My Picture

Here if the image of my first MS 150 bike ride with my team.

My Picasa Page


MS 150 Team SRO by Derek Osborne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Creative Commons

This is a picture I would use in my swimming classes to teach the water safety unit. When we get smartboards or projectors in the future, I will have access to technology to show this type of photo to help ensure the students understand the concept of water safety.

Water Safety Information Sign (Terry Stewart) / CC BY-SA 2.0

I think that adding images to the curriculum I teach can be very helpful. I will be looking to add images to PowerPoint presentation that cover a wide range of topics in my health and pe classes. Images can motivate the learner and get a visual on the topic whether it is sports (pictures of athletes doing the skill being learned), safety (above picture) or health (nutrition, mental illness, drugs, etc.). Images will be a helpful tool in my future teaching.

My Picasa Page

PC Maintenance and Security

There are a lot of issuse concerning pc maintenance and security. I have heard about these topics before, but do not understand what they mean. I have chosen three tutorials to help me learn more about pc maintenance and security.

Tutorial #1 Compare and Contrast Hardware and Software Firewalls
Hardware firewalls are part of the router. Their main purpose is to keep your network private and invisable from hackers. Software firewalls are programs like Norton and McAfee that scan the computer for invasions. People need to know what the firewall is and what it does. The item that suprised me was programs like Norton are firewalls. I just thought it was a program for safety, not a firewall.

Tutorial #2 Using Window's Clean up
Windows clean up program is a quick and free way to free up space on your computer. I have seen costly programs that do the same thing, but this one is free. I will be using this program on my computers to improve performance and clear space. I think this item will also help others clean up their computers. The item that suprised me was the face that it is so quick and it is free.

Tutorial #3 Securing Internet Explorer
Even with firewalls and security software, our computers are at risk. This tutorial showed me how to adjust my settings within Internet Explorer to control Active X. A few clicks of the mouse can be the difference between being attacked by a website and maintaining safety. Sharing this tip can keep a lot of computers safe. What suprised me was that websites can attack your computer and install unwanted and dangerous items just because I did not have properly check my settings.

Getting Things Done!!

Organizing and staying on top of all of my daily duties is a task I definitely need help with. The getting things done program offers a lot of possibilities to get my items in order. I suppose in some way, I already do a lot of the things suggested in the program, problem is I do them in my head and with a lot of different inboxes. Email, phone calendar, desk calendar, home calendar and written lists are how I handled the information. I organized everything with the paper and pencil method with an inbox on my desk at work and home.

I started to try to streamline the process by limiting my inboxes. One for paperwork, one for email and a calender on my phone. As was said in the article, this proved to be the hardest part of the process. I am trying to learn the One Note program and my goal is to make it my inbox for everything. In the meantime I am using the three items listed above.

The processing of the items in my inbox was a little confusing. I read all of my emails soon as I get to a computer. When I get the HP Slate tablet, I will have more access to my emails. Trying to use the two minute idea has helped me get a grasp on all of the items in my inbox. I use a list for paperwork, and it is fairly easy to decide what needs to be done now and what can wait and be classified as a project. Calenders have always been hard for me. I start using one and for one reason or another, I stop using it. The desktop calender has always been the best for me. I am starting to put items on my phone calender and will begin to classify them.

The organization process is started, but needs a lot of work. My paper and pencil lists are the best way for me right now. I can see what needs to be accomplished and when. If I can transfer these lists to my phone or One Note, my organization will be a lot better. As for email, I have started to sort important emails in folders. The folders I have right now save emails that could be important down the road. I also need to spend more time imputing dates into my phone calender and not just the desk calender.

The review is the most helpful part of the process. It allows me to look over all of the items for the day and act upon them appropriately. I need to develop the weekly calender, I am hoping One Note will be the solution.

As for the Do process, I am improving. I have noticed that my lists and inboxes really only contain items relative to my work life. I need to put my home life into my inbox and get those items accomplished as well. I believe I am accomplishing most of what needs to get done, but there is room for improvement.

Going through the process was not easy. It will definitely take some time for me to get a system down that works for me. I can see the value of using the GTD process. It will allow me to see the tasks in my inbox, because I will almost always have access to it, thus making me more organized. I will continue to use this process to help me manage my home and work lives and to ease the stress caused my the many tasks that need to be accomplished.

RSS Reflection

Joining the wave of RSS feeds has been an enlightening experience. I had no knowledge of what the google  reader is. I had seen the RSS feed button before, but did not know what it was or what it did. Since completing the RSS lab, I have been exploring the vast array of information available on the internet and have created a google reader (pictured above) and added feeds to it. I started with the feeds required for the assignment and then ventured out for topics that relate to my subject area of physical education. I have found some good and some that do not offer the content I want.

The feeds I chose that relate to physical education consisted of lesson plans, creative ideas, state and national organizations and the MYP IB program. These sites contain a lot of information that will be valuable to me as I grow as a professional. The state and national associations (AAPEHRD and MAPEHRD) allow me to keep up to date on what is happening in the profession at a higher level than just my school district. There rest are  blogs and websites that offer articles on physical education. The blogs are helping me to discover new and creative ideas that people are using in PE. Mr. Robbo uses the ipod touch to teach movement concepts, SPARK offers innovative ideas on how to teach skills and discussions on "political correctness" within the profession, and the IB blog gives insight to how to teach in the MYP PE program. The websites with feeds are professionals writing articles, which seem very similar to the blogs, just not as personal. I have found this experience to be a great way to get professional development on my own time. I can incorporate the new ideas I find through the feeds to improve my teaching and the students learning. A wealth of information is at our fingertips for free, no more worrying about money and time away form the students to get all of my professional development. I know I will be able to incorporate some of the ideas I have read about into my classroom.

I posted a comment on the MYP IB PE blog that I have been following. The post was describing the process of completing the movement compositions piece for the IB program. I commented on how much I liked the organization of the blog and asked a few questions in regards to the topic. We are transitioning to become an IB school and any help we can get will help ease that change.

The feeds that do not relate directly to physical education are proving to be just as worthy. I like to read about the new technology and uses that are available and coming soon. The amount of technology I have learned in the past three weeks has left me wanting more. The technology feeds keep me up to date on even more technology available for me to learn to use. The general education feeds are a good way to see what is happening around the nation and what thoughts people have on helping to improve the educational system. I find myself not reading as many of these, but a few catch my interest.

I have found the RSS feeds to be a valuable resource for my future professional development. However, it is not easy to keep up with all of the feeds. I will, over time, streamline the number of feeds I am following to the ones that I find the most value in. Some of the feeds do not update as much as the others. It seems that the more specific the topic, the less it is updated. The more general topics can have up to 10 new posts a day.

I believe I will be able to use the RSS feeds to improve my skills as a teacher. The goal at our school is to prepare our students to be able to compete in a global society. My use of the RSS feed will help enable me to be able to give the students the skills, in physical education, technology, or both, to accomplish that task.

Social Networking

Before starting this course, my knowledge of social networking was Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. I did not realize all of the different site that were available, or at least did not consider them to be social networking sites. After completing this lab, I now see how I can join a lot of personal and professional communities online to help in all areas of my life. My workflow needs a lot of help. The days of comming home from work and having to find something to do are over. Teaching, MAET classes, wife, three year old daughter, and coaching baseball and football take up most of the day. The tools availble on social networks can help me organize better and not feel so much of a time crunch.

Professionaly speaking, the social networking sites seem to offer some of the best profesional development a teacher can find. If i am struggling with an issue, there is probably a site that can help me.  These site have endless possibilities.

Personally I have been on Facebook for about three years, it has helped me to reconnect with old friends, family members, and collegues. Social networking allows me to connect with people, sports, entertainment and interesting informatin.

RSS Feeds

I have been using Google Reader for finding RSS feeds. I found the experience to be fairly easy and finding feeds not to difficult. Wether or not the feeds I found are useful have yet to be determined. I am posting a link and I am working on a screen shot of the page.

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#overview-page