First Week

Well the days of me sleeping in, having more than 20 minutes to eat my lunch, and actually being able to do things on the weekdays are over. Our school began this Thursday and I must admit that I am a little excited about the possibilities of this year. I figured in this entry I would talk about some of the technology goals that I have for my classroom this year. So here goes:

- I have a new document camera in my room and I would love to be able to incorporate it as much as possible in my classroom. Now how I am going to use it is still up in the air, but I can still see endless possibilities with it.

- By the end of the year I would like to have between 10-15 Ipod shuffles for our special education students to use. My ultimate goal would be for them to check them out and to use them at home to listen to books they are reading in class or to review for tests they may have coming up in their classes.

- I would like to make my blackboard website more parent friendly. Many times parents will tell me that they don't know when their child has tests coming up or what they are doing in class. My goal is to make my blackboard site show what students are doing in their core classes everyday and also inform them of when tests are coming up.

- The last goal I have is to use technology more efficiently to evaluate my students IEP goals. One way I would like to do this is by using Quia to do online tests with my students. I plan on doing this two times a month and students can take the test at their own leisure. I will discuss more about this later.

School has gotten off to a great start and I am hoping it will be a great year.

Entry 13: Using Quia

Do you ever get tired of grading tests and than analyzing the scores to see what the students aren't understanding? Well there is a program out there called Quia that will do this for you. Quia allows you to make your own tests using a variety of questions (multiple choice, true/false, fill in the blank, short answer, essay, chronological order, etc...) and than allows the students to take it online. Afterwards the students get immediate feedback with their scores and it breaks it down for the teachers as to how each student did and also what questions students struggle with. I do this frequently with evauluating IEP goals and objectives and it is great. Click below for the powerpoint notes over Quia and how to use it.

Powerpoint Notes On Quia

NECC: Second Life

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile, but my birthday was last Friday and I went to visit my family back in Iowa for a few days. But now I am back and ready to keep posting about some of the sessions I attended at NECC.

In this post I am going to talk a little bit about the session I attended on Second Life and how it can be used in the classroom. I went into this session intrigued about Second Life because I had heard how people have been using it in their classes and it seemed to be the big thing at NECC this year. I left this session quite skeptical about the whole Second Life thing and here are the reasons why:

1. The biggest problem I see with this is the security risks. I was not aware of this, but in Second Life only teens can go to the teen islands. Now someone asked during the sessions how they made sure that adults stayed out of it and they said the biggest way they do this is by having the child's parents put in their credit card number to verify the child's age. Now call me crazy, but couldn't someone very easily pretend that they have a child and then create a teen account using their credit card.
2. I would also be concerned about the fact that you can chat and instant message in Second Life. We hear all the time about students being cyber bullied and this could be another way for this to happen.
3. This program requires a huge amount of bandwith.
4. The lady that presented this session asked her students afterwards what their favorite part of Second Life was. Guess what, none of them said it made learning easier or even talked about learning for that matter.
5. The whole fact that you have to pay for your avatar bothers me. I guess my big question is what is going to stop the creator of Second Life from saying that everyone now has to pay an extra $20 a month to keep your avatar? Now I realize people will say he will never do that, Second Life is a community. I thought the exact same thing about the Discovery Educators Network a few months ago, but guess what they laid off field managers because it is a business just like Second Life is a business.

Now I know that some people very strongly believe in Second Life, but from what I saw there are other options that are more educational than Second Life. As a special education teacher I just can not see myself ever using this program in my classes. As always if you would like to email me your comments you can at jayweekly@gmail.com

NECC: THE AFI Session

The second session I attended at NECC was titled AFI Screen Education Center: Digital Filmmaking in the Core Curriculum. This session was presented by a few people that are associated with the American Film Institute and it was a step by step way to show students how to produce movies. What made this program unique is the fact that it is narrated by Sean Astin and even has some advice from Steven Spielberg. This video is absolutely something I plan on using in my classroom and especially with my broadcasting class. The best part of this program is that it is available from United Streaming for free. If you don't have United Streaming you can either sign up for the 30 day free preview or the AFI plans on producing this on DVD for purchase. I know I plan on downloading this from United Streaming because I can also get the teachers manual. Just some of the things they go over are: what a shot really is, the different types of lighting to use, how to shoot someone properly, and the steps that students should go through before maiking a film. I would highly recommend checking this valuable resource out.

NECC Report: The Baseball Hall Of Fame

Well I just got back today from the NECC Conference in Atlanta. I can sum up the conference in one word: incredible. There were so many great sessions that I was having difficulty figuring out how to blog about it all. What I am going to do over the next couple of days is blog about each individual session and give you the links so you can find out more yourself.

Let me go ahead an start off with the very first session I attended. It was called Sliding Across The Curriculum: Bringing Baseball Education To Students Electronically and it talked about how you could incorporate the Baseball Hall Of Fame into your classroom. I absolutely love baseball and was quite intrigued by the possibilities. I wasn't really sure what to expect when I got there, but was really surprised by what they had to offer. The session was done by videoconference with James Yasko. I had absolutely no idea that the Baseball Hall Of Fame had lessons that would help teach children science, social studies, language arts, math, and even character education. Mr. Yasko gave us examples of what each lesson looked like and it blew me away how they were making the lessons fun and interactive by incorporating memorabilia from the museum. You can go to the Hall Of Fame museum to see what they have or you can have an actual videoconference with someone from the museum for a pretty reasonable price of $70. I know that the $70 sounds expensive, but from what I saw it is money that is very well spent. If this sounds like something you would like to check out click on the links above or you can even email James Yasko (the coordinator of the program) at jyasko@baseballhalloffame.org

Entry 9: NECC In Atlanta

I am sitting here in my hotel room in Atlanta typing this before going out to eat supper tonight. I don't have a lot of time, but I figured I would give a real quick update. So far I have gained a lot out of this conference. I went to session that had to do with the Baseball Hall Of Fame and how to use its resources (very interesting) and saw a great session on how to doing video editing better. I did go to a Second Life session today, but am still a little skeptical. Well I will update more when I get home tomorrow.

Entry 8: Google Earth

Today I spent the day at school presenting to various teachers about google earth. For those that have never played with it before, it is a great program that actually allows you to take virtual field trips with your class. You just have to type in an address and it will take you to a sattelite image of that location. The best part about this whole program is that it is a free download. It was great hearing new ideas from teachers about how you can use this program. You can click the link below to go to my webpage and see the powerpoint about how to use google earth. You will see how to find addresses, go on virtual tours, and even how to make your own virtual tours. As always enjoy and if you have any questions you can email me at jayweekly@gmail.com


Link To My Webpage And Powerpoint Notes