I am updating my class website. LVUSD has opted to go for a new packaged web site in which teachers can create and change their own web page.
The website definitely looks a lot better than what we had before and I think that most teachers will actually enjoy the ease with which the pages can be changed.
Unfortunately for those of us who are tech-savvy, there are many restrictions. We can however link to our own website and there of course we have full control of what we're doing.
Kudos to Mary and Jeanne for giving us the tools to create professional looking pages!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Summer School
I just finished teaching summer school. The six weeks went by fast; faster than I thought. I had one 8th grade class with 15 students and one with 4 students.
Inintially I thought it would be harder to teach the class with 15, but surprisingly it was the 4 student class which challenged me the most. I think that feedback from a "larger" class is more helpful so students and me too can feed of each other and address more issues. In a smaller class, the chance that all students get a specific idea is a lot higher.
The key to fill two 2 1/2 hour classes for me was change, change, change. Luckily, the SuccessMaker lab was running which took about 30 minutes including getting to and from the lab
. Lessons, worksheets, games etc filled the other two hours which made the day go by fast.
Overall a very enjoyable experience.
P.S. We had two great barbecue days for the faculty. Josh made some great burgers and hot dogs and everyone brought nummy stuff to eat.
Inintially I thought it would be harder to teach the class with 15, but surprisingly it was the 4 student class which challenged me the most. I think that feedback from a "larger" class is more helpful so students and me too can feed of each other and address more issues. In a smaller class, the chance that all students get a specific idea is a lot higher.
The key to fill two 2 1/2 hour classes for me was change, change, change. Luckily, the SuccessMaker lab was running which took about 30 minutes including getting to and from the lab
. Lessons, worksheets, games etc filled the other two hours which made the day go by fast.
Overall a very enjoyable experience.
P.S. We had two great barbecue days for the faculty. Josh made some great burgers and hot dogs and everyone brought nummy stuff to eat.
Monday, July 21, 2008
OMG! I totally forgot to mention this to all of you!
As you may know, I have students send most of their projects to me in email format.
I think I totally forgot to mention why I have them do this. No, it is not easier to read, nor is it easier to grade or anything. No the primary reason I have them send it to me is so I can check for plagiarism.
With todays technology, students easily cut and paste, change a few words here and there, perhaps change a few sentences around and present it as their own.
Well, as soon as I gave them a writing assignment and also gave them the sites on which they should look for information, I knew there were going to be some students who would use the cut, copy, change technique. Enter www.plagiarismdetect.com . This is the easiest website to check for plagiarism and it is totally free. What you do is you sign up, select a text that someone has submitted to you via email (this is key) copy and paste it in this website, hit the button and voila, it'll tell you exactly what is copied etc. It gives you a percentage too. There are 2 modes, one which does a cursory glance and one which does a more indepth search.
Give it a try. it's free!
I think I totally forgot to mention why I have them do this. No, it is not easier to read, nor is it easier to grade or anything. No the primary reason I have them send it to me is so I can check for plagiarism.
With todays technology, students easily cut and paste, change a few words here and there, perhaps change a few sentences around and present it as their own.
Well, as soon as I gave them a writing assignment and also gave them the sites on which they should look for information, I knew there were going to be some students who would use the cut, copy, change technique. Enter www.plagiarismdetect.com . This is the easiest website to check for plagiarism and it is totally free. What you do is you sign up, select a text that someone has submitted to you via email (this is key) copy and paste it in this website, hit the button and voila, it'll tell you exactly what is copied etc. It gives you a percentage too. There are 2 modes, one which does a cursory glance and one which does a more indepth search.
Give it a try. it's free!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Week 9 - Thing 23
Yay Last Thing!
I must say I was a little weary about this and decided I would do this to learn about one or two things that could be of interest. Initially, I wasn't going to take this course for credit and already regretted taking on yet one more thing. Hadn't I learned in the Navy that Navy means "Never Again Volunteer Yourself?" Hah! But then I found out I was 2 units shy of the next pay scale and knowing that 1 class at csun would run around $1000 and this one was $200, the math was easy.
So I started doing this thing and to my surprise, I actually learned stuff. How arrogant can one get to think one knows it all?
There are many little things that I learned, many things I knew but had forgotten or dismissed and also a lot of stuff I knew existed but had never used or bothered to look at for fear it I would be obliged to use it.
1) For me the most exiting find was the Zoho suite of programs. My students will now be able to send me math questions without problems.
2) I think SLL 2.0 is an excellent way for people who are not as computer literate (note I didn't say computer illiterate:) as others to quickly get a feel of what is out there.
3) There weren't that many surprises or take aways for me although I thoroughly enjoyed this course.
4) If there was something that could be changed in this program it would probably be this: Initially, I felt there was an awful lot of stuff to do, see and link to etc. If I felt that, I am sure people who are not are tech-savvy as me would have some issues. It takes some education and time to weed out the real information from the garbage information. Perhaps this course should be divided in two parts. The first part is to get to know all the stuff and the second part would be about libraries. Then I would definitely see others take this course. The library stuff, while interesting didn't really apply to me.
5) I found the discovery interesting and diverse and if given the opportunity would probably participate.
6) Interesting and novel approach of getting teachers interested in how students are already using the web.
I must say I was a little weary about this and decided I would do this to learn about one or two things that could be of interest. Initially, I wasn't going to take this course for credit and already regretted taking on yet one more thing. Hadn't I learned in the Navy that Navy means "Never Again Volunteer Yourself?" Hah! But then I found out I was 2 units shy of the next pay scale and knowing that 1 class at csun would run around $1000 and this one was $200, the math was easy.
So I started doing this thing and to my surprise, I actually learned stuff. How arrogant can one get to think one knows it all?
There are many little things that I learned, many things I knew but had forgotten or dismissed and also a lot of stuff I knew existed but had never used or bothered to look at for fear it I would be obliged to use it.
1) For me the most exiting find was the Zoho suite of programs. My students will now be able to send me math questions without problems.
2) I think SLL 2.0 is an excellent way for people who are not as computer literate (note I didn't say computer illiterate:) as others to quickly get a feel of what is out there.
3) There weren't that many surprises or take aways for me although I thoroughly enjoyed this course.
4) If there was something that could be changed in this program it would probably be this: Initially, I felt there was an awful lot of stuff to do, see and link to etc. If I felt that, I am sure people who are not are tech-savvy as me would have some issues. It takes some education and time to weed out the real information from the garbage information. Perhaps this course should be divided in two parts. The first part is to get to know all the stuff and the second part would be about libraries. Then I would definitely see others take this course. The library stuff, while interesting didn't really apply to me.
5) I found the discovery interesting and diverse and if given the opportunity would probably participate.
6) Interesting and novel approach of getting teachers interested in how students are already using the web.
Week 9 - Thing 22
Ebooks and Audio Ebooks.
I love books and when I get into a book, somehow I will find the time, often to the exclusion of other tasks that need done, to finish the book as soon as I can.
This has has some side effects. Firstly, like I mentioned nothing gets done; my eyes start hurting from reading too much. Secondly, I tend get irritable with anyone or anything knowingly or unknowingly preventing me from returning to my book. I hate when a book is finished but also glad it is as I can resume "normal" life. This sometimes leads me not starting a new book because I know the Mr. Hyde it can turn me into.
Ebooks have been around for a long time now and I've listened to a few of them but for some reason could not get into them. I've tried them on a plane, in a car, at home at night etc but for me it doesn't come close to my own interpretation of the voices. Additionally, I find the voices a distraction to the sound of the silence which comes with reading a book. I think Ebooks are fantastic for vision impaired people and applaud those who take the time out to read books into a microphone.
I love books and when I get into a book, somehow I will find the time, often to the exclusion of other tasks that need done, to finish the book as soon as I can.
This has has some side effects. Firstly, like I mentioned nothing gets done; my eyes start hurting from reading too much. Secondly, I tend get irritable with anyone or anything knowingly or unknowingly preventing me from returning to my book. I hate when a book is finished but also glad it is as I can resume "normal" life. This sometimes leads me not starting a new book because I know the Mr. Hyde it can turn me into.
Ebooks have been around for a long time now and I've listened to a few of them but for some reason could not get into them. I've tried them on a plane, in a car, at home at night etc but for me it doesn't come close to my own interpretation of the voices. Additionally, I find the voices a distraction to the sound of the silence which comes with reading a book. I think Ebooks are fantastic for vision impaired people and applaud those who take the time out to read books into a microphone.
Week 9 - Thing 21
Podcasts:
I totally understand the concept of podcasting; how it works, what it does, who uses it etc. I get it, yet I don't get it. I don't see how podcasting would make my life easier, I don't see how I can use podcasting in my classroom.
I looked at some of the examples given and then looked at the definition of podcasting and invariably thought yeah this is cool, but it's not podcasting.
Maybe I am wrong. Here's an example from SLL: Create a tour of the school for new students. This is an excellent job for an activities / leadership class.
I looked at that and then thought, why would I make an audio tour when I, with the same, less even, effort could make a video and post it on youtube?
Currently I post my class notes online. For now, they're pretty much my lesson plans but they indeed help students who missed a class to go back and see what happened that day. I would like to have students "listen" to that but with algebra or mathematics this is pretty hard. A video accompanied with sound of me explaining a concepts would be much more useful right?
So while I get podcasting and that it is small audio files transferred to your listening device through your aggregator, I don't get how I could use it in class.
Perhaps someone could enlighten me.
Please note that I understand and use PodCasts for music files from a recipients perspective.
I totally understand the concept of podcasting; how it works, what it does, who uses it etc. I get it, yet I don't get it. I don't see how podcasting would make my life easier, I don't see how I can use podcasting in my classroom.
I looked at some of the examples given and then looked at the definition of podcasting and invariably thought yeah this is cool, but it's not podcasting.
Maybe I am wrong. Here's an example from SLL: Create a tour of the school for new students. This is an excellent job for an activities / leadership class.
I looked at that and then thought, why would I make an audio tour when I, with the same, less even, effort could make a video and post it on youtube?
Currently I post my class notes online. For now, they're pretty much my lesson plans but they indeed help students who missed a class to go back and see what happened that day. I would like to have students "listen" to that but with algebra or mathematics this is pretty hard. A video accompanied with sound of me explaining a concepts would be much more useful right?
So while I get podcasting and that it is small audio files transferred to your listening device through your aggregator, I don't get how I could use it in class.
Perhaps someone could enlighten me.
Please note that I understand and use PodCasts for music files from a recipients perspective.
Week 9 - Thing 20
Youtube. This is one of the tools in this class I am most familiar with I guess. My kids, those in my class and those at home, always want me to look at this or that video and have done so forever. Sure there's a lot of junk out there but if students really want to be creative, they can post video online for others to see.
There are many people and kids too who have taken some idea and enhanced it one way or the other and all of a sudden hundreds, thousands and even millions of people have seen it. So too it was with the original Numa video which, according to a BBC article dated November 27, 2006, has been seen over 700,000,000 times worldwide.
Not that that particular video is or was one of my favorites, I like to mention it because one could argue that this was one of the videos that made youtube so popular. I had seen it many times before in emails, blogs and forums etc but when it became available on youtube, this thing just exploded. I remember then wanting to buy stock in YouTube when they became an IPO. I kick my self now!
With respect to the classroom, I had students do a video project last year but my instructions were not clear enough. Whereas I did have the permission of most all students' parents for their children to participate in the project, there were too few who actually took it seriously and came up with a decent project. This year I would definitely have better rules and guidelines for the students to follow. I also have more examples of thing which could be done. See the video below :)
There are many people and kids too who have taken some idea and enhanced it one way or the other and all of a sudden hundreds, thousands and even millions of people have seen it. So too it was with the original Numa video which, according to a BBC article dated November 27, 2006, has been seen over 700,000,000 times worldwide.
Not that that particular video is or was one of my favorites, I like to mention it because one could argue that this was one of the videos that made youtube so popular. I had seen it many times before in emails, blogs and forums etc but when it became available on youtube, this thing just exploded. I remember then wanting to buy stock in YouTube when they became an IPO. I kick my self now!
With respect to the classroom, I had students do a video project last year but my instructions were not clear enough. Whereas I did have the permission of most all students' parents for their children to participate in the project, there were too few who actually took it seriously and came up with a decent project. This year I would definitely have better rules and guidelines for the students to follow. I also have more examples of thing which could be done. See the video below :)
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