Education this week and Twilight!!!

So this week in Education class we are doing more of the same. Just working on our final projects. I got the newsletter done on Thursday and the classroom rules done on Tuesday. There's still the light at the end of the tunnel...it's just a very long tunnel right now. I learned how to save things into PDF which was interesting.
And I went to Twilight at midnight on the 21st!!!!! It was so awesome. The best scenes were ths super hot kiss between Bella and Edward (Bella is so freakin lucky!), the baseball scene, and the final battle. I haven't been able to get any scenes on YouTube yet. But I'll keep looking lol. Can't wait for New Moon!!!
I did find an interview on Nightline with the super hot kiss between Bella and Edward! So I'll include that for my ultra cool video of the week until more scenes pop up on the internet.

Light at the end of the tunnel!

We're working on our final projects now. I started working on my class rules and got that done. I just used Microsoft Word and clip art to make my rules. I also figured out how to put the border on which was really cool. I'm going to start working on my flyer and newletter tomorrow. The class is finally winding down. Prof. Waters just said now we're going to come to class and just work on our assignments and she'll help us as needed. We still have to take attendance (blah that sucks). But I can see a light at the end of the tunnel now!

Better Version of Decode! Yay!

So I figured out how to put the really good version of Decode by Paramore. It's the actual video from Stephenie Meyer's site. Yay for me!!

Paramore - New Music - More Music Videos

New Video For the week! And a little sneak peak!

So this week I haven't done tons of searching for Twilight videos. I will include on that I think is pretty good, but it's not as fabulous as some of the other videos I've featured.


Recently I've been cowriting a story with my cousin. It's actually become a series now. The first book we finished about a month ago and it's called Scarlet Night. The latest one we're working on is the sequel to Scarlet Night which is called Tainted Mirrors. I'll give a very brief intro to the story and then explain why I'm featuring this section of the story in particular. Kassie is a college student who falls in love with Adrian who is a vampire. Adrian and Kassie have a brief relationship before he is killed by vampire hunters (that's where Scarlet Night ended). Kassie in the meantime gets pregnant with Adrian's child. This conversation is between Kassie's daughter Jade and a boy named Scott, who is the son of one of Adrian's coven/family members. I picked to have this section of our story featured on my blog because it has a special place in my heart. I really have felt the what Jade is expressing to Scott and I truly do feel that it's important for people to read this and perhaps they have felt the same way. Just to preface the conversation so it makes sense...Jade just came to a new school and hasn't seen Scott in forever. She doesn't remember him or his twin sister (long story) and she's asking him about his twin sister when we come into the conversation.
So enough of my ramblings and on with the section:

“Sorry, I guess I think too much about everything, I didn’t mean to freak you out or anything. So why don’t you tell me what Ariana is like.”
That brought a breathtaking smile to his face. "She's amazing, my other half in a sense. She can do things I've only dreamed of doing. She can heal anything and everything...she can move so fast it's as if time itself stops. She's extremely smart and without her I'd flunk out of school."
Jade smiled. He loves his sister so much. If only I could have something like that. I’ve never felt anything even remotely to what he described in those few sentences. He’s really a lucky guy and whoever he chooses as his mate is very lucky also to get such a guy. “You really love your sister a lot. That’s amazing that you could love one person so much. In just a few sentences…they may be just words to some, but I can feel how much you love your sister. That’s really amazing to see and I wish there was more of that in the world.”
Scott studied her in awe. "Yeah--me too. My parents were never happy with each other...when my father found out what my mother did when she was...hungry he lost it. He left her and then my mom had me and my sister a few months later. Then--when my dad did come back my mom turned into a person I didn't even recognize. The world needs more love in it...otherwise how are we meant to survive?"
“Well at least you have two parents who love you. I mean…my mother I know in some ways she does love me. After all, she didn’t have to take me in and she chose to do so. And my mother’s mate…I can’t even bring myself to call him my father…well he’s a completely different story…” She trailed off.
“But you’re right. The world does need more love in it. I think love can make a person whole. A person can be broken down by circumstances that have happened to them and then when they meet that one special person…when they really know that, that individual loves them more than anything else in the world…that is a really magical moment. And that love can overcome or heal any obstacle as long as both parties love each other more than anything else.” Jade quickly changed the subject.

That's one of the things I've felt. Especially about love. This next section is very near and dear to my heart too. Jade is trying to tell Scott that she needs to stay away from him because it's too dangerous to be around him (again another long story) and she is talking about how she's always been alone.

Scott's hand shot out from his pocket to stop her from leaving. "Me and my sister can take care of ourselves. Don't you think you deserve to have some friends?"
Jade turned to look at him. His skin felt like the finest silk against hers. She wanted to bring it to her face. She wanted to feel his lips on hers. But she ignored her vampire senses and focused on what he had asked.
“You mean a lot to me and I just met you today. I don’t want anything to happen to you guys because you associated with me. I’m destined to be lonely Scott…” she looked down at her shoes so he wouldn’t see the sadness and moisture that was beginning to form in her eyes, “That’s the way it’s meant to be. I’m meant to be alone in this world. I’ve always pictured myself as a lone warrior standing on a cliff overlooking a landscape, being utterly alone in the world. As much as I might want to change it, that’s how it’s meant to be.”

So anyway I just wanted to share that with you and give you a sneak peek into what is going on in the story and really...a look into me. Because a lot of what Jade said in those paragraphs is really how I've felt at one time or another.

Inspiration: Cool tool for the classroom

So this week while Dr. Waters was in Florida getting a suntan (lucky her since it snowed here). We messed around with Inspiration/Kidspiration. I found this program to be really interesting. It is a really useful tool that could be used in the classroom to help enhance a student's learning.
I first explored the diagram section of the program. You could use this to make a tree or web diagram. These features make it really easy to make a diagram and you can use it for really practical purposes. You could use the tree diagram to show family relations (perhaps you could use this in a history class to show the relations of the royal family of England as you discuss the events that happened in each of their reigns).
You could use a web diagram to show a food web for a biology class. They have clip art that would make the diagram interesting or you could use the web diagram function to show students how to make their own webs perhaps as a tool used in writing papers (or at least getting ideas down before you start a paper. And in both webs you can use hyperlinks to further enhance their learning by linking them to interactive or educational websites.
Then there is the outline function. I found that this was a very. very useful feature. You could use this when a teacher is preparing an outline for what they will be teaching in class that day. It could be very useful in conjunction with a slide show that will be shown in class. You can also include the diagram you made in the other feature and transfer it to your notes. And again there is the hyperlink feature that allows teachers to hyperlink to additional material. There is a notes feature that you can use to add notes to yourself that may help a teacher to stress a certain point in the lecture. There is several other basic features like a spell check. The one thing I didn't like about the outline feature is that it doesn't have as many features as it does in like a word processing document which also has an outline feature.

Twilight Video of the Week!

So this week is triple video of the week of sorts. One of the videos was shown to me by my Aunt Karen. It's the scene where Bella gets introduced to the Cullen's for the firtst time. I can't embed the video for this one so this is the link for anyone who wants to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEcvv1b-OZY

The other video is the brand new official video for "Decode" by Paramore. I'm really super excited about this video also. There's some really awesome scenes from Twilight in it. The quality is not super good, but I can't figure out how to get the good quality one I have on here.


The last one is A video I really love called A different kind of pain, a Bella and Edward vid during New Moon. I love it! Made me cry the first time I watched it.

Teamwork: Pros and Cons

This week we did a lot of teamwork on PowerPoint presentations. I found that there were definitely some pros and some cons to working in groups. The pros are that you get more ideas because there are more people to bounce ideas off of. You also had people who really knew how to use PowerPoint and those who did not. You could teach each other how to use PowerPoint in a group like atmosphere.
But there were definitely some big cons also. The groups were rather large and it made it hard to hear everyone's ideas. Also naturally in a group there is one person who naturally takes charge and once that happens the rest of the group just follows and not all the ideas are able to be shared. I would have preferred smaller groups so that there would be more of an equality there. When there is a group project there is also the danger of having to depend on other people and have them let you down. Luckily in this group I participated in, that was not the case. But there is that danger when you are doing a group project and you have to rely on others to pull their weight in the group.
But naturally in applying this to teaching, you have to work with other teachers and administration to get things done. Teachers need to be flexible and able to work well in groups as well as on their own.