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Final Project

Nov 30th, 2009 by

I realized that I haven’t added anything regarding my Final Project, so I figured I better do that. I was really intrigued when we learned about Google Earth, so I decided to work with that in my final project.

I am working on a Google Earth File on an art history topic. In my high school we never really looked at much art history, so I thought this project would be an opportunity for me to look into it more. I have settled on the topic of Renaissance Artists. This Project is going to be a introduction, a taste of what the Renaissance period contains. I am focusing my research on three well known artists of this period: Leonardo De Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.

I have been roughly plotting place marks, and gathering and organizing what information I want to put with different place marks.

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Digital Footprint

Nov 30th, 2009 by

Footprint

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/spodzone/2885929376/

Well I know that my digital footprint would be small, because I have never really put myself out there. Searching just my name on Google the first thing that comes up are the big red words, “Did You Mean: Kirsten…”, my name is almost always misspelt “en” when it is “in”. Googling my name, Kirstin Wiebe, seems to always cause the spell check to appear, but below that I found my facebook, my ECMP blog listing, and even some links to my comments on other blogs appears.

If I Google my home town Swift Current along with my name I was surprised to find me mentioned in the Booster, Swift Current’s local paper.

Booster Article

The article is from 2008 and talks about the awards that people of my graduating class received. This is what it said about me.

“KIRSTIN WIEBE – offered a $2,000 Centennial Merit Scholarship from the University of Regina and Saskatchewan Learning. Accepted to the University of Regina’s Education Program.”

I was quite pleased and happily surprised by this new find. Other than these listings, right now I don’t have anything else to add to my footprint. And I’m comfortable with the digital information that is out there right now.

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How I Feel Today

Nov 25th, 2009 by

Original Image:http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathonline/918128338/The Sleeping Geek Kitten - Angers -

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TED Talks

Nov 25th, 2009 by

A couple weeks ago our assignment was to watch a few TED talks. Before this I had never heard of TED, but I found that there are some really interesting videos to see.

The five videos that I watched were:

-Michael Moschen, a Juggler who used rhythm and motions to explore the uses of shapes and spaces.

-Qi Zhang, playing an electric organ. This was an amazing performance.

-Adam Grosser, talked about a project to build a sustainable fridge. This video was different from what I am generally interested i, but I decided to give it a try.

-William Kamkwamba, told a very touching story about building a wind mill to help his family as a boy in Africa. I just made me see the wonderful things children are capable of doing and how education and knowledge can open doors to opportunities.

-Lastly I watched a fun video on Keith Barry and his talent of brain magic. His tricks are just crazy. I kept trying to figure out how things worked. I can’t even explain it, you have to see it for yourself.

After being introduced to TED in this class, I got to see it more of it on Friday, November 2oth when my ECE class watched the video on schools and creativity by Sir Ken Robinson.

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Uses of Technology in Classrooms

Nov 19th, 2009 by

Get Connected!

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10887804@N04/3200153417/

Tonight in class we had three guests, Darren, Kathy, and Clarence, come and share how they use technology/computers in their classrooms. They are all teachers who came in and shared with us how they use technology and computer/internet in their classrooms.

I was introduced to the wonderful idea of Scribe Posts by Darren, which is basically allowing students to record, explain, and reflect on the material they are learning in classes. In a way they are creating their own text book as a class. It sounds like a great way to introduce students to social networking. I really like this idea because by allowing students to write their own text book they are learning and teaching others in words that make sense and are meaningful to them. Students can make more connections with the subject matter. Darren also had a quote in his presentation, “learning is a conversation.” I completely agree with this statement, and it just maked me think about another quote:

“What you hear you forget. What you write you remember. What you Share you Know.”-Burt Burrows

It was really interesting to hear Kathy share because she is one of my mentors, and because she teaches much younger students. I think allowing young children to post there work and thoughts to a wider audience can be very encouraging. Children love to share their work and knowledge, and to get feedback from a larger network of people can motivate them to continue to work hard in the future. It’s always wonderful to hear praises about your work. Kathy did mention the concern about the importance of learning how to write and develop those skills. Balance is key in many things. Technology is an amazing resource, but balance is needed to allow a well rounded learning environment.

Clarence mentioned that he doesn’t delete information from his class wikis once even after the class has ended. I found this intriguing. Is it really motivating to contribute time and energy into something that will just be deleted? I like the idea of just building what is already there. Then students can even go back and see how things have progressed over time. Clarence talked a lot about Literacy and what it means today in the 21 century. I feel that today there are many forms of literacy, its not just limited to text. Today we are hearing a lot about visual literacy and the power of imagery. Allowing students to explore different forms of literacy and mediums their minds are given the chance to think creatively and in new ways.

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“A Pittance of Time”

Nov 18th, 2009 by

Reading Amanda’s Post about Remembrance Day made me think of a song I recently heard. On November 12 in a class last week a group did a presentation that revolved around Remembrance Day. They started off by showing the music video of the song “A Pittance of Time” by Terry Kelly. It’s just a simple and touching song about giving up a “pittance” of our time for those fighting, or have fought to keep us safe. After watching the music video the presenters then told us that the story displayed in the video is based on a real experience. Terry Kelly was in a drugstore on Remembrance Day in 1999 that was going to have two minutes of silence at the eleventh hour. Everyone in the store, staff and customers, joined in the two minutes of silence except one man accompanied by his little girl. This man who was refusing to take a small moment was setting a terrible example for his little girl. Here is the video:

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Mock Lessons

Nov 16th, 2009 by

Last week in my ELNG class we finished our group presentations. Each group was given an elementary grade level (K, 1, 2, 3, 4/5). Our task was basically come up with lessons to teach language at that grade level. Each presentation had to include a morning message, a word play activity like a poem or tongue twister, two speaking and listening lessons, and an example of a share and tell. Then each group presented their ideas in to form of a mock classroom. It was so fun see everyones presentations, they were all really well done. This assignment really aloud me to see clearly what concepts are being taught to children of different ages. It was also really fun to get to be transported back to elementary school for a couple classes.

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Mentorship

Nov 4th, 2009 by

Not much has happened since my last Mentorship update. Things on both ends have been quite busy with mid-terms and then Halloween. I was able to Skype in and meet another class of grade ones. It was really cool and more comfortable know that I’ve used the program more. The children are involved in a world wide activity where different classes write descriptions for parts of a monster, and then each class gets to take all the descriptions and create what they think the monster would look like. The class also asked me if I can count to 20 forwards and backwards because they are learning about numbers. I like using Skype because it makes this experience so much more personal when I can see who I’m working with. In another class the students were writing scary stories, and I am waiting for them to be posted so that I can read their work.

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Podcasts

Nov 2nd, 2009 by

Podcasts

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjhagen/2133732967/

From itunes I subscribed to some podcasts about K-12 Education, and photography. Photography is something I’ve become more interested in. I love taking pictures. When I go walking I sometimes look at things and think about how it would make a great picture. I’m not the greatest at photography but I have gotten compliments on some of my work. Anyway on itunes I subscribed to Photography 101 and Lessen 6 talks about the use of photoshop and how to edit the colour in a photo. I’ve always found it interesting when a picture is black and white except for one part is has colour.

The Educational podcasts I have are from K-12 Education. One is DO-IT Pals: An Internet Community, and it talks about students with different disabilities and how they are encouraged and mentored by adults with similar challenges. The internet allows these students to have access to a larger community of learners and mentors.

The other Educational podcast I have is called Early Education. What was talked about in this video was very similar to the content in my Early Childhood Education Class. We looked at the theories of early education like Waldorf and Montessori. The podcast referred to Montessori and Theories about educating the Whole Child, which means the not just focusing on cognitive development but also on the physical, emotional, psychological and social development of the child.

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Chocolate!

Oct 28th, 2009 by

2007-1112 (12) Chocolates

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferphoon/1985992642/

So today I decided to check the news feeds on my iGoogle page, and I came across a link that said Happy National Chocolate Day. I never even new there was such a thing. Anyway I found some really interesting links that had chocolate themes to celebrate National Chocolate Day.

I have heard about people altering their car engines to run on vegetable oil, but now there are scientists who have added chocolate waste to the mix. Scientists are working on a biofuel race car that runs on chocolate waste and vegetable oil. Here’s the Discovery article.

There was another chocolate article that talked about Heart Disease and how some research shows that chocolate can help reduce the risk. Researches think that the positive effects are due to the antioxidants in chocolate. It is still a debated topic because too much chocolate consumption is not healthy, and critical studies still need to be conducted. But having reasonable amounts once in a while is fine. Makes me happy since I Love my Chocolate!

To end off I just wanted to leave you with a mini MythBusters clip featuring Chocolate. The test is: Can chocolate be used to stop an acid leak? Watch and see.

Hope you enjoy!

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