My Learning Style

I took the ‘Multiple Intelligences for Adult Literacy and Education’ ‘Find Your Strengths Assessment,’ from this website: http://www.literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/index.html. My top 3 intelligences were Spatial, Body Movement (Kinesthetic), and Social (Interpersonal). I completely agree with the results of my test, as visuals are very important in my everyday life and learning, I am very active and require a lot of movement to stay focused, and working with others helps me to learn. Also, my lowest score was in the area of music, which is no surprise to me as I am definitely not a musically inclined person.

In my learning experiences, teaching strategies that were effective to my style of learning included anything hands-on. Taking notes during a lecture, creating a chart, graph or picture, writing a story using new concepts, actually doing math problems, etc. have always helped me to learn. I could never learn math by just watching a teacher do a problem; I still can’t understand a math concept without figuring out how to solve a problem on my own. In general, a lecture or watching a teacher model how to do something was never an effective strategy for me to learn. I need to be doing something to gain knowledge.

I agree that teachers can’t incorporate every learning style in to every lesson that they teach. I think that the best thing that teacher’s can do is to not use the same instructional techniques all the time, and to focus on including a variety of teaching strategies in their instruction. I feel that teachers should spend time working towards understanding the best way for their students to learn – this will obviously be carried out differently depending on the age of the students. Older students can take tests just as everyone in CEP 810 has done, while teachers of younger students will mostly have to rely on observation to learn about their student’s learning styles.

Creative Commons in the Classroom

Photo Attribution:

Original Image: “London Bridge (Tower Bridge): Reflection on the River Thames “

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anirudhkoul/3499471010/sizes/s/in/photostream/

By: Anirudh Koul

Released under an Attribute-Non-Commercial License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en

I have included and properly cited an image of London in this blog post, that I found searching through flickrCC.

I may share this image of London with my current students, as I am traveling to London in March and plan to share my trip with them. The reading program my school uses is ‘Reading Street,’ and our current theme is ‘Adventures.’ I plan to share the image I found searching through flickrCC in addition to the pictures I take in London to share my own adventure with the students.

I have already described two ways in which I would incorporate images into the curriculum – to show students people, places or things that they have never seen before, and to connect experiences outside of the classroom to what the students are learning about in the classroom (my adventure to the topic of adventures in our reading program). In addition, images can be incorporated into the classroom to provide students with a fun way to build their understanding of grade-level topics. For example, my kindergarten students could match pictures of items that rhyme, sort pictures based on the initial sound, sort pictures based on any criteria, find similarities and differences between two pictures, search for items in a picture that have a specific sound, find verb pictures and create a verb poster, etc. Pictures can also be used as writing prompts by allowing students to select an appropriate picture and create a piece of writing that describes the picture. Also, pictures can be used to increase communication and simultaneously allow students to use technology, as students could have an assignment of sharing a picture they created or took with a ‘pen-pal’ by emailing a picture and a note about the picture.

I created an account with flickr and added a picture of my puppy, Breslin.

Photo Attribution:

Original Image: “Breslin”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76903798@N08/6891438517/

By: Jennifer Iott

Released under an Attribute-Non-Commerical License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

RSS Page Reflection

RSS Page Reflection

Above are a few screenshots of my Google Reader page. I took more than one screenshot so you could see each of my subscriptions on the left side of the page.

I love using Google Reader! I chose to use Google Reader as my way to subscribe to different RSS feeds from my favorite educational resources because I like how it organizes feeds in a uniform manner. I experimented with Pageflakes and Netvibes following the RSS lab because I thought that I would enjoy their fun look, however I really did not feel comfortable using either reader to view feeds.

I especially enjoy using Google Reader to subscribe to blogs, as I find it very easy to see new information in the way that Google Reader organizes feeds. I have began following a multitude of blogs since I started using Google Reader, which has resulted in me subscribing to all of these blogs as well. The majority of the blogs that I am subscribed to include great ideas for activities to use with young students and ideas for classroom organization. I also am subscribed to blogs that pertain to special education, deaf education and art in education. I recently commented on a blog titled ‘Art and Creativity’ by a Los Angeles art therapist, Anna Reyner. My comment can be found at this link: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=31826554&postID=4588586081988789895

I specifically checked and counted my total feeds on my Google Reader page on 3 different days of the week, in order to see how the feeds differed based on the day. On Tuesday, January 31^st I had 67 total feeds, on Friday, February 3^rd I had 69 total feeds, and on Sunday, February 5^th I had 47 total feeds. This shows me that there are most likely more postings on a weekday compared to a day during the weekend. I have found that a couple of the sites I am subscribed to always have multiple postings every day of the week, those being Deaf Read – Best of Deaf Blogs (http://www.deafread.com/) and Teaching Blog Addict (http://www.teachingblogaddict.com/), which are both blogs that have multiple authors. The Education Week sites that I follow (Education Week: American Education’s New Site of Record, Education Week: Digital Directions and Education Week: Teacher) also have multiple postings everyday of the week. A large number of sites that I am subscribed to have postings far less, those being RIT-NTID: Raising and Educating a Deaf Child (http://www.rit.edu/ntid/educatingdeafchildren/), RIT-NTID-News (http://www.ntid.rit.edu/), the American School for the Deaf (http://www.asd-1817.org/), Deaf Nation (http://deafnation.com/), and a Blog: Teaching Children with Special Needs (http://specialneeds.achievement-products.com/) to name a few.

Mostly I have enjoyed learning fun new ideas for classroom organization and activities to try out with my current students through reading the feeds in my Google Reader. I am also being kept up to date with education news through my subscriptions with EduTech Today News, NPR: Education, Education Week: Digital Directions, Education Week: Teacher and Education Week: American Education’s New Site of Record. In addition I am keeping up with topics related to deaf education, being subscribed to the American School for the Deaf website, California School for the Deaf Riverside, Deaf Nation, Deaf Read-Best of Deaf Blogs, National Association of the Deaf, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, and RIT-NTID-News.

I plan to continue using my Google Reader beyond CEP 810. I believe that I can use the content from my feeds in my current teaching setting, however I will not be using RSS Readers with my current group of students, as they are kindergarteners. The feeds from the blogs that I am subscribed to through my reader include many great ideas for literacy activities to use with my current group of students. I also will share the sites that I have subscribed to related to deaf education with my fellow deaf education interns.

Atomic Learning's PC Maintenance and Security Workshop

I love that I have free access to Atomic Learning’s resources through CEP 810; the site includes an abundance of wonderful information. I have only watched a few of the tutorials thus far, but definitely plan to watch many more.

The first video I watched from the PC Maintenance and Security Workshop was, ‘Using Online Backup Options, and a review.’ I chose a video discussing backup options because backing up my files is something that I definitely need to do. I will definitely share the online storage facilities, Foldershare, MediamMax and GBM Home by Genie Soft with others, because the narrator of the video only had good things to say about each of these sites. I was surprised to learn that there is a backup option (Foldershare) that allows users to synchronize multiple computers, or save files from multiple computers on the same site. This video did bring up some questions for me. I wonder about the security or privacy of backing up the files on my computer to the internet; putting them on the internet doesn’t seem like a safe place to me because I feel like someone, somewhere could find the files. I also wonder how these sites wont lose documents if my computer crashes; would I really be able to access the files from another computer?

The second video I watched was, ‘Using Sandboxie for browsing safely.’ I chose to watch this video because I had no idea what Sandboxie was, and I was also interested in watching a video that discussed tips for safer web browsing. I will definitely be sharing the concept of Sandboxie with others. I was totally unaware that normal computer operation involved reading information from the internet programs and writing that information back to the hard drive, storing temporary files on the computer’s hard drive.

The third PC Maintenance and Security Workshop video I watched was, ‘Clearing your internet tracks in IE and Firefox,’ as I was interested in learning about protecting my family online. I will definitely share how to delete the temporary internet files (cache) from Internet Explorer and Firefox with others who are interested. Something this video introduced me to is that every picture, icon, button – literally everything from every website you ever visit is save in ‘temporary internet files.’

I really enjoyed watching each of these videos and learning so much. I cant wait until I have some free time to watch more of the videos that Atomic Learning has to offer.

Getting Things Done Reflection

I chose to organize my getting things done process using an app (‘To-do – Task Manager’ by Kenny Walker) on my iPhone. I was very interested in using ‘Things’ after being introduced to the tool in the “Mind Like Water: How to Get Things Done” podcast. I followed the link to ‘Things for iPhone and iPod touch,’ (http://culturedcode.com/things/iphone/) and watched the video explaining the app and was further intrigued. However, the cost of the app was not appealing to me. I decided to search for other task manager apps in the iPhone app store instead. I explored several of the apps and ultimately chose to start with a free app, ‘To-do – Task Manager’ by Kenny Walker. I chose an app for my phone over a paper/pencil or a computer software option because I always have my phone with me, and consistently having paper/pencil or my computer on me is not realistic.

Moving through the ‘collect, process, organize, review, do’ process for the first time was very time consuming; in addition it was really quite stressful having to think about everything that I need to do. I think that moving through the GTD process was a beneficial experience to have as it provided me with a new way to think about productivity, however I did not really enjoy spending the time going through each of the steps of the process. I would rather simply collect and organize the things that I need to accomplish simultaneously.

Honestly, I don’t think that the use of David Allen’s GTD process will help me. I think that the experience was beneficial as it opened my eyes to a new system of task managing. Currently, however, I feel that I don’t have anything to fix about my productivity. I think that I have great control over knowing the things that I need to get done and during what time period. I do not struggle with remembering or accomplishing tasks by their due date, and I do not see the need to think about the tasks ahead of me in a ‘collect, process, organize, review, do’ process. I may decide to return to the GTD process in the future if I feel that I am losing control over my organization and productivity, but it is not something that I see as helpful currently.

I do not plan on continuing to use the ‘collect, process, organize, review, do’ process, because of the amount of time that the process involves and I don’t think that I am unorganized. I feel that I have a pretty good grasp on the things that I need to get done, and don’t think that I need to spend time thinking about and organizing all of the things that I need to get done. Also, I think that inputting everything that I need to accomplish into a task manager and relying on such a tool will cause my brain to work less, and I want to utilize my brain rather than depend on technology. I do plan on continuing to use the ‘To-do – Task Manager’ app I have downloaded to my iPhone for assignment due dates for CEP 810 and any other big projects in my life, but I am not going to put every single thing that I need to do into the system. My process will also be more of a simultaneous collect and organize, as I will think about what I need to do and when I need to do it.

Social Networking

I first began using social networks while I was in high school, connecting with friends and family on Facebook and MySpace. I continued to use Facebook throughout college as I met many new people; I have also added Blogs, Linkedin, Pinterest, Twitter, and Wikis to my social network over the past few years. When I first began using social networks my main intent was for personal use, as I used Facebook and MySpace to socialize with others. Over time I began using social networks for more than my personal use, as I have used Blogs and Wikis through my courses at MSU to learn new information, share ideas with my peers and professors and to carryout discussions on diverse topics. Most recently I have been using Pinterest to obtain and share great lesson plan ideas, teacher resources, and activities to use with my students. I obviously also use Pinterest for my personal use as I share fun things to do, craft ideas, and new foods and drinks with my friends and family.

I think that my peers utilize the same social networks as I do; most of my peers are probably more active than I with their participation on Facebook and Twitter. In contrast, I think that I probably utilize Wikis and Blogs more than my peers who are not involved in education.

My current students are kindergartners, therefore many of the social networks I use are not a part of their everyday life. Some of my students do use Skype to connect with friends and family who do not live locally. My mentor teacher and I plan to incorporate Skype into the classroom by connecting with a current student who will soon be moving out of state.

My RSS Page

I am now using Google Reader to receive and view new information. I am subscribed to blogs and websites in the topics of deaf news, special education, teaching ideas, technology in education and many more. Here is a look at how I view information in my reader: