Thursday, December 27, 2012

My Posts to 3 Other Blogs!

Three other ECAP Blogs that I have posted to incluuuude...

Hillary's ECAP Blog
http://hillaryecap.blogspot.com/

Life as an ELAR middle school Title 1 Teacher
http://johnpcsilva.blogspot.com/

WoodenNikki
woodennikki.blogspot.com

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Web 2.0 Continued!

Google Reader, Wikispaces, Digital Storytelling, and Prezi!  Check out the Web 2.0 Tab for links and comments :)

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Google Docs


Google Docs!  Google Docs is one of my all time favorite web applications.  I no longer need to have word installed on my computer.  Everything I do, from word processing to Excel sheets, from power point presentations to much more, I am able to do online.  After I save, I can easily access Google Drive (the offline/online side of Google Docs) from any computer any where any time.  And that's not all!  One of the features that I have found to be the handiest of late has been the Google Docs application for my Android phone.  I can read or edit anywhere from one click of a button on my phone.  With Google Docs, I no longer need to transport my external hard drive or flash drive around--all I need is my phone!

Overall rating: 10 out of 10!

Note: My Google Docs link can be found in the Web 2.0 Application tab under my Delicious link.

Discovering Delicious


Delicious?  Maybe not so much.

My journey to discover the different ins and outs of social media and networking sites led me to the website--Delicious next.  On Delicious, you can "add links" to represent some of your favorite websites.  The purpose?  It's basically like your favorites bar on your computer with a few more options.  These options include the ability to share your links, the ability to access your list from different computers, the ability to tag subjects related to your link, and the ability to comment on your link.

Honestly, I don't think this is that special.  Here's why:
  • You already know your favorite websites and how to access them through Google's all handy search bar.
  • You can post hyperlinks on almost any website you are using for others to use.
  • Before I discovered Delicious, I would just email myself links I needed to remember.  This worked fine.  Delicious really doesn't offer anything novel that I can't live without.
  • I feel that it adds unnecessary and time consuming steps to accessing your sites.  (Which is saying something since I'm a pretty organized perfectionist.)
Here's my Delicious Account:


Monday, December 17, 2012

First try at Glogster!

Glogster!

My first attempt at really working with Glogster could not have been more fun!  I've used it in the classroom before with the science students, but this was my first time to go in depth into creating my own.

The layout is very user friendly, and depending on how much time and effort you put in, you can create a well polished, totally unique, and very creative project.  I chose to create a Glog about Pema Chodron--someone who has been of great inspiration to me as of late.

I definitely plan to use Glogster more in the future--both for myself and in my class.  It provides a unique opportunity and a great way to organize information.  I highly recommend it!

My glog can be found in the tab above titles "Web 2.0 Applications" or can be accessed here:
http://thelightninginme.edu.glogster.com/pema

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Stand Back, I'm Going to Try...SCIENCE!

Welcome to my very first post on my very first blog!
First, a bit about myself.  I am currently a student teacher in Texas teaching 8th grade on level and preAP science.  I greatly enjoy my job, and I can't wait until I have a class of my very own!

One of the most unexpected joys that I have discovered in teaching this subject and age group is that lesson planning is a little bit like event planning.  Each week (and each night), I gather all of my materials and plan how I can best convey the awesome field and concepts of SCIENCE (*echoes*) to 13 and 14 year olds.


We do a lot of hands on discovery labs and group activities.  For example, in learning about the food web, they played an interactive game of "food web tag" in which each student was a different member of the food web.  We've done chemical reaction lab, bean bunny genetics, stations labs with gallery walks, whiteboard races, and used galaxy tabs and ipads to create bohr models.  Some of the favorite things we've done include our weekly demos.  These include anything from using rolling chairs to show Newton's 1st and 3rd laws of motion, to flame tests (look like fireworks), to the gummy bear sacrifice (see video and link below).

http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/ci/1988/gummybear.htm

That's all for now!  More to come soon... :)