Journal 8 NETS 1,2,3,4, & 5

 McCombs, B. (2010). Create a culture of collaboration. Learning & Leading with Technology, 38(3), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-november.aspx

The article Create A Culture of Collaboration, written by Brenda McCombs the director of technology for Kannapolis City Schools lays out the history of the town once depended on Textile Mills.  With hardships in the1980s and in the beginning of the 21st century the textile mills were sold.  The Cannon Mills plant was bought by David H. Murdock in 1982 and he lied down a plan of development for the community.  Kannapolis was incorporated in 1984 making it officially the City of Kannapolis.  In 2003 bankruptcy forced one of the biggest layoffs in North Carolina's history.  Currently being built on the former site of Cannon Mills is the North Carolina Research Campus.  This change from textile mills to a research campus awoke the city of Kannapolis and forced the city to recreate its skill set. 

After Attending a nine day leadership seminar at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, three principals and the district technology director of Kannapolis were determined to create a new culture.  The four implemented a professional development program with their teachers and administrators.  The teachers and admins were trained to assist teachers and to teach them to function as a collaborative unit.  Well equipped for a technologically fused environment the team was dubbed Vanguard.  The Vanguard team's most valuable defense is professional development.  The Vanguard team was created to help pass on tools to create a collaborative culture among the teachers and students.

Question 1.) How effective is an ill equipped team in professional growth?  Meeting the needs of technical support is needless to say expensive but with older technology becoming cheaper and cheaper it could be easier to invest money in a two year old laptop, netbook, or desktop.  But who wants something old?  When it's cheaper it's a big incentive, that's why I drive a 1987 BMW.  Features such as cloud computing make word processors free.  Social networks do not ask for cash so the access to a personal learning network is free.  With the pressure to change, a cultural shift is rapidly changing how teachers work, learn, interact, and function.  Money is always a worry and having a squad equipped up to the neck with technical support is valuable but not always expensive.

Question 2.) What's the importance of collaboration in schools?  Strong professional networks, eliminating the feeling of alienation and isolation.  Students will show improvements.  The schools are there to foster students into well educated citizens.  When you have the families, teachers, and the community collectively taking a stand to improve, the results will show up in the students.  It takes a joint effort to teach students and it depends upon the shared attitudes, values, and goals that describe the culture.  To recreate a culture is to spark innovation.

Journal 10, a hundred things that make me happy

100 things that make me happy...


1. Music
2. Soccer
3. Nice girls
4. Driving
5. Napping
6. Chocolate
7. Beer
8. Skateboarding
9. Money
10. Television
11. Success
12. Sunshine
13. Lavender
14. Cinnamon
15. New Shoes
16. Fish
17. Swedish Fish
18. Serenity
19. Cartoons
20. Impersonations of Christopher Watkins
21. Running
22. A rush of blood to the head
23. My dogs!
24. Spearmint
25. Chili Peppers
26. Tomato Plants
27. Marinating in a hot tub.
28. Showers
29. rain
30. Vacation
31. Christmas
32. Bender Bending Rodriguez - Cartoon Character
33. Homer J. Simpson
34. roller coasters
35. Clouds
36. Sleeping in
37. Hot bowls of soup
38. Spaghetti with meatballs
39. Warm socks
40. Electric Blankets
41. When my body releases Endorphins
42. The Beach
43. Drawing
44. Writing
45. Reading
46. Magnifying Glass
47. Fresh cut grass or flowers
48. Crickets
49. Tall trees
50. Aquaculture
51. Bridges
52. Trains
53. Planes
54. Copius Parking
55. Chickens
56. Eggs
57. Cows
58. Donald Duck
59. Orange Juice
60. Trombone solos
61. Trumpets
62. Traveling
63. Wandering
64. Day dreaming
65. Homeruns
66. 3 point shots, basketball
67. Hat tricks, hockey
68. Comedians
69. Not talking to my ex girlfriend
70. Turtles
71. Records
72. A clean room
73. New Cotton Tees
74. Strumming a guitar
75. pull-ups, chin-ups
76. the monster mash
77. lifting weights
78. hugs
79. air kicks
80. BBQs
81. Swimming
82. Bike riding
83. Karate Chops
84. Video Games
85. The chirp of birds
86. Grandparents
87. Sprinklers
88. Stars
89. Astronomy
90. Moon and its phases
91. Solar and Lunar eclipse
92. Grasshoppers
93. Field Trips
94. Cooking
95. A full tank of gas
96. Korean food
97. buying stuff
98. talking
99. Friends
100. Family

iMovie PSA (NETS 1)

As a new user of iMovie I was able to import footage, edit clips, and export/share the video using Quicktime.  iMovie supports creativity and the interest in tools with film making is absorbing.

The clip is of shots taken at the California State University San Marcos.  The voiceover is in the opening scene, there are at least four transitions, there are plenty of effects, and the footage was completely detached of its audio and music was added using the inspector tool of iMovie.

Internet Safety Goolge Site (NETS 1,2, & 3)

The google site is chalked full of information and resources regarding internet safety for students as well as educators.

The collaborative safety site addressing the topics for safe cyber surfing.  

Wiki Page (NETS 1)

Critiquing a web tool then sharing and collaborating with others about the tools they used on CSUSM wiki.

Inspiration NETS-T 1,2, & 5

The diagram above is a collection of work that satisfies the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers.  I used a trial version of Inspiration software to create the chart.  The chart communicates the majority of assignments completed in ed422 and their satisfaction to the NETS-T.
The software Inspiration contributes to the characteristics, to the impression, and to the self renewal of the teaching profession.  The end result demonstrates the understanding and competence of the software, and collaboration is also possible for those that have Inspiration.  The assignment itself is aligned with the International Society for Technology in Education.  Inspirations is a fun tool to use, it permits inventiveness and engages in collaboration by sharing the diagram with others on Inspiration.  The diagram is a reflection of the ISTE NETS for Teachers.

Journal 7: My Personal Learning Network NETS 3,4, & 5

My personal learning network helps me think deeper. My personal learning network deals with critical issues and current events. As a classroom teacher in the outskirts of a metropolitan my PLN keeps me in touch.

Twitter permits discussion and with it I can participate. The hashtag was #edchat, and the discussion seemed spatial. I finally found the focal point and it inclined three themes; teacher observation, subjective assessment, and professional development. The question of discussion was, how ”do we” change teacher observations to be subjective assessments as well as a professional development tool. The discussion had an array of educators from administrators to principals. While I was busing trying to grasp the question posed, the discussion ran its course of ideas from an open discourse between observer and classroom to questioning the observer’s lens. From the discussion I gathered a broad spectrum of educative ideas that resulted in immediate critical thinking.

What also resulted from the edchat were new followers. Doctorjeff is an astrophysicist that I am now following because of the chat. He was able to direct the conversation with questions about subjective assessments and teacher obvservations.

Delicious my webpage of bookmarks keeps me in the loop too. NBC learn on twitter, U.S. News Education on twitter; my network tags make great selections for educators.

I chose to follow certain users that were either teachers or within the world of academics because they have valuable insight to the world of education. Being that the users I am following have much more experience than I do and are in sectors that surround the education department there input about education can be priceless and help me on the path for teaching.

TED, Technology Entertainment and Design has a lot of videos with speakers in education.

I subscribed to The Educator’s PLN, I watched a presentation by Sir Ken Robinson. He presents the need for change in schools. Sir Ken Robinson is an enlightening speaker. He illustrates the concern for school reform with history and compares the current public schools to factories packaging students on an assembly line. He presents the perspective of current academics and states that it was designed for a different age.


My personal learning network is a group of teachers that support, learn, and discuss assessments, professional development, and critical thinking.


This assignment dealt with networking.