SS3 Integration

This took a lot of work, and I hope it shows. I put everything on a web page through Google Sites. First is the home page, which tells you what the lesson is about. Then on the left is a table with each web page that exists within the overall page. This includes: lesson plan, instruction sheet, student worksheet, rubric, and Excel worksheet example. This assignment truly showed me how to put together an effectice lesson plan using Excel. I realized how close I had to pay attention to the details I was giving the students, because Excel is such a step-by-step software. Also, this assignment allowed me to be creative while still adhering to state standards and ISTE standards. I hope you enjoy my website: SS3 Integration

SS2

Ok so technology is really ticking me off lately. I just wrote a post for this and I completely lost it. Plus, it took me forever to do this assignment, because I had to use my laptop (which is much slower than my desktop...it needs replaced). In addition, FTP wouldn't load on my laptop, so I had to push someone off the desktop to finish this assignment. Okay... enough ranting. This assignment was tough for me just like the first one. I do have to say (for me) this module has been one of the hardest. I have always struggled with Excel and how to use it ever since I learned how to use it.

Even though I struggled, I prevailed (I hope) and finished the assignment. I learned a lot from completing this spreadsheet. I always knew how to weight grades based on percentages, but I have never done it in something like Excel. That was the toughest part of this assignment. After doing a little research and math, however, I figured it out. Once I figured it out, all I had to do was drag that cell down the other cells and Excel automatically calculated the rest of the grades without me having to type in the formula over and over again. That is the nice part about Excel...once you figure out a formula, you can just drag it and apply it to other cells (then Excel does all of the work for you).

SS1

This was a new learning experience for me. Excel has always been one of the programs I have had the most trouble learning how to use. It's useful in situations like grade books, but it's honestly not my favorite thing to work with. I guess when I was student teaching, EDLine spoiled me. It did basically what Excel does, but automatically. In Excel, you have to come up with the formulas to calculate what you want. This would be a useful tool, however, if something like EDline were not available. It's a good way to be organized and keep track of student grades. It's also useful in completing calculations for you automatically, so you don't have to calculate everything out by hand one at a time. Here is my Spreadsheet 1.

INTEL Ranking Assignment

Here is my and Mary's INTEL Ranking assignment. To do this assignment, we e-mailed and chatted on blackboard our ideas. Mary is a special education math teacher; and since I do not have a full-time job yet, we decided to do an assignment that went along with her profession. We decided to do it on fractions- ordering fractions. Through the chatting and sharing of ideas, we worked together to create the ranking tool and site.

Photoshop

I had a lot of fun with this assignment! I'm really excited that I now know how to digitally edit photos. When my friend got married, her photographer did a lot of this with her photos. She even had one where it was all black and white except her flowers were in color. I never understood how she did it, and I thought it was probably hard to do. However, after doing it myself in a photo I uploaded, it wasn't that hard at all. Photoshop made it very simple to edit all of my images I uploaded to the site. I loved how it gave you many options of pictures you could choose from when editing to see what you're final picture would look like. I will definitely be using this site again to edit more photos (especially my wedding photos). I'm so excited to know how to use these tools.

This whole module has really helped me learn how to work with different types of images and edit them in different ways. I'm excited to take all of this new learning out with me into my school life and my personal life! Here is my photoshop album. I uploaded three different pictures and edited them in different ways.

Web Albums

I had a lot of fun with this activity. I like that there are multiple places you can store your photos online. I have a lot of my photos on Facebook, but it's nice to know there are other places my photos can be stored (just in case). I decided to use the Picassa Photo program from Google for many reasons. First, we have been working a lot with Google, and I trust it. Second, it's free and easy to download. Last, it was easy to use. I figured sticking with Google for most of the projects I do for this class would be the best decision. Here is my online album that contains a few different albums within it. I will continue to update it as more pictures become available.

Web Album

Online Graph 2

Again, I created this graph in Google Documents using a spreadsheet. It works just like Microsoft Excel, so it made it very easy to put data in and create a chart. I found the five poorest states and listed them in order from lowest to highest on the chart (beginning with Mississippi and ending with Kentucky). I wanted to show both the per capita income of each state and the number of students on IEPs. When I went to go find the number of students on IEPs on the NAEP's website, it didn't show me that exactly. When I clicked on each state, it showed me the total enrollment in the state and the percentage of students on IEPs in the state. Then I convereted the percentage to a decimal and multiplyed it into the total enrollment; that's how I got the number of students on IEPs in each state.

By looking at the graph, it varies with the number of students on IEPs vs. per capita income of each state. The highest per capita income state on the graph, Kentucky, has the most number of students on Individualized Education Plans. The lowest per capita income state on the graph (and in the country) has more students on IEPs then the three states higher than it. West Virginia, which is the second lowest in per capita income state in the country, has the least number of students on IEPs on this whole graph.

Online Graph 1

I created this graph using a spreadsheet in Google Documents. I put my data into the spreadsheet and then created a chart based on the data of WV 4th grade math score averages vs. the national averages. After I labeled everything on the chart, I saved the image on my desktop. Then, I added the image into my blog by clicking on "add image" in this post.

After making this graph, it surprised me how close WV was to the National Average. For some reason, I always thought we did worse in math than most states. From the year 2000-2007, the National Average seems to be increasing; however, the WV state average seems to be very close to the National Average with 5-10 point differences. In the year 2000, WV was only 1 point under the National Average. In 2003, WV was 3 points under the National Average. However, in 2005 there was a little larger gap with WV being 6 points under the National Average. In addition, in 2007, WV was again 6 points under the National Average. These aren't terrible gaps, but if they continue to increase... that would not be good for WV in Mathematics. WV's math scores seem to be decreasing from the National Average as the years go on; and if we're not careful... WV's math scores could decrease even more. It was good that we were close in 2000 and 2003, but we need to strive to rise above the National Average.

Image Formats

This activity was very informative. To download graphic images, I went to Microsoft Word's online clipart site to find images. I wanted to find images that dealt with what I had taught in Kindergarten the other day. I taught them about the four seasons and the life cycle of leaves as they change between the four seasons. I found images of fall trees, winter trees, spring trees, and summer trees to show this. For the fifth picture, I added in a jack-o-latern just for fun. Here is my spreadsheet on the images I found.

Spreadsheet

Here is my narrative explaining my experience with this activity.

Module 3- Reading Narrative

At first, I had a lot of trouble reading through this article; so I read it and re-read it over and over again. I finally understood what the authors were trying to convey. Here is my narrative on the article Multimodal Reading Through Media.

Graphic Screen Grab

When looking for a picture, I wanted to find one to celebrate the upcoming holiday... Halloween. I went under Google and searched for Halloween images. I found this beautiful picture of a jack-o-latern with fall leaves in a beautiful setting. I wasn't sure exactly how the Print Screen button worked, so I read about it in the link provided in Module 3. After reading the instructions, it seemed pretty easy. I pressed the Print Screen button on my keyboard on that page. Then, I opened up paint and pressed "ctrl" and "v" together to paste the picture into Mircosoft Paint.

I quickly realized that it pasted the entire web page... not just the picture. So I selected the picture, copied it, and pasted it into a new Paint. Then, I created a text box using the text box tool and typed in "Happy Halloween" in the text box. Next, I played with the eyedropper tool and found a color in the picture to fill in my text box with. I found this yellow color inside the Jack-O-Latern and clicked it with the eye dropper and filled it in the text box. Then I used the paint brush tool to fill in as many white spaces as I could. I saved the file as JPEG on My Computer under My Pictures. To upload it to my blog, I clicked on the "Add Images" link and posted it here. The picture's dimensions are 512x555 and the size is 42.1 KB.

This is a tool I would've loved to know how to use in my student teaching. Like I stated in some of my blogs, my students (during my student teaching) were very visual learners. In sight of this, I often used Power Point to present my lessons. I used a lot of clip art to show pictures of the terms/ideas I was teaching. This is a great tool that I could use when making my Power Point lessons. I can grab any graphic off the Internet with this tool and insert into Paint. Here I can edit my picture and then place it in my Power Point presentation. My students could also benefit from learning a skill like this. If they needed to find images on a history project they were doing (for example) they could use this tool to find the images, edit them, and then present them. There are endless ways this tool can be used in the classroom.

Graphics from Scratch

This was a very interesting and fun assignment. I am by no means a great artist, but how can you be only using five lines? It will be very interesting to see how everyone else's in the class turns out too. To create my five line self portrait, I went into Microsoft Paint. I started to make a face out of an oval, but I soon realized I could only use five lines; and if I created a face, I would have to choose between no nose or no mouth. So instead I created the shape of my face by creating my hair. I used the spraypaint option and picked the color yellow to represent my blonde hair. Second, I created my two eyes. I used the oval option to create the shape of both eyes, and then I filled them in blue. Now I have used three lines. Fourth, I used the pencil option to make my nose. Lastly, I used the paint brush to make my mouth. I was very suprised I could do it in five lines. After I completed it, I saved it as a 24-bit bitmap (or .bmp). I uploaded it to Google Docs and created a link here: 5 Line Self Portrait

This would be a fun and interactive tool to use in the classroom. One way I thought of doing this is by incoporating it with PowerPoint. I would put the students into groups and have them write their own story/book. Then, they could illustrate pictures for their stories in Microsoft Paint; and each illustration for each page would have a criteria (i.e. it can only be done in 5 or 10 lines). Then, they could import their illustrations into Power Point... with each illustration having its own slide. Then, they could write a story on the Power Point slides to go with each illustration. After that, they could present their stories/books to the rest of the class using a Power Point presentation. Depending on the grade level, they could even narrate it in Microsoft Photo Story. I think students would have a lot of fun with this activity!

Module 2 Reflection

Here is my reflection paper on Module 2 :-)

Module II Reflection

Jeopardy Presentation

I already had a template of a Jeopardy presentation from my student teaching, so I used this as a template for this Jeopardy presentation. Before I was introduced to this template in student teaching, I had no idea you could do this in Power Point. Additionally, now that I know how to link between slides, I could probably make a template on my own if I didn't have one. One thing I did notice that I did wrong through this module (and I realized this while making my Jeopardy game)... I forgot one simple machine in my Power Point lesson plans that I posted. I posted a Power Point within the lesson plan Power Point that a teacher could use in the lesson; however, in that, I only did five and not six simple machines. I just wanted to make everyone aware.

Jeopardy Presentation

Photo Story- Lesson Plan

This time around, using the Photo Story program was like riding a bicycle. I knew exactly what to do. In addition, the fact that I had already had my slides saved as pictures when I made the movie of my lesson plan... made it even easier to use Photo Story. I uploaded all of my slides into Photo Story and created one with ease. The only thing I found difficult was the narration part of it. I just found it a little difficult to talk through it thoroughly.. especially with the Internet resource sites. A lot of the stuff I was explaining had my Internet resource sites involved, and having my audience not be able to see those made it very hard to explain. So what I did at the end of my presentation was provide my blog address to allow those who watch the Photo Story to come to my blog, go under my archive, and find the original Power Point I created and saved to FTP. Then, they could go through my interactive Power Point and click on the Internet resource sites to see what I was talking about. I know I am a very visual person, and as a teacher I know everyone learns in different ways. So I wanted to provide aspects for all types of learners. Hope you enjoy!

Photo Story Lesson Plan

Movie Maker

Finally... I figured this out! This took a lot of time and effort, but I'm really proud of how it turned out. I found Microsoft Movie Maker on the web and downloaded it. Next, I tried to import my presentation, but it kept telling me it didn't recognize .ppt files. I saw that you could import photos to the movie maker, but I didn't know how to turn my Power Point presentation slides into photos. So I opened up my original presentation and clicked save as. I remembered all of the options we had to choose to save it as when we learned how to save it as a show and web page; so I looked under there to see what I could find. I saw that you could save it as jpeg (which is the same file for pictures), so that is what I did. It created a folder of my Power Point presentation with each slide as a picture inside of that folder. This is good that I have this done, because this will be helpful when I'm creating my photo story on this lesson.

Next, I created all of the title slides, credit slides, and slide transitions. This wasn't very difficult to do. The next hard part was figuring out how to save it as a .wmv file, because it wouldn't upload to Teacher Tube or You Tube when I just saved it as a project. I finally realized under "File" I had to click "Save movie file". This way, it saved on my desktop under "my Videos" as a .wmv file. Now I could upload it to You Tube or Teacher Tube and my ftp site. First, I saved my movie to Teacher Tube, but I couldn't get it to embed in my web page; so I also saved it to You Tube so it would embed in my web page. Like I said, this was very challenging, but I'm so happy I worked through it and accomplished my goal.

Movie- FTP Site

Movie- Web Page
(When you get to the web page, on right hand column under "Recent Activity" click on "Movie Maker" and this will take you to my page in which I embedded my movie from You Tube).

Embedded Google Documents Presentation

This was a little tricky just like the Google Docs Presentation was. First, I had a hard time finding the tool under Google to make a website. Then, I remembered Dr. Pierce said Google changed from Google Web Pages to Google Sites. So I went under this and created a web site. I created a page and decided to edit it. When I got there, I saw that you could edit HTML; so I decided to go under there and paste in the html for the google docs presentation (just like I did in my last post here on my blog). I saw that it worked and when I clicked "save" it would disappear. So I tried it again and again and again....every time it didn't work. Then, I looked up and saw a toolbar. On it I saw "insert". I explored that and saw that I could insert a presentation from my Google Docs straight to the web page. Guess what!? It worked...finally! Here is the address for my page:

Web Page

Google Docs Presentation

Well this was definitly challenging. As soon as I uploaded my presentation to Google Docs, I decided to view it as a show. I noticed that my links were not working... the links that linked slides to slides not the html links. So I had to go back to my original presentation and save as under another name. I opened it up and removed all of the links that linked the slides together such as: my interactive table of contents and the back to table of contents links. I decided it wasn't important to be interacting between slides online... as long as the information is there then it conveys my message. I uploaded the new presentation without the interactive links. I checked it again the show, and my links worked for the online websites. Everything finally flowed together flawlessly, so I was very happy. I published it, but the link it gave me didn't really work. When I typed it in another internet window, it came up with the presentation in the google docs site... it didn't come up just as the presentation alone. So I am putting in a mini presentation module on my blog for everyone to see.

Power Point Web Page

I love how you can save your PowerPoint in so many formats... especially as a web page.

Power Point Web Page

Power Point Show

After reading the directions in Module 2 on how to save the Power Point Presentation as a show, I figured out how to save it from a ppt to a pps. This is a great tool to know how to use, because it eliminates that step of having to click "View Show"... what a great way to save time!

Power Point Show

Power Point Presentation Lesson Plan

This assignment took me a little while, but mostly because I am a perfectionist. I love making Power Points for my students, so I really feel like this is such a great tool to use in the classroom. When I student taught, my students were very visual learners so Power Point was a great tool for me to introduce or give my lessons. This time, however, I had to make a Power Point that gave a lesson on a lesson. That was a little bit difficult, because I had to figure out ways to keep each slide short and to the point but still get my point across. I'm so used to writing very detailed lessons that it was hard for me to skim it down. I was really excited to learn how to link slides together within my Power Point; that was a skill I did not know before I did this assignment. I really like the outcome, and I hope you all do to.

Power Point Presentation Lesson Plan

Photo Story

I have to say this was actually a fun experience. I was really excited on how user-friendly the software was. I always wondered how to make these "picture movies", and I'm really excited that I now know. Now I'm going to make a movie show for my wedding. I think this would be an excellent tool to use in the classroom for both the teacher and the students. Here is my photoshow introduction; I hope you enjoy it!

FTP

FTP

This experience with FTP was a little different than my experience in Instructional Technology. I remember using it, but it's been about four years since then. When we created our FTP sites in Instructional Tech, we just had to log onto it through the Fairmont State library site by clicking on a link and then typing in our UCA and passwords. Now when I got to the library site, it said I couldn't access it through the new Internet Explorer. So I followed the directions to open "My Documents" and type in in the address bar. First, I couldn't figure out what the address bar was and then I clicked "View" then "Toolbars" and found it. I didn't even know you could type URLs in this area. So I typed it in and of course, it didn't come up. So I went back to the library site and it said to try it under "My Computer". This time it finally worked!!!

I found all of my files from Instructional Technology from long ago. I dragged and dropped a new file in, and then tried to open it up in Internet Explorer with the URL that was given to us in Module 1. This, again, did not work. I noticed that there were two ".edu"s in the address given on the Module 1 site, so I deleted one of those and it worked. I hope it works now when I post it in my blog! I have refreshed my memory on FTP by doing this, and I have learned and accomplished new things with this. It's a wonderful tool to have. You can access it from almost anywhere that has internet access, and you can make files public very easily. The file you open is a Token Economy positive reinforcement punch card I created in my Undergraduate work.

Personality Quiz

Here are the results of my personality quiz:

ISFJ - "Conservator". Desires to be of service and to minister to individual needs - very loyal. 13.8% of total population.

Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

Before I took the Myers-Briggs personality quiz, it told me to make an educated guess on what my personality type would be. I guessed ISFJ: Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Judging based upon the criteria. Little did I know that this would be the results of my test. I knew I was introverted, because I always need to retreat away from the world and have my "alone" time. I also knew I was sensing because I rely on facts and information in the present world. Feeling was a definite traid I knew I had, because I always contemplate how my decisions will impact others (and I'm always constantly told I need to worry about myself not others). Lastly, I knew I was judging because I prefer organization, schedules, and plans. I guess I knew myself better than I thought! I think this would be a great activity to do with older students. It would be a great way for me to be able to understand my students' personalities better, then maybe I will understand them better when it comes to their learning.

Cover Letter and Resume

I struggled with this assignment a little and it took me a little longer than I thought it would, but I succeeded in the end. First, I thought finding and publishing the job resource sites went very well. It took some time, however, because I wanted to make sure I was posting credible sites. After searching the sites and viewing other classmates sites, I have learned so much more about finding and applying for jobs. Normally, I would just check around my county or in this state; however, I've learned that it's a great idea to see what other places might have to offer.

The cover letter was the part of the assignment I struggled with the most. First, I did not remember how to make a cover letter (the last time I learned about it was high school). So, I had to look up how to format a cover letter. I've never really used a cover letter for job interviews but now that I'm entering a more professional career, I feel that it is good to know how. I decided the easiest way to make the cover letter would be through one of the Google Documents templates; and this worked out very well for me. I struggled with the resume a little, but not as much as the cover letter. I already had a resume typed up; however, when I uploaded it into the Google Document, the format changed. I figure this was probably due to changing it from Microsoft Word to Google Documents. Again, I decided to use the templates and type my resume information in one of them. That worked out very well for me also.

From this assignment, I learned so many tools I can take with me in the future. I now know that if I, or a school I work at, does not have Microsoft Office, then Google has these free services I can use. I now know how to use them and publish them, so I can teach that to my students. I learned that you can make documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and much more. These free services are wonderful and can be integrated into technology very easily. I will definitely be using them in the future.

Cover Letter

Resume

(I also just learned how to make words into hyperlinks!!)

Calendar

Setting up the calendar through Google was very easy for me. I didn't even know Google offered this program or any of the programs I saw while looking for the calendar on the Google website. I spent more time looking through all of the free programs it had to offer before making my calendar. Like I said, I had no idea Google had all of this; and I've been telling everyone about it. At the homepage of the calendar, I saw an example of a calendar that had different events that were color coded. So I got very excited and decided that after I created my calendar, I would list not only class project due dates but also my social events and subbing dates. I went to the drop down menu under my calendars and started adding events, but I soon noticed I couldn't change the colors of each different event. I struggled trying to understand how this worked until a light bulb finally clicked on. I had to create different calendars within this one big calendar to color code my different events. In light of this, I created three different calendars: Class Calendar, Social Calendar, and Substitute Calendar. After I started listing my events I saw that they would all show up in the overall calendar color coated.

I love this, because I can easily see which event falls under which category. I'm also a very organized person (I keep a planner on me at all times), and it is nice to have a more electronic view of my life that is a lot easier to organize and see than my planner. Also, I can set it up to remind me of the events a day before they happen so I will remember (that is something my planner cannot do). On my blog, I decided to only allow everyone to see my class calendar with all of the assignment due dates; the other calendars are my events that I don't feel I need to share. This is another thing I had a little difficulty with. I had a hard time finding the html link to my calendar. I soon realized I had to first make it public by sharing it with everyone; and then, I found the link under calendar settings. It just took a little searching, and I finally found it. After I found it, I put the link to my calendar on the right side of my blog. Here is another link to my class calendar.

Calendar

Introductory Post

Hello!

Well after finally getting everything on this blog set up, I can make my first post! When I told my mom (who is a Kindergarten teacher) I was going to graduate school online, she said that I would be blogging. I've heard of blogging, but I have never done it before. She said that the teachers at her school do it all the time; and I knew that if my mom could do it, then I could too. I'm really happy to be learning about blogging, because obviously it is becoming a part of the up and coming technology of the school systems. Hopefully this will help me and others in this class be a step above the rest. In addition, I actually like setting up my own blog site and being able to share my thoughts/ideas/problems with the world.

Even though it says most of this in my "about me", I will still share a little background information about myself. I was born in Fairmont, WV, but I always went to school in Grafton, WV where my mom has taught Kindergarten for fifteen years. I cheered and was in show choir all through high school; I have always enjoyed gymnastics, singing, and dancing. When it came time to pick a college, I always knew I was going to go to Fairmont State (considering both my mom and sister attended). I tried to avoid teaching as a career but it found me, and I love it. I also love reading, and that is why I returning to do my graduate work in Reading. I graduated in May 2008 with my Bachelor's in Elementary Education. Currently, I am subbing in Taylor County while I'm attending graduate school. I'm also working hard on planning my wedding, which is July 18, 2009. I will be marrying another teacher :-)

I'm really excited to see what I will learn this semester in this class and what skills I can take out with me and utilize in the classroom setting!