Ok, I'm horrible. Life is way busy these days and so here I am once again blogging two weeks worth...Sorry!
March 16-20
This week I started a class of mine on a research project. Obviously we used the Internet to research but instead of having them write a paper and create a presentation I had them create web pages instead. This way they wrote their information and had a presentation all in one. I took a day showing them how to build a page, the do's and don'ts and gave them a handout on all the information I talked about. At first they were a little uneasy about doing this but as time went on and they got more and more comfortable with the SeaMonkey program they started enjoying what they were doing.
March 23-27
This week we continued working on our web pages, putting the final details on them, making corrections and getting them uploaded to the server. One minor problem; I had created folders for each group. When I went to upload their pages and pictures I ran into the problem of images being named the same thing. For example they all were required to find a picture of their country's flag and a map. Well most of them just named their images map or flag so I had multiple file names named the same thing. Oops! You live and learn. I know they were proud of what they created. I had several teachers tell me that students had shown them their sites in other classes. I think the project went pretty well and will tackle it again.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
2 weeks worth...
So I forgot to blog last week (March 2-6) so I'm going to blog 2 weeks worth this time.
March 2-6 I had my students using a fun piece of technology. In my classroom I have a SMART board and Senteo "clickers" which are like interactive remote controls. The end of the quarter was approaching and we have to give what we call a common assessment at the end of each quarter. Well in my one class I knew a review would help them. Using the senteo program I created a trivia game. I displayed the questions on the SMART board and the students, who were in teams, entered their answers. When everyone has entered their response I revealed the correct answer and we discussed it. The cool thing about the clickers is you can quickly see what percentage answered correctly or incorrectly. It's very handy to know immediately if a question stumped a class so I know what we may need to review. The students said the review really helped them to remember everything we had covered. (The common assessment was comprehensive) I was very happy that the majority of the students did correctly answer questions that we had covered back in September! The majority did really well on their assessment. I think creating a game like this where there is no pressure really helps. Most students think they can't remember stuff from the beginning of the year but playing this game helped them to see they could. I think this helped to put their minds at ease so when they took the test they were relaxed and confident.
Last week I did my technology lesson to my interior design students. It went ok... I spent a few hours getting the computer lab ready, getting all necessary programs downloaded and installed. I created a handout for them to reference and I went through the project step-by-step with them. They were ready and excited for this project. The project was using Panorama Factory to create 360 degree virtual tours of rooms which they then had to identify the elements & principles (which we had been studying) in that room. Their next step was to create an audio file using Audacity identifying each element or principle. Finally they put their Quick-time file (what panorama factory creates), their audio file and a brief description of what we will be viewing onto a web page they would create (which I taught them to do earlier in the semester). Well we ran into an issue (of course)! The program kept shutting down when they would go to save their final projects. I have contacted Panorama factories tech support SEVERAL times but no one seems interested in responding to me. So now I'm a little stuck. I have 38 unfinished projects because we can't finish the project, I have 38 unhappy students because all the work they've done is wasted and I'm very unhappy because when I demonstrated this to them it worked perfectly. Over the weekend I have found an online program that is free and very similar to what I was doing with them. The only downfall is the program I was using would allow my to embed their files on my web page. This online program I don't think will allow me to do that. I'm still playing though to find out more. Technology can be so fun but so disappointing too...
March 2-6 I had my students using a fun piece of technology. In my classroom I have a SMART board and Senteo "clickers" which are like interactive remote controls. The end of the quarter was approaching and we have to give what we call a common assessment at the end of each quarter. Well in my one class I knew a review would help them. Using the senteo program I created a trivia game. I displayed the questions on the SMART board and the students, who were in teams, entered their answers. When everyone has entered their response I revealed the correct answer and we discussed it. The cool thing about the clickers is you can quickly see what percentage answered correctly or incorrectly. It's very handy to know immediately if a question stumped a class so I know what we may need to review. The students said the review really helped them to remember everything we had covered. (The common assessment was comprehensive) I was very happy that the majority of the students did correctly answer questions that we had covered back in September! The majority did really well on their assessment. I think creating a game like this where there is no pressure really helps. Most students think they can't remember stuff from the beginning of the year but playing this game helped them to see they could. I think this helped to put their minds at ease so when they took the test they were relaxed and confident.
Last week I did my technology lesson to my interior design students. It went ok... I spent a few hours getting the computer lab ready, getting all necessary programs downloaded and installed. I created a handout for them to reference and I went through the project step-by-step with them. They were ready and excited for this project. The project was using Panorama Factory to create 360 degree virtual tours of rooms which they then had to identify the elements & principles (which we had been studying) in that room. Their next step was to create an audio file using Audacity identifying each element or principle. Finally they put their Quick-time file (what panorama factory creates), their audio file and a brief description of what we will be viewing onto a web page they would create (which I taught them to do earlier in the semester). Well we ran into an issue (of course)! The program kept shutting down when they would go to save their final projects. I have contacted Panorama factories tech support SEVERAL times but no one seems interested in responding to me. So now I'm a little stuck. I have 38 unfinished projects because we can't finish the project, I have 38 unhappy students because all the work they've done is wasted and I'm very unhappy because when I demonstrated this to them it worked perfectly. Over the weekend I have found an online program that is free and very similar to what I was doing with them. The only downfall is the program I was using would allow my to embed their files on my web page. This online program I don't think will allow me to do that. I'm still playing though to find out more. Technology can be so fun but so disappointing too...
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Week 6
So this week I was home sick with the flu :( It was not a very good week. Before I had gotten sick I had told my class they would be having a quiz on Friday. Well not being at school posed a problem; how was I going to make a quiz and get it to the sub? I LOVE the OIS system. I was able to create the quiz at home, it was then available to my students on the day I had it scheduled and I was able to see their results all without having to leave my couch. I know many universities have used online programs for many years but I now see the great benefit of having online services for high schools also. I'm sure my classes were not happy with me. I'm guessing they thought that they had a sub so they were going to have easy days but the quiz worked. This type of program could be helpful on days I'm gone to conferences or just sick. It can allow a classroom to continue on without having to be tied to your classroom.
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