More of My Project Online

Another project from my english class is the book Little Brother that I told you about. How we are reading and then blogging about it as our homework every night and that is what we are getting graded on. Well, I forgot to say that the reason why were are reading this book is not only because it is a good book but because you can read the whole thing online as a digital copy.

Obviously another class is my Web 2.0 class. That is why I started this blog. We look at new websites and basically explore the internet for things that teacher might be able to use to improve their lessons. I so far have really enjoyed this class because who doesn't like to explore the internet and write little bits about the topic.

I can't wait until next year when all the students will have Ipads and we will be able to include the internet and different things into the teacher's lesson plans that we were never able to do. I'm so excited.

Projects that Involve the Internet

In my English our teacher is out for a few weeks. When he said that we would be working on a project while he was gone. We are doing an independent book report project. Our homework for every night is that after we read we have to blog about what we read and then comment on other people's blogs. We have just started but so far everything is going great. To make the blogging easier the book that I'm reading "Little Brother" is really good.

Another project that included the Internet was also in my English class. If you haven't figured out, my English teacher is loves technology so that is why all of out projects include the Internet. The project we did was based off of the book "Lord of the Flies". We were grouped up into about 3 people, 2 writers and 1 artist. The thing was that we were all from different schools. We used google docs to complete the project. My group wrote more than 3,500 words in out conversation that didnt include the 800 words that our paper was. Everyone in the around 34 groups wrote and paper which we will turn into a magazine. The artists in each group designed the pages. I am so excited to see the finished magazine.

In preperation for the Mid-years we had I recieved a packet for each class that had tonas and tons of questions that I needed to answer. For my Biology class I had over 100 questions to answer. I needed to answer them in a place where I would never lose them. The answer was in a Google Docs. The only bad thing that about google Docs are that they dont show you how many pages you write. I wrote around 17 pages of all Biology question. I hated that! I also did that for social studies. It was sucha big help in preparing for all of those tests.

Kids Using the Internet

The video that we watched in class today just proves that kids like to explore different thing, in this case it was the Internet and using video editing. The speaker's daughter, Tess, was playing the piano and wanted new music to practice. Where else can you find as many new sheets of music as you want besides the internet.

I think that some people underestimate the things that kids know abput technologies. Tess is and example. She wanted new music so she searched for it. When you use the internet everything is basically at you finger tips. If you want to learn how to play the piano, you can find a video about, if you want to learn how edit a video, there is a video for that, even if you want to cheat on a game just to beat a level there are many videos for that. When the 17 year old boy named Mark who hasnt had any classes about video editing, but he can still do it. Never doubt the things that a kid knows about technologies.

What's Your Sentence? Here is Mine...

Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami

On Friday there was a horrible earthquake that happened in Japan. It had a rating on the scale of 8.9. The earthquake then created another catastrophic event, a tsunami. If someone survived the earthquake and then the tsunami then they had to survive for around two days with out and food, water, and would have been wet and cold with no pertection. The rescue teams couldn't get to anyone because of the fact that it was such a big and bad disaster. It happened around 2:45 on Friday  March 11 causing damage with blackouts, fire and a tsunami.  My heart goes out to everyone in Japan... I know that Lady Gaga has already created a way for people to donate money to help! She created braclets that cost five dollars that you can buy annd the money goes towards helping people in Japan. Imagine if it happens to you and your family... Loosing your home, your cars, and jobs. I feel so bad for all of those people who lost everything! This is just heartbroking.

Technology in the Classroom

Technology in the classrooms has become so advanced. In my English class we used the Ipads to take notes on the teachers presentation. then the notes were displayed on our class's website page. Since the presentation was going to take the whole class period any questions that students had couldn't be answered right away. We had to send our teacher a tweet via twitter and then later that night we got answers to those question.

We also did a project that we had to write a paper as a group on a book that we had just read. The people in each group though were from all different schools. The way we had to communicate was through google docs. It was really fun because now I know that you don't even have to know the prson you are writing the paper with.

KerPoof: Learning Through Creativity

I think that Kerpoof is a great website for schools to use because it can make learning fun. It is such a creative website that I'm glad someone came up with. There are a bunch of different parts that could be used in schools that can be incooperated into the lesson plan. Under the title Kerpoof Scholastics there are all these different options. For example there are lesson plan ideas, newsletters, and the general guidelines for teaches to follow. On the main screen you will find different ways to make the learning fun.

For example of a way to use one of items is maybe to makes video or movie. If you had to write a story in your English class then you could turn that story into a cartoon movie. If you were having some type of fundraiser with your grade you could make fliers wih the drawing item or if you need to create invitations you can do that, too.

There are really so many things that you can do with this website. Somehow, no matter what the lesson plan you are working on you can try and incorporate it.

Apple is Releasing the Ipad 2

On March 11th Apple is coming out with the Ipad 2. So many thing have been modified to make it even better. Its is hard to believe the technology. I think can't just give one thing that I'm excited for that the Ipad contains now. I am so excited to use the camera and video, it is 33% thinner and 15% lighter, and to have the Smart Cover.

The camera and video allow to have the camera apps and video apps. You can skype or Facetime. Being 33% thinner than the first Ipad you would htink that the battery life would be less but it has the same battery life as the original. 10 hours of battery how crazy is that. It's even thinner than the new Iphone 4. To save the battery life Apple has also created the new Smart Cover. The Smart Cover automatically turns the Ipad on when the cover is opened and turns it off when the cover is closed. Plus it's 15% lighter.

I think that the only good thing that Apple hasn't changed is the price. The original price was $499. The new price $499.