Dusk falls on TPTE 486...

It has been a wild ride through Theory and Practice in Teacher Education this summer. We completed the same coursework in only a few weeks that is normally done over the course of an entire semester. I am very happy with the structure of the course, because as a transitional program student, I have little time to waste. The rubrics and the the course packet were frustrating at first because I am not accustomed to using them. However, they proved to be a useful organizational tool and I will likely employ their use in my classes next year. Dr. O'bannon and Amy Kelly-Graham did a fantastic job introducing us to several very useful technological resources that will improve the interactivity, the instruction, and the learning in my classes next year.

Speed cartin' in action...

We used Windows Movie Maker to tell a digital story. The end product was useful, however, some of the editing features of the program were a bit clunky and frustrating. For instance, if you add transitions after you add music and text, the timing between the images, music, and text are befuddled. So be aware! However, it is still a useful tool. Check out my final product.

Animoto, GoAnimate, Yodio, and Windows movie maker today with Amy Kelly-Graham

Today in class we learned about several tools (Animoto, GoAnimate, and Yodio) that can be used to make slide shows and movies. These are some fun and useful tools to add some spice to some otherwise mundane classroom procedures. The websites are great for teachers and students alike, and Windows Movie Maker is a good tool for a teacher to make short movies about all sorts of subjects.

We can also use Excel to get quick data for formative assessments

Making self-grading quizzes is not just to save time in grading. It is also a great method of gathering data for formative assessments in my classroom! We learned about how to use these quizzes as a quick way to give students feedback about their understanding of classroom concepts.

Do you know the answer?

Cell membrane diagram created with Inspiration

Today, I practiced making concept maps while using the Inspiration software. Concept maps are a fantastic way to help students visualize the relationships between different aspects of a concept. Inspiration is a quick and easy to use software that can make concept maps and other types of diagrams. It is simple to use, but in my opinion it makes the final product weak. After using other software to make similar type of media, the Inspiration does not offer the type of detailed control over fonts, images, and general design as does InDesign or even Powerpoint.

Science teachers complete digital photo scavenger hunt...

In a demonstration of how to obtain, download, resize, and use digital images, we went on a photo scavenger hunt. After presenting the photos, we uploaded them to Picasa slideshows. It was a fun way to get some practice with digital images. Picasa is a useful tool for the classroom and we learned to embed the slideshow into websites or into our blogs. Cool! I have a lot of previous experience taking and editing digital images, so this assignment was a nice review.