Summary of Learning Transliteracy summer 2015

Hi there everyone, I wanted to share my summary of learning with you as I have learned a ton from this class. This class way exceeded my expectation and then some from the beginning. I was a little overwhelmed at first because I never knew if I was doing things correctly but soon figured out that a lot of what I was doing was overthinking everything! I came to realize that all I needed was a little bit of time to understand the task that needed accomplished within this class and I did what I needed to do without being so worried. I am proud to say there is a lot more knowledge in my brain because of the resources I now have from this class and will be taking them with me everywhere I go from now on. 

The tool I used for my summary of learning was screencast-o-matic and it isn't something I have actually used before so I wasn't comfortable at first. However, shortly after listing to other examples as well as the 2 minute introduction on the home page, I was sure I could use it with little to no issues. I'm all about trying new things at least once, so if I was going to mess up I could try again or try something else. i heard about screencast-o-matic in a previous class that I took and didn't quite understand it's capabilities until now. It's similar to voicethread but instead of inserting slides, you just record your own computer screen as well as your voice at the same time. I choose this tool because it seemed easy while allowing me to browse through different things on my computer and not having to copy and save images constantly. I'm a busy woman so it made my life a lot easier.

My biggest take aways from this course were that I am allowed to make mistakes because most things can either be deleted or changed for the better if it isn't good enough. I really enjoyed most everything we had to do for this class and look forward to continue to use the tools given in the future. This is the first class that I within the first week said that I loved the class and look forward to doing more in it every chance I get. Mind you I have had other classes along with this one this summer so I did those first most of the time because I was saving the best for last. There you go Jeremy, this is the best class I have taken thus far and I can honestly say that because yes it's content but it gets my attention from being fun and entertaining. 

I plan to use transliterate practices in my classroom by applying most of the tools available to anyone with my students. For example blogging is so simple and easy it would be dumb not to use it in the future. I hope to have my students blogging every night when they go home about something they learned that day in class or something they will remember forever because of that day. I would also like to connect with parents through twitter (even if my private one) because it's an easy way to communicate whether it'd be an issue they are having or a question their child might have that can't wait until the next day. Does this mean that I'll be connected to my phone or computer most of the time, no but at least it gives the opportunity for parents to rely on me as an educator a little more.

I absolutely enjoyed this class and hope to keep in touch with some people after it's over because how cool to be able to get idea's and give idea's for free through technology!!!

I really hope this video shows up. 

PLN #4-pedagogy, technology, content knowledge

Hi everyone! I knew nothing about TPACK before starting this class. I did know about teaching technology and now implementing it into the classroom will affect your students. I also knew about having content knowledge and what you as a teacher need in order to teach wisely and thoughfully. Lastly I have obviously heard of pedagogy before because that's what teachers base themselves on when teaching a class of their own. What I didn't know is that they should or have been put together to form this thing called TPACK where everything blends together to make out lives as teachers easier. Now, questions I have before introducing technology into the classroom involving this form of education are as follows:
Is TPACK something you can use throughout a school or with multiple teachers?
Is it beneficial to have several teachers using the TPACK system together that teach different subject matter for several different classes?
What are the benefits to students and teachers to using this system?

Some positive attributes to using transliterate practices in the classroom are that students are more proficient in the subject that you are trying to teach because they are able to view things on their own and research according to what the teacher asks. Students are able to type and learn computer skills while researching or looking for information, and they are also using key words so literacy is a  major factor in transliteracy as well. Transliteracy allows for student directed and collaborative learning environments to take place and this involves the students more in terms of education. It is a major way of preparing students for the future like never before.
Downfalls to adding transliteracy skills to the classroom involve not always knowing what students are doing because a lot of older grades are on a computer the majority of the time without observation in order to do research so how do we know students are doing what they should be doing? Another negative to this is is every student able to access technology in all schools because it is such a new thing so a lot of schools are not equipped for 21st century learners. One more issue that might be there is technology as a separate entity or grade for each student might put even more work on the teacher to be responsible for as if they don't have enough to do throughout the day/week/year.

To enhance teaching with technology in the classroom I will include computer work where students are able to collaborate with one another through whiteboard websites to discuss a project they might be doing in class. This is similar to a chat but instead allows for students to talk about what they are going to do the next day in class and every night they would talk about something else. I would also have my students create presentation through stories or books that they create as a group or pair online to make it digital and a little more interesting. Another way to incorporate technology into the classroom is having students create an exit slip for homework and have them put up their answers to the prompt given by me on a discussion board. They would just tell me something that they learned that day and what was the most interesting part of their day. If it was older grades, I would expect a little more and at the beginning of the year I would ease my students into this idea because some might not know anything about a computer.

After learning about TPACK I don't have many questions because in the beginning when I did have questions they were answered. I don't normally have complex questions so they are answered pretty easily through exploration. Something similar to what I expect from my students, especially to have more student directed teaching.
I have shared a link that I enjoyed while looking around for TPACK and it's meaning to help describe it to myself.


http://classroom21.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Using+TPACK+to+Support+Classroom+Teachers?responseToken=088ad5cc75342b4d43e71100f4952b58f

Cool tool review #3- Tagul

Hey ya'll I did my third cool tool review as tagul.com and it is kind of neat. Way out of my own comfort zone but I am happy I did this because it opens up a whole new mindset for my class or in life itself. This website allows you to put any words into shapes. The website has shapes for you to choose from as well as an option to upload your own shape, such as clipart or pictures. You can add any words you want and as many as you want to each shape, as well as repeat words if you need to because you don't have enough. You can choose what font you want the words to be in and from what I could see, it's not optional to have multiple fonts, but they can be different sized words. The site allows you to put the text in any way or layout, such as horizontal, vertical, slanted, crossing words, random, etc. After that you get to choose colors for each word(s), background, and when you roll over the text if it is saved onto the internet. This site allows for open minded experimenting with being able to redo your mistakes easily which is great for someone like me who is afraid to make mistakes that you can't fix.

The way I would use this in a classroom would be in the beginning of the year where I would introduce it to older students maybe 3rd grade and up. I would have students make a tagul out of words that described themselves with at least 10 words included, with the shape of their choice off the website to start. Then we would print them off and hang them up and allow each student to read everybody's and then figure out whose belongs to whom. This would only be simple and a first get to know you activity. I would give my students the first couple of days to do this type of project, because it would be a great way to introduce us to computer working and allow time for my class to warm up to one another while helping each other out.

Students could easily make their own pieces of word art on their own with this website, because all you need is an email address or facebook, twitter, or any other social media to sign in.Given the age, it might be hard for students to do their own so parents can also help and allow students to do something under their own email address. However, if I as the teacher signs in on all computers, the students could easily make their own given that they know letters and can type and read the buttons to press on the website. It's easy to use because everything is self explanatory and you don't have to go to different pages in order to update what work you want to do. The students in my class would be challenged before learning the buttons and exploring the website itself however, it wouldn't take more than 15 minutes to learn about how the website works and then the students could make their own introduction word shape. In general I like this website a lot more than others I have tried and am very happy with what I can up with from this.
here is the link to where you can access the website and pictures from my own:
https://tagul.com