Guiding Principles Reflection

Reflection and modification of Guiding Principles:

My (Original) Guiding Principles on Technology Use in the Classroom:

1. I will not be afraid to try new types of technology.
2. I will allow my students to teach me.
3. I will make time for students to explore and ask questions.
4. I will give clear directions when giving a graded task involving technology.
5. I will try to troubleshoot problems before presenting a lesson to my students.
6. I will not let technology replace meaningful face to face interactions with my students.
7. I will not make assumptions about my students access to technology outside of the classroom - however I will show them what resources are available to them at school.


I think that I do #2, 4, 5 and 6 well. I think that I need to improve on #1 (by giving myself time to explore and play), #3 (by taking a deep breath and allowing for that never available TIME for student to simply explore and ‘play’ with these tools) and #7 (by actually walking my students to the library and showing them the computers that are available to them to use before school, break, lunch and after school – I will also make it a point to share with students that my classroom is available OFTEN to come in and hang out and use the computers to work on – I assume they know this too much and need to make it more clear).

Cheers – to you all and our new goals for next school year. ;)

Final Project

Well, I am sitting by a pool in San Diego with 7 of my colleagues – hammering out our schools AVID plan for the coming year. This is an important and time sensitive issue for us….however….I need to wrap this course as well. I have read through all of the other postings on our class wiki and what I have been imagining as my final project sounds very similar. CLASS WIKI + BLOG – I thought about a class website – but then thought….can’t I do everything I want on a website + more on a wiki? Yes – I think so. I know you can do ‘blog like’ stuff on the wiki, but I like the blog format / visual aspect of blogger. SO – My final committal is a Wiki on Wikispacesn (find it here) for both of my classes (why have two and complicate my life?) I think two main pages with links to sub-pages will get the job done for both of my classes on one wiki. Links to the blog can also be posted on the wiki, along with specific directions and rubrics. As a first step: I would like to utilize the wiki as a go to place for notes given in class and, a calendar of due dates, and a go to place for parents to find critical information pertaining to my class and the school in general. I am certain that this will develop over time and grow as an essential part of my tool box as a 21st-centuary-educator.

Prezi Exploration

I have not really dug into Prezi yet, so I thought I would give it try. While watching the tutorials and a few other public presentations at first I thought - woah - this could get dizzy and complicated really fast. But - with a deep breath - I decided that this could be fun for the students and keep their attention just a little more focused. Sure, I struggled with the initial layout and functionality of the buttons to create it, but with a little practice (about an hour) I made this:



Tell me what you think and if you have any other 'tips' I could add to it. Thanks!

Discussion Reflection

NOTE: I will be traveling to San Diego all next week so I am trying to wrap things up this week the best I can.

The discussion on DL2 helped me to see that my colleagues are all pretty close to being in the same place – I think – they have tried numerous online tools before, are excited to try some new collaborative 2.0 tools with their students, but are concerned about access through public school internet blocks, access that their students may or may not have at home to participate on their own, and access to equipment within their own buildings. I share all of these concerns with my colleagues….I think the best we can do is start small, continue to be flexible (as we always are) and strive to show our students new fresh ways to present old crusty science content ;). Moving from a teacher driven classroom to a student driven environment will take more than just our own individual desires to spice things up. It will take another revolution in the way we ‘do school’. It will take all parties including school boards, administration and parents to change the way their students learn and teachers teach. Again, I believe that small steps will eventually make big change – lead by example.

My first waddle through wikispaces........

I began my tool exploration this week by checking into wikispaces. The funny thing is when I tried to set up a new account, it said 'this email is already registered to an account' or something.....hmmmm did I look into to wikispaces before? YES! over a year ago, and never did anything with it. SO - now I have the 'time'. I started messing around with pages and became a bit frustrated. I decided to wander over to wetpaint wiki's to try them out and found out that the free teacher wikis now have to have ads on them - lame - not going to work for me. So, back to wikispaces, I watched a few tutorials  (helpful) and then dedicated two hours to messing around. Here is what I have so far: Mrs. Gordon's Hillside Wiki Let me know what you think....its clearly a work in progress....but I like where it is going. And as with any new tool, practice makes 'better'. I'd like to link up with any of you who are also hoping to use a wiki (or already are), so please share  ;)

Week 5 thoughts

As you can see by the use of this Blog I have already explored and utilized this web tool in a number of different aspects. Posting reflections, pictures, video, my first Ning trial, etc. Wiki's seem to take things another step further....where documents and many other things can easily be uploaded, organized and accessed by students. I like the idea of a blog as being a place to share ideas in a journal like format.....wikis seem to be a bit more complicated, but useful in their own way. I have explored many of the classroom blogs and wiki's shared on our class website and I like certain features of both tools.....I think where I am struggling is with which one will serve the best purpose for my needs. I don't want to get to bogged down with creating an online space for my classroom....but I want to utilize these new skills effectively. ugh. I decided to Google 'blogs vs. wiki's' and here are a few pages that came up:
http://wiki.wetpaint.com/page/Wiki+vs+Blog
http://www.opencontent.org/wiki/index.php?title=When_to_use_a_blog_vs._wiki

This gave me a good needed laugh:


This also helped me wrap my brain around blogs vs. wiki's:

I am now thinking that using a wiki along with the use of a blog is probably the best solution for me. 

Generating an Argument assignment.

I struggled with posting my assignment to the comment section of the class wiki so I have placed in the 'projects' folder on the wiki, placed it here and will put it on DL2.
Title:  Boise, Idaho Earthquake Probability
Author: Tanya Gordon
Description: In 1983 a 6.9 Magnitude earthquake struck central Idaho. It was felt very strongly in Boise, ~130 miles away. This activity is meant to get students thinking about the possibility of another large earthquake being felt in Boise.
File: Generating an Argument: Boise, Idaho Earthquake Probability

ok - I guess I needed to upload it to google docs, then get the link put here......hmmmm lets see if this works.....learn something new every day......

Simulation Exploration

Create A Graph is a site that I have actually used before with our weekly weather charting activity. After the week has concluded, we graph the daily highs and lows to be able to make a summary statement about the week. I have found this site VERY user friendly. Excel is always an option too, but I think Create a Graph is more fun and visually stimulating.


I checked a few of the simulations posted by past students….. one was called How to Aim a Hurricane. This simulation was very simple and I think could be easily shared with students on my big screen while introducing the topic, rather than students exploring it on their own.

A really neat simulation that I found while searching was the Lunar Phases Lab. This one is much cooler than one that I had used previously. The trick is getting it to slow down enough to be able to visualize the phases while we talk about it in class.

Virtual Volcano by the Discovery Channel is another simulation that I have had my students explore in the past. It has a number of different layers, good short explanations, great graphics (I think) and even the ability to manipulate viscosity and gas levels.

Another really cool one that I found was called Make Lighting Strike on the National Geographic website – its really cool – check it out make lighting hit different objects! After messing with this one it led me to Unleash an Avalanche – way fun! You can change up the snow pack and weather to explore which conditions make for a more dangerous avalanche.

Alien Juice Bar is a hilarious simulation where you make a drink at the correct pH level – if it wrong the aliens croaks. have used this one with my physical science students at the end of the year when they are burnt out and need a laugh.

Finally, this one Carbon Footprint Calculator is really cool. After a series of interesting questions and simulations, it tells you how many ‘Earths’ it would take to sustain your type of lifestyle if everyone lived like you.

Using online data - reflection

In our text it states that using online data can increase student motivation and allow students to feel more empowered with their use of inquiry skills. I have found this to be true when I introduce two different types of online data collection in my class. In the fall, during our earthquake unit, students look at real time earthquake magnitudes occurring through the USGS site. In the spring students use the NOAA website to gather local information during our week of weather charting. Given the new technology that I will have available in my class next year, I would like to move to a more student centered approach when using these sites. I tend to guide them through it pretty extensively to save time, as we are usually traveling to a computer lab for a limited amount of time.


Another aspect of using online data is being able to communicate clearly to my students what their expectations are. I teach 8th graders and although most appreciate the ability to explore online information for class, most need VERY simple and clear directions to stay on task. Time is always an issue these days with the amount of curriculum that we need to cover. I would need to put in a significant amount of time, before the assignment to get the directions and tasks clear.

While reading through the Generating an Argument article I jumped right into creating a document that followed the process. I really appreciate the clear and succinct steps that it lays out. I am curious to see the round robin style of sharing in action.

As with many other content areas, earth science is one subject that includes a wealth of resources and options for data collection. I look forward to exploring the other online simulations and data collection sites that my classmates have recommended.