CEDO530 - Post #4 - Creating Storyboards

Sorry this is late guys...

I just finished a draft of my storyboard and I have to say what worked best for me was to organize the presentation around the handout. My Pecha Kucha is my technology/LMC updates presentation to our school board meeting...which works out really well since I only get approx. 10 minutes to speak...the Pecha Kucha (6+ min.) design fits in nicely in my alotted timeslot. Anyway, I had a handout already created. So, I went off the handout and pulled out the pieces that I would attached pix to. Much of the voiceover text comes directly from the handout. This process worked great for me - first, create handout; second, create storyboard; third, create presentation. Much easier than I was expecting!

CEDO530 - Post #3 - Picture Superiority Effect

In the book Presentation Zen, I really liked the chapter on Design and Techniques. The image examples on pp. 133-152 were fantastic! It really hit home with me how less is more. I would have to say that 99% of presentations that I have viewed are not good. Too many words, too many graphics, just plain out too busy looking. The book gave me great ideas on what types of graphs are visually attractive and yet get the point across. I also like how many of the examples showed images taking up the entire slide and putting only short phrases over the image...again very powerful.

CEDO530 - Post #2 - In What Ways Can I Use Digital Storytelling in What I Do?

In Digitales, a story idea that was suggested is to "create the story of the impact of a grant on the students". I really like this idea. Throughout the last few years, our district has been part of a consortium with 6 other districts where we write for large grants that focus on technology integration in the classroom. Since participating, our district has received over $8,000 in technology purchases that we have used to assist us in incorporating 21st century skills into our classrooms. Every few months, I have to report to the school board on technology updates throughout the district. Instead of just giving a report on what we've been doing, wouldn't it be cool to create a short digi-story showing the board members how teachers/students are using the technology in their classrooms? Most board members never make it into the classroom and several aren't aware of new educational technologies. I think they'd appreciate a visual story rather than my boring report.

CEDO530 - Post #1 - What do I hope to learn?

I hope that I will learn to break the habit of using powerpoint simply because it is easy to use and is the most common media presentation software available in schools. I have to admit, watching powerpoint presentations is mind-numbing. Almost all of the teachers in our district use powerpoint for their's and their students' presentations. Before I became a teacher, I worked in the private sector and have had to endure 50+ slide presentations during staff meetings, workshops, etc. I had a hard time staying focused during many of those presentations, and now it troubles me to see so many of our students being taught that powerpoint is the only presentation software available. I loved the 2 articles we read for class, especially "Powerpoint is Evil". I agree completely with these articles. However, I am a typical teacher with very little time to learn a new "tricks". Powerpoint is the old standby when there is no time to learn new ways for presentations. So, in short, I'm hoping to learn new presentation techniques in this class so that I can put powerpoint in the past.

CEDO525 Week 5

Strategies 9 - 11: Students learn comparisons the hard way right from the start of school. It doesn't take long before they are comparing each other's clothes, the backpack they carry, the scores they receive on homework, or even cold lunches! Sadly, this type of comparison leads to students having a negative self image, which is exactly why as teachers we need to teach the positive aspects of comparisons. Students need to learn this strategy to help them problem-solve and make appropriate choices in their life. Graphic organizers provide the perfect tool for students in identifying similarities and differences.

While the "homework and practice" isn't one of my favorite learning strategies, it is very popular with many teachers who don't want to think outside the box and rely on the same lessons and assign the same homework year after year. I've been the student of these teachers and can say from my own learning experiences that that type of learning isn't very fun for the student. However, the type of assignments I learned the most from were the ones where I was given a hypothesis to test. When given the chance to test different scenarios, I found that having a hypothesis fail wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it took the negativity out of the learning experience and taught me that making mistakes and learning from them in an educational setting can be transferred to life skills as well.

CEDO525 Week 2

Strategies 1 - 3: Setting objectives for students has always been something I felt I could use more practice with. For many years, I think teachers used the teaching standards as objectives, many times not expanding on the standard...like the old saying goes "teaching to the standard". However, throughout the last year, during the training I've received with PBL, I've learned that if the objectives are clearly stated and also shared with the students during the introduction of the project, I have a greater success with the end product of the project. I also find that having clear objectives makes assessment an easier task.

Providing feedback and recognition is crucial in getting positive results from students. Especially important is providing timely feedback. It can kind of be compared to discipling your child as a parent...if you discipline your child now for him/her coming home late 2 weeks ago, it doesn't have the impact it would have if you had addressed the issue immediately when it occurred. Same thing with feedback, students need to know right away how they are proceeding through a project because the positive reinforcement will motivate them to continue to want to do well as they finish the project.

CEDO525 Week 4

Strategies – Chapters 7 thru 8: My first experience with collaborative learning was using a webquest with my 5^th grade class a few years ago. I didn’t create the webquest; I found it online, however, I can’t remember where/who created it. The primary task was to analyze 3 different brands of chocolate chip cookies and while working in teams, research the nutritional value of each cookie and create a powerpoint of their findings. This 5^th grade class had some very distinct personalities, so I asked the classroom teacher to assist me with placing the students into groups. While we placed students in groups of four, we did not assign students roles. It was their decision to determine who would be the “researchers” and who would be the “reporters”. Each student had to contribute one slide to the powerpoint. As I could only meet with the students weekly, it took about 7-8 weeks to complete the project. I have to admit, there were some conflicts in the beginning, but I was amazed at how the students were able to divide the tasks and how they helped each other. Some were stronger at the research skills, while others were more skilled on creating the powerpoint. They worked well as teams and were very successful at answering their questions within their groups before coming to me for assistance.

I reinforce reading effort with my students with an “I Caught You Reading” program. Each week I select one student from each elementary class who I “caught reading” in the library throughout the week. I interview these students as to why they feel reading is important and to name three books they would recommend to other students. I currently place their photo and interview on the library bulletin board for all students to see, but I can now see the advantage to posting it to our website as well. The only drawback to this would be that we have many parents who have chosen to not have their students’ photos or names placed on our website for online safety reasons.