Day 16

Monday, June 26, 2017

This is our last week of GAETI 2017. So many loose ends to tie up...!

We started the morning with a lesson on using iPads in Education. Ms. Stephanie Agnew from the library shared some great resources - free apps for iPads. I am happy to have these lists because I will have an iPad and so will all of my students. She also shared the presentation and Dr. Lee posted it in our Canvas account.  I go to my new school for iPad and Canvas training on July 19. I hope to have enough practice with Canvas and iPad apps that I have good questions. That way I can make the most of my training.

We finished Creating a story and started our 'newspaper'.  Since Ruth and I had done our web quest on sports - we decided to use foreign newspapers for top sports stories of the day. Unfortunately, I had to leave early so we didn't finish writing our articles. That is on my to-do list.

I did lay out my multi-media design and asked for help on planning the layers. I will have to come back in at lunch to finish it because we will not have art tomorrow. Here is the lay-out of my project before it has layers.

Day 14

June 22, 2017


   Mixture of rain and sun today.
'Cindy' has made landfall in Louisiana.
I'm really glad we are not heading south today! There is a chance of flash flood and storm surge all along the Gulf coast.


   A former GAETI participant, Ms. Billie Jean Fulton came and shared some technology tips she had started using since her experience at GAETI. We got complete instructions on using YouTube to record lessons in progress. I need to use something like this when we study new concepts or have learning activities that are difficult to explain to absent students. These could also be used for reinforcement and review before tests.  Another tool was Thinglink. I remember seeing this before but never using it. I could see using it for vocabulary practice. For example, students could be asked to find a picture of a house they like. They would then label items in Spanish.  I would investigate the possibility of students recording audio clips of themselves saying the words, too.

   At 10:00 we hurried to the Camtasia lab to work on our videos. Since we were not finished by 11:00, we put off the presentation until after lunch.  After some trouble 'producing' the video (changing it to Mp4 file), we managed to save it correctly. Then.... technical difficulties in the presentation. We had to re-save and present in the QuickTime player, not Windows Media. Ours was 6 minutes long! We were satisfied with how it turned out even though we didn't win. Almost every participant voted for their own group, anyway. Luckily, one person swayed the vote so a winner could be declared. The biggest take-away here was gaining more confidence in my ability to create a video, add callouts, audio, etc. I will try to use a video project this year. I have to find out what Apps the students will be able to use first.

  At 11:30 - we Skyped with someone's friend in England. He noted that the educational system in England was geared toward making students conform to a pattern. I was reminded of Pink Floyd's video "Another Brick in the Wall". The 'pupils' are put through a factory. They lose their individual identities and eventually are ground into 'sausages.' This is pretty far from American ideas in education, I think. We foster more independence and individuality.

   I am still working on my multi-media project (still cutting).
 I did finish carving out the Ouroboros (Serpent eating its tail) on my sgraffito plate.  I hope it turns out as cool as it looks now! It's also a good story ... it represents the cycle of renewal and re-invention of self. I think that represents me now as I'm changing schools after 34 years. I'm looking forward to this opportunity to re-invent my teaching and get away from the 'rut'.

Hasta mañana.

Day 13

Lucky 13!  Considering I had 2 1/2 hours of sleep last night - I think I did fairly well today.  The weather is wet because of Cindy, the tropical depression coming in from the Gulf. Good news, though. A kind soul from McCain found my legal pad and handouts. She notified Dr. Lee. He emailed me. I went over to retrieve it.  It was exactly where I thought I had left it, with papers blowing around. I was very grateful to have my materials.
Today Dr. Lee taught us a great deal about how Canvas works and how it compares with Schoology. I'm sure I will have to 'play' with everything to remember how to insert files, choose correct settings, etc.  It really helps that I have seen well-organized courses from the student view.
We worked more on the Flat Stanley video. Most of our session was about becoming familiar with Camtasia. I used my computer and practiced iMovie. We will record our 'dubbed' audio before we leave today. We have one hour tomorrow morning before we have 'show and tell.'
Art is coming along. I got the glass ready to fuse. I outlined my sgrafitto plate. I have a lot more to do tomorrow.  I hope I don't need to stay up late to get my work done but the relief of completing a task makes it worthwhile.
Hasta mañana.

Day 12

Today started with a lesson in preparing an online presentation. The process was to use PowerPoint and record the audio narration. We created 3 slides introducing our course(s). For each slide we recorded audio using our headphone/microphone combo. Next we saved it as a movie (Mp4) so it could be uploaded with the narration. One option would be to post to Canvas or another LMS. A different choice would be to publish on You Tube and share the link with students. I found out that you can edit movies after they have been published in You Tube. That is so much better than deleting and uploading a new version. With my home internet service - uploading takes a while!

The second session this morning was about planning and filming an on-campus adventure of Flat Stanley. In 2015 Nancy and I made a lengthy trek to film 'Esteban' all over campus. He kept disappearing and I had to find him using GPS tracking. We had to combine history and Spanish. It was a stretch to make a decent plot. Hopefully we can 'fix' everything by adding some narration during the editing process. The most annoying part of the project was misplacing my legal pad. We were filming the Flat Stanley project and for some reason I had the tablet in my hand, not in my backpack. I set it down somewhere and failed to pick it up. I did retrace my steps and check garbage cans but no luck.... Unfortunately I was using it to store many loose papers. I'm not sure which papers were in there, some Agendas and notes, I'm sure! Also, my art projects. Those are saved on my computer so they can be reprinted.

In Art we continued cutting and had the lesson about glass cutting and fusing. I have a good bit to cut still so I opted out of the tile project. It's a shame not to do the tiles because they fit so well with Spanish and Mexican culture.

 I found this example of a tile mural from New Orleans.
This would be great because it ties together the Spanish and French presence in New Orleans. Many students don't realize that both the French and Spanish occupied and influenced parts of Louisiana / Luisiana and Mississippi. The city of Natchez has records in French and in Spanish. It's obvious that the street for this sign is Bourbon Street. Notice the Spanish spelling of 'Bourbon' (a line of royalty). Also, the Spanish word for 'street' can be guessed by context clues! Hopefully I can watch what the others do with their tiles and recreate this idea for my students, possibly on card stock.

Our WebQuest about sports in Spanish-speaking countries is not yet complete. I will try to finish the rubric and figure out how to insert the copy into the 'zunal.com' web quest site. As I have said, I am not quick at finishing projects because I tend to get bogged down in the details. At least I know this and I am willing to put in extra time at home when necessary. I need to work on my Web Quest, Weebly web page, media project and now - the iMovie! It will feel good when I finally have something FINISHED.

Day 11

June 19, 2017
We started the day in the lab where we learned about Canvas. This is invaluable to me because I will be using Canvas this year, rather than Schoology. I am hoping to have time to set up my courses before going back to school this fall. My Canvas has GAETI 2015 and GAETI 2017 plus my Spanish and French courses.
A lady from the library came and talked to us about Copyrights and Fair Use laws. This is something to consider, especially if a teacher uses music, printed materials, or images and publishes them or tries to make money (Teachers Pay Teachers).  It is best to avoid using borrowed material unless it is only used face to face for educational purposes.

In art - we removed our clay projects from the molds and smoothed them. We also applied 3 coats of glaze.
Now we have the option of creating a story in tiles. This sounds really exciting to me. Both Spain and Mexico use tiles extensively in their buildings. This could be a great 'cultural' connection to display in my classroom if I choose good designs.
Back in the lab - we submitted an audio introduction to Canvas. Then, my partner and I began working on our Webquest - Sports in Spanish-speaking countries. We ended the day with work on our Weebly websites.
At this point - I have many things started. I hope to finish them all. Truthfully, I will not be able to finish with my usual attention to detail because that is too time-consuming. If I don't really use my website with my classes - I can transfer the ideas to Canvas. I'm sure I will use Canvas!
Hasta mañana.

Day 10

'Rainbow in the morning , sailors take warning!'
I would have taken a picture but I was talking to my dad about his cattle and his hay-making problems due to rain. There was a lovely rainbow (segment) in the east this morning. I found a picture of a rainbow at sea since I couldn't photograph the one over Starkville.

Despite the bad omen, nothing has gone awry so far today.  We started with ART!  I remembered how long it takes to cut shapes with an Exacto knife. I may need to come in early each day or finish my shapes at home.

We just returned from a tour of the T.K. Martin center. The focus in today's tour was technology. The theme for this summer's children activities was Time travel. The 'bricks' were actually a plastic sheet but the shadows made them look real. I'll keep this in mind for a dance or play background. We also saw how students with speech difficulty,  even very young ones, were trained to use keyboards so they could communicate. I understand that keyboarding will be taught in 2nd grade next year!

The speech boards reminded me of how images can communicate ideas without spoken language. You have to wonder if people will stop studying language one day and allow a picture language and a 'Google translate' reader to be the interpreter when necessary. Also, will the ability to use handwritten messages disappear?  There might be a problem with this in a society without electricity and Internet.  Should we assume these things would be available forever?  It must be 'deep thought' Friday.

Justin Putnam, a former colleague from New Hope, brought us a presentation on formative assessment and gamification. I use most of the things he shared. I need to do MUCH better on NearPod! I use Power Point all the time. I could easily pull my presentations into NearPod. I can see how my students would like using their iPads with NearPod presentations.

In the morning session about board games I learned some Excel features such as how to make a spinner using two columns and a pie chart. In Power Point I learned how to insert a hyperlink to go to another part of my presentation. Before I had only used this for inserting media files and Internet videos or pages.  This will be much better than searching for the slide by dragging through all of them!

Well, it's time for the week-end to begin. OH.... the greatest news today is that Dr. Bracey had her baby boy this morning - right before Art class. We are so excited for her!

Update:  after class I went home right away because a storm was looming in the north. About 30 minutes after I got home Noxubee County was under TWO severe thunderstorm warnings at once. I guess the 'rainbow in the morning' was for real!
Here's a picture of the sky from our house. This photo was actually a different day - but the sky was similar on Friday. Our Friday storm came from the north rather than the south or southwest. We always get a windy spell and big rain when it moves in from the north.  I need to take a class in meteorology so I can identify the clouds. There was definitely lightening and thunder so I know they were 'storm clouds.' I'll remember this the next time I see the rainbow in the morning.

Day 9

June 15, 2017
Today we continued to learn about creating lessons that engage students and promote learning. After a review of Backward design, we started collaborating on a mini-lesson plan. Ruth and I spent a great deal of time finding a common topic for both of us. She teaches an intro course to 8th graders. Her course lasts 1 nine weeks. I wanted to find a unit I could teach in Spanish and French. Hopefully, I can use this unit to review with Spanish II since these students are new to me. We are planning a unit including family vocabulary, the verb 'to be', possessives, simple questions and descriptive adjectives. I would like to plan the lesson as an IPA. This means we must find authentic reading and listening for the students. It shouldn't be difficult to create an authentic performance assessment (letter, poster, presentation).

In art - we glued our shapes to matte board. Tomorrow we can begin cutting. Sadly, there is only 1 hour of art tomorrow because we have a guest speaker during our usual art time.

We discussed some technology tools and 'played' with them in the lab. One was a concept mapping site:  Bubbl.   It seems easy to use. I think I may create my lesson plan outline with that.  It should work well for me because I think in all directions at once!

We looked at a word cloud site that doesn't need Java:  worditout.  I quickly created the following from the first verse of 'Eres tú.' I tried to use Wordle with students after the last GAETI but it requires Java, which we didn't have on Mac.
This word cloud shows the most frequent words. This is a great tool to preview unknown vocabulary before reading a poem or listening to a song.

We also looked at a timeline tool:  timetoast.com
 I looked up the age of Exploration.  My idea would be to recreate these timelines in the classroom and let the class compare these events with major events in the early history of our country. I think students need a clear understanding of how long ago the explorers traveled. The major events of US History come 200 years later. By finding out the countries of origin of the 'explorers' students should comprehend why the US speaks English, why Canada speaks English and French, and why most of the countries south of us speak Spanish.
I am excited about using this tool!

Hasta mañana.