Dec 31 2006
I have been tagged by Beth to post 5 things about myself. I am not avoiding this task. I will post after the New Year as I am 1) thinking about what interesting things to share with you all, and 2) not at home. When I get home tomorrow I can give this my undivided attention and I will post 5 things you’d all like to know about me 
I also have to decide who *I* will tag!
Have a Happy New Year! See you next year!
Dec 16 2006
I introduced the project described in the post below to my 8th graders today and it went over like a lead balloon……well for most of the class. They complained that it was too hard….I made the mistake of telling them that they could just do it by hand, thinking that they would WANT to do it on the computer and 75% of the class yelled OK! So I changed it to a research report – a 10 page research report and some of those kids still wanted to do that rather than wrestle with the complex ideas of figuring out the upside-down and backwardness of the original project.
So I got to thinking – maybe it IS too hard for them. It took me basically all week-end to figure out which way each portion of each page had to face and what matched up with what. I do think that some of the kids who don’t WANT to try to figure it out could do it, but it might actually be too hard for some of them. So, I am revamping the project. For those who still want to figure out the original project they can have at it. For those who aren’t up to the challenge, I am going to make it a bit easier by having them do the project as a booklet. Microsoft Word has an easy way to print brooklets and I’ll show the kids how to do it and that way they will all still do a computer-based project.
I’m a bit dismayed at the lackluster attitudes of the kids – they seem to just want to take the easy way out. As much as I keep telling myself not to, I keep comparing them to last year’s group. Last year’s group would have tackled this project with glee, enjoying the feeling of figuring it out and completing it. In this year’s group I have kids who CAN do it, but there’s a group who are ‘too cool’ to do the work and they have ‘followers’. A few kids in this class were in my 7th grade reading class last year and they are not quite sure what to make of it all. I’m a very different teacher in reading and computers – I’m probably tougher in reading but those kids know, that if they follow directions and put forth their best efforts, I am a pussy cat. I just wish those kids would tell the ‘cool’ kids how much fun I can be when they do what they are supposed to. I have spent more time handing out consequences in this computer class than any other class for the past couple of years.
At the beginning of the year I told this class that it was my favorite one to teach and that I looked to them to be a break in my day because they were 8th graders and I could give them more responsibility. I had a student ask me yesterday if they were still the bright spot in my day and I had to tell her no – and she was the most vocal about not wanting to try to figure out the project. (oh darn – I just remember that I told that class that I would be making some phone calls home due to their behavior – excessive talking – and I never did. Actually I was going write emails – that has really helped at other times in the year. I can do it on Monday, but I wanted to ruin their weekends Well – I can still ruin their vacations… )
Dec 10 2006
I named this blog Technology Reflections because I intended to use it as a place where I could reflect on my use of technology in my Computer and Reading classes. As I was moving posts back over here from wordpress and reorganizing stuff here I began reflecting on the nature of my posts.I do feel that I reflect on my technology use in the classroom, but I’ve also started to blog about technology use in other areas of my life. That’s OK – I can live with that because often the technology that I encounter outside of school impacts the technology that I use in school.
An example of this is something that The Reflective Teacher posted a while back – The Literature Pocketmod. I thought it was really cool and I began thinking of ways to use it in my classroom.
We have state tests coming up and I decided to use it to review the terms the kids would see on the test. Well, being the geek that I am, I decided that I needed to figure out a way to have the kids do this project on the computer. The challenge was to figure out what went on each page before it was folded and cut so that when it was folded and cut everything would be in the right places.
After a few false starts I think I have it figured out. One big obstacle was how to get text upside down. Word does not allow for upside down text – even if you rotate a text box 180 degrees, the text stays right side up! I solved this problem by typing text in Photoshop Elements and inserting it into the word document as an image and then rotating the image.
I’m in the process of finalizing the template and instructions and creating a sample of my own. I have found that the kids will be able to understand complex projects like this better when they can see a finished product. I’ll come back to this post and link the template and instructions when they are finished.
PocketMod Sample – this is graphic heavy – be patient with the download
I will use this project for my 8th grade computer class. I think it will be too difficult for my 7th grade Reading classes to do on the computer, but I will still have them complete a handwritten Pocketmod to review those test terms.
Dec 10 2006
Back on October 22nd I posted that I was leaving edublogs for wordpress due to an increase in spam comments. Those issues have all been resolved and I am back! The recent upgrades to edublogs have been great and I’m very happy to be bale to resume blogging here!
