wex

Bijou Market

2009-06-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

Come check out the incredible Biyou Market! Shop and browse through BEAUTIFUL vendor items, including clothes, jewelry, picture frames, candles, aprons, accessories, art, and much much more! Food will most definitely be present, it's a given!

Practicum Technology Lesson: The Solar System

2009-04-20T21:37:00.000-07:00

Solar System

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2 Best Ideas about my Peers' presentations

2009-04-20T16:39:00.000-07:00

1. I really loved Laura Wilde's jeopardy idea. It looked like so much fun and although it seemed really technologically intense and intimidating, it wasn't so bad after she explained how it worked. I think kids would be so excited about it and it's a great way to check for understanding.

2. I loved the power point lesson about the 4 different types of clouds (this lesson was for a first grade class). The presenter had made a power point presentation showing different real life images of the clouds so students could see them for themselves without having to wait for the weather outside to change. At the end, she had a slideshow of pictures of different clouds and she had the students say what type of cloud it was. Again, an excellent way to check for understanding!

Internet Safety: From the Mouth of a Youth

2009-04-09T16:46:00.000-07:00

I called up my 14 year old little brother and talked to him about internet safety.

1. What he already knew about internet safety: open chat rooms are not good places to be (even when playing video games, etc). When surfing the web and dirty advertisements pop up, don't click on them! close out of them and if they keep bringing them up, hit the power button. The internet may seem safe, but it's easy to abuse.

2. What I shared with him about internet safety: The internet is an easy breezy way for us to get lured into traps by Satan, and unfortunately he's good at it. Satan's already succeeded many many times. When we find ourselves ensnared in one of these traps, we need to bail out fast! We need to first and foremost: pray, then study the scriptures and the words of our prophets, and we need to confess to our bishop. Confession is an important part of the repentance process. Only then can the spirit that we drove out return and help guide us and comfort us. We will be much happier this way.

My talk with my little brother was a bit relaxed at first, but he could tell that this meant a lot to me and he settled down, he's really such a sweet kid. The talk was a lot easier than I thought it would be, I'm glad it happened.

Internet Safety

2009-04-09T16:28:00.000-07:00

For the fourth article, I chose to read an article published in the January 1995 New Era by Elder H. Burke Peterson titled Leave It Alone.

The most important thing I learned from reading this article are listed as followed:

Stay away from any movie, video, publication, or music, -regardless of its rating--where illicit behavior and expressions are part of the action.

Watching/listening/exposing one's self to stained media "is only relieving them of their spirituality".

We are counseled to lay hod upon every good gift, and "touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing".

And the sentence that had the most impact on me: "No person can look at, read about, or listen to such explicit vulgarity, even in its mildest form, without bringing sorrow to a loving God and injury to one's own spirit."

I'm hoping that what I read will influence my actions as a future parent and teacher of children and youth to really not bring in stained media into the home or classroom. To do that, I need to start filtering the media I expose myself to now, the process will not happen over night.

I want to use what I read and learned to be a positive influence on my friends and family by leading by example and choosing not to expose myself to media like that.

I-Spy

2009-03-23T17:32:00.001-07:00

My third grade class is learning about homophones right now (words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings, ie: witch, which). To help make learning about homophones fun and to help them think of many different examples of homophones, they are making powerpoint presentations on homophones. Each slide has a sentence that includes two homophones (for example: The witch did not know which broom was hers). Below this sentence, they include a clipart or graphic showing the homophones. They use animation effects to make their graphics fly/zoom/dance in and also on every slide, they include audio clips (like the cackle of a witch). I've found that my students really love working in the computer labs on their homophone presentations and they get really excited about all the special effects. All of them try to out-do themselves and make their presentation the best. =)

Classroom Technology Idea

2009-03-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

My students LOVE I Spy books, and so they're going to create their own I Spy Books. Instead of having them draw the pictures for their books, I'd like the kids to bring several small objects that can be arranged on a desk. Then, using a digital camera, take pictures of the desk. These pictures will become the I Spy picture and then students can write their own text to the pictures.

Classroom Technology Inventory

2009-03-12T19:04:00.000-07:00

While completing this classroom technology inventory, I was surprised at how much technology equipment was available to students and teachers at my elementary school. There were not one, but TWO full computer labs with fairly new and upgraded PCs, very nice computers for an elementary school. While observing students working inside the computer lab, I was shocked to find Kindergarten students working on the computers! They were able to work independently and play Software Games by themselves, log on and log off, etc. First Graders were already making power points by themselves! I would have thought that too advance for their age, but apparently they are very capable of it. If I teach first grade, I am definitely going to have my first graders make power points at some point during the year. I was also really impressed that teachers had such easy access to cameras and video cameras.

Google Earth Virtual Tour: The Great Wall of China

2009-02-25T20:26:00.000-08:00

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1.Gansu Province, China	Read introduction. click on the link and read "Origin of the Great Wall" Take notes on interesting facts learned.	picture: map of the Great Wall, path: shows/follows the path of the Great Wall over China
2.Shanxi Province, China	Click on the video link and watch the short video. Take notes on significant points mentioned in the video.	3-D image of the Shanxi Wall and province, video link
3.Liaoling Province, China	Use Google to find out what kind of men built the Great Wall and the estimated number of deaths from building the Wall.	3-D image of Liao Wall and Liaoling Province
4.Beijing, China	Read through information and facts given about the Great Wall. Use Google to collect facts about the Great Wall of China that you haven't learned yet.	Picture of the Great Wall of China as seen from space. Image of Beijing China and the portion of the Wall that runs through it.
Details of image overlay / path / polygon: Path: use Path to show and follow the trail of the Great Wall of China. The Wall is highlighted on the image.

Content used in lesson: The content that will be used in this lesson will be centered around the Great Wall of China and it's history and locations. There are four parts of China targeted in this lesson. These four parts are four of the main places in China where parts of the Great Wall were built over many centuries of years. Students will become more familiar with the history behind this dragon-like monument.

Technology used in lesson: Google Earth will play a huge part of this lesson, considering it's through this program that the virtual tour will be created. There will be internet links to videos and websites about the Great Wall included in the tour.

Pedagogy used in lesson: Students will follow the virtual tour. There will be a few research activities and chances for observation along the way, like for example: in one part of the tour, students will use the internet to research random facts about the Great Wall that they haven't already learned.

The Pea Underneath the Mattresses

2009-02-19T11:04:00.000-08:00

Technology used to create this photo story: iMovie

Storyboard

2009-02-12T14:49:00.001-08:00

Three TPACK questions:

What is the content you'll be using in your lesson?

-This book hopefully would help students enjoy learning and reading interactively.

What is the pedagogy you'll be using and why is it a good fit with the content?

-The pedagogy I used is a storyboard (soon to be story video) that I drew and wrote. Students will be able to watch and listen to the video to help develop language arts skills.

What is the technology used and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy?

-The technology used would be a computer and speakers or headphones so students can watch the video and have fun learning and reading.

TPACK Questions

2009-01-29T17:33:00.000-08:00

What is the content you are focusing on in your science lesson?

The phases of the moon.

What is the pedagogy you are using and why is it a good fit with the content?

The pedagogy I used involved observing the moon for a month and noting it's changes of phase. Students also studied what that same moon at that same time would look like from the other side of the world.

What is the technology you'll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy?

The technology I used is a computer program called Stellarium. It is a good fit with the content and pedagogy because it helped students learn the content effectively and was the key to the pedagogy used in class.

The Tech Savvy Teacher

2009-01-29T16:21:00.000-08:00

This month, our sixth grade class had a BLAST learning about and exploring the mysterious phases of the moon. We used a terrific little computer program called Stellarium to help us watch and study the moon up close. Yes, when it comes to the elementary science classroom, our class LOVES using cool technology to do hands-on learning adventures! We highly recommend Stellarium to fellow teachers and students, it's a really great asset to have in the classroom and it makes studying our solar system a fun fun experience.

Our class is learning about the phases of the moon and why when we look up at it in the sky it can be a full moon, a half moon, or a crescent moon that waxes and wanes. To see the moon wax and wane up close, we used Stellarium to observe what the moon looked like for this month of January, 2009. The cool thing about Stellarium is that there's a nifty little gadget that allows you to see what the moon looks like on any day, at any time of day, and from anywhere in the world.

Students first watched the phases of the moon change for every day of January. We took screen shots of what the moon looked like from here in Provo at Midnight. The pictures show what the moon looked like every five days.

January 1, 2009

January 5, 2009

January 10, 2009

January 15, 2009

January 20,

2009

January 25, 2009

But that's not all, we weren't done exploring! We decided to see what the exact same phase of the moon looked like on the other side of the world! So we rewound the clock back to January 1, 2009 at Midnight (Provo time) and observed the moon from...Beijing, China! These are the screen shots we took:

January 1, 2009

January 5, 2009

January 10, 2009

January 15, 2009

January 20, 2009

January 25, 2009

We found that when the sun is reflecting part of the moon to us, it looks different in China because the moon is in a different part of the sky. So you see, our class has successfully used technology to soar to new heights--literally!

Week 3 PLE part II

2009-01-22T16:53:00.000-08:00

In class we had the thrilling opportunity to explore many various ways technology can be used in the classroom. We played around with thermometers that can plug into the computer, microscopes that could also be connected to a computer (and thus be projected for all to see) and my favorite: stelliarum. Stelliarum is a computer program that can be downloaded for FREE that allows you to view the night sky at any time in history and from anywhere in the world. It's also a great way to study the moon, planets, constellations, etc. because you can zoom in on each and watch it change and rotate over time. It's amazing, and so beautiful. I can't wait to go home and download it. =)

week 3 PLE

2009-01-22T16:43:00.000-08:00

In my teaching and technology class, we about something called TPACK. What is that you ask? TPACK is a clean little abbreviation for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Technological knowledge refers to someone's knowledge about technology. Plain and simple, right? Pedagogical knowledge refers to a person's knowledge of implementing teaching activities to teach. Content knowledge refers to the actual content a person knows. For example, a biology teacher who possesses Pedagogical Content knowledge (PCK) is able to think up of different activities she can use to teach her students about plant cell development. PCK is just one combination of the knowledges, there is also TPK, and TCK. As a teacher, I'm trying to become fluent in all areas of knowledge, a TPACK if you will.

week 2 PLE

2009-01-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, this week was a whole truck load of information to take in! First of all, the RSS feeds--I've always wondered what that little orange symbol was on websites, now I now! I actually really like them, they're so convenient, it's like tying all your favorite websites to one place in a weird way. Very snazzy. Now on to Delicious and Goodreads...I absolutely LOVE Goodreads, I spent an entire half hour listing books that I've read, and I still couldn't list them all. However, I encourage all who have the time to click on the Goodread link at the bottom of this blog and scan through the list of my books--I testify that EVERY book I have listed is amazing and I highly encourage all to read them. When I started learning about legal citations and media use, I was blown away. I wasn't aware of just how illegal I was! I think it's ridiculous that we can't show movies in classrooms unless permission is obtained. However, I do know for a fact that that you CAN show a movie in class and in other non-profit settings if the movie was legally obtained. (Don't believe me? Look it up yourself: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html.) I actually missed the question on the quiz because of this. But there it is, take it as you will.

wex's tech exp

2009-01-15T15:49:00.001-08:00

I've always considered myself pretty tech savvy. In addition to always surfing the web, creating documents and powerpoints, emailing, downloading, and formatting, I work for an online search engine (ChaCha). I know for a fact that there is loads that I have yet to learn, and i'm eager to expand my knowledge and hopefully learn things that prove useful for me in the future.