Saturday, June 30, 2012

5363 Assignment 5.9


1.    Describe how you would implement the use of a video project with other teachers in professional development or with students in a PK-12 classroom.
a.    The video my group made was a video rap on photosynthesis. I learned so much about producing this video, and I can see how much fun it could be to make other videos for students, using the students. I can see how giving the students a starting subject and seeing what they come up with could be so much fun. The iPads that the students will have include software such as iMovie and GarageBand as well onboard cameras including video cameras. Taking that software and allowing the students to come up with videos as part of their learning process would be a great learning experience for them as well as a lot of fun.  I used YouTube as a reference for a lot of my learning. YouTube is such an amazing resource to use when learning new things. I was able to use videos from YouTube to learn how to use iMovie, MovieMaker and Audacity. I love being able to watch the videos and go step by step in my learning process. I can pause the video and try it myself, or rewind the video to see it again. Having this at your fingertips allows me learn things I never knew before. As I learned to use the different software I began to realize that this was not only fun, but so useful as far as teaching processes.

2.    Reflect  and report status upon your progress with your campus-supervised Internship activities and your action research project. How many hours have you completed? What competencies and performance indicators have you covered in this campus-based activities? What have you learned? How will you use this learning in the future?
a.    IINTERNSHIP: I have completed all of my internship activities at this point. I worked very hard with my principal and mentor to get it done by the end of the school year because there was a possibility that I would be moved to another campus and we did not want me to have to do the work somewhere else, plus it would have been difficult to keep up with my mentor and she would have had trouble keeping up with my work. I have learned so much in this process. Being an administrator is so much more than anyone who has not experienced it could imagine. There are so many aspects to consider from testing to parents to ensuring that the teachers have enough professional development. It is also interesting to see how test scores affect the school as well as the district. I was not in the dark with this information, but I was not completely aware of the depth of it all. It gives me a new and better respect for people in an administrator role and will also help me understand what is expected of me in the future. I will be able to look at reports such as the AEIS in a better way, and be able to desegregate more than just my own data but the data from the school and the district. I have also completed my internship needed for my Technology hours. This was not too difficult because I worked in the computer lab and was the campus technician at the same time. The technology side of things came easily and getting the hours done was a matter of working it in my normal school day. I enjoyed doing the hours and I gained so much knowledge from looking at the different aspects of the requirements. I was able to show teachers new and exciting ways to implement the TA-TEKS as well as giving my students some newer and fresher ideas about how to use technology.
I am relieved to be finished with my internship, but I look forward to using the knowledge I have gained in my future endeavors. I am moving out of the computer lab into a classroom this next school year and I feel this will give me a better idea how to coordinate the information I learned from the Principal Competencies s well as the Technology Standards. I look forward to using them and becoming a better, more well informed educator.
3.    What parts of your action research project have you completed? What has been successful? What would you do differently? Do you need to change some of your processes or steps to complete your research? What changes will you make if any? What steps are remaining to be completed? Is your work beneficial for your campus and in what ways is your work beneficial?
a.    I have completed the first part of my Action Research project and currently I am on hold for the final part. The first part required me to gather copy count of the last six weeks for a classroom; I chose a 2nd grade class, to compare to the copy count from a “paperless” classroom beginning in the Fall. I will probably use the second six weeks count because the first six weeks will include getting ready for the school year to begin. So for now I am on hold because we are on Summer Break.
b.    I have successfully gotten the last six-weeks copy count, a task that was easy because the teachers have their own individual accounts and they are registered on a computer in the office.
c.    If I were to do anything differently I would have done this in one school year instead of two. The reason for this is that I may not be able to use the same teacher that I chose. I wanted to obtain the copy count already so that I could begin implementing a paperless classroom as soon as possible and since we started out research in March I was able to get a quick count. Ideally I would have tried to do it in the first couple six weeks of a semester, but doing it at the end of one and the beginning of another also sounds interesting.
d.    I do not need to change any processes at this point and I can’t think of any changes I may need to make either. I am sure I will have some tweaking that needs to be done, but I am unaware of it at this point
e.    The final steps for completion are guiding the teacher to use less paper. We need to figure out what can be done in place of making copies. The teacher is going to have iPads for every student in her classroom and we need to come up with ways to use them in place of making copies. We should be able to find apps or websites that the students can access to practice spelling or math instead of doing it on paper. I have also discovered that our local library has ebooks available to the students, and many of them are AR testing books.
f.     I would say that my research is very beneficial. Since all students in the district will have either an iPad or an iPod touch, there are going to be so many ways to cut down on paper use. This benefits the school because the cost of paper is extreme. Our administrators are always telling us that the biggest expense is paper. Not only will this help our paper cost, but it will also give our copiers a break. If there are fewer copies being made then the copier will not have so much work to do. The copiers are always breaking down or needing toner. Less use could cut down on the cost of maintenance, again saving money that can be used towards the students. Also, being an example to students is something that cannot be measured, but will benefit the school, the district and in the long run the world. If students learn how to cut down on paper, why to cut down on paper and the impact it makes on the environment, they will be able to take this with them into their future and share it with others.

Works Cited

SBI. (n.d.). Video Editing Made Easy. Retrieved June 2012, from http://www.video-editing-made-easy.com/download-movie-maker.html

Siegchrist, G. (2012). Retrieved June 2012, from Learn to Edit Video With Windows Movie Maker: http://desktopvideo.about.com/od/moviemakertutorials/tp/mmtutorials.htm

tutpc. (2012). YoutTube. Retrieved June 2012, from Learn how to use Windows Movie Maker like a Pro : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiVyqQmCuw8

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Field Supervisor Web Conference #3 - Final One!!!

June 27, 2012 at 5:30 pm. My 3rd and final web conference with my Field Supervisor Dr. Ralph Draper. Feels good to have this part finished on my way to my Master's degree. There are so many things to remember and so many deadlines to meet that finishing one requirement is a great feeling.
As the meeting began there were a few technical difficulties on Dr. Draper's part but we were able to begin at 5:35 pm. Dr. Draper went through the participants to see what meeting they were on and verifying whether this was their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd meeting. 
Next Dr. Draper asked each of us to discuss our internship and research to see where we were. He also asked that we share any ideas and/or suggestions as to how to make this better for future students. Many of the comments again go back to forms and streamlining the assignments. That has been difficult but it is getting better and I believe that the Blackboard will help.
When it was my turn I agreed that the forms and having the wrong assignments has caused confusion and frustration and hopefully things will get better with the implementation of Blackboard as compared to EPIC. I also agreed that these web conferences are very helpful because we get to see each other as well as have a lot of questions answered in person which makes everything clearer for us.
The rest of the time Dr. Draper reassured us that there would be more web conferences for those that needed to do some more web conferences with the field supervisor and wished luck those of us who are finished . He also made sure that we knew he was always available for anything in the future and to feel free to contact him if need be. We ended at 6:00 pm. Done!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Field Supervisor Web Conference #2

 June 19, 2012 at 5:30. My second Field Supervisor Web Conference. The first thing we discussed was whether or not we had any problems or questions as far as our classes were going, namely our internships and action research projects. One participant had a question about key assessments and another had one about the forms that seem to be wrong. Dr. Draper wrote down the key assessment question because no one really had an answer. He then addressed the question about forms, he told us that any of the forms we use will be accepted, that there are so many out there that the school will accept whichever one we turn in. Next he was interested in how our internship and Action Research projects are going. Each student went through where they were in their own internship activities and action research activities. He was interested in where we were and asked questions of us, seemingly to get to know us a little. I told him about mine, the Paperless classroom, and he stated he was interested in seeing the results of how much paper is used with the iPads compared to without.
He stated that at this point there are only two people signed up for the meeting on Saturday but he will let us know if more show up. Another student stated she would be there so that puts us at three, we only need one more to reply. i am hoping to get it done so I have completed my requirements so I will wait and see what happens, I should know by Thursday. That seemed to be everything so Dr. Draper wished us a good evening. We ended at 6:02 pm.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

5363 Web Conference #3

This week I missed the Saturday web conference live, but I watched the recording. Dr. Abernathy gave us info on the podcast, mainly that we need to have a partner to share our work with so that we can get input and learn in a professional learning community.  She also clarified that we could do a podcast or vodcast, either would work. She also went through the field experience information and clarified that the web conference we have with our field supervisor did not replace the web conferences we have in class, or the reflections we must do for the class. I figured that but it was a good idea to make it clear. She then went on to discuss "flipped classroom" and how to implement it and understand how it works and helps our students. She then explained that the 3,4,5 video needs to be a core curriculum video because the core is what the students get tested on. Luckily my group is already on this track and we have decided on Science. We are to think about areas that our school needs to use to improve test scores, and Science is always an area that needs improvement. She specified that we need to make sure to share our google doc with her and our IA, our evidence of teamwork. The stress was on team, to make sure that we work together and that we all agree with what happens as a team. She said our video should only be 90 seconds but she would take up to 2 min and max 2:30 minutes. She also wanted us to read articles in the resources area to help us understand what we are expected to do. Use video as a technique to engage students and then we can learn to make our own videos with our students. This would be great in my school since our students all have iPads!!! She also told us about 2 places we can use to share files, dropbox and sugarsync as well as mediafire added by our IA.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

5363 Web Conference #2

This week we went over a few more pointers about our work. Dr. Abernathy opened the floor to any questions and concerns we may have. There was still a question of the assignments still being the older ones, but I myself have the correct ones. Dr. Abernathy is sending that information to her technical contacts to ensure that the students all get the right forms. There is a random "Web Conference" assignment listed, but it is to be ignored and should not be there. She also informed us that we will be moving to "Blackboard" in August and this should alleviate any of these types of problems. 

There was also a concern about posting to YouTube and the privacy concerns it brings up. One classmate did not want to post there and embed her file to the ePortfolio because she felt it was too public. Dr. Abernathy stated not to worry, there was no reason to be concerned about our privacy on YouTube, and that this was part of the work we are learning. I gave her advice about how to embed and other classmates also added their input about it. 

Dr. Abernathy also told us we would have to reflect on 3 web conferences that we have participated in this session. I have decided to keep up the routine of reflecting here so that I can remember what was said and then I can come back and copy/paste this information into my assignment.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

5363 Podcast

Creative Commons License
Tutorial-Edit Videos in Movie Maker by Kristi Rogers is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

5363- Digital Video Reflection

Making the Personal digital video was a fun experience. At first I was a little blocked about what to do it on. I wanted something somewhat inspirational and at the same time not be too cheesy. I had already made a 30 second video about my kids and niece/nephews so I didn't want to repeat that theme. Once I settled on the education theme I couldn't sleep because of all the ideas I had.

I made the story board after I gathered the pictures and wrote the script. I am not a big story board fan, but I wanted to make sure I did everything asked of me.

I shared my script and storyboard with my classmate/cohort-mate Nancy and she had some great input.

Making the video was not difficult in and of itself. I used stupeflix, (which I actually chose because I liked the name). It was very user friendly and did not have too many bells and whistles, just exactly what I needed.

HOWEVER, I almost panicked at one point because in the end I found out that I needed to pay a subscription to share my video. This made me mad because I had worked a lot of hours on this and did not want to start over or pay a subscription fee. I found out that I had earned 1 free video just for joining and used it as soon as I could. I did not like the fact that I would have to send requests to my friends and family email to earn more, I never give out their information.  I really hate it when the software states "free", when they only mean free account and the rest costs money, but all in all the assignment is done.

Hope you enjoy and I can't wait to see what my classmates come up with.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

5363- Personal Digital Video "My Educational Journey"

5363 - Web Conference #1

Our first web conference for this course was very informational. I learned more about the requirements that we are needing to work on and I am getting a better grasp on it all. We discovered that the forms listed in the course-ware were incorrect, which is frustrating and seems to keep happening. We were relieved that we caught it early in the week. I also found out that we are going to have to form a group for the work in week 3. We must have at least 3 people but no more than 5. I plan to start working on that as soon as possible.We were told to go ahead and take a look at the work that will be expected so we can begin to plan for it. We also learned a little more about the video expected this week and to wait for the correct forms so we are able to ensure we are doing the assignments as expected.

Field Supervisor Web Conference #1

May 31, 2012 at 5:30 pm. My first web conference with my Field Supervisor (Dr. Draper) went well. He gave us a lot of pointers and made very sure that we felt comfortable asking him for help. Everyone seems to be concerned about the fact that the forms are not easy to find or understand and that we are not even sure we have to correct one. I am so happy my last class gave me everything I needed and that I don't worry about having the right forms.

He was also trying to get an idea what days/nights would be good for most of us to meet. He wanted to make sure that we all were able to take care of our 3 required meetings. We are to wait for him to email us and he is planning to give us ample opportunity to get these web conferences over with. I am excited that we should have these done before the summer is over, one less thing to worry about.
It is nice to have a contact that I can go to if I am lost.