Learning Styles

What is my learning style?  In order to help answer this question I went to Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences and took the Multiple Intelligences Inventory.  The results did not surprise me.  My highest score fell under the Interpersonal category.  I relate well to others and work best in a team setting.  I enjoy having conversations and getting to know all types of people.  My friends and family often refer to me as a "people pleaser" because I am constantly concerned about how others feel.  I want to make sure everyone is happy all the time.  This is a great skill to have as an educator because a large part of the job is working with others and making sure people are pleased with your work.  In regards to my students, my interpersonal skills help me relate to them and sense how they are feeling.

My own personal learning styles are by far not the only ones I need to consider in the classroom.  Each student has their own ways of learning best as well.  It is very important that I cater to their needs so they can learn to the best of their ability.  This is not an easy task because no one teaching method will effectively reach all students.  It would be impossible for me to accommodate for each student in every lesson or even every day.  In the past I have given my students a Learning Styles Inventory to complete at the beginning of the school year so I have a better understanding of how the majority of my class learns best.  This way I can also come up with ideas on how to reteach a lesson in a more effective format to students who need extra help.

One component of my class I would like to improve on is center time.  I think that considering each students learning styles would be a great contribution to the development of my center activities and the creation of student groups.  I could have a listening center, a center where students make something (like a flip book or a poster board), a writing center, a reading center, and a center where students can talk to each other (such as a debate center, speech center, or a read aloud center).  Another way for me to consider organizing my centers would be to give students a choice within each center.  For example if it was a reading center, the student could read independently or pair read.  If it was a comprehension center, the student could write a summary or make a poster board.

Overall, these inventories have been and will be helpful to me personally and professionally.  I enjoy growing and learning as an educator and I look forward to applying my new knowledge about Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence in my classroom.

Creative Commons

Photo Attribution:
Original image: "Moonsaic"

by: Oliver Bacquet

Released under an Attribution-2.0 Generic

Creative Commons Licenses by 2.0

I thought that this picture would be very useful for my science unit about the phases of the moon.  I especially like the way it is laid out. I could have the students label each moon to demonstrate their understanding of its phases.  It is one that I think my fourth graders would greatly benefit from.  

Below is a picture I took of my in-laws.  I uploaded it to my PicasaWeb account and licensed it using Creative Commons.

Photo Attribution: 

Original Image: “Four Generations and a Dog"

By: Kimberly Anglin

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License

Creative Commons Licenses by 2.0

PC Maintenance and Security

I chose three tutorials from the Atomic Learning PC Maintenance and Security workshop.  This is what I learned about each.

Making Email Safer

I chose this workshop because I get emails from people I don't know every day.  I did not know what signs to look for to avoid scams.  One thing I learned that I will definitely be sharing with others is a phishing scam that looks like it's from Bank of America but it's really not.  It asks for your login, password, and social security number.  I would like to share this with others because it looks so real that I'm pretty sure I would have fallen for it myself.  That's scary!  It completely surprised me how professional the email looked and how much it truly resembled the Bank of America website.  I'm glad to learn how easy it is to block spam and junk mail from my inbox.  

File Backup Options

I chose this workshop because I have moved and changed jobs quite a few times and would like to learn better strategies to backup my files from computer to computer.  One thing I learned that I would like others to know about is that there are several websites that will help me do this such as www.karenware.com and www.foldershare.com. Also, my computer itself has it's own built in backup system.  All I have to do is use my Windows Backup/Restore Wizard.  With this I can backup all or some of my data such as My Documents using a flash drive or disk.  I was shocked to learn that there is an "incremental" option which will make it so that it will only update files on my flash drive that have been changed or added since the last time I did a backup.  I wish I would have know that seven years ago!  

Clean Up & Speed Up Your PC

I chose this workshop because I have a fairly new laptop and it is so slow!  It didn't used to be so slow.  I'm sure that part of the reason it slowed down so much is because of all the games I allow my son to play on it.  I have downloaded many games that he never uses and I don't even want to know how many games my (four year old) son has downloaded on his own without me knowing.  One thing I learned that I will share with others is that there are a few small things that you can do to make a large difference in the speed of your computer.  After performing a couple of the cleanup options I learned about, I was surprised to learn how many files I have on my computer that I not only never use, but that I didn't even know I had!

RSS Page Reflection

Here is a snapshot of the Google Reader RSS Feed I created last week.  I am following quite a few interesting elementary teacher feeds which I chose since I am an elementary school teacher.  I chose three blogs to follow.  One of them is actually called "Elementary Teacher Blog" and the others are "Educational Technology Guy: Tech and Learning" and "Cool Cat Teacher Blog."  I thought that the technology one would be quite appropriate for this class.

There was a post on the Elementary Teacher Blog called "What Do You Know About Multiplication By 0 and 1?"  It was an open-ended question asked by a teacher to her students.  The blog had an image of a drawing one of her students made to demonstrate their answer to the question.  I commented on this post because I thought it was a great idea for an assignment to allow the students to get creative with their responses.

I have been checking my RSS frequently over the past week.  I am shocked about how often it changes.  I assumed that there would be new articles and blogs every couple days when the truth is, there are new articles every couple minutes.  My favorite feed that I chose is the  "Cool Cat Teacher Blog" because I can relate to it the most.  I has been very informal and has touched on topics that I am interested in such as the Kindle, education Apps, and "Lesson Plans that Rock."  The feed that I have learned the most from is "Moving at the Speed of Creativity."  Topics that it has touched on range from student blog pages, transitioning to common core standards, and believe it or not, Google Calendar and internet safety (sounds familiar!).

I am enjoying following my RSS feed regularly.  I did not think that I would learn as much as I am actually learning from it.  It feels good to be a part of the education community and stay up to date with the major education organizations such as MEA and NEA.  This is something that I plan to continue doing even after my CEP 810 course is over.

Getting Things Done

I organized my process of Getting Things Done  by compiling the information from my phone, paper calendar, class web page, and my mental to-do list onto a piece of paper.  


While working my way through the process, it felt good to have my day more organized and to have everything in one place.  I'm not sure if it's possible to actually "complete" the process because a "to-do list" is never actually completed but I will say that after using this process for a couple days it was like having a weight lifted off my back. 


It helped me be less stressed out over everything I have to do.  I wasn't constantly trying to remember what I need to do.  One of my biggest problems is that I start something and don't finish it.  Or I'll start something and get distracted and start something else and then I end up staying up until midnight doing something that I could have done first thing that morning.  For that reason, I do think this process will help me.  


In the future, I will definitely use this process.  It really works well for me and I'm glad I had the opportunity to learn about it.

Social Networking

In a way, social networking is a new concept for me.  I guess it has been a part of my life for quite some time now but I hadn't thought about the impact it has on my life until recently.  My family just moved from Georgia back to Michigan in June and neither my husband or I had a job when we got here.  My (very successful) mother would  (and still does) tell me "network, network, network."  So right away we joined a church and put my son in a day camp and swim lessons.  While attending these various activities, my husband and I started to meet people.  And these people knew people and it wasn't long before we were both employed.

I've had a Facebook account for almost ten years now but it wasn't until we moved back to Michigan that I really started using it to stay in touch with the family and friends we have in Georgia.  I can't imagine our lives without it.  Our children are growing so fast and Facebook makes it so simple.  Any time I take a cute picture with my phone, right away I share it on Facebook.  It's only a few clicks of the finger away...much more simple than developing pictures and sending them in the mail!  And it works both ways.  We get to see and hear from everyone else as well.

Currently I am a substitute teacher who is actively looking for a real teaching job.  I have five years of teaching experience.  Social networking has been one of my job searching strategies.  While I had my own class, I did not use a social network with my students.  I would not "friend" them on Facebook.  I did not think it would be appropriate for them to know so much about me.  I do see the benefits of having some sort of networking between the teachers, students, and parents though.  I am definitely looking forward to using a blog page for my classroom.  It will be a great way to communicate, document, share information and ideas, and it would be fun for the kids as well.

I think social networking is very important.  I am looking forward expanding both my personal and professional networks throughout my future.

Mobile blogger

Just set up my blogger account on my phone! Welcome to the wonderful world of mobile blogging!