My PhotoShop Banner & A Survey

Maybe all this talking about memory lately has helped me to jog my own memory. The other day Linda was showing off her banner on her Developmental Portfolio, and I'll admit it, jealous reared it's ugly green head. "I remembered a little bit of PhotoShop from my undergrad," she said . . . and I thought . . . I took PhotoShop when I was in high school . . . so I started playing . . .

Learning & Leading

I think it's great that we're all in the same class but we're all on different levels. In fact, in my conference Sunday morning that was one of my major comments about what I really like about TEAM. I truly feel that over the course of the semester I've grown a lot, and I think that I can credit my TEAM-mates for that growth as much as my professors. Tonight I went from knowing nothing about Dreamweaver, to making a site that I'm pretty darn proud of. http://eev3.liu.edu/herricks/kw/portfolio/

I've never really considered myself to be a computer whiz, but I guess in comparison to some people I am. If today hadn't been a Monday, or if we didn't have class today, I would have been hosting the SMARTBoard workshop at my school. Somehow, when I wasn't looking, I went from clueless Keri to the one who everyone in my building comes to with their computer/SMARTBoard problems.

So as we approach the end of this semester, I look forward to being able to reach out to all of you to help the rest of my school and their technological problems! :c)

Are they remembering things better? Or is it me?

I recently received the technology supplements to The American Journey, the textbook that we use for Social Studies. Overall I have been fairly satisfied with the textbook and the resources which I was initially given in the beginning of the year; however, I am very excited about using the CDs and DVDs to enhance my lessons. At first, the CD itself was very awkward to use. I found it rather difficult at times to navigate and find what I was looking for. After a while though, I became familiar with how the manufacturer organized the files. My favorite part of the CD is that the textbook is interactive. Each page has a sound file, where you can listen to the page being read aloud. Unfortunately the pages are not broken into sections (so if you leave off in the middle of the page today, tomorrow you will have to fast-forward to find your starting-point).
Due to testing and other circumstances beyond my control, I haven’t really had the opportunity to use the DVD in the classroom yet. I do know though, that it has a review game, similar to Jeopardy.
My classroom is a melting pot of learning styles, with the two biggest ingredients being visual and auditory. Now that I have the technology (a SMARTBoard, and the interactive software), I’ve found that my students are much more engaged in their lessons. In addition, it seems as though they are remembering more of what we are doing day to day.
I know not every lesson will make it to my students “long-term memory”. I do hope though, that the fact that I am now able to teach on both visual and auditory levels simultaneously, that more of my students will remember what they have been taught.

Podunkville

My girlfriend lives in Sterling, Connecticut. For those of you who don't know where that is (which, I'm going to assume is EVERYONE), it is in the middle of nowhere . . . I've often joked with her about this and have even called her town "Podunkville". There is no cell service in the entire town; however, they least have Internet access!

Really good friends of our family have lived in Kingston, New York for the past 30 odd years . . . I've never got "good" service in their house, but I could always go outside to make a call . . . where I've been for the past 48 hours has given a new meaning to the term "Podunkville". If you ever want to experience a complete umbilical-cord-like severing from technology go up to Woodstock, New York . . . I've had no cell service and no Internet access! Plus to top it all off, Megan just moved into that apartment (from her parent's home in Kingston), so she hasn't had her land-line phone hooked up yet!


Being that cut off from the world for approximately 48 hours was really strange! Being a child of this era, it's sometimes difficult to see just how much we rely on technology. I remember being asked when I was a freshman in college, what "modern invention" could I not live without . . . I said my glasses, because without them, I'm virtually blind. I guess a lot has changed in the past seven years, I still can't really live without my glasses (or at least my contacts) but there are a few other "inventions" that I'm pretty dependent on, like the cell phone that is attached to my hip 24/7 . . . maybe I should spend more time in "Podunkville" . . . maybe we should all spend a little more time there!

PollDaddy

I created a poll on polldaddy.com . . . I know I'm a nerd (hence the name), but I was wondering how much time all of you spend online during the day.



My poll is better than Linda's because I have a cooler skin! :c)

It's the little things . . .

Overall, I have had a horrible week. It was just one of those really bad stressful weeks . . . you know the kind . . . when it seems like everyone wants something from you!

Thursday I was really starting to feel overwhelmed . . . I overslept, and threw out my back. Somehow I made it in on time and when I got there, there was a letter in my mailbox inviting me to breakfast with Mr. Monereau Friday morning! Talk about scaring me half to death! Apparently I wasn't the only one who got this memo, but it was very surreptitious and generally scared the living-day-lights out of me! After a lovely treatment at the doctor's office (where I nearly hit the ceiling) I just went home and went to bed!

Friday morning came and I went into his office a little apprehensive (even though his secretary told me to relax). Apparently everyone whom he either hired, or tenured got this invitation . . . it was to tell us how (please read the following with a very thick Haitian accent): "[I] hired you or tenured you for a reason. You are good teachers, and I want to keep you here."

He finished off the meeting by asking us if there was anything that we needed, any general support that our AP's weren't providing us. Me, having learned the hard way this year to bite my tongue when it comes to my AP, kept my mouth shut! Then he turned to me . . . (thick Haitian accent again) "And you Ms. Willis, what would you like?"

"Umm"

"Tell me, what do you want?"

"A SMARTBoard!"

"I know, I know."

Well I titled this blog It's the Little things . . . for a reason . . . third period there was a knock on my door. "Ms. Willis, I have a delivery for you!

I am now the proud parent of my very own SMARTBoard! :c)

Photostory

My girlfriend says I totally overuse this word, but I feel I must say that Microsoft Photostory is absolutely AMAZING! I attended the workshop on it this afternoon, and I LOVE IT!

I just spent the past hour messing around with the pictures that I took in the park. I really think it's a great tool, because it's so easy to use. I downloaded it last night, but didn't start using it until we got back from our picture taking expedition today. Less than six hours later, I have made a five minute movie that I think is pretty nice.

I would really love to use it with my students . . . that is if I ever manage to get computers in my classroom . . .

My article

Hey everyone! This week has been quite crazy and I am totally looking forward to my weekend! I just wanted to post this so that you can all see it. Today an article I wrote was posted on my friends webzine, cactus i.v. For some reason this isn't letting my put the link in, so here's the site: www.cactusiv.com
Please read it and leave comments!
<3 Me
PS - Let me know if you "get" the picture!

Fear of Technology

So I decided to show the most technologically illiterate person I knew the "Fear of Technology" video from the TEAM Wiki . . . that person is my mother!
She sat there and smiled and giggled, but I think it was one of those, "I smile because I have no idea what's going on," smiles . . . that sorta scared me a bit!

Today one of my Assistant Principals asked me to create a school website again . . . I told her that I haven't the slightest idea as to how I would even begin such a project, she told me not to worry! That in it of itself worries me!

Computers - Through the years

Yesterday I had a discussion with a friend about the TEAM Program. We talked about how technology has influenced our lives. I was one of the first people I knew to "own" a computer . . . I was a year old and it was my Dad's Commodore 64 . . . I still have it today.

Our generation grew up with this technology . . . in elementary school, weekly we went to "Computers" to play Oregon Trail for an hour and maybe learn some general computer terms. By the time we were in middle school, we had computers in the library and a lab that the teachers could bring us to (if they knew how to use them). Those computers had Internet access, but we generally couldn't access much because we had "BESS", a filter that filtered out just about everything. Fast-forward a few more years . . . we're now the teachers and all of a sudden I find that I'm somewhat out of the loop. I use email and I Instant Message, I own an iPod and have a myspace . . . but I feel that many of my students could have figured out how to make this blog in half the time it took me ! I feel that many people who are just a few years older than I am, don't know nearly as much as me, but at the same time people just a few years younger than me could run circles around me . . .

What am I looking to learn in this program? That's not an easy question to answer. I'm looking to figure out a way to grow with this technology. Over my lifetime we went from having these big huge computers, to being able to walk around with the Internet in our pockets . . . I want to be able to use it to better teach my students about life and the world around them, but at the same time I don't want them to lose sight of the rest of the world. I want to teach my students to be able to embrace this technology and not fear it. I want them to be able to feel like they have the world at their fingertips, because that's what I feel technology has truly given us.