Now What Do I Eat?

I got settled in the room. Unbelievably my luggage was in one piece- everything- even tough it was packed in tight. Only one bottle of shampoo leaked - just a little. Oh, I forgot to tell about landing in Bozeman. I wasn't at a window seat, but when we got close to Bozeman I looked out. WOW! The mountains were beautiful- I almost uttered this aloud, it was so neat. As I walked up the ramp to go claim my luggage I actually stopped and looked out the airport window at the mountains - they were gorgeous! Apparently the mountains - the Bridger mountains, named after Jim Bridger, are to the north of Bozeman. Bozeman sits in a valley. The campus is not very hilly at all - less hills than in our neighborhood at home.

Next challenge was to explore. I put on my running shoes and my trusty Garmin so that I would know how far I had walked, and I set out. I did look at a map first, and I took it with me because my memory is short! The neighborhood around MSU is awesome! It reminds me of Grove City, but there are more houses and there is much more town to walk to. It's the kind of place that you could let your children ride to town, pick up those mushrooms you forgot at the store, and ride home again. Then the children have had their exercise and you have your mushrooms - too cool! Sidewalks are everywhere- and the motorists YIELD to pedestrians. Really - I couldn't believe it. At least 5 times while I walked to town I stopped at a corner to wait on a car to cross the intersection. But the car slowed down, stopped, and waited for me to cross - unbelievable!!

The town is really cute, and is about a mile or less from my dorm. I counted three bookstores, three pizza places, several cute shops, a pita place, an organic store, and finally a small grocery store at about 1.5 miles. There were other shops and restaurants, but I can't remember them all. I stopped at the organic store because I didn't know if I was going to find a grocery with what I wanted. Bananas - 99 cents a pound! Augh! I hated to pay that, but I did buy four of them. After all, they ARE organic! HA! Also bought some red grapes - 4.99 a pound- what a rip off! And a few apples.

Journey to Bozeman

After strongly encouraging Josh to blog daily while on his sojourn to France, I realized that I must take my own advice if I am to have an accurate picture of my time in Bozeman. My memory is not as good as his, so I'd better start now!

I left Greensboro yesterday at 6:00 AM on a flight to Atlanta. We arrived at 7:00 AM, and my next flight (to Bozeman) didn't leave until 11:10 (and then it was delayed) so I found terminal C and then proceeded to walk up and down the terminal (with my luggage, of course) for the better part of an hour. I wanted to make sure I got my exercise in!

I realized something about the Atlanta airport as I sat there for the next three hours. When they make announcements, they act like they are talking to real people. No, really! You know how usually when they make those announcements it sounds as if they are reading a teleprompter, and no one really listens anyway? These guys actually had personality - and I found myself paying attention. Interesting - like when another flight was delayed, they told the whole story of why it was delayed- they had to change a tire -do some maintenance. Then they said - and you may not know, but when we give you updates on the time for the departure, these are just estimates. We will update you again at 10:30, but this is an estimate.

While in the Atlanta airport I met a famiy who was from Helena, MT. Both the husband and wife teach math at a college in Helena. They had a daughter who looked about 14. They gave me lots of helpful hints about things to do and places to see- even in Yellowstone! I also met a woman who spent about half her time on Pauley's Island (she grew up in Myrtle Beach) and half her time in Ennis, MT. She also gave me lots of tips - knew where to eat everywhere - it was amazing. When we finally got to Bozeman, this woman, Judy, was waiting for her luggage with her husband. She came over and said that if I didn't mind riding with a dog, they would be glad to take me to MSU. Wow! What a blessing - and the dog was cute - a lab/border collie mix ( ?I think) Apparently the dog goes EVERYWHERE with them. The husband (Jim) has driven from SC to Ennis to be able to take the dog. WOW!

I didn't have good directions to Hannon HAll, so when we arrived at MSU we needed to ask directions. We saw a policeman, who, after a conversation with me in which he realized I was clueless, gave us a police escort to the building. I said thanks and good-bye to Jim and Judy, and checked into my room.

The room - well, it is a dorm - what can you expect? Not as nice as Bostwick at WFU, but not as bad as Clemson when Jared went for tennis camp. More like West Georgia U -remember that, Josh? I had hoped the kitchen would have a pan and a spatula to cook my eggs. Nice stove - almost new! But NO kitchen ware. I asked if I could check out a pan. The nice young man said - we have ONE pot, and it is small. Okay - well, they do have an iron, at least!

Guiding Principles Revisited

Below are the guiding principles I developed at the beginning of this course. I feel like these statements are still valid and should be a part of any new tool that is implemented in my classroom. However, after taking this class I also feel that I could allow more creativity through the tools we explored to see what the students can create. So I guess I should allow myself (and my students) a little bit of technology just because it is cool, not only because it improves the scientific experience. I also hope that I will remember the article about using technology for old things in new ways and new things in new ways. It is exciting to think that my students could learn from professionals all over the country and the world if I look for those opportunities. Thanks, Eric, for a great class!

1. I will always ask myself the question, "Does this activity improve the scientific experience for the students?"
2. I will avoid using technology just because the students think it is cool.
3. I will focus on the content of a project, and not how well the student is able to use the technological "bells and whistles."
4. I will maintain a balance between what is old (and works!) in the classroom and what is new and will add a spark to the learning experience.

Discussion Reflection on Web 2.0

Several ideas were mentioned by the participants in our group concerning the Web 2.0 tools and the implementation of these tools in our classrooms. First of all, many participants mentioned that they had not realized how many tools were available, and that the number of tools was overwhelming at first. As we continued to learn new tools, however, we learned to choose the items which fit our students, our schools, and our teaching style at this time. The neat thing about being exposed to so many choices is that we can change to something different if we feel it necessary. Another point that was mentioned frequently was that we must remember to use technology as it improves the learning/teaching atmosphere. This technology should not be used just to look nice in a school or so we can say that we utlilize computers. We must be diligent in our quest to use technology when it enhances the curriculum. One other comment that was mentioned less often, but is a continuing possible roadblock to implementation of Web 2.0 in the classroom is the question of student access to the technology. If the students don't have access at school, do they have access at home? Almost all public libraries now have access to the web, but can the students be expected to get to the library? These are questions that must be answered on an individual basis, but hopefully the access will improve over time. Over all, the comments were positive in that participants learned about new tools and were encouraged by their peers to continue to work toward implementation in their classrooms.

Final Project

My final project is a class wiki, for my advanced placement environmental science class. I concentrated more on the set up of the wiki and figuring out the links than on being very creative with my assignments. After looking at several other projects, I can see that I need to work on some creative assignments! But for now, I do have a wiki that I will use, and have the major assignments for the first week of school already posted. Now that I understand how to organize the wiki better, the next portion should be less time consuming than the set up.

I started out with the goal of making an online space for class discussions of current events, with the hope that the online discussions would increase class participation. However, after exploring the wiki and seeing other examples, I decided to use it for communicating all assignments and information about this class. I hope that it will be used by the students to enable them to review material we covered during class time, in addition to the discussions and the assignments.

As the wiki evolves, I will add videos and links from the web that are either homework or we viewed in class. I also want to incorporate more use of VoiceThread and possibly Glogster for assignments. Here is the link: http://bcaroyalscience.pbworks.com

Any suggestions are welcome!

Tools - Week 6

I am later posting this week because we finally (after 18 years!) replaced the carpet in our home. Moving the furniture is tough, but the worst part is moving all the "stuff." I may never go to a store to buy a nonconsumable again - we have too much junk! Anyway, to save money we also ripped up the carpet, which wasn't bad except the staples. I have spent alot of the week moving everything twice. But ... I am excited - new carpet! YAY! We always said - after the dog dies, and the kids move out. Sounds harsh, but it is reality!

Anyway, back to class! I have worked on my project this week, and also explored Wordle, which is fun. I think the students would enjoy this tool. Here is my wordle-
I really liked the different colors and fonts one could use, and it was not time consuming!

To work on my project, I explored the different wikis in more detail. I tried pbworks, wetpaint, and wikispaces. I liked the colors and set-up on wetpaint, but as someone already mentioned, it is too commercial. I couldn't find out how to get rid of the ads, but maybe I missed something? Then I worked with wikispaces. I liked the layout of this wiki better, and the colors were nice. One of the first things I wanted to do was create a table which showed assignments for the classroom and homework for one unit. I worked on this table for a long time (too long!) and it looked great in the edit mode, but each time I published it the table disappeared and I got the text and a bunch of lines (not in table form!) Anyway, I finally gave up to try pbworks. I really didn't want to use pbworks because the layout seems a little confusing to me. During this course I have sometimes had trouble locating the page I needed. I always figured it out, but I knew that my students would likely use this as an excuse unless I could make it more user friendly. Actually, they probably would have no trouble, but it bothered me!! My problem is that in the navigator box shown below I couldn't always find the week I needed. Later I realized I had to click on the correct folder, but I didn't want my students to spend time figuring it out.


After I played with pbworks a little more, I realized that I could edit the order of the folders in the navigator by placing numbers beside them. If there were no numbers, the folders appear in ABC order.


Shown above is a picture of the navigator for my wiki. I aso found I could star the main folders, which I think will help the students. Then I worked on editing the sidebar, which also gave me a little more organization.

Using the sidebar gives the opportunity to show the outline of the wiki so that any page can be accessed at any time (I think!)

I was very slow with these ideas, so there may be an easier way, but I was excited to have worked out the issues I had with pbworks.

I also downloaded Jing and explored it. I really like this tool! I don't know how much I will use it in my classroom right now, but it is great to know that I am able to use it and have it set up to embed images.

My project is underway, but I would like to addsome more information and a few more pages before anyone else previews it. I have emailed my principal to tell him of my plans, and he replied that he is excited to see what I'd like to do . A good week's work!

Prezi Inspiration!

I was intrigued by the work of several classmates who tried out prezi, so I wanted to see how it worked! Kelly mentioned that the rotation of this tool made her a little dizzy, and I have to agree - me too! I wonder if it would have that same effect if I were standing in front of a classroom instead of sitting and looking at a laptop. I'll have to try it before my students return! This is a fun tool. My first thought was that I could use it as a little different type of concept map. I usually draw the concept maps on the board, but this enables me to move the terms around and gives the ability to use images too- pretty cool. I also thought it might be helpful when teaching sequences like cellular respiration and photosynthesis, to get the big picture. As usual, I spent way too much time getting it "right," but I think the product could be used in class with just a little tweaking. Thanks to everyone for the inspiration!

Carbohydrates on Prezi