My About Me Voki

This week we learned a little bit more about each other. We presented our "About Me" projects using the technology we chose. For my project I chose Voki, which is a website that you can create your own animations of yourself or someone else. You can choose an animated person, or animal to represent who you are trying to create. After you choose the type of figure you want, you get to choose all the features and make it really come to life. You can make the hair color lighter or darker, the eyes any color you want, and even change the size and shape of the facial features. Once you complete that you choose an outfit. There are different categories such as casual, sporty, and dressy. You can even choose the type of jewelry you want on your animated character, which I thought was very unique. After you completely dress your person you pick a background which ranges from indoors, outdoors, holidays, sports events, and even specific places in the world. I liked this the most because it adds character and personality to your animated character. Finally to make your Voki talk, you can either record yourself or type out what you want to say and then pick the type of voice you would like to use. For my Voki I chose to type out what I wanted her to say because I personally do not like the way I sound, so having someone else speak for me was the best option. A problem I had with website was that you only had a limited number of characters to choose from. In order to get other options you had to either be a teacher or an administrator, which was a problem for me. I had my Voki designed and ready to publish when they told me I couldn't save it because I was using features that were not compatible with the version I was using. So I had to start all over, and pick a character that was an anime because it worked with my version. Overall, I liked using this website and I think it would be very useful in classrooms especially with young children!! As a teacher you can create activities where students have to make an animated version of an astronaut or a famous scientist you are teaching about. Students would enjoy it because it's interactive and they can put their own spin on the characters.

One of the websites that my classmates used that I really enjoyed was WordArt. Students can use words to describe themselves and make them into any shape they want that represents the idea they are working with. I thought it was an interesting way to incorporate language arts and whatever topic you are teaching (science, social studies, or math).

Exploring Science Methods

edTPA- submit 2 draft lesson plans before teaching then perfect it with the changes you would make after teaching and submit that for final grading

edTPA task 1- should be in the future
edTPA task 2- tape yourself for 20 minutes teaching your lesson
                     - first 10 minutes of the video should be you explaining the lesson
                      - next 10 minutes should be from the inquiry and how students learn their academic language to solve the problem you propose
                    - use words such as "I infer" "I conclude"
                    - comment on the prompts to the videos provided, what was good or not good and how you would improve

edTPA task 3 - students tests and feedback
                     - choose 3 students and how they were impacted by your teaching
                     - take pictures of the 3 students work after each lesson
                     - take pictures without comments, use these comments for task b
                     - task c will be about assessment, how you recorded their progress and how you feel they learned.
                      - pre and post assessment to show how you helped students learn
                      - answer the question about how you would change your teaching next time
                      -  add references to readings when explaining your answers


The midterm will be chapters 1-9 in part 1 of the textbook.
objective- specific statement about specific behavior that show students understand the topic
                - avoid percentage
                - write clearly so other teachers reading can understand

Fieldwork:
- Only teaching 2 lessons: direct instruction and inquiry
- To refocus students attention make sure to find unique ways and not just "raise your hand" or "shhh"
-  Not a lot of text on the powerpoint slides
- Assess prior knowledge, explain material, engage students in the material, assess with an exit ticket at end of the lesson
- Science lessons should have a lot of demonstrations
- Don't forget to make a rubric for inquiry lessons!!

Journey through Science and Technology

In today's first class we started by drawing our version of a scientist. We got to color it and give it a creative name. Next we went around the room and looked at our peers versions to see how they were similar and or different. What I noticed was that many people drew scientists that had crazy hair, lab coats, and goggles. Some of the things the scientist were holding was beakers, tongs, and some even drew a board with equations on them, which I thought was very unique. Something that I thought was different but in a good way was how there were so many women scientists rather than your stereotypical male. I think nowadays it is important to remember that woman can do anything a man can do, so it was nice to see some students draw their scientists as women. 





To begin the course we all participated in a collaborative slideshow where we watched videos about students using technology in the classroom. The video expressed how students use more technology during their free time but very rarely in the classroom. 60% of teachers don't use technology to engage their students, which is very alarming. Since technology has become such a big part of everyone's everyday life, students should be using it in their lessons because students will be more likely to enjoy the lessons by interacting with things they know. Another statistic in the video was how students only spend 3 hours a day reading because the rest of the time is spent on using technology. This is a negative statistic because students have become so attached to technology that they disregard their other school responsibilities and interacting with their peers. I think technology is a great resource to use in classrooms as long as the teacher implements it in the right way. Engaging students by using Kahoot, google slides, Voki, VoiceThread, and other interactive websites can bring out their creative side rather than copying notes from powerpoints and reading from a textbook. Some students are visual learnings while others like hands on experience, and by using technology to create interactive lessons that addresses both types of learners and sets all students up for SUCCESS!  

I'm very excited to take my journey through science and technology this semester! Last semester I made my journey through social students and technology and I really enjoyed it, so I hope to enjoy this semester just as much. I know it will be challenging and overwhelming at times, but I learned to space out my time and not leave things until the last minute. I'm hoping to perfect my knowledge in teaching science as well as making engaging lesson plans for students that involve technology. Something I want to get better at creating inquiry lessons since last semester that was something I struggled with. I'm ready to face this semester and navigate through its challenges while expanding my knowledge in my teaching skills!! :)