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Hi!
Here are the first drafts of my students summer book reviews via podcast!
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Learning Styles

The first thing that struck me when the above results popped up on the screen was that I am not musical. I actually cannot think of anything I would rather not do than play a musical instrument. The first instrument I played was the recorder and I was so bad at it the teacher made me sit in the back and not actually play, just act like I was playing. Strike one. Second, I played the clarinet and my lips swelled horribly and my teacher made me play it so much that they bled. If my husband ( a huge music fan and an incredible musician) leaves I turn off the music. So do not pull out your guitar if you want my brain in class...
Interpersonal-100 percent. I love committees, groups, cooperation, leadership. I was a Brownie, a Girl Scout, a devoted soccer and lacrosse player (team sport), in drama. I love being with people, and I learn better from others, not so much from books. One teacher I remember in particular was my French teacher in high school. He taught the exact same way every day. He would start by speaking rapid French at us until we felt confused. Then he would introduce to us what he had just said and write the vocabulary on the board. We would rapidly write the vocabulary (and conjugations, etc.) in our notebooks while he simultaneously yelled at us to stand up one by one and repeat what he had said at the beginning. it was almost always impossible, we were singled out daily and ground into the ground if we did not know what we were saying or had the wrong accent and he was just plain mean. I wanted to learn the "language of Love". I had so many romantic notions about French, and then he came into my life. It was exactly the wrong method of teaching for me.
And then there was my Literature of Vietnam class in college. This class to me was perfect. Our teacher engaged us in many discussions, we shared freely, had assigned study groups, and group projects. He allowed us to choose our focus and we were able to focus on this throughout the course. He was amazing, and Vietnam Lit. remains one of my favorite genres today, despite the horrifying content.

What should our focus be to try and incorporate everyone?
I think the key to this must be allowing for the students to have a certain amount of choice. I often start the year in fairly rigid literature circles (I choose the students, the books, the activities). I then give a little more slack (they choose the group, I choose the book). It keeps going like that until some students are off in a corner reading their own book, creating their own goals and making up their own projects and another group has taken over the big group desk and vociferously discussing the book and deicing what they should do next. I see a big improvement in attitudes toward reading at the end of the year when the students have made their own decisions. I have been trying over the last few years to step away from always doing group work (because I am so interpersonal I think they all are too..). But I have realized that some students really do prefer to work on their own, and what they produce is quality. I have no idea how to relate or add music into my classroom, but I have never discouraged a project if it is musical.

Creative Commons Lab

Photo Attribution:

Original image: "Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatial"
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/5062020446_b58e6c7b42.jpg
by:David Thibault

Released under an Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

What a process to learn! I have been citing photos incorrectly for years! I have been teaching students to do it improperly for years as well. I have to say this is the lesson I learned the most on. It did make me feel better that most of the articles talked about just that, the fact that many teachers simply do not know how to properly cite photos. Excellent lesson CEP 810!
Now on to the real question, how will this impact what I teach and my curriculum? Creative Commons will be thoroughly introduced next year along with proper citation. I think it may be hard for some fifth graders to wrap their heads around which is why in my classroom we almost exclusively used photos that we have bought rights to. Our library subscribes to a data base (Image Quest from Britannica) that we use a lot when we are trying to make something quickly. However, each year we teach a major research paper and use Noodlebib to run citations of books, magazines and online research materials, I believe it only makes sense to add this into the lessons and require properly cited photos in their final paper as well.
Here is a link to my Picasa album where I have properly licensed my own photos from India.
And here is a link to my favorite picture that I posted...

PC Maintenance and Security

Our assignment was to watch a lot of instructional videos on PC maintenance and Security. I watched most of them as I feel that, admittedly, I am a very tech orientated person but I think this is an area I am lacking in. What amazed me the most about what I learned was that so much of this is extremely easy. When I chose the tutorials to share,I focused on the items that struck me as having the ability to be completed immediately, have excellent results, and be easy.
Here are the instructions for this assignment and the questions are answered below.

Tutorial Number 1
1. Using msconfig to speed up your PC's startup
2. I learned that I could be more in control of what happens when my computer starts up by simply going to my Start-Run- and typing msconfig.
3.I also learned that there is a website to go to that will help you figure out if a start up item is necessary. I am always a little terrified to cancel things from start up in case my computer does not start up properly.

Tutorial Number 2
1. Using the Quick Launch toolbar
2. I learned how to customize the task bar and quickly go from one program to another. I immediately applied this to my work computer and was really excited by how quickly I could open a program.
3. That you simply had to create a shortcut and drag it onto the task bar in order to add a program, or even a document.

Tutorial Number 3
1. Optimizing your folders for better viewing of files
2. I have long been annoyed with the fact that the view of my folders never seems to be the right view. I prefer the list view, but it does not like remaining in that view.
3. I learned how easy it was to create a default view for all my folders by simply going to My Documents and clicking on the Tools and then the Folder Options button. So easy! Huge rewards!

Getting Things Done-GTD Lab for CEP 810

COLLECT:
This is how and where I started my process, at my messy piled up crazy looking teacher desk. Usually I am surrounded by 22 gabbing, lively, adorable 5th graders, but I had a few hours of peace one afternoon while they were taken care of by the Middle School for Orientation. So I started the Getting Things Done process. First of all, I am a sporadic list maker. I am the organizer in my house, I usually do most of the shopping, I do all the accounting and I take care of the house. Scott does pretty much the rest. Then there is work, and now this class. So I started with making a list in my red notebook. This notebook goes everywhere with me. It contains everything from current lists to the medication my son is on.
I looked into listing on my iphone, but I am fairly new with my iphone and not quite fast enough of a typer so I listed with pen and paper. You can see the result below.




The list got bigger as the day progressed.....

PROCESS and ORGANIZE
There were a few items on the list that I was able to take care of quickly (the two minute rule) as I was at school and wanted to feel a sense of accomplishment. Two crossed out. Moving along, I started to place them in categories. If they were in the calendar category they immediately went on to my Google Calendar so the date is recorded and I will receive an email a day beforehand. Projects were noted with a "P" next to them and Next items were noted with an "N". I also realized at this point that many of the items on my list were big, so I started to list the smaller actions that would get me to the end of the project. A whole new checklist was created for our house move in July (as we are going on vacation for 6 weeks in June I thought some clarity on this huge project might be needed).
REVIEW
I used this time and point in the process to bring in my husband, so he could look at the lists I had made and see if he thought they were helpful. He liked the "Move" list so much a copy is now taped to the fridge.

How did I feel about this process and did it help me? I felt it was needed. I have a tendency to throw myself into projects and offer my help to various people without thinking of time commitments and if there were other commitments I was going to shirk off for the new shiny project. Seeing everything in one place put a clarity on it that I was lacking. Sometimes I sit at my desk and try and think of something to do, knowing full well that I have a lot to do but maybe not being able to prioritize it well. This list made it much clearer.
Will I continue the process? I would love to. I am already a good list maker but the organization of the lists was what I was lacking. I do think it will take some practice. I actually added to my calendar a few sessions for next week so that I will feel obligated to look over the list and re-prioritize it.

RSS Page Reflection

Tracking:
Personally when I started this class I was using iGoogle for my RSS page. It is my start up page for my personal computer at home and it has a lot of feeds that I am interested in (CNN, How to, Epicurious, People Magazine...). I tend to turn on my computer in the morning while waiting for coffee and then flip through the various feeds. When I started the RSS feed (using Google Reader) for CEP 810 I decided to focus it mostly on just education, mostly technology. At first I found it just another thing to have to check (at school I have Gmail, Google Docs, student blogs, a class book club wiki and Moodle pages that need to be checked and updated weekly if not daily). Then when I started to read more I honed in on a few feeds that I found very interesting (i.e. edutopia).
What I don't like however, is that this is another thing I need to check. I have to be honest that these days I find it hard to remember all my passwords and check all the emails and blogs. I have been sifting through my mind trying to figure out a way to consolidate everything. I know an RSS feed is the way to go, but which one, and where? Do I combine my education reading with my personal reading? I am just not sure yet.
What did I learn?
I am fascinated with the video game model and Edutopia recently had a series about just this. So I changed my home page at school to be my Google Reader, now I can focus in on education topics in the morning when I turn on my computer. It is fantastic! I saw blogs about 1 to 1 programs (and now have printed hints and a few personal goals about how to implement them more successfully in class). I also read a lot about Twitter, something I am having a hard time trying to get used to, and frankly, like. There is a principal who uses to Twitter to communicate with teachers, parents and students, who knew it could be used to effectively communicate? I mistakenly thought it was all about movie stars!
How can I take this to the classroom?
I have been writing up a short lesson about Google Reader anhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd have been thinking about teaching it to the students. We could post our blogs on the feed and the students could add feeds from sites they find interesting. When there is an article that they want to share it will be right there, on their feed, they can hook up to the interactive whiteboard and show us the article. They could share it with each other. For now, this is all just an idea and I will stick to reading my articles and thinking about education and getting more and more ideas to make my life and that of my students more interesting.
A later addition: A friend told me the other day when I complained of feeling overwhelmed by my RSS feed "Don't be afraid to unsubscribe". So I took her advice to heart and I deleted a few feeds, and presto! I am enjoying the RSS feed much much more... Funny how I was afraid to delete....
Here is a direct link to my RSS Reader.
Too see some pictures of my RSS feed click here....

PLN Visualization for CEP 810

PLN Visualization for CEP 810 on Prezi

Social Networks

I am admittedly a bit of a facebook addict. Why? We live in Poland... Before Social Networking we relied upon emails or "snail mail". I would anticipate going to my cubby in the office to find a letter, but be so disappointed that none would be there, I would do the same thing signing in with my email... Did anyone write?? Living overseas has connected me with people from all over the world, I have friends in so many countries, I could probably no longer count how many. Facebook has brought us together. It makes me feel comforted when I know that my sister is making my niece pancakes on a Saturday morning and that my friend met Jane Goodall yesterday. It also makes me feel connected, which makes me feel sane. Another small thing is that pre-social networking, there were some friends who just never wrote... We'd see them in the summer and then it was like they had disappeared, but somehow many of these friends can write a sentence every now and then and tell us how they are doing or if their child started walking. So personally, social networking changed my life.
Profesionally our school uses Moodle. There are lots of opportunities for us to share and use forums on Moodle, but I can't say I love it. Our last school (Dubai) ran all it's new teacher orientation on Facebook, which I thought was great. It brought so many teachers together with staff already there and new ones coming in, everyone had a new friend! I cannot say I use it as much as I should on the professional side. That said, after reading the article about Edmodo, I immediately went to the site and started checking it out. I am intrigued!
Our school also has a strict policy about facebook (no use during the day for students) and I go back and forth about this policy. When I was reading about it in the articles for CEP 810 I felt like we should reconsider this policy.

CEP 810 Personal Growth Plan

Catrin Barber
Carolyn McCarthy
CEP 810
May 5, 2010

I would like to become more proficient at using online collaborative tools to improve the way we work on projects together. I have already experimented with blogging as a tool to enhance literature circles in my classroom, but what else can I do? I have lots of ideas yet I have not implemented them. Some of my ideas incorporate Web 2.0 and Google tools, in particular; Wiki’s, Google docs and forms, Voicethread, and blogging. I believe if I am accomplished at collaborative tools it will make a difference in the quality of collaboration in my classroom as it gives students a way to enhance their group projects whether they are at school, home or out and about.

Already in CEP810 we have used Google Docs, which I am familiar with, but I am going to be challenging myself to go a little further with Docs or blogging so when I am comfortable within a Web 2.0 tool I can learn more about the tool and become a more effective tech teacher. For instance, instead of using WordPress for my blog I have decided to use Blogger, I believe using another program will broaden my spectrum of what is available out there and I will not get stuck in a rut.

Another goal of mine would be to look more at the product and less at the process. Although this may sound counter intuitive for teaching, we are a school that uses Understanding By Design (otherwise known as Backwards Design) and we are concentrating as a school on our assessment process. I find this tricky with technology as often we are looking at the grading the content of what the student has produced but the technology does not get graded. I find a great tool or program and I want to use it, but I need to first look at how will it effect the content of the product and the standards involved. How does the technology enhance the learning? I want to look at the end product of a unit and find a way to add the technology use to the rubric, performance assessment or other grading tool.

Google Calendar Lab CEP 810

I have been using Google Calendars for quite sometime. I love the flexibility that they can be shared and edited with many people. We have a family calendar to keep us organized. In my classroom we have a class calendar to keep track of tests, assignments, activities and even birthdays. I have embedded my calendar at the bottom of this blog and below you will find two different views of my Google Calendar for my fifth grade class as an example for CEP 810.

Month View

Week View

RSS Feed and Blog comment assignments

Here are two screen shots of my RSS feed that I created for CEP 810 and of a comment I made on a blog.

810 Blogging Lab-Traditional Web Pages vs. Blogs

I was so intrigued with blogs when they first arrived on the scene a few years ago. I started out by reading my friends blog who lives in China. He has a wry sense of humor and is an excellent writer so I tried to keep moving on to other blogs. I soon found the Kitchen Sink blog, by a woman who is an excellent baker and photographer. Her pictures made me drool and her recipes and experiments with them made me aspire to become a better cook. Why are these blogs different from regular web pages? For me, they made me drool, think, laugh, they made me FEEL. Do web pages make me feel? Sometimes... But they also teach me things, keep me informed and on and on. The blog is a about a personal connection and a personal opinion. It opens up a discussion, you can comment and give your opinion back, and read others opinions, and maybe even the authors reaction to your opinion. That is the wonderful world of blogging, in my own humble opinion...

Class Introduction for CEP 810

Hello!
My name is Catie Barber. I am a traveller, a mom, a teacher, a wife, a beach comber, a book devourer and a bike rider. My number one priorities are my husband Scott (a HS English Teacher) and my three and a half year old son, Brodi. We currently live in Warsaw, Poland and teach at the American School of Warsaw. We have been teaching internationally going on 10 years now and we love the life style. Brodi is an international boy, we adopted him when he was 7 months from Ethiopia and he has fit right in since that first moment together.
I started out teaching English in the Peace Corps in Thailand after college. When I returned to the states I got my Masters in teaching at UC Santa Cruz and then taught recycling after writing a grant for Whatcom county in Washington. I was known then as the “recycling lady”! Soon after my husband got his teaching degree we taught in California one year and then moved over to Brent International School in Subic Bay Philippines. After a couple of wonderful years there we switched to teaching in Nicaragua at the American school and two years later found ourselves in Dubai at the American School there! We stayed 4 years in Dubai... Now we are in Europe and we LOVE it! We have loved all the countries and schools, it has been a great ride so far!!
I learn best through communication. People! I love talking, and teaching and figuring out what makes people tick. I would say hands on for me is also a great way to learn which is why i love tech so much. I love new programs and figuring them out, there is nothing like experiencing things like that for the first time!
I have wanted to be a tech integrator for a long time, my chance finally came in Dubai when i had been integrating like crazy and the principal noticed and offered me the job as one of the IT teachers for grades K, 3 and 4. There was a big learning curve, but I managed to teach both in a lab setting and get out and help the teachers integrate with their SMART boards, or bring the lap top carts in for some in class experiences. When I moved to Poland, one of the big attractions for this job was the fact that they were starting a one to one program in Grade 5, and I would be there to help from day one.
Last year was a little more rough, but I have been slowly getting many more units integrated and the lap tops are coming out daily. I have just finished integrating our entire literature circle unit that now uses blogging as it’s center piece. We also did “A Day in the Life” video project that turned out well, but there was lots of room for improvement as it was my first time really teaching video.
I am excited to start the program and hope to be a candidate next year for the tech integrator position that may open up here at American School of Warsaw!
Catie Barber