Task_3-1 Reflection

Kudos to Kourtnee for taking the leadership role this week. She set up an online group meeting on typewith.me where we were able to work on our group assignment together. Landa and I thought typewith.me was pretty cool because we were all able to edit our paper together. I did some research on PBL to get a better idea of what it was and contributed to editing the paper. Although Randy and Sarah weren't able to join in, they also contributed by posting their thoughts on PBL in the forums section. We were able to take their input and incorporate it into our final piece.
What worked well was Kourtnee volunteered to be the "facilitator" for our PBL assignment, while Randy who is scheduled as our facilitator this week will focus on our other group assignment. What was awesome is that we communicated really well with one another to figure out meeting times and everyone's schedule. It's definitely difficult to get the whole group together at the same time, but we made it work. Ones that weren't able to make it made an effort by giving their input ahead of time in the forums section. I don't feel there's anything we should do differently because our group is on the same page and contributes.

Task #2, Deliverable, Week #9

I would definitely use these Web 2.0 tools I've discovered doing this past assignment. The sight I found was very informative with tons of resources that I can use in my classroom. There's detailed lesson plans for all subjects and age groups. Prior to completing this assignment, I've just basically used google and searched the web to whatever topic I was looking for. I have no feed back or comments at this time regarding the Web 2.0 selection process.

Week #7 Current_Events

Week #7 Current_Event

This week's current event was to find a resource from someone we were following on twitter. As always, our group did a great job finding great and interesting resources. As much as I'd like to write about them all, we're gonna go with @edutopia http://www.edutopia.org/blog/guide-to-college-financial-aid-tanya-knight.

This resource is a step by step guide to financial aid for college. I believe one of the biggest reasons many avoid going to college is having to figure out how to pay for it. After many years of graduating from high school, I finally decided to return to college and puruse a teaching degree thanks to financial aid. Thank goodness I'm more aware of financial resources out there because in a few years, I'll have a college bound child and I'll be more prepared on what to do.
This step by step guide to financial aid is simple to understand and is a wonderful tool for parents, teachers, counselors, and students planning on going to college. It entails financial aid available from the federal government, the state of ones residence, the college where one is applying, and private scholarships available in ones hometown. The site also includes the infamous Free Application for Federal Student Aid from the Department of Education (FAFSA) site. The FAFSA form is one that is definitely recommended by everyone to apply for because this not only calculates an estimate needed for college per applicant, but it also identifies state-level and federal financial aid available. It's basically filling out one application to locate other possible "money" floating out there that many people don't know about. This includes federal grants or federal work study funds and low interest loans.
The FAFSA application must be filled out every year, however personal information is saved to avoid having to fillout the entire form again. The only thing that would most likely change is the tax information area and types of financial aid one would like to recieve. A pin number will be provided to all that apply for FAFSA for easy access to ones application online. Applications are normally available from January 1st, however must be completed with the most recent tax return information. The earlier one applies for FAFSA the better, as financial aid is on a first come first served basis. Should an applicant be accepted and qualified for financial aid, funds will be disbursed via the financial aid department at their home school.
Just by reading the resource from edutpoia, the emphasis on FAFSA shows you the importance and highly recommended site for financial aid. This is a great first step to applying for financial aid for college. It really is one application for many financial resources out there for college students. The great thing is even if you don't think you need it or don't think you'll qualify, it doesn't hurt to try. There's free money for college out there, the more people are aware of it the better.

Week #2 Current_Events

Week #2 Current_Events

Group 5 -Team Panda
Sarah Ramsey-Jardolin
Yolanda Rivers
Kortnee Ryan
Randolph Sagon
Rose Takenaka

Resource link for Week #2
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/educational-technology/teacher-resources/43743.html


For our Week #2 Resource, our group chose the Teacher Vision website. This site is great because it's basically getting back to basics or a great tool for ones that aren't technology savy as myself and would love to learn. For example, this site provides guidance on learining how to create power points, how to use word processors, and how to incorporate the ever growing technology in our classrooms. What's fanatastic is that there's so many different reources for teachers that can be incorporated in the classroom, of any grade level.

This site is pretty self explanatory. Once you're on the website, there's sub headings that makes it simple to find exactly what you're looking for. It allows you to click on a link below any of the headings:
White Board Mini Lessons, Powerpoint Resources, Digital Books, Word Processing Resources, Best of the Web, Internet Resources, Videos, Integrating Technology, Internet Safety, Online Games, and More Technology Resources. Once you click on any of these, it gives you examples of lesson plans.

Aside from this, what's also great is there's sub headings labeled in blue: Home, Grades, Subjects, Themes, Printables, Graphic Organizers, Lesson Plans, Classroom Management, and Calendar. Depending on what you want to view, there's different grades and subjects that gives you tons of resources.

This site has so much information for classroom management, lesson plan, ideas on how to integrate technology in the classrooms, and even worksheets. Check out the website and you'll know why we chose it for our resource.

Task #1, Deliverable, Week #7

I am not a very technologically sound individual, so many who know me has no doubt I've never used any of these software tools before. I've heard of just google, not igoogle or google reader. I've also heard of twitter and people use it to "tweet" but I've never had any interest in signing up for it.

I can say that these tools we were "forced" to sign up for will definitely come in handy once I get accustomed to them. These are great and easy access to teachers searching for ideas or opinions regarding almost anything.

http://www.screenr.com/EYw8