Creating a Website

This semster has been crazy. I never thought I would be able to blog let alone create a whole website. I found the whole experience a lot of fun. I can't wait to continue to add and add to the website for each class I teach. There were a few hiccups throughout the whole website creation process but in the end they were very minor and quickly remedied. I think I will create individual pages for each different subject I teach instead of creating a whole new website for each class. I think this would make my life a lot easier and this way I only have to remember one web address instead of multiple. I can't believe how great this semester has been and I am so proud of the blog and website I have created.

Donovan Harrington

I made a movie with iMovie!

This week we learned about creating movies. I decided to make my movie about our solar system and its relationship to the universe. I really enjoyed the whole movie making process. I have made films in other classes before but not like this using iMovie, this was way easier. I would love to use this in my classroom. I think I can even do entire lectures in movie form. I might do this to try and get the students to pay more attention to the more "boring" subjects. Next time I will make a movie with a lot more material and I would make it longer. I felt that everything went well and there were no major hiccups in making the film and you can see it below or you can see it in a higher resolution in a link on my website.

iMovie

This week we've been working with iMovie I can't wait for you to see it. I will post it here when it is finished and I will also post it on my website.

Animoto Movie

Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

Interactive Spreadsheets

This week we learned about interactive spreadsheets and how they can be applied to education. I really enjoyed working on my spreadsheet. I decided to continue on with the plate boundaries theme and I just had fun with it. I enjoyed trying to think like an educator in trying to find a nice balance in questioning. I didn't want it to be too easy or too difficult and at times it proved hard to make questions with one word answers. Everything turned out great, as you can see in the screenshot I provided. There were no major hiccups along the way and I really want to integrate this into my classroom. provided they have the ability to use the internet and every student has a computer, but still I can't wait. Next time I will probably make it longer. I decided to stick with ten questions but in reality there was a lot of information I could have tested them on and a lot of it I felt was necessary for their knowledge. This project was fun and I can't wait to use these again.

This week we learned about interactive spreadsheets and were given a practice spreadsheet to get us accustomed to the general operations excel. You can see a screenshot I took of the practice spreadsheet. There were a few slight hiccups along the way, but mostly that just involved figuring out excel. I have had some experience with excel before but not as much as this required. I really like the interactive spreadsheet idea. I could really use it in my classroom as a quick quiz.

Digital Diagrams

This week we worked on creating digital diagrams using Inspiration 9 software. I thought it was a lot of fun especially getting to create something I would like to see as a student. Everything went fine with no major hiccups, but I do have to say that creating the arrows that link the main ideas together was annoying. I usually had to try and create the arrows four or five times because the diamonds we were clicking on didn't always know we were trying to create arrows. Other than that it was pretty easy. I enjoy doing these creative things to try and make the material a little easier to digest for students. I wish some of my teachers in high school had done some of these things. I know I will definitely be using Inspiration 9 in my classroom when I can. It just seems to make things so much easier to understand for me and I hope it would make this would have the same effect for my students. Or if this is too small you can always check out my website and see the inspiration file there, under tech projects, or look at another screenshot I took of the diagram I created.

Inspiration Digital Diagram

PodBean