Woohooo!

So happy this semester is over! I don't know if it was a good idea to take a class during my first year of teaching. But I did it. I learned a lot and I'm excited to continue learning more on how to create a website and more podcasts. I have to be honest and say I wasn't a big fan of our class wiki. The reason for this is more because I felt I never had time for it or to go through each part to see what I should or needed to add. Again, my plate was super full this semester but I know that's not an excuse. I'm okay with not getting all my points for that aspect but I hope that doesn't take a huge toll on my overall grade. I thought my CMS turned out good. I didn't add tons of content because I'm not really teaching the class and I wanted to show that I knew how to use the components of Moodle rather than focus on the content. I'm just glad the semester is over and I have a month off before I start a class in summer session I. Well I hope I can keep up with this blog over time or start a new one. Good luck to everyone else and possibly see/hear from you soon!

The Day of the Royal Wedding

So judging can begin here (insert judging)...


I am one of those people who woke up at 4:30 this morning to tune in and watch what was going on with the Royal Wedding. I think I wanted to be part of the experience in a way because I was not created by my parents yet when Princess Diana had got married. My mom she had woken up early to watch that wedding.   Hearing about all the details and background information about the Royal Family and whatnot, I have learned a lot. It was crazy to see how many people showed up on the streets to support these 2 people and their special day. In a way it shows that the country support royals and what goes on. I know the Royal family hasn't always had the popular vote but hopefully William and Kate can turn that around and give the Royal family the image they are so seeking again. So back to the actual wedding. I think I got chills when William came out for the first time in his red uniform to get in the car to make his way to the West Minister Abbey. Then I have to admit I had tears when Kate made the 4 minute walk down the aisle. Her and William were in their own world during the whole ceremony, I don't know if it could have been more intimate for them. I got choked up when he saw her for the first time and told her she looked beautiful. I don't know how much more romantic you could get. I am happy for the 2. I know I don't know them, but I wish the best for them especially since Princess Di did not have such a successful marriage. Okay I could seriously continue on and on about this but I really do need to work on my final project.


I was one of the few people that took part in our final synchronous discussion. It was actually a good topic and I learned several things. We discussed things about social networks and how to use them in the classroom. It was hard to relate because I don't think I would ever use Twitter or facebook in my second grade classroom only for the fact that I think they are still a bit young. I wouldn't be opposed to the idea if I had an older range of students. I learned several things that I was not aware of that you could do with Twitter and facebook. And here I thought I knew everything there was to know about facebook, haha. As the discussion continued I realized there could be several benefits of using both networks in the classroom but you would definitely have to take in consideration the age group that you would be working with and what you would actually use it for. You would have to set up the students with expectations and goals so that you got the results that you were looking for. I would have liked to get the opinions of others as well but maybe I can just by asking around my own building. Great topic though!


As I write this post I realize that I'm probably going to keep up with it even after this class is over. I like the fact that it's working like a journal and it sometimes makes  me feel better when I can get what I'm thinking off my chest and in writing (especially when I have no one to talk to at that particular moment). But it's time to get back to work on our final project. Again good luck to everyone and it has been a pleasure working along side you!

As the semester winds down

Even though the semester is coming to a close, I have a lot of work to accomplish in this final week. Since I'm very new to Moodle, I have been just learning to navigate around the software to become familiar with its features. However, now it's crunch time and I have to start filling in the information that is required for this final project. My goal is to finish by Friday, then if I have any questions to either pose them to the question discussion board or email the prof. I hope to make final changes over the weekend and submit it with plenty of time before it's actually due. I hope this final project is smooth sailing and that I don't want into a bunch of difficulties... I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. I'll also be getting in some final discussion posts, and blogs and maybe even adding some more information to our class wiki. 


Something else I wanted to mention is this past week I participated in our class discussion using Second Life. I thought the experience went rather well. I wish that the presenters would have liked to use their mics and talked, but the discussions still went good using chat (typing) only. I used a program similar to SL last summer, but my avatar was a smiley face instead. I always like trying new things like that because it keeps things interesting rather than the same old. 


Well I'm worn out for the night, and I'm thinking the weather does not help. Whoever is reading this, good luck with your final project!

Birthday Weekend= Success

Yesterday I celebrated my 25th birthday. Now I can officially say that I'm a quarter of a century old, haha. The teachers where I work joke and tell me they don't want to know my age and that I'm the baby of the building, love them! I spent my weekend down in Columbus. I got to spend time with my family and friends and couldn't have asked for more. I am so blessed to have these people in my life and they make life worth living. My kiddies got a little birthday treat from me today and were trying to guess my age, that's always a fun one! I am however, still catching up on my rest so I don't know if I'll post any to the discussion board tonight or work on our last project. I might have to save that for a day that I'm feeling fresh and I still have some brain power left. Today was a long day and I'm just about to wrap up this blog so I can spend an hour or two on the couch and relaxing. I'll blog later this week updating how stressed or frantic I'm feeling about our last big project. Until then, blog away :)

Online Discussion a Success

I wanted to blog a littler earlier but I've been sick. I had to lead a discussion on Tuesday evening about blogging and journaling. I thought that the overall discussion went well. Several of my peers brought up great points about blogging that hadn't crossed my mind. I think that blogging could be a positive aspect for teachers but a lot of ground work would need to be done. Such as the expectations and goals, and what is appropriate lingo. I think it would be smart to start off with a classroom blog then if the students were capable have their own individual blogs (depending on age). We did discuss on the Tuesday discussion about the positives and negatives or blogs in a classroom. But I mentioned that everything has pros and cons but it's up to the person to lay that all out before. 


I look forward to the upcoming discussions. I like doing the interactive discussion rather than leaving posts after posts. I love being live! Haha. Well this is all I really have today for my blog. Brain power is week when sick. Hopefully I'm better for this weekend since it's my birthday Sunday... (crossing my fingers!)

GarageBand saved Me!

Finally I feel that one of my projects wasn't at stressful. I have been going about my projects this time mostly one at a time. This has caused a lot of stress but at the same time that's all my brain could handle haha. When it came to our podcast project I was a little nervous because, I didn't know how I was going to fill 5 minutes. But I managed and it's about 6 minutes and 40 seconds. I felt comfortable about podcasts because that was the topic I made my other projects about all semester. I knew what they were and how to use them. I just had never made one on my own. I sat down to write my script and remembered seeing one of Dr. Ingrams requirements. It had mentioned GarageBand. I totally forgot that I had that program on my mac and was excited to use it. It was so easy and I actually enjoyed the whole process of making my podcast. For those of you who are reading my blog, GarageBand is like Audacity, but for mac users. Just one of the programs made from Apple. This opened the door to podcasts me and I can't wait to make my next one. I think I'm going to take my laptop in closer to the end of the school year and have my students make one for our final project. I hope to add pictures to it then burn it to CDs for them. It will be a great parting gift. I also want to do podcasts for my classroom website so parents can hear about what we are doing in the classroom. I'm glad this project went smooth for me, now I'll be waiting to see what I got for my grade. 


On the other hand, I'm not as familiar with Moodle, so my next task will be trying to figure it out in order to complete our last project. If you have any easy suggestions or thoughts that might help me, feel free to leave them!

Exhaustion is setting in

It has been a crazy, stressful, no time to think week. I'm glad to have finally turned in my website. It was stressing me out. I'm the type that starts to overthink everything then that turns into over analyzing my work wondering if it is good enough or not. I think what I turned in was good. I could probably go back and tweak some things as well as add things over time, but there comes a point when you have to draw the line for yourself and stop obsessing about it. So, definitely feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, for now before I get busy with my podcast. I know I should have kept up a little better with my projects this semester, but I guess being a first year teacher and thrown into also being a curriculum leader has made me really shuffle my priorities around. I think I have too much on my plate right now but I'm trying the best I can to give attention to the things up next and not look so much into the future (day by day type of scenario). I wanted to start my podcast tonight, to be honest my brain has shut down for the night so that will get done Saturday morning and I'm refreshed from the week. I know, already thinking to myself, "Way to wait until the last minute" but as some people say "It is what it is" and that's just what I have to do right now. 


I'm also trying to stay up on the discussion boards, asyncronous conversations, and blogging as much as possible. I want to get the rest of my points and all of them this time. Sometimes I feel it comes down to, losing track of days and not knowing when the last time I posted was. I'm not forgetful but for some reason this semester is just flying by and I don't realize that I haven't created a blog in over 2 weeks when it feels like only 2 days have gone by. I look to catch up on some discussions this weekend, getting my podcast done, and also hoping to get a head start on anything left for the semester. Only a few more weeks, so time to put my nose to the grind stone... alright well off to post a few discussion posts. 


P.S. Changing up the color of my font again. I get bored after so long, haha.

Sunday is not Fun Day

As I finish up some things for my website, I realize I definitely should have continued to work on it when I first started a few weeks ago and kept up with it. I would rather be on the couch relaxing to a great movie or catching up on grading papers instead of finishing up on my website. But on a good note, at least I'm not just starting my website... that could be very bad. As I put my final touches on my pages, there are several things that I would like to do with my website but I don't know how just yet. I'm hoping over time and with more practice I will be able to add a lot more aspects and interactions to my website without stressing myself out. Some of the things that I had visioned for my website did not happen, not because I didn't want them to but because I tried and couldn't get something to work. I hope my grade for this project does not take a huge hit especially since it's my first time creating a website and whatnot. This project was overwhelming at times but I think the next go around will be smoother and will probably be more amped up with me hopefully gaining more knowledge of the potentials you can do with a website. This has been a great learning experience with ups and downs. Hopefully everyone else is starting to finish up their own website and still have more of their hair, haha. I'll be tuning in later this week to let you know how my podcast adventure is going. I think (and hope) my podcast turns out okay especially since my website was all about how to create and use a podcast. Alright well back to touching up my website. I decided I probably won't turn it in until tomorrow incase there are any last minute changes I would like to make or add. Happy blogging and talk to you all later!!!

I've been gone for awhile

Haven't posted a blog in awhile. I've been busy with other aspects of my life including my job, and didn't get around to leaving anything on here. I've been working on my website and it's going okay, wish more would be done at this point but I'll be using these days off to get caught up on A LOT of school work. Has anyone started working on their podcasts? If so, how is it going. I'm hoping to start that this week sometime too. Well I'll be back in a few days so I can get a few more things on my blog. See you all soon!

Spring Fever is starting to set in big time

Today was a rather stressful day at school but running is always a great stress reliever. I actually went out for a run and decided to take a new route through a neighborhood that I was not familiar with. I didn't realize how far away I had wandered. When I found out where I was I thought "Okay, I know where I am" but forgot exactly how far away that was from my apartment. So to make a long story short, I ended up running about 6 miles. My body was definitely not ready for all of that but it felt good. It will probably be a different story by time tomorrow morning rolls around. I just found out that I'll be getting a new student tomorrow in my classroom. I don't know how that makes me feel. The last time I got a new student it made our classroom balance off and we still haven't recovered. Plus I have a sub tomorrow morning and Friday all day. SOooo this should be fun, not. I did however get caught up on some grading and also my tweet and blog. Now I just need to get motived on getting my website coming along. I might save that for this weekend since I have so many meetings, sub plans, and new students to get me through the week. Plus I just found out yesterday that this weekend is spring ahead with the time. I can't afford to lose anymore of my sleep! Is anyone else feel extra exhausted these days? I can't seem to get enough sleep. Alright well if you have read this far I'm sorry that I just had a little complaint fest. I do feel better though :)  Hopefully I survive through the rest of the week and find the motivation I need to start putting my website together. I definitely can't afford to wait until the last minute because this project is too big and important. Okay, well have a great rest of the week everyone!

Friday!

Here we are again, at the end of the week. I don't feel very accomplished this week for class for some reason. I've been reading other student's blogs, discussion posts, and what they add to the wiki. Maybe it's because we don't technically have anything due on Monday? Anyways, I got another snow day today. I went to bed fairly early last night because I was exhausted and woke up as usual this morning. The only downside is that I did not go back to sleep because I was no longer tired. I'm starting to feel some serious cabin fever and am about to venture out to workout. I don't know how the main roads are and don't want to get stuck or someone who doesn't know how to drive in this Ohio snow to run into me. Orrr I might just end up baking something... Next week is going to be long due to the fact that this past week was only 3 days for me... But I am excited to be heading to Columbus next weekend, excited to get away if only for a weekend. Does anyone have any exciting spring break plans (speaking basically to all the other teachers)? Well, I think this is all I'm going to add for today... I'll probably be back sometime this weekend to add more thoughts about class or something. Byeee for now!

Happy President's Day, Thank God for you!

I am really happy that I had today off. I have used my time wisely and am about to crash from brain overload! Nothing like procrastination to get your stress level going. I think why I procrastinated on my web design is that I'm still partially confused on what I am doing yet alone I don't know how to find my way around the website designers. I try to get my feet wet with some of them, but when I want to do something cool with it, it's a huge FAIL! I feel like I skipped a course along the way that I should have taken before I took this one. Website building for dummies? I don't know... But now that I'm into the course there is no going back now. I know that some of you are as frustrated as me. Are there others out there that get what they are doing and are having success with website builders that are easy to use? If so, can you leave suggestions or those builders? I feel like I'm going nowhere right now because I don't have a grasp on what I'm learning. Yes, I know about the different types of technology pieces but not how to do this technical stuff with graphics and so on. Someone please help or point me in the right direction! On that note, I'm done with my laptop for the night... my eyes can no longer focus on the screen. Have a great week everyone!

Done with my WQ and moving on

It felt great to turn in my webquest. I was a little nervous not knowing if I had everything I needed for it. I saw the rubric after I had already posted it and started stressing out... but I just looked at the points I received and was pretty happy with it. Now I've devoted most of my time figuring out what website design to make and how I'm going to do it. I know we're only submitting a outline for next week but I like being on top of everything and want to make sure I turn in what I want the prof to give me feedback on. I'm a little nervous but I'm hoping by the very last submission of the url, it will be the way I want it.


We are also getting ready to start our discussion on our class wiki. When I was reading the chapter about wikis by Richardson it said, "each of Wikipedia's more than 860,000 entries has evolved, from the hands of people just like us with the concept that everyone together is smarter than anyone alone." I liked the thought of that. I know that some people will add bogus material to open wikis and that some wikis are monitored on who has access to write on them. I still find that wikis are creative and can get people thinking about ideas. The difference I like between wikis and blogs is that you can go back and keep editing it. With blogs once you post, you can't go back and edit it. Good luck to everyone working on their web designs, see you in the discussions and have a great week!

And here is snow day #2

Let's be honest, I was really hoping for these snow days because I wanted to get caught up on some work. The problem is I haven't gotten much accomplished. I've been lacking in the motivation department and can't seem to snap out of it, haha. I have been working on my webquest, just not as far as I would like to be at this point in time. I freaked out when I realized I was on my own creating my very first website. I have sampled several but think I finally found one that I can manage and understand how to use. Now that I'm feeling underway I'm probably going to get back to it. I will return in a day or two to post more on my progress and any difficulties I ran into along the way. Good luck to everyone else still working on their webquest!

A Cold Winter Day...

Ughh... this is when I wish I lived in the south... I hate these bitter cold temps! Brrrr!!! But it gives me a reason to stay inside and actually get some work done. I think I've got a whole grasp on this Blog thing now. I've even following a few good ones that have a lot of great information especially about technology. I know that I have mentioned about students being able to use blogging as a writing journal or where they could place their thoughts but as I was reading about Blogging in our text I found even more ways to use blogging. I had never thought of using blogging to introduce a new concept or new type of genre of reading. I feel that you could do this in several ways by either showing them (with blogs) or by having them write what they find in their blogs. I also liked the thought of using Weblogs for those older students who want to do an extended study or reflection on a topic. Seeing new inventive ways to do school work with technology makes me jealous. I wish some of these things would have been around when I was going through school. I am definitely a faster typer than writer, so it would have made writing for me more enjoyable as well as more interesting. (I hated getting hand cramps!) Another neat things I read from Richards talks about using blogging to communicate with students around the country even around the world. Also, you could use blogging across the curriculum. I never thought of blogging in terms of math or comparing problems with peers. I thought of more of the writing aspect. I'm really enjoying our text because it gives you tons of ideas on how to use each piece of technology. Like I said, I hadn't thought of some of the ways to use a blog, and now I'm interested to see how they use other pieces of technology.

Trying to learn about Web Quests

This technology is completely new to me. It's amazing how I think I know so much about technology since I've started my masters in this program just to find that there's more for me to learn about. As I was reading through the article "WebQuests: Can They Be Used to Improve Critical Thinking Skills in Students?" I was getting excited. As a second grade teacher I'm always looking for more engaging ways to get my students to enhance their critical thinking skills and I feel this is going to be a great way! I feel that it will require a lot of work at first on my part, but once you have it in place it will be smooth sailing from there. I think it will also let me relax a little and not be so nervous when it comes to letting my students search for their own websites. Through the WQ process I will have the opportunity to have already screened many of the websites and know that the website they are visiting does have information that they will need. I see many pros to this type of technology. But I also see many obstacles for myself when creating it. Hopefully throughout more reading and several emails to the professor, I'll be able to figure out everything in order to create my very own WB!

The Stress is Setting In...

I'm already finding myself a little overwhelmed with my class. I'm thrilled to be learning about all these new pieces of technology but at the same time I feel I have been thrown into everything at once and I'm trying to keep all of it straight while still trying to understand it. I hope that I am able to take a deep breath lay it all out in front of me... then begin. On a positive note... I know what a wiki is from my last class, I'm getting pretty good at this blogging thing, and my twitter account is coming along too. More to come once I do a little more reading and understanding.

First Time Blogger

Well here it goes. This is my first time EVER blogging! I'm kind of excited and nervous. I feel as if I can't really mess it up but at the same time have to be careful what I say because anyone can read it. I've heard of Blogs and what they are but never have been interested in starting my own. I could probably start a funny one about all the random things my students say, but I'll save that for a rainy day. I think I saw a good example of one being used in the movie, "Julie and Julia." Julie starts a Blog about cooking and people read and encourage her to follow her goal and blah blah blah... I could tell you the whole movie but it would probably be easier watching it. But anyways...

So I'm about to post and I'm just hoping I did everything right! Haha! Happy reading!