Assistive Technologies

The first assistive technology that I chose to discuss is the high contrast feature. This feature is perfect for students who might have a visual impairment in which a lot of white color either hurts their eyes or makes them lose focus. It can be turned on by simply pressing alt/left shift/print screen all at once. After that simple press of buttons it automatically turns on. It is not hard to get use to either. In fact, as I type this blog I am currently under the high contrast setting. This is a multifunctional tool because along with helping the visually impaired it can be used for similar reasons under any conditions. If a student is having to spend a great time in front of the computer and just needs a break from all the brightness, they can just turn this feature on and give their eyes a break.
Another multifunctional feature for the visually impaired would be the magnifier option. This option lets you scroll over sections of your page and in a separate window a "blown up" version of that screen will appear. This is great for students who have trouble reading small text or being able to navigate through the page easily. This is a great for any student who might have any sort of difficulty seeing a smaller text.

HELP ME BE THE #1 PIERRE GARCON FAN!

So here's the deal. Anyone who reads this blog needs to log onto their facebook and become a fan of Pierre Garcon. He is a wide receiver for the Colts and is my favorite player. Once you become a fan click the "Just Fans" button and scroll down until you find my wall post. My post is quite a ways down the list but it isn't hard to find. Then you need to "Like" my wall post. If I get the most "Likes" then I get an autographed picture of Pierre. Thanks for your help in supporting my cause.

My Personal Learning Network

This is my igoogle site. This is how I envision my PLN looking. The format of iGoogle is great for setting up everything important to you (and some not so important stuff) all in one place. I can have my email here, my twitter (where I can follow fellow teachers), the weather, etc. Using this iGoogle will save me lots of time because everything I need is right here for me to see. There are also little fun gadgets, like the hamster in the wheel, that you can put on here to maybe relieve a little stress on a bad day. I even found a gadget called Teachers Magazine, which shows the top three stories in this magazine that is all about teaching. So iGoogle has many uses and there is really no limit to how involved and information filled that you could make yours.

My blog about Tim Sokolowski

Hey everybody it's Chat with Matt here and I'm going to tell you about one really great guy. His name is Tim Sokolowski. He is currently sitting next to me in our education lab. He, like myself, is planning on being a social studies teacher one day. He is currently a Bloomington Bachelor and he likes a girl to have a sense of humor. Which would make sense because he sure is one funny guy. Tim hails from Dyer, Indiana and to anyone who knows him knows that he is proud of his Dyer roots. He has a facebook which can be found here Tim's facebook. Tim currently goes to Indiana University and lives in the wonderful Teter dormitory. Oh by the way for all you ladies out there, Tim is a devilishly handsome character and his charm/charisma will be sure to sweep you off your feet. Tim is Polish. Some may ask why I would do this post about Tim. Why is it Matt that you would create this wonderful post? Why is it that you find Tim so fascinating? Why do you seem to have a crush on him? And the answer is simple. Because I can. And as for the crush question well, just look at this picture. So as you can see I am not crazy. Tim is starting to become flattered by the blog he sees me posting so I guess I will end it here. blog blog blog blog

Communication in my classroom

As a secondary education teacher communication will be at a high demand for my classroom. If I had to predict I would say it will probably be 60% student and 40% parent communication. I think it is important for me to make myself accessible to the students outside of the classroom. My plan was to create a classroom website. The main goal of the website would be for me to try and answer any questions the student might have before they contact me. So I will put up assignments, updates, quiz dates, what is expected for any specific project, etc. If the students have a question that has not been answered through the website I will have a contact page. On this page I will include an email account that I have created specifically for my classes, and I want to create some sort of chat forum where the students might be able to help one another. This way if another student is online at the same time and knows the answer to the question they can answer it and that way the student won't have to contact me. A guideline I would create for the email is that the email must be received before 7 p.m. the night before we have class. I think this way it puts the responsibility on the student to make the effort and make sure they get that question in quickly. As far as parent communication goes I would still include my email. However, I would also give the parents access to my home phone number. This number will not be able to be used by a student but I feel that parents should be able to contact the person education their children when they have a question. Of course I will request some courtesy with this privilege and ask that parents don't call that number after 8 p.m. at the latest. For my website I would also look for some sort of software that can allow the parents to make appointments with me. This way if they have a dire need to see me they can go on the website and set up an appointment where we can get together and talk face to face. One of my biggest goals as a teacher is to be able to communicate with parents and students so I think this game plan that I have created is a great step forward in achieving that goal.

InspireData

In lab this week we explored the wonderfully confusing tool Inspiredata. Inspiredata is a program used for creating and analyzing data/charts. We used unemployment rates and presidents as our example. After several painstaking minutes of data analysis and collection it began to look like an actual chart. We started with creating a plot graph of the unemployment rates from 1940 to 2006. After this data was collected we added the presidents into the datagraphical mix. Then we were able to add the two political icons into the chart. This way it was clear to us whether a Democrat or Republican was in office during any year in question. The screenshots above can be a testament to what was accomplished with this monumental task. When it was all said and done it made quite a nice graph and actually made some sense. I was able to understand in what years unemployment was the highest and lowest. And if a Democrat or Republican was president during those years.

That being said....I would not use this tool for a class. It is a very confusing tool to use and would take extensive work with it for an entire class to have an understanding. This, to me, is clearly a tool made for businesses or companies. And I do not envy them. I imagine when you became fluent in Inspiredata (X number of years later) it would be a very useful tool for a business. But a class does not have the amount of time required to effectively use Inspiredata. During my time here at W200 I have come across many different tools that I find exciting, but Inspiredata is not one of them. Nothing against it as a software, but it's just not for me. blog blog blog blog

Content Exploration

I am going into Secondary Education Social Studies and I chose to review the software Google Earth. Google Earth is a tool that virtually lets you travel anywhere in the world. You start with a space to type in the specific location that you are trying to find. The location can range from being as specific as a complete address or as vague as a major U.S. city. Once you type in the area that you want to go you hit search and the software will "fly" to that location. It will then present you with a zoomed up view of this location. Using the cursor you can move around to surrounding areas or you can even zoom in close enough to see the very top of that building. This screenshot for instance, is a zoomed and angled view of IU's very own school of education.
I would use this in my classroom to give my students a better understanding of the area that we are currently studying. I could give the students a different look into the area and the area that is surrounding it. I believe this would help the students to know the area much more in depth and would also help then to understand the material we are covering.
Google Earth could be looked at as a simulation tool. It allows you to go anywhere in the world and do so in a split second. It makes the impossibility of traveling to all these places possible. A way that a teacher could use this as a tutorial is by using the path feature. As a teacher I could ask of my students to recreate a path used during a certain event by mapping the path on Google Earth and then showing me.

BrainPOP.com

BrainPOP.com is a site that offers a fun, interactive way for students to learn about different subjects. The main page is a listing of all the different subjects that the site offers. You then click on a subject and it takes you to another page which is broken into different categories related to the main subject. This site is really great because digital natives can easily relate to it. It has bright colors, cartoon like animations, and shows the information in a productive way.
I would use this in my classroom probably in some sort of computer lab. I would gather my students into a computer lab and assign them each something different relating to the site. I could make worksheets that require going on the website and finding the different information. This way the students learn a lot about the topic at hand and can learn how to successfully navigage through this website so they can go back to it if they need it for studying.

FREE.com Teahcing resources and lesson plans

Free.com is a site that offers a bevy of different teaching resources and lesson plans. It is broken down into dozens of different categories that apply to several different subjects. It then offers you links to other websites for the different category that you end up to land on. At the top of the home page there is also four different links labeled animations, pictures, videos, and primary docs. This is the area that provides you with great resources for the four categories listed.
I would use this in my classroom for a few basic tools. It would be great for me to make my lesson plans. There is a large selection of lesson plans for social studies so that would be very handy for me as a teacher. I could also utilize the different videos, animations, etc for my classroom. This is another tool that is very efficient. It would solve several different issues (lesson plans, resources, etc) in one convenient location.

Rubistar. A great tool for rubrics

Rubistar.com is a free website that helps teachers to create quality rubrics. It is broken down into different subjects and areas that you might want to make your rubric. There is also an area where you can create your own games, maps, etc for your classroom. Each subject is broken down into various sub categories that go with the main subject. It is a great resource for a teacher who is looking for a quick, effective way to create a rubric.
I would use this in my classroom probably in two or three ways. The most obvious way being to make rubrics for my class. The other ways I would use it would probably be for such things as the games or maps. I see this as being a way for me, as a teacher, to have a quick resource that can help me in a couple different key areas of my classroom.

How Teachertube would help my classroom.

Teachertube is a website very similar to youtube (shock I know). It takes educational videos from all around the country and conviently puts them on one website. The videos are all in some way related to something educational. This is a great source for teachers to find educationl videos for the classroom.
Teachertube would have many advantages for using in my classroom. It would provide a great visual aid for my students to learn by. A teacher can find almost any kind of video that applies to their subject on teachertube. These videos would provide a great way for the students to be entertained and still go about learning. The digital natives of today's classroom, I think, would find this method of teaching very exciting.

edHelper.com...One Efficient Tool

Edhelper.com is a website that takes any subject you can think of and breaks them down into categories. It then takes these categories (social studies, math, english, etc) and gives you dozens of different puzzles, worksheets, timelines, etc that you can print out for your class.

I would use this in my classroom in many different ways. I could use this website as my primary source for different worksheets, puzzles, etc. It would work as a very efficient tool for me as a teacher. It would save me a ton of time searching for worksheets and different ways to evaluate my students progress. These worksheets are a great way to let the students show their progress and let themselves judge how well they are doing in the class.

The other benefit that this site has is the variety that it offers. There are so many different subjects and categories that it would be hard not to find something that applied to you as a teacher. And once you find the specific subject that applies to you there is an even larger amount of worksheets and activities offered. The possibilites that this website offers can be countless and can have so many different benefits to a teacher.

Sexist Boot Fashion

Ok so in today's blog I'm going to discuss something that has been irking me. As the entire world knows the always attractive fashion of Ugg Boots burst onto the scene a view years ago and sadly is still going strong. Well last week down here at IU it was raining all week and I began to notice and equally disturbing fashion. Rain boots. It appears that the thing to do is for girls to find brigh pink, poke a dots, or just generally hideous rain boots and wear them up to the knee and parade them around like they are on the Paris runway. My biggest problem with these boots is not their "unique" look but the fact that they cater to only one sex. Females. A man can't be seen walking around in Ugg boots and he certainly can't be seen walking around in pink rain boots. It just isn't fair. So it is with this blog that I am going to make my plea for a crazy, ugly, lacking creativity boot fashion that can be worn by both sexes. This way I won't have to hide my Ugg boots in my closet. blog blog blog blog

Thanks Carrie Wadycki

I would like to take this post to thank a one, Miss Carrie Wadycki. So I had this project for my Education with Computers class in my FRESHMAN YEAR OF COLLEGE. The project is to created a digital story using windows movie maker. I soon realized, "Hey, didn't I do a project exactly like this in my JUNIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL?" And the answer was yes. I did a very similar project for my photojournalism class. Who was the teacher of that class you might ask? It was none other than Carrie Wadycki. So to you Wad I say, thank you. Your obviously a revolutinary who is way ahead of her game and prepares students for life in college. Your also a super lady who can put a mean full nelson on someone. So everyone should update their status today to say something about Wad and the super lady she is. blog blog blog blog

The Thing About Naps

So I just woke up from a two hour long nap. This actually is a short nap for me. Here's the thing about naps....Naps are awesome. Naps are rejuvenating. Naps can make life worth living. I will have days when I wake up and the only thing I think of is, "man I can't wait to take a nap later." I mean not many things have this power over me but naps do. And you wake up from a nap and your first thought is, "damn, I just wasted a lot of time." Then you take a second to consider the pros and cons and the wasted time does not matter a damn bit. So for all of you out there who don't nap on a regular basis, or at all, I am asking this of you....sleep my friends. Next time you have an early afternoon to yourself find a comfy couch, get a comfy pillow, wrap yourself in a blanket and don't set the alarm. I promise when you wake up you will be thanking Chat with Matt. And one last thing, to all of you who put something in your facebook status about hating Steve Blush I thank you. It was very considerate of you and it will show that charming, funny, jerkface Steve who is really important. blog blog blog blog

About the love quote of the day

I understand that my igoolge has become visible because of my wonderful blog. And it may be known that there is a certain spot on my igoogle that says "Love Quote of the Day." Allow me to explain. You see I am an emotional human being, and I am also a man. Now some time these things can conflict. But just because of this conflict I do not want Steve Blush harrassing me on facebook about my "Love quote of the day." Why you gotta hate Steve? I thought we were bros but now you be hating. This hurts. So I am officially making this Hate on Steve Blush day. So if for some reason you find yourself reading my blog (first off, thank you) and secondly if you are reading this I ask that you update your facebook status to say something about hating on Steve Blush. If I only see one facebook status that says something about hating Steve Blush I will be more than happy. blog blog blog blog

My iGoogle

This is my third blog within my first class. Awesome. The three bookmarks that I added to my delicious account that I like the most are free.ed.gov (awesome resources), edhelper.com (sweet lesson plans, my mom totally uses it), and teachertube (pretty sweet website with videos and tutorials and stuff). Well there it is. Until next time. Blog blog blog blog

Thanks Tim

So Tim just made me aware that he gave me a shout out in his very first blog. I would just like to take this time to thank him for the shout out and just for being and all around cool guy. So, thanks Tim. Stay golden. blog blog blog blog

Captain's Log Day 22

So I'm sitting in class writing my first blog. How exciting. I now see why so many people do this. It is insanely fun. I can write anything in the space below me. Plus, I got to use the incredibly creative blog name "Chat with Matt." I know you should all be jealous. There are so many things I want to blog about I don't know where to start. Is it weird if for some reason I want to use correct grammar in this blog? We are shifting gears, I must quit blogging for now. Until next time my friends. Blog blog blog blog