has Internet access. One must be diligent to screen their earlier files, however, for up-to-date information and relevance.

Graphics Tablet

2008-02-24T11:07:00.002-09:00

Peripherals can enhance computers and computer uses in many ways, personal use as well as for in the classroom. The peripherals or set of peripherals (probeware, QX5 Microscope, MIDI keyboard, graphics tablet) were shown in ED 429. I found all of these to be very interesting. The one that I found most interesting was the graphics tablet. Mostly because I have very limited artistic abilities. My children however, take after their grandmother who is a well known artist in the Southwest and Australia (of all places). I also chose this peripheral because my girl scout troop was creating a book for Thinking Day. The book was a three month long project with stories submitted by eight different troops and distributed to 140 girls in the Fairbanks community. We 'played' with the tablet and created a cover page for our book using the graphics tablet. My oldest daughter now wants one.
As a future teacher, one of our greatest challenges is teaching literacy. I was curious as to what could be done using this technology to entice or enhance literacy with my girl scout troop. What I found was that it worked well as a way to get them to read the stories submitted and then have them create a picture to go along with the story. I think this would work well in a larger group. Creating classroom books is a very powerful way to help students see themselves as readers and writers.
I really enjoyed the other peripherals discussed in class as well. I wish I had a few thousand dollars to buy a bunch of these things to enhance my classrooms. Not to worry, I'll eventually build that collection!

Living my Life Based on a Refridgerator Magnet

2008-02-22T15:30:00.003-09:00

It says, "I was put on this planet to embarrass my teenagers in front of their friends." Sounds easy enough, right? Not if you have kids like mine. Quite honestly, I am getting tired of hearing about how amazing I am and that I am cool. I must come up with a better scheme and fast! That is where you come in... Comment me your suggestions!

First, let me give you a little run down of my latest stunts.
1. Freshmen Orientation. At the beginning of my two daughters high school year, I made them hold my hand while we looked for their classes. Imagine my annoyance when I had to yank my hand free so I could shake their new teachers hand.
2. The Football Game. My husband attended the game with me and we dragged the kids with us. Yay, victory! Well sort of. My victory cry for the touchdowns were limited by the fact that our team didn't score. And the teens moved off into their perspective pack of friends. No worries, I still had to pick them up from the dance.
3. Homecoming Dance. As planned, I arrived to pick up the girls and a gaggle of their friends, wearing a frizzy blond disco wig. Yes, I rock. Two unknown girls approached the van and backed off slowly! I was sure this look would embarrass them. It didn't. They loved it. All of them did. Sigh, how did they ever talk me into going to McDonald's like that to order a diet water, I'll never know! I was called 'amazing' like 342 billion times.
4. Bra Hats. Yes, you read that right. I said bra hats. Now I am like ' really amazing.' No embarrassment factor there. sigh.
5. The Rave. We held a Rave for one of the girls birthday parties. For those of you not up on the lingo (And my God, I went to Raves back when I was a teen. Get out more already.), a Rave is like a dance with neon lights, techno music and parents with splitting headaches. OKOK, so most Raves don't really have parents there, but in this case, I am NOT that cool. HOWEVER, I did use air freshener to separate kids dancing too close. Thats when it was determined that I am a 'cool emom' if you were to believe the rumors.

OK people, what am I doing wrong here?!?! Why are my kids not embarrassed and what can I do to fulfill the refrigerator magnet prophecy?

No Brakes

2008-02-11T13:58:00.000-09:00

When I was a kid, I was pretty sure life was slow, easy going, and one organized party after another. Now as an adult, I have come to realize that there are no brakes in life. Its full speed ahead. Oh sure, I stop to smell the roses once in awhile, but they just remind me that I need to plant my flowers come springtime. Last semester was a perfect example of my life. I was in school full time, my ill father-in-law moved in with us over the summer. We took in one of my daughters displaced friends (she is like a daughter to us), I had major surgery, my father-in-law died the week before finals and we took a huge family vacation that we had been planning for an entire year...

I figured this semester would be easier...

Nope...
Started off with the Praxis II test, That short little SOE application, taxes, financial aid/scholarship applications, a full load at school, the "other daughter" still lives with us, bought a new van, buying a house, got a kitty... And the semester is just getting started!

where are the brakes?!?! Just seems like this car only has a gas petal!

Software Resources

2008-02-11T13:49:00.000-09:00

Software Title: Ancient Egypt Web Quest
Grade/Age level: 6^th grade
Subject Area(s): History
Platform: Both
Purpose: From iwebquest . com, I found this very cool resource. I LOVED this website because it could be done at school or at home. It is set up like a quests and students must complete “Missions” as they progress through the program. Each mission has a set of goals, such as learning about the daily life of ancient Egyptians, and the students answer detailed and specific questions based on the websites provided. The really neat thing about this set up is that any teacher could do this using their own learning objectives.

Software Title: 6^th Grade Math Skills
Grade/Age level: 6^th Grade
Subject Area(s): Math
Platform: Both
Purpose: A part of Internet4Classrooms. This website has many interactive activities to help students see, experiment and manipulate numbers. For example, the Spinner activity allows students to experiment with probability by creating a spinner with up to 12 sections and then spinning it to see if the theoretical probability of landing on a specific color matches the experimental probability.

Software Title: Elementary United States Map
Grade/Age level: Intermediate
Subject Area(s): Geography
Platform: Both
Purpose: This site is from Apples4theTeachers . Nice easy website that shows children State Names, State Capitals and State Nicknames. Could easily be used to help children label a US map as an introduction to a larger unit, or to study for an exam. The information jumps off the map as the mouse rolls over the area.

One to One Video

2008-02-04T12:18:00.001-09:00

The one to one program as featured in class was very impressive. I really was surprised that all of our questions were answered in the video. For each student to have their own laptop, easy access to all homework and the ability to use this kind of technology at school and at home will be very beneficial to these students. I remember my first computer class WAY back in high school. I was so afraid I was going to put in the wrong thing, give it a virus, break it, I think I barely passed that class and I hated computers after that. It took more than ten years for me to get over that feeling and join the tech savvy world by buying a new computer in 1998. Todays kids definitely seem more comfortable around computers and we as teachers need to incorporate that into our classrooms.
My foster daughter got a free laptop computer through the Gifted and Talented program at Randy Smith. She is now in high school and uses it constantly. And she is still bringing in the high grades. I think the most significant point made was the problem of IMing during class. In the video, the teacher addressed this concern by stating that she gives the students a few minutes to finish up what they are doing, then she begins class. Another good point is that the students got into the routine; when the teachers told them to close their laptops, they did.
I definitely think each student having their own laptop would be an ideal situation. So many times at home, I think of something I forgot to tell my girl scout troop about and will fire off an email to the girls. I can see where this would be beneficial in the classroom; where I could post a link that may help with homework or a reminder to bring in canned foods for our food drive, etc.
Still, my only concern is that written curriculum was replaced. I think it is very important for students to interact with books.

Personal Introduction

2008-01-28T16:50:00.000-09:00

Hi! My name is Nicole and I am taking ED 429 as part of my teaching degree requirement and I want to use a lot of technology in my classroom. Kids today are very techno savvy and not only do I want to keep up with them, but I would really like to get that "wow" factor in my lessons. I have used computers quite a bit for school and for online computer gaming. I recently retired an online character I have been playing for six years in a massively multi player online fantasy role-playing game called EverQuest. This character was at the highest level of the end game, and although the social aspect was immensely enjoyable, the amount of time to keep her number 17 on the server significantly ate into my real life after changing time zones by moving to Alaska. Through that game, I gained a lot of experience with online forums, search engines and communities. In real life, I have been married to a military man for 17 years, and we have three beautiful children. Two daughters, 14 and 11 and one son who is 8. We also are caring for a 15 year old girl until her father returns to the Fairbanks community. Home is where the military sends us; which has been California, Washington, Virginia, Japan and Alaska. My husband has also served in Korea, the Philipines and Iraq.
I am really looking forward to this class.