Are we there yet?

I love going on road trips! There's always the thrill of the unknown no matter how well you plan. I love the unplanned conversations, the unexpected events, and the random visits to place we don't know. The road trips are always more fun and enjoyable when you travel in good company. And honestly, it's not what you do, it's who you're with, right? And no matter how great the trip,there's always that one person who asks, "Are we there yet?" Well, this tech class was like a road trip for me. This course was exciting, unexpected, fun, great company, and at times seemed very long because it was challenging! But well worth the trip!~

Just like the road trips, I was very excited to get started. I wanted to learn! I knew I was a snail pace techy and didn't know much, so whatever I got out of it, I knew I'd be better off than when I started. I also knew it to be challenging, but I was excited! I believed I could do it! As the journey progressed, I was overwhelmed with all the "new stuff" I was learning but thoroughly enjoyed all the new knowledge. I enjoyed all the presentations, the conversations and the explorations we had in class. I found all the information to be very helpful and eye opening. Then, slowly, I realized, my perspective on technology was changing. Technology is very useful in the classroom and is useful in teaching and learning.

There were so many new helpful and interesting sites and apps to learn. Most of them were fun and easy. Some of my favorites were the gloster (online poster), chatterbox (app),  Do-ink green screen (app), and the shadow puppet (app).    Word clouds were especially fun and easy to make.  These are some of the new learning I would apply to my teaching.  I think my students would enjoy using these tools and I know they would benefit from using them.  I am not an expert on technology by any means, but I do feel more comfortable using some of the technology and feel I can teach a few things to my students.

One thing I found very hard to do is putting myself out there in the social networking world.  I am an introvert and really am a background kind of a person.  I do not particularly enjoy posting things for all to see or speaking in front of people for all to hear.  This aspect of the class was very stretching for me.  I did not enjoy this, but I know it did make me grow, for which I am grateful.

As I have said in the beginning, a journey is that much better when you travel with wonderful people!  Reflecting back, I think this was fun because of the people.  I couldn't ask for a better group of classmates!  Everyone was so open and always willing to help, letting me know I can come to them anytime. I so appreciate all the support.  As well, I really appreciated the instructor's immediate feedback and encouragement. People always make a difference!

Though the journey was invaluable, it was long.  At times I felt like I was going on the highway with speed bump after every mile. The pace of the course was very fast for a newbie techy like me. And as wonderful and educational as the course was, I wished we could have slowed down and eased over the bumps rather than racing over them.  I felt every bump.  A new task was given before I had a chance to practice and familiarize myself with the old one.  There were many times I had to watch Youtube video to actually figure out how certain sites were used.  So, although the learning aspect was exciting, and learning with friends were fun, I felt drained from the pace of the course.  And I started asking, "Is it over yet?'

In conclusion, I really did enjoy the whole course.  I truly learned so much and have gained a great deal knowledge and skills in technology.  I know I will apply my learning in my teaching as I move forward.  However, I will be quite relieved after class next week.  No more homework...for awhile.

Thank you, Nicole and all my classmates for going through this journey with me!~😊

Tech tac toe, Blabberize and Chatterbox!

Blabberize

Talking animals with funny high pitched voices will always grab students' attention.  It doesn't matter what's being said, as long as an animal is talking students will listen.  So I thought Blabberize would be a great new tool to explore.  Blabberize is an online website you can sign into and create a video with talking animals, people or object.  All you need is a photo.  The first few steps were very simple.  First, you upload a photo of your choice.  Then, you add a mouth piece, which is like a frame and is adjustable with moving points to fit the mouth part of your picture.  After that, you just record what you want to say.  However, on Blabberize this part did not work.  I tried several different method but it did not work.  I used a microphone, rebooted etc.  but it did not work.  It was very easy to use and fun to create, but if it doesn't talk, it's just a picture.  So, I abandoned it and tried something else.

Chatterbox

Chatterbox is very much like Blabberize.  All you need is a photo.  You can use one from your photo library or take one on the spot.  Then all the steps are very similar.  There is a mouth piece with adjustable points to maneuver to fit the mouth on the picture.  Then you record whatever you want to say.  All that gets save and when you play it, the mouth on the photo moves in sync with your recording.  With Chatterbox, you can adjust the rate of speech which lowers or raises the pitch of the voice. If the speech is set at a slow pace, then the voice is low and deep.  And if it is set at a fast pace, the voice is high and squeaky.  This makes it especially fun for kids!

This is a great app to use with students.  It is a great way for students to present and share their thoughts in a unique and fun way.  It also supports oral language development as they express their learning orally.  I have used this with my students before and they really enjoyed creating their presentation.  Many of them had to rehearse several times before they recorded but they had fun putting it together.  And for my students who are still very shy about speaking English in public, this is a good way to have them record to present their thoughts rather than talking in front of their peers.

Tech tac toe,Online Poster/Flyer!

You don't need magazines or glue to make a poster anymore!  Now you can make posters and flyers online by using tools like Glogster!  Glogster is a paid site but you can get a 7 day trial period for free.  You do need to log in to use this site, however, the process is pretty short and simple.  As soon as you log in, you can get started by clicking the big green button that says, "create new glog."  There are many templates to choose from. Choose one you prefer or one that fits your needs.  Then you upload your pictures to the glog. You can choose from your photo library or from the web. This actually takes awhile, so be patient.  Once the pictures get uploaded into the glog, then you can drag and drop the desired images into the boxes, on the template, in the order you wish.  You can choose pictures by themes, categories, and by subjects.  It all depends on what you want in your poster.  There are templates with caption boxes that you can write in as well as video drop boxes.  The range of what you can make of your poster is very broad. The templates range from simple drop and add pictures to add detailed captions and video.  And even with all the options, the Glogster was very easy to use. So, go ahead and make a poster for your class or for yourself!  It's easy as tech tac toe!  

Here are some samples I made.

                                                                                                           

After you've completed the posters to your liking, you can save them.  The saving process is very easy as well.  It asks for title, discipline, subject and grade level.  The saved posters are displayed on the dashboard for access later.  This is helpful when you go back to reuse the posters or if you want to share with others.  There are different templates for different subjects which makes it easy for students to use.  For example, the math template has the boxes labeled above the photo boxes so students can read the heading and understand what the photo is showing.  Another poster template I liked was one made for biographies with the time lines and caption boxes. (See example below.)  I think my students would enjoy using this tool to do research and reports.  I certainly enjoyed working on it.

Tech tac toe, Tagul!

My first Tech tac toe is Tagul.  Tagul is a collage of words.  I first got of taste of word clouds while attending a conference.  We were all asked to sign on through our phone and as the speaker asked questions we were to type in a word that represented our thoughts.  The frequency of the words determined the size of the words.  It was an easy way to see how most people thought based on the size of the words.  I found this very interesting so I decided to look into myself for this tech assignment.
There seems to be many variations of the word cloud collage such as Wordfoto,Word Collage,TagCloud, Visual Poetry, Tagul and many more. I used Tagul for my word cloud. After signing up/in, you have options to select a shape, font, layouts, color and choose preferred words. It can be based on theme, adjective that describes something, ideas, names and whatever theme of words you choose. Wth Tagul, you can choose however many times you want a word repeated.  For my little project, I chose a rainbow cloud and inserted words that started with "s" that describes me.  I chose the colors I like and the background and formed this little word cloud!~  

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Word cloud is a fun and creative activity for students to do as a project.  Students can connect key vocabulary words from a lesson,  list describing words, and even do a book report introducing story elements.  It's good for vocabulary building and listing ideas in a fun way.  There are many apps that are available so look into and try it yourself.  I certainly will be using this with my students soon.

What's Trending Now...

What's trending in education?  Technology, of course!~  Technology is definitely changing education and it is here to stay.  Reading through some research done in educational technology by Project Tomorrow,  it was evident that the use of technology is quickly becoming the preferred trend in education by administrators, parents, teachers and students. First, administrators see the use of technology as a good pathway of individualizing educational plans for students.  They feel is a great strategy in preparing the students for college.  For teachers, using technology is a useful tool for students to use to self-monitor.  And using the data they gather from it, teachers are able to give regular feedback and evaluate students understanding and performance. As for students, learning from online lessons via Youtube and teacher made videos, allows them to learn lessons before they come to class, such as in Flipped Learning I learned about recently.  This method of learning prepares students to do more exploration and project based learning during class, rather than listening to lecture. Other methods students are applying more use of technology in education are emails and texting as of way of asking their teachers school related questions.  And finally, research shows that majority of  parents now a days, prefer to be informed  through technology such as email, texts and online sites.  These surveyed results and other information I read were very interesting but not surprising. If you would like to learn more on these and other related research, you can read  more at Project Tomorrow/Speak Up. 

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But not all trends have favorable results.  Common Sense Research organization did a great job gathering results and raising some concerns on the affects of too much technology. The topics they posted are thought provoking and relevant. As I read through some of the reports, I was reminded that although the movement right now is to implement the use of technology in every classroom at every grade level, and the push for a techy world, we need to remember that too much of any good thing doesn't always reap the best results.  Their articles remind us when technology is over used and over done, it may create more harm than good.  Some of the interesting thoughts to consider were our digital lifestyle and the impacted in our inability to focus, cause family tension due to excessive use of technology, the impact on body image in children and teens, and so much more. These and other  research correlations are important for teachers to read and consider as they implement technology in their classrooms and bring students into the digital world.   

As I read through these reports, I found it to be very informative and thought provoking. I found so interesting, I didn't regret signing up for the site.  I think it's important for teachers and those involved in education to read through some of these reports and really weigh in the affects on students' learning and the benefits it has as well as the potential challenges.   As educators, I think it's important for us to look at researched evidence and be informed teachers who make decision based on best practice.  And remember, with all things, there is a need for balance. And what's trending now, may not be what's trending tomorrow.  

Literacy and Tattoos!~

Growing up in my very conservative home, I never ever considered getting a tattoo!  It was something I just never thought about.  However, after learning about digital tattoos, I realized I have tattoo, a digital tattoo!

  

It was unnerving at first.  As I learned about this, I didn't realize all those sites and social media "stuff" I was getting involved in, left so may imprints for....ever!~  You just never stop to think that all the sites and media connections you visit is actually creating your profile.  It's drawing out a picture of you!

In a way, it was scary thinking nothing is private anymore. Anyone can find information about me, and I can find information on just about anybody I want! This is too much information out there in the open!~ It was a good reminder to be cautious about what I put out there in the digital world.

This is why we need to learn good media literacy skills!  Not only should we be careful about what we put into the media world. We need to learn and be wise about what we get out of it.   The media world manipulates our thinking, our feelings, and our decisions.  Messages that are put out through the media are not to help us.  Rather, they are big companies making money for themselves. It is self serving and deceiving.  These messages create a false belief which causes us to buy, do, and consume! 

To combat this, we need to be aware and think critically on the information we are fed. This is especially important for our young people because they, more than anyone else in history, are inundated with commercial, ads, video games, movies etc.  We need to learn and teach others what these things are really trying to say and their purpose in doing so.

We all need to be alert, be wise and learn to practice good literacy skills!

Lights! Camera! Action!

Recently, there's been a lot of firsts for me.  I joined twitter, started tweeting. I started a blog and started blogging.  This week my first was creating a digital story!  Yes.  It's hard to believe, but it really was my first.

At first, I was really worried about putting a "movie" together.  I had a hard time choosing what kind of movie to make.  It was difficult partly because I had to post it on Youtube.  I had reservations about putting my personal pictures and pictures of my family members out in public.  I had to put much thought into deciding on the topic.  I started a movie about my favorite  person, my niece, then decided I didn't want that.  So, I started one on my friends but didn't want that either.  Finally, I ended up doing one on donuts.  It was about something I liked. It was personal. It was fun! It was a perfect topic!

Although I was worried about putting my digital story together when I began, I found that it was quite easy with imovie.  I was able to upload pictures from my personal photo collection and download images from the internet to make my movie interesting.  It was simple as drag and drop.

The next part was adding music and narration. This was when the challenge began.  Timing the music, ordering the pictures, deciding on the length of each picture was based on my preference and style. So, adjusting and watching, and adjusting and watching was a lot of work. The tricky part was to fit all the pictures to music in the way I wanted it.  I wanted to do it in a certain way, and that really took up a lot of time. The little things that had to be done after the initial set up, such as, altering and realigning and shortening and lengthening and cutting here and adding there, was a lot of tedious work.  The task was not hard.  It was just time consuming.  

When I was finally finished with my production, I was quite pleased and it was fun to watch something I had created.  I wasn't so inspired as I was making the movie.  However, when I saw the finished product, I was motivated to continue making more and thought of other ways to make and incorporate digital stories in my teaching.

Here is my first digital story.  Please take a look!~ And if there's anyone out there that thinks they can't do it, remember, I did it and so can you!~

I love donuts!

Tweet!~ Tweet!~

It's all new to me, this tweeting thing.~ What is tweeting?  Why do people do it?  What is there to talk about all the time?  And why does the world need to know everything about you?  These were some of my thoughts before I joined.  Well, now that I finally signed up and started using it, I got some answers!  

First of all, I thought tweeting was just for teenagers who wanted to be cool.  Or, for the outrageous celebrities who just needed to say... stuff.  However, when I started looking closely into it, reading posts and participating in some of the twitter chats, I changed my mind...~

After signing up for twitter I started following several organizations and people that I knew. I read through their tweets and realized tweeting is not all about ranting and sharing your negative view on things.  Reading the tweets of some of my colleagues and other professional organizations, I realized, twitter is a place where people share their thoughts, their feelings, inform others and share what they know. I learned that in most cases, people just want to be heard, say what's on their mind, and connect with other like minded people. I found this out when I read through some of the ELL tweets and joined the #ellchat. 
  
When I joined the chat, I didn't really know what to do or expect.  So, I just told them it was my first time joining a chat.  They were all so very nice and welcoming.  As the chat got rolling, others signed in and introduced themselves. For this particular chat, there was a moderator who posed questions.  Of course, this being my first chat, I sat back and read all the comments and answers being posted.  Although most of the conversation was directed to high school level teachers, I felt like I was part of the community of ELL teachers all over America. Actually, there were few teachers from overseas that joined, so, I felt like I was part of the ELL community all over the world!~  I think it was then I realized, twitter connects people!~ For teachers who are teaching in other countries or are in jobs where they don't have other colleagues who are in the same situation can totally connect with others around the world and get ideas as well as support by connecting with twitter! I found that I can look up just about anything and there is someone out there with whom I can connect with.  It's a great way to reach out and become a part of a community! I'm probably never going to meet these people, however, I have become "friends" and I am connected to them.

What I appreciated about the twitter chat was, I could join a group, be a part of it however long I want and leave without any obligations or apologies.  It's casual.  It's relaxing.  It's interesting. And I'm learning.  

Although I feel like I don't have very much to tweet, I am trying to get myself to tweet more. It's challenging for me to create a habit of tweeting but I am trying.  And so far, joining twitter and participating in the chats have been a rewarding experience!  I will continue to push myself to put my ideas, my thoughts and maybe even some of my feelings out there!~ Follow me on twitter @sarahlim828!  

These are some of the twitter organizations and people I enjoyed following.

#educationweek is an educational newspaper.  It has many links to articles, blogs, video clips etc. regarding education.  I found this to be very informative.  I can keep up with the latest news.

#spiraleducation is developed by a former 3rd grade teacher who believes in the spiral education from preschool to PHD programs.  She posts her thought on education, traditional teaching, new methodologies and much more.  It's interesting to read some of her thoughts.

#FingertipsEnglish focuses on ELL learners.  It's full of information on how to address certain topics with second language students, new technology that can help language learning and methods to improve vocabulary and grammar.  This mainly focuses on technology support for language learners.

#Seattleseahawks is a great way for me to follow my favorite football team!~  Because I live in Chicago, I often miss the Seahawks games and updates.  Twitter is a great way to follow them and keep update on my favorite quarterback and team!~

Be Active In Your Learning!

One of the great things about being a teacher is that I get summers off, so I can travel and learn about different places around the world!~  
For many years now, I have had the privilege to do some volunteer work overseas. These opportunities have allowed me to visiting many different schools in various countries.  I have seen classrooms of different sorts.  And this has helped me to see some differences and similarities in our teaching practices.  As we look at the idea of Active Learning, I can't help but think how this would look so different depending on where you are and what you have.

In many countries around the world, teaching is still very teacher directed.  It is a one way learning experience where the teacher stands up and lectures to the students.  Most of the time, the students don't say a single word.  They sit listen and write down what is written on the board.  And most certainly they do not talk to one another during a lesson.  The students sit in rows, face forward, and listen.

Many of these classrooms do not have access to computers.  The number of students in a class is usually very high and have vast ranges of ability levels.  In classrooms like this, perhaps Active Learning just means to pay attention and write down note from the board.  Being an active learner in this context, might mean you don't interrupt your teacher during the lecture and listen quietly. Perhaps, in these places, Active Learning is to provide adequate materials to work in school.  However, if you live where I live and teach where I teach, Active Learning would look quite different.

Schools in America have so many resources!  Books, supplies, computers, ipads, and Smartboards, we have it all.  With so much to offer, perhaps teaching in the old traditional way is not the best solution.  With all the resources available, I do believe the way teachers teach can change.   In a culture where students are accessing ipads on a one to one basis, the teaching has to implement more technology to create an opportunity to be more active in their learning.  So, rather than having students all sit in rows and having them listen to a lecture, teachers need to create opportunities to explore and discover for themselves as they find answers.  Using technology to facilitate the students' learning, by expressing creativity and cultivating personal reflections, will allow students to be more involved as they take on the hands on approach to learning.  They will be able to apply their receptive learning to express their understanding.  When students are active in their learning, they are not memorizing facts.  Rather it is expanding the information by applying it to your understanding and expressing it in a matter they understand.  It is individualized.  It is unique.  And it challenges the students to take what they have learned and apply to their learning.  
Also, when students are engaged in active learning, students are sharing and collaborating with peers.  Students learn from one another and this helps the  students learn and retain more.

One of the challenging aspect for teachers in Active Learning is the facilitating factor.  There may be questions and even fear at first, as to how much do I allow the students to be in control of their learning.  Or even what that looks like.  Teacher directed teaching could seem so much easier.  Other concerns could be that the teachers themselves are not that knowledgeable with technology to faciliate, so that can create uneasiness.

Active Learning may not necessarily look the same in all schools.  But, if you are a teacher, and you are lucky enough to teach, then you need to encourage students and facilitate a learning environment so they can be active in their learning! 

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First day of school!~

I am a happy little teacher, working in a happy little classroom with happy little children.  I belong a happy little district and I work with students who do not speak English as their primary language at home.  Of course being a happy little teacher, I'm always looking out for every opportunity to better myself.  So, when this class became available, I decided to sign up!  Because I've always worked in a little classroom, I never had a chance to use the Smartboard or use the cool techie stuff!~  This was my chance to learn and grow!
I had great dreams to become tech savvy.  I hoped I would soar and shine in this class.  But after attending the first class, I'm thinking I bit off more than I can chew!  Yikes!  What am I going to do?!?

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I'm feeling a little lost and scared on the first day of school...