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I think that the most influential piece of technology that we have learned about this far is the Smartboard. I feel that this is the future of learning in classrooms. They have not yet begun to peak of usage at all. It has many different functions that can be used plus i have seen it used in a classroom in high school because we had them. It can do many functions which keeps students interested in it as well as the teacher too. The touchscreen feature is very nice and it can be used to teach or to play games or to hook things up to it. Teachers love these because they are a very resourceful tool for the classroom and kids will pay more attention to it when is that much more interesting. The other things that we used this year were good tools and technologies but none of them are the future of techolonological classrooms. Things like blogs, webquests, movies and others will not be nearly as important as the Smartboard and its resourcefulness.

STEROIDS AND BASEBALL!

WEBQuest on Steroid controversy in professional baseball.

Introduction:
In current days, the glory of the American pastime is hindered by the usage of steroids. Our favorite heroes have been brought up on charges and they have been put on trial. What are we supposed to think? In this WEBquest you will analyze this controversy through many different perspectives and come to your own conclusion on the following question: Should the baseball heroes who have achieved greatness, still be allowed into the hall of fame?

Your Quest: (Choose One)
1. You are one of these baseball players who are in question.
2. You are a trainer for one of the baseball players who are in controversy and your career and name may be tarnished by this case.
3. You are a coach of one of the suspected players and you lost you best player due to steroid suspicions.
4. You are a loyal fan who was shocked by seeing your favorite player brought up on steroid usage charges.

Your Task:
1.You should explore this topic by reading, articles, testimonials or any other item that you aid you in gaining knowledge of the steroid controversy in baseball. Choose one of the quests listed above to explore. You will explore it and then decide what you would do in each of these situations. Such as if you were the owner of a team with one of these players in question and they hinder you attendance and reputation. You will find out if you should trade them to another team, or release them to free agency.

2.You will also take on an alternate role, along with the chosen quest. You will be a newspaper journalist and you will write an article for the opinion section of the newspaper. You will write a 1-2 page article with an image in it as well and come up with a creative title as well.

3.You will create a video on steroid usage. It can be either a commercial on making kids aware of the risks involved with taking steroids or it can be a video on persuading people to still elect these players into the hall of fame.

Links:

General Info:
Information on steroids
Effects of steroids
Effects on athletes


Magazine Articles:
Sports Illustrated Articles
The Controversy
Players admit
Players Accused
Mitchell Report


Videos/Photos:
Mitchell Report
Pros & cons of usage
Commissioner of baseball's Testimony
Confession of usage
Taunting
What Fans Think
Yankees Manager's Opinion
Jose Canseco Speaking
President Obama
Pump Me Up

Confessions:
Alex Rodriguez
Miguel Tejada

Introduction:
This plan is for an English lesson. It will take place over the summer as a reading program and will be for accomplished 8th graders or to-be freshmen. The objective is to keep their minds working for at least a little bit of the summer months. Their task is simple, all they must do is to read the given book and write responses.

INITIAL STEPS:
Each student will receive a list of books that are going to be considered for the possible projects. They will then choose a book and will receive it on the last day of school.Then the students will be asked after their first reading to join blogger.com and create an account. Their first post is to be made before they start reading, students are required to write about predictions about the book and expectations plus any other initial reactions. After this, each week they must read a significant amount in their chosen book. In doing so they must be keeping a journal that will be online where the instructors can look at and grade the given responses. Students REMEBER THAT THIS MUST BO DONE EACH WEEK, no late posts will be accepted. They are DUE SUNDAY OF EACH WEEK BY 5PM!!!

RULES OF THE POSTING:
The rules for each post are simple, as stated above all posts must be in by every sunday at 5pm. No late posts are accepted and missing more than 2 posts can be very hurtful for your grade. Posts can be turned is as early as you would like to. If you go on vacation than make sure you get your work done before if you do not plan on doing any on that time. Each post must follow the three follwing criteria:
(1) You must clearly answer the question(s) that are asked by this certain post you are responding to. Do not use the same post question more than two times.
(2) You must clearly show your knowledge of the material you read and the comprehension of this material as well, this is the bigger section of your grade.
(3) Each post that is submitted must be at least 500 words with no maximum limit.
FOLLOW THESE STEPS AND KEEP UP ON TIME AND YOU WILL BE SUCCESFUL WITH THIS ASSIGNMENT!

TYPES OF ENTRIES:
(1) Journal-you must treat this entry as just a regular journal entry, putting down reactions and thoughts of what you read and how this has made you feel.
(2) Characters Descriptions-You will make a character list of everyone in the chapter or section that you read and you will put descriptions and traits of each one. Decide what kind of person that they are.
(3) Collage-Put up a list of pictures, minimum 10, that describe what was happening in the section you read. These can also depict the main ideas or scenes of the reading. Under each picture provide a caption which describes why you chose the picture and how it relates to the book.
(4)Summary-Summarize the events that you read and what happened. Be clear and descriptive. Show a clear and accurate description of you reading.
(5)Webster-Find words that you read that are not very common and may have unclear definitions. Make a list of at least 15 words and write them in the blog, define each word and put down 3 synonyms for it as well.
(6)Lyrics-Write lyrics to a song that will reflect on the topics and the mood of the selected reading. After the song you will need to write a description of why you wrote these lyrics and how they relate to the story.
(7)Character Letter-Write a letter to a character in the story who is in a crisis or problem. Write them a letter and tell them what you think they should do and offer them thoughtful advice on their problem.

Rubric:
Each entry you post on the site will be worth up to five (5) points. Then at the end of the summer the instructor will assess your overall knowledge of the book based on up to 25 points. The posts will go on for 15 weeks. The total possible points that can be awarded for this assignment is 95 points.

How to receive a....
(5) Follow all the instructions in the description and provide accurate knowledge of the book, 500+ words.
(4) Follow all the instructions and there is sub less than 500 words in the post.
(3) Does not follow all the instructions but there is 500+ words.
(2) Does not follow the instructions and is less than 500 words.
(1) Something was posted but it wasn't quite relevant to the topic.
(0) Nothing was posted at all.

Accommodations for Special Needs:

-Students can have a teaching assistant read the assignment to them and help to understand it.
-They can elect to work in groups of no more than 3 students if needed.
-Optional assignment can be to find a book on tape with the assistance of the librarian(Grading will be the same)
-Talk to instructor if you need assistance with any of these!

The assessment of comprehension of the book will be judged based by the posts and answering questions that are posted in the form of comments by the teacher. Remember that this is 25% of you overall grade and CAN BE THE DETERMINING FACTOR!

Enjoy this assignment!!!!!!!

http://homeworktips.about.com/od/writingabookreport/a/report.htm

SMARTTTTTTTTTTTTBOARD

What upppppp?

Its me again. Just wanna preach to you about the smart board. This presentation was quite interesting. I have seen this already three or four times already though. At my high school we had this presentation a few times. I have been using the smart board, its fun to play games up on the board too. Nothing better than that. But it is pretty cool how the whole system works, pretty advanced technology too. Many teachers mess up the concept that the markers aren't colored, but the section and tray in which you take them from. In high school we always did this to the teacher before the class started, we got her every time. But this board i think is very interesting it made me and my friends who usually didn't pay any attention in high school actually listen to the teacher! Plus if we paid attention for long enough they would let us play with it and maybe watch videos or something on it so that was cool!


-Bryannn

About ME

Whatttttttttuppppppppp?

Bryan Wight is my name, i was born and grew up for half of my childhood in Syracuse, NY. I moved out to Cazenovia, the worst place in the world. I hate it. Anyways, it was a good school and got me prepared for school. Even though i got by high school without doing any work, i learned all you had to do was just persuade the teachers! I played baseball, basketball, soccer and football when i was younger. Only two of those stuck with me that was basketball and baseball. My senior year i made all-league honors in both sports.

The next chapter: college! I waited until the last minute to decide what college to go to, i let it play out after my senior basketball season, since i knew this was what i wanted to do. Coach Joe from Wells showed up at my first game of my senior season, luckily it was one of the best game i have ever played seeing as i finished with 19 points and 15 assists and i didn't miss a single shot from the floor, 3-point line or the free throw line. So, college here i am. My freshman basketball season is almost done, i don't know how. We are not doing to bad for a first year team. We should be undefeated.


I recently found out after the first semester that you cannot get by sweet talking professors in college. HA HA.

Things that i love the most in this world are: My family, my music and basketball. Sorry ladies but these are my first three loves and i will never love anything more than this. If you are looking for me you can probably find me either in the gym dribbling or shooting, i might be in my room recording some music and making beats. Or else you will catch me with my headphones on DJing at a party!!

I am enjoying life so far and college hasn't disappointed ......to much!

-Bryan