Thankful

Unfortunately I missed a lot of class last week due to conferences but I was able to catch the last five minutes. I am happy that after class ended my classmates were able to summarize how the class went. It was nice to summarize with Amy what was left for myself to do in the course. I am completely finished so I will give you my portfolio! Everything is updated and I will just be completing my blog until the end of the class.

In other news, I will not be attending tomorrow since I am at school for a bit. I need to get ready for my CEU class on Tuesday.

Finally, I am very thankful for this semester and would like to thank everybody for being great classmates. I appreciate all your help and kind words.

Thank you!

Sunday Evening

Hello all,


How is everyone? Just relaxing here on this Sunday evening. Last Monday was a great class. I enjoyed learning about the Tuckman model since I was able to relate to the information provided. Today I watched the motivation TED talk and it was interesting to see that lower monetary value have a higher motivation than if a lot of money of offered. A great motivational speaker was from about five years ago when a kid Dalton Sherman gave a speech to his teachers.

Watch it.... It's awesome. 

In other news, I have conferences this week and as a computer teacher I actually have one tomorrow night. I will most likely miss class, but I am going to try to come home before class ends. If not, sorry for the motivation attribute. If somebody reads this I will describe it as, "Motivation is awesome because it sparks you to be better. After researching, I can see how you are more motivated when you are going to have results that will make you a better person. You do not need material items to be motivated. I chose the one picture of the guy chasing the item on the pole because I found it funny and also to never stop giving up. I also list the quotes because I feel they are motivational themselves.

Vision is sort of like motivation. I have this one in my room. "Vision: It's kind of fun to do the impossible" (I believe the words are like that)

Rainy Rainy RAINY day

Wow! What a rainy day! So today was neat in school. I tried out the Makey Makey I purchased and I'm going to get ready for the hour of code. I'm going to start hanging signs up to get students wondering what the signs are talking about. Wednesday I will be discussing it at the faculty meeting.

I am going to use the Makey Makey with my gifted and talented 5th grade students somehow. I am thinking to have them create something in Scratch.


In other news, looking at the schedule for class....it is really ticking down. Only a few more classes to go. I submitted my lesson plan and also the attribute for tonight. I saw the new posting assignment but I am a little confused...so hopefully we will be discussing that tonight.

Alright...time to eat and get ready for class. Talk to everyone soon!

Deleted my lesson plan :(

Two weeks ago I showed my lesson plan to everybody and I went to go upload it yesterday. However, I decided to clean my computer out yesterday morning and well... I deleted it :(

I thought...oh great! Then I remembered I showed it and possibly it was on the archive...nope that wasn't recorded.

Time to retype! 

Veteran's Day

Class last week was a nice surprise to have it end early. I was able to get a lot finished. I updated my portfolio. I also finished the draft of my lesson plan but I haven't submitted it yet. I also jumped ahead and submitted my orientation slide. I was in a very working mood. This week I am very busy at school. Tuesday, I will have the CEU class that I am teaching. I will be going over Pages, Keynote, and Quicktime. I really want to focus on Quicktime to show teachers that they can create tutorials for students. On Thursday, another teacher who is a Vet will be running "Holler at a Hero" where he is connecting his 26 students with 26 troops in Afghanistan through Skype. I have been helping him out. I create the Skype accounts off one email and we are going to match them up before Thursday to try to test run a few.It will be amazing to see it happen on Thursday. i'm very excited for it. Friday, we have a huge Veteran Day assembly at the school. I've been creating a few different videos that will be shown. anyway, I'm off to visit a wedding venue today and tomorrow. See ya later! no class meeting on Monday. I'll be using that time to work on other projects.

Eventful Day!

I am not going to write long today because I have been working on my portfolio today. Check it out! While you are checking out the side, make sure you read about my wildcard which was going down to speak to MAIT-5001 about code.org, the MAIT program, and developing apps. Teachers convention is coming up and I am going to try to finish everything during those two days for the rest of class. Tuesday I have a workshop that I am facilitating. I am going to use this as my lesson I will develop as I looked at examples. Alright. Adios!

Busy Week

To begin, class was great on Monday to see how everyone tied everything together. I think I did a pretty good job at facilitating. I appreciated how everybody participated which made it easy to flow from one slide to another. I enjoyed seeing many different views of self-concept. I posted the summary map to show everybody and I think that also came together well. I need to work on my portfolio. I am going to make it look amazing over teacher convention weekend. I need to spend time with it since I haven't created one for any other class. This week is going to be busy for me. Tomorrow, I have a coding workshop to institute computer science into the elementary school setting. I will be traveling up to Shrewsbury, NJ to the Monmouth County Library to go to the workshop. Tuesday, I have my first CEU session which I will be discussing instant assessments (Padlet, Socrative, InfuseLearning, Google Forms). On Wednesday, I'll be making the trip down to Stockton to speak to Amy's Intro class. Well, I'm off to grading my SGO... bye!

Class tonight!

Tonight, I will be presenting and leading the discussion. I think something is going on though. Last week, was it Jessica that felt sick? My throat is killing me right now.

I just posted the Master Map for attribute #2. It was great for everyone to enter in the slides so I could put it together. Thank you everyone. I will make this real short but I wanted to also announce that I am going to hear Ian Jukes speak at an in service in November.

evolution pic.twitter.com/53zz9vHPKB

— banksy (@thereaIbanksy) October 14, 2014

Self Concept and a new app

Tomorrow I will lead the discussion about the self concept for Malcolm Knowles. I am going to follow the lead of the last great discussion. I am a bit nervous because I am wondering if I will have any trouble with my mac at all sharing my screen. As long as everybody can see my screen, I'll be fine.

Four days of classes this week at school. Tuesday I have a professional day to get ready for an in-service. Next week I am going to the Shrewsbury library to attend a workshop on bringing coding to the elementary curriculum via code.org.

Today I submitted a new app to the Apple App store... I'll discuss that in a few weeks once it becomes approved. The average awaiting time is up to 13 or 14 days. I'll leave my picture with a sneak peak.

Chapter 2 18+

I just wanted to write a short blog post. I just finished reading chapter 2 pages 18-26 for tonight in the Rothwell book. He opens my eyes by seeing how I behave towards different learners but the writing style just irks me. He writes about 4 pages on different learning styles....then lays out an AWESOME table on the next three pages! I wish I saw that prior to reading. I have an easier time gaining knowledge from the table. Then again, possibly having them both in the book helps multiple learners.

I realized that I am a functionalistic. I enjoy showing students and adults why they should learn certain tools and I try hard to encourage those.

Some Amazon reviews of the book.

On a rainy morning..

It's a good time to write a blog entry on this rainy morning. How is everybody doing? After I write this, I'm going to continue work on my powerpoint slide. Class was nice last week since we talked about facilitation. This course is helping me a lot since I am in charge of many professional development meetings this year. It is giving me an easier time talking to my peers about the new technology in the school. I'm very grateful that this course is helping me a lot.

Also, I take back my feelings about Socrative. I'm in love with the tool again. I decided to use it during my observation and came out great. Next week, I was asked to share it during the faculty meeting.

In other news, my one app updated... Goal Rubric . You can download it now for the iPad. It helps with assessments for elementary school and works off a 4, 3, 2, 1 level. It is a free app but while you are trying it out...click on the ads :)

Alright, well I'm off to work on a few items and go to a family birthday party later on. How a good day!

What's App-ening?

This weekend I'm going to work on my timeline. However, I am upset that Dipity hasn't been working well. I'm going to take Amy's advice and stay away just in case something goes bad. Maybe it is time to try some toast. Besides that, class is going pretty well. Since we do not have class this week, I think I may help out at the laptop distribution for one of the middle schools in Howell.


which brings me to the personal part of my blog...

Going 1:1 has kept me very busy, but I can tell that it is going to end up being smoothly soon. It is just a process. I think that is my word of the year (process). I'm excited to go through all of this because it is going to be amazing once the year is complete.

The Blog is Back in TOOOOWWWWWWN

Hello all.

How are you? I wrote  a nice blog post the other day on Weebly. I was very excited because Weebly is very easy to use. However, something happen and the page didn't upload correctly so here I am...

BACK TO STEVE RAO AND THE TECHNO THOUGHTS! Ah the reminder of my first MAIT class. good times.

In other news, class is in a little over an hour. It feels weird to not be able to attend class, but I can't make it down to Hammonton. Some information definitely gets lost. Last week we broke into groups. Shane was a great partner. When we finished, we went back to the main room and I was sitting there for twenty minutes at least wondering where everyone went. Luckily Shane replied and I knew everybody was working on the other assignments. 

I'm also a bit sad that I will be doing assignments by myself. It has been great working with others in MAIT but my schedule is so crazy right now that I don't want to frustrate anyone that may have been my partner if certain times to discuss material do not match up. 

School has been huge this year. Our school district became a modified 1:1 in 3-5 and 1:1 in grades 6-8. Students in grades K-2 will have iPads on a 1:2 ration.

Anywho... let me run and finish some work.

SEE YA!

2 weeks!

Two weeks till the end of the semester.  Tonight will be a fun class since it may be our last in the room. I know we were possibly thinking of a field trip for next week.  I received my comments about my work and I'm very happy with the results.  It feels great to be finished with my first masters class!

In other news, I think I'm going to try to apply to the ETTC and see what path that takes me.  I need a job really bad and hopefully I will get something very soon.

Aside from that,  I am going away Wednesday to Friday, so I'm excited to relax especially after the retail madness from this past weekend with Black Friday.

Also it may snow tomorrow night!

Happy days!

Steve

Thanksgiving Week!

Last Week's class was awesome.  I enjoyed being in that room but I feel that we should have had iPads or computers to follow.  I really want to learn more about smartboards.  Sitting in class I had many ideas on how to improve technology in education.  I don't want to say much about it here but I have some great ideas.  Many different apps that can be created to make education easier.

I also finished all of my projects for class except for the PLN which I feel I will complete by Thanksgiving morning.  It is crazy thinking how quickly class is going by and how we are almost done with this semester.

Thanksgiving I am going to my girlfriend's grandmas and then back to my house for dessert with my family.  Every year we go back and forth with holidays.  We will be at dinner on one side and dessert on the other side.

Hopefully Friday will be my last Black Friday working.  I have to be at the store at 430AM to open at 5... I am happy that the store isn't open on Thanksgiving night like some stores are doing.  That is ridiculous.

Anyway, see everyone tonight in class!

Monday Funday

Last week's class was pretty exciting.  I enjoyed hearing about PowToon.  The only complaint that I have is that I wish it was free.  Even if it was a small charge it would be very helpful.  I just feel that some of the prices are outrageous.

The rest of my week consisted of getting ready for the snow storm.  The snow that fell was very heavy where many trees around me fell.  People throughout town lost power but luckily I didn't.  Today in class I heard that one teacher still does not have power since the hurricane.  That is scary.

The above picture is also very scary.  Black Friday is approaching and I doubt it will be busy this year. What bothers me the most this year is that many stores are opening at 8 PM on Thanksgiving.  It is a shame how stores are opening earlier and earlier each year.

....so much for having a family holiday

Hurricane Sandy

so last night I got my power back. so sad. I never experienced anything like this. and it isnt even that I'm in bad shape because our worst situation is we lost all our food in the fridge and a few shingles on our house. Friends of mine lost their house where water went all throughout the first floor. lost their brand new car. people dying in seaside or LBI. its just sad and crazy, who would have thought this would happen.

For the first time I'm seeing these pictures. My iPhone was working but very very slow connection. Gas lines are still insane where half the stores around have no power. Just annoys me when I listen to Jersey 101.5 and I hear some guy calling up criticizing the pole workers because they do not see them or that they see some trucks at a five guys eating. these guys work non stop and they deserve a break. Seeing all these trucks driving around from other states (electric companies) felt so great to see others helping out. and with all the politics around it felt great how a huge republican (Christie) and democrat (Obama) came together as people. I respect them both so much. Just catching a news glimpse tonight but listening to christie on the radio the past few days i'm happy he is governor (even with everything with teaching)...and he has been saying that Obama has been handling this all well... but anyway makes me mad how that guy on the radio complains of no power meanwhile you have some without homes. TREES ARE STILL ON TOP OF HOUSES and wires are still down and you have this jerk complaining of no power



Sorry for ranting, I'm just so devasted hearing about this I guess because it is all in my backyard. I used to go to seaside almost everyday in the summer to either walk the boardwalk or go to Midway cheesesteaks...Midway was the place Christie talked about as the free standing sausage place that just was gone.(EDIT! IT HAS SURVIVED CONTRARY TO REPORTS I SAW A PICTURE IT IS THERE!) they made the best worst cheesesteaks for like 7 bucks...you get a steakum with velvetta cheese sauce on a 6 inch sub... it was so good somehow. or you go to the rides. The log flume and the rollercoaster that is in the water, I remember it as a little kid and now it is gone.

All these questions go through my mind like on LBI is fantasy island still there? (arcade) or the Chegg (local legend dive) or what about Old Barney the lighthouse.(just saw a video of it standing strong...so happy about this)... its just sad. Today someone I know who works for Wawa was saying that they were using snow plows to get the sand off the streets. It's just crazy. Also up in point...we took my brothers wedding pictures there... areas are gone. So many people I know are now out of work, I know some people that were able to access seaside because of work and the photos they took are awful

sorry for the long rant...just everything I've been thinking.. I cant wait to drive over to seaside or lbi to just see the place..it'll be weeks from now but geez, its going to be so emotional...I hope they don't find anymore bodies. here are some pictures, the first two are from a house on my street. The others are just memories that are now so damaged it's crazy




see the giraffe in the upper left. That is a rooftop mini golf course. They had objects like the giraffe and a gorilla and a zebra. I'm surprised it is still standing which is weird. but once I got a hole in one on the final hole. celebrate so crazily when I was 18 haha 

so many memories with my friends when I was in high school from the boardwalk

This morning somebody posted this on facebook

Seaside

see everyone on Monday...

Awaiting Sandy

Class was canceled last week so I cannot comment on that.  However, the water cooler seems to be  a big hit.  I was asked to do security at the high school for two weeks to sub in for somebody.  I said alright.  I was also asked by a supervisor to give a demonstration to about 30 teachers on Web 2.0 Tools.  They enjoyed many of the apps I showed.  The best one they enjoyed was Socrative.  Everybody the past few days told me they enjoyed what I spoke of and some have even shared with me how they are incorporating what they have used in their lessons.  I wish I was able to teach teachers how to use different technologies as a job.  I would be great at that.

In other news, Sandy is starting.  I live a mile from the bay so it is a little nervous with the rising water.  People so far that live within 1000 feet of the bay have been evacuated.  Both of my jobs are closed Monday and Tuesday.  Lets hope all is well.  Tomorrow starting at noon, everyone in town must stay home.  Hopefully Sandy won't be too mean.  I want to make sure my phone works and last.  However if you are looking for a great police scanner, search your app store.  There are many out there that work well.  Here is a great scanner that I use.


Anyway... Talk to you all on well hopefully soon.

take care

Quizlet

Once again I am subbing today in a high school.  The students are doing a review which is all online at a 2.0 tool called Quizlet.  There is actually also an app for it on the iPhone.  It is basically a great review tool where you can also print out packets as well.  I am going to remember this tool so I can use it when I teach.

As for our previous class, it was my favorite so far.  I enjoyed how we had the three of the same presentations, but at the same time, we had completely different information.  At first I thought class would be boring listening to two of the same presentations but I loved how unique they were delivered.  This class was perhaps the only one that I actually enjoyed doing a group project with.  I'm looking forward to our special class meeting next week!

Random thought: Is it weird that Christmas decorations are out at stores already?!?!?! As for the yankees...baseball season is over :( but hopefully this season we don't spend a lot on free agents and go back to relying on our farm system.

Late Late Late...but still on time

Here is my weekly blog post, a little late but still on time before tonight's 6PM class.  I'm excited today to give our presentation with my group.  We worked really well together and I feel we will also be able to deliver our content nicely.

I also enjoyed Dawn's tool last week and it was nice to have her son interact instead of just showing "Hey this is skype".  I don't usually use Skype but for business purposes I would.  Today a supervisor at the school I'm subbing at told me that there might be a position open involving maintaining technology at the school.  I'm going to ask around for letters of recommendation possibly.  I hope this turns into something, even if it is part time.

my picture of the week is Windows 8.  The new operating system comes out october 26.  This past weekend I had to take many tests and certifications at my job to ready to sell these computers to customers in about two weeks.  Overall, I am happy with the new operating system but it is going to take a while for everyone to get used to it.

Well I'm off to take the drive down to class.