Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
Grammar Bizarre
https://jeopardylabs.com/play/grammar-bazarre#.XZ3kLV2NUJs.gmail
For this assignment, I created a game for my students to play in order to review their knowledge of grammar. Grammar is a struggling topic for most, if not all, of my current ninth graders at the high school that I currently teach at in Florida. Which, I find is ironic because I teach in the number one school district in Florida. Thus, it inspired me to create a review game for my students to use. I
I created a jeopardy game for my students to play both at home and in class. I had never tried to create a game before, but it was not as complicated as I thought after I came up with enough content for my game. I have included five sections for the student to choose from: direct objects, sentence structure, action verbs, linking verbs, and commas. I chose the categories because they are issues that my students here and at my previous school struggled with.
Each category was carefully crafted to mirror the FSA (end of year state standardized test) so that the students were also preparing for their final test for their ninth grade year. I hate the idea of “teaching for the test”, but I felt as if this strategy would help them prepare for a summative in my class, prepare for the state test, and help them prepare for their 10th grade year and beyond (educationally). When coming up with the problems, I consulted a fellow teacher (he teaches eleventh and twelfth grade IB courses) to create sentences that would truly prepare them while they have fun playing this game.
I will use a candy incentive to motivate the students to participate and try their best when playing this game. I will also showed teacher in my PLC this game, and they all are wanting to use it in their classes to help prepare them for their summative.
Auto Draft
Social media has changed how we view the world. Many of which can be used for productive educational purposes. Many teachers that I know have used Instagram for their students to follow and get class updates on. There are also social media applications that mimic social media specifically for social media. I think it is important to incorporate some social media into the classroom because so much of the world depends on it. I have used social networking such as LinkdIn for my upper class students to prepare for jobs and college. Although, I am not super familiar with many of the social networking technologies, I think the students would benefit from using them. My concerns are what most are concerned with, which is misuse of the technology. Students who have technology access during class are less likely to retain the information from the lesson.
https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/bNgYYhiOamo/?mode=presentation#/
Blog Post 2
There are many tools that teachers and students can use for presentations in today’s world. There is always something new out there for us to utilize. Presentations tools help us show others what we know and have researched.
One presentation tool that I have used personally and have encouraged my students to use is Prezi. Prezi makes presentations almost interactive and very visually appealing. As one goes through the presentation, the system zooms in over the slide so that you are able to present it. There are endless possibilities for using Prezi from professional presentations to project presentations in classes. One assignment my students have used this for was a presentation on their independent class novel. They created their presentations on Prezi so that we would have access to them as long as we had internet and we did not have to worry about someone forgetting a flash drive.
Another tool is IMovie from Apple. This presentation tool allows students to create mini-video presentations that they can edit, add music, and much more. I have used IMovie to create videos for class presentations for Liberty University as well as in high school.
A possible assignment that I would create for IMovie would be to video their presentation for a class. Many students I have in my class suffer from anxiety about presenting in front of crowds, and this would be a way for them to still present (in a cool way) and not have to worry about physically standing in front of the class to present.
Blog Post 1
Introduce Yourself (Example Post)
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
- Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
- Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
- Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
- What topics do you think you’ll write about?
- Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
- If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.
Mallory Wade's EDU 630 Blog 