Day 20

I can not believe that 20 days have come and gone. I look forward to revising my lessons over the next month to incorporate all of the awesome things we have learned in the GAETI workshop. Learning all that I have should bring me out of the stone-age of education and into the 21st century, where my students can learn, succeed, and compete with others world-wide.

Day 18

As we wrap up and get ready to head back to our school districts to unload all this powerful knowledge we've learned, I am processing what I think I'll actually use as I prepare a sample lesson plan that incorporates my favorite tools. There is a lot of information to contemplate and will hopefully digest all of it before school starts. I know 100% that I will be using much of what we have learned over the last 18 days and it will be interesting to see how my students respond to my tech-infused lessons. It will also be interesting to see if they have previously been exposed to these tech applications.

Day 17

I finally learned how to create an infographic!! And it was so easy to do using the Piktochart program. My infographic looked as good as the one's on the History Channel. The audioboo program was easy to use and would be great to upload directions for students when they are absent. That will allow them to get information directly from me, but without consuming instructional time.

Day 16

If I thought I couldn't possibly learn anything new about something I "know" all about, I did. Learning the Power Point tricks today really made me feel silly, but I'm so glad we learned how to do all those things (master slide formatting and pictures). I know I will be using Power Point for sure and today's application tips will save me lots of time and allow me to create some cool presentations.

Day 15

Today, we were able to practice using Prezi, a cloud-based presentation tool. The media specialists from the library showed us how to create and navigate through a presentation then we came back to practice and we all created our our Prezi from scratch. I think with more practice, I will be able to pick up speed and create dynamic presentations when giving information to my students. Learning how to create the web-quest was useful, but I would be more likely to just assign a web-quest that's already created and available online. In order to successfully integrate full use of I-pad in my classroom, I will need all the components (cables, Apple tv, etc,) which I currently do not have. It will be October before we receive our EEF cards, so maybe I will have enough money on card for purchase of needed items.

Day 14

I used the padlet app again today, but Dr. Lee actually showed us how the collaboration tool could be effectively used in the classroom. This is an application that I plan to incorporate in my lesson closures. I will post a prompt and students will be required to write a response. Their postings will allow me to easily assess their comprehension of the day's lesson.

Day 13

I was super excited today to get to hear Mr. Segalini speak about Common Core and how easily we can integrate it into our social studies curriculum. He addressed all of our concerns and gave us some useful websites for resources. This afternoon, we learned about social bookmarking (Scoop) and how it could be utilized for guiding our students research projects. We also created our Canvas accounts and linked up to Dr. Lee's class (getting a student's perspective once Canvas is implemented in my class) I am optimistic that I will be able to navigate Canvas and run an online course for students who are chronically absent.

Day 12

Today's presentation by Ms. Jeannette Bennett was extremely enjoyable and informative. She was able to connect her economic content into every Social Studies discipline, even foreign language and math! Her teaching style is very similar to my own instruction, so I appreciated her efforts. Today we also began to seriously begin our lesson planning that will incorporate all that we have been learning over the last 2 weeks. I will have to spend time this evening thinking more about "how" I want to teach my lesson; just had too many donuts and had a brain spasm. Hopefully tomorrow I can focus better :-)

Day 11

Whether or not school districts implement BYOD policies or provide them to students, the 21st century is here. So the question we looked at today is why some districts have been reluctant to truly and fully implement technology in the classroom. Many suggestions were made to teachers from such districts of approaches they could take to try to bring their school out of the Stone Age!!! The State Dept of Ed gives freedom to each school district to implement their own policies, and superintendents grant that same freedom to building principals, so why can't principals extend the same courtesy to classroom teachers. Treat others like you want others to treat you: that is the GOLDEN RULE.

Day 10

We had a special guest presenter from Texas speak to us today. She walked us through all the categories of technology in the classroom. I even learned how to install and use a QR reader. But then it stopped working. Maybe I'll try another QR app. OH Well! We also all got our twitter accounts up and running. We were able to all follow each other and then a hatch-tag #gaeti2014. I know I can use the QR app readily in my classes, as well as the augmented reality app. Need more practice with that!! I hope to be able to benefit from creating a personal learning network so that I can glean from what others are doing and apply what's applicable in my class.

DAY 9

After completing the second week at Gaeti, I am shocked at how much I've learned, especially in dealing with technology. I have limited computer skills and have become more open to integrating technology into my lessons. Being able to practice what we are learning about, getting hands-on experience, provides a comfort level that encourages me and confidence in applying these skills in my classroom.

Day 8

I was required to testify in court today and was unable to attend any of the morning sessions. In the afternoon sessions, we were introduced to Cade Smith who informed us about the alternative Spring break that he leads college students on. The alternative Spring break incorporates service-learning projects in MS Delta for college credit. The next session was led by April Heiselt and she explained what service-learning is and is not. One main component of service-learning is reflection. This is to occur after the project is completed and helps the learner to reach a greater appreciation/understanding of his/her community. The next session was led by Bobbie Shaffett and she informed us of the personal finance program and outreach education that her office does. Finally, we held a conference call with James Wilcox from USM. He explained about service-learning projects that his students are involved with, especially senior fraud protection. We were able to exchange dialogue with him and provide feedback. Even though I missed half of the day, I feel like I learned more about how to incorporate service-learning projects into my classroom.

Day 7

Today I learned how to use EXCEL and Power Point to create game boards. I didn't really get into the simulations, but I learned that there is an abundance of historical simulation games and even more in the online gaming community. The game boards can be created for any topic, any discipline. I also was able to learn some practical application skills with Power Point and Excel. (Magic Squares, alt+ENTER, Align, B = black out, etc) Also I discovered several online resources that have interactive games, voki.com, thwt.org

Day 6

Today we learned about TBL (Team-Based Learning). We self-modeled the activity through completing the following steps: We read about TBL, took an individual quiz, then took a team quiz and checked our answers with the scratch and win cards. Actually practicing this skill/activity/learning strategy gave me a better understanding of how it works and could envision myself using this in my classroom. Also we covered scaffolding techniques. This helped remind me that not all students come to your classroom at grade-level. Some students think that an index is at the front of a book. Whether simple or complicated, it would be vital to model and think aloud as I give instructions to students. One literacy strategy that I learned and can incorporate into my lesson is WHAT-HOW-WHY (individuals). This strategy teaches students how to analyze how and why individuals develop and interact over the course of the text. The end goal of this strategy is to challenge students to write a constructed response that seamlessly uses embedded textual evidence in their responses.

Day 5

I enjoyed using the Poll Everywhere app and its ability to create a word cloud based on responses. I also liked learning about the crocodoc.org app. With Poll Everywhere, I can gauge student comprehension by posing a question to them and garnering correct responses. With crocodoc.org, students can work collectively on a document analysis, each student's contribution can be measured by leaving comments/annotations on the document, not anonymously. It's a great way to have student-centered leaning groups without having just part of the group doing all the work.

Day 4

We had an interesting and frank discussion about the Civil Rights movement and how best to teach it to our students. Usually, people in MS are very cautious when it comes to discussing our state's racial history. It was nice to hear that teachers, black and white, both struggle with how to best approach such an important topic.

Day 3

Describe your experience with the geocache activity. Do you think you could do something like that or a virtual tour in your class? How? Navigating the campus with the GPS tracker was relatively easy. Finding the cache was fun. This can be used in the classroom as a unit review. The clues would direct students to cities/locations discussed in class, and students would submit their found GPS coordinates. Once completed, teacher would reveal correct locations and discuss what the significance was for each location.

Day 2

HOW CAN YOU USE SPATIAL DATA OR MAPS IN YOUR CLASSES? When studying the death penalty, students can poll community members to see who favor or opposes the use of death penalty. Students can then compare their data to national data and look for demographic trends. After that, students can examine international data trends on use of the death penalty. Students can then propose explanations of the data they uncover and respond to prompts like "Why is the United States the only nation in the Western Hemisphere that still uses the death penalty?" RESOURCES: AMNESTY INTERNALTIONAL (AMNESTY.ORG) DEATHPENALTYINFO.ORG

Day 1

I am testing the rocky waters of the technological world. Though the water is murky, I hope to find my way to full technological integration in my classroom. Any helpful hints are much appreciated. My goal is to know and use as much technology as my 10-year-old!! Then maybe as much as my 10th graders.