Looking Back,

Potato in the Great Depression was a great and informing book.
Although its not as interesting as I thought it was, it still got the
point across that the Potato Famine did happen. As for team
teaching I think it was the worst decision I have made regarding
my education classes. I work much better by myself, and I do not
know why I wanted to work with a partner. I feel as though it was
because I want to become an Inclusion Teacher and that involves
working with another teacher. But my partner and I had two very
different learning styles that did not mesh well together at all!

When it came time for lesson plan creation, I basically put all the
effort into the lesson plan while my partner just submitted the
"assessment section". Which was fine but I would have rather have
50% cooperation and input from both sides, but that was not the case.
I probably would have enjoyed it more if I would have had someone
helping me with a team lesson plan in this supposed, "team teaching"
situation. But all in all I would have had a happier outcome if I worked
by myself because I know my strengths and my own weakinesses.

Looking back on my lesson I do regret the whole "regaining myself"
moment, but that's what I had to do in order to keep control of myself.
If I could go back that would be the only thing I would change, that along
with not using the podcast and just reading the book. The podcast did not
work as well as i thought it would and students could not hear it. Reading
the story and using a "picture walk" like Christine did was so much better!
And I would have structured the lesson a little more throughly so that
students would be able to stay on task more without getting distracted
and confused so easily.

All in all i loved the concept of the lesson, but I would change many
things about it because it did not work out the way i was planning.

Final Thoughts

I like the way that my portion of the story came out. I'm really glad
that I finally got to finish podcasting it. Both Sharnae and I have a
great flow of the story - and my portion of the story sounds extremley
convincing! I'm positive about this podcast of Potato: A tale of the
Great Depression. There was only one problem today, whih was that
my microphone was not working so then I had to record it onto Sharnaes
podomatic. Even though I did record it, it did not come out in her RSS
feed or as a new epidsode like it should have. But it is there, and created.
I'm positive about the outcome that podcasting can make on the
classroom, when all the technology kinks are worked out!

Podcasting Plans...

Well today is the last day in the podcasting lab. I hope today to have
a full story podcast at the end of this class. Already my effective questions
are done, now its time to finish the podcast of my story that I share with
Sharnae. Since it is the last day, I hope to accomplish a good podcast with
words that are clearly articulated and a story that will grab my students'
attention. I'm going to say that I want this podcast to be perfect but I
know that perfect is a stretch. I just want a good educational podcast that
I can use in my classroom teaching that will benefit the students.

Podcasting II:

Well.. podcasting today did not go as well as I wished it would.
Sharnae and I did not finish our blog because we forgot the book, but
we made a plan to finish it during Monday and Tuesday. Instead of
finishing our blog we did search for lesson plans to see the aray of
possibilites that come out of choosing a Great Depression book. I
did choose though, that my upcoming lesson that is due on October 9th
will be a History centered lesson including Language Arts. So yeah,
i was a little frustrated that I could not finish my lesson plan like
everyone around me was doing in the computer lab, and I could not
have as much fun as they were when they were reading their stories.
But i used my time wisely and planned the learning schedule I needed
by using this book, i.e preparing a lesson plan, effective questioning, and
to seeing the other learning objectives I can use with the a book that is
about the great depression. So in the end, i'm not mad because I actually
used my time wisely, even though I didn't podcast, I still got work done!!

Effective Questioning..

　

Questions correspoding to the story:

"Potato: The story of the Great Depression"

1.) Who are the characters in the story?

2.) What happened to Clarence?

3.) How did Clarence solve his familys problems?

4.) What did the family do to get food during the night?

5.) The family had leftover potatos, what did they do with them?

Current Thoughts...

My current state of mind is making me feel that podcasting
today will be different that others. I feel more determined in the
fact that I want to get this done correctly and efficently. I'm
positive about the outlook of the finished product, and I know
that i can't wait to use this story in my elementary school classroom.
Also, i am a little nervous because I know that technology does
not always run as smoothly as one would hope. And that i do not
feel my voice is as well as others because of the way that I say
certain words. I know i can get past this though, and I will. But alas,
I know that i need to be optimistic in order to finish this podcast. So
far podcasting has been fun, i really like it and I want to
explore it more especially educationally.

Mishaps..

Today I really noticed how hard it is to blog. Not because we
are bloggingin a group, but i'm having a problem with my voice.
Everytime it comes to saying POTATO i come out with POTATA...
its annoying.. I try to say it right but everytime it comes out wrong
and it is rather frustrating!! Come Friday i'm going to have this fixed
and be able to go threw my 14 pages by saying Potato correctly. Also,
today was good we got to experience reading the book and how we
sounded. Podcasting is great for educators because it allows us to hear
what we have to work on when it comes to Language Arts and Reading
especially because we donot want our students to pick up our bad habits.
GREAT LEARNING EXPERIENCE!!