I really enjoyed the video played in class today.  The speaker did a great job of using humor to discuss tough issues.  A lot of what he talked about was disturbing and serious, but you wouldn't think so from the way he gave his presentation.  I especially liked the parts where he talked about using entrepreneurship in the classroom by making students actually be entrepreneurs.  There are classes like this at a lot of LPS schools and students really enjoy them.  We need to teach children in a way that makes real concepts come to life.

I find that most of my brainstorms come in very short bursts, but when they happen, they're pretty good ideas.  I really liked my 'customer review' lesson I had to come up with.  It integrates several of the things we've been talking about in class.  The other project I have is one I actually did twice at Lincoln Southwest at my practicum.  It uses google searches for students to learn the importance of hospitality and tourism in Nebraska.  I really like it and hope I can use it more in the future.  I especially like how it works in pretty much any size group...you can use it for one, a pair, or small groups.

I was very impressed by the Google drafting program.  I really want to find ways to put it into a business class.  I used to be a teacher's aide in college for drafting programs and can see the instant benefit of this kind of program versus one that takes a long time to learn and master.

Peace Out!   Here's a sign I made from the online signmaker.....

Hello!  I think I've had the most fun working on stuff today.  I really like going through my photos and tweaking them and making them super fun and interesting.  I like how I can make them look serious, funny, weird, classic, or whatever. 

I also like working with Taxedo again.  I really like the whole word bubble concept.  I think it's a great way to show correlations, spot key terms, or highlight important ideas.  Plus, you can make them nice shapes.

I'm also relived to finally get my first two assignments in.  I wanted to do it on taxedo but Doane's computer program wouldn't let me upload the necessary program.  I instead did it on bubbl.us.com.....It's a really great site that lets you do graphic text bubbles that are easy to use and see.  It's great for brainstorming, showing links, and so on.

Till next time........here's a funny picture

Good Evening!  I hope everyone is doing well tonight.  I'm happy I was actually able to start finding programs that I think will be useful in the future.  I really enjoyed the presentation today.  Mr. Frank was a wealth of knowledge about classroom tech and you can really tell he brings a lot of enthusiasm to his job.  I was especially impressed with the little clickers.  I can think of bunches of times I could have used that in my classroom during student teaching.  I think I'm getting to be a little more productive, too.  I'm not usually a very creative person, so having to do so many creative things can be taxing on me.  But now I'm starting to find a groove.  I really wish the computer could have Microsoft Silverlight on them so I didn't have to do the Taxedo stuff on my computer at home. 

And now for some terrible teacher meme....

Oh hai!  I have to write a blog for class, so now I'm writing a blog for class ^_^ .  I'm a little hesitant to put anything with my name on it on the interwebs, but I suppose what must be done must be done.  I'm excited to learn about different fun internet programs that I can eventually use in my curriculum after I get a real teaching job.  There is a big push to integrate web 2.0 stuffs into classrooms.  I had a little bit of this in my practicum and student teaching, but a better fundamental understanding of these tech programs is necessary.  So far, we've learned about a site called www.glogster.com that lets us make graphic posters that can be used for projects and such.  

And for no reason in particular, here is the Cave Johnson Lemon Rant...   Lemon Rant!!