I almost forgot to write this posting.
Today is my last day. I have been finishing up little things here and there this morning. It looks like we should have the 21st Century Skills paper finished today.
I’m going out to lunch with Amanda and Catherine.
It’s been a wonderful internship. I’ve learned so much and had great experiences. I hope I get a chance to encourage someone else to apply for an internship here!
Yesterday and today have been here and there kind of days. Yesterday, I put the finishing touches on my script for the Early Education Room video tutorial, worked on a few small projects for Amanda, and set off to the recording booth. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the sound card so we could not record yesterday. We decided that I would come back this morning, after the problem was fixed, to do my recording. Amanda sent me home early, which gave me time to work on my 21st Century Skills paper.
This morning, I went to the recording booth again, and this time, we successfully recorded my script. Though I did not like hearing my voice, it wasn’t as bad as I thought, and the recording went by smoothly and quickly with no mistakes. Chris took my recordings to Curtis, and I emailed Curtis my screenshots. After that, I went back to work on the 21st Century Paper.
Later this afternoon, I went to visit Curtis in his office. He had already put together my screenshots and recordings into the video. He showed it to me on YouTube – I was pleased with the final product. Then, he showed me how he used MovieMaker to create it. It seems like a very simple process, so I’m sure I would be able to do it on my own next time. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32qC5wspC8I
Tomorrow’s the last day!
Yesterday, I helped Amanda and others to get a mailing ready to go that included flyers for SchoolRooms. I had to staple about a thousand packets so that they could be folded with other materials into envelopes. This took me pretty much all morning and wasn’t very eventful, though necessary, so I figured I would just include yesterday’s blog posting into today’s.
Today, I wrote my script for the tutorial video I will be making for the new Early Education Room. First, I listened to some of Suzanne’s from last semester again to get a refresher on the types of things I should say. Then, I went through the room and wrote down what I would say if I was just showing someone the website. Amanda looked over it and said it looked good, though I may find that I want to shorten some sentences when I get in the recording booth. Then I used a neat program called FastStone Capture to make screenshots and draw lines, highlight stuff, and make circles to emphasize what I discuss in the script. The program was really easy to use, so that was done rather quickly. I inserted the pictures into the word document script and sent it to Amanda again for her suggestions.
On Monday, I will probably spend the morning fine-tuning the script, and then I will go to the recording studio at 2:30. I’m a little nervous about that, but I’m sure it will be fun as well. On Tuesday, Amanda and I will meet with Curtis about putting the whole thing together. Wednesday will be my last day! It’s approaching so fast!
This afternoon, I actually completed the Early Education Room!! Amanda is going to un-hide it tomorrow, so I may need to move things around a little bit, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
We talked about how I am going to do my video tutorial. I will have to write a script and create my screenshots tomorrow/Thursday/Monday morning. Amanda has a neat program for making screenshots that she will be putting on my computer tomorrow. It allows you to crop the image, draw lines, circle things, etc. really easily. Once I have all that together, I will (hopefully) go to the recording studio on Monday afternoon to record what I want to say. Then, on Tuesday afternoon, Amanda and I will meet with Curtis. He will take my recording and screenshots and put them together to make the video. I’m excited to see how it will turn out.
Meanwhile, I have been cutting and stapling all afternoon. We have a SchoolRooms mailing that we have to get out, so I had to chop up some little flyers and staple them to larger flyers. I did 400 today; we have 800 more to go and the envelopes to stuff. The end is approaching soon! I hope I get everything done in time!
Today I am working both morning and afternoon to accommodate the schedule for my job on Friday. This morning, I have gotten a lot of things done. I finished creating the caterpillar counting pictures for my last slide show and got the slide show ready. As soon as the pictures are available I can put those in and that will be done. I also added a small embedded website content module in the right column of the For Kids Only room that shows a YouTube video of the abc song. It’s really cute.
Amanda came in and told me that the training we were supposed to go to on Tuesday is canceled. That’s bad news on one hand because I will not get to see a training done for teachers. On the other hand, it will give me more time to get everything else done! She also asked me to cut apart some inserts for envelopes that we will be packing sometime in the next couple of days. I cut most of them, but the paper cutter decided not to cooperate, so I’m waiting until this afternoon to see if there is another one somewhere in the building to finish the rest.
Finally, I rearranged a couple of content modules and checked all my links. Once the final pictures are ready, I will be finished! Hooray! Amanda is going to get me started on making my video tutorial this afternoon.
Today, I continued working on the For Kids Only Room. I added lots of pictures, which took a while because I have a few slide shows in there with many pics. I couldn’t find a couple of the pictures that I thought I sent, so I will have to resend them to Amanda.
I also started working on another slide show for the Kids Room. I’m working on editing pictures for a caterpillar counting slide show. I just have to resize the images and send them, as well as set up the content module. It’s a fairly simple thing to do, just time consuming.
Other than that, the only thing we’re lacking is the buttons in the Kids Room. I don’t know what the procedure is for creating those, so I will have to get Amanda’s help. Once that and my slide shows are finished, I should be able to starting working on my video tutorial.
This morning I came to the library and went with Amanda, Catherine, and David to the K-12 Initiative meeting. This was a good experience for me because I was able to hear some of the behind-the-scenes issues that go on with budget and planning. I listened as they discussed E-Rate funding and technology budgets. Though I didn’t understand everything that was going on, I was able to follow along with most of it.
This afternoon, I continued working on the For Kids Only Room. Amanda liked my design with the bigger buttons, so I continued with that theme throughout the page. Today, I created the Preschool Playroom. Then, I searched for songs kids could listen and sing along to. I made a cm on the right with those, also in the format of an announcement box and then audience navigation buttons. I did the same with some educational videos that kids can watch. I was amazed to see how many free educational videos there are out there.
Next, I created a slide show on the left for children to practice naming their colors. Basically, I just used paint.net to create ten different colored rectangles with the name of the color written inside. I figured this would be a simple way for kids to practice, kind of like flashcards. I also started working on one for shapes, and I might add numbers as well. I’m not sure yet.
Amanda says we can add pictures again! 
So, this room should be finished very soon.
Today, Amanda asked me to make a few changes on the Early Education Room before I started the Just for Kids Room. I added an announcement box to call attention to the taxonomy, so that no one would miss out on the Babies & Toddlers Room and Preschool Room, etc. I also changed the Fitness for Kids cm to websites that feature at-home workouts for kids instead of gyms and classes that kids could go to. Amanda had hoped that I could find some Smartboard articles that focus on how they have been used with little kids, but I wasn’t able to, so we will stick with what I have. The articles I did find did have lesson plans for younger kids, so I hope those will be good resources. One link wasn’t working, so I fixed that.
Next, I started working on the Just for Kids Room. My plan is to have stories for kids to listen to/watch online, a baby and toddler playroom, and a preschool playroom in the middle. I have tried a different approach with this room, that I don’t know if Amanda will like or not. She’s already gone for the day, so I will have to ask her about it tomorrow. I want the room to be more kid-friendly, so what I’ve started doing for each section is writing an announcement box to explain what games, stories, etc. are in that area. Under the announcement box, I’m creating an audience navigation cm that will have the links to the games and stories. This way, kids will be able to click the big ‘buttons’ to get to what they want to play. After a while, they might start to recognize where to click.
I’m not 100% certain yet of what I’m putting on the sides of the Just for Kids Room. I’m thinking I may include some links to videos that have early childhood songs. I’ll have to see what I come up with tomorrow.
Today, I finished adding the content I found for the Early Education Room – Babies & Toddlers and Preschool area. The only thing I have left to do, unless Amanda wants me to add more – is create the Just for Kids Room. That should not take me long – hopefully I will be able to do that tomorrow.
I spent the day today creating the content with drop down menu boxes for the Preschool – Educators page and for the Babies & Toddlers Educators page. Those included for Preschool: Ready to Read, Counting and Numbers, The First Day of School, and Science and Discovery. For Babies & Toddlers, they included: Pre-Reading, Early Math, Learning to Talk, and Learning Through Play. It was difficult at times to find enough menu items for these topics, especially in the Babies & Toddlers Room because most information for that age is geared strongly towards parents. I did my best to find information targeted toward child care providers/teachers and some that could be adapted for that audience.
I also created a large content module on the Babies & Toddlers introductory page. I created a list with feature module focusing on professional development organizations for day care/child care providers. I thought this would be really useful for educators. I have never heard of such organizations, so maybe they haven’t either!
I have a few pictures to re-size, but there’s no rush on that since we still can’t add pictures at this point. I hope that changes soon because I really want to make my tutorial with the right pictures on the pages.
This weekend, I did a little work on the Early Education Room at home. I created a large content module for the Preschool Room and created some Featured Websites content modules as well. Therefore, I felt like I already had a leg up when I arrived at the library today.
Today, I spent most of my time finding links for the drop down menus for the Preschool Educators Room and the Babies & Toddlers Educators Room. I found many links, and began creating the content modules. I was able to create one full drop down menu box for the Preschool Educators Room today.
Amanda came in today for a meeting with me about my Big 6 and SchoolRooms paper. She liked the second draft and offered only a few suggestions to add to or change what I wrote. She also sent the paper to Catherine to review. Hopefully, I will hear some feedback from Catherine soon so I can complete the paper.
After I complete these drop down menu boxes and hopefully add pictures, I will be able to move on to the Kids Room. This room shouldn’t take too long because I have most of the links already, and it will be a very simple room.
