Saturday, October 23, 2010
CEP 800 Podcast
To add to my technology experiences from Study Abroad I am posting my CEP 800 Podcast on here. My assignment was to interview several students at my school to find out their understanding of the Internet and how it works. It was interesting to see that many of them simply stated their answers as my directions on how to get onto and access the Web on a computer, not WHAT the Internet actually does or is used for. It is funny to think that many of the students view the Internet as a place to play games and go to websites, or look up information that you need. But, if you take a look at today's society, this is what the Internet is used for mainly by younger kids. Adults use it for communication purposes, while students are using it to learn about other things in the world. For the Internet to be solely defined as "a networking of computers" does not give it enough gratitude for what it actually is. This "Superhighway" that we use everyday is far more than just computers linked together around the world. It is a linking of PEOPLE all over the globe and a "superhighway" of learning and communication, plus so much more. I learned from this podcast that many more of my students need to see the bigger picture of what the Internet is and how it can be used in our day to day lives. They also need to understand where technology has been, and why it is so amazing that it is such a big part of our lives today, compared to what it used to be.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Google Map Lesson
Here's my travel map on google maps and a short lesson that I would like to do with my students next year! It's a rough outline!
View Larger Map
Google Map/Geography Lesson
Traveling Kids
Since I will be just meeting the kids that are coming into the classroom I want to share with my new students where I travelled this summer and where I have travelled to prior to that! With showing them my map and how to navigate around them I will attempt to teach them how to create their own map using Google maps.
The purpose of this project is to allow them to share with each other and myself where they have travelled to, what they liked about their trip, or their favorite thing there. If possible also adding pictures from their travels that they can get from parents, and bring in to show the class. I would also be able to print out a large map of the world (I work at the copy center and we have a large poster printer) and we can tag with thumbtacks or pictures the places that we have been, and add to it throughout the year.
View Larger Map
Google Map/Geography Lesson
Traveling Kids
Since I will be just meeting the kids that are coming into the classroom I want to share with my new students where I travelled this summer and where I have travelled to prior to that! With showing them my map and how to navigate around them I will attempt to teach them how to create their own map using Google maps.
The purpose of this project is to allow them to share with each other and myself where they have travelled to, what they liked about their trip, or their favorite thing there. If possible also adding pictures from their travels that they can get from parents, and bring in to show the class. I would also be able to print out a large map of the world (I work at the copy center and we have a large poster printer) and we can tag with thumbtacks or pictures the places that we have been, and add to it throughout the year.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Back in Plymouth
Well I never thought I would say this....but I MISSED PLYMOUTH! I came to find out that we get spoiled in Radnor, with new towels everyday, and cleaning! After using a dirty towel all weekend in London, I realized how lucky we are to be staying in Plymouth! I also missed the small city feeling with the University here and everything...knowing where I am is a big thing too!
Today during the PLATE conference I was able to learn and see some GREAT stuff! It was amazing the things that the 2nd years had to offer to show us! I stayed in the same room the whole time, but every session I saw was great!
My first session was on screen capturing using Jing, and it was really cool! You can video or take a picture of you doing something on your screen, doodle on it, record onto it, then send it wherever you want! I think that this would be a great tool to use with my Mom! She sometimes has problems at home in Battle Creek, where I'm from, where she can't figure something out on her computer, using this technology I can make a video with voice of me doing it on my computer, and send it to her to watch! It'd be a great tool to use in the classroom as well and I definitely will be using it next year in my 1st grade classroom to show the students how to do things and get to things on the computers.
The second session I was able to see was the iPortfolio one. The ladies presented on several different ways to produce portfolios including, google pages, voicethread, and iWeb. I was able to get some one on one tutoring in iWeb as well! I had purchased the software and space for my computer but was not able to learn how to use it yet, so one of the year 2 students showed me how she created a presentation and a portfolio using iWeb and how I can publish it to my .Mac space online! This is something I plan on incorporating into my Inquiry 3 project by posting my Inquiry 3 project onto my .Mac space!
The last session I sat in on was one about gaming in the classroom! I went to the one before a week ago and it wasn't very informative, but this one gave me a whole list of sites and ideas to use in the classroom. There were a lot of fun and interactive games for all subject areas that I could definitely use to engage my 1st graders in learning! I'm excited to see which ones would be worth wild to use in a lesson.
Overall the one portion of this program (class wise) that I have enjoyed the most was the conference today. It gave us a real chance to learn about some things that we didn't learn about in our class, and able to interact with the Masters students so they can show us what they know and what we can use for ourselves! It was VERY informative and great! :)
I am going to finish doing my Inquiry 3, or at least most of the way tonight. I am focusing on the technology aspect of the culture here in England, and how my experiences have made me think differently about American culture and our technology compared to here and other parts of the world! It will be in the form of a digital story, and I am incorporating my iWeb that I learned how to use and the ability of vodcasting to put it into my blog so people can d/l it on iTunes from there and watch it!
Today during the PLATE conference I was able to learn and see some GREAT stuff! It was amazing the things that the 2nd years had to offer to show us! I stayed in the same room the whole time, but every session I saw was great!
My first session was on screen capturing using Jing, and it was really cool! You can video or take a picture of you doing something on your screen, doodle on it, record onto it, then send it wherever you want! I think that this would be a great tool to use with my Mom! She sometimes has problems at home in Battle Creek, where I'm from, where she can't figure something out on her computer, using this technology I can make a video with voice of me doing it on my computer, and send it to her to watch! It'd be a great tool to use in the classroom as well and I definitely will be using it next year in my 1st grade classroom to show the students how to do things and get to things on the computers.
The second session I was able to see was the iPortfolio one. The ladies presented on several different ways to produce portfolios including, google pages, voicethread, and iWeb. I was able to get some one on one tutoring in iWeb as well! I had purchased the software and space for my computer but was not able to learn how to use it yet, so one of the year 2 students showed me how she created a presentation and a portfolio using iWeb and how I can publish it to my .Mac space online! This is something I plan on incorporating into my Inquiry 3 project by posting my Inquiry 3 project onto my .Mac space!
The last session I sat in on was one about gaming in the classroom! I went to the one before a week ago and it wasn't very informative, but this one gave me a whole list of sites and ideas to use in the classroom. There were a lot of fun and interactive games for all subject areas that I could definitely use to engage my 1st graders in learning! I'm excited to see which ones would be worth wild to use in a lesson.
Overall the one portion of this program (class wise) that I have enjoyed the most was the conference today. It gave us a real chance to learn about some things that we didn't learn about in our class, and able to interact with the Masters students so they can show us what they know and what we can use for ourselves! It was VERY informative and great! :)
I am going to finish doing my Inquiry 3, or at least most of the way tonight. I am focusing on the technology aspect of the culture here in England, and how my experiences have made me think differently about American culture and our technology compared to here and other parts of the world! It will be in the form of a digital story, and I am incorporating my iWeb that I learned how to use and the ability of vodcasting to put it into my blog so people can d/l it on iTunes from there and watch it!
Weekend In London
So this weekend was an interesting one in London!
We started off with walking around the dorm to find some food and ended up eating at a little Italian baguette shop right around the corner of Conaught, near where the student apartments are! It was a nice little shop, the food was relatively cheap and good, and the gentlemen working there were very courteous and friendly!
We talked for a long time about everything that has been going on with the trip and all the work in the courses. I think we all feel overwhelmed everyday we have class, and after that as well.
Next we walked down into town and found a TON of shops! We went into Sainsbury's Market and it was so BUSY! There were many many people I think getting out of work, but I was able to find some Jaffa Cakes so I was VERY excited! I noticed as well that I since I have been here I have been looking for a sign that says "cookies" but they don't call them cookies, they call them "cakes" or "biscuits"! Another language thing that I learned this weekend! :)
We went out to the Zoo Bar later that night and had a great time! The music was very different, they played a lot of pop songs but techno versions, which I LOVED! Techno is NOT big at all in the US, but here I hear it playing everywhere I go out to! I think the fact that this was also a club/bar made it a bit different from a pub. When talking to some Plymouth people our first week here they considered a club a bar....where as in the US we call a bar...well a bar, then clubs are separate. I found this interesting, but overall the Zoo Bar just seemed like a dance club to me, with a lounge area on the first floor and a dance floor on the second. We then left and went to a small cafe on the corner of the street we were on in Leicester square, and ate some chips! We were able to watch all the people go by, and it was AMAZING to see ALL the people! There were so many! Everyone was going somewhere or talking or yelling, so people watching was very interesting at that time of night!
On Sunday, we headed down to the heart of the city to look for things for our scavenger hunt and do a bit of sightseeing as well! We walked into Trafalgar square and were able to sit and people/tourist watch for a while. I noticed that you could tell right away who were the groups of tourists (many of them) and who were natives to the area. There were people sitting by fountains reading and relaxing, while some children, of many different ethnicities, were playing on the statues and running around with their parents. There wasn't much of a difference that I saw between myself as a tourist and other tourists, of the same, and different, ethnicities. They were curious of where to go, lost, or just baffled, like me, of all the things to do and see. When riding on the Underground I felt the same feeling. Many of the people riding the tube knew exactly where they were going and exactly what they were doing, while you could see others looking at the map, or having one out of their own, trying to figure out what the heck was going on and how to get where they wanted to go! After a few times I felt that this was AS MUCH me anymore...I know next time I go to England I will definitely be prepared and know how to find my way around easier! We then went on a city bus tour, riding on the top of the bus was great! We saw EVERYTHING in London from there! We went on the original bus tour and it was amazing! It was cool and I was able to learn certain things about the culture and history of landmarks that you would not get just walking by them. Like the Hilton Hotel, which was originally supposed to be 2 times larger than it is now, but the Queen disapproved of the height of the original building because it exceeded the height of the palace, and the builders couldn't upset the Queen, so even there was A LOT of money lost, they didn't build it as high as it was supposed to be! This goes to show how important royalty is in the country, and how respected the royal family is.
The transportation is a BIG part of the culture of London I have come to see. This may be true as well for larger cities in the US, I’ve never been to NY or DC though. But I’m sure it’s very similar. In London I also saw a vast array of the arts around the city. Not only is there a TON of museums with art as a theme, but walking along South Bank on the River Thames, I found that there was a large area of arts that I had never experienced before. I saw the people that had great talents using them to make money, which is amazing!
There was a man that wore face paint and danced around and was able to balance these small clear plastic balls all over his body and on his hands. He then picked up another, and another, until he had 4 balls that he was balancing! It was amazing! We then saw some break dancers, and live statues, which i have never seen before. I wonder about how they train to do things like that, and if that is their full time job, or just a hobby that they do on the weekends. We were walking along the river on Monday night, our last night in London and was able to meet a musician that was down there playing her guitar and harmonica. Some of the girls bought her CD and we talked to her for a while. She was very good at what she was doing, and she seemed to love dong it, so that made it enjoyable for us. I always wonder what it would be like to have an amazing talent like that that you could use to make a living, or at least try, but that would be part of the adventure...trying.
Anyways, then Monday the girls and I headed to watch the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. This was an AMAZING ceremony that was great to watch. It was so neat to see how traditional the whole thing was, and to know that this has been going on for centuries, was even more amazing. This is something that dates back through the ages that shows the honor and respectability that there is for the Queen, and how guarding her is one of the most important things in the country. After this we grabbed a bite to eat at Queen Anne's Cafe, which was named after Queen Anne Boleyn, which I've studied before so that was neat! 
Then Tara and I headed to the Tower of London, and saw the crown jewels, which was AMAZING too bad I couldn't take pictures but it was so worth it to go there. Then I stood and took a picture of where Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded, they have a memorial of the other people that have been beheaded there, including Queen Anne's brother, George Boleyn. We also walked through some of the towers, then we headed off quickly, which was a shame, but we hopped on the tube and took it to St. John's Wood stop, which was a stop I had never heard of, but the closest one to Abbey Road. We then took pictures of our adventure there, seeing Abbey Road and the recording studio was amazing! I mean the Beatles took the same walkway across the street as we did! There was also a memorial wall outside the studio where thousands of people have written things for the band, including Tara and I now! :)
I thought that getting off at a different stop on the tube would be scary but it turned out to be a really nice part of London that we were in! The culture there was very high class, including all of the houses and even apartments on Abbey Road were nice!
After all of our adventures during the day all of us girls met back together and got dressed up and went to see the Broadway show Wicked! We ate at a restaurant called JB's Restaurant one block away from the Apollo Victoria Theater, where our show took place. The food was really good and the whole restaurant was very classy. After eating a DEL.ICIO.US meal we went to see the show, and it was AMAZING! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and have been singing the songs (which I d/led on iTunes) since that night! I cried, I laughed, it moved me! :) I definitely recommend it to anyone! I would go see it again! Then we took a walk along the river and talked and just took in the sights of the city. It was beautiful to see the city all lit up at night, and a GREAT way to end our trip there!
I'm starting to plan my next trip to London soon! :)
We started off with walking around the dorm to find some food and ended up eating at a little Italian baguette shop right around the corner of Conaught, near where the student apartments are! It was a nice little shop, the food was relatively cheap and good, and the gentlemen working there were very courteous and friendly!
We talked for a long time about everything that has been going on with the trip and all the work in the courses. I think we all feel overwhelmed everyday we have class, and after that as well.
Next we walked down into town and found a TON of shops! We went into Sainsbury's Market and it was so BUSY! There were many many people I think getting out of work, but I was able to find some Jaffa Cakes so I was VERY excited! I noticed as well that I since I have been here I have been looking for a sign that says "cookies" but they don't call them cookies, they call them "cakes" or "biscuits"! Another language thing that I learned this weekend! :)
We went out to the Zoo Bar later that night and had a great time! The music was very different, they played a lot of pop songs but techno versions, which I LOVED! Techno is NOT big at all in the US, but here I hear it playing everywhere I go out to! I think the fact that this was also a club/bar made it a bit different from a pub. When talking to some Plymouth people our first week here they considered a club a bar....where as in the US we call a bar...well a bar, then clubs are separate. I found this interesting, but overall the Zoo Bar just seemed like a dance club to me, with a lounge area on the first floor and a dance floor on the second. We then left and went to a small cafe on the corner of the street we were on in Leicester square, and ate some chips! We were able to watch all the people go by, and it was AMAZING to see ALL the people! There were so many! Everyone was going somewhere or talking or yelling, so people watching was very interesting at that time of night!
On Sunday, we headed down to the heart of the city to look for things for our scavenger hunt and do a bit of sightseeing as well! We walked into Trafalgar square and were able to sit and people/tourist watch for a while. I noticed that you could tell right away who were the groups of tourists (many of them) and who were natives to the area. There were people sitting by fountains reading and relaxing, while some children, of many different ethnicities, were playing on the statues and running around with their parents. There wasn't much of a difference that I saw between myself as a tourist and other tourists, of the same, and different, ethnicities. They were curious of where to go, lost, or just baffled, like me, of all the things to do and see. When riding on the Underground I felt the same feeling. Many of the people riding the tube knew exactly where they were going and exactly what they were doing, while you could see others looking at the map, or having one out of their own, trying to figure out what the heck was going on and how to get where they wanted to go! After a few times I felt that this was AS MUCH me anymore...I know next time I go to England I will definitely be prepared and know how to find my way around easier! We then went on a city bus tour, riding on the top of the bus was great! We saw EVERYTHING in London from there! We went on the original bus tour and it was amazing! It was cool and I was able to learn certain things about the culture and history of landmarks that you would not get just walking by them. Like the Hilton Hotel, which was originally supposed to be 2 times larger than it is now, but the Queen disapproved of the height of the original building because it exceeded the height of the palace, and the builders couldn't upset the Queen, so even there was A LOT of money lost, they didn't build it as high as it was supposed to be! This goes to show how important royalty is in the country, and how respected the royal family is.The transportation is a BIG part of the culture of London I have come to see. This may be true as well for larger cities in the US, I’ve never been to NY or DC though. But I’m sure it’s very similar. In London I also saw a vast array of the arts around the city. Not only is there a TON of museums with art as a theme, but walking along South Bank on the River Thames, I found that there was a large area of arts that I had never experienced before. I saw the people that had great talents using them to make money, which is amazing!
There was a man that wore face paint and danced around and was able to balance these small clear plastic balls all over his body and on his hands. He then picked up another, and another, until he had 4 balls that he was balancing! It was amazing! We then saw some break dancers, and live statues, which i have never seen before. I wonder about how they train to do things like that, and if that is their full time job, or just a hobby that they do on the weekends. We were walking along the river on Monday night, our last night in London and was able to meet a musician that was down there playing her guitar and harmonica. Some of the girls bought her CD and we talked to her for a while. She was very good at what she was doing, and she seemed to love dong it, so that made it enjoyable for us. I always wonder what it would be like to have an amazing talent like that that you could use to make a living, or at least try, but that would be part of the adventure...trying.
Anyways, then Monday the girls and I headed to watch the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. This was an AMAZING ceremony that was great to watch. It was so neat to see how traditional the whole thing was, and to know that this has been going on for centuries, was even more amazing. This is something that dates back through the ages that shows the honor and respectability that there is for the Queen, and how guarding her is one of the most important things in the country. After this we grabbed a bite to eat at Queen Anne's Cafe, which was named after Queen Anne Boleyn, which I've studied before so that was neat! 
Then Tara and I headed to the Tower of London, and saw the crown jewels, which was AMAZING too bad I couldn't take pictures but it was so worth it to go there. Then I stood and took a picture of where Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded, they have a memorial of the other people that have been beheaded there, including Queen Anne's brother, George Boleyn. We also walked through some of the towers, then we headed off quickly, which was a shame, but we hopped on the tube and took it to St. John's Wood stop, which was a stop I had never heard of, but the closest one to Abbey Road. We then took pictures of our adventure there, seeing Abbey Road and the recording studio was amazing! I mean the Beatles took the same walkway across the street as we did! There was also a memorial wall outside the studio where thousands of people have written things for the band, including Tara and I now! :)I thought that getting off at a different stop on the tube would be scary but it turned out to be a really nice part of London that we were in! The culture there was very high class, including all of the houses and even apartments on Abbey Road were nice!
After all of our adventures during the day all of us girls met back together and got dressed up and went to see the Broadway show Wicked! We ate at a restaurant called JB's Restaurant one block away from the Apollo Victoria Theater, where our show took place. The food was really good and the whole restaurant was very classy. After eating a DEL.ICIO.US meal we went to see the show, and it was AMAZING! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and have been singing the songs (which I d/led on iTunes) since that night! I cried, I laughed, it moved me! :) I definitely recommend it to anyone! I would go see it again! Then we took a walk along the river and talked and just took in the sights of the city. It was beautiful to see the city all lit up at night, and a GREAT way to end our trip there!
I'm starting to plan my next trip to London soon! :)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
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