Differentiation Reading Assignment #1

I was really excited as I read about morning meeting. I definitely want morning meeting to be a part of my daily schedule. All evidence provided in the reading gives positive support of the meetings. I have been in several classes and have been able to observe how the meeting works. There are so many ways to conduct the meeting. I want to learn more about how to create a meeting that is beneficial for all students. What I am especially interested in is observing how the class community is affected over time by holding the morning meeting. I also want to learn many different ways to conduct the meeting. I loved how the reading suggests that students become the conductors of the meeting. What a great way to teach students skills and responsibility. The reading was great. I have many thoughts and ideas that I want to examine. I am so excited for this class. I feel it will really help me become well prepared to teach.

WebQuest Learning

WEBQUEST ADVENTURES!!!!!

Let's discover something new together. Have any of you students ever heard of a WebQuest? This is a fun new way to learn and it is just like going on an adventure. One of the fun parts about this activity is that we get to use our computers. You will be presented with an adventure and will be traveling around the World Wide Web in search for information related to your assignment. Here you will discover things that will help you accomplish the task assigned in your adventure. A WebQuest is a fun new way to learn through exploration. The websites listed in the WebQuest will be teacher approved and ready for you to enjoy. Learning can be so much fun! To help you understand more about how WebQuest work I am making a list of websites to visit. They are listed on the top right of my blog. Check them out and be prepared to learn. Over and out.

Field Experience Week 3

Well, it is over now and I can't believe how fast the last three weeks went. Well, Kara and I finished up teaching our lessons yesterday. We taught a unit on Native Americans. It was interesting because we were placed in a extended day school in a core class. The core class is where math and language arts are taught. The teacher was able to meet our social studies needs by having us teach the students how to write a research paper on Native Americans. We were able to get a glimpse of what we will be learning in our language arts class next semester. We were also required to teach some language arts. I feel like I learned many new tricks and found some fun educational games I would like to use in my own class. I really am going to miss working with students. I am not real excited about writing the 1,000 page papers (or what seems like 1,000 pages) we are required to finish the semester, but I have a lot to write about so I better get started! See y'all on Monday!

Field Experience Week 2

We just finished up the second week of our field experience. We will be back on campus at UVU before we know it. I have been having a great time in the classroom. Our cooperating teacher is a great example for us. He show great respect to his students. It has been really fun to see how respect contributes to a synergetic classroom. We have been teaching some lessons, having a great time, and learning a lot in the process. I am looking forward to another week of field work. I know I am learning things I couldn't learn sitting in lectures. I hope things are going well for everyone else. I am really looking forward to hearing about your experiences. Have a great week!

Field Experience Week 1

It is the first week in the field and I am having a blast. I have always loved being able to observe other teachers. I get great ideas that I can't wait to use in my own classroom. I love kids and spending more time with them confirms what I have believed for so long, I want to be a school teacher. It is beginning to feel real. It won't be long and I will get to have a class of my own. I am so excited!
Kara and I have spent the first week mostly observing and helping students. Next week we will start teaching some lessons. There is so much to do as a teacher and I am just trying to learn as much as I can so that I can be a successful teacher.
Hello to everyone in 10-2 cohort A. I miss getting to see everyone. Hope everything is going well for ya'll. I can't wait to hear all of your cool experiences.

Steps to Creating Your Own Digital Story

Students, it is time to get excited. We are going to be starting our Digital Stories. You might be asking yourself, "What is a Digital Story?" A Digital Story is just that, a story comprised of images, text, music and/or voice designed by you. Doesn't this sound fun? The fun part about this is that you get to be as creative as you would like. I have a couple of examples below this post that you can check out.

The first step in creating a digital story is deciding on a topic that interests you or a topic that you would like to learn more about. This is the easy part. The sky is the limit. Be creative. I would suggest creating a story on Thanksgiving or a story about the things you like to do for fun. This is where you get to decide what kind of story you want to share with the class.

After you decide on a topic it is time to start creating a storyboard. A storyboard is used to organize what you want to appear in your story. There are several different formats for storyboards. I will give you copies of the storyboards in class. On the storyboard you want to sketch ideas for the images and the text/voice that will tell your story. The images can be stick figures or simple sketches. Don't spend too much time on making your drawings look perfect. We will discuss in class more specifically what will be involved in creating your storyboard.

Next, you find images to use to tell your story. Download images from the web or use pictures you have taken. Make sure if you get images from the Internet that you give credit to the person or website that you borrowed the picture from.

When you have found your images decide on the voiceover and/or text.

We will be using the program Photo Story 3. This is a very simple program to use and I will walk you throught the program during class. You will be importing your images into the program. Here you will begin arranging the images in the order your story is being told.

After you arrange the images it is time to record on a microphone the story being told. This will probably take the most time. We will work through these steps in class so don't worry.

Finally, when you feel you have your story in order we convert it to a movie. Don't stress. This is going to be fun, and remember, I am with you every step of the way. :)

I am going to provide a list of links that you can surf to learn more about digital stories. Make sure you check out at least 2 of the 3 links I have available for you.