Mrs. Jones Teaches

This week, in order to extend my learning on Going Beyond Presentations , I decided to do something completely different from Google Slides. Instead, I created a Prezi presentation. Apparently, Prezi has been updated and is now called Prezi Next . I have minimal experience with the classic version of Prezi, so learning the new version was basically starting over. Thankfully, Youtube is always there for me when I learn something new. I found this video to be very helpful. Incidentally, the video was from the Technology for Teachers and Students Youtube channel, which looks like it may be a good channel to subscribe to for future reference. The video pointed out that you can sign up for a free student account with Prezi that gives you more options than the regular free account does. Overall, I found creating the Prezi to be easier than in the past with the classic version. The main difficulty I had was with editing subtopics. I could never figure out how to get to the zoomed in subtop

For this week's assignment, we had to create an interactive document using Google Slides. There were so many options that I found myself getting a little overwhelmed again. Instead of creating something completely new, I decided to follow a tutorial and then use the process I learned to make my own unique document. I began to do this tutorial on Creating an Interactive Presentation but was having some problems. I noticed that an update to the video had been posted, so I tried it again. Here is the tutorial I used: 1 The second tutorial was better, but there were still a couple of things I had to figure out. When he highlighted multiple items, he did not say how to do that (because it is basic), so I had to google it. Also, he gave instructions on how to create a "back" button to get back to the start, but it didn't work. So I just tried something different and I thought it had worked. Until I embedded the presentation in this post and tested it one last ti

Hi everyone! This week our assignment was to create an interactive document that makes it fun for students to learn. My initial response was that this would be a fun and easy assignment. It was definitely fun, but the word easy  should always be a red flag. It wasn't necessarily a difficult project, but it took a lot more work than I thought it would. My main difficulty was dealing with  overwhelm . I read through all the course resources and then perused the internet for ideas. So many ideas that I lost my way a little.  At that point I took a walk and listened to the Cult of Pedagogy podcast . This was really great because the ladies from HyperDocs explained the teaching that goes with the HyperDocs. Previously, I had read a lot about how to create the documents, but this gave the pedagogy perspective and wrapped it all up. It's definitely worth a listen. The Process A problem I frequently run into is that I want to create the best work on the first try.  But t

A New Blog Well, this is my new blog for EDU 585, and creating it was pretty easy and straightforward. I have had another blog for many years, but it has been a while since I created one. I picked the simple template, but had to change the color. I think as time goes on I will make improvements to the layout, but I will keep it simple for now. Blogger in the Classroom I have never used Blogger for school or for teaching, but it seems like it would be a very useful tool in the classroom. For younger students who might not be capable of blogging, I would use the blog for a communication tool. A teacher could show parents what the class is working on, host an e-newsletter, or provide information on homework. Instructions for interactive homework assignments can be given, which increases the quality and likelihood of completion of the assignment. The blog could be used to teach parents how to support learning at home. For example, to support literacy at home, the teacher could po