WEEK FIVE!

The final week has come and gone. It has been somewhat overwhelming I have to say. I tend to be one of those that needs immediate gratifications, the "Oh, I love that idea!" or the "that idea really stinks!" But this class has taught me to really look beyond that, be patient and really know how to take waht others produce and really have it mesh with yours. The ability to really use the things that I have intentions of putting in place week one of the 2009-10 school year with my 5th graders has been awesome. I don't have much down time to "play" during the school year. This actual project came quite easily for us, once we came up with a topic the frames just seemed to move. One member found quotes that would work, we filled out the shot sheet, worked on the videos themselves and editted. I was surprised at how easily it flowed and how each one of us had strengths that posed well with the group. We did have to rethink a few things do to constraints with AUP's and summer school students so we had to go with a different shot in our second frame then intended amnd we had to cut out one of the original quotes we wanted to use due to time and the initial length of the video but for the most part but we were able to stay the course of the overall process. While I found this class a wee bit of a struggle on two accounts, I enjoyed the process and the outcomes greatly! Two accounts being, the time of year and the time of year. Neither of which can be helped but seemed to be the hardest humps to overcome. Many things that would have been easy for me to access while at school or at least in school, I was not able to get to nad had to do some creative thinking to accomplish what I needed to get done. Many of the supplies I needed to complete some of the tasks were district hardware items that I do not have access to during the summer break. The hurdle was jumped and the race completed, it just may have been easier during the 9 month school year. The second was due to vacations, trips and holidays, mine included! Each one of us in my group had taken some time off for summer vacations or needed to finish the project before leaving on one, making it difficult to communicate. During the school year when we all are working would have course made this much easier, but another hurdle jumped and all was successful! I feel as though I have learned much from this class that will be easy to share to my students and to continue with in my personal life as well!

Week Three

How lucky am I??? Wow, do I have a great group! Two pairs from the week before got together via wiki this week and were able to get things moving quickly. We through out some possible PSA thoughts and themes and after looking at the class we were taking and the research we had all ready done, we went with technology. I feel as though each person in my group has some real talents in specific areas, which is great for those of us (mainly me) in some areas for this project. I have to admit that this has been a trying class for me. No "classroom" to meet in, no actual person to talk to face to face has had me change my learning style. Having to talk via discussion board and wiki and having to rely on three other people, has been a good learning experience for me and something that I can relate to when I take this back to my classroom. The hands-on has been an instructional plus!

Week Two- Multimedia

Wow! What a week...and nothing like counting down the hours before something is due. Afetr hours of trying multiple things to get videos from YouTube onto Movie Maker I sent a shoot out to classmates via the discussion board. Thanks to Troy and Ellen for hanging in therw with me and helping me out with something that would work with my system. I would consider myself pretty computer saavy and really haven't had any issues...until this week. I was stumped and thankful for the help! I loved this weeks project once I got going. The only area that I seem to have real weakness in was the time. It's amazing how quickly 30 seconds can go when doing something of this nature. I know that if I had figured this process out last week, I wuld have been able to do much more so the finished product isn't exactly what I was looking for. There is room for much needed improvement!

Photostory

Wow! My task this week was to come up with a PhotoStory about my life that was under three minutes. I know, I know...you are thinking the same thing I was...how in the world am I going to sum up my 32 years in under three minutes. After going through my weekly readings, I realized that I was being way to literal. That my "life" encompasses many things and that I could include as many or as few as I wanted to create my PhotoStory. I had used PhotoStory at work for several projects over the last few years and I was excited to get started...once I had a focus. I decided to focus on my children! What better part of your life to focus on right? I pulled out pictures I hadn't seen in several years. I found the same pictures of both my children doing the same things as they grew...it was great to see that even with the second child, my photos hadn't tapered off. My script came easily once I knew my "theme" and the putting the story together was farily easy. My struggles came with finding a song that was appropriate for the background. I couldn't seem to find a song that summed up what I thought my story told. I picked one that may be seen in a woman/man relationship but to me means something new with the birth of my two children...My Arms Are Wide Open and will always be...they are my life!

Pictures in the Bluebonnets!

It's that time of the year. The wildflowers are out in full force. The kids needed to have thier annual picture taken in the bluebonnets so I drug them out on the hottest day of the week and Made the stand in a bunch of flowers. It's hard to get both to look at the camera at the same time, but the pictures came out cute. Here are just a sampling of what we had! Hope the spring finds you all well, enjoy the rest of the week and the coming weekend!

Soccer Game

Grandpa took a little video of Andrew's team the Rhinos and their first game. Andrew is number nine, look for the blondest, shortest little guy out there and that's him. He tries so hard. I know that one day he's going to be in just the right spot and will help score a goal! It is not that time on the video, he can't quite get there...

Andrew's playing soccer!!!

Who would have thought that anyone would make shin guards, cleats or uniforms small enough to fit our little guy? At the ripe, old age of three, Andrew has taken on soccer. A questionable feat when at first his response was lots of tears and, "I don't want to play soccer with my friends!" After the first practice concluded and we made it through the two quarters he played at his first game, there were tears as we left, but only because he wanted to play more soccer! I guess when they are three you just can't win. I am posting pictures from his first practice and first game. The pictures may be a little fuzzy, it's hard to run along side the field, cheer and snap pictures all at the same time. We all enjoyed the game on Saturday, Andrew had a cheering section larger than anyone else's and we were all so proud of him sticking with it...even though his little legs didn't carry him very fast, he put in great effort. I think he may have even kicked the ball a few times. We hope that the warming of the winter weather finds everyone in good health and may each day bring you great happiness! Love, The Texas King's

Madison Walked!

I happened to take a half a day last week to take Andrew to the dentist and after bringing him home and putting him down for a nap, had a chance to see my baby girl in action! She was hangin' out in her brothers Elmo chair and decided to give it a whorl. I got it with the "good" video camera first and then shot this video so I could upload it and get it out to everyone. I was so excited that I happen to be at home to see it, what an exciting day!

Web Evaluation- For EDLD 5306, Week Two

One of the websites I chose to evaluate was Critical Issue: Realizing New Learning for All Students Through Professional Development.

This website focused on creating and evaluating professional development that focuses on differentiation and teachers working with students. The website has an opening statement about its mission/purpose, it has several short videos and it also has links to additional websites with more specific professional development goals in mind. I felt its focus was quite relevant to what we had been discussing in our class.

I liked this website due to the fact that it did focus on the differentiation piece. I also thought that this website was easy to navigate and although links were integrated through the reading when appropriate, the changing of font color made them easy to locate and click on if more information was needed. I enjoyed the fact they were focused on professional development to help students. Many of the websites I looked at just focused on the guidelines and modeling professional development for administrators.

I did not like the fact that you were unable to "search" on this site. Although the site is small and easy to manage, it would have been nice to be able to type in a topic and have it even link you to some of the additional sites it offered. This website also seemed to be old in visual appearance, and although information is still highly relevant, the look of the website could use an overhaul.

This websites value is still relevant. As I stated, this website discusses the use of differentiation. Before differentiation became a buzz word in education (the website was founded in 1996). I think that much of what we have read and studied in this class focuses us on how we, as teachers, can improve for our students and this website proved beneficial for us currently. I would recommend this website to others, especially those who may be needing to present to other peers on their campus...it certainly gives a different perspective to professional development.

We are almost to February!

Andrew is almost 3 and a half and Madison will soon be 15 months. Its so hard to believe that they are growing so fast. I put the kids in cute shirts, took them out and had them sit in front of our house on a bench to take a picture for Valentines Day. Aren't they just so sweet. Andrew was more than happy to pose, Madison was too busy flirting with the wind and watching the dog. Hope everyone has a great start the the next month. Hugs from all of us here!

Ringing in the New Year!

Okay, I told you all that this would be a difficult thing for me to keep up with but I think I can get back on track. I have some pictures of the kids from Christmas so I'll try to get those up as soon as possible. We had a great holiday season...it was such a special time of year with so much family here and then Andrew actually "getting" the whole Santa thing. You should have seen his face light up! What an amazing blessing...both of our kids are so wonderful. Madison has learned by watching her brother, she tears into those packages and it doesn't take her long to get through all the presents. We are into January...in fact, it's half gone all ready. Hard to believe we are in full swing. Hope everyone has had a great start to 2009, may you all have a blessed and exciting year! Hugs from the King's!