Comments on Final Project

For my final project I want to make a Power Point Presentation addressed to Parents/ Students on Open House Night. The presentation will cover welcoming parents/students, discussing supplies needed, 7th & 8th grade curriculums (brief introduction and will provide parents with a copy of curriculum map). My main goal is to address my biggest challenge in the classroom and that is encouraging my students to use the Target Language (both, in class and at home) s much as possible. So, I will present them, samples and activities ideas (using MI concepts and will provide them with a MI questionare) on how they can help them at home. I will ask them for questions and suggestions. Then, I will present them a slide with the evaluation and will provide them a page for evaluation.

Wnat I Learned This Week End

I learned a lot about Power Point Presentations. I knew a little bit, just the basics, I might say. Since yesterday, I have been very excited to use this program to make better and more interesting presentations to my parents, colleagues and students. I learned how to insert a movie in a presentation, changing backgrounds and getting charts; also I learned how to insert sounds and animations. I love the fact that this 2007 Power Point has so many new things and I might buy this new version. Here is a sample of a video produced by my students: Matt, Matt and Danny on the second week os school last year (2007-2008.) I learned how to insert videos like this in a blog too. I think it is awesome!

Inspiration Work

This is a program I really enjoyed working on. It is very easy to use and I love how many changes you can make to improve your work. I never used this program before and it would've been a great asset for my curriculum class project. I did a lot of mapping, graphic organizers and charts using the Windows program and it was extremely difficult. This is such a great program. I love how many different pictures were available and how easy it was to make changes. This project will be useful for my Spanish class when we are introducing seasons with weather expressions and frequency expression. The project tittle is "Seasons and the Weather" Then it is mentioning every season and how is the weather durinng that particular season. Also it shows how it is never ceratin weather during a season (i.e. Nunca Nieva -It never snows in the summer)
I can use this program for most opf my classes and I know my students will have a blast creating work with it because it is colorful, very easy to use and the pictures can be adapted to any language.

Goals for this week end

1. Enhance my power point knowledge, learning more about the use of different effects. Also want to learn how to add music and video clips to power point. I DO USE POWER POINT IN MY CLASSS BUT IT HAS ONLY BEEN AS A MEAN TO TEACH. I want to learn other things I can do woth it.

2. I want to learn about kidspiration since I have never used it before. I WANT TO BE GOOD AT IT!

3. I watnt to be able to integrate this technology knowledge to my teaching process and have students use technology in class as a tool for the acquisition of their skills.

Response to Friday night question #3

The question was: How does technology impact the acquisition of basic skills? Imagine a classroom 50 years into the future. How do you feel technology will eventually change the way very young children learn? Will our definition of multiple intelligences evolved?

Technology is here to stay. So, we might as well, accept that this is a wonderful tool that our students really love engaging into. Why not use its full potential to enhance their learning skills? Our children were born and are being raised in this technological era. This is what they know. Therefore, technology is already part of their daily lives and will come as something expected to integrate technology into their education process. Technology has already began to change the classroom and the way teachers teach and students learn. Teachers, as well as students may use technology to touch on every of the multiple intelligences in order to enhance learning process. For example, visual intelligence, which is one where experts agree, a large amount of students use mostly, students are alrerady turning to teachnoly using clip art, draweing tools, photo editing programs, puzzles, etc to create illustrations for their stories , posters, scrapbooks, etc (along with it, they are relating to other intelligences such as linguistic). Technology evolves continuosly and I can only imagine how far it will get 50 years from now. I used to teach History and as we were in the pre historic unit, we touched on the invention of the wheel and how this invention revolutionized people lives. I asked them what current technology (this was around 13 years ago) was there now that its impact can compare to the invention of the wheel. Immediately, they shouted the computer. From last 13 years ago to today, technolgy has evolved tremendously and I am certain there will be a time that our world will not go on without technology.

How I would like to apply Photo Shop

I think using photo shop in my class (Spanish) will be a great tool. There are many activities in which photos wiil be a great tool , Constantly, my students are creating projects to demonstrate their vocabulary knowledge but they are not allow to use English, but the taregt language. Using photo collages will be a great and fun way form my students to demonstrate their knowledge. They usually have to create a Family Tree, a food collage or a Restaurant Menu and using the Photo Shop technology will enhance these activities. Another way I can use this Photo Shop tool is during Open House, where I can provide presentations to Parents about the work students have done the year before.

Photo Shop Creation

This is the first time I have EVER worked with Photos editing. It was somehow frustrating but very interesting. I learned about using filter effects, using a brush stroke effect to change the digital image of my photo. Also, I added frames, and rotated the photo to create an interesting contrast. I learned the use of different backgrounds and enlarged mine in order to co beyond the frame and picture to create a collage like photo. I also added an element (butterfly) to make it more interesting and creative. Finally, I learned about adding a text, changing the color and font. This has been exciting and I am looking forward to explore more on these photo upgradings.