MAC WK 1 Response to Lori

"One day after school, a student stopped in to chat. he says’ You know Ms. Pick, your classroom feels better than any other room in this school! I always know I can be myself in here and you are ok with it. I can feel it when I walk down the hall towards the art room. it feels lighter in here!”

This brought tears to my eyes and the student asked me why. I realized that in creating a “ safe place” for myself to create in, I had made it good for anyone who spends time in the art room and this student validated my natural instincts"

Lori,

I really enjoyed reading your post. The most important thing a teacher can start with is creating an open an accepting environment for their students. I am glad to see your students recognize this in you. I was a good student in school, but there are very few teachers that truly stand out in my mind. The ones that do are the ones that create an environment like you have described. Kids can sense a positive attitude. Thank you for sharing your story.

MAC Wk1 Reading: Giving an A

I really enjoyed this reading more than I thought I would. It is definitely a nice change from all of the scholarly reading we have been doing, and in some ways more applicable to life. Although I think a lot of what Mr. Zander said are things that have been said before in other ways (like the power of positive thinking and self-fulfilling prophesies) I really felt that using the term "giving an A" encapsulates his message in a great way. So often we set ourselves up for failure by looking at what can't be done instead of what can be done.

This year I will be teaching an entirely new subject in an entirely new school and for the first time in my teaching career, I will be free of having the dreaded TAKS test hanging over my head. For some reason, I think that by giving my kids an A to start with, we will all be able to go much further than we would otherwise. Since I am teaching an entirely new subject and all of the kids basically start out in the same place, at zero, we might as well all start out with an A, right?

Wk4 Wimba

In listening to this week's Wimba archive, I realized that I had been selecting learning management systems for use in my classroom without even realizing that was what they were. While doing my action research project, I used Edmodo to create an online book club for my class. This site had only a few simple features, but it was a nice way to introduce my kids to online learning. They were able to post links and comments and respond to comments by others, turn in online assignments, and answer poll questions I made up, but it was very limited (kids could not send messages directly to one another to prevent cyber-bullying) and I felt it was appropriate and safe for my fifth graders. I chose Edmodo over Ning because Edmodo is add free and I wanted my kids to focus on group discussions rather than direct messages. For my current position, my school wants the kids to have e-mail and blogs and has elected to use gmail which I am not really comfortable with. I don't feel it has all of the options and safety features that I think are necessary when dealing with young students (I work with sixth graders now) and I have been trying to persuade them to use Gaggle. I have also heard of Schoology and after the discussion, I think this would be worth exploring.

Comments to Rebecca

From Rebecca, "I had a great time working with UDUTU and thoroughly enjoyed my experience. My lesson is very basic because I am new to the program and haven’t had the opportunity to discover it as much as I would like. I kept it simple by using images as opposed to videos, but I am going to play with it more and learn how to import videos. From past Wimba sessions, I have discovered that many people had problems embedding videos so I was fearful to use them on my first project. Due to the fact that I kept my project simple, I didn’t encounter any problems. I downloaded and read the pdf and everything else seemed self explanatory, which is a lot coming from me because I am not tech savvy in any way.

I can definitely see myself using UDUTU in the future and I am excited about discovering everything it has to offer. I am so thankful for this class and this experience as learning how to use this tool is what I have been hoping to get out of this class. We used ning in a past class, but it was too complicated for me. I don’t have that problem with UDUTU, it is very user friendly."

Rebecca, I really liked your course. There was a lot of good information that I can even apply to my own life. Thanks for the info. My only suggestion would be to make the font bigger and easier to see, and divide the text into smaller chunks to make it easier on the eyes. Otherwise, great job! I am now considering getting a wireless card so I can access the Internet when I visit my parents (who only have dial-up.) Thanks again.

Comments to Amanda

From Amanda, "OK so my Udutu is ready to be looked at...I would like to do more to this and actually have my students use this. I like the features, once I got use to them.
I took the video that I made in our music class and cut it up to use as an intro for each section. I hope it is okay that I edited and recycled some of my previous work.

On facebook it seems to still be loading, the name of the course is Geometry.

This is another location where it can be previewed.
http://publish.myudutu.com/published/launcheval/20330/Course36274/Launch.html"

Amanda, I liked your videos (especially your pi t-shirt) and the catchy music. They make the lesson feel fun and lighthearted. I also like the clear visuals of the triangles. My suggestion would be to break down the steps to solving the problems even further, and adding a screen for each small step, that way the students could go back and repeat the steps with other problems (on paper?) if needed. Nice job!

Comments to Kenya

From Kenya, "My Udutu project is for my recipe, Kickin' Bleu Cheese Burgers.

The URL for the project is: http://publish.myudutu.com/published/launcheval/20429/Course36319/Launch.html

Enjoy!!"

Kenya, I really liked the visuals and color in your lesson. It really made the lesson pop more than a traditional recipe. My only suggestion would be that since you are using video, why not have video of someone actually preparing the burger instead of just still images? Going step by step through the process and being able to watch and rewind someone shape the burger and add the cheese would be helpful.

Wk4 Project: Future Report