Fall 2016 Follow-Up 9/24/16

Today has been a wonderful GAETI Day!! I have had such a wonderful fun, filled time with Dr. Bracey, Dr. Morris, and all of the GAETI attending participants. Dr. Bracey kicked the day off with a great welcome and we heard updates from all of the Fall attending GAETI participants. I was floored with the amount of technology that the teachers are using in their subject areas and classes.
Next, we learned how to write grants for education and grants for our classes and/or things that we need as educators. We also found a grant and wrote a sample proposal and Dr. Bracey gave us feedback on our presentations. Lastly, Dr. Sherman-Morris came through with an excellent geocaching activity. She also showed us how to create our own geocaching activity. Today was a wonderful, informative, and very educational day!!!

Day Twenty: Presentations and Awards

Today we all presented our e-portfolios and lesson plans. Everyone has worked very hard on their portfolios and presentations and all did a wonderful job! I have learned a lot and have enjoyed this GAETI experience!!

Day Nineteen: Lesson Planning and Web Portfolio

Today we have been blessed with information on how to get money for our classrooms from Dr. Bracey. We finished up our lesson plans and presentations. We also presented each one of our art work to the class as well as explained why we chose that piece of art work and how would we use it in our classes. Surprisingly, Mrs. Latham awarded each of us with our very own unique award based on how she saw us or how we worked in her class. I received the MOST PATIENT award. I was so very honored and surprised at the same time to have received this reward. I'm usually not the most patient person in a group or just in life in general but to receive that award simply tells me that I am evolving and not revolving; I'm growing!!!

Day Eighteen: Collaboration, Infographic, Quizzes

On day 18, we met with Dr. Lee most of the day and started out learning how to use different tools to collaborate and use mind mapping in the classroom. We created a popplet, padlet and piktocharts. These tools were easy to use and also fun to use. We also created our own audio content using audiboom and submitted those to Dr. Lee through canvas. After lunch, we learned how to make quizzes online using Socrative. I really enjoyed using Socrative. We finished the day with working on our final projects.

Day Seventeen: Classroom Technology

Today, we learned some different kinds of technology for the classroom. We started off with a wonderful presentation on Prezi's by Stephanie Agnew from the MSU library. Dr. Lee then gave us a lot of different great examples of Ipad apps and Apple TV. In art class, I finalized some pieces with glue and am now just waiting on my glass to cool off and then I will be finish with my art project. Lastly, Dr. Lee worked with us on collaboratively synchronous work that we can do with our classes. We were grouped by subject areas and used google docs to create a newspaper on the latest technology to be submitted in Canvas.

Day Five: Lesson Planning and Global Conversation

Today was more focused on lesson planning and selecting our content for our lesson plans. I loved the skype with one of Dr. Beriswell's friends in Taiwan. The global conversation was awesome and it gave me a desire to want to visit there.

Day Two: Geography, Museums, MCCRS, and Political Cartoons

Dr. Morris started this day off with the Five Themes of Geography. Dr. Morris swamped us with a lot of information on geography. I learned a lot. We visited the Templeton museum and Grant library and I totally enjoyed the Grant Library and all of the information I gained. Ms. Jean Massey also came to visit with us today and she did a wonderful job explaining the MS College and Career Readiness Standards. Lastly, Dr. Morris showed us different political cartoons and how to  read and understand them.

Day Twelve: Lesson Planning, Art, & Technology Planning

What is one technology tool that you are most likely to use at your school? I am most likely to use bubble.us  in my classroom. It is a great tool for concept mapping.
How do you plan to use them? I plan to use it throughout the year teaching the different standards and objectives, as well as, encourage other teachers to use it and implement it in their classrooms as well.

Day Sixteen: Canvas, Camstasia

Today was such an awesome day! We all grouped up and composed our own webquest. Next Dr. Lee showed us all how to create our own Canvas site for our classroom. After lunch, we worked with Dr. B to finish up our videos of Flat Stanley.

Day Fifteen: Canvas, Camstasia, PowerPoint, and Youtube

Today was a wonderful day for learning! Dr. Lee educated us all a little more on canvas and also how to include narrations in a PowerPoint and publish them on YouTube. Dr. B worked with us a lot on Camstasia and our Flat Stanley videos. This has been a great day for learning and I am very excited to have had this experience with GAETI 2016!!

Day Fourteen: Canvas, Copyright, Art, and Camstasia

Today consisted of fun, fun, excitement, and more fun! We met with Dr. Sang Joon Lee and he has been teaching us about learning management systems i.e. Canvas. Dr. Lee invited us to join his canvas and showed us how to use the different functions of it. After Canvas, V and Nickoal visited us from the MSU library and talked to us about copyright and Fair use. Next, was Aaaarrrrrrttttttt with Mrs. Latham!!!! Art is always so much fun!!!!!!!

Day Thirteen: Technology Integration in Schools and Flat Stanley

Mrs. Nashandra James from Madison County Public School District visited with GAETI today. She spoke to us about her experience working in a school district with 1:1 devices and how effective it is in Madison County. Mrs. James spoke highly of the implementation of Macbook Airs or Ipads in every school for every student.
Our GAETI group worked together to discuss the pros/cons of  technology integration in schools and how increasing technology would make things better or worst for our district. Then, we drafted a letter to the administration in our schools to request more technology in schools and/or making the district a 1:1 district.
Lastly, Dr. Beriswell introduced us to Flat Stanley and our next project! This was a very productive and informative day!

Day Eleven: MDOT and China

Dr. Huang started our day off with an introduction of herself and a description of the things that we would be doing today. Two ladies from MDOT Educational Outreach Dept. visited with us today. They spoke in great depth about MDOT and designing different forms transportation. We also experimented with three  different activities that we could actually implement in our classes. First, we made a rocket and practiced shooting them in the hallway. Next, we paired up and made Truss bridges. Each group had to show their bridge and use marbles to see how much weight your bridge could hold. My groups bridge came in 2nd place (see pics below). Then, we made boats out of a 12 inch piece of aluminum foil. After we designed and made our bridges, we then had to see how many marbles could our boat hold before sinking to the bottom of a tub of water. My groups boat could only hold 21 marbles but the winning groups boat held about 321 marbles before sinking to the bottom of the tub. We determined that more surface area in your boat determines how many marbles the boat could hold. A square bottom with a lot of surface will hold more marbles.
At the end of the day,  Dr. Huang spoke to us and showed us lots of pictures from China. She also talked to us about her recent visit to China, which is her birth place, the culture, and most importantly, the educational system there.

Day Ten: 2nd Income, Games in Excel, Business Anatomy

Today was a very good day. We learned from the Mississippi  Secretary of State's Office the how to's and the regulations of starting our own businesses as an educator for a second income.  The information given was very informative, helpful, and great. Next, we met with Dr. Beriswell. Dr. B taught us how to create board games using Microsoft Excel. After lunch,  we worked on our Art Technology piece and then back to the lab to finish up with Mrs. Latham on "Ways to supplement your income as an educator: The Anatomy of a Business Plan." We were given 3 books to help start our own businesses as well as books to help us understand the finance part of owning your own business. Great Day to Start A Business! !

Day Nine: Geology, Weather, Arts, and Civil Rights

Today, we studied a lot of geology and weather. We completed a class activity on the study of the earth using receipt paper. We were able to use rulers and receipt tape to get an idea of how much history is in or of the making of the earth. Next, it was back to art with Mrs. Latham. It is so much fun to create your own art technology piece and it is also very, very relaxing.
Mr. Michael Murphy, an MSU grad student from Florida, talked to the class about civil rights history in Starkville. We learned a few good pieces about the first African American to go to school at MSU and how people in Starkville and MSU reacted to integration of African Ameeicans at MSU.
Dr. Murphy showed us some science fair projects that students have used in previous science fairs. They were all awesome projects!

Day Eight: Meterology, Art, Native American History

Today, I learned a lot about the geoscience and Native American History. We were given a tour of the museum at Hilbun Hall learned alot about the weather. We were supposed to get on a global call with one of Dr. B's friends in Chile but unfortunately, he didn't pick up. After lunch, we met with Mrs. Latham to continue work on our art technology media projects for about two hours. I was able to finish adding color to my master pieces with markers, chalk, and acrylic paint. Painting is such a stress reliever. I enjoy the art class so much!! Lastly, we met with a very nice student working on his doctorate from MSU, Mr. Nick Timmerman, and he went into great depths to educate us on how we should understand native history as well as how to teach it to our students, truthfully! Mr. Timmerman was very informative on the Native American History. I can truly say I have learned a lot of things that I did not know about American and Native American history from Mr. Timmerman and now have great ideas on how I can incorporate that history and technology together.

Day Seven: PowerPoint, Technology & Disability, and Behavior

Today, Dr. Bracey gave a brief lecture on developing a powerful lecture for all types of students.  This lecture was to encourage us to think of all types of students as we develop our PowerPoint presentation for our GAETI lessons.
Dr. Bracey's lecture was a great introduction to the PowerPoint Essentials lesson that we received from Stephanie Agnew at the MSU library. Agnew gave an awesome lesson on how to create a powerpoint presentation and use PowerPoint 2013.
Next, we visited the T. K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability. We were able to tour the facility and learn about all the different technologies they have to assist disabled people and those with learning disabilities.
After lunch, we continued to work on the art technology piece that we started on yesterday. I absolutely love all the art that we have been doing.   
Last but not least,  we were graced with the presence of Ms. Bonita Smith, in which she presented and provided activities for the group to complete on the ABCs of Managing Inappropriate Behavior. We learned a lot about peer mediated interventions,  teacher mediated interventions and strategies,  and self mediated strategies.

Day Six: Website Design, Games and Simulations and Art Technology

Today was all about creating our very own website, using games and simulations in the classroom and creating our own art technology piece.

Mrs. Latham worked with the class on designing and creating their own website or e-portfolio. We are using weebly.com to create the sites. We will be inputting into our websites the information learned and used throughout the institute.

Dr. B worked with us on using games and simulations to teach different lessons in our classes. We also discussed the relevance of different types of games and how they encourage or discourage students learning in the classroom.

After lunch, we met with Mrs. Latham and discussed art technology. We then researched images that we could use to design our art technology pieces.

Day Four: STEM used at a coal mine

Today, we visited a coal mine and it was an extraordinary visit. Everything that we saw and everything that we learned stemmed around Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. We were able to see how the process of coal mining starts and how it ends and how and why land reclamation takes place. Growing up as the daughter of a logging company owner, to see the many different pieces of equipment and how they work was like watching your favorite movie. I totally enjoyed the presentation, watching the mining in action, and the experiment. Today was a GOOD day!!

Day Three: Geology, Visual Literacy, & Reading Activity

The morning started off with a discussion by Dr. Morris on atmospheric circulation. I missed a portion of the discussion because my sandal broke as I was walking into the building and I had to go to the nearest shoe store to find a shoe that would suffice for the duration of today's activities. I did find a very comfortable shoe. :) (shout out to the nice girl in Payless who helped me to find that comfortable shoe and who also just graduated from MSU May '16 with a degree in education)
We then moved on to the the library for a presentation on Google Earth and Google Maps and then back to the IED building for part 2 of the atmospheric circulation from Dr. Morris.....very, very interesting!
The second half of the day was extremely interesting. First, we met up with Dr. B again and she taught us lots of visual literacy on website creation and design. Next, we discussed and worked through an activity called "Cookie Mining." For this activity, we had to purchase a chocolate chip cookie of our choice (chunky, soft, or regular), a paper clip and a toothpick from the bank to simulate a geologic mining operation. Lastly, we were given an article on the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union to read and pick out our favorite phrase or sentence. I have totally enjoyed this day of GAETI!!

Day One: Orientation, Introduction, and Standards

Day 1 of GAETI 2016 was all about orientation, introduction of team members and the Mississippi College and Career Readiness standards. I was very excited to walk into a room full of faces that I have never seen before. From the very beginning of class, I have no doubt that this is going to be a very interesting month because of all the different teachers here that teach different curriculum I just know that the collaboration is going to be AWESOME!! The first part of the morning went very well as we were all introduced to each other and given our GAETI bags with goodies.

I was not expecting to have to use any other body parts other than my brain but that very quickly changed when Dr. Bracey explained that we would be going on a tour of the campus by FEET! I wore flip flops this morning and was soooo not expecting to do any extra walking. (Shout out to Dr. Bracey for helping us all get in that extra work out today...lol) After our extensive, hot walk, majority of the team members stopped at the Union to grab a bite to eat for lunch. Chik-Fil-A is my favorite and of course, it was my choice for lunch.

After lunch, Dr. Bracey went over some housekeeping rules for our workshop. We also looked at the mde website and answered questions about how to get to our specific curriculum as well as find other pertinent info we as educators might all need one day. After locating and briefly discussing our content specific standards, we all took a brief look at the International Society for Technology in Education standards.

Our next journey included a walk to the library for a training on using the Magnolia Database as educators. Ms. V gave us a wealth of information on the Magnolia database and she also showed us how we can use the Magnolia database in our classrooms, k-12. Ms. V was very funny and entertaining and also extremely informative.

Last but not least, Dr. B taught us all how to setup and use blogger.com so that we can create a daily reflection everyday at the end of our day.

Tiring day but it was also an AWESOME Day and I'm so happy to have spent it with some wonderful people. I believe that I am going to Love, Love every minute of this workshop!!