I found this weeks workshop really useful. Firstly, the use of Publisher to create brochures was fantastic! I realise that many students probably know how to use Publisher with their eyes closed but I had really never used it before. When I was on placement, I was planning an integrated unit of work on safety for the grade 1 students and I wanted to get them to create a safety brochure that they could use to tell other younger students about how to be safe in your home, the road and the water. I had absolutely no idea how to go about creating a brochure on the computer. My mind flashed back to my high school days when I'm sure we had to create a brochure on the computer for an ICT class. I couldn't remember for the life of me what program we used. I tried word but it didn't really give me a proper format. In the end, I got the kids to type up their safety sentences, cut them out and paste them onto coloured cardboard which I had folded into three for them. I just wish I'd known about Publisher before I had conducted that lesson. Of course, in the end it didn't matter because the kids absolutely loved making the brochures with coloured paper and drawing their own pictures, etc. However, next time I think I'll give Publisher a try!!
Of course, Publisher can be a problem if you have a mac, which I do! So I found several other publishing programs that work on a mac including Swift Publisher (which is easy to use and can be used for professional or home activities such as newsletter, brochures, cards etc), Quark (which is for professional use but can be used by someone who is tech savvy or perhaps for design in high school classes) and Ragtime (which again can be used for professional or home purposes). These are just a few of the different types of publishing software out there that students can use to develop their literacy, art, numeracy and ICT skills.
Eportfolio
The discussion this week in the workshop about designing our eportfolio, applying for jobs and going for interviews was very daunting! After a very stressful and busy year completing my teaching diploma, the last thing I want to do is write 10 page job applications times 100! However, I realise that the education of children is so very important and it is incredibly essential that schools employ teachers who are dedicated, prepared and passionate. All the information we were given this week was invaluable and I feel that the process of going for jobs was made less ambiguous and uncertain.
Designing my eportfolio was another daunting task I was not looking forward to. However, a friend of mine put me onto an amazing website called scrapblog. Through this website I have begun creating an amazing eportfolio. This program allows you to add pictures, stickers, themes (ie school), photos and different backgrounds. My portfolio is starting to look amazing and I have thoroughly enjoyed creating it. Nonetheless, while technology does have the advantage of making things look amazing, it can take a lot of patience and a lot of time. Like the WebQuest we created for Integrated, this eportfolio has taken many many hours of work. Adding pictures, moving images, adding text, straightening things up and moving them around all takes a great deal of time. Like most things in life, there are advantages and disadvantages to using ICT. In this case, I do believe it was worth it as the end result speaks for itself!
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