It's not goodbye ...

It is like the last day of summer camp here at GAETI 2014. This has been the most awesome month of professional development that I have every been involved with in my educational career. We had Art and everything. I am not only taking away lots of new and exciting concepts, ideas and information to share with my classroom and school, but also great new friends to continue to share and collaborate with at every chance. I am so glad that I was chosen to attend this fabulous institute and to meet these great people. Thank you to Dr. Bracey and all of the professors and presenters that touched our teaching careers and left their thumbprint on us.

Lesson Plan Presentations

We have had a full day of sharing today. We presented our lesson plans and presentations that we had created. Every body seemed to include lots of innovative technology components in their work. It was easy to see that we have all learned a great deal this month. I really hate to see it come to an end. This has truly been an amazing month. I cannot believe how much we have been introduced to by so many amazing people. I must stand and applaud Dr. Bracey for putting this together for us. She deserves so much praise from the participants of GAETI 2014. This month has sparked my desire to include new technology in my teaching.

Present Art

Today was our Art project presentation day. Our art projects were amazing. We have some awesome artsy people in our group. It was definitely easy to see how to incorporate an art project into our classrooms. It reminded me of how my students feel when they are out of their element. Everything is not easy for every body. I guess my art project is okay. I think that my 5th grade Art teacher would be proud because I didn't copy a picture but came up with my own image.Thank you Ms. Latham for putting up with us and teaching us. We worked on our portfolios, too. It was amazing to think about all of the technology that I plan to use in my classroom. When I began writing it down, I kept remembering more and more of what I wanted to do. I have grown to love this mixture of personalities that we call GAETI 2014.

Hold on to your suspenders, Spanish 2

Dr. Lee did an awesome job this week introducing us to new technology that is available to use in our classrooms. My Spanish 2 students will not be as happy about the technology. I cannot wait to have them begin working on the projects that I have in mind. We learned about Infographics that I have incorporated into my lesson plan for the finale. We created a webcast on Fotobabble and added it to our website. Dr. Lee also taught us how to use PowerPoint and Youtube to create movies of our lessons for students to be able to view. I see so many possibilities for my classes. I can hear them now, "We know, 'You learned this at MSU in June.'" Ms. Rachel Cannady talked to us about Copyright and we learned that we need to make some changes. Hopefully, this will keep us out of trouble. I am sad to see this come to an end. I must say that it has been wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Lee.

LOOK OUT POWERPOINTS!!!

Today we learned how to create wonderful, original PowerPoint templates. Thank you, Dr. Briswell. My PowerPoints are going to be upgraded. Dr. Lee had us to "HIKE" over to Allen Hall for a Canvas lesson. I hope to be able to use Canvas this coming school year. I think that by using Canvas in my classroom, it will better prepare my students for college. I know that a few of my co-workers at school will be excited to use Canvas in their classrooms. Unfortunately, the teachers that would not use it outnumber us. It is sad that so many teachers just show up because it is a job. Time is moving so fast. It is so hard to believe that we only have 4 days left for GAETI 2014.

I want one, too...

Today Dr. Lee taught us about using Ipads in the classroom. There are so many advantages to using Ipads in the classroom. As teachers, we have to work to engage our students in whatever we are teaching. Today's world is filled with technology. We have to learn to incorporate that technology into the classroom to connect with our students. We walked over to the library (Walking-YUCK!) for a presentation about Prezi. It was very interesting. I want to work on my presentations that I have for my classes and incorporate the use of Prezi into what I have. I plan to convert some of my PowerPoints to Prezi. We, also learned about Apple TV. Prior to today, I had no ideas what this was. From what I understand about it, now, it reminds me of the old Avery Keys that we used to use in our classrooms. That just shows us how technology has evolved over the years. I don't have an Ipad of my own, my children have them. They really enjoy being able to do so much on them. I can see the Ipad as the next wave to come through our schools. I don't foresee my school being about to go 1 to 1 any time in the near future. Hopefully, when we return in August, we are going to have a growing computer lab. Now, we will have to wait in line with the other teachers to schedule a time to take our classes to it. This afternoon, we worked on our WebQuest. It was helpful to collaborate with my fellow Spanish teachers. In Art class, we cut glass to be fused for our project. Needless to say, I better stick with teaching, I would not make a living as a glass cutter. HAHA!

Collaboration Time

I think that the one thing I have enjoyed about GAETI is the opportunity to collaborate with fellow colleagues. We can always locate new information but having someone to bounce ideas around with has been great!!! Today, Dr. Lee further explained Canvas to us. I really think that it is a tool that would be used by a few teachers in my school. Of course, we have those that would refuse to use it because it required learning something new and might take 5 more minutes out of "their" time. We dabbled with wikis and blogs along with storify.com. We got to work in groups to create a webquest. My group project is about Hispanic Artists. It will be great for the students to work on in our classes. We also learned about padlet.com and popplet.com. Those are two sites that I want to really play around with in my spare time. I just need time to sit down and digest everything that I have learned. This has been amazing. I cannot wait to incorporate my new "tricks" into my lessons. My students will think that I am the BOMB!!! Of course, I will happily share my "tricks" with my fellow teachers. I am going to be tired but sad when this is over. We have grown so close to each other. I feel like I have some new great friends. Thanks GAETI for another great week.

Presentation ... WHAT?!?!

Who would have thought that I would get a great lesson in Art class? I am understanding more about what I need to do to help my students understand why we present to each other in my class. We learn from each other. Yes, we may dread getting up in front of the class and yes, we may not really want to talk about what we did, but it is part of the learning process. We learn when we are teaching. We learn when we think about what we are going to say and how we are going to say it. As far as today, my opinions of JBHM were confirmed. My school district needs to do away with it all together. The representative from MDE, Mr. Vincent Segalini, did a great job of explaining the ELA of CCSS and how it affects us as teachers. I would love for him to come present a professional development session to my faculty. We have had no preparation whatsoever when it comes to really understanding CCSS and how it works in our classrooms. I love teaching because it allows me to change the way that I do things. I can rethink a concept or lesson and revamp it to meet different needs and to keep me interested. If I am not interested in something because it is my 3rd or 4th time to teach it, how do I expect to engage my students and have them to find it interesting? Why do people choose to be teachers? There are never enough hours in the day and no, we don't get paid for all of the time that we invest in what we do. You have to do it because you want to. Dr. Lee introduced us to Canvas and Social Bookmarking Tools. For me, the month of July is going to be spent debriefing and working on all of this great technology that I want to incorporate into my classroom and share with my colleagues.

Lesson Planning

We began working on a lesson plan to use in our classes. I want to instill an intrinsic desire for learning Spanish in my students. It is my hope that they will want to continue to investigate the language and culture and be open to new things. I have had difficulties in the past doing this with my students. They need to see that the more they expose themselves to the language, the more they will understand it and be able to use it. In our country today, knowing Spanish can mean the difference between you getting the job or promotion and someone else. So many times, I hear people say that if the Hispanics come to the United States, they should have to learn our language. That is all fine but how do we communicate with them in the meantime? We should not be close-minded to new experiences, people, cultures, food, etc. How do we know if we don't like something, if we have not experienced it before? I hope that when I present my lesson to my students, it succeeds in increasing a desire to know more about the language and culture.

B.Y.O.D.

Now, what are we going to do with this plethora of knowledge that we have been introduced to? Today was a day of planning. We talked about how we plan to share what we have learned with our colleagues in August. A common thread in our conversations was consistency. Consistency is very important for any aspect or program to be successful. In groups, we compiled a list of ways to approach school districts with a "no-tolerance" policy for student devices. After looking at the pros and cons, it is easy to see that as educators, we have to be familiar with the new technology that is available and incorporate it into our classes. Our students need to know the technology to be competitive in any way once they go from high school into their college or career. I know that we are creatures of habit and tend to be set in our ways but change is good for all of the stakeholders involved in education.

Technological Information OVERLOAD!!!

Today has been an eye-opening day for us. We have learned about so many ways that are available for us to integrate technology into our classrooms. Ms. Kimberly Lane introduced us to an uncountable number of sites that can be utilized to grab our students attention and continue to hold it. She presented the 22 Digital Skills that we as educators in the 21st Century need to know and use in our 21st Century classrooms. Students today need to know as much about technology as possible before entering the career and college world and it is our responsibilities as educators to prepare them. Being an "old-school" teacher and not wanting to incorporate technology into your classroom is crippling your students. We have to work to give our students the same preparedness that other teachers, schools, states and countries are giving their students. This technology may seem foreign or difficult for us because we are older and did not grow up with access to it but the students of today do not see it as difficult. They are not afraid to try the new "stuff" that is readily available. I cannot wait until I have time to actually sit down at my computer to investigate and play with the materials that we learned about today. Looks like we are in for another information and fun filled week at GAETI 2014.

WOW!!!

We have learned so much today. We began the day with Show and Tell. I learned a great deal of tools and "tricks" to use in my classroom. I am definitely going to share with my colleagues at my school. Dr. Bracey explained the 21st Century Skills to us. I think that as educators, we definitely need to incorporate more of the 21st Century Skills in our classrooms. Our students need to be better prepared for college or career and the skills will better prepare them. After lunch, we were treated to a presentation by De'Marco Fomby from the Mississippi Youth Highway Saftety Programs. He talked about the various things that are available to us for our students and school. I see this program as something that our Drivers' Education teacher will be able to utilize in his classes. The students need to be aware of the valuable information. ART! ART! ART! We finished the day with Art. We are continuing to work on our projects. It is a process that we will be able to use in our classrooms. I cannot wait to see the final project at the end. Now, I get to head home and rest up for the exciting week Dr. Bracey has planned for us next week. Time is going too fast.

Economics Day

Today was a change of scenery and faces. We met in the Lloyd-Ricks Building for our sessions today. We began the morning with Dr. Becky Smith. She introduced us to Economics and its place in our various classrooms. We talked about The Stock Market Game and the Economic Summit. I was familiar with the Economic Summit because of the Marketing teacher I work with at school. I had the privilege of driving her and her students (one of who was my daughter) to the Economic Summit competition a few years ago. It was awesome to watch. The students were very engaged and appeared to very knowledgeable about the countries that they had chosen to represent. Sandy's teams from our school always win. She is awesome with the students and the competition. She has encouraged me to use the Economic Summit in my classroom, too. I am seriously considering it for this year. Dr. Smith also introduced us to Service-Learning. This was interesting to talk about. It is a different aspect of community service. It makes the community service an opportunity for learning. The next speaker was Dr. Cade Smith. He is the husband of Dr. Becky Smith. Dr. Cade Smith provided us with examples of how Service-Learning works and how it is done at the university. Dr. Heiselt further introduced us to Service-Learning and encouraged us to incorporate it into our classrooms. She encouraged us to contact her for ideas and brainstorming for ways to do Service-Learning with our students. Dr. Shaffett provided examples for us to use the Budget Game and other opportunities in our classrooms. I plan to share this information with the Economics teachers at school, along with the Marketing teacher. I want to incorporate more economics in my classroom this coming year. We can research more about the economics of Spanish speaking countries and compare that to the United States. It was a great day in a beautiful building.

Learning New Tricks!!

Ta Dah!! It has been of day of showing new tricks. We have learned about all the cool tricks to use on Microsoft Word and Excel to make our lives much easier. We also learned how to make board games for our classrooms. I can definitely use the great ideas to make my classes more engaging. Making the board games was so easy, I can make lots of them for my classes. Dr. Beriswill introduced the foreign language teachers to new games that we can play with our students. We played Kloo, Tierra Tierra, and Turista Americano. I think that my students will enjoy the change up during the week of instruction and it will help them to learn more Spanish, too. In Art with Angela Latham, we continued to work on our projects. They are coming along nicely. I cannot wait to see the finished product. I plan to display it in my room at school. Right now, I have so many ideas running through my head that I plan to incorporate into my teaching methods and classroom activities. I am so grateful for the GAETI team and their efforts to help teachers this month.

Group Time

Teaching is a puzzle. Today we learned several techniques involving puzzles to use in our classroom. Dr. Kun Huang introduced us to Jigsaw. This is a technique that I can see me using in my classroom. I think that this would work with sharing culture among the students in the groups. We played with www.polleverywhere.com. This is a website that I see very useful in my classroom. I do not have a smart board but this would allow me to have the students to participate using their own devices. There are numerous ways that I could use this in my classroom. We read and discussed several literacy strategies from 20 Literacy Strategies to Meet the Common Core. During our discussion in our groups, we were able to share the different strategies that are covered in the book. I read and discussed the Purpose-Content-Style strategy. This was similar to strategies that I have tried in the past. After reading from the book, I can definitely see areas where I can tweak my strategy to better help my students. After lunch, we had our Art time. We are working on a project. We painted with water colors and continued to work on our sketches for our project. Art time is great! It reminded me of my 5th grade year with my wonderful art teacher. I love to use arts and crafts in my classroom. I can't wait until tomorrow.

It's Coming a Flood ...

The rain pouring down on the outside was not what flooded the inside of ISWD today. This building has been flooded with information. Today with Dr. Kun Huang has been an interesting one. I am feeling more comfortable with CCSS, 21st Century Skills, and MS College and Career alignments. She has really provided us with lots of ways to incorporate technology into our classrooms. She discussed Backward Design during the morning session. I am familiar with it but she helped to add to my understanding of how best to use it. I worked with a fellow Spanish teacher on creating a lesson using this design. I think this is something that I will be using more in my planning for the 2014-2015 school year. After lunch, we learned about several websites that would be useful in the classroom. I plan to further investigate theses websites to utilize them with my students. (Googledoc., learner.org, wordle.net, crocodoc, and bubbl.us) We talked about a web portfolio and created a website at weebly.com. I enjoyed the Art class that we attended. We will be working on an art project that we can incorporate into our classroom. I plan to create something that represents the flags of the Spanish speaking countries and the USA. I plan to share the History and Social Studies information with my fellow teachers at school. It looks to be an interesting week ahead.

Whew!

My brain and my legs are exhausted. Much to my chagrin, we walked in the heat and up stairs, again. Oh, well. Today was very interesting. We went to the "outcrop" and some folks were able to find fossils. Then we climbed to Hilbun Hall for the TP Timeline. Some people (not me) worked out the math for the timeline of humans back to the formation of the moon. This was not what I would use it for in my classroom. We, the foreign language teachers, bounced ideas off each other and came up with several ways to use the concept in our classes. That was great!!! We toured the Cobb Institute and the Dunn Seiler Museum. I thought about my 12 year old son. He would enjoy looking at those artifacts and exhibits. After lunch, Michael Murphy presented Civil Rights information to us. This led to an in depth discussion on civil rights and the best way to present it to the students. I have lots of stuff from him to give to my favorite History teachers at school. They will enjoy the information. Dr. Sherman-Morris introduced us to a new activity that we can alter for our foreign language classes,the "Found Poem." I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed the first week of GAETI. It has definitely been worth the hour+ drive that I make in the mornings and afternoons. I can't wait to see what next week will bring.

Geocaching

This has been a day of walking and sweating. We began the day by dividing into teams. We were given a GPS and coordinates to locate geocache sites. Needless to say, it was HOT and involved a scavenger hunt of sorts. After all the walking around on this campus, I still have no clue where anything is located. I was lucky enough to find a campus map, so now I am at least armed with information. After the activity, we were given a tour of the Templeton Museum on the 3rd floor of the library and an introduction to the Grant Papers along with other artifacts. This campus does hold a great deal of history and I am sure that the history teachers are storing lots of neat ideas for their students. After lunch, we learned about the "Imaginary Indian" from Nick Timmerman. The day concluded with a hike to Hilbun Hall for some Google Earth. We located several places on the map. After thinking about how I could use this in my classroom, I thought that I could have them to locate the coordinates that I give them to determine what countries we are going to learn about for the week or what country they have been assigned to research. I could use it for them to locate a landmark to research as an assignment. In my Spanish II class, they have a restaurant project that they could use Google Earth to locate where exactly their restaurant would be in their country. All in all, after all of the sweating and walking, it was an interesting day.

LOTS of Social Studies and U.S. History

Day 2 is in the books and it has been a day. We were presented with lots of information pertaining to Social Studies, CCSS, U.S. History, PARCC, and College and Career Pathways. I already cover Geography that pertains to the Spanish speaking world in my classes. During the presentations, I was able to think of other ways that there are more ways for me to incorporate Geography and History into my classes. Mr. Chauncy Spears from the MDE helped us to better understand how CCSS, College and Career Pathways, and PARCC are all related and are being implemented for the advancement of our students. It really does take a village of educators to raise an educated student. We have to get past the thinking "that is not in my curriculum" and work together for our students. At the high school, we cannot begin to build on the scaffolding that does not exist. Collaboration has to take place vertically, as well as, horizontally. We, the five foreign language teachers, are waiting patiently for our TIME!!!

I Love School!!!

Today has been an exciting day. It has been like the first day of school. Because I love school, I have truly enjoyed it. I have had the opportunity to meet several new people and explore a beautiful campus, too. I hope to be well informed upon the completion of the month. I look forward to being able to share many of the ideas, concepts, and information with my fellow teachers at home. Thank you to MSU and the faculty for providing this opportunity to area teachers.