Westrom's World

Website reflection

2009-07-23T12:54:00.007-06:00

I am really glad that we were able to use and update a current website. I am required to have a website by my school district, Hellgate Elementary (http://www.hellgate.k12.mt.us). I do not always have much time to keep it up to date. If you visit other teachers' sites on the Hellgate Elementary homepage you will find a variety of different formats, and I am sure you will quickly notice what is required by the district.

My webpage has a variety of information on it. Some of it has been required by the district. Some of it is of personal interest to me. Some of it is a result of taking not only C&I 488 this summer but also taking ED 391. My website is better than it was and I hope it will continue to evolve and be a source of information, inspiration, exploration, and presentation for myself, my students, and their parents.

My homepage (Welcome) is changed monthly if not sooner. It tends to give an overview of what is going on and what is to come. Calvin, the big white bear, is an active part of my language/reading classes throughout the year. The rest of my website can be accessed using the buttons on the navigation bar on the left of the Welcome page.

As I mentioned before, there are a variety of purposes for these buttons. I have ordered them alphabetically in several categories. After the Welcome button comes a Meet Mrs. Westrom button. On this page I have written a brief autobiography to give readers, new students and parents, an idea of who I am and from where I have come. After that, I have put the buttons where students will interact most often. Finally, there are the buttons that are required by the district. They tend to have more straightforward information related to district-wide policies although some I have personally added information, like the Grading Policies page.

This year, I will be teaching a science class, 3 math classes, and 2 reading classes. My website has been adapted with this in mind. The first button after Meet Mrs. Westrom is Book Reviews. There has been one assignment posted here already. I am hoping to use this page for my reading classes. I would like them to interact with me through written assignments, email, and blogs throughout the year to share what they are reading. I am hoping in the future to have another button below this one to post student book reviews that all students can access - possibly by a link to a blog or wiki.

The button below Book Reviews is Open House Videos. At the beginning of the year, I am hoping to have the time to have my students create a short personal video using Animoto to share with parents at Open House in the middle of September. At some point I am also hoping the students will make Orientation videos for the 5th graders who will be coming into sixth grade the following year.

The button below Open House Videos is Web 2.0. I have included a link to my blog here. I also put the IBistro(shared library catalogue) link here as well. I am considering moving this link to my Web Resources page or making it a button all on its own. I am going to wait and see what seems to work best for me and my students. I know that it is important to have it here. I also included the "Fair(y) Use" video, as I feel it is an important thing to share. Teaching about copyright and creative commons is one of my goals this year. I look forward to using Audacity, blogs and possibly wikis this year, so this will be the place I will put information about these tools.

The button below Web 2.0 is Web Resources. This currently has two math sites as I will be teaching 3 classes of math this year. It also contains the Internet Public Library site. This site contains a great deal of information and references that can help anyone who might need it. I am looking forward to continuing to add to this site as well.

The button below Web Resources is Young Readers Choice. I am very committed to encouraging my students to be involved in reading the Young Readers Choice nominees. The Pacific Northwest Library Association does a wonderful job with the help of parents, teachers, librarians and students, putting together a strong ballot of young adult literature annually. This button is a reference to the selected books for 2009-2010. I will also add assignments and activities that relate to these books.

Another button I am hoping to add to my webpage is a Lecture button. I use my Smartboard for all my lessons and I would like to try to post the lessons to the internet as a reference. I am just not quite sure how I will do this yet.

After the Young Readers Choice button is the Daily Assignments button. This is a requirement of the district. I am required to post my homework assignments daily. It is currently blank because we are not in school yet. I have found that this is a great tool for students and parents to keep lines of communication open.

The last five buttons on the navigation bar are required buttons. Classroom Management Policies was created by the sixth grade team and is consistent on all of the sixth grade sites. Grading Policies was developed by me to inform parents about my grading procedures. Each teacher may have different pages here, but we are all required to have them. Homework Policies and Procedures for Special Circumstances were required by the district and every teacher should have the same thing posted on their pages. The Class Calendar is one page I have not used successfully. The district posts major events. I am hoping to explore this page a bit further this year.

I am so much happier with my website now than I was at the end of last school year. I am excited about how far my website has come, how much I have learned, and the lessons I have planned with it.

Wonderful Web 2.0 site

2009-07-23T12:50:00.002-06:00

I found this Internet Hotlist for Web 2.0. It is Web 2.0 for the Classroom Teacher by Sue Sommerford. You can find it at http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listweb20s.html.

One book library video

2009-07-17T12:04:00.002-06:00

I created this video as an advertisement for our library. This past school year the librarian and I have been working on organizing a "One Book Reading Project" for the whole middle school. We have been trying to decide what book to use. Two or three years ago a read "3 Cups of Tea" by Greg Morentson and was inspired. The young adult version came out last summer and I suggested it to my librarian as a possible "One Book" idea. She told me that a picture book had been made as well and we are now trying to make it a whole school project K-8.

I had so much fun using Animoto. It was user friendly and easy to manipulate. Once again I am struggling with the copyright of the photos that I used. The music was one of the choices from Animoto and the title and singer are given credit. I have signed up for the educator program but have not received word back yet. 30 seconds is not very long, but I feel like I at least have done something that will get people watching it to ask questions and want to know more.

I really think there are lots of ways this could be used in a school. One way is for kids to make brief videos of themselves for Open House and have them running. Another is for them to be able to enhance reports. These could be used to make the school announcements more interesting in the morning. We have Smartboards in our classrooms and these could be used for announcements pretty easily. They do not take very long to put together. They could also be used for Orientation as well.

podcast

2009-07-17T11:21:00.002-06:00

This assignment has been challenging for me. I started looking for podcasts. I found EPN - the Education Podcast Network. This site was a bit confusing to use. There were different categories, but some of the podcasts were unavailable and some were difficult to understand the content. I listened to "Book Talks Quick and Simple by John Boyne". The book talk I listened to was BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS. It was very well done. It was easy to listen to and understand. I have read the book so it was a very accurate account of the book itself. The summary started with great detail and ended more general - I don't know if this was to keep the listener from having the ending totally spoiled. The other podcast I listened to was "The Technology Teacher" found in Google for Educators. The person spoke very fast and it was hard to follow, especially not being completely comfortable with the content. The podcast did give some good uses for technology in the classroom for Google Earth and Google Scholar. I will have to go and do more investigating on my own now. I also listened to Mr. Kratz share an example of how he has used a podcast as an assignment - this was found on epnweb.org. He went through step by step how he explained the podcast assignment to his students. His voice was very animated. He went at an excellent pace. It was easy to understand. He included music where it was appropriate. He also used sound effects. His voice was not monotoned and changed with the topic. It was very well done.

I found using Audacity to be a bit tricky. It took me about 4 hours to create the just under 2 minute audio recording. I started using a digital voice recorder, but soon found that it didn't communicate well with Audacity. I then used the microphone for my webcam to record barnyard dance. The tutorial on audacity was helpful. I was easily able to cut unwanted information. It took me awhile to insert space so I had time for my sound effects. Since I have so many, I found it difficult to get things lined up correctly. I used sound effects off the free websites, but I still feel like there should be some way to give credit to the sites I used. I still am not sure what to do about this. As I was finishing up, I was trying to make the end music fade in. Everytime I tried the fade in, the program would crash. Thank goodness I had saved most of it. I tried 4 times and each time it crashed, so I was not able to do this. It took me a while to get the LAME encoder to work, but I finally got it. I must say it feels good when I get things to finally work.

I can see using podcast for book reviews. I think students would be more motivated to share if they could use technology. I also think podcasts could be used for part of my autobiography assignment. I have traditionally been having my students write autobiographies. I think the web 2.0 tools could add another dimension to this assignment. Making a podcast with either interviews or oral history could make this project that much more authentic and interesting. In a library/classroom, students could record their reports and make them available to more than just their classmates. I also think that the sixth graders could make podcasts about what sixth grade is like and use them as an orientation for the incoming fifth graders.

Wikis, Podcasts and Webpages - Oh My!

2009-07-07T12:32:00.002-06:00

Just when I feel like I have accomplished something, something else comes along. Our group project is interesting and is going to be a great accomplishment. It is going to be hard to get together and get it done by Friday, but I feel our memo is a very good outline for the project at hand. The wiki is a good collaborative tool, but it is difficult when trying to get instant feedback. Instant messaging is better in that respect. I like that everyone can see it and make changes.

Next comes the podcast. This is going to be great. I love sharing children's literature and this will be a very dynamic way to do it. The hard part will be choosing the story.

I am not sure about the library video. I do not have access to my school library or classroom as the whole campus is under construction. I'm not really sure how I'm going to do this. Hopefully we chat about this tonight.

I have a webpage for school. I am not sure if I can adapt this one or if I need to create a whole new one.

RSS feed

2009-07-03T22:57:00.001-06:00

I am so proud of myself. I just joined Bloglines and set up an RSS feed. :)

Reflective Essay - Blogs as a Resource/Teaching Tool

2009-07-03T22:08:00.002-06:00

One of the most important things I have learned so far in this course is that the web 2.0 tools are interactive and allow for collaboration. Blogs are an excellent example of this. People post information, thoughts and questions, which allow those who read it to respond. It allows for differing opinions. I have used the Stephen's Lighthouse blog as a resource for our library automation project. It is good to have experts in the field willing to share their knowledge. I can then take the ideas and learn from them or adapt them to make changes in the way I do things that will make learning better for my students. Blogs also work as a resource to give examples of how other people do tasks similar to the ones I do only in a different way. For example, the Book Reviews @ Caravel Academy gives examples of student book reviews. This helps me and my students to see work that students in other schools are doing. I do book reviews in my reading classes, but not in blog format. Using a blog might definitely be a more motivating way for my students to accomplish this task. I know from experience that students are far more motivated to journal using a blog than using paper and pencil. A coworker and I created an Indian Boarding School Unit for our reading classes. We used Pageflakes to organize our online materials. We had writing prompts and journal questions for them to answer. One flake on our page was a blog. Students were on task and not only answered the questions, but were excited to see their posts on the screen, were engaged in responding to other classmate's posts, and then were interested in reading what other's had to say about their posts. This is what learning should look like. In a library, I think blogs can be used to share information about books, research topics, and personal reviews. I think students can work together in a blog to discuss themes, conflict and character analysis. Students are sometimes more willing to share on a computer screen than face to face.

Reflective Essay - Creating and Using My Own Blog

2009-07-03T21:53:00.003-06:00

I must admit that I have enjoyed creating this blog. I can see how this can be as addicting as scrapbooking. There is always something that can be changed, adjusted, improved, or created. When I first started on June 24th, I chose a layout and filled in the very basic information. I spent most of that day trying to figure out how all the pieces worked instead of thinking about what information was in them. It was very dull, but it was a start and it felt good. I was so proud of myself that I called my sister-in-law in Delaware who has a Master's degree in Library Science and is currently working in a private school in Delaware as the librarian. She logged on and told me that it was a good start. Unfortunately other projects and assignments then took precedence over my blog. Part of the purpose of creating it was to keep a journal of my experience in this class. I have not had time to fulfill this. Today I spent a lot of time editing and improving the blog. Part of what I did was to fulfill the requirements for the assignment, but the other part was to make it mine and more personal to me. I called my sister-in-law once again and she was able to walk me through many of the features that Blogger has. This was very informative and I think my blog is better because of that conversation. I wish we could have talked more about blogging and the creation of them in our last chat session. I also am struggling with the fact that this blog is both personal and professional. I am not sure that I like that. I am going to have to decide if I want one blog for my personal information and activities and then create another for my professional activities. It seems like a lot of work to have to check and maintain both. I also know that I intend to create a blog this fall where my students will be active participants.

My 3 blog choices

2009-07-03T21:37:00.002-06:00

I have posted Stephen's Lighthouse, Book Reviews @ Caravel Academy, and Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch. They are all very different in style and content. As I was looking for research for the group library automation project, I came upon Stephen's Lighthouse. This blog is part of the SirsiDynix web page where he is the Vice President of Innovation. His blog is full of wonderful information about libraries, web tools, and how to put the two together. The page is simple in design yet the content is well developed. Book Reviews @ Caravel Academy is the blog of a librarian(my sister-in-law) in Delaware. I have chosen to follow this blog because it shows how students use blogs to share information - in this case book reviews. While talking to my sister-in-law, she spoke of how much pride the students have when their reviews are posted on the blog. This is one thing that is so amazing about using these tools. They are motivational. The final blog I have listed is Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch. Kathy Schrock's web page is amazing. It contains wonderful teacher/librarian resources and ideas. Her blog dialogues about issues, questions, and possibilities of using technology in the school setting. I am looking forward to adding more blogs to this list. I hope to have one related to reading material and another related to web tools and education.

Having a hard time manipulating my blog

2009-07-03T09:58:00.001-06:00

I am enjoying the thought of having a blog. But with all the projects that are due this week, I am having a hard keeping track of everything. I am supposed to be keeping this as a journal, but I am just now getting comfortable enough with the creation process to know how to use it like a journal. I think I am dabbling in lots of different things without having the knowledge to do things well.

Head is swimming

2009-07-03T09:55:00.001-06:00

My classes are in full swing and the Jones family has arrived. I am having a hard time keeping track of all the web tools and projects and readings and due dates. They are great to learn about but I do not have enough time or direction to really use them as effectively as I feel I should be.

Early Summer Happenings

2009-06-24T10:50:00.002-06:00

Summer has arrived to the Westrom house. I am sure you are not suprised that we have not slowed down. Jeff is about halfway through his summer driver's education program. The boys were in gymnastics camp last week and are in soccer camp this week. Deb was the head of the kitchen for VBS last week, feeding over 350 kids a day. She has also started her library endorsement online, currently taking 7 credits this summer. We are looking forward to the arrival of the Jones family next week.