iMovie

I really like using the iMovie on the computer last week. I have never actually created a movie before. I liked being able to cut out whatever parts I wanted to and add the transitions, introduction and conclusion with the movie. I felt that my group's movie was a good representation of some of the basics on how to use the iMovie and what places are good to visit in our town. I would definitely use this in my own classroom because my students can use their creative minds on showing me their understanding of the material that they have learned. If I had more time I would create more movies just for the fun of it in order to experiment more on the program. I wish I had this program on my own laptop to work with!

Photoshop

So far, I have learned how to combine three pictures into one, change the resolution and sizes of each image so that each picture will look correct when it is on the same picture. I just started working on my picture and I am learning quickly which techniques work best to get the area of the picture that I want. I still have to put all three pictures together but I want to get each one to be cropped correctly before combining the three.

Blog 2.0 and Class Reflection

I am planning to become a middle school math teacher, so I refined my search to what would work in grades 5th-8th in the web 2.0 search. 

After looking at 2 different programs on web 2.0, I really liked "Pinterest" because you can get a lot of ideas on how to construct your classroom and "pin" things onto an electronic board. There were a lot of education pins from Pinterest that linked you to websites that gave neat ideas for the classroom. You could also look at your friends' pinterest boards and get ideas from them. This would be helpful if you had teachers in your school district using the website to get ideas off of each other. The audience for this website is basically everyone who has a computer with internet. It looks like it would be good for organizing a person's thoughts on any subject. The one thing I did not like about the website is that when you first sign up to have a Pinterest account, you must wait a week or so for the makers of the website to approve and then you can have an account.

The second website I looked at was called "AnyBodyOutThere" where people can post questions or issues and others can reply and have discussions together. This would be helpful for a classroom where students can have discussions outside of class about any of the subjects in class. They can even ask on this website if there are any questions that they were unable to ask during class time.I liked that the website was free and it looks easy to use, but I would want to make sure that the class discussions were only viewable to those in my school. This type of website would be used for anyone who would want feedback on the topics discussed.

From the previous class, I realized that just because there is an application for some area of teaching does not mean that it is automatically a good site to use if there is an easier, free alternative. A good example of this was when one of my colleagues showed the class an application for changing pictures and we discussed why we would choose this application versus using Photoshop.

Life Goals and Bucket List

My list may seem simple, yet it holds a lot of meaning to me. My goals involve getting my Bachelor's Degree with an ESOL endorsement by Spring 2013. I want to get a job as a full-time teacher as soon as I get my degree from WOU. My dream classroom would be a middle or high school math classroom, where my nerdy side of using mathematics can make my students excited learning about the subject.

 I hope to get married before I am 30, but I do not want to get divorced. I dream of having three kids and although I know this sounds like I can control it, I want my son to be the oldest followed by either a daughter and son or son and daughter. I want to grow old with my husband and be able to teach my children how to support themselves financially because that is how my parents have taught me.

Along with my life goals, I have a bucket list as well. Here is what I can think of at the top of my head:

• Own a cowgirl hat & boots
• Vacation in Hawaii, Australia, Italy and France
• Visit Germany to find where my family originates from and what our name really is
• Go on a cruise
• Ride on a zip-line through the Amazon
• Ride a mechanical bull
• Do something for my parents to show appreciation for all they have done
• Scuba-dive
• Swim as fast as my friend Jessica can
• Go to a drive-in movie theater
• Become an aunt
• Own an F350 truck
• Ride an air balloon
• Take my family to a unique vacation
• Pay off my school loans as quickly as possible
• Be the best math teacher that I can be