PowerPoint

My power point presentation is on "SMILEBOX". It's a super cool site that allows you to create all sorts of picture greetings/slideshows, scrapooks, newsletters and so much more. I stated that it's an easy guide to using "SMILEBOX". If you haven't used it, I highly recommend it for you personally and especially with students. The applications and designs are spectacular. Have fun and I hope you enjoy presentation. I am currently trying to upload my presentation to slidesare, however since I'm on a school computer it's taking a very long time, I have been waiting for 15 minutes now. So, I will try to upload it again, when I get home from work tonight. Thank you for understanding.

Reflections on Online Learning

This class has been quite an adventure for me! First of all, it's the first time ever I take an online course. This type of learning experience has been amazing so far. I am now a blogger, when I first heard that term I thought it was just for news or current event forums. Blogging is actually very entertaining and soothing. The amount of information that we have to read is quite extensive and time challenging, but I look forward to reading it every week. I must admit that sometimes, I still print lots of paper, because staring at the computer screen takes a toll on my eyes. However, the wealth of information that Prof. Schmidt shares with us is truly awesome! I have learned about so many new sites and links and video recording myself and blogging. One of my favorite learning experiences was virtual field trips! I still go on some of those sites and daydream about visiting them one day! Creating my website was a little time consuming, but I shouldn't complain cause my web quest has been keeping me up lately, but it's fun! Meeting deadlines always makes me nervous, however constant checking of blackboard keeps my mind at ease and of course I also torture our poor Prof. with constant confirming emails! ;) I would also like to add that this type of learning not only prepares us for our classroom  & our students, but for the real life scenarios where we will have to deal in the workplace. Whether you decide to stay in teaching or maybe change to administration, the tools that we have will benefit us in the future. It has been so exciting to actually share some information with the students I substitute teach and the adult students as well. Even some of the teachers ask me about any new sites or information I have learned about. I am quite lucky and blessed that a few teachers have been so open and candid with their online experiences as well. I must admit, they all love online courses and highly recommend them. I guess these classes are self paced in my opinion and you can basically participate in your virtual classroom as soon as you blog or make a comment on somebody else's blog. I'm really looking forward to one day actually having a real classroom website where students and parents can communicate with me. There is so much information available to students and parents that I would love to share. There is not enough hours in the day to explore the vast resources online with students. Learning online is a life learning skill that children and adults will always have to keep up with  as technology advances every day.

Class Website Revised

I have revisited my webpage and this link should work. Please use the following sign ons:
Classroom Username:  A059143
Classroom Password:  HOPE182
Click on: Parent (button)


http://homepage.scholastic.com/CHBuilderWeb/LoginAction.action

Class Website

Hello, I hope you guys like my website/class page. Since, I don't have an actual class yet most information is fictional. However, this is information I would love my students and student's parents to have. I tried using the google site, but I liked Scholastic better honestly. So, please give me your candid feedback. I was a little disappointed the pictures I wanted to post were too large and the site would not allow it.
On the homepage I added a live news headline tickler. I also added a welcome greeting. I included a student spotlight segment about upcoming Science Fair and Arbor Day. I tried to include a media link for Earth Day celebrations around the world, but it was not able to show live link. However, if you would like to view it, please just copy and paste link under Happy Earth Day on your address bar. I was able to add a calendar on the announcement page. I also listed 2 homework assignments that are due after Spring/Easter break. The book lists, online activities and live resource links were fun to set up. I was able to put some of my favorite ones and I also asked some kids from my school which ones they enjoyed as well. I hope you enjoy them too! Please make a note that you must sign in with a user id and password, I have provided them below. Thank you.
http://homepage.scholastic.com/CHBuilderWeb/LiveHome.do


Sign In:
User Id:      A059143
Password: HOPE182

Web 2.0 Tools

When I first heard of Web 2.0, I have to admit it thought it must be a new website of some sort. Now I feel silly because it' actually so much more. Web 2.0 is actually about revolutionary new ways of creating, collaborating, editing and sharing user-generated content online. This is so cool because it's quite user friendly, so children and basically anyone can utilize it. It's like technology made an easier way to communicate and share your ideas and thoughts. You know longer need to be afraid of trying new technology. Sometimes I wish I was still a kid!
Web 2.0 is not limited to blogs, social networking applications, and wikis. It has an infinite amount of tools and resources for students and teachers and business owners. You can learn how to make a power point presentation, make videos & movies, and  conference calling/podcasting. I actually found a site where you can create your own social network too! You can even do online scrapbooking, how awesome is that! (I love creating scrapbooks, I have one for every place I have visited! such a  goofy nerd I know! :)
There are some my favorite links so far, I am actually doing some work with my CCD students on some of them.
 http://www.smilebox.com/
http://280slides.com/
http://animoto.com/education
http://www.polleverywhere.com/
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
http://www.wordle.net/

Educational Technology Trips

 

About half of all breeding pairs of the blue-footed booby live on the Galapagos Islands, which are a group of islands about 600 miles (965 kilometers) off the coast of mainland Ecuador.

(Tortuga Bay - Santa Cruz-A couple of marine iguanas bask in the hot sun on the beach of Tortuga Bay, near to the main town of Puerto Ayora.)

When I heard about this trip, I was so excited because I have been to Ecuador so many times. Needless to say because my parent's culture and heritage are from Ecuador. More importantly now, because many educational programs/trips in Math and Science are being conducted there, due to Ecuador's vast rainforests,volcanoes, beaches and exotic animal species. It always has been famous for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution that he conducted his research in the Galapagos Islands of the coast of Ecuador.
I am constantly surprised and amazed on how technology has enhanced learning for students and teachers. At one of the middle schools in Kearny, NJ where I sometimes substitute teach a select group of teachers and Montclair State University Graduate students traveled to Ecuador, South America. This trip was a courtesy of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The journey was part of an NSF-sponsored grant program called GK12 Fellows in the Middle, which matches graduate students from Montclair State University with math and science teachers in Kearny middle school classes twice a week. NSF pays for the trip to promote an exchange with researchers and teachers abroad.
They visited the Universidad Tecnologica Equinoccial, a Quito (capital city of Ecuador)based university, and a special school called Millennium El Beatario whose students are chosen by a lottery. They also made long bus trips to the Equator Museum site and to a cloud forest and rainforest, where they spent two nights.
One of the teacher's captured video footage, which she plans to show to her students as part of a lesson on biodiversity – of such creatures as the Galapagos penguin and the dart frog that are “endemic to the region.”
At the Equator monument, a teacher filmed some scientific demonstrations depicting the “Coriolis effect,” how the earth’s rotation can deflect the path of an object in motion – water will flow counter-clockwise north of the equator, clockwise south of it and straight in the center of it. Also: an egg can be balanced on the top of a nail in the “center” of the equator line. A few days before the group left Ecuador, the teachers conducted a live video conference from Quito with Kearny students who watched the hookup in the Kearny High School auditorium. The Kearny kids asked about Ecuadorian food, culture, schools and climate, among other things, and got to chat with several Ecuadorian students. Kearny teachers and administrators will try to assess what impact, if any, the interaction of the graduate interns and classroom teachers had on students’ performance in math and science.


(Monument marking the Equator, on the outskirts of Quito, Ecuador)

Brooklyn High School Teacher

I heard this on the news over the weekend. So disturbing, but true.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/04/01/2011-04-01_brooklyn_high_school_teacher_busted_for_making_columbinestyle_terror_threats_nyp.html?r=news/ny_crime