PhotoStory Lesson

http://www2.fairmontstate.edu//users/jarant/EDUC6305FinalPhotoStory_1.wmv

Movie Maker Assignment

http://www2.fairmontstate.edu//users/jarant/EDUC6305MovieMakerLessonPlan_0001.wmv

Google Presentation Embedded in a Web Page

http://joshuaarant.googlepages.com/understandingfractions

Google Docs Presentation

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dhcjqwjv_52gw9p9zfm

Positive Experiences: The ppt version of my PowerPoint lesson plan uploaded perfectly into Google Docs. I did not have to identify which google docs appication to upload it to. I just clicked upload and found the ppt on my computer, and Google Docs autmatically made it into a google presentation.

Difficulties: Once I uploaded the file into Google Docs Presentations, much of the text, clip art, et cetera ran together, so I had to move some things around. Also, the hyperlinks do not seem to be working in Google Docs.

Jeopardy Template

Here is a link to my Jeopardy template. I am having trouble getting it to work in ftp, and the hyperlinks do not seem to be working in google docs. Therefore, this is hopefully a temporary link until I figure out the problem and get everything working properly.

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dhcjqwjv_36f58xmngg

PowerPoint Web Page

http://www2.fairmontstate.edu//users/jarant/EDUC6305PowerPointLessonPlan.htm

PowerPoint Show

http://www2.fairmontstate.edu//users/jarant/EDUC6305LessonPlanPowerPoint.pps

SS Integration Assignment

Here is the link to my Integration Assignment

http://joshuaarant.googlepages.com/rocketscientists

SS2 Grades 2

I have included the MS Excel version and the Google Spreadsheets version. It seems that the functions are only viewable in Excel.

Microsoft Excel
http://www2.fairmontstate.edu//users/jarant/EDUC6305SS2Grades2.xls

Google Spreadsheets
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pLpsg_-9TutTA1sQlNxgBKA

SS-1 Grades 1

Below is the link to my Google spreadsheet and an itemized list of answers to the questions. The questions were answered based on the data in the spreadsheet.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pLpsg_-9TutQ93Qv8GHQHOw


Q: What was the overall class average?
A: 85.9333333333334%

Q: Which student had the highest average?
A: Helen Ochallaghan (91.8333333333333%)

Q: Which student had the lowest average?
A: Freta Washington (73.1666666666667%)

Q: Sort the students by average descending with the highest average on top.
A: DONE

Q: Based upon the scores which assignment was the most difficult?
A: The assignment given on 9/19/2008 was probably the most difficult because it had the lowest average score.


Q: Create a visual aide (Chart) to show the averages and student names. Question: How do you graph labels and data in columns that are noncontiguous? As you probably know the ctrl key does this in Excel. Google requires a work around.
A: DONE

Q: Upload and publish your completed document into a sheet in your online spreadsheet. Rename the sheet Grades 1.
A: DONE

Visual Literacy Reflections Assignment - ftp

http://www2.fairmontstate.edu//users/jarant/EDUC6305VisualLiteracyReflectionsAssignment.doc

This time, I tried saving it to my ftp account and putting the link here. Let's see how this works out for us.

Week Four Reflections

This week, I created a web page with three graphs and a spreadsheet available on it. One of the graphs showed WV math scale scores for the fourth grade compared to the national average. The two line graphs compared a state's per capita income to the number and proportion of total students with an IEP. I also included a Google spreadsheet with the information contained on the two line graphs. The big assignment this week has been the reflections assignment. In this document, I explain how our activities in the visual literacy module apply to the ISTE NETS T and INTASC standards as well as the six cognitive levels of Bloom's taxonomy. In addition, I explained some possible applications for these new technology uses in the classroom. I also reflected on their uses globally. I am excited about using these new things in my classroom next year.

Reflections Assignment - as a Google Doc

I do not know how to attach an MS Word document to blog, so I uploaded my assignment as a google doc because I'm not sure what else to do. Copy and paste would be an unbearable amount of text in the post. Here is the link to the google doc.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhcjqwjv_1458ndpk6k

Online Graphic Tools Assignment

http://joshuaarant.googlepages.com/onlinegrapgictools-educ6305

I believe this is now a finished product. The web page linked here contains the components for the Online Graphic Tools assignment. Please let me know if you experience any problems. Enjoy!

Image Formats Narrative - Full Text Copy and Paste

Joshua Arant
EDUC 6305
Image Formats – Narrative

I have searched for images online that speak to who I am as a person. I chose an image of the Grand Canyon and Mt. Everest because I love travel and hiking (although I am not crazy enough to try Everest), two photographs of space images because I am fascinated by the universe’s size and the many facets of astronomy (as I mentioned in my photo story), and one animated picture of the gang of peanuts characters (i.e. Charlie Brown and Snoopy) because I have always loved the program. I have been looking at the names, sizes, and type of files. Below is a link to a spreadsheet where I present the name, size, file type, and date modified for the five files I used for this assignment.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pLpsg_-9TutQ0QxIBne7FPQ

I have learned a great deal about how to navigate through the desktop to find images that I have downloaded from the internet. I can see that images and graphics vary greatly in the way they are formatted on the computer and that many different types of image formats exist. The same image can be converted to different file types, and this often changes the file size and the picture quality. Picasa seems to be a great program for organizing images, and I love that it is set up to automatically post any of your images to your blog. This program brings all of your image files to one location while maintaining your original organization of these files. This is fantastic because it turns an otherwise long and tedious process into a couple of clicks.
In my sample, jpg is the most common file type. The minimum file size in my sample is 38 KB and the maximum sample is 303 KB. The average size is 124.8 KB. I looked through many images other than the five that I selected for the assignment. Most of the images I saw were jpg files. However, most of the files that I looked through were photographic. I looked at some animated images and they were all gif files. I looked at many more photographic images than animated images, so my five are a pretty good representative sample of all the images I looked at with regard to file type. Based on my five images and all the images that I considered, I would conclude that most images on the internet are jpg files. Of course, this is not a valid conclusion because I have not looked at a diverse enough sample of images. However, I might reasonably conclude that photographic images are more likely to be jpg files than animated images and that animated images are more likely to be gif files.
I took the image of Mt. Everest (originally a jpg file), opened it in paint, and changed it to a bitmap. The icon changed from the Corel Photo icon (in jpg) to a Microsoft Paint icon (in bitmap). The bitmap version had much higher quality than the jpg version. This was increasingly evident as I zoomed in on both versions. The bitmap file is also roughly ten times the size of the jpg file. Based on this and my observations of many other jpg and gif files, it seems that the file size increases with picture quality. More importantly, the file size seems to increase much more with picture quality than with picture size. The animated files were all much smaller than the photographic files. Higher quality photographic files were much larger than lower quality photographic images.
In summary, many different types of images are available online for use and storage on your desktop. Various types of files are used to provide a variety of image types and qualities for people’s various needs and conditions. File type and file size seem to be very closely related to image quality. I have learned a great deal about online graphics and imaging, but I still have a great deal to learn.

Image Formats - Narrative

My narrative for the Image Formats assignment is available at the following URL.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhcjqwjv_12crd2njfr

Image Formats - Spreadsheet

My spreadsheet for the image format assignment is available at the following URL.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pLpsg_-9TutQ0QxIBne7FPQ

Screen Grab - 2

I took advice from a fellow student that aided me in creating this screen grab of an actual window in Microsoft Internet Explorer. I like to visit the NASA website and keep up with the latest news in space exploration, so I though this would be a good example to use for a screen grab. Also, I think that this is more along the lines of what the assignment was trying to teach us. This is the official site for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and it is available at the following address.

http://www.nasa.gov

Week Three Reflections

This week has been an incredible experience in creating visually attractive presentations. I feel like I have taken a great leap into the 21st century. I created a Microsoft Photostory Presentation on myself. As luck would have it, I bought a digital camera just last week. Anyway, the photostory turned out great. I am thinking about getting a digital camera to fit into the eyepiece of my telescope. If I do and get some good images, I'll be sure to put them in photostory and post it on my blog for viewing. I am now learning how to use various types of image files and present them in different ways. At this point, I am struggling with using Picasa to post screengrabs on my blog.

Screen Grab

This is a photograph of Saint Bartholomew Episcopal Church located in Leetown, WV. This church is just another great historical landmark in our area. Below is a link that will tell you a little more about the history of Leetown, WV and St. Bart. Church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leetown,_West_Virginia

A few reflections and concerns:

I downloaded Picasa and it seems easy to post an image to the blog. However, I have not quite grasped the screen grab. This image was one that I took and saved in a file on my computer. It automatically saved in Picasa when I downloaded the program. I do not know how to grab a screen on the internet or on the computer, save it in Picasa, and then post it on the blog. I would appreciate any help in this regard. Thanks and enjoy!

My Photostory

http://www2.fairmontstate.edu//users/jarant/EDUC 6305PhotoStory_2.wmv

Graphic from Scratch

Here is a simple little self-portait that I did in paint. I have no hair not because it all fell out but because I shave it off. Honestly, I don't really look this much like Charlie Brown. Most everything else is pretty well accurate. Enjoy!

Week Two Reflections

This week, I have been getting more familiar with blogging, google docs, and web pages. I learned how to store documents online using my FTP space at Fairmont state. I love that I can store these documents, even MS Word documents, online where they can accessed anywhere that has internet. I almost don't need diskettes and thumb drives. I say almost because it is still good to have a backup. I have my microphone ready, and I am excited to begin the visual imagery portion of the course. In summary, I am still unfamiliar with a lot of the technology, but I feel more comfortable than last week.

Joshua Arant

Intel Ranking

EDUC 6305

1. Teachers demonstrate a sound understanding of technology operations.

I think that this is the most important standard because it serves as a base for using technology in the classroom and in the professional environment. After all, teachers must be familiar with the technology they are using and teaching others to use. Without this standard, the rest of the standards would be impossible.

2. Teachers understand the issues surrounding the use of technology.

This comes next because I think that it is a specific part of the first standard (the one I ranked #1). Understanding issues surrounding technology is part of understanding technology. Teachers must have a firm understanding of the issues surrounding technology in education and in all areas before attempting to use it in the classroom and teach others to use it.

3. Teachers plan and design effective learning environments supported by technology.

The main job of a teacher is to create effective lessons or lessons that teach students the knowledge and skills specified in the curriculum. It is essential for teachers to use technology to enhance instruction whenever possible. In addition, the importance of technology education is growing exponentially as we progress through the “digital age”

4. Teachers implement curriculum plans that apply technology.

Part of our curriculum standards and objectives (CSOs) now specifies the use of technology, especially in science and math. It is essential that we cover all the CSOs with the students, including those that involve the use of technology.

5. Teachers use technology to enhance their productivity and professional practice.

Teachers are challenged every day to increase the effectiveness of their practices in and out of the classroom. Sometimes, the use of technology can help us improve our practices and make our efforts more efficient and productive.

6. Teachers apply technology for assessment and evaluation.

Technology can use technology to make certain things easier and more efficient, such as grade reporting. In fact, technology can make grade and progress reporting more available to parents and students. The reason I ranked this one last is that it is the only one that I feel is NOT directly related to instruction and effective practices. It os still very important.

Intel Ranking

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhcjqwjv_10gpkm3ddv

My lntel ranking is available online at the above address as well as coped and pasted to this post.


1. Teachers demonstrate a sound understanding of technology operations.

I think that this is the most important standard because it serves as a base for using technology in the classroom and in the professional environment. After all, teachers must be familiar with the technology they are using and teaching others to use. Without this standard, the rest of the standards would be impossible.

2. Teachers understand the issues surrounding the use of technology.

This comes next because I think that it is a specific part of the first standard (the one I ranked #1). Understanding issues surrounding technology is part of understanding technology. Teachers must have a firm understanding of the issues surrounding technology in education and in all areas before attempting to use it in the classroom and teach others to use it.

3. Teachers plan and design effective learning environments supported by technology.

The main job of a teacher is to create effective lessons or lessons that teach students the knowledge and skills specified in the curriculum. It is essential for teachers to use technology to enhance instruction whenever possible. In addition, the importance of technology education is growing exponentially as we progress through the “digital age”

4. Teachers implement curriculum plans that apply technology.

Part of our curriculum standards and objectives (CSOs) now specifies the use of technology, especially in science and math. It is essential that we cover all the CSOs with the students, including those that involve the use of technology.

5. Teachers use technology to enhance their productivity and professional practice.

Teachers are challenged every day to increase the effectiveness of their practices in and out of the classroom. Sometimes, the use of technology can help us improve our practices and make our efforts more efficient and productive.

6. Teachers apply technology for assessment and evaluation.

Technology can use technology to make certain things easier and more efficient, such as grade reporting. In fact, technology can make grade and progress reporting more available to parents and students. The reason I ranked this one last is that it is the only one that I feel is NOT directly related to instruction and effective practices. It os still very important.

Resume - Reflections and Summary

My resume is available online at the following address . . .

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dhcjqwjv_9gmzc5wg4&hl=en

Again, this is something that I have done before, but never as an online document. It will be nice having a resume ready online that I can continuously edit and send to a potential employer when ready. At this point, I would like to learn to use an online resume builder. What I did this time was to use an MS Word resume builder then upload it to google docs. As I become more familiar with this technology, I am sure that I will not need MS Word as much any more. I am loving it so far.

Cover Letter - Reflections and Summary

My cover letter is available online at . . .

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dhcjqwjv_8gbn3763b&hl=en

Composing this cover letter taught me a new way to do something that I already have some experience doing. I have always composed cover letters and resumes in Microsoft Word and then either printed them or emailed them as an attachment. This experience has given me an opportunity to learn how to use online documentation through google docs. I like the fact that I can access the document from any location with internet access. One limitation is that the documents are unavailable if the internet is not working properly. This has been a great experience so far.

Joshua Merlyn Arant

10928 Leetown Road

Kearneysville, WV 25430

(Home) 304-725-4749

(Cell) 304-433-7001

(Work) 304-267-3540

jarant@fairmontstate.edu

joshuaarant@gmail.com

Special Education LD Teacher

Department of Human Resources

Berkeley County Schools

401 South Queen Street

Martinsburg, WV 25401

I am interested in the position of Special Education LD Teacher in Berkeley County Schools. I have earned certification and a masters degree in Multicategorical Special Education from Fairmont State University and have three years of related experience. My resume describes the details of my education and experience and is enclosed for our review. I would be a great asset to Berkeley County Schools as a special educator, and I would greatly appreciate your consideration for the position.

I have reviewed the position requirements and find that I not only match the requirements perfectly, but I can also offer related experience to my practice in the field. Your requirements are indicated to be eligibility for West Virginia certification in multicategorical LD, BD, or MI, K-12, or learning disabilities K-12. My qualifications include West Virginia certification and a Masters Degree in Multicategorical LD, BD, and MI K-12 and three years experience as a Special Education LD teacher at Martinsburg North Middle School in Berkeley County (Fall 2005 – Present). I not only meet but exceed the indicated qualifications for the position.

As a motivated and experienced teacher, I will continue to bring quality twenty-first century education to the students that I teach. My primary goal has always been and will always be to meet the needs of individual students and to teach all students to become independent productive members of society. Providing quality education is a great passion of mine, and I can promise that I will deliver the highest quality education possible to the students I teach.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation for taking the time to review my qualifications and consider me for the position.

Sincerely,

Joshua Merlyn Arant

10928 Leetown Road Kearneysville, WV 25430

Phone 304-725-4749 E-mail jarant@fairmontstate.edu

Joshua Arant

Objective	I am seeking employment in the field of secondary education with emphasis on special education grades 7-12.
Education	Spring 2006 – Summer 2008 Fairmont State University Fairmont, WV Major in Multi-categorical Special Education Graduated in 2008 Complete course online. Experience with online documentation. Fall 1999 – Spring 2004 West Virginia University Morgantown, WV Major in Economics with minor in Spanish Graduated in 2004. Completed 2 Study Abroad courses in Cuba Member of WVU marching band for 2 years.
Interests and activities	My interests include hiking, biking, working out at the gym, painting, playing the piano, reading about science, philosophy, and art, collecting model trains, and travel. I have traveled to many places including (but not limited to) Cuba (study abroad), Alaska, Hawaii, Europe, and much of American continental west.
Work experience	August 2005 - Present Berkeley County Schools Martinsburg, WV Teacher Began as permanent substitute Promoted to Permit Teacher based on educational qualifications Taught math, science and social studies in the self-contained and inclusion settings. Extensive training in APL and Marzano. July 2005 CSX Corporation Huntington, WV Conductor Ranked second in class training. Did not get position due to red-green color deficiency. June 1998 – June 2005 Martin’s Food Market Martinsburg, WV Customer Service Representative/Cashier/Stocker Worked faithfully and reliably for 7 years. Received employee of the month four times. Helped District Manager in display management at other store locations. August 1995 – May 1998 Fazoli’s Italian Restaurant Martinsburg, WV Customer Service Representative/Food Preparer/Dishwasher Worked faithfully without missing a day for 3 years. Received employee of the month twice.

Week One Reflections

I have learned more about computer use in the classroom this week than in entire computer courses taken in the past. I particularly like the fact that I can make a calendar public with a unique URL. As a teacher, I can make homework assignments and events available for parents online by giving them the URL. I have never created a blog either. This is a great way to create a teacher profile and post important highlights about school/class events. Areas where I am currently struggling are creating a link on my blog and uploading and publishing google documents. I am sure that I will get this all figured out, and I look forward to learning how to do these things and becoming more competent in the use of technology in and out of the classroom.

My Calendar

Test

I just want to test it now to see if it is working.