The Last Two Classes

Well, I have had nothing to report about for class, simply because I missed class two weeks ago, and there isn't any class tonight. I did take the quiz in lieu of class tonight. That was pretty exciting. Anyway, happy Halloween. If you need me, I'll be at a show dressed as "hipster Batman." Shazaam!

A Class Recap for October 17th

This past Monday's class was split between two distinct, yet equally important portions. The first portion was an introduction to our desktop publishing assignment. We will be creating a newsletter as if it were the first day of a new school year in our fictitious classrooms. I think this project will be fun, as well as educational; clear, concise communication among administration, teachers, students, and parents is fundamental for students' achievement, and a newsletter is a great way to do that. We also

The second portion of class was dedicated to Web 2.0 presentations. Kathleen presented "Zoho Challenge," which is an online quiz maker. I actually wanted to present this Web 2.0 myself due to its wide array of applications. However, I thought Kathleen did a great job presenting it, and I found that I was even more eager to use this Web 2.0 program/application in my own future classroom. Next, "Flickr," an online photo album, was presented by Vicky. I've used Flickr before, but wasn't very impressed by it initially; nevertheless, Vicky's presentation made a little more interested in it. While I find its usage inside the classroom sparse, it's probably fun to mess around with outside of the classroom. Lastly, Peter presented his chosen Web 2.0 application, "WikiSpaces." Of the three presentations Monday, I think this Web 2.0 application is probably the most versatile. Basically, a teacher for any subject can create a WikiSpace for their classroom, using it to keep students up to date on assignments, projects, and other goings-on in the classroom - a mini Web site, really. Being a Secondary English Education major, I think I could use WikiSpaces in a multitude of ways to keep my students not only informed, but possibly interested in the material by posting links to videos and pictures that would extend the lessons from the classroom.

Class Recap for October 10th

Okay, so class was a little different this night, in that we didn't do much in the way with Google Docs, and did more interactive and hands-on learning. The first piece of business was discussing our PowerPoint/Web 2.0 assignments. I chose Spelling City, because I'm going to be a high school English teacher, and I feel that expanding one's vocabulary is important for moving on to college. My thinking is that I won't use Spelling City for anything more than additional, light homework assignments. So, in my fictional classroom, I would have the curriculum-based assignments, such as reading chapters in a specific novel or writing papers, but also reviewing a different list or set of words each week. Based on my preliminary usage of Spelling City, I think it would be easy for a student to mess around with a few of the games using the words I provide without overwhelming them with work. I'll have to play around with Spelling City some more to get a better scope on how I could implement it in a classroom setting.

Speaking of PowerPoint, one of the other things we did was actually use what we had learned about PowerPoint thus far to present some of the guidelines in the ISTE/NETS-T Website(s). I thought this was good practice for using the newer version of PowerPoint; I haven't used PowerPoint in some time. As with all the other programs in the Office Suite, Microsoft totally changed the interface, so it's a little frustrating to use upon first examination - especially when one is used to using the older versions of these programs. As for the assignment itself, I liked working with others in the classroom, although I felt like only me and two others really participated. At any rate, it was a nice break from just reading Web sites on curricula, education standards, and the like and simply regurgitating what we read in a Google Doc. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy the discussions we have, but I can also appreciate the variety of approaches we can take to learn the course material.

More Spreadsheets? Must Have Been September 26th's Class

On Monday's, September 26th's class, we did more work with our grade book/spreadsheet assignments. Because I attended a technical high school for information technology, I already understood how to do most of the assignment; this made the class time quite enjoyable for me. I was able to begin work on  the actual assignment, rather than practice all of the techniques. Additionally, I was able to help a fellow classmate who was absent the previous week. This was pretty much all this class consisted of.