*Joanna+Nieves


 * Joanna Nieves
 * Turkeyfoot Valley Area School District
 * Somerset County
 * Pennsylvania


 * I teach grades 9-12
 * I teach English and Language Arts, Journalism, Public Speaking, and Literature (Hopefully, starting a dual-enrollment class as well)

This is my 5th year at my current school district. I am the English department head for the Turkeyfoot Valley Area School district. I am also the class adviser for the Student Council and The Gobbler, which is the newspaper for our school district. I am also the mother of a beautiful four year old little girl named Jayna. I am super excited for this conference.

=Projects:=

1. wiki: www.msnievesenglish.wikispaces.com 2. iMovie: Zest for Tech demo (see bottom of page for video clip) 3. Google Calendar (for some reason is not working now, hmm...) Okay, I tried the calendar thing again, let's see if it works this time... 4. Fakebook Page: William Shakespeare



5. Kaleidoscope Painter: pictures done by Jayna Nieves (my daughter, age 4)



6. Voki character: Rockstar media type="custom" key="20329180"

7. Wordle media type="custom" key="20329254"

8. Glogster (see bottom of page) 9. Prezi: The Outsiders (see bottom of the page)

Reflection for Monday: 7/9/12
The Zest for Tech Conference began today. The morning began with several introductory speeches, all inspirational in their own right, yet informative in terms of the exceptations for the day and also for the week. Encouraging words were spoken by Dr. Palardy, Dr. Ladores and others, reinforcing the ideals that teachers are necessary and pertinent in today's society, despite the threats of a teacher downfall. The Keynote Speaker for today was Diane Coyle, fellow teacher and author of the class text, //Introduction to Web 2.0//. Ms. Coyle discussed several newer sites that may be of interest for teachers, including: Pinterest, ScoopIt, and Indiegogo. She also discussed the differences between Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. I am particularly interested in the Indiegogo site, which is a more modern way of raising funds for education (among other things) instead of the same old grant system. Please do not get me wrong, I am not begrudging the grant system, it has served the teacher nation well for a long time, however with Indiegogo, it is a lot easier to raise smaller funds with little hassle. I believe that I may, after receiving permission from my school district, try out the Indiegogo site to raise money for our Kindle Touch system. I think this would be an easy and effective way to purchase e-books without having to disturb the school board or administration. The next guest speaker was Jason Huber, who spoke to us on My Big Campus. My Big Campus is a paraellel structure of Facebook and is a safe environment for school districts to work in. I will be honest, the idea sounds intriguing, maybe even bordering on interesting, but I am not entirely sure I understand the concept behind the program. I may be wrong, but it sounded like a type of firewall or form of protection for the school system, but I don't know why it is necessary if the school district has a firewall already? After returning from lunch, (Thanks Dr. L) we entered workshops on Social Networking and on creating a Wikipage. Of the four social networks discussed, I was most interested in the Linked In network because it is for professionals and there are NO STUDENTS on the site!! I plan on trying this site out and seeing if I can find other English teachers to help generate or discuss ideas with. I also created a Wikipage for all of my classes. My thought process was to generate a place where students can write reflections and ask questions about the various topics discussed in class. I also, thought that this may be a good replacement for the daily journals that my studnets complete. It wold definitely cut down on the notebooks I would have to drag home every weekend. Overall, I enjoyed myself. I thought that the the guest speakers were informative and easy to listen to. I find that if the speaker enjoys and believes in the topic, that he or she is more effective in the relaying of the messages. I also found the workshops helpful and useful. I do not have time to sit for hours on end, exploring the Internet for new and interesting sites to incorporate into my little English world, so it is nice to be able to have some of that information delivered.

Reflection for Tuesday: 7/10/12
My Zest for Tech continues!! It is Day 2, and the Technological ball isn't slowing down, it is gaining crazy momentum! Today, I had the pleasure of introducing Dr. Jim Lerman, who was also the Keynote Speaker for the day. Dr. Lerman's presentation for the day was entitled, "Big Picture of Technolgy, Making Yourself Virtually Indispensible". I absolutely delighted in the presentation, which was surprising. I will be the first to admit that I am a terrible student, not in terms of grades but in terms of paying attention. If a speech isn't amazing from the beginning, I usually end up tuning it out somewhere alnog the way, and unfortuneately this happens more than I should admit. However, I truly enjoyed Dr. Lerman's presentation. Everything made sense to me and related to things that teachers worry or think about daily. the most enjoyable and influential part of the presentation for me was the seven steps to making yourself indispensible. I thought that this was ingenius in the fact that it is fairly common sense, but at the same time, truly inspriartional. I found myself going through each step and trying to determine if I myself am indispensible. Very thought provoking and great information. The second guest speaker for today, was Stephen Schawalder. I enjoyed Stephen's presentation for two reasons. First, the presentation was very down to Earth and realistic. Every site, app, or technology component shown was easily accessed and very affordable. Secondly, Stephen was effectively prepared and was not afraid to stop his presentation to show us how a certain component worked. To me, this is clearly a sign of a technological leader and exemplary teacher. After lunch, both workshops today focused on various aspects of Google Apps and education. Most of the Google instruction the afternoon was informative, but moreso a review for me since I explored most of these applications in a previous tech class with Dr. Ladores. However, it was very nice to have a refresher of how to use certain aspects of Google, like YouTube and Google Sites. The most interesting, yet most frustrating part of the afternoon was the iMovie function. I truly enjoyed learning how the program works and I was following along rather nicely. However, the embedding portion of the opresentation was slightly rushed, which became confusing and then down right frustrating. I manged to embed my video, but I am not sure how exactly. I would have like to spend some more time exploring the movie optios and really working with the program. I feel that since I teahc high schoo that this is something that I can incorporate into my curriculum and the studnetsd will enjoy. I would have rather spent more time with the movie portion and less time with the Google Apps. I am not saying that it wasn't beneficial becasue it was, it is just my personal preference. I am looking forward to what is coming tomorrow.

Reflection for Wednesday: 7/11/12
Yes, it is now the middle of the week and we are over the hump!! Today, was yet again another action packed day, filled with tons of information and innovative programs and speakers. We kicked off today's events with Mr. Eddie Hampton and an introduction to both Edmoto and Manga High. I completely enjoyed both aspects of the presentation. I will admit, I am more of a fan of Edmoto than My Big Campus (sshh... don't tell Jason). Edmoto was user friendly and had tons of features all within an easy accessible format. I loved the idea of having all of my teaching tools all in one place, and not having to go searching for things at the last minute. I also liked the idea of the studnets being able to take quizzes and have them corrected all together and me not having to take any papers home. That is absolutely ideal. I am not entirely sold though on this idea simply because I cnanot use all of the awesome features. My school district requires us to use Classroll.com for gradebook and lesson plan submission, and I don't know if I am savvy enough to navigate two sites effectively at the same time. I am sending the Manga High website to the head of our math department because I think that it is super, especially since it directly correlates with the Common Core. I thought that Mr. Hampton would be a tough act to follow, but Dr. Jennifer Rankin managed to top him. I loved the idea of Dr. Rankin's presentation, of "Taking One". I am the first to admit that I become very overwhelmed when it coems to technology. But, if I could remember to start with jusrt one, things do seem a bit more manageable. Plus, I have an entire page of various sites and programs that I just have to try. I came home and allowed my daughter to try her hand at the Kaleidoscope Painter. She loved it and I immediately saved her pictures and the site in my favorites for future use. (See above for examples) I also signed up for Pinterest and sent an invite to my sister who is already in love with the recipe pins. After lunch, we tackled the Smart world and it was definitely interesting. At my current school district, we have Promethean boards, so it was neat to have this new experience. I really enjoyed the document camera immensely. I have an Elmo so I was fairly familar with the idea, but I loved the 3D features. I think that this is a great tool if one does not have a Smartboard (me). I also enjoyed the Clickers, they were fun to play with and put a new spin on the good old exam. I believe that I would have enjoyed the Slateboard had it been functional. Overall, another technology filled day that was innovative and fun. Although, I am slightly worried about tomorrow since I am speaking, I am looking forward to seeing what is coming up next!

Reflection for Thursday: 7/12/12
We started off today with a quick pep talk from Dr. LaDores in terms of patience and understanding when it comes to technology. She suggested for us to take our time and absorb the various things throughout the conference, and to not try and remember everything all at once. Broadening your knowledge does not mean consuming it all in a week! This is something that I should really try to adhere to because most days I leave the conference with my head swimming, full of ideas, and not knowing what to do next. The first speaker of the day was exemplary teacher, Ms. Michelle Seville. Michelle focused on several different elementary programs and programs that would be beneficial for special needs students. Michelle believes that technology is a way for students to become more engaged within the classroom, and uses technology to adapt her classroom to her students, instead of the other way around. She uses the different programs so that the students will make visual connections amongst words, phrases, letters and their corresponding pictures. Her favorite program, that she was generously willing to share was Boardmaker, which is a database of pictures that gives concrete ideas correlative to discussion opportunites. I liked the idea of this program and I enjoyed the presentation, however I wonder if there is a version of Boardmaker for high school educators. High school teachers still use vocabulary and have lower functioning students and something of this nature may be beneficial. I also wrote a huge list of various apps and programs which I will be forwarding to the elementary teachers within my building because I think that they will be of great use to them. The second speaker for the day was Ms. Dianne Scott. Dianne Scott is a special education instruction with a focus on autistic children, and her presentation today focused on the usage of the iPad within the special education classroom. Dianne explained how the iPad system is set up within her school district and then went through a plethora of apps and programs in which she uses to engage her students. I truly liked the Flashboard app, which creates flashcards using either your own vocabulary words or a list of words within the program. I thought that this was a great idea and would love to implement this within my classroom. Being the Language Arts teacher also requires me to include vocabulary lessons for both Common Core standards as well as collegiate vocabulary for future student use. This can become very cumbersome, so this idea of making flashcards would be helpful for both my students and myself. Again, this presentation did seem more geared towards the elementary so I created a list of apps and programs to be forwarded to my elementary cohorts. Finally, after lunch, we broke into two sessions of four separate work stations, each with varying iPad applications and usages within the classroom, with the exception of me, who presented the Kindle Touches. I learned several things. First, the elementary teachers in my school district all have iPads, so I believe that the incorporation of a Stylus pen is a fabulous idea. This will cut down on the amount of children roughing up the devices. Second, I enjoyed the fact the several of the apps discussed were geared towards high school students and adults. Alot of what we saw today focused on small children and some will be useful because I am the mother of a small child, however not all of it pertained directly to me. Finally, I liked the idea of the Dropbox app. It would be very useful to be able to have access to all of your documents, any time and any place. I thought that today worked out very well. I am having mixed emotions about tomorrow being the last day. I wonder what it will bring? If I am ready for whatever comes? I do wonder if all of the technology that is being incorporated into education is helping or hindering the studnets of today? I guess, only tomorrow will tell.

What will the future bring for education in terms of technology?
I honestly do not know how to answer this epic question. This particular question seems to be one that is on everyone's minds across all school districts, everywhere, and I am not sure that there is a clear or clean answer for it. I believe that it is necessary to continue to include varying technologies within a school curriculum to help prepare students for the world that we will eventually release them into. But, I guess the question becomes, how much is too much? I don't think that there is an answer to this question. When I think of technology, I think of the hamster on the wheel, he keeps running and running but never really goes anywhere; in the same regard, we keep chasing technology and chasing technology but we never really catch up. By the time a school district outfits itself with the newest version of a program, another version is already being released. I think it is vital to include various forms of technologies in order to prepare our students for the future, but I just don't know how much of that is the school district's responsibility? During a conversation with fellow students today, I learned that some educators are under the assumption that parents are only to feed and love their children and we, the educators, are to handle all other aspects of a student's life. Although, I do not agree with this ideal, I often times feel this way. I think there will come a time when technology will be the only requirement for a classroom. I do not know if this is good or bad or even feasible, but I do feel it is coming. And I am hoping that through my learnings at Zest for Tech, I will be more prepared for when that day arrives.

Reflection for Friday: 7/13/12
The last day for the Zest for Tech conference was bittersweet. I had a wonderful time and learned an immense amount of information, but it was an exceeding amount of information to absorb in a whirlwind time frame. I had a wonderful experience with my classmates, so thank you ladies and gents for making me feel welcome, I truly appreciated it. Today began with another quick review from Dr. Ladores. Today, she gave us a formula for creating passwrods, a quick introduction to Prezi, and several websites that may be beneficial to the classroom. The first speaker of the day was Mrs. Teresa Norris. Teresa introduced us to Digital Story Telling, and I have to say that I was truly impressed. I loved the various examples and the quality of work that was produced by elementary students was truly amazing. I think this is an ideal tool and have every intention of including this in my 9th grade curriculum for the next school year. I also plan on introducing this idea to the middle school English teacher, and possibly the elementary teachers as well. It is truly a brilliant idea. I really liked the poetry example and the book trailers; I can see William Shakespeare rolling across my computer screen now. After Teresa's presentation, Dr. Nick Glass gave us a webinar through Elluminate on his company TeachingBooks.net, live from Wisconsin. I am absolutely estactic about this program and am going to share it with all of my fellow English cohorts on our curriculum development day in July. This is absolutely a brilliant idea. This site holds everything that an English teacher could ever really need. This site covers everything from how to pronounce an author's name correctly to live interviews with authors, both living and dead. There are actual readings of poetry and novels from the authors themselves and lesson plans for collaborative work. Probably my favorite part of the site is that it is completely aligned with the Common Core Standards. Having to switch from preparing the students for the PSSAs to the Common Core was a bit daunting, but I feel that with this site, it may just be manageable. Plus, if it isn't great already, we get a 6 month free trial, YAY!!! The third presenter was Deena Kelly, who introduced us to the wonderful world of Glogster. Glogster produces beautiful pages that are full of color and everything a teacher could ask for, but it was a little hard to navigate through. I felt like I stumbled more than once, although I think that my Glog of "Things I Love" came out nicely. This tool seems to be something that I would use to introduce a unit or lesson, but I don't know if this is something that I would allow my students to use on their own. Finally, before lunch, we had a class photo taken. After lunch, I spent the afternoon with Dr. Ladores who introduced the group to eight or nine new (at least for me) sites and programs. After a brief overview of each site, we were allowed to work through the sites and begin creating new products for school. Today, I created a Voki character called Rockstar, a Wordle about my Englsih classes, a Glogster about things that I love, and a Prezi presentation about the novel, The Outsiders. At the end of the day I was absolutely worn out and completely overwhelmed with new technologies. But, I left the state of Maryland with a positive outlook, because I look forward to diving into these things again, and I feel confident that I can.

Technology Leadership and Action Plan:
I thought about this alot today, because I wasn't completely sure how I was going to approach this task. We already have a Technology Coordinator and Technology Leader within my school district and they both do wonderful jobs, so I am not looking to replace anybody. However, I learned so much over the course of this week that I feel it would almost be a disservice to my fellow instructors to not share all that I have learned. I have every intention to ask to put together a curriculum development workshop for my school district, in hopes of being able to share some of the extrordinary new things that I have come to know through Zest for Tech. I have no idea if this will even be feasible but I am going to ask none the less. I am also going to prepare a ton of hand outs for the educators within my school district, covering the various websites, programs, and iPad apps that I learned about this past week. Finally, I am going to incorporate some of the programs into my curriculum. My goal is to include at least one new form of technology every quarter, which is probably a very ambitious goal, but I would settle for effectively incorporating at least two of the programs. I am also going to share the TeachingBooks.net site with my fellow English teachers and hopefully I will be able to talk my district into purchasing it for us before the school year is over. I will beg, borrow and steal if necessary but this will also become a part of my curriculum; it isn't a question of "if" but a question of "when". I have set the time table for this school year. Finally, I am going to promote the Zest for Tech conference within my school district for new participants to join in the exhillirating festivities. I am hoping that my enthusiasm will spread because this program is something that I truly believe in. I feel that it was hugely beneficial and that I learned a lot. I am hoping that I can spread the word throughout Somerset County. I am also hoping that I am asked to present agian next year. I feel that it was very beenficial to share my knowledge with others in the education field. Whether I am asked to participate agian next summer or not, I feel privileged and honored to have been included. Zest for Tech changed my outlook on technology and is already in my datebook for next year. =Google Calendar=

=media type="custom" key="20314802"= =Video Demo=

media type="file" key="Zest for Tech demo Joanna Nieves.m4v" width="468" height="370"

Glogster Demo
media type="custom" key="20329520"

Prezi Demo: The Outsiders
media type="custom" key="20329762"