Spreadsheet Assignment

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http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110054/
(found through http://www.suelebeau.com/spreadsheets.htm)

First of all, I couldn't look at this website for very long because of the super bright yellow background... It seemed like they had considered several different subjects for excel. There are three options for English: create a spelling test that the computer will mark; create a vocab assignment with vocab words on one side and definitions in the other; and a book-list checkout sheet. With the exception of the online spelling test, these activities seem way too simple, and it seems like Excel wouldn't really be necessary here. It also looked like most of these activities were for elementary students.
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http://www.microsoft.com/education/lessonplans.mspx#Arts/Design

I couldn't find much in here for Excel, and when I found Excel activities they were almost all for math/science types of lessons. The only one that was remotely close to an English lesson suggested that we should create a timeline for Barrack Obama's life. You could easily adapt this to be an author or a poet, but I think it's a shame that they are all geared towards the more science-based classes. There were no art lesson plans either. Big fail!
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http://www.internet4classrooms.com/technology_tutorials/graphic_organizer_files_excel_topics_technology_tutorials.htm

Finally! A website that shows some useful activities for English classes (still working on art...). The site suggested using Excel for making a story web:

The website also suggests using Excel for things like Venn Diagrams, which can be useful for things like novel studies. Again, it also suggests using excel for timelines.

We have a winner!
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According to the interwebs, there is currently no place for Excel in the art classroom, and very few reason why it would be in the English classroom, too.

I think if I were trying to find some way to use Excel in art, I would try to implement it into a critique. Using a rubric created on Excel, students could go in and give feedback (even grades) to their peers.

For English, I like the idea of doing a story web, as well as the Venn diagram, and I'm curious to learn more about the self-grading spelling quiz. Excel could also be very useful in an ESL classroom for certain matching vocab activities. In addition to these, I would consider using Excel for lit. circles if students were interested in tracking their, and their groupmates, pages numbers, etc. It could be a useful way of keeping everyone on the same page (pardon the pun...). The last idea I can think of for English would be to create a class graph of which works of literature they liked best: basically a survey. They could give books/authors/poems a grade, and then the results can be made into a graph to learn about what students are enjoying in the class or not. This way it could also be anonymous.

Excel in the Art/English classroom! Who knew?!

Observation Observations (finally).

I think I've officially put this off for long enough...

Overall, I had a great time on my observation. I met some great (and some not-as-great) teachers, learned a lot about the realities of dealing with ~30 rambunctious teenagers, sat through awkward lunches in the staff room, and got to teach a couple times.

Originally I had planned to go to Penticton Secondary School, and stay at my sister's house a few blocks away. However, I ended up being placed in Summerland Secondary School. At first I was feeling a little apprehensive about the situation, but it turned out to be a really great tight-knit little school.

I didn't have a lot of structure, nor did I have a mentor teacher. However, the English department head kind of took me under her wing, and helped me out a lot whenever I had questions (or got lost).

I ended up following her English 12 class while they did a short story unit. On the second day she asked me if I would be interested in teaching a lesson, so I went about planning to teach irony (my second biggest English-nerd pet peeve). It was a little nerve wracking, but the lesson went over fairly well. The students were pretty well-behaved, and my only real problem was that I ended about 10 minutes short, and wasn't really sure what to do with them (I just got them to silent read).

I also spent a lot of time attending Bridge classes. Summerland has a program for grade nines who are referred from middle school as students who may not be suited for regular grade nine academic classes. These students typically have behavioural problems, and many of them have learning exceptionalities as well. All of these referred students take their grade nine academics together, in the same room, with the same teacher. Needless to say, it seemed like quite the challenge. However, the teacher was amazing! She did a great job of keeping the students under control and at least partially focused - a huge task for a group of students with a wide variety of needs and abilities. I found it incredibly inspiring to see her work with these kids, and it made me seriously consider the option of pursuing a masters for special ed - something I hadn't really considered before. I spoke to her a bit about her "strategies", and she said that she really tries to push to build self-esteem. There was very little scolding for bad behaviour, and most of the class was centered around positive reinforcement. For example, in English Bridge, the teacher generally reminded the students that they would be allowed to read from _Hunger Games_, the class novel they were in the middle of, if they finished all their work on time. I was really surprised at how effective her whole system was, and it gives me hope!

Honestly, the most awkward thing about being on observation was sitting in the staff room at lunch. I think this stemmed from this sort of liminal feeling that goes along with observation. We aren't teachers yet, we aren't TOCs, we aren't even really students at that point, so why are we there? Maybe that was just me, but I think I will feel a lot less awkward when I'm out on the 5wk practicum, and actually have a purpose for being in the school.

The Technologically Challenged (Opposed?)

I spent my observation living at my parents house, who do not have a router, and believe that opening Firefox will give their computer a virus. Needless to say, my blogging has been slipping. I promise to post about my observation soon! For now, I want to talk about the technology pathway from the school district I visited:

Summerland Secondary school offers courses in Applied Digital Communications for grades 9 and 10. The course is basically on computer literacy. It is a hands-on introductory course designed as a practical, activity-based course using the most widely used software on the market. Some of the topics covered in the classes are: animation, word processing, graphics, spreadsheets, desktop publishing, web page design, magazine cover, database, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer. In a nutshell, students learn the basics of what computers can do. Evaluation is based on progress made with the computer, quizzes and other related assignments and tests per application.

This model could be very beneficial to students, assuming they really are computer illiterate when they come into the course. The material is very applied, not as theoretical as some of the other Information Technology classes, and the students learn things that they will likely need to know in the future. The subjects could be very helpful for the students’ future careers, and can likely be applied to many different jobs (ex. personal websites, databases, word processing).

However, the problem I perceive from this course is that I would assume most students are able to (at the very least) use a word processing program at a functional level. I would worry that a lot of students would be at a level that is probably higher than the course material, and that it may be taken as an “easy A” course, without a lot of learning occuring. It also seems a bit outdated - why are we teaching students how to use Internet Explorer? In short, this course sounds really boring.

The changes I would make to this course would be to update a bit more to use more modern uses of technology, and give the students a bit more credit as to what their abilities should be at this point. I like the practicality of this course, but maybe it would make sense to ask the students what they would like to learn and try to cover less topics?

I wasn’t able to sit in on this specific class, so I can’t comment on the attitudes towards it; however, in other computer-based classes (planning 10, for example), there seemed to be a really negative attitude towards using computers. The course had recently been changed to be completely Moodle-based, and it appeared that a bit of a revolt was occuring, and a move back to the more traditional ways of teaching planning. In addition to this, every class I sat in on that used computers was full of students not doing the work they were supposed to be doing. Overall, there was no focus, and it seemed like little interest in learning about how computers can be useful.

Photo Editing

Original Image (from my own camera):



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Editing Using Picnik:

1) Cropped the image
2) Increased saturation to 29
3) Decreased exposure to -14
4) Increased contrast to 68
5) Increased sharpness to 40
6) Text Tool




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Editing Using Sumo Paint:

1) Smudging Tool (Oil Brush) on both coffee cups
2) Free Transform/Rotate Tool on the purse
3) Crop Image
4) Text Tool
5) Transform Text
6) Gradient Tool
7) Star Tool (creates the stars filled with chosen gradient)
8) Paint Bucket Tool


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After this project I would certainly use Picnik over Sumo Paint. I think if I had some training with Sumo Paint it would have been a great tool (it reminded me a lot of Photoshop), but being that I have no training, I felt like what I was doing was all guesswork. Picnik, on the other hand, was very simple to use. I missed last class where this assignment was explained, so I'm not sure if there was a chance to try out the programs, but I had no trouble navigating my way around Picnik, all the options were clearly labelled and fairly self-explanatory, and I'm happier with the final product.

Cold Feet

I can finally say that I'm warming up to the idea of practicum. I had about a week before school started where I had convinced myself that I was going to quit everything and go back to school for nursing. However, I figured that I'd put a lot of effort in to get this far and I might as well give it a chance. Now I am glad that I did. After the first week I felt a bit better, but by Sunday I was panicked again. Anybody else feel that way? At this point I'm still a bit nervous about being thrown into a completely new environment, but I'm warming up to the idea of talking in front of crowds - I'm actually looking forward to some of the mini-lessons we have to do in other classes.

So how did we get here? Well, having great instructors certainly helps. As I said before, as long as it was a weekday I felt OK about the prospect of practicum. We are being given constant encouragement and attention to all our questions and concerns. It helps to realize that we're all in the same boat, and all teachers had to teach their first class sometime.

I'm sure you've all seen this video by now but every time I see it I start to feel proud about what I'm doing and remember why I'm here in the first place:

Let's Get Twitterpated!

In this day and age where nearly everyone is hooked on Facebook, one can't help but wonder what the benefit of having another social networking account which is ostensibly made up of a collection of status updates. I suppose the purpose is determined by what the "tweeter" is "tweeting"; at this point it can range from the mundane "so and so is walking to class" to an effective news or communication tool. I believe that the fear of the former is responsible for the common hate on Twitter. Maybe by the end of this class we will all be converted "Twitter-teachers".

I personally have had twitter for a year or so, but I mainly used it to follow things that were happening in Victoria, politicians, and a few friends who are hooked. I guess the term "lurker" applies, though that just makes me feel creepy! I never tweeted because I figure if I'm doing something so important that my friends NEED to know, I'll just update my facebook status (or, heaven forbid, call them!). I guess in the end I'm open to the idea of Twitter, I just never had a real purpose to use it until now.

As far as using Twitter in the classroom goes (presumably for students who can't make it to class), I feel like it might become more of a nuisance or distraction than a useful tool; however, I am open to having my mind changed. Who knew that email would become the old fashioned way of communicating so soon!

First Post!

As usual I have no idea what to write for a blog post... since we've all had so much practice introducing ourselves lately I guess I'll start there!

My name is Lindsey. I just graduated from UVic with an English degree in April 2010, and my teaching areas are art and English. I've known that I've wanted to teach English for awhile now, but this whole art thing is relatively new to me, so we will see how that goes! I'm originally from Penticton BC, but I've lived in Victoria for 5 years now, and it's pretty much home to me now. I come from a huge family, so I've grown accustomed to having lots of people around me all the time. Other than school I like to read non-academically, play piano, go to shows (live music, theatre, movies, whatever), and partake in political-junkie activities.

I apologize if this is the thousandth time you've all heard these things!