InTASC Standard #10: Leadership & Collaboration

After reading these standards - for the first time - I was able to reflect and assess my high school. And we as a small high school staff of 15 have met & exceed all these standards. Since I have been a high school coach for over 20 years I have always compared being on a sports team to being part of teaching staff, or any other profession that has teams, etc. All departments within a school are there to educate the learner within their subject matter of expertise. The core classes seem to generate the most attention with required state testing and samples, and this is appropriate. But I also feel that Art, Music, Welding/Wood Shop, Culinary, and PE classes are just as important to kids in my high school. The kids will tell me this! Each teacher is striving to get top results out of each and everyone of their students...they are the leaders of their classrooms. All must commuicate and teach their subject matter clearly, amongst misc. hurdles. And all the teachers in my high school must communicate with parents and the community as well. I have also learned a great deal about technology incorporated within the daily routines of a teaching day in the last decade...it is forever moving ahead. I also feel that staff members must "agree to disagree" on certain issues/topics in staff meetings. And never to forget about "what is best for kids." And staff members must collectively remember that learners in the broad range of K-12 are still kids! Even the 18 or 19 year old senior still wants structure and yearns for interesting lessons and projects! I feel all K-12 schools in the USA must collaborate together(within their staff) to strive for the highest standards possible for their students!

Homework Tool #4: Ch 23 Voki Avatar

I had SO much fun with Voki although I was a bit scared! Once I got in and started playing around with the features I felt a lot more comfortable. This really is a neat, educational avatar that a teacher - especially an online educator - could use. Once I created a virtual looking cartoon that resembles me, I decided to link this talking cartoon to my homework project blog.  After I created my near cartoon appearance with Voki's facial, body, & clothes tools(my wife helped me and we had a blast) I recorded a message.  I did this by calling a number and it recorded my call and linked it to Mr. C Voki! Amazing! I figured since parents and students do visit my art project blog, an avatar of me can only enhance my blog. I plan on talking about current art projects in my Art I, II, III, & IV claases. I will also talk about Yearbook dealines & issues. This will be the 5th year that we've been required to have a teacher homework page/blog so I think even more parents and students will visit and... now get a chuckle out of Mr. C. the Avatar! I plan on updating my Voki recording weekly during the school year, especially for the Yearbook.

Homework Tool #3 Ch 22: Pupil Pages

For a high school visual arts student looking to display their work, Pupil Pages is ideal and the tool I used. I have helped serious high school art students put together large physical portfolios for 20 years. Usually I have them take 15-20 8"x 10" color glossy photos and put them into the clear sleeves in their portfolios. Since there are still art portfolio career fairs, the physical portfolio is still essential. I will continue to aid my students in this process, but I will now in introduce them to Pupil Pages or Mahara. Today's high school students are so "tech" savy and my serious senior art students will love this tool. They can set up their home page, write a bio, create a resume, and descirbe their uploaded 2-D & 3-D artwork uploaded with titles and comments. When they are applying for Art Institutes, Design Colleges or University Art programs - for scholarships - they can attach their portfolio link to the prospective school. I will definitely show this to 3 of my serious art students in the class of 2013. For my demo I uploaded past student artwork that I sectioned into mediums(i.e. drawing, photography, etc.). I will demo Pupil Pages to my Seniors this school year.

Response to OR Technology Standards - Essential Skills

Alignment and Essential Skills(183.03KB)
#6: Use of technology to learn, live, & work.
Part a of this section touched on the use of creativity and innovation to generate ideas, products, or processes using current technology. In relation to my Yearbook class, this standard is very relevant. My learners have to put together a new product every academic year: the hardcover yearbook. For the past 10 years we've used Jostens' online yearbook program to create our book. 16 students have to create the book with photos, stories, captions, stats, & design tools. Part c also mentioned a practice of legal & responsible behavior in the use & access of technology. I am the advisor & boss of what will eventually be published and printed SO things must be appropriate! I have editors 'edit' pages but I am the teacher and ultimately have the final say on pages and deadlines.

#9: Demonstrate Personal Management & Teamwork skills.
Parts a, b, c, & d basically state that all members of a particular class must cooperate, produce, and solve problems as a team. Respect is critical and team members must complete tasks on time. Not knowing these standards until I read them, I've used these every year while creating the yearbook as a team. Students are assigned various tasks throughout the year such as taking photos, creating pages, selling ads, & working in our snack store. Part d mentions work ethic & performance, including the ability to be responsible and dependable. My yearbook students do this annually when creating the yearbook. The must be responsible & dependable to finish their pages. They work hard to create a final attractive book - this is their final performance/result/product!

Homework Tool #2 Sharing Images Ch 19 - Picasa

I had heard of Picasa but never really knew what it was until I read about it in Chapter 19.  Since I teach  Yearbook and also have a unit on photography with two of my Art classes, this is a great tool to show my students. 99% of high school students know how to upload photos from their memory card to their own computer with all the social networking sites, etc., so I'm not worried about them teaching this. But with shooting photos for both classes, students can see what results I want by observing my photos. I stress to students to shoot "high, low, focused, and have good light." The goal is to take interesting, different shots. One of the first unit/projects I assign in my photography unit for my Art students is extreme up close photos. These photos will be taken in color and black & white. With Picasa I uploaded the photos I took outside my home so I can present them as exmaples to show to my students in class. I have the choice to share/distribute(i.e. email) through Picasa's tools or just keep them to myself and display them. I would show them on my computer at school as a slide show. I don't have a mounted slideshow projector set up yet, but plan on getting one installed this school year or next summer...it is time! Picasa is something I will use as a teacher and for my personal use.

July 18 Group Assignment Wiki Presentation Ch 8-10, 12-14

Dave Lee and I collaborated on applying a slide show for student use through Wikis. We decided to use  the science element Uranium for our slide show subject matter. We created alternate slide pages that will eventually presented to a chemistry class. This would be presented to group in an actual classroom setting. This Powerpoint can be created separately by students - but they can still be seen for editing and visual changes. This is a great way to create, present and communicate a particular subject matter via powerpoint. In my subject matter of Art, I could have students create an art history or media slide presentation for the class.