Sunday, September 19, 2010

Week4_Practical Experience_Garage Band

Sunday, Sept 19:Garage Band is a cool tool that I do not have experience with. I hope to continue to learn a new feature as this week progresses. In a earlier class, I did record a pod cast. Pod cast will be a great asset to my AR.


Monday, Sept 20: Not a lot of time this week, but did get an opportunity to watch the video on playing a piano. Very well done. I do not have the keyboard to play, but did learn a few points about music that I did not know before. Not sure where keyboard would play into my AR, but the way the educational video was done brought some ideas to my head.

Tuesday, Sept 21: Played around in the magic garage band. Really neat changes that you can select. From types of music to different instruments to enhance the tunes. Revisited a pod cast that I did in a earlier class. Placed photos in and added background music. Need more time, but I have to finish other projects, maybe later.

Week3_Practical Experience_GoogleDocs

Google Docs is a great tool for sharing documents, presentations and spreadsheets. I have been acquainted with google for several years. The problem is that I have not used this platform to its fullest intent. I was first introduced to google docs while working for the University of California, Davis as the program manager for the Toyota Highlander Hydrogen Fuel Vehicle. Google docs was a great way to share documents with out bogging down the email system. An example of one the first documents shared with me. This was a request for the car to be present at a political fundraiser for Mike Thompson.


Since then I have only used this resource sparingly. Through out this program I feel I am becoming more comfortable with its use and I am looking at ways to use it more in my everyday education life. Our Eastern Connection group, in the EMDT program have used this platform to exchange ideas and collaborate on group projects. This has been wonderful! Even though we are in the eastern time zone, our schedules rarely match up to discuss projects in a chat room.

Google Docs will be very beneficial in my Action Research. This will allow me to share with teachers documents; such as worksheets, spread sheets and presentations. We can collaborate on  making modifications and improvements as the we progress through the project.

Currently I mentor new teachers, the use of Google docs will benefit the distribution of lesson plans and documents. Right now it is difficult to fully implement due to the restrictions our school district placed on all Google products. Slowly, we will be working from our home computers to use this wonderful tool.

Sunday Sept. 19, evening: Use of the spread sheet that was shared by the ETC professor. Made corrections to my blog URL. Paste options took too many entries. Quick fix and URL works.



Monday Sept. 20
Created a student contact sheet for our Career & Technical Student Organization Advisors to use. Let put knowledge into practice.



Saturday, September 18, 2010

BP11_OMM_CHOICES

ONE MINUTE MESSAGE.... CHOICES 

BP10_Comment to Manuel Miranda

Follow this LINK to my comments on Manuel Miranda's review of the Quizinator.

BP9_Comment to Kathy Toth

Follow this LINK to Kathy Toth's review of Spelling City. 

BP8_CHOICES

CHOICES- This site is sponsored by the Florida Department of Education which offers an  online career planning platform where students and adults alike can research career opportunities based on their interest. This platform has all the unique features needed for an in depth review of several career options.  Let us Begin..... The home page to begin your career exploration Journey.

For this review, I set up a student account under the name Jane Smith. Through the sign up page a user may also go to a Adult and Post secondary sign-in.



Creating a portfolio is vary simple. Drop down menus that are specific to county school districts. The account that is created is for a middle school student. 


The account is created notice that Jane is listed in the right hand corner next to SIGN OUT.
The four colors tabs across the top row assist in navigation of the site. The tab color correlates with the background color of the site. Orange tab is the HOME tab where the investigation begins. There are two divisions on this screen shot: "WORK" and "LEARN". The first step that we will take is in the work section, Interest Profiler.. This is an 180 question Interest Survey to assist in finding a career.





Noticed that the background colored has changed for the "WORK" tab. Introduction to the interest profiler. Simple a clicking a button.


A screen shot of one of the questions. Simple answers. The questions may have to reviewed for students with low performance reading skills. The format is easy to follow and fun for the students to think about.



Results are list into two categories.  Sometimes it may result in three, then we must select the two that fit the student. A description helps the student relate words to actions.



Career opportunities were matched from the students interest survey. A simple click will lead a student to explore a  career that interest them. Many are surprised at the outcomes.




For this exploration a Middle School Teacher was selected. The tabs listed on the left will give insight to the career selected. What I really appreciate about this page is that a student really gain in depth knowledge of this career. Everything from Money and Job outlook to education needed. Other links offer definitions of words that are needed in this career, like certification and licensure. The investigation opportunities are endless.





The learn tab list schools and universities that specialize in the career selection. The search can be expanded to list school from out of the state of Florida. Selecting a school again, link the student to an overview of the school, cost of tuition and requirements for acceptance.


Finally, all the students search will be saved in their portfolio for later visitation and future searches. In the portfolio section is a place for students to build resume and write a career research journal. I have used this site for over three years and students really enjoy being able to select and build a portfolio that is centered around their interest.





Sunday, September 12, 2010

BP7_OMM_VoiceThread


A minute commercial on www.findingdelcinea.com

BP6_Comment to Jason Reed


Follow this LINK to comments on Jason Reed's description of Karaoke Party blog (BP4_karaokeparty)

BP5_Comment to Jason Peglow


Follow this LINK to my comments on Jason's description of edublogs (BP4_edublogs).

BP4_findingdulcinea

www.findingdulcinea.com


 In the search to find a web 2.0 tools that will assist students in career research, I found www.findingdulcinea.com. This is a online librarian. The research tools in this website are fantastic, easy to use. It is great to add to your RSS feed as well. It gives a review of this day, an index to support any search that you or a student will be looking for. The search result is given in a cyber encyclopedia format which will give alternate options of connections. Truly a must see for educators of all subjects!




A great feature is "On this Day" For the date of the year it gives several choices of history that a teacher can use in the class room. There is a challenge that teachers and students can use Web research skills to research an event. 


 

A another feature is the Guide to Web Research. This answers many of the questions that teachers and students have about searching the web.  It offers references on site credibility, what search engines to use and social bookmarking tools.



This site offers readers to view blogs written by the staff at finding Dulcinea. The opportunity to review past post as well. 

Overall I found the finding Dulcinea website a useful web tool that I plan to share with my young teachers that I work with. This website offers classroom teachers a secure place to take students to research material.




The site is linked to Sweet Search; a search engine for students. It is guided and safer than using google. I will discuss this site in more detail for the next assignment.