Week 9

It feels SO GOOD to be almost finished.....I've learned so much from this course and thought it's been stressful at times, I'm happy to have been on this voyage. Thank you Michelle for helping me thru this. You were very helpful:)

1. What did you like? Favorite discoveries? Learning to make a blog was my favorite thing I did & making the Voki & the video for it.

2. Least favorite thing? I do not like sitting in front of a computer for long periods of time and that was my least favorite part.

3. How has this journey affected your views on technology? It has opened my eyes how much technology is always changing & how it is so important to keep up with. There is so much out there!!

4. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes fromt his program that surprised you? Hmmm....the unexpected outcome is I feel proud of what I've accomplished taking this course:)

5. What do you think you will be most likely to incorporate into your classroom/library? Being an aide, I don't see me using this but I'm glad to have the knowledge of what's out there!

6. Can you describe your learning experiences in ONE WORD? STRESSFUL!!! Especially stressful today with 2 power outages while trying to complete my course!

7. What suggestion would you make to help us improve this experience? Maybe the only improvement I could see would be not trying to cram so much information in some weeks. At times it got overwhelming.

Week 8

I was so glad to get finished with the pre-test & was quite excited I passed it!! Atomic learning has a lot of great ideas for teachers, but I don't see where I'd use it as a library aide. I feel maybe Bridget could find some things to use Atomic Learning for to incorporate to what is being studied in the classroom.

Week 7

I looked at each of the sites. I liked read-write-think alot. It had a lot of activities to make the student really think and apply his thoughts and be creative.
Wordle was really fun. I think the students would enjoy working with it. Terra Clues was a lot of fun & would help get the students interested in maps. Being an aide, I would not be responsible for planning any lessons, but I would share some of these sites with fellow teachers. These could also be used at home with grandkids:)

Week 6

It amazes me how much stuff is out there! I loved the Kids Zone. There were so many different activities on this site that the kids would be interested in doing daily. I thought the scribble maps was neat. Word sift was fun. These were good classroom aids that would hold the students attention.

Week 5

I think Wikis would be a great asset for teachers and students. It would really save paper as well. For students who are absent they are able to see what they have missed and the teacher knows for sure the have gotten the information. There's no wondering if the student got those missed handouts, etc. It would be a great tool for our staff as well to help out with communication.

Blogs are more of a diary where you can only make entries. But the wiki can be revised by anyone and would be better for situations where other people need to make their additions. The good side of the blog is no one can change it but you.

I created a wiki... http://www.wikispaces.com/user/my/smckelvy

Family Randoms....

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Week 4

OMG! I think it may have worked after all!! It only took all day!!! It DID!!! I'm feeling really great right now!!!! I did it all by myself:) The video I chose is How To Care for Library Books which would be good for the students to watch before they check out books. I thought it was very useful for the library.

Today I created my Animoto video. That was fun. Had no problems!! Just posted some pictures from the family:)

Week 4

Week 3

Week 3 - After having quite a frustrating week at home trying to figure out what to do, I was looking forward to going to our meeting to get everything resolved. But as usual, the internet was moving SOOOOOO SLOWLY it only made me all the more frustrated with this technology course. Michelle did everything she could to help and I really appreciated all her help but we should be able to have access to everything we need while at our workshops so that our questions can be answered while we're there. While at the workshop I was able to set up my voki, thanks to Michelle....After getting home I was able to look at igoogle and play with it and get used to it. I was already familiar with Google Earth and find it to be a very useful tool. I learned today igoogle has a lot of tools on it I was not aware of. Being an aide I'll probably not use these at work but will use some of them at home.

Week 2

Week 2 - This is giving me a headache!!! I learned today what a blog is and I'm excited to learn everything I can. I'm sure with my bottle of Advil close at hand I'll make it thru this technology course. For some reason Mrs. Lew keeps popping up on my blog...what's up with that??? I even changed my blog title & address thinking that would get rid of her name, but it didn't!! MICHELLE!!!! I need you at my house!!! Okay, I will add my Voki at a later date. I hope I can successfully register my blog now.....Wish me luck!

Week 1

Week 1 - I am technology challenged, but I know I need to keep up with new technology in order to help prepare our students for the future. I'm hoping I can be successful at this!!! Students enjoy reading books on the computer & this may get some interested in reading that otherwise wouldn't have been.