During the last class meeting, I was a little frustrated with the audacity program because it was not working properly for us. We wasted quite some time trying to get it to work. As always, once we got it to work, it worked and we got the job done. That is the trouble with technology, sometimes you spend so much time just trying to get it to work. You spend more time trying to get it to work, than to do the actual assignment! It can be so frustrating. I was glad we had the time to work in class, though. We did get it done. It was fun. I think we three learned quite a bit about cyber bullying. It is an interesting subject. We also found that we had to cut our essay down quite a bit to make it under 7 minutes. I feel like we didn't do the subject justice, but it was pretty lengthy to start with.

Web Site

The site you sent us www.northpole.com was certainly a hit with my nephews. They explored it Christmas day. I didn't get a chance to use it with my classroom this year. However, it will certainly be on my list for "enrichment" in the classroom in 2009. Thanks again! Please, if you find any others similar to it, email me the site address.

Thanks Dr. Closen for a very informative, interesting, and challenging class! It was exciting to learn the possibilities for technology usage in our own classroom. This class required me try out these tools that I would have never known about or ventured to try out otherwise. I appreciated being able to work during class. Thanks to your help and my peers support, I feel I have learned a lot. Special thanks to Lisa who is always willing to to lend a hand when the need arises! I am very excited to use the blog and wiki when I return to the classroom. I already have made contacts to put these tools into action on a new project. I am a pleased technology novice thanks to this class and look forward to sharing what I've learned with my student teacher when she begins in Jan. Thanks, and Happy New Year to everyone!

I am having the hardest time remembering to blog promptly! My apologies!

I have been totally absorbed in my assignments, to the extent that I will not be done with all of my assignments before the first of the year. I am having a great time looking for resources for the multimedia project, and I'm learning some things by trial and error. I guess that is the way I learn best. I have learned a lot of new things in this class, and I'm 'getting by with a little help from my friends!'

Our class in February seems like a long way off, but I'm sure it will be here before I know it.
Happy Holidays, everyone!

Tom Nelson

Last Wednesday, I worked with a number of google gadgets to plug into blogs. One frustrating thing about them is their sizing. They come in defined sizes, and they sometimes don't fit on the design of the blog they're being inserted into. I am not sure how to tweak the settings to make them fit, but I will be looking into that. I also experimented later with partial success as copying and pasting the javascript code into other html files. This opens up a whole new domain for adding all kinds of glitzy bells and whistles to Moodle pages and others.
One complaint about the gadgets is the number of broken gadgets. With their vast billions, Google could hire somebody to delete the ones that don't work any more.
I will say here that this has been a useful survey of technology for the classroom. I realize that we have just touched the surface of many of these topics.
Overall, I think the internet is a great resource, and I think there is great potential for it in the classroom. The problem is finding the right stuff and weeding out the garbage, especially video. The blogger gadget assignment and the delicious presentation reminded me of this. Compard to years ago, Google's search engines have helped get internet users to just what they want, but I along with others are looking for the tool to take it to the next level. There's just too much junk to wade through. Teachers can't possible look at all this stuff. Maybe some of the things we looked at like delicious and stumbleon will lead to a solution. The next computer genius is someone who can develop a way to generate search tags for video content.

In class on Wednesday Jeremy, Joe, and myself finished our podcast on phones in school. I think this is a very big topic today, considering most students are carrying phones. I found it interesting to find some of the uses for a cell phone in the school setting. I think they are a tool that educators could utilize in their classrooms, but I think it is very important for the schools to have a cell phone policy in place before they start using them in classrooms.

Thoughts from Carline

It's hard to believe that our class is over. Each week I came away with new information and would push myself to learn the "ins and outs" of the task put before me. This past Wednesday was no different. Even though I had used audacity once, I had forgotten a lot about the program. Luckily, it soon came back and Joy and I were off and running, actually speaking, as we created our pod cast. We were pleased and excited that we had mastered the task.
I thank you for pushing me to try these new programs and know that I will continue to use them. Have a great holiday, everyone! See you next year!

Jeremy, Ricky and I finished our podcast last night; I think it has a lot of great information about cell phone use in schools. There are several uses for these phones and I think we could engage our students more through the use of them. Obviously, there are drawbacks and those should be planned for when implementing such an idea.
I personally use the calendar tool in my phone as an agenda and I think these could replace the paper versions our schools spend so much money on. Our students don't seem to grasp the idea behind their planners; they just think they are a hall pass. If we allowed them to use their phones to give them reminders of homework and tests I feel they would better understand the benefits of keeping a day planner. The bottom line is to use some sort of planner, why should it be in a cookie cutter fashion that has been used for years?
I know most think that phones are a distraction, but can I ask one question: Don't most adults have cell phones on them all day? How is it they accomplish their jobs with such huge distraction right in their pocket? Just a thought.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

I appreciate having the whole class time last night to work on our assignments. I now know how to do a podcast! I am still working on my wiki and multi-media assignments. Wish me luck. I have learned a lot of technological information in this class. I am so glad that I took it even though I really did not have to. Thanks to everyone that helped me in class, especially Lisa. Thanks for all the wonderful websites. They are very helpful.

I appreciate all the time we have had to work on our assignments. I couldn't imagine being assigned these though and then just told to go do them. If I was sent to complete these assignments on my own, it would have been a lot more stressful. It was nice to be able to do them with other people around so if you had a question, someone was always there to help. The podcast was not bad once we got it all figured out. The hardest part for us was keeping it under 7 minutes. We found ourselves cutting a lot of our information. Thank you Lisa for all your help through all these technology classes! You're a lifesaver! Thank you so much!
Everyone have a Merry Christmas! See you in January!

It was so nice last night to be able to have the time and all of the help to complete the assignments. Its nice heading into break knowing most of the work is done. I was surprised to see how easy it was to make and create the podcast, although we did have great help from Lisa!Thanks Lisa!! Overall I really enjoyed doing the WIKI it was fun to add the different videos and links for the studnets to get on and see. I think they will really enjoy it!! Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

December 17, 2008

My new wiki is http://solarsystem1234/pbwiki.com/ Thanks for all your help. As much as I ask for help, I know I am making some progress. My biggest problem is trying to remember what password goes with what. I am trying to use the same but I have to remember that there is one password for internet and one for gmail. I also went back to those pages in my wiki that you helped me with about the sun, moon, and asteroid belt and I did edit those pages all by myself and added my information. Please check it out!! Thanks, Tom

Lisa Pomazal

I am excited about creating a blog and wiki for students to use. My idea for using the blog will be to give students an opportunity to respond in writing to what we are doing in class (Kind of like how you are having us respond after each class on this blog.). Knowing that their words will be published online has been a huge motivator for my students.

I liked looking at all of the gadgets you can add to your page. I would probably not use many of them, however, as they are not geared toward elementary students and may be more distracting than helpful.

Thanks again for allowing us to leave class early to attend our music program. You are a very accommodating instructor.

Dec. 10

I still feel overwhelmed with all of this technology stuff. I still am not sure how I will be incorporating this into my classroom. Maybe down the road this will all fall into place but for now I am still struggling. However, in actually sitting down and working on the blog site, I do feel that it could be fun if more time is spent in working with this technology. I also felt that the same information was being used for both the blog and the wiki.

Wednesday night's class was great! I enjoyed setting up my blog and wiki. I kind of felt like I was putting the same information on them both. I need to take a little more time to think about how I want to use them. I teach Kindergarten, so as far as response, it would only be parents. I cannot believe that this week is our last meeting, until February. Now, just to finish all the assignments.

Class on Wednesday was awesome. Learning how to set up your own blog and wiki site is pretty cool. I enjoyed playing around with the wiki site a little more. Trying to learn how to put things in and thinking about what you want to put in is exciting. I found that if I'm going to use this in my classes that I really need to think about what type of things I want to put in. I also need to think about how many sites do I want. Do I want to have one for each class, or just one for all my classes. If I have only one, how do I set up the material to pertain to each level of student. These are just a few of the questions that I thought about over the weekend and will continue to think about while I make the page.

It was fun creating a blog page and wiki page. It didn't seem hard at all. When things worked, it was easy. I can see where this would be helpful for teachers, students, and parents. It is great for communication.

Carline's Thoughts

Each week we continue to be exposed to new technological magic. It is all fascinating. Yet, my biggest struggle is finding the time to put it all in use. I am so anxious for break, so that I can experiment more with all that we have learned from you this semester. It has been pretty amazing. I find myself sitting down at the computer every chance I get to try something out or search for something new.

I have enjoyed creating my wiki and blog pages. I want to do more with them both and am anxious to get my students involved. I keep going to the help pages for assistance. Thank goodness for "Help" and "You". It has been such a life saver being able to work on our projects with you right there on the spot. When the problem arises, you are right there to rescue us.

Thank you again, for allowing us to leave early to attend our Christmas musical program. It went well, but I think there were more adult performances than children. It's supposed to be about the "kids", right? Still, the children looked darling and performed beautifully.

See you Wednesday!

I was very surprised to see how easy it was to create your own blog page. I really think the parents and students would use it. This is would be another wonderful way to keep in communicaton with the parents. I also think it would be great to see what the parents have to say when posting thier comments. I thought it was great to be able to work in it in class and have the help as you needed it. It will be very nice next week to be able to record our podcasts in class incase we have difficulites:) I have really enjoyed this class so far. Our group is hoping to have everything completed by the end of next week! Well see:)

Tom Nelson

Last class period came me a chance to explore the add-ons to PBwiki. I am impressed how many gimgaws and doodads have been added PBwiki since last year. It is a powerful way to customize the look of wikis, and perhaps add some educational value. I am impressed how easy and intuitive the interface of PBwiki is. I used it last year for a literature class to keep track of their reading notes; I recall few problems of students who were unable to find their way around. One of the educator's biggest challenges with using Wikis is to give students additional reasons to look at the wiki. I don't want them to write their responses. I also want them to look at what other people say as well.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

I greatly appreciate the lessons on creating a wiki and blog. I didn't really understand what the difference was between the both of them, but now I understand. I am definetely going to use the wiki page for some of the activitites that we do in my class for science and Geography. Also, the blog website is going to be useful in communicating with parents and students, but I feel I am going to really use it as a communciation guide between the parents and me.

W

I appreciated the time we had last class to get started on the Blog and Wiki Pages. I think I would have been worse off if I was sent to do this on my own without having you and others to ask questions of. I am not sure how I am going to use either of these without actually having a true classroom but I think it would be beneficial if the parents of my students wanted to get on and make any comments or let me know of any concerns they may have about their child. The only bad part would be that others could read what they write. If I had a classroom, I think the Wiki especially would be great because I could post assignments for the kids to do and they could access it and get on and explore what was on there. I think the interaction that would take place with both the Blog and Wiki would be a wonderful thing.

I found it very helpful to have time in class to set the blog and wiki page up. I haven't really decided how I will use them in class, but I do plan on letting the students know about it. I feel it could be helpful to keep reminders to my students since I only see them twice a week. I think I can also keep it updated on what we are doing in class that way if the students parents are wondering they can just go to the blog or the wiki.

Last night's class was helpful for setting up a blog and wiki. These items can be used for our classes. I plan to have students check the blog and invite them to post messages for pertinent topics. I'm still brainstorming ideas for the wiki. It was helpful to have time in class to put these assignments together. I feel comfortable when getting help from the professor and also assistance from peers.

Classtime was so helpful to enable us to create the blog and wiki . You are so patient! I am excited to use these tools with my students. I can see many possibilities for class useage. This class had widened my awareness of the many possibilities technology can afford once you are proficient enough to use these tools.

Thanks for your willingness to let us leave early. The concert was very special this year with using the stage, lights, costumes and instruments. The students did a wonderful job and were proud of their efforts.

Dec 10 meeting

I finally found out where to make blogs and wikis. I never heard of blogger.com. I added some solar system items to it and a written note about sun and light on it too. My blog is http://robbins1234.blogspot.com/ and the wiki will be http://solarsystem1.pbwiki.com/ Am learning a lot but I realize how little I do know.

I was glad to see we were allowed to pretty much get our blog and wiki done in class. I was hesitant last spring when we first did these things thinking that I wouldn't ever use them in my art classrooms. I was wrong, though, and the kids actually would rather do notes on a podcast then listen to me give them to them. Hopefully our district will continue to update its technology to stay with what is available; it will be hard because of the speed in which technology advances. I believe it is worth the cost.

I appreciated the class time to work on the blog and pbwiki. I don't know how sophisticated and creative mine will be, but I will keep working on them. I become very frustrated with any problems or stumbling blocks thrown at me. It's so nice to have an instructor that is willing to help you through. I also appreciated the time to ask questions at the end of class.

My group is doing a podcast on cell phones in schools. I am excited to see where this goes as it is an ongoing problem in our school. At some point we have to teach and not be police officers toward the kids.

I finally made it to the blog! I have been having difficulty. I throughly enjoyed the multimedia projects we watched last week. It helped a lot to know what was expected. I am still deciding on a topic for that. I am looking forward to tonight with the work time at the end of class. I need to get caught up on a few things.

I was a little apprehensive about doing the Wiki project but once I had the information and got started it ended up being easier than I thought it would be. I was a little overwhelmed with getting the assignments last week at class but none of them are too bad once you get started on them. It just seemed like a lot on top of everything else going on this time of year.
I liked being able to work on the Wiki together and I am anxious to see it all come together.
The videos we watched were amazing. I just don't see how people can do this. It amazes me the quality of the things you can find out there. It just takes sooo much time to do this. You could spend forever searching.

First and most important, Tom does talk to much. Lets face the facts people. At least he admits it. Anyway, trying to understand what is being said and displayed on the IIRC is difficult at times. Listening to how different people think about a certain subject is great. Many thought this or thought that. We talked........and some good points came out. I liked that very much. I enjoyed the discussion.
Watching the video examples was also good. They gave good and not so good examples of what we as a class should be looking at when we are going to do our own.
Finally, being able to write our script using a wiki is a great idea. I live in Trivoli and working with people who live in Abingdon or Galesburg, this will help out tremendously. Thanks

The projects we watched about Cyber Bullying (and other subjects) were interesting. It is amazing what people can put together with the use of technology! I wasn't sure about doing a collaborative report on the Wiki, but it was a piece of cake. I can see where this could be very beneficial for group projects when the people in the groups can not physically be together. It was fun. I am glad that we are given time in class to work. It really helps.

Dian's blog for November 19th

I found the November 19th class interesting because I learned about some of the different sites on the internet. To know that there are many more options available when needed is reassuring.
Working on the transferring of information and linking data from one spreadsheet to another didn't seem so bad. It really helped to have easy to follow directions and assistance from others in class when needed.
I have already implemented in my classroom resources that were offered in the t4jordan website with my students. There were several things that I would like to try in the future with the students.

Dian's blog for December 3rd.

The IIRC assignment opened a new resource for me and it validated the attainment and achievement of the students at Hedding Grade School. It was rewarding to reveal that our school met and often times exceeded standards. Our school also did very well against other Illinois schools of comparable size.
The podcast/wiki project along with the multi-media project tends to overwhelm me. However, because these projects can be completed in groups does lessen the stress level. Watching the video examples did help with some ideas as to what was expected.

It was interesting to see the different ways that people used media to create their own videos. I think that I have a better idea of what components I should use or omit as I make my own presentation.

I have used Movie Maker a couple of times before, although my approach was very simple. I made a weather segment for my fourth graders a couple of years ago that used some pictures that I had taken of a developing funnel cloud. Last May, I made a photo slideshow set to music (...uh...music that I hope Phil Collins never finds out about...) to give to my son at his wedding. Adding a third element to a Movie Maker presentation will present a new challenge for me!

My group and I have started working on the wiki project, and it's kind of fun! See you all Wednesday for more techno-excitement!

Comments for Dec. 3

After wading through the IIRC data looking for meaningful connections between student achievement and their communities, I have a couple of thoughts.
1) I realize Illinois doesn't have any money and that some information is better than no information, but I am wondering if the taxpayers and parents and other members of our community understand the significance of the data they're being given. The report card does a nice job of boiling down the spreadsheets and colorful graphs, but most educators agree (as well as our class discussion showed) that the things that really matter in making a school good or mediocre are things that cannot be readily quantified. The implication to the viewer is that these are meaningful statistics and you might be able to figure out what the problem is with your child's school from trends in budget categories, racial composition, etc. I was especially intrigued by the class room indicator called "Parent Involvement." I read about high schools that have 100 percent involvement and their meet and exceed levels are down in the 30s and 40 percents. How are these schools measuring parent involvement? At the least, these reports need footnotes and hyperlinks that explain financial line items. We teachers at least had the benefit of Dr. C. explaining them. I shudder to consider the misconceptions triggered by poorly documented data. Since there is pretty widespread agreement about what makes one school good and another mediocre, I have to wonder why the ISBE doesn't provide more relevant information. These presentations seem to distract the community from a more productive, relevant discussion about school quality, teacher accountability, and student achievement.
2) The scatter plot data concerns me that Illinois is either failing to educate its high school students, or that the tests it gives them is invalid. When I first looked at the data as a whole, I noticed the two roughly parallel bands, both sloping down when moving from left to right on the horizontal axis. When I analyzed my schools, I was able to exclude the middle and grade schools, which make up most of the schools on the upper (high achieving) band. The vast majority of high schools fall into the bottom band. I was happy to discover at AHS is doing much better compared to other schools in the state. This shows me that while Abingdon has a ways to go, teachers at Abingdon have been doing a great job.
Yes, I know I talk too much.

Lisa's Reflection for Dec. 3

I like the idea of using a wiki to collaboratively compose a summary of our podcast topic: “Using blogs and wikis in the classroom.” I found some interesting suggestions for using a wiki with students.

I’m also excited about the multi-media project. My topic will be a project I did with my class this year. I trained a few students to use the digital camera to take pictures for the movie. It’s amazing how quickly 9 year-olds learn new technology. They were taking pictures, transferring, renaming, and saving them to the computerlike pros by the end of the week.

I am a little frustrated about the assignment concerning our district’s student information software. Our technology coordinator has the most knowledge about STI, but he couldn’t answer the questions about the budget. Our superintendent will be out of town until Thursday, so I am unsure of how we can collect the necessary data to complete this assignment on time.

Carline's Thoughts

It is always interesting to look at the IIRC site to see how our school compares to others with similar demographics. I just wish it offered more answers. Oh, there are plenty of statistics to compare and ponder over. Yet, I never feel like I know exactly how to go about solving the problems we face. Perhaps, the state needs to direct more funding towards that aspect of the testing program.

I agree, it was nice to go back and look at "movie maker". When I don't use something on a regular basis, I get rusty and have to reteach myself. That's what I was doing Wednesday night. I still need to review the audio component to movie maker. I wasn't happy with what I came up with for my other class project (audio-wise), so I'm hoping I will be more pleased with the music I import for this project.

Thank you for being patient with me and assisting all of us with our individual needs.

Is anyone else stressed out? Tis the season, I guess!

I really enjoyed doing the IIRC assignment. I found it very intresting to see where our school and district fell in the mix with the others. It was helpful to see some examples of the mulitlmedia projects in class Wed. night. Thanks for going over the scavenger hunt assignment and how to post it! I wasnt sure how to do it and now I know so thats a good thing. Hopefully all will go smooth with the podcasts and movie maker projects!

The class on Wednesday December 3 showed several examples of multi-media assignments. These examples functioned as guidance for our assignments. The use of movie clips, music, power-point slides, etc. on the multi-media assignments gives us a good starting point for our assignments. These assignments can be used in our classes. There are also opportunities for our students to create similar projects to further their learning.

Thanks for the reinvite. I want to thank you for showing me again moviemaker. I did recall some things from the only time earlier I made it. I do think that the bottom line in education is the dedication of the teachers and how we engage the students. It is more important today to show the relevance of what they are learning and how it will affect their lives in the future. If we can make that connection, then we will have the students in the palms of our hands and they will be more acceptance of their own education.

I reall enjoyed the IIRC assignment although it took me forever to copy and paste all the info onto Word. However, once I did that analyzing the data was fascinating. I never realized I could access so much information about any school before this class. I looked up my grandchildren's schools and shared that data with my son. I have really learned a great deal in this class! I am looking forward to the moviemaker assignment and sharing the finished product with my student's parents. I appreciate the time we are allowed to work in class! I posted once, but it didn't post, so if this is a repeat hopefully I can delete it...hmmm still learning ...

Wednesday, December 3,2008

I enjoyed and found much insite into the moveimaker and podcast videos that we viewed in class on Wednesday. My group was able to come up with an idea for the moviemaker video that I think will be very beneficial for District 217 for receiving money for ISAT preperations. I also found it useful and have already viewed several files on the assignment that we have to do on finding websites, etc.

The IIRC assignment was one that I found very informative. I had never really examined the test scores of others schools or the school data to find out what may be the difference between schools. Looking at the IIRC gives you so much information and insight on why some schools are achieving higher than other schools. I found it interesting to study all of the data and form conclusions on that data. I really enjoyed this assignment and found it very helpful in understanding the differences between school achievement.

The sites we were introduced to last week are interesting to me. I downloaded spacetime at home and have used it a lot; there are some bugs in it, like the ebay search not working at all. It's nice to learn about these sites that I might not ever know about if we didn't see them in class.
The IIRC page gives so much information to look at and decipher about our communities and their test scores that we may be fooled into thinking that is the only information we need. While there is a lot of information there, I think other variables come into play when it comes to these things. One example is how the community values education. In Abingdon, for instance, the community may not put as much emphasis in education as a Carbondale or Normal or Macomb where there are institutes of higher education. Communities like that, where the major employer is an education based facility, will probably put more emphasis in their families education. The old saying, "My dad works at the factory and he's doing fine, so I don't need school cause I'm just going to work there anyway," isn't part of the majority demographic. These factors can weigh heavily on the scores of a particular school. If the kid doesn't think they need school then why would they strive to do well on these tests?

I have had a good time in the past two weeks checking out the various sites that we learned about during our last class. I have saved numerous videos from YouTube by using idesktop.tv, and I've been bookmarking sites using delicious.com. I have played around with a couple of the others, and I'm planning to check them out more completely over Christmas Break.

I've been working on my IIRC project, and I'm a little overwhelmed by the extent of the information that is available. I'm glad we have had the opportunity to do some guided research during classtime. This site is an amazing resource!

Looking forward to more fun on Wednesday!

Tom Nelson's post

The web has so many resources that keeping track of them could be a full-time job. Last week's class showed a few tools that give access to even more resources. I saw some good stuff from some of the sites we visited in class last week, but I saw a lot more stuff that wasn't and just had to be waded through to find something worthwhile. I liked the tags associated with Delicious for finding links that others have found. Many of the videos I looked at weren't useful. Searching is the key; the search engines for these places are lacking in keywords and descriptions that could making find the right thing easier.
The IIRC website is an interesting place to root around and make comparisons with other schools. I saw some interesting patterns in the data, but I'm not sure if they mean anything. Making generalizations about a school based solely on its gross test scores doesn't sound like good methodology. It's like buying a car because the body has no rust. Doesn't the engine count?

Thoughts from Joy

I have really been enjoying class. I also enjoy the time in class to work on assignments. I learned a lot from our last class on Pageflakes, Stumble, Desktop tv, joost, delicious. I just wish I could find more time to explore some of these things a little more. The IIRC data has been very interesting. I am not very familiar with the testing since I am a Kindergarten teacher, but I am learning a lot and how I can use the excel to help in my testing processes.

I enjoyed learning about the various websites: Joost, Pageflakes, Stumbleupon, etc. Of all of the websites featured, I thought the Delicious site was the most intriguing. I registered a Delicious account and am now in the process of tagging my 200+ “favorites.” I hope this site will give me easier access to websites I frequent and direct me to others I might find useful.

The iirc website contains a vast wealth of information. Comparing my school with other similar schools has been an interesting assignment. I have learned a lot!

I thought our last class last time was a very productive one. Learning how to do Excel was very worthwhile. It can be very useful to teachers. It is very nice to have some time in class to work on assignments! I was able to look up quite a bit on IIRC that night, as well. I just finished gathering all of my information on my 4 schools that I am comparing. I found a lot of information! It was very interesting. I am looking forward to putting all the information together and writing a report. I may share it with the other teachers I work with because it is useful, interesting information. I am really enjoying this class! I am learning a great deal!

Wednesday, November 19

I enjoyed learning about the various websites. Most of them should be very useful for my class. Working on Excel seemed to be pretty easy. Excel is a good program that makes things fairly simple if you know how to use it. I am glad I now know a little bit more than I did before. Looking and working at the IIRC is a little tough for me. I am learning a lot about it though. Hopefully I can figure out all that I need to know about it!

Khristi

I thought that it was interesting to learn about those websites. I had never heard of any of those websites, so it was interesting to learn about them and the possibility of using those websites as a tool in class. I think it is always a good thing to find more tools that we can use to help us as educators. I also enjoyed the fact that we were given time in class to work on or assignments.

Class was great. Learning about all the different sites that are out there to implement into your classroom was nice to see and adventure through. I haven't taken anything from those sites yet, but I am planning on going through a couple of them over break to see what I can find.
The excel assignment was nice to learn. I knew most of the tricks that we did in class, however learning more of the graphing aspect of excel was very beneficial to me. When I start my prob. and stats. lesson, I will be doing them on excel so the students can see their data in graphs.
Going through the district websites and trying to find schools like ours and figure why some are making it and some aren't is quite interesting. I have been going through the data quite a bit and am still trying to sort it all out. I really enjoy that website.

I enjoyed learning about the various sites. I especially liked idesktop tv. I used it in class on Friday. Stumble Upon seems like a great way to do a fast search on recommended sites which would save lots of time. I am learning a lot of useful information in this class that I can use and experiment with in the future.

Thanks for letting us work in class on the Excel project. After coming home and explaining how out of the loop I am, my husband bought me an "Easy" Excel book to help me figure things out. Without being able to work in class with your help and Lisa's help, I'm afraid I'd still be there trying to complete the assignment! Thanks for your guidance and patience.

Enjoy Thanksgiving!

Carline's Thoughts

It was quite interesting viewing the different sites highlighted Wednesday night. I probably will not use Joost.com that often because I usually go to You-Tube when I'm looking for something to share with my class. Stumble Upon.com appears to be a site that would be quite user-friendly for elementary school teachers. Delicious.com might be a bit much for my technological skills at this time, but it is another site to add to my repertoire. idesktop.com and spacetime.com are also sites which perhaps could be useful down the road. Pageflakes.com, which is the site my group previewed, has lots of possibilities for me, personally. I can see creating a "Pageflakes" page for my students to view on a regular basis. As I said Wednesday night, a pageflakes page might serve the same purpose as a web page and be easier to change and update. I would just have to experiment with this site more to see its advantages and disadvantages.

I hope you will give us more details on the upcoming assignments that will need to be completed, in order for us to receive our grade from you by the end of this semester. I would like to start working on them because I know how crazy things will get the closer it gets to the holiday.

Thank you again for allowing us class time to work on the Excel assignment and the IIRC project. That helps a great deal. We can all help each other out.

I also went to the "Sample Technology Links Page from an Elementary School", listed on the Important Links for EDL 518. I looked at the puzzles and printed a couple of holiday ones. I look forward to creating a couple of puzzles of my own.

Please email me -trobbins@bluebullets.org-if you received my Excel.

One of the websites presented last night in class was IDesktoptv. I used a clip from the site today in my history class. The site allowed me to play the clip without signing up or joining, which was nice. It was easy to use and the students enjoyed it. I did a simple search on the site for World War Two videos, and found a lot of good stuff. The video I chose to show today was an old Bugs Bunny cartoon, kind of poking fun at the Nazis. It was a good change of pace video, because the previous class lecture was on the Holocaust, which isn't fun to lecture about or learn, but necessary. The video today helped lighten the mood. It is a great example of class activities helping us with things we can actually use in our own classrooms.

I have really enjoyed being able to have class time to work on these assignments. I agree with Brooke it is sure nice to have fellow classmates and Dr. Closen to ask questions when you get stumped! I just really feel that I get more out of these assignments when I understand what I am doing and feel successful doing it. I guess I feel this way when you have help right there. I was always afraid to use Excel but really ...I think it could be helpful in the classroom. The basics really dont seem to bad.
I also enjoyed looking at the IIRC website. I never realized how much information is on there for us to view. I am intrested into looking further into it later on to see all that is there!

It is very helpful that we are given the opportunity to work on assignments in class. I found that even with step-by-step instructions on doing the formula assignment last night, that things don't always go right and with technology not always cooperating it is nice to have other people to talk to and Dr. Closen being right there to assist us along the way. I didn't find that it was too bad but I think it would have turned out differently if I was sent home with the step-by-step instructions and had to complete it on my own. I would have been emailing people for help. So it saves all of us a bunch of headaches when we can work on assignments in class. Thank you for letting us do this!
The website assignment was interesting. I never knew there were such sites even out there. All of this just takes a lot of time sitting down and exploring and TIME is a virtue that I don't have much of.

November 19 class summary

I was really impressed with the different web sites that I could use in my classroom such as StumbleUpon, iDesktop, t4Jordan, page flakes, Joost, and spacetime. I am next in getting my smartboard and would like to use these sites in the classroom to help students better understand the material we are studying. Again, I find that I have to consistently use the computer or I forget things, such as the cut and paste feature. It is ok to be shown something, but unless you use it, you (or I) will lose it. Again, thanks for your patience in helping us who are still computer challenged. I didn't realize that Excel was on the desktop because I don't use it. I am learning by bits and bits. It is a start!!!!

Interesting Posts

I have enjoyed reading your posts. I also appreciate the fact that you enjoy having class time to work on projects. I have found that it is easier, on both of us, if we do things this way. It is less frustrating than just having an assignment to complete at home. As long as we have time, we can do a lot of this in class.

I forget who said it, but they wished they could use formulas in Excel....guess what!! You will get the chance on Wednesday!

Using Exel

I am not familiar at all with Exel except for making charts. Thank you for showing me how to turn the text within the table. This will help in the spring when we give the ISEL and have to chart the results. I really enjoyed trying different methods to look at the data.
Also, I agree with the others in saying thank you for giving us time in class to work on assignments. My home computer has just died and I only have access from my classroom. Trying to juggle teaching, class, meetings and family makes it hard to spend a lot of extra time at school.
I really enjoyed the T4.jordan site also. I am not as far as some, using it this week in the classroom, but I found some useful things that I would like to use in the near future.

I had tried to use Excel in the past, but my knowledge was so limited that all I was doing was making charts. I am excited to learn the different things that can be done to organize data. I would like to learn how to enter formulas, too. I have had all kinds of problems trying to get onto the t4 site, but I am managing to get my web resources located for our assignment. I love using the internet to find information, and I had a great time checking out the wiki resource links this week.

I appreciate the time that you give us in class to work on our projects. It helps to work together when you are blazing a new techno-trail! When you can't figure something out on your own, frustration sets in quickly. Having a team to work with really helps. I enjoyed your YouTube video clips very much!

Looking forward to Wednesday! Connie

I found class to be very interesting. I am not an Excel guy, but learning the tools that it has, I might become one. I was very fun to do all that was asked during class on Excel. I found it to be very easy to understand, and very easy to use. Excel spreadsheets is something that I will be implementing in my class when prob and stats come in to play.
As far as the district website that we went to. It was very frustrating to try and go through all of the good things that this site obviously had. Every time I tried to go to one of the links, I would get pushed out. I'm sure they were having trouble on their end of things. From what I saw, the site looked to be full of useful information. It would be interesting to see if we could get a useful site like that here at our school. I believe many of teachers would make good use of it.

I really enjoyed investigating idesktop. tv. I found several topics I plan to use in class. I was totally unaware of this site. I have already used some sites from the t4 jordan site. This has been so informative! I am very excited to learn about so many new resources. I appreciate the hands on class and a class that informs us about things that affect us directly! Thanks!

I really enjoyed using Excel in class this week. I thought it was very useful to do the assignment in class so we could ask questions if we needed to. I was plesantly surprised on how easy it was to use. I havent used Excel very much, I always was scared it was going to be hard! I really think it could be great to help keep track of different things in the classroom. I think that it is very important to become familar with all of the different programs that microsoft offers. Its kind of like word...once you become familar with it you tend to find more ways to use it! It takes time to learn these things but most of the time it seems to benifit in the end.

I also enjoyed the ISAT video. It made me realize just how much we teach to one test in 4th grade. I shared the video with some fellow teachers. They all enjoyed it too!

Carline's Encounter with Excel

Thank you for allowing us the time to work on our assignment in class Wednesday night. It was so helpful having you right there to answer any of our questions or concerns.

I have used Excel to create spread sheets and with graphing activities for math . However, I was not familiar with conditional formatting. This will be very helpful next summer when I get my new ISAT scores. In the past I have spent hours sorting data by hand, trying to come up with the information I needed. This will help considerably. Like others, I just wish our administrators were putting this to use. What a great tool!

The T4 website has wonderful resources. As a matter of fact, I used a couple items from it this week. I look forward to having the time to investigate it further.

Podcasts are always interesting and there seems to be one for every occasion. I particularly liked the one on testing.

I was so glad we had time to work on assignments in class Wed. night. I liked working with Excel. I can see where it can be very useful. It was pretty simple once I got the hang of it. The websites we saw were helpful. When we visited the school website, I was amazed at what all they had on it. I wish our district had at least half of what that district has! It would be so nice to work for a district like that. The podcasts we saw were funny also. I can see why a teacher would want to use technology as much as possible in the classroom. I still think there are some things that need to be done the old fashioned way I guess. I am pretty old though!

Tom Nelson

The conditional formatting exercise reminded me that a user can work with a program for 10 years and still not know very much about it. I get comfortable with the tools I need for the job at hand, but don't have the opportunity to try the other tools. I'm sure this will be useful.
The T4 website is an incredibly rich resource. In a quick scan of the links, I found numerous useful sites and resources.
The videos were interesting, too. I liked the satire of standardized test myopia. The other video about "Listening" was thought-provoking, and I agree with the message that technology is good for engaging students. However, the tone was a little too pseudo-profound for me. I am a little tired of the hyperbole about how revolutionary the web is and how "different" digital people are from pre-digital people.

Excel is a powerful program that has so many things I didn't realize you could do in it. I had no idea you could do conditional formatting; I assumed you print the table and highlight with different highlighters like I have been doing. This could save A LOT of time when compiling scouting reports for baseball and placing importance on higher stats.

The T4 school we visited was frustrating. I had a hard time getting into the website at the time and found it to be frustrating. When I am done adding to the blog I am going to try and get onto their website again. I did see/hear a couple of things I would like to see the Abingdon district do (ie. compile a list of teacher resource links and also an area for professional development). Overall, this district is obviously a goal for us to work toward.

Lat night we used conditional formatting and sorting spreadsheets using Excel. I had never used Excel like this before. I have used it to make just simple spreadsheets but no sorting or conditional formatting. I liked how we were given the opportunity to complete this task in class so if we did have questions, the help was there. That was nice. I liked being able to follow the step-by-step instructions. It made it very easy to follow and I think I could do it on my own now. I think it would be useful for me because when I do all my Reading Recovery students data over the course of their intervention, I could use this to sort and classify different information making it easier for me and fellow colleagues to read. I thought it would be a useful tool in doing this with ISAT scores also. The trouble is right now, finding a color printer in my building that works. The website that we explored was full of great activities and lessons and all sorts of things for both teachers and students. I did have a little trouble getting it to work but was able to complete the assignment finally. I am liking the layout of this course so far.

I enjoyed last night's class. It is a nice change of pace from complete lecture sessions. I liked the hands on experience with conditional formatting. I can see how beneficial this would be with my class, grade level, and school ISAT scores. I personally would like to see the administration using such tools to provide the educators with more useful information and feedback. I have always had my own system, but many do not take the time or effort to break the different components down. I also enjoyed the video on technology and student learning. We as educators need to tap into our students and children's technological ways of learning. I am looking forward to researching the assigned websites.

I personally did not like using the conditional formatting, I still am not sure how this directly will benefit me in what I teach. However, thanks for those who assisted me in getting these activities completed. I did enjoy getting into the website (once I could get it to cooperate), because I can see where this will have some great ideas for me to try in my classes.

Wednesday, November 12th

Last night we worked with condtional formatting some spreadsheets. I found the lesson very useful. It will allow me to work with some of our district's ISAT scores and group them so they are easier to read. I enjoyed the video about technology and how student's learn. Some of the stats were very interesting. The website that we looked at would not allow me access. I am hoping that I will be allowed access at a later time.

Khristi Kramer

Last nights class was the first time I have really sat down and attempted to use excel. After doing the conditional formatting, I feel more comfortable with the program and think that excel could be a useful tool for keeping stats and things like that for coaching. I really found the school T4 Jordan website very interesting. It was loaded with useful links that teachers and students both could use.

Last night's class featured the use of conditional formatting and sorting of spreadsheets. These techniques are valuable when dealing with a large amount of data. The test scores became much easier to interpret when the data was formatted or sorted. It was also pointed out these same techniques could be applied to statistical information gathered for athletics. I currently compile all my stats the "old-fashioned way". These formatting techniques could greatly aid my ability to scout opposing teams by sorting their data according to common opponents, leading scorers, latest games, etc.

I really appreciated being able to work on Excel during class. I'm not experienced in using it, so when something goes wrong I could ask for help. I so enjoyed the U Tube video "Not on the Test:! The multi -touch interaction experiments I plan to investigate more thoroughly. I am very excited about the Utah education site. I found some math and science interactive sites my kids will love. I keep losing the site however...and need to log in again and again. Don't understand why that happens??? Technology can be great, but frustrating when you are a novice (vs expert who knows several options to try next). Thanks again for a most useful and interesting class!!
Marge

November 11 Class

This is what I find frustrating about technology. I have been trying to get on this blog for 10 minutes using the same, I mean the same, user ID and password as the first two blogs I did earlier. So I had to go to Google to reenter my password. I entered the same password as I already had. I had it already written down so I wouldn't lose it. So I reset it with the same password. Now it works as you can plainly see. Why couldn't I use the same password before? What happened in cyberspace that my original password was no longer accepted??????? YIKES!!!
Thanks for giving us time and helping us with EXCEL last night. Tammi taught us a lot in her class but it is like anything else, you need to practice it all the time in order to be an expert. I the one with a little knowledge, but say! I did find my way to Google to reset my password to enter this blog so that is a good thing!!!!! I see the benefits of EXCEL in organizing complex information quickly. As far as using cell phones in the school room in order to call someone overseas, that sounds like a great profession for my career. Where do I sign up for that job?
Sorry, just letting off steam. Let me tell you a story about technology. It is true. I went to Northpark Mall and bought a video in the Disney store there. I gave the clerk a $20.00 bill. She punches in a 2-0-0-0-0 into the computer. True story. The electronic sign said my change was $183.00 and some cents. She counts it out to me and puts all the money in front of me. I tell her she made a mistake. She asks me, "Do I owe you more?" I told her to put it all back in the cash drawer and helped her count back the old-fashioned way. Computers are great.......but there better be some basic educational knowledge in those who use them.
Just spent 30 minutes trying to get to t4.jordan. I do not have a computer at home and have to do my computer work here at school. Didn't get anything done. How productive.
Just spent another half hour during school time trying to get on. Didn't work. Does anyone else out there think it's ironic that the most technological school in the area isn't accessible by the internet?

I really enjoyed the spreadsheet work we did tonight. Conditional formatting is very cool!

The t4.jordan.k12.ut.us website contained a wealth of useful links; however I found it difficult to navigate because of connection problems I experienced both at Abingdon and from home. I don’t know if their server was experiencing problems or if there were software compatibility issues, but I had to reload pages many times to be able to view them. I did, however, find many useful resources that I will be able to share with my students.

I must admit the tech plan wasn't something I think I would enjoy putting together; although, ours did seem like it had been copy and pasted together at times making me think we could re-use a lot of information from year to year.

I enjoyed the IIRC website; I even went home and compared our school to other schools. It would be beneficial to use as a tool to contact other schools in the same bracket as us and find out what strategies they are implementing to improve their test scores.

As I was not sure whether or not we were to blog for the first class, I will do it now. The technology plan for our school was interesting. Checking to see if our school's plan was completed by the right standards was a good learning experience plus it was nice to see that the plan was in pretty good order.

After all the hassle to get here, I finally made it. First of all, it is nice to know that finally someone is willing to take the time to work with the cohort group to work out scheduling and not just be left up in the air about everything.
Last class went well. LLRC site was interesting but somewhat confusing when it comes to all the scores etc. because I do not work with these scores.

I enjoyed the last class. The IIRC website was interesting. I was not aware of all the capabilities within the site. I especially liked the scatter plot. Viewing other schools within the state and the vast amount of information available makes comparing and contrasting schools easy as well as interesting. We use data and scores to evaluate our school, but usually comparing schools within our own district or local area, which is not always the best comparison. I have a true passion for analyzing scores and data. I could be on that website for hours if I only had the time. I hope the next class time is as interesting and valuable as the last. Christine Thompson

I finally made it to the blog. I have really enjoyed class so far. It is very nice that we have taken the time to talk about our cohort and where we will be going in the future. I am glad that Dr. Closen has taken the time to fill us in on more of what is going on.
We looked at the technology plans and they do not look to bad on paper, but I am not sure our district is following through with some of the statements. I think it needs to be reviewed.

I really enjoyed the last class. I loved looking over the AYP scores from other district that are like Abingdon. What surprised me was that many of the district that are like ours are making AYP. I also enjoyed our discussion on why AYP is struggling in the high schools and not the middle or elementary schools. This is something that I've been trying to figure out since the scores came out this year. I have yet to figure out a solution. However, I'm not giving up yet.
The discussion on what can and can't be used from sources was kind of old news. The class we had with Tami had us go through a process and then a test afterwards that dealt with the same material. However, during the powerpoint there was some new stuff that I was unaware of. I'm always guessing if my Smart Board presentation are O.K. I do a lot of copy and paste into my presentations, and I believe now that they are fine. Thank God. I hope this class keeps going the way it is. Time is flying.

I really enjoyed looking at the IIRC website. I wasn't aware that this website was out there. I liked how you can compare Abingdon to other schools who have similar characteristics. I thought the scatter plot was really neat. I like how you can see how every school in the state scored and you can look into all the stats of the school to help you understand how they scored so high or so low. I look forward to continuing to learn how to completely use the IIRC website. I also really enjoyed learning about the copyright laws, even though I don't fully understand them. I don't think I answered one of the case studies right.

Wednesday, November 29th

It was interesting to know about copyright laws. I think I am still a little confused about some of them. Anyhow, it was very useful to know and I am glad that we took the time to go over them. The IIRC website was very interesting as well. I was not aware that Abingdon did not meet AYP in math at the highschool level. It really got me thinking as to why that is. I think it is good for us to take a look at all the data and compare scores from previous grade levels, schools, and tests. I would like to know more about the test that the high school takes-PSAE. I think it will be really helpful to possibly pair up with some of the high school staff.

Khristi

I am looking forward to using the IIRC site to compare Knoxville with other similar school districts. Using the assessment data results to improve instruction makes sense, however, I don't believe this is always common practice in school districts. Reflection is an important key to improvement. I was fascinated with the scatter plot feature. I was unaware of Safe Harbor and how it is used. After class I went home, got on IIRC site, and the next time I looked up it was midnight! The black and white video was terrific! Sorry to say, I never noticed the gorilla...I was totally focused on counting the number of times the ball bounced by white shirted kids. It was evident that sometimes you see only what you are looking for and miss other important things that are happening around you.

I am very excited to learn more about technology and learn how to use it more effectively in my classroom.
Marge

Test Data & School Funding

The scatter plot function on the IIRC website was interesting. So was walking through the controls, especially learning how to do various kinds of filters. My eyes were opened further seeing comparable schools with better test scores. We usually have just looked at our test data without comparing and contrasting it to other schools. Usually we have run into a deadend because the schools we know from personal experience are vastly different demographically.

The session was also useful in learning more of the language of AYP and school finance. I didn't understand why we made AYP in reading when our scores didn't reach the benchmark level. Now I know.
I still wish the ISBE would give us data about the kinds of questions our students do poorly on. Knowing this would help set priorities.

Tech Plans

I was glad to have had a reason to read the tech plan because it wasn't the most readable document I've ever encountered. Having waded through it once will make it easier to digest when teachers are called upon for input in it, which is both inevitable and desirable. A weakness in our plan was demonstrating the links between student achievement and technology. Teacher-leaders should have a role in developing this plan, because it will guide the technology we have available to us in the coming years. Teachers will need to do a better job of documenting how technology supports learning standards to provide support for the district's commitment to technology.
I have an interest in using technology in the classroom, and use it in dozens of ways each week. I have used WebCT and am now using Moodle. I would like to do things in this class that would tie in with Moodle. With a Moodle server at Abingdon, the teachers have a great platform for distributing their classroom content: podcasts, videos, RSS feeds, Flash, Powerpoints, etc. Moodle also allows distribution of SCORM packages -- which can combine all these bells and whistles into instant lessons. I have just begin researching these things, and would like to learn more about them.

I echo the comments of several other members in wanting to express my appreciation for seeing the "big picture" of the cohort's course of study. I had never heard the degree requirements and required courses, spelled out. It's nice to see what's ahead.

I had never had a very clear idea about what was copyrighted material and what wasn't. I knew that it was not wise to incorporate anything from large corporations, like Disney, into things of my own. I had no idea that things I have been creating FOR YEARS on my school computers are not my own property. That, to me, is a real eye-opener.



The gorilla video was great! I was one of the few that saw the gorilla, but I totally lost count of the ball count. (Introduce something that catches my attention and I drop what I'm doing to watch the new thing! ADHD in action!)



I can't wait to check out how our district compares to other on the IIRC. Something to really think about. Again, I had no experience with the site, and I was surprised to see how much is out there for us to use. Thanks for an engaging evening! My brain hurt at the end, but I was full of new ideas.

Response to your posts

I am glad to see that many of you are interested in the IIRC data. I think you will find that there is a lot to be learned from analyzing the data and taking an objective look at your school or district. I was glad to see that some of you noted that it is not the fault of one school or grade level when AYP is not made. Educating these students is a collaborative effort!

Enjoy your week off.

The PowerPoint about Copyright and Fair Use was enlightening. I knew there were copyright rules, but I'd felt "exempt" because the documents I created for classroom use were not for any financial gain. Now I know this is not the case, and I will be more careful about images and music I use. The quiz left me feeling very confused. They seemed to be trick questions designed to mislead you.

I am looking forward to comparing our district's ISAT scores with other similar districts using the iirc website. By the end of class, however, my brain was exhausted. I hope if we have time to work in class it will be in the earlier part of the session.

I also loved the gorilla video. I can't wait to try it out with my class.

I think it was great to review our districts technology plans. After reading and proofing it I now know I would never want to have to put one together! It was really intresting to see how much money they are budgeting for technology. I think it is great to have all of the diffrent technology available to the students, parents and staff. I also wanted to thank you for helping us get our classes and dates organized! We all really appericated it! It was finally nice to have some input!

I thought it was very intresting to get into the interactive school report card last night and compare schools. I had never actually gotten on that website and explored that far. I found that really intresting. I think our assignment of comparing the different school districts will be fun to do. I am very interested to see where Hedding/Abingdon falls in the scheme of things. I had never quite understood AYP so last night it was great to finally see how it is figured for each school. I was also unaware of the whole Safe Harbor idea. I think that it is a good idea to do that because it gives the schools a chance to get back on track. I still can't get over the fact that I didnt see the gorilla in the video clip. It sure made me wonder what I am missing in my classroom each day!

Our discussion last night about AYP was very interesting. I was never quite sure how that all worked. It made it pertinent using real examples such as Manual to see the percentages and how you meet, exceed, or do not meet. I had never heard of Safe Harbor either so now when I review my school on IIRC, I will know what that means.
I am anxious to do the compare and contrast assignment. I have been on IIRC before but never taken the time to really explore in depth. It was fascinating!
Also, the white shirt, black shirt activity was great. I was totally surprised when people started talking about a gorilla. I thought it was a joke. I did not see any part of a gorilla when viewing it. Wow! I like that it had meaning behind it.
EDL 518 has been very useful and interesting thus far.

Our schools are evaluated using state test scores. One of our biggest concerns is how can we as teachers make the state tests more important to the students taking them. Last night in class, Daggit's "Three R's" were discussed. These three principles seem to be as effective as any I've heard on making the tests more important to the students.
1. Rigorous - make school work challenging
2. Relevant - teach what the students need to know, why it is important, and why they need to know it.
3. Relationships - build individual relationships with students based on trust and mutual respect.
Teachers can use these three principles with their students to attempt to make state tests more important to the students taking them.

I am very excited about our upcoming assignment where we will compare our school's test results to others with similar demographics. I have always said, "What is the good of testing if we are not going to look at the results, determine our weak areas, and try to do something district-wide to correct our problem areas." I have used that site as a guide to help me with my curriculum planning.

I also agree with what you said about it being a district-wide concern, not just one part of a district (ex. high school). Everyone should be committed to helping all our students do well.

Great discussions!
*Yesterday we received our Individual Student Reports from the I.S.B.E.

Carline

I enjoyed last night's class because it was interesting to see all of the different data available on the IIRC website. Being able to look up all of that data would be quite helpful to teachers, I would think. I am going to spend some time on the website myself (AFTER ALL OF THE "FUN" HALLOWEEN ACTIVITIES ARE OVER, OF COURSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I can't wait until our Halloween parade tomorrow, as you can tell! (Sorry, Connie! I know how much you love Halloween!) Anyway, I am excited about sitting down and really looking into the website. It is very interesting and insightful! It will be neat to see the differences from last night to today's if they did all of the updating like they said. :)

October 29 session

I look forward to looking at the IIRC and comparing our district with others with the same characteristics. There are many factors that determine how successful a school year will be. I agree that demographics, economic strength (or lack of), curriculum vision, student attendance, and parental involvement all influence student achievement. However, the bottom line for me, the major factor influencing children achievement is still the teacher. We are in the "front line" and need to better relate to the children. We need to reinvent ourselves to the needs of these children. I liked what you said about No Child Left Behind law. It is there so no minorities will be neglected, whether racial, social, economic, or disabled. As Harry Truman once said, and it still applies to teachers everywhere, the "buck stops here."

It was so nice to be able to have input about our up and coming schedules for class. EDL 518 seems like it will be a useful class. I love learning what I can directly use in my classroom.
By Christine Thompson

I enjoyed reviewing the District's Technology Plan. I reviewed Knoxvilles' since I was the only one from Galesburg. It was interesting to find that some necessary things were missing. I wonder how Galesburgs' is??? There is a lot of information in the Plans that I didn't even know were there. I actually didn't even know we had one and it took a little pull, for my district to even let me access a copy of it. I know some of the teachers that are on the Technology Committee but never knew this is what they were doing. As for EDL 518, I am looking forward to this class. I am looking forward to learning new things that will actually be pertinent to my profession. I am also thankful for some better organization taking place with this Cohort. Up till now, it has kind of been a mess. I am glad to see some upcoming dates set out for us so we have some idea of where we are headed. :)

I really enjoyed looking over and analyzing the Technology Plan. It made me realize that I am glad I am not in charge of putting one together. I didn't realize so much had to go into a Technology Plan. I am glad we went over the syllabus. I am looking forward to this class. It will be challenging, but fun!

EDL 518

The technology plan was much more detailed than I realized. It is obvious the district put a lot of work into such a plan. After viewing our technology plan, I realize our students are fortunate to have the technology we enjoy here at school.
I'm looking forward to learning more about how to use technology in my classes.

Wednesday, October 22

Hi! I am finally connected! I really enjoyed going over our district's technology plan. There was a great deal of information in it. I agreed with most of it. I had never looked at it before. I liked getting to work on it in a group, it allowed me to see different perspectives on it. I am excited to get to learn more about technology and am looking forward to this class. I am glad that we got to set dates for our next class as well. Thanks.

Khristi

Tom Robbins

I had a copy of the technology plan but never really looked at it. I found it interesting to see how much money our district is spending on technology and then on teaching us how to use it! I also wanted to say thanks for letting us work in class together. I do a lot of that in my third grade class. I find it very beneficial to all the students when we work together. I did call WIU and get my Ecom number. I also reset my Google account to a new password. I have so many passwords I forget which is which. I want to get a better handle on technology and how to use it in my classroom better. I am signed up for a smartboard and hope to get it soon. Tom Robbins

Hi!

Thanks you for the time and attention you gave us during class. I appreciated working on the tech plan together as a team. I am not a tech person, so this class will really challenge me! However, I am looking forward to learning a lot that I can use in the classroom!! See you Wednesday...
Marge

I'm looking forward to learning more about how to implement technology into the classroom. I use my smart board every class and I'm hoping to learn different tech. to bring to my lessons. During last class, it was interesting going through the tech plan of the district. There were many aspects of the plan that I liked, but there were also things I didn't. As a group, we had great talks about these things and overall it was a good beginning to the class.

I am excited about EDL 518. I had never taken a close look at our district technology plan and after reviewing it, I found several areas of concern. Plus, it was helpful working within a group where we could discuss and review the areas of concern.
It was also very thoughtful of you to allow us class time to figure out when our class would meet this semester. That has never happened before and I certainly appreciate that courtesy.
In addition, getting the portfolio/assignment listings in advance is helpful, too.
Looking forward to class Wednesday night.
Carline

October 22

I really appreciated going over the syllabus and portfolio projects on the first day of class. Understanding the expectations for the course up front is beneficial, and having an instructor that takes the time to explain the assignments gives me a clear view of the requirements for this class. I am excited about what we will be learning in this course.

Analyzing our district’s technology plan was not a simple task. I recognize now the extensive data collection that is involved in this endeavor.

Hi! I'm connected. Thanks!
I really enjoyed class last night. I spent most of our last class feeling resentful and frustrated, so this is a refreshing change. I love technology, and I fall in love with every techno trinket that comes on the market. I am excited about learning more! See you all next week!