CEDO 535 Week 1

This week we reviewed various blog sites and our readings focused on how to utilize and implement them into our classroom. This issue reaches home with me because this is something I've been contemplating doing for awhile but just couldn't fully wrap my head around what I would use it for or how I would keep it safe for my students. I haven't blogged a whole lot myself and therefore haven't seen all of the features and options so wasn't sure exactly what I would want as an end result.
After reviewing the sites provided to us this week, I can honestly say that I would not choose any of these. What I can say is that by reviewing these and seeing what I don't like, I have a much better idea of what I do like and therefore will continue my search for a blog site that encompasses all of the features that I want. In addition to finding out what I do want, I also came to a conclussion on how I would implement this into my classroom.
I figured out that I would like to have a site which provided me with an aesthetically pleasing background that I could adjust to my own personal style, a site which would include all of the links to my students blogs so I could easily pull them up, the ability to secure the site to allow only my students and myself to read these with me in control of this and not my students, and in addition, I would like the site to notify me via email that one of my students has posted a new blog entry or responded to someone else's.
I would implement this blog by asking that each of my students blog weekly to recap what they learned from the week, what they liked and disliked, and what they think they may use the information for in the future as it would pertain to class. In addition, I would also ask the students to complete a final summation recaping everything they learned throughout the year which would allow the students to tie together all the information covered in the class.

CEDO 530 Week 5

This may sound really sad but I really love rubrics. I must be a teacher. With that being said, I don't use nearly as many as I should as I rarely seem to find the time to make them but I find them to be so beneficial to the students. I'm not sure which class it was that really pounded the message home that identifying what was expected out of your students ahead of time was so very important but it really is. We as teachers really do spend so much of our time trying to make our students prove that they know the infomration by making it extra difficult but really we are just having them do party tricks and jump through hoops so much of the time. By providing our studnets with rubrics, we give the students a clear and identifiable means of what exactly it is that we expect while leaving the ball in their court to complete it to the best of their ability. I have always found that rubrics make the whole process go quicker and more efficiently provided they are done in a clear and concise manner. I guess that would be why I'm so looking forward to being able to complete this weeks work. I get to do something that I enjoy doing and find so very beneficial while at the same time, hopefully, learning some new tricks to add to my bag of goodies.

CEDO 530 Week 4

Ok, so I can't really say I have a lot to add that will be efficient for the group so I'm not even going to pretend like I can. I've had some issues in my personal life that have added road blocks that have prevented me from staying up to date with my work. I am working as hard as I can to find the time necessary to get caught up and back up to speed but that is tough in it's own right given the time constraints of my full time job.
I will say, that in looking at this weeks work, it certainly looks interesting. I won't lie and say that it looks in any way shape or form easy but it does look valuable at least. I'm looking forward to finally getting my Animoto account and getting that completed and really looking forward to delving into Prezi. The Pecha Kucha doesn't necessarily excite me in the same way as the others but I'm hoping that as I get into the storyboarding it will review a greater efficiency for me.
At some point, I will actually be caught up and will be able to provide the rest of the group with the inferences and insights that you all so deserve but until then, I apologize. So without further ado, I'm off to regain my place along that path to realingment so so-long to you all for now.

CEDO 530 Week 3

It has been a hectic week so far but now that the wife's surgery is over and all turned out OK I'm looking forward to things getting back to some normalcy and getting some time to work on not only this weeks assignments but a couple that I was not able to get to last week. I can't wait to get caught back up and back on task because I can't stand being behind in anything.

With that being said, I took a little time to look at the animoto site and I have to say I love the possibilities. I'm always looking for ways to pimp my classes and my softball program and I see great things ahead for the use of this program. I think this will allow me to put together an awesome highlight video of both my classes and my softball program and link them to our websites. If the students see that I will highlight their work in an intriguing way I think they will be way more apt to take my classes. In addition, my girls have accomplished so much in our program and work so hard that I think it will be a nice treat for them to get to view some of their highlights in a fun fashion.

I also loved the pecha kucha video as this is something I really need to work on in my own presentations. I really need to limit my slides and the amount of intormation on each slide and I hope in delving deaper into this site I will improve my own presentations. It was also nice to finally learn how to accurately pronounce this name but I too have to agree with one of the responses on the video that this video truly does demonstrate just how important it is to have your slides match what you are talking about. If your timing is off it throws everything out of whack and makes what ever you wanted to get across become secondary because it totally throws the veiwer out of kilter.

CEDO 530 Week 2

Well I am definately one of those people that are not very creative. I'm fine as long as I have some framework to work with, then I will run all day long as far as creativity goes but when asked to just begin creating something, I am terrible. I'm pretty positive that I have adult on-set ADHD and when asked to start searching my brain for something creative it becomes a real ugly sight real quickly. My brain goes in about 100 different directions all at once and nothing of substance comes out.

Because of this issue, I hope that this weeks work will help me better organize my creativity and utilize my random thoughts to create ideas rather than create chaos. In addition, I am definately looking forward to reading and reviewing the six key principles as I am absolutely terrible with the powerpoints. It is not going to be about me determining which one I'm bad at and correcting that but more so determining if I do anything right that I don't have to correct.

In all this weeks work should provide me with a lot of assistance towards becoming a better instructor so I look forward to finding some time to get it accomplished.

CEDO 530 - Week One

What a week! Ok so not so much for my masters work but otherwise it was exceptional. I spent the week in Green Bay learning advanced usage of Solidworks, ArchiCad, Google Sketchup Pro and a little A+Cad. The downer of the week was the 790 question, 5 hour test on Friday for ADDA certification. I actually spent 16 hours studying for this test. If I don't pass I'll be pissed.

The beauty of the week was that I got to see what a school is capable of when it has stupid money. Bay Port High School is a gorgeous school with loads of beautiful toys to play with. What most other schools can only dream of, they had. The sad part was that much of it was not used to the extent in which it should have been. That is a story best left for another day though.

As for the work we will be doing and have done. I'm not good at presentations and have actually spent a lot of my career so far avoiding them and finding ways in which I am good at to present information to my students. I have seen how effective quality presentations can be and have always been envious of people who were able to create quality presentations. It is my supreme hope and desire that with the teachings of this class that I will be able to at least get into the serviceable range and can then continue to learn and improve to the point where someday I will actually consider myself good at these. The scary part is that by the time I'm good at these they will likely be outdated and it won't matter anyways.

I think that the idea of Presentation Zen is a great idea and it is a method by which I can logically make sense of the instruction and apply it to my own presentations. I am excited to delve into this curriculum and become a true "Zen" like presentor. In addition, I have often heard of people completing the picture a day task and have often thought about how I wished I would be better at taking pictures as it is always neat to look back and see where I had been over the last month. I'm always so busy that it is easy for me to forget what I did and when I did it and pictures are such a great way of adding a visual stimuli that will spur those memories. I look forward to the conclussion of this task and looking back at not only what I've done over the last month but also to look back and see my growth as a photographer over that span.

CEDO 525 Week 6

I have to admit that I was relatively surprised to see that I actually did a lot of the strategies we've discussed in this class in the lesson I reviewed. I am not someone who has spent a lot of time focusing on applying given strategies to my curriculum but rather focused on just trying to do what I thought was right and would work. The two areas I felt I was really lacking though were reinforcing effort and utilizing advanced organizers. I think that by providing my students with advanced organizers and implementing them into my lesson will keep the students excited to begin the lesson and create a smoother transition into the project. I'm a firm believer that how a student starts an assignment sets the tone for how the project will go and what better way to start the assignment than by modeling organization and efficiency. In addition, I currently put only a little emphasis on effort but I can see after reviewing this lesson that I need to do a lot more of this. I will create a rubric specifically for rewarding effort and will emplement a blog where I will ask the students to post twice/week on what they have done on the project as well as what their partners have done. I think that not only will I get an idea of any extra-curricular work, but this will also allow the parents to see what the students are doing in class and out. In the long run, these two additions will make my students maintain a strong interest in this assignment and will hopefully generate higher quality projects.