Journal+Hours

2/12/09 - Our 1st PDP meeting. We decided that to best meet everyone's needs, the PDP would be split into two groups to accommodate those that were willing to meet after 4:30 and those that wished to meet at other times. Kathy helped the group decide on dates that would best work for everyone. Mr. Mirich visited with the group to make a revision on the PDP's goals.

2/16/09- The group accomplished three main items: 1. Onenote 2. Logging into the district server 3. Idea sharing

2/23/09- The group met at the MS lab and learned about Smartboards

3/1/09- This Sunday, we met for over 3 hours throught lots of different sites. Renee and I took pictures from the school's digital camera and after several attempts, were finally able to upload it onto our wiki site.

3/11/09 - I have spent the last two hours being totally FRUSTRATED with this Wiki stuff!!! I am glad that we will meet again so that I can get my questions answered. I did post my frustration and found Brett, Renee, and Cheryl responded! That's what makes this neat. I am such a visual/tactile learner, but just a SLOW processor of information! (2.0) 3/16/09- The group met again, and I am getting kinda worried that I might not get in all these hours. I have three hours on-line with the group to complete, along with 10 hours implementation!!!! I am wondering about whether or not to bail! Renee and I worked together to include our names of the wiki PDP site. We also figured out (with Cheryl's help) how to get some pictures off of Renee's camera's memory stick onto her wiki page. Brett also gave a presentation on Power Point. I took a day long workshop several years ago, so some of the concepts were a refresher for me. I do have to do a presentation at the District Day, and thought about using Power Point. The issue of time, is my biggest obstacle. We explored (with Renee's help) the delicious site, which to me, is more of a personal site.

3/20/09 - This was our last time meeting, and for me, I just like to watch people demonstrate, rather than try things on my own. I tend to get intimidated easily. I can now easily navigate between my personal Wiki space and our PDP space. We also decided that all of our hours would be due April 20th. As explored nettrekker and thinkfinity.com. Renee did a presntation on what she has done. Rochelle did some sharing that she is doing with her yearbook group. Steve showed us his lab notebook. Marcia presented for a review, the visual thesaurus. I also made a link between the PDP and my wiki space.

3/24/09- OMO (On My Own!) I am excited! I can't believe that for the last 2.5 hours on this canceled school day, I have been on-line learning about different algebra stuff for my one 8th grade student. I decided to blend a little bit of Renee and Kathy and come up with my plan. On our 2nd meeting, Renee came with a ton of post-a-notes with various sites she was going to explore from, what I term fondly (the blue tech bible). I also remembered something Kathy said in class. If you take away one good idea from a conference and implement it....." So, I decided I would only note things I think I will use for the remainder of the school year. Secondly, I would prioritize that. Now that I had a planned direction, I was off! Note the different font. Black is for what we do when we meet. Blue is what I do on my own! I also tried to access nettrekker, but was unsuccessful. I need to visit with Cheryl. (total time 4.5 hours)

3/25/09 - For the first time, I implemented what I had learned with a student. I worked with JR on navigating on an Algebra IA site. We both were really excited, as when she comes to me for Study Hall, she can work on this site (a FREE tutorial!!!) in preparation for her placement in Algebra IA next fall. (time spent .5) Total time 5.0 hours

3/26/09 - Today, because of the late start, I spent some time exploring more math sites for my eighth grade math students. On site was Mega Math. There was a coloring section and a connecting dots section which help the student make sense of math. I see it more as an enrichment. The coloring section has 4 templates, where the student colors them, and they are not to have the same color touch. The connecting dots is more like a puzzle.

I then spent a great deal of the time exploring GoggleEarth-Math site. I thought this would be well suited for my 8th grade student who does not have a pool of knowledge. She doesn't have a wide range of experiences. It is school and her family. I thought it would be kinda cool to have her locate my wiki space (implementation) and then get on the GoogleEarh -Math site and explore "measuring Distances in either metric or standard units. She could then actually see how far a specificied measurement actually is. I think it would be good for her to just type in directions to and from location in Sheridan, and then measure the distance. 1.0 hour (Total time spent 6.0 hours)

3/28/09 - I have spent .5 hours just trying to navigate and reorganize my notes and wiki space stuff. With all the students I have for PAWS, class, and IEP testing, my goal tonight is to give a student my wiki space, have her access it, and explore with GoogleEarth- Math during part of her math time. .5 hours (Total time spent 6.5 hours)

3/30/09- Today in Math class, I modeled two websites for a 8th grade struggling student. We first went on the Mega Math site and she explored that site. I then showed her GoogleEarth. I discovered she does not know directions. I had her locate her house, and compare it to the nearby school. She kept navigating to the east (probably because that it was the way her parent drives). (Total time spent 7.5 hours)

4/2/09- Google Earth Math with Austin 1. hour (8.5 total hours)

4/6/2009- I have been trying to access this page for the last 7 minutes. Had an apostrophe in my user name, and I couldn't access it. I just about gave up. I have 3 goal: 1. I want to be able to transfer this page to our pdp wiki space 2. There is a cool math video that I got in an e-mail, & I would like to get in on my wiki space under my Math page. 3. I want to explore some of the grammar sites in preparation for next fall's Language Arts classes. I thought of editing, but the more time I take thinking maybe it should be decoding/vocabulary with my new 7th graders on Wiki. OMO (1.5 hours) (Total Time 10.0 hours)  Tonight I also posted some e-mails on wiki to one of my students! It took me several minutes to naviaget to the correct place, but I am slowly getting there. I believe I have the 10 hours needed for working outside the PDP class setting. I now need 3 hours on-line time, of which half will be accomplished this Wednesday, thus meeting my 3 goals listed above.

4/8/2009-With Marcia's help, I was able to amove the powerpoint presentation on my Math 8 page on my wikispace, thus attaining my 2nd goal from 4/6/09 documentation. Cheryl was able to help me accomplish my first goal and showed me two different ways to do it. One by copy and paste and another by linking with the URL. I took notes, but with me, it will take lots and lots of practice! Now on to my third and final goal!