My Plan for the week:
There are many different ways to share links used in the classroom. I wanted to look through the different social bookmarking sites to see which I liked the best. I looked through several after learning what they were and chose a few to look at and eventually use. Additionally, I needed to look through a few teacher websites to see what they do with their websites to gain student attention. It seems many of the teacher websites I researched lacked variety and a personal touch that would interest the students into using the website for their own personal use. Although the weekly assignment was to complete the contact information page, I want to finish my homepage and the contact page. It makes more sense to go one step at a time. On my homepage, I will be adjusting the photos that are displayed in the future. I needed to go through my science based photos and gather into one file instead of picking each one - plus, I learned I can drop and drag photos into the website. Since I use two monitors for all of my work, I am able to easily see the photos and my webpage at the same time. This really creates a work environment that is easy to use. For anyone without two monitors, you are missing out - if you have a laptop, attach a monitor - you will not regret the change. I have been doing school work like this for the last 5 years and get much more accomplished in the same amount of time.
What I did/Where I went:
First and foremost, I went camping this past week in Arizona. As I mentioned last week, I was trying to make plans. It came to fruition and two days were spend in the Arizona wilderness. The campground was a very small place with only 12 sites. The trees hung low which blocked the hot Arizona sun. Although Arizona is known for its very hot weather by most, there are many places in Arizona that receive snow and temperatures are low year round. For example, did you know the Grand Canyon National Park is often in the 70's? When researching places to drag the camper, I realized that within four hours of my home in Las Vegas, I could enjoy 70 degree weather while looking over the edge of the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. How beautiful would that be? Well, as how my summer usually goes, I am looking at getting out for a 4 day weekend to the Grand Canyon. I just cant imagine going another year without experiencing one of the world's wonders. (FYI - I have lived in the western part of the country for 30 plus years of my life and NEVER visited the Grand Canyon). I did manage to take some photos of the scenery while camping. Here are some fantastic mountain photos at the campground and on the way home. And yes, I had to post the photo of the Cow (female elk) that came strolling through camp.
What I learned:
I learned about social bookmarking. In class, another student suggested using Pinterest for social bookmarking and I immediately thought about how I have used Pinterest in the past. Honestly, I always thought Pinterest was bulky and unusable for much more than frilly pictures and ideas others have. Maybe its the people I have followed in the past or maybe I never really got into it to utilize its benefits. Either way, I wanted to research other bookmarking sites and found a few that were interesting. I still hadn't decided on a definite choice. I thought I would ask the technology specialist at my school and she was quick to say Pinterest! I was shocked to say the least. She said that she has researched social networking for her degree and she insisted that Pinterest, when used right, has the greatest influence of all. She said if I could not use Pinterest, then Delicious was the best. I had looked at Delicious and thought it was pretty good but didn't realize how much I was going to like it until I started using it. My Delicious community can be found at www.delicious.com/mbrasser0001. Now, why do I think it is amazing - well first off, you have to add the "Delicious" symbol (lack of words here - kind of like a link to Delicious) to your Google Chrome browser. When you add a page to Delicious, it pops up with possible keywords and an area for you to add comments. Plus, if others have saved this to Delicious, it will tell you who and when. This can be beneficial when looking for websites others have found.
There are so many websites out there that look good but are no good for research purposes. I have taken many classes on researching websites and the information you find on the internet. Because I am an English major in addition to Science, I feel I am quite versed in spotting a fraud. I do teach my students about proper use of the internet and I always insist they read the website from which they are pulling information before citing their sources. I love the comment in our reading, "You won't always be able to find exactly what you need right on the very first page of the first website you go to. Looking at different places and gathering information from them is what doing research means. But if it's very hard for you to find the information you need, and especially if it seems that information from one part of the website contradicts another part, you may want to try another site" (Multnomah County Library, 2010). If there is nothing more important, it is to understand that evaluating websites is necessary when completing research. Also, check reference dates. If the references are out of date (over 7 years old) you may want to look elsewhere.
What I decided for my website:
I love Weebly! There are problems with the way I originally designed my template. In order to add videos I would have to pay for Weebly. Since I am on a budget, I will not be embedding videos. Instead, I will add video's to a list on my links portion of the website. I have decided photos are important and the more color, the better. There are a few flaws I don't like about Weebly but I am getting used to it. I am hoping that when finished, it will pull my students in to using it.
My Plan for the week:
Although I have written this post following the work necessary for class, I plan on looking at other Web 2.0 applications to host my website. As required, I signed up for the Weebly website and I like the looks of most of the pages but they seem to be so simple and not exactly what I was looking for. This week, I will be reading a bit more about technology processes in the classroom and incorporating website usage with my students. In addition, I have decided I will use a few flipped classroom ideas this next year to aid in completing the curriculum with time left in the school year. With this in mind, I have been researching the best ways to record video to be used and will probably be putting these types of videos on my website. I'm sure my accelerated students will take advantage of this type of lesson. I hope my regular class will, as well. In addition, my classroom rules didn't seem to take as well as I wanted last year - I need to redo them and create a poster board or two to be used throughout the classroom. School doesn't start until August 26, so I have plenty of time.
What I did/Where I went:
I enjoyed my summer off. I didn't do much but made plans for this coming week. I own a 2013 26 foot camper trailer and want to use it at some point. I researched places to go that will get me out of the Las Vegas heat and have decided on a state park in Arizona. The temperatures (weather.com) claim to be 20 degrees lower than the floor of the nearest city. I hope this is true and it doesn't rain the whole time I'm out. I will be leaving on Sunday morning and will return on Tuesday. I have class on Monday and Tuesday so I will need to travel for wifi to attend my classes - not a big deal, I've been doing this for the last year of my Master's degree.
What I learned:
This last week, I have learned some things about technology I never knew. I had to create a wireframe for my soon-to-be website and a sitemap. When I first started, I was confused at the difference between the two. I guess, I was thinking more on an English professor level. When I teach my students to write, I always encourage some type of outline and there are usually some issues but overall a decent creation of "pre-ideas" they would like to use. The sitemap was fairly easy to create. I used PowerPoint to create the sitemap and then saved it as a PDF. For those of you looking to create a sitemap, be sure you adjust the design on your PowerPoint to reflect the size you would like your sitemap to be saved as. I was fortunate in that I was tasked in the past with creating a presentation by using PPT. I have used Microsoft Publisher in the past but forgot about it until I started the initial creation of my sitemap so decided to go forth.
Building my website from the bottom up wasn't as difficult as I originally thought. When creating lesson plans, it is always important to understand the goal you are trying to accomplish. Because my mind tends to work in this manner, when reading about building my website from the bottom up, it was easy to understand. This week, I read about using the cloud to save documents. I have been using dropbox for at least two years. I have shared my knowledge with as many people as I can (plus it gives me more space!). I do like google drive and that it saves my documents as they are created but I am unable to use this on my work computer so I stick to dropbox when possible. When creating my wireframe I read Erez Zukerman's website at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/website-wireframe-develop-website/ to understand more and to gather ideas necessary for creating my wireframe. I learned in this reading about the different programs you can use for creating a wireframe and mostly, I realized how this program can be used to create just about anying - lesson plans, presentations, etc.
What I decided for my website:
I have decided that I will use weebly for my website. Although I don't necessarily find any certain page of great value, I will make it work. I believe I am going to look into buying my own domain name so my kids don't have to type in .weebly.com each time they want to go to the classroom website. I'm thinking the domain name of www.brasserscience.com. I found it was available and considering the purchase for hosting. There are so many different website creators out there, I know there is one that I will be completely satisfied with but for ease of creation, it looks like weebly will be it. When creating my wireframe and my sitemap, I realized how many pages I would like on my website. I believe it is going to be a challenge mostly in the lesson page. I need to upload many different links to assignments and they need to have the names changed so my students will understand what they are looking at. In addition, I have decided to use photos and videos on my website and need to research the best media to use to grab their attention without overwhelming the pages.
My Plan for the week:
My plan for the week is to enjoy some time off. I moved thirteen days ago and its been a ton of work to get unpacked and in my new home. Everything is so up in the air and starting a new term with fresh classes is just the thing I need to get started. I have two classes this term and can't wait to put some of my fantastic technology skills to use!
What I did/Where I went:
This week, I visited many different places in Las Vegas. Although this is my home, it is always interesting to see how things change. Although I am a science fanatic, I love art! All around me art shows up. I visited many different hotels on the strip this week and learned the background of how they were built and the ideas behind some of the structures. In addition, I have made a conscious effort to listen to music other than country. As many of my friends and family can attest, I am a country fanatic. I have listened to country since a young kid and love everything about it. On a recent trip I was asked if we could listen to channel 15 and channel 16 on Sirius radio. I obliged and immediately realized I loved that music as well. So.. since then, I have made every effort to listen to all types of music.
What I learned:
Although this is a bit personal, I have learned much about myself in the past few weeks. I just ended an 8 year relationship with someone I thought was everything. I have learned this is not the case and I am just as important as they. Although I am quite good at technology, I have always depended upon this person to help me out when needed. I have asked for help when I didn't necessarily need it. Since moving into my own place, I have been tasked with hooking up new wireless internet, setting up surround sound systems, self-installed cable tv and internet, and hung televisions on the wall (still working on the wireless printer - can't seem to get it right!) What I have learned the most is that I am a strong individual and what is said to me can only go as deep as I allow. I do hope to learn more about myself in this process but I am also very excited to finish my Masters degree with these two classes.. Graduation at the end of August.
What I decided for my website:
I have decided that I will use my website to provide lessons my students will be using on a daily basis. In the past, I have always offered the opportunities for absent students to see me after school for make-up assignments but if I use my website to provide the lessons they missed on a daily basis, they will be able to print and complete the assignment on their own. Because the school district does not require teachers to post lesson plans online, it is necessary to provide to parents, other teachers, and students the basics of what they will learn. I will also be sure to keep my website interactive with photos and ideas for future use. I do love factual information for my science students and I will attempt to add something factual on a regular basis.
