Video on Teacher Tube

   This project started out great.  I used Picnik to edit all of my pictures.  I created a collage using pictures that take a blueprint and add walls. I found clipart of a black board and wrote all of my math formulas on it using Picnik text.  I also created a title and credit slide by taking a picture of a classroom bleeding most of the color out of the picture and then softening the focus, but I did not end up using those.
    Next I used my camera to film my twins for the video and found some music.  I had everything ready to go, or so I thought.  I quickly loaded my pictures & my audio.  Then I tried to drop in my video.  Everything was an .mov file which I found out the program won't accept.  I thought it would be simple to find a conversion program on-line.  Five downloads later, I discovered I was wrong.  I spent most of my day at school begging our IT people to help me.  Nothing we tried worked.
     My solution was to come home and re-film everything.  Luckily, Joel had a friend over who was willing to help out.  My video was now in the right format.  However, even though Windows Movie Maker says you can download straight from the camera, it caused the program to freeze every time.  I finally had to put my video from the camcorder onto a video card.  After several failed attempts I found that if I kept the card in the camera and went through the USB port I could get my video into my documents and from there import them to Movie Maker. 
   The final product did not turn out quite the way I had planned since I spent so much time importing that I really didn't get to play with transitions and things much.  Maybe after I recover from this experience I will give it another try.

Educ552

Podcasts

I subscribed to two educational podcasts, Exploratorium and No Teacher Left Behind.  I also subscribed to the CNN podcast.  I really enjoy the video podcasts, since I am a visual learner.  I was not a huge fan of the audio podcasts.  I find myself getting distracted with nothing to look at, and I would flip over to my e-mail or something for work so that I could multi-task.  The problem was I would soon realize that I had missed what they were saying on the Podcast.  I think that illustrates a problem that I would face if I had students using Podcasts in the classroom. It would certainly be something that I would need to plan for.

Exploratorium had some good math/science lessons.  I am currently teaching scale & proportion.  One of the lessons I liked used Barbie as a real life example of scale/proportion. I would definitely use this lesson in my classroom.  No Teacher Left Behind focuses on new technologies and their application within the classroom.  I have already discussed how I lag behind in the area of technology.  I think this podcast will be a good resource for me when I no longer am taking classes which introduce me to new ideas.

Multimedia tools

Before I taught Math, I was the Social Studies resource teacher for World Geography.  I loved using Animoto for my class! Asia has so many countries to cover, so I would assign each student a country and gave them the option of creating a power point, a travel brochure or an Animoto video.  At first most students were reluctant to use Animoto as it was unfamiliar to them. When they saw the gorgeous videos that their classmates produced, their attitudes quickly changed.  The videos with their music and effects were much more interesting to watch than a power point that someone read in front of the class.  The engagement that Animoto produced was amazing to see.  Students who traditionally cared little about quality of work, were putting in lots of effort because they new the result would be something that they would be proud to show the class.

I used the tools on Picnik to make a collage for the introduction to my video.  I also added text to several of my photos. This was not my first exposure to Picnik.  I am an amateur photographer, and Picnik is my go to site for re-touching my pictures.  In fact, I did my twins Senior pictures using Picnik.  I think I have used every tool that Picnik has to offer and I find it very easy to use.  When I first started editing my own photos, I tried using Photoshop.  Although it is more sophisticated, I found it much more cumbersome to use.  With a little creativity, I can do everything that I want to do with Picnik in about half of the time. I had not considered using Picnik in the classroom.  After using it to edit some of my images for Animoto, I can see that students would love using this tool to create their own projects.

Article Review

About Myself

My name is Jody Stoddard Gensler.  I graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with my bachelor's in Education.  I am now a special education teacher at Millard South High School in Omaha, NE.  I currently teach three different sections of resource math, as well as staffing a resource study hall and the In-School Suspension room.  My most important job is Mom.  I have 5 children.  The oldest is in the Navy getting ready to be deployed to Kuwait.  I have another son at Southeast Community College, twins that are getting ready to graduate this year and a nine year old bringing up the rear! 

As far as tech experience, I would say I am just above being technologically illiterate.  With much trial and error, and frantic pleas for help to my computer savvy kids, I can usually figure out how to do what I need to do.  I do spend quite a bit of time editing pictures that I have taken with an on-line program.  I have also dabbled in Animoto, Photo Story 3, and Prezi.  I have always used a PC and I am currently using Windows 2007, both at work and at home.  In the classroom, I use my Smartboard on a daily basis.  I also have 3 computers that I use to have students access on-line math games as a way to practice their skills.

The inspiration for my Master's came because I was recently divorced. I needed a way to increase my income, but more importantly I needed to do something for myself. Hopefully this is not too personal, but completing an advanced degree was a way to prove that all of the negative messages that I had been hearing were not true.  I chose a Master's in Curriculum and Instruction because I have no desire to move into administration.  I love being a classroom teacher and felt this was a great way to learn new ideas and gain new skills that would benefit the students in my classes.  I feel that I have certainly come away from each class with tools that I can immediately put into use.