Summary of Learning

Summary of Learning

The tool I used for my Summary of Learning was Google Slides. The reason I chose this is because I think that power points are a great way to give summaries of topics. They don't have to be overly long and you do not want to make them too short. It provides a great visual while you present.

Here is the link to my presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IGWupAPhyPYvh3ZqIm_JzKqoELs3-9JOVIMdAbg4RPQ/edit?usp=sharing

I took away so much from this class. The ways that we can share information with each other all across the world to learn and teach is an amazing thing. The digital age is here to stay and since I have taken this course I am feeling hip for once with technology. When we were assigned to write Cool Tool Reviews, I found apps and tools that I want to use for my future classroom as a Special Education teacher.

One of my favorite presentations was on eBooks. I loved how the teacher was working with students with developmental/intellectual disabilities and was able to help them write a book. The students did most of the work, the teacher just gave them guidance as they went along. I really hope to do this with my students as well.

I will incorporate different technologies in my classroom by having my students learn different tools and apps that will help them improve academically and with life skills. Everything from teaching a student math to a student learning how to communicate when the student is non-verbal. I hope to work in a public school that will have funds for these kinds of apps and tools. Unfortunately, the school I work in now is private and is not able to afford these types of tools for the students. A few of the students may be able to use an iPad for 20 minutes once a week when the speech therapist or occupational therapist decides to show up. To me, that is not fair to them. These students deserve better and I will make sure these technologies will be able to be available to them.

I really enjoyed this course. Educational Technology has fueled my fire to become a teacher. I am excited to see the new technologies come out as time goes on! Thank you, Dr. Brueck. And good luck to the rest of you!

-Mark

My Major Project Final Post

The End Result

Greetings, friends! Well, I have finished my major project on Two-Point Perspective Drawing. My goal was to draw a city block with different sized buildings and I have accomplished it. I must say that I am pleased. Here it is below:

A Few of my Favorite Things

I have learned a lot. I am thankful for my wonderful artistic wife who guided me along the way. Also, my friend, Friday Mike helped me with his criticism and encouragement. 

I think I have come a long way from all the awkward shapes and failed attempts at single buildings and random drawings. All of the erasing and pencils I have went through. All the videos and tutorials and lessons from my wife have led up to the accomplishing of my goal. This will be a technique that I will still love to practice. One of the most important things of all though that I learned was patience. Patience, patience, patience. This was a blast!

 I hope you enjoy and I look forward to seeing yours as well!

-Mark

It is...Week 12

Technology to Improve Teacher Productivity

Let's face it, teachers are stressed out to the max. There is so much to do and so much to organize! With today's technology, however, teachers can be more organized and feel a sense of balance in their life!

One of the most interesting tools that I saw was RescueTime. I think that it is awesome that you can have something to keep you on track so that you finish your work. I think that it is amazing that this tool can keep track of how long you have been off of your assignment as well. I feel that I will definitely need to use this tool when I become a teacher. Distractions of everyday life can get in the way and it is easy to be caught up in that. I believe this tool will help me solve my constant disorganization life style problems. This could also benefit students and parents. This tool would have me stay on task and I could grade the class's assignment and send it to not only the students, but the parents as well.

Wunderlist seems like another great organizational tool as well. I could see myself making a checklist for the class and putting it up on a Smart Board. We would have a visual as a class to see what we have yet to finish and what we have accomplished. For instance, if I were teaching a History class about World War II, I could make a check list of each year, and make sub topics within each year that as a class we could check off as we cover each section.

Here is a link to the Wunderlist website which explains ways for teachers to use this tool: https://www.wunderlist.com/blog/back-to-school-with-wunderlist-4-tech-tips-for-teachers/

My favorite part of Jake's presentation was when he mentioned the tool Goobrics. I looked this tool up and it seems like an easy tool to use, especially for us not-so-tech-savvy people. The set up looks great and is an easy way to grade the students' work.

Well, friends, we made through all of our PLN blogs! Hope you enjoyed it! Looking for ward to seeing your final projects!

-Mark

Two Point Perspective - The Journey Continues

The Journey Continues...

Greetings, friends! My journey of two-point perspective drawing continues. I have had some successes and failures as usual, but I am trudging through the trenches of this technique. 

My friend who is supposed to be keeping me accountable and encouraging me likes the progress I am making. He goes by Friday Mike, who was an art major at Kent State University. 

Friday Mike approves.

Here are a couple of drawings I have been working on...

Pueblo leads to Colorado City

Mr. Woodard (one of the teachers I work with who is literally a wizard when it comes to Special Education)

Practice

Leave

So here is what I have for now. My attempts continue and I will be posting more!

Let me know your thoughts!

-Mark

Blended Learning

Blended Learning

Greetings, friends!

This class has definitely been effective in using the the instructional model of Blended Learning. It is great that we have had the option to meet face to face, listen to a presentation online and interact with the instructors and one another while the presentation is happening. In this class we have been able to work on our own time and get immediate feedback from Dr. Brueck and each other through our blogs. I do not believe anything has been ineffective in this class. This class has been a great way to be an engaged student and help with our professional development.

My philosophy on Blended Learning is that this is a great way to become an engaged learner. I think that this is a great way to teach students discipline by giving them the opportunity to work at their own pace but still complete their work on their own time. I see this concept model continuing to expand as time goes on.

What I really liked from Stacy's presentation was when she talked about Blended vs. Tech Rich Instruction. Here is a quote from her presentation: 

• "Blended learning is more than electronic textbooks and productivity tools. It means inventing and adopting new learning environments that work better for teachers and students. In blended learning data from the online instruction is used to inform the face-to-face instruction."

The idea of inventing and adopting new learning environments that are best for you and your students is awesome. I will definitely apply this to my future classroom. Since I will be teaching Special Education inventing new learning environments for the different severities of the students disabilities will be crucial for them to learn and engage effectively.

Having the proper amount of technology and other technological resources is important. But, here is a blog from a math teacher in Florida who is able to effectively do Blended Learning with only one iPad in her classroom! Check this out!

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/blended-learning-working-one-ipad

Please, friends, let me know your thoughts and I am excited to read your blogs as well!

-Mark

Formative and Summative Assessment

Formative and Summative Assessment

Greetings, friends! 

Before this week, I really did not know the effectiveness of assessments. In high school, I definitely saw the way teachers did Summative assessments at the end of a semester or year but never really noticed a Formative assessment.

Now that I have a much better idea on the concepts of both formative and summative assessments, my philosophy now is that Formative assessments are more important then Summative. The reason being that Formative assessment is ongoing, it never stops. Formative is also descriptive and helps discover the goal and will close the gap on problems in learning and gets a better idea of where the student is at in whatever the subject is.

Here is a great blog by Rebecca Alber that explains why Formative assessments matter: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/formative-assessments-importance-of-rebecca-alber

The blog is not long but it does hit many key points on the importance of formative assessment and goes a little beyond what we were assigned to read and watch. I encourage you to check it out!

Honestly, I was more impressed with eduCanon than Pear Deck. What I really like about eduCanon was the Question-by-Question Break Down. I thought that was really fun and interactive. The format of the site was really cool and like I said, the way it is so interactive makes it so effective. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that I did not like Pear Deck. I thought the imagery was really neat on that site but from messing around with the sites, eduCanon was more fun and a tool that I could see myself as future teacher using this for my class.

What struck me most about Scott's presentation was the diagram of The Learning Cycle. This gave such a great visual on the importance and concept of Formative assessment. This diagram really grasps that learning has no end. 

Here is a cool article you can download as a PDF on the importance of The Learning Cycle that gives great insight and description on what it is and how we use it:

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/program/education/us/en/documents/assessing-projects/overview-and-benefits/assessment-throughout-learning-cycle.pdf

I encourage you friends to let me know what you think and I am excited to read your blogs as well!

-Mark

A Lesson Learned

I Got Schooled

Greetings, friends! Well, I definitely learned my lesson these past few days. My wife, Ashley, who is a wonderful artist(and I'm not just saying that because she is my wife), was able to give me some guidance on how to improve on drawing in two-point perspective.

I worked on drawing an apartment building. Here are some photos of the steps that I took:

As you can see, my words and windows do not line up with my vanishing points. I showed them to my wife and she gave me a lesson, that's for sure. I recorded a couple videos on the lesson she gave me. Here is the first one in which she explains the process:

The second video is a time lapsed video of her correcting my work:

Ashley has helped me so much. She will continue to school me on this technique and I will be posting more lessons and examples on my journey in the world of drawing in two-point perspective!

-Mark