My portfolio showcases various projects created throughout my Educ-2375 class. Down below are samples of my work for Fall 2019 and a link to contact me and follow me on my social media account.
Quilt
This activity had me use PowerPoint to create a “quilt” using images, clip art, shapes and different word fonts to create a masterpiece that described me. I am a Disney fanatic and i love my family. I also use Voice Thread to display this work for my fellow class mates. Here is the link to access on Voice Thread! https://voicethread.com/myvoice/
I had fun doing this activity because it allowed me to create a fun display of things that i loved and things that I loved to do without using actual words. I used my imagination and accessed pictures that I had saved from our family vacation to Disneyland! I was able to browse the internet for fun images that I could use to show my interest and hobbies as well! This activity was a very cute idea and I would love to be able to do this with my students.
For the first day of school I will be implementing the “quilt” idea in my classes! I will have each of my students crate a quilt about themselves and how they feel about history and school. I also would love to see their hobbies and their likes. Doing this activity at the beginning of school will also allow me to be able to get to know my students on a personal level and will allow me to be able to grow bonds with them. I think my future students would enjoy this activity and would have fun browsing each others “quilt” as well.
Family Recipe
This activity had me use Power Point to create a slideshow of a family recipe that I use regularly. This activity also had me write directions on how to create the recipe for the class and then post to Voice Thread for my classmates to comment on. Here is the link to Voice Thread to see my recipe and comments! https://voicethread.com/myvoice/
This activity was also a fun to create because it allowed me to use a family recipe that I use weekly. My husband and I are very fond of making guacamole, especially for weekend cookouts with our family, so giving directions on a recipe so dear to me, was special. I had never had to produce a recipe for anything so this was unusual for me. I was unaware that making my guacamole consisted of so mush work, but putting into words allowed me to see the hard work that goes in to making it. I will appreciate my husband a bit ore every time he makes it for me!
I also think my students would enjoy using something so dear to them when creating projects for my future classes. Using Voice Thread will also allow me, as a teacher, to grade multiple projects easier and faster while allowing the rest of the class to comment on each others projects. I think that being able to have my students interact with each other in a new and fun way will make my classes fun. I also think that providing new activities into my history classes will make my class different that what they are used to taking.
The Great Chili Challenge
For this activity my professor put our class into groups where we needed to develop a table, a graph using excel, and a PowerPoint presentation on at least 4 different salsas. Because we were all located in different areas, we used “ZOOM” to interact. Zoom is an app that can be downloaded onto a phone or computer to place meetings with large groups of people. This was a fun activity and I even had my family and friends help with this project, and they enjoyed it too !
I had used Zoom a lot this semester, in a different class, so I was very comfortable with the app. I think that Zoom is a very great app to use when trying to have a class meeting with one or multiple students. It gives a personable setting because you are face to face with the person on the other end of the phone or computer. I also liked being able to meet with my fellow classmates and do an activity that involved so much interaction.
I believe that I will use this app with my class when I may be absent and need to give directions on an activity or lesson. I think it will also be useful to have meetings with parents if a parent cannot meet with me in person. being able to be accessible to my students and their parents is very important to me, and ZOOM is the best way to incorporate technology and interaction in my class with my students and their parents.
Story Without Words
The story without words activity was just that, a story without words. PowerPoint and paint was used to create a slideshow that tells a story from beginning to end without using words. A small narration was added to each slide to make sure the story line was projected though the art.
This activity was fun, but it was a little hard for me to do. Paint is not a very easy platform to use but once I got the hang of it, I was able to finish it without any issues. Power point also had a great Christmas theme that I was able to use to help tell my story. I never thought how hard telling a story without words could be. Trying to draw with the paint application is also not an easy task. I had to have a steady hand and focus on what I wanted to draw.
I don’t think this activity would be great for smaller kids, because Paint is not so easy to use, but older kids would have a fun time doing this wordless activity and using their imagination. I could have my students try to draw an event that happened on a topic that we may be learning about. I think the kids would have fun and laugh at the drawings of their own work and their classmates work. This activity could also help students who do not like to draw, because they feel as if they cant, be able to draw and have comparable work to their peers. This would be a funny assignment!
Spirituality
For this activity I had to think about what spirituality meant to me and display it using an image as a background watermark using Word Document. I then had to answer questions that went over the water mark.
This activity was not hard to do at all. It was fun and again, I was able to use my imagination in my project. I was able to research images of what I believed, portrayed spirituality. I think spirituality comes from within a person. Every time I see a sunset I get this great feeling that sparks my soul, and I just know that God is watching over everyone.
I would love to use this activity in my History classes because it can give it more of a “spark” to a regular essay or written assignment. I also think that I would be able to see my students thoughts on how they see whatever topic we are discussing. Being able to see from an others point of view, is key to building better relationships with my students.
Mail Merge
This activity allowed me to create one letter or document,permission slip, and merge it with a database and send it out to a wide audience, parents of my students, without having to re-type the document. I love Disney, so I used a field trip to Disneyland for all my Disney princess students to make my mail merge!
This activity and the Excel sheet was a little hard to use but I think with practice, I could get better at mail merge. I was a little worried that the mail did not go out to all the recipients and this might make me hesitant to wan to try this in my future practice. However, I did like having access to my “students” parents and having their information accessible if needed.
I think that this would be a very handy platform to use when trying to send out multiple emails to multiple parents all at once. Having full classes of 20 or more could be a handful when trying to keep all students and their parents information accessible. Being organized and thorough will be key to my success in my classroom. Anything that makes my job as a teacher easier, is something that I will be willing to use day to day.
Newsletter
The Newsletter activity was a fun activity. We had to create a newsletter using publisher for a certain event and add a water mark to it. Of course I stayed consistent with my Disney theme and created the Newsletter to go with my “Disney class field trip”. The newsletter had to have our name, a grade level, calendar, watermark (wash-out), clip art, and word art, etc.
This activity was not hard, and again, allowed me to create a program using my imagination. Adding images to the document was easy, and so was designing it. The publisher application was easy to use and made it easy to crate my newsletter. I think this project would be a great idea, especially in my History classes for a fun project.
I could allow my students to create their own news letter using dates and people of the past but adding a modern spin to it. I think my students would have fun creating new projects and using their own imaginations. I also like how this activity would allow me to see how my students feel about certain events of the past as well.
Animoto
The Animoto project was one of my favorites! I had to use the Animoto website that allowed me to create a presentation that offered me to apply music to the slide show. I used, again going with my Disney theme, my family Disney Vacation that we went on for New Years eve this past January. We had to cover faces, for privacy reasons and use clip art happy faces to disguise my family in the photos. I also used photos that i took while I was at the Disneyland theme park. I used a carnival theme song because it went well with my theme of my video.
The Animoto website was better than using PowerPoint. It allowed me to access my images and place them in a organized way and in a easier manner than Power Point would ever allow me too. The Animoto slide setup is already set and organized so the placement of the images was great. Anything that can make my life easier as a student or a teacher is a win for me. I also loved the song selections in this program. There were so many to choose from. It was also fun crating a presentation that was close to my heart.
I think that in my future classes, I will be having my students use Animoto to make all presentations for my classes. Our class periods are only 45 min long, so using Animoto will allow my classes to be able to add so much content in a faster pace. I also loved the music addition to Animoto. Applying music to the slideshow makes each presentation come to life and I know my students will have fun going through the music and selecting the ones they like. This is a great program that I know I will be using a lot of in the future.
Spark Project
https://spark.adobe.com/video/BNXinn4vangFVhttp
For this activity, I used Adobe Spark to create a slideshow presentation using images and music provided by the application. I had to have anywhere from 5-10 slides telling my story. I used my children as the product of my presentation. Although everything revolved around Disney in my previous works, my children are the reason why I am a Disney fan. I do everything all for them, and because of them. Being a Disney fan allows me to stay young at heart, and staying young allows me to have great relationships with my children. I absolutely love this Spark application and I loved the video story it allowed me to make.
I know that along with Animoto, this Spark application will be one of my most used products in my future practice. I have already used his application out of my EDUC-2375 class. I helped a friend create a slideshow for her softball team using images and music in the Spark program. Spark is a super fast way to create slideshow presentations but is a lot faster then the regular PowerPoint program that is usually used in the classrooms.
Being able to have my students crate and finish activities and presentations in class is very important because a lot of students don’t really focus on homework, and may get lost in what I am asking of them. being able to have me in the classroom while they work on a Spark project will help me know that the work is getting done and help my students feel that i am there for them. I know my students would love to create their presentations using Spark and I cant wait to see the fun and creative ways my students use it!
Blog Project
For my Blog project, I used WordPress.com to create my blog that had to be on an educational topic. Because I am working towards my degree in History, I used the Titanic as my topic of my blog. I gathered images from web sites that helped my readers understand the story behind the Titanic events that occurred on April 14,1912 and the early morning on April 15, 1912.
It was not easy creating a blog. At first It was overwhelming but after a few minutes into the WordPress program, I was able to create a fun and informative piece. Figuring out the topic that I was going to select was the hardest pat of the blog. I wanted to select a good topic that I would be interested in, because that is key when making a good presentation. Finding good information on the Titanic was fun and was really easy since there are so many websites with stories about it. Trying to navigate the web page editor was a bit tricky at first. I had fun once I got the hang of it, and I do believe that I will use a blog for my History classes.
Students are so technol savvy now and producing a blog for my students to visit on act ivies in class, or class information will be a fun way to interact with them. I would also love to see the blogs that mys students wold create on certain topics that we may discuss in class.
My Collage On My Thoughts of Teaching
Educational Video
The Video that I selected from YouTube is The Human History Documentary 2018, that was published by Furaha Mchezo. I selected this video because of course it has a lot to do with History and how man and earth was created. Many scientist try to figure out how the world came to be by using science and this video tries to break down our journey of evolving, by using science, however I don’t believe in the science theory. I believe in the Bibles version of how we came to be. God created us. As I learn about History and watch the History Channel all day, I often wonder how or why people try convince themselves, and others, on how man was created. In this video it starts by saying that micro organisms were created and produced oxygen, which then created living organisms in the water. It then goes on to say that those water organisms evolved into creatures and animals that walked the earth. How can a complex human being, be created by an organism or any animal on this earth? I know that this video is not really “traditional” history that educates us on real events that have taken place, for example Pearl Harbor or WWI, but It still intrigues me to try to understand the world and the events that have taken place in it, regardless of when or what it may be. I love to learn new things and I love to learn about all types of History no matter what the topic may be.
Educational Web Site
I chose the website, Teachers Pay Teachers, because I had recently did a classroom observation at our local high school with, Mrs. White, the History teacher. In my observation, I saw Mrs. White provide the students with many activities such as practice sheets, worksheets, and fun activities, like games, on the topic that she was teaching, WWII. On one of the days I observed she also provided the students with videos and presentations on actual survivors and family members of survivors from Pearl Harbor. At the end of the video presentations, she was able to quiz the students on what they had watched and leaned from the videos. When the day was over she had explained to me that all the work and videos she had provided was from the website, Teachers Pay Teachers. Mrs. White also explained that she usually gets her lesson plans from this website for her classes. She also went on to tell me that this program can create and has already finished lesson plans on many topics for all teachers in every subject. As she showed me the website, I noticed that there was free content for teachers and the items that were not free, were available to purchase at a very small price! I know that I will be using this program in my classes especially for my first year of teaching! I know that first year of teaching, can cause teachers to feel overwhelmed and feel frustrated when designing lesson plans and any program that can assist me in making my life as a teacher a bit easier, then i will use it. I also saw a few of the fun activities that were offered by this program and I saw the students interact while completing these activities. I know that my future students will benefit and enjoy the work that Teacher pay Teachers offers.
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Mrs.Pina_History_Teacher 