Blog Journal #10

WAIVED!

Blog Journal #9

I enjoyed EME2040. It is so hard to believe that it is almost over! Time goes by fast when you are having fun. I was in an online section of the class. Being asynchronous  allowed for me to be more flexible and I could really take it at my own pace. It is great as a student. I imagine it could be difficult for an instructor since student usually submit their assignments at the last minute, but it is what it is. 

Open educational resources are teaching/learning materials made for teachers to be able to easily use them in their classrooms. They are usually licensed so teachers do not have to worry about getting in trouble with copyright and such, learning cannot be copyrighted. This website  allows for teachers to easily search throughout all the OERs. It also hosts a community so you can communicate with other teachers as well. 

Powerpoint is a little difficult for me to use. Word and excel are the hardest however, since in high school I was supposed to get Microsoft office certified, thankfully COVID hit and I never had to finish. In hindsight, those skills would still be pretty useful as a teacher, oh well. So I Had an organic chemistry 2 exam tomorrow, Monday the 3rd, so I was pushing this classes assignments to the last minute. After doing some grade calculations, the only way I do not get an F on my transcript is if I drop the class. So I submitted the late assignment token so I do not have a screenshot right now but I will when I complete it. The assignment is great for teaching future educators how to make a good ppt. 

Bitmoji Classroom

 

Blog Journal #8

The web design assignment taught me a lot of things. There are many small ways to make a website that makes your life easier as a teacher. The web design assignment was a little bit difficult to do on weebly. I felt like that resource was a bit outdates, I am sure there are easier ways to make a website.  Here is my website :p

I also feel like Diigo is an older website that could use more updating. I think the website is not super clear to navigate, while I do enjoy the concept it could definitely be better done. I live the fact that it can keep a class or a group of teacher together to be updated on materials. Diigio would make collaborating on a research project very easy thanks to the annotate feature. 

So I really like Padlet a lot because it is really new and makes a perfect online portfolio. It is really easy to navigate through items and visualize each item. Using Padlet like a personal note would be note, so I can highlight important personal achievements so it will be easy to apply to gradschool.  I did find Padlet enjoyable. 

Keeping up with technology is really important. Having things like Continuing Education Credits would make keeping up with technology easier. There is a really big advantage to being up to date to making sure you can stay connected with your students. This is a blog to keep me updates with some new trends in educational technology! 

Blog Journal 7

Some school websites do not require teachers to add their own personal touch to an element of the website, in my opinion. On the official school website there are only ways to get in contact with the teacher. It was very hard for me to fid a website, since most teachers want their privacy, of course, and instances like Zoom Bombing have made them more aware of the topic. I was able to find one, but most school required the "website" to be on sites like  Canvas, Schoolology, or Blackboard. There was a link to a google classroom but of course I did not have access. There was contact information and about page that gave some insight into her background. 

Mrs. Andrick 

Using sites like Canvas to grade would make my teaching more efficient. Having a multiple choice exam, or even having fill-in-the blanks and having access to every answer on my laptop instead of piles of paper would make me more efficient.  I could also see how having my students use technology could make their learning better. If they are having a tough time with a topic they can easily search for more help or I could direct them to a website where they could get help. 

My experience with wiki sites was fine. I think the system is rudimentary enough so that everyone can navigate, that being said some tasks were a little confusing like adjusting the size of an imported picture. I would make a wiki for my students so they can have everything they need at their finger tips, even at home. I think having the class calendar is an amazing idea so there would be less forgetfulness. Making things accessible at home is great for students who maybe had a hard time focusing in class that day and have time to complete a task at home 

Journal 6

    Diigo was not my favorite tool to use. I found the website very old, and not incredibly user-friendly. I do really enjoy the concept, having a platform where educators can share resources, however the site could be better. The Diigo platform would be better if it was updated. It was not super simple to use and I am sure it would be more popular if it was. 

    My experience with blogging has been positive. Like I had mentioned before, I used to use the exact blog in high school to journal my journey through a big, end of the year project. Blogger is so easy to use and very functional. I love using Blogger. "Blogs" like Twitter,  do not like, because there are too many different types of people and accounts trying to get their messages across. 

    A Web 2.0 Tool I would like to implement in my classroom would be a wiki. It would be a really easy, and simple way to control my class. It would be very easy to edit, and keep under control, and closely monitor. Safety and security is my top priority in my classroom. Wiki sites are a 9/10 in my opinion, easy to control, easy to navigate, easy to get information off! Here is a site I and my classmates made in less than 30 minutes. 

Journal 5

I never used Twitter growing up, and I do not even use Twitter now. I do not really understand it too well. I feel like people just post whatever thoughts pop in their head and it is kind of silly to me. The only reason I have Twitter now is for this class :). As an aspiring Physician Assistant, Twitter might be beneficial in promoting a business, but I also have a passion for public health and Twitter could be useful for posting important info. 

The digital divide makes it harder for students access their schoolwork. Almost all schools have some sort of technology exclusive platform where students access homework and assignments or their grades. This makes it challenging for students with little to no access to computers and wifi to be at the same level as their peers who have steady access to technology and the internet. Just being mindful and aware of my students home situations and making sure that each one of my students have the resources to excel will make me a good teacher. 

I definitely want my students using Microsoft office. Being proficient in such a software would help them greatly in navigating school. I also want to start teaching my kids basic coding. I think that having that background and basic understanding of coding would really help them in their careers. 

Journal #4

Happy Sunday 🐶

I chose the Computer Science (Microsoft Word) standard for 6-8th grade. The standard I chose is to think about and deduce why some assignments and tasks would be easier for a human to do than a computer. I do feel like I am prepared to implement this standard. I know that computers are not always prefect, and you cannot count on Microsoft Word spelling and grammar editor to make sure your syntax is actually correct. 

I chose to search under Kindergarten Social Studies. The activity was locked, but it essentially is a coloring activity that goes along with a video to understand what the American flag looks like. I think this is great for Kindergarten, it is something really basic they should know. It is easy and stimulating for young children to be able to learn through technology and creativity. 

In order to find exactly what you need, you should know hoe to be able to use advance search on Google. I did not know you could edit the colors for results when you search, this is helpful when you have to find color-specific items like a newsletter. In my school district growing up, Google was actually banned, so we had to use alternative search engines. My favorite was Duckduckgo.com since it did not track and sell your data. 

Journal 3

Happy Sunday ☺

Copyright is type of ownership. If someone has a copyright to something, they own it. It can usually get into the hands of other people, because it could be an online source or a physical book that people can own a copy of. Just because you buy something that is copyrighted does not mean you can do just anything with it. You are not allowed to share it. Fair use is an act that gives people to use someone else's copyright as long as it is educational, within fair use. There are a lot limits to fair use, but it helps teachers teach their students. As a teacher, it would be hard to teach this concept to my students. It is really easy to assign a project and ten use graphics they have gotten online. If I said they could not do that than they might have trouble finding resources. 

Cyberbullying is a terrifying concept. It saddens me so much to imagine being bullied. I think it is important to teach students to have limits. Maybe having social media in elementary school is not a good idea. Young children should not be online, no social media site is secure, and there are so many weirdos out there that know how to manipulate children. I would not allow my students to be on social media in my classroom, hopefully not be on their phones at all. I would also teach them that it is really scary, and it should be avoided if it can. Student privacy is also a hot topic. Especially now with cellphones that have cameras, teachers are taking more and more photos of children. Sometimes there are waivers parents can sign but its not enough. I would not allow other parents to come into my classroom and take pictures of their children if there were other students in the background. 

The Newsletter design as pretty fun. I viewed it as an artistic outlet. It is really nice to try to convey your message in an aesthetic and personal way. Next time, I would start working on it, step away take some time and then come back to it with a fresh mind so that I could have a great final piece.  

Journal 2

    I have been using Microsoft Word for almost all of my schooling. Admittedly, up until about second grade we were not using technology to complete assignments, we would just use computers to take quizzes on. I did have Apple products when I was younger, and my parents did not want to pay for the Microsoft Suite so I often used an app called Pages, but I would use Word in school. By the time I was in high school, using Google Docs was the bets because you did not have the physically save the document onto a hard drive and pick up where you left off. Now, I will usually start writing my papers on Docs, and once its time to format and such I will finish on Word to make sure everything is up to standards.

                                     "Students creating podcasts" by shersh is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

    The ISTE standard that is most important to me is "2.3.b Establish a learning culture that promotes curiosity and critical examination of online resources and fosters digital literacy and media fluency." This standard means that an educator's duty is to cultivate a love for learning while ensuring that students are able to navigate technology which is ever so present in our society. I like this standard so much because it is implemented in K-12. Technology evolves so incredibly fast, and from the time someone is in Kindergarten to the time someone is about to start University or College, learning and teaching can change so much. From having physical workbooks and textbooks, to technology being a need in order to purse education, it is important to teach children digital literacy. 

Digital natives are youths who are comfortably familiar with technology and the internet. Digital natives can navigate technology easily. One silly difference I notice between digital natives and digital immigrants is typing in "www." or "https://" into a search bar. It is not necessary, but something small I notice that not everyone knows about. Another difference is using shortcuts, especially on phones. For example, using Siri or using one's iPhone in a more efficient manner, digital immigrants sometimes have a bit of a hard time figuring it out. I anticipate a lot of differences between me and my future students. Like I mentioned earlier, technology is evolving at warp speed. By the time I get there who knows that types of technology and the challenges they will bring for me and my students (like ChatGPT).

    The Newsletter assignment seems like a good introduction into how time consuming and in depth simple assignments can be. Teachers have to go through a lot to ensure that their students have material that is concise, appropriate, well-done, and actually helpful. Leaving out some components can make a teacher and their students life harder. I would like to include in my newsletter more information on how to study well. I think I will probably target 5th graders or middle schoolers, since they are about to start experiencing new teaching styles as they become older and more mature. Their grades will be dependent more on them studying and working on problems by themselves, learning in class will not be the only way they practice. I have never designed a newsletter, but I know in order to make an appealing newsletter I would need to take my time and ensure that it visually looks good so my students actually want to use the resource. 

Journal #1

 Good Evening :)

Welcome to my blog. I am sure you are wondering what is up with the older posts on here. In high school, I was in AICE media studies where I had a big final project that I was required to keep my teacher updated constantly, so we made blog posts on blogger. 

A little about me, I am 20 years old and I am from Fort Lauderdale. My mom has two French Bulldogs that  am obsessed with. I live here in Tallahassee with my wonderful boyfriend who is studying Chemical Engineering here. My major is Public Health with a minor in Education and Chemistry. I aspire to go to Physician Assistant school after I graduate, I hope that having some background in Public Health will make me a better PA. 

When the world shut down for COVID in March of 2020, I was a senior in high school. We were initially just told that we were not going to come back after Spring Break for one week, and we we went almost 2 weeks with no instruction periods. Soon we all got on Microsoft Teams. Initially, it was a very hard adjustment. If you read back on some of my posts here, you can see how COVID impacted my project and myself. Using Zoom and Teams is now super common and super easy. There really was no choice but to adapt to 100% online, and now almost all classes have some online aspect.

The resources I most commonly use are Quizlet. I love Quizlet. I believe in order to really learn you need to memorize first, once it is in your head you can start using the words/terms/ideas and then you really integrate it into your learning. Another online resource me and every other FSU student is Canvas! There is really no good learning resources on Canvas, but documents and resources my Professors posts are really 

ccr!!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1acTpT39iRXr4BiltvjiOOcboazozw1GX/view?usp=sharing

click me


Can't believe it 
Couldn't have done it without my fans!!!

CCR Script

I have done a couple practice rounds and boy oh boy have I gone over 10 minutes. Here is my final script so I don't bore you to death

Hello Cambridge. My name is Danielle Velez and I created the film opening drive. My main actor was my sister, Samantha, and I decided to work alone to challenge myself and my creativity.

Leaving college is something that I am facing right now, and when I thought about it I realized that I personally had not seen any films that address this.

 My opening uses drama conventions as drama  films tend to follow the emotional development of a character that is usually related to some type of conflict.  Dramas show humans from their highpoints to their low points. It can be argued that dramas have the most subgenres: crime films, courtroom dramas, melodramas, epics (historical dramas), biopics (biographical), or romantic genres.The target audiences for Drama usually appeal to males and females in both young and older audiences. I believe that my opening will be one of a "teen drama", so my target audience will most likely consist of 12-18 years old females. Some of the best-known drama film producers are: Steven Spielberg for Schindler's List,  James Cameron for Avatar, Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk, Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and Martin Scorsese Taxi Driver.

The Protagonist usually is the main character in the film. The audience usually can relate to this character and root for them throughout the film. The protagonist is usually played by a male character however having a female protagonist has recently increased.

My film represents the latinx community. More specifically the challenges that first generation americans face.Here is an article about how first gen kids aren't represented.  It's different when your parents grew up in a completely different country, with different customs. You take some of those customs but you grow up here and you adopt those as well.  Then comes the day where you cannot really identify with one group. You are either too "gringa" or not "American" enough. You can relate to and identify with both (or all) cultures, but you're not completely accepted by either.

In these articles ,the New York Times and the University of Southern California (my old dream school:(! ) find that Latinxs are grossly underrepresented in Hollywood. Representation is how the media portrays a group of people.  There are enough stereotypes about all minorities. Portraying this family in an accurately normal-ish manner would be beneficial. 

Some famous hispanic/ latinx actors are Penople cruz pedro pascal selma hayek antonio bandera 

I would like for my audience to be within the ages of preteen too early thirties. Because of this, I would like to have my film first be promoted on social media. online platforms are going to be my major source of engagement. Not only with ads of trailers on twitter, instagram, youtube, FACEBOOK and snapchat, I believe that tik tok will be even more important. TIKTOK HAS 800 million monthly active users. Explain the ads. By putting my adon the for you page, a common feed most users view  Through ads i will be able to reach a large audience. 

I would like to say My production skills improved throughout this project

I am still not where I want to be but i realized how much work really goes into this. So many little things, make the end result beautiful and coherent, so i definitely learned how important it is to plan.

For software, I started to use wevideo but I really was not that comfortable. I know that imovie isn't necessarily the best but it was what I was most comfortable with. If i had ventured out and used some other online software perhaps I would have been able to manipulate some things more to my liking.

For hardware, I used my dads noce camera, the Nikon D3200. I also used a tripod. However during the pandemic….. So i never got the tripod back soi had to use a ladder for some shots…...

Next time I want to have a really clear idea. For this, I kinda knew what i was aiming for me at it wasn't advantageous if anything it harmed me more. Being able to finish my project early would have let me have extra time to film more and or cadd things to make it better. Thank you cambridge for giving me an opportunity to complete this project, I hope that you are safe and well, bye 

*trumpet noises*

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u3-kURWsd5T64RXrci4Xtle2_GNM-ne2/view?usp=sharing

TAA DAAA

want to see the finished video? Click ME

Music

After much avail, I choose my song. I found the Free Music Archive.  Because of corona I really feel like I was limited in my filming. I did not feel like my shots really encompassed the drama I was trying to convey so I guess how I choose the music. I wanted to find the most dramatic song I could. It was difficult finding free songs that also fit what I wanted. I typed in "sad" and sorted through many scores until I found Ketsa's "Somewhat Sad".  

At first, I kinda thought someone stole the Harry Potter score. But the more i listened the better it sounded.  As the title gives away, it is * drum roll please * somewhat sad.  The beat is sad but eventually it gets lively and i like encompassing the highs and lows the character will go through.

https://www.freemusicarchive.org/search

Editing

My favorite part 
let's get right to it 
In post I found that a lot of my shots were shaky (omg really no way) 
So what did I do 
1. I had to reshoot the reshoot 
           Some of the footage was not salvageable 
2. I used an online resource. I download a lot of sketchy things on my computer I have absolutely no idea how I do not have a virus. 
I used this nifty website. I had to upload a lot of my videos and it definitely did help 

was not fast 

I tried to use Filmora as my main editing software but as soon as I told that to my friends I was warned that the software would cause the quality to lessen, and quality of the shots is one of the only things I have going for me right now. So I stuck to my handy-dandy iMovie.  

Paper, Paper Read All About It

Today I was jogging with my boy Max when I received a Canvas notification that my CCR was extended until April 19th YEEHAW  🤠

As I have mentioned before, my mom is working with COVID patients so if I leave my house at all I must wear a mask and it gets very humid in there very quickly.

But in all seriousness, I am very grateful for this extension. It gives me more time to work on my actual opening. Thanks be to Stoklosa 

More Footage and Obstacles !

Today I shot some more footage. I was editing what I had and it was not enough.
I asked my dad to bring the camera again and surprisingly he did because he doesn't come by anymore now that my mom works with corona patients.
I was already ready to shoot when I realized something very important
My dad did not bring me a tripod
Devastating
I knew this would end up in shaky shots. So I did what I could

I had to pull out my handy-dandy-15-year-old ladder.  

I did not love it but it did not come out that bad 

I also had to use a full-size mirror to stabilize the shots in the bedroom. 

The situation was not ideal but it came out decent 

What am I doing In MY Swamp?

I feel sick. I am drowning.  I was informed that even though my Florida Governor DeSantis said graduation requirements would be waved it turns out I still need to sign up for an online PE class. This is so pointless. I did not sign up for this let me tell you that.  
Professional Mode On
One may think that being at home all day every day would result in a lot of work getting done. One may be wrong. Atleast for me, my home is a place of relaxation.  I try my best to associate my home with peace and tranquility. The American School System has lead me to not associate school with peace and tranquility. Since I am home i feel like i do not have to complete anything. 
I cannot move forwards with this project without the footage from my dad.  I have tried many times to show him what I want, but he is not a convincing actor and is taking this as a joke.  That is a big problem that I have.  I took a film class during my freshman year and had to create a short film for my final.  Let's just say everyone was speechless when we presented because no. 1 they had no idea what just happened no.2 the quality of acting was pitiful.  My family also felt that way, so when I try to film this project, they feel it's ok to be goofy.  If we do it right the first time I will stop annoying them with the constant nagging, I do not understand why that is difficult to understand.  
I am not at a complete standstill since I have edited my sister's part, however, my dad's part is integral.

I very much hope you find yourself well <3

Ugh

I am at the point where I have edited everything I have the way I need it. And I think its great, but it is 1 minute and 19 seconds longs. And it does not do a good job of introducing the plot.  I definitely need more footage of my dad. And I'm supposed to be on quarantine since my mom is in contact with corona patients. I am biting my nails now.
I would love to give myself a huge pat on the back because this is what you get for procrastinating. 
Anyways what I need, more close-ups with my sister. Since I have so little time of the actual "drive", I am planning on adding my sister getting ready and nonchalantly glancing over at her welcome package.  Its gonna be more about the process than the actual drive.
The real problem is getting more footage of my dad. He is a salesperson and for whatever reason, his company believes selling timeshares is an "essential business" so he is still open and selling to people who definitely should not be buying a vacation right now.  My dad had to lay off 65 people the other day.  He is scared now since there is no one under him left to fire if they need to fire more. But he has been with his company longer than anyone else he uses that to reassure himself. 

Anyways, 12 days and a lot to do.