Journal 7: Professional Learning Network

One of the best things about my experience with the professional learning networks is that I was able to share this information with others on my campus.  I got teachers involved who had no idea some of these networks even existed.  From the time I told them to now, I have had so many people respond with such positive feedback!  I also shared Digg with my students so that they would be able to access stories and news about current events without going from one website to another and had a lot of them put the app on their smart phone.  As far as myself is concerned, I did like the RSS feeds the most.  It is simple and I am able to access what I want to read about in no time flat.  The affinity group is still new to me and I haven’t really started to explore that as much as I would like to, it’s on my things to do list over the winter break.  I have been on twitter for a while now, but never post anything.  I don’t care to have followers, I just want to keep updated.  I check this more often than I check my email or any other of my news feeds, including RSS.  I did start a separate account for just education.  Trying to keep my private life from my professional life separate.  I am a big believer in this, it’s part of who I have always been, but with so many teachers adding students and students that just graduate, I just can’t do it.  The new twitter account has been off to a slow start, but I see myself using it a lot and actually posting information to share.  I feel like being a teacher for 10 years now, I have some ideas I would like to share that have helped my become a better teacher, some from what others have passed on to me, and some I have figured out myself.  I have some lesson plans that I think are golden and wouldn’t mind sharing them with others

Journal #6: Self Reflection

I would like you to reflect on your learning over the first 5 weeks of the course in a blog post. Your reflection should demonstrate your fundamental understanding of html and css. Share what was the hardest and the most rewarding assignment you have completed in the course. Provide links to the actual assignment (book exercise or lab) hosted on your cal poly account.

Well, I must admit, this is all a little bit overwhelming for me.  I went into this class knowing that I would not fully understand the basics of html coding.  Little did I expect that I had no clue what to do and everything was moving at light speed.  In class, I was able to follow along pretty well until I ran into a problem that took me a little longer to get to the next step and then I was lost.  This happened on a few different occasions and it was really discouraging. It wasn't until I really started to complete the book assignments that things started to come together.  Once I started to get the basic principles of html I started see the screen a little clearer.  It didn't look like the Matrix Code anymore.  I understood where the headings were, what lists look like, adding the herd attribute helped me with linking different pages as well as images.  What really helped me was when I started to go to the lab and work on things and having help where I knew I wouldn't be holding up the entire class to fully understand something.  It gave me confidence to try things because if I messed up, there was someone there to guide me in the right direction.  Being a teacher, I always encourage to students to ask questions, even if it sounds silly, but as a student myself, I didn't feel comfortable not because of the instructor, but because I felt I wasn't up to par on all my assignments and felt guilty for asking a question and slowing everyone else up.  With that being said, I think my most rewarding assignment would be between the web page we created in class and exercise 15.  My first website is just cool.  I remember showing my html code off to one of my classes at work.  I was really proud of it, even though I pretty much just did what you told me to do.  The reason I have a second rewarding assignment is because this one i did on my own and felt like it had the most impact on me with manipulating web design.  Her are the links to the web page I designed (with your help) and in that web page, you can get to my books page and check out exercise 15.


http://www.csupomona.edu/~kmmessick/ged512/

Journal 4: Project Plan

Journal 4: Project Plan

Plan for your Curriculum Project

Site title: MESSICKS APUSH

Developer: Kurt Messick

Rational or Focus: I want to create a website that my students can find any information they may need regarding my APUSH class. It will contain information about the AP exam itself, test taking strategies, links to additional information to help them prepare for the AP exam. It will also include assignments for my class, worksheets, test dates, behavior expectations, and a calendar.

Main features outline: Home, About Messick's APUSH, APUSH Units, Calendar, APUSH Links.

Content: The following will be the individual web pages within my site:

• Home
• About Messick's APUSH
• APUSH Units
• Calendar
• APUSH Links

Target audience: My target audience will be the students in my class taking APUSH. I plan to expand and have links to my regular US History classes ass well and any other classes I may teach in the future.

Design considerations: I want it simple and clean. No clutter with different/random history pictures. Nothing fancy. I want students to be able to navigate through it without getting lost or confused on where to find information they need. I want the colors to be kind on the eyes and comforting so that students don't feel stressed out when they visit my website.

Limiting factors: I want to make sure that I can hide my files so that not everyone in the word can take them from me. The other factor that is important to me is that I would like to have all my lessons and worksheets available online, but not give the students access to them at any time of the year. I want to make only one Unit at a time available for them to access at that time of the year.

Site Map:

Wire frame:

Journal 2: Affinity group and Digg Stream

The Affinity groups are very new to me. I have never even heard of an Affinity group until taking this class. I am interested to learn more about them because I am always trying to expand my teaching range and new things are good. The two I wanted to join frist are The Educator's PLN @ http://edupln.ning.com and Edutopia @http://www.edutopia.org I felt like these were safe bets and I wouldn't be taking any chances on other not so popular Affinity groups. They both look well organized and easy to navigate through. I'm hoping to get to information on new teaching ideas and perhaps some lesson plans to add to my collection. I already starting following edutopia on twitter, maybe I can connect with another teacher who is working on the same lesson. With common core comming into effect, I want to be ready for change and if someone thought of a great idea first, I will be sure to use it to my advantage.

I have actually gone through and read a lot of information through my Digg RS steam account on my phone app. It is an quick and easy way for me to stay up with the information I want to stay up with. Although I do find that I get zeroed in on this information only and sometimes forget to see what is going on in the rest of the world. I may add different RSS feeds to retrieve informtion from to keep me more well rounded. I do think it is an effective way to stay updated with topics and infromation that I am interested in and can save a lot of time from surfing the web and sifting through the junk that can clutter up the web.

Q1: What exactly is different about an Affinity group from other social media websites?

A1: I think that the Affinity group will be easier to get good information from because it will have already gone through a screening process. It is also well organized and you can navigate through the information quickly. I like how it is directed especially for teachers and I can feel comfortable that what I will find will most likely be useful to me.

Q2: What can I do to make my RSS feeds more well rounded?

A2: When I signed up for Digg, I just added the things like I had personal interest in. I am now looking for more RSS feeds to give me an insight to what is going on in local politics as well as what are some of the major current issues going on in the world. That always interest me, but I just found other feeds that were instantly gratifying. I will go back and look for add others to my account.

Journal 3: Commercial Concerns in the Social Web

The author of this article brings up some major concerns and good points about the danger of being connected via social media.  He makes the reader aware that advertising is the real customer of the service or site, not the user.  Websites such as Google, Facebook, and Digg, use information provided by the user to give specific advertising on their homepage.  According to the author, this takes away from a free and clear learning environment.  One specific example the author uses is the "like" button on facebook.  Will there ever be a "dislike" button?  The answer is NO!  The reason behind this is because advertisers will not want users to "dislike" them and have the ability to give negative feedback on them.  If these sites were about learning and connectivity, then the "dislike" button would be a no brainier and be used accordingly by the user of thing they truly liked and disliked.
Q 1: Why can't we educate the user about this information instead of shying away from it?
A 1: I think the author is absolutely on point with what these sites are trying to do, but I do not agree that it is enough of a deterrent for people not to make use of these sites to their advantage.  Using the internet can been a very dangerous and confusing place to be, but if educated and monitored properly, the sky is the limit.
Q 2: Why doesn't the author see that this is business as usual?
A 2: This is business marketing 101.  You have the right not to click on those links that the company is advertising.  No one is forcing anyone to click anywhere.  If they are annoying and you don't like to use them, then create another service that accomplishes the same thing and do not use ads.  This is what business do all the time and people need to keep up to speed.  It is up to the user to use their discretion on how to surf the internet and use websites with caution.

Journal 1

Van Keuren, D. (2012, May 29). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://flippedapush.blogspot.com/

Summary: Flipping the classroom has a lot of myths surrounding it and the author of this blog goes through the myths and debunks them.  What started his rant, was that while on the College Board Website, someone suggested that a flipped classroom was just a way to do less teaching and have the students do all the work.  He believes that a teacher who flips the classroom the correct way, in ways, is doing more work.  Coming up with genuine learning activities that involve higher order thinking skills require more work than just "standing in front of the class and vomiting content."  He goes on to counter the arguments that the flip classroom is about the videos,  the kids won't watch the videos, a flipped classroom is a "fad", and the flipped classroom is the end all be all of education reform.

Q1:  Where can I find more information on how to flip my own classroom in a meaningful way to achieve a higher order of thinking?

A1: I could look online at the College Board website to find threads about flipping the classroom in a APUSH setting.  I can also look on the internet for teachers websites and contact them directly if I know what school they teach at.  Of course they would have to be open to sharing their material.

Q2: How could I prove to my administration as well as colleagues, to approve and acknowledge that a flipped classroom is a worthwhile experience that benefits the students.

A2: I think to start off, I would have to find some data on students achievement and if it would helped improved their AP exam scores.  I also think that this article only talks about videos in the flipped classroom and I believe there would have to be more more than just videos to make it work.