10 Days in Dominica, Day Five

Day Five, What don't you miss about home?

I do not miss working.  I do not miss getting up at 6 every morning and fighting traffic to get to work.  I do not miss complaining parents, picky administrators, or the paperwork..  but I do miss the kids.

I thought for sure I would be bored and miss having a job to keep me busy, but it turns out I love my freedom. It is going to be difficult for me to go back to teaching next year, and I'm not quite sure I will. I would love to get a job teaching online- either higher education or elementary school.  We'll see what this masters degree can get me!

Infographic

One of the assignments in my latest Masters class had me create a Top 12 list of the best websites for educators.  I decided to go the route of an infographic.  Have you guys seen infographics lately?!  Check out this one:

Infographics are art and information mixed together.  They are made especially for viewing on the web and most are long and narrow to fit on webpages and blogs easily. If you want to check out more, go here.  So, you can see why I was interested in trying to make my own.  Even if you aren't a teacher, you might still enjoy some of these sites!

Camtasia (like Fangtasia.. only better)

For my EdTech program, we had to download a free trial of Camtasia and learn how to use it to create a screencast project.  Using Camtasia was easier than I expected and also a lot more fun!  At it's most simple level, the program lets you video tape what is happening on your computer's screen while also including any talking you do while recording.  The program seemed quite intuitive, and somewhat mirrored the setup of Apple's iMovie.  Before beginning my project, I visited TechSmith's Learning Center and watched the Getting Started tutorials.  From there, recording and creating my own screencast was fairly straightforward.  I can see the potential for using Camtasia as a classroom tool for creating demonstrations and project instructions for my students or as a fun way to show how to do things on my blog!

So, here is my screencast on how to create a favicon and upload it to Google Sites.  This video is best viewed in fullscreen mode.  

For anyone would like to add a favicon to your personal website or blog, after you import your image you would choose "Publish under an open license" and create a free account with favicon.cc.  Once logged in, you would select your created favicon and follow the instructions at the bottom of the page to add the html script to your website or blog.  

Grad School in Dominica?!

After a whole lot of consideration, I've decided to get my Masters in Educational Technology during my time here in Dominica.  At first I thought I didn't want to do anything this year, but the more I thought about it I realized that the reason I didn't want to do anything was because I am burnt out on being a classroom teacher.  It's not that I don't like teaching kids, I do.  It's more everything that comes with it: the politics, the parents, and the never ending paperwork.  The best part of my job in the last few years was getting a Promethean Board, and learning how to use it in the classroom.  I started to enjoy making the lessons more than teaching them, and certainly more than dealing with the peripheral crap.  The way I see it, getting this masters is going to open a lot of doors to me (outside of the classroom).  With a Masters in Ed Tech, I can try to get a job at a company like Promethean as a trainer or developer, or I can work in a school as a trainer or in their IT department.  I really think that technology is the future of education.  Whiteboards will soon be as obsolete as chalkboards.  I'm actually super excited to move forward in my career, and am thankful that I have the time to begin that here!