Application reflection

How good is free, apparently it's not that bad as it turns out.  This week for my application review I decided to check out  ZOHO.  While I've used a few programs previous to Microsoft Word, I am a true dyed-in-the-wool fan of Word.  I have to say that this is mainly because of two reasons:

1. one, because it seems to be what everybody uses
2. because it is what I've always used

Luckily I bought a copy of the Office for Students and Educators when I was in college for a slight discount and have been using it ever since, but come on, it's still expensive.  After looking at what is available in ZOHO, I have to admit I am impressed.  First, there are so many programs available to use.  My Office suite includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access.  Just looking at what is available in ZOHO I find 15 possible formats to use including all of the programs that I have available to me in Microsoft; I also see a couple of things that aren't.  If I want a website creater I have to but that seperately with Microsoft, I also would have to go outside of Microsoft to get a Wiki creater.

 

With what I saw while browsing throught the program, I'd be willing to try this ZOHO suite out before dropping a couple hundred bucks on another Microsoft suite.  I'd definately let my students try it out, It would take care of the problems of "I forgot it at home!" as they could simply log in and export it to their school account.

 

For the image editing program, I looked at FotoFlexer.  I have Adobe Photoshop on my computer and find that while I would love to be able to use all of the different parts of it, at my level of photography, I wouldn't buy it for myself (it was a gift...before I found out that you can get most of the tools free online from Adobe).  Foto Flexer is a great tool, especially for students as it allows you to get photos from your facebook or myspace accounts, edit them and drop them back in.  It has more tools that I thought would be available for free, most of which are the ones that I use from my expensive program.  Do I like having the ability to "remaster" my pictures - yes, do I have the ability at this time...not without the instruction manual that I had to buy from the bookstore.  This program allows you to crop, change the lighting, shutter time, color, etc., but unless you're a photographer most people just choose the "auto fix" button and move on. 

 

The really cool thing about this program that works with school age children is the ability to alter your photos.  I had a great time with my 2 1/2 year old son editing a picture of him by adding sparkle letters, spinning his picture, making him look like he was standing in front of a fun-house mirror...all of the stuff that you see students do if you've ever watched them edit their pictures for fun.  Again, if you're a professional photographer, this program is probably not for you, but if you want to crop your pictures, get the red-eye out, and have some fun with your friend's pictures, this is a great investment.

 

Oh yeah, did I mention that I'm typing this on the ZOHO writer program and am posting it to my blog with a touch of a button...

 

Week 7 Reflection

One thing that stood out for me in this weeks reading of Ch. 30 was the fact that the human brain takes in different types of information, i.e. visual and audio, in different ways. I guess I just assumed that I learned better using multiple ways of learning because I learned better with illustrations rather than simply reading the words from the page. When the authors said “Working memory has at least two separate subsystems for storage of data: a visual/pictorial storage area, and an auditory/verbal storage area…”, illustration 30.4 suddenly made sense when combined with the “seven plus or minus two chunks” bit. This is why teaching materials using music, mnemonic devices, movement, etc. works so well, it allows the brain to process the material using different subsystems to record the same data, thus moving it back into the long-term storage area.

The second thing that stood out for me was the discussion about how different types of audio being added to the information presented has different effects on how well your learners retain the information. I have watched so many students create PowerPoint presentations, for projects in my class or their computer class, with random sounds inserted into each slide. I can also think back to my time in the business world where business slides contained the same thing just to make the presentation “stand out” from others. I was always amused but more often slightly annoyed at those presentations and now I see that rather than adding to the presentation, they were simply “irrelevant audio”.
In the future, I can see that items added into the educational process need to be well thought out, they need to add to the material and not simply be there to add some pizzazz. We, as educators, need to make sure that we’re putting a lot of thought into ways that we can reach our different learning types in various ways without distracting the rest of the learners.

Chapter 31 had a lot of “wow” moments but as far as educational “wow” I found the paragraphs on I-PUSH and I-PULL to be interesting. How cool would it be to start all of your students working on a learning module and see how the different learners were given different levels of scaffolding to help them complete the necessary materials. I have had problems in the past, especially in math, with higher functioning students completing their work early and looking for things to do, an I-PULL module could lead these students on to higher level problems/projects to keep them occupied and, more importantly, interested in the material while the slower students had the time they needed to complete the training and get the minimum objectives covered.

Screencast project

My screencast project was in introductory video to parents on how to use the class website. I find that when I ask parents if they've ever visited the site through the year they have no idea what I'm talking about. I also discuss one of our science projects, a WebQuest, that the students do during our last science unit. It walks them through the process.

Website Project

Here is the address for my website:

http://sites.google.com/site/mrjohnsons6thgrade/index

My site is for my students as a "Welcome back to school!" On my index page I included contact information and a picture of me playing Jeopardy with some former students to show some of the things that we've done in the past. I also included a clock and a calendar to show how timeliness and thinking ahead are important.

On both the math and science page I explain the information that we will be covering during the upcoming year. On the math page I included a sudoku puzzle and other math games for my students to practice skills learned during the previous year. On the science page I included an image from a trip to fossil park as that is one of the GLCE's that they will be covering this year. I also included two gadgets, the first is a converter from farenheit to celsius to help students gain understanding of the differences between the two types of measurement. The second gadget gives tips towards greener living since we talk about environmental issues in class.

Week 6 Reflection

1. All three of the chapters dealt in part with the need to have a solid goal in mind when starting projects that are based on the end users. I’ll start with this most recent chapter. In the portion written by Jacquie McDonald, the author writes about the Instructional Design Generator model and how “This model has proven more effective than the transformer approach. No doubt we have all experienced the difficulties of redesigning (transforming) materials that are near completion before ID input is sought.” Unless you have a strong understanding of what the desired outcome of the project is from the start, you’re just going to end up redesigning it in the end. In ch. 21 the authors talked about the difference between “Piecemeal vs. Systemic Change" and how Systematic change is better than Piecemeal change because “…if a significant change is made in one part of a system, that part will usually become incompatible with other parts of the system, and the system will work to change that part back to what it was before.” In ch. 2 the authors talk about how ID needs to be goal oriented when they say “Unfortunately, any well-intended projects fail from lack of agreement on the goals or the decision to put off this important step in the false belief that this can be settled later.” Again, if we don’t completely understand what we’re working for as a complete view of the final product from the customer’s point of view, or as the overall ecological systemic view, the project is doomed to failure.

In the middle school setting, or any educational setting for that matter, understanding that sometimes there needs to be a complete systemic change vs. the piecemeal change that schools so often do, would ensure that projects reach the students in a workable fashion that is designed to pass the test of time.

2. While reading ch. 27 I found many of the competencies discussed to crossover into education. One of the ones that I feel I do well are communication, which they discuss often throughout the chapter, and one from the 2004 ISPI/ASTD PT Competencies list “4. Use partnerships or collaborate with clients and other experts as required.” I often work with other teachers at my grade level to prepare projects and assignments for my students.

Some of the competencies that I would like to improve include one from table 27.3 “14. Use media and technology to enhance learning and performance” I would like to improve this because, while I use many of the technologies available through my district, I know that there are many other methods that I could use, particularly software available for free on the web, to reach some of the different learners in my class. Another competency I would like to improve on is “16. Evaluate instructional effectiveness.” from the same list. It isn’t enough to try different things, an effective teacher must also know if projects work, why they are appropriate for meeting educational goals, and if not, can they be modified or should they not be used at all.

Week 5 reflection

1. Two things that I picked out from reading ch. 18 that I thought might be useful in the classroom are the use of technology-based training delivery and the discussion of globalization vs. localization. In regards to technology-based training, I am trying to increase my methods of using different methods of relaying information to my students, parents, peers, and administrators. I myself have used internet based training in the past for professional development and I find that it is very helpful. I completed Harry Wong’s training for classroom management. I was given a specific time frame to complete the training and then left on my own to complete the various chapters in the manual. I’m not sure that would work will with some of my students but I can see some members of my class choosing to do projects like this.

As for globalization vs. localization, that hits to the heart of adjusting my teaching method to ensure that all of my students are learning in an appropriate manner…differentiation I believe its called. I meet with two classes throughout the day, my advisory and my teaching partner’s class. Both classes have drastically different mixes of students as far as ability, behavior, neediness (if that’s actually a word), and socioeconomic makeup. While I have to teach both classes the same information, I often tailor my method of teaching depending on which group I deal with. I also have two Japanese students (they’ve only been in America for the past year) in my advisory so I have to deal with the ELL aspect too.

2. The first thing that stood out for me in ch. 21 was the comparison of systemic change vs. piece-meal change. The second thing that hit home was the part about needing to have the various levels, or clusters, to drive the change. I was hired into my district at the same time as our new building principal. In the time since we started she has made some changes that are very long term and some changes that, if you listen to members of the staff, would fit into the piece-meal portion. We started a program called WEB (Where Everybody Belongs) that uses members of the 8th grade class, who have gone through training, to welcome the incoming 5th graders and work with them through the rest of their first year in the building. This program has many of the students, teachers, parents, administration excited and energized. The goal of this program is to encourage students to step up and create an environment of caring and understanding amongst the students and we have a very long view of where we want it to go.

There have also been, in my mind, minor changes that she has implemented that has the staff divided and at odds with one another. The first change, she had staff buy-in because it is run by teachers, counselors, and administration, the second change, members of the staff felt that they had no say in the changes and are troubled by how these changes are affecting day-to-day activities, no feel for its systemic environment.

Google Map project so far...

Students in the 5th grade discuss the Lewis & Clark expedition. This year we had students create a biography of the leaders but I can see how our social studies teachers could have the students research the expedition and create a map listing information such as:

Beginning and end of expedition
Current cities Lewis and Clark passed through
Different Native American nations Lewis & Clark encountered
Dates of important events

I've created a basic map detailing the route they took to explore the western part of the United States, but students could also detail their return trip using different colors.


View Lewis & Clark Expedition in a larger map

And now for some non-technology news!

My son, Kieffer Gerrit Johnson, was born last night at 9:48! He weighs 6 lb., 4 oz. and is 19.5 in. long.