Journal 7: Reflect on Professional Learning Networks

In my opinion, professional learning networks are a great asset to have in one’s professional, even personal life. I believe this way due to the fact that I was able to gain a great amount of information from these networks that added to my classroom. For instance, from Classroom 2.0, I was able to learn about a few different strategies that I could include in my lesson plans in order to increase my student’s phonemic awareness. These strategies involved including songs and movement in my lessons where I am focusing on phonemic awareness. Another professional learning network that I believe is very helpful was the RSS feed we created in class. I believe that the RSS is beneficial due to the fact that all of the information I could imagine searching for was all in one place. It made life so much easier. For instance, for my reading centers in my classroom, I need to find various worksheets or activities for my students to complete for the sound they learning that week. Instead of searching on google, I used my RSS feed to look through the various blogs I followed, which allowed me to gain multiple worksheets and activities in a short amount of time, rather than searching through google for them. Lastly, I used Twitter as a professional learning network by searching and following different primary teachers that could give my helpful ideas to incorporate into my class. As one can see, the learning networks can be a great asset to a person’s professional life, but I believe it can enhance one’s personal life too by making all of the information they feel is important or interesting all in one place.

Journal #6: Self-Relfection

When I first heard the requirements for GED 512, I was a bit scared to take this course, due to my limited knowledge with web development. However, after completing the first five weeks of this course, I can now see that web development is not as hard as I expected it to be. In these first five weeks I have been able to learn many new things about web development, which deal with html and css. In html, I learned that this form is simply a list of “codes” that tell the computer what the content is in a website. For instance, there is a series of different codes depending on the look you want your website to have, such as p for paragraph, li for list and strong for bold. Also, there is an even bigger list of codes that deal with css that I have learned. CSS is a style page that tells the computer how the website should be viewed. The css component of a html page also has codes, but are much different, because they deal with the look of the website. For instance, some codes are for background color, the type of text and style of the headers. Due to my new knowledge of html and css, I have been able to complete many assignments that have allowed me to use the knowledge I have gained. One assignment that was one of the hardest for me to complete was the very first book exercises we completed, due to the fact that I was not comfortable with html and css. This assignment was creating the Black Goose Bistro website which can be seen here: http://www.cpp.edu/~mctravieso/GED512/book/bistro/

On the other hand, one assignment that was the most rewarding for me was the book assignment where we created a contest entry form. This was the most rewarding due to the fact that I did not think that I would be able to create anything besides a “website” in this course. This assignment can be seen here: http://www.cpp.edu/~mctravieso/GED512/book/contest_entry.html. There are many other assignments that I created, but I am very interested in learning more about web development in order to increase my knowledge.

Journal #5: Twitter

When I first started to use Twitter, I believed that it would only benefit my personal life. For instance, following my favorite celebrities or famous news channels to keep up with what is happening in the real world. However, after I joined Twitter, I found out that I use it more for my professional development by following other teachers that teach the same grade I do, or other educational multimedia enthusiasts. As a result, I have been able to gain more ideas with different strategies and activities I can incorporate into my classroom, such as a pumpkin investigation I will complete with students on Halloween or using certain apps during their reading centers. Although Twitter adds a great deal to my professional development, I do not feel as though it would a great amount to my classroom, due to the grade I teach. My first grade students are still learning to read and write, which means they should not be limited to the 140 character limit Twitter puts on their comment section. However, I do see a benefit in using Twitter to communicate with my parents, which was stated in the article “35 Interesting Ways to the Use Twitter in the Classroom.” I believe my parents would be able to use Twitter in order to see what is happening in their child’s classroom in real time, rather than through simple newsletters.

Question 1: Is Twitter beneficial for intermediate grades?

Answer 1: I believe Twitter is beneficial for intermediate grades, due to the fact that these students can use Twitter in order to collaborate over their assignments and discuss different things that occurring in their classroom.

Question 2: Should a teacher still monitor their students on Twitter?

Answer 1: A teacher should ALWAYS monitor their students on any social media account, due to the access that the students have to discuss topics that would not be appropriate for their age.

Final Project Plan

Final Project Plan

·       Site title – Miss Travieso’s First Grade Class

·       Developer – Michaela Travieso

·       Rational or focus –

• Statement of Purpose: My purpose for creating this website is to increase parent involvement and knowledge in my classroom.
• Main objectives:
• To increase parent communication
• To increase parent knowledge of events occurring the classroom
• To increase parent knowledge of the subject matter their children are learning in my classroom

·       Main features outline and Content–

• Home Page- Description of website, my contact information and important events coming up in the classroom
• Classroom Information Page- A page that has all of the information for our classroom, from the topics we are focusing on that week to our class rules and schedule.
• Calendar Page- A calendar for the month that lists homework and important dates
• Superhero’s Work Page- A page that has pictures and videos of the students doing their projects and work in the classroom.
• Math Tips- A page that will have websites and examples of the math the students are completing for the parents to view.
• Reading and Writing Tips- A page that will have websites and examples of the math the students are completing for the parents to view.
• Contact Page- A page where the parents can contact me directly if they have any questions, comments, or concerns.

·       Target audience – The target audience for my site will be the parents of the students in my classroom.

·       Design considerations- The design goals for my website are to make it:

-       clutter-free: I do not want to too much information that will overwhelm my viewer, such as long paragraphs or too many bullets for them to read.

-       easy to navigate: I want all of the pages to lead back to the home page, as well as the viewer to know which header to click on to get a specific site or information.

-       colorful: I want the colors to be red, yellow and blue to represent my superhero theme.

·       Limiting factors – The technical factors that might limit my website design would be knowing how to create a calendar that I can update daily or monthly, such as Google Calendar. Also, I am unsure if I would be able to create a page where the parents could contact me directly from the webpage, such as sending me an email directly. The audience factors that might limit my website design would be parents have the ability to access the website, such as not having access to the internet.

·       Site Map Image-

Wire Frame Image