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.