I just absolutely love Fall!!! best time of the year. It's not too cold but I'm not sweating either! I love the all the trees changing colors and all the little store putting out their pumpkins and gourds. I love the Halloween decorations and the excitment of Thanksgiving and eventually Christmas. I even stopped to buy some Candy Corn, it's only right to have such candy in the home during this holiday season. I just drove through Hernando and I am convinced it is one of the best towns in the world. Everyone is so friendly and I love the small town look and feel. It has so mnay cool old and unique shops. If it were up to me, we would end up here in Hernando. So this past week Matt had his white Coat ceremony and his family came into town. It's been pretty busy but now things are starting to go back to normal. I have made a entire list of crafts I want to make! I'll be putting up more pictures of the things I've made recently on my next post. For now, here are some pictures from Matt's Ceremony. He is well on his way to becoming an awesome and good looking Optometrist!!!

Here are the pillows I made!

pulling the taffy!!! Becca is so cute!

This is what the Taffy looked like when we poured it out. It was so sticky, corn starch was our best friend.

some of my taffy creations

Well this week we made Taffy which was pretty fun. Next time we need to add some flavoring. this past week I went antiquing. Hernando Mississippi is definately the place to go, sooo much stuff!!!!! Almost anything you want you will find in some shed. It was actually a little skecthing in some places, I might actaually have TB from a stubbed toe. Matt also finished his first week of tests. He did pretty well, he is such a smarty! Ceicil is getting bigger and getting into everything!!!!! His new thing is falling into the toilet! He has however, learned to sleep thoughout the night by himself!!!!I also taught myself how to sew! well at least the basics of it. I borrowed a sewing machine and made 3 pillow covers. it took my hours to learn how to thread the dang machine!! but with the help of youtube and the instruction manual I was finally able to get the ball rolling. So what's next? I'm thinking of making a wreath and then starting on some halloween decorations. I've found some cool ideas. I'm still looking for a job, I'm really hoping for next semester or at the very least next fall. I had a phone interview with the Memphis City Schools and it sounds as like getting a job within the next 6 months won't be impossible! well, it's something! Oh yeah!!! I almost forgot, I went armadillo hunting! yes apparently they are all arounf in these parts. Matt and I have seen a couple dead ones on the road but saturday night we saw a real one! i had no idea they were so fast! We chased it around but couldn't even get a picture of it! it was so crazy. Never thought I would see one of those. People also keep telling me that armadillo's carry leprosy...... believe it if you want, it's just what they say. Well, until next time..peace!

Lets see, what has happened in the past week? hmmm, not muchto be honest. I did however fish for the first time! Right here in Churchlake appartments. Becca and Breeann were so kind as to teach me how. I ended up catching 5 fish and releasing them all. None of them floated back to the top so I am told they are unharmed. I'm hope they are still swimming around enjoying life. The weekend was pretty busy and Matt and I attened both sessions of Stake Conference. Matt has been so busy studying for his up coming tests that I barely even see him :( oh well, I just keep telling myself only 4 years!!!! Then I'll be married to a doctor ;) Still no word on jobs, depressing really, but I keep finding things to do. I've decided to learn how to sew and tomorrow I am painting the living room. Talked to my dad today and he reminded me that I'm only being unemployed for a couplw of months and in the grand scheme of things it's not that long. I guess he's right. I need to take this time to do all the things I haven't been able to do or won't do once I get a job and start having children. My brother is officially part of the Army and is in basic training down in Georgia. I keep thinking of him and hope and pray all is going well. Oh here is some good news, I have cell phone minutes again!!!! It's been a long hard two weeks. Alright as usual my husband is fast asleep and I'm still wide awake. We're such opposite people! i'll try and post some pictures og the homemade bagels and fishing.

Well I have now decided to actually use this thing to communicate with the outside world, even though I am pretty sure only about 2 people know I have this thing. Oh well. I live in Mississippi! whoohoo! Actually despite previous feelings I actually like this place. Matt attends optometry school in Memphis so we're here for another 3 years or so. I have not found a job and have no idea when I will actually get one. In the mean time I am taking this opportunity to explore myself, doing things I've never really had the time to do or simply the freedom to. Today I work on some school stuff, made home made bagels (which are delicious) and attended some sort of exercise program at a Baptist church. I think an NFL player was teaching the class and I am pretty sure I will not be able to lift my arms for a week. But it was fun and will probably go again. Then I watched the season finally of Bachelor Pad, please no judgement I think the show is great. Nothing better then watching people fight for love and money. While living in Mississippi Matthew and I have acquired a new family member. His name is Cecil and is 7 weeks old. Probably the best kitten ever! He is my one and only baby for now and probably the next few years. Peace

I read the article : Technology and a House of Learning by Charles and Dawn Graham
I watched a bunch of different videos. Some of them were from netzsmart where I watched about the harmful effects of cyber bullying and jealous friendships. I watched more BPS videos from Frontline that talked about how children and teenagers are spending their lives on the internet. It also brought up the discussion about what parents can do to prevent issues on-line. I also watched 5 videos from NetSafeUtah which also showed videos about cyber prededors, what they say and how to be safer online. I also watch the video on Katie's story which described the Missing game and how is was used to reach Katie and showed her the harmful effects of talking and meeting stranger online. Alot of the videos were insightfull and shows how cunning and crafty prededors can be.

I talked with my mother about internet safety. I explain about the different videos that I watched and we discussed what type of things predetors say and do to sound innocent and to attract other people. I explained to her that I learned about not giving any information out o the internet and how important it is for me as a future parent and a future teacher to teach childen about internet safety. I explained about parents using different safety blockers online and my mom has already used some on our own home computers. We also discussed how to keep the temptation away such as keeping the computer in open areas where no one person is alone and secluded on the computer. Another way was to talk to children at a young age and explain the dangers of misusing the computer. I also talked about the article I read and we both discussed the good and useful qualities of the internet and that we should always be looking for the good in technology. I think my mother will continue to talk to my brother and remind him of the good and bad uses of the internet.

TPACK Lesson Plans

My three lesson plans

Math--Geometric Shapes

Langauge Arts-- Responses to Music

Science-- Animals Around the World

what is Important

I Agree that using videos, tapes , music, or movies are all a very good way to incorporate audio visual into the classroom. Allowing the students to actually see real life items or actually hear something will always spark their interest a lot more than a boring text book. I think the most important thing is to make technology equipment kid friendly, instead of saying “use your digital camera” the teacher says “okay use your spidercams” This allows students to become more excited in what they are doing for their assignment. Getting their excitement and getting the equipment on their level is very important. I also think that it is important to show students what kind of things they can do with the computer outside of the classroom. This is important because they do not equate computers simply with school and class work. They need to see that technology can be used at home and for fun!

Technology in the Classroom

I am in the elementary education program, and currently doing my first cohort in a second grade classroom at Southland elementary school. In the school as a whole there is not a lot of technology available. There are no computers in the classroom where I am at. Each teacher is given a lab top to use for attendance and other school things but she is the only person with access to a computer. In the classroom there is an over head projector and something similar to an overhead where is magnifies anything put under it. sometimes the teachers use this when they are conducting a shared reading lesson and all students need access to the text, however I have not seen this done so far. the students do go to the computer lab once a week but that class is taught by a different teacher.

I have done both the midcourse evaluation and the informed consent forms.

I thought all of the technology tools that we looked over in class were really cool and I would love to use them in my class room. The Microscope was neat because it lets children see what is really all around them up close and personal. It is also very kid friendly and allows them to take pictures, print them and make videos. I would definitely use this in my classroom when taking about cells and other tiny objects that usually seem so abstract. I thought the thermometers were cool as well because they provide a more hands on approach to learning about temperatures. It is also a fun easy was for students to use graphs and watch their work as the temperatures change. Many of the templates and tools shown in class really bring science to life and make is easy enough for kids to enjoy. I hope to be able to use these sorts of technological tools in my classroom when I am a teacher!

http://tecchelsie.blogspot.com/ Chelsie McCage

http://alyssah287.blogspot.com/ Alyssa Hipps

http://nataleeb.blogspot.com/ Natalee Biggs

For my activity I will be bringing in some different types of leaves and I will bring in pieces of onion skin and other materials that might work. I will then place these objects under the microscope and examine the plant cells. I will also be making slides using paper and tape as described in class to create slides for my materials. I will be taking pictures of my observations using the microscope and computers. From looking into the the microscope and taking pictures I will take notes of the characteristics I can see of the plant cells. For students I will provide worksheet where they can record their observations and draw what they see. They may use color penciles or markers. They will then create a list of characteristics of the plant cells that they see. Not for this class but if I were doing this in real life I would follow up this lesson with a second lesson where I would with my students then explain the different names for the parts of a plant cell. I would then have my students go back and try to identify the different parts of the cells, looking into the microscopes. I would have them draw and lable the parts.

The content I will be focusing on will be to observe and become familiar with the different parts of a plant cell they will also work on their observational skills as they observe and make a list of characterisitcs that they see.

The pedegoy I will be using is a more discovery based lesson or apporach. I believe that science is all baout discovery and drawing inferences on your own. I think that my looking at the cells, drawing pictures and creating characteristic lists they will actually get to be the scientist themselves rather than reading from a book what is what and then just memorizing it. This makes science much more fun in the classroom.

The technology I will be using will be the microscopes that we got to try out in class. This is a good fit because it helps students "see" what is really all around them. Gather their own materials such as leaves and then getting to actually see something so small is something that children would never get to do if it wasn't for technology. Taking pictures and putting them in their journals or on their worksheets is also good because now the students can take home and keep what they were able to observe in class.

I thought this was an interesting assignment and I understand how it could be used for a lot of different subjects in the classroom. It can also be a good teaching tool. I like it because it allows the children to see the earth different than jusr flat on a map. It allows them to go and see real life images that maybe they will never have the chance to see for themselves. I think it helps the children to make a lot more connections with different ares and people around the world. However, this might not work with younger grades such as kindergarden or first grade unless heavily supervised. I think that they might get confused on what they are looking for or clicking on. Also I think that using google earth would really only work if there were enough computers in the classroom to allow all the students to have a closer look at what was going on. working in groups might be a better choice. Another down fall might be if the images were not comming in clearly or fast enough which might cause the children to loose focus and do other things. hopefully I will be able to work in a classroom that provides enough equipment and I actually rememeber this information so that I can use it in my classroom one day.

I viewed and commented on
1) Audrey Sanders
2) Natalie Biggs
3) Markie Franc

Terrains

http://laurenmac.pbworks.com/Google-Earth

The core curriculum I am attempting to address is that students will value and use science as a
process of obtaining knowledge based upon observable evidence. They will use this visual tour of different terrains and animals to help them learn how to use observations to construct a reasonable explanation. Students will take the information and observations they made and wrote in their journals to help them construct explanations about the differences of climate, geography etc. Using the google map is helpful because it shows the students exactly where these places are in relation to the world and other countries around them. This gives them a better perspective of location. this also allows them to see real life pictures that show detailed descriptions of where they are at and what they are looking at.

Location	Activity Description	Google Earth Content
1.Taking students to the Amazon Rain Forest located in the upper section of Brazil south of the Equator.	Students observing a certain animal that lives in the terrain, writing in their journals two characteristics of the animal. Then have students observe the terrain, writing in their journals two characteristics they observed.	Looking for picture of animal and taking students to the location of the Rainforest.
2.taking students to the Kalahari Desert located in the southern part of Africa, and the geography is a portion of desert and a plateau.	Students observing a certain animal that lives in this particular terrain, writing in their journals two characteristics of the animal. Then have students observe the terrain, writing in their journals two characteristics they observed.	looking at a picture of an animal native to the Kalahari Desert, and taking them to a part of the Kalahari Desert.
3.Taking students to the southern most part of the world, Antarctica. Looking at the areas of Emperor penguin populations.	Students observing an Emperor penguin that lives in this particular terrain, writing in their journals two characteristics of the animal. Then have students observe the terrain, writing in their journals two characteristics they observed.	Taking students to Antarctica and looking at a picture of the penguins and terrain.
4.Taking students to a spot in the Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian Islands to observe the migrating Humpback whales.	Students observing a Humpback whale that lives in this particular part of the Ocean, writing in their journals two characteristics of the animal. Then have students observe the terrain, what it looks like in the ocean, writing in their journals two characteristics they observed.	Taking students to a certain spot around the Hawaiian Islands and having them observe the ocean and a Humpback Whale.

I commented on

Kim Brown,

Audrey Sanders,

Alissa Hipps

Chelsie McCage

Markie Franc

Natalie Biggs