STORY

This week for IP&T we have to create a project using PhotoStory. I decided to do a twist on a fairy tale. Here are my layouts. Hopefully it turns out cool... : )
I learned a lot doing this, even though we haven't quite finished it yet. I have never used PhotoStory before, but I really like it. It's a new type of technology that I think can be really helpful in the classroom. This would be great to do to introduce a new book or a new them to the classroom. It is nice to have a lot of different methods to teach. I realized I can do a lot with photostory like claymation, fairytales, ABC books, music vidoes, and voice recordings. I thought they were all really good ideas to use. I did not realize that it was so accessible. Now that I have Photo Story on my computer, I think I will use it a lot more.

Talk about a great weekend

I just love weekends, especially ones like we are having so far. It started last night with a great date with this guy in my ward, which was really fun. We also cleaned the apartment this weekend for cleaning checks, so our home is wonderful!! THis morning we slept in until about... ten.. I know, kinda late, but so wonderful. When we got up, we were waiting for our cleaning checks to start so I just layed on my bed for a while. We listened to all the David Archuleta songs we could find, read scriptures, and talked about our great Friday night. Then cleaning checks came and we passed!!! Then Tara said she would go on ANOTHER bike ride with me. She's truly amazing. We went for another ten miler and it felt great. It helped that Tara FINALLY had a bike that fit her. We made pretty good time and only ate a few bugs on the way. Oh yeah, Tara did freak out because a grasshopper was "attacking her bike"... yeah, she's great. Now we are home and we are going to go shopping before we head up to Salt Lake for the Relief Society Broadcast and dinner after that. Tomorrow is Sunday, which is always wonderful. I love having great weekends. My parents are coming in town this next week and I can't wait to see them. They are the best parents ever!! Well, there's my weekend. It was great.

Tech Savvy

This week I learned a lot of interesting things about Google Earth. Not only did I use it to imitate a newletter for my imaginary classroom, but I found my house! It was actually really fun to look at my house. I even showed my roommate - it's crazy how close it can get. I can see the window to my bedroom. Anways, it was fun to use new tools and explore new things. I am learning a lot.

Two weeks left

I just found out that I am having reconstructive knee surgery on October 2nd, which is a little less than two weeks away. It's a pretty intense surgery, complete with a few days in the hospital and three months on crutches! It's not my first choice, but right now, it's the right thing for me. SO... My roommate (aka fairygodmother) has decided that she will make all my wishes (or most of the wishes I can do on two good legs) come true. We are going to do all the things I want to do and can do with two working legs that I will not be able to do for quite a long time. Last night we went to the park and we played night games, bases to be specific. It was a great game and tara got to know a few people a little better than she did before. Today we are going for a bike ride, next week we are going country swing dancing and play some ultimate. It should be a pretty sweet two weeks.

School is going well so far. I am able to stay on top of most things and I'm not really procrastinating, which is a good quality. I am also enjoying most of my classes, which is also really good. Roommates are wonderful - we are all getting along really well. I don't know what I would do without them!! They make like a lot easier and a lot happier, especially when we have unexpected trials pop up! (especially roommates who are living in other countries). We are going on our first roommate date this weekend - World of Dance Concert - should be exciting. Dating in general, well that's about as wonderful as it always has been... hahaha. I still plan on eating at Olive Garden in April and have Tara paying for it!!!

Overall, life is going well. We are enjoying the time of two good legs, before we are down one leg and up two (crutches)

New info

I learned a lot about fair use this week. I did not know that there were so many opportunities for teachers. I never knew that the laws made exceptions for teachers, research, scholarships, and criticism. I never thought about it before, but it does make sense considering all the technology that has been used in many of my classes over the years. I do realize that there are rules that we still have to follow, but when we follow these rules, it allows for us to have more opportunities.
Here is a link to one of the sights I went to: www.Legalzoom.com

NEW TOOLS

This week was very enlightening with all the new tools we used. I found that having an RSS feed can be really interesting. I have mine connected to a few different sites. I have one connected to a teacher website, one to the washington post, and one to LDS spiritual inspirations. It's nice to be able to find articles that i want without haveing to go through a ton of information. It is easy to find what I want when I want it. I also found that using Goodreads can be very helpful. It is a great way for students to find new books and new ideas. I think it's also helpful for teachers to find new books. Is nice to have so many research tools close at hand.

Sundays are for Naps.. and Surprises

So today was a great Sunday. We had Regional Conference and Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Packer came to speak to us. It was a great way to start off the semester. It was so wonderful to have the leaders of the church come and give us the words of the Lord. It was wonderful! My favorite thing Elder Uchtdorf said was "do not fear. Fear is the opposite of faith". I really liked this. I need to remember it more often. After church, we came home and had roommate dinner, which was the first time we have all eaten together at the same time, in the same room, I think. It's always a good time for some roommate bonding. Because we had Regional Conference, we had church from 10:00 to 12:00, instead of 1:00 to 4:00, so we had so much time after church today. Perfect time for a nap. I slept only for an hour and a half, pretty impressive for being an Armstrong. But the reason I only slept for a short while is because my roommate came in and told us it was a perfet time to prank our neighbors! We've been planning a prank for a bit now and we've been waiting anxiously for the opportune moment. We are now starting a prank war with our guy friends in the apartmen down the alley from us, who we know from last year. We tried to go into their apartment this morning at 8:00 because we knew some of them had a meeting to attend. HOWEVER, darn responsible boys, locked their doors. So in the middle of nap time we tried again. The doors were unlocked when we went over there and no one was down stairs. Perfect! We placed our ransom poem on the table and then took all six of their kitchen chairs, their computer chair, and three banana chairs. We said they could have them back if they cooked us dinner... and so we wait. Needless to say, I love Sundays.

video upload

This is my niece, I think she was two or three at the time. She wanted me to wrap her feet together in an ankle wrap. Then she tried to get up and walk around. It makes me laugh. OH and if you are wondering why her hair is so short, this is right after she gave herself a new haircut.

FIrst Time Blog

So this is my first time having a blog and I am pretty excited about it. I know a lot of my friends have blogs and they have always seemed to enjoy them. I am excited about learning a lot of new information. After watching the teachertube videos I realized how much technology can help us. I didn't consider how much we, as teachers, could use digital technology to connect with our students. I think by learning about these new resources, it will help us to connect to our children better. So far, I'm enjoying this class.