Wonder!!!

With missing class, I feel like I missed a ton of information. I read through the slides and wonder many things. Who tags the internet “Web 2.0”.. that confuses me. I don’t think there is a company running Web 2.0, or is there? Are their little cyber aliens running this vast network of the unknown and laughing at us as we try to keep up?

I just keep falling more in love with the internet with every class. There are so many tools I want to use. Tools that are very useful to me, tools that help me keep my information organized and in one place. Although I have two jump drives and a large external drive to back up my documents, I find at times I have many different versions. That frustrates me. I need to get a grip on keeping things organized and it seems there are services available to help in that arena. My concern is having my documents exposed to cyberspace. Not that I have anything great written, I guess it is a matter of privacy and exposure to the unknown.

RSS is an answer to another prayer of mine.. I have so many resources I like to keep up with but trying to access them all separately became to cumbersome so I limit them unless I am researching a project or paper.  I feel like a newborn, born into another world I didn’t know existed. One that I embrace.

When we talk about school districts and their limitations, I thought our district was buckled down pretty tightly until yesteday. In my first period class, my students were finishing a project. I have two computers in my class and on occasion let my students roam. Well, these to gents logged onto Utube, which the districts bans from access. When I looked at the url, I saw that these gents put “uk.” before utube and accessed utube easily. I believe Dr. Ransom mentions quite often that as smart as we think we are, our students are so much smarter. It is 2nd nature to them to roam cyberspace. They know all of the tricks. Needless to say, I had to end the gents fun. (I cherish my job)….

I haven’t had any cyber bullying at school, I have had occurrences with my children when they were in their early teens. It is so brutal, words do hurt. I did however receive an email that a student of my was being bullied by another, both in my class. I had no clue. That shook me to my core. Not seeing what goes in rite in my class is mind boggling. Needless to say, I have since separated the two and talked to both. Who knows if I helped, I would like to think so.

3/1/2008

I feel I need to get past the stress I feel when I think of technology. I am pretty savvy with computers, but feel that if I let my guard down for one minute, I will get left behind. Do I really need all of the latest technology, is it cost effective, does it really assist me in my education? At home I do have pretty good equipment and I use it all of the time. School is another beast. I teach Art, so my classes are about 90% hands on. I have often thought about teaching technology.  For about a year I was the hardware and software consultant for five insurance agencies.  It would have been a great job had I not had to travel over 300 miles a day at times. The agencies were all using different versions, different computers, different software. There goal was to unite and consolidate their technology into one system for all five agencies to use. The contract ended when the costs became so exorbitant. I was relieved to not have to drive so much. It was great experience.  I laugh when reminiscing about my first computer. Years ago I worked for an insurance company. I was a commercial lines (business) underwriter. I rated business insurance. Trust me, you have no idea of how many tree’s we used every day rating a business policy. Rating one account I could easily go through a hundred pieces of paper. THEN came our first computer. It sat at a desk behind our department, very lonely. In my tenure at this company we never utilized the computer out of fear of wondering if it actually rated the account correctly. Okay, so I am off on a tangent, but it is a memory I will always hold. I can still “see it”….

I love inspiration, I finished my lesson write up yesterday and completed the visual representation today. It was not only visually pleasing, easy to use but so much fun. I know if my school had this tool, I would certainly utilize it in my art classroom. I try to remain consciously responsible about waste, with art that is challenging.

As the saying goes “We’ve come along way baby”..  Hang on and enjoy the ride.

Oh – if you want to see what I do in my “spare time”… Here is a website I have created on my own..thankfully “Microsoft” tools are consistent through their programs which helped me a great deal. I have been on the board for about 16 years now. Most of what I love is watching the kids play baseball, they are so cute especially when they pick “flowers” for their mom’s from the outfield.

www.aisabaseball.net

2/23/08

After reading the assignments this week, I continue to think of how to apply so many exciting and creative ideas to my class. The stuggle I have is that I only have my students for every 10 weeks. The short semester leaves little time for the addition of or use of technology within my curriculum. Actually, the art curriculum only calls for one lesson in technology which amounts to the creation of a tri-fold resume’. I have to carefully tread when including or requiring technology in my room. I want to slowly add requirements such as a blog that might require each student to review a work of art, write a critique or answer a simple question.  As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I have used “Moodle” which is similar to blackboard and added four lessons for my students to respond to. I found I  need to hold them more accountable for what they have learned.  As I try the usage of new technology, I find that I continually review and revise how I approach the assignments and what I require. I never seem to get to the “perfect lesson”. (I am told that will never happen due to the diversity of my students). I will continue my quest to include all of these wonderful tools, even if it is a semester long assignment in which two students per day can use the two computers I have available in my room. (The other pitfall, only 2 computers). Life is wonderful!!!

2/14/08 Class

Class was terrific. Learning about “behind the scenes” was amazing. As simple as it is, the knowledge is most powerful. Looking at websites and trying to discern their authenticity was interesting to say the least, just knowing what to look again in so powerful. I know my students think everything they see or read on the Internet must be valid and truthful. Knowing now how to show my students to look for authentic sites is invaluable, looking at the advertising on a site is so simple but really paying attention is another thing. I am programmed to shut out advertising, I look for the information I seek and tune out the rest. Checking links was another easy but seriously useful tool, truncating the URL.. who would have thought. Great information to know.

2/7/08 Class

It is amazing how fast times fly’s.. Here it is the end of another week and I wonder where all of my time goes… Technology takes up a good portion of my time, whether updating our little league website and database, creating presentations for my classes I teach, answering emails, grading my class moodle papers— technology takes up a good deal of my time. I use excel a great deal not so much for teaching my students but creating my own planning pages (I color code my classes), my teaching schedule, my finances, my daughter’s college schedule, my class gradebook (we have to keep a copy other than the program, in case of a drive crash). I love excel and the power behind it. I have even started a spreadsheet of artists including era’s, timeline, & mediums used. (Try that with thousands of years of information) I try to hit the highlights of each era. Anyway, excel is a very useful tool….

1/31/2008 Class

The beauty of technology is, sometimes it fails. I am certain I saved my blog that I entered last night, I edited it and then published it and wollah,,,,, nothing was there…

Reminiscing about what I wrote will be challenging especially at 5am on a Saturday morning. I chose my research paper, and hope to find a good deal of information regarding the “Arts and Technology” in the classroom. I try to incorporate technology as much as I can. I have found very few art educators do incorporate technology, either because they do not physically have the technology, they don’t know how to use it, or simply how to incorporate it. Most art educators use the DVD to show a movie, that is pretty much the extent of technology I have seen so far. This past semester I had my students research employers who incorporated drawing as part of the employment. Most of the students presented with power points, some did that and made a game of it. It went pretty well, although it took up allot of time and this is where I think some “played” more than others. I scrapped that lesson until I rethink the plan. This semester  I am trying a few new tech usages. I created a “Moodle” which is similar to Blackboard. Our district has an initiative on saving paper, so this is my part in the process. Within Moodle, I have already created three assignments. 1) What does art mean to you. Some students were very thoughtful in their responses, some just added pictures, of course the guys rooted for their favorite football team, and one student even added a picture of a steak and said he liked to eat. Oh, yeah, one student said he loved me. ; )  2) Safety Contract – this is a biggie. It is normal three pages we print and send home to have read, signed by the student and parent. Within Moodle, they read the contract, send a reply within Moodle and have their parents write a note saying they read it (We still need a signature). 3) Procedures and Rules – I covered the highlights on the 1st day of class, but wanted the students to read all of it. (another 3 page doc). I then asked them some questions of which they would have had to read to find the answers. All in all, I am finding it a great communication tool. Those who do not have the Internet (literally 10 students out of the 98 I teach) I supply hard copies for. This is a beautiful thing.

The Utube video on doc’s was very useful, knowing how to upload and download etc. prior to use will make it so much easier. I like the fact that you can store a document and have a collaborative effort on editing it. Adding links such as a dictionary, a movie clip, or an audio file are so useful with classrooms being so diverse in their learning styles. We are no longer in a classroom where we simply read and write and all “learn the same way”, or maybe should I say ignore different learning styles? We now recognize our diverse learners and try to differentiate our lesson’s. Art is pretty easy I must say, most of what I do is “visual” and unless a student is blind (I have had one), we do pretty well. I did have a Boces class where all but two were in wheel chairs, they were all non-verbal, had very low IQ and all had an aid with them. We made some cute projects, mostly they enjoyed finger-painting, messy yes but wow did they every smile. Nothing replaces their smiles when I see them, that hits me in a special way rite to my core being. I wonder how long the service will be free and how much space you are allowed before you have to pay. I would be skeptical in only storing the document in “Docs”; as a safety I would download it often.

Well, thank goodness for pushing the “Blog” date to Saturday. I honesty wrote quite a bit last night and just lost it all.. Joy… Joy…

The new tools we are learning to use is making me think way to much.. That is what I find exhausting about technology. It moves at the speed of sound,, I move at the speed of …. well sound isnt’ a word I would choose. I am pretty savy but seriously the people who create all of these tools are unbelievably gifted. I can’t wait to use “scribd”, I have so often wanted to convert a document to another type and couldn’t with the program… Thank you!

Listening to the class audio file was so useful. I think I took more notes while listening. Flying from a Professional Development Class to Naz. was not much fun. The joys of teaching full time, meeting school requirements (for new teachers) and the states requirements (Grad. School) is sometimes every challenging schedule wise. Four more grad. classes to go… I definitely want to see Dr. Ransom’s son singing to the Sound of Music.. He sounds so darn cute.

One tool I learned and am thrilled about is holding the “shift key” while drawing a shape.. I always wondered why there was no circle. My students recently had to tell my my color wheel was not perfectly round… Ahhhh… such love…

I use watermarks in allot of my documents, I think it adds a bit of an artistic flair… hmmm…  Ohhh… the Utube conversion program… This is terrific.. My school is banned from Utube for obvious reasons. There are some really useful video’s out there.. even our principal can’t use it and has often wanted to show clips during our prof. dev. meetings.. I will tell him about this,, I know he will be thrilled.

1/24/08 Class

This is going to be an exceptional class, one filled with an extraordinary amount of useful information. The information is not only useful as a adult learner, there are so many practical uses for the classroom, which is where it counts. The class is rite on target with helping us learn about what we can do and use in our classrooms.  I am always trying to find ways in which my students can utilize technology.  Some think that being an art teacher is easy, I can assure you it is far from that. There are thousands of years of art, artists, mediums etc. to cover. I initially sighed up for the class hoping to learn more about how I can further use technology. The course has not failed me in my quest. Learning about other available word programs was really terrific. Another item of interest to me was how to curb my students appetite to “play around” on the computer when they should be working. I tend to stand at the back of the class so I can see what my students are doing. It is a huge problem trying to stay on task. I did utilize the computer lab last semester, we developed a 3 point perspective drawing. Each group was to research an occupation that utilizes drawing, which were quite a few. We used the computer lab which brought about another whole set of rules and procedures I should have made aware prior to going to the lab. Teaching is a learning experience for me almost every waking moment. I teach middle school 7 & 8th grade Art. We do have some fun, but seriously with all of the standards and rules we have to follow, teaching art is becoming harder and harder. This class is just what I was hoping it would be and more.

1st Class

My brain is going to explode. I find the class exhilarating yet overloading of information. With technology moving faster than the speed of sound,  my concerns are the ability of my students to be able to interact socially, to be able to interact within a group or in various settings, knowing and having the skills to do so admirably. With technology comes many wonderful attributes, but along with that comes the departure of children interacting with each other. Kids spend less time outside playing and more time in front of the latest technology, they are loosing out on a world that offers so many possibilities in one regard. I am all for technology, I embrace it myself but along with that I still maintain physical contact with my family and friends. Younger children are given technology as a babysitter and becoming socially inept. Technology is a great responsibility of which they are not taught how to maintain all the social graces they will be required to hold when they grow up. I might be way off base, but these have been my observations and within my teaching career, I see students who do not have any social skills, little respect for themselves or others, little respect for much of anything. I am not eluding to the fact that technology is totally responsible, it’s not. There are many reasons for what I see is a huge social problem. We must all remember to teach students to be well rounded individuals which house many skills they need to operate in a society that has tremendous pressure.