With the last day of the semester for BITE 5389 arriving, I want to take a minute to reflect on everything that has happened. I have not only learned how to use numerous new Web 2.0 technologieses but I also have learned how to utilize them in the educational field. Programs such a Delicious.com to organize my personal bookmarks and Viddler.com to record videos have been amongst my favorites.
Also this semester, I have enjoyed working with on a collaborative team. I have learned the difference between cooperation and collaboration when working in a group and the pros and cons of utilizing them. The final project also refined my researching skills and abilities and gave me the opportunity to watch my teammates "in action" so that I could grow and learn from their researching techniques and abilities as well.
I really enjoyed this semester and look forward to continuing to use Web 2.0 technologies in my personal and professional endeavors.
Andrew Lynch
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
Putting It All Together
As the last week of class winds down, there is many things about this semester that come to mind. New technologies, growth in skills in Second Life, growth in knowledge about collaborative groups(especially in the virtual sense), and application of this knowledge to my workplace and life. I have read chapters, articles, and dissertations. I have watched videos, listened to pod casts, and created virtual objects. Through all of these activities and reading, the one thing that has hit home is technologies continued expansion and vital role it continues to be in our society. In the distant (maybe near) future, will people solely exist in virtual worlds, such as perceived in the movies Minority Report and Inception? Will people become so dependent on technology in the future that they loose perception of reality? Only time will tell. As of now, technology is a useful and ever expanding wonder that will continue to grow in its involvement and inclusion in our lives. Hopefully, technologies growth will mainly go down the path of helpfulness instead of ignorance and hindrance. '
Andrew
Andrew
Monday, November 28, 2011
Presentations this Thursday
Tonight my team meet to edit the latest version of our PowerPoint fir Thursday's presentation. I think that we did a great job of providing construct criticism to each other and put together a nice final presentation. On Wednesday we plan on meeting to practice our presentation before its we deliver it on Thursday. We have also started putting together our final paper and plan on having that finished by the beginning of next week. We have many references that we have compiled together and I am confident that we will collaborate on a well put together piece of literature. :)
In other news, my daughter has learned to say a few more words this past weekend and she has been a joy watching develop over these last few weeks. :)
Andrew
In other news, my daughter has learned to say a few more words this past weekend and she has been a joy watching develop over these last few weeks. :)
Andrew
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Coming Down the Home Stretch!
Hello All,
The last few weeks have been hectic as usual. Report cards have gone out and parent teacher conferences have finally come to a close. This year I am team teaching and was required to have a conference with both mine and my partner's parents. That made for 48 conferences (really 56 because 8 did not show up and had to be rescheduled because our principal would not allow report cards to go home until parents showed up to meet with their teachers). It was a challenge fitting in all the conferences within a two week stretch. The last two weeks my partner and I have not had a planning period, had literally 10 minutes to eat lunch each day, and did not leave the school until 5:00 pm each night. It was rough. However, its over and I can put it behind me. This week, Thanksgiving will be nice and the extra days will give me an opportunity to get caught up on grad school work, as well as, "job" school work.
With all other assignments now completed, full focus needs to be directed towards my final project. I have gathered numerous resources to use for the team final paper but now must pick and choose which ones we need to use. Once, I have plugged in papers that are relevant to aspects of my outline I think the paper will come together rather quickly. I look forward to getting my thoughts and ideas down on paper and presenting in Dec. My team members are great and we have been meeting regularly in Second Life, corresponding with emails, and trading documents in Google Docs. I hope everyone has a great next few weeks and enjoys their Thanksgiving or as I like to call it "The Best Nap Day of the Year".
Andrew
The last few weeks have been hectic as usual. Report cards have gone out and parent teacher conferences have finally come to a close. This year I am team teaching and was required to have a conference with both mine and my partner's parents. That made for 48 conferences (really 56 because 8 did not show up and had to be rescheduled because our principal would not allow report cards to go home until parents showed up to meet with their teachers). It was a challenge fitting in all the conferences within a two week stretch. The last two weeks my partner and I have not had a planning period, had literally 10 minutes to eat lunch each day, and did not leave the school until 5:00 pm each night. It was rough. However, its over and I can put it behind me. This week, Thanksgiving will be nice and the extra days will give me an opportunity to get caught up on grad school work, as well as, "job" school work.
With all other assignments now completed, full focus needs to be directed towards my final project. I have gathered numerous resources to use for the team final paper but now must pick and choose which ones we need to use. Once, I have plugged in papers that are relevant to aspects of my outline I think the paper will come together rather quickly. I look forward to getting my thoughts and ideas down on paper and presenting in Dec. My team members are great and we have been meeting regularly in Second Life, corresponding with emails, and trading documents in Google Docs. I hope everyone has a great next few weeks and enjoys their Thanksgiving or as I like to call it "The Best Nap Day of the Year".
Andrew
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Can't Sleep
Hello,
Saturday night....can't sleep. I don't know why but I think it has to do with my father-in-law's snoring. :) There are visiting for the weekend. Yeaa! (sarcastic) I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and don't forget to turn your clocks back tongiht/tomorrow.
The last few weeks of class have been a great growing experience in Second Life. I have learned a lot about new locations within Second Life to find resources, items, and information. I have also grown as a builder. This week, Dr. E had us build within Second Life in our own personal team space at the Tipsey Teapot. I spent a few hours searching for some materials by teleporting to different locations, building end tables and a carpet, and decorating some of the space. It was actually a very rewarding time. I look forward to viewing everyone else's building creations.
Again have a great weekend. Relax with your loved ones.
Andrew
Saturday night....can't sleep. I don't know why but I think it has to do with my father-in-law's snoring. :) There are visiting for the weekend. Yeaa! (sarcastic) I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and don't forget to turn your clocks back tongiht/tomorrow.
The last few weeks of class have been a great growing experience in Second Life. I have learned a lot about new locations within Second Life to find resources, items, and information. I have also grown as a builder. This week, Dr. E had us build within Second Life in our own personal team space at the Tipsey Teapot. I spent a few hours searching for some materials by teleporting to different locations, building end tables and a carpet, and decorating some of the space. It was actually a very rewarding time. I look forward to viewing everyone else's building creations.
Again have a great weekend. Relax with your loved ones.
Andrew
Monday, October 24, 2011
Another One Bites the Dust :)
Another week down and another week full of excitement. Personally, my daughter has changed from walking at the end of August to running (sort of) at the end of October. She sure is keeping her mom and I in shape. My brother just had a baby boy of his own. His name is Alexander Lynch and he is healthy and beautiful. He looks like he has my brothers hair and eye color, as well as, some of his body features. However, as he joked with me, thank goodness he looks more like his wife's side of the family. ;) Attached are recent pictures of my new nephew and my daughter. Enjoy!
This week brought with it many learning opportunities and plenty of hard work. I utilized many new programs on my computer and the Internet to complete much of the work.
This Sunday, my team met to complete our virtual field trip to St. Leo's. It was interesting to see a new campus and its design. They definitely like to have fun at St. Leo's. My partners and I danced in front of their two concert stages, rode on Jet Skis, and even completed some of our tour on Segways. It was fun! It was also interesting to see how the campus was set up to match the area that St. Leo's in located. The university is located in Florida and the campus definitely had a Floridian feel to it. I look forward to seeing in everyone in class on Thursday to share our field trip experiences and I wish everyone a great week. :)
Andrew
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Blog Avatar
Hello All,
Here is a picture of my Avatar that I use in Second Life. I had already had an Avatar created from a previous class but I decided to modify him a little bit for this assignment.
My Avatar really looks a lot like myself in real life with a few changes that I guess I wish I possessed in real life. His eyes are blue like mine. His hair is brown like mine. I tried to make the facial features as accurate as I could to my real life self. I have changed my Avatar's clothes from what I have been wearing to a comfortable pair of jeans, a long undershirt, and a t-shirt. I have given my Avatar a bookbag to represent my "student" aspects of life.
Things that I have changed about my Avatar that are inaccurate to my real life image include height and body build. My Avatar is a cool 6'3 in Second Life. In real life, I am only 5'10. Body wise, my Avatar is more muscular than I am in real life. I weigh a 170 pds. in real life and have lost pretty much all the muscle I had in college when I had to work out and lift for baseball. My Avatar is 190, about 20 pounds of muscle that I have lost since college. The good news, I am gaining much of the weight back that I lost since I graduated from college in 2006. The bad news is that all of this weight is fat and not muscle. :) I look forward to checking out everyone else's Avatars and I hope you enjoy the rest of your week.
Andrew
Here is a picture of my Avatar that I use in Second Life. I had already had an Avatar created from a previous class but I decided to modify him a little bit for this assignment.
My Avatar really looks a lot like myself in real life with a few changes that I guess I wish I possessed in real life. His eyes are blue like mine. His hair is brown like mine. I tried to make the facial features as accurate as I could to my real life self. I have changed my Avatar's clothes from what I have been wearing to a comfortable pair of jeans, a long undershirt, and a t-shirt. I have given my Avatar a bookbag to represent my "student" aspects of life.
Things that I have changed about my Avatar that are inaccurate to my real life image include height and body build. My Avatar is a cool 6'3 in Second Life. In real life, I am only 5'10. Body wise, my Avatar is more muscular than I am in real life. I weigh a 170 pds. in real life and have lost pretty much all the muscle I had in college when I had to work out and lift for baseball. My Avatar is 190, about 20 pounds of muscle that I have lost since college. The good news, I am gaining much of the weight back that I lost since I graduated from college in 2006. The bad news is that all of this weight is fat and not muscle. :) I look forward to checking out everyone else's Avatars and I hope you enjoy the rest of your week.
Andrew
Monday, October 10, 2011
Another Monday
Hello All,
Another Monday has come and it's about to have gone. Last week brought an Article Evaluation and the utilization of the program Wordle. The article evaluation was informative because it touched on a subject that I was not very familiar with, Web. 3.0 technology. Web 3.0 technology is an exciting new technology that decreases the mundane tasks normally held by people. Ir allows computers to decipher the mass amounts of data contained on the internet to analyze their needs and interests. For example, on chacha.com, a user can ask a specific question and receive an answer from a chacha.com representative. If the representative cannot accurately answer the question than resources or websites will be offered that allow me narrow my search. Questions can also be presented to the public or a Chacha group of people with similar like and interests through programs such as Twitter, Myspace, or Facebook. I have received many accurate and informative answers using this website, if the answer is not to my satisfaction, the answer can posted on a social media/networking site to be presented to my colleagues or peers. An application for Smartphones is also available that allows you to post questions to phone contacts, as well as, Facebook, Myspace, etc. I look forward to the advancements that Web 3.0 technology brings to my profession as a teacher and my personal life. :)
Andrew Lynch
P.S. Here is another recent picture of my daughter that I hope makes you smile.
Another Monday has come and it's about to have gone. Last week brought an Article Evaluation and the utilization of the program Wordle. The article evaluation was informative because it touched on a subject that I was not very familiar with, Web. 3.0 technology. Web 3.0 technology is an exciting new technology that decreases the mundane tasks normally held by people. Ir allows computers to decipher the mass amounts of data contained on the internet to analyze their needs and interests. For example, on chacha.com, a user can ask a specific question and receive an answer from a chacha.com representative. If the representative cannot accurately answer the question than resources or websites will be offered that allow me narrow my search. Questions can also be presented to the public or a Chacha group of people with similar like and interests through programs such as Twitter, Myspace, or Facebook. I have received many accurate and informative answers using this website, if the answer is not to my satisfaction, the answer can posted on a social media/networking site to be presented to my colleagues or peers. An application for Smartphones is also available that allows you to post questions to phone contacts, as well as, Facebook, Myspace, etc. I look forward to the advancements that Web 3.0 technology brings to my profession as a teacher and my personal life. :)
P.S. Here is another recent picture of my daughter that I hope makes you smile.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Monnddaayyy..... Moooonnnddayyy...Laa Laa
Hello Everyone,
I hope everyone's week is going well. :) Well, another "school" week is over and tomorrow brings new assignments to explore and complete. The past two weeks I have really enjoyed completing and enjoying the Web 2.0 technologies that were assigned. I has heard of each website that we were required to join but never joined on my own accord.
This week we were to join Facebook and Twitter. I have been a member of Facebook for 4 years or so and have enjoyed using its social media and social network aspects of it. Although until last week I did not know what social media and social networking meant and was even less aware that Facebook and Twitter were unique for Web 2.0 technology because bot straddle the realms of social media and social networking. Facebook is a wonderful tool to send and recieve messages (social media), as well as, become connected to people that share common interests as myself (social networking).
I have heard all the hype surrounding Twitter but was never inticed to join it and become part of the "craze". However, after joining it, I find myself coming back a number of times each day to check the "tweets" of the people I am following. It is quite interesting to see what's on Hines Ward's mind throughout the day. I was suprised to find the veteran Steeler is an avid "tweeter". I also enjoying seeing what other people and friends are thinking/doing throughout the day, although at times I feel like a noisy teenager.
I hope this week, along with the article reflection, that we join another Web. 2.0 technology because I seem to like each one we join more interesting than the last. Until next time! Have a great week and remember it's just work, plus it's one more day closer to the weekend! :)
Andrew
P.S. Here's a recent picture of my daughter eating her favorite snack, apple straws. It makes me smile, I hope it make you smile too.
I hope everyone's week is going well. :) Well, another "school" week is over and tomorrow brings new assignments to explore and complete. The past two weeks I have really enjoyed completing and enjoying the Web 2.0 technologies that were assigned. I has heard of each website that we were required to join but never joined on my own accord.
This week we were to join Facebook and Twitter. I have been a member of Facebook for 4 years or so and have enjoyed using its social media and social network aspects of it. Although until last week I did not know what social media and social networking meant and was even less aware that Facebook and Twitter were unique for Web 2.0 technology because bot straddle the realms of social media and social networking. Facebook is a wonderful tool to send and recieve messages (social media), as well as, become connected to people that share common interests as myself (social networking).
I have heard all the hype surrounding Twitter but was never inticed to join it and become part of the "craze". However, after joining it, I find myself coming back a number of times each day to check the "tweets" of the people I am following. It is quite interesting to see what's on Hines Ward's mind throughout the day. I was suprised to find the veteran Steeler is an avid "tweeter". I also enjoying seeing what other people and friends are thinking/doing throughout the day, although at times I feel like a noisy teenager.
I hope this week, along with the article reflection, that we join another Web. 2.0 technology because I seem to like each one we join more interesting than the last. Until next time! Have a great week and remember it's just work, plus it's one more day closer to the weekend! :)
Andrew
P.S. Here's a recent picture of my daughter eating her favorite snack, apple straws. It makes me smile, I hope it make you smile too.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Sunday.....the day before Monday
Hello Everyone,
I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend. This weekend was busy but relaxing for our family. On Friday, my wife and I did our usual ritual of cleaning, checking papers, and finishing up on next week's lesson plans. Although it doesn't seem relaxing, it is for us. We play music from the cable box while cleaning, play with Abby, and rest on the couch with our computers to work after she has gone to bed. It is our chance to talk with each other about the week and catch up on "us" time.
On Saturday, Amy went to Wilmington with the baby. her friend from work, and her friend from work's son. Amy always jokes that her friend's son is Abby's first boyfriend. She thinks this is funny, I do not. ;)
Also on Saturday, while my wife and daughter were away, I started a second job, well kind of I guess. In college, during the summers, I used to work for a moving company to get money to spend during the school year. During my junior year of college, my boss had me test for my CDL license and start driving a truck for him. It was a great experience because I was able to travel all over the south, north, and eastern parts of the United States. I drove to Texas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Maine, Florida, etc. etc. every state around and east of the Mississippi. When I finished college I thought that my moving days were over. This Saturday, I proved to be wrong. On of my best friends in college, the reason that I moved to Jacksonville from Pennsylvania in the first place, is married to a lovely girl who's mother owns a Interior Design business. One of her main jobs is the staging of homes that need to be sold quickly. Staging home requires the moving and arranging of furniture. Once my friend married this girl, it was not long before my buddy blabbed to his wife's mom that I used to be a mover and driver in college and that I would be an excellent choice to help her on the weekends. Thus, my moving career has been set in motion once more. On Saturday, I got up to do school work at about 5 and was off to move furniture at 830. From 830 to 4 I became a mover again. Quite honestly, it was nice to do it again. While I worked I thought about little else then where to move this and where to move that. It was sort of relaxing.
Sunday, after church, Amy, Abby and I went to the school to work for a few hours and then went to Sam's club for free samples/lunch. :) Don't laugh, this is another weekly routine and Amy and I rather enjoy it. Its like a smorgasbord of samples!! Yum. :) ha ha. After that Amy and I worked on progress reports for the kids that are due Tuesday and now I'm back to grad work. I've actually been looking forward to blogging about the weekend and am anxious to reflect on this week's assignments.
This week we were to sign up for and use the online programs, Flickr and Delicious. Both sites I thought were amazing and plan to use in my classroom. For Flickr, I plan on using the slide shows for the students to upload pictures of our class and what we learned to show to the other 3rd grade classes each 9 weeks. I know the children will be excited about it because they LOVE to have their picture taken and LOOOOVVVVEEE to have people see them. Delicious is another amazing site. Each week I am always looking for online sites that I can use to supplement instruction. I belong to one site called ikeepbookmarks.com and have really enjoyed using it. It allows me to save and categorize bookmarks. However, Delicious is a whole new ball game because it allows you to use tags and search for different websites, as well as, store them! I found tons of website in 30 minutes that I could use to supplement instruction in my classroom. Yeaaa! I hope everyone else enjoyed looking at and using these sites as much as I did and I look forward to reading your blogs! Have a happy Monday!
I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend. This weekend was busy but relaxing for our family. On Friday, my wife and I did our usual ritual of cleaning, checking papers, and finishing up on next week's lesson plans. Although it doesn't seem relaxing, it is for us. We play music from the cable box while cleaning, play with Abby, and rest on the couch with our computers to work after she has gone to bed. It is our chance to talk with each other about the week and catch up on "us" time.
On Saturday, Amy went to Wilmington with the baby. her friend from work, and her friend from work's son. Amy always jokes that her friend's son is Abby's first boyfriend. She thinks this is funny, I do not. ;)
Also on Saturday, while my wife and daughter were away, I started a second job, well kind of I guess. In college, during the summers, I used to work for a moving company to get money to spend during the school year. During my junior year of college, my boss had me test for my CDL license and start driving a truck for him. It was a great experience because I was able to travel all over the south, north, and eastern parts of the United States. I drove to Texas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Maine, Florida, etc. etc. every state around and east of the Mississippi. When I finished college I thought that my moving days were over. This Saturday, I proved to be wrong. On of my best friends in college, the reason that I moved to Jacksonville from Pennsylvania in the first place, is married to a lovely girl who's mother owns a Interior Design business. One of her main jobs is the staging of homes that need to be sold quickly. Staging home requires the moving and arranging of furniture. Once my friend married this girl, it was not long before my buddy blabbed to his wife's mom that I used to be a mover and driver in college and that I would be an excellent choice to help her on the weekends. Thus, my moving career has been set in motion once more. On Saturday, I got up to do school work at about 5 and was off to move furniture at 830. From 830 to 4 I became a mover again. Quite honestly, it was nice to do it again. While I worked I thought about little else then where to move this and where to move that. It was sort of relaxing.
Sunday, after church, Amy, Abby and I went to the school to work for a few hours and then went to Sam's club for free samples/lunch. :) Don't laugh, this is another weekly routine and Amy and I rather enjoy it. Its like a smorgasbord of samples!! Yum. :) ha ha. After that Amy and I worked on progress reports for the kids that are due Tuesday and now I'm back to grad work. I've actually been looking forward to blogging about the weekend and am anxious to reflect on this week's assignments.
This week we were to sign up for and use the online programs, Flickr and Delicious. Both sites I thought were amazing and plan to use in my classroom. For Flickr, I plan on using the slide shows for the students to upload pictures of our class and what we learned to show to the other 3rd grade classes each 9 weeks. I know the children will be excited about it because they LOVE to have their picture taken and LOOOOVVVVEEE to have people see them. Delicious is another amazing site. Each week I am always looking for online sites that I can use to supplement instruction. I belong to one site called ikeepbookmarks.com and have really enjoyed using it. It allows me to save and categorize bookmarks. However, Delicious is a whole new ball game because it allows you to use tags and search for different websites, as well as, store them! I found tons of website in 30 minutes that I could use to supplement instruction in my classroom. Yeaaa! I hope everyone else enjoyed looking at and using these sites as much as I did and I look forward to reading your blogs! Have a happy Monday!
Monday, September 19, 2011
What a Monday!
Hello All,
I hope everyone is having a great Monday. I personally am not. I have been trying to catch up with school work and work work for the last few days now and it seems that I have not even made a dent. Tonight I scheduled a class session with a class mate of mine to do a scavenger hunt for Dr. Hodge's 6100 class. We met at 7:30 and I thought that an hour or so later I would be done and off to grade papers. It is now 10:51 and I just finished up. I think that my partner and I did most of the scavenger hunt correctly , as well as, the other components involved in the assignment but my partner and I were not quite sure. I was supposed to grade math tests, writing samples, and fill out federal cards for each student in my class, however, this will have to be pushed until tomorrow night. Tomorrow I was planning on starting lesson plans and entering grades into my online grade book but this looks like it will be pushed back to Wednesday night. I have another Second Life session with my partner on Wednesday night to finalize things that were supposed to be wrapped up tongiht and I hope that it does not take more than an hour or so. It kind of stresses me out because I don't know where I am going to fit time in for my daughter and wife over the next few nights which is job numero uno. Thus is the nature of the adult world I suppose.
Module 2, as I am still trying to figure out how to RSS feed my podcast, I think I'm doing it right. I've read the documents that go along with Week 4 but I think my brain stopped working on Sunday as I was going through them. The article evaluation was informative and the podcast was fun to make. Digital natives and digital immigrants are a topic that I enjoy reading and writing about because at my age level I think I connect with both generations. I am just having trouble getting all the software to work as it says on the sites (digital immigrant) and am getting frustrated. Well enough complaining, as my dad always says complaining are like a.......well you probably know the rest of that saying. :)
I hope everyone is fairing better than I and I hope to write again soon whenever I come up for breath from the depths of my work.
Official Work Time This Week: 8hrs
Additional Work Time: 5hrs
Additional Work Hours as of 9/19/11: 40 hrs (alot of reading and writing and lesson plans this weekend)
I hope everyone is having a great Monday. I personally am not. I have been trying to catch up with school work and work work for the last few days now and it seems that I have not even made a dent. Tonight I scheduled a class session with a class mate of mine to do a scavenger hunt for Dr. Hodge's 6100 class. We met at 7:30 and I thought that an hour or so later I would be done and off to grade papers. It is now 10:51 and I just finished up. I think that my partner and I did most of the scavenger hunt correctly , as well as, the other components involved in the assignment but my partner and I were not quite sure. I was supposed to grade math tests, writing samples, and fill out federal cards for each student in my class, however, this will have to be pushed until tomorrow night. Tomorrow I was planning on starting lesson plans and entering grades into my online grade book but this looks like it will be pushed back to Wednesday night. I have another Second Life session with my partner on Wednesday night to finalize things that were supposed to be wrapped up tongiht and I hope that it does not take more than an hour or so. It kind of stresses me out because I don't know where I am going to fit time in for my daughter and wife over the next few nights which is job numero uno. Thus is the nature of the adult world I suppose.
Module 2, as I am still trying to figure out how to RSS feed my podcast, I think I'm doing it right. I've read the documents that go along with Week 4 but I think my brain stopped working on Sunday as I was going through them. The article evaluation was informative and the podcast was fun to make. Digital natives and digital immigrants are a topic that I enjoy reading and writing about because at my age level I think I connect with both generations. I am just having trouble getting all the software to work as it says on the sites (digital immigrant) and am getting frustrated. Well enough complaining, as my dad always says complaining are like a.......well you probably know the rest of that saying. :)
I hope everyone is fairing better than I and I hope to write again soon whenever I come up for breath from the depths of my work.
Official Work Time This Week: 8hrs
Additional Work Time: 5hrs
Additional Work Hours as of 9/19/11: 40 hrs (alot of reading and writing and lesson plans this weekend)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Tuesday :)
Tonight I am working on another blog for school and working on lesson plans for next week. Today was a wonderful day in the classroom. In science, my class has been talking about different types of soils, their characteristics, and what plants grow in different soils. It has been an interesting and fun two weeks of experiments and discoveries. Today, the class filled out prediction sheets on what type of soil grass seed would grow best in. Clay, loam/silt, and sand were their choices. After making their predictions, the students planted grass seeds in tiny pots, labeled the pots, and will chart the growth of the grass in their science journals over the next week or two. The students were very excited. I can't wait until we study plants and investigate the life cycle of different species of plants. We will make a class garden and investigate the results!
My daughter, the newly turned one year old, is making school work tonight difficult however. She has been suffering from a cold and has not been in the best mood this evening. First her dinner was thrown all over the floor and herself. This required a bath. Mom's turn. An hour later her diaper didn't hold up to well and well.......this required bath #2. My turn. So now it's bed time and my wife is taking Abby upstairs for her nightly bottle and story. On that note, I'm going to go join her, until next time.
Andrew
Official Work Time This Week: 16hrs
Additional Work Time: 5hrs
Additional Work Hours as of 9/13/11: 25 hrs
My daughter, the newly turned one year old, is making school work tonight difficult however. She has been suffering from a cold and has not been in the best mood this evening. First her dinner was thrown all over the floor and herself. This required a bath. Mom's turn. An hour later her diaper didn't hold up to well and well.......this required bath #2. My turn. So now it's bed time and my wife is taking Abby upstairs for her nightly bottle and story. On that note, I'm going to go join her, until next time.
Andrew
Official Work Time This Week: 16hrs
Additional Work Time: 5hrs
Additional Work Hours as of 9/13/11: 25 hrs
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Articles about Wikis
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2007/tc20070312_740461.htm
Good Morning,
It's Sunday and my daughter's birthday. She is fed, dressed, and laughing. A great birthday so far. I look forward to the rest of the day with her.
The above article is a Business Newsweek article about various companies role in Wikis. The article opens in 2005 when Intel developed "Intelpedia", an online tool that his company used to share information on internal projects. The author states that Intel employees were skeptical of the program at first because it allowed other people to edit their own work. However, the website continued to grow and sparked a new era of information sharing and creating.
With the growth of Wikipedia, corporations such as Microsoft, Sony, Xerox, and Disney have used wikis as a new form of collaboration between employees, partners, and clients. The author notes that Sony used a company wiki to help in the development of the Playstation. Through each stage of development, employees could comment, view, or change information to help with the systems development.
The author ends the article stating that one criticism of Wikis is the ability for outside users to easily change and taint information offered. Sometimes falsifying the information. However, new programs have been developed, such as Atlassian, to combat user fraud.
Check out some of the articles and links I have provided to the right to learn some interesting info about teachers and wikis.
Happy Sunday!
"No Rest for the Wiki; The online tools for building collective info banks are making deeper inroads in corporations and rewriting the rules of collaboration "
Good Morning,
It's Sunday and my daughter's birthday. She is fed, dressed, and laughing. A great birthday so far. I look forward to the rest of the day with her.
The above article is a Business Newsweek article about various companies role in Wikis. The article opens in 2005 when Intel developed "Intelpedia", an online tool that his company used to share information on internal projects. The author states that Intel employees were skeptical of the program at first because it allowed other people to edit their own work. However, the website continued to grow and sparked a new era of information sharing and creating.
With the growth of Wikipedia, corporations such as Microsoft, Sony, Xerox, and Disney have used wikis as a new form of collaboration between employees, partners, and clients. The author notes that Sony used a company wiki to help in the development of the Playstation. Through each stage of development, employees could comment, view, or change information to help with the systems development.
The author ends the article stating that one criticism of Wikis is the ability for outside users to easily change and taint information offered. Sometimes falsifying the information. However, new programs have been developed, such as Atlassian, to combat user fraud.
Check out some of the articles and links I have provided to the right to learn some interesting info about teachers and wikis.
Happy Sunday!
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Yes, Saturday!......well I have to do some things first
Hey everyone,
Just finished up our Saturday morning routine in the lunch household. Got up at about six am with my wife to Abby's "chattering" from the nursery. It's a wonderful alarm clock. Amy changed Abby's diaper and PJ's while I got breakfast ready. Cereal for me, cinnamon raison bagel for mommy, and formula/whole milk and lightly buttered toast for Abigail.
7:00 am- After everyone is fed and cleaned up, Amy and Abby read some books and played with toys on the living room floor. Daddy went to work. No, not the 9 to 5 work. I didn't get my suit on and report to the office. I didn't go to the school to work. (That's Sunday's routine) By going to work I mean I got out my laptop, school satchel, and coffee mug. I started grading papera of a county mandated math assessment.
8 am- After grading, I read some more Module Two resources that were provided for my BITE 6750 course with Dr. Ellis. (If you’re not in this class and reading this, I am currently pursuing a graduate degree in Business and Information Technology Education at East Carolina University.)
8:40 am- My wife is yelling at me to get off that "darn thing". I am going to go shower and get changed for the day. Taking the student hat off and putting the dad hat back on, I am going to go shopping to get some last minute items for Abigail's birthday party today! Yeaaa, she is turning one! Her birthday is actually on Sept. 11 but we are having the party today since some friends and family are coming into town.
9:15 am - I'm ready to go. The rest of my day will be celebrating my daughter's birthday at noon and spending time with some family. After shopping, we will be heading down to Topsail Beach to set up the party and get the grill going. I'm excited to wear my "Kiss the Chef" grilling apron that my wife bought me last summer. Hopefully I get a few kisses, she is giving me the stink eye because she said I worked to long this morning.
Tomorrow I'll write about our Sunday routine. Until then, adios amigos!
Official Work Time: 40 hrs
Additional Work Time: 10 hours work time and 8 hours school time
Total Hours this week: 58 hours
Just finished up our Saturday morning routine in the lunch household. Got up at about six am with my wife to Abby's "chattering" from the nursery. It's a wonderful alarm clock. Amy changed Abby's diaper and PJ's while I got breakfast ready. Cereal for me, cinnamon raison bagel for mommy, and formula/whole milk and lightly buttered toast for Abigail.
7:00 am- After everyone is fed and cleaned up, Amy and Abby read some books and played with toys on the living room floor. Daddy went to work. No, not the 9 to 5 work. I didn't get my suit on and report to the office. I didn't go to the school to work. (That's Sunday's routine) By going to work I mean I got out my laptop, school satchel, and coffee mug. I started grading papera of a county mandated math assessment.
8 am- After grading, I read some more Module Two resources that were provided for my BITE 6750 course with Dr. Ellis. (If you’re not in this class and reading this, I am currently pursuing a graduate degree in Business and Information Technology Education at East Carolina University.)
8:40 am- My wife is yelling at me to get off that "darn thing". I am going to go shower and get changed for the day. Taking the student hat off and putting the dad hat back on, I am going to go shopping to get some last minute items for Abigail's birthday party today! Yeaaa, she is turning one! Her birthday is actually on Sept. 11 but we are having the party today since some friends and family are coming into town.
9:15 am - I'm ready to go. The rest of my day will be celebrating my daughter's birthday at noon and spending time with some family. After shopping, we will be heading down to Topsail Beach to set up the party and get the grill going. I'm excited to wear my "Kiss the Chef" grilling apron that my wife bought me last summer. Hopefully I get a few kisses, she is giving me the stink eye because she said I worked to long this morning.
Tomorrow I'll write about our Sunday routine. Until then, adios amigos!
Official Work Time: 40 hrs
Additional Work Time: 10 hours work time and 8 hours school time
Total Hours this week: 58 hours
Friday, September 9, 2011
Welcome!!
Greetings to All,
My name is Andrew Lynch. I am originally from Pittsburgh, PA. I moved to Jacksonville, NC five years ago. I have been a third grade elementary school teacher for five years now as well. I love my job and it definitely keeps me on my toes! I have been married to my wonderful wife Amy for two years. She is my best friend and keeps me in line. Last September, Amy and I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Abigail. She truly is the light of our lives. Abigail (Abby) is having her first birthday this Sunday! It's hard to believe that Abby is going to be one. She is a chatter box, although we still can't understand much of what she is saying. :) She started walking about three weeks ago, a few steps at a time, and its amazing how much further and more often she walks in such a little amount of time. I also have a "little son" name Parker. He is a 80 lb. German Sheppard who thinks he is a lap dog. Abby routinely abuses Parker and he is great with her. I have to tip my hat to him. If my ears, fur, tail, and whiskers were pulled that much, I don't know if I would be so nice! I look forward to hearing more from everyone through their blogs and I look forward to a wonderful semester.
Teaching is a profession that is either loved or hated. People that understand the teaching profession see the commitment and responsibility teachers possess. Teacher's must be a teacher, a babysitter, a fire inspector, a nurse, an accountant, a secretary, a psychologist, and a arbitrator. They are underpaid and most times short changed on materials and resources. They are blamed for failures and given little credit for successes. People that are ignorant to the demands of the teaching profession argue educators are lazy, overpaid, and underworked. Critics feel that teachers should be held accountable for not having all students achieve a set state standard, not taking into account the differences in ability, motivation, and parental support. These same critics acknowledge that all children start school at different mastery levels and that each student should be viewed as an individual but they insist that 100 percent of children reach a set standard at the conclusion of each school year. If doctor's did not have instruments to perform surgery, would they save 100 percent of their patients? Are politicians held accountable for the failures of our nation?
As a teacher and student I encourage you to read my blog this semester in order to follow my journey towards improvement as an educator and as a lifelong learner. Through this blog I want to provide you with first hand experiences and knowledge both as an educator, student, parent, and coach.
Hopefully at the end of this semester you will be able to make your own informed decision about education. Enjoy!
My name is Andrew Lynch. I am originally from Pittsburgh, PA. I moved to Jacksonville, NC five years ago. I have been a third grade elementary school teacher for five years now as well. I love my job and it definitely keeps me on my toes! I have been married to my wonderful wife Amy for two years. She is my best friend and keeps me in line. Last September, Amy and I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Abigail. She truly is the light of our lives. Abigail (Abby) is having her first birthday this Sunday! It's hard to believe that Abby is going to be one. She is a chatter box, although we still can't understand much of what she is saying. :) She started walking about three weeks ago, a few steps at a time, and its amazing how much further and more often she walks in such a little amount of time. I also have a "little son" name Parker. He is a 80 lb. German Sheppard who thinks he is a lap dog. Abby routinely abuses Parker and he is great with her. I have to tip my hat to him. If my ears, fur, tail, and whiskers were pulled that much, I don't know if I would be so nice! I look forward to hearing more from everyone through their blogs and I look forward to a wonderful semester.
Teaching is a profession that is either loved or hated. People that understand the teaching profession see the commitment and responsibility teachers possess. Teacher's must be a teacher, a babysitter, a fire inspector, a nurse, an accountant, a secretary, a psychologist, and a arbitrator. They are underpaid and most times short changed on materials and resources. They are blamed for failures and given little credit for successes. People that are ignorant to the demands of the teaching profession argue educators are lazy, overpaid, and underworked. Critics feel that teachers should be held accountable for not having all students achieve a set state standard, not taking into account the differences in ability, motivation, and parental support. These same critics acknowledge that all children start school at different mastery levels and that each student should be viewed as an individual but they insist that 100 percent of children reach a set standard at the conclusion of each school year. If doctor's did not have instruments to perform surgery, would they save 100 percent of their patients? Are politicians held accountable for the failures of our nation?
As a teacher and student I encourage you to read my blog this semester in order to follow my journey towards improvement as an educator and as a lifelong learner. Through this blog I want to provide you with first hand experiences and knowledge both as an educator, student, parent, and coach.
Hopefully at the end of this semester you will be able to make your own informed decision about education. Enjoy!
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