Swan200t’s Weblog

We all know what time it is getting to be, yes that is right you guessed it exam time! This can be a very stressful time for some people. For others this is a nice relaxing time because there are no classes and you are not the type of person to worry about exams because you are a very good studier.  I thought it would be useful to find some good studying tips and to share them with everyone. I found a site that lists 11 tips to improve studying results called http://www.soundfeelings.com/free/studying.htm

Here they are:

1. “Study in Short, Frequent sessions”(soundfeelings)

People tend not to be able to focus for large amounts of time. So it is better to study in small sections like 10 minutes then take a break and study again. According to the article on sound feelings website “the brain needs recovery and recharging time for “protein synthesis.” The rest periods are when your brain assimilates your effort. They are a powerful tool which many teachers do not acknowledge”.  It is not very useful studying for a couple hours straight, this is distracting and you really don’t retain as much information.

2.”Take Guilt Free Days of Rest”(soundfeelings)

According to the article taking a day off studying allows your brain to rest and rejuvenate for next time you study.

3.”Honor your emotional state”(soundfeelings)

Study when you are relaxed and not stressed out this allows your brain to process the information easier.

4.”Review The Same Day”(soundfeelings)

When you are studying and you memorize new information make sure to look over that information again later in the day so that you do not forget it.

5.”Observe The Natural Learning Sequence”(soundfeelings)

According to the sound feelings website it is better to get an idea of the overarching concept you are studying then to fill in the details afterwards because this will lead to success.

6.”Use Exaggeration”(soundfeelings)

If you are learning a language or working on spelling exaggerate the sounds of the words so that when you get to writing that test spelling all of the words is easier.

7.”Prepare Your Study Environment”(soundfeelings)

Figure out where the best place for you is to study. Make yourself as comfortable as you can with snacks lighting and so on. In my first year I studied in the library and it was far to quiet I always fell asleep. Now I always study in my room and if I start to fall asleep I turn on the radio or take a break.

8.”Respect Brain Fade”(soundfeelings)

When you are studying it is easy to forget things you have already gone over. Always make sure to do quick overviews over all of the material you have covered so that you have a better chance at remembering it.

9.”Create a Study Routine”(soundfeelings)

This is something I must try. Plan out a time each day that you are going to study. Write it down in your planner and do it. Usually if you don’t do this you tend to over procrastinate like me and not get in enough study time.

10.”Set Reasonable Goals”(soundfeelings)

Do your studying in steps, break it into sections instead of trying to cram all of the information into your head at once.

11.”Avoid The Frustration Enemy”(soundfeelings)

Don’t stress yourself out. Take your time with studying and know that you are doing your best and that is all you can do. Also don’t be afraid to ask for help sometimes there are quick fixes to your problems. Study groups can also be great ways to study for finals.

Any way I hope you found some of these tips to be useful, and I wish you all luck with your finals. Remember not to get stressed out and just to take your time! Below I have posted a funny video about over studying, check it out!!

As a future arts educator I know that I will have to be skilled in five areas including dance, music, theater, english, and art. The area that I am weakest in is the music area. I used to play the clarinet ,but since then I have not really picked up an instrument. I am not great at reading musical notes. However I have been singing in choirs for quite a few years and I think I am okay at reading and following along with that kind of music. Any way I was looking for a podcast that would help me improve my musical instrument skills. I came across a podcast called Beginner guitar lessons and songs played by iPlayMusic.

This podcast has free beginner guitar lessons on it, and they seem easy to follow along with. There are also children’s songs that you can learn how to play. I really want to teach elementary school ,and I have always imagined being able to play the guitar and sing along with my students. Perhaps in the summer I will find some time and try to learn how to play the guitar using this free podcast. It is worth a try!! Wish me luck, and I suggest if your like me and you need a little bit more experience in the music area or you just want to learn how to play the guitar to check this out. Students could also use this podcast to teach themselves how to play the guitar.  Below I have posted a video of a man playing an amazing classical guitar tremolo solo, take a listen he is really good!!

Today I was looking at Cathy’s blog and I came across a program called sketch cast. This program enables you to draw things and record it at the same time. I have been trying to figure out how to embed my sketch cast that I made into this blog ,but haven’t had much luck. So here is the link http://sketchcast.com/view/31Pd1PA.

I decided to explain how to draw a frog. It was fun to make and I think sketch cast could be used in an art classroom to help students figure out how to draw certain shapes and animals. You can also tell stories about an animal when you are teaching the students how to draw it. This makes it fun and interesting to listen to. Sketch cast could also help students with math because you can draw out the equations. Any way I hope you all get the chance to check out sketch cast it is a really unique tool. Your students could even use this tool to make videos to help their classmate with something. You can also email or publish sketch casts to the web and or your blogs.

Did anyone use to watch Bill Cosby or that other guy’s ”Kids Say the Darnest Things” television program. I use to watch it all the time. It was so funny what some of the kids said.  I found a couple clips from these shows on youtube the quality isn’t very good, but you still get the basic idea. These clips will make you laugh, check them out!!

   So this week Lindsey and I started filming our final project. We were trying to capture our video onto Adobe Premiere in the education computer lab. We tried several ways to try and make it work, but we never had any luck. Then our camera battery died. If anyone knows anything about uploading videos to Adobe Premiere could you give give us some hints. Thanks. I used to make lot’s of films in highschool about anti-racism and I edited the school news program.I used Adobe premiere all the time, I wish my memmory was better. Speaking of school news I think it is great for schools to make there own news shows once a week. At my highschool we started making school news shows when I was in grade 10. It was a lot of work we had to film all sorts of footage, do interviews, polls, have news casters, etc. We were given a lot of creative freedom to create our own newsclips.  We also had to edit everything and have it ready for friday for the principal to preview. It was a lot of work ,but when we made a good news show everyone was happy. It was very collaborative and involved a lot of team work. I think every school should have there own news show once a week! It is a lot of work ,but it will pay off!! Below I have posted an example of a school news show made by high school students, enjoy!!

Hi I am still having trouble embedding my podcast into my blog correctly. I used podcast people. I have gone into the admin area on my site and check the mp3 low, medium and high settings. Then I went to public and clicked download and copy and pasted it to the code on my word press blog. It didn’t work. Can some one help me and give me an example of what your code looks like? Thanks. Also I have a couple different links to my podcast on my blog. Is the one at the top of my page correct? Let me know, thanks.

So this week in my KHS class we had to present a dance that we had choreographed with our dance groups the week before. Our group was the salsa group. We had lot’s of fun figuring out our choreography and figuring out the timing for our steps. We were nervous to present our dance, but I think it turned out well. I think this kind of dance project could be done with a group of students. You could also film each groups presentation. Then get them to edit it and post it to blogs or publish it on you tube. They could also write about their group experience and what they learned. I know that some of the people in this picture are in this class, if you want me to remove the photo I will. I just thought it was an example of a really fun and engaging learning experience and I wanted to share it. Below I have posted a you tube video of some really good salsa dancers, check it out!

I thought this weeks class was pretty interesting. I had never used Google earth before. It has so many options for education. Whether it be looking up locations of famous people like shakespear , mapping projects, figuring out directions to a specific location,  the possibilities are endless. I also liked Google maps it is really neat to click on a location and be able to scroll down a street and look around. You could plan a trip to a place you had never been to before then use Google maps to check out the streets there. By the time you arrived you would feel more comfortable with your surroundings and it would be easier to get around. I hope Google maps eventually includes all of the Canadian cities, provinces, and territories. Then I would be able to use Google maps for social studies classes. During class I was thinking  that if you had an online class and you had students from different locations, they could use Google earth, and or Google maps to check out where their classmates lived. Any way I am excited to play around with Google earth and Google maps and figure out how to fit them into my future lesson plans! If you haven’t explored Google Earth or Google maps yet I suggest you do because you are missing out on something great!! Below I have posted a you tube video that uses Google earth. The person who created it mapped out a whole bunch of different places, like where they went to school, where they were born, etc. This is exactly what we did in class, except they made it into a you tube video, so I thought it was kind of cool. I think this could be done as a geography assignment in schools. Check it out!

This is my google map of some of my favorite places to go, check it out!

http://maps.google.com/maps/user?uid=110100924492403375151&hl=en

Basketball Intramurals

For my first podcast I decided to talk about my basketball intramurals. It is something I look forward to playing every week and I just wanted to share my experience with you and the world wide web. I also talked about how team experiences are wonderful for students and how team environments can be very supportive atmospheres. I hope you enjoy my first podcast, it was fun to make. I am not sure if there is a way to embed this on my blog, if there is could someone please drop me a comment, thanks. For now it is a link, so check it out!

http://swan200t.podcastpeople.com/posts/21060

href=”http://swan200t.podcastpeople.com/posts/21060″>Basketball Intramurals