Final Project - Lesson Plan

I have really enjoyed this class. I am so glad that my advisor chose this class for me to start working on my Master's with. After 8 years of being out of school, this class has taught me so much about all the opportunities that technology can offer and how incredibly easy it can tie into the classroom. My lesson plan for our final project is based on where food comes from and the common false interpretations that the public (students in particular)think their food comes from. I found a video on YouTube that I think ties into this lesson plan perfectly. The lesson plan consists of viewing the video and then being placed into groups of 3 and creating a response to the video portraying the correct information to where food really comes from. The response can be in a vodcast, podcast or blog response. Students will be graded on the professionalism of their responses as well as the quality of the information they portray.

Word Could - Danli

Digital Storybook: a story about a little girl with BIG dreams

http://storybird.com/books/a-little-girl-with-big-dreams-4/ I had a REALLY hard time writing this story. I normally consider myself somewhat creative but I had such a MAJOR writing block with this assignment. I'm still not satisfied with it but it's the best I could do. I don't know why but every time I would sit down and try to put words together to tell a clever story I would draw a blank. I can see how this would be fun and interactive for students in a classroom but it wouldn't hurt my feelings to never have to write another story on storybird...

Visual Learning Tools

I wish that I had been able to take this class one week earlier. I just finished creating a training video in MovieMaker and could've really used the help! My training video consisted of overlaying audio to a screen capture video that was about 15 minutes long. I created a title screen with a fade in/out and a theme song overlay during the introduction. I had never worked with MovieMaker before and found it really user friendly and easy to maneuver through. I can see how fun and interactive making a video could be for students. They'd get to use they're creativity and create something as unique and individualistic as they want. As a teacher, you could also create training videos that they could watch from home on a specific topic. I also had a blast creating a video in Animoto. It was really easy and once again, appealed to my creativity. I'm having a hard time figuring out how you could incorporate it into the classroom but it could be a fun project to learn about a students personality or likes/dislikes.

Danli Jo - My Animoto Video

Danli Jo

Social Networks

In a perfect world, meaning no existence of social media site blocks at school, one way that I would incorporate social networking into the classroom would be to create a private Facebook page for each class. On this private page assignments would be posted and student responses and debates would be encouraged. Being private, only the students in that particular class can view and add to the posts. Still staying with Facebook, I think if the students created a student page where they could follow industry professionals or authors or associations that could offer beneficial information that would add to the topics being studied it would broaden their avenues of research. Of course, as a teacher I would have to have some control over who they were "friends" with and what groups the liked. Another way to incorporate social networking would be to create a class Twitter account where updates, assignments, and announcements could be posted for the class. I'm not so sure that I would encourage students to do research on Twitter because I don't think they can learn very much due to the limited number of characters in each post but I do think it's a great way to post important updates, deadlines and assignments.

Always Be Real (Not Just Relevant)

This chapter was hard for me to grasp. I realize that teaching for the future is crucial, that it's more than just curriculum. It's real life experiences that are going to make the biggest impact on a student. I know that I retain so much more when it's hands on and not everyone is like that. Some can just read a book and it sticks, how lucky are they!! I can read the same chapter three times on how to create a blog and never remember anything or I can listen to some instruction on it while actually creating one and it's retained. I can think of several ways that real is more important than relevant, especially in the Ag. classroom. I think that today's students, especially students with an Ag. background, seem to have a much better understanding of real life circumstances than I did when I was in high school. Maybe it's because they're exposed to so much more than I was. I think it's crucial to base every lesson around real life circumstance. It's easier for the kids to grasp, and I also think it would be easier to teach.

Think People & Passion rather than Classes & Content

This chapter spoke a lot to me. I find it interesting that it takes a book to stress the importance of learning more about your students as individuals, rather than as a classroom. I suppose it would be easy to get in a rut of teaching the planned curriculum and never breaking out of the box but I just don't see myself taking that route. Maybe it's because I'm wanting to teach Agriculture, a topic that I'm so passionate about and has given me so much in my life. Or maybe it's because I'm wanting to inspire kids the way my Ag. teacher did. I used to look forward to Ag. class, I couldn't wait for the school year to get started because that meant I'd get to start judging. I was fortunate to have two really great Ag. teachers, both with polar opposite teaching methods but both equally inspiring. They both knew how to help me find out what I was passionate about and what I wanted to do when I "grew up" and that meant a lot to me, it still does today. I just hope I can do the same for the kids that I will have the good fortune to be teaching.

Productivity Applications: Prezi and Google Docs

I'm so bummed that I missed last class! Thanks to a great friend though, I had some awesome notes to try to create my own Prezi. When it comes to technology I don't normally like to try new things, especially without plenty of help, but creating my first Prezi was easy and so much fun! I even took the idea to work with me and pitched it to my office. We're in the middle of creating training modules for the other branches and so far we've been creating them in PowerPoint. When I showed my manager's the Prezi website and discussed the possibilities of how we could incorporate our training into Prezi presentations they jumped on the idea. They all felt the same way I did; that Prezi's were far more interactive and entertaining to view. For lack of a better word, Prezi's are "way cooler" than PowerPoint! Aside from how they could be incorporated at work, the possibilities of how they can be used in the classroom are endless. I think that the way they transition from slide to slide and the neat graphics would capture a classroom's attention far quicker than a PowerPoint or any other form of presentation. In short, I’m sold on Prezi and don’t think I’ll be creating presentations is any other program ever again!

CowTales or BS: A Glimpse Into My Everyday Life

Moving to the Partnering Pedagogy

I really like the idea of partnering with your students, making them feel more like equals while guiding them with questions and discussion. I think it would increase their respect for you as a teacher, which in turn would increase the work they put into the assignments. It's just like in the workplace, employees that are treated with respect work harder and are more productive. I plan on teaching high school and I think setting up my classroom in small groups will be very beneficial to this concept. Working in small groups, and changing those groups up occasionally, should allow them to discuss topics among themselves and give each student a chance to lead the discussion. I'm excited about where this is going and I'm anxious to see how it works in the classroom.

Podcasts and Vodcasts

Wow what a class on Saturday! Prior to this class I was a little intimidated by podcasts and vodcasts but I had so much fun creating them with my group I left the class feeling energetic and inspired about what I could do with them. I'm sure the humor my group found while working on our activities in class had a little to do with my relief but I also am encouraged about the possibilities of where technology can take you. I can definitely see where a vodcast could tie into the classroom. A great idea that my group came up with is the possibility of bringing the outside world into the classroom. I know I've said before that I'm from a small town and funding is limited in the schools. To be able to bring a trip to the zoo, or the aquarium or the space museum into the class so that students aren't missing out on those educational types of field trips would be amazing. For those schools that are really too far from any sort of cultural education, it would be pretty great to incorporate it into the everyday curriculum.

Partnering in the Classroom

When I think back to when I was in school and the level of interaction between my teachers and my mom, I'm a little amazed at how different the classroom is today. Even in my daughter's class, who's in first grade, there seems to be so much more effort on behalf of her teacher to keep me informed on how she's doing. If she's had a bad week I can expect to receive a note in her bag discussing what's going on and what my husband and I can do at home to help. I appreciate that so much. Granted,we live in a small town, there's 10 kids in her class, and she only goes to school 4 days a week, but if teachers everywhere are making that kind of effort I feel good about our education system and where it's going. The same goes for in the classroom. I remember getting in trouble for getting out of my seat or talking in class and now it's encouraged! I can only explain it as "controlled chaos" when it's allowed  in first grade and kuddos to any teacher that can contain order and encourage learning at the same time!!

Blogs

So I'm just getting my first blog done. When I first set it up I was in class and using Internet Explorer and for some reason when I got home I couldn't open my blog, I couldn't even open blogger.com. Thanks to our fearless leader I was able to pinpoint the problem and am finally able to start blogging. Apparently, Internet Explorer was trying to connect to the NMSU server, even from my house which is 150 miles away. I tried opening it in Google Chrome and everything seems to be working fine. What to take away from this lesson? Try different search engines!

Now on to the subject at hand, blogging. Prior to this class I knew what blogging was but I had no interest in it whatsoever. My group had the first in class presentation and I have to admit, I was a little nervous about what I could bring to the group since I had the least amount of experience in the classroom and blogging. I think the presentation went well and I learned a lot. I was amazed at the different avenues you, as a teacher, could incorporate blogging into the classroom. My favorite one was the WebQuest blog. What a fun and interactive lesson for the students!

I hope you enjoyed this blog, see you next week!