Jeopardy

I use this game at least once a week with my students.  It is a fantastic way to check for understanding of the curriculum.  I pick the core curriculum as the topics and quiz the students and ask them questions about what they learned from that week.  The students keep their own score on a wipe off board which incorporates math addition problems into the game.  

Jeopardy

Word Clouds

Word Cloud 

I used the Word Cloud application with the Gettysburg Address.  I tried it again on a Tagul application and I liked this one much better.  I could pick the shape and color.  It is more interesting when you can incorporate different shapes to add to the presentation of the work.
This type of is helpful in the elementary school level to determine if the children can make a hypothesis as to what words Lincoln used the most and why these words were significant for the time.  

Learning Styles

Learning Styles

The VARK Questionnaire

Your VARK Results

Your scores were:

• Visual 8
• Aural 4
• Read/Write 1
• Kinesthetic 7

You have a multimodal learning preference. (VK)

HYPOTHESIS: I am a visual learner.

I was not surprised by the result of this quiz.  I have taken these types of quizzes in the past  and the results are similar. 

Learning Styles Are Meaningless

 The main point of the article by Landers is that there are no learning styles in education.  The fact is that there is no reliable testing way of testing students on what their styles are but you can get a general idea of how students learn best.  The key to the articles is that we all have a different way of learning and as teachers, we should use a multimodal approach.  

INTRODUCTION

My name is Ann Finan and I am a doctoral student at Shenandoah.  I have my Masters From George Mason in Special Education.  I also have an after care for children with Special Needs- Brighter Day Care .

I have 2 children one is currently studying at West Virginia University and the other is in Loudoun County Public Schools.  I am an avid Philadelphia Eagles fan .  Sorry skins fans.

I have been in the education field for over 20 years. I started as an assistant in a school for children with severe disabilities and have worked my way to lead teacher of a classroom for children with Intensive Behaviors. 

Of the top 100 tools  listed in the Top Tools 

I Have and use:                                      I Have but Don't Use
Facebook                                                         Twitter
LinkedIn                                                          Instagram
Powerpoint                                                       Vine
Wikipedia                                                        Snap Chat
Google Chrome
Ipad
You Tube
Gmail
Drop Box

In the classroom I use more websites than aps. I do have use of an ipad and will use that as a supplemental tool. For example if we are studying Jamestown, I will go on line and show them pictures of it or do an activity about it.
You tube is a nice feature at school also because you can look up educational movies and help the students understand complex concepts.

Blogging in Higher Education

An empirically grounded framework to guide

An Empirically Grounded Framework to Guide Blogging in Higher Education: Kerawalla

We are currently distance learners, something new for me.  When signing up for this course, I was a bit concerned as to how this format would play out and why would I need to have a blog.  Kerawalla's article makes some very valid points: Students can use blogs to gather resources (Huann et al. 2005) and to share these, and individual opinions, with others (Williams & Jacobs 2004).  This is very helpful when you are not physically in a classroom and need to bounce ideas of others who are working on the same curriculum.  Another benefit of blogging helps with instant feedback from the professor (Kerwalla, 2008). Overall, a blog used in higher learning is beneficial only if the student is motivated and able to blend the content of the class with the technology.
The four domains that Kawalla addresses are the results of semi-structured interviews. They consist of community presentation, audience and comments.   For our puproses, community is the students that are signed up for this class. Presentation is the actual blog, the way it looks and whether or not it is easy to negotiate.  Dialogue is the comments from the professor as well as the students in this virtual classroom. The final domain is the audience. In our learning, it is the virtual class, professor and anyone who feels they need to read our blogs.

The strategies, techniques, and approaches that teachers can use to facilitate learning

The second article by Tolisano, states that blogging can support 4 areas of learning: reading, writing, reflecting and sharing and can support strategies, techniques and facilitate learning in ones classroom.  Reading in a digital environment becomes a personal experience and a collaborative and connected experience.  Writing is less about text and more about communicating. Writing can be a form of reflection as well as communicating. Kawalla  and Tolisano, both agree that with blogging, one writes for an audience during which there is reflection.  When it is  published and shared it opens up communication to an audience.
Both articles intertwine the idea of 4 domains and how blogging can support educating students.  The strategies and techniques that are posed do in fact facilitate learning in a digital theater.