Summary/Reflection:
This quarter we have spent time in class and at home discussing and participating in professional learning networks. For me personally I didn't get many ideas or learn anything new from the affinity groups that I had joined. The one nice thing about the affinity groups I joined is that they would send me e-mails with new posts that pertained to interests of mine for the classroom. The posts were on topics that I would like to learn more from, but none of the posts were related to my classroom grade level.
I might not have been successful with the affinity groups joined, but the Digg Reader and my twitter account have helped me as a professional to stay up to date on new technology trends in the classroom as well as to get fresh ideas for the classroom. With Digg Reader, I love that it's not just blog posts that I can see since I joined Digg Reader, but I can also see blog posts from before that date. This was great for me because I found a great idea from the blog Teaching in Room 6 that had posted on September 23rd an article called Real World Problem Solving Using the Book Order Form. Unfortunately I won't be able to use the idea this year, but I am ready to start with it next year after I have taught my students how to add and subtract decimals. In this real-world situation students are given scholastic book order forms and are asked to clip-out the books that they would like their parents to buy for them. Students do some research and see how much the same book would cost at the local bookstore. The overall goal is for students to show their parents how much money they would save ordering the books through Scholastic rather than go to the bookstore.
In regards to twitter as a professional learning network, it definitely is! I check my twitter feed about once a week. I check it constantly when I am at a technology conference or know of one that day that I wasn't able to attend and can see what others are tweeting about so that I can check-out some of these new ideas that they are learning. I recently (during October) went to the local San Gabriel Valley CUE Conference and tweeted about what I was learning. It was so neat to see my tweets being retweeted, so I knew that others were learning from what I was able to share from the conference. The nice thing about twitter is that it acts like my affinity groups do and sends me e-mails once a week with tweets that I might not have seen, but that pertain to what my followers and/or those that I am following are interested in this week. The e-mails help me to learn new strategies for my classroom through others' tweets and also tells me that hey I should start following them, I like their ideas.
These tools are definitely a must for teachers who want to keep growing professionally. They are free tools available and we all know that we teachers love the word FREE!!! I'm hoping to set-up a time before winter break to share with my school how to join a Digg Reader and add blogs to their reader. I know a lot of the primary grade levels love to look for new ideas on blogs. The Digg Reader can help them to stay organized and save them time in searching their favorite blogs for fresh ideas.
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Monday, November 16, 2015
Journal 6: Self Reflection
Summary/Reflection:
Of the two classes I am taking this quarter (which is also my first quarter in this Master's program), I feel the most confident in this class. I even did a "happy dance" last night when I uploaded my webpage with links to all of the exercises and every single link worked. I was so happy!!! My husband smiled and laughed at how giddy I was, but to have everything working the first time I was all smiles. Woohoo! I feel like I am getting better at learning the different codes for creating pages (including creating a style for the page) and am able to get through my exercises a lot quicker than I did at the beginning of the quarter. It just takes time and practice especially when creating and linking other webpages to one homepage (http://www.cpp.edu/~cjvarner/512/Exercises/Chapter6/jenskitchen/jenskitchen.html). I'm actually looking forward to starting my final website project and hope that it turns out to be like I imagined it to.
The one thing that I am struggling with in this class is creating tables. Even though I have practiced creating tables both in class and at home for the book exercises, I don't yet feel confident in creating them. The last book exercise for the table challenge was an "AHHHHH!!!!!" moment for me. I think it was the most difficult (yes, I know it's a table challenge and it would be harder than the rest) for me because I was still struggling with the basic tables and then to have to do one that was way more complex was a little bit of a "Bah Humbug" for me. It took a long time of playing around with the coding and constant referencing to the textbook, but I managed to get it done (http://www.cpp.edu/~cjvarner/512/Exercises/Chapter8/Exercises%20Chapter%208/tablechallenge.html). I am now pondering the idea in my head of do I still want to create a table with information on my final website project, or do I create an ordered list instead.
Of the two classes I am taking this quarter (which is also my first quarter in this Master's program), I feel the most confident in this class. I even did a "happy dance" last night when I uploaded my webpage with links to all of the exercises and every single link worked. I was so happy!!! My husband smiled and laughed at how giddy I was, but to have everything working the first time I was all smiles. Woohoo! I feel like I am getting better at learning the different codes for creating pages (including creating a style for the page) and am able to get through my exercises a lot quicker than I did at the beginning of the quarter. It just takes time and practice especially when creating and linking other webpages to one homepage (http://www.cpp.edu/~cjvarner/512/Exercises/Chapter6/jenskitchen/jenskitchen.html). I'm actually looking forward to starting my final website project and hope that it turns out to be like I imagined it to.
The one thing that I am struggling with in this class is creating tables. Even though I have practiced creating tables both in class and at home for the book exercises, I don't yet feel confident in creating them. The last book exercise for the table challenge was an "AHHHHH!!!!!" moment for me. I think it was the most difficult (yes, I know it's a table challenge and it would be harder than the rest) for me because I was still struggling with the basic tables and then to have to do one that was way more complex was a little bit of a "Bah Humbug" for me. It took a long time of playing around with the coding and constant referencing to the textbook, but I managed to get it done (http://www.cpp.edu/~cjvarner/512/Exercises/Chapter8/Exercises%20Chapter%208/tablechallenge.html). I am now pondering the idea in my head of do I still want to create a table with information on my final website project, or do I create an ordered list instead.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Journal 5: Twitter in the Classroom
Summary/Reflection:
I created a twitter account about a year ago when I attended the CUE Conference in Palm Springs. We were encouraged to tweet about the sessions we were attending with a quick highlight of what we were able to take back to our classroom and/or school site for others to be able to use. I started to follow some of the different speakers that I met at the conference that I really enjoyed learning from, in hope that they would tweet about new ideas and discoveries they have made. I don't tweet much on twitter myself unless I am at a conference or district event and find something interesting that I feel should be shared with my followers. However, just because I'm not tweeting 24/7 doesn't mean that I'm not checking my Twitter app on my phone periodically throughout the week to see if anyone I follow has tweeted about some great idea that I can bring into my classroom. Twitter for me is only being used as a professional development resource and not for personal use.
After looking at the resources posted for this class about twitter and now having done some extra research online, I think that it would be fun to create a classroom twitter account for students to take turns posting about what our classroom is learning. Since my students are under the age to be able to agree to the Terms and Conditions of the website, we could only create a classroom account where I would be the person to create the account. I would have to check each student's tweet before they would be allowed to post it onto our classroom account to make sure that it is appropriate for our classroom's use. The idea of having a classroom twitter account sounds like a fun learning experience for my classroom, but might also be time consuming on my end to read each student's tweet before they can submit it live. I'll definitely have to ponder about this idea and do some more research to see if it would be beneficial for my students.
Q1. How can Twitter be beneficial to teachers in the classroom setting?
A1. By having a classroom Twitter account where students will each have the opportunity to write classroom tweets (my students aren't old enough to have their own accounts), teachers can check for students' understanding of concepts being taught and books/stories that are being read in class. Students can write a tweet from a character's point of view, letting the teacher know the student's understanding of what was just read. Students can also tweet their favorite learning piece from the school day and if the teacher has shared the class' twitter information with parents, parents can see what their child learned at school that day.
Q2. How does Twitter help students to learn?
A2. Students can learn a lot on Twitter if teachers take the time to find reliable people and/or resources to follow. For example in fifth grade, students spend some time learning about the Solar System in science. NASA has a twitter account that teachers and students can follow to get access to real time information, pictures, and videos from NASA. There are also a lot of children's book authors with Twitter accounts that would love the opportunity to speak and/or write to your students on Twitter.
I created a twitter account about a year ago when I attended the CUE Conference in Palm Springs. We were encouraged to tweet about the sessions we were attending with a quick highlight of what we were able to take back to our classroom and/or school site for others to be able to use. I started to follow some of the different speakers that I met at the conference that I really enjoyed learning from, in hope that they would tweet about new ideas and discoveries they have made. I don't tweet much on twitter myself unless I am at a conference or district event and find something interesting that I feel should be shared with my followers. However, just because I'm not tweeting 24/7 doesn't mean that I'm not checking my Twitter app on my phone periodically throughout the week to see if anyone I follow has tweeted about some great idea that I can bring into my classroom. Twitter for me is only being used as a professional development resource and not for personal use.
After looking at the resources posted for this class about twitter and now having done some extra research online, I think that it would be fun to create a classroom twitter account for students to take turns posting about what our classroom is learning. Since my students are under the age to be able to agree to the Terms and Conditions of the website, we could only create a classroom account where I would be the person to create the account. I would have to check each student's tweet before they would be allowed to post it onto our classroom account to make sure that it is appropriate for our classroom's use. The idea of having a classroom twitter account sounds like a fun learning experience for my classroom, but might also be time consuming on my end to read each student's tweet before they can submit it live. I'll definitely have to ponder about this idea and do some more research to see if it would be beneficial for my students.
Q1. How can Twitter be beneficial to teachers in the classroom setting?
A1. By having a classroom Twitter account where students will each have the opportunity to write classroom tweets (my students aren't old enough to have their own accounts), teachers can check for students' understanding of concepts being taught and books/stories that are being read in class. Students can write a tweet from a character's point of view, letting the teacher know the student's understanding of what was just read. Students can also tweet their favorite learning piece from the school day and if the teacher has shared the class' twitter information with parents, parents can see what their child learned at school that day.
Q2. How does Twitter help students to learn?
A2. Students can learn a lot on Twitter if teachers take the time to find reliable people and/or resources to follow. For example in fifth grade, students spend some time learning about the Solar System in science. NASA has a twitter account that teachers and students can follow to get access to real time information, pictures, and videos from NASA. There are also a lot of children's book authors with Twitter accounts that would love the opportunity to speak and/or write to your students on Twitter.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Journal 4: Project Plan
Site Title: Getting to Know Our States and Capitals
Developer: Casie DeSalvio
Rational or Focus: The goal of this website is for the fifth grade students at Allen Avenue Elementary to be given a valuable resource for information on the states and capitals of the United States of America. Students will be able to locate free games and videos to help them learn where each state is and what its capital is, as well as where to locate information on each state. My hope is that this website will bring my school's fifth grade students to an easy and accessible website at both home and school for them to work on meeting the California State Standards for Social Studies.
Main Features Outline:
Developer: Casie DeSalvio
Rational or Focus: The goal of this website is for the fifth grade students at Allen Avenue Elementary to be given a valuable resource for information on the states and capitals of the United States of America. Students will be able to locate free games and videos to help them learn where each state is and what its capital is, as well as where to locate information on each state. My hope is that this website will bring my school's fifth grade students to an easy and accessible website at both home and school for them to work on meeting the California State Standards for Social Studies.
Main Features Outline:
- Home Page
- States/Capitals Page
- State Report Page
- Learning Objectives Page
Content:
- Home Page: The home page will let students and parents know what they can find on the website with a brief summary and link to each site page. At the very top of the page will be any reminders for that week of what is expected of the student to be able to do and/or have complete.
- States/Capitals Page: At the top of the page will be a table with test dates as well as what states/capitals should be known for that test. There will be links to youtube songs and videos, as well as links to outside website games with a brief summary of what's on each site. There will also be a link to the PDF printable for students and parents to print-out and practice locating the states and capitals on a map.
- State Report Page: At the top of the page will be a table with due dates for the state report students will be completing. There will be links to websites for students to have easy access to finding information about their particular state.
- Learning Objectives Page: Fifth grade Social Studies Standards will be displayed on this page.
Target Audience: This website is designed specifically for the fifth grade students at Allen Avenue Elementary, however, most of this site could be used by any fifth grade student if they are using the links on the site to help them better understand states and capitals.
Design Considerations: I would like my website to have a simple HTML5 layout with a patriotic theme CSS. There will be a navigation bar for the different pages of the site and a sidebar with subfolders for specific links to the site, as well as the home page information as the main section.
Limiting Factors: Students and parents will need to have a device that can access Flash for some website games. Mobile devices may not have access to all parts of the website for games and some parts of tables/pictures might not completely show on the screen.
Site Map:
Wire Frame:
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Journal 3: The Case for Social Media in School
Kessler, S. (2010, September 29). The Case For Social Media in Schools. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
Summary/Reflection:
The Case For Social Media in Schools by Sarah Kessler discusses the importance of why social media can be a positive influence in schools. There is a lot of negativity about Social Media use and technology tools used in the classroom because people are afraid of "predators and bullies online" as well as viewing "advertising that might be inappropriate" for students as addressed in Sarah Keller's article. I understand their point of view and wanting to make sure that our students are protected, however, in today's world, this shouldn't be a factor anymore. School districts have the ability to set filters on what students are able to view and not view on the Internet when students are connected to the school's WiFi. There are so many educational apps and websites today, that allow teachers to have their students use Social Media and other technology tools and apps that don't contain any advertising (see question one below).
Some are afraid that students will use their device for the wrong reasons like texting or playing games, but that can be where having a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) contract can come in handy. If we teach our students how to use technology appropriately and how it can be beneficial to their education, then there shouldn't be any reason why students can't use it on a daily basis. Websites like Common Sense Media (https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/curriculum) and Digital Passport hosted by Common Sense Media (https://www.digitalpassport.org) allow educators and parents to teach the rights and wrongs of using multimedia tools. Sarah Keller said in her article that "[t]he teachers and parents who embrace social media say the best way to keep kids safe, online or offline, is to teach them" and I completely agree with her! Let's teach our students how to be safe online so that they can benefit from these tools available to them.
Q1. What are some safe Social Media tools available for teacher and student use?
A1. For teachers who would like to have a place for students to meet online to have discussions, take quizzes/tests, work on assignments, etc., then https://www.edmodo.com/ is a great place to start. Edmodo is designed to look like the very popular social media app Facebook. However, edmodo is a site for educational purposes with no advertising and allows teachers to see comments being made on students' edmodo accounts. It also gives teachers the ability to delete comments made if the teacher feels that a student made an inappropriate comment. I used this site last year for the first time and loved how my students worked collaboratively with one another and how they would just make positive comments to one another at random moments throughout the school year.
Q2. How can Social Media encourage students to write?
A2. Blogging is becoming a very popular social event on the Internet. You can find blogs about almost any topic. So why not have students create their own blog to practice their writing skills about topics being learned in class or just as a free-write online journal. There are a few different free apps and websites for students to create blog without having any advertisements that are a part of a classroom or school account. By having a student's blog linked to a classroom or school site, it allows teachers to make sure that students are using their blog appropriately. Some of the different blog sites available are edublogs.org, kidblog.org, and weebly.com. At the start of second trimester I am hoping to have my students create their own blog using weebly. I am hoping that having students create their own blog, will help them to find their creative writing side and a love for writing.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Journal 2: Affinity Groups and Digg RSS Stream
Summary/Refection:
This week in class I added several educational news-feeds to my Digg RSS Stream Reader. I have gone back throughout the week and have added the educational blogs that I have "favorited" on my laptop to my Digg Reader. The Digg Reader makes it so much easier to see new posts made by my favorite blogs without me having to connect to each blog site at a time. I wish I had discovered this over the summer when I was reading a lot of teacher blogs. It would have made it a lot easier to find when new posts had been made without having to search each site one at a time. With the blogs now being on the Digg Reader I can quickly scan the latest posts and click on one if I think it relates to me and my classroom.
Besides adding my favorite blogs to my Digg Reader, I also joined two different community groups. The first group I joined is ProTeacher Community (proteacher.net). ProTeacher Community allows you to visit different topic boards where members can post questions or ideas related to the board's topic. The second group I joined is called edWeb (edWeb.net). The edWeb site is made up of different groups where members can join only certain groups that pertain to their interests. The different community groups that I have joined so far on edWeb are "Amazing Resources for Educators", "Building RESPONSIBLE Students", and "TechTools for the Classroom: Easy Ideas to Engage Students." Both of these communities are FREE to join!
Q1. How can joining an Affinity Group be beneficial?
A1. Affinity Groups allow a member to search for more specific topics within the online community for posts that pertain to why the member joined that group in the first place. The two affinity groups that I have joined give me access to communities and board posts that relate to the subjects that I teach and information to make me a better teacher through professional development posts. In only having just joined these two different groups I have already found great ideas that I can bring into the classroom that I think my students will enjoy being a part of. If you're interested in learning new activities or ways of teaching your curriculum, joining an affinity group can help you to find those fresh ideas from other teachers who have tried them out and feel that they are successful for their students in meeting the standards with a confidence in understanding the material.
Q2. Why would the Digg RSS Stream Reader be good for teachers?
A2. If you're a teacher who is constantly searching the web for new ideas and you're constantly finding yourself on other teacher blogs, then Digg Reader is definitely for you. At first Digg Reader can seem overwhelming with how broad the topics are to look at to see if it is a site worth wanting to look at constantly. However, if you already know the names of the blogs that you find yourself constantly coming across in your web browser searches, then you can just type in the name of each blog and add them to your Digg Reader. It's then easy for you to every day or week go to the reader to see what the sites you always visit have posted throughout the week. There is no more having to go to each site individually, instead they are all coming to you. I think that it's a great tool and definitely is now saving me time.
This week in class I added several educational news-feeds to my Digg RSS Stream Reader. I have gone back throughout the week and have added the educational blogs that I have "favorited" on my laptop to my Digg Reader. The Digg Reader makes it so much easier to see new posts made by my favorite blogs without me having to connect to each blog site at a time. I wish I had discovered this over the summer when I was reading a lot of teacher blogs. It would have made it a lot easier to find when new posts had been made without having to search each site one at a time. With the blogs now being on the Digg Reader I can quickly scan the latest posts and click on one if I think it relates to me and my classroom.
Besides adding my favorite blogs to my Digg Reader, I also joined two different community groups. The first group I joined is ProTeacher Community (proteacher.net). ProTeacher Community allows you to visit different topic boards where members can post questions or ideas related to the board's topic. The second group I joined is called edWeb (edWeb.net). The edWeb site is made up of different groups where members can join only certain groups that pertain to their interests. The different community groups that I have joined so far on edWeb are "Amazing Resources for Educators", "Building RESPONSIBLE Students", and "TechTools for the Classroom: Easy Ideas to Engage Students." Both of these communities are FREE to join!
Q1. How can joining an Affinity Group be beneficial?
A1. Affinity Groups allow a member to search for more specific topics within the online community for posts that pertain to why the member joined that group in the first place. The two affinity groups that I have joined give me access to communities and board posts that relate to the subjects that I teach and information to make me a better teacher through professional development posts. In only having just joined these two different groups I have already found great ideas that I can bring into the classroom that I think my students will enjoy being a part of. If you're interested in learning new activities or ways of teaching your curriculum, joining an affinity group can help you to find those fresh ideas from other teachers who have tried them out and feel that they are successful for their students in meeting the standards with a confidence in understanding the material.
Q2. Why would the Digg RSS Stream Reader be good for teachers?
A2. If you're a teacher who is constantly searching the web for new ideas and you're constantly finding yourself on other teacher blogs, then Digg Reader is definitely for you. At first Digg Reader can seem overwhelming with how broad the topics are to look at to see if it is a site worth wanting to look at constantly. However, if you already know the names of the blogs that you find yourself constantly coming across in your web browser searches, then you can just type in the name of each blog and add them to your Digg Reader. It's then easy for you to every day or week go to the reader to see what the sites you always visit have posted throughout the week. There is no more having to go to each site individually, instead they are all coming to you. I think that it's a great tool and definitely is now saving me time.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Journal 1: Chapters 1-3 of Learning Web Design
Robbins, J. (2012). Learning web design: A beginner's guide to HTML, CSS, Javascript, and web graphics (4th ed., pp. 3-45). Sebastopol, California: O'Reilly.
Summary/Reflection:
I go on websites all day long, but I've never thought about WHY or HOW a website works. This week's readings of Chapters 1-3 has been an eye-opener into how it all works. In Chapter 1, I took a look at how websites are developed through website development firms made up of people who each have a specific job in creating a website. Sometimes, however, it might be one person taking on all of the roles and responsibilities to make a website function and looking aesthetically pleasing to its viewers.
I've been using the Internet for as long as I can remember, I mean the Web. Wait the Internet and the Web aren't the same thing? In Chapter 2, I learned that the Internet is when computers are connected through a network that shares information from one computer to another computer at the most general level. The Web also known as the World Wide Web is a way for information to be shared over the Internet by using HTTP.
In Chapter 3, under "The Need for Speed (Site Performance)" section it was important to think about when building a website that you need to make sure that file sizes are small and that you want to reduce "the number of requests to the server" in order to have a website load quickly for a viewer to see. Each time there is a new file, the Internet is requesting a file from the server for the information to go back to the computer.
Q1. There are three processes that are involved in developing the design of a website. What are they and how do they help to make-up a web's design?
A1. Authoring/markup is when all of the HTML tags that make-up the content as well as the function of the webpage is being prepared to be sent to the Web. It is telling the website the different pieces of the document that should be shown such as the heading, paragraphs, and any lists. How the website will look is done through CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). It tells what fonts, colors, images, layouts, etc. of how the page should look to the viewer. The last process is the scripting and programming of the site. Javascript is used for different gadgets or widgets like drop-down menus on the site.
Q2. How is a viewer able to see a browser display a web page?
A2. When a viewer types in a URL into the search bar of their Internet browser, the Internet browser asks the HTTP to go to the server connected to the URL for the files related to that URL. Once the server finds the file for the URL, the server sends it back to the Internet browser. For every element needed in the HTML document, the Internet browser will continue to ask the server for each image, CSS, and script needed in order for the Internet browser to correctly display the web page of the URL. If when the server is first looking for files connected to the URL and cannot find the files, then the viewer will receive an error message on their Internet browser.
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