Aaaargh - Assignment 3

Eeeeek we haven't even started our work on assignment 3 and I'm getting worried. I'm the kind of person that leaves everything to the last minute which always backfires on me. There is too much going on in my life at the moment so something always happens at the worst time which interferes with my last minute panic of finishing whatever assignment that I've procrastinated with and then I end up in trouble (Procrastination Help). No matter how many times this cycle happens I still do it and I don't plan ahead so I must be the biggest idiot in the world!! This is why I'm worrying right now because assignment 3 is a group project and I really don't want to let any of my team members down so I need to pull my finger out and start on it this week especially because my mum is coming to WA to stay with me for a couple of weeks this weekend so I'm going to be very busy doing things with her and I know that this is going to interfere big time with my uni commitments :(

So: Wiki Spaces - never used it before and am a little intimidated by it. Need to figure out what it's all about and how to use it ASAP. This link is a great start on getting to know how I can use wikispaces as an educator.


Group Ass 3a - Need to decide with group our educational topic and target student group so we can start brainstorming ideas



Note to self: GET A MOVE ON ;)

                   Procrastination Help With Ellen DeGeneres

Procrastination Help With Ellen DeGeneres. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9SWJRwvHb4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

As you can see from my vary sparse blog entries, I am not doing very well with keeping up with my blogging. As I've mentioned before I hate the idea of blogging, not other people blogging, just me. I guess I'm very antisocial, I don't even use facebook very much. I love the link that Jenni sent me weeks ago (Obvious to You, Amazing to Others) but it hasn't changed my feelings sorry Jenni. However, because this is having an affect on my grades I am going to try harder with it.



This week has been huge with my technological advances as I've been forced to learn new things for assignment 2. I've learnt how to create a nice looking hyperlink (I don't know what the name of its called but I mean when you have a link to a site with just one word for example instead of the whole site address, does that make sense?) on my website and blogspot. I've also learnt how to use a completely new referencing software for me, Zotero. I thought I had Endnote on my laptop but I don't so I had to try the free Zotero download and I was surprised how quickly I picked it up.

For my assignment I used a few different search engines/library databases to research how technology can be used to assist in teaching photosynthesis in the classroom. Each of these are listed below with their own link:

Google Scholar  http://scholar.google.com.au/

Google   https://www.google.com.au/

Findit (on the Murdoch Library page)  http://library.murdoch.edu.au/ 

I actually found Google and Google Scholar to be the most useful for this particular subject search which surprised me as I thought that Findit would be more useful. I found books and conference papers were the hardest to search for with this subject but I had a lot of fun exploring the numerous websites, videos and podcasts that my searches found.

I actually thoroughly enjoyed researching what technology is out there to assist in teaching different subjects in the classroom. I chose photosynthesis as my research topic and I was amazed at the vast amount of resources available. I found so many websites with lots of different resources on them like games and quizzes, lesson plans, study and review notes and games, interactive sites, slideshows & activities and labs. The list is endless and it makes me so excited to think of the possibilities for when I'm teaching and coming up with lesson plans for my own students. So in conclusion: as much as it's like pulling teeth for me to want to sit down and do the work in this unit (nothing personal against technology, I'm the same in my other units), I actually do enjoy playing with new technologies and I am always very proud of myself when I achieve a good outcome and I can definately see how all of this is going to make me a great teacher when Im out in the workforce :)

Well round one of assignments was only over last week and already we're up for round two! I'm stressing out a little about Wellbeing's essay but going to try to get it all done by tomorow night so it's not a last minute rush on Friday, which I have to admit is mostly my style. I would have to be one of the worst procrastinators. I don't want to procrastinat but life is just so busy at the moment I feel like I have no time to do anything well. See how I'm procrastinating right now by writing this blog instead of getting stuck into my readings. OK, going to go now to make myself useful. Peace out x

I have got to say that I'm not a fan of blogs. Already I had got my first one wrong (I thought it was meant to be like a text with emoticons and abbreviations) and I had to edit it to fix it up and I feel like what I have to say is not important. I use Facebook but I rarely do a status update and I think it is the same thing, I must be a little self conscious! I just hope what I have done is ok for my assignment. I am very happy with my website though, I am really enjoying putting more and more on it and I think that it is something that I might keep up throughout my studies at Uni. I am about to submit my site and blog so please keep your fingers crossed for me and I will put a post up with how I went later.

1st Week of Uni

Eeeek!!!! First week of uni and I've already got 4 assignments due in three weeks.

Hope I remember how to use my thinking cap (been out of school for 10 years so been a while since I've had to write essays and study for exams).

This blog is going to be my venting space for when I have (hopefully only mild) freak outs with the pressure of studying whilst trying to balancing uni life and family life but also for when I have small triumphs and I'm feeling slightly pleased with myself .

For now I'm so excited to be back at uni and I remain mildly optomistic that I can manage all of the things I've got going on right now (uni, my family, working & fostering) but keep posted to see how I'm doing as my first semester progresses .