Classroom Management Podcast

Classroom Management Podcast MP3

As a musician, I have used a lot of different recording and audio editing softwares. I like Audacity because it is a decent editing software that is free and simple. The simplicity, however, can sometimes be a bit of a challenge.

One of the biggest obstacles I encountered was the cutting and fading of audio. It took me a long time to figure out how to be precise with it. Other softwares like Garageband and Pro Tools are very user friendly in these areas, and I have memorized the shortcuts. Using a program with very different shortcuts made things challenging.

Googling questions I had was the fastest solution to all of the things I could not work out on my own. Because Audacity is free, there is a large network of users who have figured out all sorts of shortcuts and tricks. By using their advice, I was able to find out how to quickly get things faded.

I really like listening to podcasts, so it was really rewarding to record my own, even if no one will ever hear it and I will never make another. To be allowed that ownership was rewarding. I think I may use something like this is the "flipped classroom" model, where students listen to a lecture at home and complete activities in class.

Google Sites and Wordpress

For the website assignments, I decided to use Google Sites and Wordpress. I have used both of these platforms in the past, but it had been years since I had tried them. A lot had changed about both platforms, and it took a little more relearning than I thought.

All-in-all, I liked Google better. With Wordpress, I kept running into issues where I could not edit something that I needed to. Luckily, my new experience in HTML helped me to go into the coding and fix a couple issues, such as inserting my email address, which is not made easy for you in Wordpress. Google, on the other had, was a lot more user friendly in this respect and many others. The major benefit I saw from Wordpress was a speaker and more creative design.

Another major obstacle I faced was finding topics for my two sites. For the Google one, I took an assignment that I give to juniors and converted it into an online platform. This is included linking to videos and sites outside of Google. For my Wordpress site, I was trying hard to think of something I know that is step-by-step. I have taught surfing to kids for years, and it is a very step-by-step process, so I decided to make my site on that. The only problem for me after that was the amount of detail I wanted to go into. With something like surfing, it is hard not to get a little carried away.

With both, I figured out how to make my organization match the site's and page's structure. This is an invaluable asset to have for your site because it can attract and hold the visitor instantly.

Using Photoshop to Retouch Photos

The photo below was taken on the island of Kauai while on my honeymoon last November. It was a little to dark, so I wanted to lighten it and play with the color to make a higher quality image.

One of the tools I use a lot with photos is the shadows and highlights. After using brightness and contrast to light the photo, I opened the shadows and highlights tab. I turned the shadows up about 30 percent so that you could see the back of the cabana. I then turned the highlights down about 15 percent to lessen the glare of the sun on the beach. After this was complete, I played with the contrast again to adjust the oversaturation of color that couldn't be seen before.

One obstacle I faced was uploading the before picture to this blog. It kept saying that I was uploading a something that wasn't a picture. I had to manually change the file name and add a .jpg to it. After that, Blogger recognized it.

I think that I was successful at my objective: to lighten the photo and reveal the background. While it isn't a great photo in either form, this objective was achieved. I learned that sometimes a photos dark areas can reveal little details that are unseen. It's pretty incredible that all of the data is there but would go unnoticed.

I will use this a lot in the future. I even have the Photoshop app for my phone and will use it a lot when I am posting pictures to social media. I also may use it for presentations that I make in class.

Using HTML and CSS

The Projects

One of the projects was a simple HTML site, and the content wasn't anything specific. It was more of an opportunity to focus on the layout and building of an HTML page than creating something with valuable information. I used HTML to set up the basic format of the html / head / body, and I also made a list within the page and inserted a picture.

The second project, a page that used CSS, was based on an event that I attended recently. Our community of Ocean Beach (almost straight west toward the beach from downtown San Diego) is a really tight-knit community that loves music. We went to a backyard music festival where I played percussion, and I thought I would base the mock-invite off that event.

Using CSS helped me to format the page in a far easier way than with pure HTML. I was able to set color from the very top, which was much quicker and more convenient. Also, I was able to do the "CSS Box Model," which highlighted the important information for people attending the event, as shown below:

Obstacles

More than any other obstacle I faced, the one that plagued me the most was forgetting to "close" certain tags. When I would forget to do this, one of two things would happen: Either the text would disappear completely, or nothing that I planned on editing would actually change. Other than this, obstacles I faced were finding the correct color codes and "font-family" codes. Some of them would work at times, but others, even when double-checked, seemed like they weren't compatible for some reason.

For the closing of tags, I began copying and pasting lines of code so that the "closing" of the tag was built into the pasted item. This sped things up and solved the problem. As for the "font-family" codes, I chose new font-families that were not giving me any trouble. While this didn't necessarily "solve" the problem, it still looked good, and I was able to move on to more important things than font.

Successes and Future Applications

After completing these two assignments, I can say that I am happy with my new perspective. I have successfully changed my view of websites and what happens behind the interface and design. It is truly fascinating to think that behind some of our favorite and most complicated websites is an incredibly detail-oriented person typing away. While I do not feel I would ever be the person for that type of job, it does not change my appreciation for what they do.

Another success of this exercise is that I can now alter code on my personal sites, (including this blog) rather than relying on the template of a site. While I'm sure I may make things worse once or twice in trying this, it has given me the confidence to at least try to read the code, make sense of it, and edit it.

This may help me in my classroom in the future with some of the sharing that I do with students. I often share Google Docs with them, but now I could have a central place for all of them to get the links and information. Our district has pages where we can create our own website for the classroom. They offer templates and Google-based apps, but I could use HTML for building it from scratch to personalize it (or just for bragging rights).

Beginning Microsoft Office Projects

"I don't know; we are doing some sort of Word and Powerpoint thing," I told my friend when he asked what assignments I had to complete on my first weekend after my high school's graduation. "I mean, how hard could that be? I think this is a real basic class ... "

Well, I ate my words pretty quickly on that one. With such busy weeks at the end of my school's first semester, I had to leave the completion of my assignments to the weekend they were due. I had glanced at the descriptions, but I didn't begin the detailed work at the beginning of the course's week, as I would have liked. As I read on, I realized that "accessibility" was a big concern. To be honest, I had never heard of this (outside of physical accessibility in physical environments), let alone learn how to "make a document accessible." I realized that basics were assumed, and new ideas would be the basis for this course.

The Projects

For the Word project, I decided to pick software that I have installed on my work computer numerous times: Microsoft Silverlight. With the plethora of short documentaries on Netflix that are content-related, I have had to install this plugin to allow the use of Netflix in the classroom. With the automatic erasing of the district's computers every night, I have had to install Silverlight a number of times. Walking myself through this familiar process, I made a manual for teachers. I included multiple screenshots with reference points in the text. Although I have completed the installation numerous times, typing the process in detail was time-consuming.

For the Powerpoint project, I decided to make a new presentation for the "American Romanticism" unit I teach to my 11th graders. Romanticism is a tough concept for teenagers to grasp, mostly because it explores the vastly abstract concept of self and purpose. Because of this, the unit requires at least some direct instruction before they can move on to applications and analysis of the text. In the presentation, I made slides for every "element" of romanticism. In addition to these five slides, I also gave information on famous authors who were romanticists. It is a presentation that I planned to use for my class this coming year, but I just found out during a curriculum-building seminar I participated in last week that we will no longer teach American Romanticism. Such a shame ... 

Obstacles

The Word project did not give me too many obstacles to overcome. The only thing that took me a bit of time to learn was the idea of “alternate text.”  I simply needed to understand its purpose before getting a hang of it.

The Powerpoint project gave me a couple of difficulties, as I have regularly used Prezi for years instead of Powerpoint; remembering shortcuts and keystrokes took a little time. I also had trouble finding the correct way to cite images that were used on a site but had improperly cited the original photo.

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late." 

- William Shakespeare, "The Merry Wives of Windsor," Act II, Scene 2

The biggest obstacle I hit was time, or the changing of time. Because the prior week was full of finals, grading, graduation, and teacher check-out, I kept the assignments until the weekend. Looking at Blackboard, it said I had until 11:59 p.m. (with no time zone). I finished my Powerpoint presentation at 9:30 p.m. — plenty of time to spare! Well, I didn't realize that Blackboard was not calibrating the time with my computer's PST (California's time zone). Because of this, I actually ended up 30 minutes late instead of two-plus hours early. It would not allow me to turn in the Powerpoint, and I instantly realized what had happened.

Resolution

For the Word project, I skimmed for words that were unfamiliar to me, and then investigated them on my own. "Alternate text" was one of these. As soon as I grasped an understanding of its purpose, I had a little more ease figuring out what to type, why to type it, etc. Other than that, the Word project was fairly simple.

To resolve my problem with the Powerpoint photo citations, I searched "related photos" on Google and tried to follow the photos to a credible/original link. I was able to do this with ease for the majority of the photos.

Once I got over the frantic stress of seeing that my Powerpoint could no longer be submitted, I emailed the professor about it, attaching the presentation and explaining why it was not in before the buzzer. We resolved the issue together.

Conclusions & Future Applications

One of the biggest things I learned from this experience was that Microsoft Office still has a lot of value. With the rise of Google applications, Microsoft Office is drifting out of the education conversation, or at least in my district among the students and district infrastructure. The reality, however, is that there are important components unique to Office that I had been ignoring. The simplicity that is attractive about web-based applications can distract one from the advantages of a fully installed software.

In the future, I will be excited to use "alternate text" for documents I share with my students in the future. I already share things often with my students, so this will be a good asset for students who need it.

Another principle that I will adhere to is the idea of six words, six times per slide. This will help my students get smaller, more efficient bites of info, rather than bogged down by content. It will also help their listening skills as I expand on each point.

Overall, these projects helped me understand programs that I had left behind, and I can utilize their strengths in the future.

Introduction and Welcome

Myself, Stanley, and my wife, Angelika, enjoying California.

Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog, a space that I will use to reflect on my journey through the University of Arkansas' ETEC 5213 class.

My name is Bobby Oliver, and I teach English and journalism in San Diego County, California. Last week, I concluded my fourth professional year of teaching high school. Technology was used more in this last year than I had ever seen in a public school classroom. Utilizing websites like Prezi and Canvas, as well as applications like Instagram and ClassDojo made it an interesting and successful year with multiple ways to contact and collaborate with my students.

With this blog, I hope to share some of those stories and share some of the things I learn in ETEC 5213. I will be responding to prompts that are given to the class, and I will use it as a tool to help me with website building and designing. More than anything, it will be a spot for my reflection and growth as an educator and learner. Thank you for visiting, and check in soon!