MR. AITKEN'S CLASS
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7/24/2012

Big goal.

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One of my biggest goals is to compete in a triathlon by myself.  I have competed in a triathlon before but I was part of a three person team.  I rode the bike and the two other members of my team completed the running and swimming part of the race.  We finished third and that was fantastic but I would still like to compete on my own and have the satisfaction of completing all three parts with my own effort.

What is one of your big goals?

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7/9/2012

Summer Goals update

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How have you done on your summer school goals? I made two goals for summer school.  First, I wanted my students to increase their understanding of how technology could help them learn on their own and how technology could help them create products which will grab other people's attention.  Secondly, I want to learn from my students what best meets their needs. 

I think I have done a fantastic job on the first one.  My student's project speak to that.  There are a lot of projects that I could not post because they were too large and those ones are even better.  I think I have done a good job on the second one as well.  I have not arrived, but I will keep pressing on in the area of assessing my student's needs.  That is something that I will never "arrive" at.  This summer has helped me improve my formula for a class I teach during  the regular school year.  During the summer I had in mind, the students I will have next year as well as the students I have had during the summer.  I wanted to create a course that I could teach during the "Study Skills" period.  The course I have taught this summer has been a opportunity to better prepare for that.  I plan to expand the course I taught this summer to create a course that will give the students an opportunity to improve their reading, communication, artistic, analytical and organizational skills.  All of these will be integrated into the projects that the students will complete.  All of the planning, organizing and implementing of the projects will hopefully increase their skills in all of these areas while having fun. 

More details will follow during the school year.

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6/18/2012

Summer School Goals

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Summer school starts on Monday June 18th.  I have two goals for summer school.  First, I want my students to increase their understanding of how technology can help them learn on their own and how technology can help them create products which will grab other people's attention.  Secondly, I want to learn from my students what best meets their needs.  During the summer I will be blogging about my progress.  

A second goal was to take a group of students on a science trip that may change their lives forever.  I am doing that today.  

What are your goals for summer school?  List two and describe them.

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1/31/2012

Electronic Masterpieces

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So, today you start some electronic masterpieces. You will be learning about movie making, digital photo editing, web page creation and multimedia presentation.  You will be making each of these during the school year. You will be graded on the quality of your work, not on the amount of time it takes you to complete.  


Before you begin I want you to complete two tasks.  I want you to write about your goals for this class and I want you to write about your expectation.  Regarding your goals, I want you to write two.  I want you to describe the goals in detail so that we can evaluate your goals later when your projects are complete.  Regarding your expectation I want you to be clear.  I want you to write about two expectation.  Each expectation should be a paragraph long and should be clearly explained.  Your expectation may or may not become true, we will examine your expectations again at the end of the class.

Mr. Aitken

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7/27/2011

Summer School Goals - update

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How have you done on your summer school goals? I made two goals for summer school.  First, I wanted my students to increase their understanding of how technology could help them learn on their own and how technology could help them create products which will grab other people's attention.  Secondly, I want to learn from my students what best meets their needs. 

I think I have done a fantastic job on the first one.  My student's project speak to that.  There are a lot of projects that I could not post because they were too large and those ones are even better.  I think I have done a good job on the second one as well.  I have not arrived, but I will keep pressing on in the area of assessing my student's needs.  That is something that I will never "arrive" at.  This summer has helped me formulate a class for the regular school year.  During the summer I had in mind, the students I will have next year as well as the students I have had during the summer.  I wanted to create a course that I could teach during the "Study Skills" period.  The course I have taught this summer has been a opportunity to better prepare for that.  I plan to expand the course I taught this summer to create a course that will give the students an opportunity to improve their reading, communication, artistic, analytical and organizational skills.  All of these will be integrated into the projects that the students will complete.  All of the planning, organizing and implementing of the projects will hopefully increase their skills in all of these areas while having fun. 

More details will follow during the school year.

Share

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7/12/2011

Second Update on Goals

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Well, three weeks have passed since I set my goals.   How are you progressing toward your goals?  I made two goals for summer school.  First, I wanted my students to increase their understanding of how technology could help them learn on their own and how technology could help them create products which will grab other people's attention.  Secondly, I want to learn from my students what best meets their needs.  How am I doing?

The first goal is still going well.  The students are well into their projects.  Some of them have already finished one and are working on another.  Many students have decided to make a living book.  Showing the students and example really helped them to understand the final product.  When I teach this during the regular school year I will take a lot more time to build up to this.  I will be writing the unit outline in more detail in the next few days.   Only two students have decided to complete the artist project. The project handout has helped greatly.  This guides the students to fill in the necessary information on their artist.  The first goal is going well.

The second goal is a little more difficult to quantify.  I am spending more time roaming the room checking on students.  I think the students need more detailed information so I will make a more detailed project description for each one.  I will continue to create any handouts, forms or graphic organizers that will help guide the students.  I will remember that there are a lot of graphic organizers out there already that I can use.

I found a great article on goals.  Take a look!  Click here.
http://ccsmallbusiness.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/set-goals-for-your-business/


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7/5/2011

Update on goals

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Well, two weeks have passed since I set my goals.   How are you progressing toward your goals?  I made two goals for summer school.  First, I wanted my students to increase their understanding of how technology could help them learn on their own and how technology could help them create products which will grab other people's attention.  Secondly, I want to learn from my students what best meets their needs.  How am I doing?

The first goal is going well.  The students have learned how to take still pictures and mold them together into a movie.  The learned to add sound to the moving pictures and some of them will be adding narration to them shortly.  Students have learned to us digital photo editing software to change digital photos and make them look more like paintings.  Student have learned to create PowerPoint presentation with text and images.  Student have also learned to make simple web sites using a fantastic WYSIWYG interface at www.weebly.com.  The first goal is going well.

The second goal is a little more difficult to quantify.  I could see quickly that certain students learned more quickly than others and certain students needed more help guidance.  Some were more independent and some wanted to check in with me every few minutes to see if what they were doing was correct.  Moving around the classroom and asking the students questions is a quick way to assess their needs.  Also looking at the work they are producing to see if it matches the goal of the project or the assignment.  I need to create another form for the artist project.  This form will have blanks for the students to fill in to prompt them to answer the questions they need to answer in order to assess each artist's work.

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6/18/2011

Goals for summer school

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Summer school starts on Tuesday June 20th.  I have two goals for summer school.  First, I want my students to increase their understanding of how technology can help them learn on their own and how technology can help them create products which will grab other people's attention.  Secondly, I want to learn from my students what best meets their needs.  During the summer I will be blogging about my progress.  

To begin with I made a big purchase today that I have wanted to make for a long time.  I purchased my own domain name.  That means that I no longer have to point my students to long web site addresses that they usually can't remember.  It is now just, www.mraitken.org!  I'll add details about the process as the summer goes along.

What are your goals for summer school?  List two and describe them.

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  • Home
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  • Calendar
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    • Senior English
    • Vocabulary Activities
    • Internet Investigations
    • Portfolio Project >
      • Student Samples
    • Writing Resources >
      • Poetry Unit
      • Jackie Robinson Resources
      • ELD Writing
      • Writing Ideas
      • Writing Games
      • Daily Sentences >
        • September Sentences
        • October Sentences
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    • Reading Story Resources
  • Summer School
    • AEF English Bridge Class
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    • Bolus Images
    • Marine Places to Visit
  • Science
    • Science News Sites
    • 7th Grade Science Assignments >
      • Paramecium Lab
      • 7th Grade Science Vocabulary
    • Science Assignments and Lab Reports
    • 5th Grade Science
    • 6th Grade Science >
      • 6th Grade Science Vocabulary
    • Science Test Review Material
    • 8th Grade Science
    • Science Resources >
      • Science Interactive Games
      • Ecology Resources
      • Magnetism
      • Atmosphere Resources
      • Water Cycle Resources
    • Science Trip >
      • Science Trip Day 1
      • Science Trip Day 2
      • Science Trip Day 3
      • Science Trip Day 4
      • Science Trip Day 5
  • Resources
    • Middle School Literature
    • Interactive Whiteboard
    • Common Core
    • Math
    • Educade Activties
    • ESL Resources
    • Blogs and Wikis
    • Online Multimedia Resources
    • GATE Resources
    • Social Studies >
      • Social Studies Activties
  • Digital Resources
    • Digital Citizenship
    • Technology Tools
    • Internet Safety
    • Scratch Projects
    • Multimedia Projects >
      • Digital Storytelling
      • Digital Photos
      • Digital Photography
      • Multimedia Projects 2
      • Multimedia Project Edited Images
  • Mock Trial
    • US Constitution
  • Performance Task
    • 7th Grade First Trimester Narrative Day 1
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