Geocaching is a great fitness activity!

This week in my graduate class we've been exploring the use of geotagging. To do that we had to take photos of plant life in the area where we lived, download it to Flickr and 'geotag' the photo. When we added the 'geotag' - by overlaying the photo on google maps - anyone viewing your plant photos could see exactly where the plant was located. I found that very cool that you could allow others any where on earth a peak at what life looked like around you. As I explored a little further on the google map, I found others right here around my neighborhood had also geotagged their pictures they had on Flickr and I could get their personal view of life around my same hood!

As I explored geotagging for educational uses I immediately linked it the Geocaching unit that I've seen taught in physical education classes. Geocaching is a great fitness activity because it makes walking exciting. Geocaching combines satellite navigation, orienteering, computer skills, treasure hunting and walking into a fun activity for students. It can easily be incorporated into the Physical Education curriculum...of course a little monetary help will be needed as GPS units can cost anywhere from $100 and up.

Learn more to get started:

Geocaching - The Offical Global GPS Cache Hunt Site
A Beginner's Guide and Tutorial to Geocaching
Geocaching with Kids (from Eduscapes.com)

If you're really into geocaching check this website out:

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

If you teach body systems / anatomy....

have I got the website for you!!

Anatomy Arcade has memory games and other activities for kids dealing with body systems - seven to be exact. Each body system has a wide variety of activities that can be used to review or learn content knowledge about each of the systems. The activities include word searches, crossword puzzles, matching games and jiigsaw puzzles for each of the body systems.

In my freshmen physical education course we cover the basic muscle and bones and what a great way for the students to review and memorize these body systems. I refer to them all the time in class during activities. But, being able to use these games and activities with the students in and out of school will be useful for them to learn and study this material.

http://www.anatomyarcade.com/

Disclaimer: The site is free but the biggest drawback is that it has a lot of ads. The ads help pay for the site so you will see video ads before starting the games. You will also see ads selling specific items all around the web site. I found a few ads that may not be suitable for all students so please check out the website first before using or posting it for student use. You can purchase a site license for the games and this will allow you to download the games without any ads.

Tom Barrett's intersting ways to use various technology in the classroom!

I found this list of links to technology ideas to be used in the classroom setting very helpful for me! Our curriculum is devoted to being active and so it is very hard for me to develop lessons that are not activity-based in nature. However, I found various ideas using many of the technologies listed which made me feel comfortable in infusing technology with my teaching instruction and the students get the most from the lesson, even if they aren't active that day. But, the best technology would be for my students to access subject matter outside of my classroom and then be ready to discuss and incorporate the information along with being active...that's my goal!

http://blogs.learnnc.org/instructify/2010/11/05/technology-integration-tom-barrett/

All you ever wanted to know about BLOOD!

I found a wonderful teaching resource called "Red Gold: The Epic Story of Blood" published by PBS. The site is strong in content and interest level delving into blood related topics such as blood composition, circulation, blood typing, donations and more. Students can take a multimedia journey that follows a pint of blood through the transfusion process, learn the basics about blood, as well as trace the history of blood through an interactive timeline. Additionally, there are biographies of the people who have made contributions to the study and use of blood, a glossary, a list of other resources, and a section of informative questions and answers from the experts.

Grade level: 6 - 12. Lesson plans are provided for both midde school and high school levels as well as a 12-page discussion guide

Macromedia Flash Player and RealPlayer are needed to view the animations and video.

Very Cool...check it out!

Web 2.0 Education

I'm back at blogging, this time it is for my Web 2.0 Education class. I am learning so much in so little time right now it's all spinning in my head. I am looking forward to trying all of the social networking connections (NING, blogging, twitter, RSS). However, I just need to get them all organized and I think I will feel much better about all of them and making them a part of my life (PLN).

It will be interesting to keep and organize all of these mediums as I connect and follow others as well as make the time to let everyone know what I am doing as well. It seems that some of my classmates have a better handle on things than I do right now and hopefully I can use there experiences and expertise to get myself up and running....and running smoothly!!

Catching up??

Okay, I told myself on monday that I needed to blog and here it is thursday afternoon and I'm getting to my blogging. Oh, boy has this week been crazy with meetings every day (another one tonight) and then golf practice every night. We have 3 weeks left of our golf season - hard to believe that it's so close to the end. I'm very behind in my student grading and still working on my webquest (however, I think I have the organization figured out now) so still feeling very swamped with everything at school, in grad class, and just all around life. Looking forward to tomorrow being friday and some breathing time over the weekend. Next week doesn't seem so busy so I should get some of this stuff not done.....done!

After the long weekend

Okay, I had a great weekend getting plenty of 'house to do' things done and then celebrated my nieces 15th birthday (wow, I'm getting old). Then come tuesday I get up to go coach for our golf tournament and I'm sicker than a dog. My team had to have the JV coach come and supervise and then WON the tournament they played in and now I'm feeling okay today (not great) but am at another golf tournament today. I'm sure I'll be going home and back to bed after the round today as I continue to feel worse as the day goes on. And, it's homecoming week as well so it's going to be a long rest of the week.

Last class meeting for 6008

Very exciting that I was able to actually post my website and see it on the www!! I am going to replace my new teacher page with my old one posted on the school website and I'm sure that everyone will be jealous (ha, ha). Thanks to all of my schoolmates for being so positive about the site. I still have links to attach but it is a great start and it will make me want to keep it updated. Now I have two websites to manage....both myclass webpage and golf webpage...it never ends with the technology because we can do so much. Check out my class webpage on the top right of my blog page!!

Week 2 of School

Okay, I'm behind in about everything in my life right now.....getting school, golf, and department paperwork done at the very last minute; behind with stuff for grad class, blogging (it's been 10 days the site said - opps), webquests, group project. And, I feel behind with getting my classes going in the direction that I want them to as I missed two days of school this week because of coaching golf. The year always starts off like this because of golf but hopefully I can get in a groove and get going in the direction that I need too. I read several of my grad class friends blogs and sounds like they are getting off to a great start and are very excited about things. I know that I will get there to as I get settled in but I'm thinking that it won't really start clicking until next week.

Tomorrow is the First Day of School

Well, I've been practicing with my golf team as well as getting ready for school over this past week. I did get to leave for The Lake of the Ozarks to get in one quick, final summer fling and it was fun but very, very short. I actually skied, got too much sun, as well as celebrated a friends birthday so it was quite the weekend.

I feel however that with all the beginning of school and coaching golf (as well as another garage sale this past weekend) activities that I have definitely neglected my graduate work - it has been over a week since I've posted, so yes, I am guilty of not doing my work. :(

I am excited, but it is also hard to believe that it is time to start another school year but I have been working long days at school to get ready for my classes to begin, so I feel prepared for that. The golf team is going well too. We have a small team of nine players but we should be pretty darn good and I am very excited about that. Now, I that these two areas are moving along I need to get moving with my grad assignments and can hopefully get that accomplished through this week into next.

I have to remember, small steps and keep moving forward!! :)

Week 2 post

Just got off blackboard and read through all the posts everyone has been putting up since the last class. So....here's my second post.

Everyone so far has shared some cool school surveys. They were fun to read and see what types of information different grade levels wanted to glean from their students. I am still working on mine and hopefully will post it soon? I tried many times to take the mid-term survey monkey evaluation on blackboard but can't get past question #6 and i'm not sure why. Hope it doesn't hurt my grade!! :)

I have also joined everyone's blog site (at least those that have posted) and many are doing a great job of blogging (better than myself)....but at least i am getting one posted for the week. I am in the process of moving and so this week is all about that. The garage sale helped as i didn't have to move nearly as much as i could've and I should have everything moved out as of thursday. Then, it's off to the lake for the weekend to celebrate a friends birthday!! I am certainly looking forward to getting away with no technology!

I am feeling a little overwhelmed not so much with all the new technology but with keeping up with all the technology as well as all the passwords. I think that i'm going to have to put myself on a 'schedule' to make sure that i check blackboard, write to my blog, look at others blog, get my school survey done, starting looking for webquests, and do a better job of designing my website pages so I'll be ready to work on it at our next class. I felt very disorganized and not sure where to start last sunday so hopefully I can move on and get it done and done well enough to publish.

Family

Just want to say that I have enjoyed seeing family over the past 2 weeks. It is not very often that we get together but seeing everyone again, meeting new members and getting updated with everyone's lives was great and I hope we do it again sooner and not later.

My first minutes....

I did it. I am on the web and writing. I'd rather be active and moving but we'll see how this goes.