Journal #6

 Jennifer Lau

GED 512

Journal Entry

Journal Entry 6:  Self Reflection

I have learned a lot though this course.  It has been a challenge, though.  I never thought I would ever see the back end of a website, let alone create the code for my own.   Although I am still learning, it is something I know I’ll need to keep working at, but will be truly rewarding in the end when I can create my own running website. 

The challenges I have encountered throughout the course have been understanding the coding and how it all comes together.  I have always created pieces through Print Shop programs where everyone was so amazed with what I created, but know I look back and am quite saddened by how much I didn’t know.  I wish I had a basic foundation and understanding of CSS and HTML before I started the course because everything goes so quickly in the quarter and I had to grasp a lot.  In the end, though, it is all worth it and I just have to keep at it.

The most helpful to me were the book exercises and class labs.  The class labs were more direct and I had an opportunity to ask my classmates and professor for help.  The book exercises were helpful with their step by step directions and explanations within each chapter, but sometimes I found myself having to figure things out because I didn’t already have the background knowledge to problem solve or trouble shoot an issue. 

I have a lot to learn, but I look forward to the next course where I can build upon what I have learned, continue to practice the skills, and create something more spectacular than what I had with Print Shop.

Journal #7

Jennifer Lau

GED 512

Journal Entry

Journal Entry 7: Professional Learning Network

The professional learning network is a powerful tool to have and use.  It is a place where collaboration begins and can continue to teach so many professionals in the same field.  It is a source of information from many avenues that can build upon knowledge or help one to answer questions and use different styles and techniques such as in a classroom. A professional learning network is something I knew of, but never dove into exploring until so many resources of its kind have been presented in this course.  

When I was exploring global learning sites, I stumbled upon so many different things that sparked my creativity.  I was wondering about what my students could do or make to help others in need.  I found different ideas teachers had that I had never thought possible.  It also contained different organizations that I have thought of, but never knew how to incorporate them in both my curriculum and in a project to donate to the organization.  After much research through the global learning sites, I have chosen to have the kids make knot blankets to donate to children’s shelters.  It ties in heavily with our character education program at school.

When compiling my RSS feed, I didn’t know what to include and who to follow.  It took me awhile to gather the sites that I thought would be helpful to me and my classroom. Some of the sites included a lady from an educational background that thought about using blog with her students.  She also incorporated a lot of technology into her classroom where now I want to try just a handful of what she has created into my own classroom.  Last year, I had my first graders create eBooks for their animal research project.  It started off as a challenge, but once they got started, they were thriving.  I was so impressed with them.  I will try it again, but look up some more feeds to help with the troubleshooting and research resources the kids can use.

Each of these components has made me a better teacher for my students.  I have been incorporating the different things I read about or learn about in my classroom slowly and they have been quite successful.  My students are more engaged, I am more confident in my work when trying something new and know that I have others out there as supporters who are both rookies and experts.

Journal #5: Twitter

Twitter in the Classroom

With so much social media going on, I was reluctant to create a Twitter account.  It is just another account I have to keep up with and my thoughts were that it was just a place for people to follow celebrities.When I signed up, it asked me to choose so many different people to follow.  Naturally, I did and have not seen myself amused by much of what any of them had to say.  It wasn't until I read the 35 interesting ways to use Twitter in the classroom that I could see possibilities.

Scavenger Hunt was one of the first ideas that caught my attention.  My first graders will be creating ebook animal reports towards to end of the year and this can be another resource in which they can gather information about their animal and habitat to add to their research.  They will have fun locating their animal on a map too and see all the different places their animal lives.

Communicating with Experts seemed like an interesting and fun idea.  My students have a lot of good questions that they probably would find more exciting having it come from an expert in that field.  Here I can even ask my students' parents to be "our experts" since their occupations are quite diverse.  This way, my parents can feel like they are connected with the class as well if they are unable to physically come in and volunteer.

The home and school connection is really important in my district and I can see myself using Twitter Badges to update my classroom website and have students tweet about what they've learned about a certain topic as well to help with the class discussions as well as help to inform parents since kids don't really talk about their day much anymore.

There are many concerns I have with privacy issues and parents and students abusing this type of social media in the school setting.  It is sometimes difficult to draw the line between social media with friends and social media in education.  Since Twitter is so popular in social media, the norms may be lost when using it for education and can cause more of a problem than what is worth.

Journal 4 Final Project Idea

•   Site title – Animal habitats

•   Developers – Jennifer Lau & Ann Lam

•   Rational or focus – The goal for this web page is to provide a website for first grade students to explore and learn about animal habitats such as grasslands, ocean, ponds and forests. Our objective is to provide content information, pictures and videos for students to learn about the different animal habitats.

•   Main features outline – There will be a homepage that lists the four different habitats. Then there will be individual pages for each habitat and then pages connecting to the habitats of animals that live in that habitat.

•   Content – There will be a total of 9 web pages including the homepage. Each page will have its own habitat that includes content, video and pictures. We can also include informational links that direct students to appropriate websites for more information.

•   Target audience – The target audience is first grade students.

•   Design considerations. The design goal for the site is for first grade students to learn about habitats.  It is a resource they can use to complete their habitat and animal report.

•   Limiting factors – One limiting factor would be to learn how to embed videos into the website. Another factor would be that the content needs to be at the reading level of first grade students including EL Learners. 

 Wireframe