First blog post- Reflection of Mod 1

I like that the blog itself is in front of you. It is what is exactly what it is and it is simple. The design of laying everything out seems as if it would be a good place for parents and students along with administration to view and stay updated. In terms of employing strategies, to make web content engaging, I would use everything that the blog space has to offer. I can and will add pictures and videos. It adds an entertainment quality not just for the audience but also for me.

The next questions leads with asking about being comfortable about people reading my thoughts. I feel as if there is an obvious answer here. Yes. I am comfortable with people reading my thoughts. There are two reasons for this. The first being that I am living in the 21^st century as a commoner social media is built on what you are thinking about how people around you can connect to your thoughts. The second is, how else would you be able to spread your intelligence if it wasn’t for other people reading your thoughts. We as people have always written down our thoughts and ideas for them to be shared. It is how religion is passed down and how cake recipes are kept through the generations.

In terms of keeping this as a professional use, again I think the layout is very nice and easy to understand. I like it.

Another One

Have you ever evaluated a website?

Want to?

Do it.

I created another TACKK page to help you learn and evaluate a website.

Enjoy!

 

 

TACKK

I made this.

It’s also about my summer.

But just one moment in my summer.

https://tackk.com/x77rj3

 

I made a beautiful pizza with my significant other. Unfortunately I was unable to post the picture I wanted to use. I think it had something to do with an email. However, I found one from their storage and it comes with credit. I am happy about that.

This is the picture of pizza that I wanted to post. It is much better looking than the one on the page.

 

I can see how this could be useful for when it comes to teaching. It is only one page, nothing there to confuse any body that goes on it, and it is very to the point. I could see how I could even use this in my class because you do not need a special log in to use it. So that is what I liked about it.

It’s Everywhere

It’s something that can’t go away, it won’t go away.

The web, it’s this thing that we are all addicted to.

It could be my mother watching videos on Game of Thrones, or me trying to find out what today’s workout is, or even my friend talking to me about how he wants to learn more about a topic.

He says: Have you heard of Khan Academy? I want to learn more about anatomy before I start my class.

Me: Of course I have heard about Khan Academy!

side note- I’m in Starbucks and the girl sitting behind me in on Khan Academy I think studying for the SAT

I don’t mean to just talk about how Khan Academy is everywhere, but this idea of obtaining information is everywhere. As I mentioned earlier I wanted to know what today’s workout was. In order to do that I had to look it up using the internet. And from there I was able to find out what it was but I had forgotten what one part of the movement was like. So guess what I did, I looked it up. This is the video that helped remind me what it was like:

You do a clean to bring it up, squat all the way down and thrust the bar over head.

Regardless of what else we had to do and how much fun it was, I still had to look it up. Conversations where we ponder about things don’t always come up anymore because of how easy it is to find the information.

Now the goal is to be able to relate this to my classroom. Can this information hub be beneficial to my students?

Of course it can!

I love using google as a tool, mainly because  I have a google account and all the pictures I take end up on my images and I love sharing my pictures with my students. It shows that what we are learning about can happen in real life, be it bugs, a storm, or a curator for a museum.

I goal is to allow my students to also be able to use the internet as efficiently as I do. I don’t want to give them a report to do and all I get back is “picture pending”. I would like them to use the technology to their advantage. I wonder if I do that, if reading would also come easier to them. Second grade, invites a large scale of readers.  I want to help them as much as I can.

Always in my pocket

What is always in my pocket?

I bet it is the same as what is always in your pocket.

It a phone.

And I don’t just have any phone. I have the Samsung Galaxy 7 Edge. Also known as the very cool but breakable phone cause it is made out of glass.

Regardless of the specs it comes with, it is my Personal Computer (PC) that is portable. I can do everything that I can on a computer on my phone. Actually I can power up my laptop to have WI-FI because of my phone. It is a powerful little device. I’ve grown so fond of having my phone as a tool that I still need it when I am off the grid. The quality of pictures is astonishing. I mean come on:

That is instant quality just from a phone. I didn’t have to carry around extra weight, or fix my lens. All I did was whip my phone out and snapped this photo before the sun went down.

Again, my phone is very much so part of my life.

-So as a teacher do I want to make sure that my webpages can easily be seen from a mobile device such as my phone?

OF COURSE!

Honestly, that is what I like to much about Classdojo. 

It is an app that acts as a portal for parents and teachers to communicate on. Students can even join in on the fun to communicate as well. What’s nice about it is that it is very user friendly. Most of the app’s function is all pictures which is all you need because people look at pictures more than they view text. What I like to do too is take pictures of what is going on in the classroom. It’s nice because my students can show who ever is at home what they were doing in school that day.

There are so many memes out there that make fun of how often we are always on our phones. We even get upset with our loved ones when the are on the phone too much. But it really is the best tool that we have around us. Instant gratification when it comes to looking up information. And that is what we like.

With anything there are pro and cons. The mobile learning is great because you can access your information from anywhere, but you are hunched over a screen. The truth is, that is where we are today. We like ease. And technology makes things easier.

Let’s move forward along with where technology is taking us.

I digg it.

a climbing video.

Shout out to my classmate!

I really wanted to share this:

Heading- make em fancy

I realized I needed a new heading.  Because what’s better than making a spring photo look like an old summer photo and then putting words on it? I don’t know. But this was fun. I used an online image editor called: pixlr.com and it is super user friendly.

First I chose a photo. I figure lawn chairs are a good definition of what summer is.

These are GIANT chairs found at Rutgers in the garden.

I noticed this picture was dark and it didn’t look a thing like summer. There’s nothing more that looks like summer than making it look like a memory. This is when I decided to make it look like a vintage photo. And of course you can’t have a vintage photo that doesn’t look like the printing set up had a faulty chemical imbalance. I corrected that by adding a spill.

A boarder was added to give it more of a cool summer effect. Some paper edit background stuff to make it feel more like a memory. Of course: words. How else are can any tell this is summer without adding the word summer.

BAM!

There is was as a full view on my monitor. I have to admit I had fun making this.

I even played around with some other photos. Here is one:

I had a good time playing with the color contrasts. Makes it look that much more epic.

C O D I N G

So earlier this week I learned to code. And I played around on Mozzilla’s Learning Network where I did two projects. First I made a cheaper burger and second I turned the classic keep calm and carry on poster into a climbing poster. I like climbing. Did I have fun with it?

Why yes. Yes I did. Actually I was sitting in the climbing gym with another girl that was studying for a board exam. She was telling me that as middle school kids with myspace we were learning to code. All the copy and paste stuff that we had to do before, we were all just copying code. Then she started going on about how there were other websites that was basically the same concept as myspace but called something else that her friends played around with.

Learning to code wasn’t foreign to me because of that sense. Now, I’ll be honest I followed the tutorials of how to code. I can’t make my own webpage right now and have you play on it. I’m not there yet. I do understand that there is a language that you must follow to build. You have to state what it is, put what you want, how you want it and close it. It came to a point that I was having so much fun that I wanted to learn more and I couldn’t stop showing off to the girl next to me all that I did. Mind you I was also texting my partner non-stop with every step I made. I was having fun.

Now the question comes to… do I want my kids to learn coding. I actually used to teach a coding class to kids. I used to work at this place that was an after-school STEM place and parents with money loved it. I was reading an article that would call this style of teaching code very “poppy”. It was drag and drop. Very easy for kids to get into and feel good about themselves. And it was actually really cool. It is all self-driven learning and the students could choose what kind of game they would like to design or build and play. Those that finished early let me play. There wasn’t must “teaching” going on as must as it was a “learn to follow the directions” program. Kind of like Legos, where you have to follow the script so you can build what is in the picture. The kids loved it. They liked creating, as any kid would. And parents loved that their kids were getting a taste of what the future had.

As the article said however, it was very poppy. Meaning you could relate it to top 40 pop music. It was very to the point and involved a lot of pictures that missed the difficult part of coding. It takes away the art of what actual coding is. Which makes sense. In a different article it said that the point and click of pictures is a good thing. Just like learning a new language pictures help new eyes and new ears learn the body of what the new task is. For example, it is must easier to learn Spanish when there are flash cards versus just talking and trying to catch the words here and there. The introduction is good for learners.

The other argument I saw was allowing the children to be children. That I get. Kids need to play and have outside time. Even talking to fifth and eleventh graders I asked if they got to play outside. I like playing outside, and playing period. There is a reason why I workout and why I go to the climbing gym. I love playing. Bring active keeps me healthy, mind and body and it helps kids too. They need the time to play in the dirt and run around. As a teacher I wish my students had more time to play. Which is why I personally like to add in some daily exercises with the students. So I completely understand the argument of having the kids play. I however know that young minds are the best at learning new things.
I was listening to NPR yesterday with my mother and we were listing to a story about a WIFI company. I don’t remember their name, but they are the guys that first started being well known in airports. They now work on military bases trying to make the internet a thing you can access. Anyway they were saying how they think technology will soon be in more devices around us. Right now we have smart watches and glasses. Pretty soon our world will be driven with devices that need WIFI to operate. The point that I’m making is, I don’t think that the idea of coding will change. In order to have something you need to figure out how to tell it what to do. My second graders for example, you need to program how to raise their hand and not shout out the answer. You need to program them to line up and push in their chair. Or training a dog so they can walk off leash. All these things has to happen. And the same thing goes with the devices. All these devices that we have, they need to know what they can do. Coding will be in our future. So why not have a five year old know how to code. If you teach the kids the right things, we will all be fine and we will have a better future.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that yes. I think coding is a stellar thing that kids could learn.

From Kodable

These are the articles that helped me:

• https://qz.com/691614/american-schools-are-teaching-our-kids-how-to-code-all-wrong/
• https://www.kodable.com/infographic
• https://www.goodcall.com/news/teach-kids-to-code-09226

Burger-tasitc

So… last week I made a video.

This week I remixed a burger!

Burger Changer

Not only did I remix a burger

but I also changed some stuff on a poster we have all grown to know and love… and turned it into a climbing poster.

So ladies and gents keep calm.

Climbing Poster

What About Videos

My Video!

Alright I did it. I made a video. I even took the time to edit it. I have to applaud these Youtube people because this is a job. It takes a lot of effort and time so “high-fives” to all those people that get paid.

Even after sharing my thoughts on the Khan Academy, I still couldn’t get it out of my head. This idea of actually having the students on an individualized learning program. It’s amazing. In fact I even spoke about it with my Vice Principal today. And he said that is where we are headed. That is the future of education. The idea of making videos or playlists as he says really does break it down per student. He said that our district out in about $25,000 on a program that is similar to the Khan Academy. What I like about it, is that we are going to be using this program in the second grade. The program is supposed to cater to each child so the teacher can do the job of real individualized help. This is getting me excited for the upcoming to school year to see what I am learning about come to life.

Videos help people see and hear someone else. You can’t touch, small or taste, but that doesn’t hinder the learning at all. And watching a video isn’t a waste of time. Learners are not statues glaring at the screen. They are thinking, understanding, and figuring out how to relate to what is on the monitor. The website bbcactive.com suggests that students should have a pen and paper ready for note taking, or having the students fill out a worksheet while the video is playing. This way the students have time to reflect on what is really going on. Students need that reflection time. The gears turning and the brain connecting, that is how it sticks in their memory for longer.

I think the best part about videos especially in education is that it truly does make the learning mobile. I used to have a professor that video taped each lesson. He had one screen on the computer where he showed how to do things, and the second screen was on him lecturing. It was great because if we were ever out for a day and missed class, the lesson was still taught (if you watched the video). I think it snowed that year where we had a week off due to the weather and he was still able to move on with our course work. Honestly, I loved it. It wasn’t the best angle of our professor, I didn’t really care about that, I cared about the information he was giving. I liked being able to pause and go to the bathroom. I liked being able to go back when I didn’t hear what he said. It worked for me. And I’m sure it will work for other people too as it becomes the best thing out there right now for education.

This is the future.

 

I digg it.

 

Active, B. (n.d.). Retrieved July 28, 2017, from http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/EducationvideosTenwaystousethemwell.aspx

Editing Images and Confessions

I have a confession to make. I was one of those college kids that played on Tumblr for two years of her life. I know what it is like to post pictures that I have taken and placed it onto the internet. It was cool. I had the option of posting my Instagram photos onto my Tumblr blog. It was nice being able to give myself credit for the pictures I have taken. Also, the blog reached more people so, more people could see it. In my undergrad for an environmental class I remember taking a picture of something, posting it from my Instagram to my Tumblr, searching for it and find it to show the class. It was a picture of the roots of a tree coming out from the ground and the locals were using it as a recycling center for glass bottles. It was funny because it seemed very ironic but it shared a good purpose because it showed the class how people were mistreating the environment around us. In other words, I prefer using my own photos to share on a blog and it shows that I can relate to the words I put up.

As for using creative commons, I have been trained in using google images for the “free of commercial use” and “you don’t have to pay for these copy write picture” buttons. However, what I have learned is that these pictures can be boring. I have had a comment ack saying these pictures are not even visible. I was working with a teammate on my school website. We were finding photos to attach to make our teacher pages more interesting. In order to find the better photos, you really had to scroll down to find them. It was hard. Luckily, my teammate was all about finding cute things, she is a good second grade teacher that loves seeing her students do cute projects, also she adores Pinterest especially with other neat and of course cute ideas.

I have never been a fan of photo editing because it seemed… as if you were promoting being fake. But after playing with Pixlr and Canva, I get it. I like the idea of editing pictures. It doesn’t just make the photo “cooler” but it gives the photo more of an edge that it didn’t have before. Also, I like that idea of being able to create an advertisement using a picture as a baseline. For example, I am a teacher and I have my summer’s off. To help make my summer useful, my partner suggested that I should become a summer tutor. I made my tutor ad using a nice old fashion word document blank template tool. It was very limiting in color and it is very plain. I added a splash of rainbow colors to help people draw their attention to the flyer. That was it. After exploring Canva I noticed that I could have done a whole lot for to make my flyer look at least ten times more interesting. I have learned that photo editing tools actually make pictures better and the systems are both user friendly.