Journal #7 Professional Learning Network

The affinity group I joined was Edutopia. After reading the lists, looking at many, this seemed very interesting to me, due to the fact that it covers many topics. As a physical education teacher, there aren’t too many of the affinity groups that were specific to my content area.

After reading, researching, and exploring Edutopia I found that I liked the realistic topics. There were many teachers who discussed real life lessons such as adding blogs into their weekly assignments to increase writing assignments for students. There was an article on different apps to use in for students to increase their reading skills. Some topics are focused for the teachers and others were more focused on the students and ways to improve the lessons. I found this to be useful and fun. So many people have great ideas, and it is a wonderful place for people to share their experiences and ideas.

Reading Edutopia brought back the excitement to improve my lessons. In physical education I don’t get to use technology often, for lack of a classroom. However, there are so many ideas out there such as; twitter, blogs for homework, apps, and more. There are really endless possibilities out there, and it was really interesting to read all of the ideas that real life teachers use in their classrooms.

Journal #6 Self-Reflection

While signing up for this class, I found myself extremely overwhelmed with the assignments. It is challenging learning, essentially a new language using HTML and CSS. In the beginning of the quarter I felt as though creating a website would be impossible for someone like me. I understand how to use technology, but not how it works (if that makes sense.)

Throughout the course of this class I have learned to pay serious attention to detail. By forgetting a semicolon or forgetting to close a tab the entire page will look different. I am not a very patient person and this has been a true test. There are many moments of wanting to simply give up, but with further investigation and troubleshooting, most problems will be fixed. I still struggle with certain details. Oftentimes in the program the assignment will look correct, but once I open it in a browser things look differently. This is challenging because it looks correct in one viewer, and differently in another. I hope I can figure out whatever it is that I am doing wrong.

The most rewarding part about this class so far has simply been the progress I have made. Although I still find the class extremely challenging, each time I create anything from a project in class or a book exercise I feel accomplished.

Week 5 twitter

Before creating a twitter account for this class, I personally thought the whole concept of twitter was rather silly. A place for people to write down their personal thoughts and opinions which otherwise no one would care about. However, after talking to my students and exploring twitter through this class I see that it potentially could be an effective learning opportunity. It turns out that twitter is just as popular as Facebook, and there are ways to incorporate education into that. I followed @CITEd, which gave me information about free webinars regarding education and how to implement technology into education. I also briefly followed @Quoraquestions, which were numerous questions, for people to reflect upon and potentially answer. The majority of them were related to education, some were about parenting. @Teachertoolkit is another I followed which provided many suggestions for teachers. It provided links to articles about education, tests, and provided examples of rubrics to be used.

After exploring twitter this past week I see there is serious potential for effective ways to implement technology into the classroom. The resources provided realistic ideas such as to incorporate a well-known hash tag (for example #didyouknow or #history) into the comment to make connections on twitter. I really liked the idea to communicate with parents; the example provided was the vocabulary terms. This is a great way to communicate daily with parents and keep them well informed about what their students learned each day. The assignments asking students to use 140 characters to tell a story or to estimate and then use Google to determine their distance to the school are great assignments. Teachers have really embraced this wave of incorporating technology into their daily lessons, and I now believe that twitter can be an effective tool. In fact I have decided to create assignments, challenges, links to articles, and facts on twitter for students to incorporate exercise and nutrition into their daily lives. Twitter doesn’t need to be just a place for people to write their thoughts anymore, it can be used as an effective learning tool.

Week 4

Website Project Ideas

•   Site title – The exerciser

•   Developer – Michaela Brooks

•   Rational or focus -

The goal of this site is to provide knowledge and ideas about how to implement exercise into your daily life. High school students are the intended readers, however anybody can benefit from this site. It is intended to educate high school students how to exercise at the gym or at home. Too often people pay for a gym pass, but have no idea how to work out. This site will not only educate students on different exercises, it will teach them how to create a routine that best meets their needs as an exerciser.

•   Main features outline - The main features of this site will include a monthly exercise routine focusing on one major muscle group. This is for the minimalist exerciser or the competitive readers. There will be an option to choose gym, or home which will lead the reader to a list of exercises and workout routines for them to perform either at the gym or at home. The reason to provide both is to teach students what to do at the gym, and provide options for those without a gym membership.

•   Content - Number of individual Web pages. Brainstorm subtopics for your site. Have a concise outline of the information your site will contain.

The first page will be the main page showing a monthly exercise challenge. This will show a month of working on the same exercise to improve. This is for the minimalist. To the left there will be options to choose, gym and home. By clicking on gym the viewer will be directed to a page with a weekly exercise routine and a list of major muscles. Students can pick a muscle group they want to work on and are provided with different exercises focusing on that muscle.

A viewer can click on arms, for example and will be provided with a list of exercises one can complete at the gym focusing on their arms. If the reader clicks home, they will be provided with the same list of muscles and will be provided with exercises one can complete at home focusing on the muscle. On the main page there will also be an option to click on regarding nutrition that will lead you to various nutritional information. Ideas for pre and post workout snacks, breakfast, proper hydration, etc. Lastly there will be an option to click called extras, this is information about sports, how to include family members to exercise, and more.

•   Target audience -

High school students are the intended audience for this site. However, it is not limited to high school students, people of all ages can benefit from this including physical education teachers and personal trainers.

•   Design considerations. This site needs to be easy to use and motivating. Pictures, graphics, and motivational quotes should be visible and appealing to the viewers. Pictures and videos of how to complete different exercises may be extremely helpful to viewers.

•   Limiting factors -

Due to the intended audience many viewers may be reading this on their personal device rather than on a computer. This may change the view and flow of the site. Depending upon the viewer some exercises may be challenging due to weather, for example, the site may suggest running for 15 minutes, and it may be snowing outside to some viewers.  

Journal #3

Article

Kessler, S. (2010, September 29). The Case for Social Media in Schools. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/

I read the article listed above and it was very interesting. A 7^th grade teacher, Elizabeth Delmatoff,  has found ways to not only incorporate social media into her curriculum, but promote and improve student participation and decrease absences.  In this article six reasons to incorporate social media into education are outlined. The first step is that social media isn’t going away. This is true, every day new programs and media sites are popping up and students are using all of them. Rather than fight the social media, why not try to embrace it and use it to your advantage. The second step suggests that when students are engaged they learn better. A basic statement could not be more true. When you provide students with an opportunity to use an ipad, their phone, or a media site they are more likely to be excited and not realize that they are doing work. The third step is for skeptical administrators, teachers, and parents; safe social media tools are available and free. Edmodo, kidblog, and more provide online programs for students without inappropriate advertising to students. The fourth reason I feel was the most interesting, to replace online procrastination with social education. Delmatoff created assignments for students to complete after school. They were not part of their grade, the students did not receive extra credit, or a golden star however 100 students participated in these activities and assignments. Some assignments were to make a 2 minute video on their walk home from school about how bad littering is, another was to comment of President Obama’s speech. Although these activities were voluntary, students completed them anyway. The fifth reason is very important to encourage collaboration rather than cliques online.  In the classroom a teacher lectures while students listen and take notes. Online, students are required to write posts, comment on each other’s posts and collaborate. This is a different type of learning and group work but it will help break down those cliques that so easily generate in the classroom. The last reason is that cell phones aren’t the enemy. Too often teachers are taking cell phones away from students in school, and granted many students are procrastinating, but they can be used as a great learning tool. Too often schools can not afford to provide laptops, computers, or tablets to every student in the classroom, but a large number of students have their own smartphone that allows them to use the internet. Why not embrace that and allow students to work on their phones. Overall technology and social media currently is being banned from schools. If used correctly, it can be an effective learning tool to enhance participation and learning.

Q: How do you ensure that students are working productively on their cell phones/tablets rather than procrastinating?

A: I think a set of expectations, rules, and consequences are necessary to ensure the use of technology and social media is being used and not abused. I really like the idea of having students post everything on their own blog, or on a site such as edmodo. This ensures that they actually do the work in class rather than procrastinate.

Q: What are the consequences for students that abuse the bring your own policy? Or that write inappropriate comments on the site?

A: I think for the students that abuse the bring your own policy their privilege is taken away. If they can not be trusted to work productively then they should be either given a school product that prevents them from using different websites. For students that write inappropriate comments on the sites should be written a referral, or whatever written consequence the school policy suggests. With any social media site there is a huge opportunity for things to go off topic, and for bad mouthing to occur. It is crucial that the teacher not only goes over the expectations but also the consequences so the students understand the seriousness of it all.