Final project ideas

It has been a good summer in this class.  Entering into the first week, I thought that I was fairly technology-literate.  I quickly found out that there is much I do not know.  Over the last seven weeks I have really liked some of the things we have done... and of course there were a few things that I did not enjoy.

I will continue to work on my computer proficiency and adding new tools into my repertoire.  I want to keep up with my students and how they are using technology.  The more interesting ways that I can present material, the more likely they are to stay engaged and participate.

These are three things that I would like to incorporate next year:

1 - I will construct a wiki for my classes.  In each class I will add a tab for each unit that we are cover.  I will begin by posting an initial question/issue/focus to get the students thinking.  From there, I will ask every student to add a comment, an answer, or additional questions.  My hope here is that they will take ownership in what they contribute and in how much they are learning from each other.  Also, if things go as expected, I should only have to monitor it and they will be learning on their own time.

2 - I would like every student to create a blog and add to it at least once every week.  In this blog, I would like them to post questions, concerns, thoughts, links, videos, and reflection on assignments and projects.  There are many students that should excel at this because of the amount of time they spend with technology.  I think that it will eliminate the use of only a textbook to obtain information, and it will get them interested in looking at their classmates' blogs.  

3 - I do many projects in my classes.  Instead of the standard PowerPoint that students like to do, I am going to introduce them to screencasting and voicethreads.  I am going to ask my classes to use a different presentation tool and make it more exciting for their peers.  My hopes here are that the presentations they do for me are better, and they will become more aware of webtools, which will help them in their academic endeavors.

Voicethread site and expanded PLN

I enjoyed using this site.  It was fairly easy to navigate and I really liked that you can search and see others' presentations.  This is a site I will share with my colleagues, and even my students if they need extra help/information.  I would like to fine tune my skills and include more pictures on the next one that I do.  Also, because my kids are sleeping at the moment, I will work on being a little more exciting in the next presentation.

I am going to continue looking over classroom 2.0 this week to see if I can get new lab ideas for my classes this year.  If any of you teach biology and have fun labs, let me know.  Next on my agenda is working on my final project and how I can incorporate different items from this class.  If you have any exciting input on the project, feel free to share.  

Thanks!

PLN and other thoughts about what I've learned

I continue to enjoy finding all of these new, cool sites to use.  I still feel like I'm a new teacher, even though it's been over 6 years now.  Maybe it's because I haven't settled in and used the same material over and over.  Each year I try to incorporate something new - both for my students and for me!

Knowing about classroom 2.0 and how to use professional development, slideshare, and google reader will make me a more effective educator... I hope.  I'm ready for the school year to begin (sad to say that) so that I can get back to working with my colleagues.  

Over the past week, even though I struggled a little bit getting it going, I really liked screencasting and I hope to use it in the future.  I do use powerpoint presentations often, and I thought that video we watched was funny!  I know I'm not that guy because I've gone to a seminar before about the more effective ways (or less effective) to use powerpoint.  My students get questions within, pictures, videos, and fewer words on each slide... so I think I'm already doing that fine.

Attempt at a 'good' presentation

This is a brief introduction to mitosis. I kept the information to a minimum and I used pictures to help the students identify each stage.  

At the end of the presentation, I included two videos for the students to watch. The first is an animation that has good information and 

the second video is a funny representation of what happens during mitosis.

Enjoy!

Practice Screencast

Mitosis screencast - click this link

I was having some difficulty getting this going.  But, figured it out enough to get this completed.  I would rehearse more and include more info. if this were a presentation I gave to my kids.  I did not go over every step that happens at each phase of mitosis, and I left out some important stuff.

It is slow and I'm not sure why??

You get the idea though...

Dog days of summer

I knew it would happen at some point, and I'm still not happy about it. The attempt at working, family, and school is not always easy to juggle. Over the past week, I had to go to Ft. Lauderdale to work and we had no wireless connection in the convention center. So, from 7:30am to almost 10pm on almost everyday, I couldn't do work for my classes. It's frustrating, and I saw a classmate mention something about the importance of the internet these days... I totally agree. When I can't log in and check certain things that I normally check on a daily basis, I feel lost.
I just landed and I'm back in Indiana now, so my last weeks work will be added in the next day or so. I missed being home, I missed having immediate access, and I can't believe that we got by without it for so long. Technology is the way of the world... it would feel like the stone age if it ever completely crashed! Where would I bank? Where would I find information? Would I have to go to a music store to buy CDs? How would I communicate with my friends that live long distances away? Would I have to spend thousands of dollars in stamps and envelopes?

Professional Development and PLN

I finally had some time to sit down and really look at Classroom 2.0 archives and live sessions. I also went to Edublogger and slideshare in order to find other professional development opportunities.
I went through some old slide shows about the use and importance of technology in the classroom. None of it was really new to me and they were much like what my school did as we implemented our 1:1 laptop adoption program. Nonetheless, both presentations did have good information!
I have registered to sit through a 'live' session next Tuesday, so hopefully my meeting is over and my hotel has a connection. If not, there a few opportunities before our class ends. I also watched an archived presentation, although it wasn't very good and I stopped about half way through.
The system is pretty user friendly and I have participated in a similar thing before when doing online training for our new state testing. There were two people in charge, all participants were online, and we were also conferenced in via phone. It was easy to follow and user-friendly.

In terms of my PLN, I joined a new group and read through some discussion forums today on Classroom 2.0. I will continue to read through the biology discussion groups to obtain new ideas for teaching difficult concepts. I doubt my colleagues are aware of this website, so I will definitely be passing it on when the new school year begins.
I have continue to use Twitter, although I still do not like it! And, I have relapsed and forgotten about going straight to google reader for the sites that I subscribe to. Darn it!

Use of online data

Our text is an easy read and has a lot of good information. I like that it gives examples from various disciplines. The newest reading gave some good starting points and ideas to incorporate with my students. I have done projects in the past where students have gone out to find the most recent data/information on a topic. It always makes me feel better when these things come up in our reading and within the class because it makes me feel like I'm doing some good stuff with my kids.
I have used online data to gather population demographics, information for pollution within our state and counties, and information on species/biodiversity loss. I will continue to incorporate the use of data and have my students make real-world connections with what we discuss in the classroom.

Update

I started playing around with Google Earth. Man, has it changed since the last time I was on it. I had some initial problems getting it to download onto my laptop, but it's on now. I'm going to continue to play around with it and look at what it can do, but it's much more complicated (and much better) than it was years ago. I really think that I could use anything under the global awareness and ocean sections in my environmental science classes. Also (even though I had problems getting it to show up), the animations and 3D graphs of oil distribution/use and population distribution would work very well too.

I am still sifting through sites with simulations and figuring out which ones I could incorporate into my classroom. Anything I can do to help supplement the textbook and give students another opportunity to learn is a good thing. Since all of our kids have a laptop, a good simulation would be easy and quick to do w/o the hassle of setting up computer lab time. I have been looking mostly over some of the old simulations posted by last year's class for biology topics. I found some that I have used in the past and then there were a few that I haven't seen before. Some of these concepts are difficult for 9th graders, so a simulation may help push them over the edge in terms of grasping them better.

I have continued to use Twitter over the last week. I even added and picked up new people to follow and follow me. I still don't know if I really like it. I would almost rather log onto Facebook and update my status there. Also, I have been better at going directly to Google Reader for new information, rather than going to each site directly. I do like the fact that one location gives me so much information. I will definitely work on cleaning it up and use it in the future.

I have not attended an online/virtual professional development session yet... that is next on my list. I am going to try and complete that sometime next week when I have a little more time.

Technology is pretty cool!

The Tick

Did anyone ever really watch this?

Are Farts Funny?

Enjoy!

Maybe I'm having too much fun with embedding videos...

Photo Edit

This is a picture of me and my little girl. I adjusted the colors, saturation, sharpness, and I cropped it. This is a site that I think I will use often because we take so many pictures of our kids. I do occasionally use a camera at school, so if I do, I know about this site now and will have the ability to alter pics if I so choose. It seems pretty easy to use too and that helps!

Epidemia de Pánico / Panic Epidemy by Eneas

Since I'm taking Microbial Genetics this summer, I found this to be an interesting photo. It's a scary world!

Blue Marble by woodleywonderworks

This is an unbelievable picture of where we live.

Gotta keep on truckin...

I'm still in Miami working... day 8 today!
My access to the internet is very limited, and when it is up, it's slooooooow.

I've been looking into this week's assignments but still haven't had enough 'sit down' time
to get the new stuff posted. That is my goal by Sunday night (for obvious reasons).

I am going to work on twitter a little more and continue to follow more people to see if
I begin to enjoy it more.

As far as looking at my classmates work, it's looking pretty good! I'm impressed by the
blogs and I hope I can continue to make mine better.

I'm missing the confines/comfort of Indianapolis and my wife and kids... can't wait
to get home on Sunday evening.