artifacts - schubsa

I created my web page, shelbert.net, to extend my learning experience in this class and to provide a resource for my students, parents, staff, individuals in other districts, and myself. The web page was designed to priovide links to all of the activities/documents that I have created/found in my years of expereince. It is also intended to provide everyone with news on what has been going on with my classes, science club and student council throughout the year.

Everything that we do should be research based. However, many individuals in education do not utilize the credible information that is available to them. I feel that writing and reflecting with classmates greatly increased my knowledge base. It allowed me to think about the thought patterns of others and reflect.

This blog was like keeping a journal in class, but online. I enjoy going back a reading what I have written about different aspects of the class. I think that it a wonderful idea to utilize as a science journal. Check out the layout.

I created a wiki for the students in my science classes at Bland High School. The importance of the wiki was to teach students how to 1) create a living educational document on the internet 2) differentiate between credible and noncredible information on the internet.

Students love and deserve to be recognized for their accoplishments. Utilizing photobucket on my web page allows me to show the community how hard they are working in science club, student council, and class. I can keep parents up to date on events that have occured and even recognize parents that are present at activities. The first slideshow you see is an Adobe application that is more like photostory. I like it better because I can access the pictures I have uploaded from anywhere. Also, it keeps me from using so much space on my hard drives and the network drive at school. Lastly, It has been hard trying to upload photostory to youtube. Futhermore, youtube is blocked from our school website, but photobucket is not.

These are Excel documents that I have created. I feel confident using the formulas in excel and making charts and graphs with the information. Excel is an excellent way to organize data and to take numbers and place them in a visual that everyone can understand better. It has really helped me organize information for myself and my principal during my internship.

Microsoft word is a great tool that should be utilized by teachers and students alike. I have enjoyed using it to impress my professors on anything from elaborate cover pages to graphic organizers. Also, it is so nice using a template to do your resume!

I bought into the use of power point when I was taught by a professor in college who used it. Since I am a visual learner, it greatly increased my retention of knowledge. As an educator I feel that I have more than accomplished my goal of using power point to teach. I have incorporated videos, pictures, and links into my daily lessons. I have also used game templates to do review sessions for exams. This year I have facilitated the use of power point to my students. They love to share their presentations to the rest of the class and they learn so much better!

This timeline is actually more than ten years. I just got curious about the change in technology since I was born and it is easier to remember if I type it. I am amazed at how fast it all keeps changing. The timeline really helped me to connect how technology is related to all of the learning theories. There are learning theories that I have never even heard of that are based around technology. What I have noticed, is that all learning theories relate way back to the original creators of theoris such as Aristotle and Plato. It is all the same basic concept. Some people just like to add their own little tweaks and give it a new name.

The self assessment was going great until after 45 minutes of work I hit save and it logged me out. Gotta love that technology. So, here is the shortened version of my ruberic. It is not as good, but it works. I gave myself 45 out of 50 because to be honest, I am not happy with the way this web page turned out. It is organized, but I can't get the categories to line up the way I want. Also, I don't like the way the files take so long to load. At first I wasn't happy with the fact all of the files were zipped, then when I converted them to PDF format it made the upload process slow. I am also disappointed that I had to link my slide shows instead of imbedding them into the page.

Now What?

Now that I have spent the time creating the web site, I can easily go in and add more interactive activities for my stuents to participate in. This page is definately in the making and needs a lot of work. I still have to work on the teacher section. It is time for my students to do the planning and find/make activities.

Since our school decisions are supposed to be data based, why not utilize journal articles for staff development? No time to meet? Make a blog where teachers can go in and reflect on what they and others have read.

Use it as a journal for science classes! Students love to do things online and they can link their work to it!

My students have created several slide shows covering information that we are learning in class. They gained thier data sources from credible sites on the internet as a result of this activity. Now they can use these skills for other projects in my class and other classes. Perhaps they can even incorporate other technologies!

I do all of the photobucket creations on my own and really need to give it up to my student leaders. It is important for them to have the skills to utilize this great tool! Also, they are the ones that should be empowered. It's all about the kids!

I will continue to use Excel and keep up to date with the changes that are made in the program. I would love to incorporate excel in to my class by having students use it more. It is a great tool to use when analyzing scientific data.

Students can gain so much from knowing how to create documents from microsoft word. They can easily use the templates for classes now and business later!

Now, I feel that I need to spend more time facilitating the use of power point to other teachers. Many like the thought of using it, they just don't have the skills to do so.

I will continue to learn and grow. I will keep up with the new technologies as much as possible and allow my students to teach me things that come natural to them because they were born in the world of technology.

Save your work often when you are working on the internet! Also, when you are using this tool after you have published it you can't go back and edit it. So, make sure you are done.

Looking back, if I had to start all over, I would create a slide show that showed the journey through this class and told a story to make it interesting. HA, I guess kinda like photostory. But, with my voice (talking of course) and music in the background. Perhaps even videos of my students in action doing their power points and interactive online activities in class.