Goals Accomplished in Weekend 2

1- My first goal was to refresh and learn new skills in powerpoint. This goal was accomplished as I learned how to add sound, transitions, and video clips to my powerpoint. I know how to hyperlink for jeopardy and these skills will be very useful in my classroom.

2- I became acquainted and familiarized with Kidspiration and Inspiration this weekend and I enjoyed both programs. If my school had these programs, I would use them frequently. I would love to allow the kids to move freely within the program to practice skills learned in class adn also to create graphic organizers to assist with prewriting. It was fun!

3- I learned how to burn a CD! Yay! Kristle showed me and I can finally burn music or documents or whatever! So happy!

Goals accomplished in weekend 2! :)

Final Project Plans

For my final project, I will be completeing option 2, a powerpoint presentation. I hope to use this presentation at the beginning of the school year and at Open House for parents. I plan to have this show loop continuously for waiting parents to watch while I speak to other parents who were in line first. I also plan to show this during our sixth grade orientation. I have found that the more information you give the parents up front, the less they are to have problems with the way you run your classroom AND when you call them due to problems with their child, not only was the kid aware of the expectations put before them, but the parent is too! A little CYA, I like to call it.

So, for my final, I created the presentation with transitions and colors and pictures, With Keith's guidance, I set the time to loop continuously after 30 seconds.

I plan on writing the paper that goes with this project soon so that I don't forget my inclusions, challenges, etc. Also, I found that the story board was a big help when mapping out my powerpoint.

Kidspiration Diagram

I created this in class on this cool program. It would be very cool to have this program to sue in my classroom for brainstorming and graphic charts.

Goals for Weekend 2

1- I already use powerpoint on a daily basis for instruction and review, but I would like to become more familiar with its' features.

2- I have never used Kidspiration or any of the Inspiration programs so I am very excited about learning them. I really hope that if I learn them and love them, that my school will purchase them for me to use. :)

3- Lastly, I want to learn how to burn a cd. Call me retarted but I don't know how. I know how to burn a lot of other stuff but not a cd! Oh well, I guess I get to learn this weekend.

Answers from Friday Night

Technology can assist students with special needs in various aspects. There are programs available to assist the visually impaired by blowing up or magnifying words on a page and highlighting as read aloud. There are also programs for the hearing impairing that teachers can use to adjust pitch sounds so that these students can follow along in a text.
The program Inspiration- Crosspad is a useful tool for students with delayed fine motor skills. This could be useful in my middle school to assist students with note taking and creating outlines and maps.
Last night, we also explored several websites that can be used in the classroom to address students' multiple intelligences as we teach concepts. Sites like Brainpop.com and Edheads.com are not only educattionally rich but fun for students too. These sites talk to the students and provide them a break from the teacher's voice. They can be used for motivation, introduction, teaching, reteaching, etc.