It's been a while...

Wow it's been a while since I've wrote on my blog. Let see...I finished fall semester and got surprisingly good grades. I passed my Elementary Ed. class so there will be no more education reflections on here. Well now I'm almost to mid-terms for spring semester and I'm super stressed. I have 3 mid-terms to take this week! It's so crazy! Also for me and for whoever reads this they have started filming New Moon up in Vancover! So it should come out Nov. 20th, 2009. But in the more immediate future...Twilight is coming out on DVD March 21st! I'll be in Moab on vacation but I think I'll have my cousin go buy the 2 disc for me. Then maybe I'll have a Twilight marathon with all my friends! That would be awesome!
One more thing I am super excited about is a book that is coming out in just over a week. It's in a series called House of the Night. It about...of course vampires. Or rather I should say vampyres. It's the story of a vampire fledgeling named Zoey and all the things that happen to her. Just for me I have to say...I hope Erik and Zoey get back together! This is a vid from the House of the Night official website. Now I know they have tattoos on their faces (major turn off) but I try to imagine them without it when I read the book. So anyway enjoy!

A Change! Video of the Week!

So my video of the week is going to be a little different this week. First of all...get ready for this...I'm not doing a Twilight video! This week is going to be a completely different video. For those of you who don't know me and for those of you who do, but don't know...I'm a Britney Spears fan. Not like a huge fan, but I like some of her music. And I'm addicted to her latest video called Circus so I'm posting it for my enjoyment.

Technology Article #2

Technology Article #2-Interactive Math Game
So I found an interactive math game that is hosted by BBC. It helps children review their addition, subtraction or both. It uses lady bugs as a visual aid to help children picture how to add or subtract.
The URL for that game is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/numbers/ch1.shtml
As I researched further I found other websites that contained games for every grade level. There were games for multipication, addition, subtraction, algebra, decimals, etc.
Some other website I found were:
http://www.gamequarium.com/math.htm
http://www.aplusmath.com/games/
I also found a website that had interactions as well as premade worksheets that are broken down by grade so that you can print out worksheets for the students to do that would further solidfy their learning in math. That website is:
http://www.mathplayground.com/

Technology Articles: School is almost over!

Technology Article #1-Podcasting

Podcasting in the classroom can be extremely helpful in engaging students. There are pilot programs going on in major universities like Duke and University of Washington. Teachers saw that students who took the classes that had podcasting were less likely to drop because they could keep up with the material. They also reported that students were more engaged in lectures, projects, and field research by using iPods. The students are also given more of a voice in their own learning. They can receive feedback not just from other students in the class, but from individuals around the country or around the world!

There are additional benefits for the teacher as well as the student. Podcasting is very cheap. It only requires a microphone and a computer with the correct software on it. You can buy a microphone for a reasonable price at Wal-Mart or Radio Shack. There are many programs that can help create podcasts such as iTunes, CCPublisher, and Feedburner (which is blogger friendly).

I could use podcasting in my classroom to record the lectures for those who miss my class as well as providing additional materials to students who want to learn more. I could post the Podcast on Blogger and it would allow others to see what is going on in our classroom. Parents could listen to what I am teaching their students in class. Parents could learn the material along with their students. It would also allow students who had questions on the material to ask them in a Blogger like setting. This could lead to more interaction between students and the outside world, which would ultimately engage them in classroom learning.

Technology Articles: School is almost over!

Technology Article #1-Podcasting

Podcasting in the classroom can be extremely helpful in engaging students. There are pilot programs going on in major universities like Duke and University of Washington. Teachers saw that students who took the classes that had podcasting were less likely to drop because they could keep up with the material. They also reported that students were more engaged in lectures, projects, and field research by using iPods. The students are also given more of a voice in their own learning. They can receive feedback not just from other students in the class, but from individuals around the country or around the world!

There are additional benefits for the teacher as well as the student. Podcasting is very cheap. It only requires a microphone and a computer with the correct software on it. You can buy a microphone for a reasonable price at Wal-Mart or Radio Shack. There are many programs that can help create podcasts such as iTunes, CCPublisher, and Feedburner (which is blogger friendly).

I could use podcasting in my classroom to record the lectures for those who miss my class as well as providing additional materials to students who want to learn more. I could post the Podcast on Blogger and it would allow others to see what is going on in our classroom. Parents could listen to what I am teaching their students in class. Parents could learn the material along with their students. It would also allow students who had questions on the material to ask them in a Blogger like setting. This could lead to more interaction between students and the outside world, which would ultimately engage them in classroom learning.

More of the same in Education class

So this week we are still working on our final projects. I realized that the newsletter had to be double sided and so now I have to type another page for that. That puts me behind the gun on my other projects. But I think I can pull it off and then I'll start working on my brochure.
Thanksgiving Break was restful, but now it sucks to go back to school. And I didn't get to go see Twilight again which is the ultimate tragedy!!! But maybe I'll go this weekend so that I can have a stress reliever as finals approach. I will post a crummy, but way awesome video of the baseball scene from Twilight later when I'm not sick and ready to hurl on the keyboard.

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.