Almost Done

I finished Lesson Plan 2 for my group last Friday afternoon.  I had to sacrifice some elementary classroom observation hours (which I will need to make up for this week) in order to stay on campus and finish it.  It turned out alright, although I was not sure of the format. Here is the link: http://www.student.lhup.edu/mhepfer/collaborative_lesson_plan_2.htm

My group and I are presenting tomorrow morning at 8:00.  I'm still not sure what I am going to talk about for my presentation, but all of my things are together on my webpage, so I should be good.  We are almost finished with the class and the semester.  What a relief!

Week 11/29 - 12/3

This week in the lab my group and I worked on our group webside on Google Sites.  Here is the link to our site: https://sites.google.com/site/recyclingrenegades/
It was a little tricky to learn the tools of Google Sites because they are quite a bit different from MS Word or Web Expression.  The page is due Friday, and hopefully will be finished by then.
I was not able to make it to the lab to meet with my group this morning.  Due to the 48 hour rain we just received, we were experiencing flooding at my house.  I live with a river to the west and south, and a creek to the east, basically on a peninsula, so I had a rough night dealing with the rising waters.  Fortunately, 2 of my group members were able to work on the site by themselves, and I made sure that I gave them a heads up that I would not be able to make it. They did a great job!

Week 11/15 - 11/19

This week my group worked on our video project for Windows MovieMaker.  We decided to make a fictional video about a character we named Robbie the Recycling Bin.  The video follows Robbie on his adventures around the world where he encourages people to recycle at famous monuments and tourist attractions.  The video is pretty cheesey, but we had a lot of fun making it.  We had to record all of the audio clips separately, so that did become a little tedious.  But since we got some experienct using Audacity for our PodCasts last week, making the audio clips was easy as pie!  Here is the link to our video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHyY4n0nABE  You can also watch the video below.
We did not finish the Lesson Plan 2 project.  We are not sure about the requirements for the assignment, so we e-mailed the professor.  However, we will not be able to complete the assignment until next Tuesday due to our conflicting schedules.

Lab 11/9

Today in the lab we looked at audacity and moviemaker.  Arm demonstrated some of the important tools we will need to use in audacity when we make our podcasts this week.  We also discussed the differences between windows moviemaker and photostory, then Arm showed us how to use moviemaker so we will be able to use it next week for our video projects.

Week 11/1 - 11/5



Example of Mail Merge activity

 Last week I uploaded my PhotoStory 3 About Me video to my website, as well as gave my website a face lift.  It looks much better now!
Today I worked on another activity outlined on the website using Mail Merge using Excel to create the data and MS Word 2007 for the Mail Merge letter.  I sure am becoming a pro at using Mail Merge! 
I also began working on my Excel spreadsheet assignment due at the end of this week. I am almost finished with both activities, the grade book and the 2010 budget plan.  Those are both for the Activity 2 part of the assignment.  Now I am confused about Activity 3.  I am not sure what exactly I need to, hopefully I will figure it out before the due date on Friday!
Now it is time to write some reflections for work I have already completed.

Thursday Lab and Finished PhotoStory

In the lab on Thusday we practiced making an excell spreadsheet and converting the information in the spreadsheet to mailmerge to use with other documents.  We practiced using it with Microsoft Word.  Mailmerge is a very important and convenient tool especially for teachers.  A teacher may have 20+ students in her classroom, and when 20+ students need 20+ personal letters sent home, it can become quite a workload on the teacher.  Using mailmerge allows the teacher to create a basic letter outline in Microsoft Word, add the regions that will need to be used in the letter, then print all 20+ letters, each personalized with each student's information.  How cool is that?

I finished my PhotoStory 3 video!! Please view below. :) 
On YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gyBEh_Pams

Week 10/18 - 10/22

Today I finished my Recycling booklet, which will later become part of my team's lesson plan 2.  To the right is a picture of the word find I included on the back cover of my booklet.  I used words that will help the children remember the important things about the process and the reasons for recycling.  I did quite a bit of research to make my booklet.  I also used a lot of pictures in it to make it visually appealing to children.
Later this week I plan to finish my PhotoStory 3 video.  I will post it when it is finished, probably next week.