daily+reflections+from+class

Daily reflections from class....

Session 1 reflection [|mosleys] Jul 25, 2011 8:37 pm I really liked todaysmeeet.com. I feel this is very applicable to my co-taught classrooms. I also liked the class tools.net website, as it has many things that I can use for various reasons. The random name picker will allow the special education students to be ready to answer questions, rather than sit back and let others answer for them (which we see frequently). I plan on using the "build yourself wild" website as an introduction activity to my animal unit in my small group science class. It allows the kids to be creative, and then describe in detail the parts of the "beast".

Session 2 reflection [|mosleys] Tuesday, 9:13 pm Many of the things we discussed today (Google, audacity, zamzar, etc) I use already in my classroom. I did really like the picture editing programs (piknik, etc) and will use them frequently. I also liked the sound links, but wish there were more "free" music links to put into presentations. I am looking forward to working with the presentation programs on Thursday. I use Prezi and Glogster frequently with my students and am excited to learn other forms of presentation options to include in my book report think tac toe board :).

Business Day reflection [|mosleys] Wednesday, 7:28 pm I attended LaCrosse Floral. The tour was fabulous... Since I have a brown thumb, I learned a lot about why I can't grow plants successfully. I also learned alot about reasons to give those kids who say, "when will I ever use math." The biggest thing that came out of the business sessions today reaffirmed the reason why I continue to teach social skills to my students. Many of the business people I talked to today stated that social skills and communication contiune to be the biggest deficits of students entering the workforce. Many said that eye contact is missing, as well as 'normal' English writing skills (instead of text message English, etc). As a high school teacher, I continue to "hammer" this into my students- that it is NOT ok to always write in text message language. They don't seem to understand that there is a place and time for that, but only in social situations (like on a phone).

Session 4 reflection [|mosleys] Today 8:40 am Today was very good. I use many of these presentation programs in my classroom. I use Glogster, Prezi and Toon Doo often as it is a great method for differentiation in the classroom. I am very excited about animoto and story jumper as programs to use in my classroom, as it will allow for creativity, even without great reading/writing skills.

Final reflection

[|mosleys] 5 minutes ago This class has been excellent. I have lots of "tools" to take back to my classroom. My favorites were the photoediting and the ones that can differentiate in classrooms (cueprompter, screencast-0-matic, classtools, etc). This class has been very helpful, and provided me pln people to network new tools :)

Thanks for your time in helping with the process.