One thing that I learned from this week’s lesson is that PowerPoint presentations can be converted in to web pages for students to view. You just have to save the PowerPoint as HTML.
Another thing that I learned is that some schools have been purchasing lesser-known presentation programs because they are cheaper. Microsoft gives academic institutions discounts for using their products. This usually makes the package as cheap as the others.
1. What was the PowerPoint presentation about and to whom did you present it?
The PowerPoint presentation that I created was about stress management. This presentation was created for my eighth grade class. In my presentations I highlight the information that will be presented in their assessment. For my “individual education plan” students I print out the handout version of the PowerPoint presentation and have those students highlight the important information.
Information that was in this PowerPoint presentation included: chapter presentations, images, bell ringers, and quotes about characters. I do not have a smart board in my classroom or a projector screen. I am currently using a white wall to present my information. One issue that I ran into at the beginning of the year was the color of my text. Red does not show up well on the wall. The information that I highlighted I changed to yellow and all other text is in black.
Next year I am supposed to be getting a smart board in my classroom. This would be a great addition because I can spice up the PowerPoint presentation because of getting the students more involved with using the board. With the smart board you can touch the screen or use a pen that is included to control your computer.
2. Of which item in your presentation are you the most proud?
The items that I am most proud of in the PowerPoint presentation are the design, pictures, tables, and graphs in the presentation. I feel that students are more engaged into the lesson when you add media to the presentation. At the end I add the pictures and graphs again so that they are easily accessed if I need to reiterate any information.
The design included a background that was blue and green with a yellow boarder. The lesson title and chapter title are always at the top. The tables that were included are: common stressors for teens, major life changes that can cause serious stress, long term effects of stress on the body, and common stress of distress.
Table one, common stressors for teens included information that let the students know of things that they deal with everyday in life. Some students may not realize how some simple things can cause stress. Some of the stressors in this table included: arguing with your brother or sister, moving to a new home, getting glasses or braces, and trying out for a sports team.
Some of the other tables included information about how stress can cause the body harm and that you could develop diseases if you do not do something that will help you relax.
3. What might you do differently if you could create the presentation again?
Something that I would like to do differently with this presentation is include some videos about stress and what to do if you become stressed out. Some PowerPoint presentations that I have done in the past have included videos and the reaction was great. Adding something different always helps grasp a student’s attention.
4. How did your students respond to the presentation?
The students responded well to information included in the graphs, tables and pictures. When I was describing the information in the tables about the causes of stress and how stress can affect the body. The students asked more questions and became more involved. I have also learned that if you include personal stories about events that have affected you, the students become more involved.
In the presentation I included a picture about what happens to you if you were lost in the woods and a bear tried to attack you. Beside the picture were steps of how your body responds when it becomes stressed. The students enjoyed this pictures and had lots of comments.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
53302_Hibbard_Blog3
Reflect on your learning in week 3
After watching some of the videos I learned about an interesting feature in Microsoft word. The feature is called auto summarize. Auto summarize allows you to summarize a document to a certain percent and you can change the percent if you feel like you need to read more or less of the document. This option highlights the main points in the document.
The benefits of this option are first if you are crunched for time you will be able to read the main topics of what the auto summarize feature highlighted. If you have a document that is about 50 pages long and you use this feature it can help you read the main points in a shorter amount of time. Also, if you hate to read this feature can shorten the document for you and it won’t feel so burdensome.
I think this is a great feature for students who have trouble reading a comprehending the information. This would help them feel like they could complete are reading without feeling overwhelmed. This would make it easier to take notes and highlight important information. The information that is high lighted can then be printed out so that it would be easier to study.
I think this is a great feature for students who have trouble reading a comprehending the information. This would help them feel like they could complete are reading without feeling overwhelmed. This would make it easier to take notes and highlight important information. The information that is high lighted can then be printed out so that it would be easier to study.
A disadvantage this feature would cause is if you didn’t add enough percentage of the summary to read. This could cause you to miss something you may need to learn.
What makes the item visually appealing? What distracts from the message you are trying to communicate?
I sent out a letter to the parents at the beginning of the year. The letter explained the expectations of the class. The document wasn’t visually appealing it was a plain basic document. I used Microsoft Office complete the document without adding pictures, clip art, or other media. This document was very boring and with the lack of color and design some parents may not have read it. The students may have thrown it away before it got home. If I had added more design to the document and made it more colorful I think the students would also enjoy it more.
I don’t think there are any distractions from the message. One thing I could have done was to make it more appealing and fun to read. The only distraction that could have been is not to pay attention to it because of lack of design.
Here is the document after using Microsoft Publisher. Microsoft Publisher is easier to use to create polished and well designed documents. Publisher offers many templates that add lots of color and fun to the documents.
Monday, January 17, 2011
53302_Hibbard_Blog2_SpreadsheetandDatabase
Provide a URL of one Web site that discusses spreadsheet and/or database use in the classroom.
http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow4/may99/spreadsheet.html.
There are a few different ways that they used spreadsheets and databases in the classroom on this website. One of my favorites is the "Civil War and More Simple Graphing". The way this teacher introduced her 5th grade to spreadsheets was by using the Civil War. This teacher used American Civil War Battles by State. The teacher would ask the students questions like: Which state had the most civil war battles? Do they know how many a certain state had? Do they know what percent the states battles represent compared to the entire war? This was great because it not only got the kids involved with spreadsheets but also got them learning about the states and the civil war.
Describe something you found that surprised you about how databases or spreadsheets can be utilized in the classroom.
The thing that surprised me the most is that you can make spreadsheets fun to use and strike up the imagination of kids by using them. Another website that I visited was http://www.ncwiseowl.org/kscope/techknowpark/FreeFall/ShoppingSpree.html. This activity was called “Most Wanted Toys with Dead Batteries or Live!. The activity was to pretend that you entered a contest at the local mall to win a $1000.00 shopping spree at a toy store of your choice. The catch was that you had to spend between exactly $995 and $1000 if you went over you lost all the money. If you spent exactly $1000 tax included you won an additional $500.
I thought this was a great activity because this would get the kids excited and ready to learn how to use a spreadsheet to accomplish the task at hand.
Discuss how you have used spreadsheets and databases in the past.
The way that I have used spreadsheets and databases in the past are for budgeting, keeping up with my grades when teaching, and I have also used them for classes.
http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow4/may99/spreadsheet.html.
There are a few different ways that they used spreadsheets and databases in the classroom on this website. One of my favorites is the "Civil War and More Simple Graphing". The way this teacher introduced her 5th grade to spreadsheets was by using the Civil War. This teacher used American Civil War Battles by State. The teacher would ask the students questions like: Which state had the most civil war battles? Do they know how many a certain state had? Do they know what percent the states battles represent compared to the entire war? This was great because it not only got the kids involved with spreadsheets but also got them learning about the states and the civil war.
Describe something you found that surprised you about how databases or spreadsheets can be utilized in the classroom.
The thing that surprised me the most is that you can make spreadsheets fun to use and strike up the imagination of kids by using them. Another website that I visited was http://www.ncwiseowl.org/kscope/techknowpark/FreeFall/ShoppingSpree.html. This activity was called “Most Wanted Toys with Dead Batteries or Live!. The activity was to pretend that you entered a contest at the local mall to win a $1000.00 shopping spree at a toy store of your choice. The catch was that you had to spend between exactly $995 and $1000 if you went over you lost all the money. If you spent exactly $1000 tax included you won an additional $500.
I thought this was a great activity because this would get the kids excited and ready to learn how to use a spreadsheet to accomplish the task at hand.
Discuss how you have used spreadsheets and databases in the past.
The way that I have used spreadsheets and databases in the past are for budgeting, keeping up with my grades when teaching, and I have also used them for classes.
Include ways you have used them with your students or ways you have used them as an educator.
When I was a youth career advisor at KCEOC we required our students to use a spreadsheet to setup budgets and also provided a budgeting workshop for our students to take. I also had to used a database called EKOS to do monthly reports. These reports included things like:
How many student graduated?
How many became employed?
How many attended workshops?
How many attended college?
Monday, January 10, 2011
53302_Hibbard_Blog1_Technology
What did you learn this week that you will use immediately in your classroom?
After completing the "Technological Literacy Worksheet" I discovered some areas that I need to become more competent in. Areas that I need to become more competent in are developing web pages, creating and using databases, and becoming more familiar with desktop publishing programs such as Microsoft Office Publisher. Have we taken the time to stop and ask our students about technologies that they are competent in? I think it's a good idea that we need to ask our students periodically if they are having trouble in certain technological areas. The reason we need to do this is because of how fast technology develops and how fast it needs to become implemented.
What steps will you take to implement this in your classroom?
The steps that I am going to take to implement this in my classroom is to first print a copy of the technological literacy worksheet and give these to the students. I will then look over these to see what the students are less confident in and then speak with other teachers at our school to see if we can get these areas implemented in the classroom. This not only needs to be implemented in my classroom but also the entire school. I will need to speak with other teachers and probably the principal to get this going.
What challenge(s) will you face when using this in your classroom?
The greatest challenge when using anything in your classroom is having enough time to implement any activities. You have to be able to teach your core content first and then everything else. I am not sure what the computer teachers core content areas are, she may already be teaching all of these areas. Another challenge maybe that other teachers may not want to take the time to do this. This is very hard especially when you are trying to get your students ready for testing.
What will you do to overcome the challenge(s)?
A way to overcome this challenge is to try to make time to teach some lessons in these areas. Another way is to provide some help for the computer teacher to be able to get all the necessary information and knowledge to the students. I could also ask about professional development workshops that I could attend that could make me more familiar with areas my students need help in.
After completing the "Technological Literacy Worksheet" I discovered some areas that I need to become more competent in. Areas that I need to become more competent in are developing web pages, creating and using databases, and becoming more familiar with desktop publishing programs such as Microsoft Office Publisher. Have we taken the time to stop and ask our students about technologies that they are competent in? I think it's a good idea that we need to ask our students periodically if they are having trouble in certain technological areas. The reason we need to do this is because of how fast technology develops and how fast it needs to become implemented.
What steps will you take to implement this in your classroom?
The steps that I am going to take to implement this in my classroom is to first print a copy of the technological literacy worksheet and give these to the students. I will then look over these to see what the students are less confident in and then speak with other teachers at our school to see if we can get these areas implemented in the classroom. This not only needs to be implemented in my classroom but also the entire school. I will need to speak with other teachers and probably the principal to get this going.
What challenge(s) will you face when using this in your classroom?
The greatest challenge when using anything in your classroom is having enough time to implement any activities. You have to be able to teach your core content first and then everything else. I am not sure what the computer teachers core content areas are, she may already be teaching all of these areas. Another challenge maybe that other teachers may not want to take the time to do this. This is very hard especially when you are trying to get your students ready for testing.
What will you do to overcome the challenge(s)?
A way to overcome this challenge is to try to make time to teach some lessons in these areas. Another way is to provide some help for the computer teacher to be able to get all the necessary information and knowledge to the students. I could also ask about professional development workshops that I could attend that could make me more familiar with areas my students need help in.
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