 Dropbox is a great way to share information between computers. This can work with your laptops, desktops, iPads, iPhones. I have spoken with various teachers who truly love and use this app on a regular occasion. We had a discussion in our groups about Dropbox taking ownership of your documents and photos used in the app. This is similar to something that happens in FaceBook. As it turns out, DropBox does NOT take ownership of the files you use through their app.
 I use Google Drive in my class. We used this to share video and audio files to create music videos. I didn't know that we could create and collaborate on specific files as a class. Creating graphs, surveys, maps, power points, and others.
 Skype is a great way to continue your PLN. We can use this to contact individuals outside of our immediate vicinity. This technology allows us to immediate begin collaboration. This can be a useful tool in working with other classrooms around the world.
Here is a quick vid about a few things we re-covered in class. We went further in depth with our twitter accounts. Joining groups/conversations pertaining to a specific topic via #, is a great idea for learning about new ideas.  We also delved deeper into pros-cons with Facebook. I noticed other Facebook accounts previously gave an option to keep your page unsearchable. This enables only those who are ALREADY your friends. It allows you to search or add others, but accounts who are not on your friend list CANNOT search or send a friend request. I was disheartened to learn that I would not be able to change these settings
 Pinterest has some great items and ideas. I like the classroom organization. I do not like the idea of no control over others following my pins. It shouldn't be a problem, but we always need to be careful about what we post. Luckily, I do not have a username that anyone could recognize.
 Flipboard is better than Zite. I linked my Twitter account and Facebook account. It should make it easier to follow multiple news feeds.
This is great place for full lesson plans and ideas for your class. This works for K-12. It is nice to select a specific subject or grade level and search through the various resources.
Questions about the Core? Here are your answers! This is course catalog with a wide variety of classes. If your looking to improve in a specific area, this is a great place to find a course that will get you the information, knowledge, and experience needed to effective implement your ideas into your classroom.
 We went through the syllabus and talked about the various requirements of this course. I was amazed at the amount of complaints pertaining to the reflection posts and blogs. Truth be told, the posts are not much different than what was required in the previous class. The only aberrance pertaining to posts, is that we need to comment on two reflections. I am curious about the due dates for the reflections. I am sure it will be obvious and resolved soon.
I really enjoyed the aspect about FaceBook. There is multiple bits of info that I had never heard. I feel that I am careful about FaceBook, but a few of the insights made me a bit nervous.
So I set up a twitter account. My handle is: organ_NIC I have never done this before. I have multiple friends who use this on a regular basis, but I am yet to get into this social networking site. We will see how this goes.
 Today was very similar to last week. Presentation after presentation after presentation. Though they are rarely interactive, it is fun to see the variety of thematic units and presentation styles. One student provided a previously recorded presentation. She apparently does online classes for her students that are uploaded to YouTube. I found it very informative, original, and effective. Several students used PowerPoint and Prezi. My favorite presentation was displayed through iMovie. Any presentation that shows the students working and actually learning in the classroom are my absolute favorite. It makes the presentation enjoyable and peaks my interest. Students love to be on film and in the spotlight. These are great insights into the classroom. The two quick classes I attended included InfuseLaerning and Zite. Infuse is similar to secretive, and last week i learned a little about it. This week was more in-depth and informative. I really like the Zite app. It pulls news that I am interested in and want to read. This will be a nice substitute to what I am currently using. I love the bits of hints and tips pertaining to cooking and food. I will love this app!
The rest of the class was presentations, including my own. I feel that it went fairly well. The preparation leading up to this was a bit stressful, but worth the battle. I am definitely ready for the 2.0 class coming up next.
 It was great to see the variety of presentations. I really enjoyed seeing others use something different from PowerPoint. I loved that iMovie trailers, videos, iBooks, Socrative, and websites to name a few. This added diversity to the presentations and kept me interested. I also loved having the rubric and evaluating other students in the class.
My favorite part of the class consisted of iPad app training. I selected Socrative and found it extremely informative and useful. This is definitely something I will use in my classroom. I am glad that this is compatible with laptops, iPads, and mobile devices. This will make it easier to have the entire class participate in a quiz, rather than 1 person dominate an iPad. The Space Race will be one of the first thing i will try in my classroom. Another incredible option of Socrative jumbles the answer order on each device. This will help keep wandering eye focused on their screen. We also had the opportunity to see another program that is web based. InfuseLearning shows promise of an incredibly designed site. I plan to look into each of these programs in more depth.
Presentations continued till the end of class. I still enjoyed looking each person's project. I am amazed at the amount of effort each individual put into their presentation. The quality was incredible, even if PowerPoint dominated the format of the presentation. It is interesting to see the each educator's teaching style come through in their presentation. I also found it interesting at the variety of resources/materials each class uses. I should mention and thank Katie Dewey for swapping presentation dates with me. The past few weeks I have been incredibly overwhelmed with report cards, PTCs, SEPs, visiting in-laws, pre-qualifying for a house loan/mortgage and house hunting. If I were to present today, I would have displayed a mediocre presentation that would not have reflected my learning and understudying of the ADDIE model and Thematic Unit
- We began by reviewing the evaluation process and importance of the 5 steps in the ADDIE model. We used NEARPOD to take a quiz while covering the information.
- We had time to work on our Thematic Unit. During this time I continued to write lesson plans and fill out the Development/Design Document. I also wrote a rubric that would grade the Thematic Unit. The issue I have with this, come through not giving the students the rubric before the beginning the unit. Students should understand the expectations prior to beginning the unit. Regardless, a rubric helps in grading the project and lessons.
- To finish up the day, we talked about a final document that is needed to be added to the Thematic Unit.
- Evaluation Document:
- Learner Reaction
- What was the learners’ reaction to your thematic unit?
- What did they like?
- What didn’t they like?
- Results of your reaction survey
- Meeting Objectives
- How well did the learners meet the objectives of this thematic unit?
- You may want to include scores from assessments.
- Facilitator Evaluation
- From the instructor’s perspective, what worked and what didn’t?
- What would you change?
- Materials/Technology
- Were the materials or technologies effective and appropriate?
- What worked and what didn’t?
- What would you change?
- Environment
- Could the teaching space be modified in anyway to improve instruction?
- What would you change?
- Continuity & Conformity
- What changes would you make to the design plan to make this unit effective?
Final project presentation info: Project presentation - Your project presentation is your opportunity to share your ADDIE thematic unit with the class.
- The presentation style is up to you.
- You will not be graded on how advanced the technology of your presentation is -- this is just the beginning of the Endorsement!
- You should find a way to present in an interesting and informative way.
- Your presentation should include the following:
- An overview of your project (goals, objectives, scope and sequence, how you tied in math, ELA, social studies, and science)
- Evidence that you used the ADDIE model to design your unit (briefly mention your experience with each phase)
- What you learned (evaluate your unit and your use of the ADDIE model)
- The "what you learned" portion should be the largest part of your presentation.
 After talking about our reading and discussing the info therein, we had roughly an hour and a half to work on our Thematic Unit. I honestly wish we had mor time to work on this. I completely understand that this is a demanding course, but it is incredibly difficult to work on this outside of the class. I am using my time wisely and working on this while planning for my class. I feel like I am jumping through hoops. Feels like i'm in finals week while teaching full-time. We were given a great ebook. Teach Like a Champion provides 49 techniques to help regulate our classroom. This is something that I would like to read cover to cover. For the time being, we basically jigsawed various items in the book. 9 groups were created and assigned to a specific chapter. Each group then selected 3-4 techniques from the chapter and set up a presentation/skit. It was a great intro to the book, but again, I would like to read this in depth. The video at the beginning of my blog gives a great overview of techniques actually implemented into classrooms across the nation. Here is a list of the topics covered by each group. Group 1: Ch. 1 Setting High Academic Expectations Group 2: Ch. 2 Planning that Ensures Academic Achievement Group 3: Ch.3 Structuring and Delivering your Lessons - Circulate
- Board = Paper
- Exit Ticket
Group 4: Ch. 4 Engaging Students in Your Lessons Group 5: Ch. 5 Creating a Strong Classroom Culture - Binder Control
- SLANT - Sit up, Listen, Alert, Nod, Track the Speaker *THIS IS MY FAVORITE*Tight Transitions
- Tight Transitions
Group 6: Ch. 6 Setting and Maintaining High Behavioral Expectations Threshold - What to Do
- Sweat the Details
- Sweat the Details
Group 7: Ch. 7 Building Character and Trust - Positive Framing
- Precise Praise
- Warm/Strict
- The J-Factor
- Emotional Constancy
- Explain Everything
- Normalize Error
Group 8: Ch. 8 Improving Your Pacing Group 9: Ch. 9 Challenging Student to Think Critically - Verbatim (No Bate and Switch)
I plan on implementing these into my classroom. I think i will try SLANT and parts of working the clock. I really like the idea of gathering the entire classes attention with a simply word. I am also thinking of other words i could use that could have a similar effect. I think I will begin using SLANT and transition into another word that will elaborate on this word.
 We went over various items in our thematic unit. It was nice to clarify some of the items that appeared to confuse multiple classmates concerning their analysis document.
We talked about the 9 steps in creating a training/lesson. - Gain Attention
- State Objective
- Recall
- Content
- Application 1
- Application 2
- Application 3
- evaluation
- closure
After reviewing these as a class, we were divided into groups according to stickpick app to create a learning guide/lesson plan about making a peanut butter sandwich. Luckily, I was placed with two amiable individuals. Rita and Amy B. were incredibly friendly and of great assistance while working together. When we have a solid team, the task simplifies and is often fun. As always, it is insightful to see what the various groups create to share with the class during their presentations. I was pleased to see that groups were mindful of nut allergies. Personally, I currently have a student who has a peanut allergy. I also have a student who is Celiac and must eat gluten free foods. It is requisite we are aware and willing to prevent accidents happening in the classroom. If we stumble unawares into a situation of teaching a lesson causing harm to a student, everything we teach is likely to be forgotten. The only thing they will take away from the lesson will be the memory of a student getting sick or injured during the instruction.
After the fun with the peanut butter sandwich lesson plan, we continued began covering the Development Document.
This Development Document includes: - an instructor's guide - Lesson plans and teacher notes, background knowledge, instructions, answer keys, etc.
- a student guide - Any materials that will be handed out to the student
- all relevant materials - Any and all materials needed by the teacher and students (ie. PowerPoints/Keynotes, worksheets, manipulatives, quizes, technology tools, iPad apps, assessments, etc.)
These three bullet points are basically our lesson plans with the 9 points and a list of materials needed.
 We were introduced to a new website, wordle.net. Sadly, it would not work on my laptop so I opened up a similar site. Tagxedo is great. It allows you to do the same thing as the Wordle, but has more options to personalize the word pictures. The image on the left is what we produced
What pre-requisites must your learners meet before starting the unit? · Map out the scope and sequence · Select course format · Methods and tactics o Introductory activity o Examples and non-examples § What it is § What it is NOT o Motivational strategies § Why should they do it? § What is going to get them excited about this? o Blooms Taxonomy o Feedback Strategies for activities What will you use for your Thematic unit? · Packets · Worksheets · Manipulatives · Technology · Labs We also talked about: - Define "Learning Objective"
- Formal vs. Informal
- ABCD's
- Audience
- Behavior - Groups of 3-4 - Wordle - brainstorm
- Condition
- Degree - What is mastery?
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