Glogster

Farewell Curricular Planning Class!

The teacher candidates from this class created wonderful Unit plans. All of them were very proud to present their final class projects. I am sure they all will become great teachers! It is pleasant to think, that I was at the start! I kindled the light! I would like all of them to carry the light and inspire their students to become life long learners!

Never Idle

It has been a very productive Spring break. I did my best to catch up with my 4 classes' reading and grading. I developed the modules of the upcoming second part of the semester for all of my classes. I was excited to participate in an online Smarttech training - Notebook 10 Levels 1 & 2 , Smartboard, Lesson Activity Toolkit. My goal was to complete the Smartboard certification training but March 11th workshop was canceled and March 18th has been sold out.
I would like to recommend my students the online training sessions --- they are free and very effective. Smarttech provided the tools for that -- Bridgit software for viewing the presentations and the toll free telephone provider for listening the presenter's lectures. It worked really well! I enjoyed it. All the information is on the Smarttech Center site. So long you live, so long you learn!

Saying Good Bye to 2008

Happy Holidays with SmileBox!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Become a DEN Star and Teach to the Stars!

I cannot help it! I LOVE to learn and explore. I got an invitation to a FREE online conference on Discovery Educator Network (DEN) website. It was intriguing and promising! All about teaching with Technology. I immediately signed up and joined the conference from 9:00 AM till 3:00PM. I was listening to  the great, enlightening presentations and participated in the chat room with other 200 participants from all over the world. Teachers were sharing their experience with the Web 2.0 tools, their projects, etc. DE provided some flexibility in attending the DEN Virtual Conference - online or in-person at one of many regional events hosted by the DEN Leadership Councils. Here is the conference Flyer. I found out that the conferences happen every week and they issue Professional Development Certificates. What a generous gesture and opportunity for my teacher candidates!
Today's conference featured presentations from Discovery’s own Hall Davidson, Steve Dembo, who spoke about the powerful tools for teachers and students; Jannita Demian and Matt Monjan lead the discussion about the development of the research of H. Garnder on Multipple Intellingences and introduced the different types of Mind (Disciplined Mind, Synthesized Mind, Respectful Mind, and Ethic Mind) and the tools that could be used in the classrooms to feed and stimulate each type. Scott Kinney's presentation was about the Net generation from the point of view of the research on the brain. Fascinating and all presentations were masterfully designed with powerful images and convincing data. Participats were flabeggastered with the shcoking presentation of  Lance Rougeousabout the use of cell phones in the classrooms. All the presenters were involving the audience in their discussions and used tools to demonstrate the polling or surveying tools with the immediate results or video-streaming, etc. I do not regret I registered and spent half of my day on learning and interacting with the DEN stars. Do you want to become a DEN star? Go and explore the Discovery Educator Network site, filll out an application and challenge yourself to learn and prepare yourself for teaching to the Net generation - Digital Natives. Become a DEN star and teach to the stars!

Test your Knowledge about SIM!

Test your knowledge and understanding of Social Interactive Model (SIM), cooperative and collaborative learning. The Quiz has been created with the Web 2.0 tool My Studiyo.

The Importance of Feedback

It is amazing how differently students react to the course content and design, how differently reflect on the assignments. When the students are given an opportunity to voice their opinions and express their feedback on the course design and implementation, some of them use this chance to complain, get frustration out of their chests; but the majority seem to be glad to share positive feelings, excitement about the new learning; many develop understanding of how much technology brings to their personal and professional lives. Confidence and tolerance are the outcomes of this process. Most of the students stop being overwhelmed, feeling scared of using the Internet, stop being afraid of trying new technological tools, opening new accounts, joining new social networks.
I am grateful to my students for their sincere comments, insightful reflections, and constructive suggestions for the course improvement. I am open to this kind of feedback. It makes my teaching better. Isn't it the way to go? Isn't it the way to improve your course design and teaching? I will definitely use my students' constructive suggestions and re-design the rest of the course accordingly.
I am very proud of my students who opened their hearts and minds to the new learning. It will be reflected in their new ways of teaching. Here are some podcasts from the course:
Teaching with TecnologyHa3,
TwT MIDTERM,
PodOmaticTake2,
MidtermReflection, , I am sure more podcasts are coming.