Teamwork, and more teamwork!

I've been pretty busy as of late but I am able to share the fruits of our collaborative teamwork here with the world. The first website was created for us to learn how to work together as a team and design classroom instruction. This website is great for teachers as a easy to use website with lots of great technology resources, web links, instructional videos, etc. Our team, Team Honey Badgers put in the overtime to bring this website to you but through it we have formed some strong bonds, both as educators and, as friends. Check it out... https://sites.google.com/site/edld5366collaborativewebsite/home Our second website it currently in its' 4th week of production and is humming right along. This website offers science project ideas for elementary school, namely the 3rd grade. The mission is create complete units on earth science with short, easy to access activities which could be used to introduce the unit to the student, or can easily be integrated into the entire lesson. The idea is Universal Design for Learning which basically says that in the lesson, all class work, the student comes first. The ultimate goal is collaborative learning which helps students grow both emotionally and socially as well as work with technology. The idea of collaborative, social and tech based are all traits that in my opinion are now characteristics of today's students. Enjoy: https://sites.google.com/site/edld5363technologyintegration/

Another one down!

I just finished my fourth Lamar class last week, 5366 and I learned quite a bit. I finally dusted off the application folder with Photoshop CS3 on it on my laptop and used it for the first time. I used it to create a personal logo in 5366. I also discovered that Photoshop is a pretty complex program but after a few hours of use I was more comfortable with it. I also made a collaborative website for teachers using google sites and I will be doing this with my own Spanish department at my high school. What is great about collaboration is that everyone can contribute their talents to a project and you also learn effective teamwork, communication and following deadlines. Check out our teachers resource below... https://sites.google.com/site/edld5366collaborativewebsite/

"Goanimate" in the Spanish classroom!

I had played around with xtranormal.com in my previous Lamar class EDLD 5363 and now I decided to try out goanimate.com The video turned out pretty good and is way less complicated and faster to work with than xtranormal. You are also more limited with the free version of goanimate.com but you can still have fun with it in class. Here is my sample video below... Comida China V2 by travis.patocka on GoAnimate

Animated Presentations - Powered by GoAnimate.

My Stykz Animation Video, EDLD 5366

I also learned how to work with a few different animation programs. For class I created a short Stykz animation video that I ran through iMovie so that I could incorporate sound and some credits. Good stuff!

Teachers Resources Collaborative Web Page. EDLD 5366

Check out this website we have been working on in EDLD 5366. We have created a website dedicated to technolgy, web 2.0 tools and resources for parents and teachers both in and outside of the classroom. Enjoy! https://sites.google.com/site/edld5366collaborativewebsite/

Still alive and kicking!

Just wanted to post a little update about what I have been up to. The PlascoTrac research continues and still, we consistently have more students in class daily than we did at this time last year! I will be recording the attendance data for the month of January here in about a week so we will see what will happen. I'm curious that since the flu has been so severe this year if it might modify the attendance results that I otherwise would have reported but the main idea of my project is just where we end up, come May of 2013. I am currently taking EDLD 5366 and am building a collaborative website with other classmates, two of which I worked with on an animated video in my previous class. It is going pretty good and if you want to check out our work so far, go here...

Action Research, Round 2!

It has been a while since I've shared anything on my blog, well it has only been about two weeks but I thought now might be a nice time to share some of the initial findings from my action research project. What I have been doing is plugging in quantitative data from the attendance at our school and looking for any patterns in the attendance numbers. The good news is that our attendance has been consistently up at the building I teach in since we began using our PlascoTrac program! Feel free to download my reports in this blog and check out my findings so far... https://sites.google.com/site/travispatockaspanish/action-research-project-for-lamar/preliminary-action-research-results All of my research has documentation to prove its' validity so please, share any data from my report so far! I am also looking at the literature and case studies out there on PlascoTrac. There are a slew of case studies on schools that have begun using this program in their schools.