My First Animation Video with Stykz

Brought back memories of the old flip books.

Analysis of Ancient Manuscript

I analyzed all four ancient manuscripts, The Bible of Ethiopia, Lisbon Hebrew Bible, Baybars’ Magnificent Qur’an and the Outstanding 15^th- Century Church Book I was amazed by all four texts.  The design elements that were present even at the 15^th century were astonishing.  Every manuscript had an incredible amount of alignment, good use of color and great use of contrast with the very different but limited colors.  I also observed a staggering amount of repetition for the time period in which these pieces were written.  The ancient manuscripts were a work of art.  It is shocking that in all the time we have improved our graphic abilities that in many ways these ancient works are better than our new pieces.  I was astonished by the magnificent geometric patterns and how well they understood the importance of all the graphic elements of contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.

Internship Plan Update:

My internship plan is in the process, this is only my third class in the masters program.   We must complete 150 campus-supervised hours, at this point in time during the 10 weeks I have had since getting my plan approved I have completed 40 hours.  I have 8 classes left so about 40 weeks of school to get the 110 more hours to complete this on time I will have to average 3 hours of my internship activities per week.  I have a two conferences coming up, one in January and one in March that will add an extra 15 hours to my internship.  Also planned for this year, I have quite a bit of planning and test development to work on at the district office.
I have completed SBEC domain and competencies:

Competency 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8,

I have also completed the Technology Performance Indicators of:

TF I: A, B

TF II: C, E

TF III: A, B, C,D,

TF IV: A, B, C

TF V: C, D

TFVII: A,

TF VIII: A, B,

Action Research Project Update:

 

My action research questions the effectiveness of the program Accelerated Reader (a computer-based reading management program) at raising student reading proficiency levels when students are actively engaged in the program?  My project is going well, all the classes are reading and have active participants.  I made a video to promote the AR store and all the 6^th grade classes showed the video and the students have began spending their AR points to purchase prizes.

I continue to monitor the access to the computers to take the tests as well as monitoring access to the library to ensure that all students have books to read with them at all times.  I will continue to support the reading in every class, everyday.  I am hoping to show that increased time spent reading will lead to an improved reading comprehension level.  I am not planning to have my project completed before June of this year, it takes a while to show growth in student learning.

My Group Video: 90 seconds EDLD 5363

Week 5 Reflection on Web Conferences

Web Conferences:

My thoughts on web conferences as a tool for learning are mixed.  There is some frustration in hoping that all the technology is going to work correctly and the disappointment in waiting for a conference to start that never does.  This is my second time taking on line courses and the first time was ten years ago.  Ten years ago, there weren't any web conferences and there was a lot of on the job learning through failed attempts but the feedback I got from my instructor was amazing.  This time we have updated the technology but in some ways lost the connection with one another.  With the comfort of working at your own timetable, we have lost that ability to make some deeper connections with others when we fail to all gather at the same time.

I believe that the web conference experience could be greatly increased by making students attend and treating the conference period as if it were a "real" class in which everyone is to act professional.
I do appreciate that web conferences are offered as a way to clarify information and ask questions of both the professor and of one another.  I have actually had the opportunity to get to know a few of my master colleagues through this process and gotten some great hints for how to proceed through with the weekly assignment.

Dates of attendance for web conferences: 11/24/12, 11/26/12, 12/17/12
Recordings 12/10/12, 12./16/12
I also attempted to attend two other conferences but they were somewhat cancelled.
We were never told they were cancelled it just stated that there was no host so therefore there was nothing to attend.

My first group Project

Week 3 Reflection:
According to the reading, "Success is in the Planning" our group is right on target, we are all collaborating very well using for the first time google docs and drop box both are so easy to use.
I do feel a bit overwhlemed with teaming up with people I have never met and they were a premade group from their last class.  Not everyone is contributing equally which is a bit frustrating.  I think when you have a group project in a regular class it is easier to make decisions this time I just felt lucky to have a group.  I am learning from the group though and have learned a lot about collaborating for better or worse.
There are five which is probably too big for this task, three of us are working hard one did a bit and the last has done nothing I dont know what is up with him. 
This is my first group project in this masters program so I am learning as I go.
We will see what happens with my group as the next two weeks go on.