Getting through the next two weeks!

These next two weeks will be a test of discipline and my sanity. These are going to be a busy two weeks with the last assignments being due and the finals that will be coming. Of course these are the weeks my manager decides to bump up my hours! I can foresee great a great deal of coffee and lack of sleep in my near future, but after these next few weeks are done I can finally say "I AM DONE!" and not the type of 'done' where it means for the summer and I will be back in the fall. This is the kind of 'done' that means I have finally achieved my degree and do not have to come back unless I choose to do more (which could happen next year so I can finish my BFA)

Fighting with Technology

For the life of me I cannot figure out my camera. It worked great for a year and then started making pictures so bright they glow or black. I am quite confident that my camera is posessed!

Webquest

I hope that it is ok that I changed my topic. I changed it to Visual Arts 10: technology in art


WEBQUEST: Visual Arts 10

Grade 10 Visual Arts: Technology in Art
This web site will need to be set up so it is easy for students to navigate
There will need to be interesting and attractive information to capture the students interest.
The activities will need to be interactive and enticing to keep the learner interested.

Section of the evergreen curriculum for visual arts: Technology and Visual Arts http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/artsed/visart102030/vamod5.html

Higher-order thinking
How has the development of technology changed the art world today?
What do the learners consider to be technology?

Rational:
The development of technologies and how they have affected art in the modern world plays a significant role in understanding the movements and why they came about. Students need this knowledge to understand the techniques used in the movements as well as aiding in the understanding of past movements before they were influenced by technology.

Teaching Activities:
I intend to take the learners through the progress of technology showing them what movements came about with the different developments. I will do this by using interactive quizzes, games, etc. There will be a stronger focus on the cubist movement because I will have an end assignment that would be preformed in the classroom using “real” materials to create a cubist portrait. I will hopefully be able to show the process using a video of my own work through the process expected of the learner.

Resources:
Video
Music
Images
Outside websites (possibly) to link to for additional information.

teaching my brother how to use email

This weekend my older brother (31yrs old) called me because he just bought a new computer (his first computer) and was trying to create an email account. What it came down to was me creating an email for him because he could not figure out where the button was to create an account. My sister and I spent 20 mins on the phone with him trying to explain how he can use it how to open emails and how to send them. A process that I found simple when I made my first email seems to be a very difficult process for some people. I anticipate many more computer calls from him in the future hopefully I will be able to help him.

Webquest

I have chosen to do a webquest for a Macbeth unit.

Group assignment

Group Task: Michelle, Marie, and Eric
• Knowledge: Identify at least three ways in which blogs can be used in education
– It can be used as a way to collectively ask questions to members of the classroom rather than always asking the teacher. Allows students to learn from each other as well as from the teacher
– You could post assignments and have students respond to them through posts on the blog
– It can be used to post concerns about the class or the material that the teacher can then address in class without taking up so much of class time to hear all the concerns and answer them individually. Rather the teacher can address the issues that apply to large numbers of students in the class and individually if there is only one student with certain concerns.
• Comprehension: List three reasons why teachers should integrate blogs into their classrooms
– It is a way to get students more involved and excited about learning because it is using the computer rather than just pen and paper.
– If students have their own blogs for school purposes they can voice their opinions or concerns in a safe area that they teacher can see and respond to without having to call them out in class; which some students find frightening or uncomfortable.
– Efficient way to answer questions for the whole class or individuals. Helps to save time during class.
• Application: Describe three ways in which you can use Blogs for your own teaching or professional development
– You can use blogs in your classroom to create a discussion on certain topics that you are covering in class. Blogging will allow the students who may not speak up a lot in class more freedom to express their opinion without feeling as though they will be made fun of. (The teacher must ensure a safe discussion forum, providing rules as to how students should be reacting to their peer’s comments, as well as how to create privacy settings so only the class may read each blog if this is what the teacher wants, etc).
– You can create a class blog to show the students and parents what is occurring in the classroom. This way students who are away can see the homework they have missed when they were away, as well parents can see what the class is doing each week.
– You can create a class blog to present student work to the class such as short stories, or poetry in an English class. Students would then be able to respond to these works, and see what their classmates are interested in and what they are writing about.
• Analysis: Is the use of blogs in education better than the use of static websites?
– Blogging is better than using static websites because it allows for individuals to post their opinions regularly. It is dynamic in the sense that it is easy for different individuals to create, change, and insert information. This also means that it becomes more personal because blogs are written by people, who have their own personal opinions that make the blog stand out. Blogs also have their own RSS, which allow its readers to subscribe and follow the blog easier than a static website. Readers can receive emails about the updates on blogs they are a part of, and are then able to post to the new updates easier. Blogs overall, are more user friendly than static websites because they can quickly build a loyal reader base, and are a tool that almost anyone can use.
• Synthesis: How might blogging change your role as an educator?
– Blogging could influence your role as an educator in many ways. I think the main change would be you would be acting more as a facilitator. There would be a lot of independent style learning and much less actual face to face instruction. Blogging is a great method to achieve guided discovery style learning and it is the teacher’s job to guide those students. I believe learning would be more collaborative rather than teacher directed.
• Evaluation: List at least potential disadvantages of using blogs in education?
– Less face to face interaction in class. Students may become anti-social.
– Students may use the blogs as a way to bully classmates without having to bully to the face.
– Students may use their informal computer language rather than writing formally as expected in school.

Safe Schools Conference

I went to the opening of the safe schools conference last night and it was fantastic. The information given was great as well as shocking. One of the topics last night was violence in the media and I was apauled to see some of the video games that students are playing; there is a Collombine game where you can go through the halls of the school and shoot students and teachers. What kind of sick person would you have to be to create a game like that. We really need to be educating students as well as their parents about these types of violent and crule games and videos that students are coming in contact with.

Research paper proposal

For my research paper I am going to be looking at censorship and how it is employed in schools and communties.

wikipedia edit

I edited the discription of color in the elements of art page. I added: The primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. When the primary colors are mixed you create secondary colors: green, purple, orange. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elements_of_art#Color

Procrastination

I just had a lovely weekend filled with procrastination; I built bookshelves, organized movies and books, cleaned my room. All the while my to do list continued to grow, I took the weekend off couldn't the to do list do the same!

red and pink shall suffer my wrath

I really do not know why red and pink came to mind, but it is a very unfortunate color combination!