I HATE SMART BOARDS

So last week we learned about SmartBoards, not my favorite topic.  When I was about 3 slides deep, my laptop had a brain fart and shut everything down!! UGGGHHHHH

Oh well! So I made a smart board presentation centered around trig functions.  This would be a high school math lesson.  I did not really like this assignment because I dont get why we cant just use powerpoint.  It does the same exact stuff and the fancy smartboard pen would work with it too.  I guess I should be more willing to change!!

Todd Nesloney's Flipped Classroom Video

I watched Todd Nesloney's webinar on Flipped Classrooms from 5/07/13.  After watching his webinar, I have a more positive perspective on the idea of a flipped classroom.  The most helpful tip I got from Todd was to make your own videos.  He believes if your students see you putting in the effort to make endless amounts of videos, they will appreciate your work more.  Also, when using others videos they may use different terminology in the classroom than you.  This would cause confusion amongst the students.  My one question I would have for Todd is, how much of a set back did you have before getting the hang of the flipped classroom?  With all the standards, NCLB, and standardized state testing, what do you do when you fall behind? As I stated above, I do feel better about flipped classrooms after seeing how they work.  However, I believe I would not completely "flip" my classroom; but here-and-there I could see it being very beneficial!! 

Flipped classroom

Last week in class the idea of the flipped classroom was introduced. Before last week I had never even heard of the concept of a flipped classroom. What is a flipped classroom?  A flip classroom is when the teacher uses instruction time for examples and group work, and home time is used to watch videos and develop background knowledge on the topic. I am not 100% sold on this flip classroom concept. This idea puts a lot of responsibility on the students. What if they don't have Internet at home? Who is responsible if they don't watch the videos and answer their WAQ?  However, after watching flipped classroom videos, Prezi's on flipped classrooms, and tutorials I became more open to the idea of flipped classroom.  I am slightly anxious to make my flip lesson, for it seems like it's going to be a lot of work!!

Prezi

Well, we finally learned Prezi! I honestly had no intrest in learning Prezi two months ago when the topic was introduced in class.  However, after learning all the tools Prezi has to offer I am very enthused to use Prezi in my classroom!
After a few hours of work I created my first Prezi.  My presentation is centered around the question, "What is Matter?".  This lesson is geared towards an eight grade classroom; the topics introduced include solid, liquids, and gases.  These are the simplest forms of matter and without them matter would no longer be!

Feel free to check out my work!


Prezi Presentation

Level 3 and 4

Last time in class, we had the pleaser of being teacher free! Well, sort of.  During the class period we had to use google hangouts to talk to Professor Ross about our group projects.  In this class time we had to complete levels 3 and 4 in the Teacher Tech Game.  As a group we had to create a website which will be presented in the next class. I feel this class meeting went very smooth and we got a lot done!

Gamification

Gamification is a crazyy and exciting new look on education. I for one did enjoy working on gamification.  I think it puts a fun spin on education! However, the ipads proved yet another frustrating night.  LIKE RIGHT NOW!! Im writting my post and my ipad is all over the place.  Im looking frward to next weeks gamification challnge!!

GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE

On October 1st in INTC2610, we endured a lengthy class which was FILLED with information.  Within this class period we finished up from September 24th class which involved Google Docs; this lead into Google Forms.  Google Forms can be used to create surveys and quizzes.  As a future educator I do plan on using Google Docs in the classroom.  After creating a few surveys and quizzes, we moved on to using Google Hangouts.  The Hangouts was a little confusing but I think if we were all in separate rooms it may have been a little easier to communicate to our peers.  Next, we experienced how some may use twitter for educational purposes.  Though I do not think I will be using Twitter for educational purposes in the future, it was nice to learn how it could work.   

Learning Google Docs

WELL! Tonight was STRESSFUL learning google docs.  It was hard to get everything done on the ipad.  I believe using a computer would be much easier to work on the website and creating documents.  The ipad kept freezing and stuff was very slow to load.  On the other hand, I am very happy to learn all this stuff with google docs.  All this stress will pay off when I get this all down pat!!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK!!!

Website and QR Codes

This week in class I was very excited to learn how to create my own website through google sites.  Not only will I be creating a website for this class, but I will be creating one for my senior research project.  After last week's class I met up with my advisior to inform her that I was learning this technology and creating a website.  Together, her and I devolped an idea that I could create an AP Chemistry website to help high school students prepare for their exam.
Also, now that I have learned to make QR Codes I will be using them with my research project aswell.  I could give out business cards with a QR Code on them to link it to my website.  Thus, I am very eager to perfect this website and QR Code business!!

My First Blog

As the fist class meeting of INTC comes to an end, I am excited for the rest of the semester.  I believe this course will better my knowledge of technology for the future.  I look forward to learning all the "ins and outs" of the new software presented in this course.  Mostly I am eager to learn about Prezi because I have heard it is a great software to use with education.