My thoughts on the week

Last week I felt very overwhelemed. I felt like I was doing a project that didn't seem to have purpose for me and that was confusing for me. However, after completing the Excel project I did find that it could be very useful. I like the fact that there is a timeline template and I feel that it can be very useful in organizing a nice timeline. I feel like people voicing thier concerns about the work load helped a lot. I like that this project has a rubric for the grade so I can better organize my thoughts and I know what I need to include in my project. The projects seem very openended and I think that's what I find very overwhelming. I'm a person who likes direction and having all the expectations laid out on the table for me. However, I think that having an open ended project will make me think a little bit harder about what is appropriate and what works for a class. I do realize though that in a classroom setting I will have a more defined goal of the semester so I will have a purpose in making a document or project or assingment. As I continue in this class I think that I will learn useful skills that can one day be translated to the classroom, and I hope that I benefit from this experience, even if it is frustrating for me at times.

Powerpoint...

I feel that there is a lot about powerpoint that I have already learned, and at the same time I feel there are still things that I havent learned but could be helpful if I knew about. I feel as though the only things we have gone over so far are tools and things that I have done in the past and feel good about me doing on my own. When I was told that this project was supposed to be better than any other one I have put together, I was thinking that meant we were going to be shown some new ideas and tools that would help to make our projects really stand out and improved from other things in the past. I feel that watching the teacher tube videos have helped me to a point, but I think there is more that I could learn about that I would be able to use in my projects as well as in presentations I may be giving in the years to come. I would be interested in going deeper into the program of powerpoint and learning more about it, but I feel as though I cant do it on my own and need some more instruction to learn what others may know and I do not. I am hoping that through this project and other work for the class I will be able to find things that I can use to make my presentations better and more creative than just the regular slides with words and once in a while a clip art picture here and there.

Wanting more instruction

When I thought about this class I thought that we would be learning and practicing lots of new tools and software during class time. I looked forward to practicing with the guidance of the professor. While we talk about some new tools, I do not really feel like I am learning a lot of new things. For example, the professor wants our PowerPoint presentation to be better than anything we have ever done. However, we have not practiced anything new to be able to enhance our presentation. I could probably figure out some things by myself, but I want to learn the intricacies of the programs and be efficient as possible. I think this class is extremely applicable to our future careers and I hope that we will take the time in class to practice more and to learn new tools. We write about tools we do not know, but we do not actually practice using them in class. For me, it is important to actually practice the steps it takes to get to a certain result. If I need to use a certain tool in the future, but I have not used it in a while, I would hope that I have enough background to remember the steps to get there.

powerpoint

So after thinking about this powerpoint project a lot, I have gotten rather stuck. I know we will be doing stuff in class tomorrow, however, I feel a little uneasy about doing a powerpoint presentation for a math class. I am unsure of the specific content area I want to cover and how to actually tie into a class so that it isn't just straight notes on the powerpoint. At this point, I feel that if I was to just do a presentation for notes, I would rather do it on a whiteboard or chalkboard. I like to add things in as a I teach, as well as having the flexibility to change or add as the class goes on, especially when students want more examples.

I can see the benefits of doing some things with powerpoint, especially when lecturing to a large number of people, but for a small classroom, one that is trying to be more interactive, I have my doubts. I know that powerpoint can be a great asset to an English classroom or maybe even a Spanish classroom, but I have trouble seeing it for a math classroom. I could just not be seeing the creativity, which is quite possible, but I hope to be able to change my mind about powerpoint as we continue with these projects.

AH! EXCEL!

From reading everyone else's blog, it makes me feel better to know that most are as equally stressed as I am. I have to say that my range of Excel knowledge was minimal to begin with, and fiddling with a couple of tools this past week has helped very little. I am also having a hard time finding practical uses for Excel in an English classroom. I do think that Excel has great gradebook functions, as well as attendance and homework possibilities, but with my lesson plans, I feel that I would use Word moreso than Excel. I was unbelievably frustrated when creating graphs this week, and I guess I am somewhat more familiar in creating them. Listening to teachertube and the tutorials was helpful at points, but in general, I'm staying away from Excel if I can help it.

I was also more familiar with the Psychology programs for gathering and organizing data, so Excel was apparently too much for me to handle this week. =/

Powerpoint Handouts

I just read an article on powerpoint handouts and I found it very interesting. The author discussed making copies of a powerpoint slide and handing them out in class to help his students follow along in the lesson. I think this is a very useful and beneficial strategy becuase it allows students to keep up with the lesson and a base for note taking. It is fair assumption to think that some students have trouble focusing on various lessons and keeping/taking good notes. By providing a good note base and providing yet another means for viewing/taking part in the lesson, a teacher can help even more students grasp material that is difficult or not easily understood.

Excel Spreadsheets

I am very glad that we are spending time to learn about the different functions in Excel. I feel like through out school I have become fairly comfortable with Word and PowerPoint, but not Excel. Given that Spreadsheets can be very useful in math I appreciate the opportunity to practice using the tools that will be relevant to my future classroom.
My project for Tuesday deals with interactive graphs. I can definitely see that function being helpful to further my students understanding of the effects slope and intercept have on the visual representation. Graphs are extremely important and if students do not understand how they are formed then they will not get the full concept. I know there are plenty more tools like interactive graphs that Excel has to offer. I hope we go over some more in class on Tuesday.