Instructional Unit Atoms and Presentation

The most difficult part of this assignment was fitting all my information into a few slides. I did manage to get all my information on ten slides. The idea for the project was easy since I was already doing some of it with my students. I think they enjoyed making the videos though we did run into some technical difficulties, but we overcame them. It was great having access to atomic learning because that helped me and the students. We spent a couple class periods just going over videos explaining how to deal with some of the issues we ran into. I learned a lot more about making the videos right along with the students. The students also enjoyed the internet games and quizzes. I heard quite a few of them saying wow I really get this by doing these activities. I even heard it from one of my skepitcal students who originally asked me why we had to even go to the computer lab and do those stupid internet activities. I didn't have the students do the online storybook this year, but I may incorporate it next year. I will have them create a voice thread when we do the atom models. I plan to start those on this Thursday and Friday. I will just have to remember the camera so we can take pictures of the models. I have a chemical equation activity that I found online that the students can take pictures of too. The website provided colored images of chemical symbols, formulas, numbers, and arrows that the students will put together to make chemical equations that we can take pictures of. I might even have them create chemical equation balancing tutorial and problems that their classmates can solve by commenting on their voice threads. Putting together this project really helped me come up with some new ideas for teaching chemistry to eight graders in physical science I really enjoyed it, thanks Skip.

Comment on Voice Thread

I waited to post this comment until after I had done some commenting on other voice threads. I found using this technique much easier than the online storybook. However, I did run into some problems with getting my audio and video to save correctly. I ended up recording many times just to get it saved. It began to get a little frustrating and I was cut off a couple of times in the middle of comments. If it caught most of what I said and wasn't just left hanging in the middle of something I just left the audio where it was so it least I had something on there. I had the same problem when trying to comment on other's projects. I then went back to the voice thread website and browsed through some of the posts. I found some amazing ideas on there for using this tool in the classroom. I already had a few ideas for projects including having students take pictures of projects they have been doing and then reflecting on the project and what they learned. I also have thought about using it in art as a method of critique. Students work could be photographed and then the artist and other students could comment on each others work. I would probably want to keep this one private or students would have to agree to having photos of their work posted. While I was browsing I found that you could also use voice thread for review of concepts and assignments. Students can even put the answers right on the voice thread or they can hand an assignment in separately. It would be a great way to have students who are gone for sports trips or other events complete assignments and get notes while they are away. Living here where students sometimes leave for a week or more on sport trips this will be an awesome tool. I can summarize notes and leave questions that students can answer and be graded on even before they return. It would also be a great tool for bell ringers especially in our high school classes as we are in the one to one program and all high school students should have their laptops with them everyday. It would provide time for doing those before class details like attendance and other things you might need extra time for at the beginning of a class. It would be a new way of doing think pair-share because after students post their comments you could have them go and read and post on other students comments. This is a great tool that I can't wait to implement in class.

Gabby and Ryleigh's Trip to the Florida Aquarium

Panraven Online Storybook

Panraven Online Storybook

After many trials and tribulations I finally got through getting an online storybook created in Panraven. I began in Tabblo and liked many of the features there much more, but I could not get my pictures ordered the way I wanted them to go. Panraven was much easier setting up the order of pictures for the storybook. I still had problems and my computer almost crashed. When I was finishing I realized many of my photographs were in low resolution so I don't know if it is worth trying to get this published. I would like to publish it because I think my granddaughters would love it, but I don't know if it will work. The pictures may end up looking grainy when they are printed so I'll have to do some checking on it first. I don't really know if I could use this for a class project. It was very difficult to get it set up and then most of the writing at least in Panraven didn't fit. I did notice there was other page layouts that possibly could have more text, but when I tried one of those layouts my computer froze and I ended up with a white screen that I am still dealing with. I think there must be an easier way to have students create an online storybook so I will have to investigate it much more. I would love to have them document one of their labs or inquiries though so I will have to think about it.

Working on my Online Story Book

I hope that I can get my story book online sometime tonight. I was working on a story book in Tabblo so that I could actually get a soft copy published for my granddaughters for Christmas. I think they would really get a kick out of seeing themselves in a book and reading a story of our adventures at the Florida Aquarium. Actually if I can get the hang of it I would probably make a book for each of my grandchildren highlighting an experience or day we had together. I think it will be a great educational tool for teaching my grandchildren about the places and things we saw. I am highlighting the wildlife I photographed at the Florida Aquarium and explaining some of the ecology or biology associated with each organism. I can see using it in my classroom highlighting lab projects or possibly making a zoobook in biology. I again see some problems possibly with copy right issues of pictures my students might want to use off the internet. I just thought about contacting Fish and Wildlife or even the Park Service here and seeing if they have pictures archived there that my students might be able to use. I know they have lots of photos at least at Fish and Wildlife because we always had to take photos when we were out in the field. I also have lots of photos that could be used and I could also have students do their own drawings for the books and scan them in. I am sure I will be able to find ways to utilize this tool. It would be a great way for students to document their lab experiences and share their observations, diagrams, and even pictures (since we have a classroom digital camera) online with other students doing similar experiments or even to put on our schools website. Once I get something done that can be put up on here I will comment somemore on the experience of creating this book. I was waiting for things to upload so I figured I would go ahead and do a post now with more to come.

Flickr Slide Show Florida Aquarium

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I found using Flickr photo a little difficult at first. I tried to upload my photos at home and could not get anything to upload. I ended up saving my photos on my laptop so I could upload them at school. Once I got the hang of it everything went pretty well. I got my photos uploaded my titles and descriptions on. I then had to re-visit elive to get directions for putting the slide show on my blog. I also had to download firefox because for some reason flickr.com did not load correctly on Internet Explorer there was an error on the page. I could not go to organize to create my set and order my slides for my story. Once I got on Firefox I was able to create my set and order my pictures. Then when I went to FlickrSlidr I could not preview the slide show because there was no plugin even after I downloaded Adobe Flash. There was definitely some frustrating moments, but for the most part I really enjoyed the project. I was trying to think of how I might use this in my classroom and nothing was coming to me at first. I was working on my assignment at carnival and one of my students asked what I was doing then made the comment that she would really like to try to make a Flickr Slide show. As I was setting up my descriptions and explaining the scientific information about the birds and animals in my slide show I realized I could use it to have students take pictures during field trips or of lab projects and put them in a Flickr Slide Show to share with others on the internet or to put on our school web site. I was trying to think of ways that we could get photos that would not cause copyright issues also. The only things I could think of was maybe setting up a folder with the many pictures I have taken at field camps and national parks. I have quite a few pictures that I could use to set up a picture library for students to publish their own Flickr Shows. They would be required to do the research for the scientific descriptions. As I was sitting here writing this post I thought of having students take pictures of their labs and inquiry projects as a possibility as I mentioned before. Again writing the descriptions with scientific information and details about their methods and observations would certainly help reinforce and enhance their learning.

Sense of Place Comic Life Poster

The most difficult part of this poster was deciding what place to choose for the sense of place. Then I realized that I can't find my folders of pictures from Colorado and the Pow Wow my grandson and I went to in New York. I guess that helped narrow my choices, but I am still bummed I can't figure out where my other pictures are saved. Oh well, on to Comic Life once I found some suitable photos of a place I really enjoying going to the rest was pretty easy. I did have a little trouble getting things centered correctly and moving things around until they seemed like they were in a good order and position. I can see this being used in my classroom for many reasons. I really liked the idea of making posters of classroom events and field trips. I have already used it to help students get a project finished that they were having difficulty with. It made making a poster much easier and motivated the students to who would probably not have completed the project. When students have an enjoyable and relatively easy way to get things done even the unmotivated students can be stimulated enough to get their work done.

Digital Video

This video is being made to help my students with a video project on the history of the atom. I am starting the students off by having them create a time-line for the project. They will then preview video clips that I have downloaded from Discovery Education and create a story board with their time line or outline as a guide. My video clip still needs work it is actually a work in progress. After I saved it and viewed it I noticed that there were certain things I needed to move around and there are still a few more topics to cover. The more I used imovie the easier it became to work with. I think once I get the video completed and all the quirks worked out I'll be able to do these type of projects more often. I am sure the I will learn quite a bit from my students as they go through this project.

Video Clip Technology in the Classroom

This is a video clip from Discovery Education Streaming. Discovery has videos on many topics including professional development. You may find a wide variety of videos shot in the classroom for teaching tips to add to your teaching toolbox.

Oct. 6 & 7 In-service Bristol Bay

On Monday and Tuesday my school had two full days of in-service. We had an Apple Trainer at our school for those two days. Since our school is participating in a one to one program this is always valuable training. We covered several topics including imovie. The topic I found most useful was Apple Remote Desktop (ARD). I have had ARD on my school laptop since last year and never really figured out how to use it correctly. I have used synchronize in our computer lab and had no problem with that, but ARD for some reason has been a problem. I was successful in following along with our trainer in the use of ARD. Now if I can just implement what I learned in my classroom. I know what I have to do is set up class with the lists of my students computers in it so I can keep an eye on them during class. I know there are a few others who are watching computers even those not in their classroom. That is good because the students know that even if I may not be watching someone else might be. I didn't get a chance to go back to ARD once classes resumed, but I do know that I have to make it a priority so that I will be able to view where my students are when I have them working on their computers. I want to always be able to make sure they are on task and if not I can capture a screenshot of a student off task or even on an inappropriate site. We were told a story of students chatting about smoking pot that was captured by a screenshot. I don't believe they did that again and everyone in the school knew about it so everyone got a clear warning to be responsible. We also covered iworks including document shortcuts, picture placements, and educational uses of iworks. I only got a hour of instruction on using imovie, but a little is better than none. I learned how to split videos in imovie, how to put in titles, and dub sound in. I really want to learn how to use this because our school also has a subscription to Discovery Education Streaming. Many of the videos on Discovery can be edited. I can have a student take a video use the clips and place in their own narration covering a plethora of topics. I wanted to do that last year, but never had a chance to get to it. I do use many video clips in my presentations though to enhance and illustrate the concepts I am teaching like mountain building and biomes. It is an exciting tool that I want to utilize in as many ways as I can and with the one to one program it is possible.

PowerPoint Presentation Assignment

I thought that I would be able to breeze through this assignment because I use PowerPoint on a daily basis for my lectures. What I didn't anticipate was my change from the 2003 PowerPoint version to the 2007 PowerPoint verision learning curve. I had some major frustrated moments with a little cussing (I'm sorry to say) involved. Of course, I got through those moments and figured out what I needed and feel much more comfortable with the 2007 version. I thought the exercise itself was a good one. Thank-you for all those videos to clarify these points Skip.

I hadn't thought of breaking my presentations into small individual tutorials. It is an excellent way to breakdown things like writing a scientific report into small chunks of information. I have always tried to break this subject down having students work on one to two pieces of the report until they could finally put it all together with a complete report. This exercise gave me a whole new avenue to be able to work on this.

Science Camp

The first day of my first year teaching I went out to science camp. It was challenging being my first year teaching since I was hired as an expert in my field and I had no official training as a teacher. That came from being accepted in the teaching program with UAF. Every year since I have been teaching here I have taken my students to science camp. It is a week of living in a remote field camp getting a hands-on experience doing science. Every year but this one we have had experts and scientists join us. In this photograph my friend Cheryl a fisheries biologist is teaching the students how to capture and identify macro-invertebrate on the Egigik River. I also have had lots of experience doing field studies here on the Alaska Peninsula my speciality was birds. We study a variety of subjects from geology, fisheries, ornithology, mammology, and ecosystems while we are in camp.
Here students are conducting vegetation plot surveys. Students are determining percent cover of vegetation. Students need to be able to correctly identify the plant species then they dig below the vegetation to look at the soil profile. We spend a week out in the field doing hands-on science for science camp. Science camp is held near the mouth of the Egigik River by Lake Becharof. It was moved from the shore of Lake Becharof about three years ago when Bible Camp was declared unsave. These pictures are from last years camp I will post this years pictures once I get them downloaded.

Software Review

Software Title: Cells Alive
Grade/Age Level: 7 – 12 grades and adults
Subject: Biology and Life Science
Platform: both

Purpose: Cells alive is internet site covering cell biology, microbiology, immunology, microscopy. There are interactive models for students to learn about the cell structure and function, cell cycle and cell cams. There are puzzles and quizzes students can do online or be downloaded. There are also videos some can be viewed online others can be bought and downloaded. Though some of the videos have to be paid for there is still free downloads and interactive. There are also cell and crystal galleries. To use cells alive you need java, shockwave, and a video player like windows media player.

Software Title: Virtual Heart Transplant
Grade/Age Level: 9th grade to adult
Subject Area: Human biology
Platform: both

Purpose: This is a fun activity for students when learning about the human heart. The virtual heart transplant is part of the companion web site of PBS and the NOVA program called the Electric Heart. In the site students will find a map of the human heart, amazing heart facts and Operation: Heart Transplant. It gives students a chance to be a virtual heart surgeon showing them how a simplified version of a heart transplant is done. It allows students to learn the procedure required for a heart transplant in an easy to understand manner. To be a virtual surgeon Adobe Shockwave is required.

Software Title: Get Body Smart
Grade/Age Level: 7th grade – adult
Subject: Anatomy
Platform: both

Purpose: The purpose of Get Body Smart is to teach students the anatomy and physiology of the human body. The sites developer Scott Sheffield wanted to provide an interactive and animated ebook for students to learn about the interactions of the physiological system and imporant anatomical sites in the human body. The site offers tutorials on six human body systems including skeletal, muscular, respiratory, circulatory, urinary, nervous, and histology. The tutorials include flash animations of the different systems and tissues. Each tutorial has a quiz. There are also links to other sites for students. I have used this site when teaching the skeletal system to my students in both middle school and high school. It is a fun way to learn the parts of your body.

One to One Initiative

I am writing my review for the One to One Initiative a bit late due to an overly busy schedule the past two weeks. I actually watched this DVD more than a year ago and need to watch it again so I will be editing this review to add more detail. Our school began the One to One Initiative last year though I believe we actually got the grant monies this year along with additional laptops. I viewed the Healy DVD with my electronic portfolio class and shared it with several colleagues last year. We were thrown into the program by a former superintendent. Finalizing the decision to go ahead with the program and purchasing the laptops was his departing action. The problems that we encountered upon returning to school last year were many. The first thing we happen a laptop was assigned to each teacher and staff member. The problem here was the change in platform most of us and the school used the Windows platform before this. On top of that we also had a new grading program to learn. Once teachers and staff were comfortable with the laptops and grading program we moved on to conquering the laptop handbook. Many interesting discussions developed from this, such as what to filter, are music downloads allowed and others. Once we had the handbook done then came time to give the students the computers. It was decided that in the beginning laptops would remain in the student’s first hour class and only be taken out for the day to be returned to the classroom at the end of the day. Then the much anticipated time arrived about two months later, after Christmas break, when students were allowed to take the computers home. We chose to release computers this way to ensure that before students took laptops home they had proven they were responsible in following the handbook rules. Of course there was paperwork for students and parents stating responsibility of the laptops. The biggest problems we encountered before sending laptops home were students erasing internet history and music downloads. All and all I think it has been great for our students to have laptops. I still have to learn how to use Apple Remote Desktop so I can keep an eye on my students when they are working on their laptops. Something that probably needs training, but like Healy we didn’t get a lot of training. We have had an Apple trainer come out this year and he will be back in October so we are getting some training. The only real problem I have had with students is some instant messaging during class time and ARD should take care of that. I have students use their laptops for online activities, publishing, data collection, and writing. Students have been able to turn in assignments electronically, but they still have many paper assignments to turn in as well. When I review the DVD again I will add more to my reflection.

Intro

I am Jodi and I am taking Ed 329 Teaching with Technology. This class is very important to me because my school began the one to one computer initiative last year. All of our high school students now have a laptop in their hands and there are two carts of laptops for middle and elementary classes. It is important to me teaching 7 -12th grade to engage and enhance my students learning experience with technology.

I began teaching science and art in Alaska five years ago. I came to Alaska to work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as a wildlife biologist. Coming to Alaska to work for the USFWS, I worked in remote field camps. I went to Mother Goose Lake where on the first night at camp we were called to the lake. I wondered what was up as I walked from the cabin to the lake. I heard excited voices and hurried to find out what was happening. When I got to the lake to my amazement I saw a pack of wolves stalking a moose calf trying to split it from its mother. The pack finally caught the calf, but the wolves and we were watching a brown bear heading at a fast pace down the shore. The wolves backed off and the calf almost reached its mother and the safety of the other shore. Then like a bolt of lightening the bear reached the calf and we all heard a sickening cry as the calf was crabbed by the neck. The bear headed off into the willow and the wolves watched from the distance as the distraught mother moose looked for her young.

I realized then that all my years of education, field labs, and field work brought me here to witness such an awesome sight. Much of my education consisted of taking field courses and doing research. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was getting a place-based education utilizing inquiry-based lessons. I have since decided that I want to share my love of nature and learning. Being in the field and learning by hands-on experience. Science is observation and inquiry. I feel that students will only learn by actively being involved and engaged in their own learning. To really make this effective technology is a must. I hope that this course will enhance the use of technology in my classroom.