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.

Wordle is fun and handy...

Wordle is another useful tool from Web2.0 for teachers. The tool takes a list of words or a paragraph of text and creates a "wordcloud." The most frequent words are given the largest prominence in the cloud. This could be good for finding the most important terms in text, as a study guide, or as a fun introductory game on the first day of school.

Inquiry based projects are open-ended WebQuests

Instead of directing your students through a WebQuest with explicit directions on which websites to visit, you can give the students an inquiry based project. This allows the students to freely explore the web for information. Be sure to instruct students about choosing good websites before cutting them loose. And be sure to ask for properly cited references.

WebQuests are a great way to get your students exploring...

We learned about the uses and different aspects of WebQuesting. We evaluated several science and math related WebQuests. The science group and the math group chose the exact opposite best and worst WebQuests! It was an informative activity in which we learned to recognize and design strong WebQuests for our classrooms.

Today in class we also created a list of useful science related WebQuests. Visit these webQuests to get a guided tour through several websites and receive explicit directions for higher order thinking activities. The WebQuest can be a powerful tool to get students looking at a large body of knowledge and bring them back into a group setting in which they can synthesize all the information that they sorted through. WebQuests can be created on a regular webpage creator or in a Wiki.

Never long for your home computer bookmarks with social bookmarking

Delicious social book marking is a powerful website organizational tool. Access your bookmarks from any computer linked to the internet! Discover new websites that you didn't know existed by networking with other bookmarkers! Visit our descriptive wiki about Delicious and other useful educational tools from Web 2.0.

The collaborative nature of this Web 2.0 Wiki is a good way to approach the presentation of these tools. We have learned about several great tools for the classroom. I will use these Web 2.0 tools to create presentations, photo slide shows, organize bookmarks, and make learning fun.

486 Science Department creates resource Wiki

Today in TPTE 486, the we learned what a wiki is and how to use them in the classroom to collaboratively make useful wikis. The science teachers created a new wiki with information about Biology, Chemistry, General Science, and Physics. These wikis are designed to provide some quality instructional resources for science teachers and for their students. The sites are easy to use and collaborators can work with independent geographies. However, only one person can edit a page at one time. I will use this tool to work create wikis with fellow teachers and with students.

The website that I chose to evaluate was a lemon!

I used the website evaluation form to assess the utility and the appropriateness of a website that a science teacher might use in the classroom. I found website that claimed to be an "online life science video sharing community." I thought at first that it might be a useful tool to view videos about life science and the medical field. I was disappointed by the lack of authorship and administrative monitoring of site content. Thus, I was forced to rate the website as "I would not recommend," because it would take a very critical thinker to sort through some of the misleading or dated information in the videos that are uploaded by users. If forced to use this website in class, I would most likely create an assignment that encouraged the students to seek out videos of very good and very poor content quality, so that they could share them with the class and explain the factors contributing to the quality.

So, the quest for an appropriate website for my classroom continues. I like the evaluation tool because it makes teachers think more deeply about how to locate high quality information and activities for their students.

Wherefore art though a blog?

The purpose of this blog is to create a reflective journal about my summer course in Theory and Practice in Teacher Education at the University of Tennessee. I will be adding weekly updates about the technological tools and skills that I can use in the science classroom.

So far, we have been created this blog, a website, and have been learning to use Google tools. It's going to be an interesting summer! The blog and the website are free and user friendly, but I hope that they are not too limited in their capabilities. I learned that blogs and websites can be useful tools for teachers and students alike. These tools can be used as an organizational tool, a communicative device, and for many other important tasks.

Greetings!

I am Nick Reynolds and I am studying Science Education at the University of Tennessee this summer to complete my requirements for a teaching license. Before I began teaching Biology, Ecology, and Physical Science at Clinton High School, I earned bachelor's and master’s degrees in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Entomology & Plant Pathology from the University of Tennessee. My work focused primarily on research involving biological and chemical control of the invasive forest pests. I have also organized and collaborated on a myriad of projects involving climate change, drivers of biological diversity, arthropod taxonomy, and ecological conservation. For a more thorough introduction, please visit my website.

techsavvyreynolds announces genesis!