1. I found these two videos in You Tube. The first is an explanation of how to create 3D animations. Notice that it’s a chid who is doing the explaining. Try to follow his explanation by applying what he’s explaining to your own pictures on power point. The second video partly explains how to use tables. It will help you to review as you prepare your own documents using tables.
2. The following are your readings for this week
“Students Share Their Accompishments with “Brag Calls”
“Twittering, Not Frittering: Professional Development in 140 Characters”
3. Plan a 2 to 3 minute explanation of something that you’re doing for the class. Keep it simple. Next Saturday I will record you so that you can post your podcast in your blog. If doing this in class gets you nervous and you have a digital video camera at home, you can do it at home.
9 comments ↓
Coment # 6
About “Brag Calls” and Twittering, I’ll be honest, I didn’t know about it nevertheless I found very important for instant communications and writing. It is true nowadays every body needs communication and affection maximum for the good things they do. I found it very interesting to be considered. Our students love to be congratulated and stimulated for what they do; I always look for the chance to award them. Hope when the technology comes totally to our school it could be easer to relate instantly.
Carol Crespo
Reflection # 7
Brag Calls and Twitter
“Brag calls” is an old strategy with a very unique name. I think it’s worth while to rescue the formal calls teachers made to check their students’ progress with this light and fun way. I’m sure it’s a very motivating not only for the student but for the whole family to receive such a call. It’s a great idea! I think I’ll try it. “Brag E-mails” would probably also work, although the instant gratification would be absent.
With all the different ways to send messages and get information, the up coming generations have many opportunities to develop their writing skills in such diverse ways! Who would ever think of all these media means 30 years ago?
Twitter (what a funny name) looks like another instant way to get information. For some people it works. But, with all these different and diverse medias you have to be selective and at the same time creative. Personally I’m still in the stone age or shall I say “ paper age”, where I’m trying to remember that I don’t have to use so much of it.
Reflection
Top Ten Slide Tips & Cognitive Theory
Garr Reynolds’ article on the slide tips was pretty useful. The beginning was basic information (that we know by heart about every Power Point presentation); to keep it simple, limit bullet points and use color and fonts well. I think everyone agrees on that one. I especially enjoyed the tip of avoiding “cheesy sound effects such as the sound of a horn or applause”, which everyone seems to always use.
The before and after examples of slides was awesome, you could observe a huge difference in terms of professionalism. The suggestion of not using the Power Point clip art was particularly useful, but that depends on who your presentation is intended for. If it’s for kids, then clip art would work just fine; but for adults, he recommends to “use high quality graphics, including photographs”. The images of people he uses are great. Like he emphasizes, we should all strive on making “a unique presentation”.
Cognitive Load Theory
The Cognitive load theory makes perfect sense of how when bombarded by information, this will result in a cognitive overload. The reading provided by David Lewis, PhD was pretty hard to read and process. I had to reread it a few times and still didn’t get it too much.
It was a good thing that the other article, (Improving Traditional Instruction) was easier to read and much interesting. The first article was theoretical, whereas the second one was much practical or applicable. After reading the second article I had a much better understanding of what Dr. Lewis meant.
That second article contained wonderful information, especially the “chunk information into meaningful units”, since we all know that our working memory is very limited and not used to the fullest. The example given on teaching algebraic principles “as a worked example model”, transported me to my high school years. Their approach is not only magnificent, but is also works! I remember Algebra; it was my favorite class, great teacher, I understood everything, but when application time came, oops, I would have trouble solving the problems. When the teacher would correct them and go over them step by step, I remember thinking, “ug, how easy, why didn’t I think of that, I love math, but suck at it”. So yes, I could definitely relate to that ‘old’ method of teaching Algebra. Maybe I wasn’t so bad after all, but rather it was the way it was being taught to me.
That means there is still hope because in Swelter and Cooper’s words: “their worked example learners required less time to solve similar problems and made significantly fewer errors”.
Reflection
Brag Calls and Twittering
What a wonderful way to use technology! Such a thing would have never occurred to me. It is very unfortunate that nowadays when teachers communicate with students’ parents (in most cases) it is only to give them bad news or when it is almost too late to do anything about helping the child.
I always made it a point whenever I wrote something negative to parents about their child (in the contact notebook) to always give them positive feedback a few days or weeks later. Even if I didn’t see an improvement, I would comment that their child was trying hard to improve their behavior (or whatever it was), to continue with their support and follow up at home.
Although I really enjoyed the article and it almost made me emotional, it bothered me a lot too. Let’s be realistic; some students, no matter how hard they try, just don’t have it in them. And no, I’m not talking about special-needs students; I’m talking about those that don’t master the language (immigrant) or those that lack a good educational background (for not having good teachers on prior years, for example). What do you do about students like that, when their work is not “exceptional and exceeds the standard?” That means some students, no matter how hard they try will never have the opportunity of a “brag call”. Do you know how discouraging and devastating this can be for a child?
So I would broaden the ‘brag call’ to include cases other than special-needs students and would develop another way of ‘measuring them’. Perhaps significant improvement or effort, would earn them a ‘brag call’.
This ‘twittering’ free online service is something I had never heard about and would love to check out. The thing is as educators, it is hard to try and keep up with all the trends! We are constantly bombarded with so much new information, technology and tools, that if we were to check them all out, we would not have time for anything else and we teachers have a plenty of work as it is!
Twittering sounds great in the sense that it’s easy, accessible and fast. It doesn’t sound like it’s too time consuming, which makes it much easier for us. But yes, I agree with Howard Levin “who gets frustrated by all the completely irrelevant personal information people post”. Twittering should be solely for educational purposes; I don’t care about the personal lives of people I don’t know. For that we have other means of communication like Yahoo Personals, Facebook, emails, phones, etc.
Brag Calls I think that at that level that this person is teaching is a great idea, if the school permits it, at this level students get motivated with any cool idea. Even though I do believe that as the article said we should have an effective communication between home and school at the level that I teach this brag call is not much of use but we can find other was to motivate the students and have the communication with parents. I believe its an excellent tool once you set you standards in your classroom no doubt of that. The article related to twitter I think its a cool idea easy way to get information and new ideas to use in your classroom. Your constantly working with your colleagues even if their far away and you can share ideas with then in simple text.
Sorry in the comment posted before in the 6th sentence it says find other was and it should say find other ways. Also were it says once you7 set you standards in your classroom, it should say once you set your standard in the classroom. Sorry in the last sentence were it says Your it should say You’re. I was kind of in a rush, had to give tutoring. My Bad bye.
It is the first time I have heard about this tool “Brag Calls”. It seems fun and motivating for students and parents. On the other hand, it would be sad for those students that academically would never surpass a minimum requirement. These students would not have the opportunity to make that call. For this technique or strategy, it is a requirement having a phone in the classroom. In our educational system, it would be kind of difficult for teacher to have a telephone in their classroom. Writing in their notebooks is a way to communicate and keep parents updated about their academic improvement. If I were to have the opportunity to have a phone in my classroom, definitely, I would adapt this tool.
Twittering seems like a handy tool for teachers that are on the run most of the time. This tool also is new for me. I would like to check on it. As teachers, we are always doing something, and don’t have the time to sit and read extended news or articles. However, 140 characters of information is something that is written briefly which help teachers be updated with any incoming news. I will be twittering soon.
By Marisol Ortiz
Students Share Their Accomplishments with “Brag Calls”!
I believe anything that can motivate a student is worth the effort. For her it was a technique that actually worked. Students and mostly everyone feels proud of receiving accomplishments and in this case they had something extra to work for. I think this could be applied not only with a phone call but with the use of a note that can be like a “Special Note” with an unique presentation just for those that exceed the standards.
Twittering, Not Frittering: Professional Development in 140 Characters
This is the first time I hear about Twitter. It seems easy to use and vey accessible. Since this is another technological tool, I guess is important to learn more about it before using it. One thing that call my attention was the fact that here in Puerto Rico this might not be so popular yet. Also for me time is a big issue, I never seem to have enough lately. So, I can’t imagine myself dealing with this technology at this moment.
As my fellow teachers these motivating tools are new for me. The “Brag calls” as I read is a motivating tool that involve parents, student and teacher. It is cool for the students with excellent approach. But for those students with lower academic approach not. All Teachers every day need new things for motivate students. Also “ Brag Calls” is good for the lower grades in high school students don’t like parents around school. I thing we can use any tool for motivate students but it depend on the age and grade we are teahing.
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