I have met some new people this week. Some of which will be life-long friends, I’m sure. I haven’t been as busy online as I would like to be, but that has a lot to do with not having a computer at home at the moment. (Yes, my computer is still in for repairs)

That being, said, I am at school at 5:30 on a Saturday. I have actually been here since around 11:00 this morning. Originally I came to find the reading that is on UR courses for one of my classes, which I am supposed to have read for Monday so that I can do some group work with it. Unfortuntly I am not able to open the link that the prof has up. I keep getting an error message saying that the file is not in the proper format. That is frustrating.

So, what have I been doing for the past 6 hours or so? Not a heck of a lot actually. I have been talking to people on msn and through texts, and I have been ‘forum lurking’ (some of you reading this will know what I mean). I know, it isn’t much, but it has kept me busy enough.

Perhaps it is a sad fact that I have spent 6 hours at school on a Saturday when I didn’t even have class, but it is a fact nonetheless.

I just realized that it is back to that time of year, when the winter term begins. I am excited for this term, it should be a great one. I already know that this term will be a busy one for me, but busy in a good way.

I am currently in Olds, and I have been here since late on the 15th of December. I begin to make my way back to Regina, by bus,  on Sunday night. After a 2 hour layover in Calgary, where I will be meeting up with someone, I will be on the bus 11 hours and will get to Regina at 11:30 on Monday. I usually don’t sleep on the bus, as you never really know what is going to happen, or if anyone is going to sit beside you, so I will be dead tired for my night class on Monday night, unless I am able to at least get some sleep.

The only day I am dreading and will be every week this term is going to be Tuesdays. I have classes from 10:30 until 4, then I have a lesson to teach; I will get home around 5:30 or later, depending on roads, then I have rehearsals from 6:30 until 10:30. I’m glad I don’t have anything (as of yet) on Wednesdays.

I know this post is pretty much rambling but, thought I would write something at least.

I hope everyone reading this has had a great holiday season and is doing well.

1) I have been doing power-points for a very long time and therefore I felt it was perhaps beneath me and not using my abilities to their furthest extent

2) My final project didn’t really fit with a power-point presntation. I could not figure out how I would present my findings on a power-point

3) A power-point (no matter how interesting) is not very interesting, especially if it is not being presented by the person who has made it.

4) I would not be presenting it in class.

So, due to those 4 reasons and more, I decided that power-point was not the way to go. After explaining my project to a few of my friends, one of them got me thinking. I ran with that idea.

When I first decided what my final project was going to be, I thought that it would fairly simple to get the information that I wanted from teachers around the globe, due to my network. I sent out a survey for all of the teachers in my network to fill out, however I did not recieve any information from any of them. Thanks to Dean and his network I was able to complete my final project. I sent out a survey to everyone who was interested in completing it. The survey was fairly simple, asking teachers how they used technology in their classrooms, what they thought worked well and not so well, and if other teachers in their school used technology well. I got a number of different responses, all of which I found  very interesting.

Once I had decided on how I was going to present all of this information I then realized that I needed everyone’s permission to use the information they had provided me with on the internet (in public domain). I sent out a quick google survey to everyone who had said they were going to provide me with information, and I got quick replies from most of them. Those teachers who did not respond, I simply did not use their names.

While waiting for people to respond to the quick google survey I began to and finished creating a website. It is a very simple website, with not a lot to it right now. I hope in the future to continue adding information to the website  (teachwithtech.webs.com) and I hope that it will be able to assist current and furture teachers with finding new tools and programs and knowing that technology integration really does work.

It took me a very long time to get all of the information together and put it on the website in an organized way. I looked over it and looked over it again, I had a friend of mine who is an English major at the University of Calgary look over it and double check spelling and other issues, which he could help me with.  I had my brother and the rest of my family look over the website as well, before I showed others.

In the future I will most likely be doing some HTML coding to change the colors a bit and make the website look a little better, as it is very plain write now. Unfortunetely I couldn’t do this by myself as I am not familiar with CSS or HTML coding, so I will be getting my brother’s help with this.

I have never made any kind of webpage or website before, so when I finally decided that this is what I wanted to do, it was a bit overwhelming. I didn’t even know where to start. I asked around and found one website that I felt very comfortable using in order to create my own website. Even though I found this website and eventually figured out a somewhat catchy name (with the help of another friend, as I am not good with figuring out names), I still had no idea where to go from there. I logged in to my website and there was a blank page staring me in the face, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what my website was going to look like. I just started writing, and I believe I have done a good job on my first website ever.

 The following is a link to my podcast, which I made for ECMP 355. It’s short (as per the assingment), even though I would have liked to make it longer.

http://www.garageband.com/mp3player?|pe1|WdjZPXLrvP2rYVOzZm1hBw

I have an account on Gcast, which is an amazing site. You simply upload an mp3 file to your account or you can, even easier, phone in to a number and record your podcast through there. You then have the option of publishing the podcast right away, or you can take some time to check it over and make sure it’s good. Gcast then gives you the option to embed the player directly on basically any page that supports HTML (pretty much anywhere).

This is where I used to work this summer, check it out (and if you want you can even listen and read the article to ).

http://www.albertalocalnews.com/news/Little_pills_powering_global_relief.html

On Saturday I decided that it was time for me to get all of my coursework done for all of my classes, so I spent about 12 hours straight, sitting at home and doing all of my work. It got to be about 10 at night when I decided that was enough for the day and I would finish everything else on Sunday.

Well, I woke up Sunday morning and went to turn on my computer. My computer decided that it no longer wanted to go on the internet and everything I typed into the address bar would come up with something saying that the address wasn’t valid. I thought this was rather interesting but realized that the computer had had enough of me (obviously) and this was it telling me not to keep fixing it. That was when I decided that I would do as I had been told by one tech and reset my laptop; I have now come to realize that this was not what I should have done. After I had reset the laptop, the mouse nor the keyboard worked anymore. I then decided well, maybe something just is turned off or something so I plugged in my external mouse (which worked). That was when I figured well, if the external mouse works, how about an external keyboard? So, I went to the store and bought an inexpensive Centrios keyboard, which I took home and plugged into my paperweight.The keyboard works as well.

So, lucky me. I now have a desktop computer (that only partially looks like a laptop) that gets too hot and has actually burned my couch 0_0

But I don’t even want to call it any form of computer because it has no programs on it (other than factory default) and it refuses to download any programs. So, that is why I call it my paperweight.

You’re probably thinking, sure that’s frustrating but not really interesting… so:

Saturday- I spent 12 hours on homework

Sunday- I spent 12 hours trying to fix a paperweight

Monday (oh Monday)- I got to school at 9am, where I quickly grabbed a computer and worked on homework for 2 and a half hours. Then I went to class, and continued to do homework (on paper) throughout the class. After class, I went back to the computer lab in Riddel and stayed at one computer until 2 in the morning doing homework. I got a lot accomplished so I am very proud of myself. I actually didn’t even realize that it was 2am to be honest. It wasn’t like I was the only one in the lab, however I was the only person that had remnants of lunch and supper as well as one empty coffee cup and what seemed like a million pieces of paper and jumpdrives all around them.

Tuesday- was actually fairly nice and easy, I spent the majority of my time playing music (which is always nice). I started the day off by going to my theatre class, followed by doing some work on the computer in the lab at Riddel (actually it was the same computer), then I went and taught a lesson. After the lesson was over I sped back to my house to drop off my car and walk over to the Lutheran Care Home (on 5th North) where The Bandits were having a concert. After the concert I ran back to my house and switched instruments and picked up my car and left for Martin (where Jazz Bandits was meeting). I was up until 1am trying to get a few more things done.

Wednesday (today)- I started off the day poorly by sleeping through my alarm, and managed to somehow get from sleeping at my house to Martin Collegiate in about 15 minutes. I’m still not sure how I managed to do this, but it was worth it. I spent a few hours there (I was supposed to be there at 9:30) watching the music teacher teach her classes and I learnt a lot (as I always do from talking to her). I was then late for a rehearsal with my theatre group so had to speed to the University where I still am (working on, again, the same computer). A bit later tonight I have to go and see the premiere of “Bonjour La Bonjour” and then I will be back (probably on this computer) writing my critique of the play. When I get home tonight, I will be phoning into Gcast and getting my podcast on to gcast as well as writing out the good copy of my new TEAP (for my transfer from music ed into arts ed). Tomorrow I have class and I will be taking my podcast from Gcast and putting it on my blog.

I have basically finished my final project for ECMP 355, which I am very excited about. Originally I was just going to do a powerpoint but I decided on something much different. It has taken me a bit of time and it still needs some tweeking, but once I am finished, I am sure it will be great. I have already been told by a few people (that I have got to check it) that it is really good, I just hope that I can make it even better. What is it you ask? Well, that would be telling No, really, I do want to leave it as a bit of a surprise to all of you who are wondering, until it is actually ready to go.

http://3danimation.e-spaces.com/graphic_design/future_city_downtown.jpg

http://www.kmh.se/images/program_IMG/070507Storbdir.jpg

Online mentoring with Ms. Kerney’s grade 6 class has been interesting. I never thought that I would enjoy it as much as I have. Unfortunetely, I have been unable to really work with the class, outside of the class blog, even though I would have liked to.

I think it has been fantastic, the responses I have gotten back from the grade 6 class, and I am wishing that it wasn’t coming to the end of the Fall semester at the University. I hope that I will be able to keep at least some contact with the class, but I also understand if that is not possible.

For the most part I have only been commenting back and forth with students, and I have not done much commenting specifically on their blogs. Though, in this case, I am learning from the students, and about the students more than I would if I was commenting on their blogs.

I have been enjoying the ever-changing blog backgrounds and seeing what the students have come up with (other than the assingments they are given to write on their blogs). Just through checking up on how the blogs are changing (not with posts, but with backgrounds and avatars) I am finding out the personalities of the students. I think using something like this in my future classroom will be a great opportunity for myself as well as for my students and parents and friends and family members.

The other day, I was commenting back to the steady influx of comments I was recieving when I came upon one students guestbook that I thought was rather neat. This student had comments on their guestbook from family members; the one that I found the most interesting was the comment from her grandmother. I think it is great that something like a class blog can reach out to the older generation like that (the comment was about, how the grandmother had never done something like leaving a comment on a blog). That also proved another point of blogs, especially class blogs; blogging is something that will, undoubtedly, bring people together. People will begin to learn more about each other, and in a classroom wouldn’t this be an ideal? Of course there is always an issue of cyber-bullying, but if that begins to happen, teachers can easily set the class blogs so that they have to approve comments.

The students have left a number of comments for me, and almost always I have been online when the comments start to come in. I find it rather exciting to be responding back to their comments almost at the same time they are commenting on my blog. Unfortunetly, I have come to the conclusion that I am not that great at asking questions of people, so for the most part I have only be answering questions.

For a quick summary of what I am trying to say:

I have made a number of comments, as I comment back to every comment made anywhere on my blog. Most of the comments are done directly on the students’ blogs, but there are a few comments back to them on my blog. I have had a fantastic experience working with Ms. Kerney’s grade 6 class, and it will be something I will remember for many years.

This experience has been another step up the mountain of learning. I will continue to climb and learn everything I can, and join the networks necessary to help me preform as a teacher once I am out in the field. I am well past my first step up the mountain, and I will continue to climb as the days go by. This is not even close to the end of my learning of how to be a teacher; that day will never come. I always want to be open to knowledge, open to new information, and I want to always have that willingness to change. I know that a number of ‘older teachers’ have lost that willingness and openness, but I am truly hoping that I will not become one of them.

This experience has given me a number of ideas on how to interact with classroom blogs, and I am hoping that I will be able to use a class blog in my future classroom. I think they are a wonderful oppotunity for students, teachers, and family, and they are a very much worthwhile project.

The first podcast I listened to and decided to write about was a podcast by the Tenacious Teacher. The particular podcast I listened to was titled “3 Tips for Making Lesson Plans Work For You”. The following are her three tips, with some explanatory notes, which she gave. These are directly taken from the podcast, as there was no need to change them.

Tip #1:

“Personalize your lesson plan to your needs. Figure out what you need help remembering when you’re in front of your class, and make sure you include that information in your lesson plan. Make sure you write down what will help you be a better teacher.”

Tip #2

“Let your lesson plan enhance your teaching style.” Don’t worry about the rigidity of lesson plans if you value flexibility in your classroom. Use your lesson plan as a reference point, not as law.

Tip #3

“Use past lesson plans to reinforce concepts.” Great for review, and great to go back and see what worked. “Your lesson plans act as a list of fun, successful activities to choose from when you’re in a creative lull.”

I was looking through all of the educational podcast and then I saw the group of podcasts from Tenacious Teacher; this intrigued me, so I went looking. I know I will at some point, listen to the majority of her podcasts as there is some great practicalinformation in them, I’m sure. I found her three tips on lesson plans, quite relieving actually; we have been constantly taught (in EPS classes and curriculum classes) exactly what must be on lesson plans, this, is not the truth. This truth is very relieving because, I always found a ‘standard’ lesson plan to be fairly constricting, so it is good to hear otherwise.

I also listened to a number of podcasts by Mighty Mommy. I did this for a bunch of different reasons:

1) I have a whole lot of new 2nd cousins roaming around, and the information is always good to have

2) The information will most likely come in handy in the future

3) A lot of the information I found is transferable to the classroom

As I said, I listened to a number of different podcasts from this mother and I will list them here:

Homework Hassles – talks about how to deal with a child who doesn’t like to do their homework, and may not tell you (the parent in this case) if they even have homework. Mighty Mommy goes through how to set up a ‘homework space’ and to give positive things for doing homework (tv or game time for example)

Save Your Voice and Your Sanity- talks about not yelling because yelling tends to only get you angrier and the kids won’t really pay attention to you anyways.

But, He’s Always Good at Home- talks about dealing with aggressive children, when they are away from home (at school, daycare, or any other place that is away from parents).

Fun and Sillies- talks about how, sometimes it’s good to “let kids be kids”. It’s not about the mess all the time, it is about letting them be kids. She also talks about “getting the sillies out”, which will help to burn off some energy and is always a great bonding time.

I Swear- talks about what to do about kids swearing. At first, she says to ignore it; if it becomes too bad to ignore is when she says to talk about why they are swearing. She also talks about saying that swearing is unacceptable and discuss why swearing is unacceptable. One thing I really caught onto was, telling kids what the word they are using REALLY means, this may lead to the kid being too uncomfortable with the real meaning to continue using the word.

Little Helpers- talks about how to get work done without having to put the kids in front of the TV. Mighty Mommy talks about different jobs kids can do, as well as how to encourage them to help.

These were all great podcasts and I got a lot of great information from them! I can imagine I will be listening to the majority (or maybe even all of) Mighty Mommy’s podcasts in the near future. Mighty Mommy can also be found on www.QuickAndDirtyTips.com .