SKYPE

I would like to take this moment and thank the technology geeks and nerds for all the wonderful advancements and tools we have today. I have lots of family and friends all around the world. And as much as I'd like to keep in touch with every single one it is very difficult, even with all the social networking sites and the use of the web. I've always been a fan of skype but tonight was the best. My cousin moved to Toronto about 2 years ago and she had a son. She is one of my favorite cousins. We were very close growing up, more like sisters than cousins.I haven not met her son, only seen pictures. Tonight I had such a nice surprise. She skyped me and we had a video chat date! I got to meet Tobias for the first time and it was surreal. I was able to see him crawling and moving around and he also got to see me. This is so much better than a phone call, email or looking at pictures via the web. I love skype! Thank you techy gods!

Wondershare Video Editor

Although my blogger name is Sassy Techy, I have to admit I am very far from being a techy. My boyfriend constantly makes fun of me for not being up to date with all the new advancements. His favorite line of attack is, "if you're going to become a teacher, you have to know everything! Don't you want to be a cool teacher that's hip and with the it." Well, all joking aside I really had one of those moments where I felt like an absolute imbecile. For the EDTPA pilot study I had to edit video clips of the recordings for several of my lessons. I am still a pc user and not hip with the apple (mac) cult of society. I had to find a free video editing software program. I goggled and found Wondershare Video Editor. I thought to myself, i'm a pretty intelligent person, i'm sure I can figure this out. I just need to read through the instructions and focus. I literally sat in front of my computer for about 4 hours going through every little detail and reading over the instructions and could not figure it out for the life of me! I finally called my friend who is techy savvy and a computer programming nerd. I really wanted to figure this out for myself and not ask for help but I had to give in. He came over and figured it out in about 10 minutes! He told me not to feel bad because unless you have some experience or knowledge in video editing it's rather difficult to understand how to use these programs. All in all the task got done but once again I realized there is an entire technological world that I do not know about.

Technological tools

For our literacy course we had to create a social action piece. I decided to create a power point presentation. The presentation had to stand alone meaning the presentation itself had to be created so that the viewers could get my message just by watching it. We were not allowed to speak or present but just show our clips. My topic was on second hand smoking. I added visuals, sounds and music to emphasize my research and views on my topic. I created it using the tools available on ppt and by importing sounds and music from youtube and the internet. After I completed my presentation I uploaded it onto a web sharing site called dropbox. With the use of various technological tools I was able to create and complete my project.

Here is the link for my presentation. https://www.dropbox.com/s/eqj57nll9va15sh/social%20action%20presentation-Jenn%20Choi.pptx

Chalk and Wire

This semester I had to learn how to use a program called chalk and wire. In order to participate in the EDTPA pilot study conducted by Pearson, Queens College had all of their participants use this program. According to many of the other students in the regular MAT program they have been requiring students to use this system. So at our first meeting I felt very overwhelmed and worried that I was way behind on learning what we had to do. I'm not sure if the school set it up this way but it was extremely easy to use and navigate. There are instructions and guiding tools through out the program to help you each step of the way. I felt it was a great way to keep track of work and to help me keep things organized. I think all schools should implement this system into their education programs to collect data and keep track of students' work. Here is a link to a the website which also has a tutorial video clip to better explain what exactly chalk and wire is.

http://www.chalkandwire.com/

Goodreads

For one of our courses this semester we had to join a web site called Goodreads. I have never heard of it until this class. I like to keep track of books I've read and would like to read but ever since the DMAT program began it's been hard to manage. It's been hard to read books for leisure given the limited amount of free time we have. At first I thought this would just be another annoying task we had to do as part of our course work. However, I was wrong. I find this site to be helpful and highly beneficial. Electronically, keeping track of books I've read,  books I want to read, books I am currently reading and books others have suggested. I also downloaded the app onto my phone so I have access to the site 24/7. The little joys of advancement in technology have once again made my life a bit easier. I also won a book on one of their giveaways!  It was mailed to my house last week. It's always nice to win something. Everyone should check out the site www.goodreads.com and take advantage of all it has to offer!

I stumbled upon an article in the New York Times that caught my attention.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/science/new-test-for-computers-grading-essays-at-college-level.html?_r=0

Technology has led our society as a whole to rely on artificial intelligence but I think this system of grading essays is not a good idea.
There are some valid points of implementing such a system. It will conserve time however writing is subjective and there is a process to it. A machine cannot understanding or see this process. A professor can read a students essay and understand what they are trying to say. They can also guide them to making corrections and or helping them to see where their thinking process might have gone wrong. Once there is a universal plan that grades essays students writing will all become robotic and machine like. I do not think this is a good plan. What are your thoughts?

Please Vote

Due to the advances in technology we are able to do and see many things.

My cousin is a teacher out in california and he was nominated into the final 5 for The Great American Teach-Off.

I would like to share his short clip and would like to ask for your vote. Please vote for my cousin Philip Hur.
 http://kto6gato.maker.good.is/projects.kto6gato 

Positve reinforcement!

I wanted to share a video I saw weeks ago. I actually shared this with a lot of friends and I thought it exemplified how technology is being used for the good! I believe everyone should watch this especially students of all ages throughout all schools. Hope you enjoy and let it shed some light on our critical issues with bullying.
http://www.upworthy.com/bullies-called-him-pork-chop-he-took-that-pain-with-him-and-then-cooked-it-into?g=2

This week we had an eportfolio meeting. We learned a few new things about the site and how to manage it. One of my classmates and I were intrigued by the wordal. It jazzes up our eportoflio and looks like fun to create. I have got to try it out. We also learned about the resume section of our portfolio. I thought it was interesting to have a program that creates your resume for you. Now, with all the advances in technology it seems you can have everything done for you with the right programing and skills. What I found the most useful about the meeting and the eportofilio is the section where we get to post out work. As teachers, we will have to create portfolios and gather all our work together. This feature allows us to upload our lessons, presentations, students work etc to display. It is a good way to keep things organized and have data readily available to show and refer back to.

Smart-board

I am not an avid Smart-board user, although I would like to be. There are so many features and programs which can be incorporated into lessons of all subject areas. I've seen a few and I would love to learn how to use it more efficiently. I try to play around with the one in my classroom as much as possible but there is never enough time during the school day. One of my classmate and student teacher next door came in and showed me a very cool program she used with her class. She did a grammar lesson on adjectives and adverbs. There are 2 circles that spin really fast, round and round. The students choose from the word list on the board if the word is an adjective or adverb. They place the word into the circle of adjective or adverb. If it's correct it just spins. If it's incorrect it spits it out! It is fun and interactive. If I'm amused and find it cool, I'm sure my first graders will love it too! Hopefully, I'll be able to learn a lot more different features and functions of the Smart-board.

Aha!

I took my ATS-W exam this past Saturday morning. I was very nervous although some of my fellow classmates have told me not to worry since they already took it and it wasn't too bad. Also a lot of my friends who happen to be teachers told me it's a lot of common sense questions and theoretical questions about teaching which I should be able to pass with a breeze. However I am a Nervous Nelly and it's part of my nature to always worry and be nervous before an exam. I didn't really study because I didn't know how to study but look over some sample questions from the site. There were 80 multiple choice questions and I told myself not to stay more than 3-4 minutes on a question. If it's taking longer to answer it I should put a star on it and go back or go with my first instinct. After I finished all 80 questions I was exhausted and not looking forward to the essay part of the exam. I took a deep breath and open up the essay section. I had a huge smile form on my face and I almost began to laugh out loud! I let out a big sigh of relief and said, "AHA!" in my mind. I was so happy to see the essay questions. It pertained to technology and how we would integrate and implement it into a lesson plan. I thought of our technology course and tech-pack right away! I took a minute to gather my thoughts and began writing. I am so grateful for our class and our previous tech-pack assignment because I finished my exam quickly and confidently. I had so much time left over to check over my work. I'm pretty sure I aced the essay portion of the exam thanks to our class! :)

Remember When: A Poem About Technology by James S. Huggins'

I found this poem to be quite interesting and relatable to me. I wanted to share it.

A computer was something on TV
From a sci fi show of note.
A window was something you hated to clean
And ram was the cousin of goat.
Meg was the name of my girlfriend
And gig was a job for the nights.
Now they all mean different things
And that really mega bytes.
An application was for employment.
A program was a TV show.
A curser used profanity.
A keyboard was a piano.
Memory was something that you lost with age.
A CD was a bank account.
And if you had a 3 1/2" floppy
You hoped nobody found out.
Compress was something you did to the garbage
Not something you did to a file.
And if you unzipped anything in public
You'd be in jail for a while.
Log on was adding wood to the fire.
Hard drive was a long trip on the road.
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived.
And a backup happened to your commode.
Cut you did with a pocket knife.
Paste you did with glue.
A web was a spider's home.
And a virus was the flu
I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper
And the memory in my head.
I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash,
But when it happens they wish they were dead.

Tech-Pack

After doing the assignment regarding Tech-Pack, I realized all 3 aspects of knowledge go hand in hand. You must be aware of the pedaogocial and content knowledge in order to know what forms of technology you need. If you don't have a background knowledge of the content it will also limit you to the forms of technological tools you can use to construct your lessons. The more you know the more it will help. Knowledge truly is power!