Jess's Blog

Nov 15th Blog

jnpeak — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:12:37 +0000

I am working to be more creative in the classroom. Being the librarian I have more of a chance than I might have in a regular classroom. We are able to take stories and act them out, rewrite the plot, and express our feelings about the books. I still have a lot of work to make it as creative as it could be. I want the students to learn there are many ways to express themselves and that it is important to be unique and original, that just because someone else does it one way does not mean that it’s the only correct way.

Week 8 Blogging Assignment

jnpeak — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:10:04 +0000

Creativity is one of those things that sometimes I feel is being forgotten in the schools today. In our schools they have really put a road block for creativity when they did away with art and music classes. These were times that the children were really able to express themselves. The teachers are suppose to pick up the slack by incorporating it into the classroom, but we all no how hard that can be. I have been trying to incorporate some of this creativity into the library classes I teach. Students enjoy getting to use creativity. For example, I recently helped our fifth grade with their Native American projects. They were to research a tribe of Native Americans and present the information to the class. It was nice to see the creativity they used when trying to share the information. I was really glad they were not limited to a research paper and were able to make PowerPoints, posters, etc. I think it is very important that creativity be tied in. To continue tying it in I plan to use things such as plays and allow them to create the props, setting, etc., as well as giving them projects to share about books they have read, whether they do it in paintings, sculptures, posters, song, dance, etc.

Sfumato

jnpeak — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 12:25:59 +0000

Okay, I have been giving a lot of thought to this word Sfumato (up in smoke). I have decided it’s my new job title. Because if my job is not a prime example of Sfumato I don’t know what is. I was hired as the librarian assistant this year for our school. However, three weeks into school they inform me that they are changing my schedule, I am not longer just the librarian assistant I now do teir 3 in RTI. I have 15 minutes between every class that I tutor 3 to 5 students in on math and reading. The teachers are suppose to send me a five weeks lesson plan that tells me what we will be working on. Here we are in the fifth week and some of them just got it to me. Talk about uncertainty and not knowing what is going on. Don’t get me wrong, I like my job, other than the fact it is classified not certified. However, the more I read about Sfumato the more I realized it described the life of a teacher.

To be or Not to be….creative?

jnpeak — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 20:26:24 +0000

Okay, I keep forgetting that I am suppose to be blogging during the weeks. I am going to have to put some kind of alarm on my computer to remind me to blog. For anyone reading this that is not part of my class, I am using this blog for my Educational Technology class on Creativity.

I have been fascinated as I read our text and the discussions we are having on discussion board. It’s amazing the different ways we can look at creativity. Especially when considering the four P’s of person, process, product, and press (environment). I have noticed a lot of my classmates says that it begins with the person so therefore that is the most important part. I think it’s right that it begins with the person, but I won’t say it is most important. There is not a most important P in my opionion, because if any was removed from the equation there wouldn’t be creativity. No the process you choose to use does not make you creative or not creative, but you do have to have some sort of process. The product you come out with is not going to make you more or less creative, but to be considered creative you do have to have a product to show, whether it’s a song, painting, sketch, quilt, etc. That leaves the press (environment). The environment you are in can play a big part in your creativity. It can affect what kind of product or process you use. Therefore my thoughts are that you have to have all four of the P’s to be creative.

Creativity and Me

jnpeak — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 23:58:39 +0000

Okay, so I am still a little fuzzy on what exactly Dr. Miller wanted us to do for our blog assignment. He may post it later, but for the time being I am just going to be creative. I am really excited about this class, just because I think our school needs some more creativity when it comes to lessons that are taught. We are still doing lecture and drill and the students are completely bored. You can’t keep their attention for more than 5 secs it seems. Any who…I am finding Gelb’s book “How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci” very interesting. When I first read the title I thought it would be a boring book. I was thinking there is no way I will be able to get through it, but as I got into it I found the information about his life to be very intersting. I am still working on the reading about his Seven Da Vincian Principles and will update about those later.

Final Project

jnpeak — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:16:31 +0000

Okay, I am probably making this harder than I need to, but I am having a hard time coming up with something to do my final project on. I want it to be something that I can you in my certification area which is elementary, however, the things we have learned this semester, I have a hard time coming up with a way to use them with this age level. I just really don’t know what to do. One thing that crossed my mind was a culture social studies lesson, but I am not sure how I would use distance education to do this. Then I considered just creating a tutorial on how to use blog when in a distance learning class. I think I might go with my second thought and direct it toward high school and college age students. I will design a tutorial that will show them how to set up a blogsite as well as a gator to subscribe to feeds of others. This way if they take a distance education class they will have assistance in setting up their blog.

Research in Distance Education

jnpeak — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:10:42 +0000

If I was going to do a research in distance education, I would do research on using Distance Education in Elementary School settings. This semester I have learned a lot about distance education and the tools available. However, I am still trying to figure out in what way they can be used in the elementary setting. It is not as easy to use blogs, tapped in, etc in the elementary school as it is in high school and college. As for how I would study it, I would start by researching other elementary schools that have implanted forms of distance learning, and see how it was used in their school. From there I would research what effect (both positive and negative) it had on the education of their students.

Kearsley and Research

jnpeak — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:09:32 +0000

What does Kearsley have to say about research? In chapter 4 Kearsley when speaking of research he says, “they are true for most courses, but not true for all courses” (p.47), “however, they are useful to know what impact an online version have on student outcomes, using conventional course as a base for comparison.” (p. 46) He seems to think that the research is useful, but reminds people to keep in mind that it may work in some cases, but not in every case.

Connection Guidelines

jnpeak — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:51:04 +0000

http://www.evenfromhere.org/?p=1061

While reading through some of Clarence Fishers blogs, I came across one that had to do with connection guidelines. I believe the guidelines we set are very important for evaulating our students and classes. He makes a good point when he mentions that what you post when blogging, twittering, etc., could come back to haunt you. It could also effect how someone evaluates you. If you are posting things that would be inappropriate in a classroom, they are also inappropriate in an online course. You must be sure that you are focusing on the classroom setting you are representing.

The Webs Effect on Evaluation

jnpeak — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:24:03 +0000

No, Yes, No??? I went back and forth a few times on my answer. I first I thought, “No, the web will not effect how evaluation takes part in the course.” Then I did some reading in some of my feeds that talked about evaluation and the internet. I realized that yes, the web can make a difference in evaluation. The web gives us so many connections to collect information from. When it comes to evaluations there are so many places to get information, that if you are evaulating a students understanding you can’t be sure it is their own thoughts. They may have researched others opinions, or talked to others in the class. If it is an evaulation of a course, it could be that the student had an original thought, but changed it based on what others were saying about the course.